I made a skirt!

I've had a great weekend. Today I went out for a walk in the rain to Reepham Station. It's about fifteen, twenty minutes away. The old station, to the right, houses a teashop and sells odd things like jams and marmalades and boxes, like this: and this: Then I went across to the building on the left, where there is more variety of objects, including pine furniture that's made on site.

I then came home and got stuck into making my skirt.

I've sewn it together now, just the very top band to hem. In my usual fashion I just got stuck in and learned as I went along. It's been about 20 years since I last used a sewing machine. The zip attachment is very cool, though I need more practise at inserting zips... Unfortunately it is a wee bit tight. It does fit but I could do with losing a few pounds before it will be really comfy. I used a skirt I really like as a template. I actually couldn't have made the skirt any bigger as I had ordered too little material. Next time I'll order more. As a learning experiment it was great fun though and I'm sure I'll improve next time round and it'll fit!

I'm tired and hungry now (when I sew something I have to make it in one go, otherwise I don't finish it for four years). I wanted to finish it to show Anna tomorrow.

Knitting Is DEAD - Long Live Sewing

Look what I bought today! I've been wanting a sewing machine for ages. I'm so excited.

I've been inspired by a lot of sewing blogs recently, mostly SouleMamma. There's an apron blog spin-off that got me very excited (not sure why?) and I've seen people making things like coasters and tops and dresses and skirts. I particularly like matching items, when the whole family has clothing made from the same material. I don't think Hagos will let me make us matching items though, might have to persuade my sister instead. We are similar in other ways: we both have an infectious laugh, we both sway backwards and forwards when we're standing still, we both hum absently to ourselves, and we both have short-term memory loss. Jacqueline recently told me a very funny story about taking money out of the joint bank account she has with her husband in the morning, forgetting about it, then wondering where the money had gone when she later went with him to take the money out again. The best part of the story was when her husband found an emergency phone number to complain. THEN she remembered.

Anyway, I digress.

My husband has now gone on tour. He flew to Russia on Saturday morning. It's their first gig tonight. He's away for six and a half weeks. So Meg and I are cosying ourselves in at home to make the most of the situation. I have BIG PLANS of THINGS TO DO while he's away. The sewing machine is part of it, but I'm keen to turn the whole house into a creative venue.

I also went food shopping today. My diet is very simple when Hagos is away. I eat fish, vegetables, fruit and I buy myself little sweet treats. Today I got some meringues from M&S, which I'll have with raspberries and cream.

Though it is raining, I was glad of the weather today as my Doc Marten summer sandals have a broken clasp, and my Animal sunglasses have lost one tiny little screw, thereby rendering both unwearable!!! Luckily my Rocket Dog boots are fine: I think I'll take it easy the rest of the day. Might do some more house-setting-up. Also want to critique some writing a friend gave me to look at. I'm very impressed by her dedication. Will also have a bath and see what I feel like after that.

Meg is better now after being on heat again. She got a rather nasty love bite between her shoulder blades. I had to put special plasters on her to stop her reopening the wound every day. She put up with it very well. She's been so sweet since Hagos left, not too clingy this time, a nice balance of cuddles and separate time. She made me laugh yesterday when I gave her new biscuits for her teeth. She was so eager to eat them she stepped in her soft food to get at them!
Little cuddly cat is THE BEST. I saw what must have been one of her relations looking out at me from a house when I walked through the graveyard yesterday. Both me and the cat did a double take, and if I hadn't just left Meg asleep on the couch at home I would've wondered what she was doing in someone else's house. Then I remembered Meg has several relations living in her previous house (her previous owner went to the same cat mum to get more kittens). I see cats that look like Meg frequently. They have her face and eyes if not always her colour. But this cat was small and ginger and had the exact same leg stripes! It reminded me of my own relatives back home in Dumfries. My mother has a large, extensive family and I frequently bump into people with brown hair and brown eyes who look like me.

Risk!

This is what was happening in our house on Saturday night. Our friend Robert came to stay. He is due to move to Germany in two weeks' time so this was a farewell visit. Our time with Robert always follows a well-worn course: drinking, playing Risk and 'troughing' (when Robert eats an entire packet of Bombay Mix from a bowl).

