Canal, gloves & hands

Sunday morning we went for a short walk along the canal at Christleton. This is the view facing one way........
And this is the view facing the other way.............
Some strange bloke decided to get in the photo...oh no, hang on, that's Colin!!

These handsome fellas were trying to round up some lady friends but they weren't too interested!
Yesterday I finished off Mandy's Miss Potter gloves, so that is the Christmas knitting finished and I can knit my other Jaywalker.

I am also getting an itch to start another Clapotis (correctly pronounced Clah-poh-tee apparently, I thought it was Clap-oh-tiss, but what do I know!). And I am swatching for a Mr Greenjeans.

I shouldn't really start anything at the moment, cos my operation is on January 11th. Some people have commented on whether I really need to have the op seeing as I am back knitting again. The fact is that the break did give the hands a rest and they are not sore when I knit but I still cannot bend my left thumb or right little finger. This causes problems with everyday things like writing and opening jars etc so yes, I am still going to need the surgery. But thanks for your concern!!

Knitting podcasts

A few weeks ago I was talking about my iPod and how I had discovered podcasts. These were limited to podcasts from radio shows I like, like Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand. Well, I have been on iTunes and found knitting podcasts. So far I have only tried a couple of them. The first one is called pointysticks by Christine Selleck. She hasn't updated recently but there are a lot of back issues to listen to. It is not all necessarily about knitting but somehow I can listen to Christine wittering on for an hour or so. She has a very southern USA drawl (she is from Texas) and her voice is strangely soporific. There is even music on there that I quite like or at least don't go "Ulgh!" and fast forward. From that podcast I found Cast On by Brenda Dayne. I didn't like the voice as much on this one and I must admit to drifting off a bit and not quite listening, but I have only heard the first episode so will persevere.

What is bizarre about listening to a knitting podcast is that you aren't really learning anything because how could you learn anything about knitting from just audio? You have to be shown a technique to see how it is done. But they aren't about that. I guess they are really an audio version of a blog. Both talk about what they may have read about knitting, LYSs they have been to and what is on their needles at the moment, and any challenges they are facing with their WIPs. The first episode of pointysticks starts off talking about Jaywalker socks which I'm doing at the moment, so it was really topical for me.

To find these podcasts just go to iTunes, which is free to download, and type knitting podcast into the search box. Or you can use the links above to go to the websites and find the links from there. You don't need an iPod to listen, you can just listen on the computer.

Talking of Jaywalkers, I finished the first one yesterday.I am now starting on the second one of these
in order to avoid second sock and second glove syndrome. So the sequence is 1 glove, 1 sock, 2nd glove, 2nd sock. Seems to be working

Jaywalkers, Mike's hat & zoo

Here is the progress so far on my first pair of Jaywalkers. I really like how the stripes are working out, but I'm not sure if it is that Tiger-ish, apart from the colour. I have finished the gusset so it is a straight run down to the toe.

Mike was really chuffed with his Tundra hat and wore it around the office for a while. Goodness knows what his wife said when he arrived home with it.
Finally a couple more photos from our zoo trip on Sunday. I forgot to look to see what this bird was but the birds tend to get neglected in favour of more exciting animals so I thought I'd make this one feel loved by taking its picture.
And here are the lions enjoying their lunch.

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.

Hat, zoo, and eels.

Mike's hat is finished. This was a different yarn to the one I made mine in and shrank more vertically than horizontally, but a bit of blocking has done the trick. It is just about dry and will be handed over to Mike tomorrow. Hope he likes it.

In other knitting, I have finished one Miss Potter. I have decided to just make one pair though, in case I get fed up of the pattern.

