Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Alpaca silk, sleep clinic and blogging

Well, I am still waiting for my HUGE crochet hook (10mm) to come, so no further progress on the bag today. But I did get another package today which contained this from Natural Dye Studio.

It is some of their 80% alpaca/20% silk sock yarn, which I haven't tried before. The colour is Jade Ice. Just feeling the skein, I wasn't sure if it was any softer than their alpaca/merino, but now I am knitting with it, it is lovely to work with and quite silky. I am using it for my very first pair of Toe Up Socks. I have used the Magic Cast On method from knitty, and it worked first go!! The first couple of rounds after the cast on are a bit tatty (I'll post a pic tomorrow when I can take one in daylight) but that is not the methods fault, it is mine. I found out today that the way I "make 1" is wrong, and once I got that sorted out the rest of the rounds look fine.

Well, I had a good old laugh last night. We watched a programme on TV called Sleep Clinic. It's about people with sleep disorders and showed people shouting, moaning and jumping about in their sleep. I was howling with laughter, but not in a nasty way at the people on the telly. I was laughing because I DO IT TOO. I kept looking at Colin and we both laughed because I am always chatting or screaming, or having giggling fits in my sleep. One night I sat up in bed and sang a chorus to a song I liked at the time, and laid back down again completely oblivious to what I'd done. Apparently I'd been completely in tune too which is something I can't do when I'm awake. Colin thought I was being murdered one night 'cos I just let rip, screaming at the top of my voice. So THAT is why this programme was so funny. Now I can't wait until next week.

I started my ECDL course today. The first thing you do is a test to see what your level of knowledge is before you start. I got 60% on Access (which I've used once), 65% on Powerpoint (which I've used once), 72% on Excel (which I've never used!!) and 80% on Word. When you've done the course and taken the exam, the passmark is 75%. Not too far to go then!!

Looking back at the beginnings of this blog, it has completely morphed from its original purpose. It was going to be about my writing, but that lasted about 2 entries. One thing that is good though is that all the writing books say you should write something every day, and although I don't do this EVERY day, I am writing regularly. And I'm enjoying it. And stuff the English teachers at school, I am going to use "AND" to start a sentence, so there!!!

2 comments:

T said...

Now, I suppose I'm going to get the blame for making this 'ere blog into a KNITTING one instead of a writing one, hmmmm?? Well - good! ;)

Socks - toe-up - magic cast on- it's all beyond me, but your yarn is pretty.

I'm mad in my sleep too. We're disturbed, I tell you :D

Carolyn said...

...wow that is some casting on technique...I just use a simple one needle and thumb and finger - tis enough for me!