No photos

I have TWO finished projects that I'm dying to show but I have no photos yet. Actually that is a fib, I do have a photo of my Twisty jumper but I took it with my phone and it is not modelled and basically I don't like the picture. I want to show it in all its glory. The other project is a little neckwarmer that I made from the Fidget pattern with two balls of Drops Classic Alpaca that I got with my extra ball of Eskimo. Oh, I do have photos of the newly acquired stash.

This is the Drops Classic Alpaca, now used up


And this is Drops Karisma which I don't have a project for yet,

but may make this pattern, Titania. I'm a bit worried it might make me look fat though! That lace panel round the middle is what worries me as I have a bit of a "spare tyre" in that area!

I can't believe that it is already a year since my 40th!!! I will be 41 on Saturday. Yesterday we decided to go up and see what all the fuss was about at Liverpool One and so that I could find something for Colin to get me for my birthday. We ended up in the same shops we would normally go in here in Chester, namely Costa, Smiths, Waterstones etc. I did pop into John Lewis for some buttons for the Fidget, and they were amazingly cheap for JL. I got 8 for just £1!! Anyway I decided I would like to do more cooking so Colin got me a copy of The Silver Spoon which is a HUGE Italian cookbook. Oh dear, he's going to be expecting all kinds of culinary delights now!

Trafford Centre

Colin decided it was time he had a day off so yesterday we decided to go over to The Trafford Centre as we both needed clothes. Now, I have mentioned before that I hate clothes shopping so I wasn't holding out much hope of coming home with anything to be honest but it turned out to be not too bad.

I think it helped that the place was virtually empty. The credit crunch was certainly evident, either that or no-one wanted to go out in case they caught swine flu! So at least I didn't have to try to squeeze past people in narrow gaps between clothes displays, or queue for changing rooms. I didn't actually try much on, and came home with a pair of trousers, a cardi and 3 tops (one of which is going back because it is too small). Add to that the 6 t-shirt type tops I got in M&S on Saturday and that's me done for probably another 12 months!

While we were there I popped in to John Lewis as I needed a red button for my Serenity cardi - just the seaming and the collar to go now, should be done over the weekend - but as usual I didn't really know what size to get. I got a selection and I ended up with these.

Wow some buttons can be expensive! The six matching ones weren't too bad at 30p each but the other two! The larger one is glass I think, and was £1.30 for one! The other I think is also glass and that one was £1.45! Yikes. Good job i didn't need 6 of each of those. So now I will choose which to use and keep the others for something else. I'm bound to make something else in red another time.

I had a quick look at the knitting yarns, specifically at more of the Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton that I am currently using for the cardi. I was shocked. I bought mine for £1.99 a ball in Stash, John Lewis were selling it for £2.90. Is that allowed? (Edit: Hmmm, just looked at Stash's website and they have it for £2.90 too. Odd!)

An anniversary present to myself!

Becca and I eventually got to meet up for a chat today. She was on a late and didn't need to start work until 12 so we met in town in Starbucks at 9 o'clock for a coffee and a natter - mostly about knitting. Then we decided to go off to Stash and have another natter with Anne. Of course it would be rude to go in there and natter for over an hour and not buy so I found this cute pattern in the new Rowan Studio 15. It is called Serenity (but I can't see it on ravelry yet!). It will be ideal for over the top I got in Zara which is sleeveless!


The top is red so the cardi has to be red! I didn't really like the Rowan Summer Tweed, it feels a bit rough so I bought 6 balls of Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton for £1.99 a ball. I'm a bit wary of cotton after my disaster with the jumper for Colin but this should be okay as it is short and won't be all heavy and shapeless (fingers crossed). Of course now I want to start it straight away!

I haven't got too far to go on the second Monkey sock so if I finish that tonight I'll start the cardi tomorrow.

Even though it is our wedding anniversary - 15 years- today we are going to go out tomorrow night.