We have a friend called Paul who we know from our student days. He is originally from South Wales but now lives in Fife with his wife Audrey and their 2 year old son Elliot. Every now and again we get a phone call from Paul, saying he is about half an hour away and can they pop in. Somehow we are usually in and not busy. It has become a bit of a standing joke. When I got home on Friday there was an answerphone message asking us to call him on his mobile. He was in the area but wondered if we were doing anything on Saturday. They were down for a family party in Lymm but were going to come over to the zoo, so we arranged to meet them. And here they are................The fourth person is Paul's niece Katie. We had a lovely day wandering around the zoo. It was very chilly though, and I should have taken my Tundra hat, but Paul came to the resue with a hat for me. Here I am wearing it, and discovering that one of the chimps has been named after me, hah hah.
Here are some leaf cutter ants doing their thing and carrying chunks of orange peel up to the top of the tree trunk. (Click the picture to see it better)
They also have prairie dogs where you can go through a tunnel and pop up inside a dome in the enclosure..........
Well Kate Garraway got voted off Strictly Come Dancing last night. At last!! It was getting a bit silly keeping her in as she was dreadful. I'm still not sure who the winner is going to be, but I think Kelly, Alisha and Matt have a good chance. Also been watching Long Way Down with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on Sunday evenings. They are travelling from John O'Groats to Cape Town on motorbikes through Africa.

Have you seen the film Team America - World Police? It is all done with string puppets but is definitely NOT for kids. When I first started watching it I though it was rubbish but I stuck with it and it turned out to be really funny. A p**s take of Tom Cruise films like Top Gun. Check it out if you haven't already.

I'll leave you with a little song..........
"Eels, eels, eels, eels..............Eels up inside ya! Finding an entrance where they can........."

Boosh Day!!! & op date

Yay, Mighty Boosh series 3 starts today. I've just listened to them on Jo Whiley in the Live Lounge. They sang Love Games and the Soup Song. Chris Moyles let me down this morning by saying he doesn't like them!!!!!!!!!!

I have a new date for my hand operation - 11th January. Better get all my WIPs finished by then!! I am about half done on Mike's hat, 10% done on the jaywalkers, 45% on the Drops cardi, and I have decided to make 2 pairs of Miss Potter mitts for Christmas presents. Yikes!

Additions to the stash

Last Tuesday at work, I was looking at my page on ravelry and one of the guys who rents a room from us saw my Vince hat and wanted to see it in real life. So on Thursday I took it in and when he'd tried it on he asked if I could make him one!! He reckons his daughter will steal it though. But I went on ebay and found this...........
They assure me it will felt at 60 degrees but I'll swatch first. Also last week I got this from ebay.............. It is 75% BFL/25% nylon sock yarn called Tiger Stripe and I have started a pair of Jaywalkers in it............
Then I discovered Angels & Elephants (again on ebay) and ordered these............

The first one is called Candy Floss and the second one is called Tamar. This is 100% shetland sock weight.

On Sunday we went up to the Lake District. A couple of friends were renting a cottage for the week to do some walking and they invited us to go up for a night. So we went Sunday morning and got there about 12.30 just in time for a yummy pub lunch. In the afternoon we went to visit Fairfield Mill near Sedbergh. There was a working loom and water wheel and lots of handmade crafts to buy. There were also displays of the history of the mill and the Terrible Knitters of Dent. All the way round there were baskets of yarn, but it was all for display, very frustrating. But when we got to the far end there was a shelf of "mill ends" and I grabbed these...........
There is over 1200g of fingering weight yarn there, goodness knows the yardage, all for £6!!!

The awful thing was we also had to share the cottage with this creature..........This is Molly, ain't she cute? Sadly, Mandy wouldn't let us keep her!

This is the progress so far on the cardigan. One more front and then the sleeves. Not looking forward to doing the neckband, I have read through it and it sounds a bit complicated, eek!
Two days to go to series 3 of The Mighty Boosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cardi progress

My Drops 88-4 cardigan is coming along nicely. I have now finished all the cable-y bits and am on to larger needles and plain stocking stitch so it should grow quicker now. The little cables were driving me bonkers but I still have to do them again on 2 sleeves!! There will be less of them each time though, there were 14 of them across the body!!

