MINE!

You know when you feel the need to be surrounded by your own stuff? Thats a bit how I have felt these last couple of days. Before Christmas we had THE SNOW and it was quite frankly, shit. About 8in dropped in one morning and the council forgot to buy salt again and so the busses all stopped and I had to walk to Dan's house (only a mile, but with a heavy bag containing several days worth of clothes and food) and I stayed there for the week before Christmas because it was easier to get to and from work. Then I went home for a few days - it was OK but Birmingham is my home now and I couldn't wait to get back, then I stayed at Dan's a few more days and only really got home on Monday night to be taken down with flu for 2 days, missing yet another knitting social and meaning I hadn't seen any friends (except a night at Alli's where we made truffles and a snowy half hour at Elli's right before Christmas) in over 3 weeks!

So I have felt out of sorts, and so today, I went to knitting in the morning, got home long enough to pee and take my shoes off before I was being called to go to Dan's parents to do Christmas with his brother who was in Thailand from early December until a couple of days ago. So this evening I was so glad to get home and be surrounded by my things. I pulled all my yarn out and sorted it into various projects. Pulled all the halfmade socks (ok not all, but 2 that I want to finish) and some other yarns and cast on for a hat whilst listening to Planet Rock on my new radio and just revelling in being in a nice quiet house on my own.

I am still not quite with it, I didn't feel 100% this morning but I was fed venison by Dan's mum which has perked up the red blood cells and I feel a bit more active. Shame I still can't hear properly as I missed out on many conversation opportunities this morning. I am looking forward to next week so normal service can resume.

Plans for this week: Monday is KnitFlix, Tuesday is my knitting group, possibly one on Wednesday in town and next Saturday is a nice all dayer. Tomorrow I am going back into town to shop the sales for some boots. I seem to have damaged my Achilles Tendon at some point in the last few months, probably due to my inappropriate footwear.

Knitting has been happening. Its all on Rav.

Potentials!

I am feeling stressed at the moment because I have too many things that need doing and not enough time to do what I want to do. By too many, I have 2 - work, and knitting these bloody student samples. A week and a half SOUNDED enough and I got the yarn last tuesday night, made a start after knitting group, realised I had gone wrong because I had charted it horizontally instead of vertically and so it was all squished up. So I had to restart and I have pretty much finished this one...



But there is another which I have barely started so I am having to take COLOURWORK with me to knitting tonight as I might be out tomorrow night seeing Tommy Emmanuel if Dan has bought the tickets yet. I do want to go see him but I could do without it right now. I am handing this stuff over at 6pm Thursday and I work all day.

So the reason I am pissed off is that I have 4in of my February/November Lady Sweater to sew up and 8 buttons to sew on, I have this lovely ball of fluff which I want to finish so I can ply it, plus I bought sequins to make another yarn and I have decided to spin yarn for Elli, Alli, Kaz and Liz for Christmas. I would like to spin for Merna and Becky but I haven't known them quite so long so they will get yarn if I have time. I am guessing I wont, but I do intend to spin something for them at some point. I am not really good at giving my handspun away though so this should be an interesting experience.



Also, I am a bit cheerier lately. I went to Alice's house on Sunday for a knit in as she has a million things to knit before xmas and I am contemplating having people over at mine but its just a scary thought and I can't control who else will be in the house when people are here so I think I might avoid it for now.

I am not good with pressure.

Also, all my blog posts seem to be sporadic and rantish :(

Not very good at this updating malarky

Oh I just remembered what happened on the day I got back from my mums. I knew it wouldnt be good, but I didnt expect to get home to my landlady removing everything I own from my room, without my permission, so she could decorate... I had stern words. I also had a word about leaving me notes when I am in the house and told her I wouldn't be standing for passive aggressive notes so if she needs to speak to me she can knock on the door or phone me or just wait 2 days for the £3 I owed her for toilet roll.

Also, I didn't go wild at texere. I bought a couple of things which I wish I hadn't. I don't really like laceweight all that much. I might sell it on ravelry.

I did go wild at Fiber Flurry last weekend. I spent over £100 but what the hell, I am out of debt for the first time since 1997 and I have a small disposable income which I haven't spent on pretty much anything. I didn't really eat for about 3 weeks last month so I probably saved £100 there.Anyway this is what I bought...



