Belated birthday gifts and a large chair

My last post was my 100th. That seems a lot and not a lot at the same time. I forgot to celebrate my blog's birthday back in May so I am celebrating 100 posts instead. And we all know that any kind of birthday demands a present, right? So here's what I treated myself to:

She's divine. She's just gorgeous and she's going to be mine!

Meet Mermaid. A Hanne Falkenberg design that I fell in love with when the Knitter's Review newsletter that came out after the TNNA show talked about it. Anyone who has been reading my blog can see that I favour little shaped sweaters - anything that has a bit of a waist is good in my book. And Mermaid has the most divine shaping.

It's love. It's probably also crazy and will take me about 10 years to complete. After all, I cast Fruity on back in April (April?? what have I been doing all this time??) and Jenny that I cast on in June and who is still waiting for button bands and a neck band... But I have been drooling over Mermaid for 3 months and love has not lessened so I am meant to have her (Sharon did help convince me that this was an excellent idea, so I am blaming her...)

So Mermaid is my blog birthday present. And here is the final round of my birthday presents (only about 2 months late). From Jill I got Branching Out in baby alpaca silk from Du Store Alpakka (she had given me some of the yarn on a previous occasion and I still haven't decided what to do with it, although it does get stroked on a regular basis).

It's a really pretty blue colour with a tinge of purple (I love blue) and so so soft. I tried to take a picture of the whole scarf but as I don't have bushes to hang things on like Polly, or her artistic photographic temperament, I gave up. Trust me, the whole scarf is as lovely as the bit you see here.

And this is from Yvonne.

I am not sure where the pattern is from but it's very pretty. Here's a close up of the shape in the center.

The scarf is made from Jaeger Chamonix so it's very cuddly indeed. I am going to be keep very warm this winter.

And just so I could take the wool theme with me absolutely everywhere, Sharon gave me this nightdress.

The husband thinks that I am now taking the yarn/knitting obsession just that bit too far.

Finally here's the latest piece of installation art on Hampstead Heath.

It's called 'The Writer' and it's by Giancarlo Neri. You can read about it here but suffice to say that it is huge. Neri has said that it is "a monument to the loneliness of writing". But, if you are at all interested, I thought that this review of it made for an interesting perspective.

Posted by Amelia at August 27, 2005 08:48 AM