Many tangents

So, I've been feeling very distracted recently. And feeling that the effort and energy I exert each day don't quite produce an equal or greater return. I lurch from one task to another and bumble through it all and feel worn out and dizzy at the end of the day.

Anyway! Below is a selection of some of the good fun bumbling that has occurred in amongst the annoying bumbling.  

I watched my Godson JJ last Friday and we decorated gingerbread men!

I had considered making the gingerbread men as well as decorating them, but decided eventually to just buy the kit from the supermarket with the gingerbread men already made. It took me by surprise that JJ started eating the gingerbread man before he'd finished decorating it. And that he thought he had to eat each one he decorated. So I had to eat a couple myself, and dedicate one to be put aside for his brother.

I finished my orange, winter socks. They are less stretchy than the Rowan Pure Wool 4 ply, but I like the colour very much, and it's great to have a second pair of bed socks. I love that there is so little sewing to be done once the socks are finished, thanks to my amendment of the pattern.

On Sunday we had the most fun day of all. Hagos had decided he wanted to make cider using real apples. We have recently started making cider from kits, and the results have been good! But there are so many apple trees around where we live that it seemed a good opportunity to try real cider-making.

The Burnses came out to help us gather the apples, and our initial caution over the kids climbing ladders and trees was soon thrown aside and the kids were soon up the ladders and trees gathering apples with much gusto!

This is Hagos and JJ returning to the small apple tree (big tree, lots of small apples) after checking out something in the house.

And JJ showing off all the apples we had gathered from five different trees over the course of the day. They looked amazing in the bath.


Hagos and I then spent the rest of Sunday juicing all of the apples. It was a long, laborious process but we were happy to get through it without breaking the juicer! It's now bubbling away in Hagos's studio and we're excitedly awaiting its readiness.


I'm now reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, having become re-interested in the Uncanny/Marvelous/Fantastic genre after reading Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger. I was so impressed by the whole book I did something I've never done before and I wrote her a fan email via her publisher. And she emailed me back! It made my day. 


Hagos has a lot of coming and going coming up over the next two months. It's been so great having him home for a longer stretch over the last month (with a few gigs thrown in) but, you know, money is useful.


So I'm looking forward to Rik and Jenny's wedding on Saturday, and then getting back into writing. 

Carrot!

I think this may be the only carrot I get this year from the very few I planted. I did a tub with about 11 carrot seeds and 11 beetroot seeds in each half. The beetroot has formed fine, but the remaining carrots are small, and will be gone in one bite.


So, we'll probably have it tonight with dinner. 


I'm planning to make the beetroot into relish again, if I can put my hands on the great recipe I made last year. 


Next year we'd like to grow loads of veg and try to store as much as we can to see us through the year, and can/preserve whatever's possible. It was such a joy last winter to go to the shed and get a fresh bulb of garlic that was hanging there. The onions lasted no time at all and I would need to grow a lot more next year. Our potatoes in the tubs are lasting us well though. I did one tub of International Kidneys, and they produced a heavy crop, all fairly big. Now we're onto what I think are Red Roosters (all my writing got washed off the marked sticks a couple of days after I planted them!). They have also provided us with a heavy crop.


I've missed my gardening this year due to the move. The potatoes have kept me going, but next year I want to do it all properly again.

Country Walks

This is Flotterstone Reservoir in the Pentland Hills. I was introduced to it by my neighbour, Gill, a couple of weeks ago, and Hagos and I returned last week. There's a good car park by the Ranger Centre at Flotterstone Inn, and then there is the choice of either walking on the road (very few cars come by) or going off into the hills on one of the many footpaths. Part of the land is military and there are signs warning you may be 'ambushed'. Sounds fun.

The colours of the water, the hills and the heather are just amazing in the afternoon light. We chose a very windy day to go and at some points I was unable to move forward due to the wind pushing me back. But it was exhilarating.

On Sunday I met up with the Burnses (below) to go to Vogrie Country Park (Vogrie House, above). The house and grounds are amazing. It is all now owned by Midlothian Council, and though there is a sweet little cafe at the back in the main part of the house, the rest of it has an institutional feel about it. It was sold in 1920 by the Dewar family and operated as a mental health hospital. Later it was used as a communications centre during the Cold War. The downstairs is open to the public and has various rooms marked off for Boy Scouts etc. The house has an open day one day a year, I believe, where people can explore the rest of the house.

