A Bit Off Course But A Cause Well Worth Getting Behind!

Save Ryan and Ethan Appeal

“Ryan and Ethan Caulfield McCormack from Tramore, Co.Waterford, were recently diagnosed with Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). ALD, is a deadly genetic disease that affects 1 in 18 000 people. It most severely affects boys and men. This brain disorder destroys myelin, the protective sheath that surrounds the brain’s neurons — the nerve cells that allow us to think and to control our muscles. ALD causes relentless progressive deterioration to a vegetative state or death, usually within five years. It knows no racial, ethnic or geographic barriers.
Prognosis for patients with childhood cerebral X-ALD is generally poor due to progressive neurological deterioration unless bone marrow transplantation is performed early.There is presently no cure for ALD.
We are currently raising funds to cover the remaining costs of the transplants (1.5 million a head, some of which is being paid by medical insurance). We, as a community have vowed not to have either boy denied treatment due to lack of funds. Any donations, big or small are appreciated. Caroline, Jimmy and family would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support they have received since the boys’ diagnosis.” – from the Save Ryan and Ethan Appeal Facebook page 

Ok, now you know the cause, here’s how you can help these two wonderful boy. Propeller Palms  a local band have just released their new single “Sometimes” on iTunes in aid of this great appeal. 100% of proceeds from single sales will go towards the appeal. So not only do you get to help a great cause you get a great tune to listen to as well 🙂 To download the single all you need to go is go to the photo below which will bring you to iTunes where you can buy the single

For more information on the appeal check out the Facebook page at Save Ryan and Ethan Appeal or the website at www.saveryanandethan.com

To find out more about the band check out their Facebook page or their website at www.propellerpalms.com

Please help out this great cause, it’s only 99c and it will really help give these two boys a fighting chance.

Thank you!

A

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On The Needles This Week 22-04-13

On The Needles 22-04-13

I’m a little bit late this week but here it goes anyway! Last week’s knitting time was interrupted by college, head colds, rehearsals and lost dogs and this weeks knitting time looks like it’s going to be interrupted by much the same thing (minus the lost dogs hopefully and the rehearsals will be replaced by concerts!) I’ll be having withdrawal symptoms by the end of it. Bring on summer I say!

Half way there!

I’ve finally reached the half-way mark with the scarf and hopefully after this week I’ll have more evening time to get the second half finished soon. Then it will be on to the hat! I am very happy with how it is turning out though 🙂

This poor cowl is long awaiting arrival in the shop and hopefully fingers crossed it will be up next week. I’m just working out some ideas for a flower to use as a brooch and given that my crochet skills are a bit undeveloped it’s taking me longer than anticipated! But I’m pretty sure what I want now so it’s just a matter of getting it done!  But customer orders are my priority so for now I’ll be focusing on the scarf for the moment!

I’ve decided to say farewell to the gloves and mittens until Autumn and have ripped what I had done of the little glove. Finally starting to get some Spring weather here so I’ll be working on some ideas for Spring/Summer knitted accessories! I’m always open to ideas so if there’s anything you’d like to see in the shop now’s the time to tell me!

I’m off to do a bit of study and then steal some knitting time for myself!

A

Cute and Cosy Convertible Mittens Added to Etsy Shop :)

Cute and Cosy Convertible Mittens

I’m just after adding these adorable convertible mittens the Etsy shop 🙂

These adorable convertible mittens are perfect for chilly evenings.

They are knitted with a soft recycled cotton blend yarn which can be machine-washed. (Perfect for the little girl sizes!)

Not only are the little flower embellishments very cute, they’re also practical as the centre of the flower is a button which can be used to hold back the mitten flap so they’re kept neatly of the way.

They are available in an array of sizes and colours combinations so just drop me a note to let me know what you’d like. (The mittens shown in the photos are knitted in Terracotta and Raffia)

Knitting in the Sun!

