knitobsession

Update on the blanket

2011-06-10T04:54:00.002Z

Hecate always likes to help me photograph any WIP that is big enough to need my bed as a back ground, she inevitably gets in the way either before or during the photography!

The blanket I'm working on is growing but with hindsight knitting the squares together whiel I make teh mitred ones isn't a great idea as it is already getting quite heavy and awkward, it's going to be 5 x 5 squares and I'm on the 9th out of the 12 patterned squares and have actually started the fourth mitred square since this picture was taken on Tuesday.

I've just spent 2 days clearing more of the junk out opf my flat that has accumulated while I was depressed. I have no real choice but to crack on with that as fast as possible as my landlord wants to install new central heating very soon.

Luckily for me my big sister spent Thursday with me helping me to get more done and dealing with the heating company's surveyor for me as I get flustered by strangers in the flat, the cats just find the highest position they can in the flat and watch, unfortunately my preferred option of hiding under the duvet doesn't really work in the grown up world!

Progress!

2011-05-31T19:01:00.002Z

The Irish Diamond shawl is growing steadily, I think I've finally grasped the pattern, I can even see where to start the first pattern row each time without having to look at the pattern (although I still double check with the pattern). I like this pattern, it's not terribly complicated but it's a challeng to my less than sharp brain.

This is a variation on the twirly scarves that I was making a few years ago, I added some extra pale lilac to it, the snag is I made it from acrylic which means I can't block the edges to stop them roling up. It was a quick fun knit to make - Dolores from a back issue of Simply Knitting.

The good old potato chip scarf pattern, I want to add tassels to each end, as usual the sewing in of the ends and the finishing off is what gets left as I lose interest once the knitting is done.

This is the first of the winter woolly hats I'm making to go to a homeless shelter - mind you it's been so cold at work the last few weeks I may need it myself. I want to make more in different patterns as part of making my knitting useful, there aren't many people in my life that I can knit for.

Merlin supervising me, he's like all the cats I've ever been permitted to share my life with, he loves to be as high up as possible while he studies me! I'm going to have to cut down a bit on my knitting while I do some frantic restacking of the contents of my flat before they come to survey before they replace my central heating. I hate having workmen in my flat and I have far too much stuff in here - especially the skips of knitting yarn.

Current projects

2011-05-22T18:48:00.002Z

This is meant to be a zigzag scarf, because it's knitted lengthwise I wasn't sure how long it would turn out and to be honest it's way too short for anything I would want, it may be OK for my great niece though. it's a fun easy pattern to play with so I may make a longer version - especially I just invested in a 120cm long 4mm circular needle!

This is me testing to see if I can knit lace nowadays, I haven't been able to for the last couple of years - my concentration span and short term memory were both completely destroyed by the latest breakdown. Strictly this should be knit in laceweight rather than this 4 ply, but I find it easier to keep track of the pattern in the thicker yarn and so far I'm doing OK with the pattern as a result. It's pretty much a question of rebuilding my confidence in the skills I had before I became ill. This is the Irish Diamond shawl pattern that I tried once before I was sick. It's not a difficult pattern compared to many, I'm enjoying knitting it which is the most important thing right now.

I haven't taken pictures of all the WIP's I have on the go, but as usual I have far too many ! At the last count I have the following.

1) Scarf in Pooch that I bought years ago, I'm debating turning it into a short scarf (it's very thick yarn) and using the left over yarn to make trim for a hat and gloves and adding a button and button hole to the scarf. I'm almost convinced that will be the solution so I've ordered 2 buttons on ebay that should fasten the scarf and add as a trim to the hat. I'll have to find a yarn for the hat and gloves in a lighter weight, before I buy anything new I'll go stash diving first.

2) 5 different clapotis - in various stages of development, I'll take some pictures during the week rather than describing them in detail.

3) A shawl in a blue/green yarn, my old favourite garter stitch shawl with fringing - I bought a kilo of this yarn on ebay about 4 years ago and it's my mindless project, even I can remember to do a yarn over once a row - and if I forget it I can always sneak it in later!

4) Another Christmas tree - I plan on making a few more for home and office, I still haven't sewn up the first tree yet - like many of us I procrastinate with the finishing off of the things that I make!

5) The blanket project in tortoiseshell is plodding along, I've made 4 squares so far, my current design needs 20 squares, but I'm debating alternating with mitred squares in plain yarn as the variegated yarn is a bit busy on the eyes. That would mean buying more yarn rather than using up the stash, but it's a gift so I may do that if I decide it would look better.

6) A simple knit 2 purl 2 rib hat intended as a gift - I'm actually started on my Christmas knitting!

7) 2 mohair scarves being made from the stash, neither of them are in colours I will wear but will probably go into the Christmas gift pile or go to the local women's refuge.

8) I've the rikrak scarf from 'Scarves a knitters dozen' still on the go although I'm not 100% happy with how it's turning out.

9) I'm teaching a colleague how to knit socks on DPN's so I have a sock on my needles although I'm not feeling any sock love at all yet and have hardly touched it, I suspect that at the next lesson my student will be way ahead of me!

10) I'm experimenting with a sweater pattern from Simply Knitting May 2008 but using a different yarn, Spree in I think blueberry - purple/white variegations and I'm not sure if the cable pattern will work - the back is in stocking stitch anyway so I'm doing that first to see if the yarn drapes right.

Apart from the knitting, I did a small amount of slash and destroy gardening today and I'm sticking with the new healthy diet although I am starting to feel like a rabbit!

Sad cat

2011-05-17T05:11:00.002Z

I'm not sure what has upset Merlin, it may just be me doing a load of cleaning and tidying in my flat for the first time in ages, but when I got home from work yesterday he didn't greet me at the door, he was sulking on top of the boiler in the kitchen. He growled at the man who came to do the gas inspection on Saturday morning and bushed his tail up and showed his teeth - totally out of character for him.
I shall try and spend some cuddle time with him if he wants it and see if that settles him down, he's eating etc OK so I'm not too worried yet.

I'm experimenting again, I have loads of bits of blue/purple/pink yarn so I'm playing with quilt patterns that can be knitted, this log cabin square is obviously the easiest apart from just knitting squares and I'm rather enjoying doing it although it does make a lot of ends.

I've been asked by a work colleague to show her how to knit socks, it's ages since I've made any so I may have to relearn while I teach her.

Busy, busy

2011-05-15T17:15:00.002Z

I'd hoped to have photographed more of my WIP's this weekend but I spent Friday cleaning the kitchen for a gas inspection on Saturday morning, Saturday sleeping Friday off and then today sorting all the knitting and yarn in my living room into separate bags, they may only be supermarket carier bags but each WIP now has it's own bag and the ones that need a pattern have the pattern in with them!

The square in the picture doesn't look much, but it's an experiment to combine crochet and knitted log cabin to play around with combining textures using only one yarn rather than many - it seems to be working out and I plan on making more and turning them into a lap blanket for my friend's mother who frequently complains of cold legs.

In other news when saw my GP this week my blood sugar figures had improved and I actually came away with very nearly a pat on the head and agreement to cut my antidepressants by 25%. If any remaining UK readers can point me at information/advice/diets that would be helpful to an almost but not quite Type 2 diabetic I'd be very greatful, my current ultra careful diet will only last so long before I get so sick of the sight of salads I go mad and buy a chocolate cake.

My other question after being away from knitting for so long I can't remember my log in details for Ravelry is in 2 parts, why do people think that Elizabeth Zimmerman is so brilliant? I find her patterns incomprehensible and her top down pattern for sweaters to result in hundreds of shuddering children being forced to wear sloping shouldered garments that make them all look drooping shouldered and depressed. The other question is why knit dishcloths? I don't see them as being particularly hygenic, and why knit something pretty to use to wash dirty dishes, you might as well embroider the overalls that are worn to repair the car - or am I missing something?

A couple of FO's

2011-05-10T14:05:00.002Z

I'm addicted still to knitting clapotis. This is a narrow version in Juicy yarn, bamboo and cotton mix with the most glorious drape, typically I discovered it just as it was discontinued. I managed to resist over stocking it and only bought 500g each of 2 different colourways, my normal instinct is to buy everyscrao I find of a discontinued yarn regardless of how much I can use. This clapotis is mine, I've made several over the years and never kept one.

This is the first thing I've started and finished this year, a wider shorter clapotis, I wish in fact I'd made it longer but it isn't a pattern that lends itself to changing your mind one you've started the final decreaseing as it's knitted on the bias. Although I'm proud of it and it's very important as a milestone on my recovery I can't imagine ever wearing it, I just can't give it to anyone randomly I need it to go to someone who appreciates how symbolic it is to me.

A simple scarf, I have in fact made two, this one is in Medici, a gift to the manager I had for the first 6 months of my return to work, I'd give her my first born child if I had one she was so very kind and supportive to me when I returned to work in a horribly fragile state, she couldn't have treated me better or been more patient. We still stay in touch and met up yesterday so I could give this to her asa very small but heartfelt thankyou. The other scarf I have no picture of, it was another garter stitch scarf, made out of Illusion in red/gold/green - that has gone to the shrink I've been seeing, again it really is a totally inadequate gift to a woman has almost managed to convince me that I'm not totally worthless!

This is a baby picture of my Merlin cat - he's adorable even if Hecate doesn't agree - I didn't take many pictures of him before I gave up the photography for a while. I'm pretty much convinced when I look at pictures like this that he has to be a Siamese cross!

You may not believe this, but this is going to be a Christmas tree when I can finally be bothered to sew it up and stuff it. Real trees and cats in a small flat won't work so I've given my niece the glass baubles I had and am making a few of these, number 2 is on my needles already. As usual I have a load of WIP's - its a failing of my butterfly mind - I'll do something about getting pictures of them so you can mock me for my lack of focus :)

Tomorrow I get the results of blood tests to decide if I've developed type 2 diabetes during the last few years of comfort eating, I've done a radical overhaul of my diet this last month so I'm hoping to squeak through and avoid anymore meds.

Sod's law

2011-05-07T19:36:00.003Z

Is alive and well, I spent this week - at least odd moments trying to get all the bits I needed for my digital camera all in the same place, I eventually admitted today that I had lost the cable I needed for downloading to the PC and bought a new one on eBay - do I need to tell you that less than one hour later I found the lost cable?

I can show you a picture from last spring, I added a new family member - I'd like you to meet Merlin. he and Hecate don't always get on very well, but he keeps her much more active than she was used to! He's much more vocal than she is and a slighter build with a tendency to leap around the flat like a demented rabbit and I suspect he has Siamese blood in him as he's a shocker for licking me and sucking on my neck given the chance.

I saw my shrink last week, I've been lucky enough to get some sessions with someone who I find I work well with, sadly the NHS considers that 20 sessions will cure you so I've nearly run out of time with her. I also had blood tests to determine if I am diabetic, hopefully I'll be able to control it with diet as I have finally (I think) managed to find a diet that is helping me lose weight healthily, I'm seeing my Dr next Wednesday to get my test results and discuss where we go next if the figures aren't good enough. I really don't want to start medication yet so I'm hoping the 10 lbs I've lost in the last 4 weeks will help my case!

If I can get the camera to charge over night I'll try and get pictures of the latest FO's - some of which are things I'd abandoned 3 years ago and I'm getting dealt with. Then I'll have to try and work out how blogger has changed in the long break I've had!

Still alive

2011-05-01T13:41:00.002Z

I know it's been a horribly long time since I posted, most of my old readers must think I've died!

