a small and quiet place

okay, so i have been a busy bee but not posted anything - so have some photos to make up for it all.

"the holy trinity"



( and there's more.. )

okiedokie, so it is official - my secret pal 7 has revealed herself to be a fantastic young lady called Holly Rosby and she can be found at cravingcleveland.blogspot.com!!!!

my final package was GINORMOUS - seriously seriously huge, and she has completely overspoilt me - naughty! i took a not-very-clear photo of the final package and have put it on flickr and added notes explaining what all the different bits are.. but as a taster, look:



i have been soooooo spoilt! and all the gifts were so PERFECTLY tailored to my tastes! the zines were amazing, and some of them i had been debating over buying for myself anyway - others i'd not even heard of before! the mypapercrane stuff was fab as i am a bit of a closet fan of hers anyway. and things like the vegan lip balm were just delicious. :) Holly, you have been fantastic and made me grin lots and lots and lots and i feel lucky i was matched with you! :)

first of all, i need to say that my secret pal absolutely rocks! she keeps surprising me with lovely little gifts - a valentines day card when even my partner forgot, or a cute little print in the post when i've hard a tough day. i highlyhighlyhighly recommend everyone taking part in sp8 if they have an interest. and if you're reading this now, then in theory you will have (an interest, that is!). or else you're just stalking all aspects of my life. :>

i have discovered that i become overwhelmed with inspiration at times. this might explain my excessively large stash that seems to grow all on it's own. i feel like i came to knitting late, and need to make up for lost time.. but my wrists sometimes go bad and it stops me, or life in general gets in the way of me knitting... and i feel like my progress compared to others is very slow. and i find this hugely frustrating.

and it's not just knitting. the print that arrived this morning made me feel massively inspired to set up my own etsy.com shop finally and sell a selection of goods on there. i already have a sort of name. it'll either be ladywulfruna (which is already my domain) or canariesandwolves which was going to be a joint venture with lee which has still not taken off. the name relates to him being from norwich (football team gets nicknames the canaries) and me being from wolverhampton (football team nicknames wolves) and i like it as it has a fairytale ring to it. i want to make prints and bags and accessories and knitted goods and zines and be published and all sorts of other things. and stinky life keeps getting in the way. sometimes i have so many ideas that i can't focus and get completely distracted and end up flumping in the corner with my ds and switch off from everything. like.. too many ideas, can't choose one as they're all exciting, can't do them all at once so i shut down. bleh. any suggestions?

i have found a minor working solution so far.. and that is to ignore new ideas, and try to finish stuff before allowing myself to get distracted. hence i'm pushing forward on the belle epoque front and even have photographic evidence to prove it!

( belle epoque & boyes boyes boyes! )

anyway. sp hm is lovely - well done. now i need to make sure i am just as good a friend to mine!

i'm looking for a good time!
boyes boyes boyes - get ready for my love

and seriously. they are GORGEOUS. and sleek. and colourful. and user friendly. and the cable is thinner than on denise and so my stitches move more easily around. and the ends are more tapered so more complicated stitches are easier. and i love them. love love love. :> i am a happy lady who can now get on with belle epoque!

(incidentally, the surprises this season aren't that great - i'm not sure about ryan marnell's patterns.. they often look ill fitting and very handmade. i do like some of his ideas though, and might try and implement them once i start designing my own. the belted cardi is nice.. but maybe not something i want to make right now. so hrmph. i wanted something to make! with my boyes boyes boyes! i guess it'll mean i just won't get distracted from b.e. now.

okay. so still no kyoto.. but major secret pal excitement, which heralded the long awaited uploading of photos! so, follow my cut to see more!

