I Did It

After 20yrs I have actually done it, pictures tomorrow.

I am feeling miles better still a little tired but much more myself and actually went out yesterday and today.
I've done a little more knitting but it is absolutely boiling here, I know it is everywhere but this flat seems a little over the top I actually considered sleeping in the garden as it is cooler than in here.

Anybody interested in winning some of my handspun yarn Andy is holding a blog birthday competition over on his blog. You get a choice of prizes and one of them is a hank of hand spun.

Talking of handspun go and check out Woolly Wormheads shop with her new handspun up which I have to admit I have sucummbed to purchasing one as it was calling my name.

And the best news of all Skip North 2007 planning is underway. Me and Little Lixie are putting our heads together and aiming higher this year, for a start we have an upgrade option this year with a hotel option as well as the youth hostel, but start saving for a knitting trip of a lifetime. 

Knit knit

Sorry its been a while, really haven't been feeling too well the
last couple of days , not helped by this awful heat. Feeling a little better, helped no end by sleeping for twelve hours Sunday night, went to bed for a nap Sunday night as was feeling a bit dodgy but didn't wake up again till 8am the following morning and still could have stayed there a few more eyes.
Unfortunately didn't feel well enough to go to youth club Monday so missed out felt very guilty about it but felt sick to the stommache everytime I stood up so the thought of riding the tube for a couple of hours each way wasn't on the agenda.
So have spent a quite couple of days napping on and off.
I've done a little knitting, I have turned the heel on bruised ego and it fits beautifully, the added bonus of toe up socks, I have finished the main body of the north west pacific shawl and aboout to start the edging and have worked a little on this scarf for stash out of Lorna's Laces Swirl which is a lovely mix of wool and silk and I thought it might be a bit stripey but here it is in the vera colour way, I know you can't see much detail of the scarf , still not happy with the design, but isn't the colour coming out beautifully more Tweedy than stripey and a really nice yarn to knit with.
Thank you for all the help with the beetroot we did a combination of the recipes in the end roasting them with potatoes and whole cloves of garlic and served with cream cheese (no sour cream available) and spring onions (no chives to hand either). Sorry no pics was all eaten to fast. 

Distractions

So here is the knitty pattern that has been distracting me
from my other projects its Perdita, the lilac version. I didn't have any Perle to hand but I did have this Koigu left over from a project and the only beads that I found in the house were these lovely red glass ones. I am really pleased with them so far and am going to get a couple of mother of pearl buttons to finish them off, but I also thought that maybe for another one I would leave the centre panel blank and sew little buttons all the way doen the middle.

Thank you everybody for the recipes I am going to tackle them tonight and if all goes well I'll take a pic.

Yesterday didn't all go to plan and didn't get places we were supposed to and remembered to late about my brother-in-laws party last saturday but I did make an appointment for something I have always wanted to do for next Thursday but more of that next Thursday. 

Vague mutterings

Here is bruised ego in action, as you can see I have
used a fan toe pattern and am working toe up on a magic loop. I am really plesed with the colours because they are still fun but still manly if you know what I mean. I am almost at the gusset increases but have been sidetracked a little by a Knitty pattern more of which tomorrow.

I forgot a couple of important details about Saturday mostly the fact that on my way home after finishing at the store I was walking to the station and who should I see walking towards me but Mary who had popped down on the off chance that the store might still be open, unfortunately not so instead I had the wonderful pleasure of her company on half of my tube journey and she gave me one of her beautiful handmade beads which I am trying to work with into something (I know thats a bit vague but I have all sorts of ideas sparked off in my head and am not ready to limit them yet).
If you want to see us in action on Saturday check out Mumblings 

Look what we did last night, I managed to get some
free tickets to see a pre pilot of a possible new show
at Jongleurs in Camden. We got to camden a little early and wandered around for a bit and met Martin and Kim outside. We were still a little early as I am now paranoid after the Johnathon Ross experience and not getting in but this gave me a chance to catch up a little with Kim as now I am not in the studio that often we don't get a chance very often to chat.
So the show was made up with two parts, firstly a kind of interview section with a celebritory and then a troupe of improvisers act out sections of they're life story. I am making it sound far more complcatd than it is but it does actually work incredibly well.
Phil Jupitus was the compare and because it wasn't an actual recording for a show that was to be broadcast we didn't have to keep stop starting and it was just a straight run through, it was hilarious, of course I have forgotten all the names of the stand up comedians that took part, I should really start taking notes but the two guests were Anneka Rice and David and Carrie Grant and both were definitley game for a laugh as sometimes the improvs weren't always that flattering but they were good sports.
After we said good bye to Martin and Kim me an Andy decided to eat in Camden before we came home and we finally fell through the door at about quarter past midnight absolutely exhausted from all the laughing we had done. 