The depression and stress I was suffering from kept me off work for close to two years and destroyed my ability to knit - I couldn't hold a pattern in my head for more than a minute and my concentration span wasn't much longer. I finally went back to work last October and in the last 6 weeks I finally started knitting again, I need to play hunt the camera to be able to show you what I've been working on, mostly a couple of scarves, but I have made two of my old favourite clapotis that I hope I can show you soon.

Don't expect regular blogging for a while, but I like to think this post is a sign that I am taking another step along the very long road back from the black pit I was in for so long.

Still alive

2008-12-17T18:57:00.002Z

Just a quick update, just in case anyone at all still looks at this blog!
I've been having computer problems, but mostly I've been away from here recovering from the depression, dealing with stuff at work and not actually knitting.

There's a new man in my life and a load of online friends from an online game that I started playing.

There aren't enough hours in the day at the moment for me to keep up with everyone, but life is good and I am happy.

Hope that anyone who stops by to read this has nearly finished their Christmas knitting and that you all have a great festive season however you celebrate.

Helpful kitty

2008-09-15T18:18:00.002Z

I spent this weekend rather vaguely trying to do some housework, the flat has been sadly neglected lately while I've been so depressed and I'm gradually winning the battle against the chaos. A friend of mine has been helping me, he comes round and helps me shovel the junk out and get the cleaning started - he's been a huge help kick starting me getting things done.
I decided to attack the kitchen cupboards and remove the out of date stuff that lurks folornly in the back of them, I didn't have to deal with it all alone - as you can see I had help!
The crocheted squares are plodding along and I'm now debating booking for Skipnorth next year.

Lost, one knitting mojo

2008-09-07T18:39:00.003Z

What I have managed to do is find some satisfaction in crochet, even if only ordinary granny squares. I still can't concentrate on a knitting pattern to save my life but these I can do.
My return to work has left me really tired and I'm only just beginning to have some energy when I get home from work. In addition I'm facing at least one and possibly three more desk moves in the near future which is not helping my mood! I do, at least, like my new manager and I'm getting better able to concentrate on my work and being more productive.
I've even been working through the flat getting it sorted and cleaned after months of neglect.
The area where I live is deteriorating, a month ago there were 4 knife attacks in 6 hours one Friday night, this Friday a 17 year old was stabbed and killed less than 100 yards from my flat, all thoroughly depressing and trapping us indoors all Saturday while the police searched for the murder weapon.

Overall I'm much better but don't feel inclined to blog much as it would mostly be
1) got up
2) went to work
3) came home
4) microwaved tea
5) bathed
6) went to bed!
I will try and update this a little more often though so that people who eread this know that I'm still alive!

Up to my eyebrows

2008-07-21T17:55:00.002Z

I'm back at work - just, I did 3 days last week and this week I'm aiming at 4, as a result I'm absolutely shattered. It isn't helped by my frantic efforts at clearing up the neglect in my flat - I don't think I've cleaned or tidied much in the last 12 months and the council gas inspection is in a month and a surveyor needs access soon too!
I've cleared up and thrown away or given away what seems like a small mountain of stuff and the place still looks like a bomb site. I've mislaid my camera while I've been doing this sorting, I'm fairly sure it is still somewhere in the flat but haven't time to look for it.
I am still knitting just a bit each day but only on some stocking stitch at the moment - the lace is up to 7 pattern repeats but I don't have time to sit and concentrate on it yet.
Don't worry if I don't blog much in the next couple of weeks, belated spring cleaning and work are taking up most of my time but I am OK - still emotionally fragile but I have manage dto get into work on every day I'd planned to so far which my mother assures me is a major victory!

Downs and ups

2008-07-09T19:03:00.002Z

Yesterday wasn't too good, Hecate had a demon in her I'm sure, she managed to open the freezer door, knock a bottle of olive oil onto the kitchen floor, break a cup and steal my Irish diamond shawl leaving it with this unplanned hole.

I decided that I wasn't up to repairing the hole and I was aware of a number of fudged bits where I'd attempted lace knitting under the influence of a combination of anti depressants so I've started it over again, to my delight I've mastered the pattern properly and it's so far doing well (and safely out of cat reach)

A parcel arrived from my sister today - I don't know if she or my nephew made this for my birthday, but it's wonderful. now I just have to sort through my 'collection' to find the picture hangers!

This book was in the package as well, fortunately Hecate has behaved angelically today so I actually may agree with the book title (until the next time she plays up)
I saw my doctor on Monday and I'll be going back to work next week, I'm not sure how I feel about it, I am much better than I was but dread it being as bad as it was before I became ill.

Finally we have progress!

2008-07-06T15:12:00.003Z

I realise this isn't actually knitting, but while I was sorting through a box of chaos yesterday I found this baby sweater and sewed it up - and wove in every end - I'm hoping it is still big enough for my great niece as I started it last year before she was born then abandoned it with one sleeve sewn in.

Not only did I do sewing up, I found the Irish Diamond shawl that I started last year, found the pattern and actually did knitting that wasn't a garter stitch scarf, admittedly I had to do some fudging to get the pattern set right but I've actually done nearly two pattern repeats.
Hecate aproves of this sitting knitting stuff as I've cleared the piles of junk off the settee and now she can spend her time asleep next to me rather than constantly pestering for my attention when I'm playing on the PC.
I'm seeing my doctor Monday afternoon to see if she thinks I'm ready to go back to work, whenever I do go back poor Hecate is going to be very puzzled after having me at home for so long especially as for the first 4 weeks I didn't leave the flat.
When I first moved to this flat I thought I was moving to a somewhat safer area compared to my old house wher emy neighbours burgled me twice, however, I've been finding it is less safe than I thought, Friday night withing a half mile rdius of my flat 4 men were stabbed in 3 separate attacks - I wonder if there is anywhere safer to move to!

I'm amazed!

2008-07-02T19:47:00.002Z

I had an appointment yesterday with the practice nurse rather than my GP to review my asthma medication. She did a routine check on my blood pressure that has been rather high for some time, normally it goes down a bit if I haven't been into work but I was sure that this would have been outweighed by the fact that my mother's health has been less than stellar recently and my brother wound up in hospital recently as well - not a bit of it, my blood pressure was completely normal, my asthma behaving and I've lost some weight too! Clearly being away from the office for 6 weeks is the most important factor in my blood pressure.

I'd like to thank the people who've left comments or emailed me - it's much appreciated and I promise I'll try and check in more often and I may even attempt some knitting soon!

Been a long time gone!

2008-06-30T17:26:00.003Z

I owe anyone who still reads this blog an apology, I haven't blogged, knit or read any blogs since the end of April. I've had a rough year, it all started when I had a winter of endless chest infections and just seems to have gone from bad to worse. I can't discuss here how my job has added to my stress levels, but endless desk moves - around 10 in 7 months and issues with my manager resulted in the slight depression I was suffering from spiralling completely out of control. After 5 weeks off work on double the dose of anti depressants and some Valium I'm finally on the mend (fingers crossed)

I haven't had the concentration to knit, read or even watch TV for most of the last 3 or 4 months and I'm hopeful that I may be able to return to work next week after I see my long suffering GP again, she's been wonderfully supportive seeing me every two weeks to make sure I didn't get any worse. Hecate has mostly been a light in the dark place where I've been (in the first picture she's actually being wicked and nesting on a kitchen work surface, the second picture is of her watching the birds outside - she has a fond belief that if she could jump from the first floor window she'd be able to catch the birds in the trees.

Substitute for knitting

2008-04-27T17:39:00.002Z

As I'm not currently doing much knitting, or much of anything really I thought a couple of pictures of Hecate crushing my clean clothes would be a suitable substitute! She is doing her level best to look cute and angelic as you can see!

I've had a load of hospital appointments in the last few weeks, the outcomes appear to be somewhat more positive thankfully, the yhave added a humidifier to my CPAP machine and I'm finally able to keep it on all night and am feeling better but still catching up on sleep and dreams!
Hopefully I'll soon be able to show you some knitting again, I do have something that I'm experimenting with on my needles at the moment, it just isn't ready for display yet!

Disorganisation!

2008-04-02T17:43:00.002Z

I've been whinging with yet another chest infection, I'm getting thoroughly fed up with these as I can't even find the energy to knit which seems like an awful waste of additional 'free' time! This rather blurred picture is me finally starting to attempt a toe up sock, it was my resolution about 2 years ago to try this method and so far I haven't got very far!

This is my current mindless knitting, ultra cheap Sirdar Illusion on huge needles it combined my favourite colours of rich purple and blue with black and is intended as a loose over waistcoat to be worn over my many black outfits.

As the toe up sock isn't suitable for bus knitting I've cast this on today, I found that I actually had a skein of Cascade 220 that was required by the pattern so I'm for once in my life using the correct yarn!
This is what I'm making, it's a straightforward pattern and from my current knitting pattern a day calendar, the first pattern I've felt the urge to make. Of course, I should be following Rosie's advice and knitting myself some mittens to wear at night to stop me taking off my CPAP mask!

An FO and a nearly FO

2008-03-23T18:36:00.002Z

As you can see from this picture Hecate has got bored waiting for me to blog and has gone to sleep in her supervisory position on top of the spare PC! She's got a bit fed up of me this long weekend, I've been sorting through bags of yarn, clearing up and generally disturbing her routine. She's definitely sleeping better than I am, I have unfortunately developed the ability to remove my CPAP mask and switch off the machine in my sleep, this results in me sleeping for most of the night without its help and my sleep quality is deteriorating again.
Here we have the FO, my first pair of socks finished this year, my knitting really has become incredibly slow but I'm feeling much happier at getting something finished. It's nice to have a new pair of socks just in time as the weather here is cold, strangely last night there was snow at the other side of Manchester from me (where my mum lives) and nothing here at all. I've been knitting and watching some DVD's that have been waiting for me to develop some concentration again so these were finished off while watching Miss Potter.
Here we have the nearly FO, I last touched this in October 2005 as far as I can tell. It still needs the ends sewing in and the seaming doing but my sewing up needles all appear to be at work! If I find one I'll get it finished this weekend, if not I hope to be able to show this completely finished next weekend.

Slow progress

2008-03-17T20:39:00.001Z

This second sock is progressing terribly slowly, but it is at least still progressing! The knitting urge is returning though, I knit some of this on the bus going to and from work today, the first bus knitting of the year, an event which I'm sure should have been honoured with fireworks and a marching band!
With the Easter long weekend coming up I'm planning on searching through my many WIP's and getting one of them moving once this pair of socks is finished - I do love having a plan, even if it never actuially happens.

Slightly sidetracked

2008-03-13T20:21:00.002Z

The second sock is growing - but slowly due to the fact that I've been sidetracked by a book that arrived through the post! Years ago I read Lark Rise to Candleford in a very old copy with incredibly small print, the BBC just showed an adaptation of it that I really didn't like, but it reminded me of the book and I treated myself to a new copy. This has had a bad effect on my knitting as I haven't mastered the art of reading and knitting combined. I've spent a day's leave mostly curled up in bed reading as I'm fighting yet another sinus infection so resting seemed a good plan.
The sock is reclining on a gift from a friend of mine, it's the corn equivalent of a wheat bag, I finally met up with my friend to exchange Christmas gifts this week - we did at least manage it before easter! This is in fact from Maine, and is a rather cute bear with the advantage of being unscented, most wheatbags have added lavender and that makes me sneeze so this is wonderful.
I'm still persisting with the CPAP machine and Hecate and I both seem to be getting more used to it, my average use per day is getting closer to 7 hours and I am feeling less tired although still plagued with incredibly intense dreams.

Definitely getting there

2008-03-10T19:39:00.002Z

I've finished one sock and even cast on its mate,

it is only a simple ankle sock but I'm almost as proud of it as I was of my very first sock. I'm determined to finish the second sock in the next week just to prove that I'm back with my knitting mojo restored!