Finally! Some real Spring weather. Time to bring the needles outside 🙂

Liebster Award

So after a second nomination for this elusive award I decided to find out what it’s really about. It’s basically an “award” given to new bloggers by new bloggers and it’s a great way of highlighting blogs with under 200 followers and spreading the news of your wonderful blog! There is no physical award as such, but there is the nice fuzzy feeling of knowing someone is really enjoying reading your ramblings and would like to share your readings with other people!

So thank you neotricwool and Jenna Makes Things for the nominations!

So the rules are:

1. Post eleven facts about myself

2. Answer the questions given to me by the person who nominated me

3. Invent eleven questions to ask people whom I wish to nominate for the award

4. Choose eleven people (with fewer than 200 followers) to give this award to and link to them in my post.

5. Go to their blog and tell them.

11 Facts About Me!

1. I’m from and live in Waterford in the “sunny” south-east of Ireland
2. I have a beautiful daughter named Saoirse who’ll be 5 this June. (I’m sure I’ll have her modelling some things for the shop soon!)
3. I returned to college in September 2012 to finish out my Bachelor of Arts in Music.
4. As well as knitting and crocheting I play the clarinet and piano (hence the music degree!)
5. I have a little cat named Lola, although she’s called Little Cat more than she’s called Lola as she does many big cat things despite only being an ickle cat. ( You can see her sneaking her way into some of my blog posts)
6. It’s my birthday Saturday week! Whoo hoo to getting older! But I will be playing a concert that night so the celebrations of surviving another year will be kept to the minimum
7. Springtime is probably my favourite time of year (when we actually get spring like weather here that is, we’re lacking in it at the moment!) I love seeing all the new growth and the little baby lambs who’ll be turned into jumpers bouncing around the place and colours starting to pop up here and there.
8. I love tea..A lot..You can’t beat a good cupa tae
9. I do not like housework. I like a tidy house but not the process of attaining one.
10. I took up knitting when my daughter was born in 2008 and a couple of years later I tried my hand at crochet. I’m very much a knitter who does a bit of crochet rather than being equally adept in both! But I do enjoy both.
11. I also love my bed and am not a big fan of getting out of it on cold wet mornings. Luckily this morning was not one of those mornings!

Question Time For Me!

1. What is your typical Wednesday night like? Wednesday’s for me are long long days. After college I have orchestra rehearsal which finishes at 7. Then I’m home, get my daughter to bed, that’s all done and dusted by 8. Then I throw something quick together to eat and have a well deserved cup of tea. Then I finally get to sit down and unwind for a bit with a bit of knitting before collapsing into bed!

2. Where would you like to travel to? This is a very long list! Even just the list of places in Ireland that I’d like to visit is long enough. So for now let’s just say everywhere. 🙂

3. What is smell that reminds you of your childhood? What snack do most often reach for? That’s a tricky one. Might have to come back to you on that! Is chocolate considered a snack?

5. What is your favourite store? Deramores. Online Yarn Store. Enough said 🙂

6. If you could have any occupation besides the one you have now, what would it be? I don’t really have an occupation. Is “a student who moonlights as a knitter” considered an occupation?

7. What is your favourite book? Very very tricky one. I’ve a lot of favourite books. I guess “Lord of the Rings”.I also love stitch pattern dictionaries being the yarn nerd that I am 🙂

8. Cats or dogs? Both but I have a cat 🙂

9. What action or moment in your life are you most proud of? My daughter. 🙂 Not an action or a moment but an amalgamation of many moments and action that I’m very proud of. If I say so myself, I’m not doing a bad job at raising her 🙂

10. Who is the main person you lean on in life? My lovely boyfriend 🙂

11. What is your favourite article of clothing? I don’t have one favourite, I’ve a number of casual dresses that I love equally.

Question Time For You!

1. Tea or Coffee?
2. What do you do to unwind every evening?
3. Do you have any pets?
4. Why did you start your blog?
5. What’s your favourite type of music?
6. Do you have any favourite colour combinations?
7. In a nutshell, what is your blog about?
8. Are you in school? College? Working? Where do you work or what are you studying?
9. Any favourite foods?
10. What’s your favourite time of year?
11. What makes your blog different?

