Confessions of a yarn jezebel

Moving on up

2008-11-11T15:34:00.003Z

I've finally bitten the bullet.

This blog will be vanishing at some point over the next couple of weeks.
Sorry Blogger, it has been great, but it's time to move on with my life.

Plans have been made, code is being written (ok, I lie...is being written), and a whole new level of shiny will be taking off soon.
Fancy joining me over at my new home on the internet for some more updates?

Hope that I'll see you there!

Today is made of pure WIN

2008-11-05T10:31:00.002Z

I know, I know, I've been a crap blogger lately. I promise you a catchup really soon.
I just had to break radio silence and say

THANK YOU, AMERICA!!!!!

I've been following the presidential race for the last year and a half, as have a lot of people in Europe, with bated breath. Yesterday was an amazingly stressful day, and the need for sleep took over in the wee hours of the morning, with the final call yet to be made.

Today I woke up and found that...well....history has been made.

Also thank you Florida. You look so damn good in blue.

Shortly after arriving in work, I got a phonecall to say that a (legit!!) competition I had entered had come up roses, and there's an iPod in the post.

Today is a fricking awesome day. I'm totally buying a lottery ticket at lunchtime!

A week in review

2008-10-16T16:59:00.003+01:00

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

2008-10-08T15:52:00.004+01:00

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

2008-10-03T16:36:00.006+01:00

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

2008-10-02T16:12:00.006+01:00

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.

2008-10-01T13:12:00.006+01:00

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.

Something in the water...seriously!

2008-09-30T16:09:00.004+01:00

The last couple of days have had some very surreal moments.
On Saturday, myself and HusBeast spent a very cool afternoon in the Hugh Lane Gallery. The collection was together in its entirety for the first time since 1908, which is really a red letter moment. Saturday was the last day of it, so the packing crates were around and about, though everything was still on display.

Tragic to think that a chunk of the collection is now back in various museums around Europe. What is the moral of the story? Make sure you have your will witnessed properly.

Having left the gallery, we ambled around town for a while, and discovered that it wasn't just the curators having a busy day

What I couldn't fit in to this photo were the three other vehicles - two cars and a van - directly in front of these, each with a big yellow clamp as well. Various cliches involving fish in a barrel or ducks in a line sprang to mind.

I came across a most disturbing sight in the local supermarket on Sunday afternoon.

Even though my brave housemate tried to hide it from view, the image of the display was burned into my retinas (gotta love him for trying though!)

Those boxes behind him?

Christmas selection boxes. Fricking Christmas chocolate. In September.

I had applauded their Halloween display a mere 10 metres before, but this just undid it all. While I'm disgusted by it all, my heart really goes out to the legion of parents whose young children spot the offending articles on the weekly shop, and are prompted to start the "is it christmas?/can I have X for christmas?/etc etc etc" routine.

This is the first year that I've seen things so early. It was always tradition that the shops waited til Halloween was over, and the spooky stock sold off before wheeling out the inflatable Santas and reindeer shaped cookies.

Bah and humbug.

The vague and tenuous knitting link in this post? One of my best friends emailled me today to let me know that she's back in the country for the weekend.....and expecting her first!

That brings the number of friends and aquaintances that have had joined the bump club this year to....a scary number that I don't want to think about.

I don't really do much knitting for babies. My schedule is so crazy that no matter what size I choose or how early I start, the little rascals are always growing at a rate that means all they're getting is booties.

I'm going to start planning for this one now though. No idea of gender. Hell, I've known this girl since we were five and she always maintained that she'd rather get another cat than a baby. I was completely blown away to find out that she is twelve weeks along, and delighted to be so. Something nice is called for. Nice and gender neutral.

Will start sussing her out this weekend.

It's almost like being an aunty!

Plotting and scheming

2008-09-26T14:26:00.004+01:00

My favourite LYS ever, This Is Knit has opened a second branch. Which I've been to twice already this week. It seems that having a yarn store close enough that I can walk to in my lunchbreak is going to be a dangerous and expensive thing.

Some of the goodies that I picked up there can't be photographed yet, as they're for yarn swap things. I hope the recipients like them, as it's going to be a tough job to put them in the post!

I also picked up a ball of Kilcarra aran tweed, which is one of my favourite yarns in the world.

It's really good value, comes in a fabulous range of colours, and is spun up the road in Donegal to boot. It's great to knit with, but really comes into its own after the first wash - it just comes alive, and is soft and durable.

Aaaanyway, this particular ball is to become a square. It's more exciting than it sounds, honest.
I'm heading to Galway in October for the first Irish Knitters Retreat. As a thank you for the wonderful lady who is letting us take over her B&B for the weekend, we're each making a square, which will be sewn together on the Friday evening.

It has to be 15cm squared. After that, it's anything goes.

I'm thinking cables. Or cable, at least. Something like that. If I was more talented (and less chicken) I'd do something in fair isle. I'm going to have a rummage through some books for inspiration this evening, and hopefully get a good start on it on Sunday when - if all goes to plan - HusBeast will be putting together a chest of drawers for us.

The weather here is changing rapidly. A rather blatent sign of this is the postman making his door to door journey in a car, instead of on foot as usual. The evenings are getting darker too. The clock isn't going back an hour for more than a month, but the light is starting to fade much faster, and it will be well on the way to getting dark when I get off the train at home.

I love autumn.

October is probably my favourite month, and not just because it's got my birthday involved in it. The weather is generally dry, the nights are properly dark, and some of my favourite things are wheeled out again for another year; open fires, hot whiskeys, scarves, jumpers, stews, things with cinnamon in them. It's all warm and comfortable and reassuring, like a well used pair of slippers. There's a much more settled feeling than during summer, and the frantic feeling of having to be in many places at once seems to relax for that short period before the Christmas merchandise hits the shops.

Having ample opportunity to wear big, thick handknitted socks is also an incentive!

On an entirely unrelated matter...is there anyone out there who pays for Flickr?
I'm getting the "you have x photo's left" line off them at the moment, and am not sure if I want to pay the $25 a year, or if I should be stingy and just set up another account.

Recommendations?

Slow down, you move too fast

2008-09-24T16:52:00.004+01:00

Dinner out last night was rather relaxed, and involved eating steak and drinking Guinness in a pub that serves food. I don't want to say "pub food", because it wasn't deep fried and in a basket. I also don't like gastro-pubs, as they tend to be over priced and amazingly pretentious considering that they're still in essence just beer halls.

A little knitting got done on the train home as well.

I'm liking this yarn a lot. Yes, it pools like mad, but it has the graciousness to do it in a cool way, so that I have spirals of colour wrapping around my foot. The stitch definition is fricking fantastic as well. I hope that will hold up after several washes because it would be a pity to see it fade. The colour is wonderfully saturated, and there's a nice twist on the yarn as well.

Downsides? It's kinky. Not in a good way either. The short-ish stretch of yarn between my project bag and my needles kinks like crazy, and involves de-kinking it on a regular basis to avoid knots.

Apart from that, it's all going well!

True, progress is slow these days. I'm just not getting in enough knitting time these days. Working from home was spectacular in that regard. I could happily knit while answering emails and during those quiet few minutes that happen here and there over the course of the day. Making dinner involved walking downstairs to the kitchen.

Now I get up around seven, am out the door before eight, and am not home again til nearly seven in the evening. By the time dinner is made and eaten and a few basic tasks are done, it's almost time for bed. It's not the mammoth commute that a lot of people have, I realise, but I really need to rethink things a bit. How else am I going to knit my way through my queue?!

Perhaps I just need to be a bit more disciplined. Instead of slapping on the iPod and snoozing on the train to work, I need to break out the sock. Considering the number of pairs of socks on the horizon, I can guarantee there will be one in progress in my bag from now til.....I don't want to think when.

This weekend is a don't-have-to-do-anything-really weekend. The plan, then, is to finish the sock above, and my one skein wonder, and get cracking properly on HusBeast's second sock before he stages a protest.

Nothing too challenging, you may think, but setting too many goals leads to panic, and panic leads to haste, and next thing you know you're driving like a crazy person and have part of a tree dragging behind you...

...or at least that's what I've learned from the driver of this van.

The things I see on the way to work in the morning, I'll tell ya!

The week that was....crazy.

2008-09-23T15:56:00.007+01:00

I have survived the lurgy!!!

Well, mostly. There are still bits hanging around, like the odd sock or hair accessory you find under the sofa cushions a month after having friends over.

The last week, in Cliff notes version, then.

On Sunday there was the discovery of Erdinger Oktoberfest beer(bier) in my local supermarket.

....and it was consumed. Amazingly yummy. Even better than last year's offering.

On Monday, I went to ballet like a good girl, and had food with HusBeast afterwards in the new Chinatown that's developing in Dublin.

When I got home....my Wollmeise package had arrived. The photos are crap, but I felt the need to capture the moments.

Tuesday saw myself and HusBeast meeting some of our friends from Belfast to go and see The Mighty Boosh (which was fricking awesome) and on to the aftershow party, which I managed to swing tickets to.

Wednesday was when things started to go wrong. Having sensibly booked the day off, and crawled out of bed shortly before noon, I was feeling a little under the weather. I put it down to being "old" and not able for staying out til 4am anymore.
We met a friend in town and went for a wander in the National Museum, which is always a good thing. I love the porcelain tiles in the door frames.

We headed to Starbucks for coffee, at which point I promptly fell asleep in an armchair. We eventually got home, I somehow managed to finish off my first Galaxy sock,

and then collapsed into bed.

On Thursday, I was sent home from work early, and this is my first day back since. My mail accounts are spilling over, and I'm f5'ing on my bank's website because they haven't processed my salary yet.

Damn them.

It has been an odd week overall, I think. Full of events and non-events. Lots of time spent on the sofa drinking hot lemon and being a mucus monster. It was like a 4 day hangover without the craving for a rasher sandwich.

HusBeast's jobhunt mostly came to a halt this week as well. He finally got called for an interview, and 2 hours later got a further call to ask if he could start on Monday. It's not a career by any stretch of the imagination, but it pays and is a damn sight better than dishing out chips to ungrateful customers at Maccy D's.

The really big thing though isn't the fact that he's getting a paycheque again though. It's that he's no longer going out of his mind in the house, thinking that he's terminally unemployable.

I won't object to getting staff discount on books and Lego when Christmas shopping time rolls around either!

It also looks quite a bit more likely that he'll be able to make it over to my work party at head office in December. Here's hoping!

Sock puppet

2008-09-12T15:58:00.004+01:00

I can't believe that I "kinneared" my own sock on the train this morning, but I did.
The things I do for my readers :)

I'm about to start the cuff ribbing, so sock one should be done and dusted this weekend. Huzzah. I like it when a plan comes together.

Unlike my thus far fruitless plan to buy frozen puff pastry. All the usual deli type places that I'd expect to have it, like Fallon and Byrne no longer stock it. I'll probably end up finding it in the corner shop near my house, just to drive me further up the wall.

If it was shortcrust, I'd just make it myself. Puff is a pain in the arse though, as it involves putting lots of dots of butter in between two sheets of pastry, then rolling it out, folding it over on itself and adding more butter dots, and repeating until the maker loses the will to live. Not something I have either the time or the inclination for this evening. I shall be doing much more important things like making brownies and drinking wine. Too right.

Today was made even more weekend-tastic by the arrival of the postman this morning.

Pictured is my new Ravelry tote bag and a copy of the new Terry Pratchett book, which is actually a present for HusBeast. Shhh!

Yeah, I'm on a book diet, and yeah, I really can't afford to be buying random stuff at the moment, but I did it anyway. Minus one gold star for me.

A weekend of baking, ice cream making and meeting with friends is stretching before me. The weather is even picking up, which is worthy of celebration!

The important question of the day is...do I move on to his second sock, or finish off this baby?

Winter arrives early

2008-09-11T13:19:00.003+01:00

We're in month two of Autumn, and Winter already seems to be trying to assert control.
Now I know that it rains most days, but I think the most telling factor (apart from my plans to go and buy some rain gear next week) is

This is the Rainy Day Scarf that I knitted last year, and it has been brought out of storage already. It is one of the snuggliest things ever, and does a stellar job of keeping errant raindrops from finding my cleavage. Nothing wakes you up faster in the morning than a cold, fat drop of rain smacking into an unsuspecting boob!

I was twice as glad of it this morning when I crawled out of bed. The play last night was great, but meant that we didn't get back to the in laws house (where we were staying) til after midnight, at which point we were both overcome with the munchies and had to rustle up some tea and toast.

Today I'm a little rough around the edges as a result.
I've also been booked in to make the birthday cake of one of the girls in the office. We always have cake in the meeting room on a birthday, which is a great tradition I think. The bakery that we normally buy our cakes from has gone rapidly downhill of late though. We recently discovered that they don't even bake their own bread - they buy it in, ready sliced in bags! What the hell?!

A lot of baking will be done this weekend, methinks.
Perhaps I can justify some new tins as a result?

Breakfast of champions.

2008-09-10T09:52:00.007+01:00

The weather is improving slightly. By which I mean that I didn't get soaked to the skin on the way to work this morning. I even had time to stop and smell the roses...

...or whatever these not-roses are.

Today is turning into a lazy day, and it's not even 10am. I didn't have the energy to go to the shop once I discovered the lack of milk in the office, so this morning saw me mainlining coffee and millionaire's shortbread. Tasty, but I'm waiting for the sugar crash already.

My calves are still aching from ballet on Monday. Not that I'd admit this to anyone....apart from whoever reads this...yeah....
It's going well though. Two classes in and I'm doing better than I was after three years of it in Waterford. A little confidence goes a long way, it seems!

Last night I had dinner cooked for me, which was a major novelty, and a delicious one at that. The evening then involved playing some cards, chatting about everything and anything, and getting some work done on the Galaxy sock.

HusBeast has requested that I keep knitting until I run out of yarn. That means that each sock will have 210m (230 yards) of yarn in it. I may go blind. It seems that he's expecting there to be two socks in the pair as well. Men!

I am liking the way the yarn is patterning though.It might not be to everyones taste, but I think it's kind of funky.

My STR sock is coming along as well, but very slowly. Mostly I get a couple of rounds done on the train before I doze off, needles in hand. I am not a morning person, especially once the evenings and mornings are darkening. The exception is if there's somewhere fun to go the next day. I can be up at 5am, all bright eyed and bushy tailed if I'm going on holidays or something. On a "school" morning, it's all I can do to crawl out of bed at 7.30am...

This evening has somehow managed to turn from plans for a bit of entertainment to a casual date night. I'll be leaving work at 5pm, and HusBeast will be waiting for me. We'll make our way to Wagamama's for some food, then on to the main event.

Wahoo!

May the road rise to meet you

2008-09-05T16:12:00.003+01:00

Another weekend creeps up and slaps me 'round the back of the head. It's almost as naive as being surprised to be rained on as I walked to work this morning.

For all my "going to knit night" talk yesterday, I failed to make my way to Blackrock. Mostly I blame HusBeast and Nugely. I was planning on saying hello to them briefly after work, then heading off. Instead I ended up knitting up a storm in the pub, with a seemingly bottomless pint of Guinness in front of me. Overall, not a bad evening!

I did manage to get the heel turned on the Galaxy sock for HusBeast

He's happy with them, at least. Or will be once he gets to wear them. He was even evangalising in the pub last night. I was asked the magic question "why would you be bothered knitting socks, ffs?". Before I had a chance to answer, he jumped in with "handmade socks rock. Get with the programme!".

It's amazing how something like that can encourage you to knit faster!

Well, I'm hitting the road in a few minutes and visiting my parents and cat for the weekend. I've actually remembered to bring a measuring tape, which is a good thing. I've been comissioned to do a few handknits, so getting people's stats would be a very good start.

Being paid to knit! How fricking cool is that!

Tinned meat

2008-09-04T16:01:00.004+01:00

I was rather thrilled and flattered to log on to my email this morning and see many, many blog comments. I was slightly confused, and a little irrated when they all turned out to be spam. Spam in the form of poetry, but still spam.

Does anyone else remember that episode of Clarissa Explains It All where Clarissa and Sam were conducting chemistry experiments using the "gooky stuff off the outside of spam"?

My mind is working in some strange days today. I blame it entirely on the fact that I completely overslept this morning, resulting in having to get from bed to front door in ten minutes. Things have been a little fuzzy on the edges ever since.

That, and my experience with scary Dora last night.

This is scary Dora. She is no ordinary Dora doll.
Take a look at the photo on the bottom right of the box. That's a 5 year old girl standing beside this ginormous doll. Age on box says 3+, but I think that all this doll would so is scare the living daylights out of the average toddler. Sure there's endless comic potential, but really....it creeps me out. Kind of like the Good Guy dolls, only bigger.

Moving swiftly along...

Tonight is Knit Night in This is knit. To avoid the risk of being thought of as the crazy lady who only knits socks, I've brought something else along this time.

This was my train knitting this morning. A little cumbersome, but I really want to get this thing done soon. Time is not entirely on my side. It's another of the genius One Skein Wonders from Stefanie Japel - the difference this time is that I'm turning it into a vaguely long sleeved number.

The yarn is the delicious Dyed Cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas. It's heavenly. I didn't think it was possible for cotton to be such a pleasure to knit with. It comes in some fabulous colourways as well. This particular lot was bought in Purl Soho at the beginning of the year. I got three skeins, which is perfect for making the long sleeved OSW with. Might even have enough left for a calorimetry.

While the dyed cotton is now available over here in Europe, like many other American yarns it is stupidly expensive compared to retail price in the States. This vexes me. I am a big "support your LYS" person, but it can be hard at times when it's literally half the price for me to order and have it delivered from the U.S.

