Training course

This morning has mostly been about gathering the things I need to survive for a week away from home, as I'm heading off to London later this afternoon for a training course. I've mentioned this to a few people already and it's interesting how their first reaction is to tell me which sights I should visit.

Sadly, there won't be time for sightseeing. Technical training courses, or at least every single one I've ever attended, tend towards full days in the lab absorbing as much detail as possible.

Come the evening, I'll be exhausted and my plans involve nothing more complicated than me, a sofa and a sock. Admittedly, the sock in question will be the Jaywalker, who's first incarnation met its demise this week, so I've no idea how successful my attempts to knit will be, but that's what I've got in mind. I've even cast the sock on again and knit four rows in readiness.

I'll not be taking a laptop with me, so that means no internet access for the week, which of course means no email and no Ravelry. I can survive for a week without the internet, but it normally involves being under canvas so this will be a novelty for me.

Anyone who speaks to Dave while I'm gone, be nice to him. He's in sole charge of the cats, who're bound to run circles around him for the duration.

In other news, I got my spinning wheel out yesterday afternoon. It did not go well.

I'm sitting here trying to explain why and I can't. I set it up with an empty bobbin and spent a good while practicing treadling, which was fine, but the instant I attached a leader, it all went wrong. First it wouldn't draw in the leader. I adjusted things so that it would. Then I found that if I held the leader, which should store the spin preventing it from traveling up the leader, the wheel stopped dead. As far as I could tell, there was no spin in the leader at all and no amount of adjusting or repeated attempts seemed to help.

I persevered for maybe an hour and a half, then gave up and got my spindle out which gave me predictable, reliable results and reassured me that I wasn't completely rubbish. However, either the wheel is misbehaving or I've forgotten everything since the last time I used it back in November.

Back to the drawing board, methinks and time to read those books Dave bought me for Christmas called 'Start Spinning' and 'The Whole Craft of Spinning'.

Hot and cold

We can now enjoying the benefits of having running hot and cold water in our kitchen once more, as the handyman showed up as scheduled to replace the tap with a shiny new one. We have actual water pressure when we turn the tap on now and last night Dave spent most of the evening marveling about how quickly the sink fills up. The whole job took a couple of hours and was without drama's other than me discovering the tardis like properties of the cupboard under the sink. I seem to have been collecting dusters, and sponges in there, so many that I had my doubts I could get them back in again when it came to putting things away.

While the handyman was on site, I quizzed him about woodburners (which he didn't know anything about) and escorted him to the end of the garden, to get his opinon of the area behind the shed. This is the forgotten end of the garden, currently hidden by the shed but a traditional dumping ground for rubbish by the previous owner and it seems, our neighbours. We spent a good six months clearing about half of it several years back and I'd like the rest of it cleared, not least because it would discourage said neighbours from thinking they can throw anything they like there.

The handyman stood there looking a bit flummoxed until admitting that he couldn't see any other way to clear it than to do it manually by hand as he wouldn't be able to get a small digger in there. His verdict was that there was at least a couple of skips worth still buried in that patch and it would take a lot of effort to get it out. Hmmm... Not exactly what I wanted to hear.

In other news, I think I'm about to rip out my Jaywalker sock and here is a picture of it, showing my progress so far - just for the record.



I'm not happy with it. I miscounted the stitches somewhere in amongst the increases and decreases that make up those chevrons and for the life of me I can't see where. On top of that, the sock is eating yarn at an alarming rate and I don't think I'm going to have enough left to complete the sock. If I do manage it, there is no way I'll be able to match up stripes because I won't have enough length to play with and of course, because of the mucked up stitch count I'm doubtful the colour bands will match anyway.

Then there's the fit at the heel... Having been warned that the Jaywalker is notoriously tight, imagine my surprise when the turned heel and gusset actually appears to be a bit loose! Not much mind, so maybe knitting it with the correct number of stitches will correct it. If not, perhaps I need to knit the foot in the next size down.

The final nail in the coffin - having tried the sock on I'm not happy with the cuff which doesn't seem to fit at all. Rather than cling nicely to my calf, it just sort of hangs there loosely and is clearly too big for my leg and I don't exactly have skinny legs. Years of walking, vigourous exercise and being a fairly active adult mean that I have muscles in my legs even if I don't have them anywhere else.

I could persevere and hope I have enough yarn to finish the sock, but I'd know it's a bodge. I'd know that cuff doesn't remotely fit even if it is covered up by my trousers and I don't intend them to be house only. If I go to the bother of knitting a pair of socks, while they don't need to be perfect, they do need to at least fit vaguely and be wearable.

So my plan... I'm going to rip that sock out and start again, this time casting on the cuff in the next needle size down. Once I'm off the cuff, I'll go up a needle size for the rest of the sock. I'll shave an inch off the length of the leg too, which should hopefully give me a little more confidence that I'll have enough yarn to finish the sock.

