Staying with my good friend in Dublin has been an initiation into the way of The Cheese.

To celebrate her 30th birthday, all of her friends chipped in to buy her specialist, cheese-making equipment, a cheese bell and an assortment of gourmet cheeses. Obviously my obsession with becoming a smaller and more lithe Felix has kept me away from The Cheese for several months.

But sometimes you have to submit to something far greater and more historical than your short-term weight management goals. Sometimes you need to just give in to The Cheese.

I stocked up on cheese and we feasted every day on Bleu D’Auvergne, Chevre, Raw Milk Cheeses and other assorted dairy joy, which I am too high on The Cheese to recall. It was an honour to personally stock The Cheese drawer in my friend’s fridge. We even ate some of The Cheese she made and it was amazing.

Look at all that great cheese.

But all this cheese reminded me of these completely gorgeous stitch-makers I saw on Etsy recently, but couldn’t justify buying for myself. The trouble with being a Craftster, is that you see these things but then say to yourself ‘Well, I could probably make one of those.’

Ellen told me where to put stitch-markers in the Kiri Shawl so as to recall where you are in the pattern, but I am planning to do my Kiri on 6.5mm needles and so regular stitch-markers will not work so well. I’ve found lately that loops of yarn are not as pleasing as rings of steel for stitch-marking; they go fuzzy and take up more room. Hence:

I am inordinately proud of these great creations and they will remind me for always of my gorgeous friend and our time together. We made loads of stuff:

…and it was so much fun. I also couldn’t resist making a cartoon tongue out of the fimo and posing stylishly with it:

All of which sadly brings my joyous stay in Dublin to an end. But it is time to finish my writeup, to begin my PhD, to make autumn plans and to find a studio. And for all of that stuff, I need to be home.