We went to do the Pond Dip, an event arranged by the Rangers, for kids to take a tray, a net and a tub with a magnifying lid to explore what lies in the pond. All the boys, including the biggest boy, were keen to get their hands on the net, and Lynsey and I were disappointed that at least one boy didn't fall in the pond.


I'm really enjoying finding different country walks and houses and castles in the area to explore.


In other news: I have just finished reading one of the most impressive books ever. It's The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters. I do believe that finding the right book at the right time is one of the most rewarding experiences ever, and I was exactly in the mood for The Little Stranger. It was so well paced and developed, and though there was one point towards the end where I suspected what was going on, Sarah Waters keeps it well contained. And the resolution in the very last sentence was just brilliant. I would highly recommend it. A word of warning though: it is a ghost story, and I finished it in bed while Hagos was away (I live in a country house, in the country!). I had only intended reading a few pages before falling asleep, as the following day I was due to get up early to drive to meet my sister for lunch, but the end of the book pushed me on, and I was so absorbed that by the time I finished it was 2am, and I became aware of my surroundings, realising I was alone, and how late it was, feeling a little unsettled!


And, other news: I have almost finished my second orange winter sock. I reckon three more nights of TV knitting and it will be done.

PJ Harvey!

This smudgy photo is PJ Harvey playing at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday. One of Hagos's colleagues is touring with her at the moment so we were put on her guest list for the gig.

I've admired and respected her as an artist for years. The first time I was aware of her was about 1993 when I was on tour with my husband's band in Europe. They were playing at a festival in Belgium (probably Pukkelpop) and PJ Harvey was on the same stage either just before or just after, which meant we were all backstage at the same time. Some of her band members came into our dressing room, and a few of us went back with them to theirs. PJ Harvey was lying across some chairs having her make-up applied. It was drag queen-type make up: huge eyelashes, lurid green, sparkly eye shadow to match the lurid green cat suit she was wearing. This is from memory. If I researched the gig the eyeshadow and cat suit may turn out to have been lurid pink, or lurid, sparkly blue. But I remember it as green. She was extremely skinny and played a great set. I watched it from the side of the stage and from the mixing desk front-of-house. And I've liked her ever since and respected the career she has built and directed for herself. A true artist from inception to delivery.

So I was really pleased she won the Mercury Prize tonight.

Winter approaching

Sunday felt like the first proper winter's day. Though it has never been exactly hot this summer, the air on Sunday had a definite chill about it. I remember this always happening each year round about the time the schools go back for the Autumn term.

So with this in mind I cast on my gorgeous orange wool to knit a new pair of bed socks, as I only have one pair (my yellow socks with red beads) and they are in high demand and need back-up.

They are so easy to knit, basically just a tube with a bit of ribbing and turning, so I'm hoping to get them finished fairly soon. I've adjusted a Debbie Bliss pattern, which she knits flat, as I much prefer to knit socks in-the-round. There's no sewing up afterwards, so much easier! 

I also took a GREAT liking to this bicycle material I found in John Lewis recently. I initially thought of making a skirt with it, but quickly remembered that white clothing and I don't go well together at all.


Then, while Hagos was on tour, I had a great hankering for cotton napkins of all things. I occasionally read through old knitting, sewing, baking, general crafting books and magazines and I looked through Bend-the-rules-Sewing by Amy Karol, and I loved the photos of her mix-and-match napkins. So I spent a lovely evening cutting them all out and sewing them up. I absolutely love them.

I also made two toiletries bags out of the grey bicycle material. One is for a friend, and I hope she doesn't read about it here before receiving it in the post, and the other I made for Hagos, though he said he likes his old toiletries bag so much he wanted another exactly the same, so I'll probably do that and keep the bicycle toiletries bag to give to someone else. 

I have been really lax at taking photos recently. I've been to four events at the Book Festival: Alasdair Gray, AL Kennedy, Maggie O'Farrell and Rebecca Hunt. I didn't take any photos of the Book Festival at all! 


But now that I'm not reading towards upcoming events I'm contemplating which of the three books above I will read first. Probably in order from top to bottom. I want to read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It's only about a hundred pages. Then The Little Stranger. I've only recently discovered Sarah Waters. I knew about her, of course, and read The Night Watch a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved her storytelling. Really involving. And then I was so impressed by Maggie O'Farrell at the Book Festival I immediately ordered her book from Amazon.

My husband returned home a couple of weeks ago from a long tour of America, Canada and Japan. Though I think the anticipation of it being a long tour meant it actually went by rather quickly and it didn't feel so long after all. Five and a half weeks.


