Still Here!

I'm still here, kicking and screaming (quietly) - working hard and hoping to get through Christmas with a little bit of money left in the bank...

I will try and catch up with everything bloggy this evening.

Lacking Content

Did I mention my mum's inability to keep presents a secret? True to form, she came home on Thursday night after doing some Christmas shopping and promptly presented me with a box of chocolates and an iPod Touch. Then she told me she had another present for me and could she pleeeease give it to me? Hmph. Call me old fashioned but I like to have something on Christmas Day...

Anyway, after the Great XBox Fiasco of 2005, I thought I had better make good use of this iPod although if I am honest (and I know I sound ungrateful but I'm not), I didn't really want one and if I did want one, I'd have been happy with a simpler version. I don't need all the bells and whistles just to listen to music...but as a person who loves technology (although technology doesn't always love me back), I must admit, I am enjoying this iPod.

I am enjoying it so much, in fact, I fell asleep with it on yesterday and woke up with a heart-thumping start a while later to the opening strains of the Carmina Burana. I think Eminem might have been sending me subliminal messages while I slept, too because I had a song I am sure I haven't heard recently stuck in my head until I replaced it with Everclear.

Mum is so excited about this iPod business, I think I'm going to have to buy her one for Christmas...which is quite good, actually, because I had no idea what I was going to buy for her.

About those chocolates...they were my favourites and I ate them - that's really all there is to it.

I haven't done any crocheting lately, the last time I picked up a hook, I had to undo some of the Romance (another stupid mistake) and, unfortunately, the yarn broke and I got cranky and I haven't wanted to do any more...apart from that, I've been busy with a few things so I haven't had much time for crocheting.

I did receive a nice surprise when the recipients of PCS sent me a thank-you card, I thought that was very sweet of them - the first time I've ever been 'officially' (for want of a better word) thanked for an item I've made.

Optus are coming tomorrow to fix me up with a wireless modem so I'll be able to use my laptop with this connection and if mum gets herself a laptop (like she wants), she'll have Internet access with it, too.

Merry F'n Christmas!

Whoops, I know I should mind my language - sorry - but what a day! I actually did enjoy it but I am buggered. I am glad we got our Christmas party out of the way relatively early because it's only going to get busier from now on...


I don't usually like to put too many photos of me in here but after all the ones I took today, someone else insisted on taking one of me (and this is the best they could do? At least when I take photos of others, I choose the most flattering lighting and angles). Oh well. Like my hat? I'm wasn't keen on the "HoHoHo" bit but it was either this or a traditional Santa hat and I was too hot for anything traditional (that would be anything including velour and faux fur).

I usually always keep my sunnies on my head anyway so I forgot I was wearing it most of the day - I kept trying to put my keys over my head and getting tangled up, or catching sight of myself in a mirror and having to check again to see what was on my head. It was really that sort of day. I am very glad to be home and with nothing planned for tonight (like most nights) I can just relax and do whatever I want.

I probably should get some crocheting done...

A Partridge In A Pear Tree

Today is Christmas Party Day. I hope it's not too stressful but I know it's going to be fairly full-on. I've still got a lot to do when I go in this morning. The two centrepieces I made turned out quite well, according to what others have said (I am a bit critical of them but I do think they're nice, I just don't know if nice is what I was going for).

I have received all but one of the orders I was waiting for, one being the first lot of wire and beads, another from eBay being more wire and beads and one from eBay which was the 2 balls of Rowan Tapestry the seller forgot to send me initially. The one I am waiting on is, of all things, a crochet hook case. I have two vinyl pencil cases for my hooks and I wanted something a bit prettier...

I also received my Amazon order - last week, although I forgot to mention it here earlier. I bought: Amazing Crochet Lace: New Fashions inspired by Old-Fashioned Lace, Every Day Crochet: Wearable Designs Just For You, Positively Crochet and Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution. They are interesting books with a lot of nice patterns in them but how many I'll actually make, I don't know. I think I can live the rest of my life without ever needing another scarf pattern, too. I do like a lot of the Doris Chan patterns but I don't seem to have enough of any one type of yarn here to make anything...so either I do a scrappy piece or I buy more yarn.

I have already misplaced my Amazing Crochet Lace book or I guess I already would have ordered the yarn I need for some projects, it's probably just as well - maybe mum has hidden it from me!

I was correct in my prediction for the Necklace Number Three, I ran out of wire and I don't think I've got enough beads to complete it anyway, I'll have to order more wire and beads but it's not urgent. Provided the company doesn't sell out of everything I need, I can wait...and this from a person who hates waiting? We'll see how long it lasts.

Time for me to make myself as beautiful as possible before work.

The End..

