Deadline schmedline...

Yes, that's correct. The dish cloths did not make it to the post office on Friday, nor today because the mail isn't cleared on a Saturday so there's no point in sending a parcel until Monday. Except I'll be couriering it, probably for an exorbitant cost. BUT...it'll be worth it. I am so proud of my finished products, not least because they have a LABEL. A last minute idea that contributed to missing my Friday postal deadline which was already extended from Thursday.

Voila!

I LOVE the labels. Guy designed my little blog header for me in January (using a photo I had taken of my scarf with some artfully arranged cherries for the purposes of a header) and on Friday I had the sudden and brilliant idea to get some printed on slightly thicker paper, punch a hole in them, and tie them to the cloths to really impress my Mum. As she doesn't know I have a blog (the only person who does is Guy so, hi to all the people out there not reading) she won't have seen the image before and I secretly think she'll be so impressed she won't believe it's all my (and Guy's) doing.

For a bit of a full-frontal:

I need to learn to cast-off more loosely, my stitches are so tight they make one end smaller than the other.

I have to say I am now convinced about variegated yarn. I think it looks cool. I'm glad I persevered because a few rows after my last post I could see how it was going to work out and I liked it a lot more. This dishcloth has taught me some valuable knitting lessons:

• Even when knit with exactly the same type of yarn on exactly the same size needles as another piece, knitting something in ribbing makes it a lot stretchier.

• Even when knitting more stitches (40 instead of the 34 on the green cloth) and more rows (again, 40 instead of 34 on the green cloth) ribbing something makes it a lot smaller.

• I should have gone 'border, rib, plain, rib, plain, rib [etc], rib, border' or 'border, plain, rib, plain, rib, plain [etc], plain, border' because the way I did it 'border, plain, rib, plain, rib, plain, rib [etc], rib, border' means either end doesn't match because there is a flat bit next to the border and then a raised bit (the bit I'm calling rib) next to the other end's border. If you catch my drift?

The last two are my only disappointments with this cloth, it's a lot smaller than the green one so I wish I had made it longer rather than a square like I did the green one. I didn't compare them until I had cast this one off so I didn't know it was any smaller at all. And I would rather either end matched.

I also made my Mum a card. I used to make cards all the time but I've never been good at drawing so they were always cards that avoided drawing and instead involved sticking squares of cool wrapping paper on the front and the like. However, the price of cards is ridiculous so I bought some WHITE card (I usually always use black) and decided to make her a card. I tried the good-old wrapping paper trick but it looked ugly so I took the plunge and had a go at drawing something.

I like it! I really like the simplicity of it (who knows whether they look more like leaves [they're supposed to be leaves] or stingrays but also, who cares?): the black on white, and the card has a 'linen' texture which also adds a little something something to it.

Earlier in the week I gave this card and treat to a colleague who is very nice and cool who was going in for surgery yesterday. Making this card helped me warm up to the idea of just me, some white card, and a black pigment liner:

She loved it.

I have also just had an idea for a homemade (I often make Guy cards, he's the one person I'd kept the tradition going for in recent years) Valentines card. Not that we're big into Valentines Day but we do celebrate it (last year when he was in Paris at L'Ecole Phillipe Gaulier for a month during February, he told me I had to be at Simply Paris cafe at a certain time on Valentine's day and organised for his barbershop quartet to come and sing to me which was awesome!). If my Valentines Card idea turns out well there will no doubt be pictures. I usually always write 'Made for you by The Ugly Card Company' on the back of my cards as a safeguard - then no one can complain that they're ugly because I can say they're meant to be. But I always aim for them not to be, so fingers crossed.

*I really hate not putting accents on French words that need them (e.g. cafe) but I don't know how to do it, especially on Guy's MacBook, hence why they are missing.