Auntie Fred's Knittings & Musings

2011-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

I am still trying to work out whether it is possible to blog from my phone. I feel that it ought to be, but as yet I have not been successful. But I use the phone far more than the laptop these days and so it would be handy.

That said, Mildred the laptop has been out this evening. I am currently knitting a Cardigan (Sojourner) on which there are decreases at the neck edge happening at a different rate from the increases in the side seams. For me, that spells "spreadsheet". That's particularly the case on this occasion as I am putting in short-row shaping, using the extremely helpful information in Ysolda's latest book "Little Red in the City". There are several patterns in the book that I want to do, but Sojourner was already planned, so it reached the head of the queue first.

Well, this is a bit of a mini-post, especially since I can no longer see what I'm typing as I write; however, it does seem that I can compose posts (albeit without pictures) on the phone. You never know - perhaps this will encourage me to post more regularly.

Photography class

2011-02-05T01:02:00.000-08:00

I promised to write more about the Cornwall retreat, and so here it is (although it may not look that way at first...). I got up this morning, and made a cuppa in my beautiful retreat mug.

I then cleared my workspace and started taking photographs.

The last class that I took in Cornwall was with Anne and was on photography. Initially, it was just Ali and me in the class, but then Alice was able to join in too. We started out talking about backgrounds, light and how these can affect the picture - looking right in to the object and seeing the shadows. We also tallked about how the different objects in a picture can affect one another (Ali's pink sweater cast a definite glow onto a ball of oatmeal-ish yarn) but less obviously when the two colours are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. We then started looking at how to edit our pictures. Below are my 'before' and 'after' (they have been made the same size, but that's all I did to the first one.) We looked at how to edit the colours and how they affect one another. In the original picture, the red skein wasn't far from its correct colour, but the green wasn't showing its real vibrancy.

We then went on to take some pictures of an FO (more to follow).

I saw Alice again on Thursday. She has already bought a new camera - I am only thinking about it (although it has to be said that I found some functions on mine this morning that I couldn't find last week).

Just a quick one

2011-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

Just a very quick post this evening, as I really ought to be in bed! I have spent the weekend in Cornwall - Watergate Bay to be precise - at the Socktopus 2011 knitting retreat. The train back was somewhat delayed so I didn't get home until 9.30. I have emptied the suitcase and the knitting bag and sorted out my projects to take to Sticks and String tomorrow (priorities being what they are...).

I arrived home to find two parcels. The first was from NicsKnots containing a dpn needle roll (which has been filled with my KnitPro Nova dpns) and a matching sock project bag (which has a sock project installed). The second was the first instalment of Rosemary Hill's 2011 Pins and Lace club, which contained - well, I won't say just on the very remote off chance that someone who hasn't had their package yet reads this. Suffice it to say that I am very excited. And all this on top of having received the first instalment of the Knit Love Club 2011 Sock Club while I was away. I'm so excited that I don't know where to start!

On the train on the way back from Cornwall, I made some notes in my knitting book on what I wanted to put into future blog posts. There is a (pencil) scrawl at the top of the page saying "where are all my biros?" (actually, I don't think there's a question mark at all) - and then a response of "here's one" arising from my need to sort my bag out in order to get everything back into it. Other topics to cover include the wonders of Audible, the wonders of Cornwall, the things I learnt in classes, and the mysterious UFO. Some additional photography is required to complete these posts but in the meantime, here's a picture of the beautiful Watergate Bay.

PS - There is not going to be a completed blanket square this month, but other things have been achieved on the way through!

Knit Love Club

2011-01-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

In 2009 I was a member of the Socktopus sock club, and in 2010 I joined the next generation of Alice's club 'Knit Love Club'. This year Alice designed all the patterns herself, and in addition to the six pairs of socks there was also a bonus package with a scarf pattern adn yarn. The scarf was completed today and this was the last of my seven projects - so here they all are.

For 2011 I am a member of the 'Knit Love Club' again and this year, Alice is dying the yarn herself. I have also joined Rosemary (Romi) Hill's Pins and Lace club - 4 shawl patterns with yarn and a hand-made shawl pin.

Embryonic blanket

2011-01-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Back in March last year, I started knitting a 'Ten Stitch Blanket' using left-over sock yarns. I pulled together my left-overs in blues, pinks and purples, and set to work. And then, as is often the way(!), I became side-tracked. I picked up my blanket sporadically, but it didn't really grow very much. However, I did make a decision. I decided that, rather than keep on going around and around until I had the full blanket, I would make a series of squares and then join them at the end. The idea was that this would be less unwieldy.

On Monday, I finally finished the first square, and yesterday I blocked it. It has blocked to around 18" square, and therefore, if I work 12 squares, I could end up with a blanket 4'6" by 6' which sounds like a pretty reasonable size.