Now I have a question...........I want to make a cardigan in a neutral colour that will go with purple, blue, grey, red, green or white (or any colour you can think of really!!!). What colour do you suggest? Please don't say black, I can't bear the thought of knitting with black, I think I may go blind, eek. (If you are wondering, these mentioned colours are all colours of tops I have which I would wear underneath the cardigan in question.) Please leave any suggestions in the comments.

Yesterday we went for a walk around the Marine Lake in West Kirby on the Wirral. Half way round we veered off up a side road to a cafe I had spotted on the way, called Sand's. We sat outside and the sun was so warm I had to take off my fleece!! While we were sat there I put a bookcrossing book on a chair at another table, and one of the staff had a look. Then she told someone else and they came and took it inside. Later in the evening I had a journal entry on it. Yay!! My catch rate on my wild releases currently sits at 18.9% so roughly 1 in 5. Not bad.

We had a brief discussion about how we felt about another dog. Colin's thoughts were "I'd probably have to do most of the walking etc, BUT they are lovely", "they are a commitment BUT they are lovely". Mine were, "you do have to think about getting home when you are out or arranging kennels if you go away BUT they are lovely". Hmmm, no conclusions there then. It is a bit too soon yet anyway, and we need to get Colin's treatment out of the way first.

Talking of which, it is going fine so far. The only effect has been that his arm is going a bit pink, but being a redhead he burns easily anyway so it looks as if he has caught a little bit of sun on one arm only. No tiredness or nausea so far, so he is happy to drive over to his appointments on his own for now.

Vince's Tundra Hat!

On ravelry, I am one of the moderators on the group called The Coconut Lodge, which is for fans of The Mighty Boosh to chat about the Boosh and also show off any Boosh-inspired knits. Knittyinpink suggested we had a bit of a knitalong based on the hat that Vince wears in the series 1 episode Tundra. I found a couple of suitable-ish patterns but I wanted to make a felted hat. I was using the leftover Lamb's Pride bulky from the Fabulous Lace Inset Cardigan, and 8mm needles, so I went with Ryan's Hat from here but using the larger yarn and needles. Once I started it was a quick knit, and grew very rapidly into this..............
I was a little bit worried it wasn't going to shrink enough during the felting, but after 2 goes through the 40 degree cycle it came out like this................
(that's me pretending to be Vince asleep in the snow, didn't quite carry it off!!)

Anyway, I'm really pleased with it, apart from it maybe could be a bit taller. It is worked down from the top, so maybe the increases could have been done on every 3rd row instead of every 2nd row. I had bits of skeins left so I think I used about one and 3 quarter skeins on it. I'm not sure if I will add any Booshy embellishments, I'll see what everyone else does with theirs first. I don't want to make it so that I don't want to wear it in public for fear of ridicule, at the moment I think it is wearable apart from being very RED. I shall have to get one of the red T-shirts with the lightning bolts on, and then I can wear it with that and the Glam Rock Ski Suit Socks while I'm watching the DVDs!! (Colin thinks I'm bonkers!).

We had a lovely evening with Gill on Sunday, and then Tuesday we met up with some friends who moved back to Ireland in January, and who were over for a visit to sort out some things on the house they are trying to sell. We had lunch at The Rake near Cheshire Oaks and then popped into Borders for coffee afterwards. We were too busy chatting that I didn't get a chance to look at any books!!!

Yesterday we went over to Manchester for Colin's first radiotherapy appointment. I sat in the waiting area listening to the Jonathon Ross podcast and trying not to make a show of myself by stifling my sniggering. I did think of taking some knitting but I think sniggering and knitting in a corner may have resulted in 'the men in white coats' carrying me off!! The session all went fine and there were no nasty effects so he is going to go on his own for a couple of weeks, and then see if he needs me to drive after that. I gave him a session of Reiki last night to help things along, and I'll do about a 20 minute top up each day.

So it means I don't get to skive off work now!! Pah!

