Crochet, clowns and dreams

I went off to knitting club yesterday with my partly sewed up jumper and my pattern, and luckily a very nice lady whose name I don't know showed me how to do the crochet I needed to do. Here is a close-up of the bit I have done so far, not bad for a beginner eh?


We had 11 hand puppets made (2 not in photo) and they have now gone off to Operation Christmas Child. It was great that they were all so different.


Been to the hairdresser's this morning for a bit of a tart-up before visiting the folks. Bit of colour to cover the grey!! Not so red this time though.

I had one of my recurring dreams last night. It was the one where I am trying to get through a door but I can't reach it because it is high above me in a wall or something like that. Last night it was at the top of a staircase but the stairs didn't go far enough. My other recurring dream is of having exams coming up and I've not been to the classes for months and months. Oh, what can it all mean?

3 BTs
1. A man came to our knitting meeting yesterday. He was wheelchair bound and despite having never knit in his life, he showed great enthusiasm and had completed several rows by the time we went home.
2. A lady came to the hairdresser today with a very young baby. When it began to cry it was immediatley soothed just by the mere touch of its mother's hand.
3. The lady behind the glass in the post office wasn't grumpy today.

Cards, Bond, and 3BTs

On Friday I started on a few Christmas Cards. These are some of my efforts (you can click on the pics for a larger view) .....


They didn't take too long as I was using ready made stickers on the Santas and snowmen, so I made 10 altogether with slight variations. The other 2 are made with stamps. I really love the little Happy Christmas wording stamp, it's just right. That, and the others were all from Pixie Dust, a seller on ebay and they are unmounted so a really good price, plus she always chucks in a freebie! (in this case the snowflakes).

So, Saturday we went off to see Casino Royale with our neighbours. We decided to go to the 4 o'clock screening and booked a meal for after in town. I can't remember the last time I went to the cinema in the afternoon, it made it strange because it was only 7pm when we came out but it felt like 10pm. Anyway, the film........... definately a modern James Bond. I didn't see any Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan Bonds, so I was comparing to Connery and Moore I suppose. It was a great action movie, and you could almost forget it was Bond at all. Brilliant chase scenes although the one on the building site kept flipping my stomach over with all the high up shots and dangling over great heights! Nasty torture scene too, but I won't give it away! Yeah, I did enjoy it, and I can say that Daniel Craig was better in this than Enduring Love but I still don't fancy him!! Haha!!

We then went off to a meal in La Taverna. My starter was delicious, baked vine tomatoes with chorizo, croutons and parmesan. Mmmmm. Then I had caramelised garlic and pumpkin risotto which was rather creamy and very filling. The 2 boys had mussels (ulgh!) then Paul had lamb and Colin had halibut. Kate had halibut too but I can't remember her starter. We then went for a drink and came back to ours for a while before they went home. A very good evening was had by all!

Now, I realise I was going to do 3 Beautiful Things and I haven't kept it up. I guess I won't be doing it every post cos to be honest I'm not out and about much, but yesterday we went out for a drive and I jotted some down....

1. We drove about 30 miles to see some art by a local artist which was displayed in a cafe in Market Drayton. When we got there it was closed. We rang them and they don't open on Sundays, but were inside cleaning up from their Christmas party the night before. The proprietor kindly let us in to have a look.
2. As we were driving the radio was talking about the Bunsfield Oil explosion a year ago. As we passed the huge Muller factory we giggled about what would happen if it exploded and the whole area was showered with bright pink yoghurt, with smatterings of rice and Fruit Corner thrown in for good measure. It reminded me of the end scene in the film Evolution where the alien explodes and everyone is splattered in Head & Shoulders.
3. Coming past Morrisons I noticed a very elderly couple, one with a walking frame and the other with a stick, standing watching a car going through the automated car wash. I would love to believe they were thinking about throwing away their walking aids and running whooping and laughing through the water jets and brushes hand in hand.

Hopefully this afternoon someone at the knitting club will show me how to do crochet. I have finished the jumper but it needs a crochet edging around the neckline, cuffs and bottom edge. I was taught to crochet by Colin's mum a few years ago but have completely forgotten. It will be great to get this jumper finished, I can then move on to the slippers I need to do for Kate. After that, I must think about my competition socks as the closing date is 1st March.

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.

sheep crazy!!