Perseverance, I has it.

In the spirit of cheering myself up and looking for a quick project, I cast on my first intended Christmas present of the year...



It's going to be a mitten...

Spinning progress

I'm still waiting for the promised thundersnow I heard the DJ talking about on the radio yesterday morning, but so far there's been no sign of it - although it was very stormy last night, which made very glad to be indoors. Richard pointed out a day or two ago, that this time last year we were camped out in a drafty shed in York, mad, mad, people that we are!

With no camping this weekend, I headed off to the spinning guild yesterday for the second time ever. Coventry's guild meet every third Saturday of the month and I'm still having difficulties in adjusting to the fact we're in January, while at the same time Christmas seems six months ago, so would have missed the fact the guild was meeting at all, if Claire hadn't reminded me.

The ladies at the guild were pleasant enough and I had a couple of prompts to bring my wheel with me next time, which made me feel kind of guilty since I haven't touched it since November. Being at the guild did mean that I got on with some spinning on the spindle though and I'm beginning to make some noticeable progress now...



This is one of Violet Green's superwash merino's in a pastel sort of mix, which appears predominately pink in the roving form, but here it looks more minty blue. I've got used to the shorter staple length and I'm working it quite well, especially since I'm able to spin without using the park and draft method now. I'm still horribly slow and the single you can see in these photographs represents between three and four hours worth of spinning.



I tend to only spin for short periods on the spindle, certainly working for no longer than 30 minutes at a time, so spending well over an hour spinning yesterday was a rare treat. My spinning is coming along though and I can see definite improvement in the consistency of the single I'm producing and my technique seems to be working for me, so I think I shall persevere.

One thing that struck me while watching the other ladies, was how easy and relaxed they make spinning at a wheel look. One day, maybe I'll manage that kind of serenity, but for now the spindle is far more soothing than the wheel as for the most part, I can control what it does rather than having the distinct impression that it's got a mind of its own!

Tempting the kitchen fates

I think I may have tempted the kitchen fates last weekend, by posting a picture of a dishcloth in repose on the sink. We've been experiencing reduced pressure in from our hotwater tap since Christmas and on Wednesday morning, the tap gave up completely. Turning it on, no matter how fully, did not mean you'd get any water.

Oh well, thought I... I've got that Homecare cover thing with British Gas, which includes plumbing and drains. I'll give them a call and it will be sorted.

Ahem.

The very polite gentleman on the other end of the phone wasted no time informing me that Homecare does not cover what they consider to be 'endpoints' of the pipes - which include the stopcock and the taps. In fact, he couldn't even send around a plumber and charge me for the privilege as they just didn't offer it as a service.

I am not exactly what you might call impressed.

I did not have my agreement, complete with the small print, to hand and so I had no choice but to thank him (equally politely) and start looking for alternatives. Suffice it to say that when I come to contract renewal time in a few months, I'll be looking at the cover provided and that small print very carefully and may well investigate other cover providers.

All of this means that currently, we are without hot water in the kitchen which is proving to be very inconvenient. I've contacted the handyman who sorted the fence for me last summer and he'll be around on Monday to replace the tap, which is great...

But part of me is still annoyed that British Gas' Homecare is not everything I thought it was.

Tunisian dishcloth

This week back at work has been hard and a shock to the system after a couple of weeks off. The cold hasn't helped - having to leave the house in sub-zero temperatures and returning in the same, has not been a good experience. And did I mention, I'm back on the bike? Cycling in freezing temperatures is not pleasant either, with the cold giving me a headache by the time I get to work and my sluggish calf muscles even succumbing to cramp one evening. Cramp when trying to ride a bicycle is not to be recomended!

One side effect of being gainfully employed is having less time to do things for me and hence having both less time to write here as well as having less to write about.

That said, I did make this...



This is a new dishcloth for the kitchen, which I needed since the last one of the last batch I made is in a sorry state. The last dishcloth I made was knitted, this one is made using Tunisian Crochet. I simply cast on (I need to check if there is a proper technical term) 30 stitches and did Tunisian Purl Stitch (Tps) until I thought the cloth was big enough. I added a simple crochet border to finish off.

The whole thing took me a couple of hours, which I thought wasn't bad since I'm pretty new to this whole TC thing.

At the moment I'm still making swatches, but I'm trying to get my tension a little more even and experimenting to see what I can do about the curl. I want my crochet to lie flat.

I'm also thinking that what I may do is start to crochet larger swatches and keep the swatches as I make them. I'm thinking that when I have enough, I could sew or crochet them together to make a sampler blanket.

This was my excuse to buy more yarn on Saturday when we made a very quick visit into town as we were expecting a visitor in the form of Dave's dad. I had a list and tackled it efficiently rather than ambling around town allowing Dave to browse at will. Dave complained that he kept losing me, as the instant he took his eyes off me I was gone.

