Wibbo's Words

It's the end of the month

Well, here we are at the end of November and NaBloPoMo. A big pat on the back to myself for posting here every day, as well as on Archive and Hove Daily Photo.

November's been a fairly productive month at Wibbo Towers. I'm almost ready for the Craftaganza Craft Market, most of my Christmas shopping is done/ordered  and I have a couple of things on the needles for me.

I'll leave you with this Groucho Marx quote: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

Staying at home

The weather's pretty rubbish today; not particularly cold but horribly windy. I can hear the wind whistling outside my windows and plants on the balcony are getting a serious battering. I don't mind cold weather, rain or even snow but I absolutely hate windy weather and you get an awful lot of it down here on the south coast. Grumble.

So I think it's a day at home for me today. I'm waiting for the next installment of Huldran due out later this afternoon and listening to this which is slightly disappointing and has the distinct whiff of a potboiler. 

Knitting in the sunshine

Looking through a box of old photographs for images to post on Archive, I found this elegant lady knitting in the sunshine. I love her hat and shoes.

Huldran, clue 1

So far, so good; I'm going to have to concentrate on those cables though and make sure I cross them in the right direction...

 

Time for me

This morning, I've cast off the very last of my gift knitting. Time to get something for me on the needles and I'm ready to wind a skein of the gorgeousness that's Wollmeise Merino Superwash in Wasabi.

I'm going to knit the first clue of Anna Dalvi's latest KAL, Huldran, a triangular shawl with lace and cable patterning. More soon!

Is this the most boring postcard ever?

It might have looked a bit better if the top of the beacon hadn't been cropped...

When wool isn't really wool

Wovember's Hall of Shame. 

Get pinning

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? It's a clever virtual pinboard that I use to keep track of images that I like as well as for practical stuff like recipes and crafty tutorials.

If you're already a pinner, you can see my boards here.

Slightly running out of steam

Day 22 and the post title says it all. Maybe that's just how I'm feeling today! This NaBloPoMo thing is a good way of getting back to more regular blog posting though and I'll probably struggle on to the end of the month...

One thing occurs to me today after posting this photograph on one of my other blogs. Written on the back are the children's names and ages - this means that I can date the photograph pretty accurately by looking the names up on census and BMD registers. I'm not related to this family but it's nice to know who they are and when they lived. Without the information written on the back I could only guess.

If you have old family photographs, try and find out who the people are, how they're related to each other and when/where the photograph was taken. Write the details on the back - you might already know the information yourself, but no-one will in the future unless you write it down. 

New Moo

New cards from Moo. I'm nearly ready for Craftaganza, just a few bits and pieces to do.

Sunday round-up

Reading: Those Feet by David Winner

Listening to: The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton

Knitting: WesterWaldWaves by kaeidschie (rav link)

Liking: Amanda Anderson's mosaics

Looking at: Vintage Photographs and Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Early Cased Tintypes and Glass Slides

Embroidery transfers

A friend sent me some old transfers of designs for embroidery  - there's an interesting mix of design styles dating from 1914 to the mid-Fifties including several sheets with a London theme.

Switch it off

If you're a regular blog reader, you've probably noticed that Blogger-hosted blogs now display blog photographs in a new way. It's called "Lightbox" and photos appear against a black overlay accompanied by thumbnails; the images are smaller that they used to be and there's no longer the extra click-to-enlarge-even-more facility. Irritating? Along with many other bloggers including My Ancestors and Me, I think it is.

If your blog is hosted by Blogger, it's easy enough to switch Lightbox off and revert to Blogger's previous way of displaying images. From the Blogger dashboard, click on the Settings tab. From the Settings page, click on Formatting then cursor down to Show images with Lightbox, change the box alongside to read No. Click on Save Settings at the bottom of the page and you're done.

I've switched Lightbox off on both of my Blogger blogs - Hove Daily Photo and Archive - much better!

 

Isn't it always the way?

After looking through the stash, I didn't have any yarn in the right weight/right colour to solve yesterday's denial problem. I have, er, quite a substantial stash but none of it would do so a quick trip down the road to my LYS, Cocoon, who had the perfect yarn.

Cast on yesterday and it's coming along nicely. Again, no pics until after Christmas!

In denial

I've been stuck in that slightly uncomfortable place known as Knitter's Denial. Cast on a new pattern yesterday and knitted 13 rows on 294 stitches before I went to bed; knitted another couple of rows with this morning's cuppa (Montagne Bleu, in case you were wondering); changed needles from wood to metal; knitted another row. Finally admitted to myself about 10 minutes ago that I don't like it. The pattern's lovely (can't link because it's gift knitting), the yarn's a really nice colour but yarn and pattern just don't work together.

The yarn's now frogged and rewound. Time for a rustle through the stash for something that will work better.....

A new window

No, not my new window. This window's at the end of the hallway outside my flat.

The original window had cracked, dirty glass and the metal frame was jammed permanently open (horribly draughty in winter). It's been replaced by this shiny new double-glazed effort and I can see for miles.

Remembering

My grandfather Private Arthur John Peckett, Royal Leicestershire Regiment, born 11 December 1889 in March, Cambridgeshire, died 1916 in France.

In common with thousands of other British soldiers of the Great War, the date of death and last resting place of my grandfather are unknown.

Absolutely nothing

That's what I intend to do with the rest of the day*. Groceries have arrived (I seem to have over-estimated how much cupboard space I have) and have been (mostly) put away and that's about it.

*I'm not counting knitting, listening to Radio 5 Live or reading in the Absolutely nothing!

11.11.11

Second Lieutenant K F Nichol, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force (image from Faces of the First World War - the first 100)

Faces of the First World War is an IWM project to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. They've uploaded 100 previously unseen portraits of those who served in the war to Flickr and will continue to upload images every weekday between now and the anniversary in August 2014.

Ticking over

Nothing much of note going on today apart from a little gentle knitting at Hove Library with Emma followed by lunch at Ethel's. Back at Wibbo Towers now, sewing and listening to an excellent reading of The Woman in White.