10 things, family & James Bond

Please note: This entry was posted on Dec 1st but because I saved a draft on Wed, that is the date on the post!!

Yikes, there goes another week of my life, off into the ether never to be seen again!

First things first. I was tagged by VincentBlackShadow to do a list of Things I Would Never Do, and I think he is getting impatient with me for not doing it yet. I think the etiquette of blogging is that if you are tagged you have to do it, or something. Anyway, I am really struggling to make it funny or interesting so some of these are bog standard, but here goes......

Things I Would Never Do
1. Smoke
2. Take drugs (non-prescription I mean, if I cut out everything I wouldn't be around for long!!)
3. Drink alcohol
4. Cheat on my husband
5. Bungee jump
6. Like Bonnie Langford
7. Eat a live grub of any kind (a la I'm a Celebrity)
8. Eat liver, kidneys or any kind of offal
9. Enjoy ironing
10. Dance again, the way I danced with you-oo-oo!

There you go, Rich. Happy now? (BTW, how's the back?)

Okay, today's pics........... first off a new baby card for a former work colleague of Colin's.



The next two are of various stages in my jumper. The pattern on the front matches the back, it's a bit blurry as I forgot to do the macro thingy on the camera when I took it. And this is the first sleeve which has striped quite nicely.


I just had to blog about this, which Colin overheard in our local Somerfield. There is a guy who works there called Peter and he is the most camp person in the world, think Sean from Corrie and multiply by 10. Anyway, he must have finished his shift and was in the queue behind several people to pay for something, and in a very loud voice he shouted down the line to the cashier "Oh I might have known it was you holding up the queue! And with a lovebite too, how tacky! Is it a lovebite or did you do it with the hoover? Hmm, must have been the hoover, you've got a Dyson haven't you?" Genius!

So I've been doing a bit of Christmas shopping this week. Apart from my step-sister's husband I think I am done for the Southampton lot. Men are sooo hard to buy for.

Talking of Southampton, it's quite exciting really. A bit of background first.................. My father died when I was 20 months old, and after my nan died when I was about 14 I kind of lost touch with that side of the family. Last year when I started doing a bit of a family tree on Genes Reunited, I got in touch with my aunt, and one of my cousins. After a couple of emails that was it, until a few weeks ago my aunt got in touch again, and as we both now have msn messenger we had a bit of a "chat". After a bit I mentioned I was going to be going to Southampton soon, and she said we should meet up. She is visiting from South Wales where she now lives but all her kids are in Southampton. Soooo, the upshot is that I will be meeting her, and an uncle and some of my cousins who I haven't seen in about 25 years and wouldn't know from Adam if I bumped into them on the street. Exciting eh? I'm quite nervous actually, but I think it will be cool.

Going to see Casino Royale tomorrow. Wouldn't normally go to see a James Bond but everyone is raving about it and we are going to go with some friend's who live two doors up, and then have some food afterwards. We watched Enduring Love the other night, which stars Daniel Craig. It was quite good but I don't think I would have liked it if I hadn't read the book, because it wasn't that clear what was going on. And they did that dreadful thing of completely changing the book which is so annoying. Huge chunks were missing and other details were different too. Grrr! It's like the Harry Potter film where they just completely omitted Winky!

Strictly, Reiki & bears.

Well it is Friday again, and that means..............tomorrow is Strictly Come Dancing!! Why is that programme so much fun to watch? I am afraid to say it has got to that point in the show where I have actually voted! I was so worried that my favourites Mark & Karen were going out last week that I picked up the phone. Then I decided to vote for Matt & Lilia too but I dialled the wrong number and voted for Clare & Brendan by mistake!! Aaargh!! So I voted for Matt and then added an extra one for Mark to cancel out Clare! What am I like? It is just great telly!!

I have had differing results with Reiki in the last 2 days. Wednesday evening I sent a half hour distant treatment to My Pwllheli Friend who is suffering with sciatica at the moment. It was the first time he has received Reiki, and had "no discernable change" as he put it. Of course I can't claim to cure sciatica in a single blow, I'd be rich if I could, so I'll send him some more and see if we can make a difference over time. Unfortunately this made me feel a little bit negative, that I hadn't made a difference, however slight, as I have had results in the past. I have only recently trained in Reiki so have only treated a handful of people, but have had positive feedback from these.
So I was a little nervous when my "live" client turned up yesterday for a full hour treatment on the couch. She is a friend but not someone I know that well, and she is not the kind of person to say it was good when she didn't think it was. Anyway, she hopped on the couch and off we went. I felt the heat immediately, which boosted my confidence. I worked down from head to toes, and then asked her to turn over, and worked shoulders to toes again on the back. About half way down her back, her breathing became very steady & calm and I wondered if she had fallen asleep, but wasn't sure as I don't think I could fall asleep with my head wedged in a breathing hole! Anyway, I finished the treatment and afterwards she said that she had drifted off into that half sleep/half awake state. She also said that the treatment was amazing! All in all it was a very positive experience and she is going to come bck for more and recommend me to other people. So my confidence in my abilities has been restored because I really respect her opinion and know she wouldn't give me a load of bull.