I also bought a new wheel which for some reason I have no photos of yet. I will get some. Its a Majacraft Little Gem and I do love it so. I am typing this at work so I will have to do another post with photos and specifics of what I got and what I am now making. I sold my Louet S10 last Saturday - meaning I did actually profit from the day in the end.

I feel this is a bit garbled, but I will try and write another post soonish. Tonight I am going to KnitFlix with some of my favourite knitters. I really do love my new friends :)

Im going to go wild!

A few great little things have happened this week to break up the sheer misery that is the rest of my life. Woe is me etc... For example, I went to the opening of the knitted bench exhibition which some of our knitting group took part in, me included. I got to make a shop sample for Stitch Perfect from some rather tasty Koigu. I have to say I was not impressed with this yarn until I went up 2 needle sizes and all of a sudden it because lovely and soft and drapy. I went to the new Birmingham Bead Shop and bought beads to make a bag charm of all things. I just liked the purple beads and wanted to make something but didn't fancy jewellery. I was really good and only bought for the specific project and I have nothing left now so I am not too tempted to go buy more. Although its around the corner from the wool shop so I will be back...

I plan on working on the shop sample - another swallowtail - on the train to and from my mums house tomorrow night and monday evening. We are going to go to Texere on Saturday (the day after payday) and I will probably go mad and buy whatever will fit in my bag. I also intend to buy jeans and look out for decent winter boots. It was 3 degrees (C) here the other night. Way too cold for September. I need to start getting ready for ice and snow.

I am not really looking forward to Christmas and cold nights on my own. I am trying to keep busy, and I have a few things planned, but I know I will be really miserable when I get back here on Monday. Things are getting marginally better with time though, and the good thing is that when my final assignment is handed in next week, I will have as much free knitting time as I want :)

Anyway here are a few pictures. The swallowtail, a cowl for my mum, the bag charm and the Birmingham bench.

Today I...

• Woke up on Elli's sofa in a lovely warm sleeping bag with a slightly fuzzy head
• Knit this Pomotamus for a couple of hours (its more of a Damson colour)

• Went for breakfast (at half 12) with Dan
• Talked with him for a bit about how we are very alike, which is not necessarily a good thing.
• Went to my room to start on my OU assignment
• Went to the shop for food
• Came back with nachos, dips and Haagen Daaz. Oh and bread. Ate chips and dips.
• Tried again with the assignment
• Made a rough plan for the week so I am not at home alone too much
• Called my mum
• Checked the TV guide
• Tried again with the assignment
• Had a bath
• Tried again with the assignment
• Gave up, ate Haagen Daaz (only a bit as it was too frozen to get out of the tub) and I am now posting this in the 5 minutes before 'Who do you think you are?' starts. After which I will go to bed.

I have had quite a happy day today. I am going to knit some Green Gable whilst I find out about Lisa Kudrow's past.

Again to pass the time...

I am going to knitting in a bit. I need to call Dan at 10 to remind him he has to go to work for 11 and then I am going to grab a lift from him to save catching the bus. But I got up so early this morning. I went to bed just after 12 and was up for 7:30. I have tidied my room as it was a complete state and its strange because tidying my room usually just implies putting a few bit of clothes away and arranging my knitting projects and yarn. All done now.

I cannot stay here though. I want to move to somewhere on my own. Unfortunately, and I don't know how bad it is in other countries, it is extortionate to live alone here. A one bedroom flat - meaning not a bed/sit or studio but a place where there is a bedroom, a bathroom and a living area with kitchen will cost me around £400 a month. Then there is council tax, gas, electric, water, internet, tv licence, food, life etc and its going to cost me around £700 a month which I cannot afford, but I really don't want to live with anyone else right now.

I did join the gym last night for £33 a month but in return I am going to cancel my contact lens contract, saving £15 a month so its not too bad. I don't wear them anyway and the gym is a much healthier spend. I only did 25 minutes yesterday but 25 minutes 3 or 4 times a week is better than sitting on my arse at home watching TV and I don't even like TV.