Learning to sleep

2008-03-09T20:03:00.002Z

I'm still learning to sleep with the CPAP machine and mask, it hasn't been easy but I'm getting to the point of being able to keep it on nearly all night and I think I'm beginning to feel the benefit of it. Its quite hard to tell when an improvement is slow and steady until you look back over a period of time, two and a half weeks probably isn't long enough really.
I have at least managed to make more progress with this sock, not as quickly as I can, but steady and a big improvement on not knitting at all.

Another post!

2008-03-06T19:29:00.002Z

I must be feeling better, I've reached the foot of my sock and here I am blogging for a second day in a row!

As I'm having to miss SkipNorth this year I'm planning on rewarding myself with a weekend of knitting and DVD watching, I'm not sure how it will turn out, but that is the current plan. Alternatively I may spend time playing Monopoly as a I got a free copy of the programme last weekend - endless potential for time wasting!

It's been way too long

2008-03-05T20:20:00.002Z

I'm sorry to have been missing for so long, it's taken me ages to get over the last chest infection and I've been spending most of my energy in trying to resolve issues at work (and failing).
I finally found a slight urge to knit this week so last night I wound a skein of Schaefer sock yarn (Tutti Frutti colour)into a ball and today as I had a day off work I vast this on, it isn't much, just a plain ankle sock, but it's the first real knitting I've done this year. I grant you I should have worked on one of my WIP's but I didn't feel up to working out where I was up to with anything and I wasn't sure that given the stress I'm under what my tension would have been like - I suspect that I'm knitting even tighter than usual!
Hecate seemed to approve of me knitting, she came and snuggled down next to me with her head in my lap being ultra cute.
In the mean time, I've finally got my CPAP machine which is supposed to solve my tiredness problems so cat and I are trying to get used to me sleeping with a mask on and a machine helping me breathe!

Not much here

2008-02-17T20:00:00.002Z

In theory I'm back at work on Monday after yet another two weeks of a chest infection that was enlivened by conjunctivitis in both eyes as well! Once I could see to read again I enjoyed reading this autobiography of Bill Owen, best known for his role as Compo in Last of the Summer Wine he had appeared in many other roles before that and been involved in left wing theatre for many years.

I finally picked up the knitting needles, granted all I've done is finish off this eyelash scarf, but it's the first knitting I've done this year! I'm kind of hoping that I'll get inspired again soon but the return to work has me very stressed knowing how at risk I seem to be of picking up repeat infections, sadly an attempt to arrange for me to work at least part time at home hasn't come up with anything so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I stay well for a while!
Thanks again to the people who have sent good wishes by email or via the comments here - they are much appreciated.

I aten't dead yet

2008-02-05T20:51:00.000Z

I'm sorry I've been missing for so long - thank you to everyone who has been in touch with me to ask how I am - I'm starting to feel as if I've been sick forever (in fact it's been off and on since last September)
I've no knitting to show you, I haven't actually picked up my knitting this year, life consists of going to work coming home and sleeping when I haven't been sneezing, coughing and wheezing my way through a seemingly endless procesession of chest infections. I still have a Christmas package to post to germany but I haven't been able to get to a Post office and I'm feeling thoroughly sorry for myself!
I'm off work sick yet again this week and I'm hoping that if I start to feel a little better I'll go back to a simple scarf! I'm just relieved that I hadn't booked to go to SkipNorth this year as no way would I have been well enough to go.
I'm sorry this sounds like such a pity party - even Hecate cat is fed up with me and I think would be happy tosee me back in work!

Christmas loot part 2

2008-01-03T13:45:00.000Z

A large part of my Christmas loot was books - these are the non knitting ones from my mother. I love the TV series' of Coast and I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this - one of my friends already has her name on the borrowing list for when I'm done so I'll move it to the top of my reading list which at the moment is pretty long as I've bought a stack of books and then not had sufficient concentration to read anything but old friends.

I couldn't resist asking for this book on Michelangelo, it's going to be another one to enjoy on winter evenings when I feel like a bit of educational reading (so maybe not quite yet).

I have all the rest of Michael Palin's travel books so it's nice to have this one too, I missed a couple of episodes from the TV series but I'm absolutely sure that they will a) come out on DVD and b) be repeated almost ad nauseum on every public holiday, on teh mean time I can read this.

Finally the delightful David Dimbleby enthusing about architecture, I think I preferred his Portrait of Britain series but this one was pretty interesting as well (I think my DVD wish list is lengthening as well)!
Knitting still isn't happening here but I have a raft of medical appointments coming up and they tend to be good for kick starting the knitting again.

Finally surfacing with a thank you!

2008-01-02T10:58:00.000Z

Look at these gorgeous socks - they arrived at the weekend, perfect timing as I was just recovering from the second bout of evil chest infection in the last few months. Sibille sent them to me and I think they are wonderful! Thank you so much, I've been a rotten correspondant and blogger for the last few months but I will try and do better this year. I'm back in work again and hoping that the latest lot of antibiotics and steroids will have blasted the bugs that have been making me ill on a repetitive basis for far too long. I've not even been knitting which is why Christmas gifts weren't finished and blogging didn't happen.
I have a load of other things to show you and my review of what I did manage to achieve last year but I'll have to do it a bit at a time over the next few days - I really will try and blog more often I promise!

A picture at least

2007-12-13T04:59:00.000Z

One picture and then my camera batteries went flat - I currently appear to have the organisational skills of a rabbit! I'm part way through a sock but can't remember what foot size it should be, I've totally failed to finish any Christmas knitting and haven't even started writing Christmas cards yet.
This is the yarn that my delightful secret pal sent me, she also sent me the Sleepwalker socks pattern by Monica Nappe, I'm taking the yarn with me tonight to borrow a pair of hands from a family member for winding off the skein into a ball ready for trying the pattern out.
Anita, it's been a pleasure being spoilt by you, I'm sorry that I've been such a rotten correspondent - I seem to have been shockingly slow in replying what with work pressures and being ill.

Missing - presumed busy?

2007-12-12T05:08:00.000Z

I'm really sorry I've been missing in action, firstly, thanks to my secret pal - a package arrived sometime at the weekend from Socktopus - gorgeous yarn and a really interesting sock pattern. I've not had time to photograph anything yet as I've been toing and froing as my mother is poorly, she's got a nasty chest infection that has upset her asthma (a bit like mine did) but she's wheezing and whistling like an old tea kettle. Luckily my big sister has arrived yesterday so I should be able to do pictures Wednesday night. We're all going to my mother's Thursday to see how she is and decide how best to help her.

Hecate's new friend

2007-12-03T21:53:00.000Z

Not much knitting took place today but I do have something to show you!
I lunched with my mother today and collected various treats for Hecate and myself, this penguin is incredibly soft and snuggly and I had plans on it being mine!

As you can see, Hecate was fasscinated and I think has decided that penguin is to be her new friend as later in the evening she was curled up with it. What Hecate doesn't realise is that her honorary Grandma also sent her some cat treats and a Christmas dinner from Marks and Spencer - one foil tray of turkey and cranberry and one of vanilla and chocolate flavour dessert - she is one spoilt pussy cat!

Scarves? It must be Christmas!

2007-12-02T18:49:00.000Z

Every year I swear I shan't knit any more fluffy scarves and every year my neighbour asks for more of them, it does at least mean that December starts off with two finished objects! November was pretty unsuccessful, I managed to make two pairs of socks, one of which is safely with my Secret Pal who can be found here . Laura has been a delight to spoil, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Having finished two scarves I'm back on socks, this is the first sock of a pair planned for a work colleague, it's in yarn from the natural Dye Studio, I always revert to their sock yarn when I want soft warm socks.

I do finish things occasionally!

2007-11-26T05:59:00.000Z

Finally I reached the end of the cable socks, I seem to have been working on them forever and a day, I'm pleased with them though and they're now safely wrapped up and will go in the post this week.

Just to prove that I'm a wee bit crazy I dug out an old sock-in-progress with a slightly different cable repeat and figured out where I'd got confused when I was working on it about a year ago, I've done a few rounds and will now try and keep it plodding along in between the frantic Christmas gift knitting that I have barely started. I've returned the set top box for my broadband TV and have successfully muddled up the connection of my DVD player to the TV so I've no excuse to avoid getting on with the complicated knitting that I can't do while I watch television!

Here she is!

2007-11-23T05:21:00.000Z

I'd hoped to be showing you a picture of a finished pair of socks but I've made a total hash of the toe decreases somehow, frogged and picked the stitches up all wrong!
I can however (and much more importantly) show you my great niece at one day old as her parents have given me the OK to post her picture. I told you she is gorgeous and here is the proof!
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the sock problem fixed and be cracking on with the Christmas knitting - I've planned my weekend for frantic knitting and packing the final parcel for my secret pal!

Life and socks

2007-11-19T05:09:00.000Z

I completely forgot to blog on Friday when I took this picture - I was wrestling with my television supply from my internet provider all day only to eventually get a tech support man to agree with me that my telephone signal is too weak for the service and they should never have offered it to me. At this point I suffered a sense of humour failure and sulked for much of the weekend. This meant that I didn't share with you the excitement of finally starting the heel of the second cable sock.
By the end of the weekend the sock had reached this stage in its development, I'm cautiously optimistic that I may get it finished in the next few days.
The lack of blogging means that I didn't thank those of you who left comments or emailed me about the arrival of the great niece, I do have several pictures of her but don't have permission from her parents to post them so I'm afraid that you will have to take my word for her being completely gorgeous!
I also didn't have the chance to share four unrelated incidents, three of which demonstrate to me that I really don't understand the local inhabitants here and the fourth goes to show that my cat understands me all too well.
Tuesday last week I waited at the bus stop and to my amazement saw a mother light two cigarettes and pass one to her son who looked to be no more than 12-14 years old - I find that sort of parenting completely incomprehensible.
Thursday morning on my way to work at 6am a young man walked past me with a single golf club in his hand, I can't think of any innocent reason for this - especially as he had his hat and scarf arranged to almost completely obscure his face.
Thursday coming home from work I passed a home made banner on a roundabout that announced to the world that some young lad was 21 that day and (apparently) still a virgin - why would anyone put that on a banner?
My cat (in my eyes) frequently demonstrates intelligence, having had part of a cooked chicken on Wednesday evening she saw the rest of it being put in the fridge, next morning she attempted to hide her cat food and stood in front of the fridge on her hind legs mewing to tell me that she'd much prefer chicken.

Officially old?

2007-11-13T13:46:00.000Z

At 11 am today my niece had a little girl, I am now officially a great aunt, I am now giving myself permission to become an eccentric, cat owning, knitting, eccentric great aunt!
This is my mother's first great grand child and I just took great delight in calling my older sister grandma!

If I ruled the world!

2007-11-13T05:20:00.000Z

Socks with cables on them would be much easier than this one (had I made a note of how I did the first sock this second sock would be much easier)I do love this yarn though and it will be very hard to part with the socks when they are finished!
In fact, more importantly, if I ruled the world every new pensioner would be given lessons in how to catch a bus. With the approaching festive season combined with the free bus travel that pensioners have after 9.30am and the difficulties in parking in Manchester my journeys home have been enlivened by people who haven't the faintest idea how to catch a bus. In the last week I've had to explain to a sweet lady that the bus that just drove past our stop hadn't stopped to let her on because she hadn't put her hand out to indicate that she wanted it to stop. I then had to explain to another couple that the bus we were on only stopped at bus stops, not at the corner right by their house (which would of course have been much more convenient). The buses seem to be full of a combination of hyperactive teenagers and confused pensioners with an added garnish of screaming babies in huge prams, it doesn't make for a peaceful knitting experience which is slowing down my knitting output dreadfully!

