Bootstrap's bootstraps

There's a bit in Pirates of the Carribean where they talk about how Bootstrap Bill got weighed down when they ties weights to his bootstraps and the other pirate murmers "bootstrap's bootstraps hur hur hur". I mention this because I have made a watchstrap. You see the connection....

So here you have my watch.

It is rubbish. Just the strap. The face is fine. So let us dispense with the strap and here it is:

I decided to make this one out of plaited wire.

So now I have a bracelet that's also a watch. I'm quite pleased with myself in case you can't tell which is why I'm blogging AGAIN and have taken so many pics.

While I was writing this a phonecall came in announcing the imminent arrival of a VERY drunk Pooch. Batten down the hatches.

There's a hole in my bucket

Tragedy has struck, readers. It's not often I'll be doing this but feast your eyes on this pic of my lillywhite ass.

Yes, my beloved jeans are losing structural integrity and exposing my elements to the elements. I love these jeans. I have loved them ever since their first outing on the golden jubilee weekend. But now they are leaving me thread by thread. Once I have the new sewing machine in my paws I will begin a rearguard action but until then I'm getting a patchy tan.

Blocked Lucinda's scarf last night and is all dry and lovely today. It is mobair mohair boucle in these lovely pinky shades. When I first attended ally pally (a mere two ago) I came across the mobair stand early and astonished myself by spending a whopping £18 on a skein of about 200g. This was an unheard of expense at the time but this is the third scarf I have got form that skein so it has turned out a bargain.

Keen eyed observers will notice a hint of the clapotis about it as it is knitted on the diagonal with double spaced rows every 8 or so rows. The blocking has brought out the detail really nicely.

Not wishing to lie idle I have done the foot of Lucy's first sock. These aren't for her birthday but are just a general gift - a pair each for her and Louise when I go down there towards the end of April. If I was a nutter I'd say I'd do a pair for their boyfriends too but I think I'll see how that goes.

The yarn is celestial merino from Gill at the woolly workshop (host of the byrne-wedding-knitlist). This particular colour keeps almost hurting my eyes. I once looked at a green laser (not directly, that would make you blind) that you couldn't see properly because the colour was saturating the receptors in your eyes. BoyAlex was doing an experiment with it and did actually explain it to me in physics words but they're long gone now. Anyway. The pink in this wool has the same effect on me as that laser did. But then Pooch thinks Lucy will love it so I am carrying on.

As you may have gathered from the chatty feel to this post I have again spent the whole day at home with no one to talk to other than you guys. Spent about 3 hours sleeping this afternoon and has left me feeling really disorientated. Am fine really apart from the 40-a-day coughing fits and incessant snoozing. Apart from anything else I have now missed 4 days out of the office including tues in bristol and only had 3 days in next week as I have the rest of the prince 2 training on thurs and fri next week so there might actually be a little bit of work for me to catch up on when I go back. Also not having gone in today means still no sewing machine. Which leaves me mildly concerned. I've already been sitting here watching tv and knitting for three days. Can I really take another two without going a tad stir crazy? The paint-your-own-pottery place is calling to me....

Ooooo Handbag

Yuck. I feel yuck. That Pooch....he's got a lot to answer for.

Have not managed to get much knitting done as I feel yuck. Would have been watching lousy films on video all day except Pooch unplugged the video about 2 months ago and despite repeated requests refuses to plug it back in because "It's easy - you can do it yourself". There is often this misunderstanding that because you have a physics degree you are 'good' with electrical appliances. This is what people with physics degrees do with wires. They tend to follow the same approach to plugging things in as the chef in the muppets does to cooking.

You know how he tends to err on the 'more is less' side of things and liberally fling flour and eggs around? Well physicists find something isn't working and think "Hmmm, there's an empty socket. Maybe if I plug this wire into it everything will work again." I don't do wires. I do cook a bit like the swedish chef though, which explains why lunch was nothing more adventurous than baked beans and frankly they haven't done much for the couped-up-waiting-for-the-happy-release-of-death atmosphere in here.

I have been thinking more about the whole bored/challenging thing and it doesn't make me exactly easy of mind. Let us take the Pooch as an example. Some people would say and many others would agree that life with Pooch follows a fairly simple equation..