I have also made the decision that I will try to complete one square per month this year. This means that, by the end of November I should have my 12 squares completed, leaving December for the joining.

We'll have to wait and see how well I stick to this. Number 2 square is underway, and in the meantime, here is number 1 square. The ends that are visible are all on the outer row - I have darned in all the "inner" ends so there aren't toooo many to do when I'm making up.

Checking in next month to see whether there's another square...

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T06:57:00.001-08:00

Well, Happy New Year to Blog-land. 2010 was an eventful year, not always in a good way - and so here's to a peaceful 2011.

I spent Christmas overseas with my sister and her family. It was lovely to see them all (and to meet the newest addition to the family - the new 10 week old nephew) and to spend time with them. It was also good to escape from the rat race that is Christmas at home - Christmas is not big where they are which means it is actually possible to go into shops on Christmas Eve (or even on Christmas Day) and there is no mad panic of consumerism.

The reason I went away was because, for the first time, Mr Auntie Fred was working over Christmas. He returned on 30 December, so we had Christmas lunch yesterday (although we opened presents the evening before, after he got home). One of my presents was an electric 'frosting pen' - a gadget for applying frosting (or icing!) to cakes. It so happens that I had a tub of
one of the recommended brands of frosting in the cupboard, and so I have spent the afternoon experimenting. I baked a batch of muffins, applied chocolate frosting and gold star dust, and here is the result. I discovered that it is not a good idea to bake in my oven without the fan on (although I have done so before) - each muffin rose towards the centre of the oven, hence some of the distinctly lopsided creations shown. Still, it doesn't seem to alter the flavour which isn't bad if I do say so myself!

It's that time of the year when we make resolutions - going to the gym, losing weight, blogging more often, creating a certain number of knitterly projects or whatever they may be. I am not going to go into writing formally on my resolutions (although all of the above might well appear were a list to be made), but it is my intention to blog slightly more often this year, and let's face it, based on last year's showing that wouldn't be hard!

Where does time go?

2010-09-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

I was going to post today about the excitement of having a new iPhone. However, said iPhone would not allow me to write a post (I could put in a title and labels, but no actual text). If no-one is reading this, it wouldn't actually matter, but since I delude myself that people do occassionally read my ramblings, it seems only fair that I should ramble.

In my last post, I talked about going to buy yarn for the sweater that I was going to work on in the 'Sweater Fitness' class at KnitNation. Well, KnitNation (and the class) have been and gone - it was fab - and the sweater has been knit. I made some fairly significant modifications to the pattern along the way but it does fit pretty well. I would like to try to do a v-neck version (with a not quite so wide neck line) but that is a project for when it isn't the run-up to Christmas (yes, I did just say that at the beginning of September!).

In other news, I tried to make plum jam yesterday. I had about a pound and a half of plums, so I wasn't expecting huge quantities. What I ended up with was two and a half jars of plum toffee, and a preserving plan with a very burnt bottom. I did eventually get the plan clean, but whether anyone will ever succeed in getting the toffee back out of the jars is another matter! Today is planned to be mixed red berry. Wel'll see how it goes

Back from the depths

2010-06-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have neglected you. I didn't mean to - but real life seems to have taken over somewhat in the last few months. But today I am back, at least for now.

Being a bit (!) mad, I chose the hottest day of the year to mosey on in to London to buy lots of worsted weight yarn. My trip was somewhat delayed by a power cut; I was online this morning checking yarn requirements when the power went off. While the lovely Mildred continued to work, the interwebs went off, so I had to wait until the power was back to check precisely where it was I was trying to go.

First off I headed to Loop. I never went to the old shop, but the new one was certainly lovely. Really light and airy, and set in a great buzzy part of town. There I bought 7 skeins of Cascade 220 (some of it heathered) to knit Astoria.

My pictures are uploading properly today (and the colours didn't come out right anyway!), but it is three skeins of navy, three skeins of pacific heather, and one skein of neutral. I am taking the Sweater Fitness class at Knit Nation and for this you need to know what sweater you want to knit, and have the yarn so that you can swatch in the class - so here we are!

I also went to All the Fun of the Fair - which is more central. I bought two skeins (which I hope will be enought!) of Blue Sky Alpacs Dyed cotton. These are to make a Tulip Cardigan for my new niece or nephew who is due in October.

I also went somewhere and bought some bits for another project - but I will save that for another post (if it works...)!

Lace Tunic

2010-01-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday evening, I was speaking to Hubby and discovered that he was due home the next day. This was quite a surprise as I thought he wasn't due home for another week. So, he came home on Thursday but now he has gone again: off for a course in Austin. He's due home again on 4 February and then has a week at home before he goes back to Algeria. It's rubbish and so I am probably going to eat junk and mope for the rest of the day - oh, and knit ;-).

