Doing It With The Lights On!

OOOh, behave! I meant knitting of course!

Last night,myself, CarrieAnne, Becky,Bev and Andrea joined the knitters of Teeside to watch the film 'Notes On A Scandal', with the lights on so we could knit!! And what a lovely evening it was. The film was really good. I'd read the book a few years ago, but I couldn't remember much about the story. It was brill being able to knit, though the lights were a little dim. Luckily we'd all prepared for the occasion and had taken easy 'straight' knitting. I saved my sock knitting for the purpose! Just going round and round the foot didn't distract me much from the film.

The Arc in Stockton is a lovely modern building and after the film we retired to the cafe, where we nattered until we were asked to leave! Poor bloke wanted to go home!!

So I got a fair bit done on the sock. I'd left it as I said for the cinema, but I must admit the shawl is calling me more! I'm really enjoying the pattern. I've made a few mistakes, silly ones mostly, but not as many as I thought I'd make!!

The yarn is Ullcentrum, 100% wool. Its a bit rough, but I do like a bit of rough! I think it will be fine as an everyday type of shawl, which is what I wanted. I love the fine, cobwebby types too but I'd end up keeping it for 'best'! I'm at the 10th pattern repeat, so only another 5 to go! AND then the border of course, sigh....it may take longer than I thought!

I haven't done as much knitting this week as I've been making card samples. I seem to be taking longer and longer to make any card that looks half decent, and end up taking days and days to make just a few crappy cards. I don't know if having to make them within a time limit hampers my creativity, but I find I'm struggling a lot of the time.

Thank you for all your comments on my last post. I'm trying my best not to have ironing guilt! I saw a brill quote somewhere about housework. It said

The only place housework comes before knitting, is in the dictionary!

My new mantra!

Mothering Sunday

Mothers Day in our house has always been a low key affair.

The kids have always bought small gifts and cards, which I really appreciate. I get totally pampered for the day too, having all my meals and coffees made for me. It is a day of rest and relaxation, which is unusual for me.

I wish I could get rid of the feelings of guilt I get if pick up the knitting needles when the ironing is building up in the corner. I've even tried putting the ironing out of sight but still the guilt niggles away. I don't always give in to it, sometimes I just say Sod it and pick up the needles. But then the fingers of guilt start creeping round my head and I'll end up putting the knitting down and doing some housework. Now it's not that I'm houseproud, by any stretch of the imagination! I think it's a self esteem issue, not feeling as though I am good enough to allow myself to do something pleasurable, when theres other stuff I should be doing. That sounds really heavy, I don't know where it came from but its true! Does anyone else feel like this ?

On to nice things!

I seem to have avoided second sock syndrome, and have got cracking with my 2nd Piece Of Beauty sock. I'm really enjoying this yarn, as I've said before and would definitely recommend it.

Progress on the sock has been a bit slower because I decided to push on with the bag. I eventually got used to knitting with the rough Kureyon, the colours are beautiful and somewhat make up for its coarseness. I haven't lined it yet but this is how it looks so far.

It has felted beautifully, but it's smaller than I thought even though I followed the felting directions on the pattern. Andrea has knit this bag before and said hers is much bigger. I guess it's all the practise I've had of felting any woollen garment that I get my hands on!! Queen of Felting, the Fulling Princess!!

My Victorian Lace Today book came this week too and it's beautiful. The photography alone is gorgeous then you get the delicious lace patterns on top! I love the historical angle that the author has used and recycled the patterns so that todays knitter can use them. I think it's fab and can understand why the book has been sooo popular! I have just started this one.

I'm using the Ullcentrum yarn I bought at Harrogate. I'm being very good and using from the stash, mainly I must admit cos we are skint! I am trying to stick to the No yarn til Woolfest and due to our financial state, it's not too difficult at the moment !! But it means I'm using stuff I'd forgotten I'd bought, it's quite exciting!!

Friday was KnitnNatter day with the multi-talented CarrieAnne! ( She'll kill me for that one!) It was a lovely group of folks as usual and all the group fees went to Comic Relief too.