Also, despite wanting to save money, I really want to go on holiday. The passport has cost me £90 and I have it now so I might as well use it, so if anyone has any ideas for places to go on my own, or people to visit, let me know.

Also, I am still procrastinating about this damn assignment. Stupid thing is it will be easy when I get started, I just have an aversion to writing essays.

For the sake of Procrastination...

and to stop me being sad and miserable, I thought I might as well write something here about whats going on with me. Firstly I am rather happy that a new yarn store has opened here. Its all posh yarn which for some reason, despite it being the UK's 'Second City', Birmingham has lacked for a long time. So as I had met Alice at SnB a few times, I have supported her new venture on a couple of occasions so far and I hope to do more in the future, including maybe making shop samples in return for yarn? Its always a possibility if she wants to go with it.

So I bought some Old Maiden Aunt yarn to make my mum a cowl for Christmas, and when the Malabrigo arrives in the next few weeks (customs pending) I will get a couple of balls to make my sister her Christmas hat.

I have talked to my mum almost every day this week, which considering I have talked to her for a total of about an hour in the last 6 months, is quite a difference. I guess I have been sad for a while, and therefore I didn't really want to talk to her because she KNOWS and I suppose I didn't want her to worry.

I have had a good chat with Dan, although further chats are required, and I feel marginally better about stuff. It was the right thing to do and we don't really know if its a permanent thing, but we cannot promise each other that when we are both sorted out in ourselves that we will still want to be together. I dont know what he is going to do to sort himself out but I am going to sign up for some councelling to help me work out why I feel so pointless and empty sometimes. I need a direction and I need to do more for myself and I need help figuring myself out, so I am going to phone a councellor that I found online and have a chat to see if its the right way forward for me. In the meantime, I really need to crack on with my final assignment. It is due in in 3 weeks and my tutorial is on Monday. I am going out for a film and cocktails tomorrow night so tomorrow and Sunday are out for academia.

Lets make this simple...

There aint gonna be a house. We broke up on Monday. Blah!

On Reflection

I have an assignment to hand in tomorrow evening. I took today off to get it done. Which means that today I joined the gym (temporarily), washed clothes, and went to the Cinema. And now I am posting on here because jeez I am so stuck and I don't know where to start.

So anyway, I thought I would reflect on the list to the right of this that I wrote in January about what I wanted to get done this year...

Go Places
I have been to London, Cornwall twice, and Builth Wells for Wonderwool. Thats not going too badly.

Buy a house
This one is more difficult. To be completely honest I don't know whats going on with me and Dan, we are having this sort of break at the moment. Difficult since we work together but either way its horrible and icky and it does not look like we will be buying a house, or indeed living together again, or maybe even being together again. This upsets me more than I dare let on.

Meet some people
This year I have met some absolutely lovely people through knitting groups and I look forward to seeing them on Saturdays and Tuesdays and its really nice that they involve me in sporadic yarn shopping trips and knit flick nights and stuff. I have never really had friends before but I love having these people around.

Complete 10in2010
Getting there!

Travel more
Along with go places, I have been a few places this year. I have a passport now and had hoped to go to Greece at the end of the month with Dan but thats not looking very likely now. We were also going back to Newcastle to see his gran. Again, no idea if that will happen now.

Spin more
I did for a bit, I haven't had time since starting this OU course.

Use up more stash
I don't really have one :)

Only buy really nice yarn
I have been doing this, and I have mostly been buying for projects :)

Make jewellery again (in said house)
Lets not go there. I wish...

So thats me, mostly very sombre but hopefully things will pick up and I will get this assignment handed in and all will be well. I hope.

Finished!

This didnt take very long at all! Now I really should take a break from knitting, and sort out my hands which are aching a bit, but I am still going to Saturday knitting with my February Lady Sweater and a spare ball of yarn and then me and Dan are going to have a wander around town in the afternoon. Hopefully it wont rain!

