Knitonlybutalso

back on track...

Where have I been?  Good question - where have I been?  I have no idea but it seemed to involve being sunk under piles of work, so much so that even the pleasures of looking at other peoples blogs and seeing what people are up to has not been happening, and these are people I consider friends and I admire them greatly - so that says something about how little I have been upto when I can't even be bothered to mosey down my favourites list to check on people I like as much as I do. I know I must have been doing something but I have no idea what, apart from buying more CDs to knit to (very important to match the right CD to the right project - or is that just me?), I can't decide which is the best one of these - maybe Morcheeba is overall, but then Band of Horses has the most delectable love song (No one's gonna love you) which stops me knitting which I suppose disqualifies it from being a knitting CD. I must admit I have a special affection for the divine Eddi Reader - you have to love someone willing to come out to a small neighbouring village that is also in the middle of nowhere (Fintry) and play to 600 besotted people in May, she has the kind of voice that is exactly how most people sound until they open their mouth.... the band before (from Mull?) were pretty good too.

Ghastly Glade is still not done (is there an appropriate CD for such a knitting misery?) - 1/2 a sleeve and then the sewing up and applying of beads around the edges, a doddle in most circumstances but as it is Glade - this just fills me with dread - enough almost to send me back voluntarily under the piles of work I was lost beneath.  I have knitted things, but progress seems to be eluding me - I have managed the simplest of tops, "Frappe" which is a Sublime soya cotton dk and the easiest thing on the planet but quite gorgeous - hardly any shaping, no knitted bands, buttonholes etc etc and just about the most flattering thing I have knitted in ages.  I had very little hopes for it but as I knitted it up in some squirreled Jaeger cotton dk (sadly discontinued), it just got better and better. I am quite besotted and am contemplating knitting more of them.

 

I also managed to knit up some Wendy Supreme from the knitting and stitiching show held in Glasgow earlier this year - this was no mean feat as it was a sympathy purchase, I felt so sorry so for this lonesome little bag of 5 balls that wasn't enough to do much with, that I bought them.  Once I got home it transpired that the small summer top I had in mind was not going to work - space-dyed yarn can be lovely - but as I was nursing a wierd virus rash thing that had me itching and scratching at the mother of all blotches on my neck/face/chest knitting a similarly blotchy top to go with my long-lasting blotches just didn't appeal.  Once I tripled the yarn and used three strands of it, this little bag just seemed to happen.  I am reasonably pleased with it - the yarn now has just the right amount of colour variation (exactly as I wanted it) and the yarn's blotchiness has morphed into something more subtle while the fabric is soft but very dense (3 strands of dk cotton on 6mm needles), adding a solid bag base and some buckles just seemed to make it look a bit more designed and properly built - I like my bags to either look like they were meant to be quite "constructed" or else quite sloppy - things in the middle that look neither one nor the other worry me - but then lots of things worry me as I get older.  If I can remember exactly what I did, I think I will knit another one.

As all things knitted these days seem to need a name I am going to call it my Toadette bag, after Nr.3 child (the nickname for Miss 13-on-the-2nd-of-July who is as cranky as ever is Toad), who noting its completion mentioned it was one of the less embarassing things I have knitted but please don't be seen with it while I am in her company, that is high praise coming from her - she forbade me from going upto the high school for the end of the years prize-giving as her dad is "less embarrassing" than I am.

Just don't menton the knitting...

OK, no photos of Glade - I am progressing up the front, but still not really enjoying it and it is getting in the way of other projects, so as a small diversion here are photos of the garden.  I love spring flowers and the internal workings of a daffodil make me very happy when I look at them, and I could spend hours looking at them (the daughter says this is wierd but I so don't care).  I just love the industrial turbine /heavy duty machinery look of the pistels, the cavernous space inside the blooms are so fabulous and very sci-fi.

I have done so little knitting as Gravel-Guy is away on a field trip and I am left to fend for myself and three offspring who just WON'T STOP EATING, and this is driving me slightly crazier than usual as it takes a lot to keep on top of the food intake and the laundry and the homework and the visiting friends and the internal workings of the 15, 13 and 12 year old mind as well as the importance of who we are friends with and who may or may not even be mentioned, and there are the usual nonsensical notices from the school wanting things/time/effort/money - as I cannot stand the idiot power-crazed woman leading the PTA, she can just boil her head and leave me be. I also seem to be a bit under the weather - I had a heavy cold for a week followed by a flu virus thing and now I have another stonking cold that is filling my head with with fuzzy thoughts and mean I am incapable of doing anything that requires thinking, in the mean time I am fed up with three kids that leave a trail of debris from one end of the house to the other - asking them to wipe the bench means, a big wet sloppy swipe with the dishcloth through a field of crumbs leaving an arc of bubbles and most of the bench untouched.  I think Gravel Guy is back this week after the jolly to Majorca, if he appears and then starts whining that he is tired I may just load his laptop into the washing machine and put it on the white cotton cycle. 