Checking in on Sunday

2007-11-11T19:43:00.000Z

I'm still not making great progress with my secret pal knitting or with my Christmas knitting in fact but I did cast on this sock as a Christmas gift, it's Natural Dye Studio's yarn, I love their colours and they make lovely simple socks.

Knitting a simple sock would be much simpler if Hecate didn't try to help me all the time, she's reacted badly to me returning to work after the month I was off sick and is alternately sulky and clingy, I've never had to deal with separation anxiety from a cat before and I'm trying to get us back into a routine to try and help her to settle down again.
I have finally on about the fifth attempt managed to get the cable pattern established in the second cable sock - it might have helped if I'd written the pattern down when I invented the first one! Next sock after this will be the Embossed Leaves pattern in Forest although I may also try that pattern in the Maizy yarn as it is coloured in autumn leaf colours.

A day late!

2007-11-09T06:00:00.000Z

I'd meant to post this yesterday as I had a day off work but I slept all day, I think I knitted a grand total of 2 rounds of a sock and the rest of the time was spent dozing with Hecate snuggled up as close as possible. This mug and coaster are now on my desk at work, they were a gift from my mother, surprisingly enough all my female colleagues seem to agree with the sentiment!

I found these three balls of wool at the bottom of the stairs on Wednesday when I got home, Hecate has been yarn hunting again, rather worryingly, I can account for the 4 ply, that's spare from knitting premature baby clothes, but I have no recollection of the other two at all. Is my indoor cat now sneaking through wormholes in space to find me yarn?

Everytime I think I will stop buying knitting pattern books I find another I can't resist, this has some very unusually structured scarves that I'd like to try although like my planned embossed leaves socks they will have to wait until I finally finish my secret pal gifts and do some rapid Christmas knitting! Don't worry Sibile, I will knit that forest sock yarn as soon as I can!

It's a pair!

2007-11-05T21:18:00.000Z

I finally knitted a pair of socks - this is Angels and Elephants yarn that I bought on eBay, the purple is actually pinker than it looks here but I haven't managed to get an accurate picture yet. It's bonfire night here and my poor cat is completely disturbed by the fourth night in a row of fireworks, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit quieter. I promise I'll try and get another sock on the go tomorrow - it's getting colder and I need more socks!

Sunday

2007-11-05T05:14:00.000Z

In the lack of blogging last week I never showed you this, I never buy Rowan books normally as they are mostly full of designs that are too small for my use, but this book being men's patterns goes larger and has a couple of patterns that I really want to make from it.

The second sock of this pair is now growing reasonably quickly, this is the end result of me sitting in front of the television watching lots of Victoria Wood repeats.

Hecate let me have the armchair today - but took over the computer table - she's definitely having an attention seeking phase again although to be fair it is some time since she last fell in my bathwater which is something!

Better late than never

2007-11-03T12:12:00.000Z

My mother has been blanket knitting and sewing squares together for charity, this is my sister modelling it - I know you can't see her but I assure you that she is behind it!

In her spare time she's been crocheting this in (I think) snowflake chunky that we bought at the G-Mex when she and I went on a spending spree in September.

I've been re organising my living room so that I can relax in my armchair in front of my vastly expanding range of TV channels - unfortunately as you can see Hecate has decided that I moved the armchair especially for her benefit!

She's very good at looking so cosy and relaxed that I don't have the heart to move her, she's been disturbed by the dratted fireworks around here and alternating demanding my attention with hiding whilst turning up her nose at her cat food.

I did finish another sock, October knitting was pretty sparse I'm afraid, I finished 2 socks and a cushion cover, I finished the knitting for the camouflage top and did some of the sewing up but then I did some tidying up and can't find it to finish it off!

Is this really purple?

2007-10-30T07:03:00.000Z

I bought this sock yarn because it claimed to be purple and as we all know, I'm a sucker for purple sock yarn, in fact for purple anything! It looked fairly purple on the website and it looks purplish here, but it's more greyish lilac to my way way of thinking and I'm not feeling terribly inspired by it. I'm trying to branch out into non plain socks this winter and I'd hoped that this would become a flowery type pattern but at the moment I'm thinking more rainclouds and thunder than floral.

Now, this, is purple and grey rather than greyish purple! I finished a sock for me, and although I didn't take a picture of this I cast on the second sock in direct defiance of the second sock syndrome. I would have got more knitting done if I'd been television watching but after getting the broadband television set up on Saturday I made the mistake of moving the television and a cable has come loose, at the moment I haven't managed to figure out which one so I'm back to square one! I do have a wireless router now and faster internet plus to my excitement I now seem to have a spam filter working to stop it being downloaded from the server - I'm amazingly excited about this!

Busy person

2007-10-24T21:06:00.000Z

I've been busy today moving my computers around my flat, there is very little room here, mostly due to the fact that I have rather a lot of knitting wool so any big move of stuff has to be arranged like a series of chess moves. I've managed to get one of my 2 PC's working OK ready for the engineer coming to install my broadband TV on Saturday. Hecate isn't impressed but I'm pretty pleased with myself. This arrived - good timing, it felt like a reward, it's Socrates sock yarn in the Halloween colourway from my secret pal - it's lovely and is very high on my 'to knit' list, I have a couple of things to finish for the person I'm spoiling and then I'll get cracking.

My simple sock pattern is progressing, I'm procrastinating over the cable sock, I need to get on with it but not on the bus! Rosie, I don't think I'll get to Skipnorth, I'm really sad about it but I won't have got my sleep apnoea sorted out by then so unless you know of someone with the same complaint - or a hearing aid that they can turn off at night then I can't in fairness share a room with anyone. I wake up and/or snore/snuffle up to 30 times an hour when I sleep at present. I can't honestly afford to book into a B & B as an alternative so I shall have to count myself out.

A couple of years ago I bought a cone of this yarn, I keep this ultra simple shawl by the PC and knit the odd row while I mess around waiting for files to move and stuff like that, it may end up with a long fringe at the end depending on how much yarn I have left.
Sibille, I had a feeling you'd approve of my choice of pattern for the Forest yarn, it's a perfect match, a yarn that told me at once what it wanted to be. Healthwise I'm improving slowly, still tired a lot of the time, but the knitting mojo is returning and I'm more confident that I'm on the mend.

Stash building

2007-10-22T05:47:00.000Z

I have to show you what I've been spending my money on while I've been busily not blogging! I'm addicted to yarn from the Natural Dye Studio, they dye the most gorgeous colourways and wonderful customer service. This is alpaca and merino double knitting in the hydrangea colourway, I'm planning a hat for me or possibly gloves, it's the softest loveliest yarn, I want to cuddle it!

This is BFL sock yarn in forest berries, socks ofr me I think although possibly it will end up as socks as a gift - who knows? I'm so far behind with knitting for my secret pal and for Christmas that I need Christmas putting off until next June! I'm blaming the chest infection, I actually felt too ill to knit for almost a month, incredibly frustrating and wasted a huge amount of potential knitting time.

This is merino sock yarn in forest, I'm thinking possibly the embossed leaves pattern from Interweave Knits, I've not got the book in front of me so I can't remember the name of the designer - I'll add it later.
Here's the proof that I did cast on the second sock but then stalled as I need to sit down and count carefully to get the cables right - I really will try and get on with it this week as I want to get it into the post (with its mate).

Here you can see how busy Hecate has been, now it is autumn I have to dry my clotehs on these airers, unfortunately she thinks they are intended as a climbing frame for her and my clothes spend most of their time on the floor! She does enjoy herself and demonstrates how athletic and supple she is!

Finally - a sock!

2007-10-14T17:40:00.000Z

I was determined to achieve something this weekend, the plan to get the television sorted on Saturday failed and has had to be rescheduled and I mostly seem to have slept the weekend away, but, here is the first sock that I've managed to produce in months. I've even cast on the second sock of the pair which is good going for me. I have plans for this pair so I must crack on with it as soon as possible.

The second sock wil be my bus knitting this week if i can figure out how to remember where I'm up to with the cables while knitting in public.

Post finally!

2007-10-12T19:47:00.000Z

Finally the strike bound mail service managed to spit out several packages and a load of bills this morning! I'd taken a days leave to reduce my first week back in the office to something manageable, sadly I then proceeded to sleep all day, clearly I needed the sleep but it feels like a terrible waste of a day off.
Anyway, this package arrived from the USA, my poor secret pal must have been wondering if it was ever going to get here!

These were inside, thank you secret pal - I have more babie sto knit for so the baby yarn will be extremely useful! The plastic stitch markers wil be really useful as I don't like to use metal markers on my nice shiny purple needles because I don't want to scratch them. The small balls are actually 50g in each, it's Maizy yarn, I've seen it in use on other blogs but never seen it in real life. It is 82% corn fiber and 18% elastic nylon, I'm not sure what pattern I'll use for it yet but the colours certainly make a nice change.

I finished sewing the new cushion cover around a cushion, it's a lovely thing, soft and fluffy and I was right, I can't easily keep Hecate away from it, she stands on it and kneads it with her claws.

As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I always have at least one fluffy scarf on my neeedles for the times when I don't want to knit anything complex, this is Sirdar Frenzy, not my favourite fancy yarn but I'm sure to find a home for it.

This doesn't show up very easily, but it's the camouflage sweater, I've finished teh neck band and done some of the seam sewing, hopefully it will be finished by the end of the weekend.

A second sleeve

2007-10-10T18:51:00.000Z

I'm still cranking out this sweater, I just have to pick up the neck stitches, knit the neck band and seam it, in theory there should be pockets on each sleeve but I can't decide if I fancy them so I'll make it up without for now and see how much yarn I have left after I knit the trousers.
I had great news today, the premature twins that I was knitting for are doing really well, one is off tube feeding already, they're hoping the other littel girl will be soon and there is real optimism that they may be allowed home in the near future, I couldn't be more thrilled for them and their parents. I'm looking forward to knitting them full size baby clothes soon and also making something for their big sister so she doesn't feel left out.

See - I have been knitting

2007-10-09T19:38:00.000Z

Please note that this is a different front (or back) as it's on a different needle to the picture on Sunday! I just have one sleeve and the sleeve pockets to do then I can start the finishing off and I'll have completed something this month!
I'm busily trying to decide if I can get a small package into teh post to my secret pal between one UK postal strike finishing and the next one starting and if it's worth the risk of putting something into the system that may take weeks to emerge from teh other end, I'm afraid for UK members of the latest secret pal swaps the post is proving a trial, I know there's a parcel on it's way to me, I think from the USA but as for when it will arrive - I have no idea, I tell myself that patience is a good thing to learn, but I've reache dteh ripe old age of 44 without getting the hang of it yet. This doesn't stop me from telling the cat to be patient when she tries to steal the food off my plate.
I made it through a second complete day at work today - despite getting soaked in a torrential downpour on my way in this morning, so far the week has been pretty much OK, better than I'd expected at least and I'm taking Friday off to give myself a long weekend. I have two reasons for that, one is to rest after being back at work but secondly I have the engineer coming to connect my TV service to my broadband, that means clearing up some more and may be a mistake as the downpour last night made my broadband lie down and die in the early hours of today. Luckily it was working when I got home enabling me to show you the knitting!

