Wonderful weekends and prizes!

Well, this week has been amazing, but hectic. As well as trying to sort out a myriad of problems and paperwork, for my uni trampoline club, I have also had to write my project proposal for my dissertation, which I will be starting in about 3 weeks. although some of it was easy, I discovered the thing my supervisor metioned in passing was actually an integral part of the project, and I had no idea what it was, or why it was important. I do now know these things, but I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with it. Hopefully, she'll tell me in the feedback I get.

But on a more exciting topic, I went to Leeds fest this weekend. It's my 9th year in a row of going, so you think it would have stopped being exciting by now, but nope, it's always the highlight of my year. I got to hang out for an entire weekend with friends I hardly ever see any more, and listen to some amazing live music. Even the rain and my car getting stuck in the mud couldn't dampen my enthusiasm (though I did have to buy a new hoodie and an attractive blue plastic poncho that looked like I was wearing a bin bag, after I discovered the hard way my waterproof wasn't waterproof.)

I saw some amazing bands, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely Pulp. Jarvis Cocker was amazing, he was so funny and had great banter with the crowd. And they played every song off my favourite album. I sat on the boy's shoulders for Common People and sang along to every word. If you don't know the song:

The first line from their song "Sorted for Es and Whizz" is "Oh, is this the way they say the future's meant to feel? Or just 20,000 people standing in a field?" and it just describes Leeds festival for me.

Other highlights included Frank Turner (of course!) who I managed to see twice, once on the main stage performing his new stuff, and once as the "special guest" doing all his old classics. He is my all time favourite artist, and I think this is the 7th time I've seen him play live; the lyrics are the thing that makes his songs so amazing. If you don't know him, I would recommend checking out Photosynthesis:

The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World and Madness were also really good, and I enjoyed My Chemical Romance. The boy loved Muse, who did a special set, but I'm not really a fan. I also discovered Patrick Wolf, who I've never really heard before, but was really good, as well as Bedouin Soundclash. I could keep listing bands for about the next 2 pages, but I'm not going to, I'll just leave it at: a good time was had by all!

Then, today, I got a lovely package in the post. I won a giveaway from Carole, over at Gingerbread Girl which is one of my favourite blogs

I shamelessly stole this picture from her blog, as she is so much better at taking pictures than I am! It's such an amazing package and I'm so grateful (and lucky) to have won it. I'm planning on using the buttons for some more preemie bonnets for the local NICU, since they're so cute and make me smile! Also, since I now have a crochet hook and a book entitled "Learn to crochet," I think I will have to take it up, watch this space...

Though I will say, the crochet hook, though I'm sure it is lovely to use being an addi, looks like someone cut the head of a toothbrush and put a hook on it =P

Talking about picture, my gran bought me a proper camera as a going back to Uni present! Maybe I can take some good ones now!

Blackwork Test Stitch

I've done another test stitch for SwitchCleo on Ravelry this week

Again, it was a really pretty fun stitch to do. I'm not sure what to do with this stitch, as none of my family is very religious, but it was so easy and relaxing. I've got a real love for blackwork at the moment, and I think I'm going to have to do more of it.

I also saw my god-daughter and her brother this weekend, so I'm going to indulge in more cute pictures of them!

Only problem was they wouldn't stay still!

The really annoying thing is that as I didn't know they were coming, I posted the hoodie to the family. Lauren's mum went to collect the package from the post office, but as it was addressed to Lauren, they wouldn't let her collect it! She had the baby with her, and pointed out that Lauren couldn't really collect it as she's only 17 months old, but the post office insisted that in that case, she had to provide Lauren's birth certificate to collect the parcel, so they haven't actually got the jumper yet... It's the silliest thing I've ever heard!

WIP Wednesday - blackwork

This is a test stitch that I'm not supposed to be doing at the moment. Well I am supposed to be doing the test stitch, but what I really should be doing is figuring out how to put together the tapestry frame I was just given, so I can stitch my Gran's 70th birthday present. But of course, I'm stitching this and trying to upgrade my computer system. It's prevaricating, but it's enjoyable!

The tapestry frame is quite exciting actually. It belongs to my Granny (my Dad's mum), and after she died it was given to my Gran's (Mum's mum) sister. She has since stopped stitching, so now it's made its way back to me. I can't wait to try it out, but I am not good at orientation or building things, so I need someone to figure it out for me. All I see is several large bits of wood...

I'm also trying to take better pictures (note the artistic picture up top). It doesn't seem to be going very well. Any suggestions? Remembering of course, that I don't yet have a camera and they're all taken on my phone.

For more WIPs, have a look here

Year of Projects Week 5 & 6

It's finally finished! And only a week late!

And I'm so proud of it! It's my first ever garment and I think it came out really well. It's quite hard to tell in the picture, but I used 5 quite plain silver buttons, which I think set off the whole hoodie really well, without looking too much with the heavily patterned yarn. And all the stripes match up (mostly, but we won't mention the top of the front, where I think my gauge altered...)

I only made one modification to the pattern, and that was to have five buttons instead of one. I can't see this being used as a jumper if it doesn't fasten up all the way, because it won't keep her very warm that way.

The back shows that the stripes match up all the way round, though there is a slight change from the back to the hood.

The only thing that surprised me was that in all the pattern notes I've read on Rav, people have been commenting that they just had enough yarn to finish, but I have a ball and a quarter left over... Ah well, I'll make more preemie bonnets to give to the hospital!

And to follow my comment that it looked, last week, like I was making it for a baby octopus. After I knitted the hood it looked even worse!

But I am ridiculously proud of this hoodie, and I hope they send me a picture of her wearing it!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming of actually posting on my blog, and reading other peoples'...

Click the picture for more Year of Projects posts:

Year of Projects Week 4

This is last week's post, since our phone line was cut off last week, so I didn't manage to post. My Mum forgot to pay the bill!

This is how the jumper for my God-daughter looked on Saturday. Looks like it's intended for a baby octopus! I was very impressed with the way I managed to get the stripes to match up, especially since they go all the way around.

Unfotunately I didn't get it finished for the christening on Sunday, but since I had got her a charm bracelet, I didn't mind too much. I'll get it posted to her next week. The christening was lovely, even though Lauren was ill. She looked beautiful and didn't cry once, though her face was a picture when the water was poured on her head. I was her godmother for only an hour when I managed to let her fall down a step though. I have never known a baby run so fast, but luckily she wasn't hurt. It was also really nice to see all my family again, and they finally got to meet the boy at last.

I hope I get a picture of her wearing it when it's finished!