And Finally... She Makes It

It's a given of creative life that the better the people in your circles, the better they make you at your craft, if only by osmotic process. My knitting group meets in a place that stimulates one's senses and creativity with a lot of sickly sweet cuteness, such as this:



This:



Or indeed this:



I am not ashamed to say that I find myself completely at ease with the cute and the girlie and the pretty. I am, after all, one of those people that breaks out into a cold sweat at images of minimalist leather sofas that look like a hybrid cross between the psychoanalytic couch and the lethal injection gurney.

I tend to view people that shop for furniture at Habitat with the same eye-narrowing suspicion as the ones who proclaim they do not like chocolate. I just know I can't trust people who relax on a Lego brick-like sofa, drink wheatgrass juice through a bamboo straw and 'touch base over sushi'. Luckily, I have managed to carefully unpick such nits off my hair as time went by, and these days I only hang around people who inspire me to raise my crafting game, if only off the floor where it usually lies. And so, thanks to inspiration and support and patch-up jobs, I have finally finished the lace scarf that I talked about some time ago.



Isn't it absolutely lovely? I am completely thrilled it is off my needles; after all, it did take me twenty-three froggings (after which I lost count) and six repair jobs (two by a very skilled and patient friend and four by myself) to get it to this stage of perfect hand-made normality. A bit of blocking is next, after which I will carefully wrap it and ship it to ma' who will be just as impressed that I managed to see the project to the end. Time for a celebratory cup of tea and a related blog give-away. Watch this space for more details coming soon.