Anyway, Japan is my favourite destination on earth and I would love to go back for a visit. I love Japanese design, particularly with stationery paper, fabric, knitting, styling, cups and plates etc. It is all so understated and just right. So my lovely husband brought me back some Japanese stationery to add to my collection. 

The notecards are particularly spectacular. I'm not sure I'll ever use them!

But the writing paper is beautiful too. Exquisite.

Red and Purple Loop Jumper finally finished - after six years!!!

Well apart from all the ends still to be woven in, I've actually finished knitting and sewing together my red and purple loop jumper. I almost can't believe it myself. 

I think I'll probably just weave in the ends that would otherwise hang down (as you can see in the photo) and knot all the other ends. There are too many to deal with. So, it will have a kind of fringe on the inside. But that's okay. 

I tried it on straight away and really like it. Although I still don't know what possessed me to buy that colour of purple, except those are the colours used in one of the knitted examples in the book and it looked good in the book! I wish I'd knitted the main colour in blue, but nevermind, I have a pair of deep purple cords that it'll go with very well!

This is the next thing I'm knitting from another of the Rowan magazines. Again, I bought the wool for this years ago, though I never really started it. Well actually I did start it on a plane journey a few years ago, but the 4-ply rib took ages to knit up, partly because it's such a wide rib. Anyway, that was enough to make me put the project away for about four years and I only took it out recently because I'm determined not to spend any more money on wool until I've knitted all the outstanding projects I have wool for already.

This is the finished version in the magazine. I don't plan to knit that big butterfly attached to it!

Once I got into the body of the jumper I actually really like it. And it's very easy to knit. Not much shaping and just a repeat pattern over 8 rows using the two colours. The body of the jumper is knitted on 5mm needles so that makes up for the 3mm needle rib!

The first of my strawberries turning red! I hope to be able to eat it in the next couple of days. There are lots of strawberries appearing all over the plant.

I love this photo of me and Meg out collecting potatoes in the early morning a couple of days ago. What more does a girl need except a cat friend, pyjamas, wellington boots and home-grown potatoes? Well, my husband coming home in two weeks' time will complete the picture nicely.

A Little Update

It was my sister's birthday a couple of weeks ago, so she came up to Edinburgh during the day so we could indulge and celebrate before heading south to our parents' home to a family party. We went to The Chocolate Tree in Bruntsfield. I'd passed it a few times as I walked through Morningside, through Bruntsfield and across The Meadows into town. It was totally amazing. The choice of cakes (all chocolate) was impressive, and they also had a cabinet of individual chocolates to buy, and bars of chocolate on the shelves. And, I was pleased to find, the coffee was pretty good too. I was sorry not to be able to sit inside as it is fairly small and all the tables were taken, as I wanted to photograph the cabinet discreetly. But also, I much prefer sitting inside cafes to sitting outside. My coffee stays warm for longer, and I just really like the cafe atmosphere and warmth. Jacqueline and I both had a chocolate tart with raspberries and cream.

Before Hagos went on tour we paid a visit to Edina Home Brew and bought a cider/wine making kit. We got the cider tub to begin with. It was good fun concocting it, but it hadn't stopped fermenting before Hagos went on tour, so I had to sit with the syphon tube and syphon it into the barrel once it was ready. I got a little bit drunk doing this. The cider will be ready when Hagos returns from tour in two weeks and five days' time (not that I'm counting). I tried some on Saturday morning and I thought it was grand!

The two men who ran the shop were right characters. Almost like a Two Ronnies sketch with their stories, ladders, and dishing out whiskey to all the customers.

On Saturday morning it was such glorious weather that I decided to take a drive south of Edinburgh and see what I could discover. I drove out to Peebles, and wasn't very impressed with that town, but on a different route out I rounded a corner and discovered the most breathtaking castle, Neidpath Castle. I didn't realise I had my camera in my bag or I would've taken a photo. I was so astonished I turned back on the road and returned to get a better look at it. Sadly, it isn't open to the general public, though my neighbour said he was taken there twice on tours when he was at school. They seem to hire it out for weddings and events, and it looks like they accept tours too. Maybe I should try to get a gang together and make enquiries.

The other place I discovered on the way home (after driving through amazing, rolling, sunny hills) was Whitmuir Farm, an organic farm with a cafe, a shop and a few walking routes. I'm sorry to say the cappuccino wasn't so great, but the ambience of the whole place was amazing. Maybe I'll try a different type of coffee next time I go. I bought a bag of organic plums and apples from there and yesterday I made an early batch of my famous Plum and Apple Jam. It tastes totally delicious.