Our hurried trek around Coventry yesterday revealed how many empty units are there now and just how many of the smaller retailers, along with bigger chains are gone. Some have vanished in the past few weeks!

Something to beat the chill

I'm still shivering away in Coventry where temperatures outside are struggling to get above freezing today. We've had snow showers on and off since Sunday and while none of it has really built up to significant levels, the light dusting of the stuff has frozen in place, giving Coventry a pretty wintery look to it. Any standing water or puddles have frozen solid and reported temperatures are down to -8C at night now.

The only reasonable way to respond to all this coldness was to cast on a sock.



This is my first 'patterned' sock, following Grumperina's Jaywalker pattern (Ravelry Link) and knit up in the Regia Design Line I picked up from Web of Wool back in October.

So far, the colourway is all I'd hoped for. It's colourful, bright and cheery, showing up the Jaywalker pattern beautifully.

My only problem is that I found the pattern increases and decreases difficult to do on my normal Clover bamboo needles which have quite blunt tips. To overcome this, I switched to some more pointy metal DPNs, but I'm finding them very hard on the hands. They don't flex as much, are 'harder' when I hold them and I'm finding that repeatedly pushing the tips back (to move the stiches into place so they can be knit) is making my fingers sore. There must be a technique to using pointy metal needles, but at the moment I don't have it.

The upside of this is of course, that I'm currently unlikely to sit for hours and hours watching the colours unfolding in front of me... Meaning the lace is still getting the odd look in (234 rows and counting) and I'm still hankering after the hook - so much so I may need to do a crochet project or two soon.

More tunisian swatching

I guess I should start by wishing any who read this a Happy New Year - I hope that so far, 2009 is working out for you.

For us, the new year started with Coventry plunging into the deep freeze. As anyone who knows me could tell you, I do not cope well with cold at all, so when temperatures drop to an alleged -7C I shut down. I can have the heating on at full pelt, wrap in many layers, wear copious amounts of wool on my hands and feet, but I'm still going to be freezing. Take those mitts or socks off and you'll find my hands or feet are like ice! I dread to think how I'd cope if I lived in a truly cold country...

When not paralyzed by the cold, I've been pottering around the house doing the housework and becoming reacquainted with my spindle. But when the cold hits I've resorted to sitting bundled up on the sofa, hugging a hotwater bottle and crocheting or knitting.

On the spindle at the moment, I've got the pastel merino I bought last year from Violet Green. Progress so far is slow, as my hands seem to have forgotten how to spin and the merino handles very differently to either Blue Faced Leicester or Grey Swaledale. It's draw length is notably shorter for a start, which meant that the first time I started working it, the spindle kept crashing to the floor.

Now, after a bit of practice and relearning how to use the spindle, things are slowly coming together. I did consider taking a photograph, but to be honest the pastel colours are very muted once tightly spun into a single and I'm not sure I could do it justice. In the end, I decided to work it a little more before I try to take a picture and see if I can play with the contrast levels a bit.

When unable to get quite so active, I've been making more Tunisian Crochet swatches as I continue trying out the various standard foundation stitches.



Here we have the Tunisian Simple Stitch (Tss) which is also known as Afghan Stitch, Tricot Crochet or Knit Stitch. This is usually the stitch meant whenever a book or pattern refers to Tunisian Crochet, or gives a simple overview of the technique. It really is quite simple to do and works up speedily, giving a grid like effect (which apparently Victorian ladies used as a base for their cross stitch).



Next up, the Tunisian Full Stitch (Tfs) which produces a dense, lofty fabric which is very, very prone to curl. On all of these swatches I've used a 5.5mm hook with a basic DK yarn, so that's three hook sizes up from the recommended hook and as you probably see from the photo, this swatch wants to curl up really badly.



Finally, the Tunisian Purl Stitch (Tps) which is the flatest of the basic foundations - note it's just sitting on the table without me needing to spread it out so I can see the stitch pattern. The fabric itself is dense, but not as lofty as the other stitches. It does have actual drape and while I find the hook gymnastics needed to form the stitch really awkward, I like the effect.

Back to work tomorrow and therefore back to real life, computers 9 til 6 and no where near so much time for playing with yarn.

And more fingerless mittens

This morning I headed into town for my regular contact lens checkup with the optician. Thankfully, all is well with my eyes, except of course for being as blind as a short sighted bat if I don't have either my glasses on or my lenses in.

While I was there, I poked around in the sales until I got bored with the sameness of it all. I didn't think too much of the pickings although if I was super skinny, i.e. a size 6, I'd have had plenty of choice. I eventually came home (OK, I did pick up a cardi - it was made of alpaca and just called to me with it's softness - and two pairs of trousers, but at the silly prices on offer I'd have been remiss not to take advantage) and I'm sitting here, typing away, sipping tea and trying to defrost (it is bitter out there).

I'm also wearing these...



