Felix and Anna

I finished Jack's Felix mitts yesterday (yay!) just as the snow had come back to East Lothian (booooo!). He goes back to Uni this week so I needed to get them done before he headed off to Glasgow. He heads off to the bright lights and we have a quieter house. It's a fair deal!

Next up on the needles will be another beaded Eton hat, this one is for Jen's pal Hannah. I don't normally do requests, but Hannah's a good kid and it's a cute pattern, so I'll make an exception this time.

I've been cooking meals for 30 years and it's very easy to get in a rut and cook the same old, same old for convenience and/or speed, or to make sure that the kids eat something, or to make meals that aren't too spicy (for Jen) or too wet (for Jack when he was younger). I was so impressed with the food that D and I had in Madeira that I decided to liven up my repertoire a little. One of my cyberpals cookknitwine went a whole year cooking a different meal every day- 365 dinners with no repeats! That's impressive, but a little beyond me, so I've decided to try one new thing every week, not necessarily a whole meal, maybe just one of the side dishes might be different.
Luckily we were given a copy of Larousse Gastronomique for Xmas and it's a very inspiring book. I decided to try Pommes Anna last night (with pan fried haddock & green beans), and followed the recipe scrupulously. It's not complicated- thinly sliced potatoes layered with melted butter, pressed down in the oven dish and baked for an hour or so. I served it by inverting the oven dish on a plate so that the kids could see what a potato cake looks like. It wasn't on the plate for long as they descended on it like locusts - even Jack, who normally is not keen on potatoes.

I'll count that as a success, but as I used 80g of butter in it, I won't be serving it on a daily basis!

stargazing

Jupiter

The latest TV offering from the incomparable Dr Brian Cox is Stargazing Live on BBC2 8pm (on Mon 3rd, Tues 4th and Wed 5th of Jan) . It's fascinating, but I had to put my knitting down as it was too engrossing, which was a shame as the second felix mitt is nearly done.





partial solar eclipse

 This is an astronomy programme designed to encourage people to go outside at night and look at the stars and it does it very well.

A live TV programmme from Jodrell Bank, it looked at the position of Jupiter in the winter nightsky (it's been pretty obvious in the night sky recently, I wondered what it was!), the partial solar eclipse this morning (oops missed that, still asleep, but it was cloudy anyway), and it's done in a light hearted but informative way. I could have done without the inanity of Jonathan Ross, but Dara Ỏ Briain and Brian Cox were brill.

The website has a lot of amazing photos taken last night and this morning by amateur astronomers. I just hope that there's less cloud over Scotland tonight so that I can see the stars too.

We lost another star yesterday, the tremendous Pete Postlethwaite, who died after a long battle with cancer.

He was an honest actor, believable and engaging in everything that he did and gone too soon at 64.

a good start to 2011

I'm always a happy bunny when my team wins a football match and when the team wins convincingly then I'm ecstatic.
2011 began with a 3-0 victory for Sunderland over Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light and it almost made up for our 2-0 defeat by Blackpool at the SoL on 28th Dec, when we lost our unbeaten home record.
Wellbeck opened the scoring on 11 minutes followed by Bent's fab header and Gyan sealed the win in the second half. This puts us 6th on 30 points! Such dizzying heights!

It was fab following the match and I managed to get a lot done on Jack's Felix mitt while listening to all the football coverage.
I just need him to try it on so that I can see how much thumb it needs and it's done. I've realised that I need to rip back the first mitt and reposition the thumb slightly.

I'm enjoying knitting with the zauberball wool too, I must get myself some more of this, it feels soft yet strong and I love the colour transitions too.

Next up after Jack's mitts is another Eton beaded hat, this one is for Jen's pal Hannah. But it's another project in black! My eyes!

and now for something completely different

the hook is out and I've been swatching for a summer weight cardigan, which seems odd as I've been whinging on about the cold weather lately.

But in four weeks time D and I are going to Madeira for a week, (we're staying in my parents timeshare while they stay here and look after Jen and the pooch. Aren't they kind?) . So I want to make myself something to throw over my shoulders in the evenings, and this design, Karin by Annette Petavy, fits the bill (from Inside crochet issue 8)
I've swatched in Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino (swatch on the left) and Patons 100%  cotton (smaller swatch on the right) and I like the drape of the cashmerino better for this design.
I'll have to work hard to get it done in 4 weeks as I have two hats to do and I have to finish Jack's Felix mitts in that time (the first is nearly complete). I hope that I'm not putting the front, back and half a sleeve into my case!