Sad news, lunch, & catching up.

My computer lost its internet connection for a few days and the other computer doesn't have my camera software on it, but this afternoon a friend who is a computer genius came and sorted it all out, so everything is back to normal.

But unfortunately I have to start this post with some sad news. On Oct 10th we had to make the heartbreaking decision to say goodbye to our boy Podge. He was almost 16 and had been having lots of falls and couldn't get up again without help. It was all a bit confusing for him and when the vet said there was nothing more we could do, it was time to say goodbye. We had had him since he was about 9 months old, when we rescued him from the RSPCA shelter in Colwyn Bay. He has left a huge hole in our lives and we will miss him dearly. We have had him cremated and so he is now home with us at least.



Yesterday we went out for lunch with some friends we hadn't seen for almost a year, Paul & Scottie. We went to Piccolino's and spent a leisurely 2 hours eating and chatting. After that we met some other friends Graeme, Mandy & Emily for a quick coffee. And tonight we have Gill coming round for dinner. She is the friend who went off to France after Colin did some life coaching with her. She is now back and sorting out what to do next.

I am working on my Drops cardigan but it is very slow going. I have done about 15cm in four days!! The yarn is fine, the needles are small and as it is worked in one piece there are loads of stitches. It looks lovely so far though so I am happy to trudge along with it. I have also finished the present for my mum.

Couldn't resist this from Natural Dye Studio............BFL Dazzle sock yarn in colour Peahen.

Colin is off for a "trial run" for his radiotherapy tomorrow, and then he starts properly on Wednesday for 6 and a half weeks which takes us to 14th December we think. So all done and dusted by Christmas.

I am Sooooo lucky

I am so lucky to have a wonderful friend. And the daft thing is we have never met. Our first contact was through a bookring that was running on bookcrossing.com. And then we became blogging friends. I won't mention her name as she prefers to stay anonymous if she can but she knows who she is and some of you know her too. Anyway, she sent me this Ilga Leja Diamonds on the Diagonal scarf out of the blue!! Just out of the goodness of her heart because I have had a dodgy time of it lately. What a sweet person she is. Thank you so much.

It is made with Posh Yarn in a wonderful mix of pinky purpley grey colours with a hint of a yellowy green. Gorgeous. And just the right size for this time of year when you don't yet need a really big scarf. In fact I shall wear it today!

No sign of my Lace needle yet so I shall carry on with the other project for the time being.

Mighty Boosh in the Observer

Apparently there was an interview with Noel and Julian in the Obserer Magazine on Sunday. I didn't see it but there is a link to the interview here for everyone else who missed it too. (Thanks to Badger for the link!)

Lavender Scars, Miss Potter and Drops 88-4

I am officially out of Sock Wars. These arrived on Saturday morning, lovely pale lavender Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. They were knitted by Rooknits (three quarters) and wendyswoolies (finished off). My Yarn Forward magazine came last week. It is much glossier and magazine-like now with some good length articles. As I didn't know if I would be knitting more on Sock Wars I decided to start the Miss Potter Mitts from the front cover. Unfortunately the pattern was not well written and I had to work out a couple of bits myself. But this is what they came out like....
They are knitted in Rowan Tapestry which is lovely and soft, using size 4mm DPNs. I think if I made another pair I would go down a needle size as they are quite roomy. I used one ball of the Tapestry and literally had 4 inches of yarn left over!! More pics on flickr (see link on the left).

Also on Saturday I had a delivery from Bruce at Scandinavian Knitting Design. Six balls of Drops Alpaca to make the Drops Cardigan 88-4. The yarn is wonderfully soft, but is very fine (thinner than sock yarn) and the pattern is knitted on 3.5mm needles. It is going to be a longer term project I think. Here is my progress so far........
After doing a couple of rows of cables with a cable needle I decided there had to be a better way, so googled cabling without a needle. I found this method and it is great apart from the scary bit of dropping stitches off the needle. You need to hold them tight so you don't lose them. Mine is only a four stitch twist so only two stitches to drop and pick up.
The bamboo needle I was using however, is rather blunt so I have ordered one of the Addi Lace needles which are more pointy.

