The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

I've just started reading Alain de Botton's latest book (The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work) in paperback. I'm only about 60 pages in but I'm already really enjoying it. I went to a talk by him about his architecture book at the V&A a few years ago and so as I read it I get a real sense of his voice saying the words. I know a lot of intellectuals dismiss his books as pop psychology but I find them so well written and so approachable, and I suppose that's all that really matters since I'm not making anyone else read it.

Once again it prompts me to think about my job, especially as my appraisal in on Monday and I suspect I'm going to get a talking to about positive mental attitude. My boss asked me to draft some stuff for it and when I sent it to her she sent it back to me telling me to make it more positive. She suggested I do this by talking about all the exciting things I'd like to do. I pointed out that there was no scope for doing any of them because there are no resources, and she said to put that in too. So there's me motivated.

To cheer myself up I blinged my keyboard. Metallic Markers. Awesome.

Pooch was a little concerned since the keyboard is company property, but then they're water soluble. And keyboards react really well to water - so no problem!

No knitting to report this week since I have been mainly patchworking. The polka dot quilt is progressing still, and I've also started some hand sewing using 1" hexagons. It's a very satisfying way to use up small bits of fabric and so I've started a swap on swap-bot for remnants. One for April and one for June. Anyone can join so take a look if you're interested. I've also been finally putting pictures up.

Ideally I'd have them in a rough band all the way round the room, but Pooch seems to think that is enough for now. Rotter. But then, he is known for being grumpy. In fact...

Yay, iPhone. That's from a free app called "Framed Lite". Awesome.

I heart iPhone

I got my iPhone 2 wednesdays ago. I totally love it. Because of SkipNorth and being so hectic at work I've only just got a cover for it and, naturally, I wanted it to be polka dot. It was proving pretty hard to find a suitable one and so it occurred to me to let loose with the shoe paints on a plain one. So I found a cheap leatherish white one and....

Step 1: Take some address labels and hole punch them. Then spend ages trying to get the buggers off the backing sheet and place them strategically on your plain phone cover. Alternatively find some circular stickers the right size and use those.

Step 2: Coat with 3 coats of lumiere jacquard paint in metallic red.
Step 3: Peel off the stickers, and discover a number of them have let paint in at the edges.
Step 4: Use cotton buds to remove excess paint up to a point.
Step 5: Seal with two coats of flexible varnish.

Step 6: When dry, add iPhone.

Love. Love. Love.

I am really enjoying discovering the many apps. I've only paid for one so far, which is called Toodleoo and is an amazingly useful to do list. I've got KnitCounterLite which is basically a row counter but also prompts you on increases and decreases, a camera one that lets you upload straight to ravelry, a ravelry hotlink, a knitmap hotlink (which tells me of any knit shops within 1, 2, 3, etc miles of my current location - it works out exactly where I am itself), and others that tell me how the tubes are running, tracks messages on twitter and link to my email. Awesome. Pooch is still very annoyed and thinks me disloyal, but as I said to him, as soon as he trains to be a chartered landscape architect, I'll buy a Sony phone.

I've spent a fair bit of time in the last few days finishing my lecture for my old school which I'll be giving on monday morning. I have managed a bit of knitting though, and also made a new strap for my watch, since the old one, which was plaited wire, was catching on my connie's henley cardigan - which is definitely not to be tolerated.

Purty.

SkipNorth Epic

Though I say so myself, I think this was a good one. It all went to plan, everyone seemed pretty happy and there was some good shopping for all. All criteria for success. Full photos are here but here are some selected highlights. 


Wicked treat on the drive up:

Haworth high street (it's actually the first time in all these visits I've ever seen this):

Just a hint of the epic yarn swap:

Now that truly was immense. I have never seen so much yarn outside of a shop. It looks like our combined donations (on behalf of what we all took from the swap) amounts to well over £300, all for p-hop. Hoorah for all of us!