As for this primula, it is kind of lying in wait by the front door - any moment it is going to shoot up into a graceful nodding flower on a long elegant stalk, but right now it is hiding ready to pounce.  People generally assume flowers are sweet and pretty and delicate - not a bit of it!

In fact they remind me of a favourite poem that  I discovered during my School Cert  year. Mrs McNay was a really good english teacher and she had a reputation for getting results, when she presented us with this poem to pick apart like some sort of carcase I was really dismayed as it is a favourite - sometimes I just want to sit and enjoy the sheer magic of something that grabs me (like the poem) and she just wanted to get on and make sure we got good marks...

Anyway, the poem is by Kevin Ireland (a brilliant New Zealand poet as opposed to another brilliant New Zealand poet called Ruth Dallas ), here are the first few lines....

Insurrection Rewhiti Avenue

Spring triggers

the buds in the trees

A volley of sparrows

peppers the roofs

weedy flowerbeds

rise up

windows crash

doors bang

motorbikes terrorise the road

the long blades of unmown grass

slash at the breeeze

Spice of life... (a small hit of ginger to perk things up)

I have almost finished the back of Glade, I have gone out of my mind with it and then right back in.  Glade is a sod to knit - I like the pattern, I love the end result, I like (I think) the choice of colours but I hate knitting it - maybe I'll still get into the knitting of it, but now I am sick of looking at it. In the meantime to keep my spirits up, I headed to the SECC for the March Knitting and Stitching Show and a wee dose of my wonderful friend-in-knitting, Yvonne. BTW, the colours in Glade are actually slightly more subtle than this with more gradation in the blues and purples, and now I have got most of the way up the back it looks more reassuring than when I started - however the camera is not playing ball, and I am also hoping it will look better when blocked into submission, who knows.

Anyway, the wonderful thing about volunteering for the knitter-knatter stand is the company - I turned up and the stand was full of volunteers (oh shucks, guess that means I'll have a wander about looking at stuff then...), I eventually mosey on back - and sheesh, even more volunteers (ok, that means more wandering about as the stand is heaving), and later when I wander back to check occupancy rate of the volunteers, heck, there are even more of them, short of hanging from a support or sitting on someones lap - another trawl of the show is called for ....   

The good thing about these shows and the volunteers is that you meet so many fabulous people, and see some amazing knitting - Andsewtoknit  comes home from France to visit family and volunteer, how devoted is that, and then there is Pam and Nancy and .... a lot volunteer but never register for the free pass into the show but just turn up to give time and skills (and patience).  It is kind of humbling isn't it - when you think the world over there are people who love doing something so much they are willing to share with no gain to themselves and really put themselves out for complete strangers and then get so excited when there is a moment of epiphany in a newbies eyes when they "get it" and start their first few wobbly stitches.  In a world where just about everything has a monetary value, it is wonderful to see people step outside that. 

Speaking of fabulous things at the Show there was the Womens' Institute exhibition (no photos allowed) but fabulous - if you ever get a chance to see a collection of theirs, then go see, again I thought it was also pretty moving to see this invisible army threading their way down through history of women creating and making for no personal gain.  The other big draw for me at the show was the knitted Gingerbread House  - how cool is this?!!!

Don't you want to just move right on in - NOW!

and if you think there is a health and safety issue with a knitted house then I assure you take any possible dangers such as fire hazards are taken very seriously....

Yvonne and I swapped a little something each - look at this!  Isn't that just gorgeous - I'm going though a paua shell phase at the moment so these colours are exactly what sets me dribbling when I am nosing about on the Internet, this was just what I needed to inspire me to get on and finish Glade. Yvonne is the perfect friend-in-knitting apart from her telepathy (she know me better than me!), she is cracking good company and just one of those amazing people that lifts everybody simply by being around.  Come back soon buddy.