I've had a cold for over a week now so I had a couple of gin and tonics then drank water for the rest of the night. Robert won the game of Risk by not drawing attention to himself while we were playing (a virtually unheard of occurence). We wish him success and happiness in Germany with his band and family.

My cold has remained constant every day since I got it, that horribly heavy, sore body feeling. Sore throat, shooting headaches. Really nasty. Last night I was raging hot in bed and woke up today feeling better for the first time. Unfortunately I also woke up with a strange stomach thing. I had it last night too. I couldn't eat much dinner. This morning I had breakfast but haven't had any lunch and I'm not sure if I'll manage dinner (this is almost unheard of for me!). But at least I can function with a funny tummy. Better than having a cold.

Knitting news: I'm knitting another sock in mustard-coloured DK Alpaka with purple 4-ply and Debbie Bliss Maya details. So it's a mix of DK, 4-ply and chunky wool. Quite bizarre but I think it'll turn out okay. It's a half-hearted affair though.

My husband leaves for a six week tour on Friday. The first few days are always the most difficult. Adjusting to him being away, getting used to being by myself at home. Meg getting used to him being away too. I envy him travelling though. I used to tour with him, about ten years ago. We mainly toured in Europe, but I also got to go to Japan and America. Japan was by far the coolest place I've ever been, though I love Europe and Scandinavia too.

Haircut

I had my hair cut and coloured today. My hairdresser, Claudia, came to my house instead of me going to her as I realised my appointment coincided with my husband going away for a few days with the car.

I was glad to have it done as my hair has been strangling me in bed, and it got so long it had no body or life to it, it just hung like curtains.
I've been feeling alarmed by my appearance lately (pre-haircut - hopefully this is the first step to recovery!). I took a couple of photos of myself last week and was shocked by how tired and old and sad I looked. Kind of like that programme Ten Years Younger, before any work has been done.

I think we've had so much going on lately, with my husband coming and going and various appointments and stuff I've had - I feel like I've been going through the motions this month and just ticking stuff off once I've done it instead of really enjoying each thing. I feel like I'm on the home run now. The build up is all towards Hagos going away on tour at the end of the month for six weeks. My work life is so busy and full-on (even though I only work four days a week) that I can't be too busy outside of work otherwise I start feeling claustrophobic. So, for the rest of the day I shall be bathing and maybe watching some gentle comedy, and steaming some vegetables and cuddling my cat.

Blue and Red Socks; Cats absent then present again!

So, we have moved offices, and I'm glad to be out of crown court (and all the panicking people) and back in with some old friends and colleagues.

These are what I've been knitting on the bus this week:
I designed the colours myself! LOL. I really like them, only problem is, one sock is two rows longer than the other, because I was so blase about the pattern I read the foot length part when I was knitting the leg part. So I may have to knit two more socks the same to be able to pair them properly. The blue is Jaeger Baby Merino 4 ply, the red is Rowan Cashsoft 4 ply.

My little kitty has been on heat again this week. This is as much as we've seen of her since Saturday:Little paw prints on the floor. When I came home from work tonight though she was in the house sleeping. Then I sat down and she got on me, put her front paws high up on my chest, made me lean back so she could climb high up on my chest and lie on me there! It was SO nice to have her home though. We miss her so much when she's not here.

She's still a little energetic but I can see the hormones are leaving her system and I expect by tomorrow she'll be sleeping all day to catch up on the last two weeks. I'm DEFINITELY taking her to the vet this time. It doesn't seem fair to make her go through this every four weeks. She's still a stunning little ginger surprise though.I'm just about to have a bath. Then will hopefully have an early night, and maybe I'll take a whisky and ginger ale into the bath (my new favourite drink). Or maybe I should just have decaf earl grey tea. I'm SO happy it's Friday tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a relaxed weekend.

Skirt material, New Selvedge Magazine and Relaxation!

I finished my second red and green baby sock, but I didn't bother photographing it as it, obviously, looks exactly the same as the first. You'll have to take my word for it.

I received my Amy Butler material in the post mid-week, and was very excited!

