Galaxy

this week I finished a snood/cowl for Jen, knitted in King Cole Galaxy.

This is a pattern from Knit Now, a UK knitting mag which specialises in accessories rather than adult garments. The designer is Sam Parfitt and I like her quirky, contemporary style. The dropped stitches were a bit fiddly as the yarn has quite a fuzzy halo, but a small sized crochet hook helped me to drop the stitches all the way down. This is the first time that I've done a pattern with dropped stitches and I like the effect. I still have almost a full ball of yarn left so I may have to produce a pair of handwarmers for Jen.

Next in the queue is a scarf for Jack:  Alien Illusion Scarf, by Shetha Nolke from the original Stitch and Bitch book. I've been promising him this scarf for a couple of years, so I'd better ignore all my wip socks and make this for him. I don't know if he wants it as a standard scarf or in the new style of loop scarves (where the ends are joined to make a loop). I've not done an illusion pattern before so I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

While I wait for him to get back to me I'm going to focus on my landgirl top. I feel as if I have too many UFOs and need to finish some stuff!

Galaxy, aliens and UFOs? This is a bit sci-fi this post!!

catching up!

where have the last few weeks gone? the older I get the faster the days fly by!

so in the last few weeks no2 child has had her first trip abroad without us: she went to Paris on a school trip. She had a great time although she complained about the heat as some days it was 35C (95F). It was so quiet at home without her we thought we'd gone deaf!

I've enjoyed watching Wimbledon too. This year the men's title went to Novak Djokovic who beat Rafa Nadal 6-4, 6-1,1-6, 6-3. Nadal played well but Djokovic was very agile and strong and has a huge repertoire of shots. Murray was beaten by Nadal in the semis but will no doubt be inspired by Djokovic's victory as Nadal can be beaten on grass.

The ladies title was won by Petra Kvitova, beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4. Sharapova had come back from a shoulder injury and had been playing well and Kvitova might have been expected to be overwhelmed by the occasion, but she was as cool as a cucumber. It was good to see Sharapova back and it was good to see a new name on the winners' board.

I managed to get a swap package posted to the US today, which should have been sent by the end of May (oops!) and now that I've got those mini projects done I can get back to my Viktor socks. I did turn the heel a couple of weeks ago, but the sock was about 1.5cm too long on my foot so I had to rip back a little. I need to crack on with these if I want to watch them for the HP7 part 2!

The Tour de France is underway now so that will help me crack on with my socks. One day I'll join in with Tour de Fleece and spin every day of the race, but at the moment I'll just keep knitting. Maybe I'll catch up with my ever increasing queue of projects!

c-c-c-cold !

yet another blog post about excessive snow in the UK! (sorry folks, but there is a lot of it, and it's about 6 weeks too early. It's still November, and should only be cold and damp)
Jen's school is closed today ( can you hear those teenagers cheering?) as there has been 20 cm of snow over the weekend, plus another fall of 10cm last night and it is still snowing. D and our neighbours cleared our little side road yesterday but it is covered again and although the snow ploughs are clearing the main roads they won't clear this till last.

But my main concerns are
a) how will my parents get up here safely at the weekend to look after Jen? My Dad is 80 and determined to drive the 120 mile journey from Durham (stubbornness must be genetic!)and
b) how will we get to Glasgow airport on Sunday to fly to Madeira? I need some sunshine!
The forecast does suggest that there will be a thaw towards the weekend (yay!) and even today Glasgow airport is working normally, even though Edinburgh airport is closed. I will be monitoring it very carefully!

Still working away on Karin my summer weight cardi (which is really weird considering the view of my garden) I'm onto the first sleeve now. I really want to be making something aran weight though, so that I would be warm underneath my knitting!

some like it hot

Tony Curtis (1925-2010)

the stars of one of my favourite films Some Like It Hot, has passed away aged 85.

Tony Curtis was a tremendous actor - he could take on great comedic roles (SLIH),  heroic roles (Spartacus) and exciting action roles (the Persuaders). I've watched SLIH 6 or 7 times , it's in my all time top ten of films, and as a teenager I thought he was HAWT! in the Persuaders.  I hope we get a  season of Tony Curtis on the TV soon.