Folksy

I'm not a great fan of "folk". When I first met Colin he used to go to what was loosely described as a "folk club" but was basically an open mike night where anyone who fancied having a go could get up and sing or play an instrument or both. As we'd only just started going out I felt I ought to make an effort to enjoy what he liked and I stuck it out for a while, gritting my teeth and smiling and clapping at the often awful efforts of some of the "entertainers".

But on a similar named but completely different concept, I came across a little website called Folksy. For those of you who know etsy, but are in the UK and find that most of the sellers are overseas, you may find this site useful. It looks a lot like etsy and is basically the same concept - independent craftspeople and designers selling their wares - but it is based in the UK. One seller that caught my eye this morning with their brightly coloured buttons and things is called PaperFish. Cute. There are also pages where they show you how to make things so you can have a go yourself.

Look at my mirror nails, see them shine!

I hate clothes shopping. I absolutely loathe it. I look at things hanging limply on hangers and my mind says "That'll look awful, that won't suit you, ulgh what on earth is THAT?" So that is where they stay, hanging limply on the hanger rather than me trying it on to find out that it is actually not that bad after all.

I need some work clothes at the moment and also something for a wedding in two weeks. Which meant a dreaded trip to the shops. I got into town at about 10.30 and made a start. I did try a dress on, and nearly couldn't get it off again! It was okay but it was all black, not really suitable for a wedding. The trousers were either too big or too small, and a top I tried was just plain wrong. By 11.45 I was frustrated and fed up (yes it literally only takes that long for me to have had enough). So when I was walking through Browns of Chester and was accosted by a tall dark and handsome Italian Vincent Simone wannabe asking about my nails, and offering amazing solutions to my ridges I thought, "Why not, let him pamper me for 5 minutes".

Now I am not a girly girl which I think is obvious from my loathing of clothes shopping, so I don't do all the primping and preening that some people do. I use a shower gel that is good for my oily skin, I don't use body lotions or fragrances, I occasionally visit the hairdressers and I very rarely do anything with my nails. When they get too long they break off of their own accord and I'll just tidy up the sharp edge at the time. BUT I have always wanted shiny nails. Which of course would mean looking after them and probably wearing clear nail polish which you then have to maintain and reapply etc etc. So I've never had shiny nails.

"Vincent" came to my rescue. "Can I show you something amazing?" he said. "Okay" I said. He proceeded to buff my middle finger nail with a cube with 3 different buffing edges - one of which was made of diamond dust and another of silk - hmm!!. This took less than a minute and then he said "Be prepared to scream when I show you". He showed me. I didn't scream but I was amazed! Look at the dfference......shiny nail vs. ridgey nail.


Of course the buffing thingy doesn't come on its own, oh no. There is a cuticle treatment, a glass nail file and some hand and body lotion in the kit, and has a special price today of £10 off!! "Bugger it", I thought, I haven't spent any money on clothes and I want the rest of my nails to look shiny too, so I bought the kit, but not until "Vincent" (his actual name was Robert) had exfoliated my wrists with dead sea minerals and tried to flog me that aswell - I declined.

I came home with a grand total of zero items of clothing but with a renewed enthuiasm for looking after my nails.

Woolfest 2008

Guess where I went last weekend?


This the bag I filled with goodies, but what did it contain by the end of the day??????

Tah-dah............(click on any of the pictures for a close-up!)


Five hanks of Colinette Iona to make Cherie Amour


Some cute buttons from Injabulo


3 hanks of Manos Silk Blend


3 skeins of KnitWitches sock yarn and 1 of Natural Dye Studio merino sock yarn


KnitWitches silk laceweight (600m) and KnitWitches cashmere laceweight (1000m)


See that grey spotty alpaca at the back?


Yep, this one. His name is Mingle.......


and his fleece is partly responsible for this. 6 balls of WhyNot Alpaca from Sedburgh, Cumbria, to make the Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits magazine Winter 2007.