My own personal gain from p-hop was firstly these amazing vintage embroidery cotton organisers. 

Aren't they gorgeous? I also got some random yarn and some other embroidery bits. 

I didn't buy anywhere near as much as I have in the past during the weekend, but I did do very nicely. One of my best purchases has to be the alpaca from County Alpacas, the farm owners who came to talk to us on saturday night. 

They told me the name of the alpaca it came from but I've completely forgotten - may have been Irene? Beautiful stuff and a tiny carbon footprint seeing how the furthest it travelled was to the other side of the county to be processed at the mill. I bought it for an interweave wrap that Knit theKnits modelled very nicely during the weekend. In fact there were many amazing FO's being modelled which were all inspiring, but I think it is the emerald beaded bracelet that I've seen queued most often since then. It was even more amazing in real life than it looks on ravelry.  


BTW - Ravelry would seem to no longer be 'beta' and has a nifty new homepage. Very nice!

Dot dot dot

My sewing machine is fixed - hurrah! It broke mid week and is now whole again. It took the man at the shop all of about 2 mins to spot the problem, unscrew it, fiddle, screw it up again and test it. Genius. I can not praise that shop enough. If you need a sewing machine and are in London, definitely check out this place.

It means I've cracked on with my polka dot circles quilt. I am now just over half way through with the circles. I really love them. I treated myself to some more fabric to add into the muddle. 

Which means I now have this many different fabrics in the mix. 

Awesome. 


Meanwhile I have finished the skew socks. 

They have turned out very nicely so I am very pleased with them. It's definitely not a beginner's pattern but I enjoyed it and like the end product. I'm trying to decide what to cast on next. It could be sun ray ribbing jumper, or maybe another pair of socks. Not really sure. 


Pooch is in san francisco this week and it is SkipNorth in just a few days so lots to do!

I am shrinking

I've been trying to lose some more weight, mainly by eating too much rubbish. So when I went to weigh myself this morning I wasn't expecting good news. 

BUT....I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as this. According to the machine I've shrunk another 0.2 of an inch! I've drawn a graph to illustrate why, at my current rate of shrinkage and by the time I turn 59, I will only be a metre tall. That's about 3 feet 3 inches.

I'll be a hobbit. 

It's all very upsetting.

Look at my pants!

I did the Knicker Making Workshop that Pooch got me for christmas today.....AWESOME! It was at the Make Lounge which I'd read about on Jane's blog but this was my first visit. My pants are, frankly, amazing. 

I also got to use an overlocker for the first time too. Now that is one mean machine. So useful for almost everything ever. I need an overlocker. No. No, I don;t need an overlocker. No. Don't. 

The teacher was brilliant and the course was very well organised. The range of fabrics to choose from were lovely, as wear the elastic and threads. Facilities were good - I'd definitely do another course there sometime. In fact the owner mentioned one on screenprinting coming up which sounds very tempting. 


I managed to come out of the shop with just one or two little things. Two of which were these lovely fabrics, which will fit very nicely into my dotty quilt. 

All my knitting this week has been on the wedding blanket and I've finished these two as well as the plain circles. This one is like a paper cut out lou and joe made for me and pooch one time showing the four of us lined. up.

The other one....can you see what it is?

Much sewing

Oooo, it's been busy here. I've finished my postcards for the ihanna swap and sent them off. I've finished my 'ribbed for your pleasure' socks and published the pattern on ravelry as a pdf download, I've turned the ingenious heel on my first skew sock, and knocked out 2 lovely jewellery pouches. But to start, check out this woman on the bus the other day. 

That's her actual hair. 


Moving on. I saw this great tutorial on Thimble's blog to make a travel jewellery pouch. I had been meaning to make one for a few weeks and so this morning I whipped up these two in about 90 mins. The bees and chickens are for my friend Louise, who is very fond of both. The strawberry shortcake and hearts one is for me!

The tutorial is excellent - very clear. 


