Little Ralph



Little Ralph and Innocent hat



the stripey beanie, Little Ralph, is finished and now I've cast on Ralphette, a more feminine version in that the stripes are pink rather than custard yellow.

The Ralph pattern from Sirdar is so straightforward to make, and works well in most dk yarns, I think I'll use this for a lot of my charity hats.

The Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are nearly full- we put in jotters, pencils, pens, toiletries (no liquids), toys sweets (no chocolate) and a woolly hat or scarf or gloves. They get sent away this weekend so anyone wanting to contribute anything- e.g. a handknitted hat or scarf get in touch in September 2011 for next year's boxes, or you can make a donation to cover distribution costs at Operation Christmas Child.

While I was out shopping today I saw some of the Innocent smoothies with their hats. I bought two, but Jen has run off with the pink/purple one as her phone felt a bit chilly! It was lovely to see the hats in the wild. I would have taken a photo but I'd forgotten my phone, sorry.

cushty!



monkeys worn with thermal leggings!


The English language acquires, adopts and borrows words from just about all the languages of the world.
Cushty (or cushdie) meaning happy, or very good, apparently comes from a Romani word. I've used that word for most of my life and never known that!
But when I put my new monkey two socks on my feet, it was just the right thing to say.

I'm extra pleased with myself as this is the first time that I've completed a pair of socks within a specified time- I didn't quite finish the Milos in time for the Winter Olympics, and I only got one sock finished during the FIFA World Cup, but this time I have completed a pair of socks for Socktober. Go me! I'm not going to be silly and try for two pairs in Oct 2011, I'm not that daft  (erm..)



soft and squishy



The Ralph hat for St Mungo's is finished too, and hopefully the recipient will feel how soft and squishy it is and will think it is well cushty too. I tested it for size on D's head, and as he has rather a large bonce, it should fit almost anyone.

I was full of cold yesterday so took refuge on the sofa with my knitting, the football coverage and then The Princess Bride.

My team didn't play well, but held on to a narrow lead and beat Aston Villa 1-0. It wasn't the most exciting of matches, Villa squandered a lot of chances, but we defended well. David's team, Newcastle, did much better, coming back from 1-0 down to beat West Ham 2-1 and provided a lot of excitement and action. Next weekend is the first local derby between Newcastle and Sunderland in a while - hopefully it will be exciting and high scoring, and my team will get the three points! I'd better just knit/crochet something easy while I'm listening to that. A dishcloth maybe!

I hadn't seen The Princess Bride before and enjoyed it a lot- I liked the whimsical humour. I've given up on watching Strictly Come Dancing- it has settled into an all too predictable formula, and I never liked X-factor at all. I like listening to people who can sing rather than the autotuned automatons that the show highlights. So rather than watching what most of the UK is engrossed in, Saturday evenings are now a chance for me to catch up on some films that I have missed.

So, a good film, a glass of wine and my knitting- sounds cushty to me!

madhatters!



Ed Byrne




Some amazing cool and funny people are supporting St Mungo's woolly hat appeal this year, and I take my hat off to them all.







Martin Freeman



Without getting overtly political, the Big Society, which the coalition govt. is so keen on, is likely to become the Big Issue society and the billions of £££ of public sector cuts are going to create high levels of unemployment and most likely lead to increased homelessness in the UK. And this could happen to anyone (well, except for Cameron, Clegg & co.)






Ralph hat



So I'm knitting a hat to post to St Mungo's with my donation 'cos I'm grateful for the roof over my head.

This is a simple pattern for a beanie in 2x2 rib, (Ralph by Sirdar, and available in Let's knit mag) and I'm knitting it in Rooster almerino (yellow) with an oddment of lana grossa baby alpaca (green), so it's bright and cheery, soft and squishy and will be very, very warm. (Wed am was the first morning that I've had to de-ice my car- the temperatures are dropping fast)

 And I'll keep buying the Big Issue 'cos it's a good read, and it helps a lot of people get their lives back together. St Mungo's is big on that too.