Pooch is/isn't ill (delete as appropriate)

Pooch rang me at lunchtime yesterday to tell me he was seriously ill and to stand by. He went off to the doc (private, female) and told her his list of woes and she told him he was coming down with pukka full-blown flu and should go to bed immediately and stay there for the duration. (She also asked him if he was depressed as he 'looked it'. A: He's from Manchester so this is his default face. B: Depressed people don't have to look depressed.)
So home he comes laden with paracetamol, juice and grapes plus some random medication the female gave him and hops into bed feeling all the symptoms he told the doc he had coming on. Evening falls. Pooch eats a hearty dinner of sausage and mash and goes to bed all happy. Moning breaks. Pooch sleeps in and waked up quite fine. Flu? I think not.

Now let me list the ways in which this has affected my life....

1. This is MY freaking holiday. It is not supposed to have a mangey Pooch sitting in the middle of it.
   
2. I was worried I might be contagious so didn't go to my knitting group making it THREE weeks in a row I haven't gone now.
3. I was unable to really ....play.... with all my wool because Pooch gets antsy about mess.
   
4. So I had to go out unexpectedly.
   

Anyway. I went out before he had felt able to declare himself a germfree zone and mooched about and didn't have fun and then came back to find him perfectly fine. (He maintains he is very achey....pah.)

On the plus side, I got a baby crochet pattern book out of it when he went merrily off to the supermarket to buy rancid fishcakes which he has just forcefed me. And the accompanyment? Lettuce..... with vinegar. Mmmm mm. Pooch is saying this is all lies but we know who tells the truth round here right?

Anyway, perhaps I do have just a tad of PMT but he is still a complete poo.

In other news, Flossie asked if I knew of any contemporary cross stitch kits. Let me draw your attention to this site. I found these when I went to that show at Olympia a few weeks back. But basically Black Sheep is a safe bet for having something to satisfy all tastes at a decent price - just bear with the site as it is a bit clumsy to surf but there are hundreds if not thousands to choose from and all well categorised.

In other other news, I have started the ewa sockwolle that Helen so lovelyly gave me. It knits up very nicely - I was worried it would be hard to knit because it is made up of a selection of thin strands but in fact its been fine except one strand seems to keep getting slack so I'm guessing that one's made of something different. But it's not a problem and I'm loving them. In fact, and if this doesn't prove I'm mad then nothing will, I am making these for Pooch. Not that he deserves them at all. Pooface. The camera is awol again or I would show you their loveliness.

Now for fear of boring you I must explain by pre-absence for the next few days with the news that I, Byrne, am to attend a Man Utd game in Manchester tomorrow. I agreed to this before Pooch revealed his true depravity of the past few days but I wish to assure you I will be knitting while their ugly players storm the field. Amen.

Secret Pal 8

Much to my own surprise I have signed up and requested a pal in the US. It was definitely getting that parcel from purl power that did it. I love post! I also love stuff like what I was doing today, even though it was raining.

It started with a lovely massage from Timo and he was all dumbfounded when I gave him the tiny knitted top. The baby is a girl and is due next Thurs so fingers crossed for them. Then a meander around covent garden. Stopped off at the cath kidston store. Man, I love that stuff. Bought some divine red spotted fabric napkins and some pink spot paper ones. Now this was wedding research you see, so doesn't count as real money. Meandered into a topshop and got some new jeans and some wicked bad red polka dot shoes with bows on the toes - so minnie mouse! Then off to the V&A for some lovely japanese kimonos and the textile gallery. Plus a gorg t-shirt with a trompe-oeil tape measure on it. Oooo, lots of fun stuff.

After all this moshing about has made me mighty sleepy so have changed my plans. No kew gardens tomorrow but a day of lovely sewing and knitting. Seems it's going to rain anyway so probably for the best!

OK, now for the photos....






This sock is knitted with basically one strand of sewing cotton. I always look at this stuff with my jaw dropped....but...they didn't actully have anything else to do.


Lace making has never been tried chez byrne...


And finally the cake these fair hands baked last night - sooooooo yummy. Yarnstorm's recipe for squidgy date cake.

This episode brought to you by the letter T

First let us begin with tuna..

You see Pooch left me to fend for myself for one evening. You know how if you don't use your muscles they waste away? Well the same has happened to me with survival skills. I knew I would be providing food for myself but I stupidly counted on there being bread at home or a tin of soup. So there wasn't any soup so I could see the bread and thought I'd have tuna maiyonnaaaiiissse sandwich. Yum. I used to live off these when I was younger. So I made the tuna mayo and got my bread ready for toasting. The bread has a large amount of mould on it. OK, let's not panic here. I do a quick search for any form of bread product and find none. I see a box of cheese biscuits in the cupboard and any port in a storm right? So I'm heading for an evening meal of tuna mayo and cheese biscuits. I reach for the box and la Poochy has put an empty box of cheese biscuits into the cupboard open end first so it looks like a pristine box. I don't even eat that much cheese. Anyway. Now I have slightly warmer tuna mayo and nothing NOTHING to eat it with. So I just go for it and start lapping up the tuna. Frankly, tuna mayo is a leetle bit boring and cloying by itself. So I'm desperately looking through the cupboards and my eye falls upon the chocolate digestives. Digestives - a savoury cheese type biscuit right? So I get a choc digestive, take a bite of tuna, take a bit of biscuit and....No. It didn't work. It really was as disgusting as it sounds.


So what with all of the bad food and busy work stuff I haven't had much time for blogging. I had a 3-hour PRINCE 2 practitioner exam on Friday too which didn't help and then a weekend in the country with a rather sulky Pooch. We had a good long talk though and have sorted a few things out.

While i was away a lovely surprise was delivered - Look!

Two lovely magazines and...

Isn't this amazing? I immediately went online to find out about it. Here is the site. Babelfish does a very good translation of it too. Machine washable and divine! Could there be a better present? All this is from Helen and I love it - thanks for being so fab xxx

I have had a couple of other parcels by post recently. A lovely box of variegated machine embroidery thread which I will be using on my placemats...

A wicked selection of fat quarters going to make up the placemats in part.

The placemats will be made from these strips in what I hope will prove to be a funky way. I'll keep you updated...

Finally, anyone care to guess what this is?

Yes, I have finally fallen to the depths of cross stitch and am guiltily rather enjoying it. Wish to reassure you I'm still knitting though - have done 3 socks and almost finished a 4th in the last two weeks. Will be turning to the ewa's wool for my next pair!

Am off on leave all this week so hopefully will be blogging more regularly. xx