And finally, I finished my bee jumper. I don't remember if I blogged about this project before. I unraveled my bolero, keeping the sleeves intact, bought some extra black wool and honey-coloured wool (both Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply) and knitted them all into the body of a TV jumper from Sarah Dallas's Vintage Knits. The bolero had come from that book too, but because the band was sewn on afterwards and not knitted on to the bolero, it never quite sat right. It was the first time I'd knitted a band separately and I think I made it too long, and so it didn't have the tautness once it was in place. I wore the bolero a few times, and loved the wool (the long ago discontinued Jaeger 4-ply, which I still yearn for) but the way it sat always bothered me. I absolutely love the finished result. It looks good on and is really snug.

That's all for now. I have other knitting projects that I'm making my way through with great success. When Hagos is on tour I knit in the evening while I watch an hour of telly. I'll photograph and update my next two jumpers soon! 

Edinburgh Book Festival

My tickets arrived today for the Edinburgh Book Festival. It's so lovely when something good arrives in the mail.

 I've bought for four events so far. And I'm tempted by two more - Kathleen Winter and Audrey Niffenegger. If they haven't sold out nearer the time and I'm feeling flush I'll buy tickets then.

I missed out on getting tickets for Alasdair Gray's Fleck, for which he's roped in many leading Scottish writers to perform: AL Kennedy, Ian Rankin, Will Self (not Scottish, I know, or maybe he claims to be, many people do), Janice Galloway and Louise Welsh. It's the event I most wanted to go to but it sold out on the first day.

But I'm very pleased with the tickets I do have. I saw Alasdair Gray at the Book Festival a few years ago, and he was very entertaining and erudite. 

And AL Kennedy, well, I'd like to have her career.

I loved Rebecca Hunt's book Mr Chartwell, about the personification of depression, though her 'black dog' came across as so sweet and charming that if he was my black dog I'd rather want to keep him hanging around. I wondered if Rebecca Hunt has had any personal experience of depression, or knows anyone who has suffered from it, as (as much as I loved the book) I didn't think it depicted depression accurately at all. I wonder if I'll have the bravery to form that into a polite question to ask her at the reading?

And Maggie O'Farrell is someone else whose career I'm interested in. She seems to manage that great feat of being well-regarded by her peers and critics, and having popular sales.

Best Wishes,

Paula

x x x

A Woman's Prerogative

Well maybe I was a bit hasty. Maybe.

All I know is that I had a great desire to slash and burn when I left Norfolk. 

And the move was huge.

But anyway, we're settling into the new house/new city/new country. 

Yesterday I took a walk to aquaint myself with Edinburgh. I parked outside my friends' house in Morningside (my great homing-instinct intact as ever) and walked down Morningside, through Bruntsfield, then turned at the Meadows and walked across. I had no idea where this path would take me, but it was a sunny day and I felt like walking.

For a while I've wanted to make a trip into town to visit the Central Library, find a yarn shop, and go to The Elephant House, and strangely once I'd walked through the Meadows I bumped into all three.

(My laptop has been attacked by a virus and Hagos is on tour so I've been unable to upload my own photos. The pictures below are from the internet/the relative websites as I'm currently using our office computer.)   

The Central Library. I was disappointed by it. I expected it to be bigger/laid out better and I was hoping it would have an area to work at, like the desks at Swiss Cottage Library in London, where I really loved to work. Maybe I haven't realised its full potential yet and of course I will give it another go.

K1 Yarns. A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful wool shop with lots of gorgeous and lots of Scottish wool. I particularly loved the alpaca wool for £5 a 50g ball. I'll definitely be back in there. And I think I touched every ball of wool they had on sale.

And The Elephant House. I haven't been in, and it may very well have good coffee and a good atmosphere, but I was very put off by the largely-writ claim on the window of it being "The birthplace of Harry Potter". From interviews I've seen and heard with JK Rowling, she began writing the book in London, I think she then took it to Portugal with her while she lived there, then brought it back to Edinburgh. So, it's a bit of an exageration.

I have still to find a good cafe/writing place because I too like to write and I like good coffee. I've tried a few cafes but so far none has provided that winning combination of great coffee, personal space and time, and interesting clientele that I like. I miss Expresso's in Norwich very much for that. It was located beside the art college and I always felt as though time stood still when I was in there and I could THINK and be inspired and be creative.