Look at these aren't they wonderful, they are fresh from
Andy's father-in-laws allotment or they were a couple
of days ago, I have yet to meet all of
them but they seem really nice as we get sent regular
vegtables, his mother -in-law sent me an
article on knitting and his ex-wife found me a copy of
Dawn French's Big Knits, I keep
thinking how much worse it could have been but they
have all been really sweet.
Now a question about the beetroot, I have been given the
instructions for boiling them but somewhere in my past I have read a recipe I am sure about baking them and serving them with sour cream and chives, anybody got any suggestions as I want to do these beetroot justice. I am fine with the courgettes they are so beautifully tender and sweet we have been using them in very simple stir frys and they are gorgeous. 

Knitting

Thank you all for your comments yesterday, I had a couple of questions about the knitting and have tried to e-mail the answers to jac-in-a-box and Piglottie's Parlour but for some unknown reason my computer doesn't want to play that game.
The piece of knitting is a sample for the adventures in knitting course and was either aimong for a cushion cover or a bag not sure where its going yet. It is made up from a variety of yarns from my stash including some Silkwood 4ply some hand dyed biggy print a ribbon yarn I picked up from the states (of course have lost the label) and some ripped up silk scarf which was hand dyed. All I have done is knitted a panel all on the same needle size (8mm I think) and then using the naturally undulating sides I have used some of the four ply and gone in woth my crochet hook and filled in the spaces.
Hope that helps, more later I have a youth group to go and play with. 

What a Fantastic Day

I had a really wonderful day yesterday teaching the adventures in knitting class at Stash. Hello to my three students who were wonderful, really enthusiastic and really had the right idea and I really enjoyed spending the day with them.
I have now so many ideas of my own I don't know where to start, actually I know what I want to do first and thats do some spinning, after reading about everybodys experiences at Woolfest including Woolly Wormhead, Gourdon Girl and Spinning fish Wife all I have wanted to do for the last couple of days is spin but have been good and concentrated on the class. But now that we have potponed the sock class next Saturday I can get the wheel out and have some fun.
I am feeling a bit guilty about it though as I didn't see much of Andy yesterday being at work and now all I want to do is things that I enjoy so may put off getting the wheel out till tomorrow.

I am so glad yesterday went well I was a little worried that I would struggle as it would have been Robin's birthday yesterday, and yes I did think of him and was sad for a little while but it was ok. Now I know its silly and just a TV programme but Dr Who yesterday was kind of appropriate as it seemed to be about grief and death so had a little tear in my eye that maybe I wouldn't normally do.

I hasten to add that I am still in that wonderful warm and snuggly phase with Andy, I still have to smile when he comes into a room, and I can tell when he comes into a room even if I can't see the door and I have never been happier, mind you I am not saying we don't have our ups and downs, misunderstandings happen but we seem to sort them out, this all sounds very strange after writing the previous bit but its how I feel. Ok I'll stop with the sickly sweet stuff now. 

Third reason

Sorry about the delay in th e third reason but blogger seemed to have eaten the last entry and I didn't have the patience to continue, but apparently it hasn't been eaten so here is the third reason for frogging these socks, I have a hole, can see no reason for the hole but there it is, now I could rip it back and redo that bit, not even going to try and drop down the stitches and pick them up but as I had two other very good reasons to not continue these socks they are now very happily frogged and a pair of socks for Andy in bruised ego are getting the magic loop treatment.

Well after a reasonably quiet day in the store yesterday I am spending the day putting the packs together for tomorrows adventures in knitting which I am really looking forward to as this kind of knitting really excites me.

I am about to cover the living room floor full of wonderful goodies including feathers and silk and beads and wire already for a day of experimentation.

I see that the new knitty is up and as normal there are a cuple of things that I want to knit including the fingerless gloves with the writing on the knuckles, I now just have to work out what eight letters I'm going to use. 

Socks socks everywhere

Ok this is one of the socks that I have on the needles using one of my dyed yarns and a pattern from Knitty which I keep calling Hippopotamus but is in fact is something like Potamus from Knitty, I loved the lace pattern and once you get into the rhythm of them they aren't too complicated to knit but I think I am going to be frogging these for three reasons.
Firstly although I love the colour of this yarn it is far too busty for this pattern and you can't see the beauty of the lace in it.
Secondly It is knitting up to small for me (I have quite large feet) so really need to insert another repeat of the pattern to make it fit. 