I'm hoping to have a little left over when I've made the skirt, to make some kind of bag (this is a vague, unformed idea). As soon as it arrived I was straight onto Cotton Patch's website looking at the other material I want to buy. I figure I can have LOADS of skirts I like for about a tenner a time (once I've spent a fortune buying the sewing machine, of course).

Today I stopped off at the art gallery to buy the latest edition of Selvedge: I haven't read it yet, I'm saving it for tomorrow when I can sit at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the Sunday papers and spend the whole morning reading and dreaming.

My husband is away working for a couple of days and I've been doing lots of stuff that I like: reading, bathing, walking, drinking coffee, knitting, reading knitting blogs, pottering around the house, and visiting John Lewis. I also bought lots of salad stuff from M&S today and had that for lunch, then had steamed vegetables, houmous and pitta bread for dinner.

My favourite colours of wool at the moment are petrol blue (like my toiletries bag) and (hm, how do I explain this) a saturated, off-pink colour. I think it's Rowan Cashsoft DK. My friend Anna made a hat out of it and it's so lovely.

I was looking for inspiration in John Lewis; partly in mind was finding bright orange wool to knit my colleague Laura a cardigan for her coming-soon baby. She mentioned she has bought bright orange shoes and she'd like a cardigan to match! I didn't find any though.

Instead I bought reduced Jaeger 4-ply Baby Merino and started knitting more baby socks straight away:

I'm planning to knit the toes in red and the rest of the sock in blue. I'm also wearing a wrap-around dress, which I LOVE. I bought it in a sale in Top Shop and it's so comfy. I really like dresses and need to buy more. Complementing my outfit are my beady bed socks.

Finally, the sweetest thing I've seen, EVER.

Small but Perfectly Formed

I know it isn't much, but I knitted this baby sock on the way into work on the bus this week. It's a perfect project for me at the moment as I get such quick results.

I'm sorry to say Gemma fell by the wayside quicker than even I thought it would. I might wait until my husband is on tour again before I attempt to continue with it. That way I can leave it spread over his side of the couch so it's easy to pick up.

I inherited my husband's old phone last week as my clam shell spasmed-out and deleted most of my phone book and all of my messages. I now have the Banana Splits theme tune as my ring tone as this was on the phone already, and I love it. It makes me so happy when my phone rings. I loved the Banana Splits when I was a kid, it was so silly.

I've been reading more lately. I re-read books five and six of the Harry Potter series, ready for the final book being published in July. Then I read Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy. I was curious because he was paid an advance of £1,000,000 for it. I think the characters are well-named and there is some snappy dialogue BUT the plot is very weak and cliched and NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS.

Now I'm reading Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan. I think it's totally amazing. I'm loving it.

Cats, walks and haircuts

I'm SO tired. I had about two hours sleep last night. And had to work today, so I'm barely functioning.

This was me and Meg in my shed on Monday. Usually she stands right in front of me when I'm working on my laptop, but on Monday she suddenly plonked herself down as you can see and fell asleep. I think she liked the warm vent that her belly was covering. I tried to switch the laptop off before I went to lunch but had to push my finger underneath her head, which she didn't like. I got hissed at.

I have no knitting to show, though today I started a pair of baby socks on the bus into work. I'm using leftover wool, green and red Rowan cashsoft. No recipient in mind, I just felt like knitting something very easy and very quick and very light to carry.

Hagos and I have a busy period coming up. He has various work commitments and will be home and away a lot, and my office is about to move buildings this weekend. We're moving out of crown court and back into my old office building where I have lots of friends, a few of which are knitters. I'll still be doing the same job but the idea is that our workload will be spread among more people.

We took a walk to our little stream on Monday too. It's where we go when we want to think.

My hair is ultra long at the moment. When I saw Mariella on the book show on Sunday I thought I might like to get this done next time I see my hairdresser. I have an appointment for mid-May (she's in demand) and I can't wait.

Okay, I'm off to bed!

Trims

My husband rejoined his tour on Tuesday, flying to Copenhagen from Stansted this time. He flies back into Norwich tomorrow and I'll pick him up after I finish work.

