Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

You've seen quite a bit of this scarf around here in various stages of completion, but here she is in all her full glory.  Or not - the sik in this yarn gives it a luscious shimmer which just doesn't quite translate on camera and makes the colour really quite difficult to capture. But I think you get the idea. Just for comparison -- here's the original, and here's how mine turned out.  I think I got it! And even if you've never watched a second of Doctor Who and couldn't care less about Amy Pond, you've got to admit the lace patern is pretty. This beauty is in my shop this week, and I think I'm going to have to make another just for myself, because I'm a little in love!

This quilt may be the only sunny day I see for a while!  I went for a bit of a bike ride this morning to photograph this - the weather was gorgeous, mid-60s and breezy, and it was delightful except for the fact that I haven't ridden a bike since July or so, and my legs protested.  But this afternoon it turned cold and cloudy and it's been raining since about 4 pm.  Not that I'm complaining - it's almost December and it's about time we had some cold weather.  It's just not so great for bike rides ;) But back to the quilt!  Almost all of this fabric is left over from other quilts - the yellow didn't fit into the colour scheme of its original project quite so well as I thought it would, and the blues and greens are mostly from the Summer Nights quilt I made a few years ago.  The backing is the same sheet I used on that quilt as well, but there wasn't quite enough, so I pieced some of my yellow fabric into it. It's machine-pieced and hand-q...

The only, only good thing about waking up at 6 AM (to a blast of Arctic-seeming air from the heating vents, as the landlady has turned the thermostat down from 70 to 65 overnight...) and scooting out of the house at 7:05 and missing the bus by 30 seconds at 7:20, thereby necessitating a drive to school... the only, only good thing about all that was waking up early enough to get a good look at this year's first hard frost. Beautiful, the juxtaposition of autumn's last blaze and winter's first ice, like the intersection between the real world and fantasy. But which is which?

This last week I've been busy and sick.  Some busy, but mostly sick.  Seriously, I'm really tired of getting bad colds and losing my voice right before important concerts!  So let's have some pictures of Conrad to fill the blogging void: Brooding. This is his "What? You mean I'm not supposed to be sitting on the table?  Nobody told ME that" face. He's so huge. (I've been knitting, too, but it's all Christmas knitting at this point and I don't know whether the recipients are liable to read my blog.  So I won't be flashing around too many finished-object photos for the next month or so.) I've also been slightly obsessed with French songs lately.  A friend posted a song by Pink Martini a few weeks ago and I've been loving their music... which led me to this song, which I love, and I think you will too.  Enjoy :)

It's Friday night and I don't have to work, and I'm making the best of it!  Between rehearsals, concerts, work, and more rehearsals, I've hardly been home for the evening at all for the last two weeks or so.  But tonight I got home by five and the landpeople are all out at various functions, so I have the house to myself.  An entire evening of blessed reprieve from the constant television and radio (often at the same time).  Bliss! Mostly what I'm doing is using the time to catch up on laundry, but I also made a proper dinner for the first time in a while.  Quite simple - pan-cooked pork chops (and when I say pork chops I actually mean pork loin which I sliced up into smaller sections because I can't eat a whole one in a reasonable amount of time), rice, corn, and gravy.  It looks and tastes pretty fancy, for very little effort! And because this is me, there is also knitting.  The latest sock, waiting for me to finish eating so I can put in anot...

You may remember last year I went all out with my costume for Halloween.  This year I decided on something a little more low-key, since I had to be at school and church and at least pretend to be professional.  So, here I give you my interpretation of Amy Pond's costume from the "Vampires of Venice" episode. I don't know what that face is.  Challenges of self-photography with a timer... Unfortunately I don't have many good photos.  I really need a tripod instead of relying on whatever object of convenient height might be standing around... that or a friend who likes taking outfit photos!  It's not a completely accurate reproduction of the costume - Amy's boots are black, her shirt slightly more muted, and of course she's a ginger.  But I worked with what I had (and I didn't dare play with hair dye less than a month before the opera.  I have no desire to be slaughtered by an irate director!) I'll be wearing this again though, to get p...