Invitation to The Fourth Annual Brigid in the Blogosphere Poetry Slam

Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2009

WHERE: Your blog

WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun. Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

And that's all there is to it. Many thanks to Ambermoggie whose blog post reminded me that this was coming up. This will be the first year I've joined in (providing I get time to post) but I did enjoy reading the posts last year.

Cables!!!

Cables!!!
Originally uploaded by Miffy's Knitting

The colours aren't quite right on this photo but you can see my cables!

I have never done them before so I am very pleased with them so far.

Back to normal

It's been fairly normal here in the Miffy household. The kids are back at school so my house is my own again which is good.

DH has started in his second school placement which has gone OK so far. He's passed his midway assessment which is a big relief all round.

Apart from that not much has been happening. I've done some cables which you can see in the other post and have been working on my Toe Up socks. The first one is done

and I'm on the heel of the second one so I'm hoping to have it done very soon. The casting on was still like knitting with a hedgehog though ;)


One thing I have done is to get all my sock yarn out and though there isn't a mad amount there is quite alot.

I want to get a fair bit of the hand dyed stuff knit up so that I can buy more at Woolfest. I think I have sorted a sitter for Bean for the Friday so all is looking good so far. Am keeping my fingers crossed though.

And while I'm here....

.... I though I'd update with some knitting progress.

First up is my Twin Rib sock, the colourway is Babylonglegs Still Waters, sorry I can't remember the exact yarn type but I am loving it. They are going to be very warm.


The other pair on the needles are my first effort at a toe up. The pattern is Widdershins from Knitty and the yarn is merino/bamboo in the Ragdoll colourway, again by Babylonglegs. I have to admit that I am very proud of my toe but not so confident that I didn't put a life line in before starting the gusset increases.


I'm really enjoying the toe up pattern though I did wonder what I had let myself in for when I started. I felt like I was knitting holding a hedgehog. Normally I only use 4 DPNs but to cast on and do the first increases I needed to use 5 which only added to the fun. Still it turned out OK and not as hard as I though it would. Wish me luck with the heel though.

I'm also enjoying my new camera. Its much easier to get a decent picture and I'm looking forward to getting some good pics of finished objects. I'm going to get some coloured card I think to take pictures against. I took the ragdoll sock pic against our yellow beanbag and its come out really well but I don't have much else that I can use for backgrounds so I thought a few bits of card would do the job. Hopefully when it dries out a bit I can get into the garden and get some good finished object photos there. I also want to get myself a colour wheel but I'm not sure where to look for one so if anyone has any ideas I'd be thankful if you could let me know.

Snowy Day

We got up yesterday to find the world outside white with snow.

Once we had explained to DS1 that no it wasn't Easter (I have no idea where he got that one from) we got a quick breakfast and while DH got ready for work the rest of us layered up and set off for the park.

We had a lovely time. Bean hasn't been able to play out in the snow before, he hasn't seen snow before that he could remember, and he thought it was fab.

DS1 and DD made snow angels and we had a nice walk round looking at the snow and making paw prints.


Then we came home so DS1 and DD could make snow men before retreating to the house for hot chocolate and biscuits.


There's still a fair bit of snow about today so the kids had fun on the walk to school, it freezing cold though so lots of ice too.

Years Beginning

Well here we are in 2009.

I've just been looking at my aims (not resolutions, so I can't break them you know) for last year. I think mostly I did OK. I have been tidier though could be more so so I'll keep trying on that one and I did complete the Sock a Month not only for Jan - June but also for July - Dec, some months I even knit more than one pair!

The bit about DS1's jumper did make me laugh though!

Anyway aims for this year.

I'm going to continue with the Sock a Month blog, I enjoy it and its good motivation for working my way through my sock yarn stash. Also I enjoy having somewhere extra to show off my efforts as well as seeing what everyone else comes up with.

I'm going to try to finish DS1's jumper this year. My idea is to take it to my knitting groups so that I can work on it then. It's simple enough to do whilst talking.

Finally I've been thinking of late that my project photos leave something to be desired. My only camera has been the one on my phone and though it is a reasonably good camera it just isn't doing the colours justice. My first thought was to upgrade my phone to get a better camera. I got a good offer through the post which at first look did seem to be the answer however when we started adding in the cost of insurance it began to look a little less cost effective. DH and I talked about it and decided that as what I really want to do is improve my photos it might be better to buy a camera. So we did! I need to read up on tips etc but I am really pleased with it. Oh and I need to knit it a carry bag too! ;)

My only other aim for this year is to get knitting through my sock yarn stash so that I can justify buying more when (if) I go to Woolfest. Woolfest is mostly booked in I just need to find someone to have Bean for me and to hope that DH's university doesn't throw a last minute spanner in the works. So far the diary for that Friday is clear but you never know.....