toasty!

J2 has been complaining about feeling cold in the mornings when she is waiting for the school bus, but she is not so cold that she will wear a coat (kids?!).

I suggested that she wear a hat, but all of her hats were "the wrong colour", i.e. light pink.

She wanted a red hat but all of the red yarn in my stash was 4ply and I knew that I couldn't knit up a hat in one night in 4ply (I'm not known as suse-the-slow-knitta for nothing!), so I suggested a hat in Bigga wool by Sirdar which I had intended for a bag.

She was delighted with this idea and it did knit up very quickly and she has happily worn it on Thurs and Fri mornings which is just as well as it is perishing cold here and we had our first dusting of snow yesterday. She still won't wear a coat though.

I watched episode 1 of Little Dorrit on the BBC iplayer last night. I don't know how I missed all the trailers for this, I must have been watching too much football I suppose. I enjoyed it very much; it's not a story that I'm familiar with. so I won't be able to pick up any of Andrew Davies' alterations to the story, but so far I'm hooked.

I know that Dickens's own father was in the debtors prison when Dickens was a child and it must have had a marked effect upon him. This is going to be riveting TV!

with love..

..every year since J1 started primary school we have put together a Christmas shoebox. (organised by Samaritan's Purse)

This year I decided we'd go for the oldest age group 10-14 and put in the kinds of things that J2 would love.

As well as colourful notebooks, stickers, pens, pencils and felt tip pens there's also a hat, gloves, a fine scarf, beads, a purse, hairbrush, toiletries and wrapped round the soap is a facecloth that I made yesterday.

J2 loves the facecloth which I made for her, so it was the obvious item to make for the box. I hope next year that I have more time and hand knit a hat and gloves too.

It's amazing how much can fit into a shoebox and I know that the boxes are appreciated so much. One of my friends on the LK forum is one of the volunteers who takes the boxes to needy areas and she has told us how valued the boxes are. Some people on LK were knitting Barbie clothes to go in the boxes to dress the dolls which she collects/finds/gets given.

My children get so much; it's nice to know that another young girl will feel special too.

progress x 2

The Toon were lucky to get 3 points tonight, having dominated the first half and scoring twice they let West Brom get back into the game (final score 2-1)

Amazingly enough Joey Barton got his first goal since being released from gaol as he took the penalty.

A bizarre form of irony, as he will be paying the penalty for assaulting a young man at New Year for a long time. He has done his time but he's not allowed to forget it.

Unlike Tony Adams who served time for drink driving and has been rehabilitated back into the football family and was appointed manager of Portsmouth today. He faced up to his addiction and turned his life around, maybe Joey Barton can do that too.

(I was making progress on a washcloth while listening to the Toon make progress too.)

Disgraceful!!

today, I became Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells and joined the 10,000 other people who have complained to the BBC about the broadcast by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand which featured a lewd song about the grand-daughter of Andrew Sachs.

The BBC has apologised but I don't think that that is enough. It was a pre-recorded piece, so some producer or other has thought it was OK.

Good grief!!

I don't know if I'm getting old or if I should be pleased that I can still get angry about something. Both probably!

it's a start..

.. I've made a few deccies for the advent tree while listening to the football commentary.

Here we have a gingerbread snowflake, a pear, a penguin, a bugle and a woolly hat; 5 down, 20 to go. Now that I've made some decorations I'll feel happier getting back to the advent tree for a while.

Football news : I was stunned today to hear that Spurs has sacked Juande Ramos and appointed Harry Redknapp in his place.

Last year, the Tottenham board had destabilised Martin Jol, who had been their most successful manager in a good while, because they wanted to appoint Ramos. Ramos won the Carling cup last season, but this season has been a disaster: Spurs sold their two best players, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov and Ramos was left with a demoralised team struggling at the foot of the table with 2 points. So, Magic Juande had to go, Flash 'Arry came in at a trot.

But what of the people who make these decisions? They are still in the boardroom. Today Spurs beat Bolton 2-0, so the players who couldn't play last week turn in a decent performance... It beggars belief. Footballers earn shedloads of cash but they need someone to hold their hands and tell them how to play.