...of SP11! Spoilee e-mailed me to say she had received her package so I e-mailed her back and The Great Reveal commenced. Or something. Anyway, my Pal was Louisa (curlytoot) and she was a Very Good Pal and I will look forward to seeing whatever it is she does with the yarn I sent her and keeping up with her blog. I feel very satisfied, SP11 was fun, I enjoyed it and I had a good Secret Pal and a good Known Pal. What more could I ask for?

On to other things...

K and I are in the midst of preparations for a Christmas Party tomorrow which, hopefully, will go off without a hitch. I had to decorate two trees yesterday and, while I seem to be missing the Martha Stewart gene (the one that lets you cut cakes evenly, set tables nicely, fold clothes in an intricate and complicated way, or otherwise do all those perfect 'finishing touches' etc), I am actually quite pleased with how the trees turned out (today I attempt "table centrepieces").

My little silver tree has been added to a bit lately and I have another package of baubles to put on there and some tinsel, I might do that tonight. I am definitely not from the "less is more" school of decorating and silver tree is a bit scrawny and pathetic looking. I'd like to say I'll pack silver tree up after Christmas but...after having it up for a year, we'd probably miss it if we put it away. Still, I think I should take it down and undo all the decorations and start again next year (and do them a bit better).

Speaking of Secret Pal, and I was, I never did show the project I crocheted for Louisa:








"Cold Shoulders", attempt 1, using Karaoke (5 balls I think) that I received during SP9. The item that really made me understand the importance of blocking!

How About "Chatty"?

I've been writing this on and off all day, as well as crocheting and taking photos (and I have provided evidence of both below). Sorry.

I had some lovely ice-cream and cake before. I know, I know, not being able to taste food is a Very Good Time to eat those things I don't actually like the taste of...but I can't see the benefit of eating something like tripe (which might actually taste okay, I don't know because I don't like the way it looks and, as there's nothing wrong with my eyesight, I think I'll stick to ice-cream).

Anyway, yes I should be eating Healthy things but I actually do like Healthy things (well, some Healthy things, let's not go overboard here!) - I just like ice-cream more...and dishing it up was so labour-intensive, I feel completely justified in eating as much of it as I was able to hack out of the frozen-solid carton with my blunt spoon. This new freezer is pretty fantastic at freezing things (maybe a bit too fantastic?) as you want a freezer to be. I don't want ice-cream soup but I do want to be able to get a few scoops out within a reasonable amount of time, not a few measley half-tablespoons after half an hour of back breaking effort (and if I've told myself once, I've told myself a million times "self, stop exaggerating!")...which is why I had to have cake, too. If I have to work for my dessert then, by George, I want dessert!

Enough silliness from me, I suppose - although I could go on (no, really, I could).

I did some more wire-crochet today: I made a necklace with 4 strands and a bracelet with 3 strands. The necklace is nice but I see I made a mistake with my choice of seed beads. Itty bitty silver sead beeds on silver wire - well, I might as well not have bothered with beading that strand.

The bracelet is quite nice but it was far too big so I solved that problem by twisting the strands together, another plus for crocheting with wire - easy to fix things like that...it's still a bit big for me but I've met four-year-olds with bigger hands so I am reluctant to keep twisting. I will give it to C as part of her Christmas / Birthday gift (I now realise I have been incredibly lax in observing the size of C's hands and wrists, I will endeavour to redeem myself tomorrow). I am on my second and last spool of wire (I've got a bit left of the first but I'm doing something new which will probably take up all this spool and then some) so I think I can safely say I'll be ordering more in the near future. It's a lot of fun...but maybe I should finish up some of my other projects, I distinctly remember having a partially completed sock or am I imagining things?

I spent a good portion of my morning outside, photographing the bees on the Lilac bush. I love bees, really I do (it's part of my Granny Weatherwax personality). I got some good pictures, too (we won't discuss the exceptional macro shot I got of...a bare and rather ugly lilac leaf, will we? I didn't notice the bee had flown away).



I'm glad I did get some nice photos of something because I have just noticed that most of the pictures of Necklace Number 2 & Bracelet Number 1 are a bit blurry.





Necklace Number 2 uses 2mm "midnight steel" seed, beads, 2mm "silver" seed beads, 4mm glass bicone beads and 6mm Czech crackle beads.




I went upmarket with the bracelet and used 4mm swarovski crystal bicone beads and antique glass Japanese seed beads (many of which I managed to spill while trying to open the little packet. I also thought it would be a good idea to cut the string holding the 6mm crackle beads without holding the beads...I think I started with 50, but I only found 45).

...And because I didn't get a good photo of those earrings I made yesterday, here's one which I think shows them off quite nicely and minimises the non-matchy bits:


(Please note: "elite wire-wrapping skills"!)