Well, now you can get ready for a good old chuckle.........I made my charity hand puppet!! I'm only posting a small pic cos it's slightly embarrassing...... at least I made an effort and it may make some poor needy child smile! (The eyes aren't as crooked as they look!)

I am now soldiering on with my jumper. I have just changed to a new ball so who knows how the colour is going to change now. And then it will be the slippers for the neighbours. I think I'll take those to do in Southampton.

Sheep

Forgot to mention that 3 out of 6 sets of sheep stitch markers sold on Monday. Even though there were watchers on the others, they didn't sell. Both the pink/white ones went and one set of black/white. The coloured ones didn't go at all. So maybe I'll do more of the pink/white and relist the others at a lower price. Or I could be really brave and take them into the yarn shop in town and see if they would be interested. They have some beaded ones in there.

Socks, hat & pump user's group

Today's pics are........

The socks I made from the Opal yarn for my step-sister and niece. They have been sent and received and the report back is that they love them. So job's a good 'un there then. I also sent the little baby slippers to the prospective parents, and those went down well too.

The hat is knitted for my mum to match a scarf I already made and sent to her. It came out slightly small but I think it will be okay. It should have been Bigga yarn but I used Lopi chunky which isn't quite as thick so it came out slightly smaller. I'm thinking now whether I should have used two strands together?
Today's project to be started is a hand puppet to go in shoeboxes which are filled with things for charity to send to kids who don't get much at Christmas in countries like Romania etc. I have a pattern for a bear and a clown so I'll see what happens there. Our knitting group is doing them so I can't really turn up next month without one, especially for charity!
As some of you know I use an insulin pump to control my diabetes. On Monday night there was a pump user's meeting at Liverpool with a talk by the Diabetes Consultant about future developments in treating diabetes. It was quite interesting, discussing inhaled insulin, closed loop feedback insulin pumps, and islet transplants. I also had a chat with a girl who started the pump the same day as me and we have kept in touch. She now has a 14 week old baby and she showed us a very cute photo. Also met a lady called Sally who lives in a village in N. Wales and knows some friend's of ours who live there. We exchanged numbers and emails so I will get in touch with her.
Christmas is hurtling towards us at a rate of knots! I need to get shopping done for the family for when we visit them. I have ideas I just need to get out to the shops.
Ooooo...........is that the kettle on.............?

And today's yarn is.........

65% teeswater wool and 35% mohair in mint.......



And I shall not be buying any more yarn until I have finished all my ongoing and planned projects.
Simply Knitting magazine are running a sock knitting competition to knit a pair of socks for a celebrity. I know who I'm knitting for and I have a design in mind, but apart from saying the socks will have a red and white theme, that's all I'm saying. Don't want anyone pinching my idea which I think is a corker!

Cards for a change

Just for a change, today here are some cards I made for some upcoming birthdays. (Don't panic there is yarn too!)
The teddy with a balloon is a sticker which I put on acetate in a window card. Behind is some yellow vellum which I stamped and embossed with Happy Birthday. This is for a one year old girl.
The Purple teddy with flowers is a stamp coloured in with watercolour pencils with chalk edging and then a strip of purple vellum behind to match and some punched flowers.
And lastly, the same stamp, onto shrink plastic and coloured with watercolour pencils, then shrunk and mounted on a small square of shiny paper.
Need to get on with the Christmas cards now!!!

Well the postman arrived yesterday with my American yarn. Ten balls of this..........


yummy colour eh? It is actually thinner than sock weight slightly, so I think I'm gonna have to make something lacy with it. It is 100% wool and lovely and soft. I was also very naughty and did one of those impulse bids where I was watching something and someone bid on it so i HAD to bid on it. It was only a tenner in the end, incl P&P so that was okay. It was 10 50g balls of DK 75 %wool, 25% mohair in mint. Again I have no idea what I'll do with it but it'll be added to the stash for now. I think that may make a lovely warm scarf actually. I really needed one earlier on when I was out with the dog. I have finished the adult sized Opal socks and have almost finished the first of the smaller size. I'm still getting a hole when I pick up stitches though, so I'll have to darn those after I've finished. The colours are good though........but I'll be glad when they are finished.
I also made a quick start on the front of my jumper and it is striping again. Who knows........