On the knitting front, I have finished the Lace Tunic from Debbie Bliss's Summer. I have come across a couple of tricky points with this. Firstly, having blocked the back, front and first sleeve, I realised that there was no way in which the sleeve was going to fit into the arm hole. The problem was that the bind off on the sleeve was waaay to tight. So, I unpicked the cast off and the last row, and re-worked using a superstretch bind off on needles several size larger. It was a bit of a pain then to set the sleeve but it did fit. Secondly, having pressed the neck band, it was poking up in a strange manner. I have fixed this by threading elastic through the edge. So here it is, modelled by Hermione:

The colour is actually a sort of duck-egg blue - which I couldn't capture, even outside. It has to be said that I wouldn't have been taking Hermione into the garden for a photo shoot if Hubby was still here!

Talking of whom, he has just called from the airport, apparently in order to check that I have got the first load of washing out of the machine (I haven't) and then to tell me that I would need to take the water softener tablet out of its wrapper before I put the second load in. How does he think I cope when he's away?!

Productivity

2010-01-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have had a very productive day - which means that there is something to blog about. This morning I decided to write a list, and I managed to cross everything off it. I...

tidied the kitchen;
tidied the living room;
tidied the bedroom;
put away the rubbish that had been accumulating in a basket on the stairs;
did three loads of washing;
sorted, photographed and updated my stash;
packed the christmas decs away ready to go in the loft (they were down but not away);
put away piles of clean clothes;
watered the house plants; and
went shopping.

The result of this is that I am knackered! I have also done some knitting. I am working on a lace tunic made out of Debbie Bliss Prima. The last garment I made from this stuff grew to ridiculous proportions within a week of completion. So far I have finished the back, front and one sleeve. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as though the sleeve is going to fit in the hole designed for it. No-one else on Ravelry has knitted this garment, so I'm a bit stuck now - will just continue with the second sleeve in the vain hope that it will all work out!

While typing this, I am watching Bridget Jones - during which the parallels with Pride and Prejudice are becoming more obvious than previously. Hmm - looking aroud me, it seems that I need to have another go at tidying the sitting room. It has been said before, and it continues to be true - I'm good at tidying up, but not at being tidy.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

I am not a great one for resolutions. However, at this time of the year, it's difficult not to start musing on where you are, where you have been and where you are going. A little while ago on one of the Ravelry groups that I belong too, Claire mentioned the idea of having a word for the year. At that time, it was Samhain, the beginning of the pagan year, and therefore, various of us took that as the beginning of the year, and chose a word.

My word was - and is - grace. Grace is something that I have thought about alot over the last couple of weeks as I have been going through some tough times. Grace is also something that I have needed and doubtless will continue to need. It seems that grace is not something that I am capable of achieving on my own - I can be remarkably ungracious at times, which is why I chose it in the first place. But in God's strenght, I am learning that I can be gracious. It also seems that it is sometimes easier to be gracious in the big things than in the little things (will I ever complete a journey to work in the rush hour without yelling at someone?).

And so my prayer for the new year is for increased grace to help me deal with the things that life throws at me:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

God, grant me grace.

Socktopus club socks

2009-12-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas, I have been dealing with some rather rubbish stuff, which is why I haven't been making Christmassy blog posts. However, I have also been doing some knitting, and I have finished the Socktopus

club socks. So here they all are!

Wrapping

2009-12-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Just realised that it's over a week since I posted. Oops! Today has been quite productive, although I didn't exactly get up early.

I went to the garden centre and bought a tree, a holly wreath and some mistletoe. I had to repot the tree (tricky since it was frozen) as it was very wonky. How is it that you can buy a tree with roots attached and it will be far from upright. Surely when the tree is in the ground, it's upright? I have also wrapped all the presents I currently have - this does not mean, however, that I have finished the wrapping! And I have blocked Ulmus and my Socktopod socks (piccies to follow).

The Socktopod socks were fun, although I did end up knitting three socks to make the pair. When I was knitting the first one, I noticed that the M1R wasn't working very well and was loopy. When I knitted the second one, I realised I'd put the M1R (and the M1L) in the wrong place - magically, if you put them in the right place, the loopy bits improve! So I finished the second sock and then knit a third. I think the first one is going to turn into a crocodile puppet.

Guess what though - the ironing still needs doing!

Walking in ...

2009-12-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

...Winter Wonderland. This is where I was yesterday evening - Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I went there to meet with some of the other Socktopods to do some knitting and then we wandered round, and some members of the party tried out the Helter Skelter. There were also Curros - Spanish donut things, which I hadn't tried before.

I then got home to find a husband. In fact not any husband but my husband returned from Algeria. It was lovely to see him - although I may have planned my evening differently if I had known that he would be there.

On the knitting front, having finished the Socktopus club package number 4, on Saturday I started number 5 'Socktopod'. They are a lovely shade of green and a fab pattern by Cookie A. - it's just a shame that my M1R as soooo loopy. Nonetheless, sock number 1 is complete and I've done most of the ribbing on sock number 2 - all good, since package 6 is due out in the next week or so. Then I just need to get on with the never ending Ulmus.