These are Fetching, the elder sibling of Dashing (posted about yesterday), also from Knitty and made entirely for me! That sentence required an exclamation mark as this is only the second project I've finished this year intended entirely for yours truely.

They're modelled here by Dave, who I had to fight to retain possession of these gloves. The more feminine version they might be, but I was informed that when knitted in mossy green they're 'manly' and Dave has a keen eye on manly knits, considering them to be automatically for him.





I used up about 3/4 of a 100g skein of Katia Azteca in colourway 7803 (Ravelry Link) which I picked up during last Christmas's trek to Penzance. I love the way the colour worked out, although it did mean that I've ended up with two gloves which while they're definitely related are in no way identical.

Katia Azteca is an underspun aran weight, 50% wool and 50% acrylic. These mittens were knitted on 4mm needles (as per the pattern) which resulted in a thick, dense fabric, which I have to say (since I'm sitting here wearing them as I type) is very warm and cosy.



I did make a few mods to the pattern as follows...

• Added an extra set of cables at the cuff.
• Added an extra five rows of rib between the cuff cables and the thumb.
• Added an extra set of cables at the knuckle.
• Used a standard bind off rather than the picot bind off listed in the pattern.
• Added an extra four rows to the thumb.

These changes were mostly to accommodate my hands, which are long with equally long, artistic and crafty fingers. I wanted each mitten to be tighter across the knuckle as well as a little longer, so they almost reach the first joint in my fingers, rather than stopping at the knuckles as in the pattern. Once I'd lengthened the bit coming over the fingers, I needed to lengthen the thumb as well to balance things out.

I ditched the picot bind off after reading other knitters comments on Ravelry; the consensus of opinion was that the pattern as written gave a loose fitting mitten across the knuckles, with the bind off designed to flair out in a lady like fashion. Lady like is all very well, but I've knitted these gloves to keep my hands warm while allowing me to retain the use of my fingers, so I decided on a conventional bind off... And I must say I'm very happy with the result.



I even like the way the thumb sits on these mittens, even though it was constructed in exactly the same way as the thumb on Dashing, it just looks so much more balanced... Like it was meant to be there, rather than having be stuck on as an after thought.

One day I will learn how to knit fingers, but in the meantime, I am a happy knitter with toasty hands.

Did someone mention mittens?

As mentioned in a previous post, with Christmas knitting finally out of the way (for the moment at least) I've been focusing on projects for either Dave or myself. The lace shawl is continuing to come along slowly, now standing at 208 rows and I've been working on smaller portable and easier projects alongside it.

I decided to have my first go at gloves or more specifically fingerless mittens picking something for Dave first.



These are 'Dashing' from Knitty which I started at the end of November and finished a few days before heading down to Devon for our seasonal visit. They're knitted in larger size even though Dave's not a large bloke, mainly because I preferred the look of the cables.





These gloves were a doddle to knit and a relatively quick knit, which was just what I was after. I used the best part of a skein of miscellaneous aran weight from my stash, picked up as sale yarn a couple of years ago. The colour is great and for an unknown wool mix, the yarn handled well while I was knitting it. Even better, Dave loves them.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the thumb.



The thumb hole is initially worked in a waste yarn, which is later ripped out and the resulting loops picked up to be worked as stitches, forming the thumb. In this case, this meant the thumb ends up looking like it's been tacked on as an after thought, or at least it does while the gloves aren't been worn. Once on, the gloves look very good, so perhaps it's just me fretting and being overly fussy.

Is Christmas over already?

Christmas and Boxing Day seem to have passed in a flash, indicating they were both good days. Christmas Day was just Dave, myself and the cats - who begged to be allowed to help eat Christmas Dinner, which was a complete surprise as neither of them are the kind of cats who beg at meal times. We did the church thing, ate far too much, opened pressies and spent a good amount of time on the phone to various relatives.

Present wise, I had a good haul of knitting and crochet related books, including the Encyclopedia of Tunisian Crochet by Angela "ARNIE" Grabowski. Weirdly, I searched for this book on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, but it doesn't seem to be listed. So instead, I've linked to the Google entry and the author has set up a website called ChezCrochet.com which looks worth a look and is largely focused on Tunisian Crochet.

Dave also bought me some tunisian hooks, which look like a cross between a knitting needle and a crochet hook, so naturally Christmas Day evening saw me sat on the sofa trying to make sense of it all.

And here is my first ever Tunisian crochet swatch...

This is Tunisian Knit Stitch (Tks) AKA Stocking Stitch, Stockinette Stitch, Ribbing Stitch and Foundation Stitch. I worked it in a DK yarn on a 5mm hook and as you can see it is very prone to curling.

According to the author, Tunisian crochet has a very high tendency to curl and the only way to counter it is to go up several hook sizes, something I've taken on board although I'm still playing with my trusty 5mm hook at the moment.