In the meantime I only bought a few things (so rude to go to a show and not buy - don't you think?), this brown toned yarn is acrylic - which amazes me as it is very soft and wool/cotton/vicose-like - again, the colours are much more subtle than the photo, it is going to be a perfect quick gardening cardi. As for these dyed skeins - well, they are destined to be fingerless mitts for some special people in my life (my mum and my sister and a spare in case I knit them up and then think I got the colours wrong for the intended recipients).

The swatch below is more like the actual colours than the above photo, how perfect is that for a jolly good afternoon of digging and fossicking about when the garden is no longer mud-soup (can you tell I am feeling a little frustrated I can't get out there - in the meantime I am having to make do with watching Monty Dom and Around the World in 80 Gardens as my gardening fix)...

In case you are wondering, yes the needles really are that big (you should have seen the Rachel John  stand at the Show, just brilliant, I no longer feel so guilty about my stash as I know a lot can be whipped into something quickly with these babies) the extreme knitting was fabulous - if Glade is not going to just behave, lie down and get knitted then this is what I am threatening the yarn with. Finally from humungous to the microbial, I bought these - Shepherds Silk from The London Bead Co I actually have no idea what I am going to do with these tiny skeins (apart from sit and admire them - they are so small and cute, do I embroider with them? do I knit with them?) hmmm 20m of gorgeousness so I better think up someting special.

Run rabbit run

It must be spring - look how green this wee guy is on the artichoke (I was so enamoured by Mr Groovy-Bug I forgot to be annoyed he was on MY artichoke plant and it may be a shrivelled non-artichoke by the time he has finished)

And this is Rachel.  Rachel Rabbit is a worried rabbit - Theophilus (the other rabbit) has done a runner (he has done this before) and Rachel is concerned that there is someting missing in the bunny hutch - hmmmm now what could it be???

OK, does my bum look big in this? and what about my facial hair? Still can't think what might be missing...

A prostrate with grief / page 3 "stunna" rabbit-tabloid pose, and nope - still can't figure out what is lacking around here...

Howabouts a somewhat lonesome pose - this is more for the rabbit-lowbrow female true-life weekly magazine market the one aimed at people who inadvertantly get married to their cousins bigamist parrot whilst in a coma for 27 years and then wake up and find they have 13 children all covered in feathers (more lipgloss? windmachine?) anyway something is missing so you say - giz a clue - even a teensy-weensy clue as to what isn't here, go on....

O.K broadsheet papers pose this time - noble suffering embodied, and after a tasty little snack of broccoli  and chopped pear - er is something missing - carrot, corncob, apple???

Ohhhhh him - I prefer chopped pear, he's just a man-rabbit afterall and not edible (trust me I have tried - I bite his bum now and then when he sits in the food bowl, he's not tasty) shucks do I have to share my tasty bunny treats? Still at least now he is back the human female can go back inside the house and knit, and stop pestering me with questions about whether or not the man-rabbit is a happy man-rabbit and his issues and man-rabbit emotional stuff and suchlike.

this is the wanderer returned by the way....

As for knitting, Glade is going so slowly I am nearly out of my mind with it, sure I did have a couple of weeks of dithering over the colours - the first blue had too much range and it looked hideous, still buying the same shade and a different dyelot meant a much more subtle colour graduation and I now am concerned that there is not enough difference in the blues and if they are the right blues and whether I should have held out for a bluey-green afterall and maybe the blue is ok and it is the other colours which are wrong and the purply colour which I like is maybe out but my judgement is clouded by how much I like it and I should have started on the Peonies which has colour choices I am rock solid on (for now).... this is where the 13 year old son has come into his own and been talking me through my worries (he says he likes it and it will look fine when done and go look at the photos in the book - especially the  close-ups of the swatches and see how they look, see - this one looks good in comparison, and it'll be fine and keep going etc etc). I am still not sure about Haze and the chosen colours but I have a great kid. In fact everyone needs a 13year old Simon, when I figure out how to clone him I will offer him free to all knitters-with-doubts everywhere (he also does the best bone-crusher hugs just when you need them).

 

Fearless knitting, Ravelry and sore butts don't mix

I'm not feeling much of a fearless knitter today - in fact I am feeling a distinctly sorry-for-myself-kind of knitter.  I was scuttling for the 7.24am bus on Wednesday when I slipped on some black ice down in Spinner Street and came down in a heap, as soon as I stood up I went splat! straight down again, then I groggily stood up again, tottered a few steps and whumpf! I went straight down again and half slid under a parked car.  I took the hint and crawled back to the footpath and back up slope home.  I haven't done any damage except I really walloped the tail bone and my sides are sore - so NO BRUISES, which means no sympathy - well I could show the brusies, but people, they are not in good places for showing so I won't if you get the drift.