Afternoon tea

2009-12-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon meeting up with the Socktopus gang. The 'purpose' of the meet up was to exchange Secret Santa presents - but actually, there was little exchanging and much knitting, eating and drinking. We went to this place where we had a delicious afternoon tea:

There was much disagreement (with the staff - not between us) as to how many cakes we should have versus the number we had. It ended with us being brought more cakes that then didn't get eaten. Various husbands and sons were set to benefit.

We did a fair amount of knitting and I finally finished the Scadenza socks from the Socktopus club. These have been OTN for ages - although actually knitting on them seems to make them go faster. The first one, I struggled with the bind off. I tried it twice and it was still on the tight side. On the second sock, I tried a much loser bind-off. It worked really well, so I had a third attempt at the first sock - I undid the bind-off and the last round, rejoined some fresh yarn and tried again. Much better.

Having finished Sockotpus package number 4, I have already started on package number 5. I think they're going to be quite....long. But they should still fit inside the new boots I ordered yesterday in Duo. This place does calf-size boots which should fit better. You can't take them away from the shop, but hopefully they'll arrive soon.

A little early

2009-12-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post as it's been a long day, I'm tired and my elbow aches. But here is our Christmas Cactus. It's a little early, but it's looking lovely. This is the sort of plant I like - the sort that produces beautiful flowers with minimal maintenance!

Or not

2009-11-29T05:36:00.000-08:00

I didn't spend the day in bed yesterday.

Being so fine, the shawl dried very quickly, so by lunchtime I was able to unpin it. So this is it - about 1 km of yarn and nearly 1500 beads that can't actually be seen. I wore this to church this morning - it shows up well over dark clothes. I just don't dare do too much while wearing it- it's so delicate, and being single ply yarn, I suspect if it catches on anything that will be it done for.

It's pretty chilly here today and the sky is a distinctly ominous colour. I don't want to put the fire on yet, as it's only lunchtime, so I have bundled up in my Spiraluscious Mitts,

the matching cowl (which still needs blocking and photographing but keeps me warm in the meantime) and my Shawl that Jazz. I also have a blanket (not knitted) wrapped around my legs and knees. It's raining outside but I can snuggle inside which is lovely. I probably ought to warm myself up doing some of the jobs that are taunting me around the house, but it's much nicer to sit and knit, watch old Inspector Morse and Poirot (I love ITV3) and play with Mildred. Ah yes, Mildred. I wanted to name my laptop (sad, I know) and despite my efforts to find a sleek, elegant name for her, she wants to be Mildred!

I'm loving the fact that I can use her all around the house, and that she links to the Internet effortlessly. I did have to re-install the mouse yesterday (I don't know why) but apart from that it's been great. I also discovered a built in SD Card Reader. This is slightly irritating in that I had recently bought a new external card reader, the old one having died, but it means it is just soooo easy to get photos from Camera to Computer. Hmm perhaps I should name the Camera 'George'. Not a programme I have ever seen, but I do know that George and Mildred go together!

Right - time for a cuppa and Ulmus.

A day in bed?

2009-11-28T01:50:00.000-08:00

I awoke very early this morning (at least it was early for me on a Saturday). Once I'd realised that I wasn't going to go back to sleep, I got up, made a cuppa, and put Samhain to soak. That's right - I finished the knitting and darned in the ends yesterday evening. I let it soak for an hour or so, and then got to work - with the result that the living-room currently looks like this:

(also, my knees hurt). This, I think is the largest area of clear floor space in the house, and so I got to work - but even so, part of the knitting is under the sofa.

I think this was one of my longer blocking efforts - it took me about an hour of pulling; stretching; pinning and repeating. I find that it is really helpful to have guidelines to block to. I don't have 'proper' blocking mats that have a grid marked on them. Instead, I use these foam playmats that I got from Amazon for a fraction of the price. As guides, I use strips of black ribbon that I can pin where I need them for each project.

The ribbon comes from my favourite lingerie shop, Pudding - where they tie it around the boxes that they put your purchases in. The ribbon is assorted lengths and thicknesses, and over the last few years I've built up quite a collection.

I think the designer intended this shawl to be blocked as a half-hexagon. However, mine really didn't want to - so I let it do what it wanted. Instead, I have a square with a quarter cut away. I think this will really show off the lace well, and will also mean that the shawl stays on too. I blocked pretty hard to get this; I think it's just under 5' square. I was trying to strike a balance between pulling too hard and breaking something, and getting it really well blocked. The advantage of the latter is that the couple of slightly dodgy bits now don't show!

