Shopping, shipping and stuffing my face with chocolates

I'm classing picking up my pottery from art4fun as shipping - just so you know. And here it is...


The thing to remember, when being very unimpressed by it, is that I had great fun doing it. And now I've learnt a lot about what not to do. I do quite like the mug for Pooch though. It says 'Pooch loves tea' which is very true and on the bottom I've written 'Alex loves Pooch' which luckily for him is true too. The "knitter" mug is nasty - poo brown and splodgy and I had such high hopes for it and I still really love the shape. So disappointing. And as for the plant pot....hum... People comign to my desk for a meeting will think I have a deranged child somewhere churning these things out for me whereas it's just the result of a deranged me.

While picking the things up I just happened upon four chrity shops and had a little rummage. Sadly no knitting things but I do have three star wars books and a Dr No video for Pooch. Plus I managed to find a few little things.


Aren't the green shoes horrifically fab? And that a cherry red velvet jacket on the left and the polka dots are a little shirt that I think is very sweet - reminds me of one Pooch and I first met (I was dressed as minnie mouse you see).

So what happened to me spending the day machine knitting and making felt beads. Yes, well. Things did not start well. Here I was, all ready to get going:

and this is what I ended up with: I've put my mobile there to get an idea of scale - it is such a pathetic little thing. The next one basically dissolved so I gave up. Easily discouraged, that's me. Next time I'll try doing them inside little bits of tights and putting them in the machine. Pah!

For the tube ride to and from west hampstead I took one of the colourways I got from designs and cast on a sock. I still can't decide whether I actually like it or not. Any thoughts? It is chocolate by town and country.

happy birthday to me!

Yay. Although I am not in any way american I feel a certain bond with y'all (crazy aunt purl's influence there) so happy 4th july to all my american cousins. I was going to post a picture of my party last night but they are all too high res to post here so will have to wait til I rejig them. It was awesome - jelly, ice cream, choc cake, hotdogs, squeezy cheese - we had it all.

Many thanks to andrea and everyone else for e-cards and comments wishing me happy bday. There were many times in the last year when I didn't think I'd make it to see another birthday yet here I am, still standing and knitting more than ever. The day holds either the knitting machine or felt balls or maybe both! And maybe an exhibition? Ooooo, lovely!

Felt beads

http://www.homeofthesampler.com/howtos/lili_feltbeads.html

So I am rather pleased with myself for just managing to edit html to make the above into a proper link and everything. I have some roving left from when I went on that spinning day so now relly want to spend the day making them but....it's party day! Will just leave that link there for later consumption.

Here's one I made earlier

Feeling slightly more alive now, but probably only because I am contemplating an early night. At my age (which cranks up to 27 on Monday) one just can not live this kind of life. Yes, folks, you heard right. The Byrne is entering her 27th year on Monday and celebrating this fact with a 4th july theme party tomorrow (on a school night - which is freaking everyone out) so likely no postings. Should anyone be feeling generous I have had all my presents this year from http://www.greatgifts.org So far I have had chickens, water sterilisers, carers for aids children, sheep (of course - woo ha sheep), blankets and cooking sets. I get these wicked really quality cards sent to me in the post with a message form my loved one inside and telling me what they've 'bought' on my behalf. It means no pretending to like all the blah one usually gets for one's birthday and no having to find somewhere to keep it in case someone ever asks to borrow it back. Makes me feel like I really got exactly what I wanted for my birthday.

Have spent the day on the sofa knitting more or less no stop. The body of the 2nd charity cardi is all done as is half one sleeve. I have finished a pair of socks I've been knitting for about a month already...

I'm feeling contrary so have put them upside down - it's not like my feet bend at a weird angle or anything. So all this camera work means I have managed to take pics of the sock yarn and silk.

This is the sock wool, in case there was any confusion.

This is the silk. 400g of it! Trudie not only has gorgeous stuff she also packs it up all lovely like.

27. Twenty seven. Hum.

Oh dear

Now I don't drink really. Or if I do it will be one or two drinks about once a month. Last night I went to Arun's to play poker. £20 in the pot and then 1st, 2nd and 3rd share the doings. I came fifth to not so good. But I also managed to finish most of the dooleys that I had left there a couple of weeks ago when Arun had a party. That night I only had 2 glasses. Last night I had a lot lot more.

It is difficult to write about as I loathe stories that start "I was sooooo drunk and..." and I hate hearing about what people do when they are inebriated. So boring. And I am largely of the opinion that people are just acting up and using it as an excuse to be an antisocial arse when they do do stupid things. And even though I had had a lot there was no hysterics, no clothing went missing, I said nothing I wouldn't be prepared to say in front of...not my mother but Pooch, say. Basically I just had a laugh.

The other problem I have with drinking to excess is where people want sympathy for self-inflicted hangovers. Ah, yes. Now I'd like to reconsider this. People do not deserve sympathy unless you owe them for a time they were sympathetic to you in the past. Which brings us to Pooch. I have sympathised a lot in the past and so have been expecting him to reciprocate. While he has been a ministering angel he has also been taking the opportunity to take the piss. Pooch has no poetry in his soul. To further prove my point this is me half dead while he just watches TV.


You will note that I am (attempting) to knit on circulars. I think it's too early to say I am a convert but I like the cut of their jib.

I was going to put pics of the sock wool etc up but I just can't be bothered. I see an afternoon of minimal movement ahead of me.

Before I forget...here is the little jumper for feed the children. The one I've cast on on circulars has some eyelash yarn in pink being knitting in at intervals.

No pics for today doooooooooode

Left the camera at home - have finished the little jumper and have started another......ON CIRCULARS. Shock, horror, gasp, other exclamations. Yes, it's true. The straight needle queen is biting the bullet and mixing her metaphors all the way to circular needles. I've cast on in the same red yarn and am on my third row (wow, etc, I know). Is so much effort but will get there eventually.

Got my designs sock wool in the post...hang on, I have a webcamera right? So where's it gone then....OK am I allowed to get depressed again because my camera has uninstalled itself and the guy with the admin password left the building about 10 minutes ago? No, right fair enough. Am using my immense intelligence to the think outside the box and laterally problem solve. Oh yes.

Right well that just puts the lid on it. Scanner isn't working. Sod this. I'm off for a night of texas hold-em as the only gal and no I am not going to cook the fricking pizza. Although then they'd all have to retire from the game to recover and I would be the victor. Wooooooo hahahahahahaha

Secret Pal - the parcel STILL hasn't arrived. Am really worried about it. Is there anyway I could trace it from this end? Airmail has been rubbish recently though so I'm hoping it will just turn up in time if I'm patient. Not good at patience though.

All those that have commented recently - you are wicked bad and fab and lush and all the other words that make me laugh. It means a lot to me to know there are people rotting for me out there (rooting in the UK sense - not the boot knocking one. Although feel free if you really want to. )

New blog to read

www.crazyauntpurl.com She's hilarious. Buggery frick I am so bad with names - the fellow knitter I met at golders green last night - you are wicked fab but I have forgotten your name already. Sorry :(

Anyway - she told me about her. Would recommend a read.

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.