Panic buying....

I've never really been into panic buying. When we were living in Wales, there were a few occasions when they really went in for the old panic buying for various reasons; fuel shortages, floods, etc.

I remember going into Waitrose and the shelves were devoid of bread, milk, flour, eggs and tins. It was mad. I jokingly suggested to M that we ought to get some marmite because I had heard that there would be a shortage before long. A couple of people walking past, overheard me, looked a bit worried and shoved a couple of jars of the black stuff in their already bulging trolleys before heading off to buy all of the loo roll up before we got there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosemarievictoria_artwork/1184162818/

So today, as I was cutting out some bags, I noticed that I was running low on material so I had a quick look with the idea of buying some more tonight. I looked where I normally buy; sold out, I looked somewhere else; discontinued, I looked at a place where, if I am honest, I don't like to buy from because she has ripped me off before, she said that the fabric had been discontinued and words like 'You'll be lucky if you find some' were used. Arse. This material is a good seller at the moment so I got onto Google and found about the only place that is still selling it. They had 10 yards. It also said that it has been discontinued. Did I buy all 10 yds? Did I succumb to panic buying?

The 'flu bus.

Dropping J and L off at school this morning, I had a great idea. As their children ran around like loons and played games with their friends, lots of parents looked like this...
It would seem that swine flu and good old colds have hit school but doesn't seem to be affecting the children but their parents who then struggle to school to drop their little darlings off so that they can crawl home and into bed until 3:15pm.

Now here is my cunning plan. A 'flu bus. You ring the 'flu bus hotline in the morning, get your child ready for school then push them out of the front door when the bus comes to pick them up so that you can stay at home, suffer quietly and not sneeze all over the well people at school.

Royalties to be sent to me please :)

Blog FAIL!

I'm not doing too well with the whole blogging lark at the moment. Things are silly-busy at the moment and I have things going on that I don't really want to talk about on my blog just now and when I take photos to show you what I have been up to, the photos look less than perfect. Less than good infact so I don't blog which is bad. Not least because when I look at my website stats, my blog stats have a big red percentage drop in views which makes me even grumpier so I thought I would ramble for a bit to get rid of my blogger block.

Want to see something funky and fun? See this bag I made out of my new sock monkey material....

I love this. I thought it would sell immediately. It didn't. That's cool though. Maybe I can keep it and use it as my first Christmas present? Yep. I know, some have their shopping all finished. I am one of the haters of Christmas shopping and millions of people in the shopping centre but I also leave my shopping until last minute. That's fine though, I plan to use the Internet this year ;)

Give a hat, gift another.....

My friend is having a baby soon. She doesn't know if she is having a girl or boy and I am impatient. I want to make a hat now and not in yellow but boy and girl colours so yesterday I decided that I would make two; a boy hat and a girl one. Madness you think? Well I'm thinking not.

I'm going to give my friend both hats before she has the baby and ask her to take them both to hospital when she goes to have the baby then which ever she doesn't need, I'd really love it if she gave it to the special care baby unit.

When Jack was born, he was poorly. Really poorly. He wasn't an early baby though and weighed 8lb 3oz so when they put a hat on him and tied breathing tubes to it, the hat they put on him was way too small. When I think back to then, one of the images I have in my head is that stupid yellow, too small hat. I know someone made it but they made it for a premmie so it was too small.

When he was transferred to a different hospital for more specialised treatment, the nurses couldn't take it off for days because he was too unstable to remove the tubes and while the hat remained, it scared his head; he now has three bald marks on the back of his head from it.

So I'm thinking other knitters might want to join me in doing this. Its quite simple, every time you make a hat for a new baby, make two newborn sized and gift one to the hospital.

My only problem is that I have to knit three because someone has pinched the first one I made....

It (was) Wednesday again!

I tried blogging twice last week but blogger wasn't playing ball so I sulked for a bit and didn't try again. I've given myself a kick up the arse now though and I'm back and having a super-productive, super-busy week but I still want to do a little post about MISI Makers event because it was fab and I met some lovely people so here is what I attempted to write....

A week has gone. Again! I'm back from the MISI Makers event. I had lots of fun. I left home on Friday lunchtime after a frantic week of sewing not much followed by Friday morning of sewing loads in my pre-show state.