RIP

I did my bee count today - the bees like it hot, but today was a cooler day (12 C) and I only saw 4 bees. FOUR! Last month I counted 30. I saw more ladybirds - 18 and 1 in flight, plenty of wasps and hoverflies and even a peacock butterfly, but the bees were reluctant to come out.

Jennifer has been complaining of cold hands in the mornings so I'd better quickly cast on these Nimble Mitts by Isabel Buxton in iss 30 of Yarnforward.

Instead of the groovy buttons I'm going to put on some of the beads that I used for the Eton cap. The pattern has an easy lace cuff ( eyelet rib) and moss stitch at the fingers.

I can see myself making a few pairs of these in different colours for her. Can't have her feeling cold!

pretty things

I finished Jennifer's Eton cap today- huzzah!

The patttern was well written and I'll certainly look out for more designs from Laura Martos.

Jennifer looks fab in it, and it will keep the chill out while she's waiting for the school bus at 8 a.m. The mornings are certainly much cooler now. She still won't wear a coat yet though.. maybe next month. sigh.

Before I cast on for some almost matching fingerless mitts for her (same wool and beads, but different pattern on the cuff) I'm trying to get a bit more done on my landgirl tank/vest. I'm nearly finished the collar on the back then I can cast on the front, which shouldn't take as long as there is a very deep v- neck.  But there's so much that I want to make! I need to spend less time playing silly computer games and crack on before the weather turns really cold (well. that's me told!)

I got a lovely surprise in the garden today. I'd planted the gladioli corms quite late, and only expected them to green up and not to flower, but today I saw this. How pretty! Much like my daughter.

Elementary

I've never been a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories as I always found Holmes to be annoying and his sidekick Watson to be portrayed as a buffoon, but I've been impressed by Moffat and Gatiss's updating of the stories to 21st century London, and the fact that they develop the characters more. Holmes is still annoying, but it's evident that he does want to save Moriarty's hostages, and Watson is shown as a man damaged by the war in Afghanistan but bright enough to know what's going on.

It's not just CSI- Baker St, thankfully!  But, it's a shame that the series is so short, only 3 episodes, no doubt there are more in the pipeline.

It's difficult to knit along to it, you have to try to keep up as the clues only appear briefly, so my eyes are glued to the screen for most of it. However I have made some progress on my second Angee sock, I've started on the heel flap.

The preparations are beginning for Jen to go back to school- we were uniform shopping today. She has to wear black trousers or skirt for school (no jeans, no combats, no cargoes), and has chosen this year to wear a white shirt and school tie with a black sweater (last year she wore the embroidered school poloshirts and sweat tops). It's never an easy shopping trip- last year she tried on 13 pairs of trousers before she found ones that she liked. Today it was a more modest 8!

The problem was with the white shirt- she didn't want blouses, or ones that were too masculine, and they had to be suitable for a tie and be plain white. At the third attempt we found shirts at marks and spencers, but they only had her size in black! Thank heavens for online shopping.
 
It costs a lot to fork out the cash for the uniforms in one go, but at least we don't have blazing rows discussions about what she is wearing just before she dashes for the bus at 8 a.m., and it limits the amount of peer pressure if everyone is kitted out more or less the same.
 
It's just harassing for the parents in the week before school. Elementary!


arguments

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!

Teen Spirit

My darling daughter J2 is 13 today, and has bouncing round from the wee small hours in her excitement.

It's understandable though, as in Scotland the cut-off point for yearly intakes is Feb 28th so she is always the youngest in her year, and we didn't opt to delay her start by a year (as some folks choose to do) as
a) she was ready to start and
b) she would have killed us!

So my fab kid is full of beans today, finally acheiving the awesome state of being a teenager. Though, I think in her head she's really 22 ...

And what does Teen Spirit smell like? Pretty good, as she spends a long time in the bathroom....

I might have to hide myself in the bathroom if I'm going to get my Milo socks done, or at least hide where I have no Facebook/ Farmville access.

Sock the first was finished today.. leaving me less than 5 days to finish sock the second- aarrgghh!