Yesterday, Richard and Nat came over for the afternoon and evening to play lots of silly board games. We played Kill Doctor Lucky, Monty Fluxx and Munchkin Booty, all of which were great fun. We also ate a lot of nibbles, drank much tea (made properly from loose leaf proper tea in a tea pot) and I made chicken stew. There was also cake. It was a good day.

There were also more Christmas presents, including this hat which I made for Richard, who put it on as soon as he unwrapped it and kept it on all day!

This is Ribbed Cap from One Skein Wonders. I cast on 120 stitches and knitted it for 10.5 inches before starting the decreases, so it wouldn't be too small. It turned out great.

My other Christmas knits went down relatively well, I think. The feedback I've had so far has been warm and they sound appreciated, which is about all I can ask for really.

Border patrol

Today is Christmas Eve and I'm still trying to clear the laundry, which means that this morning I ventured outside to hang clothes on the line. It was vaguely nice out there for December and so I wasn't hurrying to get back inside before my fingers dropped off.

When I was done hanging out the laundry, I looked up and spotted this...



I know, it's not immediately clear but this was the view from my back step as I looked across at my neighbour's garden. I walked to the end of the garden and zoomed in a bit to get a better shot...





This is the notorious Ginger Tom sitting on our neighbour's bird table, presumably hoping that lunch will drop in. This is the same Ginger who is terrorising Missy and beating up Charlie who it seems is holding his own just lately.



What you're actually seeing here is Ginger sitting on the bird table just over the declared border to our cats' territory and deliberately ignoring Charlie who is guarding the premises.



Missy, having already been tree'd by Ginger once this morning was guarding the back doorstep.

Have a great Christmas!

Seasonal trip home

After a round trip of 650 miles, I'm done with my seasonal visit to the South West having covered numerous addresses in Tedburn St Mary, Plymouth, Bodmin and Penzance over the past few days. Needless to say that while I enjoy catching up with family members that otherwise I'd not see, the whole trip was exhausting. We arrived home at eight-ish last night and once the car was unpacked, my blood sugar levels fell, I had nothing I needed to stay alert for and my brain shutdown.

Today I'm more alert and I even braved the supermarket this morning, in an absolutely necessary foraging trip for food. I knew things would be bad when I had to queue to get into the car park and then spent ten minutes stalking shoppers returning to their cars, so I could nab their parking space the instant they moved.

Inside the store, negotiating past the little automatic gates next to the fruit and veg was bad enough - after that it was an exercise in extreme patience and trolley control. I survived and there is now food in the house, so we're not going to starve in the near future.

This afternoon, Dave and I sorted out the tree. We tend to opt for putting up the tree and seasonal decorations a day or so before Christmas Eve and keep them up until 12th night. Admittedly, if we're horribly busy they might linger for a day or two after that, but that is always the intention. This contrasts with most of my family who put their tree and decorations up by the 1st December and will have them down the day after New Year. Me, I guess I like them up later so they're more special... And I always feel kind of sad when I take them back down.

My brother drove up from Ilford this afternoon to collect the presents for his family that I'd retrieved during my Tour d'South West. It's the first time he's ever visited and was relying on a friends TomTom to get here, which coped admirably even if he couldn't remember any landmarks he might have passed. Navigating via SatNav tends towards concentrating on what it tells you, rather than your surroundings I guess. It was really good to see him, even if the rest of the family couldn't make it due to pressing Christmas shopping (this I understand and sympathise with, Christmas is the season of eternal shopping). My sister-in-law's parents are staying with them this year and they're determined to give them the full family Christmas experience. My brother is in charge of Christmas dinner and says that he's really looking forward to it.

So that's me about done on the Christmas prep this year. All presents have been delivered and all that remains is to wait and see what people think. I'm hoping my knitting and sewing goes down well!

By way of a final reminder for all of those who worry about Father Christmas as he works his way around the world, don't forget you can track his progress via NORAD.

Knit not in haste

That's me all done on the work front this year as I start my Christmas break proper. Today I'm at home, trying to get ready for an incredibly busy weekend. So far things haven't exactly gone to plan as I had to call an insurer with a query about a policy... After over two and half hours on the phone (they did call me back, I'm glad to say) I think it's all sorted, but oh my goodness am I glad I decided to wait until today to make that call. Quite aside from the problem of spending that amount of time on a personal call at work, cubicle living does not lend itself well to private telephone conversations.

Yesterday was the last meeting for the Coventry knitting group where we exchanged our Secret Santa presents and ate chocolate. My Secret Santa gave me a little book of wisdom by the Yarnharlot called Things I Learned from Knitting, Whether I wanted to or Not. I have yet to do more than dip into it, but on first glance it looks very good.

The chocolate came complete with little proverbs and wisdom... All written in French. Fun was had trying to translate said proverbs before handing them over to the resident native French speaking members who did their best to provide an official translation. Some of them came out a bit strange - I think they lost something in the translation.

