New Look

Notice anything different? After a new look website lately, I decided it was time to update the blog a little bit. I've only changed the template and moved some of the side bar stuff around. That's enough for now.  Think it's the start of the new school year that inspired me. September is a time for new beginnings and a fresh start.

I have been considering moving the blog to Wordpress but I know Blogger and I think it's improving and learning a new 'system' is not appealing right now.

This last week was the last week of the school holidays. Vanessa enrolled for the Sixth Form College yesterday. She's starting her A levels next week and will be studying History, English Lit, Maths and Psychology. After A levels her plans are to study History and become a teacher.

Emily will be starting year 9 and will have to choose her GCSE options this year.

I'm still working away on the Mystery Shawl. I've got some deadlines coming up so I'm trying to get as far as possible on the mystery shawl before deadline knitting slows me down. I'm now on section 3. Pixie has started test knitting the shawl and has caught up with me after 2 days. She's an amazing, fast knitter. The pressure is on now to get through section 3 quickly. I thought I had enough of a head start but obviously not.

I'm also working on another exciting project starting in October. I won't reveal the full details yet but it includes a subscription, luxury yarns and lots of small projects. I've got the first project ready. And I've chosen the yarn for another couple of projects and been doing some prelimenary swatching. I'll reveal full details next week sometime.

Sarah, who modelled for me on The Easy Lace Collection, is moving away this weekend, so I managed to get her to find  some time for a mega modelling session on Thursday. I packed a bag full of designs and we headed down to Seaton which is a park and beach area near us. We only had 1 hr 30 mins as I had a hospital appointment (my gall bladder scan).

We started out in the park and did some shots of a secret design which turned out great. Eventually we headed down to the beach which was full of sunbathers.

The secret design we photographed was for a submission for Knitty's winter issue. Thursday was one of the few sunny, warm days we've had this summer. It's a challenge to try and make a British summer day look like winter.

We managed to find a quiet corner of the beach, we were lucky in that the tide was out, and photographed some of my old magazine garment designs which i'm planning to selfpublish this autumn, hopefully.

Some of the garment have had their copyright revert to me for a while and some have the magazine's copyright expiring this winter.

For The Easy Lace Collection, Simon did the photos but this time I was the photographer.

These photos are unedited by the way. I came home with nearly 400 photos on the camera. My first job was to edit the pics for the Knitty sub and next week I'll start working my way through the rest.

Sarah has just gotten engaged by the way and she was wearing her engagement ring, which was designed by her fiance, Josiah, using diamonds from a relative (can't remember the details but it was from family jewellery) and very pretty it is too:

I mentioned my gall bladder scan. I've not had the official result yet but the radiographer said my 'gall bladder looked like a quarry' which means there are a lot of stones so I guess that's not good news. But I'll know more next week. In the meantime I'm still on the 'gall stones fear of pain no fat diet' which is very good for me as I've lost a stone in weight.