Nameless

Ok last one, you may need to go back a couple of entries to make sense of all this, I'm to tired to try and work out the legistics of swapping them all round.
This one as yet remains unnamed as still have to try and reproduce this colour way as this wonderful autumny colours come from a two stage dyeing so not as controllable.
I am also knitting, I have been working on samples for both my adventures in knitting class and my beginners sock class but enough pictures for now more tomorrow. 

Bruised Ego

And another colourway, a beautiful combination of rust and turquoise with the odd hint of lilac in there, this one was designed by Andy himself with technical supervision and obviousley he'll be the first to have a pair of socks in it.

So after all these wonderful plans for the day have managed to achieve... let me see... well absolutely nothing, I slept in really late and I mean really I just about managed to wake up for lunch and then managed to waste the day away managing a couple of loads of washing and that about it. I'm sure I'll make up for it tomorrow witha food shopping trip to Lidl's and Farm foods in the morning and an afternoon of writing up teaching notes for my class on Saturday at Stash 'Adventures in Knitting' which I am so looking forward to as I always learn new things and am inspired by my students. 

Thorn in my Side

Ok so not quite knitting, I thought I would show you some of the new colours that I dyed at the weekend for my upcoming sock kits, this colour is 'Thorn in My Side' , the picture is pretty true to colour and is a beautiful mix of pinks greens and browns and as you can see in the background I couldn't resist dyeing some lace weight boucle for myself in the same colourway.

Talking about thorn in my side, you know the newspaper article that printed my blog without asking a couple of weeks ago, well I found out that that article had been republished by a freebie local paper last week complete with blog entries. So I got over that when Andy pointed out to me that the article had been shown again online this time, admittedly without my blog entries but still giving my full name and blog name, I know that it is great publicity for both Stash and me but I am so careful not to use my last name because as we all know there are some strange people out there and I work with kids so I am over cautious about it all. Hopefully that will be it for a while fingers crossed. 

Home Again

Have finally returned home from a long weekend at Silkwood looking after the bunnies, in this weather I really don't envy them there thick coats.
I managed to get some dyeing done, some for stash, some for my upcoming sock kits.
I would post the pics but at the moment it is rather a long winded process of downloading pics from my camera onto my laptop then saving that to CD (Andy's computer doesn't accept my memory stick) and then loading them onto his computer and so on and so forth, you can imagine it kind of stops the flow of my blog entrys but we are working on this so hopefully eventually we'll get it sorted.
I even went to youth group tonight, I must be mad in this weather, you how children get in this weather well multiply it by fifteen, I am happy to report they all went home in one piece even though tempted on a couple of occasions to throw one of them from a first floor window.

Talking of the youth group there has been something bugging me for the last few days, in our youth club we do have competitive games as we believe it teachs children good sportsmanship and the ability to loose gracefully and know they are not always going to suceed (or get what they want) and how to deal with that. The most important of these for me is good sportmans ship, and as well as awards at the end of term for tournament winners the biggest prize is for the child that we feel showed the meaning of good sportsmanship. I have to say at this point we make sure that the tournaments cater for all different abilities from Connect 4 for the more cerebal to table tennis for the more active we also usually have some sort of art or craft award to.

Getting back to the point I was making about good sportmanship, well whilst watching the England v Equador game I couldn't believe my ears when I heard one of the commentators congratulate the referee on making the wrong desicion because it was in Englands favour, at that moment I felt he had destroyed many years of work that me and my fellow youth workers have put in by this guy celebrating cheatingthen I thought lets be rational its just one guy this might be a one off, but time and time again this happened, much to my frustration and then what finally topped it all off was a commentator in the England v Portugal match said that we were to nice and needed to play the game a bit more. I give in all hope I really do.

Ok so now I have that off my chest I promis actual knitting pictures tomorrow. 

Question

How do you make yourself feel really old? Go to see three bands at The Standard where it has a 16+ door policy.
Ok so I am not quite in my twilight years yet but I think I have settled into maybe a quieter music taste. Now you are asking yourself if you knew that this wasn't going to be your taste why go, well Andy's son-in-laws band A13 where playing and ended up headlining as the fourth band didn't turn up.
Now the first band Amber Void loud noisey but kind of interesting but not my style at all (for a more musical review check out Andy's blog), the second band King Rat was a bit of a suprise, not only to me but also to the crowd of sixteen year olds dressed in black to as they sounded like a cross between Pink Floyd, Placebo and a bit of Marillion thrown in for good measure. Funnily enough they cleared the floor and we moved forward and I have to say that I would love to go and see them again, go check out their website for some downloads and see what I mean.
So finally we come to the main event, what we have come here for waited outside for 40mins to be let in as the sound check ran over and an afternoon paranoid as to what would be suitable to wear for this kind of thing. I had been a little worried because I had only ever heard recordings before and I thought I might have to force some kind of enjoyment but I needed have worried their musicianship was fantastic and found myself bobbing up and down quite happily, no need to make up compliments I was impressed no end. 