I realise that all LYSs need to turn a healthy profit in order to keep being a LYS and not another empty building. That goes without saying. I also realise that shipping large boxes of yarn to another continent is expensive, as are import duties. (Books, in my experience, have exactly the same problem). Something is not balancing somewhere along the line.

My mother had her own business for years. Some of the stock that she was buying cost her more at wholesale prices than I saw it on retail shelves in New York. I'm not talking a few cents either.

Is tax really to blame for the discrepancy?
If it is, then the government are getting a bloody ginormous slice of the pie, aren't they?

The Truth, as we know it

2008-09-03T10:38:00.010+01:00

To say that I've never had a more tiring 4 day weekend would probably be true. To say that it was absolutely made of pure WIN would also be the case.

Friday morning saw myself and HusBeast heading off on a coach to Electric Picnic. Now I don't usually do music festivals, as I'm past the stage where I think wasted 16 year olds are "cute", but that would be implying that EP was just a music festival. Fact is, it's a million times better.

Over the course of the weekend, we saw only a handful of bands. We checked out Oppenheimer, The Gossip, Franz Ferdinand and The Sex Pistols. What did we actually get up to?

There was an arthouse cinema....a theatre

...various places where you could strut your stuff, including

You could have your aura cleansed, get a massage, go to yoga, learn how to insulate your house using hemp and reduce your carbon footprint, eat at organic and solar powered tea rooms. It was like a music and arts festival at a hippy commune, but with less sweat and patchouli than you'd expect. There was a carnival with side shows, and the coolest "circus" in the world

in the form of Lucent Dossier.

To be honest, I could have spent the whole weekend there, not seen any bands, and still not have gotten around to everything. I even got some knitting done

Sock for HusBeast in Regia Galaxy, which is pretty cool. The fabulous Lisa of This Is Knit brought along enough supplies to keep even the most finicky fibre fanatic busy, and knitting classes were held over the weekend.

One of the coolest events of the weekend was the Temple of Truth.

This fabulous structure was created for the weekend. Anyone passing was invited in to look around, take a pen or other writing implement, and add the name of a deceased loved one to the walls. Walking around inside and reading the inscriptions was amazingly touching. It was a point of ultimate serenity in the chaos of the festival; the title of Temple was truly deserved.

In the wee hours of Monday morning, the entire structure was set alight, and burned to the ground.

Now that is art.

Yesterday I managed to drag myself out of bed by the hair and get in to work on time. Nothing short of a minor miracle, as my mother would say. If she could have seen me, I'm sure she'd also have described as a miracle the sheer volume of coffee I was able to plug into my body over the course of the day.

Today is a bit better. Then again, any day that starts with Socks That Rock is a better day than the one before

I realise that this brings me up to three *gasp* WIP's, not including the hibernated cardigan. I have not abandoned the Galaxy socks. They're just at that annoying stage that require measuring every couple of rounds before I can get my heel turning on. Not exactly what I want to be doing on a measuring tape-less train.

The discussion has come up several times - STR versus Collinette Jitterbug. Are the rumours true? Are they basically the same yarn? Considering that I have just started a STR sock, and have large volumes of Jitterbug in my stash, I think that it's time we here at The GaietyGirl Blog conducted a vaguely scientific experiment....

...by which I mean I'll get some compare and contrast going on, complete with pictures. It may not settle the arguement once and for all, but it may help. Plus I'll have two pairs of socks at the end of it, which is never a bad thing.

Nothing succeeds like excess

2008-08-26T16:21:00.001+01:00

Last night I went back to ballet. The girl I share a desk with at work goes, and roped me in to "trying it out". I had an absolute blast, despite being entirely out of condition as I haven't danced in about 4 years.

So Mondays are no longer for whiskey. They're for ballet and then running like an idiot to catch the train!

Today was a good mail day.

Always a wonderful thing to happen on a Tuesday.

My copy of Interweave knits appears to have arrived as well, but at my neighbours house. When I changed my address with IK, they saved it as number five instead of number fifteen. Oops!

The wonderfully spectacular news of the week, nay, the month, is that I got an email today telling me that I've been one of the lucky people to win a place in the Wollmeise sock club! I'm absolutely over the moon. I've yet to own a skein of Wollmeise, as I always miss the updates (they sell out in seconds).

This has been a fantastic yarn month. I have a skein of Socks That Rock waiting to be cast on at home, my first Get Knitted Lorna's Laces sock club installment is waiting for me in my parents house, and now I get to play with some Wollmeise.

Really, I need to start knitting faster. I've gotten an embarassingly small amount done since I moved house, and if I don't get cracking on it I will end up with a mountain of sock yarn that will last 'til next century.

Smells like (post) teen spirit

2008-08-22T12:26:00.007+01:00

Yup, another week slips by and work takes over from my ability to get a post done. Sorry!
Still, I have a few goodies for you at least. Or for me, more accurately.

Look what arrived this week!

Yup, it's an amazingly crap photo, but I'm still working off my camera phone as I can't afford to replace my digital camera.

The little bottles contain wonderousness from Blood Drop. This was my first indie perfumer purchase, and I'm over the moon with it. Not only do I smell good enough to eat, Astrid threw in some glorious freebies as well. I can see myself making many, many repeat purchases from her.

The scents, in no particular order, are:
The Zodiac club, Bisou, Devonshire Cottare, Ruffles, Bustles and Corsets, Miou miou. My freebies were Cafe Zazou (which may well be my new favourite scent ever), Merci8 and Cinema Noir. I haven't been able to find the last two scents on the website, so I'm guessing they were discontinued or specials. Merci8 will be used sparingly, as I'll cry when it runs out. I also got a very generous sample size of body cream in Killing Time in Taipei.

Overall, BloodDrop is made of win. Excellent customer service and fantastic scents. You can't go wrong!

If anyone is planning on making a purchase, leave a comment or mention my name in the order - there's a reference program, and the freebies are fantastic!

Yeah....knitting has really been on the back burner of late. I'm still not finished the second Lana Grossa sock. I'm really struggling with it for some reason. I think it's something to do with the texture of the yarn. It's lovely as a piece of fabric, but only ok to knit with. This is a big thing for me, as I'm very much a process knitter.

It might also have some small part to do with the fact that my last socks were Collinette Jitterbug. That stuff is just yum. Now that I have a skein of STR though, I might have to do some scientific-type compare and contrast, in an effort to finally answer the great question of "are they the same thing, basically?".

Just because it's Friday, a couple of interesting shots I managed to take last weekend. First was at the local dog show. It was horrendous weather, and the pooches were trying everything to stay in out of it - with the notable exception of the Newfies, who went around splashing in puddles.

This pup had a great seat:

Warm, dry, comfy, and with a great view of the bitches.

My cat decided to voice his disapproval with our coming home smelling of doggy by adopting a vaguely acrobatic porn star pose. Silly kitty.

Back to work for me then. It's nearly the weekend, it's payday, and the town is exploding with artsy fartsy events. Even the phone exchanges are getting in on the action

Roll on 5.30pm!

Before and after

2008-08-18T16:14:00.008+01:00

Thursday evening was rather crap and depressing in the weather department

...and some happy-making strategies were required, which in this case, involved making hummus. I eat far too much of the stuff, and thought I might as well make my own, as I can get the seasonings exactly as I like them.

The experiment went pretty well.

The downside? I thought that one can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in the blender looked far to stingy, so added a second. I didn't factor in how much this would expand by once I'd added the oil and tahini. A litre of hummus, you say?

Still, nothing like starting the weekend with a full belly, is there? Especially as the weather improved beyond all hope on Friday.

What a difference a day makes, eh? It really reminds me of the before and after shots on those cheesy makeover shows.

In the same before and after vein, allow me to offer some advise:

If you ever find yourself in Ireland, and travelling on our pretty mediocre(but improving) rail service, you might find yourself faced with one of these beasts

These are still seen far too frequently for my liking. Some of them have been around for 40-odd years, and they smell it, for the most part. I had the misfortune of travelling from Cork to Dublin on one a few years back. It was the coldest January we'd had in years, and there was no heating on the train. We ended up huddled together under stacks of coats, trying to keep warm, as our waterbottles froze before our eyes.
The summer edition also comes with a distinct lack of air con or opening windows, which can make that Friday evening train journey very hot and fragrant - in a bad way.

Want the good news? These old jalopies are being phased out, and not a moment too soon. The new trains on the network are amazingly fancy creations from Taiwan and Korea, and are the shizzle.

Hardly seems fair that this is my train for the twenty minute journey home, while people going to Galway get stuck on the orange monstrosity for 3+ hours....

Naturally, the weather didn't hold for the weekend, but it's Ireland so we should be used to it. Somewhat. Flooding has hit various bits of the country, and I even resorted to pulling my wellies out of storage when I visited my parents at the weekend. They proved most useful, if a bit naff.

Further down the rabbit hole

2008-08-13T13:09:00.004+01:00

I love Alice in Wonderland. Absolutely love it. Have multiple copies of the books. Went to New York at New Years, and came home seriously considering opening a franchise of Alices Tea Cup. You'll understand my joy at finding the perfect mug then.

Everyone loves an action shot!

During a lunchtime wander around Avoca, I spotted this sitting on a small shelf on the stairs. There may have been squeeing, and running towards the till. The little tea filter inside was bought as well. It's in the shape of a teapot, which you may be able to make out, and came with a teeny little dish that it fits perfectly. No more dribbling tea all over the desk on the way to the bin for me!

Yesterday continued to be made of win. I got home to find a parcel waiting for me. The fact that I had post (mail) was enough to cheer me up all by itself, as I got soaked to the skin walking the 200 yards from the station to my house. When I opened it....the squeeing could probably be heard in space.

SP12 goodies, and how.
A fab spotty drawstring project bag (no more ziplocks for me!) and a skein of SOCKS THAT ROCK!!!!
While this may be a run of the mill thing for many of you, this is my first skein ever of this yarn. The colours are just perfect, and the urge to stick it straight down my bra was incredible.

It's gonna take every bit of my willpower to finish my current sock and not just abandon it and start winding the beautious yarn into cakes. It will keep me company when HusBeast has me committed for getting "maybe a bit overexcited" about yarn.

So thank you thank you thank you to my SP12 partner. You rock.

Ice, ice baby

2008-08-12T15:07:00.009+01:00

The weekend was a very strange thing, involving the purchase of a bookcase, eating far too many brownies, and hiding from the rain of death.

It also involved this

Popping the cherry, so to speak, of my ice cream maker. Such a brilliant wedding present, especially now that we have a freezer!

Never one to do things the simple way, I started with coconut ice cream, which began by looking rather sad

but quickly progressed to

There are no finished photos, unfortunately, as it was devoured in record time. I'll make sure to document the next batch more fully.

The sock travelled with me last night after work

and while it was deemed unsuitable as a candidate (couldn't even be bothered hiding the needles, for a start) was an amiable companion for the duration.
Apart from the karmic bit, the other really cool thing about giving blood in Dublin is that once you're done, you're shunted to the cafe for complimentary tea/coffee/guinness/snackyness and this view

This is O' Connell Bridge - the heart of Dublin. Much prettier to look at than walk over though, due to it being August and therefore tourist-central.

Two other random bits for you today. Firstly, the office oasis is coming on well.

Second.......you can tell me that this was made for banana storage all you want. I still think it looks like a sex toy.

Dyeing for the cause

2008-08-08T15:15:00.008+01:00

This week has been absolute mayhem! I'm looking forward to a nice, mostly-calm weekend to round it all off.

First off, Galway happened. Due to some technical problems, we ended up on the old orange and black train with the seat springs that sit in your arse. Only one way to handle a situation like that!

Not much knitting got done this week, overall, but I did get to do some dyeing. The first in my new house.

I was rather pleased with the results. It's a custom job for a friend in the States, who loves aquas, teals and blues. The next piccies, while rather blurry, show the colour a bit better.

Hrm....the lighting here is not my friend today. The yarn looks much cooler in real life, and is currently winging its way across the ocean.

Or, being more realistic, is in a bag in a postal depot somewhere in Dublin.

I made it to knit night this week as well. Not to my local SnB, unfortunately, as public transport is conspiring against me, but out to Blackrock. For a change, I didn't buy any yarn! I think I deserve a medal for this, considering that Knit Night is held in a) the coolest yarn shop in Ireland and b) a new shipment of Brown Sheep had just arrived. Having resisted the urge to climb into a giant box of yarn, I felt a reward was in order. Oh don't look at me like that!

If I'm honest, I'm a bit lukewarm about the whole series of SnB books. I think they try a bit too hard to be cool and hip (or whatever buzz word is flavour of the month) and the patterns are a bit blah for me.
This book, however, is pretty much rocking my world. Having had not much more than a flick through, I had it up on the counter and bagged. There are at least 5 projects in it that I plan on making rather soon, and that's before I start bandaging my boobs down.

Who am I kidding? I'll never be able to restrain the "twins", but that doesn't make this book any less cool. I think Debbie Stoller has really cracked it with this one, and has produced a book that contains some good and practical advise (of the sort that we don't want to hear, but need to) and a whole bunch of incredibly wearable patterns. Bravo Miss S. Keep up the good work.

Now all I need to do is find a good hiding spot for it, so that the HusBeast doesn't get any ideas...

To avoid the sock getting jealous, I have to add that I got the heel turned on the train home last night, and look forward to ignoring it for the weekend in favour of getting my baby yoda finished. Just don't tell the sock.

It doesn't deal with rejection.

Jeans, Interrupted.

2008-07-31T09:41:00.004+01:00

There is nothing quite like having your jeans soaked most of the way to your knees, and having to sit in them all day at work. Bleurgh.

It is once more, a "grand soft day" in Dublin.

You're probably wondering why, having lived in Ireland my entire life, I'm still surprised when summer isn't very...summery. Call it my eternal optimism. We're so close to a bank holiday weekend that I can taste it. I've mentally checked out of work until Tuesday already, and am looking forward to seeing some friends in the pub this evening.

I'm also looking forward to rolling over in bed at 7am tomorrow, and going back to sleep. Nope, tomorrow I shall not be crawling out of bed and hanging around the train station

waiting for a train that could show up 5 minutes before or 20 after it's scheduled time. At some point in the afternoon though, I'll be heading for the city centre, and getting on a train to Galway.

See, not only am I a knitter, but I'm a card-carrying nerd to boot. I go to things like this and this, and engage in this and this too. I'm going to a convention for the weekend, which involves playing dress up, calling people morons but getting away with it cos it's "in character" and having more beverages of an alcoholic nature than is wise or advisable. w00t!

I have booked my ticket for the hangover express on Monday. I'll chat to you after that!

Sock it to me

2008-07-30T16:00:00.004+01:00

Socks. I loveses them.

I was intimidated by sock knitting for the longest time. Getting a sock started on DPNs is, to me, comparable to wrestling with an angry hedgehog. Then I discovered magic looping, and the rest is history.

For me, socks are the perfect do-anywhere project. A sock fits quite nicely into any or all of the bags that I use on a daily basis. I can do it on the train, without worrying about elbowing the passenger next to me. I even manage to squeeze in a few rounds before starting work on occasion.

Husbeast has gone from thinking that knitting is slightly odd and old lady-ish, to demanding to know when he's getting his next pair of socks. The whole thing is just made of win.

The pair in the photo above are in Lana Grossa, and are knitting up very nicely. Here's where the problem comes in. I won't get to wear them for weeks. Sure, it's Ireland, and we're never more than 20 minutes from a shower of rain, but if I wear wool socks in this humidity, I might just sweat to death from the ground up.
While I love my birkies. they're not workable for wearing every single day.

What's a girl to do?

I bought one ball of TOFUtsies before the big move, and knitted a pair for myself, which are fantastic. The yarn is great, but incredibly thin (and a little expensive) so I can't see myself making a drawer full of them. What do knitters in actual hot climates do? Cotton yarn is practically non-existant here, with the exception of worsted weight and mercerised.

I have a goal of getting to the stage where I only have handknitted socks. Sure, it might seem a little crazy, but it's just another small way I can give big box stores the metaphorical middle finger.

Does anyone have any recommendations for yarn to make warm weather socks from? If it's machine washable on delicate/handwash/cool cycle, even better!

Not yet humpday

2008-07-29T09:40:00.005+01:00

Seeing as it's month end here, life is pretty much taken over with work. So what's a blogger to do?

Er....write this instead of finishing off yet another mind-numbing report, it seems.

It's both good and bad to be back in Dublin. The weather is mostly crap, but it's obviously the middle of tourist season, as it's impossible to go anywhere in the city centre in a hurry; the crowds are "bleedin' massive", to use the local lingo.

The part of town that I work in is, to be perfectly honest, known for two things; substance abuse, and Guinness. Now I do realise that there are some people out there that will point out that these can be one and the same, but I'll guarantee that the pilgrims to the Guinness brewery leave there in more control of their senses and bodily functions than a lot of the locals leave their usual haunts.

But I digress...

This rather fuzzy image (don't you love traffic fumes in small streets) is the one of the most photographed parts of Dublin. The bit that's missing from this early morning picture are groups of tourists dodging the large number of horn-honking taxi's and tour busses that crowd the streets here on a constant basis. Just up from this gate is the entrance to the famous Storehouse, where the tour groups are hearded in and out in quick succession over the course of the day.

The bit that most people fail to realise is that the Storehouse is a teeny tiny bit of the Guinness empire. Take a look at this bit that isn't on the tour!

There's a giant loading bay about 5 stories up the wall!

The whole brewery complex covers 64 acres (there are 43,560 square feet in an acre) of prime city-centre real estate. It's mind boggling, when you consider that a small one bedroom apartment goes for over 350,000euro these days (that's the best part of half a million dollars for a glorified shoebox). It's estimated that the land alone is worth in the region of 700million euro. Explains why they're looking into selling off a few buildings, doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong though; there's still a massively huge advantage to working in this part of town. You're guaranteed a really good pint of Guinness.

