Knitonlybutalso

it's war out there... (so maybe it's safer indoors with some nice knitting)

Spring is a dangerous time, I think. The first signs of it and I get all excited and what-not, I start wanting to explore natures doings and see whats happening out and about. Therefore, I have been getting off the bus in Killearn of an evening and walking the two miles home - until Wednesday that is. Wednesday, I met a pot hole just outside of Killearn, which meant I kissed tarmac and broke my glasses, I also have four stitches much to the hilarity of everyone at work. There has been a distinct lack of sympathy at home too, however despite the stitches and the red and yellow and blue brusies to my eye and schnoz it actually doesn't hurt (and I am one class A wimp).

When I finally staggered indoors about 8.00pm after I did it, the offspring were watching TV, Nr.2 swivelled his head and said along the lines of "hmmph, that looks bad" and swivelled back to watching TV. Nr.3 said something along the lines of "hmmmmmm, you've ripped you tee shirt - people will see you" and also swivelled back to the TV and Nr.1 never even twitched. Now as it is on my forehead, foreheads bleed a lot and I was covered in blood so I did look quite a sight. When Gravel-guy got home at 9.00pm he barely registered it, but reluctantly agreed to take me to Stirling A&E for stitches as it was still bleeding and I couldn't quite smoosh it together. I'm glad he didn't know that we would eventually get home at 2.30am as it was pretty busy there that night and he is not a night-owl.

I have to admit I did feel a bit of a pillock wandering in with something that only needed a few stitches (but there is no on-call doctor out our way and we would have been told by NHS24 to go there anyway), but as the A&E was full of students "feeling funny" (but not funny enough to stop them making out with each other) I guess I wasn't draining the time and resources too much - well I hope not anyway. And we were there well before the usual drunks.

But the real nuisance has been my hands are bruised and a bit grazed - which makes knitting uncomfortable, so I have hardly touched the cardigan I was motoring along on (plain, boring old stocking stitch but will be embellished later with a bit of bling). Nor have I been as busy in the garden as I would be - but that hasn't stopped the tulips and things that can carry on regardless - fab eh, isn't nature just genius? This has meant more time dolefully watching more and less time doing, which means I have noticed the neighbourhood cats all like my back garden. And my little garden is full of precious little seeds, and there is a cat next door that likes to leap at our washing when it is hung out to dry and try and pull it off (not the washing in his garden you understand). Now I like cats, so I have fleeced and netted and laid sticks as much as possible but still they are there - it is like a cat queue (especially in front of the guinea pigs), it is like the drunken teenagers in Glasgows city centre of a Saturday night - there are hordes of them.

So I have bought this......

un-flipping-believable, the kids can't believe it - we've never had toy weapons on our property of any kind. Anyone bringing their favourite plastic pistol/toy sword to play was always made to leave it at the garden gate, even if they came with their mummies and their mummies made a fuss - we have always been a no-weapons household and no negotiations. But the neighbourhood cats, now thats a whole 'nother story.   

Let battle commence.

sprung?

 

Spring is here - finally! It officially started middle of March but it actually now feels spring-like and what a long time coming. Therefore, we can safely say that until the next snow flurries - Spring has officially sprung. I have been willing it to get a hurry-on and just come. The daughter has been willing it to come too as she thinks that will lessen the embarrassment of me hunkered down in the garden spotting sprouting plants and whatever - she finds it all quite mortifying in the way that 13year old girls find everything about mid-forties women. She worries, y'know - she thinks I should be inside where I can't be seen I suspect, and certainly not crouched in the bushes with my bum in the air watching primula or peering inside daffodils. She even thinks it would be better, if I spent that time knitting (indoors) - which is a complete about face... It's nice to now I still have some power over her - never underestimate the power of embarrassment I say, especially as I am officially sulking (she has finally over topped me - my little inchworm has finally inched her way past me and is taller than I am, so I am relegated to official status of family troll). I am also on official narcissi rescue - the ones that get knocked over/flattened by wind/just give up and lie down on the path need to get brought inside and put in water - this is Thalia by the way, she is very beautiful but not particularly happy in our garden, so yes, she is inside after rescuing, and she was in danger of being stepped on.