( secret pal hm is fab!! )

very irritatingly, lee called me at work this morning to let me know that in the post was a rather large package from a certain secret lady pal hm, and he was very elusive and smug and simply said that it was 'big' and that was all. and that i wasn't allowed to read the customs label prior to opening as it would give it all away.

i now have a 6 and a half hour wait to find out more. *stamps feet* :p

so, the person i am spoiling has received their first package and posted photos.. it's SO WEIRD seeing something i made so far away in a place i have never been before, somewhere completely alien to me. it's quite cool too though. :) i guess i just wanted to say on here that if you are my sp and reading this now, then i just wanetd to remind you that i update difazio a lot more regularly with everyday dross etc. and that way you can make sure i am still alive. i am trying veryvery hard to keep my knitting related dross to this journal, but it's far less in quantity than every day stuff. obviously. :)

anyway. kyoto is finished, blocked, sewn together, and has even made it's debut trip outside of the house to work. a colleague liked it a lot as he is very interested in asian culture and visits japan regularly. other people commented, and all were nice. :) so hooray! i reallyreally promise photos soon. i'll probably just do a huge photo post soon. (under a cut, don't worry..)

i am off to knitting group this afternoon after i spend the morning with my adults playing with photoshop. the doctor will be here, so i must be on my best behaviour. he totally DOES NOT have a crush on me, despite what everyoen here tries to make out. :p i haven't been to knitting since early jan, and have missed it loads. i might take kyoto to show off.. but have also stormed headfirst into knitting belle epoque out of sirdar's 'romance' in a beige with glittery bits colourway. despite the yarn being entirely man-made, so far no static has happened.. and it's SO soft! it is 54% acrylic, 29% cashmere type nylon (which originally i misread as pure cashmere and got very excited as the yarn was on sale - 10 skeins for £5.95!) and 17% polyester. hopefully this will mean that i am less able to shrink it too. which is a talent i have. anyway, progress is quick now i have gotten past inital border and the pattern repeats have sunk in.

in other news, i have ordered myself a set of boyes interchangeables - copying the lovely theresnorain but only because my denise's keep coming undone and i am sick of dropping stitches left right and centre! the boyes are preeeeeetty colours, and in a wider variety of sizes, so i am excited and keep rugby tackling the postman each morning to see if they've arrived! they haven't, and he is now quite wary of me. :p

anyway. i have work to do.

just a quickie to say -

secret pal lady hm, you rock! and have the bestest stationery that makes me smile big big smiles. thankyou. :)

will posts photos and more tomorrow in difazio as it's not entirely knitting related for once. :)

i am at my most paranoid at the moment, it seems. and the reason this is in as a knitting post is because it related to sp7 - i feel certain that the person i am spoiling doesn't like me... even though she doesn't know who i am! so now i KNOW i am going crazy - even though logic dictates it's not possible for you to dislike someone you don't know, i still think she doesn't like me. grump grump grump.


(she's changed her blog so that you can no longer comment on it unless you're logged in. and as i seem to be the only person to have EVER commented on it, it strikes me as if she wants me to never comment again. hrm. i hate the way my brain works.)

on the plus side I FINSIHED KYOTO!!!!! *skips* i am going to spend sat afternoon blocking and sewing and will post photos of me modelling the finished thing on sunday - unless it's completely misshapen, in which case i'll post photos of it laid out. :>

i know, i am a bad knitblogger. still no pretty pictures.

on the plus side, i am onto the very very final stretch of the kyoto sweater, and progress is happening at lightening speeds! i have LITERALLY 4 more rows to do (admittedly each row is like a million stitches long..) and then my final cast off, weave in the ends, block and then SEW IT ALL TOGETHER!!! my first proper proper jumper. i vaguely remember that when i started this a very long time ago, i didn't really bother with the whole swatchign business, i just kind of guessed at it all. so i am expecting the fit to be dreadful! however i have been holding it up to me as i go along so hopefully it won't be too far out.. and i keep telling myself that if it is, i can always sew it in a bit. i don't think that's a very knitterly way of doing things, but i don't care!

in other news, the person that i am spoiling as part of secret pal stuff has pointed out in her journal that the preview of Interweave Knits is now online and there are some *gorgeous* things on it. i am particularly fond of: streakers shrug, prairie tunic, bobble blue, saddle seam pullover (which may prove to be the first suitable pattern for lee!) and i LOVELOVELOVE the sunrise circle jacket which looks very much like it is felted, and would therefore be a perfect project for my stinky market yarn which is 100% wool and felts like a dream! and before lee tries to tell me otherwise, i firmly believe you can never have *too* many projects on the go.. the only thing stopping me from doing more than just kyoto is that most of my denise needles have broken in one way or another, so i need to sort them out and THEN i can start to work my way through my stash.

knit knit knit. :>