still trailing ...

really can't write much today, still trailing behind with all my work. :( but i did find time to set up a flickr account, trouble is, there's not much to see on there yet, but at least i'm ready to go! :)

had a lovely w/e playing grandmother to Ellie. she is walking now, and talking - if we only understood her language. still, no mistaking wuf wuf everytime she sees a dog, including the sculpture on our sideboard. at 13 months she is now interested in everything around her. she loved watching ducks and pigeons coming to eat bread from my husband's hand. and having arrived able to walk just 4-5 steps before halting or falling, 24 hours later she could get up to 10. i never cease to marvel at the speed at which a healthy child acquires skills and knowledge. if only a) we knew how to educate them in such a way that we didn't kill their interest, and b) we kept those abilities ourselves. too often i have watched the light of curiosity in a child's eyes dim as some pompous adult crushes the pleasure out of learning and prowess. and i know many adults who regret 'not having paid attention when i was younger', castigating themselves in the belief that the fault lay with them, not with inadequate teaching. sorry, i feel an orangebox rising beneath me, but since i'm not at Speaker's Corner, i'll quit!

when Ellie went off with mum and dad, fed, watered and freshly bathed before the long drive home, husband Peter and i collapsed into the nearest armchairs with a drink, ruefully acknowledging our declining energy. we have decided he is to be called granpeter by the new grandchildren, since he is technically a step-grandparent. he is quite funny really. having pronounced vehemently and often 'i don't do babies' he is frequently to be found playing ardently with one or other of them, or explaining things to them in great detail. then much embarrassed huffing and excusing when he realises he has been discovered!!! ;) but no matter, we are enjoying our life together and with them, so why worry?

rabbitIng

just in case you wondered, i called my blog rabbitIng because i love rabbits, although we can't have any here - we're on the 12th floor of a skyscraper in the City of London. also, i love rabbiting, that is talking. and Ing is, well, me. Geddit??? ;) and because i don't have a pic available of a real rabbit right now, here's one i drew earlier. maybe later i'll scan in some pix of rabbits we used to have, for those like me who are rabbit-mad. and i've promised myself when/if we move, there will be more ....

ps.: does any one know how to get real smileys on here, please?

pps.: i have put a few new photos up, just to prove i can do it ;)

older - but no wiser ... ?

i 'left home', as in - my mother's house and the town in which i grew up, 42 years ago. i still visit mum and sis, but although they have stayed in Sheffield, they are no longer in the same area, which i haven't seen for more than 30 years. then last week at the suggestion of a schoolfriend who had been in touch with me after those 42 years, we visited some of the haunts of my childhood years. the streets and houses, and especially my school, seem much smaller, although the countryside keeps its proportions

not sure it was such a good idea, stirring the mud at the bottom of my pond. all sorts of memories come floating up at odd moments, mixed with a strange and quite heady potion of nostalgia, regret, relief. almost the only things i have in common with the person i was then, apart from my family, are my love of nature - i used to spend a lot of time wandering through local woods and fields, alone and in company - and ... knitting.

wonder what other people think - should one leave the past in the past??

am really enjoying knitting my sampler. might have to discipline myself to finish the silk Orenburg. not to mention working on the phd!!

small scarf version of Brora shawl

another senior moment ...

managed to lose the Orenburg pattern and not able to work it out from sample, due to fuzziness of mohair, or it might be my ageing eyes! so started to knit sample scarf, just working through patterns to hand, eg, in Heirloom Knitting, Mary Thomas, and others. I'm quite enjoying that, as I feel it's helping me to understand better how the patterns work.

moreover, Sharon Miller has now very kindly sent me second copy of the Orenburg pattern, so can work on both, depending on my mood. the silk is very, very different. i think it is going to come out larger, even though i am using the same needles. also, i don't think it will 'set' so firmly when blocked, like the shetland yarns do.

shall have to set it all aside at the w/e, as i get to indulge my favourite pastime, Ellie-sitting. 1-year-olds and knitting don't mix. ;) never mind, she'll soon be old enough to learn to hold her first needles :)

PS.: took a couple of pix last week of a small scarf i adapted from the Brora pattern for my mum. will try to put them up soon. happy w/e knitting, everyone :)))

apology

Sorry I haven't said thankyou for all the compliments (which have quite embarrassed me, I must say) but i forgot how to get on to my own blog - a senior moment, i'm afraid!! ;) anyway, thank you now, all, very much. you do me too much honour. some of the other work i have looked at is simply spectacular.

have just finished the Orenburg sample in gossamer mohair - quite tricky, especially as mohair v hairy. am now trying it in silk to compare. thought i might post a pic of both together when i have finished, as the two yarns really are so different.

btw.: i'd love to be in touch with other lace knitters out there! :)

incidentally, for anyone who's interested, ellie's cardie was knitted by her mother, my daughter imogen, who, i am very proud to say, is a student of knitted textiles!

Wedding Ring Shawl (Sharon Miller Heirloom Knitting

here at last, my version of the wedding ring shawl. i have so enjoyed making this, that i am quite bereft now it is finished. i knitted it in lacis and it came out slightly smaller all round than Sharon Miller's original, about 69" square. now busy casting round (although not on, yet ... ) for something to replace it. the problem is not the lack of things to do, only the lack of time and hands - one pair really not sufficient, nor one life!

there are other of Sharon's lovely shawls, other books, other patterns. even other ideas entirely in my own head. has any one out there worked out how to do without sleep? ;) or how to knit IN one's sleep? ;)

in the meantime, am doing a swatch of an orenburg design, just to see if i can work out how to do it. heigh ho, rabbit, rabbit ...

i am afraid ... very afraid ...

altho i have only been blogging for a day, no less than a day, cos not even 24 hours, i keep findin things - mystery stoles and stuff. i am afraid, will i get sucked in and never, ever get back to the phd? oh my ears and whiskers, ar-r-r-r-g-g-g-h hhh.... poor little bunny rabbit, rabbit rabbit.... Ing .....

still rabbitIng ...

oh my ears and whiskers ... my supervisor likes my first submission. so i'm not so dumb after all!?!?

so now i guess i'd better finish the second. .... or shall i start some new lace knitting ... hmm, difficult one, that ... rabbit, rabbit .........

rabbitIng on

oh my ears and whiskers, i've done it now. i blame Jean. after all, until i read Hers, i never thought of doing it. blogging, i mean. oh my ears and whiskers. as if i don't waste enough time already. and all because of knitting lace, or is that lace knitting??? so perhaps i should blame Sharon? well, someone! after all it can't be my fault, can it? well, just to say, this is my version of Sharon's lovely rosebud shawl project(Sharon Miller of Heirloom Knitting fame). have just finished her Wedding Ring Shawl. got to block it. then i don't know what i'll do - scarey, having to start - so insecure, starting ... :( not like having something on the go, nice and steady. oh my ears and whiskers. who am i, what do i do? well i'm Ingrid, i love knitting, reading, rabbits and rabbitIng. and my grandchildren, of course. but i'm supposed to be doing my PhD really. oh, and i'm a really mature student. REALLY mature!!! i.e., old, not sensible !!! there, that'll do for a start, i feel quite faint, i think i'll go and lie down for a while ........
rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit ....