Queuing theory *

I was musing the other day about what I would knit/crochet after Meret was finished. I want to get my Crazy Waves waistcoat finished so that I can wear it this spring, and there's only about 8 cm left to do, plus a belt, so not a huge amount of work before I have something new to wear (and as I'm a product knitter rather than a process knitter, finishing stuff is important to me).

So I raked around in my ever increasing stash of magazines and ended up adding 100 projects to my Ravelry queue!! OOPS! That's the next 10 years planned!

Casey has added new features which allow you to tag the queued projects into different groups which is great and makes the long list seem like 8 or 9 shorter lists.

So I decided to make myself a tank (vest) top in a 40s landgirl style  by Martin Storey after Crazy Waves was finished.

That was until I got the latest issue of Yarn Forward (no 24, May 2010) and saw these fabulous gloves by Kristle Chester, called Primrose Gloves.

I'm making mine in navy with hot pink flowers.

The landgirls will have to wait for a bit.


*Queuing theory is a management tool used to plan a sequence of tasks and identify potential bottle necks . I'm not sure that Chalky^, the guy who taught me and D this in our Statisitcs and Analytical methods class would appreciate it being used for knitting.

^ We called him Chalky as he would write across the blackboard in such a fury that the equations would stretch out on the wall, and he would disappear into a cloud of chalk. Happy days.

Beret nice!

My Meret is finished and is on a dinner plate being blocked, prompting remarks that it looks like a UFO- which led to the reply- no it's a FO!!

It looks great and I'm very pleased with it, and will keep me toasty when I walk the dog on chilly evenings, which we still have at the moment, despite the days being much milder (hurray).

Sunderland did well yesterday, beating Birmingham 3-1, another 2 great goals from Darren Bent, giving us 34 points. We should be safe this season, but until we know we're safe I don't think any of the fans will relax.

The title race is still open, with Man Utd on 69 points, Arsenal on 67 and Chelsea on 65, making it exciting for the neutral, and plent of good matches to knit to!

addi-cted?

I was having a frustrating time with Meret on the dpns as the hat got larger, so I looked in the local shops for 5.5mm circs, but without success. 

So I decided to bite the bullet and buy something good from Stash Fine Yarns and got myself my first addi needles.

I've never really understood how people rave about addis, Knitpicks , Denises or whatever until I tried these new needles. OH. MY. GOODNESS. The points just glide through the fluffy malabrigo, they are an absolute joy to use. I'll pay a bit more attention to the discussions of the relative merits of quality needles now!

young folks

and we don't care about the young folks

talkin' 'bout the young style

and we don't care about the old folks

talkin' 'bout the old style too

and we don't care about our own folks

talkin' 'bout our own style

all we care about is talking,
talking only me and you

 
We were off to school tonight to listen to Fiddlesticks in which Jack plays lead violin, sets up the sound equipment, plays bass guitar, and occasionally acts as MC when the orchestra leader is tuning kids instruments or playing the accompaniment to someone's solo. He's a busy young man.
 
The group is an interesting one as it plays mostly celtic style folk music, but included a Jewish folk tune tonight, and the age range is from 8 to 48 (so far). As well as the school kids playing, there are parents, teachers, undergrads who used to go to the school, and friends who have wandered in and like playing. It has a lovely informal feel and the music is superb.
 
For this week's concerts the kids have all worn dippy hats and 3D glasses with the lenses popped out. And Jack played a duet with his girlfriend Rheagan (him on acoustic bass guitar and her on piano) and they sang Young Folks (by Peter Bjorn and John)in a folky kind of way. I was impressed with his confidence and his voice too. I'm going to miss this when he goes to Uni.

eat, drink and be Meret

For Mother's day on Sunday the kids did all the cooking and made a wonderful roast beef with roast potatoes  followed by red berry soup.

Jack did the savoury and Jen did the sweet, both courses were delicious and the house did NOT burn down (and that is always a bonus on Mother's day!).

Jen chose a Gordon Ramsay recipe, using sparkling white wine rather than champagne and serving it with a rose-scented langue du chat biscuit. It was delicious, but it looked very like Tubby custard from the Teletubbies. No wonder they are so happy and giggly if they are guzzling this every day!

I'm making progress on my Meret beret, and as ever the pattern from Woolly Wormhead is clear and well written. I think I need to get myself a circular needle to put the hat on as it gets bigger. My circs are too small, and I need a 6mm. I think I shall splash out on some Addi turbos so that I can keep the hat under control.

It seems a bit crazy knitting a woolly beret when spring is almost here- the daily temp is hovering around 9C (48 F) but it can still be chilly when I take the dog out at night, so woolly hats it is!

pompom a go-go!

this was a very fast knit for Jen, even though it took me a couple of attempts to cast on. Although some magazines recommend using a cable cast on I found that too frustrating and used the simple thumb method instead.

After that, it's garter stitch until the yarn is gone. I knit the scarf on a larger needle than suggested to make it softer and looser so that it would have better drape. The examples in the wool shop were knitted quite firmly, which is good for bags/cushions but a little too solid for wrapping round your neck.

Anway, that's one satisfied daughter and now I'm going to sort out some wool and needles to make myself a beret. I'll be making Meret by Woolly Wormhead in some Malabrigo sent across the pond by the very generous Brewcrewmom, who was my Itsy-bitsy swap partner at Christmas.

at long last!