I'm a bit bemused by Redknapp too: he constantly swears allegiance to Pompey and at the first whiff of an offer he's off (he was approached by the Toon in January). I would be a bit aggrieved if I was a Pompey fan. Sunderland seems a model of stability and sobriety at the moment. ( except for the idiots who threw bottles at Joey Barton on Saturday... what a way to show someone that you disapprove of his violent behaviour... pots and kettles!!

Sunderland stay 9th after today's fixtures, Chelsea were finally beaten at home by Liverpool ( Chelsea had had an unbeaten run of 86 games at home. I had hope it would be Hull who would end that run for them!)

...and Andy Murray retained his St Petersburg title by beating Andrey Golubev 6-1, 6-1.

I love listening to 5live, I get some much knitting done!!

red & white x 2

The North East derby went the right way ( for me), with the red & white army beating the black & white army 2-1. this is the first time that we've beaten them at home for 28 years!

Cissé scored first, Ameobi equalised then Kieran Richardson got the winner which made up for last weekend when he had a goal disallowed.

D is worried about the Toon's perilous position but as the Baggies were beaten at home today by Hull, then the Toon should be able to take them on on Tuesday night.

Sunderland are now at the dizzying heights of 9th in the table, but this could change as most of the PL games are played tomorrow.

After listening to the commentary on 5live I took J2 and her pal M to see High School Musical 3. The cinema was packed with mothers and their daughters with maybe only 5 brave Dads taking their girls to see it. The singing and dancing was great but it was a bit story-lite.

However I'm sure J2 will be wanting a copy of the DVD pretty soon! I did like the fact that the wildcats basketball team played in red & white though- a classic colour combo!!

I've started making some of the deccies for the advent tree and I'm finding them very fiddly. I'm sure it will be worth it when I'm done but they are driving me nuts at the moment!

a bit of guidance...

Schools have changed a lot since I was a kid. Some of the changes are very good: I was impressed today when I met J2's guidance teacher for a brief chat about how she is settling into High School. Just for that, no other reason.

I don't think that my parents had the opportunity to meet my teachers until I had been at school for several years and needed to choose GCE's, parents only went up to school if there was a problem. It seems so much better to be able to build up a relationship with the teachers before any problems develop. Of course J2 has settled in well, is interested in all her new subjects and has made new friends, so I couldn't ask for a better start for her.

An hour later I was getting my own guidance from the (mostly) pensioners at the Day Centre. They are such a great bunch, full of life and bounce, full of concern for each other, helpful and friendly,and they even let me win at dominoes today. (I dare not try whist yet, I don't know if I'm up to it.) Amidst all the doom and gloom in the world it's good to be able to have a laugh and a joke with some new friends.

A joke from Alec (70) :

' A man asks his elderly father to tell him how he wants his funeral to be sorted " I know your favourite hymns Dad, but I don't whether you wish to be buried or cremated, which is it to be?" " I don't know" his father replies " surprise me!"

JFK? not quite..

What happens when the richest club in the PL takes on the struggling Geordies who are being sold (down the river Tyne) by the dippy owner and are managed by the least likely man in the world?

You wouldn't have bet on it but last night the Toon fought back from having Beye sent off & conceding a penalty to draw 2-2 with Man City.

Shola Ameobi was the unlikely scorer, the man is a random event generator, no one knows what he will do, least of all himself. The second goal was a gift from Man City's Richard Dunne.

D and J1 travelled down the A1 out of duty rather than with any hope of any seeing football being played but were heartened to see the team stick together and refuse to give up. The crowd was behind the team rather than howling for the owner to go, and a point was gained rather than 3 lost.

And who is JFK*? the new manager Joe Kinnear got a lot of stick from the press when he was first appointed: he hadn't managed for 4 years, he was from London and a lot of rubbish was printed about him. Then at a press conference he laid into the press, called them all the names under the sun, and the poor delicate flowers that make up the hacks from the Mirror et al printed his words (with a few strategically placed asterisks) to show what a meanie he was for picking on them. Boohoo!

Oddly enough everyone else (on forums almost everywhere!) thought this was quite funny and it seems the Geordie faithful have started to warm to him. And whatever he's doing with the team seems to be working as they have stopped losing and started scoring goals again.

