rainny days and monday...(courtesy of the Carpenters)

moving swiftly on from my letter to Rowan, and not thinking about my fight with the 'slugs from hell' that seem to have decided to target me in the past few weeks...i'm not talking about some little 'mamby pamby' slugs here, oh no, i'm talking about those great big banana slugs over 4" or 5" long. they have demolished all the lovely orange marigolds our #4 planted and are now working their way through the white pansies. i have never bought 'slug killer' stuff before but i think i am being tested beyond all limits with tolerating them. it is probably because i don't like to kill them that they have 'homed' in on me and asked their friends and families to move in as well...i think i have reached breaking point, it's just a matter of time before i buy myself some slug killing potion from the store..

i have distracted myself from the 'slug ball' that is going on outside my front door by dusting down Miss Margery and unearthing some doilies and lace. my first project... the skirt with the bleach dots...my 'most favorite skirt' in the world that i so foolishly ruined has now become my 'even more favoriter skirt' in the world...i decided to go with the doilies and appliqued them on with some cartwheel stitching...

while i was at it, i jazzed up a linen skirt from NoaNoa that had lovely pockets on the front but you just couldn't see them, so with a bit of hand embroidery i forever captured my favorite Carpenters song...

and then i turned my attention to a 'school uniform' cardi i picked up in the UK this summer from good old H&M...oh how i wish we had this store here. i changed out the buttons and added a little bit of lace at the back of the neck...

continuing to raid her closet for more willing 'victims' ~ Tif

why oh why...

dear Rowan Yarn,

i have fallen for your charms for sometime now, however when one has spent the equivalent of a year's mortgage payment on your yarns and pattern books, i feel i am slightly justified in penning this letter.

you produce lovely pattern books to tempt me and i fall for it every time..."ok Tif" i say to myself "it can't be that hard" or "umm, the sweater with the million different colors looks tricky, the cost of the yarn is nearly $175, it will take me three years to complete, by which time i will hate the thing with a passion, but why don't i give it a go anyway".

to use a metaphor, i am possibly not the brightest light bulb in the drawer when it comes to knitting, crocheting and pattern reading, but i am quite sure that i am not the dimmest either. for arguments sake, i put myself somewhere between a '60w' and a '100w'.

so could you please tell me, is there a secret code book that i have failed to notice on the shelf next to the pattern books? the patterns are so abbreviated that they are missing vital information that the average 'light bulb' requires to knit

i fear i am not alone here, i own a very intelligent mother who knitted all through the 80's (remember the fashion for ribbon cotton knits) i put her in the '120w and above 'category. she too is "making it up" as she goes along with the 'Rowan Cowl Neck' sweater i put a request in for...

so dear Rowan in future could you possibly find it in your heart to print two versions of each pattern book,

Version #1. for the bright light bulbs ~ lots of abbreviations and no row numbers

Version #2. for the dimmer/average light bulbs ~ a book three times thicker than Version #1 containing ALL the instructions including the old fashioned way of writing 'row 1' 'row 2' 'row 3' etc

thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter.

in the meantime i shall continue to knit only patterns that call for rectangles and squares, e.g. cushion covers and leave the sweaters to my mother, who phoned me this week and announced "that's the last bloody rowan pattern i'm doing, and you will wear this sweater even if you look like a sack of potatoes in it..."

yours sincerely,

a 'Rowan yarn addict' needing therapy, Tif

a skip in my step...

maybe it's because i fixed up my website...

maybe it's because wide leg trousers are in the stores...

maybe it's because i've been doing a bit of this...

maybe it's because i have gone from this to this...

or maybe it's just 'because'

finding the 'skip' in her step is coming back ~ Tif