The wind blows cold from the North....

Wow! What a difference a week makes. Man, it's cold!! Proper cold! The sort of cold that makes your fingers turn blue and your hands reach hesitantly towards the central heating switch! I say hesitantly not because I don't want to turn it on, because believe me I desperately want to turn the heating on, I hate being cold, but the price of power these days is unbelievable and it's a long way to go till next summer. With that in mind, I've been concentrating on my BPT hoodie, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there, just little bits because what with college Monday and Tuesday night, belly-dancing Wednesday night, Yoga Thursday night and dinner out with the girls last night, I haven't been in a whole lot this week. Even tonight I'll be acting chauffeur to the family as we go out to celebrate Mum's 65th Birthday. M kindly vacuumed the car out for me so that the siblings won't get all dog-hairy sitting in the back. Poor ole M has been a bit neglected this week but there's been lots of football, so he's been quite happy with his beer and the telly. So, you want to see my progress???

Look, actual arm-y looking bits! And a body forming. It's a little less demoralising now I'm knitting just the body and there are less stitches on the needle. You can practically tell what it's supposed to be now!

Look, here's the front. You see those cables that come down the front of the raglan-y bit? Well, they now join up under the arm to create a double cable like the one down the back (I like to think of that bit as the spine!). How cool is that? I'll show you in better detail when I've knitted a bit more!

Is anyone else tempted by the Woolly Wormhead mystery beret KAL on Ravelry?? This may be my own birthday (next month - yikes!) present to myself. 

Here's a recon project I whipped up last week. I found this dress in a charity shop for 75p, except that it was quite plain, so I embellished it with some copper ribbon and some zigzag decorative stitching.

It looks pretty cool with a pair of jeans and more importantly, it covers a multitude of sins. You know, the sort of sins that involve chocolate. And pizza. And ice-cream. And my hips. *Sigh* 

I also picked up this denim skirt which I'm thinking about embroidering.

I'm trying to decide what to embroider on it. Maybe butterflies and dragonflies. Maybe flowers and leaves to go with the flowered denim patches (which are very pretty by the way, don't you think?)

Oo, speaking of embroidery, I've been invited by Digital Misfit over on Craftster ,to join a charity project where a group of 20 artists each create an embellished piece of fabric 10"x8" which will eventually be combined into a stunning quilt to be auctioned off in the New Year. The proceeds will benefit the Strive For Life Foundation's efforts in Romania and the theme is 'gypsy'. The squares can be embroidered, appliqué, or pieced, whatever appeals to you. If you want to check out the website, it's here:   www.striveforlife.com, and I'm sure Digital Misfit would be more than happy to answer any other questions you might have. I've been mulling over a few ideas, I don't want to do anything very stereotypically 'gypsy' like a caravan or a fortune teller, but I seem to have this idea in my idea with Romanian textiles, embroidery patterns, and coins, so a bit of research may be in order to help me decide on my design.

I've been pouring over this book from the library for the last couple of days.

Fantasy Worlds ISBN: 3822832197 ISBN-13: 9783822832196

It's full of architectural fantasy worlds like this, the Little Chapel in Guernsey, which I've actually been to when I was a young girl. It's big enough for one or two people to stand in inside. Just look at the work that's gone into this place. It's beautiful! I do remember that from my childhood visit.

and also images like this! Look at all that mosaic work, and the cheerful paint job next to it! Makes me want to go and play with cement and glass in the garden (if it wasn't so bloody cold!)

Anyway, toodle pip Dearies, I'm off to complete a very boring assignment in which I translate and mark an ESOL students very shaky attempt to describe their childhood in Yemen. There are some uber confusing paragraphs which are quite frankly, complete gibberish, but never the less, I shall try to correct and praise what I can. Wish me luck!