Anyway, the result of all this is that the living-room is fairly unusable at the moment. I need to wait for the shawl to dry, and given that towards the end I was spraying to re-dampen (old cleaning spray bottle filled with the water/ euclan that I had originally used for soaking the shawl pre-blocking) it's going to take a while. And so for now, I'm going to go and find a cup of coffee and then spend the morning in bed with the new knitting .....

(A gratuitous unblocked picture of the shawl, modelled by Hermione.)

Realisation

2009-11-26T11:30:00.001-08:00

My excitement has been realised. After a couple of minor glitches with the delivery, I collected the laptop this evening. I can't believe how easy it is to use. I have installed the bluetooth Skype (I haven't spoken to anyone yet as none of my contacts is online); and I have installed MS Office. I have been online and set all my favourites - and it just whizzes to websites. Now, I really ought to do some tidying up as I seem to have left quite a lot of packaging lying around the living-room floor. But I can sit on the sofa and blog while watching the television (or listening to the radio) - so far so good.... it's doing exactly what I wanted.

Tomorrow - back to regular programming (knitting progress or the lack thereof) - which reminds me, there's handknits soaking in the sink. Better go and do something about that!

Excitement

2009-11-17T05:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I did something very exciting - I ordered myself a laptop. This may not sound terribly exciting to many, but I have never done such a thing before. This purchase has been brewing for a while for a few reasons.

The desk-top we have at home is elderly (9+ yrs) and temperamental. Particularly, it periodically refuses to talk to the outside world for no obvious reason. It doesn't have in-built Wireless so operates on a dongle which is hard to access if something goes wrong. In addition, when hubby is in the country, he has first use on the PC (after all, he bought it, he maintains it, and he knows better than I do what to do for it when it's poorly). So, for some time I have been thinking about getting a little laptop.

This has come to a head following the work secondment I recently undertook. Being on secondment meant I had to take my work laptop to and from the office every day (when working at base we are encouraged to leave our laptops locked up at work unless we have a client meeting or whatever) and having the laptop at home meant I could use it in the evenings. I discovered that it was entirely happy to connect to the wireless at home, and it didn't keep falling over. I could also sit in the living room to use it rather than being relegated to the top corner of the house.

And so the deed is done. At some time in the next couple of weeks a shiny new red laptop/notebook (not sure what 12" qualifies as!) should be coming to live with me. Then I will have all the fun (?) of getting it set up. As I said - excitement!

Blowing a gale?

2009-11-14T01:03:00.001-08:00

.... Well, it isn't yet, but the forecast is terrible. At the moment it's a bit wet and the trees are moving a little but the sky is less grey than it was. Even so it strikes me as a good day for hibernating. Hubby has gone into London shopping and so I could spend all day in my dressing gown knitting and reading. Unfortunately, I do need to pop into town later so it isn't to be.

Progress this week on the knitting front has been slow. However, last night some work was done and piccies were taken of Samhain. In order to take the piccies, I first put in a new lifeline that was long enough (but more on that later). I then attached all my spare knit picks cables to the one I was using, and then pinned out the centre section on my blocking mats. Because it was dark anyway, I acutally turned the lights off and then took the pictures using the 'Night Portrait' setting on my point and press camera - with some rather surprising results:

Hubby caught me doing this, and while I was standing on a stool in the dark taking photos, he decided to make his own addition to the composition. I saw this as the flash was going off but by then I'd committed to the picture! It is only a toy lizard, not a real one ....

I did also manage to get some proper pictures, and this whole 'lights off' thing worked pretty well as the colours aren't bad - in some lights the yarn really does look this purple. I was also pleased that it is just about possible to see the beads in some of the picutres. Given that the work was nowhere near as stretched as it will be when it is blocked, I am hopefully that in the end the

beads will show up. It would be a shame if they don't since they are adding considerable to the time taken in the knitting. The section I'm on at present has relatively few beads per row, and I managed two rows in 45 minutes last night.

The problem with this (and the second Scadenza sock is that they require constant reliance on the pattern and are quite slow going - I have nothing really quick and easy otn at the present. This is leading to the onset of a case of startitis - we'll see how well I can resist!

A slow (knitting) week

2009-11-12T04:26:00.000-08:00

This week has been slow for knitting. This is at least partly because my 'main' project at the moment is Samhain and it now takes about an hour to do two rows. I have also been out every evening this week, and when I do get home it's all a bit late.

Monday, I had music practice at church. I did manage to get home and cook beforehand but didn't get back till well after 9 and then didn't knit but spent some time chilling with DH instead.

Tuesday, I did go to knit night, and managed 4 rows of Samhain, which means I am now over 40% of the way through!

Last night I met up with a couple of former clients and a former colleague. We went out for drinks (we were all very abstemious only drinking soft drinks) and I got home at gone 9 again - at which point I had to set to and make dinner. We didn't eat till nearly 10 o'clock. I did then do a couple of rows on my Ulmus, but not much progress.