Speaking of offspring, they are on holiday again (yes, a bigger fence is needed around that damn school) 2 weeks - 2 WEEKS!!! of Easter holiday, and gravel-guy has tootled off for a sunny jaunt (sorry fieldtrip with a bunch of students) to Majorca, I think he is back tuesday-ish with a load of washing to be done and complaints that he is tired (No he bloody isn't - he doesn't understand tired until he looks after his own children and their friends, and their comings and goings, and their arrangements, and their kitchen raids, and their...). I shouldn't really complain - they are good kids, sweet kids, but sheesh, they get in the way of serious knitting time, and Nr.2 kid - well Nr.2 kid takes after me I know that but....  actually he is great. Lovely in fact, but when gravel-guy goes away Nr.2 worries about me constantly - endless cups of tea are made (which is fab but even I - serious tea drinker that I am, cannot keep up), he likes to keep me company late night at weekends in case I am lonely (but that involves a hulking 14 year old boy trailing the vapours of heavy metal music which drown out my Bob Harris or whoever is on BBC Radio2) and he gives great big bear-crusher scrunching hugs - which is fine and fabulous but I am now all bent out of alignment and I am sure one shoulder is higher than the other (permanently). I am like a little plasticine troll all mooshed out of shape. This all means I never seem to get peace and time alone, and given that time alone is what I crave above all else I am a little out of sorts. Still, they are lovely kids.

And I have finished the top down garter yoke cardigan- we are liking very much.

my week off was bliss - thank you

This having-a-week-off-while-the-kids-are-at-school malarkey is a whizz, I might be enjoying it a bit too much but who cares. Thursday/Friday last week I was at the stitching show, the weekend I was finishing Cosima (looks good I think), Monday I made a quilt top for madam, Tuesday I caught the bus from Balfron to Stirling for some fabric and wadding to finish it, and have a coffee and a bit of a mooch around (oh yeah I can really pack things into one day).... I tell you this week off is fab, I could get seriously into pottering and loafing and farting about (actually I can tell you, it is actually one of the few things I am very, very good at, in fact I think I have quite a prodigious talent for erm, not doing very much as the husband would say - that and getting in the way, and making yorkshire pudding too - although how many yorkshire puddings do a family of five really need? I can also drink vast quantities of tea but I suspect that is not a talent but more bladder training).

Still back to the grind on the 8th floor tomorrow.

So this is the finished Cosima in Rowan Summer Tweed (and the quilt top for Madam - which I can't claim credit for really as it is a kit from Purely Patchwork in Linlithgow, who don't have a web address which is good as otherwise I would be even more skint than I am at the moment after last weekend). Cosima is not actually so purple - the summer tweed is a bit more gentle than that, but it looks as if the colour just wasn't going to photograph.

And, here is sunny Stirling (with a shot of McAree brothers, I love McAree Brothers they do lots of scrummy yarn but are also an old fashioned kind of haberdashery/school uniformy kind of shop, where they sell sensible socks in lovat green and ladies girdle contraptions that you probably get welded into and are eventually buried in) they even have that wonderful time-stands-still smell of old cardboard boxes and traditional polishing stuff. Stirling, in case you have never been is a weird collision between lovely old town and castle on the hill and some of the downright ugliest modern architecture you will ever see - the Thistle Centre/Bus Station always sets me off humming the icky theme tune to Prisoner Cell Block H - it is truly hideous, still I can't help feeling a sneaking fondness for Stirling as in some parts it is really very pretty with the concrete monsters preventing the town from lapsing into a twee preserve of monied folk. Stirling is a somewhat chaotic mix of chavs, neds, arty types, sports students and anyone who just seems to wash up there at the bend in the river, it's great.

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So, Cosima is over - now I have a new crush - it is the garter stitch yoke cardigan thingy in some very tasty Debbie Bliss (yes, I know that is just another name for the divine Kilcarra) that I got very cheaply at the knitting / stitching show from Black Sheep yarns. Heaven or what? I even have the perfect buttons - there are 11 of these little vintage babies from Gallowglass and how many does this cardigan take? 9 (and isn't the way they are sewn up make for just the cutest little catepillar?)