It's back to work I go

2007-10-08T19:00:00.000Z

This means very little knitting as I managed to miss out somw vital decreases at the beginning of the raglan on the camouflage top and ended up frogging all the knitting I did while waiting to see my doctor. I'm still not 100% as my asthma which had been totally controlled is giving me problems, I can't work on my normal floor (the 11th) as I can't walk down 11 flights of stairs if we have a fire so I'm currently camping out on the second floor without any of my usual colleagues but it's better than being stuck at home. In the 4 weeks I've been off they've completely reorganised my section, I have a different manager from today (but he's off sick) and I'll be working on something new for the first time in nearly 4 years which I'm looking forward to. It could have been a much tougher return to work, Hecate has misssed me and showed her feelings by tryng to bite me when I came home - she's been bribed with salmon and is safely asleep in the doorway of my computer room so that she can keep her eye on me and make sure I don't vanish again. The return to work has left me shattered so I'm off to bed to catch up on teh sleep I didn't get last night as I anticipated the first day back in the office!

Cracking on

2007-10-06T20:23:00.000Z

I'd had great plans for housework today, but instead I knitted a sleeve of the camouflage top while I sorted out the morass of files on my computer, I've been burning things I want to keep onto CD and knitting while it copies.

This is a finished front (or back) of the camouflage top, I have, in fact cast on the other half, but I didn't bother taking a picture as you've seen a part front and a finished one!

Actually knitting

2007-10-05T23:05:00.000Z

I've been knitting up a storm today, this is the back (or front) of a T shirt style sweater for a toddler, I'm not sure who will get it yet but I couldn't resist kniting this yarn, I got it when I went to the Craft and Stitching Exhibition at the G Mex last month.

This is the finished cushion cover I was making, I just need to finish sewing it up and find a cushion pad to go in it! I suspect that once it is filled that Hecate will take it over as hers, she's taken to snuggling up with me now the nights are cooler so this will be nice and warm for her.

The sock is growing bigger, although I'm slow at it as I keep losing track of the cable pattern that I added to it, I'm not sure why I'm having such problems with it but I'm putting it down to the residual effect of the chest infection that seemed to addle the part of my brain that understands knitting patterns.

Staying awake

2007-10-03T19:51:00.000Z

I wish I knew how staying awake is done, at least, I seem to have cracked the not sleeping at night aspect - I was still awake at 3 am this morning, by 10 am I was fast asleep and woke up at 14.30 with the cat fast asleep on top of me and a crick in my neck. It isn't conducive to getting much knitting done especially when you have decreases to do every second round and (foolishly) a cable to do every third! I have at least reache dthe gusset decreases and I'm loving teh yarn, I bought it from Knit'n'caboodle along with teh purple DPN's - luckily I have loads of puple sock yarn so I can match my knitting to my needles! I'm back at work on Monday provided no other calamities descend on me so I need to return to my early to bed early to rise routine in the next 5 days!
I also need to rearrange my living room as a nice engineer type chap is coming to install a different television provider a week on Saturday some clearing up is necessary and a bit of light dusting is in order!

September review

2007-10-01T20:23:00.000Z

In general September has been dreadful, I hardly did any knitting as following a pattern became completely beyond me and I seem to have spent most of the month alternately coughing and sleeping. Hecate and I are at home again and I'm feeling much better, I'm back at work next week and hoping that I've recovered sufficiently not to catch anything else!

What did I actually manage to finish in September? The premature baby bodywarmers and mittens, I'm happy to have heard that both twins have arrived safely and as at last Monday were making progress although they are still in intensive care. I did manage to finish a simple scarf as well but that is as much as I finished. This picture sums up my knitting, it's out of focus! It is, however the first sock on my needles since very early in the year - I really do need to get on with sock knitting and finish Balsam but nothing is growing very quickly as I tend to doze off at regular intervals.

Be back soon

2007-09-26T20:06:00.000Z

Just to show I've started knitting after a fashion again, it's only a plain stocking stitch cushion cover, a kit I got free from a magazine subscription, but quite enough for me to cope with at present. I'm slowly recovering both from the trauma that was Monday and the chest infection from hell but I have no concentration or energy. I also have a coupe of massive bruises from them trying to take blood, I do have veins, but at the first sight of a needle they get all reluctant and shy and hide, even the one they found first gave them a smidgin of blood and then sulked, so I have three separate punctures with related bruises!

A friend of mine has offered Hecate and me somewhere to stay until Monday, I'm promised care and pampering and as much cat food as Hecate can manage so we're being collected tomorrow and I'll be back next week. My neighbour will look out for packages and hopefully I'll be much better on my return.

Herrumph!

2007-09-24T20:20:00.000Z

I'd expected to return to work today, woke up still under teh weather and went to see my doctor at 3pm. I got home at 8pm as my doctor took one look at me, asked some questoins then sent me to my local hospital for blood tests, a chest X-Ray and a load of other tests and told me I have to take at least two more weeks off work. I just hope that my head starts to get round my knitting again as I have two more weeks to try and finish the gifts for my secret pal. I'm kind of hoping that the tremor I currently have in my hands will go away as it makes knitting really really hard!

The knitters helper!

2007-09-23T15:50:00.000Z

It's hard enough knitting with 15mm needles, but Hecate loves them, she sits by me chewing on them whenever she gets a chance! I've got hardly any knitting done in the two weeks I've been off work, when you combine the concentration span of a fruitfly with the IQ of a ball bearing that I've been afflicted with even stocking stitch has been pretty much beyond me. I'm starting to recover slowly although it will be a while before my asthma settles down again from the ravages of the chest infection. I'm hoping to return to work tomorrow, but it still isn't certain.

Despite my best endeavours to behave myself I couldn't resist buying these delightful purple DPN's and the cosk yarn, they came from Knit'n'caboodle, a company who I would recommend, the service I received was first class, and I don't know anywhere else that you can get purple neeedles from! Now I have no excuse for not knitting more socks ready for the winter.
I'm still knitting away for my secret pal swap, although rather slowly and looking forward with eager anticipatoin to receiving my first package - my pal has emailed me to say it is on it's way, but it's coming from overseas so I will have to be patyient.

Blaagh!

2007-09-17T18:56:00.000Z

I'd been hoping to go back into work today, but I've spent the weekend coughing and unable to lie down to sleep at all without coughing for what seems likehours. Hecate is getting heartily sick of me keeping her awake! I've been back to the Dr for yet more steroids and antibiotics and another week off work. It may sound odd but I hate being off work when I'm ill, I have so much to do and I can't even concentrate on easy knitting, I've reached the raglan shaping of this baby cardigan and the instruction 'shape to match left front' has reduced me to hopeless confustoin, I think I'll have to go back to garter stitch scarves again. I've had to stop the knitting I'm doing for my Sceret Pal too as I'm frogging more than I'm knitting.

Cough splutter

2007-09-15T19:13:00.000Z

I'm sorry I've been missing in action for a week, more importantly I've been doing total inaction for a week. The chest infection I thought I was beating just before last weekend knocked me sideways. It upset my asthma and left me coughing incessantly, my asthma always makes me cough more than wheeze, but this time around I've been doing both, much to my disgust as it's been behaving itself for the last few years.

My GP signed me off work, gave me extra steroids and antibiotics and I spent most of the week drooping all over the place. Even knitting has been beyond me, the only thing I managed to do was finish this eyelash yarn scarf that I started just after last Christmas. Hecate has inspected it and given her aproval although she is giving me the impressiuon that she thinks it is well past time I went back to work and lefvt her in peace. She strongly disapproves of me keeping her awake at night while I cough.

I finally felt able to pick up the needles on Balsam today, I still have another six inches to go before shaping it but I'm not rushing at it, I've finally stopped making silly mistakes with the pattern (how's that for tempting fate?) but hurrying will be fatal. Secret Pal, I'm sorry I'm not being very communicative at the moment, I really will try and do better, I may even show you soem more interesting knitting eventually!

Bits and pieces

2007-09-07T05:32:00.000Z

If there is one thing I'm not keen on it's knitting in white, but my colleague who's baby this is for specified white so white it is! I need to get this finished by next Tuesday when I will have the chance to get someone to transport it to the recipient. This is the first front so I'm hopeful that I can get the second done, the bands added and the sewing up done this weekend. After that it will need a quick wash as it has been kicking around in my back pack for a number of weeks.
I started knitting something for any of my direct colleagues who had babies when I joined my current project over 3 years ago and I swear that almost overyone who could has now had a baby to keep me busy! I'm starting to forget how to knit adult sizes of anything.

I have, of course to get more knitting done for the future great nephiece, but I'm up to my neck in something for my secret pal so that is next on my to do list. The premature baby outfits came from Sirdar Early arrivals knitting book number 280, it has sizes through to standard baby sizes as well as for premature babies. There are also loads of premature baby patterns avilable for free online, including some on a BBC linked website that I currently can't remember the URL for.

This is the last of my knitting book purchases for a while - at least, that's the plan. It arrived yesterday but so far all I've done is glance at it, photograph it and go to bed to nurse a rather nasty cold that has attacked me, I blame it on too much time spent in hospital waiting rooms last week - horribly unhealthy places they can be. Just my luck to get it while I'm waiting for a CPAP machine for my finally diagnosed chronic sleep apnoea, the added congestion of a cold is making my sleeping far worse and I'm tireder than usual.

Secret pal you were asking about the Knitting from Nature book, I've photographed a couple of the patterns I fancy making. This is a lovely cabled design that I rather like, although it may be that I'm being influenced by my love of polo necks that you can turn up to keep your ears warm!
I'm fascinated by the structure of this scarf - I've been experimenting with modular knits and I fancy trying my hand at this, it's built so that it naturally curves around your neck, I think this is definitely on my to do list.There is a modular shrug type beast in the book but it has artistically placed holes in it and I don't fancy it one little bit.
This variation on a beret I think is gorgeous, I've made a load of plain berets and absolutely have to try this, it won't be mindless knitting like my plain pattern but I'm looking forward to trying it.

This updating of an otherwise plain sweater is gorgeous, I'll be stash diving for myself for this. I'll come back and edit this post when I have the book with me to add the names of the patterns if anyone needs them to hunt on Ravelry

Progress!

2007-09-02T19:19:00.000Z

This is Balsam, I've had to reknit everything I did in the hospital queues last week - I managed to make a complete hash of the pattern, but I'm back to where I was - better than nothing

I've finished the two little premature baby bosywarmers, they're fastened with velcro for simplicity, the shoulders open so if the babies have drips in they can still wear them. Each bodywarmer has a matching pair of tiny mittens to go with it.

I couldn't resist starting thi soff, it will just be 4 balls knitted in garter stitch on 15mm needles - a real change from the fine work I have been doing lately but I still have some more baby things to work on so this makes a nice contrast.

Finally, Hecate hunting a moth in the ceiling light last night, I need to replace the lightshade with one that hasn't got a fringe, she's nearly wrecked this one in her enthusiastic hunting!

Quite a week!

2007-09-01T10:34:00.000Z

I've been a bad blogger recently, but that does mean I have lots to show you as in between the hospital and doctors appointments that I've filled this week off work with I've been shopping both online and at the Stitch and Creative Crafts show yesterday as well! This is sock yarn from an eBay seller, lovely colours but I'm not sure if it will end up as socks, it seems a wee bit harsh although it may well wash softer.
It didn't stop me buying two lots of it, I just can't resist purple/blue/pink combinations even though I never wear pink on it's own. I know I do have a bright pink UFO somewhere but I keep getting distracted!

I went browsing through the knitting books in my local bookshop and fell in love with this, I did resist buying it then and there, I find buying on Amazon Marketplace much more economical. I love this book - it has patterns in nice big sizes and I love many of the designs. I'm waiting for 'Cables Untangled' to arrive too - I had an email to tell me that it's on it's way!