London Baby

*ok, so it wasn't really a 'massive' photo update yesterday, but whatever! I went to London on Wednesday to see 'La Bete' with David Hyde-Pearce, Joanna Lumley and Mark Rylance, and it was excellent. We had a nice day out despite the unrelenting rain and it was a nice chance to relax on the train there and back. I only took one photo all day and it was this one. I stood in that puddle! Luckily I realised before my shoe filled up. Anyway, I left work at lunch on Thursday and stayed home today too. I have some weird stomach pain thats like a stabbing through my intestines or something. I seem to go through phases where I just feel really run down and I get loads of spots and feel terrible in every way for a few days every now and then. I guess now is one of those times. Luckily i'm feeling better now because I am so bored being in the house all day. Dan dropped in yesterday after work but I don't think there are plans tonight. I did get some knitting done and I have finished the first part of the Acanthus Shawlette despite really needing to get some studying done for OU. I will probably finish the shawl tomorrow at Saturday knitting and then I have the rest of the weekend to study and get my assignment done for next Tuesday.

New phone = massive photo update!

We had Dan's birthday party on Saturday. It was over a week after his birthday but we had it at his parents house, because they love to entertain and it saved us getting our house messy. Unfortunately their new kitchen extension is taking longer than hoped so we put it off a week and therefore a lot of people couldn't make it. It was still a great night. I am quite proud of the guitar biscuits. I had been planning them for months :) On to knitting... I went off knitting for a while and really only did it to finish off the Myrtle cardigan, but in the last couple of weeks I have added to my stash and my Ravelry queue and I started this little shawl yesterday. Despite wanting to be project faithful, this February lady sweater wasn't keeping my attention. The yarn is so nice and squishy, I forget what really nice thick yarn feels like after spending 2 months knitting with 4 ply cotton. I started a baby cardigan for a friend due at Christmas. This will fit her daughter on her 4th birthday! So I lost interest. I will finish the sleeves off before Christmas (2013) I am off to London on wednesday for the first time in about ten years. We are going to see La Bete with David Hyde Pearce which I am really looking forward to. We will see what the weather is like before deciding how far to wander off into the city for food and shopping. We also went to see a house a couple of weeks ago, we are thinking about it. We are hoping to hold out and go in with a low offer but we shall see. I think that will do.

Ooh I love the green!

I realise I haven't written for a while, but I have just been busy with life and such. Dan had a birthday - I got him a mandolin, and he has taken to it really well. We are having a party for him this weekend, although it was postponed from last weekend and now half the people can't make it.

We went on holiday again which was much more relaxing except for the sunburn.

I finished Myrtle and I love it. I will hopefully get some wear of it this year and I have already cast on for a February Lady Sweater for when it gets warmer. Myrtle was utter hell to knit - needed constant concentration and quite a bit of thinking (not what I usually look for in a knitting project) but turned out nice in the end. Also, despite being cotton and having a ton of holes, this is a very warm cardigan.


I got my passport and we are considering booking a nice holiday somewhere hot, but we are also considering buying a house which we saw last week. I have realised with Dan that its a massive decision for him to commit to buying a house with me so I am not pushing at all. I like the house, I can make it a home and do quite a bit to it but I am not that bothered if thats not how it goes in the end so I am leaving it up to him, and just providing him with spreadsheets of information on why its a good deal and how we can still live well with the mortgage etc.

Knitting group is going really well, with an average of 8 people coming every week, and I also go to one on Saturday mornings because its a good excuse to get out of bed and once I am in town I can get things done.
On the downside, I have bought 13 balls of yarn and 3 tops in the last 2 weekends.....

A few of our friends are expecting so I have been making baby things which are just instant gratification so I will probaby do more. I will take some pics!

Admissions

Its been a weird couple of weeks. I am adjusting to life on my own (said with a pinch of salt as I am rarely on my own, and when I am, I enjoy it - mostly). I see I haven't posted for a while but thats because I feel boring.

I am currently sat in the conservatory in the dark - not sure when that happened, it was nice a bright last time I looked up. I am working on my first Open University assignment which stupid me thought needed to be handed in some time next week, but no, it needs to be in for Thursday this week so I can have my tutorial next Monday. Anyway, this assignment caused mass panic yesterday when I lost all self confidence and almost burst into tears and the stress and pain of having to write 250 words! What can I say, I have probably written more than that just now, but dear god it has been so difficult. Academia was never my strong point, although I have filled the gaps in the easy charts and questions really quickly and easily. Its just the wordy parts I struggle with. Dan came over after work for some dinner and helped me for an hour before I got stuck into writing. I have 500 words now and need to remove half by Thursday. This is easier than writing them I think.