I thought I would finish no 1 on Monday, as there were only 12 rounds of pattern to do and then the toe.. but no, I managed to make a mess of a cable, didn't notice for a while, had to rip back and start again.
Then I got the toe wrong three times. You would wonder how really... I was blithely knitting away thinking  "how funny that the shaping is so different on this pattern" , then I checked. And found it wasn't. Rip back  no 1. Then I managed to shape on one side only.  Rip back 2.  then I dropped a stitch and didn't notice and couldn't recover it. Rip back no 3.

To be fair I can't blame this on Facebook, Farmville, getting stressed with the curling (The GB ladies have't made the semis), or too much gin (there's deliberately no tonic in the house!). I'm just an idiot. The Milo designer Cookie A is one smart cookie, sadly I'm not.

Shame the socks aren't finished though, as the snow is back and this first sock feels wonderful and warm. I'll have to put myself into purdah, or the bathroom, or something and crack on with no 2.

Ravelympics or not, I want the second sock! I need the second sock!

back to Brrr-itain

Madeira was lovely, the weather was mostly warm (20-25 C) with only one wet morning. (it's below zero today, and there are snow flurries.brrr.)

I had a great time with my Mam,we tried loads of restaurants and I had eight different types of fish and seafood and a ridiculous amount of cake.

We came back on Monday to a chilly Scotland, and the airline (Globespan) folded on Wednesday! My goodness! We might have been stranded there- though that would not have been a problem! ( it's awful for the airline staff though, who are out of work just before Christmas).

I'd love to go back to Madeira, it's such a lovely place and the people are so friendly. 

D managed to keep everyone fed and get both kids to the right place at the right time while I was away (I did wonder if the wrong child would end up at rugby instead of Country Dancing!) but I think that if I get to go back toMadeira then he has to go too!

Of course the usual running around after my two started up again on Tuesday and Wednesday as they both were playing in the school concerts. J2 sensibly stuck to the trumpet and was safely seated in the orchestra whereas J1 was playing violin, euphonium and bass guitar and kept bobbing up here, there and everwhere! I was very proud of them both.

I did get some knitting done in Madeira- two small Xmas presents (which will be posted here after they've safely arrived at their destinations) and I started my first proper lace project - Cerys by Annikin Allis (part 1 in Let's Knit iss 25).

I chose a lovely blue colourway (dyed by Annikin) to remind me of the changing colours of the Atlantic.

from Playmobil to plectrums

how time flies! it seems only five minutes since we were buying Playmobil, Barbies and Princess LEGO for J2, and today we went to Scayles in Edinburgh to get her first electric guitar.. where has the time gone?

She has been joining in (on big bruv's acoustic) with her big bruv while he plays electric bass and has been begging for her own electric guitar.

Well we've got her a beginner's kit, which includes amp, plectrums, teaching video, strap etc so it's not exactly a Les Paul, but she has to start somewhere. She can get her own fabby guitar when she's got a recording deal - move over KT Tunstall!!

Even though I haven't a musical cell in my body I love going to music shops- I can't resist the percussion instruments- the weirder the better! I have to accept my role as roadie though...sigh

So, one happy girl who has to wait till the 25th to start twanging away, one relieved Dad who doesn't have to construct a Playmobil doll's house at midnight on Christmas Eve, and one Mam who'll miss all the pink and glitter, but doesn't miss standing on pieces of LEGO in the wee small hours....

...and time flies on...

girl power & flower power

the kids had a day off school yesterday (I'm not sure what the holiday is, Victoria day perhaps? but D had the day off too, so it must be important).

J1 was on an away-day with the rest of the 6th form to Alton Towers (7 hours each way on the coach o_O !! mad teenagers or what?) so J2 took advantage of the quiet house to snag a computer desk at IKEA (I have to say, she's pretty good at self assembly stuff, D just supervises now...) and have some fun with the allen keys.

Then she set to with my old sewing machine Lucia.

She sewed some covers for the seat pads on our kitchen chairs and they look amazingly bright and cheerful.

I couldn't do this stuff when I was 12, I was just starting to get a little of confidence in the kitchen never mind refurbishing it!

What a girl! (better crack on with her Knucks before I get into trouble)