Pooch has been on good form this week. I tried papping him while he was in the kitchen....

....but he caught me at it....

I was really only trying to get a shot of him in his first ever sunglasses. 

Raybans no less. I've got new ones too. £6 from Next. We're very different people. 


I've been writing the talk I'm giving at my old school in a month's time. 40 minutes is really a long time to talk about yourself and it's all making me feel old. So I've been trying some more mature hair do's. French plait. 

I got 5 on it. 


In the knit arena, Skew socks. Now I have knit the baby surprise, and an adult version, and I've knit the debbie new tam and a few other weird things but never before have I had to pause so many times to check what I'm doing because I can NOT believe this is very going to be a sock. It just looks weird. But. I turned the heel this morning and I am impressed. The design is ingenius and I suspect could only have come from a twisted and warped mind. But she's probably really nice too. Behold!

That line on the right is the little seam, which I three-needle bound off instead of kitchnering, as Byrne don't kitchner. 

That's the other side of the heel with absolutely no seams, picked up stitches or anything. Amazing really. 


Finally, Pooch and I went to the Decode exhibition at the V&A yesterday. It was *amazing*. The website doesn't give an indication of how interactive it is. I'm so used to exhibitions where you go along and look at the stuff on the wall and then go away again. Not that there's anything wrong with that - but this one starts with a corridor or LED bullrushes that sparkle and make music as you brush through them. Awesome. The whole thing was brilliant in fact. I'd recommend it, and also if you have children over the age of about 4. There's one particular installation that is a mosaic of about 24 videos and you can record yourself on whichever of the squares you choose. It's just a 3 second clip on each screen and it repeats over and over. There was a dad with 2 young boys who had been on it before us and they had filled every screen with one or more of them doing something and it was such a happy thing to look at. Pooch and I recorded some too and generally had a great time. 

Pooch's germ transmission methods

Pooch is frequently ill, as I have often remarked before. Usually, I don;t get what he has, but sometimes he manages to spread it around. In the past he has tried various methods including smearing germs on the lid of his laptop so I caught them when I licked it, but I can not work out how he has managed to do it this time. Whatever, the method, I have now got his cold so spent the day shivering at home. On the plus side it gave me a chance to finish the button band and block my radiation cardigan. It's drying now so the only thing left to decide on is buttons. I delved deep into my collection and have two possibilities. 

 

The green are 1950s and the white are 1970s plastic. The white have got the radiation type pattern on them but the green are very sweet. Will have to ponder it a few more days. 

Having got the cardigan done I can get on with the wedding blanket for my best friend who got married ...... in august. Slightly late but it's not like it's been cold enough for it or anything. Um. And the snow yesterday only settled for a few hours. Anyway, I finished the Man Utd square. 

The next one is the flared jeans. 

I've just been on ravelry because the knitty surprises were announced and one of them is an interestingly constructed pair of socks that just had to be queued. While there I saw this. 

I've never before seen a cat look ok about being made to wear something. It's just too cute.

Quilts

My love affair with Flickr continues. Ah flickr, how do I love thee? Today, I have been looking at Quilts.

1. Detail of "Spot On" Circle Quilt, 2. WIP Zig Zag Quilt, 3. hex progress, 4. The Gobstopper Quilt

The reason for this is because I have done more on my own dotty quilt.

Mmmmm. I love my quilt. It's not perfect, and I can not sew curved seams to save my life, but then that's what zig zag stitch and an applique like turn of mind was invented for. Sadly bending forward over the sewing machine makes my back hurt so I can only do a little at a time.

I finallt gave in and bought series 1 of Lie to Me on dvd. Which brings us to Lixie's Crush of the Week (which should have a theme tune like Harry Hill's segments always do). It is, of course, Tim Roth. 

This is my first time having a crush on someone noticably older with me (17 years) but even so he's still got that bad boy thing going on and.... it's all good. I know what those of you who know me are thinking - bad boy...yeah, just like pooch. But you know, a girl can dream. 