On Monday I bought these lovely trims from a sewing shop near where I work. Of course, Meg had to get in on the act:

Immediately after I took this shot she jumped on the trims. Then we had a few seconds of battle with me trying to scoop them back into the bag and her trying to play with them. It often happens while I'm knitting that she'll be sleeping beside me on the couch, then I'll notice that she's watching my wool dangling out of the corner of her eye. I have to stop until she falls asleep again. If I don't I suddenly get pounced on and the jumper gets chewed.

Last night she was very clingy with me, so I took her up to bed with me and she slept sweetly beside me until half three in the morning. Then she started jumping on the furniture, so I put her out onto the landing and shut the bedroom door. She left me alone till I got up for work.

I took this photo while we drove into town the other night. I often wish I was living in the mountains of Scotland but occasionally I appreciate the flatness of the Norfolk countryside, and feel a fondness for it:

It's My Birthday!!!

These photos were taken at my 3rd and 4th birthday parties. I always had great parties when I was a kid, thanks to my mum organising it all. Mostly the same people came (as you can maybe see from the photos!), i.e. cousins and friends and neighbours. My sister Jacqueline has her hands on my shoulders in the right hand photo. We had a great picnic of sandwiches, cake and juice, then played party games like pass the parcel and one game (the name of which I've forgotten) where everyone stands round in a circle, and someone stands in the middle to be the 'farmer' and everyone sings, "The farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, ee-oh-my-daddy-oh the farmer takes a wife." The person in the middle would choose a 'wife' from the circle to join them in the middle. The wife would then take a maid, and I don't remember what the maid took. Anyway, it ended with the last person who was picked being slapped vigorously on their back by everyone!

Today my husband took me to Ha Ha's for lunch:
And he and Meg bought me a digital photo frame for my birthday, which I'm very excited about and have plans for different folders already: I specially requested some Amy Butler material from my work colleagues for my birthday and plan to make an A-Line skirt fairly similar to this (this is the actual material): And now we're going out for an Indian meal. I don't think we'll be out for long. We both still feel full from lunch and are keen to snuggle up on the couch with Meg.

Padded Dress

I really like this dress and when I eventually get my sewing machine I may attempt to make something like it.

I also really like Amy Butler stuff, designs and fabric, but it's difficult to source in the UK. I've requested some Coriander Seagreen material from my work colleagues for my birthday this weekend. I'll make a skirt with it.

I'm missing my husband very much and looking forward to seeing him on Friday. Meg has been very sweet to me, and didn't wake me up at all during the night last night. I jumped out of bed just after 7am to go looking for her as I thought she hadn't been home all night, only to find her stretching and looking sleepy on the landing when I opened the bedroom door.

It's my birthday on Saturday, and my friend Deb's birthday on Monday. We were born two days apart, our mothers worked together, our dads were friends when they were boys. We were sat together on our first day at primary school and we're still friends now. I last saw her when her son was just a few weeks old - that was about six years ago! We keep in touch via text and email. I have a photo of us when we were about 10 years old, standing in my front garden holding a couple of rag dolls. I'll try to find the photo and post it.

On our sixteenth birthday we took the train to Glasgow very early in the morning. On the train we mixed lipgloss with dark eyeshadow and put it on our lips. This was during our Goth phase. We felt very daring to be spending the day in Glasgow, and I spent about five hours choosing a Cure T-shirt to buy from an outlandish shop (coming from Dumfries, all the shops were outlandish). Years later, backstage at a festival in Europe when I was touring with Hagos's band, Robert Smith was standing a few feet away from me, wearing his wonky lipstick. I was so excited!

Deb was much more original than me when it came to her look. She had bleached hair, with dark roots, and she made some sleeves from a pair of fishnet tights. We both made our own dresses, mainly from ripped bits of material, which we thought very avant garde. From the age of 14 we went to pubs every Friday and Saturday night, dancing to the B52s (Rock Lobster) and The Mission with a sideways, insect-like back and forth movement. Occasionally we would 'bag' the school, meeting up at our friend Annette's house as both her parents were out at work, where we would watch video recordings of Top of the Pops. Good times.

Easter Eggs, Warm Fire, Local Airport

We had been eating Cadburys Easter Eggs until seeing a TV trailer about exploited children working 14 hours a day on cocoa plantations to produce our Easter Eggs. So we switched to Green and Blacks just to make sure, though I think Cadburys has a fair trade policy anyway, and vaguely recall that Cadburys owns Green and Blacks? I must check with my friend Janie who knows about these things.