PS. Did the title make you think about Monty Python? Good!

rain stops play

I must be getting old.
My village always has the firework display on the Saturday nearest to Nov 5th as it is the PTA which organises it and more parents can volunteer to set everything up at the weekend (although the fireworks are done by a professional company). But it's raining, and while I don't mind standing outside in the cold, I don't like standing in the rain. What a wuss! So, no playing with glowsticks for me. (although I can the fireworks, and it sounds very good!)

The scarf is finished and blocked and looks very pretty and feels very, very soft and squishy. The photo doesn't do the shade of green justice- it's more of a Christmas green than it seems here. I can get this gift wrapped and sent off this week, which is good as I'm often late with my swaps!



Gyan scores

I was knitting on a fingerless mitt (Felix)for Jack this afternoon while listening to the football, and got a bit distracted by my team.
We beat Stoke 2-0 which sounds good, but the second half was riddled with controversy: our former hero Kenwyne Jones scored for his new team Stoke, which would have made the score 1-1, but then it was ruled that it hadn't crossed the line. Hmmm, perhaps that was because Cattermole stopped it with his arm. So it should have been a penalty and he should have been sent off, but it wasn't and he wasn't. So still 1-0.
Then Stoke had one of their players sent off and our new hero Gyan scored his second. So a win, but a bit of an embarrassing one, and I managed to knit the thumb in the wrong place and had to rip it out.
Not sure if I should attribute that error to age or the rain. Hmmmmm

happy happy joy joy

Florencio Avalos is rescued

The world has looked on with happiness and joy as the 33 Chilean miners are released from the collapsed San Jose mine in the Atacama desert.

The men have been trapped at approx 2,000 feet below ground for 69 days.

It has been a complex rescue operation and it is taking about 15 minutes to lift each man slowly and individually up the narrow tube back to safety (the capsule moves slowly so that the men do not suffer from "the bends" the compression sickness that deep sea divers risk).

Now for an unusual link (I bet no one else in the blogosphere links their knitting to the Chilean miners): my favourite knitting mag reached its 3rd birthday this month.
My Gran taught me to knit as a child, but I never really pursued it, I found it frustrating and often tedious. Although I admired my Gran's handknits, and in later years my MIL's knitting skills,and appreciated everything they made for me, I wasn't drawn to it. When I became ill with ME 6 years ago papercrafting became a source of comfort to me.

Then three years ago the papercraft mag that I subbed to sent me a preview of their new knitting mag Let's Knit and I was immediately attracted to it. It was bright, cheerful and modern, it had a range of beginner's and intermediate patterns, it explained knitting jargon, the patterns were in the main written out in full (psso? what's that?). It has taught me so much, has always encouraged me and never, ever, patronised me. Sometimes the mag is dismissed by others as too young in its style. Hmmmm. I'm 49 and LK cheers me up enormously. Age is a state of mind I think!

In the last three years I have knitted/crocheted 7 garments, 4 pairs of mittens, 7 hats, 5 scarves, 1 baby blanket, 10 (yes,TEN) pairs of socks, 7 amigurumi toys, 2 cuddly toys, 21 washcloths, 3 household items and 33 Christmas decorations. I have learnt to cast on in 5 different ways, and then cast off in 3 different ways, how to cable, how to knit lace, how to use dpns, how to use circular needles, how to increase/decrease, how to add beads, how to correct my mistakes. I think that's pretty good, as until then all that I had knitted were garter stitch rectangles for Jen's teddies to use as blankets.

Let's Knit introduced me to Ravelry, podcasts and blogging and kept me going when I was at my lowest, when the ME kept me trapped in bed or on the sofa. It has helped me so much, so I would like to say a big, big thank you. Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day!

and the latest project off my needles are the Nimble mitts for Jennifer. I makes me happy that I can make things for my kids to keep them warm .

There's some men's fingerless mitts, Felix, in the latest LK which I'll make for Jack so that he doesn't freeze as a poor student and can still play his guitar (I think I'll use the shadows zauberball for those, it will be better match than for the Rick socks). And the cover sweater Seraphina looks perfect for my Mam's 77th birthday next Feb.

That will make me happy being able to make her a sweater, and as it's similar to those that my Gran used to knit for her, she will be happy too.