This is where I am torn : I loved living in Newcastle when I was a student and it's hubby's team so I want the Toon to do quite well, but it's the Wear-Tyne derby at the weekend so, of course, I want Sunderland to win that match and get the full 3 points.

Ah me, we'll have to maintain diplomatic relations at the weekend! Still the radio commentary will be excellent to knit to!


* Joe doesn't have a middle name beginning with F as far as I know, it's a ironic joke on the swearing... I'm sure he takes it as a compliment! & good luck to him too!

Murray mint!

Andy Murray won the Madrid Masters today, beating Gilles Simon 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) in the final.

Perhaps it wasn't a classic final, both players had had hard-fought semis yesterday (Murray against Federer and Simon against Nadal), but you have to beat the person on the other side of the net, not who might have been there.

I was thoroughly enjoying listening to the commentary on 5live for the tennis and the football as I did a few more rows on the advent tree. I am fed up with the yarn that I'm using : I feel like I am eating the stuff, the fibres are flying everywhere and its hard to correct my mistakes.

Still, its good to do while listening to sports commentaries, although yesterday I threw it on the sofa in disgust when the Black Cats' goal was disallowed (for no good reason in my view) and we only managed a draw against Fulham.

In the brief interlude of dry weather today I swept up some leaves in the garden, lifted some gladioli corms and planted more spring bulbs and picked the apples from our trees.

One tree did very well, it had been laden with blossom at the time when the bees were out and so the fruit was set (the pears flowered too soon).

The apple is nice to eat, quite crisp, not quite as tangy as a Cox's Orange Pippin but not as sweet as a Gala. My cheap apple trees from Woolworth's produced the green apples.

Next to the fruit bowl is my entire tomato crop! Despite the plant getting a lot of flowers only one fruit set.

I kept trying to chase bees from the lavender into my mini greenhouse to set the tomato, aubergine and capsicum flowers, but they weren't having any of it. So one solitary cherry tomato was produced, and J1 scoffed in a nanosecond!

So this year we have successfully grown rhubarb, potatoes, apples, raspberries, herbs and a little bit of broccoli, but the runner beans, broad beans,cabbages, tomatoes, aubergine courgette and capsicum have suffered from inadequate sun, too many slugs or indifferent bees.

Still, its better than in my old garden where I could only get herbs to grow.


..........and I was thrilled to find out today that I'd won the yarn on Lixie's blog. Woohoo! That wollmeise is going to make something for me and no one else!!

put the kettle on..

...my new Eco kettle which can boil as little as 1 cup of water in seconds.

Our old kettle was shaped like a black rocket and whistled too but had started to leak, and electricity and water is not a good mix, no matter how nice the sound of the whistle. D bought us a new one which has a central well of water and by pressing as button the lid you can release a cup of water into the heating area to be boiled.

It is very, very quick too! I will miss the whistle of the old one, but this one works so fast that I don't have time to wander out of the kitchen anyway!

I'm now working on my swap knitting so I can't say much until its done, obviously it involves Christmas swaps, one of which is an ornament swap, organised by Lixie. These trees are some of her ornaments.

When I was raking around in my small stash for suitable yarns I found some of my Gran's old needles, small 3.75mm, and I was delighted to be able to put them to good use. Most of the needles that I have inherited from her are very fine (old size 13) and my knitting isn't quite up to that standard yet.

She used to make so many toys (knitted and sewn) that I'm sure that she would be pleased to know that I was tentatively following in her footsteps.

footloose

the first square for the Discworld blanket is done!

Here we have, in all its/his/her glory is the Luggage running from the Bel-hamoroth octopoddy monster shedding gold as it/he/she goes, the flames in the bottom right are the flames of Ankh-Morpork as the good burgers find out about inn-sewer-ants and set fire to their buildings and the Broken-Drum ravens are in the top right.

The rusty red background represents Rincewind's battered old magician's cloak, the purple/aqua frame is Octarine, and dark blue edge is the Multiverse.

I was pleased to be able to find some tiny feet charms at The Bead Shop in Haddington, what a treasure trove that place is!

And now on the needles is an angel for the advent tree. I think the way to get through the tree is to make a deccie, knit some branches, make a deccie...