So in the meantime here are some random things that are going to be going on:

We are looking at going to the theatre in London to see LaBete with Niles from Frasier. We thought we would do a mid week matinee so we can get the train there and back (1hr 45mins from here) and have a nice extortionately priced meal whilst we are there. We will probably go in August since July will be almost over when we stop being busy.

We have a wedding to go to this Saturday and the following weekend we are going back to Cornwall to finish what we started. Mostly we plan to go to the Eden Project again (free this time) and spend some time on a beach. If the glorious weather doesn't continue for the next couple of weeks, the plan is to take our books and lounge in the Mediterranean Biome at Eden for the day :)

I plan to buy a bike instead of joining a gym, and hopefully Shirley will be bringing her running machine home from her brothers soon so I can jog on that for a few hours a week.

I applied for my passport last week but the photos have been declined so I need to sort out getting more countersigned this week but I hope it gets done soon because we want to go to Greece in September and I really want to be thinner by then!

Knitting wise, I am loving Myrtle now its making progress but I really would like it done for my holiday in 10 days and its not looking likely because of this writing :s

New things

I have no idea where I am with knitting. I started making more squares for the barn raising quilt but then I ordered yarn to start the Myrtle cardigan, I swatched in stockinette and got pretty close to gauge and I cast on for a 44in chest and when I measured after 5 rows, it measured about 80inches - so I frogged and did some lace swatching in the recommended 4mm needles, where each pattern measured 3 1/2in. So I went down to 3.75mm needles and each pattern measures 3.1/4 in. So I now need to find a 3.5mm circular needles (my Denises set doesn't go that small, but I do have an addi lace turbo somewhere, possible in use) and I need to do yet another repeat just for the gauge, and then I have to frog several hours of knitting so I can start with what will probably be about 6 solid weeks of knitting to get me a cardigan. But it will be worth it if I get it right.

Anyway. Holiday photos in no particular order.

Possibly worrying but it was too busy for the adders to venture out

The weather was pretty nice, it was just a bit overcast in this picture.

Best seafood ever - Moulle Marinier (probably not spelled right but I don't remember due to being under the influence of Long Island Ice Tea and wine.

The required mug shots, just to prove we were both there :)

It is Worldwide Knit In Public Day(s) this week so I am going to make the effort to go to the Birmingham City Stitch n Bitch tomorrow morning and then I will wander around the markets buying a weeks worth of food. I did this last week and I bought too much as I still have a fridge full of asparagus and spinach. It should be a healthy weekend though

Changing Moods and Passing Fads

I have noticed lately that I am not really interested in knitting, but I am more interested in spinning. I am not really interested in reading literature but am more interested in reading educational books for the course I am starting. I also really want to bake but have no interest in cooking proper food. I am more interested in starting than finishing too, but thats nothing new. Last month I had a finishing burst but it didn't last long and I probably started more things than I finished.

I am moving out this weekend to my friend Shirley's house. The house is lovely and for now it will just be me and her. Its not even a mile up the road from Dan which is nice and we are still looking to buy a place, but have come to the conclusion that a tiny apartment is not somewhere that 2 people who work together should live together. So this is a temporary arrangement until either I find a different job or we find a big old house or both. I was a bit perturbed at first but I am now really looking forward to going back to dating my boyfriend and seeing him when we want to rather than having little choice. Plus I get this fantastic house to live in with a garden and its going to save me money too.

We haven't told our parents yet and I am not sure whether I am going to tell my mum yet or not. Chances are I will be at his when she calls anyway.

So thats what I am up to this weekend. I have also volunteered to knit a bit for a group project and I have about 3 weeks to complete my thing, details later. Also my course started on Monday and I haven't done much about it yet, and I have moving to do, and a haircut to get, and things to spin and birthday presents to buy and I am a bit busy and I don't really like it.

Also, we were on holiday over the weekend. I will share some pics next time.

Some pretty things

I am watching the election live (Actually watching the Alternative Election Night on Channel4) and I am geniunely concerned that the Conservatives might be in power tomorrow. The results are about to start coming in and I don't have wine! Grr!

