Well I brought my camera this week, but I also brought the dead batteries instead of, you know, the ones I put on to charge especially.

I am teh blonde.

Last night I started turning the heel on my second teal sock. I realised after about 10 rows that I'd had a brainstorm and ignored the "and turn" part of w&t. Frogging and swearing ensued. Lots of swearing. Picking up 2mm stitches in dark yarn is not my idea of a fun Monday night.

On the plus side, cos there has to be one, I managed to get the ripped section reknitted on the bus journey this morning, instead of dozing off and jumping to attention as I almost miss my stop.
The plan now is to knit like a woman possessed, and get sock 2 done on Thursday, so that I can cast on sock one of pair 2 on Thursday evening at Knit Night.

Anyone think that I'll actually manage it without pulling out my hair or trying to strangle myself with my addis?

So no piccies again today.
Oops.

I've spent a chunk of today at work (sssh!) updating my Ravelry page. It is a wonderously fabulous site, with a wonderously fabulous queue for membership. So totally worth the wait though. I have friends on it now as well, so I don't feel so lonely.
Conclusion: if you're not already on the list, sign up. Go on, clicky linky. There's no time like the present.

I've signed up for a bloglines account recently as well. I read rather a huge amount of blogs on a regular basis. Blogging is considered a valid use of the net connection here for some bizarre reason that I won't question. Anyway, bloglines is wonderful for dealing with those times when you realise that you have eleventybillion blogs bookmarked, and that you're signing up with all the blog sites in an attempt to keep up with them. Instead of that, sign up for bloglines. It takes five minutes, and you're left with a page that shows you all recent entries for your chosen reading material. Faaaaaabulous.


My username on both Ravelry and Bloglines is, surprise surprise, GaietyGirl.
Feel free to friend me :)

Dear Office cleaning lady,

We spend a large amount of money on renting this office space every month. We also spend a chunk to allow us to have your services.

On several occasions, a member of staff has arrived in early to see you sitting in our conference room, drinking our coffee and enjoying our view. Given that you're the only one who drinks instant coffee and we had an industrial tin that's now empty, I'm guessing this is a pretty regular thing.

In exchange for our providing you with free beverages and not enough work to fill 2 hours a week, could you please please please put a new bottle of handwash in each of the bathrooms when the current bottle is empty. The current tactic of filling the empty one up with water because there's 1/10th of a teaspoon left in the bottle is not amusing. Not only does the bottle then squirt water all over the place, it doesn't actually, you know, work as handwash.

Many thanks,
4th floor employee with watered down handwash stains on her non-black tshirt.



In other news, I may have slipped while browsing ebay and bought some sock yarn.
I'm not obsessed. I can quit any time!

...I just don't wanna.

Precision planning.

Tomorrow, I make my weekly trek to Cork to spend the weekend. Sunday I'll be back to Dublin, where I'll be staying for a week. Partly this is so that I can get some archiving and stuff done at work, and partly because I have to be measured for my wedding dress.

I'm dreading it. I've been comfort eating bigtime since dad was diagnosed, and the few pounds I've lost have all come back with a vengence. The joy of a corset though - even if I don't manage to get down to my proper weight again, I'll have the possibility of being sucked in by a couple of inches. Though at that point, my cleavage may have to be registered as a WMD.

This evening I have to pack. Usually I just bring my laptop rucksack with my work stuff, and my rather large handbag with everything else. Not this time.
With a week of knitting to plan, what should I bring?

It's not like I don't have enough projects to work on. There's the baby shrug, but I can't bring that as mother or MIL will make those "oh dear" noises that translate as "would it not be easier to buy one at this stage?".

There's no way in hell I'm bringing the black mohair stole on public transport. One bump in the wrong direction, and I'll be needing valium with my overpriced and underbrewed train-tea. As I type, it's staring at me from its perch on top of some folded laundry.



The taunting!!!! I just can't take it anymore!!!!!




*ahem*

This is always the option of the second teal sock. It's a couple of inches off the heel-turning stage, and I could really use the time on it. I don't have second sock syndrome or anything, it's just that I have 2 skeins of Shepherd Sock which I am dying to cast on. So far I'm being strong though.