One at a time

2008-07-24T10:38:00.004+01:00

On Tuesday night, I arrived home to discover that our electricity had been cut off. One wild mood swing later, and many, many phonecalls under my belt, and it has been restored. I have never been more thankful for my iPod and the stash of candles under the sink.

Last night, then, saw me knitting my socks off, and the project that I started on Sunday

became the cute little shrug that I have been reduced to photographing in the bathroom at work.

The pattern is the One Skein Wonder, by the amazingly talented Stefanie Japel of Glampyreknits
Not only is this pattern going to be knitted to death by me, this incarnation used up some of my stash yarn from The Natural Dye Studio. I adore this yarn. In fact, if I had to pick one yarn to knit with for the rest of my days, NDS would probably be it. Amanda is not only a dye genius, she's a lovely, lovely person as well.

Tonight I'm heading out to TIK for knit night. Wahoo! I'm going to do my best not to spend my entire salary on yarn, which will be a lot more difficult than you'd imagine. I'm also using the time to do a little swap with another raveller. I'm a subscriber to Rowan International, but by the time I got my free gift last time 'round, all that was left was pale pink. Well that just doesn't work chez GaietyGirl, so it's been lingering in my stash, destined to remain unknitted for eternity. This evening, I'll be swapping it for some purple. Wahoo!

I'm still stalking the postman these days. I've had some new yarn arrive for a swap pal, and a couple of books for myself including Knitting Vintage Socks, which is fab. Next up, I'm expecting some nice smellies.

I do love online shopping. I can get things that I would never be able to pick up in my daily life. What's the strangest/most unusual thing that you've ever bought online?

Time waits for no man

2008-07-17T15:30:00.005+01:00

This week is flying by at record rate!
I'm being rather productive too, considering I'm now a Plurk addict, as well as wired to Ravelry. I worry that when I get the net connection in our house sorted, I'll cease to have a social life that's not conducted through a computer.

I've been rather productive, even though I feel like I'm just barely managing to tread water at the moment. The phone usb cable has been found though *huzzah*

The Colinette jitterbug socks won the vote. Brain candy in sock form, they are. I'm even wearing them now.

I got the pixie hat done

....and the baby yoda is coming on nicely, with the back and one front done.

I will admit that I'm a little concerned that I'll be giving beautifully blocked cardigan parts to Emma, but I'm sure it will all work out on the night. As they say.

Phew!

I'm also insane enough to have cast on another pair of socks this morning. I have a 30 minute (or thereabouts) commute on the train to work and back every day. Once more, socks are the perfect project. My feet may sweat to death in their woolly sheaths all summer, but I won't care!

Mmmm beer

2008-07-12T13:52:00.002+01:00

I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe, surrounded by WarCrack players. It's rather surreal.

I've also got a belly full of lunch, with a pint of Guinness to keep it company. Mmmm..

The move happened. We're still kinda mostly living out of boxes, but we have a fully unpacked and functioning kitchen, and a mostly unpacked and functioning living room. This makes life infinitely more bearable, I tells ya!

I got my Jitterbug socks done and dusted, and they're fab. I love this yarn bigtime. There will be photos when I get my usb cables unpacked and brought into work. We haven't arranged a net connection in the house yet, as it involves many, many phone calls to people who only want to upsell whatever they've been told to upsell that day. Argh, and so on.

A friend of ours, who now happily lives about 5 minutes away, is having a surprise baby shower next weekend. The knitting is in full force, and I'm hoping to have a pixie baby hat finished this evening, so that I can cast on a baby yoda on Monday. I, like the parents-in-waiting have no idea whether it's a male or female bun in the oven, so I'm sticking with shades of green and cream. I love gender neutral colours.

The best bit is that this is all being done in some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino that I have in my stash! Not that this makes me entirely virtuous, as I managed to completely fall off the yarn and book diet this week. Oops. You'd know I hadn't ordered either books or yarn online in a little while though, as everytime the buzzer goes at work, I stare at the door, waiting for someone to come my direction with a box. I know this is premature, seeing as I only ordered things on Wednesday, but still!

So that's about it, really. Things have been mentally busy, but I don't think anyone needs or wants a blow by blow report of my packing, moving and unpacking. Especially as the last bit isn't really done yet *cough*.

Hope everyone had a good week!

Alive, alive oh

2008-07-08T16:35:00.002+01:00

Yup, I'm alive. Just about. Coffee is my friend, as are disinfectant cleaning wipes.

Will post later on, and with some piccies. Jitterbug socks are nearly done. I am most pleased with them.

I heart free hotspots

2008-07-01T13:26:00.002+01:00

Our broadband/tv provider, in their infinite wisdom, decided to cut off our connection at midnight on Sunday, instead of midnight on Monday, despite having confirmed by phone that this would not happen, and that we were entitled to this as we'd paid til midnight on Monday.

Naturally, then, I was rather surprised when I couldn't log on yesterday. A very expensive call to their "I'd rather be anywhere else" customer service people proved both expensive and futile.

There is a special level of hell for those people. One with lots of pointy sticks. Not the good kind, either.

The good news is that I'm writing this with a most excellent caramel latte at my side, while sitting on a sofa in possibly the best cafe in Belfast. Great coffee, comfy seats, and free wireless broadband. Wonderful place. Twice as wonderful as I didn't need to make "the call" yesterday to let my boss know that her end of month report would be a week late due to my ISP being *censored*

Today is my last work day this week, which is great. I'll get the last of the packing done (why do the "little bits" take longer than all of the rest?) and I'll make it to my last SnB in Belfast. I'ma gonna miss this place, and all of the yarn enablers that fill it.

TOFUtsies sock two got finished in a frantic burst of energy and/or panic last night, and so was added to my June stash burn. Roxxor. Sure, I still have a hell of a lot of yarn, but it's working its way down. My current total is a rather eyebrow raising 48277 yards. I'm just happy that it's below 50,000 for a change! I can also now say that there's nothing in my stash that I wouldn't be happy to knit up into something that I'd either wear myself or give to a handmade-gift-appreciating friend. Quite an achievement, considering the vast swathes of squeaky dead lady acrylic I had only eight weeks ago.

Currently then, I have NO PROJECTS on my needles. Sorry, but I felt that deserved caps. Ok, I have one hibernated project, but I'm ignoring that.

My next 3 projects are ready to go.
Plain socks in Collinette Jitterbug
One skein wonder in Natural dye studio DK
Nagini socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock

Which should I go with? The urge is to cast on all three, of course, but that would be cheating...no?

Because I'm just slightly obsessed

2008-06-27T19:19:00.003+01:00

ClahPooTee.

Before....

...and after

I am knitter, hear me roar

2008-06-27T15:09:00.003+01:00

It has been an insaaaaaanely busy couple of days, and not in a planned sort of way.

The sign finally went up outside our house

and we're living out of boxes. The move is on.

The lack of choice, relatively, has given me a whole new outlook on my stash and my knitting. I have a fabulously clear to-do list, and for a change I'm excited about getting through the next few bits, as opposed to being a fickle, fickle girlie as usual.

Though I am totally buying that swift from GetKnitted when I move, cos, daaaamn

using a glass and a bottle of vitamins to hold the yarn as I wind is just a little too McGyver for my tastes. Still, the mother of invention and all that.

I got home to a very quiet house after SnB on Wednesday, as OH had departed for Dublin. I made some dinner of the kind that he wouldn't normally eat, stuck on some food network, and settled down on the sofa to get a section of the ClahPooTee done. I had some tea, and some rum and coke, and watched some forgettable movie or other, and finally cast off...and it was 3.15am.

Oops.

On the plus side, ClahPooTee is done and dusted, and rather fabulous if I do say so myself. It needs blocking, but that will have to wait until I move. I'm coming up on the heel of the much neglected sock 2, and I'm very proud of the fact that I did not drop a stitch at the cinema, despite laughing my butt off at the movie.

I've also planned a super sekret project for my SP12 partner. I think she'll like it. I hope so, at least.

On that note....
SP12 WEEK ONE Question
Favourite summer drink is either an iced caramel macchiato, or a frozen margerita. I'll never say no to some pinot grigio either though, in fairness :)

I fully realise that we're up to week 3 already with the questions, but I shall endevour to keep up and not be quite so head-in-the-clouds after this.

SP12 WEEK Two Question
As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?
I don't think there was really any one thing. Long evenings, not having to wear a school uniform every day, spending all my time outside, 99's, butterflies and ladybirds taking over the garden...I loved being a kid.

This weekend, for a change, I'm going to be in Belfast. As well as being a knitter, you see, I'm....a big ginormous nerd. I'm going to a games convention. There shall be pear cider and absinthe and singstar and slaying of monsters. Rocking.

I shall attempt to blog, depending on how my liver is doing. I shall start now, however, by packing up my laptop and making a b-line for the train. Possibly stopping for some chilly coffee goodness on the way.

Have a great Friday everyone! Mwah!

Fast and furious

2008-06-25T16:33:00.003+01:00

ClahPooTee is going well..it should be, considering I spent more time than I'd care to admit on it last night. My progress slows the more rum and coke I drink, plus I was watching "The Supersizers go...Regency" which left me giggling far too much to be able to knit.

I've restarted my second TOFUtsies sock. I discovered that I had a nasty ladder right up one side when I tried it on to see if I was ready for heel turning, and I'm just neurotic enough not to be able to live with the thing, so I frogged it. Frogging is a hella lot faster than knitting. I've restarted it, and it's going well, even though I'm checking for the first whispers of a ladder after every round.

Still loving the yarn. Am totally stocking up on it as soon as I get through my current sock stash. I realise that sock yarn doesn't count, but I currently have one pairs worth on the go, 2 more pairs worth wound into cakes and in a ziplock, ready to start...then there's 8 more skeins of Jitterbug and 2 pairs worth of Natural dye studio.

That is ten fricking pairs worth! I also need to add that this stuff is all for my own personal socks. (I don't give gifts of socks that can't get the "handwash cycle in machine then dry flat" routine unless they're going to a knitter/yarnie)
I have to break my yarn diet next week to get a pairs worth for OH, as he's getting rather fond of the idea of having all nice socks. I'm both flattered and...urgh...boys have such giant honking feet..

The perfect storm

2008-06-22T17:47:00.002+01:00

There's a storm coming in off the Atlantic today, which means that it's breezy, raining, and far too dark to take any decent photos of the clah-poo-tee for blogging with. Such is the nature of the Irish summer, I am afraid.

The weekend has been great so far, if manically busy.
On Friday, we attended the wedding of two of our friends, Eamon (aka Kindermord) and Lizzy. It was fantabulous, and much fun (and wine) was had by all. As a direct result, yesterday morning involved a very long lie in, followed by an artery clogging breakfast that would make most vegetarians swoon. We had tea and jam (jelly) doughnuts on the train, and arrived home for nothing more strenuous than watching Doctor Who and getting a repeat done on the clap.

Today, we're back in the swing of things in Belfast. Packing, packing and more packing. We are, for once, being very strict on ourselves in the decluttering and dumping of stuff, which will make life much easier when it comes to squashing it all into the back of a transit van.

To be honest, I'm mostly out of steam now. OH will get more done while I work and issue orders from the spare room tomorrow, and then we've got the first bunch of people coming to view the place tomorrow evening. Argh. I am on full cobweb alert.

I hate moving house, and I'm really going to miss this place when we leave. Belfast, that is.

Time waits for no man, eh?

In ernest

2008-06-19T13:00:00.004+01:00

The packing has started properly today. Before, it was just a collection of wedding presents that were sensibly left in their delivery boxes. Now, it's boxtacular here.

We have quite a lot of stuff, for people that have no actual furniture of a tables/chairs/beds variety. The vast majority is good stuff that we use regularly, and we've given a few bags of random bits that we don't use much or at all to charity. Including a bin(garbage) bag of yarn, which went off to Inga last night. Let me just say that I can be bribed into most things given enough caramel latte!

So the house is slowly but surely filling with boxes. We splashed out and bought a couple of boxes of...er boxes, which has proven to be a very good idea, as everything stacks neatly, and none of them are so big as to let us go to the dangerous place. You know the one I mean...where you're making amazingly good progress at packing away your books and things, and are all chuffed with yourself until such time as you attempt to lift one of the fully packed boxes, and almost get a hernia.

My big news, in a sad and geeky sort of way is that all the "kids" are packed. There's no point in showing you a photo of boxes of books (though I may if we end up stacking them as high as I think we will) but I thought that someone might be interested to know what fifty*coughcough*thousand yards of yarn looks like when you've put it in a giant ziplock and sucked out all the air.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you

my stash!

It weighs....I reckon somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds, and takes up an amazingly small amount of space. Pretty good going as it used to fill 2 underbed drawers, a chest of drawers and random bags about the house. The bag in the picture is supposed to fit a winter weight double (feather)duvet and 4 (feather) pillows, plus the sheety bits with ease.

Rocking.

The hardest part was deciding on what to leave out, and therefore work on, while my lovelies are indisposed. My current stash,outside of the giant ziplock, looks like this

There's the rest of the yarn for my clah-poo-tee, some yarn for a super sekret projekt, and enough sock yarn for 2 more pairs after my current wip.

Should keep me going for a month, dontcha think?

Dontcha????

Four seasons in one day

2008-06-18T11:49:00.005+01:00

There's a wonderful saying in this part of the world that goes
If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes
Yesterday was no exception. It was a generally bleh day, overcast with some sun peeking through the gaps in the clouds. At some point in the late afternoon, it got very dark in the space of a couple of minutes, and we had one of the heaviest cloudbursts that I've ever seen.

It may appear that this picture is out of focus, but no, it's raining that heavily.

The good thing about rainy days, to look for the silver lining, is that there is absolutely no justification required for curling up on the sofa with some knitting, chocolate and something interesting on the gogglebox.

Clapotis, or Clah-poo-tee (in honour of Lime N Violet) is coming along well, and I managed to take some spectacularly crap photos of it, and the stitch dropping bit, which have been sent firmly to the recycle bin.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb. Yup, it's rather damn expensive, considering it's a shawl and it takes 4 skeins, but the colour is fantastic, and I could just roll around in skeins of the stuff - it is positively lickable. Also, Kate Gilbert? Fricking genius.

I'm really enjoying the knitting of this piece. There is a lot to be said for using nice yarn and good needles. Knitting is such a tactile experience that one bad experience with squeaky acrylic or skin-peeling mercerised cotton can put someone off for years.

As lovely as clapotis/clah-poo-tee is, it's not really KIP type of stuff. Not once it gets past the first section or two at least. Hence my ever present sock project.

My second TOFUtsies sock is well on the way, and I even have a photo of the first one for you lovely people

Again, some very yummy yarn, and perfect for the Irish climate, as any day could involve showers and a heat wave all at once!
This yarn has the benefits of both cotton (but softer than most) and wool (but less sweaty than most). I can see myself buying several (dozen) more balls of this to make all my summer socks out of, while sticking to good old wool for the colder months.

Does anyone else have a summer sock yarn, and a winter one? Or am I just a weirdo as I do, yet don't live anywhere near the equator or Georgia...?

Karma, etc.

2008-06-17T13:24:00.002+01:00

There have been two adorable booties sitting on the mantlepiece in the living room for over a month now, waiting for nothing more than a decision on whether to add a button or just sew the ties across like mary janes.
Finally, a decision was reached about 15 minutes ago to sew them across, as I wanted them done, and wasn't feeling patient enough to walk to the shop for some suitable buttons.

Today's post was going to be a slight rant about how I had very carefully wound up the remaining couple of metres of this yarn to perform said sewing, but how I am actually a bad knitter(tm) and can't find it. I was then going to post a picture of the booties, looking sad and unloved.

Except karma seems to be alive and well in my house, and eating booties. In less than the minute it took me to leave my chair and look in the top drawer of the adjacent chest, the little purple buggers have vanished.

Poof, gone.

While I could take this as a signal from the universe that I am rather too lax in weaving in the ends of my FO's, I choose to see it as the universe wanting the booties more than I do.

No doubt, they'll turn up in with the saucepans when we're unpacking in our new house.

I hate Mondays

2008-06-16T10:05:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure how I got here, but it seems to be Monday again already.
Now don't get me wrong, I had a good weekend (and very productive on the sock knitting front) but it was far too short. We also made the mistake of getting on the train last night and congratulating ourselves on getting some good seats, before realising that the rest of the carriage was filled with 10 year olds hyped up on sugar on their way home from a school trip.

They got out half way to Belfast. There was rejoicing.
Any idea of mine to change careers and become a teacher have flown the nest. Drama teacher excluded.

My ipod came into its own on that journey though. Nothing like drowning out the sounds of crying/fighting kids in large numbers like a good podcast and some knitting. I didn't even drop a stitch.

I started this Tofutsies sock on Friday morning on the train to Dublin, and finished it on the train back to Belfast last night. Not bad, eh?
I'm trying to get through them as fast as possible, as they're part of my stash that technically doesn't exist, as it's not logged in ravelry.

This may not seem to be a cause for alarm, but if you saw the size of my logged stash, you might think again. I'm part of stash knit down, so if I can get these done and not claim for them, then it cancels itself out and I don't have to add it to my total yards either. Right?

I mean, it's not paranoia if there are knitters actually watching, is it?

Thunderstruck

2008-06-13T15:26:00.005+01:00

It seems that I'm being vaguely productive these days, despite a growing workload, the cold from hell, and a general feeling of bleurgh that is refusing to go away.

