I'm not common

I was driving to work yesterday and everywhere I went I saw those little Fiat 500 bubblecars. They have only been out a little while but they appear to be very popular. In my 3 mile journey I saw at least four of them. They look tiny though. In the two and a half months since I've had my car I've only seen 3 others the same and only one the same colour - makes me feel like I have something rare and a little bit special.

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I haven't knitted anything in 8 days!!! Tell a lie, I got my mum knitting a scarf while she was here visiting and I did a few rows for her, but apart from that - nothing. The last time I knitted was last Thursday in Ireland but that was one repeat of the pattern on the leg of a pair of Monkeys. I think it is because I am feeling a bit "meh" about the two things I have on the go. I am using a self patterning yarn for the Monkeys and it is not particularly showing the pattern off well. On my Amused I thought I'd be clever with my provisional cast on and now I am almost at the point of separating the arms off, I am worried that when I undo the cast on it will be all wrong. So I am deliberating whether to rip back and start again with a crochet cast on like it says in the pattern.

So everything has come to a grinding halt.

I am waiting on some yarn from ebay which I won and paid for on 15th February and which hasn't turned up yet. I emailed the seller yesterday but haven't had a reply yet but then I checked their neutral feedback and it said that it took ages to arrive. Just a waiting game there then, I hope. When it arrives I'm hoping to make this Drops Jacket with it - mmm, lots of cables.

Sign ups for Sock Wars IV are open if anyone is interested, you have until 1st May to do so. I am not going to participate this time because of the problems I had in Day of the Dead and it is run the same way.

A Ravelry sale

At the weekend I had a request from a fellow raveller asking if they could buy my 12 balls of Drops Paris yarn which I had listed for trade/sell on my stash page. I have had this for over a year with no project in mind, since my previous disaster with knitting in cotton. So I agreed and we decided a price. This is the yarn that is going off to Brighton today.


I thought it would be nice to pop in a couple of handmade stitch markers so while Colin was watching the football, I parked myself at the dining room table and made a few. I had had the beads free in a magazine so they cost me nothing to make. I wanted to try making them without the big stainless steel jumprings that I usually use and so I used the plastic beading thread that was in the packet. That way you can make the loops any size you want. I am quite pleased with my efforts and they were very quick to make. It made a change to do them rather than knit - (theroretically I should have been at knitting group but as I'm still slightly wobbly from the labyrinthitis I didn't want to go driving around in the dark!)

These are the ones I'm keeping myself, the others were purple but I have already packaged them up with the yarn.


I think I'll be making some more - watch out etsy! Unfortunately our local beadshop has closed down, just as I needed them again!

When your world turns upside down....

.........its possible you have Labyrinthitis. I've got it at the moment. I woke up on Monday morning and the room was spinning. The only way I could stop it was by sitting up ramrod straight and not moving my head in any direction at all. Otherwise I would probably have fallen over. Your balance just completely goes. It had eased a bit by the afternoon, enough that I could walk from the doctor's waiting room to his consulting room anyway. He has given me some tablets but said it can last from a week to five weeks. The spinning has stopped now and I can do normal things so I was able to go into town with my mum and on a short drive to Stash! I am going into the office today because I have a lot to catch up on. I am still a bit woolly headed though so I'll take it easy. Luckily it is only a 3 mile drive.

It is a most peculiar thing to have though.

How old?

Would you believe that this man is 90 years old? That's Colin's dad and we were over in Ireland for a few days last week to see him on the big day. He is fit as a flea and puts me to shame! This is him with Colin and his sister Fiona.


Fiona gave Colin this shirt and I told him that from the neck down he looked like Noel Edmonds - he was a bit miffed at that!


Here is the birthday cake with some little golfers on it, Sean still plays a few holes every day.


And this is my old car which lives in Ireland now. Look what they've done to it - put one of those funny Irish number plates on it! That's its new owner giving it a kiss, Colin's niece Rachel.


So we were away from Wednesday to Saturday and when we got back my mum came up to visit from Sunday till this morning. I think she fell in love with Susie when she met her - well who wouldn't? Look at her!

Valentine

We don't do Valentine's anymore, but on Saturday morning Colin went out early and got my car washed for me, and picked up my yarn from the Post Office, aaaah!
15 balls of Alaska for Amused

I finished these socks for my step-dad on Friday evening. My mum is coming up to visit next weekend so she is going to take them back with her. Hopefully they should fit, as they are just slightly too big for Colin, who is one size smaller than Bill.


Before that though we are going to be celebrating Colin's dad's 90th birthday at the end of the week. 90! Imagine that!

You know your handbag is too heavy when...........

.............you are driving along the road and hear a strange beeping sound that you have never heard before. There is nothing lit up on the dashboard so you imagine it is one of those ice warning noises because it is very cold outside. It happens again another day and you notice a red light further over above the radio next to the hazard lights button. It says "passenger" with a little picture of a figure in a seat belt - it's asking you to tell your passenger to fasten their seat belt. But there's no one in the passenger seat, just your VERY HEAVY HANDBAG!!!

Too big for your letterbox

Yesterday I ordered some more Alaska from Scandinavian Knitting Design to make Amused from the winter Knitty. I have chosen colour 04 - a medium grey. They are usually brilliant at next day delivery. Luckily I had to stay home this morning for the plumber to come and fix our loo which decided it didn't want to flush anymore. I was in the house until 11.45 after which the plumber was gone and I left for a couple of hours at work. The yarn hadn't arrived by then. When I got home there was the telltale little red card - "we have taken it back to the sorting office as it was too big to fit through your letterbox" - at 1pm. Grrrr! Now I have to go and collect it!

It'll give me time to finish the step-dad socks though, only one toe to finish.

Interweave preview up

Here

Owl mitts

I can now reveal the "Give a Hoot" mittens that I made about two weeks ago, as they were a present for my mum's birthday which is today, and she reads the blog so would have seen them.

I think the owls are really effective.



And the shaping for the thumbs is very clever.

I don't know what she thinks of them because I have tried ringing her but she has obviously gone out to test them!

I am in a bit of a lull knitting wise at the moment, I am excited about designing my first pair of socks but can't actually get round to knitting them, I think I'm a bit scared that they will not be what I hoped for in the flesh. Silly really, if they aren't I just rip them out and try again. I think the idea is a good one on paper so I just need to stop procrastinating and get on with them. The Araucania Ranco isn't as soft as I would like it to be either which I think is also putting me off a bit. Maybe I need to get some more yarn from Wild Fire Fibres. Her stuff is yummily squishy.

The other pair of socks OTN are plain round and round and round, not very inspiring at all.

In the night garden.

The view from our back bedroom window at 11pm last night.



Susie is loving the snow, she rubs her nose in it. I went to the park as it was snowing quite heavily yesterday afternoon and she met and played with two other dogs, and had a great time. I think we ended up out for about an hour.

I started designing my socks yesterday, it's harder than it looks. I've got the design I want, I just have to get it arranged in the round to make it symmetrical. At the moment it will work for 2 circs or magic loop but not DPNs. I have an idea for that though. I have only done a tiny swatch to see what the design will look like but today I will make a start on the real thing. When I am done I will be asking for a couple of test knitters if anyone fancies it?

Who's up for this?

......a bit of Guerilla knitting