Aqua Swirl cushion

So this is after its first vist to the washing machine, it has been in again since and I think that it will have to go in for a third go as still not quite as flat as I would like .
Other knitting news I have resisted all of the sea silk or lace weight Lion and Lamb that keep calling to me in the store asking to be knitted into a lace shawl and have concentrated on a mini sock design for my sock class.
Just one last thought on the newspaper publishing my blog, I have spent a lot of time blogging about knitting over the last year or so but they seemed to have chosen three entries with very little knitting content, I am sure Wandsworth was gripped by my installment about cooking a casserole. 

So here it is

Yes that is my blog being published in a newspaper in fact it is the Wandsworth borough news attached to a very nice article about Stash. Now I don't have a problem with it being published but there are a couple of things, firstly an email just asking would have been polite, I know that I put my work on the www so anybody can read it but I never use my full name on my blog but has listed it in the article which concerns me a little. I think it is a bit of a grey area whether they have infringed my copyright but hey I guess its the only time I am ever going to be published.
It has been an odd couple of weeks I have started at Stash and given my first classes there which have been great fun. I have also been in the store when lots of familiar faces have dropped by, thats one of the things I missed about not working in the store anymore catching up with everyones knitting. We have now set up a whole new set of classes, check over on the stash website:) 

Look Apples on My tree

Just a couple of quick notes, firstly my mobile has locked up on me so anyone trying to get in touch with me I'm sorry if you e-mail me I'll give you another number to get me on.

Secondly apparently my shawl althought beautifully made by Knititherapy it was actually a belated birthday present from a secret knitter, well who ever you maybe (I think I have a clue) thank you ever so much I absolutely adore it.

I promise a longer entry tomorrow to explain why my first ever casserole was news worthy. 

Look what I got :)

Look what I got in a suprise package. Isn't it beautiful, it is from Knitotherapy who is the most amazing crocheter. It is absolutely beautiful and not something I would ever attempt myself, in fact was so taken with it that even in the blazing sun on Saturday morning before I headed for work I was wrapped up in refusing to remove it.
It arrived all wrapped in beautiful rose paper. I will try and take a close up of her beautiful stitching whne I get back tomorrow.
It has taken me so long to blog about it because we have been travelling again well only back to Barnes, we were working at the Youth Club on Monday night and decided to stay over at Dads as we had tickets for a pilot being filmed at the BBC Tuesday night so staying over gave me chance to pop back to studio and say hi and pick up post.
In the end we arrived over an hour before the doors opened and were just hanging around outside and debating what to do as with my previous experience of Jonathen Ross and not getting in I was a little unsure about wandering off when a BBC studio audience women approcached us thinking that we were for the audience for Paul O Gradys live show and we said we weren't and explained we were just deciding what to do for an hour and she asked if we would like to see Paul O Grady and not being one to turn down a free ticket we accepted and actually it was quite fun with Juliette Lewis and Anthony Head as guests, we then went back out and queued for five minutes to get back in for a recording of There's no F in Script which turned out to be a version of whose line is it anyway and as an added bonus they were recording two episodes. Some of it was very funny, please don't ask me the names of the comedians that were taking part as I can't remember but if it ever airs look out for the interprative dance section it was absolutely hysterical.

And finally a bit of knitting, to answer Brigid's question the cotton Angora is exactly on the mark for the tension, I actually did a tension square (shock horror). I have finished the front of the cushion and am now working the back in the round. 