So as I haven't had any pictures up for a while, here are a few to keep you interested

This is my Wonderwool 2010 haul. I got (clockwise starting top) 300m chunky merino in grey, 1000m laceweight pure silk in gold (a project has begun, details soon), 100g baby camel in gorgeous deep sea colours, some lovely shell buttons for a cardigan I don't even have the yarn for yet, a couple of samples of locks for spinning, 100g banana fiber, 100g silk hankies (undyed), aqua greeny blue dyed silk hankies (about 60g) and in the middle, some rather nice merino in a colour called strawberry shortcake, although I keep calling it raspberry ripple.



Next up, this is some spindle spinning I started last year. I want my spindle back so I thought I would finish it, its about half done and I hope to make a lacy single long enough to make a scarf or something.



This is my morning surf scarf made from handspun. Its a bit short but it blocked out to a decent enough size. This is probably going away until Winter and may even make a present for someone.



In other news, our new SnB moved to the Midlands Arts Center (MAC) and we met up there last tuesday and it was lovely. Please come along if you live nearby

Notes

I need to learn where to put the bust shaping in the sweater I am making, or at least be prepared to frog if they all go wrong.

I went to a gig last night where we know the drummer. When we got there, the stage was empty and I was marginally panicked that I may have got the wrong night. It turns out that they had to cancel the gig because the singer is stuck in Ireland thanks to the 'Volcano Issues' but instead, the drummer DJ'd and we had a great night anyway, getting in sometime around 2am.

I watched Alice in Wonderland yesterday which was good in 3D, if not a bit fuzzy. It wasn't the best film in the world but I will probably watch it again.

We are currently 'watching' Short Circuit on TV. Its so bad!

I haven't knit anything in forever! Without knit nights I would never get anything done. I think I will spend an hour on my Cookie A sock.

Dammit!

I seem to spend more time looking at stuff on Ravelry and other random internetty sites that I haven't actually knit anything for 3 days.

Also, I am a dumbass. I booked us a holiday for the bank holiday weekend at the end of May, and when I checked my diary earlier (a week after booking!) I realised that the Friday night we have tickets to see Stuart Francis (Canadian comedian). Grr!

Luckily the b&b owner has pushed us forward a day so we are now going Saturday to Tuesday and taking Tuesday off instead of Friday. This should work out a little better for the drive home. Its a 4 hour drive, we are going to Cornwall - Eden project, Lost gardens of Heligan, beaches and pubs.

Right. I have this fantastic jumper on the needles, I just haven't touched it since Tuesday night and I was hoping to finish it soon. Wonder if it will be ready for Wonderwool next weekend... I doubt it :)

New Knitting

For a change I thought I would start some new projects. I bought some new cables for my Denises needles as I can only find 2 of them and Kangaroo yarns had a 10% off Easter Sale - I got blue ones this time so I could keep them seperate from my pink ones.

Anyway, I could use the cables to make the Buttercup sweater 'try-on-able' and it turned out to be way too big. I will reassess when I can be bothered and I might be able to salvage some of it, otherwise it will be frogged and restarted when I feel up to it.

Instead, for now, I have started another sweater from my list, the gathered pullover. I have got gauge spot on (even rows!!) and have decided to make some waist decreases and increases to make it fit less bag-like. Dan is in Germany this weekend (until Tuesday) so I have been making good progress - I am up to 5 inches, and I hope to have got to at least the cable pattern by the time he gets back. The yarn is something I got from someones stash on Ravelry and its really nice teal with gold tweedy bits. I will post pics at some point.

My mum has been visiting this weekend and we have been out a couple of times but I think the plan for the rest of tonight is to lounge, order and collect chinese food, and knit whilst watching 2 more Harry Potter films.

With regards to courses, I have found an introductory level course in Introducing Environment. It has lots of progession routes but I want to make sure I can do this first, it lasts for 4 months and has 2 assignments and one assessment. The one I am going to do starts in June. Also, I found cookery classes at a local farmers market and was thinking of signing up for a one off Indian cooking class.

Ooh and the new knitting group we started had 6 people last week which is pretty good for the first official week.