With my Christmas knitting finally out of the way (last night Jane asked me when I started this year's Christmas knitting and I admitted to February) I've turned my attention to projects intended for either me or Dave. This years knitting has mostly been for other people and so next year I'm going to aim to redress this a bit, with at least every other project being for either me or himself. Stay tuned to see how I get on!

In the meantime, I've picked up the lace project I originally started back in July but put to one side as I tried to get all the other projects I had on the go finished. With the Christmas knitting done, it is very firmly on the front burner again, alongside smaller and simpler projects for when my brain is fried. Lace requires a lot of mental reserves. It is fiddly, needs to be concentrated on and doesn't do well when you have to keep up your side of a conversation... It certainly is not something I'd take to LARP event and it doesn't do well at the knitting group either.

The lace in question is my second project from Victorian Lace Today with the catchy title of Large Rectangle with Centre Diamond Pattern and with no further ado here it is as of this morning...



I know it doesn't look like much on the needles, but that's lace for you. It will continue to look very ratty until it is finished, washed and blocked out properly. In the meantime, let's see it under a little tension provided by pins and with some contrast behind it...





So far I'm one hundred and eighty rows in, that's the border and seventeen repeats of a ten row pattern. There are thirty six repeats in all. Now I'm working on this one again, it is growing steadily but I'm not in a lace mood every night and sometimes I'm just incapable of working on this due to the concentration needed, hence I expect it to continue to grow slowly. But it is getting there... Which is a good thing.

A quick catchup

Christmas is only a week away now, can you believe it? Although I've been knitting throughout the year in preparation, I'm still shocked that it seems to have crept up on me, I mean where did Autumn go?

It's been all go for me the past week, which is of course why I haven't had time to update here. I did make an effort and post to the Knit-wits blog last week, having remembered to take my camera out for our Christmas meal (well I just about remembered, as we were about to leave the restaurant). Richard commented that there hadn't been anything posted there for a long while so I was stung into action... We are after all still meeting up regularly, we just have our own lives to get on with which means we don't always have time to post on blogs.

I also had my team Christmas Lunch last week, which saw us going to the Coconut Lagoon in Kenilworth. I didn't take my camera along as that would have gained me some odd looks I think. On route to the restaurant, I did spot a wool shop on Kenilworth's high street, which I'm going to have to return and have a proper look at when I get a chance.

Last weekend was the AscendancyLRP Christmas bash, held at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire. It was the first time we'd used that site, so I approached it with some trepidation. As it was, I needn't have worried - the house itself was a quirky, sprawling maze of rooms and staircases with a decent sized kitchen, heaters in each bedroom, central heating downstairs and blazing open fires in the main sitting rooms. The place seems to be run as a communal project, mostly maintained by volunteers and run on a shoestring budget. It's a lovely old house though.

I did have one mishap, in the form of mistakenly placing my boots at the end of my bed on Friday night as the heavens opened outside. As it rained and rained and rained, I slept on oblivious but in the morning, when I went to put my boots on I discovered they contained an inch of water! Closer inspection revealed the carpet and the dresser at the end of the bed to be rather soggy as well, so although I didn't see any drips the roof was obviously leaking. No one else had a similar problem, so I must have been really unlucky with where I chose to put my boots that night.

Fortunately, we were indoors and in a warm house with large radiators... I found a radiator in an out of the way place and my boots spent the morning drying out. By early afternoon they were dry and I had nice toasty toes.

The event itself was an interesting one; not at all upbeat or cheery in the way traditional for a Christmas party. Moral dilemma's abounded and I'm still not sure I fully understood what was going on.

I did however drink lots of tea and sit by the fire a lot. And I got some knitting done... Very unusual for an event, but I can sit and talk while I knit, which is what I spent quite a bit of the time doing, so in all it was a pleasant and relaxing weekend for me.

Commuting is not for me, I think

I'm back in the land of internet access, having survived a week of intense technical sessions courtesy of the UKOUG. The conference itself was as good as expected (from a techie perspective) with the usual mixed bag of lectures in terms of usefulness, but the majority well presented which always helps.

Commuting to and from Birmingham via public transport last week was, as it always is, an experience. I walked the two miles to the train station each day and a further mile or so to the conference centre at the other end, before hanging around for trains which didn't stick to the timetable but turned up when they wanted to.

Once on the train I did get a seat each day, both in the morning and on the way back in the evening, but... Why oh why, do people insist on thinking seats are for their bags, or feet, or stray body parts? Even in rush hour? Why do they look at you like you're imposing in the most horrendous way when you ask if the seat is free? Do they really need to sprawl into your seat after you've sat down, once they've grudgingly moved their bag of course? And shouldn't working toilets be kind of expected? And what's with the games the platform staff and train managers play, where they insist another train heading in the same direction is leaving the station first, only to pull away from the platform the instant a hundred or so passengers scurry from the first train to the second? (I wasn't caught out by this one, having fought through to my seat I wasn't moving, no matter what the train manager said!)