Another sock knitting book, again from Amazon Marketplace, I really will get back to my sock knitting again soon, I must get more made before the winter as they make such a difference to the temperature of my feet. I do wonder if I'll need that as at the moment I'm 'enjoying' hot flushes on a horribly frequent basis.

As a reward at the end of my week my Mum and I went to this, we both spent more than we meant to and I can't show you everything I bought as I've been shopping for my Secret Pal, I can however show you some of my purchases! For the sake of avoiding guilt I'd like you to imagine that I don't already have enough stash to open my own yarnstore, my stash does, in fact supply a work colleague as well as myself!

Regia bamboo sock yarn, I've never knitted with this and I'd forgotten to add it to my 'yarn I want to try' question so I treated myself!

For some reason my mother chose this for me and as she paid for it I wasn't going to argue, it's nice cheerful yarn, I think it will make the sort of socks that you smile when you put them on!
Both lots of Regia and this came from Web of Wool, I could spend a fortune at their stall whenever I see them! This is Colinette Kingfisher colourway Jitterbug yarn, another sock yarn I haven't tried before.

One the left I have some yarn to knit for my future great nephew, I have a mental image of making him a little outfit in mock camouflage that came to me when I was browsing yesterday. The eyelash on the left is much more glittery and a sort of chestnut shade that I couldn't resist, it was only 50p a ball as well!

This wasn't a purchase, I found it in my mother's stash, it's chunky and she rarely uses chunky so I'll swap her some of my left overs in double knitting as she uses them for making crocheted charity blankets.

I've forgotten what this yarn is called, it was knitted up into a gorgeous stole and is knitted on 15mm needles so it should make a quick fun knit!

This is Sirdar Medici in the Leonardo colourway, it was on special offer at the Black Sheep stall, I have quit e alot of brown shades of yarn in my stash that I haven't actually used yet, but I have a hankering for brown for myself so maybe this time i'l lactually get something done!

Finally we come to more sock yarn - Fyberspates thi stime, I do love this yarn, I love the shades - although you'd have to know I'd like this one being pinks/purples!

I rarely knit blues and greens but this is lovely, it calls to mind exotic seas as seen in the best sort of travel films!
I'm back to work on Monday by which time I hope to have two premature baby outfits finished so I must get on. A quiick wave to my Secret Pal before I go!

A woman of my word!

2007-08-21T19:19:00.000Z

I told you I was going to frog the hat! I actually hated to do it but I didn't know anyone with a head big enough for it not to drown them - even on me it was way too big.
The Velcro arrived for making up the premature baby bodywarmer, now I can't find any thread the right shade, an excuse to shop again!

Secret Pal 11 quiz

2007-08-20T17:30:00.000Z

This is going to be frogged, I hate it - it's James Brett merino, it split several times that I missed, it's come out too big and I messed up the decreases. I rarely frog something that I've finished, but in this case I'll make an exception!

Now I need to answer a quiz from our SP hostess.
1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
Probably the combined ruler and needle gauge that I keep in my back pack, it comes in extremely handy when I'm knitting on the bus!
2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? If so, how much and what type of project?
I go nowhere without a knitting project or two, if I'm just out for a day I take small things liek baby clothes, scarves or socks. If I'm away for more than a day I'll have a small project and a larger one like a shawl with me, something that I can do while I talk and something more complicated for quiet times.
3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?
I've not travelled much, by favourite place when we went on family holidays was Findochty in Scotland, there was a gorgeous beach with nobody there but us.
4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?
I'm enjoying studying Victorian Lace Today, once I've finished my current lace projects I plan on attempting several of the patterns, I only recently bought it and I keep going through it trying to decide which pattern tio attempt first.
5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)?
No, when I'm online I listen to audiobooks rather than podcasts.

Very small things

2007-08-19T16:42:00.000Z

I've had to put everything I had planned on one side to speed on with knitting for my colleague's twins, they're expected to be delivered very soon so I've finished knitting one minute pair of mittens and a small bodywarmer, I just need velcro to fasten the bodywarmer and sew buttons on as decoration, it's so small that buttoning it for real would be a nightmare. I'm about to cast on the second bodywarmer i hope sof getting them posted off this week. I'm also looking after my neighbour again this week as her son and daughter have both decided to go away on holiday and leave her with 2 teenage grandchildren to keep an eye on her. I'm just hoping we don't wind up in the emergency room again this time around.

I am still here - just about!

2007-08-13T05:50:00.000Z

There's been little progress this last week, I've been incredibly tired for no apparent reason and mostly going to bed extremely early - Hecate isn't sure if she approves or not as it reduces the amountof time she snuggles with me while I knit. For some reason she doesn't try and snuggle when I go to bed, she sleeps on her own duvet at the end of the bed or acts as sentry on the windowsill.
The hat has grown a bit, I'm on the decreases now and trying to be clever - doing them without using stitch markers to show where they should be!
Hecate does a very good sentry pose, this time on the banisters on the landing! As you can see from the picture, she's been doing a good job of removing the wall paper below her, She has a bad habit of jumping up at things then sliding down with her claws out that no matter how amy times I tell her off or spray her with water will break her of.
I thought that quick and plain was the way to go, but even in baby sizes plain is boring after the lace! This is the back and one and a half sleeves of the baby cardigan for my colleague, I've done more frogging and reknitting on this than I did with the lace!

Secret Pal 11 Questionnaire

2007-08-06T11:26:00.000Z

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I don't like anything that tends to be too 'splitty', as long as the yarn is appropriate to the pattern/use of item I don't mind what the fibre is. I've never tried alpaca and I do like merino sock yarn!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Several mugs for my long straight needles, a carved wooden box for my DPN's and several sweet tubes for my circulars - far from ideal, I keep meaning to find a better system.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting off and on since I was about 7 and I'm 40 plus now, I've returned to serious knitting in the last 3 years. I'd say I'm intermediate to advanced by now but I've never dared try doing steeks!

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I have a wishlist at Amazon.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Fruit or spice scents, nothing flowery - flower scents make me sneeze.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Sadly I have a shockingly sweet tooth, I like most chocolate but I can't stand Hershey's, I'm rather partial to Jelly Belly Beans.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I crochet a little, make cards occasionally, I do counted cross stitch occasionally. I don't spin yet, I have an old spinning wheel that needs a drive belt and a few other bits befroe I start playing - I've bought Spin to Knit as a starting point.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Folk music mostly, but anything but disco/rap, I'm not into modern pop music much but I did like Franz Ferdinand, Pink Floyd, Queen, DIre Straits are in my collection too.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I love purple, mostly I wear shades of purple/blue although I have been known to wear almost any colour except pale pink! I don't have much yellow or green.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I'm single and owned by a black cat called Hecate.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Anything but a poncho - I'd look like a marquee about to take off! Hats I like but I have a large head so have to be careful getting them to fit.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I like making socks, top down on DPN's, I just started knitting lace and love it but find it slow going, I try to always have some small project that I can knit on the bus.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Loads of WIP's but I'm mostly working on baby clothes for a colleague or two, several lace shawls and a sweater with a cable on it as the first step in learning to do arran better.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
I love it, I value other people's skill and expenditure of time highly.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I'm not keen on bamboo, I find them too bendy, I mostly use aluminium needles although I just discovered Surina DPN's and I'm feeling the love! I either knit on ultra short needles for small items or circular needles for long rows, I tend to try and knit sweaters in the round to the arm hole although that can make the project less portable.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a swift but no winder.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Ouch - 3 years I suspect as I always seem to have ancient items lurking. I did just frog something I started about 12 years ago though!

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Yule, I love giving presents (not that I don't like receiving them too), I'm not keen on hot weather so prefer winter holidays.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Arklow china (not their hunting pictures), occasionally thimbles - my Mum passed her collection to me and I add to it infrequently. I suspect that my library shoudl count as a collection, I've started catalogueing it on librarything.com at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/knitobsession but as I have some 3000 books to add it's taking ages.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Socks that rock - I love that yarn, I'm always keen to try new sock yarns, I subscribe to Knitting Today, Simply Knitting and Knitting, I try to get my hands on Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits whenever I can too but don't subscribe to them.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Entrelac!

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes, size 7 UK, my feet are wide and my ankles/calves not slender so I tend to knit ankle socks!

23. When is your birthday?
9th July

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
Yes, I'm there as knitobsession, I haven't had time to add much there yet and a lot of my knitting books don't seem to be in their catalogue yet.

My current distractions

2007-08-05T20:57:00.000Z

I should be lace knitting, but I promised several people at work baby clothes, at this rate the babies will be born and in college before I'm done so I knitted the back of a second size cardigan.

This is the sleeve, I've had to undo a great chunk as I've suddenly discovered an inability to follow a totally simple raglan cardigan pattern! In theory this wil lbe bus knitting during the week as I'd like to be finished in a coupele of weeks.

The rest of my Barabara Walker treasury's arrived - I haven't dared do more than drool over them, with the number of WIP's I have around the place I need to be restrained!

I did have to do some test knitting, I treated myself to some James Brett pure merino and a set of Surina 4mm DPN's, I'm loving them both and attempting a simple beret pattern - although the way my simple knitting keeps going it may turn into a sweater for the cat yet!

I may start knitting again!

2007-07-31T19:42:00.000Z

As part of my birthday prsents a friend of mine has paid for two volumes of Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Stitches, volume 2 has just arrived from the USA and I've been poring over it. I've also just been given the unabridges audiobook of Lord of the Rings - I forsee plenty of knitting while I listen, especially lace is much better to audio rather than television watching.
I heard that I'd successfully signed up to Secret Pal 11, I was so spoiled last time I did a Secret Pal I'm not sure if it can be as good but I'm looking forward to taking part again.

Eeyore's gloomy place

2007-07-30T19:28:00.000Z

I'm mostly in Eeyore's gloomy place at the moment, no major reasons, just lots of small ones that have left me without the urge to knit or blog, the sun shone today and I'm hoping that will help to improve my mood!
These were for my Mum for her 80th birthday last week, I told her they were from Hecate cat as she's always telling me not to 'waste' my money on flowers, I'm pleased to say these have lasted nearly a week already!

The Irish Diamond shawl is growing slowly, my first shawl where the rows get longer not shorter - it's no wonder I'm not feeling the lurve for it at present. It isn't helped by the fact that the yarn is oiled for machine knitting and rather rough, I think it will wash out well at the end, I'm on teh 8th repeat of 14 so it is progressing even if more slowly than I want. I'm still trying to find something in my WIP's or stash that inspires me to want to knit though, I didn't even take knitting with me to work today - a real sign of knitting doldrums for me!

The promised update

2007-07-22T20:00:00.000Z

This arrived through the post this week, I have the first volume and I've been looking out for this one cheap, finally I found it - I still plan on making my own design of arran sweater sometime - that had been my intention for this year when I got sidetracked by shawls!

This book will enable me to sort out what parts I need for my wheel, I'm not much cop with a hand spindle so I'm hoping that a wheel may work better for me.

I've done the first 7 repeats of the Irish Diamond shawl, I can't travel with it as the cone of yarn is way too huge so it's only growing slowly. I've done very little knitting this last week due to tiredness leding up to teh exciting cold I now have - I've spent virtually the whole weekend either asleep or curled up under the duvet reading.
Not much knitting is likely to get done this week eitehr as I have a doctor's appointment and then, if I'm no longer infectious I'll be celebrating my Mum's 80th birthday this Wednesday.

