Birthday Goodies

This year I reached the grand old age of 30 and subsequently got lots of amazing gifts. Here are just some of my favourites:

Roberts retro look DAB radio. The kitchen and garden have been alive with dancing and singing since it's arrival.

Lady Dinah's cat cafe 9 lives card. This entitles me to 9 free entries to London's first cat cafe. They have their own cats, you need to bring your own! I'm dying to go but sadly they're all booked up until October, so I'm hanging on the hope that I'll get a cancellation before then.

Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply. Merino + Silk = Yum. I am not sure what to knit with this yet but when I do it will be squash-tastic.

TickTackToe yarn print cushion. This is pride of place on the sofa.

Bespoke necklace from my Birthday twin Shan. We share the same birthday and were born in the beds next to each other a few hours apart 30 years ago. The necklace has an 'L' and 'S' on it and feels very special. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Peace, Love, Knit Tee Shirt. Wearing it loud and proud.

The Mr. got me this AMAZING bespoke yarn bowl made by my favourite ceramics designer Annette Bugansky and Maya from Knit with Attitude. It's only one of a couple in existence so is a pretty special gift. The bowl is made up of two halves and is made to look like a big ball of yarn. You open it up and pop your yarn inside, thread the yarn through the hole in the top half and knit away without your yarn rolling off. I must confess with Flo running around I'm unlikely to chance putting this delicate ceramic on the floor at present, but there will be a time that I use it perhaps for a one skein project when she's at University? For now it is admired on a shelf, away from little sticky hands.

A friend, Katie, made me this lovely tea cosy, which has been in use a few times already. I need to drink my tea scolding hot, so this helps keep my brew at optimum burn temperature.

And finally my knit Guru, Wendy, knit me this cute back pack with cats inside and out. She uses her famous Peterson technique to do the intarsia. This technique ensures that the edges of the image are smooth and contoured instead of blocky. Cool huh? Tutorials are yet to come on her site but I'll let you know when they're up.

All in all it was a great birthday - what a lucky girl I am!

The Kindness of Knitters

A few months back I blogged about the high street takes on knitted ceramics that I noticed popping up all over the place. Kathy, who is a fellow knitter and blogger from Houston, Texas, commented that the US store Target had another version and posted a link. I love to get comments, it reminds me that someone is reading! So this in itself made me happy. Then out of nowhere I get a package in the post. Wondering what I've ordered online and forgotten about, I opened it to find the very same vase with a note form Kathy. She found the vase on sale in Target and decided to buy it and sent it to me! I am totally bowled over by this random act of loveliness and so I want to sincerely thank Kathy. It really made my day/ week/ month to know that people can be so kind.

Also today I was updating my progress on the Charlotte Cardigan that I am making for Flo and realised that I have hit 100 projects in my Ravelry Notebook. It feels like there should be some kind of fanfare or party poppers going off but I shall just pat myself on the back instead and look forward to the next hundred.

Designer to High Street

For my Birthday this year the Mr. bought me a gorgeous bowl from designer Anette Bugansky who uses hand knitting to imprint on ceramics.

Then for our Anniversary I was bought a vase from Heals, which has knitted stitches all over it.

Now, whilst looking for Christmas gifts I came across a selection of knit printed vases, ornaments and candles at Next!

From Designer to High Street in 3 easy steps:

Anette Bugansky - Independent Designer

Heals

Next

I've read before about designer clothes copying becoming so blatant and rampant that some brands are actually shouting about it. I guess it's not against the law to copy the idea of this vase and per haps things are different when it comes to home ware rather than clothing? But if I were Anette Bugansky, I'd be pretty pissed with Next right now.

Things that happened

Things keep happening and I think, 'Oh, I should blog about that' and then things get in the way like work, kids, food and knitting and I don't get round to it. Such is life. So here's a little round up of all the things I should have blogged about lately, in the shorthand form.

I actually finished a few projects. One is this cute squishy hoodie for my nephew. It's called Ashton and was a joy to knit in garter stitch. It's the second pattern I have finished from the lovely Rowan Miniature Classics book which I bought a few months ago and really fell in love with. The styles are so simple yet modern. The other pattern I made from this book was Starr for Flo and with the cold weather it's been worn a few times already. She grows so fast though it is quickly becoming a crop top. Note to self: always knit in extra length for Flo!

The other project was some initialed washcloths for my second cousins in Scotland. I didn't manage to take a picture of them unwrapped for some reason but there is a 'G' on the baby pink one for my new born second cousin Georgia and 'J' on the other for her older sister Jocelyn. Both have a little soap wrapped up inside to use at bedtime.

It was my 4 year wedding anniversary in September and The Mr spontaneously bought me this vase which Fleur Cotton had mentioned in a comment on one of my previous posts. Apparently the Mr. did not read this comment, but found the vase when searching for knitting related goodies to buy me!
It's from Heals and has little knitted stitches running up and down it. How cute and lovely that the Mr. thought of it without a prompt!

The next few weeks are looking super busy with a crazy work schedule and of course the highlight of my social calendar, Ally Pally taking place next week. I'll be at the show bright and early on Thursday so hope to see you there. Do feel free to say hello and point me in the direction of the bargains!

May Round Up

I’ve been rushed off my feet lately so have been sadly neglecting the blog. But the Jubilee weekend is giving me the chance to regroup, so here’s a little round up of what’s been going on for Purl Princess.

It was my birthday and I got some lovely presents. Best of all was an amazing ceramic bowl by artist Anette Bugansky. She uses hand knitting to print onto the fine porcelain clay and make cups, tea lights vases and bowls. It was a lovely gift and I’ll be keeping it as far away from the mucky little destructive hands in our house as possible!

I’m still working on the baby blanket for my sister in law, which has been crawling along due to me being so busy for the last month. I started the inside border and decided that it was too ‘old’ looking and that the blanket didn’t really need it (plus it was taking ages to make so I thought I’d save my self some work, ahem!). So then I started the outer boarder which is much more modern looking (and easier to knit, ahem!).

Pompom magazine popped through my door last week and I like it. It’s small but perfectly formed with a couple of interesting articles to read along with an embroidery project, bellini cocktail recipe and 5 knitting patterns to choose from. I like to try and support new knitting ventures so was happy to pay the £9.50 (plus postage) for the magazine, but am not sure if I’ll be able to afford it every quarter. I might pop into stockists Loop or Ray Stitch, both in Islington, next time to have a little browse before buying next time.

I have been branching out into bread making and made this Scandinavian tea ring. It reminded me of something you used to be able to get in all the supermarkets and bakers when we were kids. We called it a bun round and it was like lots of little round iced buns that your tore off. The centre one always had a cherry on top and I would always fight with my brothers over who got it. Do you remember them? As they don’t seem to exist anymore I tried this recipe and although it was much more like a Danish pastry in texture and flavour it was really good to get to grips with making the dough, kneading it and leaving it to rise etc. and it bought back a few memories too.