 

and some more vintage buttons from the show (and no that isn't a ornery old vintage-y darning toadstool - thats a vintage-y old darning toadstool for gloves - and now its mine squeeeeeee! this is despite the fact I normally only ever knit fingerless gloves)...

spring fling

Well, I've just been to the SECC for the knitting and stitching show, it will be going on over the weekend - but I have offspring to attend. Still I had two gorgeous days with Yvonne (and Pat, and Nancy and the fabulous Nessa from down London) so I am a seriously happy chick and I have ALL next week off, hmm so which do I start - the heavenly smelling natural undyed yarn from New Lanark? the patchwork quilt from the patchwork shop in Linlithgow, the possum hand-dyed yarn, the exquisite yarny gift from Yvonne? I'm not sure. I do know that Cosima is needing my attention (it only really needs one and a half fronts finished, oh dear - my house is full of good intentions - most of them half finished).

In the mean time, there are signs of spring (SQUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!) - these crocuses have popped up where I did not expect any crocuses to be (bonus - any extra crocuses are always welcome).

And to show I do actually do stuff now and then, here is a Soda bag (I am loving the Colour of Summer book from Martin Storey / Rowan Classic - it is FULL of gorgeousness) mine has different coloured flowers to the one in the book - but then I chose colours to go with stuff I actually wear, although their combination of yellow, pale blue, pink, cream and light green and zingy red is lovely. It took a weekend of knitting and a week later I finally got off my behind and finished the lining and sewing.  

 

half term looming

This week is going to be a bad week, I can just feel it. All right, there are little hints - it is half term (the offspring - all three) will be off, and the bad stuff at work is about to reach its' peak with me (as a resident "nice person" - where-ever did they get that idea? being sucked right into the middle of something quite nasty). So, while normally, half term means I am in early to work (yes, I have told you before - I AM a BAD mother), work is not going to offer much comfort. The terrible thing about work is, it is a dreadful situation that involves nice people that are for the most part behaving badly. While bullying in the workplace often involves others tutting, I have to say that it is easy to become one of the bullies - otherwise where do they get their oxygen from? And the people behaving the worst are some of the nicest (otherwise) people I have worked with. It has been a lesson, I tell you.

I have been knitting to help focus my mind on positive stuff, although I am a green eyed knitting monster at the moment - there are so many desirable things to knit and just me and a yarn stash here. The Cosima is going well, I wanted grey Rowan Summer Tweed but then I was sucked into loganberry heaven which is going fine, I want to knit some of the new Rowan stuff (the muse cardigan is divine but lovely and simple) and some other new Rowan stuff, I also am knitting a Jane Sowerby scarf in regia sock yarn (shade 1933) which is suprisingly successful when you think it will mean I will be wearing old sock around my neck, but the yarn is actually a revelation - just the right variation in tones, very soft and pretty much the right weight to show stitch definition. I am quite happy with it. 

I am not sure the Rowan Summer tweed colour for the Cosima has photographed that well, but I love the texture (it is kind of crunchy) in a wierdly pleasant kind of way, but it will need two buttons as a closure and that is a looming worry (I want purple, I want kind of wooden - does purple and kind of wooden exist??? and will it turn out naf?).

The scarf has actually photographed a bit better and is more accurate (oooh I anm loving the Regia)...

 

In the meantime I have a household hint for any other mothers of teenagers facing half term, (especially if they are the kind of teenagers that grunt and play heavy metal and have no idea why they were given arms) - The Priests. The Priests full blast are like a musical bleach that can shift even the most stubborn of stains er, sorry, teenagers that won't normally shift from your living room sofa, oh they are fabulous and I don't care about the withering looks from the offspring. I am so happy to have discovered this, the week feels better already. If only I could buy the priests in person and keep them under the stairs for moments of high stress.

Things your children do, that you never thought of doing at their age...

