Cracked It!

As the weather has cooled down again I decided to pick up the shawl again as I use my spare room for the isolation but it tends to capture the sun so has been too hot to concentrate properly.

Anyway I have finally managed to crack row 95. However, it was not row 95 that was the problem; it was row 93! It came to me in a flash. I guess that having two WIPs on the go stimulates the knitting brain better.


I'm currently on row 93 and I do seriously doubt I will manage to complete it in time for the Bingley show but I will get it finished!

Knitting Update

Mabel
This is the wheel that I got from e-bay about three months ago. At the time it was missing a few pieces but I placed an order with Winghams and got the few bits I was missing. I put the various bits in their place and now introduce you to Mabel in all her glory.



Shawl
I've given up on this for now. I'm finding it too hot to be able to concentrate hence my swap over to socks. I will come back to it once it has cooled down but I will not manage to get it complete it in time to enter it into the Bingley Show this year. The guidelines for the show so that an article is to have been made within the past 12 months so I guess it will be there for next year!

Socks
Here is a pic of where I am up to at the moment.


I am only working on the basic at the moment and have yet to reach the heel etc so the exciting stuff is yet to come...

Rats
Here is a pic of Gibber hiding in her house munching.

Sue - you posted a link on my blog earlier in the week. Can you let me know which Sue you are!

Birthday Expedition

For my birthday I decided that we would have a day trip out to York. I had gone before last year with work but never got time/opportunity to go shopping and you know what it is like when you want to wander round side streets and go in shops with a non-knitting crowd in tow!

I didnt tell MM where we were going as I wanted it to be a surprise. Anyway when we got into the station to catch our connection the train was due in 4 minutes and we were 5 platforms away! We just managed to get it in time. MM had heart failure upon seeing "destination Edinburgh" on the train display and wanted to know where we were going. The look of relief when MM read "York" was something that should have been caught on camera ;0D

I made my first stop off here:

I'd emailed and had a set of 2.5mm DPNs reserved for me. I'd not been able to get them elsewhere and after all it gave me an excuse to go in didn't it? I had allowed myself a day off from Stashalong as it was my birthday but I was still in the mindset as the only thing I bought was a ball of green sock yarn which I've put in my stash box.



My next stop off was here and it involved a purchase which didn't last very long....



We then had a wander round the rest of central York. Popped into a pub where I downed a pint of coke. It went rather quickly as I hadn't realised how thirdsy I actually was. We then had a further wander round and I had a mooch in all the charity shops. Unfortunately I didn't come across any knitting paraphernalia or books I wanted at all. MM and I then stopped and had lunch on the green by York Minster where I also indulged in some KIPing:



You can see the sock yarn I am using in the bottom left hand corner. After a bit more wandering and another trip to the pub we finally made tracks to go home. I did want to go to Bettys but unfortunately they were packed and as they were queing round the block I thought I'd do it another time.

I also did some KIPing on the train home:



When I got home and checked my e-mails I found this cute little feller waiting for me courtesy of Sue.



All in all I have a grand day out!

Birthday Goodies

The first package to arrive was this:



It came bearing a message in the bottom right hand corner. "Do not open until 24 July". Now I never saw this one until the morning of my birthday as MM had secreted it away. I had a most definite sneaky who it was from and I was right. It was from Irritating Irma and contained:



After opening them up I was greeted with:



I like the dolphin card and I know that the Opal was bought when Irma was at Woolfest. She had rung me and said whether I liked stripes and I say "ish". I wonder if I was talking to Ish at the time ;) I definitely like the yarn as I have just started my first pair of socks at the moment using some blue/red/magenta sock yarn I bought from The Skep as part of SkipNorth. I am making grand tracks with my first sock so I can see this will definitely be used up in the near future.

My second package definitely confused me and looked like this:



I always look at a postmark to see if I can work out who sent it but I didn't recognise it at all :(

I opened it up and was greeted by:



I couldn't believe how much green yarn jumped out straight at me and then I opened them:



Everyone who knows me is aware that green is my favourite colour so this was a further delight. But more was to come. One of the packages started to move somewhat vigorously and burst forth:



This cute little fellow came bearing a tag:



It very much put me in mind of Paddington Bear.

The last present in the package was:



I had seen these at Birmingham show but as I'd got several row counters of the short you slip on the needle I decided not to bother although I do like Clover accessories. However, I thought that as I am doing socks on DPNs I would give it a try. I must say that I am pleased I did. I have found it really useful. One click and the row is counted. The counter doesnt slip off the needle and the number doesn't increase accidentally or because the wheel is loose. What a nice lot of presents from this person I thought.

I finally opened the card up and attacked by this fine looking fellow:



He then told me the secret that the culprit of this wonderful hoard was no other than this Wye Sue.

Next in the knitting pile was this card:



It also came with the bestest present in the whole wide world. The present of NO DUNE!!!!! It turns out to be from a big bully who I'll be seeing soon.

Lastly and finally came MM's pressies:



MM had been good this year. Normally it is a last minute rush out to get something but this year they had been sitting in a cupboard for about a month and I had been a good Fred and not peeked! However MM had been remise and forgotten to get wrapping paper so ended up using some packing paper. He was being "green" minded so I got some more green there ;0)

I then opened them up and found:



The one on the left is a cordless PS2 controller which I am used heavily today. The one on the right is a CD filled with lots of PS2 cheats. I have not used it yet though but it may become tempting if I can't complete the current level of the game I am playing.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone for all the marvellous presents I have received. Each and every one of them are delightful.

The Curse of Row 95

Ok I've worked this row now 6 times and I still keep going wrong. I think I am going to lock myself in the cellar until I get it right so if you never hear of me again you know why....

Meet Bonnie and Clyde

Here is another pic of Gibber and Ish. I bought them a new cage two weeks ago because they had outgrown the temporary one I had them in just after I bought them. It was brand new with fairly tight fitting doors. I left them just before 10pm this evening and came back at just before 11pm to find the pair of them out and exploring on the roof of the cage.

Rats being intelligent come as nothing new to me as I have kept them before. However I am finding that females are more (now how shall I say this) ingenious....

Does anyone have a solution? The other thing I need help on is how do I get them to file their claws - ouch!

Ratzooks!

What do you do when your pet rat insists that she is going to go down your t-shirt? I have also spent 5 minutes having her proceed to wash my finger. I must say that the sensation, never mind the experience, was a bit weird.

Woolfest (By Proxy)

As I wasn't able to go to Woolfest in person and as I have been so occupied with my fleece I asked Irritating Irma if she could get me a pair of carding combs and she kindly obliged:



Alongside are a set of measures for ascertaining wool thickness. All I need now is to work out how to use them all lol

BLOG BIRTHDAY

Today is the first birthday of my blog so I thought I would show off a pic of why you shouldn't wash fleece in the washing machine if you want to knit with it afterwards :

Day Of The Fleece Pt 2

Here is the fleece after it has had two soakings. The first one I have left it in for day and a half and for the second I've given it an hour. I will say that there wasn't too much difference in the colour between first and second soakings but blimey I will say that there was a difference after the first soaking. I just wonder what the neighbour is going to say when she finds out that I poured the dirty water all over her conservatory roof as payback for hitting me with the mop!

I am enjoying the process. All I need now is to card it, dye it, spin it, skein it, ball it, knit it and then sew it up. Hmmmmmm.