Winston

I know, I promised to tell you about Winston ages ago, and still he's a mystery...not any longer!
I was privileged to get to know Winston and be part of his life back in Spring 2004 - at that time, I was living in London but looking for a new city to move to, as we had grown quite tired of the metropole. Wendy, who at the time was temporarily rehoming some of the bunnies she had with her, asked me to take in Winston until she had some work done on her place, and so one evening he came.
Back then, I had only one housebunny, Sir Harvey (I know... I should tell you his story one day as well!), and I was hoping that maybe the two would become friends. Sadly, Sir Harvey was a no-bun bunny, and much more friendly to humans than other creatures (one day I shall tell you the tales of Judy and Dusty too...), and when Winston had his time-out in the living room, and Sir Harvey was locked in his pen, whenever Winston came too close to Sir H's run, the latter tried to give him a beating. Winston, cool as a cucumber, didn't care, and kept on binkying happily and do his bunny5oos all around the pen and going up and down the sofa. He was so funny, Wendy used to say he did "old man binkies", LOL! He was a very affectionated character who loved his ear and head rubs and tooth-purred for England.

When we moved to Nottingham, in August 2004, Winston had to go back to Wendy. By then, we had another member in the family, Nik the Dutch bunny, but this is again another story.
Back then, Wendy told me that Winston was already an elderly bunny, probably aged 6. If this was estimated correctly, Winston would be now 11!
Eventually, Wendy found new homes for her bunnies and my friend and bunnysitter Amy was then looking for a companion for her elderly bunny girl, Mary. Mary used to be a love with humans, but quite fierce and territorial with other buns, so she was hoping that Winston would change her mind. And so it was that the two became a couple.

Mary, in April 2007, sunbathing
In fact, Winston is such a laid-back bunny that helps Amy in socialising new foster bunnies, and he does the job so well. So far, Winston has been pal with most of her bunnies, Neville included :)
Sadly, Mary passed away in 2007, and Winston found in Snowdrop a new girlfriend. It is so funny because Snowdrop was a feisty one as well, growling when a human hand tended to pet Winston for too long - she was very defensive of her bunnyman :)
Snowdrop passed away too, due to heart failure, early this year, and now Winston has found a new companion in Ebony. I have no pictures of the new girl, but a visit at Amy's is due soon and then I will take a few shots of the happy couple. The pictures here were all taken in April 2007 and he still looks more or less the same... well, he has "grown" a bit of a skirt on his back, or a floor sweeper, also because he has a bit of arthritis, for which he is on medication. Still, for his age he is doing brilliantly, don't you think?

Astrid - finally finished, and more knitting

Looking at the project page on Ravelry I cannot understand why it took me one year and two months to finish this shawl - especially because all the parts were knitted within 3 months, on and off. The blocking proved to be a bit of a challenge, not having a blocking board or a surface large enough to do them all in one go. Once I dealt with the blocking, I encountered the next challenge: sewing the parts together. I normally like sewing, but the prospect of weaving in 50 odd ends wasn't really so appealing, and so it wasn't until two weeks ago that I gave myself the proverbial kick in the backside and did it. It took me two evenings in front of the TV (and on my knees on the floor) to do the job, and guess...it wasn't even such a pain as I thought it would be!

The colours are a bit too pale because of the bad light condition, though.
Follow this link to see the original shawl, and here you see my version modelled by my patient assistant, in the real colours (thanks to sunshine!):


A few stats:
Yarn: Tapestry by Rowan col.172 (Pot-Pourri)70% wool and 30% soybean
Needles: US 3 / 3.25 mm; US 8 / 5.0 mm; US 10 / 6.0 mm
Quantity used: 4.5 skeins, 50g each, total of 589.5 yards (539.0m)

Staying with a similar colour, I finished another scarf I've been battling for a while. I give you Tudor Grace:



Yarn: Lei by Posh Yarns, col.High Society, (4ply sock weight, 65% super merino, 20% bamboo, 15% silk)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm
Quantity used: 1 hank/100g, total of 350.0 yards (320.0m)

I did not "feel the love" for the pattern when I started, although I loved the way it looked, and when I made a mistake when I had just done about 10 repeats I decided to frog it. The new start proved to be luckier, and I managed to finish it quickly. I must say that the photos are definitely lighter than the real colour of the yarn, which is a middle burgundy:

- top marks to the yarn, Lei by Posh Yarns, which is lovely to work with.

I think I am getting addicted to lace knitting... I have already started two more projects, but I shall leave them for another post :)

Finally, the obligatory bun picture, this time of Winston, dated 14 April 2007:

and next time I will tell you his story :)