Tonight I have another work do, which means hubby is feeding himself again. Still, I made a big pot of soup on Sunday and he's been working his way through that for his lunches. He even commented that it was nice, which is high praise indeed. Tonight he gets left over chilli from last night, but it's one of his favourites and he chose that rather than cook anything himself.

Tomorrow, I should actually be home for the evening - hurray! Don't know how much knitting I'll manage but it will be good to spend some time at home, given that hubby is off overseas again on Monday....

November in Norfolk

2009-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

The last week has been busy but relaxing in a mad kind of way.

Last weekend my sister, BIL and nephew were in the UK for a few days, so I went to Mum and Dad's to see them. It was lovely to spend some time with them (don't know when it will happen again) and I also took all their birthday and Christmas presents. M loved his 'Take Along Thomas' toys - and there are more in the parcel for his Christmas present. M actually calls me 'Auntie Fred' and was more than happy to spend time with me. I did quite a lot of potty trips - the only accident was my fault!

Then on Tuesday, Dad took me to Peterborough where I caught a train to King's Lynn where MIL and FIL collected me. They were house / dog-sitting in Brancaster and we went to join them. Hubby's sister and her family were all staying nearby. We went for lots of walks on the beach with dogs and children and I did quite a lot of work on Samhain. This picture is from last Tuesday:

I think at this point, I was at the beginning of chart 2 (of five). I have now started chart 4, but this still only makes me 37% of the way through (I just made a spread sheet....).

I'm slightly disappointed that the beads aren't showing - I chose some that tone so well that they can't actually be seen. They may pop a bit when the shawl is blocked - we'll see.

I managed to pack the wrong crochet hook to go away - and there was no way that a 2mm hook was going to go through 8/0 beads. To start with I managed with a needle threader although it was very slow, but then I got into Wellingborough and bought another 0.6mm hook which is far preferable.

While we were away, we went to a 'Rare Breeds' farm. I'm not sure how 'rare' Alpaca are (perhaps just in the UK), but they were very cute. There were just the two of them in an enclosure with some sheep, but I'm afraid the sheep got no attention whatsoever!

Going away

2009-10-31T02:28:00.001-07:00

Ugg - I finally got home at quarter to one this morning. However, it's done and I'm on holiday - hurray. Also, my packing is nearly done and there are still two hours until the taxi arrives to take me to the station. So obviously I am blogging.

Actually, I have been taking photos and doing battle with computers, but this means that I am now able to bring you these:

Rachel (or Hannah's) hat, knitted out of Bowmont Soft Spun DK from Devon fine fibres. I got this from Socktopus when it was still open - so hopefully Stash will stock it in future as I don't know where else you can get it. The decoration is crocheted in DK silk from the Knitting Goddess - I had it sitting around as a left-over in my stash and it worked really well.

And to make sure that no-one is left out, here is Hannah (or Rachel's) hat. I should explain that the photos were taken on the lid of a cake tin because it's pretty wet outside and I didn't want them to get grubby.

Talking of Rachel and Hannah (my goddaughters), I saw them on the box last night (although the programme was at 9 am - I had sky+'d it). I had a message from their Mum on Facebook and discovered that they had been taking part in a programme called 'Family!' which is a series of short episodes abouts families from around the country. They were representing Wales. It was lovely to see them even on the telly, given that I don't get to see them very often for real.

The final picture to show you is this one.

This is all the bits I have ready to start my Samhain shawl tomorrow. The colours aren't great since it's such a grey day, since the yarn is actually purple-ish (quelle suprise!). It's Angel 1ply Laceweight (Alpaca / Cashmere / Silk - yum) from The Natural Dye Studio in, I think, Heather 30. I got the beads from Aluisa Beads in Guildford. I've put two bags of beads into that tin ready to be used, and I have a third bag in reserve so that should be plenty. I'm very looking forward to starting this!

Anyway, I really should do some ironing and finish the packing - then perhaps a little more work on Ulmus (which isn't going with me) before I head off out.

Even sleepier

2009-10-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

I thought it was bad yesterday!

It is half past 11 and I'm still at work. At the moment, there is nothing needing doing, but something may come up and so we can't go home yet. The thought of driving home for an hour nearly isn't great.

Tomorrow I am going up to Mum and Dad's - and still no packing done. I have written a list of things to pack so I guess that's a start. Fortunately, I'm going by train, so I can sleep on the way... I did do a quick trawl this morning, and I think I have at least got enough clean undies to pack.

On the knitting front, I actually picked up my Ulmus yesterday evening. I don't really know why I lost the will with it, as it's a very straightforward knit. My only worry is the length of the floats. The pattern is knitted in stripes of two yarns, and each stripe is just two rows, so you are supposed to float the yarn up one side. I just wonder how this is going to work when I come to block - I can see this becoming very lop-sided if I'm not careful (and not being very big if I am).