When OH was living in Bristol, I spent far more time and money than could be deemed sane by any rational person in a store called HobbyCraft. It's the nearest that we have to a proper bigbox craft store in this part of the world..kind of like Michaels, I guess. Aaaaanyway, one of the purchases I made was two balls of this

It's Rowan Biggy Print in Thunder.

I fell in love with the colour pretty much as soon as I clapped eyes on the stuff. It's also fabulously squishy, which was the icing on the cake. I thought I'd make a very punk rock scarf with it.

I cast on the scarf. This stuff is 2 stitches to the inch, and after about 2 feet of ribbing my heart out, I was realising very quickly that I was going to have a contender for worlds shortest functional scarf on my hands. I made an executive decision, and frogged it, wound it into balls, and stuck it in a ziplock.

Nearly 2 years later, I found a pattern that wouldn't require another 15 balls, or make me look like the Michelin man.

Mitts.
Or mitt, as I was doing a little self portrait photography here. I'm quite proud of it, and it's much cooler in real life than the pic.

Hurrah for....hanging on to stuff instead of destashing!

......no....wait....

The second thing I have off the needles this week are my Yukon socks!

Forgive the photo. It was late, and I was overtired. They are fab, and I love the yarn, which is Knitpicks memories.

Wow, an entirely FO related post!
The fantastic thing about this is that my WIP pile has shrunk, as has my stash.
I now have one hibernated item (moss stitch cardigan) and two wips.
One is my sofa knitting, my clapotis, and the other is a tofutsies sock that I cast on on the train this morning. Socks are great for travelling with.

I'm on the Ravelry Stash and Burn group knit down, and it's proving great at keeping the motivation going. Something like weightwatchers, I think, where each month we have to show our yardage in public. No one wants to be told that they've made no progress, and to lay off the cookies..er...collinette.

Have a great WWKIP everyone :)

Old news but good news

2008-06-12T10:07:00.007+01:00

Yesterday, I was in a funk. Not a break out your flares funk, but more the kind that makes you feel like a big, useless slug.

What better way to cheer yourself up than to sit down on the sofa with some snacks?

MmmmmmmBacon Crackers. Everyone loves bacon crackers.

But wait!!! What's that?? That thing in my cracker box?

It's....it's....it's.....

YARN!!!

Not only is it yarn, it's fantabulous handpainted and handspun yarn from DudleySpinner!!

A while ago I sent the lovely Deb a care package from Northern Ireland, as she used to live here and was experiencing some withdrawal symptoms for tea. Personally, I still think I got the best end of the bargain, which now sits in much better light beside my laptop**

It's the first handspun that I've ever owned, and it's just fabulous. It's also about to be turned into one of Stefanie Japel's One Skein Wonders - a pattern that I've lusted after for a couple of years, but only got around to buying last week.

So I get to use genius yarn with a genius pattern, and hopefully have some non-knitter (and perhaps even knitterly) types mistake me for a genius when I parade around wearing the finished product this summer! Can I have a w00t!, please?

**The ball may very well be completely squished out of shape by the end of the day. I dare you not to fall victim to its "come hither" stares! It's the best kind of stressball in the world. (Yeah, did I mention we're househunting? Bleurgh)

Times flies....literally

2008-06-09T10:59:00.003+01:00

The last week was spent out of the country with work, which was both good and bad. Getting up at 4am to catch a flight is not my idea of fun, unless cocktails with little umbrellas in them await me on the other side. It was nice to see everyone though, and much fun was had.

Until my flight home, that is. Initially I was annoyed with myself when I woke up on Saturday morning, thinking that I'd overdone it on the wine and was paying the price. As it transpired over the next 48 hours, I actually had a stomach bug. Yay.

The airport in Amsterdam is great, and provided space for little old me to have a nap. This was a good thing, considering the way the day turned out, with one delay after another on both sides, and finishing in spectacular fashion as someone nicked my phone.

Again, the plus side is that I had it turned off and pin locked, so they've essentially stolen an expensive paperweight. I've lost my contact book, which is annoying, but fixable. Thanks to the nice man in the phone shop, I've also got the same number back, along with my credits, voicemails and all that jazz.

I got the sum total of zero stitches knitted, and purchased no yarn, which is an achievement. It really amazes me how sitting in a plane on a runway for an hour and a half makes you feel all McGuyver-like in the quest for potential knittable materials.

House hunting is also going on at the moment. OH has been doing the rounds all week, and we're going to another one today. We've actually found our perfect place. So perfect that we'd buy it tomorrow and move in as it is. There are, unfortunately, 3 other couples who want it as well, so the competition is on. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Looking forward to SnB this week. Have new shinies to show off :)

SP 12

2008-06-03T11:20:00.002+01:00

Before I launch into my secret pal 12 questionnaire, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their kind words on the demise of my ham. It's most appreciated.

Yes, I've signed up for yet another swap. What can I say, I love them. I have been lucky so far, as I've yet to receive anything approaching a dud package. This also reinforces my "knitters are just lovely people" theory.

Without further ado...

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Natural fibres. I think a small percentage of nylon is sock yarn is a wonderful thing, but I try to keep it at that. I mostly knit wool, as it's easily found, but I love Blue Sky Alpacas cottons as well!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
My circs stay in their little packets in a small box, all neat and tidy. My straights stay in their packets in a drawer (if they'll fit!) or a random corner of my computer desk, which is probably why I spend so much time looking for them.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I learned knit stitch in school when I was 6 or 7. Not casting on or off, just knit! I gave up completely at some point in secondary school, and didn't pick up needles again til about 3 years ago. I guess I'm mostly self taught, and I'd consider myself intermediate to advanced.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yup, I have one on Amazon. If you go to this Ravelry page and click on the .co.uk link, Ravelry will get some cash for referring you :) My list is under my real name, and I'm the only one on the site!

5. What's your favorite scent?
Foodie smells...honey, vanilla, lavender. Perfumes on my shelf are Coco Chanel, Agent Provocateur Porcelain, and Ghost.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Milk or dark chocolate (especially Green and Blacks), and those chocolate covered mint patties in the silver wrapper that I had in the States and can't remember the name of.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I used to crochet, and intend to take it up again after I move house. I've also got a drop spindle and some Hello Yarn fibre in the post to me at the moment, which I'm very excited about!

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) MP3's are go! I'm not a pop girl, but I like rock, alternative, some jazz/blues and classical.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? Purples, reds, blues, greens...and black. Pastels and any shade of yellow or orange makes me look completely anemic.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I got married recently, and my hamster went to the big wheel in the sky last week.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Yes, yes, yes and no.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I knit a lot of socks, as they're fabulous for travelling with.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Second sock of a pair in Knitpicks Memories, and a clapotis in Lion and Lamb. It's as near to project monogamy as I get.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes indeedy!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I love my Addis. I magic loop a lot, so I'm working on filling in the gaps in my needle sizes. I have a few pairs of straights in bamboo. I'm not a fan of metal straights or plastic.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yup! Got a bargain winder off eBay last year. I don't have a swift yet.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Errr......2 years?

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween!!!!! Not in a Hallmark way though..

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Apart from yarn? Books, especially cookbooks. I have silly amounts of them, and love them all dearly.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I subscribe to Rowan and IK. There are a few knitting books on my wish list that I wouldn't mind getting my mitts on. Yarn-wise, I lust over the knitpicks website, even though they don't deliver to Europe. I'd also like to try some BMFA.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Fair Isle and steeking. I don't ever see myself using them on a regular basis, but it's just so that I can say I've conquered them!

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Oh yes! Umm....I'm a toe up knitter, so I don't remember. 7.5 inches around the ball of my foot. After that I'll have to rummage for a measuring tape.

23. When is your birthday?
3rd of October

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
GaietyGirl

Not so happy Wednesday

2008-05-28T16:30:00.001+01:00

It has been a blog worthy week, but the phone call I got five minutes ago has left me feeling a little sad, and not and all like posting.

My hamster has gone to the great wheel in the sky.

Am gutted. Poor little Dagon...

Made it to 100

2008-05-23T15:40:00.005+01:00

I should probably post something deep and vaguely meaningful for my 100th post, but I'm still shocked that it's Friday, so intellectualism is mostly beyond me.

The most fabulous thing about today is that I'm wearing my volcano socks. This is them in their previous incarnation

These were hideously ill-fitting, but they are my current favourite item of clothing after the overhaul. In fact, I was so bouncy after making myself some perfect socks, that I immediately cast on a new pair.

The yarn is some Knitpicks Memories which I got in a swap last summer - from the same person who sent the volcano sock yarn. The memories is much thicker, or at least feels that way after the skinny Essentials yarn. I've turned the heel already, and am going to work my way up to (hopefully) knee sock height over the weekend.

An executive decision was also made this week. I'm not going to start making mitred squares out of sock yarn. I need to realise that Denial is not just a river, and that in 5 years time I'm just going to have silly amounts of little squares shoved in ziplocks and abandoned in dusty spaces underneath beds.

OH has been on the phone to the Louvre today as well. This is a good thing (tm) as it appears that their email mostly gets delivered to the ninth circle of hell. In order to put in a claim for our camera (wot got nicked there) we need either a photocopy of our report (not too taxing on the brain cells) or an email that says "GaietyGirl reported her camera stolen on this date at this time. Signed, someone who works at the Louvre. (easy peasy).

Hopefully they'll be co-operative, and instead of being forced to post camera phone shots or recycled flickr pics, I might actually be able to give those one or two people who still read some actual yarn porn.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Bootie boom

2008-05-16T11:54:00.005+01:00

Friday already? How the *bleep* did that happen?

It is almost the weekend, it's gloriously sunny, and in general (with the odd hiccup here and there) life couldn't be better. My dad is being discharged from hospital for good tomorrow, I'm finally getting some weekends back, and it looks like it's going to be a very busy but enjoyable summer.

A rather productive one too, if the month to date is anything to go by. I'm part of the Stash and Burn knit down on Ravelry, and between that and ChoreWars, my needles are just flying! Granted, a lot of it has been in the form of smaller projects, but really I think that is true stashburning.

My particular stashy problem has always been the assortment of single skeins of something delicious that I couldn't leave behind. Add to that the large amounts of sock yarn that I'm left with after making a pair in my size, and it can turn into a veritable mountain of .....bits.

I've come up with a solution so simple and elegant, that I'm absolutely proud of myself.

This is a still-to-be-seamed Saartje Bootie. I've made a couple of pairs before, but always out of yarn specifically bought for the purpose. I love these booties. They're quick and easy, and can be made out of practically any weight of yarn. They're easy to size up and down, and are the best thing ever for using up left over bits of skeins.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the potential explosion of booties around the house, but it should be worth it for the expression on OH's face alone *evil grin*

Mitred squares are something that I've been thinking of as well. While I realise that it would take approximately eleventybillion of them to make a blanket or throw, they are fab for sock yarn leftovers. Plus, through some freakish co-incidence, pretty much all of my sock yarn leftovers vaguely match, or at least don't clash.

While it seems like a good idea now, am I just lining myself up for the mother of all UFO's?

In my head, I'd make some squares after each pair of socks, and start seaming them together. Avoiding pooling, however, involves waiting til there are a selection of squares going before starting the sewing. Would I just end up with drawers of squares that will remain unseamed 'til the end of time? After my death, will people still be finding ziplocks of squares in the attic and under floorboards for years? Instead of "crazy cat lady", will I be "crazy square lady"? Or will I just crack under the pressure and lock myself into the spare bedroom, sticking the damn things to the walls, and cackling like a loon?

Who knew that leftover sock yarn could be so damn scary......

The one in which I go "D'oh"!

2008-05-14T10:36:00.009+01:00

This morning, I was checking on the shawl which I pinned to the spare bed last night. It's belonging to one of the girls in SnB, and she somehow managed to bribe me into blocking it for her. I think her claim was that she knew how much I wanted to play with my blocking wires again. Hrm.

Anyway, due to me having a well overdue Eureka moment (followed swiftly by the D'oh moment of the title), here we go!

Taaaa daaaaah!

I realise that it's completely crappy quality, but I was so chuffed for figuring out that the usb cable for our new external hard drive looked amazingly like the weird usb connection on my phone....
Well, I couldn't stop there, now could I?

Washcloths. There have been a few of these going around lately.

There's a rather grainy-looking sock that I'm working on...

It's in knitpicks yarn that I got from a fantabulous yarn swap. It's called Volcano - what's not to love?? The socks I knitted with it, for starters. They were the first pair I knitted for myself, and they were beautiful and soft and squishy and made for someone with toes 3 inches longer than mine. So they recently got frogged, and are being reworked in a very satisfactory manner.

What else?

Oh, there's my new babies from Collinette.

My name is GaietyGirl, and I'm a Jitterbugaholic.
Apparently Jitterbug is very similar to BMFA Sock yarn, so you can see where the problem might start.

Finally, just for poots and giggles, my new birkies!

As you can see, I'm far too enthusiastic about inflicting my crappy camera phone pictures on the world. I miss my real camera so fricking much, and the museum where it was yoinked won't answer my many "I just need an email from you for my insurance people" emails. Which means no new camera any time soon. Schniff.

Still, no time to get maudlin.
It's a gorgeously sunny day out, the pile of washing that was threatening to eat my soul is dwindling fast, and this afternoon I get to drink lots of iced-triple-shot- caramel-macchiato-with-extra-drizzle-s with some of my favourite people.

I love summer.

Blee Ess Jay

2008-05-09T00:00:00.003+01:00

I started a baby surprise jacket today. I thought I was being very clever and using up some random small skeins of acrylic in my stash. It was pink, but not too girly.

3 hours in, I caved, and frogged it to death. The sensation of the yarn on my skin was making me want to never knit again. It's now in little balls in a ziplock in my "to go to Oxfam" box in the hall.

Clapotis is going well though :)

Busy busy little bee

2008-05-06T10:45:00.002+01:00

Am I!

Or am I blatently fibbing because I have no camera?

Nah. Brain far too mushy for that this morning...

After my last post, I made my way to town for SnB(or whatever we're allowed call it this week) and started a new Calorimetry in Sublime extra fine merino, in the best shade of purple evah! I'm helping a fellow SnB'er learn short rows, and thought this would be a good project, so I'm knitting along with her. I've made a couple of them at this stage, so they are a pretty quick knit for me. In the spirit of it being a KAL, and me not being a crappy teacher, I'm holding off at the half way mark, so that I can go through the rest with her tomorrow.

This did, however, leave me half way through an instant gratification project, without the instant, so I cast on another one. Yup. I suck at project monogamy.
It's in Sublime again, and this time in Angora Merino, which occasionally causes me to sneeze while knitting, but the finished article....lets just say I could use some alone time with it!

Caloris don't use up much yarn - another bonus - so I decided to make myself a matching pair of Fetching. Perfect chilly evening wear for those of us who have ever-present cold fingers and ears.

I was vaguely good at the same time though. Each piece was made as a break from fantic sock knitting. Husband's (still getting used to saying that!) stripey socks are finished! They are a few inches short of being knee socks and he loves them. I was less in love with the miles of stitching involved, but I adore the Regia Kaffe Fassett yarn. Fab colours, lovely to knit up, and wonderfully comfortable to wear. What more could you ask for?

My order from Collinette arrived as well. It has been removed from the postage bag, but not from the giant ziplock. I may have licked the ziplock. I'm not letting myself even have a squidge yet though, as I need to get the thumb done on my second fetching and sew in the ends (these five minute finishing jobs are the project-death of me, they really are) and cast on an actually planned project, which I got the yarn for weeks ago.

So, should it be booga bag or clapotis next?
I have a choice of cascade 220 heathers of twilley's freedom for Booga, and the finished bag would be very handy indeedy. Clapotis, however, is waiting to be made in Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb. Another yarn I need some alone time with.

It has also just occured to me that I seem to be going through a total blue period with my knitting. Does anyone else go through phases like that? Even without noticing it at first?

Insert random pun here

2008-04-30T10:29:00.002+01:00

The weekend really flew, didn't it?
Husband's (it's still weird to say that) birthday was on Friday, and on Saturday we headed to Bangor, which may be one of the prettiest and nicest villages I've ever been in. There's a huge marina, all very carefully managed, some gorgeous buildings, a village centre that has more than a post office, a petrol pump and a pub, and best of all was that the sun came out!

There really is something to be said for sitting on the prom, eating icecream, on a sunny afternoon.

I should probably come clean now, to save future slip ups as well. Bangor has a yarn shop. If you get the train there, you literally can't miss it, as it's on the left of the station door as you exit, and it's helpfully called The Wool Shop.

I may have squee'd once or twice. I may have chatted away with the lovely owner. I may have come out with a bag containing eco-wool, baby cashmerino, angora and a skein of extra fine merino in the most fantabulous shade of purple ever.

I'll ignore for a moment the fact that I managed to twist the arm of a SnB'er who mentioned that she's destashing, so today I also take posession of some Twilleys Freedom wool......and there's that pesky sock yarn in the post.

Yeah, I'm knitting down my stash....it just keeps growing back!

Old father time

2008-04-25T17:31:00.003+01:00

It's himselfs birthday today. Now he's as old as I am!

I do feel a bit crap though. Most of his birthday present was due to arrive in the post today, and it didn't. Fingers crossed it will arrive tomorrow, or I'll win worst wife of the year. Actually, that's a lie. Assasins Creed arrived safe and sound, and he's now firmly entrenched on the sofa with that.

Guess that's what I get for marrying a geek. You should have seen him when we picked up our PS3 from the shop. I thought he was going to make amorous advances towards it on the bus home!

In other news, there's a birthday cake in the oven, a fire ready to be lit in the fireplace, and a second sock (huzzah!) on the needles on the bit of the sofa that he hasn't sprawled over. I'm going to get the whole roast dinner going as soon as the cake is done, and then my work is done. Well, apart from the washing up. He gets out of it tonight. Bleurgh.