We went up to Cumbria on Friday but it was a bit too late to go into Woolfest and have enough time. We did go to the site to have a look and the first person we saw was Chris, dashing out the door. She was empty handed but informed us that her car was already stuffed to the brim!

We checked into the hotel and then had a lovely Italian meal that evening.

On Saturday we "did" Woolfest. I wasn't sure what to expect, but basically it was a big livestock building where everyone had set up their stalls. Yarn stalls, spinning stalls selling wheels and paraphernalia, live animals at one end including sheep, alpacas and rabbits. The Angora rabbits were hilarious, I didn't realise they had such pointy up ears.

There were plenty of stall holders whose names I recognised, and many I didn't and there were loads of ravelry badges being displayed. I bumped into J, Beryl and Chris from the knitting group, but didn't manage to spot Mel, she was probably buried in fleece!!

I bought all the stuff above (not the animals though) and Colin bought me a swift and ball winder stick (but I don't know about them until my birthday!).

The ladies of KnitWitches were very chatty and recommended an Indian restaurant that they had been to so that evening we went there. And they were there too. And Amanda from Natural Dye Studio was staying in our hotel so we saw them at breakfast.

I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend that part of Cumbria for a stay, as we went off to the coast to have a look and it was very run-down and bleak. Such a shame because the Lakes part is lovely.

Since we got back I finished my Vegas Sands cowl. I have made it quite tall and it fits snugly so it is going to be very warm in the cold weather.


Can you spot the one (not) deliberate mistake?


Talking of mistakes I have had an absolute disaster. I finished Colin's jumper as you know and had partly sewn it up when I asked him to try it on "just to see". Well, the sleeves were about 6 inches too long and the cotton was stretching so it was pulling the shoulders down making it worse. I decided to shorten the sleeve from the cuff but the first one wouldn't unravel. I decided to take the sleeves off and frog and re-knit them. But, when I went to take the sleeve that I had sewn on off, I cut the wrong thread and a hole started growing in the BACK of the jumper. So the upshot is that I now have a lovely full bag of balls of cotton and NO JUMPER!!!! I had to frog the lot!!! I will not be making it again, certainly not in the cotton, it just hung off Colin like a sack, ulgh. I think it is now destined to be a selection of string shopping bags.

But on a lighter note, I have started the Gathered Pullover and the alpaca is GORGEOUS!!!!

Different levels of energy

Here is The Gorgeous One showing "calm submissive" energy in front of The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan. Hmm, if only he would do that when we ask him to!!

Yesterday I met Viv to pass on a bookcrossing book, and afterwards I popped into Stash because I had a £25 voucher that Colin gave me for Christmas burning a hole in my pocket. I had no project in mind, I just wanted to spend it!! This is what I came out with after adding another £4 in cash.

The first one is Araucania Ranco Multi in a pinky, yellowy, purpley colourway.

Then some Fyberspates 100% merino DK in bright pinks, yellows, greens and purples which makes you go "Oooo!!" when you touch it, and that's what sold it to me (aswell as Ann in the shop putting it in my hand in the first place! Naughty girl.)

And finally some Fyberspates 50% merino, 50% tencel sock yarn in muted pinks, blues and purples. There is a bit of a colour theme going on here methinks.

My energy was definitely "excitable" when I bought these. Like I said, I have no projects in mind for these yarns, most likely socks for the two sock yarns, but absolutely no idea for the DK. There is 220 metres in total so any suggestions are welcome.

Don't forget to watch Ashes to Ashes tonight, BBC1 9pm.

Squeaky Green

I have been using Squeaky Green shampoo bar from Lush. It is good for the environment and doesn't use palm oil products which is good news for orangutans. Most of their habitat is being destroyed for palm oil plantations. And it is a half decent shampoo too.

Postponed

My op has been postponed until 28th September, so another no-knitting month ahead. To be honest, I am getting used to it but will be happy to do some when I eventually can. I can't wait to use the Opal Neon that Blossom sent me for my birthday. I am not in as much discomfort as i was so i think the rest has done it good but I still can't bend my left thumb or right little finger.