On the knitting front, I am seriously wishing I had brought some to work today. Usually, I do but today I didn't and yet now I have the opportunity actually to do some. Grr. I could have got a fair few more rows of the Ulmus done while I have been sitting around this evening. Still, this is my last day of this secondment. Holiday next week and back to my own office the week after. I have enjoyed doing the secondment - it's been good to get to know the folks and mostly I've enjoyed the work. Having an office canteen is also a bonus. On the downside, I'll be glad to be able to print documents and to reduce my commute (distance if not time) by half.

Sleepy

2009-10-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's 7 o'clock, I'm still at work and I'm sleepy. I'm not looking forward to the drive home.

It's one of those evenings where the work is intermitent so there will be more things needing doing but I am currently in a lull. On the upside, a Thai takeaway has already been ordered :-)

On Saturday I'm going up to Mum and Dad's for a few days so that I can see Sis, BIL and Nephew while they are back in this country, and then on Tuesday I'm going to Brancaster to join the in-laws house sitting. Hmm - haven't finalised arrangements with them. I should do that...

I am slightly concerned that I have my knitting all sorted to take away with me but not my clothes: tomorrow evening could see the inaugural panic-ironing event, where I waving a steaming iron around, get the clothes looking a bit flatter and probably burn myself. I'm not even entirely sure what I need to pack for a few days on the north Norfolk coast in November.

Exciting news is that last night I finished the Christmas knitting. No photos yet, as I haven't actually had a daylight opportunity, but I've finished the hats for R&H. The original plan was to sew buttons on as decoration, but then a cunning plan was developed and these were replaced by crocheted silk flowers - I happened to have some appropriately coloured silk DK sitting in the stash. The majority of my Christmas knitting has been done from stash so I feel like I've made good in-roads.

Not sure when I'll get to post again but hopefully it will include piccies. I'm almost tempted to take the work laptop away with me so that I can keep on line, but that's really not what it's for!

Testing testing

2009-10-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick test. The lovely RuthieD told me how to hyperlink last night, so I thought I'd try it out....!

A lovely surprise

2009-10-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

When I got home last night I had a surprise.

To start with, the chubb lock on the front door wasn't locked. I was surprised because, although I had left in a hurry, I was pretty sure I'd locked it. Then I noticed the living room light was on. And again, I was surprised because I'd turned the lights off before I left. Before I could get into panic mode, though, a voice said 'Hello'. It was the Hubby - home a few days early from Algeria because his visa ran out.

It was lovely to see him but quite a surprise - and there was very little in the house for him to eat. The place I'm working at the moment has a canteen, so I have a main meal at lunchtime and a snack in the evening.

On the big upside - the house was tidy. I am not a tidy person. As my mother has said, I am good at tidying up but not at being tidy. This means that usually when hubby is away, I slob for a while and then have a major clear-up just before he comes home. However, the last couple of weeks I have been making an effort to keep tidy. This meant that when he arrived home:

There was no knitting strewn all over the sofa
There was no dirty washing up - at all not even hiding in the dishwasher(this is truly shocking)
The bed was made
The kitchen was tidy

This experience has proved to me that it is worth trying to keep things tidy.

Timezone?

2009-10-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know what time zone I'm in. The clocks went back last night, and usually this is an excuse for an extra hour of sleep. But no. I awoke at 6.30 - and I was wide awake. So I decided to do something useful (ha ha). Did some bits on the PC and then decided to wrap some presents. This was all well and good until suddenly it was twenty-five to ten and I was still in my nightie. Given that I needed to be at church shortly after ten, this wasn't good. Now, it's just coming up to eight pm and I'm all ready for bed. It feels much later. What is going on?!

Anyway, more interesting stuff. I went into Guildford to do some Christmas shopping yesterday and also bought the beads for Samhain. At some point there will be photos..... Then I went to see my friend Mel, who lives close by. We hadn't seen each other for ages, and I also got to see all the work that she and her hubby have been doing on their house and garden, so it was really fab to catch up. We went back to Guildford to have a look at vacuum cleaners, since mine apparently has died, and I also had a look at laptops. I am fed up with home PC (it's alright - it isn't clever enough to know I'm being mean about it). It's elderly and is getting unreliable. I haven't absolutely decided, but I am more and more thinking that I would like a home laptop. This would mean that I could sit on the sofa to Skype, blog, and generally play on the net (when the net is working) rather than being tucked away in the study. It would also mean that when hubby is at home I would still have PC access. The point is that I don't need a laptop. I'm very aware of how fortunate I am, and the fact that I could just go out and buy a laptop doesn't mean I should, however I try to justify it to myself.