The second Milo sock is done! 

It's a pity that I didn't make the podium for the Ravelympics but I still have a great pair of socks to keep my tootsies warm.

These socks feel so comfortable and I love the hot pink colour. Cookie A is a great designer and her patterns are always so well written. My problems have been caused by my own stupidity! I'm looking forward to making another pair of socks from Sock Innovations, but in the meantime I'd better crack on with Jen's scarf.

Equally exciting for me, last night my hapless team Sunderland finally managed to win a game of football- the team walloped Bolton 4-0.

The first goal was scored in 41 seconds (Frazier Campbell) and may well be the fastest goal of the season and Darren Bent got a hat-trick.

While I was hopping around and trying to finish off my sock, my good friend TyroneMinx  and her hubby were hopping around as Arsenal trounced Porto 5-0. Football is a funny game- Arsenal were fighting to get into the quarterfinals of the Champions League and my team were desperately trying to stop the slide into the relegation zone. Two very different scenarios, yet the same feelings from the fans.

Darren Bent is third in the table of topscorers this season with 18 goals - just behind Rooney(23) and Drogba (19) which makes Sunderland's league position of 13th look a bit weird. I hope we don't have to wait as long for another win!

it only takes a minute girl*

to fall in love, to change your plans, to learn how to do something that's been bugging you for a while (well, that took 5 minutes, but it was fab!).
First of all, Friday afternoon's plans were changed several times-
 from taking Jen and two of her pals to Ocean Terminal so that they could see the chick-flick Leap Year while I happily knitted on Milo sock 2 in Costa coffee,
- to Jen heading into Edinburgh on the bus with one pal to see Leap Year allowing her dear old Ma to stay at home in comfort and knit,
- to realising that Jack wanted to go into Edinburgh to buy a guitar bag and was going to carry his brand new Ibanez acoustic bass guitar on the bus and round Edinburgh without any cover on it! AARRGGGHH!
Dear Old Ma and Da (ie, us) had got the young rascal this fab guitar for his birthday but we'd said he had to get the bag himself. But I didn't want him to be hauling it along with him on buses. So the plans were changed to taking him and the fab guitar to Edinburgh to a music shop.

Now luckily for me his first port of call was at Red Dog music in the Grassmarket which is very close to to the knitting boutique K1 yarns.

So while he had a blissful time shopping I had a fab time in K1, acquiring some Fyberspates merino sockwool in browns to make the pair of Two Hoots socks in Bobbins mag and 3 of the imported mags from Interweave.
The wool fumes were getting to me so I headed off to Hula for coffee and chocolate cake, and pretended that I was a student again, and when Jack had found a big enough bag for his fab guitar (honestly, I'm no expert at all, but the deep thrumming sound of this acoustic bass is wonderful) he joined me for coffee and cakes. Well, dear Old Ma was paying....

Then today I managed to get to the Haddington spinners open day at Poldrate Mill. I'd heard about this group last summer but it clashes with my Spanish class (both are on Tuesday mornings, in different parts of East Lothian), so today was my first chance to meet the group. One of the ladies very kindly took me under her wing, showed me in simple stages how to use my very basic spindle and I produced half a metre or so of OK-ish yarn. WOOT! that was a very useful 5 minutes.

Very encouraged I bought myself some lovely 100% superwash merino fluff in a dark wine red shade so that I can practise my drop spindling with a bit more confidence. Yay!!

 And 'cos I was feeling dizzy with wool fumes (that must have been the reason!!) I also bought a copy of "Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn" by Carol J Sulcoski. Jen had gone with me to Poldrate Mill and her eyes (and fingers!) were attracted to some recycled sari yarn. Not sure what she is going to do with it, pet it I suppose!

So, not the progress that I'd hoped for on the Milo sock, but great fun anyway, (& invoving cakes and fab wool), and sometimes plans just have to be changed.

*It only takes a minute girl, by Tavares, awesome!

almost, but not quite

Well, I didn't quite manage to finish my Milo socks for the Ravelympics, another plucky Brit bites the dust .. Still, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that matters. (I realise that the last phrase might not mean anything to anyone not born in the British Isles, it's a very peculiar British trait indeed!).

Let's face it, the UK only won one gold medal, and that was done by the amazing/foolhardy Amy Williams, who was the fastest woman to hurtle-down-an-icy-slope-headfirst-on-a-metal-tea-tray (the sporting term is the Skeleton, but mine is more descriptive).

Still, Vancouver 2010 was fantastic to watch, I loved the curling and the snowboarding, and oddly enough the crosscountry ski-ing relay. How can people ski up hill?? Vancouver looked like an amazing place too.

I have to crack on with my socks though as

a) my feet are cold (despite the early spring sunshine that we've been enjoying it's still about 2C during the day) and

b) J2 is waiting for a scarf to be made from this pompom yarn. She says that she has been waiting for years, but it's really only since September. But that is years if you are a teen.

As ever, the queue of must-knits and must-haves gets ever longer, and today a new UK knitting mag came through the post adding a heart scarf, cabled man's hat and owl socks to my queue.

This is Bobbins, the first issue, and I love it's witty honest style. I hope the  Manchester curryhouse collective clever designers produce more issues , as it's an excellent read and well put together.