While waiting for the Addi I have started a secret project for my mum for Christmas. I was going to do her a cardigan of some sort but as I don't want to over stretch my hands I have scaled down to something smaller. Can't say what because she reads this. All I'll say is that it is in a colour she likes.

Clapotis finished

I finished my Clapotis scarf last night. I'm not sure about the colour pooling but I'm not worrying enough to frog and do it again. It is Natural Dye Studio hand dyed yarn so there are colour variations between skeins. I used 3 and a quarter skeins (170ish grams) of sock yarn.


I liked getting near the end because you are decreasing at both ends so each row is getting shorter and therefore quicker to knit.

Somehow I am still alive in Sock Wars. Mel declared herself 'dead' yesterday so hopefully I will get her victim's partly made socks to finish in a couple of days. Unless I'm 'killed' first, but I have had no word from my 'assassin' at all. Perhaps they are in stealth mode.

On the TV front, I watched Sunday's Top Gear last night. I can't believe that they managed to sail the English Channel in a pickup truck!! Surely not! Very funny though.

Since I have managed to pick up the needles again recently, my reading has started to suffer. I have started Memnoch the Devil, which is no. 5 of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I did pop into the second hand bookshop on Saturday and got Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan, and Night Rise by Anthony Horowitz for the grand total of £7, and the Canavan was a hardback. I enjoyed the Black Magician trilogy so I hope I'll like this one too. I'm not usually a big fantasy fiction fan but there you go.

Yay for Russell Brand having Noel Fielding as co-host on his Radio 2 show last week. If you are quick you can listen again or download the podcast here. The show was very funny, but I don't know how he gets away with some of the stuff he talks about, what with it being the BBC n'all. There was a bonkers chap on who wants Russell to stand for mayor of London. You can sign the petition here. Noel & Russell did say that they will be defending their title on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, which I'm guessing will be on around Christmas/New Year. Not long now then, where is this year going?

WMDs lauched!!!

(Weapons of Mel's Destruction!!!)

Coincidentally it turned out that Mel was my victim for Sock Wars!! I finished the socks and mailed them off this morning so she will probably be dead (Royal Mail willing) by the morning.

Sheepies for Mel

Here are some little sheepie stitch markers for Mel (woolydoodles). Four for her and four for her Secret Pal. Apparently purple and green are her pal's favourite colours. I have to make a batch for the LYS before the weekend too, better get on with those!!

So yesterday we went over to Manchester to Christies. The consultant was very nice and explained all about what was going to happen. The radiotherapy will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks starting on 31st October. There are a couple of appointments before that where they mark out the area they are going to treat and have to make a plastic thingiemajig for the area. The treatments themselves are about 15 minutes, its just a pity it takes an hour each way to get there. It took longer yesterday because it was peak time and the traffic was heavy but hopefully we can arrange more convenient times.

It was hard to imagine that a large number of the people wandering around the corridors had some type of cancer. They all looked so "normal". Of course there were the ones that had lost their hair due to chemo, but it was lovely to see some of these people with smiles, as though they hadn't a care in the world. Good luck to them all.

On the way back we went to Borders (didn't buy anything) and had panini and cappucinos for lunch in Starbucks. Yummy.

3 days to SOCK WARS!!!

belated thanks, ravelling in it, and foodie friends.

I just wanted to say a belated thanks to my step-dad Bill, who came up to visit with my mum last weekend and washed both our cars and cut the grass. I am ashamed to say that mine hadn't been done since he did it last visit in May. Gulp!

I am having fun on ravelry. I now have 17 "friends" and have uploaded several of my finished projects, books, stashed yarns and queued some patterns I would like to make. AND, a friend and I have started a group called The Coconut Lodge, for all things Booshy, and we have 7 members! One thing I have noticed from putting up pics of my stash is that there is a lot of blue/green there. I need to add some colour desperately.

