Bloggers are lovely

Thanks to everyone who commented or emailed me direct about my bad day yesterday. It really means a lot - you are all great. Have made an appt with my consultant to review my meds next week so hopefully something positive will come from that. Boss astonished me by spontaneously apologising to me this morning. Must be all the bad karma readers of yesterday's post were sending him...!

First the knitting

Was touched by the Feed the Children appeal for jumpers so took the shiny red yarn I got on ebay but never really liked texturally (I LOVE the colour and the shiny glittery bits and it is soft but something about it makes me feel uncomfortable - no I can't explain it) and started a very plain little thing.

And then here is branching out that I tried in not particularly good wool. Looks quite pretty though.


Then the rest

Have annoyingly allowed myself to have a suicidal spree of thinking this morning. All because my boss just (rather unnecessarily but fairly predictably) took the piss in a team meeting when I made a comment. That started me thinking about moving job and that started me thinking about not knowing what to do. So then that started me thinking about how the whole concept of 'obsolescence' is what put me in hospital with the depression anyway and that got me thinking about how much longer it was going to take to get better and THAT left me thinking about whether I'd made the right choice not to top myself at the time. All this thinking took about 3 milliseconds which left me slapped round the face with the wet fish of suicide in the middle of a team meeting with my boss laughing at me. Now have to dig myself out of the hole I just fell in. Thankfully it is knitting at golders green tonight so that should lift my spirits a bit.

Is it a dog or a dinosaur?

Now I don't like dogs....but I wouldn't do this to one. Identity crisis surely?


Just finally gave in to the designswool closing down sale (designswoolsale@aol.com - yarns at 40% off rrp). Was the sock yarn that got me. I was already planning to get it for xmas presents but had told myself to wait for ally pally. But why pay full price there when I already know what the quality is like? Also did a bad thing and got 10 balls of cargo from suzysheepshop for £25 inc postage. Is the pale grey colour. I just really like the feel of it when it's knitted up in John Lewis.

Is there some sort of 7 step programme I can go on to help me stop buying wool? Seriously - someone let me know.

Knit knit knitting....

Sent a postcard to my SP today. Well...I really liked it when I got one from mine so I thought I would pass on the happiness.

Finally a knitting pic:

This is what I am currently busting my gut (although not really - nice belly being nurtured on the byrne personage) over. Except I am doing it in bright red (Yes, I do knit in red a lot) with short cap sleeves. Have almost done the back which knitted up really fast in the cotton cashmere I got from coldspring. Lovely to knit with!

I finally caved in to peer pressure concerning the designswool@aol.com closing down sale. It was all the talk of sock wool that did it. I kept thinking I'd hold off til Alexandra Palace but that will be full price whereas this is all reduced. Will see what they have left.

Pooch and I had a heart to heart yesterday as we had rather a large disagreement in buckhurst hill of all places. We went there to feed ducks. No ducks but there was a summer fete. Disagreement about whether we should go or not followed by lots of other accusations as is always the way when such things kick off. We made up but I am going to make more of an effort to be interested in his stuff. Have made him my new secret pal, just without the secret bit!

Just found the MIT survey on Nickerjac's blog. The button is in the list on the left and says 'I made some science' which makes a difference to 'I made a jumper' I guess! Click on it to do the survey - only takes 10 mins.

Isn't it saturday #2

Them downstairs had another party last night. Had to wait up til 1am to let the noise police in but that did actuallystop them thank god. Means Pooch and I are both v tired today as neither of us are good at lie ins mores the pity. It might appear I haven't been up to much knitting-wise over the weekend but it's just not true. It's just that I forgot to take my meds yesterday until about 3pm and so felt like poo. I find it astonishing that I've been taking these pills non-stop for 18 months now and it's still not automatic to take them. What a weirdo!

So I started 'birch' from knitty in the green and blue wool I bought from silkwood. Just didn't like it much - think I have chosen the wrong yarn. So have put that on a stitch holder ready to ponder for a few days. Then I started a scoop neck top in red cotton cashmere that I got from coldspring. Is a pattern I got from Julie (names=?) on Wed. That is going well but is basically stocking stitch for 35 cm. My ball winder got a lot of use yesterday winding all these skeins and cones into balls.