Option 3 is to take this along this lovely...er....square



Those of you who read on a regular basis (ha! I have subscribers now! wahoo!) will possibly recognise the yarn in question. This square is none other than Sleevie One from the neverending moss stitch cardigan. I'm reckoning I could easily get sleeve one finished by tomorrow evening. Then I'd most likely run out of yarn...

Which brings me to option 4, baby hat/bannister warmer number two. This one in a shade that actually matches the now frogged (sob!) baby shrug. Again, it's something that I could have finished over the weekend, once I don't just snore my way through 6 hours of train time.

Do you want to know the really funny thing? I'm so busy trying to decide what/which project(s) to bring and leave, that I missed the fact that I was outbid on a skein of Opal sock yarn in a colourway I've been lusting after for a year.
I'll have plenty of yarn next week, but not enough clean socks - I'm down to 3 pairs - as the weather has been wet, I don't have a drier, and there are only so many surfaces in a house that laundry can be safely hung on.

Maybe I could justify casting on with the shepherd sock if I got them done in less than a week....hrm....

Yellow fingers and not a cigarette in sight.

I was a busy little bee yesterday. Not only did I get my bake on for the first time in this house.....


(Yes, half got eaten by the time I got my camera out. It's sundried tomato and parmesan bread)





but I also got my first ball of Lime N Violet finished!


Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I got the first sleeve for the moss stitch cardigan cast on, and cast off the baby shrug...though I'll confess, I'm having problems working out what bit fits where for sewing up purposes. I'm guessing that if I join the ribbing edges properly, then the other seams will make themselves known to me. Either that, or this may be the most kimono-style shrug in history.

I love knitting, I just suck at finishing. Not suck, ok. I get bored with finishing. When I cast off, I want to be able to wash, block and wear an item, not spend a week going blind doing kitchener with black laceweight or something similar.

Those small, instant gratification projects? Love them. The world needs more instant gratification projects that are both lovely to look at and still functional. The world does not need another toilet roll cover in pink and white acrylic with a pound shop (or dollar store) Barbie knock-off perched precariously in the middle.

Really, I think I want those elves from the Elves and the Shoemaker to invade my house at night, turning my CO items into wonderful FO's. I'll even do the blocking myself.

Maybe.

Swappity doo dah

When I finally crawled out of bed this morning, my inbox held an email with details of my "having a bad day" swap partner. I'm not saying who it is, at least not yet, but I'm delighted that I got this person, and am going to have so much fun spoiling them rotten. They deserve it.

One big downside is that I'm going to have to use every bit of willpower that I have not to post photos of the goodies as I get them. I've picked up the first couple of little bits already, and will get more sorted later in the week when I get into town properly.

A little hint though, because I suck at trying to be cool, calm and collected.



So I've been a busy little bee today.
Watch me neglect all my work this week in favour of knitting...

A little anti-social, no?

Well as I'm back in Dublin today, I thought I'd share another of my favourite bits of the city.

Nope, it's not a joke. This building is an often ignored Dublin landmark. Part of the reason I love it is that it shows the evolution of language. The title is hilarous to me now, but at the time it would have been quite serious, and not at all amusing.
James Joyce even mentions it in Ulysses.

It always gives me an image of overweight, red faced landlords sitting in high-backed armchairs with their trousers rolled up and feet in a basin of water, and looking rather annoyed. Indignent, even.

Onwards and stashwards

Last night was my second stitch n bitch, and as Nikki is in Florida, I was the designated photographer.

My Ravelry.com invite arrived yesterday, and I'm already bordering on obsessive about the site. It's fantastic. It's even encouraging me to knit faster and turn my WIPS into FO's.

So today, I worked. Emails were answered, databases were updated, podcasts were listened to.

Knitting was done.


I finally cast off the body of the moss stitch cardigan. I'm very proud of me, both for sticking with it and for not being suffocated under layers of yarn while knitting it.
Fine, sure, hanging like that it looks like a waistcoat for a rather short and wide person. It's actually a cowl-type neck when it's done up - those bits are hanging down in the manner of Hugh Hefner's dressing gown at the moment. I bought some of those long Clover pins for holding things together during finishing, but they seem to have been stolen by brownies overnight.

Mmmmbrownies.

Sunday will see an email hitting my inbox with details of my spoilee on the "Having a bad day" swap. I can't wait. It's knitty-shopping without the guilt :)