"They think it's all over..."

and I'd like to add," it is now" * , but sadly folks this is just the beginning.

Warning! this blog contains economics and politics!! (and a smidge of yarn)

13/10/08 the day that the UK govt.stepped in with £37bn and effectively nationalised 3 major banks RBOS, HBOS, Lloyds TSB with conditions requiring that the banks do not pay executive bonuses and focus on helping the man in the street and small businesses.

Cometh the man, cometh the hour~. Gordon Brown, the UK PM has taken a lot of flak over recent months as his detractors would have you believe that the financial crises are of his making and he should go and let others sort it out (whether it's another Labour PM or a Tory PM depends on who is talking.)

However in a bold move he has stabilised the ship and left the opposition with not much to say. Brown is an intelligent man and he thrives on dealing with complex problems with tons of minute detail (needed at the moment), he's not good at sound bytes, baby kissing (except his own) or rousing the public to a frenzy of adoration. (1997 Blair and family on the steps of No. 10).

As a people watcher, it was interesting to see the press conference that he gave with the the Chancellor, explaining what was being done and why: they stood tired, but unbowed, shoulders square and resolute but not hubristic, they spoke calmly and simply.

It was fascinating to see Cameron's ( and in Scotland, Salmond's) posture: saggy, loss of muscle tone in the face, at a loss for what to say. Now is not the time for orators (which Cameron is) but that time will come. The Tories and the SNP have to rethink their pitches to capture the public imagination again.

Scotland however has received a massive blow to its national psyche: getting a government bailout for banking is humiliating. What are the Scots good at? Engineering, science and being careful with money. In the past the SNP have claimed that Scotland could operate independently as well as other small countries like Norway, Finland and ... Iceland. Oops.

(I'm not Scottish although I live in Scotland. I love living here, it's a great place to raise the kids, the Scots are passionate about art, poetry and sport (lots of boxes being ticked here), they are generally tolerant of other cultures, they are interested in ideas, literature is highly valued. I support devolution but not independence.)

So, its not all over yet: the banks were overstretched and needed to be stabilised. If they weren't stabilised then the effects would be horrendous- many small to medium companies need to borrow regularly to pay the employees wages because the income stream for their products/services is uneven. If the banks are not lending then wages are not paid, people fall behind on their mortgages, small businesses go bust and an especially vicious circle develops. Governments have to step in to stop this, but then the financial sector needs to sort itself out to truly reflect its assets and not get overstretched.

Some jobs will be lost, the public needs to save more and spend less, the fat cats need to eat less oak smoked flaked tuna and have canned munchymeat like everyone else.

This all made for fascinating TV yesterday and that is always good for knitting. I put the embroidery detail on the Discworld square and now only to need to find some feet shaped buttons for it. I feel a need to read Pratchett's Making Money too, the man is so prophetic it's scary.

I knew I wouldn't be able to read only 1 Discworld book per month!


*from the late, great Kenneth Wolstenhulme the commentator on the 1966 World Cup final.
~ I can't find an agreed source for this, its often used in sporting commentaries but seems to be an amalgam of several other phrases.

EXTERMIN-EAT!

J2 made some fab cookies yesterday which are a big hit with our Who-mad family.

The best way to deal with a Dalek is to dunk him in your tea!!

The kids' baking kit from from Green's is quite good, the cookie dough is reasonable and the cutter works pretty well. I was impressed that she handled the whole baking process herself and cleared up afterwards.

Today she has loaded up the breadmaker, and I'll have to get her to make some fairy cakes or jam tarts this week while the kids are on half term.

Half-term! Where does the time go? She's been at High School since mid -August and has taken to the new routine really well.

She is so enthusiastic about the new subjects: fascinated by Chemistry and Biology, enjoying French, loving Art, Music, CDT & FCT and has made lots of new friends and is still pally with her old friends. I couldn't ask for a better start for her.

On the knitting front, the first Discworld square is off the needles and I'm embroidering the details onto it, then I'd better get back to the advent tree I suppose ( I sound so enthusiastic!) I've got to make more than the required 25 deccies for it as I'm involved in some swaps so I need to make a start on those too.

