Colour, colour everywhere

Well that was a rather exciting day. I had my colours 'done' this morning and then spent a rather pleasurable if hot afternoon splashing the cash at those well known bastions of fashion, matalan and primark. I did try and go a bit more upmarket but if you are venturing out into the world of ....purple.... why spend £15 on a top when you could just chance £3.

Yes, so purple is now a part of my life. A colour I have positively steered clear of since the debacle with the loop-d-loop cardigan. And I wouldn't have then if it hadn't been that that was the drunk yarn Pooch landed me with. But here it is. My 200% top rated star plus colour is a grape purple reminiscent of aubergine. I think it is officially called smokey aubergine although I was in a bit of a daze that she seemed to know the proper names for all these crazy colours so can't swear to it. It is an exoerience I would thoroughly recommend. You can find out more here and the woman I saw was Morag and was really impressive.

So has all this changed my life? Wardrobe before:

Wardrobe after:

Overall I think it was definitely worth it and it definitely made a change for the colours I went for in my shopfest. Expect me to be wrestling Yvonne for the purple yarn any day now...

Of course here I am blethering on about colours when my last parcel from SP10 arrived. My spoiler was fbz who did quite the most amazing job of it. It's almost like she read the future with the whole colour thing too. Take a look (and bear in mind the first two parcels were equally amazing thus realising how truly spoilt I have been) :

So that's a copy each of MAKE and CRAFT (which she mentions she got from one of the guys who does it because she actually knows all these crafty useful people) and a DVD! Of crafty gems. Yet to explore that as have been drooling over...

Ooooo

Ahhhhhh

Weeee!

That middle one is actually sock yarn on the bottom and panda wool on top, which just happen to be in the greens I've been told I should wear more of. I had been coveting panda wool from Gill's site so how cool is that that I've now got some and in the colourway best chosen to go with my 'brown summer' appearance? I think the colourway is 'ultramarine'. Is so lovely and soft...

And that wasn't all - there were candle and chocolates (which lasted all of about 2 minutes after being uncovered and a badge and cute stickers and a present for Pooch which was really thoughtful. Hoorah for SP10!

Gotta lotta sock wool

So what do you do with all those left over bits of sock wool? You make one of web of wool's sock wool jumpers, naturally.

This is a sleeve. Have done the back already and just started on the other sleeve. I'm pretty happy with it. I did wonder about all the colours going together but then I remembered something I read ages ago - most knitters won't knit with yarns that aren't to their taste if they have a choice. So therefore the colours you have in your stash are likely to be from or at least include similar colour groups. So I dug out my massive bag of sock yarns, ditched the ones I actively didn't like and am making it out of the rest.

Am quite excited about going to get my colours doen today. A woman is going to sit me down in front of a mirror and swathe me in various colours to show me what does and doesn't suit me. I realise that this is the sort of thing one could do at home but it just seems so gorgeously self-indulgent to sit about and be the centre of attention for a few hours. I also have a little shopping trip planned for afterwards so it promises double the delight.

I'm feeling pretty upbeat at the moment which is good as this is day three of the great med cut-down. I saw Dr P on wednesday and he was really happy with my progress and suggested it all kick off. 6 weeks on half the ones that made me fat (and maybe it was something to do with all that cake too, maybe) then cut the prozac in half too. Then after that come off the fat one totally with the idea of being off in time for christmas. Am feeling very positive about the whole thing as I really feel I've turned a corner with the whole black dog thing. Hoorah!

The old ones are the best...

EUROPEANS HEIGHTEN THREAT LEVELS :

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved". Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross". Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz began in 1940 and tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance". The last time the British issued "A Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides." The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose". Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Baby blanket goodness

Have begun work on Fu & Michelle's baby blanket. They requested turquoise and this cygnet superwash was the best I could find.

I've made up the pattern using the lacy heart motif from here. I've got 6 balls and am just going to go for it until I run out.

Knitwise there are lots of things on the needles at the moment that are for other people. I'm just itching to break into the copy of "Knitting Nature" I got as a wedding present but am determined to finish some other bits off first. Getting ready for ally pally means I felt it was time for a clearout so there is quite a bit of yarn, some patterns and even my plymouth bamboo interchangable needles up for grabs on ebay at the moment. Here are all the listings. The bamboo interchangables are a steal at a mere pound!

I've also started revisiting another idea that I have been toying with for ages. It's still in its early stages but if you're interested take a look over here. Let me know what you think. My favourite so far and which I am probably going to treat myself to is...

Podcast is back up and running

8th episode can be found here.

I have been doing lots of knitting, honest, but just haven't got round to blogging about it recently. Will do better next week.