Tomorrow we're heading to Bangor. Amazingly smaller than its namesake in Maine, but it has a gaming store and a LYS, and that's the important part. I really shouldn't buy any more yarn after my recent oopsie on the Collinette website.

....maybe one skein....

I have the funk and it's bad.

2008-04-24T14:24:00.004+01:00

I'm in a strange funk lately.
I've enough yarn to keep me going for many, many months. I have a folder of patterns printed out, and a stack of knitting books and magazines. Gods know I could do with finishing the blue cardigan of doom. Or, y'know, the other Kaffe Fassett sock for the misters birthday present (which is tomorrow. He's getting one sock.).

The funk, however, means that I'm not really getting anything done. After a flurry of clearing up and organising stash last week (I even assigned yarn to actual projects!) I find myself feeling listless, choosing to make washcloths out of cheap cotton yarn, instead of diving face first into the Lion and Lamb that arrived for my reward-to-myself clapotis.

It's even gotten to the stage where the one thing I'm itching to make (since, ooh, yesterday) is the Swallowtail shawl, which I can't start, because the yarn that I have which would suit it is in my parents house.

No, I'm not quite mean enough to phone my mother and ask her to a)locate said yarn in correct shade and b) express post it to me so that I can start before the urge to knit it turns into another "meh".

Has it something to do with the changing of the season? Well, possibly, but that would imply that I actually get some daylight hours outside, instead of staring through the window at it all.

Ok, perhaps all of this is just me trying to get away from one simple fact. I don't have the funk. I have SSS.

There's a skein of Collinette Jitterbug on my desk, and every now and again I catch myself fondling it when I get buried in email. I would cast it on in a heartbeat, except I can't possibly do it when himself is sitting downstairs, patiently waiting for his second sock to materialise. (I even caught him fondling sock one while he was reading a book on the sofa last night. He claimed he was checking it for cooties.)

Ah love, ain't it grand?

Well, hello stranger!

2008-04-22T10:12:00.002+01:00

The stranger, in this case, being yours truly.

I am now an old married woman. There's a bit of paper that says so, and I have a ring on my left hand that wasn't there before. I also had a great holiday to Paris, during which my digital camera got nicked.

Yup. My precious cybershot got lifted in the Louvre foodcourt. We reckon that someone spotted us using it, then followed and waited til a milisecond when we were too busy with trays/getting a seat/peeing and yoinked it. So no photos, I'm afraid.

This brought me on to another train of thought, and one which is related to my blogging absense.

Are people really interested in photo-less blogs?

Sure, there are a lot of them out there, and I wouldn't even think about the lack of photos on my LJ, but here it seems different. I think knitters and crafty people are more tactile or visual than most (or at lease aren't shy about letting it be known!) and a crafty blog with no pictures seems......

.....well, I won't go so far as to say pointless, but lets say that knitters like their shiny.

I'm not even talking about posting tomes of photo diaries or anything, just the usual couple of pics a post that most bloggers seem to do. It helps make a connection more easily between the reader and writer. You may tell us that your latest WIP looks like your new puppy just tossed his cute little cookies all over it, but unless we see, we still doubt that it could ever be quite that awful. Bonus points if you post a pic of the puppy looking cute and adorable too.

Now there are always exceptions to every rule. The fantabulous Yarn Harlot could write a completely photoless post about the kind of glue used on the back of postage stamps, for example. She has a way with words that I think fewer and fewer people have, and this is even more apparent with new blogs and social networking sites popping up every other minute. I am convinced, in my especially soapboxy moments, that if the world ever descends into the type of all out chaos and war that the Terminator warned us about, TXT SPK will be one of the causes.

There is an ongoing debate in the UK, for example, about test scores. The results that students have been getting in state exams have been getting worse for a long time. Instead of re-examining the school system, encouraging teacher training, paying for school facilities and proper school dinners, what is being debated as a serious "fix"?

Make the exams easier.

I kid you not.

Apparently the problem is not overcrowding in classes, frazzled teachers spending all their time dealing with wrangling little brats, or the curriculum. Nope. The problem is there be too many of them big wordz in the tests.

What will happen next? Will the collected Jane Austen be released in a special edition that goes something LK DIS?

Wedding daze

2008-03-21T10:24:00.003Z

Well, I know it has been a month, but I figured that no one really needed to be reading about such fabulously interesting topics as Auntie Mary's digestive problems (aka menu planning), paper (70gsm vs. 90gsm. discuss!) and spray tan (aka avoiding looking like a tangerine).

I'm currently sitting at my desk in the Dublin office. It's completely covered in balloons, and I'm being forcefed cake. Apparently it's good for me, cos it's carrot cake.

Nope...I didn't buy it either....still eating it though!

Given that next week will involve many hours in trains and busses, and the picking up of cakes, dresses and suits, I won't be blogging til I get home from honeymoon mark 2. I shall have a full report on yarny goodness from Paris though, so it'll be worth the wait.

Take care everyone!

Crapsicles

2008-02-21T13:24:00.003Z

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of work reporting and wading through the vast, vast amounts of paperwork involved in getting married. Knitting has been abandoned in favour of shouting "what?!?!?" in a confused manner when I'm told of yet another letter that I have to go get from someone in order for someone else to do the ticky box thing on a form.

Invites are all out, and we've had some rsvp's already.
We have caved and now have a wedding list on amazon.

Families are great. Anyone want mine?

The printer has been named, and will be blogged soon, I promise.

Basically, I'm alive, though in desperate need of some blood pressure meds.

Or a frozen margerita.
On a beach.
Served by a hot boy in very little clothing.
*ahem*

Am I broken?

2008-02-07T01:39:00.000Z

I have come to a strange and sudden conclusion this evening.

What if, instead of my printer being crap, my tech-fu is broken?
Granted, this isn't going to stop me giving the offending piece of tech an offensive name this week...

This evening was spent sticking wedding invitations together, and hand addressing far too many envelopes. Some addresses are stored in text messages in my mobile phone. Naturally, my mobile phone decided to add to my stress levels by being an uncooperative little shite, and denied existance of said text messages. Or the fact that it was a phone.

I've always been Little Miss Static Shock (another reason to stay away from Ack-rylik)but can I really be frying everything around me and be blissfully unaware?

It's amazing the thoughts that fill my head at 2am.....

Oh, and an already outdated photo of the socks for my mother.

I've turned the heel already. Not bad for a couple of hours of knitting!

Knitter, thy name is fickle

2008-02-06T11:12:00.000Z

Or should that be "flaky".

I spend far more time on Ravelry than is healthy or wise, and yet, having looked at my projects page today, I suck at updating.
There are projects missing any form of photo, projects that haven't even made it up yet, and a bunch of new stash that I bought in NYC that I haven't taken pictures of, never mind entered.

If I'm entirely honest with myself, there is still a suitcase underneath the bed that is not completely vacant of occupants. Oops.

I'm also being a total project whore at the moment. Half way through wisp two, an executive decision was made that I could totally take a break until my blocking wires come through the post, and I get number one in the bath. (That possibly sounds much kinkier than intended. I mean, I love the yarn, I just don't love the yarn)

Seeing as I'm on a mini-vacay from the shawl, weather and common sense should prevail and see me finishing my cardigan.

Nope.

Instead, this week I've made two pairs of bootees for a friend who is about to have twins, beaten my printer into submission, been driven to the verge of dropping my printer out the window, and started a pair of socks for my mother.

In the middle of this, I'm also trying to find a way to get some stealth knitting in. Perhaps I am overlooking something obvious, but I find it hard to get a surprise knitted gift made for someone who I share a house with. The result of this is that I have the pattern for the fabulous and man-approved Irish hiking scarf and two skeins of Lambs Pride in a great charcoal colour sitting in a ziplock under my desk, clearly not being knitted.

While faking a case of food poisoning and locking myself in the bathroom for a few hours seems good, it's cold in there and we only have one bathroom, so it could just end in resentment and frustration for all parties. I still would like to have it done in time for it to be part of his wedding present from me. I may have to resort to carrying around the biggest handbag in the world, so that I can work on the scarf when he's not paying attention, and swiftly swap to a sock or something when he's looking. Seems a little too like hard work though, and I don't want to end up with some strange hybrid after a momentary lapse in concentration.

Today, however, is socktastic.
I will work on updating my photos, and on being a better blogger.

Friday will see the announcement of the "name that printer!" competition, so if you haven't commented, now's your chance.

Take care everyone, and have a great Wednesday.

Yarn porn!

2008-01-31T15:02:00.000Z

As promised, I have a couple of photos.
I planned on having more, but it seems that I've lost my camera-fu, and with it the ability to take a photo that isn't juuuuust a fraction blurry and only fit to be discarded.

Knitty city tempted me like a harlot. It was only 3 blocks from my hotel, and the lovely people working there were so lovely that I made more than one trip. I staged this photo, which I think many knitters will appreciate the sentiment in.

That "come to bed with me" look that only sexy yarn can give

That bag was from visit one. By the time I got home and unpacked, I was left with this lovely pile of goodies:

Even though OH had been there and witnessed the large amounts of S.E.X. I had been having, there was still a bit of an effort expended in getting my inner knitter not to shout out "Oh, this old yarn? I've had that for ages!"

I like my stash. I really do. It's not the largest stash in the world by any stretch of the imagination. It's not even the largest stash in Belfast. The main problem with yarn is not the weight, it's the mass. Even the lightest, fluffiest alpaca ends up demanding an en-suite bathroom and a bigger tv after a while. Every time I even fondle yarn - even my own stash yarn - the sheer volume that even a few kilos creates both surprises and scares me. "A few" being the technical term for any amount of yarn that isn't actually enough to open a store with.

In one of those bizarre turns, as I wrote the paragraph above, the light in the house completely faded, and it was only when I turned on the lights, that I realised

IT'S SNOWING!!!

Not enough for anything resembling snowballs, but still! I feel suddenly that all my shivering and sticking to the electric fire is justified.

I'll attempt to take photos, but I can barely feel my fingers right now, so even if I manage to hold the camera, it may look like I was trying to break the world jumping jack record.

Seeing as I've been naughty today - nothing new there really - I should get some actual work done. The morning was mostly spend moaning about the weather and wrestling with MS Word. On the plus side, the wedding invitations are now ready to print, as template, font and exact wording and placement of words has been decided. They are not printing, however, as the printer doesn't like the lovely paper that I bought. Typical. I should really give the printer a name that reflects its personality - fickle, whining, and adament that it needs more paper and/or ink when there is clearly plenty left.

Best suggestion for a name in the comments gets a prize!
Funny stories attached to suggested names are encouraged :)

Back to spreadsheets so. Urgh...

Bless me father for I have sinned

2008-01-29T16:05:00.000Z

It has been 3 weeks since my last post! 3 weeks!

I'm sure I've managed to successfully shed any and all readers at this stage. If there's anyone out there still hanging on, I applaud you. I also offer yarn (more on that later. Oh, the things I do to keep people hooked!)

On returning from NYC, which was a total blast, I tried to upload some bloggy goodness. The weather did not cooperate though, and was so cold that the contacts in the camera didn't meet those in the batteries! The camera now lives in the living room, which is many degrees warmer than the spare room/home office.

The house I live in is a red brick, mid-terrace 2 story, which was built in between World Wars one and two. It's not a big house, and though I realise that families with many children were raised in houses just like this, it seems hard to believe at times. The building has been added to, which gives us the teeniest kitchen in the world, and a bathroom. The back yard is the size of a large envelope, and would originally have been just for outhouse space and a washing line.

As I move from one rented property to another, I always find myself playing a game of "if I owned this house". Some places, I'd have put in soundproofing, or a back garden that wasn't just concrete, or killed the neighbours, but in this place, the magic word is insulation.

I don't think there actually is any, at present.
Certainly not in the built-on bit. If we go to bed and forget to close the bathroom or kitchen doors properly, we can see our breath in the morning.

On the plus side, we're not really bothered by bugs - we've never seen a moth - as they'd prefer to take their chances next door.

Erm....so yeah. Cold house is not good for electronics. Hence no photos. Hence my ~~laziness~~ slight apathy towards blogging.

To be honest, the thing that I've been doing most since I got back is wishing that I was in New York. I could really picture myself living there. In fact, about 6 years ago when I broke up with the big bad ex, I was all ready to get my paperwork together and apply for a greencard. I procrastinated for a year, to see if I could do more drama stuff here, ended up teaching theatre for 2 years, and then met a nice boy.

Ok, this post has to win the award for most rambly evah! (tm)

This possibly has something to do with the fact that I'm getting married in 8 weeks, 4 of my friends have announced that they're all going to give birth over the summer, and I'm facing the possibility of yet another move of house. It makes me far too sentimental, or thinky. Yes, thinky is a made-up word, but a rather good one. It's not as deep or impressive as pensive but it gets the point across nicely.

...and the blonde rambles forth.

I have been doing some knitting, in the course of all of this. I got not one stitch done on my trip, but I did manage to aquire some truly delicious stash - of which there will be photos later.
I skipped most of the big yarn stores, as I was so impressed in just two of them that I blew my yarn budget for.....well, I don't know how long, but I may not be buying any more this side of summer!

My first BM shawly stoley thing is finished. Not blocked, but at least it's off the needles. The second one has been started, and I'm still on my first ball of laceweight! At this rate, I'll have two balls left over, so I have to figure out something pretty to make for myself. After the wedding. After the wedding...

I'm running up some bootees for a friend who's about to pop out twins as some mid-shawl brain candy. They take no time, and are all garter stitch, which is the perfect foil to lace. I feel like I'm cheating by making them out of stash ack-rylik, but I figure that she'll appreciate the ability to throw them in the washer and dryer when she's got two to look after.

Still haven't finished the moss stitch cardigan.

Everything else is on a back burner til the shawls get finished. I should be casting off the second one at the weekend, but I guarantee that I'll still be running around at the last minute to get them done, for I do hate blocking lace. I'm seriously thinking of splashing out on some blocking wires to help me through things.

This might be a good place to stop for today, lest I keep babbling incoherently.

Bleurgh

2008-01-07T16:59:00.000Z

We're home. Or, at least, in Dublin. Catching train to Belfast in just over an hour.

The jetlag hasn't even hit yet, but my brain is like peanut butter, and there's some starting to dribble out my ears. Technically, I've not slept since Saturday, and while dinner is being made in my MIL's kitchen, my stomach is demanding a bagel or some french toast as a carb-tastic way to start the day.

I also managed to foo up slightly. I thought I had tomorrow to recover and sit on the sofa in my jammies, drinking tea and clutching my head. Instead, due to a fabulous able-to-count incident, I'll be wading through 3 weeks of work that's waiting for me as we speak.

I may need some more coffee.

My pooter-fu sucks some days

2008-01-02T16:08:00.000Z

Well I did try to update again yesterday, but the terminal I was using decided to do a windows update when I was a paragraph in, and ate my $5. I was less than amused, and didn't trust it enough to use again.

Thankfully, there's a nice ice cream parlour a couple of blocks from our hotel (everything seems to be a couple of blocks from our hotel) and it has machines that actually work and have passed health inspection.

I attempted to get to School Products yesterday, but having walked the entire length of Broadway to get there and find it closed, I am less confident of my "fu". Still, we're heading to Staten Island tomorrow, where I believe there's a yarn-tastic branch of Michaels.

For anyone in the neighbourhood (how I love being able to say that!!!) Knitty City are having a birthday celebration on Saturday, and I have it on good authority that there will be cake. Mmmmcake.

We decided to avoid Times square for new years, opting to watch it on tv and have the sensibleness of our decision confirmed for us instead. Plus, there was a rocking fireworks display in Central Park, which was visable from our corner. I do like the park. It has lots of crazy squirrels.

I know I'm leaving out lots of bits, but I'm on a time limit here. Not like when I'm working from home *ahem*

More to follow....there will be much, much yarn porn when I get home.

Malabrigo cures excema. Feck, it probably cures things that we don't even know exist yet.

A little quicky

2007-12-29T22:59:00.000Z

Net cafes are really few and far between in NYC. Everywhere seems to have free wi-fi access, which is fabulous but pox all use when your laptop is on another continent. We were about to break out the Visa and buy some tech, when we found a rather overpriced place with one chair between us. Joy.

So given that last night was our first here, what did we do? We went to an Irish pub, and drank Guinness and whiskey. Hardcore, that's us! Today, I've mostly been cursing the fact that I brought my big huge warm coat, as the weather here is positively balmy. Wind chill doesn't seem to exist over here at all. That, or the sky scrapers do a fantastic job at negating it.

Natural history museum is 2 blocks from the hotel, so we partook of that today. I'm now afraid of taking off my shoes, in anticipation of how fricking much they're gonna swell.

Have located yarn stores and gaming stores. Reports to follow at some point :)

Updates a go go

2007-12-27T12:35:00.000Z

I'm currently sitting at the keyboard of a net cafe computer, and having made a mental note to wash my hands with 15 gallons of soap when I leave, thought I'd give a quick update...

Christmas was great. We had dad home from Sunday til yesterday, and he's doing really well. I got mucho, mucho shiny-o, and generally had a lovely time. The visitors never really left, which was cool, though the early morning starts both sucked and blew.

Tomorrow I be leaving on a jet plane. OH is having slight panic attacks, but is coping well.

I hope to update from NYC, with lots of yarn pr0n.

Hope y'all had a great holiday, and have a good new year, wherever on the planet you may be!