Confession Time

Ok so I know I have hundreds of projects on the go but yes I have cast on another, this is the sexy ribs pullover from the Big Girl Knits book, not that you can tell from this picture I have something like 360 stitches on here and have to work three inches in rib before I can do anything exciting. Its using some of the cotton angora that I brought from Cold Spring Mills last year and have three cones in this colour which should be plenty. I've really enjoyed knitting in it so far, I know other people have had problems with this yarn splitting but so far so good.
I've decided to join in the fun over on the Hipknits blog where to celebrate Kerries birthday she has posted thirty things about her and invites us to join in and we have the chance to win 30 GBP of yarn from Hip Knits. So here goes

1. I hate brussel sprouts (thats the easy one) I don't care what you do to them I still dislike the taste.
2. I am the eldest child of four, I was the one they experimented on which explains a lot.
3. I had my jaw broken at 18 for medical purposes.
4. I love burnt broccolli, when you stir fry it and it catches and goes a little crispy, I have no idea why its just one of those things.
5. I have a fine art degree in sculpture which is my first love.
6. I learnt to weld, wasn't very good but my braizing isn't to bad.
7. I have had a full body cast done.
8. I am tone deaf when it comes to singing
9. I hate the colour peach
10. I can't wear wool (well only on my feet as in socks) I can knit with it fine just can't wear it.
11. My eyes are quite light sensitive so not only do I suffer in this heat I get really bad head aches from the light if I am out in the sun too long.
12. I hate washing up but love ironing for some reason!
13. I have been up the empire state building even if I clug to the building for dear live s get really bad vertigo, can't get past the first couple of steps on a ladder.
14. Love tequila but usually after three shots can't stand.
15. Qualified to work in a playgroup, and did for a few years
16. Have been a youth worker for 18yrs
17. I have never wanted kids
18. I can cook for a hundred people but struggle for two, so either we have way too much or too little.
19. I have sung on stage at the NIA at Birmingham and in London
20. I was artist in residence at the childrens festival at Greenbelt a few years ago (I love that festival)
21. I have five different e-mail accounts in a vain attempt to be organised using one for buisness one for ebay and so on.
22. I have appeared in the New Scientist on as many as three occasions to my knowledge.
23. My brother appeared on the cover of the Lancet
24. I am a drop knitter
25. I love boye needles
26. I want a tatoo on my feet ( we are working on the design still have been working on one for ten years now)
27. I play on a PS2 reguarly ( good for working out your anger and frustration)
28. I am terrible at remembering birthdays
29. I am exceedingly stubborn and independent.
30. I love photography and would love to have my own dark room.

Ok that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be so I am now off to go and photograph a wonderful present I got in the post yesterday.

Knitting In Public Day

So here is the start of the aqua swirl cushion, well in fact have got a little further with it now, it is growing really fast. I got the centre colour started at Liberty, where it was good to catch up after a couple of weeks away and then yesterday I helped out at Stash for a couple of hours and got a few more rows done.
I have the knitting in public thing all sorted for the day, well it was kind of taken care of for me as I am working at Stash all day so they have some wonderfully comfortable chairs to sit on so may get a bit more done between customers. If anybody wants to come and knit to that would be great there are a few other chairs :) 

A Big Thank you

I know that I have been rather slow in responding to comments on my blog but I just wanted to say a big thank you for all of you who have answered my querys about the garden and all the encouragement, things are growing so fast I can't believe it, especially the weeds.

The tomatoes are coming on as treat and look like they might actually produce the odd fruit, I am keeping on top of the tangle weed and enjoying every minute of it:) 

Shock Domestication

Look how domesticated I'm getting this is my first ever casserole, now I have to confess the sauce is from a packet and I ran out of room for green stuff and maybe went a bit mad with the pearl barley but it was edible.
It is strange learning to live together, my time with Robin was slightly different, I am actually eating at regular times and proper food, I am also trying all sorts of things that I haven't done in years as I guess when you are cooking for yourself for so long you end up sticking to the same things after a while and now we have something new almost every night.
Its also strange sharing space with someone, I have spent so long in my own place that suddenly there are all sorts of dilemmas like draw alocation, hanging space and where you keep the cleaning products and so on and so forth, I am sure this is really boring for all of you that have been there done it and got the T-shirt but I am still revelling in the new experiences. 

Stash

Wow is all I can say, and yes I know I am a little biased as they do stock my kits and I am going to be working in there occasional and oh yes teaching too but the collection of yarn at Stash is amazing and I wanted it all but settled with the yarn to tackle this project, Its the Aqua Swirl Pillow from Pick up Sticks but of course being me I had to change the colour so instead of brown I am using a dark turquoise and am using to slightly different pinks for the swirls. I forgot how nice Lambs pride is to work in, I worked in it a couple of years ago but have forgotten how soft it is. I managed to restrain myself from getting anything else although could have easily emptied the place. If you want to see pictures of the store check out Knitaround, Ingrids site and the Wool Palace 

At Last

Finally as promised a picture of the necklace in action, probably not the best picture of the beide but the only one where you can see the necklace clearly.
Am now back in Bagenham after a weekend away at Silkwood with the bunnies just in time to celebrate Andy's birthday. More on all of this later plus news of the stash opening.