Holiday

Sorry for not writing much recently. We are off on holiday to Wales tomorrow for a week's holday and when we get back I'm sure I will post like crazy. I think I need a holiday. I reckon there is a good deal of knitting that can be done in a week in Wales...

The picture is of the sweet little cottage we have booked.

Good news!

First things first I won the competition on Posh Yarns ! I’m so pleased. Hurray! Thank you Dee.

Another brilliant thing happened this week, my husband (Clever Monkey) qualified as an actuary. He is so clever, most people who don’t have any exemptions take about 5/6 years to qualify but he qualified in 3.5 years. Actuarial exams are so difficult. I used to be an actuarial student before my drastic career change and the maths in the exams used to make me need a lie down and cold, damp flannel on my forehead!

On the knitting front, I have finished both panels of Print o’the Waves, grafted them together and picked up the 640 (!!) tiny stitches around the edge and started knitting the border. It was hard work, I think perhaps I need a magnifying glass next time I attempt that.

Anyway, in celebration of his qualification my husband has decided to treat me to some yarn. I think I’m going to buy the wool for Matilda Jane. I’m thinking of doing it in grey with a black trim but I really can’t decide - any ideas would really be appreciated.

By the way, I have never before felt the urge to knit socks but these have pretty much pushed me over the edge - they aren’t just socks they are works of art!

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week but there has been so much celebrating of Clever Monkey BA FIA (Bachelor of Arts Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries - how grand!) that I haven’t been near my laptop!

Extremely low knitting content - sorry

After seeing myself in recent photographs I finally braved the hairdressers this week -(I’ve included a picture as my Mum checks my blog and I know she will be interested).

I don’t like going to the hairdressers because, for me, it is jinxed - I don’t know why or how but it is. Take this occasion: I’m pleased with my haircut; the salon is really convenient and in the building next to where I work; and the guy who cut my hair was very pleasant. ‘Great!’ you might think but it isn’t - I can’t ever go back! Somewhere in our conversation the hairdresser became convinced I’d said I lived in Devon (my parents do and I grew up there but I don’t live there now). Anyway, he then asked me what I was doing in London and rather than put him right, as any normal person might do, I ended up telling him a complicated tale about how my husband was on business in London and I was accompanying him on holiday. I don’t know why I did it as now I can’t really go back. It isn’t just me, once my husband spent 6 months with our next door neighbour calling him Ralph because he didn’t want to put him right.

That wasn’t it in terms of my jinxed haircut, the taps stopped working mid shampoo and they had to finish me off with a bucket, the guy decided to straighten my hair for free because he wasn’t busy and I was on holiday and didn’t have to rush off (I was actually on my one hour lunch break and getting pretty stressed) and there was the fateful moment as I left when the hairdresser held up a scruffy looking brush and asked whether I wanted it. “It isn’t mine” I said in a confused tone - but it turned out it was a clothes brush…

Oh well on the bright side the second panel of Print O’the Waves is nearly finished so I should be able to start on the border soon. Also look at my great handbag. My brother bought me the bag (he is the one who keeps leaving the odd comments…at least I hope he is!)

Anyone smell burning?

Not much knitting news I’m afraid. My needles have been clicking away a like ticker tape experiment in a secondary school lab but the knitting looks much the same just longer.

However, I thought I’d do a quick post about knitting pod casts! I have to thank Carrie Anne of Brit Knit Cast and Acrylik Yarn for this new interest. She recently started this pod cast which I came across through her normal blog and really enjoyed. Her last cast was from a felting workshop and was really interesting - you really felt like you were there. Since then I’ve been listening to quite a few pod casts and another favourite is KnitCast, the last episode had an interview with Amy Singer from Knitty. I think I like listening to the pod casts because it is like reading a blog but you can do it while you’re knitting!

It was World Wide Knitting in Public Day yesterday, I’m pretty fine with knitting in public as I knit everyday on the train but in celebration of the day I did some knitting in the queue at Sainsburys…

On a non-knitting note I’d like to encourage everyone to make a pledge for World Environment Day, which was on the 5 June. I have pledged to use reusable shopping bags!

Yesterday, as the weather was so nice, Clever Monkey and I had our first ever BBQ. I mean first ever BBQ that we were in charge of. We bought one of those disposable ones and had veggie sausages and vegetable kebabs. Yum yum! However, there was a small snag. Do you ever feel like you are just kids playing at keeping house? Sometimes I do. Is there going to be a moment of revelation at some point when Monkey and I will know exactly what to do and our home will start to resemble one of those pictures in the Laura Ashley catalogue? I mean you would think that most people would realise that a disposable BBQ will, if out directly on grass, burn a big hole in the communal lawn. Monkey and I know this too now and we can prove it. Whoops! We have covered it with handfuls of grass in the hope that our fellow residents don’t notice. I hope it isn’t windy today!
Pictures from picasa again - will Blogger ever work again?

Blue sky!

The sun is shining for the first time in weeks and I am planning to sit and knit in the garden. Here is an update on my current knitting progress. Unusually for me I have three projects on the go at the moment.


1. Tempting II
I haven’t got that far with this yet, it is my watching TV and holding a sensible conversation knit (something I can’t seem to do when I am knitting lace). I also can read while I’m knitting this - I love knitting and reading but I can only do it if I am knitting stocking stitch or rib. By the way I’ve just finished one of the best books I’ve read this year. It is called One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding. It is funny and moving and one of those books where you miss the characters when you’ve finished it. By the way don’t you love my stitch marker? It is one my husband bought me for Christmas last year from Curious Yarns .

2. Print O’the Waves
I’m still going and I still love it but progress is slow! I’m worried about how many repeats to knit to make it long enough, - it is hard to tell how much bigger it will be when it is blocked. Does anyone have a handy guide to how much things increase by if you block them REALLY firmly?
By the way for anyone else doing this pattern Nat helpfully let me know that there is an error on the border pattern.

3. Shrug
I’m experimenting to try and use my one good left over ball of polar to come up with a circular shrug that obviously just takes one ball…. At the moment it just looks like a fuzzy mess so no photos yet.

I also wanted to show off my new knitting cabinet. It is a Wellington Chest (this basically means that the drawers have narrow wooden shutters that fold forwards and lock the drawers in place allowing them to be easily transported). This one is an antique that came from my husband’s grandparents. We are actually getting two but could only transport one at a time. Isn’t it beautiful? All my wool and needles are nice and tidy inside.

I had to use hello for my photos today as blogger is being bad.