I went to see the physio on thursday and put on the hated shorts. Instant muffin. Lying down I speculated whether the clothes or the woman maketh the muffin. At which point David poked me in the relevant area and said "What? You mean this?" I think that is a sign that it's time to lose a little weight. 16 pounds is perhaps a tad ambitious as that will see me down to 10 stone, so maybe I'll change that to 9. Then I'll be back where I was before I went totally mental, which will be nice.

 

Just finally, it was of course Les's funeral yesterday. It was short and to the point, but wonderfully personal and very moving. His sons spoke very nicely about their dad and the whole family was there for Tess. Nic, Yvonne and I acquitted ourselves very respectfully as representatives of all of you who knew him or met him at fairs. Gone, but definitely not forgotten.

Unexpected Fairisle

Having completed a chunky baby tam jacket a few weeks ago I decided to go 4-ply and fairisle. The start was not promising.

Ghastly mess. But I have hung on in there and here is where I am now.

Not amazing but looking ok. In retrospect I would have started the fairisle later to get some more increases out of the way, and also would use a plain white rather than the dotty one which I used for some socks last year, but it's all using up stash so is all good. Looking forward to seeing it done.

I was crusing the web the other day looking for a UK equivalent of ReproDepot and came across SeamStar. I will so be going back there. I ordered on monday and today....

How fricking cute are those cats? I need to think of something to do justice to them. I want to have them in front of me all the time. I'm not into plushy type things though, so what to do?

I do declare

A declaration is the pentecostal equivalent of a christening, I now know. And yesterday was the declaration of my ickle nephew, Alfie. This is him with one of his other aunties - lucky thing has 3 - and my sister-in-law.

Look at his little outfit! Waistcoat, tie, shirt, trousers and braces! Those really made me think of Les, which I guess is quite suitable as in the whole cycle of life. I hope Alfie turns out to be as nice a guy as Les was.

There was a buffet afterwards and if there's one thing this church did well it was the buffet. Mmmm, mmm. I've got three words for you - key lime pie. Pooch says I am now '2 slices byrne', which is nice. The other grandma made it and she got the recipe from a Carnation condensed milk tin, and I got it from their website. Soooooo unhealthy but my god it was good. I bought a lift out bottom cake tin today especially for the purpose. So easy to make too.

Pooch has been working very hard recently on all his hush hush things. This was the view I had of him for most of the weekend.

Hard at work, although I later realised he was mostly reading articles about football.

Quack!

Chez Byrne has an awesome new shower curtain.

Hard not to feel happy when you've seen that.

I've been knitting away on the same old radiation cardigan from Knitty. I started this in October but had to rip back after the yoke was too shallow. pattern says 6 inches but I found I needed 10.

I had a similar problem with my Henley Cardigan, which I just happen to be wearing now. Starting to think I just have mental shoulders. I've also made the sleeves long and bell shaped. It's the way I roll.

I've signed up for ihanna's postcard swap which should be pretty good. It's mixed media so anything goes. So far I've done a paper weave and printed some photos onto fabric and embroidered one. Even printing and embroidering fabric I tend towards one subject.

Sign ups are open til Feb 7th so hope along there to get involved.

I've been pondering my life over the last week since I've been asked to give the 2010 annual lecture to my old school's sixth form. The topic is my career, secrets of my success etc and it's all supposed to be motivational. There's a suggestion you should also include some pithy stuff about being a woman since it is a girls' school. In among all these thoughts I was reminded of a fragility of life when I heard Les from Silkwood had passed away last week. Les was such a lovely man. He taught himself to crochet and produced beautiful shawls amongst other things, all while wearing dazzling sets of braces. It became a running joke between us and I ended up calling him 'Braces'. I really wish I'd seen him and Tess recently - I think the last time was at IKnit last summer the day my back went south. Whenever it was he'll be remembered with love xx