Pooch has objected mildly to being a llama so it will only be there til Tuesday - stroke him while you can! My sister sian is coming round today for dinner. It's OK though - Pooch is cooking so it's perfectly safe. I was going to draw a pic of sian ti put up here but Pooch's rubbish computer doesn't have a draw programme. Gosh, how useless is this laptop? Wish I had a boyfriend with a good computer.

Pooch the Llama

I was just playing with nickejac's fish on her blog and found myself with a Llama. If you put your mouse on it's head/neck and hold down the left mouse button the llama makes a noise just like a contented Pooch (put the sound on on your computer)! I'll leave it up here til he notices it. Poor long suffering pooch!

OK, this is definitely the last post for today x

Isn't it saturday?

Yay for day's off. Boo for days when you can't afford woolfest. Yay for days when you can at least do something special for £30. Big yay for painting pottery blanks and then getting to pick them up 5 days later all glazed and fired. No pics I'm afraid but I did a huge plant pot in 4 different designs on different quarters. Then did a green and yellow tea mug for Pooch as those are the colours he wanted. Then I just couldn't resist a really curvy mug and writing 'knitter' across it in red and blue - jasper johns 0-9 style. I love those paintings. Must be one I can link to somewhere....

Found one. I *L*O*V*E* this guy's stuff - especially the numbers. And this drawing here is probably my all time favourite. I'd forgotten how much I liked it. Really ought to get a print from somewhere.

So I had a fandabbydocious day. Knitting and parcels this morning, painting and cool weather this afternoon, thunder storm and sushi this evening and now Moonraker on tv (Pooch at a new order concert - weirdo). Not the best bond film but not the worst either. I find it quite sweet that Jaws ends up with a girlfriend at the end. Yay - am in a really good mood. Yipppppeeeee

The inevitable has happened

So naturally the first knit happens parcel has turned up. Now I'll have to fork out to post it back. Tsk, just about cancels out my savings I made by getting 10% off in the first place. Ah well. So now I'm confused. Is this the parcel the postman tried to deliver on monday or is it a different one. And if it is a different one, where is the one the postman was supposed to deliver. TEDIOUS.

So sorry secret pal for being so impatient and thinking you had dispatched something to me already - I will wait patiently now. I have planned the next stage of spoiling my own pal - a wicked bag with tonnes of pockets I'm going to embellish. Won't put a pic up until it's safely received just in case she has worked out who I am.

Am also planning to make this bag http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/PATTfrenchmarket.html after seeing it on blueadt's blog. Is even nicer than the one I was planning for.

So I wanted to go here http://www.art4fun.com/ today to paint myself a plant pot and maybe some egg cups as we don't have any....but am waiting around for the postie so day is leaking away from me. Hope the parcel comes soon - will give up at 1pm and shoot over there. Now must let knithappens.net know the good news about the parcel.

NW Knit together

We were jumping last night - so many people came plus Amelia who was trying us out after being a Liberty devotee for ages. Here we all are:

Ann finished her first sock, using opal.

What I really love about the group is that you can just sit their and knit or you can learn loads of stuff off others. Last week Mary taught me a new way to sew together. This week Janes taught Ann kitchener stitch so she could finish the toe of her sock nicely.

Fun for everyone!

There's always someone worse off than you

and here they are http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=10138

Ha!

Now have two parcels awaiting collection. Will get them on Friday. Very exciting!

Flat fiction

You'd think I was making it up - but I got home at about 8.20pm tonight to find what looks like 3 bullet holes in the glass in the corridor door plus spots of blood and the flat next to ours has had its door bashed half in. It took 9 minutes to get through to the local police station and then they said they couldn't tell me whether it had been dealt with already but someone would phone me back if there was any danger. Greek techno has just started upstairs. There is some sort of jean michelle jare or however you spell it going on on the ground floor and here are Pooch and I in the middle. Pooch dignified the situation by eating camembert on proper cheese biscuits, which I'm grateful for. He is a point of sanity to which I cling in an otherwise mad world.

Who needs CSI when they've got stratford?

So am DEFINITELY ringing the agent tomorrow to see if we can move out sooner.

As a result of all this knitting done = nil. Understandable I feel in the circumstances! However, I have started counting stitches in time with my heartbeat to help go to sleep. Knit one takes 2-3 heartbeats. Purl takes about 3. I'm doing a 1x1 rib at the moment. Might try a 2x2 tonight just to spice things up. That's if I do sleep tonight. We'll probably all be murdered in our beds.