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas

2007-12-21T11:21:00.000Z

Last night was our Dublin office party. Huzzah. Much sushi was consumed. Someone ate a huge lump of wasabi for a bet. And didn't cry. Naturally, this meant that my camera batteries were dead. Eventually, I will pull a finger out, I swear. Just not this week. Maybe I should get some of those new Duracell lithium batteries for my trip, and give up the idea that I'll actually go off and a) buy an adaptor and b)not only take it out of the packet, but use it.

The trip...oh yeaaaaahhhh!
This is my last day in the office this year. I am craving something deep fried and salty, so lunch will probably involve at least a cheeseburger (can I has cheezburger?) Overall, things are very, very busy, but rather lighthearted. I really like my colleagues. Working from home roxxors, but I do miss the office.

I'm leaving here at 4pm, or at least that's the plan. Jump on train, hopefully without my overfilled bags spilling their festive guts on the platform. Try to knit on train, and give up to have nap. Wake up in panic 20 minutes later, convinced that I've missed my stop and therefore my transfer.

....or something like that.

I have mittens on the needles, and My Booky Wook to keep me going at least. Since I arrived in Dublin yesterday, and won't see OH til Wednesday night, we had a mini celebration on Wednesday evening, and once more my "to be read" stack has hit body weight level. Wahoo! You'd think that this would mean I won't be buying any books for a while, but no. Barnes and Noble is one of the big points on our itinerary.

I am geek, hear me roar!

With all the fun, excitement and general pandemonium that goes along with the gorging-on-turkey, I won't be posting for a few days. I've also made the very sensible decision to actually chase up a net connection and check in online on Wednesday, so that I don't have to get up at 6am to go to the airport.

So happy winter festival of choice to everyone, and I'll see you on the other side!

The black hole of yarn

2007-12-13T16:04:00.000Z

In the past two weeks, I've been rather quiet. This is directly related to my inability to cast anything off.

I mean, I've been knitting like a woman posessed, but am still not getting anywhere. You know those moments where you measure the length of an item, say, a sock, and you have 4 inches, and then having knit for about an hour, you remeasure, and still have 4 inches. Or 4.1 inches.

That's pretty much my month so far, in a nutshell.
My casting off like crazy mojo only lasted a week.

Argh.

I'm on sleeve two of the neverending cardigan. Once that's done and sewn on, I've to pick up stitches and add about 6 inches to the cuff as the pattern was horribly wrong.

Having finally decided on my Christmas knitting, I've had to tell the receipients that they won't be done til after I get back from NYC, as the most urgent project at the moment is knitting mittens so that we don't get frostbite as a souvenier.

Main problem with this is I have to start the wedding shawls as soon as I get home. The yarn is waiting for me, and I've decided on a pattern that's fast, effective, and will allow me to hopefully escape second shawl syndrome. It also doesn't take eleventybillion yards of yarn to make. I am not in the market for hundred dollar shawls right now.

Other than that, life marches on.

My dad should be allowed home for 2 days at Christmas, which would rock. My mother reckons we'll clear a 10lb turkey between us in that time, no problem. Even though my dad is on half portions, and I don't really like turkey. I'd swear she was a famine victim in a former life or something...

So, with two weeks to go, has FO panic kicked in for anyone else, or am I the only person throwing in the towel this early in the game?

You never know....I might get more done now that I've surrendered.

Must reboot brain..

2007-11-22T16:42:00.000Z

Went to the Christmas market last night. It's fan-fecking-tastic, and so blog worthy, and naturally I forgot my camera. I did manage to bring the case though.

I had roo burger (and my first wheat in a month) and wandered about and got some things for meze tonight. Picked up some fantabulous tea, a pack of which is on its way to the US of A, seeing as I finally finished and posted my tea swap package.

Landlord is on his way to sort out the smoke alarms. Boomer managed to wrangle the upstairs one out of its holder-thingy on the ceiling with some determination, brute force and a sweeping brush. Even when he managed to take the battery out and chuck it down the stairs in frustration, the thing kept beeping. It is now confined to the press under the stairs until said landlord appears.

Sleeve of neverending cardigan is going well, and should be done over the weekend. Huzzah.

Photos will follow.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States. May your trousers have elastic waistbands, and the eggnog flow freely.

Mmmmm nog....

A little bit of Gitmo at home

2007-11-20T18:45:00.000Z

Who would have thought that in the last 24 hours, I would be driven to the point of gnawing on the bannisters because of a little piece of plastic.

This piece of plastic.

Our upstairs smoke alarm. It has been beeping loudly every 3 minutes since Sunday evening. The landlord and my darling other half are currently trying to fix it, while not plummeting over the landing down on to the tiles below.

Wine. Wine helps the pain.

Lots of wine.

Tumbleweed

2007-11-15T09:37:00.000Z

Stitch and bitch last night was the quietest ever.

So having waited around til nearly 6pm, and having consumed what was possibly the nicest tea ever (made all the better by the freezing wind outside) while looking a bit like a crazy lady who brings potted herbs to talk to, I made for home.

Not without making a 10 step detour from my bus stop first. Ah, the things I do for my readers!

This is Belfast City Hall, and this photo shows perfectly one of the reasons I think Belfast should get an award for most fabulously illuminated city. While standing in front of it, you can't see the spotlights, and you're not left temporarily blinded by one while walking past either.

What's that, you say? What's that, peeking out of the corner? Could it be...?

Why yes! It could!

This is the Belfast big wheel. More like London's Millenium wheel than a 50 cent ride at the local fairground, this beautiful piece of engineering will be around til New Year. The booths, up close, look like horse-drawn carriages, without the wheels.

Or the horses.snort

I am so totally going up in it at some stage. I'll probably hang on til the Christmas markets open at the end of the month, also in the grounds of the City Hall. Can't wait for that.

I love late November into early December. Everything is starting to get decidedly festive, I can wander around cinnamon-scented markets and drink eggnog latte til I go up a dress size. Knitted items get worn as soon as I can get them cast off. For at least a week, everyone seems to bask in the glow that is knowing that they have a week off to eat, drink and ~~fornicate~~ be merry in the not too distant future.

Then the panic sets in.

I have seen otherwise dignified, fully grown women have fights in toyshops over the seasons "must have" chunk of overpriced plastic. I have myself been elbowed out of the way as the fingers of my outstretched hand grazed the last box of chocolates on a shelf.

It's 'effing ridiculous.

The stores close for ONE FECKING DAY PEOPLE!!!!!
Try explaining that to the man doing an impression of a rugby player (or an NFL player) as he sprints to the checkout with a Furby clutched so tightly to his chest that it may require surgical removal.

If money and my vacation balance for the year were no object, you know what I'd do?

I'd hire some plush cabin in a beautiful mountain area for the two weeks covering last-minute shopping, Christmas and New years. I'd hold up in there with my nearest and dearest, without a computer, mobile phone or cable connection. I would cook and bake, and do crafty things. Go for long walks and come back to an open wood fire with hot whiskey and talk until the wee hours. Watch old movies on dvd. Play board games.

And forget that most of the world around seems to have gone batshit crazy.

Happy feet!

2007-11-13T15:43:00.001Z

It seems that I've been knitting more than ever over the last few weeks, but nothing has been leaving my needles. It's like the black hole stage of knitting, where you measure something, and it's 7 inches long. Then you knit for what feels like eleventy billion lines, and you still have 7 inches. Or 7.25, to be really annoying.

I seem to have defeated that today.

I haz warm toez nao ^-^

Real live blogger

2007-11-12T12:17:00.000Z

Yup, I am one. Just erratic is all.

Last week was turned into an entire week of reportage, and eating chocolate. If anyone is still around to read this, I appreciate it :)

So..what have I been up to? Well, the knitting and stitching show happened for starters.

There were a few cool bits and pieces at it

but mostly it was rather disappointing, to be honest. I think there were six stalls in the whole place selling actual yarn, and one of those was entirely fun fur and ack-rylic. No massive bargains like last year, and the presence of several stands of QVC-wannabes selling irons and lint rollers and mini vacuum cleaners was like nails on a blackboard.

It was great to catch up with the girlies, a few of which allowed me to snap them

It was also great to see lots of groups of young teenagers at the show, though they were balanced out by a huge number of members of the purple rinse brigade sitting at one big stand, with those battery powered massage cushions on full blast. I really should have taken a photo of that, in hindsight.

I did really enjoy the guilds section upstairs, and the actual exhibitions were fab (and didn't allow photography of any sort). I managed to come away with a few goodies, most of which were from two yarn shops that I go to whenever I'm in Dublin and Galway. Considering I was hoping to melt my credit card though, I was a bit bummed. I mean, if you're going to something called the Knitting and Stitching show, you expect to come away with more than two skeins of sock yarn!

Those two skeins were, however, Colinette Jitterbug. Yummo! I also got myself a felting kit from the (surprise surprise!) feltmakers guild, and picked up a crosstitch for £2 (or $4). Rocking.

Books, which I have been lusting after for what seems like an eternity, were also added to the collection.

Time for some lunch I think, and further adventures in walking around the house in a manner that suggests that I have no ankles. Breaking in new boots is less than fun.

Sneaky sneaky

2007-11-05T09:13:00.000Z

The weekend happened, and it was good (and I did not eated it).

Must do evil end of month report for work, then shall get to the serious blogging.

Boo!

2007-11-02T16:20:00.000Z

Just wanted to say "happy Friday!" to everyone.

That, and show off my lovely pumpkin

I am shameless, I know.

I'm off to the knitting and stitching show tomorrow. Huzzah!
I've brought my shopping bag with the nice thick shoulder straps, so hopefully no dead fingers this time around.

My act of random yoink-age for today is this

one of our squares for the UK Stitch and Bitch blanket.
I don't have a pic of the other one, but will try to harass one of the girlies for some thing.

I'm hopped up on eggnog latte, and raring to go. This weekend will be fully documented, as I've remembered my camera batteries. Go me.

Have a great one everybody, and I'll blog til you're all sick of me next week :)

Episode 56 star alpha

2007-11-01T10:35:00.000Z

In which my cat looks more whacked-out on catnip than usual (even for a Saturday night)

and my tiny wickle bwain goes pop, and decides that handknitted socks are all that lies between me and hypothermia this winter

Universal toe-up sock in Cherry Tree Hill "greens and blues" supersock. Yes, I have teeny feet

Seriously though, it's pretty cold. Not cold enough for snow, but the wind is coming down from the Arctic every damn day, which makes your outsides want to become your insides for warmth.

This was not made easier by the arrival of an email from a certain long-coveted sock club in my mail box this morning. I now have to decide, by tomorrow, if I'm going to go ahead and sign up, even though it's damn expensive, or hang on to my few pounds for loading up on goodies in New York.

There's also the Knitting and Stitching show this weekend. There's no way I'm coming out of there empty handed either.

Hrm....a conundrum.

Last night was Halloween, or Samhain, or "another hallmark sponsored evening", depending on your outlook on things. I had a lovely, quiet halloween. I went to SnB, cooked proper dinner, drank wine and watched Monster House to the glowing light of a carved pumpkin. We got a few trick or treaters, but I think those started to tail off as soon as we were found out to be a sweets house, and not a pocket change house.

Naturally, I forgot to charge my camera batteries, so have no pictures of the lovely pumpkin. It shall be lit again tonight though, so I'll grab one then.

Dead batteries are also the reason why I have no other photos of my weekend, despite having gone to a convention. Gaelcon rolled around again, and was much fun. I missed it last year, as my back decided that standing, sitting or breathing was not allowed. This is also the first year that I've been to it and not been on either committee or staff. Very strange feeling of "shouldn't I be doing something" occured on more than one occasion.

I was also invited to a bra party in Dublin on Saturday evening, which I'm going to try to get to. It's impossible to get good bras in larger sizes that don't a) look like they were made for nuns b) cost an arm and a leg and c) require a team of dressers to secure them on the wearer.

Hehehe....I'm going to have a yarn bra weekend....

Yes, it seems that I am easily amused.

Lurgy, Jim! Lurgy!!!

2007-10-22T13:06:00.000+01:00

Bleurgh.

The cold I have been fighting off for the last two weeks may have been the flu. It also may have finally beaten my poor immune system in 2 out of 3 games of rock, paper, white blood cell.

Todays post is gonna be short, as I have an appointment with my sofa and a potato that is currently getting a suntan in the oven.

The sponsors of todays post are

I have a conference call with Amsterdam in just over an hour. Once this is done, I shall be retiring to the sofa for the day. I already have my little nest laid out.

The bag on the left with the fuzzy duck-egg blue wonderfulness is Sublime Kid mohair, which I won on Ewe Wish. I'm finally going to cast on Branching out. Go me. Some of the left over yarn will be used with my lurvely Knitpicks Ambrosia to make me some Mrs Beetons.

The bag of minstrels sadly only contains about 5 chocolates, left over from last weeks trip to the cinema. Next bag across contains sock yarn leftovers. (Yes, I bag pretty much everything.)I have most of a ball of Knitpicks Essentials left over from the making of my Volcano socks, which are in the foreground. Haven't sewn in the ends yet, because I can't find my needle case and am not arsed looking in my current condition. My 2.25mm addi's rarely leave the sofa when they're not being used, as my little project basket is at the other side of the armrest.

The blue square is my contribution to the UK Stitch N Bitch blanket that's being put together, and is in my own handpainted.

Exciting day I have lined up, eh?

I'm still going to hit yoga tonight though, as I'll miss it next week anyways.

Right, need to go get a topup for the 'leccy, so that I still have power and therefore, lights. Should possibly brush hair. And get out of pajamas.

...or I could give the little old lady in the shop a reason to use her panic button...

Arghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-16T11:26:00.000+01:00

Got up this morning dun dun dun duuun dun
Feeling fiine dun dun dun duuun dun
Not sore after yoga dun dun dun duuun dun
Just ready for work dun dun dun duuun dun
Logged on to gmail dun dun dun duuun dun
AND I'D BEEN HACKED!

It seems that my subscription to Rowan International has worked out at far more than £22 a year.

I've cancelled my card, and the fraud department are looking into things.
I've spent the morning changing passwords and nuking my laptop.

In fairness, I've been online for over 10 years, and I've not had any problems at all. Thankfully I spotted this before the little scrote in question booked flights to Bermuda with paypal.

Let this be a warning - if you don't have AdAware on your computer, get it. Update it and use it at least once a week.

I do feel a little dirty though. Some spotty 16 year old with a hard on for WoW has been rifling through my email and paypal accounts.

May he die screaming with raging syphilis.

Sock it to me, baby

2007-10-10T15:05:00.000+01:00

As I went rummaging for my camera, I remembered that I didn't update after stitch and bitch last week. We had our most members evah!, which rocked, and I was also on the belini-wagon

The dark green tweedy yarn in the background is Kilcarra donegal tweed, and is being knitted into a cobblestone by Nikki

On the way out the door that night, we were all in a bit of a giggly mood, and the sight of this van outside reduced several of us to hysterics, and required cameras to be whipped out.

Sure, it's childish and all that, but it's still funny on soooo many levels!

Yoga happened on Monday (just to get back to this week) and I woke up the yesterday and rejoiced that I had the foresight to have taken a soak in the bath after class. My hip extensors were not happy.
Class was great though. Nice and slow for a first night, but that didn't mean "not strenuous" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm liking it a lot though. Hazel is quiet and unassuming and can bend herself like a pretzel while the rest of us are working on not falling over in basic standing poses.

Current knitting is sock. Volcano sock.
MY volcano sock. For MY tootsies

I've not been knitting much at all in the last week or so, but I'm hoping to be on to sock two by the weekend.

Which is when we should next have post. I hate when Royal mail goes on strike. It always seems to be perfectly timed with my expecting something knitting-related in the post.

I'm hoping that my kilcarra shade card will have arrived at my parents place by the time I get there on Friday, as I'm eager to order yarn and get Pooks cobblestone started. He's basically getting that, a DS and a couple of books for Christmas. I will not be finishing the damn thing on the train 2 days before Christmas though. Nope.

....I'll be trying to get the ribbing done on a sock so that I can wrap it before the train stops...

The blob

2007-10-08T16:56:00.000+01:00

I made a big mistake on Sunday morning. I weighed myself.
There, in 2 inch high letters was the unavoidable reminder that yes, I have been hibernating in a cookie dough flavoured fat blanked since dad was diagnosed at the start of April.

Bad me.

Ashtanga yoga starts tonight, and I'm on the class register.
w00t!

Brought to you by the letters V, C and M

2007-10-05T11:18:00.000+01:00

I love caramel macchiatos.
No, no, no, scratch that.

I fucking love caramel macchiatos. Make mine a venti.

Actually, now that I think about it, I spent last night making mine a venti on a very regular basis.

With rum.

This morning, while amazingly I'm not hungover, I'm dehydrated to the point that I feel like a small furry critter went to sleep in my
mouth last night (technically this morning) and I am lusting after a short stack of pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. Which you can't actually get
anywhere here.

The food at the restaurant last night was very good, but the service was appauling. When the plates were taken away after our main course, we were offered tea and coffee. We waited nearly 20 minutes for the dessert menu, and when we asked, we were told that we could have the menu, but they needed our table back in ten minutes. In other words, sod off.

So not impressed.

So we went to the pub for a couple of quiet drinks.I didn't realise that it was a late bar til they were kicking us out, and I glanced at the clock.

Oops.

I got to bed some time around four. Nope, not gonna get much in the way of work done today.

Well, apart from going to investigate the potential for food. I've got caffeine, sugar and dairy covered, so it's totally time to get salt, carbs and more carbs under control.

Have a great weekend everyone. Have a caramel macchiato.

Another year older and deeper in debt

2007-10-03T12:29:00.000+01:00

...or another year older and deeper in yarn. Probably more accurate.

The Supah Mario socks are fully finished, and modelled while hanging upside down off the sofa. They're just that damn exciting, it seems!