We have more storms forecast, now I love a good storm - wind, lashing rain, snow, thunder/lightening etc all fine by me (especially if I have a pile of Noro or similar and something nice and hot in a big mug) - a celestial clear-out can be good for the soul and I love going to sleep with shrieking gales outside when I am cosy.  But I DO NOT like ice, not one bit... although it has meant I can stay home and nurse my poor bottom (climbing stairs has been a bit tough), I was thinking all that hard landing should have comapcted it a bit but it hasn't - where is the justice in life??? However, inbetween my work such as waiting for citation files to download, I have finished the mitts, a boring vest (in kidsilk haze in a gorgeous purple) and another beaded little bag (I think these could become an addiction, they are quick and cute and fun).  This means I am tempted to start my next BIG THING - but which big thing? I have started a swatch for peonies (the Solveig Hisdal beauty) that I began ages ago and then realised the first colour scheme of reds and oranges wasn't going to work for me, but I actually want to start Glade...

(This is what I think I will go with eventually for Peony)

Not feeling particularly fearless about my colour choices for either project I had a scoot about on Ravelry, many hours later I have realised that sometimes pouring over the stunning images that people seem to fling about on a whim is not good for my fearless progress and so I have decided on a colour scheme for Glade that may end up Frog-Pond and also a Peony that just might survive (maybe).  The Glade was inspired by a damask scarf that got on the bus the other day (er, that was a woman wearing a damask scarf but hey I didn't really notice her), anyway I think it was from East which has some nice things in it and this scarf was jade and marroon and brown, tapestry doesn't seem to do the right sort of marroon or jade shades I was wanting so I am hoping this works, and I am still undecided on the final kidsilk haze tone (but I am thinking hurricane - a deep slate blue, or maybe not)......

anyway the finished mitts and bag (is there anyway to photograph your arms and not make them look mis-shapen?)...

Being a fealesss knitter is not easy when you are faced with a boring 2x2 ribbed fingerless mitten

I want to wear these I really do, I really like the colour and the way they look, I just don't want to knit them.  The knitting is not exciting (decidely not fearless), and there are other things I am wanting to knit.  That being said, these are exactly as I hoped they would turn out - the colours looked great when I dyed them, the ball of yarn was great when I wound it up and the knitting of greens and purply bits is just what I want and they will be really useful and go with lots of things I wear.... but I am a FEARLESS knitter and I am bored with trivial-knits, especially when my aunt sent the contents of the next photo....

How perfect is this!?  My aunt is just a fantastic person and she has just the best ability to choose something, - the opal yarn is wonderful and the most gorgeous colours and the Ashford kit is a vest in the prettiest paua colours (my crumby photo taken in the pale Scottish midday light cannot do justice) is just delectable.  Aunt Wendy I not only salute you, but love you to bits.

Onwards with the fingerless mitt of misery, in keeping with naming knitting I think I'll call them my Sargasso Mitts after the sea where ships were becalmed and sailors went mad....

A trip to avoid Scottish New Year and a little side-ways knitting inspiration

Happy New Year.  New Year celebrations have always seemed the ultimate in damp squib festivities - I guess I grew up in a family that doesn't do that sort of thing terribly well, and I am always slightly at a loss as to what you are meant to do to appear jolly and festive when really you have a pile of new books wanting read or else there is some yarn calling you, my mother always sits up waiting for the chimes on the radio and reading obituaries, when the bells ring she will get up with a sigh, open the back door momentarily to let the New Year in.  Job done, she heads for bed.  Now-days living in a small scottish village, if I am up knitting contentedly in my own happy little head space, I am a target for all sorts of boggle-eyed and slightly spaced drunks that want to come and "cheer me up" at 2.00am - dammit, I was knitting and happy. The reason I am looking so pissed at these people is that they knock and knock and then hammer at the front door until they get let in, then they stand on my knitting yarn and I can't get them to go away as they insist on telling me how I could ditch gravel-guy and they could hitch me up with a guy-friend of theirs that mends fences for a living (when he can be arsed) and if you ignore the small issue of him having no teeth is quite good looking....