Nominations! ( In no particular order)

1. YuLian Knits
2. Holly Chase Designs
3. Whipped-Stitch Witchery
4. Stitch and Purl
5. The Secret Life of Yarn
6. Handmade Homeschool
7. Pinsandneedlesdotbiz
8. Knit me This
9. Chronicles of a Fiber Engineer
10. loops70
11. bmore crafty

 

Only Thing to Do on a Windy Night!

Brrrrrr…. It’s very windy out there in Waterford tonight. Perfect night for curling up on the couch knitting a scarf and crocheting little flowers. All I’m missing now is a hot chocolate 🙂

 

Ideas taking shape!

Scarf starting to take shape

The lace pattern scarf is starting to take shape now and my time spent charting out the tapering off pattern is paying off! I’ll have to write it out again in slightly more legible form for later patterns, but I’m very happy with how this is looking and after blocking the change from pattern to stockinette stitch should become more subtle.

Eating my words…

I’ve finally had to put down the needles and get my real designers cap on and resort to graphing. Turns out not everything can be worked out on the needles!

On The Needles This Week 15-04-13

On The Needles 15-04-03

So I didn’t get as much finished this week as I planned, mainly due to items taking longer to block than I anticipated but also with being back into college and assignments and early mornings and making lunches and all those wonderful things that school time and college time brings! But not all was lost! Two new projects were started and two should enter the shop this week, I even got a bit of organising done. Whoo hoo!

Gloves on the Go!

First up this week are my on the go project of the week, these little girls gloves. I decided to do them in the same colour as the convertible mittens mainly because I only have a small bit of those colours left in my stash and oddments of yarn like this are a pet peeve of mine! Not to worry though, these colours will be reordered for orders of the fingerless mittens, the convertible mittens and of course the gloves. All of these are available in sizes ranging from aged 2 to ladies large. You might also notice a different cuff on these than the usual 2×2 rib on the other projects, this is mainly due to my tendency to get bored with making the same thing over and over so I decided to do a nice moss stitch ribbing for a change. They are also available with 2×2 ribbing.

Scarf well underway

Next up is the scarf being knitted for a customer. It’s well underway, I’m about a quarter of the way through it now, I’m trying to work out a way of tapering out the lace pattern and going into stockinette stitch for the middles part so there’s a separate little swatch going on the needles right now to work out how I’m going to do it. I’m sure there’s a way I can do it off the needles but I just prefer to design on the needles and work it out as I go along. I just find it more fun to work it out in actual stitches rather than on paper. Hopefully I’ll have this off the needles this time next week and will be starting into the hat!

Cowl finally off the needles!

My wave pattern cowl is finally of the needles and just finished blocking. Being the silly goose that I am I forgot to order in brooch pins so I just need to wait for them to arrive, make a flower to attach to a brooch pin and vuala! it will be ready for the shop, so hopefully that will be up very soon! I’ll be writing out the pattern for this during the week as well so hopefully something else that will be up online by this time next week!

The convertible mittens are just about dry so will be sticking the little flowers on them ASAP and getting them up on the shop early this week

A bit of organising

And finally, a bit of organising. I was inspired by blog post I saw during the week (I posted it here on my own blog!) of a very innovative and beautiful way of storing yarn. A pegboard, mounted on the wall. Some pegs and stick the balls of yarn on the pegs. So not only is your yarn all in one place, it’s on display and it’s organised. So I’ve ordered a ball winder, my lovely boyfriend has told me he’ll make me a pegboard and in my excitement off all this I decided to try put some order in my stash right now. As it stands there’s yarn in a few of these shelves, in bags, in boxes, on tables…ok, you get it, not very organised or pretty looking so hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have my very own yarn adorned wall in my sitting room. Can’t wait! 🙂

The world’s best yarn storage idea

I absolutely love this! There will definitely be one of these on my wall! I’m currently putting some order to my stash, I’ve ordered a ball winder and am sourcing a peg board 🙂