Back at work today after the week off. The phones seem to be working fine. I was in late though because i had to wait for our new mattress to be delivered. We don't have the bed to put it on yet though, that is still being made. We went out and bought some new quilt covers and sheets in Next on Sunday though. We are going down from a super king size bed to a normal double. I do like my big bed but I think we will have a bit more room in the bedroom when we get rid of it.

Yesterday we ended up going for a walk near the river on the English/Welsh border at Holt/Farndon. Holt is in Wales and Farndon is in England and they are separated by the bridge over the Dee. Pincess Diana's ex-butler Paul Burrell had a shop in Farndon but we noticed yesterday that he has moved across the bridge into Holt. As it was bank holiday the little cafe in Farndon was closed so we headed back towards Chester and somehow seemed to drift off course and end up at Borders for a Starbuck's. Hmmm, now how could that have happened?? We had a good old mooch around the books but managed to escape empty handed, only to come home and order the books we almost bought from The Book Depository instead, saving ourselves about £5 in the process. Colin is getting the new Thomas Eidson and I spotted an interesting novel called The Angel Makers. Not that I NEED any more books!!!!

I am going to do my Reiki Master level on Saturday. I will then feel qualified to treat people officially. I'm still getting great results on my distance healing, my step-dad had a backache for a couple of weeks and when i sent the Reiki it was better the next day. Spooky!!

Hair, parents, dress, footie & a bit of knitty stuff.

Cripes, where did that week go?? Actually I have been pretty busy.

Last Monday I had my twice yearly(!!) haircut. This is what I look like now, much tidier but the more I look at it, the more it looks like a child's haircut. I really can't make my mind up if I like it or not! It was supposed to look a bit like Michelle on Corrie but longer, but obviously she wears a lot of make-up and is very glam, and has stylists doing hers all day so yours never looks like that does it?


The picture was taken while my parents were up here visiting from Southampton. Here they are.................


We went for a bit of a walk along the river and took our sandwiches. While they were here we also went to Cheshire Oaks outlet village, where my step-dad bought a pair of walking shoes, and then we also got him a set of headphones for his laptop. I must say he is doing very well with the computer seeing as 5 months ago he'd never touched one in his life. Both of them had an hour of Reiki, and were very enthusiastic about it.

Before they arrived on Thursday morning, we had Paul from two doors up round for the Champion's League Final on Wednesday evening. He is a season ticket holder at Anfield, and has this thing that we are his lucky mascots for Champions League games because he watched them here when they won 2 years ago. Unfortunately we didn't help this time round.

While we were at Cheshire Oaks I saw some boots that Colin might like, (he wasn't with us cos he had to work), so yesterday the 2 of us went back up to have a look at them. He didn't get them but I ended up coming home with this..................


which I will wear to a "do" I am going to in July. Just have to get some shoes, which I hate cos I have pixie feet (UK 2.5!!!!!!) and can't get any to fit.

I got the new Simply Knitting mag on Thursday, and confirmed that I hadn't won the sock knitting competition. I wasn't that impressed with the winners, but appreciate the effort that went into them. However, on page 69.............


were my sheep!!!

A couple of weeks ago I joined the Crafty Threads n Yarns forum, and I have joined up for the Surprise Summer birthday swap. I have been given a partner to send something to on their birthday, so I just have to put a package together. I have done these things before on the bookcrossing uk group, and it can be quite fun. You never know what you are going to get.

Great news for Chris who I met on the Burton Manor knitting day. She has been offered two slots at the college to run two courses. Hopefully we are meeting up on Friday so she can tell me all about it. At least there will now be a course I want to spend my voucher on.

I'm still suffering with my thumb, and am not promising anyone anything for Christmas, it all depends on if it improves. I am just going to try to finish what I have OTN and see what happens next.