On October 19th ebay uk had a 10p listing day so I had a sort out of my cardmaking stuff and listed a few things. I had sold some of my beaded stitch markers a few days before and had been looking on knitting websites at other markers. Then I had an idea. Why not make them with sheep on, after all that is where the wool comes from so they would make great knitting gifts for knitting mad friends. So off I went to HobbyCraft to get some Fimo polymer clay and a couple of hours later produced these! "I'll stick some on ebay and see what happens," I thought because no-one else had anything like them listed. By the end of the listing I had 10 watchers and the set sold for £4.50. I then sent a second chance offer to the person who had just lost out and she was in the USA. She was really chuffed to get a second chance and has asked me for a total of 7 sets!! I have another set listed for auction at the moment and someone emailed to ask if I would do a Buy It Now because she couldn't wait to get hold of some. So I sold her a set for £4.99.
In the meantime, one of my other listings was for a pair of the purple fluffy slippers. In the listing I stated that I could do other colours and had a request for a red pair which I duly made and have dispatched. The lady who bought the purple pair has now asked me for 3 more pairs, 2 red and 1 purple. I am so pleased that people actually want to buy my creations. So I'm gonna be busy making sheep for the next day or so. I'm going to make some coloured ones as well, not just plain black and white, but blue, green, pink, yellow, etc. Funky!!

Todays 3BTs
1. Getting the order for 7 sets of sheep stitch markers.
2. A lovely warm sunny day at the end of October.
3. Having a naughty sausage sandwich in a little cafe inside a local craft shop on a Sunday morning.

Scarf and history

Today, the BBC are asking ordinary people to write a diary of their day and upload it. They want to build a picture of what everyday life is like in Britain to store it for future generations to learn about. The link is http://www.historymatters.org.uk/output/Page96.asp You have until Nov 1st to upload your diary entry. They don't want exciting dramatic entries, just ordinary mundane goings on of real life. Interesting, I think I'll do it.

I caught up with an old friend on msn messenger over the last week or so. When I told him I was knitting, he asked if I could make him a scarf for walking his dog in the Welsh winds. Here is the result....... It's actually a lot brighter in real life! Hope he likes it.

A set of my stitch markers sold on ebay for 99p so I was quite chuffed, though its not going to make me millions! Gonna put a pair of my handmade fluffy slippers on in a minute. My neighbour popped round earlier and when I showed them to her she said she'd like some for her two daughters for Christmas. Result!

The other day I discovered a "Blogs of Note" called 3 Beautiful Things where the author lists 3 things they have seen or done that day that made them happy. So here are mine:

My 3BTs
1. My dog still looking and acting like a puppy even though he is 15 next week
2. Being told how good my slippers were.
3. Ordering the rest of the gorgeous yarn for my jumper.

Not too exciting but they made me happy.

Another scarf and yarn for jumper

Just a short post to show the scarf I made for my 4 year old niece - she saw her mum's and wanted one in "mad colours".



















Then you just had to see the gorgeous yarn I have for a jumper, the colours are sooo lovely.

stitch markers and fluffy slippers

Here are some pics of things I have made over the last few days. The blue and silver stitch markers I have listed on ebay at a starting price of 99p, so we'll see how they go and maybe do some more.

I love the slippers and have made another pair in the same colours but matching so that both start dark and go light on the foot.

Stuff I've knitted

Here are a few pics of the things I've knitted since going back to it recently.

The pink, grey and white socks are the Socks Of Doom I have knitted for Nina in the US.

The jumper is from Noro Unlimited and is Noro Silk Garden shade 84

The scarf is just some eyelash wool I got in the market and knitted up really quickly on 9mm needles and 20 stitches in garter stitch. And the 3 socks are just socks!!

Holidays, socks, Ed Byrne and dogs

Wow, where did the last 3 weeks go? I can't believe I've been back from holiday for a week already! It was a great break, especially for Colin who works so hard. We had a gorgeous villa with a pool (see photos) and the beaches went on and on and on.... It was a place called Conil de la Frontera near Cadiz on the Altantic coast of Spain. The area has not been invaded by the Brits and is not built up or anything. And hardly any English is spoken there, which was a struggle at times but we got by.