Saturday was a lovely day. Eating our eggs, sitting in front of a roaring fire: and reading my new magazines, Selvedge: which are totally amazing and inspirational. All about design. I also managed a bit more of Gemma, which I'm finding surprisingly easy this time round. I may even finish it!!!

Today I dropped my husband off at Norwich Airport for him to fly to Amsterdam to join his tour. Usually he flies from one of the London airports, so it was amazing to take him to Norwich International instead. It took 35 mins round trip. I miss him very much already! Luckily he'll be back on Friday so we'll have our long weekend together as usual. I always wander round the house a bit lost the first day he goes away. Takes me a while to adjust and get into my stride. Meg has already gone to sleep on his couch in his studio.

I'm now on my healthy diet of fish, veg and fruit juice after my little foray into chocolate.

Gemma: Resurrected in time for Easter!

I've had to stop myself, several times, from buying new wool and starting a new project.

Anyway, here is the lovely Gemma, resurrected. I've completed two sleeves and the photo above is of an almost-complete back. I just have to finish it and knit the front and then the damn jumper will be complete at last (so far it must be two years in the making). The loops don't seem so bad this time round (every sixth row involves knitting three stitches together through back loop). Maybe I've finally got a technique together. PLUS I've decided to ignore all the millions of ends for now.

I've been off work for the last week and a half, which is good in itself. But my mind is muddled at the moment. Trying to decide how/when to move to Edinburgh, figuring my husband's touring schedule in with Meg's potential pregnancy and what to do with my shed. It all whirls round in my head and I haven't arrived at a clear decision.

Today Hagos and I sat on the couch and ate an Easter egg and watched Futurama and that was FAB.

Last night we watched Galaxy Quest. I've seen the film about four times now (spread over two years) and it makes me laugh so much. Especially Alan Rickman.

Now we're thinking about going out to Wagamama's for dinner. Hagos goes to Europe on Sunday but will be back for my birthday next Saturday.

Another view of Gemma:

And an even cuter picture of little popcorn paws:

Beady Socks, Camouflage Sleeves, and a Bolero!

First of all - finished beady bed socks. They're really soft underfoot, and warm (though short). And very quick to knit up. I had the second one half-finished for ages and decided to just get on with it yesterday while watching Persuasion. They are, of course, knitted in RYC cashsoft 4-ply.

Secondly - sleeves.

I know they're a bit bizarre. I bought the wool one day on the way into town to pick up my husband from the station. The train was delayed so I stopped off at a sweet little wool shop en route and fell in love with this Debbie Bliss - I think it's Maya. I didn't know what I wanted to make with it but couldn't leave the shop without it. I bought three hanks thinking I'd make a bag, but when I got it home really wanted to knit it up as sleeves. Initially I thought about buying other, chunky wool for the body to make a jumper, but then decided to make a shrug instead (I'd had the idea since seeing the sleeves in one of the Rowan magazines). I made the pattern up as I went along, and only had to backtrack a little. Knitted two sleeves the same then joined it in a block along the back, knitting a love heart into it. But it kept slipping off my shoulders, so I ripped out the middle panel and put a gap in for my head. It looks a wee bit strange but the sleeves are SO warm and I LOVE the colours. I have enough short-sleeved jumpers for it to be useful. I finished this about six months ago.

And finally my bolero: I finished this about two years ago. I made it when I was working my way through Vintage Knits. It's knitted in 4-ply Jaeger, which is lovely and soft and cosy to wear. The only problem I have with the pattern is that the band is knitted separately (which initially I was pleased about because I hate picking up to knit bands!) however, it was only after I'd sewn the band onto the garment that I realised I should have kept it taut. My band is now crinkly and I have to steam press it to make it sit right. So it's turned into more of a cosy bolero, than a wearing-out bolero. My friend sewed the two Chinese fastenings onto it for me. I really like them, though when I saw this pin in John Lewis the other day I thought I might change them for that. It reminds me of the pins we used to pin our kilts when I was a kid! The buttons are there for no reason except I like them and bought them at the same time as the pin. The background for this photo is my filthy car.

