Walsall Wonderland

The honeymoon we’ll have after we secretly elope, that is!

My fiancé are planning on eloping next January, and we’ve been saving for it! And it’s going well! We know the sort of rings we want, the exact specifications, and will have them made for us when it’s closer to the date, and we’re still trying to decide what to do on our honeymoon. We just want a short vacation away, perhaps a few days or a week, and we want to do some fun stuff, though we really don’t mind.

A while back we got a good one of those cash ISA savings accounts, but we’ve also been pretty darn diligent with our spending over the last few months so we’ve done pretty much all the work, but bank just makes it a tiny bit more. Nationwide Savings and Investments are also supposed to be good, but we’ve never had any dealings with them.

Whichever institution you save with, it’s best to be up to date with savings news, though that’s pretty much good advice about most things.

I’m really excited to finally be seeing progress here, to be helping to bring about something that we’ve wanted for a long time!

I want to knit something for this, too. A pretty little shrug would be nice, though I’ve got no idea about a specific one. Whenever I find a shrug pattern, there’s always something I don’t like about it. I really want to make one, they seem so simple, but I have to find the right one, and I’m so damn picky! I suppose it makes sense to be that way when you’ve got limited yarn and don’t want to spend a whole heap on yarn for any old pattern. Oh! This one is quite pretty! Leaf-patterned Convertible Shawl, how nice!

Oh, and for your amusement, check out Tacky Weddings when you get the chance. Hilarious!

Our girl-cat is making a lot of noise right now… whilst she’s asleep.

She’s sitting in a computer chair fast asleep right now as my fiancé plays Civilization IV. I like the music from that game, and love to sit and knit and watch him play. Right now I’m blogging though… stated Captain Obvious! Anyway, our girl-cat is asleep in the chair I usually sit in. My fiancé just told me to stop tying and to come in to his study really quietly. After a few seconds I hear a high pitched breathing in wheeze/upset pipe sort of sound. Then she started twitching like she’s having a dream, but very violently.

My fiancé started patting her, talking kindly to her, and she didn’t wake up, but she stopped seeming fretful. She’s sleeping calmly now, but she’s now snoring up a storm. It’s a funny noise, one that I’ve caught on camera before, too. I’m glad he calmed her down, because she can be a very highly strung cat at times. We’ve had some thunder storms in the past week, and she gets all upset and hides behind doors or under coffee tables and such. It’s pretty funny. She’s a wee baby yellow-belly.

She’s not just noisy in her sleep, though. Oh no, she’s incredibly loud awake! For a cat that only weighs 5.3kgs – I measured her this morning – she’s awfully loud. If she wants pats, food, or to go out or come in, she meows a lot, and she meows loudly! If you move her, she meows, if you even look at her sometimes she meows. It’s really irritating at times.

Our boy-cat is so very, very quiet. He barely meows. Ever. Apart from the fact that they are both mackerel tabbies, and pick fights with each other, they couldn’t be more different!

Now for a knitting pattern! How about a cat bed! Maybe with the Dotty Cat Bed she’d be more restful?

I love knitting, and love learning new ways to knit. Now I want to learn colourwork, which is also known as intarsia.

Intarsia or colourwork is a form of knitting where you knit with multiple colours at a time. Kind of like fair-isle, however the patterns aren’t so specific. With intarsia, you could have something like a Totoro portrait, or a knitted version of a stained glass window or a Jacquard cushion! Anything that involves multiple colours, basically, that isn’t a traditional fair-isle pattern.

It’s a very interesting form of knitting, one that often produces some amazingly beautiful results! So I’m really looking forward to trying it. So far I’m just looking at patterns that might work as a starter project. I don’t want to make anything too big, nor anything knit in the round, preferably, but I will knit in the round if the project I find is too good to pass up!