Ah, the south africans downstairs have started their mating calls to the women of the neighbourhood. Life is complete.

Summer time, and am feeling sickly

Off work today - feel like poo. Think is the aftereffects of not sleeping properly all weekend but also got really bad sore throat. Ok, enough gloom.

Clapotis continues well.


I was rather surprised to find the pink and blue in it but I guess Noro know what they are doing and Pooch seems to really like it and he's dead fussy so it must be OK. It looks uneven at the mom because the left end has had the stitches dropped but the right hasn't. This is about 60% done. The yarn is all from www.knithappens.net and I had a 10% discount code (now long expired). I get them occasionally from a mailing list I belong to - next time they email me I'll put the "how to subscribe" bit on here as it is quite good. On the subject of discounts Iva Rose has buy one get one free on all her vintage pattern books until 4th July. www.ivarose.com. She is really nice and the service is very good.

Have picked a bad day to be off work - wimbledon has started so all tv is dominated by that. Knitting and audio books I think.

a bad connection means a bad post

I spent ages writing one on friday night and then had the same experience as andrea - lost it all. So here it is in summary:

The parcel waiting for me was from 'Get Knitted' and was wickedy wa.

On the left is the debbie bliss soho that I hadn't seen before and think I will make into anothere felted bag. Just not sure because do I really want a felted wool bag in this weather? But then it will never last so yes, I guess I do. In the middle is the brown noro for me muvver's clapotis for xmas. Am starting early. Have actually got quite far with that but can't find camera to take a pic so will leave that for now. Then on the right is red noro which is for me. A little cardigan I think.

It is so fricking hot. About 32 degrees I understand. I am staying well away from the sun as I will sizzle even with all the sunblock in the world on me. Have been working on clapotis and the kaffe fasset but is hot and sticky so not that good for wool. Was going to have another go with the knitting machine but just can't be bothered.

Pooch and I have decidedto definitely move when the 6 months is up here. Will be extra expense as I'm still recovering from the cost of the last one but this place is like an international student hostel and we want somewhere a bit more grown up plus Pooch doesn't like the area. Speaking of Pooch here is his latest portrait. He spent most of last weekend rebuilding his computer and here can be seen doing some of the final finishing!
A lovely bum x

Just saw the comments on my last post - the web address is http://www.coldspringmill.co.uk/ but they don't have any yarn on their website nor does the stuff they have correspond to debbie bliss colour codes as it is all discontinued or slightly off shade. It's all perfect though and all the stuff on cones in 1p a gram so I figure it's worthy the risk. A lovely woman called sheila is there mon-fri and she describes the colours really well.

Parcel Two

This is not the aforementioned parcel. This is one that just got delivered to work just this minute. Ladies and gents, I would like to introduce you to some pale blue/grey baby cashmerino and some cashmerino aran in a kind of dirty golden brown colour (underneath the cone of blue).


And then some rusty red merino aran and two smaller cones of cotton cashmere.

All curtesy of Coldspring and all a stunning 1p a gram. One peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! woo hoo.

Yes I know. I am a yarn addict. Completely and utterly. Undeniably. More knitting, Miss Byrne, less stashing.

It is all so soft and lovely. Sheila at Coldspring is a god. And adam. Yay! Yarn! Two long hours before I can realistically hop it home and get swatching.

But wait, what light from yonder parcel breaks....

I have a parcel! yay, I love post. It is either the stuff from knithappens, coldspring, or something unexpected from my secret pal. Frankly I'm hoping it's the knit happens stuff as I ordered it so long ago and the first parcel got lost and and and... will find out later today.

Just as an aside I have thought up more of my favourite words. Here they are: alchemy, pernickity, pfaff, lush, awesome, bean, tea. I don't like tea but I feel I have a real aptitude for saying it :)

How wonderful are knitters?

To my astonishment no one has come a beat me up about being so rubbish at pledges. And...being knitters...they are far more interested in what I got from coldspinr - which I will duly display the moment it arrives. Not wanting to leave my audience disappointed though I do have some goodies to display.

This yarn is from this ebay seller http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Glenshee-Woollens. People - go look at their stuff. The yarn I got today is soooo soft and still has that faintly sheepy smell that tells you this is the good stuff. Aran weight and propoer oatmeal coloured. Going to knit a jumper for dad2 aka Rob.