I apologise that I did not get any photos of my ice-cream.

Pattern for Jewellery Set

I love using free patterns so here's the first one I can share for others to use (my first attempt at pattern-writing, please leave a comment if an error is found and I will correct it):

Wire Crochet – Pearl Necklace & Earrings Set

© "Angel Crochets" 2007

Pattern free for non-commercial use, please do not redistribute or post this pattern elsewhere.

Materials:
1 Spool Artistic Wire – non-tarnish Silver 28gauge (15 yards)
Hook size – 4mm (I used a US G6 Susan Bates)

For Necklace:
26 x 6mm beads (I used 6mm freshwater pearl beads)
1 x silver lobster claw clasp (optional: 1 x silver jump ring)

For Earrings:
10 x 6mm beads (I used 6mm freshwater pearl beads)
2 x small sterling silver earring hooks (18 x 10mm)

Stitches:
Chain – ch
Beaded ch – bch (draw bead up wire, push close to hook, work chain capturing bead in the stitch)
Beaded dc – bdc (draw bead up wire, push close to hook, work dc capturing bead in the stitch)

Please note: this pattern is written using Australian / British crochet terminology. Australian double-crochet (dc) = American single-crochet (sc)

Necklace: Thread 26 6mm beads onto wire before starting.
ch 15, * bch, ch 1 * repeat 11 more times (12 repeats of bch, ch 1), bch twice, * ch 1, bch * repeat 11 more times (12 repeats of ch 1, bch), ch 15, fasten off.

Gently stretch and smooth the finished piece.

Thread lobster claw clasp onto one end of wire, wrap free end of wire around loop several times and weave in loose end. Form loop from other end of wire, wrap free end of wire around base of loop several times and weave in end or (if using jump ring) thread jump ring onto wire end, wrap free end of wire around wire at the base of the jump ring and weave in end.

Earrings: Thread 10 6mm beads onto wire before starting (each earring uses 5 beads).

ch 2, * draw bead up to hook and bch * repeat 2 more times (3 bch). Turn crochet to work on opposite side of chain, draw bead up to hook and bdc in 2nd bch, draw bead up to hook and bdc in 1st bch, (five beaded stitches forming a ‘circle’), fasten off.

Wrap end tail around top of work, weave in end. Thread earring hook onto starting tail, weave end through beginning chain, wrap wire around loop at the base of the earring hook. Repeat for 2nd Earring.

Everything I need...

I had a good day today, fairly busy - I left just after 9:30 and didn't get home until 4. I went shopping with a friend and her mum, we went to Go-Lo, Big W and Spotlight. I bought Christmas things at Go-Lo, some summer nighties, DVDs and chocolates at Big W and some more # 10 thread, some beads and a few jewellery findings from Spotlight. They had some nice yarn on sale but I couldn't really justify purchasing any more.

I picked up my package earlier this morning from the Post Office and I made a necklace with the wire and some pearls before I left for shopping. It's not fancy (just beaded chains) but it's quite pretty and I am very pleased with it. Crocheting with wire feels funny (that would be strange funny)...and I desperately need to work on my 'finishing techniques' such as they are, I broke the wire twice trying to get the clasp on and it's more luck than anything else that is keeping it together. I made some 'matching' earrings when I got home (matching the necklace individually but not quite matching each other). It's not a bad looking set. I will get some photos when I can.

I am almost finished the first ball of Romance for the project I am working on so I am looking forward to spending some time tonight making more progress. I am giving the hankies a miss while I'm still feeling like poo. I don't think it was a good idea to spend so much time outdoors today, I got rained on and I feel miserable again. I will have a nice, warm shower and put a nice, new nightie on and then I will get into bed (covered with a nice, new bedspread that I couldn't resist today and new sheets I bought ages ago but never got around to putting on my bed) and I will crochet until I am too sleepy to crochet any more and then I will sleep. It sounds like a fantastic plan to me, best idea I've had in at least a day. I must add that it is made even more fabulous by the other idea I have had, which is eating chocolate while I'm doing everything else (except, possibly, the shower part - although I'm willing to give it a shot). I can't taste anything except for coffee and chocolate - just as well those are my two major "food groups" of choice and a staple of my daily diet (if not my entire daily diet).

Before I go: hello Dragon Mad Knitter, nice to 'officially' meet you! I read a lot of your blog this morning but I am not sure where I'm up to - would like to see more photos, of course, but who am I to demand photos? Please show PCB soon! I am waiting for Spoilee to receive her package before I reveal myself (I always feel a bit...odd...when I say that, like some kind of perverted old man who is just waiting for the right opportunity to flash his bits and pieces at an unsuspecting soul). It would seem I am not shy about making people wait...


Edited to Add: Photos