So this year, we went away.

As I had a great time earlier in 2007 in Barcelona, I saved up and decided to take gravel-guy and little chicks for New Year, Barcelona is even more gorgeous than I remembered (must have been too stunned to take it all in first time around) and this time I also went armed with the address/blog of a yarn shop near Jaume 1 Metro Station. I must admit I was in two minds about a whole week of gravel-guy and three chicks - the three offspring I can cope with - Nr.1 never says much anyway, Nr.2 you poke food at to keep his mouth busy, and Nr.3 you mention her hair and that brings on a flurried frenzy of hair brushing and and she gets so engrossed that all you have to do is steer her in any direction as at 12 years old she is quite sure she would never live down a bad hair moment even if all her friends are back in Scotland.... Am I a bad motherto think like this instead of being engrossed in the different Pepsi flavours/Music by Attreyu or Iron Maiden etc etc/what Caitlin said when Shanna told Jade that Keira...? yes, I think so.

Now the good thing about little chick (a snatched photo as she never stands still and is hard to photograph, and yes she always looks at least that naughty - even when she is being good) is that while she is admittedly quite stroppy at times, she can also be wonderful at distracting her father - therefore when I happened to "chance" upon the yarn shop Persones Llanes  near Jaume 1, not only did she kindly distract him while I could sneak in and admire, but she had pulled such a wobbly that I was able to buy yarn quite unharrassed.  BTW it is a gorgeous yarn-shop, (Lornas Laces / Helen's Lace in Devon colourway which is just so reminscient of Barcelonas lovely skies), now I just need a simple pattern (all suggestions welcome) to show off how gorgeous it is.  The other skein I bought is pay-back for Madam - some simple fingerless mitts from a grateful/admiring mother, as she also put on a major strop for the very same reason when I bought this little bag in a small shop behind the cathedral - oh it is so cute and gravel-guy never even noticed the extra purchase, I think I have reason to be grateful as otherwise I would never have got into any shop (gravel guy doesn't like money spent - which is why I was slightly miffed but not suprised to find after spending my wages on a trip for five to Barcelona he only gave me soap for Christmas). I can thoroughly recommend the little yarn shop - a tiny space but great selection and they are super-nice people - I am still slightly fascinated by the sight of a normal well-adjusted male knitting in public. If you are in Barcelona, go visit - they are that welcoming and generally gorgeous (and they have a super-exquisite not-for-sale baby), they don't know how lucky they are that I live in Scotland otherwise I could be a slightly crazed knitting stalker fan person perpetually hanging about outside their shop.

Have a gratuitous picture of the yarn and the bag...

So after a week trotting about in tee-shirts or light sweaters and enjoying the sights and warmth of Barcelona such as....

From the Chocolate Museum (yes edible).....

we get back to snow warnings and this. Sigh. Still maybe time to start saving for another trip to Barcelona. In the mean time some more fingerless mittens - these from a big ball of 4ply yarn I dyed using food colourings and are in blueish sage and rosemary-greens with the odd shot of purple and almost khaki, I wish I could remember what exactly I did as I like the colours in the ball (will wait and see what happens as it knits up), it has been lying around long enough for even me to feel a little guilty about the time taken to not knit it into anything.

So what have all these photos got to do with a knitting blog? Well I think Barcelona is one of the best cities for ideas - those wonderful tiled columns on the Palau de la Musica Catalana  - any of them would be the most amazing basis for some colourwork / fair isle worked around fingerless mittens or small bag, failing that the patterns carved in the stonework could be the most amazing aran-work, and some of the colour combinations in that bright sunshine are just fantastic - how could any knitter not be inspired and want to squirrel ideas away?  It amazes me how even the smallest building is potentially as gorgeous as some grand Gaudi / Domenech i Montaner /Cadafalch mansion - particularly when I think of where we live and the grotty grey-ness of people that have no desire to offer some sort of visual lift to passers-by. I just love this colour combination of a small house near Parc Guell - simple and just perfect. If I am going to have any New Years's resolutions this year, then this will be the year I try to live a little more dangerously - I am essentially the laziest person I know and if a knitting route-map is well worn and travelled by the countless multitudes then the chances are I have been lulled by bigger name yarn suppliers into following along without a great deal of thought.  Now some patterns are worthy of cult status - but maybe I should take a little more time to be an individual and think through if something I love is really appropriate for me of the recipient, and if not - why not?  One of the big attractions of Barcelona is the quirky nature of some of its design, and yet I spend a lot of time playing safe - so maybe I'll take that as a lesson for now, the fabulous Sandi Wiseheart has a call to knit fearlessly in 2008, I think I am relatively fearless but just a bit unthinking.