The drive by blogging

2007-07-21T17:43:00.000Z

I have a streaming cold that prevented me going to visit my Mum last night but that justified me staying in bed reding the latest Harry Potter when the postman delivered it, don't worry I shan't be putting any spoilers here - I wasn't that impressed with it, but then I only just got around to finishing the previous volume that I abandoned due to boredom when it came out. I may well be in a minority but I much preferred her books when she had to keep them short in order to sell them. I've done virtually no knitting this week and the camera batteries are flat so I've no pictures to show you, maybe next week!
I'm off back to bed with a new knitting book that arrived today - pictures tomorrow I promise!

I must be mad!

2007-07-15T14:47:00.000Z

I finally finished this, the latest Spanish Dancer shawl, it took me for ever to cast off the ruffle as I made it bigger and hence had many more ruffle stitches, I'm pleased with it even if I did start it in March! It took a definite back seat to the christening shawl as I'm sure you can imagine.

In an excess of finishing off I also finished this fluffy scarf started before Christmas, I have enough yarn left to make the brim of a woolly hat, all I need to do is stash dive until I find some brown yarn to make the body of a woolly hat! I may just wait until Hecate unearths it as she has a knack of diging in my yarn stores and finding wool I never knew I had!

The living proof that I am mad, this is a second christening shawl, while I have the border pattern in my head I figured I may as well get on with it, I have two sets of nieces and the second set may one day require it, if not I'm sure I can find a home for it at some time, I'm not rushing at it, current estimate of finishing time is next year as I'm only doing about 8 rows a day of the border (according to my obsessive compulsive spreadsheet)

I've been trying to find something to knit that caught my fancy as nothing I've ben working on has inspired me, I finally came up with the Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls, it seems fairly straightforward so far and is using part of a humungous cone of yarn I picke dup on eBay last year, it is'nt a portable project but will make good TV knitting.

Hecate likes my birthday present, I think she'd live in this bag if I'd let her! Thanks to everyone who commented or emailed birthday wishes, it wasn't a great birthday as birthdays go, but I've had worse!

Happy birthday parcel

2007-07-09T19:22:00.000Z

This arrived today, with perfect timing, Sibille managed to make this arrive on my birthday! Thank you - you spoil me!

Isn't this beautiful? Such pretty chocalates with roses on and a lovely artificial rose stem for me to keep

Here is the parcel opened to the next layer, a pretty card, a mysterious velvet pouch, a wrapped package and a cute bath and shower gel, ideal for taking with me when I travel for work. Not forgetting of course the vitally important chocolate bar!

Here you can see the loveliest pair of socks, I'm feeling inspired to get out the sock yarn and needles although Sibille makes much fancier socks than I do I must try and be more adventurous especially as she sent me a pattern not long ago. The velvet pouch contains a lovely pendant, I'll find a chain for it as soon as possible.
Thank you again Sibille, it's been a quiet birthday snd your generous parcel really made my day.

What a week!

2007-07-08T16:11:00.000Z

It's been a stressful busy week, at one point on Monday we were warned that my neighbour might not make it and I was mentally preparing for the problem this would cause when her daughter and grand kids came home from holiday - luckily she made it and is at home again, any thanks from her daughter is noticeable by it's complete absence, I suspect she's having a guilt attack for going off on holiday without leaving me any contact details or instructions! I was cheered up by an early birthday present from a friend who has great taste! This bag will probably end up as yet another knitting bag as it's extremely capacious.

I've taken a break from lace this weekend and found the needles and yarn to finish off the ruffle of this shawl, I'm cheating by doing the final increase and the casting off at the same time using both ends of the yarn so as to avoid having 3500+ stitches on the needles at any one time, I'm only about a sixth of the way along but at least it's progressing again.

Slight hiatus

2007-07-02T17:59:00.000Z

I'm just dashing off hospital visiting, my neighbour was taken ill in the early hours of this morning, I've spent most of the day at the hospital as her daughter who normally cares for her when neccessary is on holiday, if she make sit throuhg the next 24 hours which is in doubt I'll be fitting in hospital trips with work and not getting much knitting done, I did just want to thank people for their complements on teh shawl, I'm still at the 'Wow I can't believe I really did it' stage!

Victory!

2007-07-01T14:33:00.000Z

I'm counting this as a June FO as I finished it early this morning! I'm thrilled to have finished it, I began it on 23 March and finished it much more quickly than I had expected to.
I did cheat a little as the very centre should have had a pattern in it but it didn't seem worth the aggravation of juggling DPN's and patterning such a small section, I made the executive decision to go with stocking stitch instead.
After so much 2 ply I picked up soem 4 ply on 4mm needles and it feels as if I'm knitting with pokers!

I've been busy

2007-06-30T14:29:00.000Z

I've spent a fair bit of time in queues at Dr's and hospitals this week, however this is what happens when you knit mindlessly while waiting, you do a lot of frogging, I seem to have done more frogging than knitting on this project this week. It may be something to do with a change in medication, I'm waiting to see if my brain starts coping with more than one thought at a time next week.

This shawl is only ever worked on at home and at the moment I don't risk working on it while I watch TV. I've reached round 196, less than 2% of the knitting to go now, I don't think I'll quite make it by the end of this weekend as I'm looking after my neighbour while her family are on holiday, she likes me to sit and chat and I can't do this shawl while I do it. I'd like to thank Rosie and Lilith for the kind comments on this shawl, I must admit I'm very proud of it, it's definitely the most ambitious project I've ever done!

75 rows to go

2007-06-24T20:51:00.000Z

I managed to solve my last mistake and reached round 150, this felt like a mile stone so I spread it out as far as I could and took a few pictures, clicking on them will show you a larger version.

I still can't make up my mind if the panels with the fern leaves are worth the effort, I think I'll have to reserve judgement until the shawl is finished. I do know that I just ground to a halt again as I've spotted a mistake that I need to fix and I'm too tired to fix it right now. Hecate woke me just before 6am today by climbing onto the top of the fourposter, trying to catch her own tail and falling off, crash landing on me.

I'm liking the way that the corner turns out even though you don't knit any extra fullness into the border it seems to be stretchy enough to go round.

This isn't terribly clear as a black cat on a dark brown background doesn't work well, but Hecate came to inspect my work!

90 rounds and counting - and weeping

2007-06-22T05:00:00.000Z

I thought I was doing ever so well until I tried to do the next round and found that the second quarter doesn't match the first and stupidly I got over confident and didn't indulge in the frantic stitch counting that I normally do on the plain knit rounds. I've put it back in it's bag and told it to sort itself out! I'm really not feeling any sort of love for the pesky thing at the moment and I've decided that any repeat knitting of this will exclude these panels of fern pattern, they are OK but not THAT pretty and are putting my blood pressure up something atrocious.
Thank you for your comments Annie - I can't claim to be a great knitter of lace shawls but I'm learning to not panic when things go wrong although I still persist in knitting without a lifeline and it appears without counting stitches when I should! It would also help if Mrs Nosey paws wouldn't keep leaping on and off my lap and running across my shoulders while I knit - somethings annoying her this week, possibly me and she's being a thorough attention seeking pest!

100 rounds to go - and counting!

2007-06-17T21:15:00.000Z

Despite the sore wrists I've plodded along gently with the shawl, I'm feeling as if I'm really on the home stretch, but I'm hating the fern panel as I have no idea what it's supposed to be looking like, for all I know I may end up having to frog back to the stocking stitch band even now.
The bruises have appeared (I'm sparing you from pictures) and I do feel as if I've just wasted a break from work by spending much of it mostly imobile but I have enjoyed drooling over the Victorian Lace book. Thank you for the good wishes that came in comments and by email - don't worry, Hecate is fine, I didn't either land on her or murder her later!

I'm definitely not doing this fern pattern next time around, I think I'll just do the smal leaf pattern at the very centre, it's effective, a swine to get started but once the pattern is established ir's simple to do and easy to follow.

This will be for me (or end up being given away) I bought this when I was away with Skipnorth, it's acrylic, Spanish so I can't get more of it and although the first feel of it is quite rough it softens as I knit with it, it is easy to tink back when I make mistakes as it doesn't split and the stitc definition is amazing. I've learnt the edge pattern off by heart so it's ideal bus knitting and is just chugging along gently in the moments when the white shawl has defeated me. I've had several despairing patches lately where I've muddles the pattern and had to put it away over night until I could face the endless counting and recounting that is needed to sort it out!

Gloating!

2007-06-14T19:33:00.000Z

I've been waiting absolutely ages for this to arrive, I ordered it aound 4 months ago and it seemed as if it was never going to get here. It's perfect timing as I have 2 days leave from work and can spend my time trying to decide what to make first (after the baby shawl is finished of course)

This has only grown a little, it's the thing I pick up when my had is too muddled for lace knitting, I enjoy it and as it's taken me 2 years to collect the yarn together for it i don't mins how slowly it grows.

I've just under 30% of the middle of the shawl to do, tomorrow I should start the fern pattern that is inserted into the smal leaves as a background, at least in the absence of a picture I think that is what happens, I'm just doing round 109 and the new pattern starts at round 113. As soon as the rounds shring a little more I should be able to get a picture of the shawl sperad out as I have a second 3mm circular needle somewhere, at the moment I feel as if I'm in danger of boring you all with pictures of almost identical white lacey stuff - hence the reduced amount of blogging lately.
This may all be hypothetical for a few days as Hecate tripped me up as I went downstairs this morning, fortunately I was carrying an empty plastic planter on my way to fill it and that stopped me crashing head first into the front door. I don't think I've done myself any major damage but I'm stiffening up badly and have sore wrists and shoulders so I may just be daydreaming about knitting this weekend.

Where the shawl is

2007-06-09T20:52:00.000Z

I'm about to start the next pattern, a complicated combinatoin of the miniature leaf pattern combined with a fern pattern, I confess that I'm not looking forward to wrestling with it, especially in the absence of a photograph to show me what the end result should be! Round 93 is complete and according to my complicated spreadsheet I've knitted 67% of the centre stitches!

Somehow this has found it's way to my flat, I need to see what replacement parts it needs and get hold of them, but I'm assured that it has worked in the not too distant past. Hectate thinks that it is intended as a toy for her but hopefully she'll get bored fairly soon. If any of my readers knows anything much about this type of wheel I'd be grateful for their input.

Today has been very warm, really far too warm for knitting acres of shawl but Hecate was happily dozing, I could have done with sleeping myself.

Progress

2007-06-07T20:32:00.000Z

I'm still struggling with the shawl, I've reached the 85th round now, and hopefully I'll have a picture to show you of the horse shoes finished, then I have to go back to the leaves again. I do wish that the pattern showed me a proper picture of the centre as reading ahead I see that I then have to insert ferns into a background of leaves but I don't yet have the skill to read a pattern and visualise what it will look like. Hopefully it will turn out OK but I really will put a life line in I think! I thought you'd rather have a picture of Hecate instead of a picture of the shawl looking very little different from last time!

Horseshoe lace

2007-06-04T19:41:00.000Z

I had a rotten time getting this pattern to work right, mostly because somehow I'd got the wrong number of stitches at the end of the first pattern repeat and the pattern doesn't show a picture of what the middle of the shawl should loook like. I did a search online and found a picture that helped enormously and now I have two of the four repeats done, then I have to go back to the miniatuer leaf pattern and add ferns to it - still with no idea of what it should look like!
I don't expect to get much done tomorrow as my morning is going to be spent queuing at the ENT department of our local hospital. I don't find large acres of shawl a practical proposition for taking out in public so I'll probably tak emy mitred squares.

In memoriam

2007-06-02T20:53:00.000Z

A dear friend of mine had to have his beloved dog put to sleep today - Jimmy was a lovely German Shepherd who was a dearly loved companion and will be badly missed.
The shawl continues to grow, but only slowly, I've started the horse shoe pattern which is going fairly well so far, I just finished row 68 this evening.