Ah fun...

I did get to poke around the German Christmas Market in Birmingham while I was passing through. I think my tolerance threshold for tat has dropped over the years, as while I admired the many knitted hats, sheepskin gloves and sweets on offer, I wasn't tempted by ornaments made out of junk, touristy 'African' carvings or smelly candles. I was upset on Friday afternoon to discover it was raining when I set off from the conference centre. I'd been walking past the many cakes and sweets all week and had intended to treat myself... But as it was, heavily laden down with conference bag and juggling an umbrella, I didn't have sufficient spare hands to manage a sticky treat as well.

This weekend was spent doing housework, tidying and then wrapping Christmas gifts, to the point where I didn't really have any spare time at all. It was telling, that on Saturday I didn't knit a single stitch on existing projects let alone achieve any real crafting. I am about sorted though. And the living room is looking a little clearer; I say a little because it's a small house and while I can move things from one place to another, there is only so much I'm willing to throw away.

Only seven more working days til Christmas, yay!

Saturday on the go

With only two free weekends left before Christmas (the curse of a busy life, where the LRP season never ends and relatives live a long way away) and family negotiations still ongoing for December/January, I needed to make this one count. So today we headed up to the big Tesco to do our Christmas food shopping...

Sadly, my drive to be efficient was thwarted. Nothing seemed to be where it should be and despite being a big store, the selections on offer were still very poor, so I guess I'm going to have to try again - possibly while roaming around Devon and Cornwall.

We did drop by Next and I bought a hat, so I have something to wear on my head when walking to and from the train station next week. I'm booked onto a conference Monday to Friday, so I'll be commuting to Birmingham each day where I will listen to all sorts of lectures about Oracle databases. I've looked at the agenda and can say hand firmly on heart that I predict a heavy week, long hours and an overload of technical information as I endure death by Powerpoint.

Naturally, while we were in the vicinity we dropped into Borders - drawn primarily by the Starbucks coffee shop. I browsed the magazines and noted the existance of 'Sew Hip' which is published by the same folks as Yarn Forward. As with YF, Sew Hip is not sealed in plastic so you can browse it before buying, is a British sewing magazine and definitely worth a second glance. I didn't pick it up as none of the sewing projects called to me and I'm not finding time to sew at the moment, but I was impressed by the amount of readable content - real articles which looked like they might be interesting! This is a mag I'm going to keep an eye out for in future methinks.

I did succumb and buy a single book - Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crochet Shawls. What can I say other than I picked it up and as I flicked through, suddenly found myself wanting to pick up a crochet hook there and then (Ravelry link). This is happening quite a bit lately as I've done quite a bit of knitting this year, but precious little crochet and I'm finding myself hankering after the hook.

Other than that, today has been about tidying; I bought some packing crates and I resumed trying to put things away. I can't say I threw anything away, but I've earmarked some things to go to charity shops and Freecycle, which is a start I guess.

Purpley goodness...

Today is a grey day out there and very smokey, as our next door neighbour decided to light a massive fire in his back garden last night. I'm at home, taking a well earned day off from work in compensation for working through the weekend two weeks ago. So far, that has meant I've spent the day doing housework, but I'm hoping to spend some time with my spinning wheel this afternoon...

In the meantime, I've popped online to catch up on the news and to post some pictures of another finished project.

Here is the second Stolen Moments Wrap.

This was knitted up using another ten balls of Paton's Funky Chunky, this time in an aubergine colour which I think has come out quite well in the photographs. I used 9mm needles since they'd worked well on the first wrap and wasn't disappointed with the result.

The wrap has been lightly blocked to open out the lace pattern and came out at 227cm x 48cm, so quite sizeable and equally snuggly as the first.

Summer once more...

I'm sat here pondering the significance of VAT being lowered temporarily to 15%, wondering if/how that is going to persuade folks to spend money the way the government want them to and if we aren't just storing up a whole lot more trouble for later. Tax cuts are one thing, but not if the deficit they provoke means tax hikes for years to come - but then, I'll admit to being largely ignorant of the world of big finance.

There was little sign of reluctance of people to spend money at the weekend, as we took to Coventry's high street to tackle the bulk of our Christmas shopping. A lot of the stores seemed to have sales of one sort or another on this weekend which Coventry's populace was out in force to take advantage of. There were people everywhere and the queues were frighteningly long, but in the end, after a day of fighting our way through the crowds, we just about finished tackling the list.

The rest of the weekend was spent wading through housework and trying to finish outstanding projects. I washed and blocked the wrap I've been working on, then spent some time staring at the cotton bag, started way back in July. It just looked too plain. The yellow and orange of the bag fabric weren't gelling for me and the bag just looked unfinished.

In the end, I decided to scatter some buttons across the front flap to see if they tied things in and after some more careful consideration, it seemed to be the thing to do.

This bag is loosely based on 'Flora' published in Let's Knit magazine.