Finally, I finish this post with the fabulous poster for the Barcelonas' parks and gardens - how gorgeous is this?!

good and bad or is that bad and good?

Well, we are having a funny old week - Madam keeled over at school on Monday and Gravel-guy had to retrieve little chick - just a very bad cold/general bug that everyone in her class was coming down with (bad) as I was in Edinburgh that day for work, but tuesday I was home with her as she slept whatever it was off.  Nr.1 child finished his pre-lim exams on tuesday (which is good), so I can finally stop the monumental task of baking large quantities of daily cake and supplying fairtrade/organic chocolate  (so far Blakes chocolate is the best for studying so he tells me - especially the one with the coconut centre - is anyone else out there a Blakes chocolate junky or is that something that we are into on a lonely, individual basis?).... anyway this is very good as the baking and buying of ingredients and chocolate was wiping me out financially.  The computer then went "phut" on Wednesday - and I came home to find it wouldn't start and when Gravel-guy (hey, he has a use!!! - great - who knew?!) got it going, it had wiped everything (EVERYTHING - including all my Favourites with all my beloved knitting blogs I read...), which is bad - very bad but also good as it is going again, still there is a lot of stuff left on the old computer that can be transferred over so I am just missing a few months of photos (A FEW MONTHS???!!!!!) good that we are so lazy we haven't cleared out the stuff on the old machine and bad we are missing a few months, still it could be worse....

On the very good side, I went for my job interview on Wednesday and got the job so I am now a permanent member of staff at  where I work (very, very good - I actually love the job and the people) and also have actually managed to finish knitting something - good, bordering on very good - a project I have thought about for ages and have wanted to knit but only just got around to it - once I figured who I needed to knit it for (someone at work who I have tremendous affection for and enormous respect for too), it was a whizz (again, very good), the original has glass beads and is adorable - I'll do that next time - when I find the glass beads wherever they are in the house. The photo doesn't do it justice - but then this is winter (and in Scotland winter is DARK - bad) but it was a fun knit from leftovers - good.

Thats means we are now onto thursday - I was through in Edinburgh today - good (apart from the early start) -  it also meant the German Market is back in Princes Street Gardens - as is the fun fair and the skating rink and the Christmas lights are all twinkly and gorgeous... and bad that I was dumb enough to forget my camera so I can't show and share how lovely it all is, and very bad that they have a a stall selling loads of wonderful salami and sausages and they were selling this fabulous one which has walnuts through it (divine!- very, very good) and bad that I bought a couple (when I am already needing to loose weight), but good as I had to run for the train (and burnt off a few calories maybe?) and so did not have time to buy more of this really yummy Camembert in Marks and Sparks at the moment (which I bought some of last week and inhaled happily all the way home on the bus, and when I came downstairs from changing out of my work shoes into slippers I found Nr.1 had eaten the whole thing in nanoseconds  - good that he saved me from Camembert calories and very bad as I had been looking forward to a little piece of cheese on a corncake for nearly an hour...).

Knitting-wise I am now making a quick sleeveless pullover in kidsilk haze in a dark purple - as I couldn't find what I wanted in the shops (or even a plain simple fine-knit pattern with a little bit of shaping and nothing else) - bad, as I have so many other things I should/could be doing right now (hmmm - a plain - sleeveless - pullover .... how hard can that be to find?).  This was after reading the latest Trinny and Susannah book about the different body shapes (and watching them on the telly), Madam has told me flatly in that damning way of a 12yr old - "You're a brick" - why thanks, I am solid and shapeless and er, brick-like, thanks and thanks again - bad.  Still the clothing in the book for bricks (why can't we have a more glamorous title for said bricks such as "begging hamster" or "cafetiere" or "traditionally-wound yarn ball from a shop"?) included some quite nice things - good - one of which was a sleeveless pullover which cannot be found in the shops of Glasgow or Edinburgh except in wierd colours that will destine them for the January sales rack, so, for the next few weeks I think that is what I will be knitting.

Can't wait for whatever tomorrow brings....

A small non-creativity rant...