Nr.2 child appeared at the bottom of our stairs this morning just as I was about to head off and catch the bus for work, "I've split my last pair of school trousers" he says showing me a pair of VERY split (at the crotch) trousers that he had wrecked yesterday while playing in the snow, and had only just thought to mention. So, anyway as I am not a morning person I may have managed a grunt but it wouldn't have been a particularly interested grunt as bus-catching in our village is a test of skill that takes all my abilities first light.  Last thing I saw before I left, was Simon hunting a stapler while pondering whether to staple the split while wearing the trousers or not.  All those years of Home Ec when I was a lass - and they never taught us how to staple a crotch...

Adele-d

Adele is done and dusted - she is safely in the completed for 2009 photo album, she is quite a success and done just in time for our impending cold snap. The buttons, well, the buttons I currently think are OK (which means I am pleased with them) as I am still worrying about the impact of such big buttons - but then little buttons would look dumb on such a texture, and well, I guess button-worry is just part of my nature. I have things knitted eons ago that I still have button-worries about, some I no longer actually even have - but y'know I still worry....

So, for now I have cast on for Cosima (a very tasty Berroco item) - with 2 buttons. You might think the fewer buttons the better for a button-worrier - well wouldn't you? Actually no. Fewer buttons means more button responsibility for the two little buttons I eventually choose. It is all very worrying. No photos as yet as I have only knitted a few rows (Rowan - summer tweed in loganberry shade 546 that sends me all wibbly with delight every time I look at it) however it is early days, I need to knit a bit more before I share, in case it all goes horribly wrong.

In the mean time I have suddenly caught startitis after reading Yvonnes blog and want to knit lots of scarves from Jane Sowerbys Victorian Lace Today book. This has meant an afternoon of digging skeins of yarn from window seats and wardrobes and wherever the stash resides in a pleasurable fuzz of yarn/pattern matching - totally unproductive, number 2 child says I looked a bit like a squirrel sorting nuts. I also found some jaeger extra fine merino dk (10 balls yippee!) that might just do another thing from Berroco - but do I start that now before the yarn descends back into the piles of stash or hang out for some Rowan pure wool aran in shade 680 (raspberry) that I can't think of an appropriate project to do anything with?

slip-sliding

The start of a new year should mean a fresh start and everything going splendidly until it gradually starts to go pear-shaped (emphasis on gradually) however for some reason the comments from lovely people taking time to comment have disappeared from my email inbox and I only recently figured they now reside in my spam box, all without me changing any settings. Humph. The other pear-shaped potential problem is Adele.

I'm not sure about this project (Adele - a nice clean and simple Debbie Bliss pattern), she is soaking up some much loved and discontinued Rowan and I think she could be lovely... if only she would stop twisting. The back skews off in one direction, the fronts skew off at an angle and the sleeves - well I expect they will be leaning away from "true" as well. Just as well she isn't stripey I could look spectacular when I wear it - like a candy cane. The other worry is the buttons, I have a lot of button worries in my life - but then my general button issues are probably too boring to post and best shared in some sort of therapy, however the photos of Adele show BIG buttons, this not only worries me - it scares me. Buttons make or break a project and the idea of BIG buttons is perturbing to say the least.  And just how big is too big? or what if I then veer off in the direction of too small? How small is too small?  Oooh worry.

Work (which is what finances the knitting after all), is not going well either at the moment - we have a new system and one of the projects I am working on is the guinea pig, so when things have gone bad (which they have this week) then instead of wondering why things have gone wrong and trying to sort them - staff go on witch hunts, for such a small organisation it is amazing to watch how certain people clump together and then hunt in packs and I suspect it is my turn, nobody wants to know the glitches of this system they only want some blip to launch themselves at and therefore hurtle off on yet another crisis-generating round. This is sucky, but it gives some other poor sods a break. So at the moment I am feeling a bit low and a bit miserable as the fingerpointing and leaping from crisis to crisis feels draining, roll on Spring (and a sneaky-peak at the new Rowan did give me a wee lunch-time pep - it is VERY pretty).