At this stage there are a couple of patterns that stand out, though I’m really not sure where to start. I like the Endpaper mitts, but they’d require being knit in the round, and it’s with very fine needles, and as a person who likes to see results fairly quickly, I think that is off putting. This Jacquard cushion looks like a fairly simple knit, but I’d prefer a different motif. Then there’s the Kauni Damask Understated Bag which is amazing, but looks too large and complex for a starter project. Same with the Thistle Vest, it’s lovely, but too large a starter project.

I could try an argyle project, this Headband could be the perfect starter project! I think my cats would kill me if I were to try and put this little Kitty Cat Argyle Sweater on them. I wouldn’t mind trying this Harry Potter House Bag pattern, either. Gryffindor for me, Ravenclaw for my fiancé. Though I’d make his with the blue and silver, not blue and bronze. I know, I know, it was only blue and silver in the movies, but it was like that for a reason, you know? Blue and bronze tends to look muddy, unless you go for a very bright blue!

The scent of Spring is in the air this weekend, all light and green and fresh, and it’s very exciting to me!

I’ve seen lots of cute little birds in their tidy little nests and many a green bud on the deciduous trees and plants, and with that smell in the air I know it’s going to be fully Spring in a short while, and I’m excited! I love the idea of my fiancé and I being able to get out and go do some awesome stuff this Summer. I’m not really a Summer person, but in our part of the country it doesn’t get overly hot, just a nice mild warmth that’s very nice. I love snow and Winter so very much, but it’s fun to see grass again for a while!

Of course, you know what else it means this Spring? Cleaning! Oh, hang on. I mean Cleaning!? Gah! Hehehehe Yeah, I’m not big on cleaning, because when I start I tend to get really into whatever I’m doing. If I clean the bathroom, I don’t stop until that room is so clean you could eat off of the floors, walls, and ceiling. I hate cleaning ceilings, too, as I’m so short. My arms get tired holding up the brush thingie.

I suggested to my fiancé that we go and do some really fun adventure activity type things this Summer. We decided we’d try a few, and said that we’d put forward two suggestions each, so I’ve suggested Zorbing – which is where you roll around in giant inflatable clear plastic balls – and I’m also thinking of suggesting some Archery too. My fiancé said he’s interested in Paintball – something he and I have wanted to do for the longest time – and Falconry, which would be so much fun I think!

All of those activities would be awesome! I’m also looking forward to, over the spring, getting much better with Spinning! Who knows, maybe by next winter I’ll be working with a wheel!

Now for a pattern, something spring inspired… How about the Spring Beret! Yep, that’s great! I am about to start work on a different beret, but this was a close choice for which I was going to work on!

It’s exciting that I’m finally starting to spin yarn!

So I’ve recently gotten a drop spindle and two bundles of roving, but the lady who I bought these items off of on Etsy also sent me an extra spindle and small bundle of Dorset wool roving and a sample of mulberry silk to try my hand at, so I’ve got what I need to start spinning, and I’m hugely excited. The two bundles of roving I bought both have an assortment of fibres in them, and are very high quality, so the small bundle of Dorset wool roving is just perfect to get the hang of the whole process with before I use one of the expensive bundles, and I’m excited to try the silk out too!

Before I started spinning I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos on how to spin, and it was extremely helpful, though it would be nicer to see some videos where the camera work is closer to the yarn so you can see how it looks. I was worried I was overspinning my yarn, but it turns out it was fine. So far I’m only a very small way through the Dorset wool, which makes me realise just how far the large bundles of roving will go!

I actually know little about what I do after I’ve spun the yarn, but it’s amazing to learn a new crafting skill and I’m really excited to think what I’ll do with the yarn I make! I’m looking forward to the little projects as much as the larger ones. I’ll use the wool I’ve been spinning to make something, even if it’s a tiny little purse! The silk, though, that I want to make a tiny pretty something, like a necklace or bracelet!

This pattern here, a leaf edging, I’ll make up with the silk. I can’t wait to work with it, it looks so smooth!

I say that in reference to the readiness with which some people will resort to a law suit, over some of the silliest things!