Universal toe-up socks in Opal Hundertwassers

I'm quite chuffed with them. Also with the fact that I made fraternal twins, and am not itching to frog them because the stripes don't line up. The very enthusiastic receiver loves them that he has pledged to wear them as house socks so that he doesn't wear them out. Aww bless.

Considering that mens socks take for-bloody-ever to knit, this may not be a bad plan, at least til I can get around to making him a second pair. I only realised yesterday just how slow they were, when I cast on a sock for myself, and turned the heel while watching BSG last night.

More universal toe-ups, in Knitpicks Essential Volcano Twist

If I keep going at this rate, I might have a pair done in a week! Pretty good, seeing as I've had to sacrifice my daytime knitting to end of month reports and cold fingers.

Today, I'm not feeling any bit more mature. My hair looks like the proverbial haystack, I'm drinking tea from a Nightmare Before Christmas mug, and trying to skive off work. It's just not right for someones birthday to also be the day for submitting end of month reports. Bah and humbug!

Things aren't all bad though.
My mam and dad sent me a card, and I got the new Jamie Oliver cookbook, and some sterling to buy myself a winter coat with. Huzzah! My dad actually managed to hold a pen long enough to make a vaguely "Dad" shaped squiggle on my card...I nearly started crying.

My godmother (I mistyped that as "gothmother" the first time, for some bizarre reason) and my mams best friend gave me some euros, which will be spent on my other obsession, shoes.

This morning was utterly squee-worthy:

I've had the wonderous Nintendo DS for a month, as he couldn't go without giving it to me. I currently have FF3 in it. I shall now be brain trained as well. A birthday isn't a birthday without books and chocolate, which are well represented, and the dvd's of wonderfulness are My Neighbour Totoro (I am obsessed with Studio Ghibli) and the Hammer box set!!! 21 movies in a box!!!!!

I shall now be endlessly entertained on my travels every weekends.

Sensibly, he didn't get me anything yarny. The Knitting and Stitching Show is coming up, after all!

Right, need to go shower and tame the mane, so that I can drip dry before heading to down.

Shoppingshoppingshoppingshopping!!!

Here comes the...

2007-09-28T13:38:00.000+01:00

Last night, I met Pook after work, and we went and had a nice dinner out. Proper grown ups, we are. Then I got to finally find out what his big surprise was. Stall tickets for Pygmallion at the Grand Opera House. I may have squeed a little loudly. And bounced some.

The play was fantabulous.

Today is a little odd.
It's so strange to be writing the date on paperwork while sitting in the office.

If circumstances were a little different, I'd be having my hair done about now, and trying not to smudge my nail polish while eating toast and putting on mascara simultaneously. My mother would be fussing that she'd never be ready in time, and my dad would be trying to remain stoic while grappling with his bow tie.

It's a world of "what if", isn't it?
I know that things are only postponed, not cancelled.
I know I have a million things to be thankful for.
My dad is alive,and well, and getting stronger by the day. Four months ago, I wouldn't have been able to say that. Four months ago, we didn't know if he would ever wake up again.

I feel petulant and silly and more than a bit selfish that I'm being all misty-eyed about things today. There is, however, nothing in the world that can stop that little voice in the back of my head reminding me that today was to be my wedding day.

Next Wednesday, I shall not be sipping cocktails and doing things that people on honeymoon do.
I shall celebrate my birthday with shopping, cake, and stitch and bitching.

I will remember that walking, breathing, the ability to wiggle our toes and scratch our itches are things that we all take for granted far too often, and that laughter and knitting make the bad times a whole lot more bearable.

Magazines are my lifeline

2007-09-26T14:25:00.000+01:00

In completely un-yarny news, my cousin David is now a proud papa for the first time.

Abigail Jane (or Abby, for short) was born in the wee hours this morning, and looks like a wrinkly old lady! Mama and baby are both doing well, and she's de-pruning by the hour. Abby, that is.

I may have mentioned that I'm on a yarn diet. I may also have mentioned my slight slippage to allow for purchase of enough laceweight to make the fricking wedding shawls.

Guess what arrived this morning?

Only 3 balls in the picture, but 4 were purchased. Sure, the postage was nearly the same price as the yarn, but still! It's 50% baby alpaca, 50% merino, and so wonderfully squidgy. I'm looking forward to casting on now. It's a bargain for that fact alone!

Back on the horse again now.

I'm also on a book diet. We have a lot of books. A whole lot.
Most of these are in storage, though, due to the large amounts of moving about that has been done over the last year and a bit. Since moving to Belfast, we've been buying books again. There are 3 shelves in the living room, that once housed crappy folding wine racks. These are full of books, 2 deep, and in places, 2 high as well. I have a stack of books in my "to be read" pile that's coming up to my waist. Hence, no buying books for a while.

So........magazines aren't books, right?

I've signed up for Rowan International.
I'm hoping that after a few issues, I won't have a large chunk of stash that I have no plan for. (Yes, I justify stash if I can break it into project-specific piles).

If anyone else is interested in signing up, let me know, 'cos if you get referred by a member, there are some extra freebies involved :)

I need to go untangle some sock yarn that's lying all over the stairs now. It got tangled around me as I ran down the stairs, and thankfully I noticed before falling in an embarassing manner.

Embarassing, because even if I had wound up in a puddle at the end of the stairs, I'd still have crawled to the door to get my yarn.

The prisoner

2007-09-25T15:20:00.000+01:00

Today there are no photographs, no tales of being sucked into the LYS while browsing through the merchandise at the greengrocers.

Today, I am a prisoner in my own home.

I jest not. I am locked in, with no way of getting out.
This is in a very, very large part due to a certain someone not paying attention to where he put his house keys after he locked the front door last night, and having to take mine this morning in order to go to work.

This will also be my excuse for there not being anything interesting for dinner.

The sock is doing rather well though. (His name is Wario, it seems)So is my left index finger, now that the nerves in one spot are completely dead. Handy, that.

I've had a few questions, so I'll answer those in an attempt to look popular!

The shawl. Yes, it's really that bad. Yes, I also admit that I may be forever biased towards this yarn. This is not a warning that everyone should unload any of it that they have in their stashes, but a gentle reminder that it may not be the funnest thing to knit ever.

The shawl was blocked using a couple of types of pin.
The first was a tub of rust free, glass headed pins. They were purchased in the "yarn" shop in town, Simpsons, for the outrageous price of £2.90. Outrageous, indeed, especially as I really could have done with a second tub to properly block.
As it happened, I had my fabulous Clover knitting marking pins to hand, and they saved the day.

The pirate washcloth: I'll post a "how to" soon. As soon as I can make out the scrawled handwriting of my pattern, that is. I use the word pattern in the loosest possible sense here.

It's still cold and ick outside. My Jack Skellington mug is almost permanently full of tea and held between my far-too-cold fingers. Tea is my friend. Warms you up on the inside and the outside.
My current brew is Celestial Seasonings red vanilla, with honey. It's the only one of their teas that I've tried, and I do like it. Is anyone else a fan? Other recommended flavours?

Right, this chocolate ricecake ain't gonna eat itself...

Rain, rain, go away

2007-09-24T10:53:00.000+01:00

To say that Autumn (or Fall, depending on your geographic location) is here, is an understatement. November weather seems to have arrived overnight, and the rain is falling with renewed vigor today.

The nights are closing in rapidly, and the chances of going out without a coat or umbrella are non-existant, at least for now. No more crawling out of bed on Friday mornings to see the whispers of dawn tinging the sky.
Nope. 6am now looks like this

Soon, all the "cool" hours will get in on the action, and 8am will look like this too.

Friday did get better.

I was most chuffed with myself for having remembered my camera as these babies flew by the office window at lunchtime.

Saturday mornings ungodly wake up call was softened considerably by shopping.

My wedding boots!
The photo has much crapper light than I hoped, but you'll get the idea. The boots currently reside in the wardrobe of my darling mother, to avoid my wearing them in a weak moment.

Sock 2 says hello.

He's much happier now that he has a heel, and is hoping to be done this week, so that he can hang out with his sibling. Not with his ends hanging out either!

Oooh er!

Barter doesn't count, right?

2007-09-20T13:56:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember my incessant whining about the shawl from hell. Some others of you may have guessed that the mystery photos yesterday were of said shawl.

Yup, I blocked the bitch.

It's done and dusted, and I'm delighted that I can now fold it carefully before abandoning it to the back of the wardrobe. Having finally completed it, I don't think I could possibly bear to let my bridesmaid wear it. I'd run the risk of ripping it off her shoulders and stomping it to death while holding a glass of post-ceremony champagne.

The shawl itself is quite nice, really, and I stuck with it til it was done. The chances of me ever wanting to see it again unless I am very, very (very) drunk are slim to non-existant though. That said, I reserve the right to drag it out of its confinement and reblock it before thrusting it on my poor bridesmaid a week before the wedding, if my new plan B doesn't happen.

My plans for the wedding shawls/stoles/wraps have changed again. This too means that I've broken my yarn diet, but only to the tune of USD$20, which ain't so bad. I have ordered some black laceweight, and I plan on having one shawl made out of it by (hopefully!) Halloween. Depending on how long it takes to arrive, of course.

This should really be called "The Disclaimer Post".

Having finally decided that no, I wasn't just going to suck it up and keep battling on with the demon yarn, I was left with 3 balls, bands intact, of yarn that I never want to feel next to my skin again.

...and here's where the magic happened...

Was turned into

Ain't it great?
I brought the yarn to my LYS (who stocks it) and traded it in for sock yarn!
The photo isn't great - I can't seem to get purples to come out purple instead of blue. These will eventually be turned into stripey knee socks. I do love my stripey knee socks!

Yesterday was International Talk Like A Pirate day, and was one of the quieter SnB's that we've had, in terms of volume, as there seemed to be a large amount of poring over piratey charts done. There was still cake though, don't worry.
I managed to get my supersized washcloth done and finished yesterday and all!

Not the most fantabulous thing I've ever cast off, but Mister is delighted with it, and broke into some appreciative yarr-ing.

All in all, this means that since Monday, I've finished 2 projects, and my WIP's are back to three - one of which is the blocking of the scarf of longness.

The next thing that I really need to start working on is Christmas knitting. I need to get a hat and mittens to match my scarf done so that my extremities don't freeze off in New York. Frozen fingers are unable to squidge new yarn. This is not an option. Himself also needs gloves and a new hat for the trip, as he has grown his hair and the hat I made for him last Christmas no longer fits.

Who else? My parents are the obvious ones, as they'll appreciate the goodies. Both got scarves last year, and will probably get socks this year.

I am paranoid that I've left it too late, and will have to start pulling all nighters with lots of tea, tiger balm and season 2 of Rome come November.

...and this week was sounding so productive for a minute...

A day in the life

2007-09-18T14:19:00.000+01:00

I've been fabulously productive today, and it's not even 3pm yet.
It's all about default, you see.

There was no way that my new cookbook (Nigella Express, for enquiring minds. I <3 Nigella) could manage to squeeze into our woefully inadequate bookshelf when I wanted to put it away this morning. As a result, I ended up rearranging the shelves entirely, and now far more fit, without being squished to death. I hate when books get so compressed on a shelf that dust covers end up torn and with the imprint of other book edges in them.

Seeing as that was done, the cubby under the shelves looked even more awful, so while I was at it, I tidied that up.

Back upstairs, I cleared my inbox, then noticed that it was starting to rain. I managed to get outside and bring in the laundry before it got soaked. Seeing as I was in the kitchen, I put on another load (we have the most badly designed kitchen ever) and then the roll kept going.

Bigger! Faster! Stronger!

2007-09-17T08:59:00.000+01:00

I seem to be getting more spam than ever these days, and someone thinks that I need
a) a penpal
b) pirate software
and
c) all the pills I can swallow.

Oh, and a bigger penis, because I can't satisfy my woman, apparently.

Call me paranoid though, but it seems to me that the spam is getting more specific. The software one for example, got pretty specific about the software recently. Then I remembered that I had been discussing said software in email with a friend. Are the gmail targeted ads (which bug me insanely at the best of times) finally fulfilling their destinies and bringing us targeted spam?

Sorry, but my brain is still wrapped up in my nice warm duvet, and not wanting to be deleting rogue spam that didn't get caught by my filter.

So long and thanks for all the

2007-09-14T15:19:00.001+01:00

This will be my companion on the journey home for the weekend.
My dad has had his tracheostomy removed, and my cats eye infection has cleared up fully.

Not the poo-est Friday ever.

Still haven't figured out where I'm going to get enough space to block my so called scarf. Washing in the bath is a given, but it looks like I'll have to pin it along the landing and into the bedroom. Chances of it not being stepped on accidently while drying? Slim to nil. The rest of the house has either wood or tile floors though.

Another thing to put off til Monday. Monday is going to be strange and busy.

No knitting last night, due to being fed within an inch of my life by MIL to be. Got to see Michelle in her bridesmaid dress. It looks fantastic. I only wish she was getting to wear it in a fortnight..

Still, considering that I've spent the last 6 months comfort eating, my chances of waddling up the aisle in March are far less than if it was this month. (Perhaps I should leave the G&B in the office).

....I really am silver-lining girl today.
Right, need to finish up some paperwork and get wrapped up here, as I'll be running for my bus in an hour.

Have a great weekend everyone!

My so-called queue

2007-09-13T14:20:00.000+01:00

This morning, my wake up call was at 5am. Naturally, instead of being a sensible person and getting to bed at a reasonably early hour, I stayed up til 1am. So not my fault though.

Well, we'd seen the rest of the series, and the last disk looked so lonely and unloved in the box.....

Yeah...

Fecking great series though. Can't recommend it highly enough.

I'm currently sitting at my desk in Dublin, and I may or may not be eating carrot cake from the bakery downstairs. My boss is over from head office. She's very nice, atch, which was a pleasant surprise.

While BSG'ing my socks off last night, I finished off my so-called scarf. To say that it's a little on the long side would be doing it a disservice. Supah mario sock 2 is my travelling knitting for this week, and next week I'll get that so called hat on the needles.
My 5.5mm addi's arrived as well (wahoo!) so the boobholder is next on the list after that. I'll even be using stash yarn - ain't I great? I have a skein of Lorna's Laces fisherman in the Jeans colourway, which is a lovely muted blue, with a silvery beige colour going through it. I'm totally not doing it justice, but my English is slightly broken today.

Nothing that more cake can't fix..

I also need to get a new hat and scarf underway for pook. I have a London beanie on my Ravelry queue, and making a matching scarf will be so easy that it should even be SnB-proof. Yarn choice will be the problem. It needs to be a suitable "man colour" which generally involves greys, blacks, browns, and very muted greens and reds. Kilcarra would be perfect, apart from the fact that I already made him a hat and scarf in that already. I really don't want to use the glorious Rowanspun, as I've enough for jumper-sized projects in that, and would like to make said jumpers and not end up with a few scarves and lots of odd skeins.

Suggestions?
What about cascade 220?

Yes, I realise that it's completely sad in a pathetic sort of way that I have more stash than some small countries, and yet there's nothing suitable for this project in it. I realise, too, that I told certain people (whom I suspect have very good memories indeed) that I'm on a yarn diet. I've bought no yarn for a week so far, and am being very good and not even browsing on eBay.

Stash bought with yarn birthday money doesn't count though. Just so that we get that out of the way before there's a misunderstanding.

Update-o-rama

2007-09-12T10:23:00.000+01:00

Wednesday already. How did that happen?

Autumn has officially arrived in these parts, and quite a bit early.

So utterly crap was our summer that the swallows are preparing to hit Africa a fortnight early, and the trees started turning at the end of August. Mother Nature is clearly ready for some serious duvet time.

As is my routine now, I spent the weekend travelling to and from home, and being in a hospital. It's a bit surreal being home.
The daily routine hasn't changed that much from what it was in Cork, but now I get to wake up to the mewing of my cat outside my window at 5am.

He is a cutie though. Rather huge too, being part maine coon and all. He was yet another rescue cat, except we knew from day one that we were keeping him. Or that he was keeping us.

One of the best bits of my weekend?
Opening my bedroom curtains in the morning, and seeing this

Slip slidin' away

2007-09-07T11:40:00.001+01:00

Well.....it has been a while, hasn't it?

To be honest, I didn't realise quite how long. Bad blogger. No cookie.

Work night out passed off well, and much food and booze was had by all.
Here we are!

One of the steaks was the stuff of legend

Knife included for a little perspective. This wasn't even the largest one on the menu. Cos, ya know, we could all do with having a pound of steak for dinner bleurgh

The evening went really well though. It was nice to have an actual night out. There haven't been many of those at all this year.

Supah Mario sock one was completed last week

Don't be fooled by the cast off edge into thinking that this sock is finished though. Oh no. It seems that even though I translated Pook's request for "one inch longer" into "3 inches longer please", the not-finished sock here is still about an inch too short. Easily fixed though. Easily fixed, on Monday, that is.

I applied, and had approved, my holidays for the end of the year this week. I'll be finishing for Christmas on Friday the 22nd December, and won't be back at work til January 9th. Rockin! The best bit is that I also booked our flights.

Myself and Pook shall be invading NYC on December 28th, doing some sight seeing, shopping, hitting a show, yarn crawling, and eating far too much food before departing again on January 6th. Wahoo!!!! doesn't even come close to covering it. It will be Pooks first trip outside of Europe as well (awwww!) and he's incredibly excited about going. That, and freaking out about the flight, thanks to those incompetant people at KLM giving him a flight to remember. In a bad way.

So, filled with online-shoppers buzz, we hit the town yesterday after work. I even wore my favourite socks

I do love long striped socks.

