Bonsoir....

Aujourd'hui, je suis trop fatiguée d'ecrire. Je me couche, et je dors. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

(je n'étais pas trop fatiguée de tricoter, vous comprenez?)

à dèmain.

Displacement activity

Cindy is a wicked woman. All I did was ask an innocent little question and she wrote a whole blog post to answer it (ok, she's a very kind and thoughtful wicked woman). The thing is, that very kind and thoughtful blog post included lots of temptation, and (here's where I fell down) lots of very useful links and information. Now, I'm sorry, but a woman on the last day of her holiday who's supposed to be doing lots of work simply can't resist that kind of a distraction! Armed with some new pointy DPNs and some brand-new gorgeously snuggly-soft malabrigo sock yarn, what knitter could resist the temptation to just read up on the process? "Just a quick look, so I can understand how you do the heel. I've been wondering for ages..." The trouble is, a quick look becomes a long look, becomes a long read, and at some point in all that reading, my wayward fingers, which should have been marking books, picked up those new pointy DPNs and that gorgeous wool and... well..... this happened. The books I should have been marking, in case you're wondering, still lie abandoned on the floor. Either I'm going to have to stay up all night after French tomorrow marking them, or I'm going to be taking that class to a computer room on Wednesday. Hey, now there's an idea....

Oh, and Cindy? Thankyou! I'm loving the toe-up sock so far...

Last day of holiday

It's the end of half term. I have just had an entire week off work to rest, relax and prepare for the next six weeks of term, leading up to Easter. I seem to have managed two out of the three...
Never mind. After the last few weeks of worry and stress and hard work, I deserved a proper rest. I have no idea what on earth I'm going to teach the kids tomorrow, but never mind. Actually it isn't as bad as it sounds, they all need to do a test this week so tomorrow's lessons can all be last-minute revision, and all I'll have to do tonight really is mark two sets of books. Bummer. I hate marking. I must set more homeworks this term taht are either learning (i.e. no marking at all, do a quick vocab test next lesson) or can be marked by the kids at the start of the next lesson. I'm spending far too many hours trying to slog through 11 sets of books every week! I just can't manage it. This morning we had some lovely fresh air and exercise up at the club doing some practical shotgun, whch is great fun, and I also knitted a bit more of the lace on the silk cocoon cardigan sleeve - I'm nearly onto the stockinette section now.
The cocoon lace pattern is coming out really nicely, although I have to say in deep purple it's reminding me more of blackberries at the moment. This second pic is the closest I can get to the colour of it, although it's really still not quite this blue, it's a really deep imperial purple.
I just rushed outside to take these in the afternoon sun, as it peeped out from behind the clouds for a couple of minutes. Also enjoying their Sunday stroll around the garden:

Ethelred, Elsie and Attila, snacking on some corn, their third favourite thing in the whole world (just out of interest, #1: mealworms, #2: fresh corn-on-the-cob).

And not to be left out, this little madam came out and rolled around in the cutest, take-my-picture kind of way. I think she's afraid the chickens will get more blog space than she does... fat chance. She's normally to be found on or near wool 23 hours a day!

A strange day - lots of waiting around and some spinning.

My brother was supposed to call in this afternoon on the way back from his latest ski trip. My Mum came down to see him, as we don't get to see him very often - he lives waaay up in Blackpool. He did eventually get here - at about 7.30 pm. We had been expecting him since lunchtime. Such is the way of things when you are on a school trip with a coachload of 40 or 50 kids - delays happen very easily and are totally unpredictable. Like the customs office deciding to check each and every kid's passport and search every single coach coming back today from Calais to Dover. Many many coaches. Thousands of kids. Hours and hours of waiting with bored exasperated kids. Who'd be a teacher? Well, me, obviously, but then we know I'm mad. Apparently it runs in the family.

Things I did get done today whilst sitting about chatting to my Mum and drinking tea:
Frogging a holed kermit sock and picking the stitches back up ready to re knit the toe...

...casting on for another Elizabethan Ruff Cowl and starting to write up the pattern....

...and finishing and plying my handspun... Three-ply, one ply dark purple merino, two plies variegated blue/teal/purple bluefaced leicester. I have 126g of finished 3-ply yarn here, which I have calculated to be about 330m. I don't know yet what to knit with this, I was planning on a hat or cowl, but maybe mittens? Don't know. It's not going to be socks, as my last pair of handspun socks lasted all of two weeks before I walked a hole in them (I wore them 3 or 4 times). I just don't think my handspun, unreinforced, is tough enough for socks. But that's okay, there are tonnes of gorgeous sock yarns out there. Some of which is sitting here calling to me. I have to reknit the kermit first, or I'll never do it.

Question: Was knitting socks in a yarn called 'kermit' setting myself up for frogging? Discuss.

Oh, thank heaven for pointier needles...