Okay so here’s the back-story to this little vent of mine. A friend of mine, wife and mother of two, very respected, helps out with her children’s schools a lot, very friendly and nice, is being sued. When she told me this I immediately asked why!? She said that during all the cold weather, her car had slipped a little on the ice coming out of the car park near her children’s school, which meant that she bumped the car of another parent, whilst they were sitting in it. My friend had just started her car, and wouldn’t even have been going 5km per hour, and the other car was stationary, as the woman hadn’t started it yet, waiting for my friend to exit the car park first.

My friend got out and spoke to the other driver, apologising, and swapped car insurance details in spite of there not being any damage, even to the paint on the bumper bars. A fortnight later she received a letter in the post, telling her that the driver of the other car was suing her for physical trauma caused by the car accident, saying that she’d not been able to work for a week, and was possibly going to need more time off.

My friend was stunned, appalled, and is intending to fight it in court. We think she’s got a good case, because she took photos of where the damage would have been had there been any, for the insurance people, so that’s good. I mean, if there’s no external damage to the cars, how can this lady say that she’s got internal damage!? When my friend rang the car insurance people they asked her to get a quote from one of their authorised people, but when she told them there was no damage to either of the cars, they told her there was no need for any further action.

We pretty much think that this piece of work lady has been on one of those silly sites with ‘personal injury calculators’ and just made some symptoms up, faked it with her doctor, then trotted on into some two-bit firm with personal injury claims lawyers and is seeing what she can get. Seriously, the legal profession must be appalled at these people as much as my friend and I are.

Okay now I have vented over that, I’ll speak of better things… knitting! Today’s pattern is Ice Queen! Hehehe, yeah, I’m totally poking fun, but this is a very beautiful pattern anyway.

I really love jewellery, and happily for me, my fiance loves jewellery on me, especially bangles, so now I’m blogging about what makes a good bangle to me.

I’ve always been a bit of a jewellery nut. I didn’t get an allowance or pocket money but when I would go and stay with my aunt each holidays, she’d often have some sort of odd-job for me to complete to gain some spending money. She lived in the capital, and things always seemed more interesting around her place than home, so I’d set to whatever job she’d have for me and get my meagre spending money, which to me was huge!

I remember one year she’d let the grass grow in her yard till it was taller than I was! Then she paid someone to whipper-snipper it down, and she paid me to collect all the long grass stalks and pile them against the fence. Her yard was HUGE and she paid me only a couple of pounds for this, but I was happy to do it and when it was done, she’d take me to one of those little cheap stores that has a little of everything, and I’d buy up a heap of cheap pewter jewellery.

I cringe now and some of the things I’d wear as a child – a giant fairy pendant, for example – but my appreciate for jewellery isn’t diminished. So, in my opinion, there’s a few kinds of very good bangles. The sets of fine gold bangles where you wear around ten or more are very pretty, as well as wider metal bangles that have a nice motif or cut-out work is good too. I love wooden bangles, as well, as they are often so very beautiful, and solid stone bangles are very nice as well. I don’t like plastic ones at all, and wire-wrapping holds no appeal either.

The knitting pattern for this post is an absolute no-brainer with this Swatch Bangle pattern. I’ve not tried this myself, but I hope to at some point.

The world seems to be changing, and not for the better.

When I first moved back to my home city nine years ago with my fiancé, it was the place I remembered from my childhood. Known for being particularly cold, historic, and pleasant, it was a great place to live and I was proud to have suggested to my fiancé that we move here. But in recent times it has changed dramatically from what it was.

There is a sky-rocketing crime rate, and you can’t pick up a local news paper without hearing about another series of shop-font windows being smashed, or teenagers stealing cars or something like that. It’s utterly insane, and frightening. We’re in a smallish city, about an hour out of the capital, and right now my fiancé and I feel like we’d be better off moving to the capital to ensure we aren’t robbed… again.