I have started work on some of the sock yarn I got from the yarn house and I'm loving the colours. I've taken these pics with my webcam so the quality is r.u.b.b.i.s.h. so they are much brighter than this. I counted this morning - I need to make at least 8 pairs of socks for xmas presents! The yellow hump is the heel which is done by short row shaping, because I am sane and knit my socks on TWO needles rather than those sadomasacists who use 4/5. Been there, hated that, stabbed a passer by etc etc.

Lastly, a gamble. Bamboo needles on ebay. Ludicrously cheap - about a fiver for 7 pairs in a case. But they seem smooth enough so I'll give them a try. I'm really coming over to wooden needles now, as long as they have long points.

Purlpower sked how long i'd been on fluoxetine for (prozac to the non-sufferers). It's 18 months now and counting. Started on 20mg, went up to 30, went into hospital last March (as suicidal as one can be without being dead) and quickly got put on 40 and tried to come down to 38mg about a month ago (on consultant's advice) and reacted badly. Been back at work full time since last August. (Also managed to get peritonitus or something like that - kidney infection - in June so more hospital!) Apart from disrupting my sleep (wakes me up really early) fluox doesn't do me any harm so I'm fairly resigned to just popping it for the next year or so. I've been on some humdingers in the past though that I had all sorts or side effects to. I was even on Seroxat for a couple of months about 6 years ago. I'm a seasoned pill popper.

On a happier note, I am happy today even though I've had another crisis pop up at work. What the hell eh? It was all the knitting at the group last night that did it. The Golders Green bunch rock. I was shown how to do invisible seams and so have sewn up my red cable top. Just need to add hooks to the neck band and will be modelling it for real. Stand by to be wowed ;)

Don't mention the ....

yarn. It was Coldspring. They did it. I'd emailed them before I made the promise and then they emailed back yesterday and I was weak. WEAK!!!! OK!!!! Just when I'd gushed on UKHK about how I'd be a better person for not breaking it. Godamnit.

So now we're not going to mention the yarn, OK?

Anyway, not mentioning the yarn in any way, my secret pal got her first gift in the post yesterday - was some stuff we aren't mentioning from hipknits and some of my stitchmarkers I'd made from butterfly buttons and silver wire. People have left really nice comments about them too which is nice.

Am all irritated at work at the mo. Meant I was all depressed when left yesterday so didn't go to tai chi. 40mg fluoxetine a day and I still feel like I'm swimming against the current the whole time. Am going through a faze of just wanting to sink down into it and relax into the darkness but I doubt I'll be able to dig out again. There's only so many times you bother fixing something broken before you face up to facts and throw it away. Following this logic though it just means life = toaster which doesn't sound right.

No knitting to show still but...

27 days to go

Did some of the kaffe fasset last night and some of the black basketweave tunic and managed to stop myself starting another project - socks in some of the yarn I bought on Saturday. Nothing worth posting though.

27 days...was wondering whather a solution was to take the loop opening 'off' and add an extra day on the end. One of the lovely commenters suggested an extra month - wow, could I really do that? But I feel I must be sustaining the livelihood of at least 3 independant retailiers so I would feel too guilty not buying for that long. Delusions of grandeur? Never!

Damn and blast

28 days

BUT Loop is opening on 2nd July. This leaves me with a problem, or rather an ethical conundrum. Because I want to support local business. And I want yarn. But I promised. Hum.

Have left my medication at home today which isn't the end of the world - I'll just take it when I get back. But it does leave me wondering whether my wrath against my fellow colleagues is a result of this, PMT or just because they are f*cking stupid. Not all of them, just the ones who feel my wrath. I like the word wrath. Other words I like include conundrum, dearth, finicky and erstwhile. Of course one should not swear in a blog. Afterall, children might be reading. But sometimes, I don't know. I guess it's like eating chocolate when you know you shoudn't. Sometimes you just *have* to.

Countdown

29 days to go.

Thanks for your messages of support (and warnings!). Sunday is a traditional ebay day so I am feeling a little shaky. Pooch is laughing like the moose he is and wants me to come and 'help' him carry a new computer house thing as he accidentally threw away a vital bit of the old one. Hesays it will help distract me.

It's not like I haven't got enough yarn to keep me more than happy for the month. Especially after yesterday. As Kate says, in with love - out with hate. Will just continue my deep breathing.