I can now just about do a p5tog, although it's still tricky. The stitch pattern is starting to look lovely (I've only just worked out that it's on the reverse side) but I've still got a lot to do before I get onto the stockinette portion. I started with a sleeve, so that I could check the gauge on the lace pattern as well and not be too annoyed if I ended up having to frog. It's fabulous. I wish I could afford to splurge on the alpaca silk the pattern calls for, but hey, credit crunch, yarn diet, yada yada yada... It'll still be fabulous.
Now, about that yarn diet... Um.... I may have had a slight nibble today. I'm back on the food diet, so maybe I just had to rebel somehow. I also needed to make up for this sad occurrence: Is there any sorrier sight than a huge gaping hole in a well-loved handknit sock? The tragedy is that these are only a few months old, and they are (were!) my current favourites, as they're so bright and zingy that they always make me smile the minute they touch my feet. So I needed cheering up. That's my excuse.

I had to go to Get Knitted to get the pointy needles, and this gorgeous thing followed me home. It's Manos del Uruguay silk bled: 70/30 merino/silk. It may become a cowl or a hat, but at the moment is just being stroked and cuddled. Yum. Well, I needed some new socks, didn't I? Malabrigo sock 100% merino. I'm not saying that I won't fix the beloved kermit socks, but I haven't decided yet whether to try and darn or whether to frog back to the hole and re-knit. I hate darning and darned patches so I'll probably have to frog. Damn.
The hole is kind of making me reluctant to finish these though: purple self-striping BFL sock, same as the Kermit in another colour. It's a hell of a lot of work if they're going to be very delicate socks. On the other hand I do love the feel of them... maybe I just need a little distance.

Money for old rope? I mean, yarn?

When you come to terms with the fact that you have knitted only 40 fish out of a projected 432, you get tired of counting them every time you finish one and feel the need for some instant gratification. I present to you my new art installation, destined I think for the Tate Modern and sure to make me a million by next Thursday, at least. I call it.....

"the Catch"

What do you think? The large expanse of white wall needed something to jazz it up, didn't it?
I present to you my second study, a still life entitled 'I can sleep anywhere'. Price on request.

(No, really, I couldn't part with her for any money. Willow on the other hand will accept payment in any type of prawn...)

Get me some pointier needles, stat!

Thanks for the comments so far on the plain or lace dilemma - please keep letting me know! So far I'm leaning slightly towards plain, as I think the extra lace would make it a bit too girly for me. I did sketch this change though, just to get a look at Ann's suggestion of a smaller lace panel:
Pretty, but again, I think it'll be more wearable for me personally if the hem is plain. What do you think? Am I just being boring?
Oh, and the title? I cast on a sleeve to have a play with the pattern - the P5tog is really kicking my ass on blunt bamboo straights. Need to get me some addi lace circs on this one! Sadly I don't think I have one in the right size. Oh, what a shame! I have to go to the knitting shop... :-D


p.s. 38 fish... are you counting?

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks to a lovely comment from the designer herself (I'm feeling a little starstuck, to be honest), I no longer have worries about the Soap Bubble Wrap - The lace portion was just accidentally seamed inside out, as it's reverse stockinette. I'm definitely going to knit it, but it'll have to wait - I'm fixated on the Silk Cocoon Cardi now! As part of my stashbusting initiative, I'll be knitting it in some really dark purple wool that I've had around for a long time, which is nearly impossible to photograph, so it may not be perfect blog fodder...

I do have one thing to resolve before casting on though... having looked at the pattern stats, it's only 25 inches long - I'm a tall lass, and that'll make it rather too gappy at the waitsline for a prim and proper teacher. I need to add some length. Now, have a look at these two rather poorly photoshopped pics, and tell me - do I add extra stockinette or do I add a matching lace panel at the bottom?
Lace?

Or plain? You telll me.... please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Spinning, knitting fish, and (gasp!) swatching

I have finally been getting some quality time with my wheel, and have been spinning up some gorgeous BFL top that I dyed in a mix of blues, purple and teal quite some time ago. It's very soothing.

I'm approaching a dilemma, though: I'd like to make a hat, or a cowl, or something from this yarn, and I'd like to make at least a 3-ply, but I don't think I'll have enough to ply it with itself, so I'm considering a blue/purple mix or a deep turquoise to ply with... I may have to do a sample of each and see. This next pic is overexposed, but you can see that it's spinning up nicely.

Next up, there's still plenty of cotton left to knit up into fish before I ned to buy any more, but that's not stopping me from craving a trip to the wool shop.... Aaaargh! A week and a half till payday.... May even have a tiny bit spare from this paycheck... Nah, who am I kidding?
So far, 32 fish.... I told myself I'd knit 5 of each colour before I stated to count or to plan sewing up but that's sooo not true. I've laid them all out 5 or 6 times already to see how it looks. It's looking good! Just 400 fish left to go...