I have also continued to knit, and on the FO front, I have these:

Pattern: my basic bobble hat

Yarn: Knitting Goddess DK Merino in semi-solid lime

These are the hats that were actually requested for Christmas. The niece and nephew asked for green hats, and green hats they have got. However, for the sake of their mother's sanity I decided on different coloured bobbles. I have also completed this:

Pattern: improvised as I went along

Yarn: Knitting Goddess bfl sock in Indian Summer

This is knitted from a lavendar kit sent by the lovely Knitting Goddess, Joy with one of her parcels of yarn. It has been festering in my wip basket for a while, but I finally got a move on and finished it. It has now been wrapped up as part of my sister's birthday present - I can say that because at the moment she doesn't know I have a blog .....

I do also have another bobble hat completed (although it isn't going to have a bobble). It was only completed this evening, so no piccies yet. It is one of a pair for my twin god-daughters, R and H. The completed hat is the second attempt because the first one was way too large (using different yarn and needles from the green ones). Photos of those will follow in due course, and then that will be my Christmas knitting done! Yay.

My other big achievement today was clearing my desk. I actually did the filing (rather than just leaving it in a tidy-ish pile). There were about five months worth of credit card bills in the heap, so I guess it had been a while. The upside was finding a missing piece of paper. I am taking part in the Unicorn quest being run by the Natural Dye Studio and Fyberspates, and I had lost the September clues - but I have now been reunited with them, and they have been reunited with the rest of the clues. I put them all somewhere safe .... I also rediscovered the pattern for Ulmus, which is another festering wip - so now I have no excuse for letting it linger.

TGI Friday

2009-10-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oooff. Another week done and a lie-in tomorrow morning. I did more ironing yesterday evening, but figured that you can have too many ironing photos (some might argue that two is too many) so instead here's this evenings picture:

Merlot and knitting - what could be better? The knitting is the second green hat and is a much better likeness for the actual colour - I wish I'd taken note of what camera setting I used for it! I'm planning a shoping trip into Guildford tomorrow. Partly to buy Christmas and Birthday pressies for my sister and her family (who are in the UK next weekend - they live overseas) and partly for beads for my Samhain shawl:

http://www.bopeepswoolshop.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=54.

I'm going to knit this as part of a KAL on the Knitting Goddesses (and Gods) group over on Ravelry and I'm very excited. The excitement did dim a little though when I calculated how many stitches there will be per row by the end (it's over 600). We're due to start on 1 November so I'm collecting everything together now. Meantime, I'm not letting myself cast on anything new except Christmas hats. Once the current one is done, there are just two more to go and that will be the Christmas knitting done. "Six pairs of socks, five woolly hats, and a stripey scarf for Jane". You can sing along - you know you want to! There will be proper piccies eventually.

I am hoping to take some FO piccies tomorrow, and I think there's some stash that hasn't actually made it on line yet but the weather forecast isn't great so we'll see. For now it's back to the lime-green hat and the glass of red wine .....

The wonders of IT

2009-10-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

I tried to post before I left for work this morning, having woken silly early again, but the home interweb was misbehaving again. However, I did manage to get these on line:

This is about 1/4 of my ironing and took about 50 minutes - that's not a good statistic! Once again, I didn't get home till gone 9, so this was all I was up for!

After that, I did manage to do about four rounds on the second green hat. It hasn't progressed very far, but here's the first one:

The colours are rubbish here, but hopefully I'll get some daylight photos at the weekend. By then I might have actually turned part of the ball of yellow yarn into a bobble too! The second (larger) hat is going to have a turquoise-ish bobble. I know the kids wanted matching hats, but I think being able to tell one from the other at a glance when they are different sizes is useful!

A new day - a new blog

2009-10-20T03:12:00.000-07:00

I was thinking yesterday (shocking, I know....). There are various blogs that I read, and people always seem to have interesting and/or amusing things to write about. I thought to myself 'the reason I don't blog is that I have nothing to write about'. It then occurred to me that I could do something about this! I could (and should!) make the effort to do more than go to work, go home, sit on the sofa and knit, and then go to bed. So, I decided to start a new blog. The aim of this is to force myself to do something blogable - even if it's only working my way through the ironing mountain.

In this respect, yesterday was a failure. Start as you mean to go on - I don't think! I'm currently on secondment to a client. Having worked late and then had a longer than usual commute, I didn't get home until nearly half past nine. By which time it was a snack for tea (client has a good canteen so I can get a main meal at lunchtime), a bit of knitting, and bed. Unfortunately, I then woke up at half past three this morning, and never got back to sleep. On the plus side, this means that the knitting part of one of the green hats ordered by the niece and nephew is completed - just needs a bobble.

I did get to speak to hubby briefly yesterday evening. He's in Algeria, and communication is tricky with email working about one day in three, mobile phone periodically connecting, and the landline having a swarm of wasps inside it (or at least - that's what it sounded like!). Still we did manage a brief chat. He is stuck in the desert so hasn't done much to talk about, and I had emailed him during the day with the latest news.