I have had a couple of really hairy weeks - everything at work is coming at me big-time in terms of workload and my (temporary) position has been advertised as a permanent position (this means as well as workload, I am applying for my own job and asking people that I work with to act as my referees - which feels very strange, and I have to fill out a form to describe what I do in my present job, while looking at my current job description and wondering how to re-word it...).  Coupled with that I am on courses that are relevant to my work and I am losing track of time/reality, one is for medical statistics run over five fridays - which is good, I like it as it is interesting and statistics are making sense due mainly I think, to the really excellent teaching .....  However, I have also been on a creative teaching course (so I may go forth and teach the statistics to others), this has been less good.  3 days of creative learning should not be a big deal, but by the end of it I have been screaming inside - all my senses were fried despite being in a "safe and supportive atmosphere" where there is "no such thing as a difficult learner - only a missed opportunity"; for a start the two trainers were so relentlessly happy it was like being mugged by two Andrex puppies - people that cheery - no matter what - creep me out, I am on a course for work dammit, not signing up to a cult.  Then we were divided into groups called Owls, Dolphins, Horses and Kitty-cats and wore badges with these animals on, and then there are also the buzz phrases that get trotted out on these courses - at-the-end-of-the-day and blue-sky-thinking and thinking-outside-the-box just pee me off big time, in fact if everyone is thinking outside the box then to my mind inside the box is a very good place to be as all the irritating people are somewhere else - presumably being rained on by the Scottish equivalent of blue skies (that would be big, grey, rainy cloud skies) - that'll teach them to be so damned perky - hah!

Still, I managed the first two days just fine-ish, but by the third day was when I really had had enough - it started off badly when on arrival we were asked to wander around the room looking at all the quotations they had put up (and I had carefully ignored) and then pick the one that meant the most.... not good, not good at all.  One of my big personal bug-bears (of which I have many) is the lazy creeping greeting-card mentality taking over the english language - english is an extraordinary tool and we all use so little of it, so this tendancy to chop great speeches into ugly mini-sound bites really makes me cross, for instance a laminated A4 sheet with a silhouette of two people and "I have a dream - Martin Luther King" has me frothing - where is the context, where is the courage, where is the music and drama of his delivery, we can all dream for flipping sake, Joseph even had a sodding multicoloured coat made of one..... grrrr.  So anyway, people start plucking these darn things off the wall and go and sit down looking totally connected and spiritually attuned to something meaningful and I am circling the room feeling very antsy and unconnected and NOT spiritually attuned at all, until we all have to sit down and start yerbling about how deeply the quote chosen resonated with us.  The plan is all going swimmingly well as they work along the row of captive participants ("I chose - even the greatest journey begins with a single footstep, because".... "and I really  believe - that if you love someone you have to set them free"... etc etc ) until they get to me.  I haven't chosen one, and I haven't chosen one because they make me mad, the poor little Andrex  puppies, er sorry Tutors look stricken - but as we are in a "safe and supportive atmosphere" they thank me profusely for my courage and honesty in facing up to the fear of not chosing a saying.  It feels like being mugged by some warm fluffies, which makes me feel even grouchier, I wish I could buy into this sort of thing but I just can't.  The day didn't end there - another exercise was to split into groups and come back and present what creative learning meant to us, unfortunately, for one group (the Owls) that meant presenting the Owl-rap, it was like something out of The Office - I was convinced David Brent should be there.  Not only did the Owls spell out in rap what c-r-e-a-t-i-v-e--l-e-a-r-n-i-n-g meant to them but there was a chorus when they would yell "TWIT" and we were meant to scream back "TWOO"  I just sat there wishing I had a spare cheese grater to attack myself with to take my mind off it all .  I have no idea how to incorporate most of it into teaching critical appraisal skills relating to published medical papers, but I got a smart carry case and some super-smelly coloured whiteboard pens (hmm air fresheners for the office how thoughtful) and some juggling balls and balloons.

On a slightly happier note, I have finished the composed mitts out of the fall 2007 IK - I think they are really sweet but I would normally knit them a bit longer in the finger area, still a quick knit and one of my favourite yarns to work with.

