Saturday, 14th January: Day 14 & Week 3

Well, what a funny week it's been! - We've had the dreaded lurgy in our house. I don't know if any of you have had a dose of this that's going round, but I really hope you don't get it!
Whatever it is this viral thing, it manifests in an odd way. When you're sitting down and quiet and resting, you're fine, but the minute you stand up or get too active, you get very, very hot and dizzy. Fortunately both of us got rid of the guts of it pretty quickly, but unfortunately it did trigger my vertigo for the past few days, which has been most unpleasant and led to my taking a tumble down our stairs yesterday. So all in all it's been a pretty frustrating week with not as much productivity as I'd like, but then, it could always have been worse - so we have been very lucky!

First up this week, was a draught excluder for the main door of the Cultural Quarters. There is a bit of a gap there and Tracy's keen for us to make it even more warm and cosy now that the door opens in to the tearoom.

For draught excluders generally, I tend to favour the 'swiss roll' method, from one single piece, but Glenn found some old, reclaimable foam in the back shed, so the task has become to put a sort of 'sleeve' on it, with wings at each end so that we can nail it to the back of the door, so that it doesn't have to be lifted whenever anyone comes in or out. Per a suggestion from Janet, we may also add cotton-reel wheels.

Here's a picture of the work in progress:

These two next images are lacy, fingerless hand-warmers I made for Olivia, to go with the amazing hat she made last week.

The lacy effect comes from knitting DK Yarn on oversize needles (in this case, 8mm). This rainbow yarn lent itself very well to this style.

I'm happy enough for this pattern (which is my own) to be used for personal purposes, on condition that anyone who wishes to use it should please make a donation to Irish Dogs for the Disabled here:

www.dogsfordisabled.ie/donations
The pattern will be available in my etsy shop and on ravelry.com from later tonight.

On Wednesday, we had a stroke of VERY bad luck. - In a bizarre administration error at their end, the telephone company managed to take over ten times the amount we were paying on our transaction this week.

Fortunately for us, they acknowledged their mistake the same

day and are going to pay us back our money. Sadly though, this will take them (depending on who you talk to up there) either "2-3 working days" (Thursday) or "3-4 working days" (Friday)

As if proof were ever required of the Law of Attraction in operation, wee Olivia was showing a customer her hat on Thursday afternoon and he commissioned a similar one for himself on the spot. Wee Olivia of course, is getting 10% as a commission for herself, as she was effectively the reason for the sale and €5 from it will go to Dogs for the Disabled Ireland, so hooray! - that's the first 1% towards this year's target for fundraising - I'm almost dancing with glee!

The two images to the right are from this project.

The top one of the two, I took to show you how I come to decisions when working with blended wools. In this instance, the gentleman wanted "blues - something bright, but not too bright" and I happened to have some of the royal with me at the time and he said that he'd go for something that bright, but mixed with something else to tone it down.
Before I start knitting, if I want to check if the other shades I've selected will work, I pinch all the ends between my thumb and forefinger and then wind

the yarns (all at the same time) around my fingers as shown. It gives you a fairly accurate idea of how the yarns will behave and lay down while you're working them.

The second picture shows the completed piece (being worn at a fairly odd angle, but you can get the idea at least).

To finish up the week, here are two new stock items in my shop. Firstly another copy of the gents/unisex wristies/hand warmers that I made for Christophe and then for Sister's boyfriend...

...and then another hat I made just because I was enjoying the colour blend so much.

This one is deliberately asymmetric - the advantage of the band at the back allows either for better protection from the wind on your neck, or to accommodate 'hair up' styles easier.

This coming week will be another exciting one too!

First off, there's the Knotty Knitters next meeting on Tuesday from 11 at the Library, then, at the Cultural Quarters this week, as well as having a carpenter in volunteering his time, (for which we are incredibly grateful!) we have Burns' Night and our Comedy evening on Wednesday, featuring talents from as far afield as Buffalo, New York and as close to home as, well, Ballinamore.

...and then on Thursday, as well as the Cultural Quarters Knitting and Crochet club from 14.00, we're hosting a local Craftsy Meet-up for International Crafters Day from 10.00 running all day. (I'll post the poster up tomorrow).

Friday sees the inaugural meeting of the new "Sew and Tell" classes, also at the CQ and we round the week off with the Saturday Flea Market, before kicking next wweek off to a flying start with Al's Italian conversation classes, which start on the 30th.

For more from the Cultural Quarters, go to their blog at: http://theculturalquarters.blogspot.com/