But there are many cafes in Edinburgh and a few I have my eye on to try. One promising cafe called The Chocolate Tree, and one called Konditorei (spelling may be off there).

Until next time :)  

Goodbye

Well, I've decided to stop blogging to Knitorama. It feels like it belongs in a past part of my life. I'm heartily grateful to Chrissy for encouraging me to continue (loved your comment, especially as when I checked your blog you haven't updated since December last year :) ).

I am sure I'll start another blog. Slightly different, more focused, probably even more honest, or transparent. Anyone who wants to read it can email me and I'll send you the link once it's up and running.

Otherwise, ciao. Thanks for reading. I wish you a good life. x x x 

To Blog, or Not To Blog? That is the question.

So, I had pretty much decided to stop this blog. I have just moved country (above, packing up the old house in Norfolk) and it seemed like a natural place to make big changes. This blog is rambling and unfocused and sometimes even pointless. And maybe that's okay, but moving country has been a big ambition of ours for years. And along with achieving that, I also want to be more focused, less rambling, and to have a point!

This is the end of the pack. The end of a very long few days. I've already sent a very heartfelt thank you to our two friends, Janie and Ba, who pretty much turned up, moved in, and took over the move. They know how we feel, and we would never have achieved what we achieved in those four days without them.

Along with other friends who helped: Pete who took a day out of his holiday in Derbyshire with his family to come over and help us pack in Norfolk; my sister and her husband who drove up from Dumfries after work to help us unpack at the new house; Kev who also helped us unpack at the new house after a long work day; and Tommy, the muscles of the operation, who took time out of his degree to help us unpack at the new house. We are very grateful to all those people.

This is a moving in present from our friend Rik: a delicous apple crumble.

And living in Scotland again means I get to see more of these two lovely people, Nate and JJ (hiding from our neighbour's dog, Vanwall. Vanwall had long since wandered off, never having been very interested in us in the first place, but they boys couldn't be persuaded to re-emerge from under the blanket).

And it makes celebrating family birthdays much easier too. It was Hagos's mother, Bette's, 80th birthday on Friday. His sister Jill came over from Australia with her friend Ann, and his brother Ewan and his wife Christine came up from Bath. It was great to see all the siblings together again, and I think Bette had a good birthday. 

So, I'll see how the blog goes. Friends tell me they like to read it. And perhaps I can feel better about it and be more focused about what I want it to be. 

Meringues and thoughts

I've been thinking lately of stopping this blog. Or maybe starting a new one. I don't know.

Anyway, in the meantime it was my turn at the Shake 'n' Bake today (about twelve colleagues we each take it in turn to bake on a Friday). I made the above meringues, an absolute favourite of mine; and I also made another newer favourite, Triple Chocolate Cookies. I didn't take any photos, but they were absolutely delicious. They have a chewy, fudgey, brownie-type quality to them.

And tonight: Meg and I are watching Star Trek Voyager in front of the fire, with a hot water bottle and blankets.

The Kitchen Table - a snapshot

I like taking still shots of the kitchen table from time to time, because they tell a very accurate story of what is going on in my life.

The hat box full of knitting: my almost finished red and purple loop jumper - I just have to sew it all together and weave in the hundreds of ends and after six years in the making it will actually be finished. I can hardly believe it. For about five minutes after I'd knitted the neckband yesterday I thought of writing a strongly-worded letter of complaint to the designer. The pattern structure and maths were perfect, but the repeating loop pattern was very badly explained. It took me knitting all of the back (to her exact instructions) to realise that if I did it on a circular needle (instead of two straight needles) with two balls of the red wool, and one ball of the purple wool on the go at any one time, I wouldn't have to keep cutting the wool and re-joining it (the repeating loop pattern is such that the next colour of wool you need to knit with is very often at the wrong end of the needles). Also in the box is green wool for a pair of socks, and upstairs on the bed (not strictly on the table but only because I took it to bed with me last night) I've started my bee jumper already.

Other stuff on the table: my hot water bottle, because I'm constantly cold in this house; herbal sleeping pills and ibuprofen because I have so much going on that I need these to knock me out at night and shut my brain up; flour on the scales ready to make bread rolls for lunch; Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which I had to take out of the library yesterday because Hagos is in Hong Kong and he took our copy with him; daffodils to cheer up the kitchen and me; the Radio Times to plan my TV watching for the day (at a push I might watch Dancing on Ice while I'm having dinner, only because there's nothing else on I want to watch, unlike last time where BBC 2 dedicated the whole evening to World Book Night, which I lapped up); wine given to us by our friends for helping them to move; my breakfast bowl; and packing tape. I need a lot of packing tape at the moment.

