Knitting Fever

In anticipation of finishing my mittens (below) I had an urge today to knit my hat. I've knitted this pattern a lot so know it only  takes a couple of hours from start to finish. I had leftover wool from a waistcoat I knitted some years ago and used that. I'm very pleased with it. Pattern, I think, is from a Rowan book I've since lost, but am lucky enough to have a photo of it. 

So I've knitted one thumb, just one to go. While photographing the mittens I spotted my ginger friend out of the window. Mouse-hunting season is upon us again. Averaging one a day for now but it'll be up to two before long.

And I've also cast on the second sleeve for my Rowan jumper. I'm hoping I'll have enough of the purple wool to finish it! I have another half ball but had to stop knitting with it because it's frayed every half metre or so. Very annoying.


Currently reading The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. I just finished the whole of the Harry Potter series. I'm in the mood for adventure and escapism.

Mittens and Ombre Hair

So I'm a bit further along with my mittens, though progress has been slow. I think I'm not in the mood for two-strand knitting; a TV jumper is more where my brain is at. Anyway, they're nearly finished, just a tussle with the thumbs left and that'll be it.


I feel a bit like a duck at the moment, or is it a swan? Lots of legwork under the water but not much visible on the surface.


I've been thinking of dyeing my hair back to chocolate-brown recently, and then came across the ombre hairstyle! I love it. So am now trying to figure out how to get my growing-out highlights into an ombre. I think I might have to dye the top of my head and somehow try to leave the highlights in the bottom of my hair. Hm. I particularly like Sarah Jessica Parker's photo. 

Stuff

The living room table microcosm. Baking books; Nutella; chocolate; a gardening book; Harry Potter, book five; the phone; remote controls; Radio Times; a cup of tea. Sometimes the living room and kitchen tables seem to sum up precisely how I'm living my life at a particular moment.  

And then last week I drove to Dumfries to visit my parents and sister. Edinburgh was bright, clear and sunny when I left in the morning so I was surprised to come across this around The Devil's Beeftub! Keeping me company on the drive though, via Radio 4, was a programme on the recently released A Card From Angela Carter by Susannah Clapp. Love programmes like that.

This was the Haggarty/Burns outing on Sunday at Blackford Hill. We spent a good half hour at the top of this hill running around taking panoramic photos with Hagos's new phone app. We figured out we could have multiples of ourselves in the one shot by running along to the next section once we were out of the frame in the first section. We changed photographers halfway through too so we were all included. I should really have got a copy of the good shots but instead I only have my own, orthodox photos to show.

Very dull compared to the silliness we'd just been up to. I'll try to get a copy of the photos for tomorrow and post then.

Me and Batman as we watched X-Men 2 and waited for roast dinner to be ready :)

I put out the last of my chitting potatoes today. Meg's cat food boxes proved to be good containers. And through the window, Hagos had started digging up our little vegetable patch. These are Maris Pipers, 2nd Earlies.

These are a mixture: International Kidney and Casablanca. I bought Casablanca because of the name. 

I hope they taste good and are high yield.

And one thing I've learned from no longer living near a corner shop is that sometimes I run out of CHOCOLATE - eek. So today I rifled through my recipe books and found a quick fairy cake recipe and made these as a substitute. They were pretty good.

Gemma, by Laura Long

I finally finished Gemma tonight while watching TV. I thought it would take me ages to deal with all the loose ends, but I eventually just tied them together 8 times, hoping they won't come undone in the wash, and only sewed in the ends at the very bottom of the hem. There were too many to deal with and so after six years it's finally, absolutely, completely and totally finished. I originally posted about it right at the beginning of this blog, here.

So the inside doesn't look pretty, but no one except me will know once I have it on. I've already talked about the colours not really being my colours (pastel purple???), and I only chose them because the photograph in the Rowan book was so seductive. Anyway, I'm glad it's finished. (My little assistant got in on the act as usual when I was taking photos, nudging me so there were lots of blurry shots.)

All in all, I'm pleased with it. It's lovely and soft, and I don't have anything else like it.

I did look on Ravelry and discovered pretty much everyone on there who has knitted Gemma had the same problems as me with the ends. Laura Long could easily have given clear directions on that from the start. Anyway, it's finished.

The Big News

Is that there is no news, it being January an'all. So to entertain myself I have finished the first of my new mittens (sans thumb).

I like how it's turned out and think these colours may be a keeper! Phew. I've just started the second mitten so I should be finished them in about a fortnight, thumbs included. The matching hat will take an afternoon, but the matching scarf could take about three weeks. I'm thinking of knitting the Norwegian star design on my mittens into my scarf but will probably also need to do some rows of pure yellow to use up wool and get a long enough scarf. Still playing around with the design.

 

Hagos has been making soup every other day. It's totally amazing and so delicious. He uses either a lentil or a split pea base and then adds stock and vegetables. It's very healthy.

This has become my favourite spot in the house, round about 5pm. I either sit and read for an hour, or knit a few rows in silence. It's all too easy to put on the TV or radio and actually it's lovely to just sit with the sound of the fire beside me. I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books (alongside adult books too) and I usually read HP at 5pm and when I go to bed. My brain doesn't want to deal with any complicated or clever plot-lines at 11pm.

And, the snowdrops are out! Such a relief to see them poking through the earth along with other, later flowers. I really love snowdrops.

The only other news is that our Tuesday night pub quiz is doing fairly well (should be, considering we had nine members last night!). It's been great to re-instate our London pub quiz tradition, and to have three of the original members in our new team is great. 

Coffee, and Third Time Lucky with the choice of Mitten Colours?

This is my coffee ritual in the morning. A half-caf, as a fully caffeinated coffee is too much for me and keeps me awake at night.

And my new colour combination for my mittens. This is the third time I've attempted to get the colours right. The first was purple and orange (yuck), the second was green and purple, which I liked, but which now seem a bit garish. More subtle, but still striking (I'm hoping) is my honey-yellow and charcoal.

Moleskine Diary, and Me and Meg Portrait

I love Moleskine notebooks, particularly the cahier designs. And my favourite colour at the moment is around the yellow and orange end of the spectrum. 

So I was pleased when my new diary arrived today. It has a week per page as well as useful information at the front, but most useful to me will be the time zones page and the page that has a ruler with inches and centimetres :)

Moleskine notebooks are/were favoured by artists (according to Moleskine) including Van Gogh, Picasso, Hemingway and Chatwin. I love the range they do, for example notebooks with musical scores in, sketch books, story board notebooks, watercolour books, Japanese concertina books, specified city notebooks, as well as their range of sizes and colours. And they are incredibly, aesthetically satisfying to use. They are beautiful. 

This is me attempting a self portrait of me and Meg. I set the timer on my camera, and then ran to pick her up. She struggled of course. (Please ignore my hair, which seriously needs washing!)

And in this attempt she had been sitting facing towards the camera, but when I slid into shot to join her she simply walked away.