A week in review

Another week in pictures, I'm afraid.
Work has been insanely busy, and by the time I get home I have about enough energy to eat dinner and get to the sofa before collapsing.

Over the last week, I've done some knitting











dyeing,












been to a gaming weekend,





nearly killed our estate agent over the heating in the house, eaten a lot of chocolate, and gotten less sleep than I'd like.


My last secret pal 12 package arrived, and was both fantastic and unexpected.




It's a kit for fair isle gloves from Fearless Fibres. My Secret Pal is very perceptive, and spotted my mentioning that I'd like to learn stranded knitting. No excuse now! There was also some Divine chocolate, but that had been eaten before the photo was taken. Yum.

Thanks again to my fab swap partner. I still have no idea who you are, but you've spoiled me rotten over the last few months and I really appreciate the time and effort you've put in.

This is, sadly, my only post this week. I'm off to the doctor first thing in the morning so that I can be poked with...pokey things. Then in the afternoon I'm heading off to the Irish Knitters Retreat.

Galway won't know what hit it!

Pictopost

From me to me with love....and then turned into a scarf.



From Niamhy, Wing and Emma to me with love on my birthday



Yes, those are harmony dpns. The chocolate got scoffed before making it in to the photo

Strange things to see beside my city centre office block




Proof that I'm not forgetting about my WIP's



Won't get it finished tonight, I don't think, as I've got to get my dyepot out.
You never know though.

So yeah, a post in mostly piccies. Lots has been going on since Friday, but it's easier to leave out the bits that are only interesting to me. I'm leaving out the video clip of the boys singing karaoke, because I'd like to live. Singstar really does rock. As does whiskey.

Another year older and deeper in..yarn

Dinner last night was rather good.




Homemade korma with basmati rice and garlic naan bread.
Yum. Very yum indeedy.






The sock progresses on.




It's slow, and driving me a little mad. My main sock knitting time of day is the train journey to and from work, but now that colleges are back in full swing, the mornings are standing room only. I even got an earlier train today, and still ended up standing. Considering the price of the sodding tickets, you'd think they'd stick on an extra carriage at rush hour.

The day did get better though.
There was a packet in the post, the contents of which were modelled by a very helpful and enthusiastic colleague.




You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!

The lovely batts are from RockPool Candy as a gift. I'd given her a few bags of yarn for a charity project, and she sent me this in return. It's fabulous stuff.



This piccie doesn't really show off the fabulousness of the fibre and the colour saturation. It's edible.

After all that excitement, it was time for birthday cake in the conference room. It's a great tradition, but I need a nap after it.

Yup, birthday cake. My birthday cake.

I'm officially a year older. I don't feel a year older. Hell, I don't feel like I've been on the planet for 29 years either!

This evening involves something. Housemate told me that people were turning up in the pub and to act surprised. I was a little gutted that he told me, it being planned as a surprise and all, but the more I think of it, the more I think that it could well be a little dose of misdirection. He's just that kind of guy.

Anyway, gotta dash. It's the official opening of This Is Knit this evening, and I've to head there before getting the train home. MmmYarn.

Strange bedfellows

Last night was rather cold, and I was rather exhausted.
So much so that myself and HusBeast retired to bed at 9.30pm with tea and books. I lasted about twenty minutes before falling asleep with my copy of I am America cutting off the circulation to my thumbs.

This morning I got up, and dressed the bed. As I was doing so, I pulled back the extra blanket that we use at night, and out popped a spider.

And when I say spider, I mean SPIDER!
Don't get me wrong, I love the critters, but I didn't expect one to crawl out of the blankets at that hour of the morning. I'm just glad he didn't demand breakfast.

The squeamish may want to scroll down a bit..





The plastic prison is the top off my can of deodorant. It's a good 3 inches across, which means this cheeky fellow classifies as being a big ass spider. He (or she!) is now wading through the jungle that is my back garden, as shortly after this pic was taken, he got chucked out the window.


Due to the exhaustion, I got about 2 lines done on my OSW last night, in between making dinner and putting on washing. That isn't what's burning my conscience though.

You may possibly remember me posting quite a bit about a blue moss stitch cardigan that I was making. You may even have noticed that I stopped blogging about it, but failed to post any pictures of the finished article. The reason, to keep it short and sweet, is that since I took this photo





I haven't progressed another inch.
Not one.

Truth is, and I hate to admit it, it's shoved in a bag at the bottom of my wardrobe.

The pattern is appauling. It's a wrappy round thing, but the collar is gi-fecking-normous if I pull it up. So ginormous that it weighs itself down and causes the whole thing not to hang properly. The sleeve pattern seems to be made for someone who has arms the length of a ten year olds, but as wide as their legs.

The worst bit....after all of that....it makes me look fat.
I know, the stripes go down, so it should be fine. Nope.
It's the cardigan version of a mu-mu.

What does this all mean?

The blue monstrosity is going on holiday.
To the frog pond.

I'm ok with that mostly. I'm so over the whole "this is X days of my life" thing. Might have something to do with the fact that I'm not allowing myself do the maths on it. The tough bit is going to be the physicality of frogging it. The yarn sticks to itself, which is great in a finished item for keeping out the cold, but not so fun when it comes to taking it apart. It's going to take fricking hours.

It will also leave me with - at a conservative guess - somewhere in the region of 1500 metres of yarn.

Any ideas?

I don't want to start breaking it down into lots of small projects, because I'll be finding little balls of it around the place 'til I'm ninety.

I was thinking of the V-neck jumper from Fitted Knits but I worry that the stripes will make me as wide as a truck.

Another possibility is Kate Gilbert's Sunrise Circle Jacket which might look awesome with the colour variations in the yarn.

Or is there something else that would be perfect for this yarn that I'm missing?

I'd kind of like to decide on a pattern before I start frogging, so that I can focus on what the yarn will look like in its new form, instead of how much of a pain in the ass it is being at that moment.

Whatcha think?

Stalking. It's not just for breakfast.

Slowly but surely, I'm working through my wips. Despite making dinner, washing my hair (it is a note worthy task when it's my length) and wading through umpteen loads of laundry, I managed to get in a little quality time with my shrug last night.

I know I keep going on about the fabulousness of the yarn, but it really is fabulous. I love the colour as well. I wear a lot of black, so this will inject some much needed colour this winter. Perfect for the it's-too-hot-now-it's-too-cold-again atmosphere in the office.



Stefanie Japel rocks my world. She really does.


Another person rocking my world today is......well, I don't know who.
I'm not being weird. I don't know who they are.



I hit the local turkish shop at lunchtime to pick up some bits for dinner, passing the newly reopened and funktastic National College of Art and Design. On my way back, being a considerate employee, I checked our postbox on the ground floor. Hmmm...something for me? Oooooh!





Something for me turned out to be a package from my awesome SP12 partner. You have some strong google-fu, let me say that! Thank you so much for the fabulousness!





The book is one that I've been lusting after for about 2 years. I'm going to get either very disciplined or very fat this winter!
The little bag of stitch markers are too cool for words.



Look! They're little tea pots!
That really reduced me to giggling like a schoolgirl, until I did something really blonde.





The little gold tin contains some little goodies as well. My brain decided that they were far too cute for words (or sharing around)They're delicious handmade sweeties! That's what they are!

Hrm....very fizzy...must be sherbet....ARGH I'M EATING A BATHBOMB!

Thus ended the squeeing about the stitch markers. I'm just glad that I didn't offer one to a colleague before chowing down myself.

Truly, it has been a day of surprises.