Porn

ok so I'm f***ing amazing. To celebrate that fact, I went home on Wednesday and bought myself some very pretty yarn. This may seem very decedent but I don't buy amazing new clothes. I don't do drugs and I barely go out with the boys any more. So I went to Abstract Cat which I'd discovered a couple of days previously and I fell. Boy did I fall.

"Undergrowth"


"Murky Deep"

"Vampyre"

"Tempestuous"

"Dark Cherry"

In my defence! I didn't buy this all in one go. I bought 3 on Wednesday.

Then I was checking my shopping details on Friday. I needed to know the length of Vampyre (image 3) so I could work out it if I could knit socks with it. Anyway, I was looking at it and then my eyes caught sight of other stuff (actually image 4 and then 2). Well I couldn't buy 2 sock yarns and no lace weight so I had to buy a sixth (and not added) yarn called Cairngorms. These mountains have a special place in my heart from when I lived in Inverness. (Britswitch knows the effect they had on me). So suddenly I had 6 yarns!!!! Thank the Goddess for Christmas money.

They arrived today so my Yule knitting for ME is sorted. And I'll have very sexy feet. The last four photos are sock yarn and the first image is a lace weight and I'll make a pretty shawl with it. AND I scared my postman when I realised he had packages for me - I knew what they would be.

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I'm f***ing amazing

I got my grade back for my first Art History essay

73%

That's a first.

My tutor loves me. I've celebrated (alot).

An excellent end to a first term.

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A word of advice

I thought I ought to pass on a life lesson I learnt today.

When knitting a cardigan (especially as a gift) DO NOT forget to make the buttonhole.

I wish I'd remembered this before I sewed it up.

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What I've been knitting

My knitting has progressed - fortunately otherwise I'd be a rubbish student.

Last week I talked with my tutors about my lack of mood board so over the weekend I played with some of my images on photoshop. I've found this a really good way of breaking the colours down and find the subtle colours within a subject. This is one of the images I generated.

I was discussing this with DT on Tuesday and she was really pleased with the shades and the reasoning behind my choices. I then went and bought some material which I made into ribbons and knitted. I find this a really useful technique to allow different textures and colours play with and against each other.

At the same time DT and I discussed the idea of knitting codes into my piece. She was keen on me knitting a phrase into a a sample and then giving it to my other tutor, Fee, to decipher. I really liked this as a concept but realised that the code would have to be really simple so that I wouldn't have lots of different stitches and end up with a confused looking item. Yesterday, it occurred to me that Morse Code would be ideal for what I needed. Effectively I'd only need three stitches - 1 for the dots, 1 for the dashes and one for the spaces/background.

I found a copy of Morse Code on the interweb and set about designing my phrase. First I knitted it with two different colours but I didn't like it so much. It may have been the colours I used but I felt that it looked too busy.

Then I remembered the conversation with Fee, who reminded me that the piece had to be desirable. Ultimately I want someone to look at it and say "I want to own that" and I couldn't honestly say I felt that way about my coloured piece. So I had a rethink and realised it may work if I made the dots and dashes more literal. So the dots became holes, dashes became purl and the spaces and background became knit stitch and the whole thing became a lace pattern.

I'm really happy with this. It's not obviously Morse Code and I don't think it can be read as such but I think I may be on to something with this.

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