Passionflower will have to take a backseat for a while...

hats off..

..to the big Knit today.

I didn't manage to get any more done since the magnificent 7 made a few weeks ago, but every little helps.

There was a rare bit of sunshine today, so I spent a couple of hours in the garden sweeping up leaves, pulling up weeds, cutting back the roses and planting a few bulbs, and listening to some of the stories from Escape Pod.

I particularly liked The Watching People by Paul Berger from April 2007. It was a bit different from when I was studying anthropology in 1982!

doomed! we're all doomed!

I wonder how many people have been imitating Pte Frazer today as the financial markets continue to tumble and money seems to be evaporating into thin air?

We managed to get off track today in Spanish class and discussed the financial meltdown, sadly not in Spanish, we're not that clever. If the BBC has any sense it will re-run lots of good comedy shows to take everyone's mind off it (especially the wonderful "Dad's Army") and get a bit of perspective, because although things will get difficult in the West for many people, life has always been hard, if not impossible, in the Third World.

I've managed to track down a Patricia Wrede book (recommended on Ravelry) but not a Diana Wynne Jones book yet, as all of her books seem to be hidden away in the High School libraries which seems grossly unfair to me.

I was really chuffed to find a copy of YarnForward today in the Spar in Tranent. I need to practise my cables so that can make the red cardigan "Apple Strudel" on the front cover but at the rate I'm going that will be in the New Year!

I got a copy ages ago through the mail but it cost £6 and I didn't want to have to subscribe as I think most of the projects are too difficult for me to do at the moment, but the cover really caught my eye.

Mum's not gone to Iceland

neither has D, so the councils money is safe thankfully.

The press is full of gloom, doom and yet more doom, so the best thing to do is to get the pins and yarn out, listen to some good podcasts and knit away.

I'm making good progress with the first square (The colour of magic) although I still haven't decided on how to represent the feet. I hadn't realised just how soothing it could be to be lost in a tangle of colours and words.

I've been listening to "The Snow Queen" on Faery Knitting, which is great, I'd forgotten all the details about the talking flowers and the bandit girl. The story is so rich in detail and symbolism, such wonderful colour and drama. A great choice from Erin.

Erin was also talking about Diana Wynne Jones and I'm ashamed to say I haven't read any of them, and there isn't any in my kids bookcases either. I'll have to rectify this at once! Thank heavens for public libraries! ( and hubbies who carefully look after the taxpayers money so that it doesn't drift away on an icefloe!).

couldn't wait any longer..

... the advent tree has been put to one side so that I could cast on my square for the Discworld blanket KAL on Ravelry.

I've enjoyed re-reading the first of the Discworld novels, although it wasn't the first that I read, I started with Weird Sisters. It has been great looking back seeing where Pratchett's adventures began. His love of word play is there at the beginning with his jokes on inn-sewer-ants and echo-gnomics and the amount of action he packs into a story.

So on Saturday I sketched out a plan for the square, Sunday & Monday I focused on the advent tree and today I cracked, dashed off to Woolybacks and bought some yarn to make a start.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do for the feet of The Luggage, possibly embroider some pink loops. Some of my fellow daftees/enthusiasts on the KAL are using shrink plastic to make feet(akcolon), or buttons ( Spinnerin).

I had quite a time at Woolybacks and got some yarn to make a sweater for J2 ( but she doesn't like the colour, so that's for me then) and some more sock yarn, this time bamboo.

Lucky Black Cats, High flying Hull, and Toon turn the corner

Grant Leadbitter took the lead in the 86th minute against Arsenal yesterday. It was a sweet moment for Leadbitter, 21 but looks 15, who lost his Dad in the summer.

Fabregas equalized in the dying seconds of the game but Arsenal were the far better team, and were unlucky to have a goal disallowed.

However, I'm happy to have a point. Last season we had so many decisions go against us, ( goals ruled offside when they weren't etc) losing us at least 4 points that it seems only fair to have a few decisions go our way.

The team looked more disciplined than in the past, but it will be a while before we can take Arsenal on at their own game.