Hibernation is starting

I think I must be one of the laziest people I know at the moment and  it seems there has never been such a surfeit of good yarn to do something with, but I am too busy sleeping (or eating) this is the time of year when the garden is going to sleep and there are only a few flowers left (such as the fuschia and some very determined sweet pea) ....  I went to the Hobbycrafts at the beginning of the month at the SECC and was blown away - and this show has a reputation for being relatively weak on the knitting front.  Apart from the gorgeousness given to me by the fabulous Yvonne (yes, my friends this was a gift - she has such an uncanny knack for getting it so exactly right that she picks what I would choose only even better than if I was doing the picking, every knitter needs a friend like Yvonne, I have two perfect and divine matching yarns for a shawl/scarf and mitts but also a fabulous cake measure - imagine a cake with no calories), the vendors that actually make it up to Glasgow have to be some of the nicest yarn sellers you could ever meet and they have a good range of inexpensive but very covetable yarns - you won't find quivet or hand-dyed organic thingy, but you'll come away having had a good time and yarn to knit.   

Despite being seriously skint (well I have three ravenous offspring so I am always financially stretched) I bought yarn although none of it was expensive - firstly there was some Twilleys - I have seen the books and yarn around but until I saw this cardigan knitted up in shades of autumnal blue and gold I hadn't really absorbed how pretty the yarn is and what good pattern support it has, so I bought the yarn in shades reminiscent of summer (soft greens, pinks and lilacs) and knitted the cardigan up too.  Basically this yarn goes a long way, has lovely colour changes, is inexpensive and is a nice light 100% wool, I have no idea how it will wash but I am so far chuffed to bits with the finished item - it is exactly what I wanted for the office and despite the frill going on for-knitting-ever, was quick and pain-free.  Even better as although I am needing to loose a little weight, it looks great and skims over the extra bits of me (in fact I think it is a good knit for the bigger knitter as it skims and the lightness of the yarn means it doesn't look big and lumpen and won't be too warm for inside our office).  Actually the photo doesn't do it justice - the autumnal light in Scotland and the angle of that room means there is flash involved which shows up differences in the two fronts that you can't really see, I think this looks much better on the person than on the hanger.

There was also some lovely pink Jaeger (no idea what I will do with a 10 ball pack but it is such a lovely clear rose pink it needed me), some Sirdar denim needing a home and then on other stands I went a little mad with novelty yarns, normally I don't usually have a big thing for novelty yarns but somehow the appeal of quick knits and not much effort (and the wonderful shawls with big needles and everchanging textures Yvonne was hurtling her way through) were a great incentive - Madam always needs scarves so the different yarns can provide various accessories for fickle little Miss. Apart from the yarns there were books - I love the teapots and the knitted icons is a hoot (I bought that one later but loved it at the show and regretted not buying it there and then).

These are one of the finds of the show - they come from a fabric stand, from weavers based in the Scottish borders who produce luxury tweeds for couture houses, these are the end of cones used for weaving up their fabrics and were selling for £1 a piece and there is a lot in each of these balls.  I was smitten and wish I'd bought more, I also bought some fabric lengths for making up - they are gorgeous and I am now on the lookout for very simple/plain jacket/coat patterns as I don't want to chop the fabric any more than I need (yes I really am lazy) and figure the fabric with the right coloured lining will do all that is needed.  The one in the front is a deeper more intense colour than the photo.

Aside from the show I have been led astray by the Mirasol Collection - I think Jane Ellison is a genius, it takes a lot of talent to  put together such lovely yarns and easily wearable patterns, I often feel it is harder to take out the extra bits and design something simple and unobtrusive that looks effortlessly good.  I knew I had to knit Juliaca with 3/4 turn back sleeves and swingy 2x2 rib but couldn't decide on the longer or shorter, the shorter got knitted eventually as I figured it would make me look taller.  The yarn is just yummy and I think really good value for money, so I had to buy some extra Mirasol treats - as always I am undecided what to do with them - something simple I guess to let the yarn show through.  After the joys of the Misti for Juliaca I was inspired to keep knitting with alpaca and have finished the Blue Sky Alpacas Rectangle Shawl  which is a beautiful wrap but on a wee short person like me (5 foot 3ish inches) I look half hobbit and half badly wrapped parcel, but at least I am warm and snuggly in it (it just needs a luggage label  with instructions to return me to the sofa with a bar of  Blakes' fair trade/organic chocolate and then it will be perfect).

This may sound like I have got finish-itis (as opposed to the normal start-itis) and its true I was attempting to work hard at reducing the pile of knitting and yarn so I could start the KAL for Autumn Rose  with a relatively clear head and conscience, but I have been led astray by the Michele Rose Orne Composed Mitts out of the Interweave Knits Fall 2007, oh but these are pretty....