It's a bit wet up there. The cottage where we stayed is not actually in the flood warning area, but it is very, very close to it ....
ETA: It's not our cottage: we stayed there for two weeks in the summer (and took the photo, which is my current blog-header).
I'd planned to post that my new header is a photo of the baktus scarf: I hung it on the drystone wall where we stayed. However this is not that that post.
I'd planned to show photos of the finished collar on my waistcoat, except it is just waiting for the final grafting together. So this is not that post.
I'd planned to find something particularly nice to make as a blogavarsary giveaway, but I haven't. So this is not that post.
However, it is four years since my first post on this blog. I've met people in cyberspace that I wouldn't have without it. I've met people in peoplespace. I've made things because of it. I've enjoyed it. And driving to work yesterday I thought about stuff and decided my life is good, and I am happy.
This is the post that says those things.
PS Thanks for the nice comments about the new header.
The Latin exam has been and gone, but it has taken a while to get back into blogging. Even crafting was neglected: no knitting, no sewing, no crochet. Possibly I might have extended the break for longer, if it hadn't been for my forthcoming blogaversary coming up in mid-November.
Yesterday however I got out the waistcoat again to see what I was doing. There had been a difficult decision to make about the collar - I'd got up to the place where the collar needed to bend round the neck. 
Now that it had been left to ruminate, the decision was quick to make and easy to put into action. The collar is seven stitches wide and instead of knitting back and forth, I added some short-rows.
It is hard to find instructions on the web, so this is a simplified version of what I did: the collar is seven stitches wide. In reality, the inside stitch also picks up one of the waistcoat edge stitches, thereby joining them together, and the outside two stitches are garter stitch
*Row 1: K7
Row 2: P4 W&T
Row 3: K4
Row 4: P7*
Repeat two more times.
Two rows stocking stitch
Two more short row sections.
Continue in stocking stitch.
Young Esk has been discovered after stowing away on a barge. The owner is deciding whether to let her stay with them.
Esk ... said " 'I don't mind sleeping in the fleeces. And I can pay my way. I can do - ' She hesitated; ... discretion made a successful bid for control of her tongue ' - helpful things'.From "Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett
...
' What sort of helpful things?' he asked. 'Washing and sweeping, yesno?'
' If you like,' said Esk, 'or distillilation...; I can spin, card, rett, flallow, and weave on the hand, frame, harp and Noble looms and I can knit if people start the wool on for me...'
'And can you play a musical instrument?'
Esk returned his steady gaze, not batting an eyelid. 'Probably.'"
sub - takes the ablative, under
mergo - meaning to sink or cover over, 3rd conjugation
submerged - from the Latin: what happens when one studies hard for an exam (next week!) and has no spare brain power for blogging.
Just a quickie, the iPod case I made for Kiddo. It is from Debbie Bliss Rialto, and is all (UK) double crochet. The body was done with the yarn doubled, on a 4.5mm crochet hook, and the flap was a single strand with a 4mm crochet hook. According to my Ravelry notes, I started in March: OTOH, I did frog it and restart, because it was too snug.
When last seen, our heroine (that'll be me) was debating whether to go to the new quilt shop in Buckingham the following day.
I didn't - I went to the Thame show instead.
Several members of our knitting group had entered the domestic items competition - here is the display. 
The shawl at the back won first prize and was made by Sue. Yvonne won second place, with the dark purple tank top at the front. Also made by members of our group was the red hat and the multi-coloured sweater at the back. (Picture is clicky, if you want more details).
I took a number of other photos of various animals, but you've seen pictures of cows and alpaca and sheep before, so just mentally insert them here:
My favourite sight was the queue through a small wood to the entrance:
The red square of fabric now looks like this: 
Not a lot different I'll admit, until you compare the positioning of the bias binding today:
with yesterday (the green lines show yesterday's positions, the black line as it today):
At the moment, however, not all the binding goes over-under-over. I might leave it like that, I'll decide tomorrow. I am also debating whether to go to Buckingham and see if I can find the new quilt shop there. There is no street address on their website.
Producing this took me most of the morning:
It is far more complex then just a red square of fabric with a few pins in it.
I took two pieces of red material - the same fabric range, but different dyelots. Following the instructions in Ferreting Around, I made one piece into bias tape. Next I searched through my other books for the right celtic knot for what I had in mind, and marked some of the intersections using pins. Then without marking the whole of the knot, I pinned the bias tape onto the material:
The knot shape is a bit lopsided and uneven - due no doubt to not marking the material first. Here, I used the Gimp to draw a line following the lines of the pinned bias tape. I'm still thinking how best to alter the shape so it looks more even.
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
A small selection somewhat delayed:
I love these two landscape quilts by Jenny Bowker. I'd seen them in pictures, and it was marvellous to see them in real life. 
The colour on this quilt was entirely done by embroidery: it was made by Veronika Chambers.
I love the bursts of colour in this panel
A miniature quilt by Kristien van Schalkwyk: the smallest squares had sides of 1/4 inch.
My own creativity is taken up with my last bit of Latin coursework, and my crafting by the vast numbers of nametapes associated with a new school.
At last, I'm home!
Yeah, we've come back from our trip to Kendal, near the Lake District.
OK, I didn't tell you about it in advance: posting to the entire internet that the house is empty for a week or two does not seem a wise thing to do. So I go to the other extreme, although I did let the people I met at the Festival of Quilts know. (That is why DH was such a star - he was incredibly supportive of my decision to abandon him with the children when we were supposed to be on holiday.)
It's also why I could only blog by email: we have a mobile broadband dongle, but our settings were incredibly strict parental, which allowed me to log on to my spare email provider, but not blogger's dashboard.
Over the next few posts, I'll put up some more details of the Festival of Quilts (with photos!), pictures of the house where we stayed and details of our walks.