Hull beat Spurs at the Lane with another screamer from that man Geovanni. Spurs languish at the foot of the table whereas Hull are 3rd. Third! Its wonderful. After Derby's woeful performance last year the general feeling is that the new boys are going to flounder but Hull don't want that role at all. Good luck to them ( still, I hope we can take some points of them!!)



The Toon turned the tide by coming back from being 2-0 at Goodison to drawing 2-2 with Everton. At the end it could have gone either way but they hung on, got a point and move one place up the table. Joe/Roy Kinnear is doing his best to calm the ship despite the hostile reception of the press ( print & media). He seems to be a bit of a character and, to be fair, did a good job at Watford with little money and few star players.



I got on with my advent tree while listening to 5live. It's not really an enjoyable process, it probably will be better when I start on the decorations but at the moment it seems like a slog. The first layer of branches have been done. I've sketched out a design for the colour of magic, and maybe deep down I want to get on with that, but there's more of a time pressure on the tree, so the tree it has to be.

Lipstick, powder and paint ...*

is what a girl needs when she has a rare night out with her hubby ( plus a handbag which only holds a phone, a lipstick and the house keys, and some high heels!)

J1 is away for the weekend seeing his girlfriend in Cheltenham and J2 was having a (no)sleepover at her pal K's house, so it took us less than a nano-second to decide to have a night out.

Our favourite cinema is The Dominion in Edinburgh.We love to go there to watch a film while we sit on the squashy leather sofas with our feet resting on leather pouffes with our drinks beside us on totsy wee tables. Oddly enough not many kids go there, its a cinema for grown ups.

Last night we saw " How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" starring Simon Pegg & Kirsten Dunst which was hysterically funny. I was impressed with Kirsten Dunst, she has good comic timing ( particularly when she kicks the hapless Sidney in his injured leg!). Gillian Anderson & Jeff Bridges were great too. If you like witty put downs mixed with slapstick humour you will love this.


* "Lipstick powder and paint" is a quote from the great 20th century philosopher Shakin' Stevens.
credits
makeup by Estée Lauder, Boots no7 and the Body Shop, earrings from Sheila Fleet, handbag from Barcelona.

tricotar en Español (knitting in Spanish)

Los deberes ( Homework)

-¡Hola! ¿Qué estás haciendo? (Hello, what are you doing?)

-¡Hola! Estoy tricotando los calcetines ( Hello, I'm knitting socks)

-¿Porque? ¿Tus pies están frios? (Why? are your feet cold?)

-No, mis pies no están frios. Quiero ahorrar mi dinero. ( No, my feet aren't cold. I want to save money.)

-Pero la lana es bastante cara, y los calcetines de Matalan son baratos. ( But wool is expensive, and the socks in Matalan are cheap.)

-No, quiero ahorrar dinero en mis calcetines. No tengo confianza en bancos. Voy a escondar dinero en calcetines debajo de la cama. (No, I want to save money in my socks. I do not trust banks. I am going to hide the money in socks under my bed.)

-Todos sera muy bien, la administracíon Bush tiene el plan de rescate de Wall St. ( Everything's going to be fine! President Bush has a plan to rescue Wall St.)

-Lo sé, ahora tricoto los calcetines. ( I know that. So now I'm knitting socks.)

[pausa] {pause}

-¿Me enseñas à tricotar los calcetines? ( Will you teach me to knit socks?)

-Sí, claro. ( yes, of course)

¡ya este! ( that's it!)

There can't be many people who combine Spanish language classes with knitting, but I did today and the class roared with laughter.

Ladies ( & gents) who lunch.

I went to the Day centre today, as a volunteer, to serve the teas/coffees/lunches and to help clear up too. I had such a great time too.

I wish I had as much energy as some of the ladies in their 70's, they put me to shame. I did manage to play a couple of games of doms too, but they are faster at counting the spots than me, and I only managed to win one game ( I think they were being kind to me, letting me win once!!)

They are such a cheery crowd and it will do me good to see other folk, whatever their ages. I'll just have to make sure that I get a good night's sleep on Tuesdays so that I can keep up with them.

The Discworld knitalong starts today so I have to reread "The Colour of Magic" before I plan what to knit (what a chore! Ha!). I finished "Truckers" last night, and I have a copy of it in Spanish so I'll have to read that too... poor me!!! ;-)