Rennie Mackintosh style Lamp

I've finished soldering my lamp this week. It took me two sessions. My soldering skills are getting better and I don't need much help from the teacher now :o)


Now, I only need to apply the patina, and most important, find a base which will be quite difficult because the choice is very limited in the UK. I'll deal with it next month when I'll come back from my holidays.

Woolfest Booty

As promised, this is what I bought at Woolfest yesterday:

• Hand dyed sock yarn: 1 skein from Wild Fire Fibres and 2 skeins from Laal Bear.
• Schoppel Wolle sock yarn: 2 zauberball
• 2 skeins of undyed 90% Alpaca/ 10% nylon (I forgot where from)
• 2 skeins of cobweb/lace weight from KraftyKoala: Alpaca/Cashmere/Silk and Merino/Silk
• 1 cone of lace weight 65% Wood/35% Milk fibre from Uppingham yarns
• Thanks to Andrea who found Fiberspates Fairy Wool bargain basket, I bought 3 skeins of hand dyed lace yarn and one of hand dyed sock yarn for a fraction of the regular price :o)
• a cotton bag with a B-ewe-tiful sheep
• a pair of sock blockers

Now, I should go knitting...

Woolfest 2009

Today, we went to the lake district (300km from Dundee) for Woolfest :0)

Andrea, Diane, Louise and I had a great day.
We saw several breeds of sheep, alpacas, angora....

There were loads of amazing fiber, yarns, buttons...to spend our cash on...

Some of the knitted goodies looked really yummy...

Check out Diane and Louise blogs for more details and great pictures.
In my next post, I'll show you what I bought....

Just on time

I need to have something I've knitted to go to Woolfest tomorrow. So, I've worked hard to get this cardigan finished:

I made the pattern as I was knitting it (top-down). My mum gave me this yarn (Plassard, Lassive, 100% bamboo) a while ago. I had only 7 skeins, so, I wanted to make the most of it, hence the top-down design. It is a bit heavy so I expect it to stretch a little. Otherwise, it is very soft, pleasant to wear and perfect for summer :o)

Mirror

Just a quick post to show you the progress I've made on the stained glass mirror, my most complicated project so far.


On Saturday, I am going to Woolfest with Diane, Louise and Andrea. We are leaving Dundee at 6am and we should be on site by 10am.

Finished, at last!

It seems to me that I started this cardigan years ago (free pattern here). I finally finished it today. It is a fairly easy knit, but as it is knitted in one piece, every row seems to take ages and it is very heavy, especially when you do the raglan.

I made the sleeves less wide so the lace pattern does not match at the yoke but it is not too obvious so it is fine.
It turned out about 1 or 2 sizes smaller than expected so it is pretty fitted. I am hoping it will loosen a bit as it is linen and cotton...

Lantern, lamp and mirror

Last Tuesday, I finally finished my leaded lantern:

I now have to work on the base. My idea is to have a pine base, a wee bit bigger than the lantern (probably 20x20cm, the lantern being 15x15cm), with a groove to slot it in. A trip to the nearest DIY shop is planned next week, so I am hoping they will cut the piece of wood to the required dimensions, then I'll ask the carpenter at my work to dig the groove. Then, I'll work on the finish...

The other stained glass project I am working on at the moment is a Rennie Mackintosh style lamp. All the pieces are cut and ground but I can't solder it together because I don't have any black coated copper foil left and the teacher didn't get delivered this week :o(


So, I had to start on my next project :o)


It is a Rennie Mackintosh style mirror. I found it on the Internet here. No pattern was available so I just increase the size of the picture to an A3 size. The one on that website is much bigger, it is leaded. I am doing it with copper foil, it is not as strong as lead so I have to make it smaller. I will finish the edges with lead though.

West Coast

Last weekend we went to the West Coast of Scotland. We spent Friday night in Oban (which is only 3h drive from Dundee) in Order to meet with our friend Elise. The next morning the 3 of us set off early to go to Mull. We took the A828, along Loch Linnhe, to Corran where we took a ferry to Ardgour.


Then we took the A861 and A 884 to Lochaline and took the ferry across to Mull.
The weather was perfect. We had lunch in the harbour in Tobermory before going to the cheesery (Just outside Tobermory, on the road going to Glengorm castle).

We had a walk at Glengorm castle, along the coast before touring the West coast of Mull.


The next day, We had booked a boat trip to Staffa, an island 10km west of Mull, well known for its basalt columns. It takes 1h to go there and we had 1h to spend on the island. We saw some birds, mainly cormorants, and, coming back, we saw some puffins having a swim (sorry no pictures).

We then spent the rest of the afternoon on Iona where Elise and Stephane had a swim.

In the evening we took the ferry back to Oban where we dropped Elise before coming back to Dundee.

we felt like we had spent a week there, it was so relaxing! The West coast of Scotland is amazing and well worth a visit (well, several I would say).

Sun Kissed

We spent the weekend on the West coast of Scotland. We've been extremely lucky with the weather. Everything was perfect; blue sky, warm breeze, 20-25 C.
I am hoping to have more time and post more pictures in the next few days. In the meantime, I can show you these:
Loch Lubhair:


Calgary bay on the isle of Mull:

GG and Leon enjoyed themselves, as usual...

More later...

What's on my needles?

I haven't shown you any knitting for a while. I am still knitting but long term projects that seem to take forever as I keep knitting smaller ones in between...
I am knitting a men jumper (free pattern here). The pattern is very simple, 4x2 rib, with a nice cable pattern on the sleeves only. It will probably be turned into a zipped jacket. I haven't done the front yet, I am on the second sleeve so I have some time to make up my mind.

Last weekend I worked on 2 quick projects:
a head band called bamboozled (free pattern here)

and a pair of fingerless mittens (free pattern here).

Both are for a friend who's leaving next week.
I am also knitting a jacket for myself, called decimal (free pattern here).

Front and back are knitted in one piece, then you knit the sleeves and finish with the yoke (therefore, no sewing is required!). I am on the second sleeve for that one. I found the sleeves too wide to my taste so I had to change the number of stitches. As a result, the pattern won't match at the yoke so I am not sure how it will look. I might have to frog it...

Finally, I am still working on a lace project I mentioned earlier. I am now on row 157 (70 more to go) but progress is slow as it now takes me about 45min to knit a row.