Back to the beginning

Well, 2009, hmmmmm. We are safely back from Seville for the start of the new year (our Christmas present to ourselves and the offspring) so I am back to the cold and the damp and the local village piss-heads and their smashing bottles and 2.00am obscenities, and the teen-age attempts to breed in the hedge by the bus-stop sigh..... Seville, in case you ask was gorgeous - 10 days was not enough and I took 837 photos with the new camera (that's after deleting the cruddy ones). Now there is not a lot of knitting to be had in that fair city (I did spy 9 balls of very average acrylic-y looking yarn in a Merceraria on one of our forays) but in terms of colour and texture and sense of design the place is a dream. I totally loved it. Just look at these by the way - aren't they adorable and don't they just scream for some really funky handknitted socks?  Every time I went past this shop I took more photos of these shoes (from other angles and with other colours).

Did I ever mention I am a sucker for bright colours? Therefore the Alcazar is just like a little spot of heaven... (and the birds are very tame - even allowing a clutz like me up pretty close to photograph them - in fact they seemed to like, and almost expect a photo - that dove kinda guy - now that was a particularly posy kinda chook)

 

  

 

 

In fact - how about this as a perfect, secluded spot for an afternoon tea and a spot of knitting...

 

actually now I think about it - this would be THE perfect spot for a little uninterupted knitting (if there is such a thing)

I have also shelved for the time being (again) the shawl with the yarn I originally bought in Barcelona, finally cast on in Singapore, frogged and re-cast on in New Zealand and managed a few more rows whilst away over Chrismas, Miss Lamberts Shetland thingummy is going to have an awful lot of air miles and the carbon foot print the size of a small village - it doesn't seem right to be knitting it here. So in the mean time I am back to knitting Adele which is a Debbie Bliss pattern and I have decided it is the time and project for some much clung-to Rowan that was buried deep in the stash and considered too precious for just any project. Adele, is I must say a very nice looking knit - I saw (and fondled) it knitted up in the display in the John Lewis Glasgow store, but - and it is quite a but - it feels like I am wrestling with the yarn, there is a lot of winding it here and there around needles and I am a bit concerned the result may look and feel like I am wearing a cardboard jacket.  Still, onwards, the yarn is a lovely tweedy blue and the effect of the fabric is quite nice if you squint.

In more depressing news, Nr.1 child is having a growth spurt, I wouldn't mind (much) if he would grow within the normal (ie normal for UK clothing sizes) range, but difficult little sod, he has to have a 26 inch waist and 34 inch legs, as he is only 15 I suspect it can only get worse (longer) before it gets better (ie he takes responsibility and buys his own clothing), Nr.3 is also growing - she insists she is taller than me and now takes my shoe size. I think I will trim her feet when she sleeps, she however has pointed out my taste sucks so I may remain fully clothed - this is her about to go to her school formal (whatever next - formals for 13 yr olds??? In my day we were frog marched to our form years country dancing and wore thick sensible shoes for clumping, along with our first wonky Home-Ec attempts at making pinafores).

feeling cosy

Two cosies done and sent off to mum - I figured if I sent 2, the chances are increased that she will like at least one, but I'll get told off for being superfluous and making two, never mind - done and dusted. The scarf is next to get completed (unless I get distracted - yes I am aware I have the attention span of a gnat). Then it is the Rowan kildsilk haze cardigan and the James Brett cardigan which have been languishing in a pile by the sofa, maybe. At the moment I seem to have days on end when I come home and just blob rather than knit (as in knit AND blob - whatever happened to the days of multi-tasking?)

I have had a chaotic week - tuesday I was down in York (5:00 to the train station to catch the 6:00 and back at 9:45pm) in black ice and blizzard conditions. Getting up the small footpath from our house was the most hazardous part of the trip, for every two steps forward I slithered one back (truly, it was like climbing the north face of the Eiger - well done me) whilst clinging to the stone wall that runs for approx 2/3 of the length - and then it changed to holly hedge (not so good for clinging too). Still, the study day on diagnostic filters and what-not was well worth it - very interesting and very useful.

Thursday and Friday I was in London to teach critical apprasial skills (fabluous - what a lovely bunch of people, really friendly and full of questions and just made the two days go so well), I meant to meet up with Yvonne but was so tired I fell asleep rather than go out in the evening, never mind - I'll just have to find another excuse to go down there again......