Less than a week until Sock Wars now. I have 3 possible yarns now. If my victim is female I'm sticking with the Natural Dye Studio BFL sock yarn

If my victim is male, I'm going with garnstudio Fabel
And if either of them are allergic to wool, I have some Rowan Bamboo Soft.
I have 3.25cm DPNs AND Addi circulars, so I'm all set. Let battle commence!!!

I have given up on The Angel Makers. When I bought it I thought it was going to be witchy and a bit supernatural but it has turned into a saga of a woman who gets beaten up by her fiance. No thanks! So I have abandoned it and gone for something I know I will like, Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice. Its the 5th in the Vampire Chronicles.

Last night we had a couple of friends round for dinner. We hadn't seen them since January. A very nice evening was had by all and my tuna fish pie went down very well. Heather brought some runner beans picked from her garden that day, and they were lovely with it. Colin bought some Stinking Bishop cheese, and I'm afraid it tasted to me like a cowpat, (not that I've ever tasted a cowpat! I came close once but that's another story) so I had some of the goat's cheese and the smoked Lancashire. Colin did a fancy starter of Ciabatta with Asparagus and Poached Egg, mmmm, delish!

On Tuesday we go to Manchester to see the radiotherapy team at Christie's. We should find out when Colin's treatment starts and for how long. Wish us luck.

Ravelry name

Hooray, I got on ravelry yesterday!!!

My username is ElectroGirl

Wow, that is one scary black hole of a place, several hours have just vanished without a trace!! I think I shall have to limit myself, but at the moment it is a HUGE novelty. There are some great resources for seeing what other people have made with yarns you may have in your stash, and also pics of things people have made from patterns you have made. 'Citin'!!!

Oh, and we need people for a Mighty Boosh ravelry group, so leave me a comment with your ravelry name if you are interested.

Podcasts

Oooo, two posts today!!

You may remember I treated myself to a little iPod nano a couple of weeks ago. I'm not a big music listener, but one thing I have discovered is PODCASTS. I really like listening to Jonathan Ross on a Saturday morning but as we usually go into town then, I only catch bits of it in the car on the way there and back. By downloading the podcast i can listen to it whenever I like and each new episode is automatically downloaded when I open iTunes. I have done the same with Russell Brand. You don't get any of the music (this is probably something to do with copyright laws and stuff) but you get all the chat in between. Russell has about 1hr 15min a week of him rambling on about a load of old twaddle. I think I might give the Chris Moyles one a whirl too.

Apart from radio shows there is a world of ordinary people doing their own free podcast recordings. You can search for anything and find someone has done a podcast on it, knitting, diabetes, reiki, anything you want. I can't vouch for the quality of any of this stuff though. You don't need to have an iPod to listen either, you can just download iTunes (which is free) and listen through your computer. Give it a whirl!

Can you tell what it is yet?

This is (was) my secret project. (Click to enlarge) I have confessed to the "victim" what i was doing and that it won't be in time for her birthday. (And that is despite the postal strike). It is going to take me a lot longer than I thought, and will be interrupted by Sock Wars anyway. So I'm going to send an alternative gift, and keep hold of this myself for now. Phew, I didn't realise you needed 18 stitch markers either. Luckily, thanks to Blossom who sent me 6 in my birthday surprise package, I did have enough in the right size. They are a bit of a mixture though. (BTW if anyone is still trying to figure it out, it is a Clapotis.)

I have just got gauge for Sock Wars in Garnstudio Fabel too, so if my victim is a man I will use that because it is blues/greens and greys. Not sure a man would want Shades of Grapefruit to be honest!

519 ahead of me for ravelry, I reckon I might just get on this evening!!! Now I just have to think of a cool name. A friend is going to start a Mighty Boosh group on there, so if you are interested leave me a comment, we need a couple more people to be able to set it up.