I really want to start a new cardigan, and liked the look of two new patterns in the latest Interweave Knits, and I was loving the look of this soap bubble wrap, which looks fab and very wearable...

...until I saw this side view. Is it just me, or is that side seam in the lace pattern quite badly botched? I'm quite surprised that this made it through the usually high standards at IK. Maybe it's just a bad photo or a bad blocking job, but still, that's unusual. Big ugly raised seam right down the middle of the lace panel on the side. Definitely ruined it for me. It's a pity, as apart from this, I loooove this pattern.

See? Is it just me?
I really really love this one, though... In fact I love it so much that I knitted a swatch. A real swatch. A 40 stitch wide swatch! Not some pointless little inch-square patch that doesn't tell you anything at all... I even washed it and blocked it!

Sadly, I can't seem to photograph it, as it's so dark purple it's almost black. Rats.

More fishies!

Largely thanks (!) to another prolonged trip to A&E that began at 4am on Sunday morning. Owing to which, I am again a little sleep deprived. Night night.
Whilst I'm sleeping, could someone explain to Willow why I can't knit her some edible fish?

Thanks.

socks and fish - lots of fish

Last year, before I realised quite how skint I was, I signed up for a year's sock club with Socktopus. I'll get six parcels, one every two months. This was January's parcel - I wasn't keen on the textured pattern included, so I'm just doing these as plain stockinette. It's lovely and soft - it's merino, described as 'Optim stretched wool'. I don't know how it's made, but it's lovely and soft and has a lovely sheen to it, like a silk mix.
Halfway down the first sock, just doing gusset decreases. I may have got a little distracted though...

Since I finished the first funky blanket, I've has a whole drawer of cotton sitting around (this is about a quarter of it). I finally found a pattern I like for another blanket - Festive Fish

by Paula Levy. There are loads of gorgeous examples on ravelry.

I've made a start - 8 fish done! Unfortunately for a six foot square blanket, I will need 432 fish. I'm trying not to think about that at the moment. Lots and lots of fish! I'm just knitting them and chucking them in a basket - not going to even think about counting or sewing together for a long time!

Sometimes you just have to find your inner child...

Snow chicken!!!

This was fun, but it really is rather cold and snowy out there. For the south of England, that is!

In a minute I have to go out and try to get to Gloucester to reach my darling hubby and bring him home. I have a feeling that it's going to be a challenge, so I'll be setting off in plenty of time, with lots of clothes, my wellies, a shovel, and my fingers crossed. Wish me luck!

The patient is surviving...

... and at least I know his feet are well looked after. Finished this evening at the hospital, ends woven in and straight onto feet. Shown over sexy hospital anti-DVT stockings. Bless.
The first procedure is tomorrow: a tube down his throat to cut the bile duct into his pancreas and dislodge the stuck stones. Fingers, toes, arms, legs and eyes crossed.

Alone again!

Thinking a lot about my lovely hubby. Hope they fix him soon, and I can have him back again.

It never rains but it pours...

Throughout the trials and stress of the past week, Willow has been a great help and comfort. That is to say, she has helped herself to the most comfortable place she can find and spent most of the week sleeping. I'm quite jealous.
Hubby was kept in hospital for three days, then released on Thursday and collected by my Mum, only to be in sharp pain again by the evening, resulting in another trip to the emergency doctor for a top-up injection of morphine. Friday mostly went well, lots of sleep but not managing to keep any food down. Saturday the sickness got worse, and in the afternoon the situation got bad enough to send us out to the emergency doc again - this time he decided that it wasn't right and sent us back to the hospital. It turns out that one of the gall stones has moved and now caused acute pancreatitis - hence all the pain and vomiting. Hubby is therefore once again in a hospital bed, hooked up to drips and tubes, and not feeling brilliant. They may decide to keep him in and operate urgently, or they might decide to do it in a few weeks if they can get him into a reasonable state to come home. Poor hubby. I'm rushing round frantically trying to balance school and visiting him and looking after the house and washing and animals - and I have ofsted this week. It never rains...
Some actual knitting content: Last Saturday (before all the drama) - I started knitting this: Jared's Hemlock Ring Blanket. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and finally found some good chunky scottish wool in the stash. I did nothing but knit all of last saturday, then took it to A&E on Sunday evening and fit in a fair few rounds between 9.30pm and 1 am...
...then finished it up this saturday morning...

I had some help blocking it, as you can see.

Ta dah! Artfully posed with an important clutch of eggs - the first time we've had one from each chicken, all at once. How lovely! The top, huge one is from Attila, the left one from Ethelred, the bottom one is Nugget's, and the little brown one on the right is from Elsie.

Chickens! they have been out all morning, now back in their Eglu so I can go out to see hubby without worrying about foxes.