May report

2007-05-31T21:15:00.000Z

Well, this is where the shawl is - one pile of whiteness with a couple of dirty smudges that should wash out at the end! I've finished the leaf pattern and I'm just starting on horse shoes!

At the risk of sounding over confident I've got the first quarter right on the first row of this pattern but I'm way too tired to risk anymore, I'm going to do the sensible thing and leave the rest of the first row until tomorrow evening. I'm on the 61st round out of 225 which in fact means in terms of knitting I've done over half of the centre, this is in 6 weeks of pretty much focussing on just this. I'm even hoping now to have it finished in June. It does mean that I finished nothing this month, nit a solitary thing for the first time since I started the blog, but I think I may be forgiven for that!

I think I may well remake the shawl in this, I'm loving how it looks, much better stitch definition and a much more open ground, it is much slower work being so much finer but it's fairly rewarding.
Anyone expecting emails from me, my ISP has admitted finally that for reasons of spam problems most ISP's are currently blocking most emails from their domain, the emails I send don't bounce, they just vanish so the fact is that it has been going on for over a week without anything alerting me to the problem as incoming email is fine! I'll have to switch to hotmail and resend everything, I'll do that at the weekend I promise!

I'm sure you can guess what my June project is - shawl with possibly a few mitred squares and I'm still trying to finish a birthday present off too - I need more hours in my day!

Still decreasing!

2007-05-28T16:51:00.000Z

I finally got a picture of Hecate in motion - because my camera has a time delay after you press the button I normally get just her tail if she's jumping as she moves out of frame - this one was a pure fluke and shows that she doesn't spend all her time asleep. Yesterday she managed to jump into the fridge while I had the door oopen.

I added a couple more squares to this when the shawl all became too much for me yesterday - I kept getting bogged down so switched intermittently to easy mitred squares!

I have 4 more rounds of the leaf pattern to go, then a band of stocking stitch before wrestling with teh next pattern. Next I have to do horse shoes, I just hope that the pattern is easier to establish than the leaf pattern! One consolation is that this round is 748 stitches - I began with 960!

I'm still playing around with lace swatches - this is the 2 ply I bought on eBay and I like this, in fact I think this is more like the yarn I should have used for the shawl.

Ever onwards

2007-05-26T22:22:00.000Z

I actually managed 7 rounds of the shawl today - I think I just MAY have got the hang of this leaf pattern finally - it's just a shame that after row 53 I change patterns again! I just hope that none of my other relatives announce babies for a while as knitting in white is a pain, this will need a lot of washing!

For light relief I addded anotehr square to this, I like anything where I can knit a section in less than an hour!

I'm experimenting with various yarsn in my stash to see what works best fro lace - I'm finding the white 2 ply a bit fluffy and doesn't give the definition that this yarn did when I tried it.

Hecate has spent most of today curled up with me with one paw on my leg to make sure I stay put, she does make sure to inspect any knitting that is in progress.

Panic!

2007-05-25T22:19:00.000Z

As a novice lace knitter this caused a degree of panic that I can't begin to describe! Two hours later I had it pretty much fixed, it ins't perfect but I find it hard to find the repair so I'm hoping no one else will find it either! All this mudddle on account of one dropped stitch.

I'm at row 35 of 225 to the middle but the mistakes I make slow me down badly. I know that I've not got this round quite right either, but I know what teh leaves should look like now so I'm able to fudge it correct if need be!
Lixie, and anyone else who's interested, the pattern is from the last Woman's Weekly Craft Special, it isn't the first time they have published it and they don't give a designer name. I may have a spare copy of the pattern as I've at least one back copy if anyone desperately wants it, let me know and I'll hunt for it! I have to say that the pattern isn't easy to follow, in part because there isn't a clear pictur of the lace. I'm using the wrong yarn so I don't know what size it will end up as either! I was surprised that they called the pattern advanced yet didn't suggest a provisional cast on for the border to make an invisible join possible. I am glad I realised that it was an option as my seam is almost completely invisible.

A proper update

2007-05-24T20:13:00.000Z

I finally managed to get the next pattern established - comapred to the flower pattern this leaf pattern is a nightmare - it took me around 6 hours of knitting and counting and frogging to get the first row done! I can however with the help of my trusty spreadsheet inform you thet I now have finished 20% of the knitting of the centre and over 50% of the whole shawl - with a long weekend this weekend I'm hoping to get the leaf section finished as it's not anywhere near as much fun as the flower pattern.

I'm determined to cast on some socks soon - and they must be purple, once I've reminded myself how to make a sock I'll try the hard pattern Sibille sent me at Easter.

The next shawl will be in this I think, it's a merino/angora mix and a lovely shade of cornflower blue. I know who I want to make it for, I just want to find a pattern I like.

Bamboo mix sock yarn, I've been wanting to try this for a while so I've dug it out of the stash to meditate on until the shawl is done.

I've dug out all the Koigu now and in a hiatus when the shawl had defeated me got a few more squares added to the project. Interestingly I've bought this yarn over several years when I could afford a bit more and the yarn is definitely varied in thickness from dye lot to dye lot. I don't know if there is any change over time of if it is just a random thing.

A quick update

2007-05-24T11:30:00.000Z

No, I'm not dead but I've reached the point of starting a different lace pattern and that means a lot of counting out loud interspersed with frogging and cursing, Hopefully I'll be able to give you a sight of the next stage soon. I'm also desperately trying to finish off a birthday gift that I can't show you as well - I'm just way too busy for words!

I'll leave you with a cute cat picture until my return.

7 random things meme

2007-05-21T07:23:00.000Z

I know I'm supposed to tag 7 people to do this meme but as usual I'm so far behind everyone I'd struggle to find 7 people to tag who haven't already done it, so, if you read this and want to do it the instructions are as follows.
"Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog.You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog." If you decide you really wish I'd tagged you just leave a comment and I'll edit this post to link to you!

I think I've already established that I like rhododendrons, I even take pictures of them in the rain!

I like rhubarb to eat

I hate the taste, smell and texture of the mushy peas that appear to be obligatory with fish and chips in the north of England.

I listen to Irish rebel band music a lot although I'm not remotely Irish

My first cat was called Apricot Brandy and he liked to lie on his back in my arms to have his tummy stroked.

Despite my aversion to organised religion - especially the Christian church I can't resist spending time in old churches.

My favourite material is velvet

Clearly I'm an idiot!

2007-05-20T14:04:00.000Z

I'd happily reached the end of the 11th round of the shawl centre on Friday, muttering all week that the centre was knitting up very densely but that I wasn't using the intended yarn so maybe that was the cause. At the end of the ball of yarn I started a new one and realised it was MUCH finer than the previous one. I dug out the ball bands of the old and new balls and found that although I'd bought them all at the same time from the same shelf the old ball was 4 ply and all the rest of them were 2 ply.

A good deal of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth took place and then a lot of frogging! I stayed up until 1am repicking up the stitches and now I'm back to row 10 so I've nearly caught up with myself. One good thing about this (I'm clutching at starws here) is that I've changed a purl row into a knit row so that the lace pattern doesn't merge onto a purl ridge anymore. I have 2 more rounds to go to get back to where I was so I'm off to do that so that I can start the week where I was last week!

Books.books, books

2007-05-18T06:22:00.000Z

Happiness is the arrival of a big box of books from an online bookshop having a warehouse clearance sale! I can’t show you everything that arrived as some of the books are Christmas presents – how impressive is that?

I’ve always loved poetry, in my teens I used to learn poems for fun and although my memory is no longer what it was – not from old age but from several breakdowns and associated periods of medication – I still enjoy reading poetry and have been known to read it aloud to the cat. I’m slowly adding to my library and WH Auden has now been added to my poetry book shelf, now I have to see if Hecate likes his work!

I confess to having all the Mary Poppins books somewhere on one of my many bookshelves and I even have the film on DVD, I prefer the books as they are much darker than the film and I find them more entertaining, I never read them as a child or I might see them differently. I’m having another long weekend next week so hopefully I’ll be able to start some of these in between shawl knitting!

I never used to like Terry Pratchett books, partly I think because I read odd ones out of order and didn’t really get what was going on. A few years ago I got a pile of them from a friend and started reading them in order and decided that I really rather enjoyed them as light reading especially when insomnia strikes me. I couldn’t resist the New Discworld Companion, especially as I’ve never had the old one.

A long time ago I bought Alastair Cooke’s America and thoroughly enjoyed it, I only listened to his radio broadcasts intermittently because I’m not a great fan of Radio 4 and rarely tune my radios into it. When I had the chance to buy this very cheaply I couldn’t resist!

I’ve been tagged by Wibbo to come up with 7 random facts about myself and I’ll try to think of something interesting by tomorrow!

Please allow me to show off!

2007-05-16T19:47:00.000Z

This is the end result of the stitch picking up and some enthusiastic knitting in circles, I've managed to do all the plain rows and 6 patterned rows now, I'm loving the flower pattern as it's easy to see what to do next once the first pattern row is done.

I have to confess, this isn't an illustration of patience, quite the opposite, I don't need this to be finished until November and my original obsessive schedule meant that it would be done by the 25th of November. I've knittted this almost to the exclusion of anything else (causing me to be panicking over a birthday gift I want to post at the end of May) and my current schedule indicates finishing by the 22nd of October! I've been adding more complex calculations to my spreadsheet and can tell you that the border was about 37% of the stitches and I've now done 5% of the centre stitches - I told you my spreadsheets get obsessive, I don't dare show you that each day of the week is a different colour etc etc! I've even done some of the plain rows on the bus and been trolling for complements from passing strangers - I really am getting a huge amount of pleasure from how this is turning out!

Kntting quiz

2007-05-15T11:35:00.000Z

As I won't be around to show you the miniscule progress on the shawl/s today I took this from Nickerjac's blog for yoru entertainment.
Edit the list, bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket

I-cordGarter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with banana fiber yarn

Domino knitting (modular knitting)

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Knitting with your own handspun yarn

Slippers

Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)

Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book

Scarf

Teaching a child to knit

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)

Knitting to make money

Button holes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Dying with plant colors

Knitting items for a wedding

Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars

Olympic knitting

Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn

Knitting with DPNs

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Fulling/felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener BO

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching

Long Tail CO

Entrelac

Knitting and purling backwards

Machine knitting

Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn

Stuffed toys

Baby items

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

Jewelry

Knitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Freeform knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair

Hair accessories

Knitting in public

Decreasing circles!

2007-05-14T21:43:00.000Z

I've successfully picked up the stitches and I'm almost ready to start the first lace pattern, one more purl round and the next stage in the lace adventure begins. I'm away tomorrow and don't expect to get much done as staying at my mother's flat and doing the first round of a new lace patttern don't really fit together well!

Somewhat over excited!

2007-05-13T16:40:00.000Z

I've finished the edging of the shawl - it's taken me less than 3 weeks, althopugh one week I did have as a week off work which may help to explain how much more quickly this knitted up than I had estimated!

I used a provisional cast on which wasn't in the instructions and I'm very glad that I did, I Kitchener stitched the two ends together and I'm ecstatic with ho wwell it has worked out, even close up I can't see the join easily!

The next job is to pick up 960 stitches, it's a slow process, so far I've picked up 50 and expect it to take me several days, especually as I'm also at the point of knitting teh ruffle on my blue Spanish Dancer shawl as well, everything I'm working on is made up of long or extremely long rows! I have a busy week ahead of me as well, I'm out for dinner twice and staying overnight at my mother's flat once so my blogging may be a bit erratic but hopefully I'll be able to make good progress with the shawls. It definitely tests the mettle of a man if you knit in their company, this wek I'll be testing two!