I have another Reiki "victim". A friend of ours who expressed an interest ages ago has finally made an appointment for next Thursday. She has loads of people lined up waiting to see what she thinks of it, and she said I could go to where she works and do a few people there. As its a hospital there will already be a couch so I don't have to lug mine there. I will probably do shorter taster sessions first, maybe 20-30 minutes, then I can get more people trying it out. Apparently they are all stressed to the eyeballs.

I finished the troll book. It was really good but a little bit iffy at times. I think the guy fell in love with the troll in the end, and it could have all got a bit icky, but the book ended. There was one icky bit but you'll have to read it yourself!! Now I have a book by a guy who started the bookring to get opinions on his own book. It seems a bit autobiographical, cos its about a guy who goes off travelling the world for 6 months and that's what the author did. Well I can only try it and give an honest opinion, after all that's what he wants.

Stitch markers on ebay

Just in case anyone reading this is a knitter and is interested in my sheep stitch markers, I have listed 6 sets on ebay.co.uk, 3 as auctions and 3 as Buy It Now. They are on for 7 days and end on 20th November at about 8pm ish.

Sheep disaster!

Hee hee, I had a bit of a sheep disaster today. I was going to throw them in the bin but even though they look really sinister, I wanted to record them. In my haste to make them and get them listed on ebay's 10p listing day, I put the oven on to 200 centigrade instead of 130, and this was the result!

They were supposed to turn out like this......

Luckily I got it right the second time. I also made this set.....


Remember the greeny blue wool from a couple of weeks ago? This is the WIP so far, the back of the jumper. It is hand-dyed yarn so the colour pools as it feels like it. As you can see it started off striping quite nicely but the next ball of yarn came out differently. Ah well, I'll see how the front goes, at least it will be unique! Still waiting on the purple-blue yarn from the USA. but if this jumper turns out okay I may use the yarn to make a purple one. Either that or a big shawl, haven't decided. I'll wait till I've seen it first.


My step-sister's socks are coming along nicely, I have just turned the heel on the 2nd adult sized sock.. The fun will start trying to adapt the pattern for a 5 year old's foot. I saw an amazing article on knitty.com today, a method of knitting two socks at the same time on the same set of DPNs. Every other stitch is one or other of the socks. It looked very complicated.

I made a list yesterday of projects I have to make. There was more than I thought and I have added to it today, because my neighbour has ordered fluffy slippers for her 2 little girls for Christmas. Talking of slippers, I adapted the fluffy slipper pattern and used sock wool and small needles and made a pair of these. They are so dinky, only about 8cm long. I think I will give them to some friends who are expecting in March. They'll be perfect for a baby, and the colours are so mixed they'll suit a boy or a girl.

I received a book ring book the other day. It's called Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo. It's the first book I've been able to get into for ages. It's about a guy who finds a baby troll in his garden and brings it in to look after it. It's written in a way that makes you really believe in trolls. I think its because it is translated from Finnish and is set in Finland which seems like the type of country that is full of folklore and would therefore actually have real trolls wandering about. It is a relief to find a book I'm actually enjoying tho', the last 3 books I've abandoned because I just couldn't get into them. I bought Derren Brown's book, Tricks of the Mind on an impulse on Saturday, looks quite interesting and there is a section on phobias which I'm looking forward to.

New sock yarn

Just a quick post today to show the new yarn I have. The first one is Opal handpainted sock yarn which I am using for my step-sister and neice's socks. The other one I got today from an ebay seller in the USA. It is also sock weight and handpainted. Unfortunately it is not as soft as I would have hoped but the colours are lovely. I may use this for gloves rather than socks. The Opal colours are a lot brighter, like the colours on an exotic parrot!

Knit & Purl

Phew, it was a mad week last week with slippers and sheep coming out of my ears. (Wonder where that saying comes from?) I managed to get the sheep sent off to the USA on Thursday evening and the slippers eventually went off yesterday.
These are two pairs of the slippers, I did another red pair too.

I think I must have seen stitch markers like these somewhere but I made these anyway and they will be going on to ebay next. Couldn't think of any other 4 letter knitting words at the time so just bought these letters. Really easy to make - no Fimo involved!!

And finally here is the hat for my friend to go with the scarf from a couple of weeks ago. It looks much better stretched over a head, maybe he'll send me a photo of him in it.
The link to his blog (which he taught me how to do, thanks Rich!) is VincentBlackShadow on the left under favourite blogs.
There is more I could write today but haven't really got time so will catch up with those later.