Oh yes, I recently discovered that my fiancé and I’s mountain bikes had been stolen, by little hoodlums who’ve got a reputation for stealing bicycles and even going so far as to strip the bikes down and swapping over parts to make them less easy to discover or trace… I mean really!? And these hoodlums are all 12 or under, and they’re already thieving and are well known across the city for it…

The other reason that this all bothers me is that the local judicial system just isn’t cutting it. These people who are getting into brawls – or randomly attacking people – are getting 2 or 3 month suspended sentences! That’s insane! There was a news story recently in my city of a child, 14 years old, who was on probation for previous offences, being in court for multiple counts of burglary which culminated in the theft of a car which he drove into a factory and stole from as well, being given less than fifty hours community service and not even being put on probation again as it ‘hadn’t dissuaded him previously’!? I mean come on, what’s with the lameness of that!? I think that kid should have had not just the book, but the entire encyclopaedia thrown at him!

Now to break up the dreariness of that post, I have to post a cute safety knitting pattern. Mini Traffic Cones are a great way to encourage your cat to only stay in the safe zones, no, that’s not right, play with these little toys! Yep, that’s right, though no cat nip, now, as it’s not fair to drug your animals for fun.

May sound funny, but once you’ve checked out Epicute you’ll understand!

So yes, I was looking at Epicute after breakfast today, and then I just had to have a biscuit afterwards. The blog made me very hungry, in spite of my nice breakfast! It’s funny how just looking at these interestingly crafted foods can make me hungry! It is really amazing to see the level of finesse some of those foods exhibit, and I think the bento boxes look awesome! Nice to see some that are healthy in there, too!

For all those out there who look at I Can Has Cheezburger but not all the rest of the sites, I strongly recommend you check out a few of them from their newly added page of links. I personally prefer the ‘win’ blogs and the ‘cute’ blogs. Checking a blog like Daily Squee can make your day just that extra bit happier, which is quite lovely.

So what’s been happening in your world? Mine’s been quite nice and relaxing for the last week, which has been wonderful. I’ve been loving all this cold weather, though my fiancé is missing the more moderate temperatures of Spring and Autumn, which is understandable given the cold, but I really love it!

It’s also given me a lot of time to get some much needed knitting done! I’ve finished the knitting for my fiancé’s fingerless gloves and scarf in the Dapper Heringbone stitch, and they look great – he’s most looking forward to the gloves. I just have to block them all and then sew up the gloves as I knit those flat. It’s pretty exciting. Now I’m about to start work on the Leafy neckwarmer and the cowl of my own design! OOooo! For a knitting pattern today I’m going to have to go with a cute food, so how about this adorable knit onigiri – Japanese rice ball. I’ve never tried an onigiri, but I reckon it’d be very tasty.

Well, looking at the housing market… so it’s sort of window shopping on two different levels!

First up, it’s amazing the amount of incorrect keys you hit when you’re sneezing whilst typing. Hilarious. Back to the topic at hand, now. Sooo, prices look to be… umm, pretty bad, actually. Property prices seem to be falling still, which is surprising, but then again, with the internet, perhaps my information is old. I’m not sure, because I keep hearing news about repossession or about people having problems with repossession possibilities.

There’s information out there for people to avoid or stop repossession, but it seems that often it’s too little too late. I don’t know, it makes me more disinclined than ever to actually buy a house. Sometimes it seems like renting for a while, a long while, is a good idea. Mortgage deals are getting out of hand again, in my opinion, I mean, 90%? Seriously? Way to not learn the lesson at hand, people.

Yeah, my fiancé and I will be renting for some time to come, and I’m more than happy with that, really. It gives us the freedom to move if we want to without all the stress of either selling or renting out to other people. I’d rather be less stressed than that. It really seems like people are kidding themselves that we’re as through the financial crisis as they want to believe. We’re still in the midst of it, sure maybe not rock bottom, but we’re still pretty close, and acting like we’re not, handing out 90% mortgages, is just perpetuating the problem.

Knitting pattern time! I’m still chilly – see pattern choice for previous pattern – so I’m going to link this dress pattern. It doesn’t really have a name – one of DROPS design’s patterns – but it’s a warm looking dress. All you’d need is a nice pair of tights and you’d be set. That and months to knit the pattern!