Housebound

Housebound as it is like a skating rink outside, Pete fell over twice getting to the bus stop apparantly. There is no way I am going to risk it but I must pop next door shortly to see if my neighbour is ok. People on facebook complaining of cabin fever and boredom- how can they??? I love it hehehe. I am going to have to get to the shop on Saturday tho... take more than snow to stop me doing that!!!! I can see some dripping going on out there so it is thawing a bit, oh good, filthy slush to look forward to now then, ho hum.

Yesterday's amusements included the Siamese encountering snow for the first time - hilarious! They leapt out of the door, competely freaked and leapt back in again sharpish. Spent the rest of the day looking out of the window in disdain at other cats who were out, apparantly voluntarily! Apart from that Pip decided that he liked licking condensation off the bedroom window... weird cat.

Had a crisis about the Baltic Sea Stole yesterday, and also the Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn that I am making it in. I don't like the pattern enough to do it for an hour everyday for 4 weeks, nor do I like the colour of the yarn and I don't think MIL will either. So had a stressful hour or so trying to decide on an alternative and inally decided on Jubilee by Norah Gaughan. and of course according to the law of stash, despite having a room full of it I don't have the right yarn so will need to go on a mission when I get to the shop on Saturday. Need about 950m 4 ply, preferably something soft and luxurious.

After this knitting hiatus I made a Lyra style hat (from Golden Compass/aka Northern Lights film) for Fearn from doubled Big Wool. Then I dug out my St Peter Port, got past the shoulder bit by some kind of osmosis as I couldn't really figure out what the instructions were on about and am now on the hood. Hurrah! I tried it on and think it is going to be rather slim fitting but not sure how much till I have sewn up the sleeves, I may knit a border on to the front before attaching the zip to nake it a bit more roomy, also to give the hood a bit more depth as I think in my shoulder fudging I have lost too many sts and will have a hood that only comes as far forward as my ears. I probably won't wear it up much anyway so that is ok, I just like the look of it!

Apart from that I need to do some thinking about the book and to start organising my designing brain and get a bit of organisation going on around here.

Sadly will not be dancing tonight as am not risking going out and breaking something and Pete already has a bad leg (and he has still to get back into the house without breaking something!)

note to self - get some photos on here...

Snow and cables without a cable needle

Ok, like everyone else I will also mention snow, we are probably the last place in UK to get it as Bristol doesn't really get much weather. I really do think though that it is actually winter, cold weather happens in winter and there are probably more important things going on in the world than bad weather in one small island. Get lives people!!!

This week I have learnt how to do cables without a cable needle - hurrah! From a tutorial in, of all things, The Knitter magazine. I was in two minds whether or not to cancel the sub for this mag as I find the patterns rather boring. Well, boring is not strictly what I mean, samey might be a better term. It might be because they use a rather narrow set of designers and so the pattern selections are rather predictable , one of the things that makes Yarn Forward so good is that they have many designers and you never know what you will see in there. The Knitter does have some good articles in it tho so I think I will persevere with it for a bit. Simply Knitting has definitely got to go tho!!!

The cabling without the cable needle is really easy, I have tried it before and couldn't get my head around it but now it seems obvious. I am going to make the whole of Fearn's new cable jacket with no cable needle so it becomes entrenched for ever more in my knitting brain.

Am progressing with the Baltic Sea Stole, did 15 rows yesterday. I was knitting with a big headache tho and with one of those headache patches on my forehead. Now I do swear by these but the menthol vapour gets in your eyes a bit which is not great late at night when squinting at your pattern, worrying about running out of yarn and whether there is any more in the shop and of course having a headache. I have had this headache since Sunday, you can go now if you don't mind...

Yesterday when I was in work it was very quiet, hardly anyone about, no lights on, that kind of thing. A bit spooky and Marie Celeste like. Today they all had a good laugh as I discovered that it was in fact a day off in lieu of a bank holiday. Needless to say I am not coming in tomorrow...

24th July??

Oh dear, rubbish blogger, 24th July... *hangs head*

Anyway, back to work today, god knows what the temperature is out there but my legs may never be the same again. Maybe Ryan's suggestion of knitted trousers was not so far off the mark after all!!! Have so far failed to find any woolly tights today but must do something otherwise my walk to work resolution won't last long. It must be cold as I am still wearing a cardigan in my office which is normally tropical even at this time of year. Still, it is winter after all...

Knitting wise I have so far only cast on two new projects (this year) - Baltic Sea Stole and an aran cabled jacket for Fearn. I need to do at least 15 rows of the stole per day to get it done for Feb 13th as it is a present for my MIL for her significant birthday. Hopefully it will get quicker as I go along.

Still having a great deal of trouble trying to decide what to focus on this year (kntting, working (ha), spinning, designing, sewing, etc etc) unfortunately sitting in my workroom knitting to the exclusion of all else appears not to be an option unless I can magically win the lottery. Have not made any formal resolutions this year but am aiming to focus, cook more, eat better and excersice more. I also need to be more positive, stop constantly complaining about being tired and stop standing about with my hands on my hips. Oh and brush the dog's teeth everyday. What a weird bunch of stuff.