Another year older and deeper in debt

...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!!!

Tagged and ready for departure

It seems that I've been tagged by Nan.
I always worry that I will bore people with things that I think they might find interesting. Here's my attempt!

So this is how it works: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.


Alrighty then...
1. I'm an only child.

2. I'm useless at delagating tasks to other people, because I'm never convinced they'll get done to my standards and on deadline.

3. Little by little, my "great" office job is killing me. I will be in a padded cell if I don't get off my butt and work in something creative again.

4. Snakes. Snakes squick me out. I think it has something to do with them not having legs, as I am rather taken with lizards, geckos and the like.

5. I have a hamster. His name is Dagon. (He tells me to do things...like buy yarn).

6. My yarn stash is scarily organised. Just about everything is in labelled ziplocs. Sometimes I think that if I have the time to label and bag all my yarn, I obviously have a small and puny stash.

7. I bake when I'm stressed. This normally results in several phonecalls to people to come and help me scale the cake mountain.

I'm going to be a big chicken and not tag anyone, but if anyone would like to do this after seeing it here, please comment so that I can go and read yours as well!

Right, well this apparently is a knitting blog, so I'll mention that I got a whole inch done on the ever-present wraparound cardigan last night, before my eyes decided they weren't on speaking terms with my fingers anymore. The only thing less exciting than endless rows of stocking stitch are endless rows of moss stitch on 4.5mm needles.
I was home a tad late last night, having decided to go on a window-shopping walk after work to clear my mind. I may have ended up in several bookshops. I may have bought Charmed Knits. I may have stayed up til 2am wondering what to knit that wouldn't be too warm to wear on my trip to the next HP movie. I may be too geeky for my own good.

Next we have the entirely random "Things I see on my walk to work". I don't have any stalkers that I know of, but if I do, I may be making things a bit easy for them.

Anyway, here it is.



It was raining rather heavily this morning, and just as I got to Dublin castle, the rain cleared and the sun peeped out for a moment. Nice metaphor, that.