Tuesday, 30 October 2007

You know you are nearly 30 when

STILL AT WORK. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr so to distract me, I am being silly about some observations I have been making in the last couple of weeks.



You know you are nearly 30 when:



1. You honk your van horn and wag your finger at big scary men for dropping litter/fag butts out of their vans.



2. You look in the mirror and scream because you are looking at your mother.



3. Every small child you see makes you go completely stupid and broody.



3. Continuing in the theme of babies, you imagine your designs made in matching mini size.



4. You refuse a glass of wine because it means you won't be able to do your work so well the next day.



5. You are coveting that £160 luxury tagine you saw in the christmas present suggestion section in the sainsbury's magazine.



6. You set aside a savings pot for the tagine.



7. You turn the heating off and make your lodgers wear jumpers so you can save money to afford the fricken tagine.



8. MOVE AWAY FROM THE TAGINE!!!!!!!!!



9. The toffee from your toffee apple melting down your dashboard makes you take a big bucket of hot water and you end up washing the wholevan.



10. You sound like your mother.



11. You loose your inhibitions and tell people exactly what you think and don't guilty.



12. You wear things which are much more riske than when you were 20, because that day when you look perfect to wear that dress will never come in your head, and you'll be nearly dead and realise you should have just worn it anyway.



13. You start to realise that time goes so fast, thats its pointless wasting your time on things that are not good for you, and that wasting one drop of time doing something which you don't want to do seems like sacrilidge.



14. Did I say I look like my mum? lol.



15. Policeman really really do look like children.



16. A 28 year old bloke is too young to go out with!!!!!



17. You feel like a mother to the postgraduate students.



I think thats enough don't you?



 



Monday, 29 October 2007

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Experiment

As some of you know I am a psychology researcher as well as fyberspates queen, well not too be researcher much longer, just 4 days left, but anyway the last part of the project I am working on involves an online study. I will not be analysing the data, but I promised my bosses that the lovely knitters that read my blog would help me get us the numbers we need to do the research, as its difficult to get participants from the UK; (you can still do it if you from elsewhere though). Its not knitting related but in aid of a very worthy cause ( I can't tell you what, you have to wait until the debreif), it will only take you about 10  - 15 minutes.



So I want a nice mixed sample. Its all anonymous as well, so if you have a little bit of spare time, please can you help?



Click here for the Experiment



Thanks



xxx



Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Sock Machine.

So cherubs what do I have for you today huh?



Well, firstly something very gorgeous and wonderful arrived today..........this:



Update_092



Its going to take a little while to get a pair of proper socks out of it, its going to take alot of practice, however I do understant how to start, make a heel and do toe, not bad for a 2 hour lesson huh? Its gorgeous, and I am chuffed to bits to have it. The main reason I wante it apart from a selfish desire for socks, is I want to knit samples of my colour range, people often want to know what the colours knit up like, so now I can!!!! Yipeeeeeeee.



I also have some brooches to put up on the shop, they all vary in size and weight so remember to click on the photo's for details of them, I am so in love with this little sheep!



Update_033 



Ok, I am trialing a new yarn, its 80% merino and 20% bamoo, bamboo is good for socks because it is antifungal, he he, I might see if I can whip some up on the old sock machine before the week is out, I think its higly in likely though heres some in the shop:



Bamboo



and finally, I dyed some little fibre treats for the shop, sigh, I so don't want to sell these, they are gorgeous!



Update_024 



Monday, 22 October 2007

colour inspiration

So, I am edging towards being able to run my business properly with organisation, lol, something I am desperate for, and it involves applying proper research and development to everything I do. I am a researcher after all!



So yesterday I decided to go and spend the day working on some colours, not in the workshop, but in the countryside, I have about 200 photo's of trees and leaves and mushrooms, from one of my favourite places in the UK. Its called Westonbirt Arboretum its such a beautiful place all year around, but in the Autumn its just mind blowing, the colours are stunning, and they will be new yarns colourways in the next couple of weeks, here are some:



Westonbirt_008_2



Westonbirt_013_2



Westonbirt_004



Westonbirt_020



Westonbirt_031_2



The weekend, was fab, we had a polish theme for eating, Marcin cooked us some yummy dishes. After the day dyeing wool on sat, I came in completely freezing to some wonderful polish sausage soup, which was kind of sour, with sausage, eggs, mushrooms and potatoes, I can't remember the name off hand, but it completely contrasted to my idea of a soup, the flavor was amazing! We are lucky living in Cardiff, because there are a few polish food shops, which means we had the proper ingredients. Then Sunday morning we had polish style eggs for breakfast, with sausage (there is a definite theme here), onions and tomatoes, it really was yummy yummy yummy!!! I am very excited, because I am hoping we will go to Krakow for new years, and we can try all sorts of amazing things, lol.



Friday, 19 October 2007

Shipping

Ahem! A cherub has bought it to my attention that the shipping in my shop is a little steep, I appologise, I just checked it and its a little out of kilter, mainly because I've been adding extra shipping zones and its messed all the table rates up, apologies, it will be fixed in the next couple of hours, I had wondered why all my orders were only from Australia and south Africa, lol.  Anyway you can shop in the knowledge that it will be at the normal postage rates for royal mail by lunchtime.



*gets php manual out, and a huge cup of coffee to keep me awake*



(PS, I love feedback, so if you ever experience a prob with the shop, please let me know, I'm not a scary person honest, mwahahahahhahahaha)



(PPS All sock clubs have gone today, 3 month and 6 month subscriptions, I deliberately avoided the postal backlog because I lost so much money on lost packages in the last one)



*added later* ok, all the shipping seems to have been corrected, prices are back to normal and in accordance with royal mail, and now I have correct shipping to the uk, europe and every blinking country you can think of, even greenland!



Thursday, 18 October 2007

1 week left to go - gulp.

OK, so its 1 week left to go before it's 'el quitos la workos', yeah well, I noticed that if you add 'os' to the end of the words and put them the wrong way round, sometimes sole can understand me, lol, well, she laughs at least, he he.



I had a meeting with my bosses yesterday, and we worked out where I wanted to go for a dinner to say goodbye, I felt mildly anxious, I am going to miss it alot, well, the social side of it anyway, its the only place I have ever had a proper job, I went straight from my degree into working as a research assistant in 2001, I now feel like I completely know what I am doing, ironic really, I always feel its time to change when my boundaries are not stretched any more, but I'm going from at least knowing my wages just cover my mortgage (little tip here, don't buy a house with your husband and then get divorced when you move in, and take the house on on your own, its a little scary) I actually have no idea how I have done it, I mean how do you survive when after mortgage and bills, your wages leave you with £7 a week for food?, and trust me I have a good lifestyle as you probably know from the crap that I write, lol. So its even more scary when those wages won't be there any more, but I'm not scared, just excited, very calm and know that if I've managed to build the business up till now whilst having a full time job, when I can focus on it properly I will build an empire (mwa hahahahahahahha,  little finger on mouth like doctor evil).



So, the one of the most popular things on my stand at ally pally was my shrug I made in Italy,



Allypally_022



its cute, really easy, and perfect for adding your own little embellishments, and use all sorts from your stash. I intend to make some more and pop beads on them and things, but for now you can buy the kits in two colours: black and white, there will be some more coloured ones in a little while, I need to do some dyeing, I virtually sold out at ally pally, and I have a tonne of wholesale orders, in addition I have the stitch and bitch show in Rotterdam, gulp, and then the stitch and bitch show in London in the next 4 weeks, lol.