Pooch = Challenging

He is a bit like a rubix cube where someone took all the stickers off and restuck them and now they're coming off a bit and there's 2 missing. BUT...could there come a time when I actually understand all the intricacies of the Pooch mind? I know he can't drink out of the randomly christened 'weed mug' and that he thinks things are going to hit him on the head all the time and that kermit is a god and computer games are not 'toys' and he can not leave the house without ironing his jeans and shoes have to co-ordinate with the shirt/t-shirt you are wearing and all of that. What if there's not that much left to learn? I talked to therapist louise about this at our last meeting and she told me about the 3/4 years cycle that relationships tend to get into where every 3/4 years there is a big doubt phase and re-evaluation and all that. Now Pooch and I sre due to marry 10 days after our third anniversary. Ooer. I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying is all.

Anyway, am feeling cold and coughy without my fluffy pink blanket. I'm pretty certain I'll never really 'get' Pooch completely so there's not actually anything to worry about. Pre-wedding nerves at 14 months? Weird.

Finished object and the lurgy

I have literally just this minute finished this little baby top for Timo's kiddywink.

I'm pretty pleased with it. The double stripe at the bottom and the appearance of the st st band were both, ahem, planned. Has anyone else ever done this? It was weird. I was talking to someone and looked down to find I'd done about 4 rows in st st instead of garter. Couldn't be bothered with unpicking so kept it in and made sure I did the same on the front panels.

I really like this pattern - it's from erika knight's simple knits for cherished babies and you knit it all in one and then sew up the sides.

Pooch has given me his manflu except it has obviously mutated and become painful on its way over to me. Have been in bristol all day on a business continuity workshop hence my earlier than usual bunking off. I was having a chat with sean the other day and was talking about how it was going and I announced my discovery. In order to find something interesting I need to find it difficult. Most things I don't consider difficult because it is just a matter of spending enough time on it. So its more of a patience issue. So what this means is that nothing is actually challenging unless you don't have enough time to learn the basics and produce something. So I need to do everything in very short timescales. Which would mean I'd be stressed and the likelihood of going mad again increases. SO. To summarise. I am going to be bored for many years to come. Or mad. It's a strange choice and perhaps requires a tad more thought.

Off to sneeze and work up hatred for Pooch and his mutated germs....

Why I do not exercise

Because it makes me feel so bloody awful. Been doing cardio stuff for 45 mins and feel absolutely disgusting. Anyway...

Have started a baby cardi for Timo, who is so wonderful at massages.

Two stripe purple which I thought was quite funky while not ommitting to any gender thing. This is some of the haworth stash. I have just reached a stage where I need a stitch holder and I swear these things are worse than stitchmarkers. This one looks like a massive baby pin. And it appears to be the only one I have left!


The sewing machine arrives tomorrow. Hoorah hoorah. Have a week off from 10th April so will be making it earn its keep that week.

Bought Pooch a rose at the weekend which is now looking purely wonderful.

We had a talk afterwards about buying things for people that they would actually want and appreciate but hey, I like it. Which is I guess the point of what he was saying.

Still feel like shit. I KNOW people say it will get easier with time but I've always loathed exercise and it never has in the past. God. Wretched exercise....

Olympia

The day didn't really start that well. As well as having to rush out for supplies for the man-flu-ridden-pooch I managed to leave without taking my pills. Got there in time for my first class which was 'crazy patchwork' where we made this card:

I didn't choose the design or the fabrics which are just not 'me' but I get the idea and that was the main point.

I was supposed to stay until 2.45 for a gilda baron painted landscape one but by half way through the patchwork my hand was shaking and I was finding it hard to concentrate. Made a beeline for the knitting area to say hello to Nic, Les, Tess, Yvonne, Fred et al and then looked around for the fabric area. Now the show was called "Stitch and Craft" so I thought there would be some sewing things, like fat quarters and had been really looking forward to choosing them. BUT turns out I hadn't paid enough attention and it was ALL cross stitch. And I mean ALL. There were about 3 knitting stands and some dodgy scrapbooking stuff upstairs but apart from that it was cross stitch central. And there are so many horrible cross stitch designs out there. I think I saw them all yesterday. So I went back home in my shakily dissappointed way. To be fair it did mention cross stitch all over the publicity stuff but why would they have pathwork classes if there wasn't going to be any fabric?

So I got back, medicated, and settled down for some online shopping. But do you know it's actually quite hard to buy fat quarters online? Either the places only sell half metres as min quantities or they had hardly any stock online (mail order only - how do they survive) or naff stuff. Eventually settled down to one store on ebay and this place www.cottonpatch.co.uk

Will show you the spoils as they arrive. What I did get at the show is these:


Finally the work on the brown jumper continues. Here is about 35cm of garter stitch. I've actually quite enjoyed it because I can just do it without thinking, but it's not that interesting to blog about.


Pooch now making disgusting noises on the beanbag so must go and tend to him. He is very high maintenance.