We managed to pick up some feather pillows at last. I really don't like microfibre pillows, and they're impossible to avoid these days. Now we have lovely squishy ones. We had some Starbucks (mmmmcinnamon) and pondered whether a shop with a sign outside it like this:

could be considered guilty of false advertising (or at the very least, misleading hapless knitters) when not only does it not sell spinning wheels, it isn't even a yarn shop! Nope, this place with the promising name sells curtains, pillows, duvets and craptacular bed linen at knockdown prices.

Craptacular. I do like that word.

Poor Pav finally lost his battle with cancer yesterday as well. He's the first opera singer I ever really liked, and he was just amazing. Won't be replaced any time soon, that's for sure.

Must go and get some actual work done now. Yes, I too would like to claim that sitting in front of my laptop surfing through Ravelry counts as work, but my inbox states otherwise.

Back down home this evening. At least I have my so called scarf to keep me busy. That, and my birthday prezzie from Pook, which I got early. That shall be blogged after the weekend. If I can pull myself away from it, that is.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Beginning at home

2007-08-28T11:15:00.000+01:00

Supah Mario sock is coming along well.

It's very odd to be using 2.5mm needles again, after the 8mm pointy sticks stipulated by my last object. (The mohair shawl. Nope, still not blocked.) I am at a fork in the road though. Do I keep knitting, and get to the heel turning today, or do I cast on something else that I can bring to the cinema tonight? MmmmmMattDamon....nope, no chance of heel turning while watching that.

My so-called scarf is ready to be started, but I don't want to bring 35mm straights with me again, having poked myself in the arm so often last time.

Wow...the deep thoughts that fill my day....

At some point in the past, I may have mentioned the Great Destashing. One of my mothers friends knitted for all her grandkids, and as they grew up, she gave up knitting. Or, at least, knitting teeny little cardigans that she would never get to wear herself. The majority was acrylic yarn that came in either baby colours or school-jumper colours, as demonstrated below.

This morning, I had my eureka moment.

In my estimation, I have just over 3kg (or nearly 7lbs) of acrylic that I'm never, ever going to use. As of this morning, I have an empty cardboard box in our spare room/home office, and over the next few months I'm going to fill it with booties, hats and other items to be sent to various charity groups catering for babies/preemies. Just about all of these ask specifically for acrylic and acrylic blends, as they're totally machine washable and dryable.

Considering how fast little things knit up, I have little to no chance of getting bored of a pattern. I get my instant gratification projects, a warm fuzzy feeling inside, and a little head gets something cute to put on it.

Does anyone else do charity knitting? I know things like Afghans for Afghans and the Duulan project were huge in the States, but I wasn't keen on the vast amounts of airmiles that anything I would send would clock up. Anyone have any stories they'd like to tell?

It's oh so quiet...shhhh...shhh

2007-08-27T12:29:00.000+01:00

It appears that some readers think I've been far too quiet of late, and I guess they're right. Then again, when my life closely resembles that of my hamster, I bore me at the best of times, never mind anyone else.

I feel that people would rather a few days of quiet, rather than being bored to death.
Personally, I like reading about the normal, everyday things that other people get up to in other countries, so perhaps I'm not entirely yawn-worthy all the time. Paranoia gets the better of me at times.

SnB was on Wednesday. We had a new venue, which worked fine, even if it was the smallest turnout ever. Durn college expecting people to get their theses (thesuses sounds more fun in my head lol) done by deadline and such. Still, we soldiered on bravely.

I felt a little underachieving, having failed to complete a scarf and another throw square like a certain someone. Ahem.

Still, it was a great laugh. The sock was named Supah Mario Sock, due to the resemblance of the sock striping to the colours of the infamous platform game.

The sock enjoyed a mojito. Well, it was payday...

The sock enjoyed the view from the hospital window...

...then deemed the lack of air conditioning intolerable and demanded to be taken outside.

As soon as the sun came out, of course.

I have a feeling that this sock is going to be rather demanding.

The doctor that my father is under at the moment is a highly intelligent moron. Degrees coming out the wazoo, and yet is more willing to say "we don't know how brain damaged he'll be" instead of admitting "I don't know what's going on, as I don't have any frame of reference".
My dad is not brain damaged in the slightest. He had a drug reaction last week, that made him think that our cat was sitting on the end of his bed, but that's about it. (As things to hallucinate about go, I'll admit that was both cute and rather funny!)

Then again, maybe he is. Personally, I don't know of any brain damaged person that can have a discussion on car manufacturing, and follow it up with explaining to me about the sillica content of sand used in glassmaking. Yeah, he's a vegetable alright....

He has, poor dear, picked up the nastiest chest infection in world history in this place. They, naturally, are going with the cover-your-ass method, and insist that he came from Cork with it. Do chest infections really take 3 weeks to manifest symptoms? Do you not think the slight lack of basic hygiene shown by some of your staffers might possibly have something to do with it?

Argh.

.......enough rantage.
I just find things massively frustrating at times.

So what do I do?

I knit.

Hey there, Mister Postman

2007-08-20T17:41:00.000+01:00

A two-post day! w00t!

Rainy day scarf is done and dusted, and photographed on bush 1 of 2 in the "garden".

That's not the really exciting thing though. The really exciting thing is this

my box of goodies from Mindy!
In the piccie you can see 2 skeins of Knitpicks blanks, ready for the dyepot.
The red yarn is knitpicks essentials, and the fab blues are knitpicks memories. The little skeins of green are called Ambrosia, and what an apt title. I would fill the bath with this and do nekkid things if I could. It's 80% baby alpaca, 20% cashmere. Need I say more?
All of this wonderfulness was topped off with a copy of Stephanie PearlMcPhee Casts Off, which has been on my amazon wishlist for ages.

Thanks again Mindy. :)

A bad day, better

2007-08-20T10:07:00.000+01:00

My lovely other half rang me on Friday morning while I was in work, to let me know that he'd taken delivery of a package from the States. He assured me that he had given it a good shake to see if there were any edibles that called for immediate "checking". Thankfully I was spared coming home to see him in a post-twinkie haze, dressed in a bedsheet and some yarn.

A huuuuuge thank you to my spoiler, Mindy. You rock my socks.

I'll post some photos tomorrow, as my camera batteries picked the perfect time to need recharging.

In the meantime, I'll try to get some work done that doesn't involve me fondling my new shinies.

Knitting on trains is great. 3 hours of virtually uninterrupted working on a project, all at one time.

Rainy day scarf is done, or will be once I weave in the ends.

Cinema tomorrow.
Any Belfast peeps interested in the Bourne Ultimatum?
MmmmmmMatt Damon....

Faraway hills

2007-08-14T10:12:00.000+01:00

Ok, I've been quieter than usual over the last week or so, but there has been a lot going on.

The Saturday before last, my uncle lost his battle with cancer. He was diagnosed at the same time as my Dad, in April, and fought it right til the end. He could be the worlds biggest pain in the butt at times, but he sure will be missed.

On the Friday of that same weekend, one of my friends from home passed away. He was due to have surgery on the Wednesday, having been admitted to the same ward as my dad (coincidence much?!) the weekend before. Unfortunately, by the time Wednesday rolled around he was on life support in intensive care, and there was nothing that could be done. His wife is a widow at 26, and not only is she 6 months pregnant, but she has 3 more little ones at home all under the age of 4. Life truly sucks sometimes.

My usual weekend trip to Cork was slightly different this time around. I headed down on Thursday, helped my mother with the packing and cleaning, and on Friday we followed the ambulance back home. Dad's now in the hospital in my hometown, having lots of physio to get him back on his feet. It's pretty much a pit stop til we can get a space at the national rehab hospital, but it's still a step.

I managed to photo another section of my stash for Ravelry this weekend, as well as take a few other pics, and then being teh blonde, left my camera back home. This will be a photo-free week, as a result.

The lovely Trish, AKA Belle7171 finally got my "bad day swap" package. It went down well, which I'm rather chuffed about. I can't wait for my one to arrive. It shall not be kept, until a suitable moment of Zen though. Nope, it shall be ripped open on the spot. I may even manage to close the door on the postman and get past the hall to do so.

Rainy day scarf is going well. Except for the bit I repeated too often last night while watching season one of Rome, and have to frog. Ah well.
Maybe when I get finished with the Rainy day scarf, the rainy days will cease, and we can have some summer, instead of the 6-month-long spring we're currently going through. Even the trees are confused. Many of them have changed colour and started dropping leaves already!

Going to the moooooovies tonight. Ice cream cookies rock.

Coffee....please....coffee.....

2007-08-07T10:22:00.000+01:00

No posting from me in a couple of days, due to it being a bank holiday for me. The first day off I've had in over 3 months to boot. Naturally, shopping was involved.

No yarn. Ain't I a good blogger?
I'm totally going to Bangor next week though! Hehehe

I got my nails done. Not something I do very often, but I smashed my hand into a door at the weekend and broke a nail at a painful and bleeding place. As I was there to have it glued together, I figured some new red polish would cheer me right up!

We didn't get too rained upon on our walk around Belfast, had a fab lunch at Cafe Vaudeville, which lives entirely up to its name, and I picked up a copy of the Sims 2.Which I then stayed up til 1am playing. I am not a well bunny this morning. I feel like I have a hangover, just without the need to throw up all the time.

Simpsons, wot used to be a yarn shop, and now mostly sells touristy stuff, was investigated for the first time in person. They have a great selection of buttons, some of which I now want to find projects to match. The yarn wall mostly consists of baby acrylic, and having gone for a rummage in the 50 pence bin and discovered dead spiders resting peacefully in several balls, I left yarnless.

The shawl is finally making progress. Score one for me!
I still hate the yarn. This was not lessened by my getting to the end of ball one and discovering that the heart of the thing was, essentially, just a giant tangle.

Through no fault of my own, I might add. I keep my yarn in a bag in my bag, so as to avoid tangles and the embedding of various objects like keys and small children.

Really, I've quite impressed myself though. Instead of hurling it into a drawer while profanity fell loudly from my mouth, I've done the grown-up thing and gone about taking the knots apart. Told you that I wasn't feeling well today.

I can't swear that I wasn't at least a little more determined having discovered that I don't have the correct needles for the project I had hoped to start today. I am no closer to finishing my moss stitch cardigan than I was last week. Still, it's ages til Winter, eh?

The running total of WIP's for me now stands at an all time low of 2.
This can't and won't go on. El Shawlo will possibly be too awkward to bring to SnB tomorrow, so I may just have to cast on something else. A nice quick knit, that uses stash yarn and needles that I have already.

Hrmmmm....time to go rummage through Ravelry, I guess.

Robots in disguise

2007-08-01T12:08:00.000+01:00

Last night we went to Transformers, and it did rock verily.
We even got a little knitting in.

Note to self: in future, when planning to knit at the cinema, break out the addi's and leave the 35cm straight needles at home. Constantly poking myself in the right bicep was less than a barrel of laughs.

The snot nosed teenagers behind us were also less fun then said barrel.
They talked loudly through the whole film, kept swapping seats and playing with mobile phones. OH said a few choice words to them, as did most of our row and the row behind them. Mouthy feckers. They ran out the door in record time as soon as the credits started rolling though! I have their faces branded into my brain, so if I ever see them again, I'll ask for them to be removed before the film even starts.

Harumph!

Calori two is well under way on this wet and miserable Wednesday. I'm just glad I managed to get the duvet cover off the washing line before it started.

Summer? Hello? You seem to have gone and gotten yourself a tad lost on us!
Please come baaaaack! All is forgiven!

A stitch in time...something something...

2007-07-31T15:01:00.000+01:00

It seems that Ruth, one of the SnB group, hates seaming almost as much as I do. I don't feel so bad that it has taken about 10 times the number of hours spent knitting to seam up the baby shrug. In fairness, most of those were spent procrastinating.

It is rather cute though. Especially when I get it ready for posting with the hat and booties.

Well I'm rather chuffed anyway. It's the first lot of baby clothes I've ever knitted. Darling mother keeps making comments about it being "good practice" for the future.

So as a reward to myself for getting the seaming well under way, I allowed myself to cast on a Calorimetry. I finished seaming yesterday, and sewed the button on to the calori. I think it balances out. I think future projects involving seaming should be partnered with some form of instant gratification project. Or another calori.

I spotted the button in my fab LYS before I cast off. It's made from coconut shell, and it rocks my socks. I love ivy and vines. My advise to anyone who hasn't started a calori yet and is thinking of it - don't buy your buttons til you've cast off. You don't make any buttonholes in the calori, as the holes from turning the short rows suffices. This is quite a large button and I really thought that it wasn't going to work in the end.

Plus, it's an excuse to go to your LYS with an FO, and pick up something shiny for your next project while you're there!

My "bad day swap" package is in the post. Yay.
Postage really is mentally expensive. Still, it's worth it, and I hope my swap partner likes the goodies that eventually wing her way.

Other news today, it being one of those days...the wedding is being postponed til the Spring. We thought that we'd get away with it being this year, but I'd rather have my dad be less rushed and better able for it. I'd have liked December, but it would put too much pressure on people both in terms of time and finance. We have lots of friends who are still studying, and it's exam time for them.

This makes me feel much better about having frogged incarnation 3 of the wedding wraps.

Yes, I am a bad, bad person.

I just fricking hate this yarn. It feels nice, but is a nightmare to knit with. I was almost tempted to substitute the lurid pink baby acrylic, but thought that might be noticed. Also, 10mm needles? Rather heavy when you've been knitting with them a while. They do double as nunchucks though, which is handy when you're wip'ing on the bus in a bad neighbourhood.

OH is downstairs hoovering and sorting laundry. Bless.
He is still sans emploi, as they say. The case of the butthead boss is getting more interesting by the day. Can't say much, just in case, but we are looking forward to his next letter to see how many times he contradicts his previous letters in it.
At least he knows where the washing machine is, and no longer whinges when I tell him that he has to clean up if I cook and work all day.

It's amazing how fast he can run through a whole list of chores when he knows a trip to see Transformers is on the cards this evening!

Light fingers make the most noise

2007-07-26T15:10:00.000+01:00

Last week, the fabulous Fairytale Frog donated two balls of Freedom Spirit yarn from her stash to my cause, and now I have enough yarn to finish the moss stitch cardigan of dooooooooom!

Due to large amounts of rain, I've been unable to move in my house for the last fortnight, as there are wet things hanging to dry everywhere there is hanging space available. Last night, I was able to give her a return prezzie. Some of my very own handpainted yarn. Thankfully I had my camera with me, as a picture is worth a thousand words. Or giggles, as the case may be.

Mmmmmmyarn.

Is my yarn. Not your yarn. My yarn.

I can has yarn?

.......

Baby shrug, interrupted.

2007-07-25T09:20:00.000+01:00

First up, a quick hello to everyone, and thanks for the comments of encouragement. I've finished seaming side one of the shrug, and am down as far as the armpit of side two. I still have all my hair and fingernails (bar that one I broke last week) so it's going well.

I also finished the bootees of gorgeousness.

I had a request from the lovely Denise for a bit of a talk through the baby shrug. It's from the Debbie Bliss book Simply Baby, which I adore.
I have deleted my work in progress photos from the previous cthulhu-baby incarnation, so I'll just use this one.

(If you right click and hit open in new window, it'll make life easier!)

This is a bottom up shrug, knitted in one piece. The cast on edge is at the bottom left of the photo, and is basically the start of a t-shaped section for the back and arms. The next section is slightly more involved. On my first attempt, I got a little...how do you say....over-confident, and in the process of being queen of the universe I left out a line of pattern, which resulted in the previously mentioned cthulhu-baby option.

Divide for fronts
As you're on a circ needle for this, it makes things a zillion times easier.
Knit across the required number of stitches, do the casting off in the middle, and knit across the remaining stitches. This is much easier than having to move them before casting off the middle stitches

Congratulations, you now have what looks like one side of a giant buttonhole!

At this point, take your trusty stitch holder, and put all the stitches from the end of the line - the side that's all cut off by its lonesome - on to it. Then ignore them completely.

The next pattern section is worked on the remaining live stitches that you have on your needles. Work the required number of straight rows, then start on your increases. Do not do what I did, and ignore that end of line that says "and the inc row once more". This leads to much frogging and swearing later, as things end up backwards.

Continue down through the sleeve shaping lines, and then you're home free for the shape front section. These are the small sail-shaped bits right up at the top.
Do not let your brain tell you that the right side is anything other than the nice side with the little v's on it. That way lies madness. And cthulhu-baby arms, and no fronts.

Once you get done with that,and have your stitches moved to a holder, it's time to work on the right front. Again, ignore the stitch holder entirely. Join the yarn to the live stitches as you would if you were changing to a new ball, or changing colours, and off you go.

When she says sleeve edge, she means where the cuff will be, and the side edge is the bit at the U-shaped piece in the middle that you're creating. You'll see these on the photo pretty easily.
On this section, you're basically doing exactly the same as on the other side, just in reverse, so instead of casting off at the start of a row, you'll be doing it at the end.
Work down through the shape front section, and you should end up with a mirror image of the other side, and very few stitches left on your needle.

Here's where I cheated though. Instead of going from there, I moved the live stitches straight to a 4.5mm circ, K1 and then picked up stitches the whole way around. That's the stage the photo is at, and why one of my fronts looks deformed. I didn't, however, use her number of pickups, as it wasn't working for me when I tried. I just picked up every stitch. Yup, all of em. Then worked 5 lines of 2x2 rib, and cast off.

Bottom edge, where the original cast on was, and with the cuffs, I did the same thing.

When that's all done, flip it in half with the wrong side out, and line up the edges.
You'll end up with something that looks like this

You then have the joyous task of seaming. On the plus side, the book gives great info on that.

I hope that helps!
If anything is unclear, or you have any questions, feel free to holler. I like feeling useful :)