Happily, Tom's back is slowly starting to improve. Thank you for all your well wishes. And a huge thank you to everyone who has commented lately. Your support and kind words really do mean a lot. And if theres anyone that reads my blog but doesn't leave a comment, please do, it's lovely to "meet" new bloggers!

Stitch And Bitch

Last night I had a wonderful time at CarrieAnne's stitch and bitch!! We ate well, drank well, talked and laughed well and even fitted a bit of knitting in! Thanks CarrieAnne!

I took the socks in progress and the yarn for a felted bag I've wanted to knit for ages.

I almost finished the socks, but when I got to the toe decreases, I thought it wise to put them down and cast on for the bag!

I actually finished the sock this morning, so one down one to go!

For the bag, I'm using the Noro Kureyon shade 164 that Ian bought for my birthday.I love the colours, but it feels so rough, especially after using the Piece of Beauty sock yarn. It's like knitting with rope!

Speaking of birthdays, yet another book from DH came this week.

" At Knits End " has some humerous bits but 2 of my favourite bits were acronyms.
The first, I definitely have problems with;

W.H.A.C.O.

Thats Wool Housing And Containment Overflow! The removable bath panel comes to mind!

But I have yet to achieve the second acronym;

S.A.B.L.E.

This stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy!! It explains that if you didn't buy another ball of yarn AND knit full time until the end of your time here on earth, you still wouldn't use all the yarn in your stash!! I wonder if anyone out there is at this stage already?

Stand forward and be counted, or at least post a pic of your stash!!

What A Week!

It's been a pretty s*%t week, and thats putting it politely!

First we had The Bed Drama.

To cut a VERY long story short, the new bed we'd got Tom wouldn't fit up the stairs ! That is, until Ian came out of the garage wielding a large hammer and saw! After some minor adjustments to the banisters, which included knocking out all the spindles and sawing through the newel post, the bed was finally installed!

Then was The MRI Scan-dal.

Picture the scene. Dear son, virtually bedridden with back pain visits GP who wants him to have an MRI scan. But because he's been ill at the end of the financial year (not recommended!) theres no money to allow him to be scanned until the middle of April. Result; one very angry mother and one hefty bill for private scan because we just couldn't watch him struggle any longer.

And the latest was on Monday; CarrieAnne and Kaths Unexpected Adventure!

We'd had a lovely morning at Spennyknit. Lots of knitting, coffee,cake and chat. So far so good. Then all five of us went en masse to a local shoe shop, where we tried on DM 's and generally drooled over shoes. Lovely morning. Then after saying our goodbyes we got into my car and headed home. And then BANG!

Part of my exhaust snapped and got trapped under the car. We pulled over and tried to pull the offending part off, but neither of us had eaten our Shredded Wheat and couldn't manage to remove it!

So I had to phone Mayday rescue and we waited. And waited. Thought about getting the knitting out. Waited some more. The guy eventually turned up, and after about 5 seconds, pulled off the broken bit! Job done!

The annoying thing was the number of cars that passed us but didn't stop, including 2 police cars! Poor CarrieAnne! I felt awful, offering her a lift, then the car falling apart around us!!

But the worst was yet to come. When the garage put the car on the ramps, they found that I needed 3 new tyres, so yet another huge bill!

I'm thinking about standing in the street with a begging tin! Or I suppose I could make more of the dreaded bags to sell ! NNOOOOOOO! End of moan!

Knitting has been brilliant at helping to reduce my stress levels. My Piece Of Beauty socks are coming along nicely. I'm hurtling down the foot at the moment.

Its beautiful to knit with, I'm really enjoying it, even though I'm just knitting the bog standard pattern. I would like to try Monkey after seeing CarrieAnne's, the pattern looks even more beautiful in the flesh!

I also got a belated birthday pressie from Ian. Sorry about bad pic. Theres some lovely

patterns for accessories in this book.

And speaking of books, Ian ordered Victorian Lace Today from Amazon last month, but they can't deliver until April! I've looked at loads of sites for it, but no luck. I wonder if this print run has been sold out and shops are waiting for more to be printed?

Could I ask a favour?

If anyone knows where I could get one, would you let me know as I'm desperate to get my hands on it, I've heard so much about it!