We're currently packing up the house to move. It's a huge job. I've already gone through my book shelves and have a huge box full of books to somehow make disappear. We also went through our CD collection (hundreds) and have sold some to a company that takes CDs and binned all the rubbish and kept the ones we like.

Well, I think I might go back to bed while my bread is rising.

Purple and red loop jumper - it must be Easter!

I remember pulling this jumper out last Easter and being sure I would finish it, as there were only a few rows left to do.

And then I must've bought some new wool, for a new project, and back into the bag it went, not to be seen for another year.

But as I'm now at the cast off for the front, which is the final piece, I'm sure I will actually finish it this time. I have to knit it at the kitchen table, otherwise I get tangled in the three balls of wool.

And then I plan to start on this. It will be a black long-sleeved TV jumper with some honey-bee thick stripes. I got the idea from a Next jumper my work colleague wore recently. I liked it so much I decided to unpick my black bolero, which I have never felt comfortable in due to the band edging: the bolero never sat properly. So I'm unpicking the body of the bolero and will use the sleeves as they are, as they are the exact same pattern for the TV jumper, and I will knit a new body. I'm planning to buy two new balls of Rowan Pure Wool black 4-ply to go with the honey-coloured wool above.

It's such a fail-safe pattern (Sarah Dallas's Vintage Knits) and easy to knit, and I love the result.

An unremarkable jumper?

Well, I haven't posted for ages. I've been working full time since November, and at first I took to it with relish, got into it, enjoyed it; but for the last three weeks I've just felt so exhausted. My job is very intense, lots to keep an eye on, no balls can be dropped, absolute deadlines on everything!

And now, I have two and a half weeks off, except for next Friday, and I already feel odd! Getting up on a Saturday morning, knowing I only have two days off before heading back into the fray on Monday is different to getting up on a Saturday morning, after working intensely for four months, and having two and a half weeks stretch out in front of me. It's almost like being back to my old touring days.

Anyway, back to the point. I finished my black double knit Rowan Cashsoft jumper. And, it's the most unimpressed I've ever been with something I've knitted. I'm not sure if it's because of the colour (I don't like knitting black, but I like wearing it and think it suits my colouring and hair), or because the sleeves skim my wrists and I prefer them to be longer (they don't look short, just my preference), or because the neckband took about four attempts to get it to where it is now and I'm still not sure it's right (but no bloody way am I unpicking it again to re-do it), or that from the second I started knitting it the wool attracted every cat hair and piece of fluff as if it were a magnet! 

I haven't worn it out yet so maybe I'll get to like it then. I felt better about it once I'd pressed the neck band. And it is lovely and soft. Hmm. I was hoping to have a new template jumper that I just knit over and over again in different colours, like my TV jumper, but now I'm not sure.

Today we're going to Giraffe in Norwich for breakfast, then we come home, potter about, light the fire, then watch a DVD in the evening, and then later we watch my favourite thing on TV just now, the Danish crime programme The Killing. 

And it's Hagos's birthday on Monday so I will have to make him his favourite Bishop's Cake, and another friend's birthday just after that and I'm planning to make something to send to her too, and my dad's birthday tomorrow.

My head is so busy. I will update more on all that soon.

But for now it's Saturday!  

A new jumper

I got this book a few years ago and have been meaning to knit something from it ever since. I got some black DK Rowan Cashsoft in a John Lewis sale last year and decided to knit the cover jumper (shown in Kidsilk Haze).

However, when I came to cast off for the sleeve and neck (on the front) it soon became apparent that the pattern didn't add up! I sat down with a pen and piece of paper twice to try to make sense of it, and failed. So I decided to knit the back first, which did make sense, and hope that that would throw light on the front cast off. And it did. But I did have to re-calculate the whole cast off for the neck. The numbers were significantly out!    

So I now have the front and the back, and being DK it didn't take that long to knit up. Two weeks of TV watching (and bus riding). I'm hoping the sleeves will take another two weeks and I'll have a new jumper by the third week of January.

We had a lovely Christmas day and Boxing day. It was great to just eat, drink and watch TV and not try to achieve anything. Hagos's mother was supposed to spend it with us, but she got a third of the way on the train only to be told the connecting train was delayed by five hours, so she made the decision to turn back rather than continue, which was the sensible decision but we were all disappointed she couldn't make it.

Here's hoping 2011 will be a prosperous year!