I say loosely based, because other than the inspiration, I've changed pretty much everything.

The bag was supposed to be knit using moss stitch stripes, as a fold over bucket bag. I decided against the stripes as I wanted to use up stashed Peaches and Cream cotton, which (as you can see) was already very busy. The bucket bag meanwhile, was originally intended to be knit as a huge square and then folded in half lengthwise. This fell by the wayside when I lost the will to live half way through and decided to knit a large 'L' shape instead.

I kept the idea of a flower on the front of the bag, but didn't like the knitted one depicted by the designer so switched it for one from Crochet Inspiration.

The method of fastening the flap remained the same, being what drew me to the bag in the first place. It's a traditional method that I've only seen on re-enactment items before; two buttons with a cord sewn under one button and wrapped around the other. The cord is held in place by friction and gravity, aided by adding a weight (i.e. beads) to the bottom of the cord. In this case, I made a 'S' twist cord out of perle cotton and threaded on a couple of beads from my stash attached it as the 'stem' for my flower, as per the original design.

Finally, again differing from the original instructions for this bag, I decided to line it to minimise stretching. I scoured my stash until I found a suitable piece of pink cotton and used the finished knitted fabric as a pattern. Unfortunately, between measuring the unsewn bag and sewing it up, the knitted fabric relaxed meaning that by the time I got around to sewing in the lining, it was suddenly too big for the bag.

I tried re-blocking the flap, but no matter how much steam I threw at it, the cotton kept shrinking back to its new size. I considered taking the lining out and starting again, but given how long I've been working on this bag and that it's an intended Christmas present, I wasn't keen, besides which the main problem seemed to be the lining seperating from the flap. The only way I could see to fix it would be to use iron-on interfacing to permanently stretch or stabalise the knitted fabric, which kind of defeats the point of using a knitted fabric entirely.

This was my ulterior motive for attaching random buttons to the front of the bag's flap, I was borrowing on an idea from making quilts, where you sew through the multiple quilt layers at intervals, anchoring them together and sometimes, placing buttons at these anchor points. The decorative shell buttons (picked up from the Singer shop in Coventry) are not only pretty, they're helping to stabalise the lining on the back of the flap.

Overall, I'm happy with the finished result, but most of all, I'm happy that I finally finished this bag as it was turning into one of those projects which never seems to be done! But here we are... It's bright, cheerful, girly and completely at odds with the season. Finally.

A continuing theme...

Work has been the theme of the past week or so and will be continuing for the next few days, as I camp out at work (not really, but it seems like it sometimes) as I plod through a series of application upgrades. This is really fun stuff, which saw me work long days on Saturday and Sunday and means that I haven't had time to do much of anything else at all.

You can tell it too by looking around my house. Dave has done some cleaning, but we do things differently. I'm also currently refusing to acknowledge the massive pile of ironing which is waiting for me to be at home long enough to deal with it. I will be at home this coming weekend and see my days filled with housework, frantic Christmas shopping, calling home and trying to finish ongoing projects.

In the meantime, I'll fill the blog vacuum with pictures of Dave's creative endeavours in the form of his orks, which he insisted I photograph.



This fellow is actually a troll, or so I'm told. He actually has quite a sweet, pleading expression on his face...

Whereas this one...


... Just seems to be in a terrible rush to get somewhere. I love the little guy hanging on in there in the back.

eBay Dodgy Geezers

I started poking about on eBay again looking for another water pistol after the previous one failed to materialise.

My hopes went up when I spotted a gun very similar to the one I'm currently borrowing from Claire and then I scrolled down the page to check the seller's payment instructions and came across this...

• No refunds are given, PAYMENT WITHIN ONE WEEK NO EXCUSES.
• I take no responsibility for any items lost or damage in the post, its up to you to claim compensation from the post office. So if you require recorded delivery please ask.

Which rather threw me.

As a customer who buys many things over the internet, if I pay for goods which I don't receive or arrive in a less than ideal condition, I'm going to consider it the seller's problem not mine.

I checked eBay's policy and it's clear - the seller is responsible for ensuring the goods get to the buyer (although they're free to charge exorbitant amounts for this service).

If good's don't arrive, are damaged or not as described, eBay advise you to talk to the seller and hopefully sort things out amicably. Failing that if you paid with PayPal they'll refund you providing you make a claim within 45 days (eBay then start investigating the seller).

If you didn't pay via PayPal your position is a little less clear cut, although if you bought directly with a credit card they'll hopefully refund the monies. If all else fails, eBay advise you to report the seller to the police!

All of which seems very definite to me - the seller is responsible for supplying you with goods you've paid for, anything else is theft!

I hasten to add that the eBay trader I was originally trying to buy a water pistol from gave me an immediate refund when I queried its whereabouts. No problem there at all.

As for the other trader with that oh so tempting super soaker... He's not getting my bid, that much is for certain!