The Owl and the Pussy Cat

've been in a bit of a funk lately. I blame writing my thesis and spilling wine on my laptop, amongst other things. Fortunately my laptop recovered (almost unbelievably) and even more fortunately I didn't loose any data (hurrah!) - so I'm gradually cheering up a bit. In the mean time it was Valentines Day, and now the event is over I can put up some pics of the Valentine I made for Dan. I was keen to make sure I equalled last years effort - which I was pretty chuffed with - and I think I managed it.

I

he Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea     In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money,     Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above,     And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,       What a beautiful Pussy you are,           You are,           You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!     How charmingly sweet you sing! O let us be married! too long we have tarried:     But what shall we do for a ring?' They sailed away, for a year and a day,     To the land where the Bong-tree grows And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood     With a ring at the end of his nose,           His nose,           His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling     Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.' So they took it away, and were married next day     By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince,     Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,     They danced by the light of the moon,           The moon,           The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.

Edward Lear

I got a bit carried away with my flax before I realised the boat should be green, but never mind. I could see myself making a whole set of these - One for each verse.

I did say almost

  wanted to put the Christmas cards I made this year into my online scrapbook. I bought matt brown card blanks with envelopes from paperchase, then made a six pointed star template of holes to get the snowflake shape when embroidered with crochet cotton. I was quite pleased with the effect.

hile digging out the photo I found this snap of an early Christmas present to myself. The stitch patterns are genuinely intriguing and I'm excited about having a bash. Need to pack off a few more FOs first though.

small items of domesticity squeezed from the week

So over the course of the week, despite really having no time for this sort of shenanigans whatsoever I have managed to squeeze out a few bits of crafty goodness.

It started with  making a birthday cake as a gift to a joint birthday party last Saturday. A simple chocolate sponge with vanilla butter icing. This was so successful however, that in a effort to lift spirits at home a little I immediately had to make a batch of similar fairy cakes on the Sunday. I was chuffed to bits with how these came out. Super soft and fluffy in the middle with just the right amount of pale green icing on top.

Please excuse the grill pan which doubles up as my cooling rack. And I had to eat that one before the photo was taken because it was all deformed and ugly. Honest.

During the week I started my second pair of cycle socks, this time in light blue. And for some reason, after an afternoon spent in the vegetable patch yesterday I decided to break out the headband. It's the remains of a shirt color of an old liberty shirt I picked in a charity shop some time ago that have been sat on top of my dresser for a year a least. Last night I bound the rough edge with some vintage bias binding I've always had in a lovely sage green, added an elastic grip across the opening and embroidered over some of the flowers with odd buttons from a rapidly dwindling stash and silver thread. I have to say I rather like it. The silver thread just seems to lift it slightly out of being just a scrap of cloth which is what I often wear in my hair.

New things

The tartan dress was bought from a charity shop on my local high street. £4.99. It's handmade from medium weight woven wool tartan - the seeming is beautiful and it fits perfectly. One of those occasions when the item in question calls out as soon as you step over the threshold, demanding to be taken home and loved.

The bag was from sini&sanna on Etsy. It's also fantastically well made with the double virtue of being big enough to dump my daily life in - laptop, lunch box, paper work, knitting. It's actually a very fine cord though you can't tell that in this picture. The deep tones with that streak of yellow and turquoise  buckle just gives it that slightly clashing colour combination I love.

Finally my white cycling socks. These are actually finished now, not quite so well made perhaps, but they do the job I designed them for. As you might be able to tell from the picture they're toe up socks based on the Universal toe-up sock formula on Knitty incorporating a fairly simple lace feather/chevron pattern and knit in 4ply 100% cotton. The reason why both were being knit at the same time was simple - a very limited supply of yarn. They were going to be short socks so that wasn't a problem but I did have to knit them simultaneously to make sure I got socks the same length. Unfortunately the  lace pattern I chose doesn't actually stretch that well so they're slightly baggy and also a little difficult to get on... but this is only my second pair of socks ever and the first in cotton, so you live and learn.