"The Geiger counter of Olympo-mania is going to go zoink!"

I can't help it. I love Boris.

Shawl Disaster

I thought I had done so well. Over four weeks I had knitted the Gail/Nightsongs Shawl and was in plenty of time to block it before Nic's wedding. I cast off with joy in my heart and spread it out on the bed to find this.

Some of you may be thinking, "Hmmm, why has Lixie taken a photo of it upside down?" But no. That's the right way up. Blocking! I thought. BLOCKING. A good block can solve most things. Maybe. Then I looked closer.

Strange how there were those bumps between the middle leaves down the centre line. In the pictures the centre had spread out nicely. I took another look.

Strange how those edge leaves were spreading out nicely and not looking like a robust edging.
...

...

...






I had actually knitted the shawl with the edge in the middle and the middle on the edge. I'd knitted the entire shawl - four weeks knitting - like that.

....

....

No amount of blocking was going to solve this one.

I've frogged the bugger. I have thought about it a lot since I discovered my mistake on saturday and I am going to knit the same shawl again. Only, you know, the right way round. Having seen how beautiful the pattern looks in this yarn I can't imagine it as anything else.

And in a moment

Underground, overground, wombling free.



But do you stay or run?


Hmmm.

Bloody Well Get on With It

It annoys me how few people give blood. Well done to thos of you who do, and commiserations to those of you who can't. But for the rest of you - shame on you.

I did a quick poll in the office and got the responses

• "I know I should"
• "I did once"
• "I'm not sure if I can"
• "I don't like needles"

Well let's look at these...

"I know I should"

...and so? No one who lives in a city has any excuse for not giving blood. Especially london. There are permanent sites all over the place and temp ones pop up regularly. Just type your postcode into the website and away you go. I expect you'll find somewhere you could donate within 24 hours. People in less rural areas do need to plan ahead but even there you'll find somewhere you can donate within the next month. Go! Do it now!

"I did once"

Well fecking well go and do it again. Once doesn't make you some sort of hero. Women can donate every 16 weeks and men every 12. Type your postcode into the website and book to go again online now. 

"I'm not sure if I can"

Are you waiting for someone to spontaneously tell you you can? There is a donor health check online. Go. 

"I don't like needles"

I sympathise. I don't like needles. I would suspect that very few people give blood because they like needles.  Only a very select element of the population like needles. If you have a real life phobia then fair enough. But for everyone else...do you dislike needles so much that if you needed a life saving blood transfusion you would refuse it? If you would be happy to accept a transfusion you should give blood. Tell the nurse you don't like needles and they will reassure you. Don't be selfish. 

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I have been a blood donor for a few years now but am afflicted with tiny veins. I've only been able to donate 50% of the time because they couldn't find a suitable vein the rest of the time. I would willingly give blood every 16 weeks if I could, despite my dislike of needles, but I can't. I hope at least one person reading this will make an appointment to donate.

Hen Do

Saturday saw a hen do take place in Romford. We started off in an all-you-can-eat place called Cosmo which has set a new standard for this kind of thing.

Normally you get a greasy buffet of cooling food of one sort. Here it was all hot, fresh and delicious. Plus there were currys, sushi, dim sum, diner ribs and burgers, salad, fruit, seafood, pasta and more. And then there was the dessert buffet. This is the chocolate fountain.

There were desserts of every type and you could have as much as you wanted.

Nom! After the never before seen but soon to be repeated sushi with yorkshire pudding...

...I was quite restrained with my dessert...

Despite such choice we all managed to make it to Romford Dogs where the fun continued. Nic was presented with a veil with Lucy had put together quite brilliantly.

The knitting mingled with discussions of form and suitability of name of each dog. There were several happy faces as (more by luck than judgement in my case) various dogs came first.

I won a massive £8 on a dog who was possibly named with me in mind - Comfort Girl. It just had to be.

It was a lovely evening and an excellent way to celebrate the impending nuptuals. Personally I have had a set back with the shawl I've been knitting to wear on the day but I will not cloud this post with tales of woe and misery. I'll leave that for another time!