I managed to drive from Lincolnshire to Birmingham not driving more than 45 mph thanks to accidents, average speed checks, road works. I hate British roads. I used to like driving! Anyway I got to Brizzle in the drizzle only to discover that the Bath (or Barth) Road is a rather long one but eventually I found The Paintworks and fell in love with it. It is full of arty offices and artists work spaces and a lovely cafe and and and. I texted my friend and told her that we needed to abandon our lives in Lincs and move there! They even have funky silver Airstream caravans that they used as offices and homes, dotted all over the place.

After meeting the lovely Emma who runs MISI but who had unfortunately got laryngitis so couldn't speak much, I attempted to find Ikea. In rush hour. On Friday. Needless to say I got lost and ended up in the red-light district.

I've never driven down a street with great big signs saying 'No kerb crawling, you will be arrested' I was a bit worried to be honest, it was rush-hour, we were crawling. No-one arrest me please!

Eventually I found Ikea only also I found a man who had been knocked over by someone, obviously desperate to get their Ikea fix so ambulances added to the general chaos. Can you tell that I come from a small town?

After a whirlwind tour of Ikea, where I always find that the thought of the place is better than when you actually get there, always a let-down, I went for food before going to my B+B.

Saturday morning I woke up at about 6am to realise that the fabric I bought to cover my table was too small. I contemplated begging the guest-house owner for a spare sheet or table cloth or anything really to cover my stall but he already thought I was odd because I could knit so I ventured out to find something suitable.

By 910 I was back at The Paintwork and setting up my stand. By the time I had finished, it looked like this;
Shortly after I took this photo, my camera died but I did get to take a photo of the lovely Kristina and her husband, David with their stand;

See how David is hiding behind the basket? I noticed that he did that a lot during the day ;)

The show opened at 1030 and at that point, there was a queue, snaking up the stairs, of people eager to get their goody bags and go shopping. It was manic to start with. I was a bit concerned that I would have sold out by lunchtime but unfortunately it was all ok and by lunchtime it was a bit quieter. Here is the only photo I have of the hall but it was fab. Everyone was lovely and friendly.


Well that was the MISI Makers event. I think Emma did a great job of organising the event. I was just a bit annoyed that I didn't spend more time having a look at all of the other things and people around.

Right, I have grand plans for something later but I need to go and make a needle roll before it's time to pick J and L up so I will see you later.

(Almost) wordless Wednesday.

I'm sure I have heard somewhere in the blog-o-sphere that people do a 'Wordless Wednesday' post. Well that could be quite useful for me because I have quite a few bits to show but not much time so I will do my take on the idea and show you what is going on here.

Did I mention that it was baltic here? I have been cold most of the day and while taking washing off the radiators tonight, I stumbled upon a cunning idea.....


....steal your daughters longlegs that you made last week and use them as arm warmers. Result!

Next temptation. See what came in the post this afternoon......

..look at all of that lovely american material. Sock monkey. I have been resisting him for possibly years. I'm loving yoga sock monkey but must not make anything out of this until all of my stand prep is ready for MISI Makers and my bunting currently looks like this......

..pretty? All the ribbon in a heap in the middle is because I can't decide how to fix it all together.

And finally this is what is helping me get through the day....

....tea and lots of it in my pink Herdy mug :D

Almost deja vu.

In June I was at Woolfest with Kraftykoala. There was a man there making the most wonderful willow trugs and baskets but when I went to have a chat with him, he had none for sale and wasn't taking orders. I was a bit perplexed as to why someone would go to such a place and not have any stock to sell. His response? He had been so busy in the run-up to the show that he, not only hadn't got time to make stock for it, he was actually at the show, making baskets that he had taken orders for previously.

I'm remembering this man very vividly this week because on Friday I am going to Bristol to the first Misi Makers event and I don't have as much stock as I want to take ready. I have some, I might even have enough but I don't have what I want and it making me feel really rather stressed.

The reasons for this are good; I have been really busy for the last month or so and I have been making sure I have all of my orders finished before starting on stock for the show because orders are definite sales so it obviously makes sense for to me to do this. Now though, I am running around, trying to get things done in time for the weekend.

While stressing yesterday, the post came through the door and the new Knit Today magazine was in it. Inside was this;


I'm going to finish my banner bunting. I'll be back :)