One thing I found hard was the meal times. I'm used to lunch at 1 and dinner about 7. Over there they don't serve lunch until 2 and dinner till 8.30. I was starving, hahahah!!! Although it was lovely, its always nice to get home and have a nice cup of tea!!!

While I was away I was getting excited about Sock Wars. I expected to get home and find I'd been "killed" ie have a pair of socks waiting for me in the post. But no, I was still in the game, or so I thought. I checked my email and there was no "assassination dossier" with my victims details so I checked the Yarnmonkey blog to discover a lot of people had not received their dossiers either. After some investigating it turns out that I had not been included in the game after all. I was most disappointed and wrote a comment on the blog. A very nice lady called Nina in Oklahoma offered to do a sock swap with me, so I am carrying on with my Socks of Doom and will be sending them off to her and she is doing the same. (Well I hope that is happening, for all I know she could be a big hairy bloke with a chainsaw! I hope he likes pink, white and grey!!!! )

Last Sunday night we went to see the Irish comedian Ed Byrne. He had rave reviews at the Edinburgh festival and didn't disappoint. The show is loosely wound around the story of the Michael Douglas film Falling Down, with Ed joking about how he would like to be Douglas' character, but with lots of digression onto other unrelated subjects. A good show. The support guy was a bit odd but had his moments. And luckily there was no audience participation which is a HUGE fear I have at live theatre things. I would never sit in the front! We were in row H which I thought was near enough but it then turned out there was no A-D so we were actually in row 4. Yikes. I still think The Mighty Boosh was a brilliant show though, we went to that in March. I love the Boosh - roll on series 3!!!!

Sadly, it seems our dog is getting old. He will be 15 next month and a couple of days ago he had a bit of a turn and has now had 4 of them. Its a small seizure type thing. The vet has given him medication and it hasn't happened yet today so fingers crossed. Its so upsetting to see it happen, I cry every time, probably because it makes me think of the inevitable "goodbye". Oooo quick, change the subject. Here is a pic of him a couple of years ago. Ain't he cute?

Got a new bit of kit yesterday. I went for a check up on my diabetes and insulin pump and I am trialling a piece of software for Roche which downloads info from the pump and blood glucose meter to your PC. It gives nice pretty graphs, except mine look awful cos they are all over the shop especially after the carb/insulin balancing (or mostly falling off) chaos of being on holiday, Still, all getting back on track this week. My HbA1c was slightly better at 8.8 down from 8.9. Not a great difference but I was expecting much worse, so I was secretly pleased with that. Lots of effort and gritting of teeth needed to get down to 7 still. Oh yeah, I'm going for hypnosis next Friday to see if she can help with the anxiety.

I got my first Reiki client. A friend of ours is going to let me treat her on Wed 25th. I'm not charging her, I need someone to practice on. I have had great results doing the distant Reiki so now I need someone "hands-on". Should be interesting.

Ongoing knitting projects are 3 pairs of socks and a scarf, and I just got some oddments of 4ply chenille from ebay this morning, so that will probably be another scarf and I have some chunky purple stuff coming from ebay too in the next day or two but I'm not sure what that will be yet. And while I was in Liverpool yesterday I popped into John Lewis - just to have a look, mind - and popped out again with two balls of mutli-coloured chunky and some 12mm and 15mm needles! I want to make a nice jumper in a lime-y green sometime too. I have got a great pattern on knitty.com (called Lucie) but I need to choose some yarn, the one they use is from America and VERY expensive. Oh, Christmas isn't that far off is it?

Writing update

Ahem, yes well it all sounded so promising in January didn't it.

Actually tho' in February i did sit down and write 25,000 words of my book. Unfortunately that was it. The ideas are still swarming and will get down on paper soon.

Sock Wars

I have recently started knitting again after about a 10 year break and am now obsessed with making socks. I am currently on my 5th pair. Last week I discovered Sock Wars http://yarn-monkey.blogspot.com/ and have signed up. I won't be able to start my socks until the 29th Sept tho' so I will already be a week behind and probably "dead" before I even start. But I'm not going to cancel my holiday!

I will now attempt to add some pics of my recent knitting projects.

The little cardi was for a friend's 9 month old and is made with Rowan 4ply Soft in 3 colours. The pattern is from Stitch n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller.

The armwarmer is one of a pair, and is from the same book, made with Noro Kureyon No.159.
I will add some pics of my socks when I have them.