Mediterranean Skies (if only)

I'm in the shed again. This is the view from my window. It's beautiful and bright here today and the wall and little turretthing reminds me of being in France or Spain. This building is now disused and dilapidated - I've been inside and it's SO cool. Parts of the floor are missing, it's very dusty, now used to store god knows what and a whole load of rather expensive-looking wine. It used to be the village bakehouse, hence the turretthing I guess.

Well, this is just a short post to say nothing really. The juicer is still going well. I've just finished my morning juice, served in my favourite mug, which was a present from my husband, because Jeeves and Wooster is cool!

Toiletries Bag Rowan Handknit DK

I finished my toiletries bag (well, apart from the lining that is). I think it's turned out rather well, though I'll probably change the blue heart for a bead, to stop the squeezy stopper thing (what are those called???) coming off the pull cord.

Apologies for the damp patch on the tea towel I've used to stop my white table adding glare to the photo.

For anyone who wants to make the toiletries bag here is the pattern:

Cast on 42 stitches (Handknit DK, appropriate sized needles).

Row 1: purl 2, knit 3; repeat this rib to the end

Row 2: purl

Repeat these two rows until 66 rows have been completed.

Row 67: purl 2, knit 2 tog, yarn over, knit one; repeat this to the end

Row 68: purl

Row 69 - 74: as row 1

Row 75 cast-off: knit 1, cast on 2, (knit 1, cast-off 1) 3 times; repeat to end until all stitches have been cast-off

I'm now at the heel of my 2nd purple beady sock. Then I'm not sure what to knit. Cucumberpatch has a sale on at the moment of some good Rowan wool (colours, obviously, a bit unique) and I was tempted to knit this in deep pink:

but I still don't have the attention span to knit a big project. So I might instead just carry on doing little stuff. (As I've said before, I thoroughly recommend buying from cucumberpatch. Stuff is dispatched very quickly and the order is always correct.)

My little kitty isn't pregnant after all but seems to be on heat again. Poor wee thing. Not quite as bad as last time. She's coming home more frequently and isn't always covered in mud and looking tatty! Will definitely take her to the vet to get spayed once she's recovered from this episode.

A final look at my lovely drawstring bag:

Dead Uncles

Yesterday when speaking to my dad on the phone he told me that my uncle Jimmy (my mother's sister's husband) had died suddenly. It had come as a complete shock to everyone. However it transpired my uncle Jimmy had known for some time that he had something (my dad didn't know what) inside him that could burst any time and kill him. He'd chosen not to share this with his wife or children because my aunt was also ill and he didn't want to worry her.

I didn't know my uncle Jimmy very well. My mother comes from a large, extended family and most of them stayed in Dumfries, got married, and had large, extended families themselves.

What struck me, when I heard the news that he'd died, was how awful it must've been for him to have lived with that knowledge and not shared it with anyone. To have not had the support of the people who loved him. What a dreadfully lonely burden that must've been.

The Ginger Princess, and Beautiful Blue

I know I said I had gone off knitting but I saw the new range of colours in John Lewis on Saturday and fell in love with this blue Rowan Handknit DK. It's so gorgeous and I've been needing a toiletries bag for ages so decided to make one. The colour is slightly deeper than the photo shows. I'll knit two sides, do a picot edging at the top, sew them together and then line it with either waterproof or cotton lining, depending on whether I can find waterproof lining anywhere! I'll also make some little holes near the top so I can thread through some cord and get one of those little (I don't know what they're called) things to keep it bunched up. I'll buy one, photograph it and stick it on here.

I'm in my shed again today. This is just a quickie post before I get on with what I want to do today.

We bought a juicer at the weekend and have been juicing a ton of fruit every day since. It's SO great. My favourite is apple, pear and ginger but I also like orange juice a lot.

My little cat is showing no signs of being pregnant now. I'm still hopeful though. She can use her cat flap perfectly fine, but when we're around she likes to be butlered through. This is the Ginger Princess waiting for me to open the flap to let her in:
She's SO beautiful. What you can't see from the photograph, though, is the trail of blood along the bottom of the flap where she's dragged her mice into the house. She's such a cold, calculated killer, but SO cute!