Swans, strawberries, skates and soccer (or "where has August gone?!")

good heavens! what happened to August?!

We watched Black Swan last night. I've had to wait a couple of weeks to watch Black Swan, the disturbing psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman, as the dvd arrived when my bruv and his kids came to Scotland for their annual jollies and I didn't think it was family viewing (ahem!). It's a gripping and eye-popping study of a young woman's mental breakdown. very good, 4 stars ★★★★

Last week I made two batches of strawberry jam, using 6 kilos of strawberries and producing 21 jars of delicious jam, one of which has already been half-inched by no1 kid in a fleeting visit from Glasgow! It's very satisfying seeing all the jars lined up on the shelves. Hopefully I'll get plenty of blackberries soon and make some bramble jelly in September. nomnomnom

My bruv came to visit in the 2nd week of August and brought some iceskates for both J2 and me. He takes his kids skating nearly every week as there is a good rink near where they live in Doncaster. It was fab going skating again, even though I felt like a stormtrooper in my white ski-boot style skates.

The soccer season has started again, and my team Sunderland has got off to a depressing start. We drew the first game at Liverpool (1-1), which was a pretty good result, we then lost at home (0-1)to Newcastle ( D and J1 tried not to gloat.) and then were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Brighton, who've only just been promoted to the Championship (1 league below us).Gaah! 

Knitting progress has been a bit slow over summer: I did finish the pompom blanket for baby Bryony (and she looked very cute wrapped in it) and have picked up my Viktor socks again. The heel is finished and I'm onto the leg, finally! maybe I'll even get to see HP7 parte deux next week and wear my new socks. Hopefully I'll get Seraphina finished too before winter comes- my dear old Mam needs it to keep warm.

pubs and pompons

off to Dalkeith last night for Knit and natter night. We met up at the Buccleuch as usual, but the coffee took a long time, and was a bit cool and the lighting was weird, so we decamped to The County Hotel which had better coffee and better lighting. As most of us are driving we don't get to sample the beer, sadly.

I was working on a baby blanket made with pompon yarn which is easy to knit with once you get started (as casting on is a bit bonkers) and a very quick knit. A friend of mine has just given birth to a bouncing baby girl, Bryony, and in the UK we usually give the baby gifts after the birth, not before. I need to get this finished this week so that I can get back to Seraphina and redo the neckline (sigh).

Vicky, the owner of The Woolshop had a surprise for me: she's been revamping her shop and having a clearout too, and she had a set of crochet hooks in a case, and as I'm one of the few bi-crafty group members she gave me the case/hooks for free. How cool is that?!