Still feeling rough from a cold that I seem to have picked up, but to cheer myself up I've this morning booked tickets for a couple of things that I'm planning to do over the next couple of months.Firstly I'm going along to the annual Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace. This is an event that I've been along to many times over the last few years. I normally spend most of my time going round the stalls, but this year their theme is make do and mend, something that I'm always interested in. The demonstration parts of the day may therefore be of ... read more
Completed anniversary socks
It's taken me nearly as long to blog about these socks as it took to knit the second one!In the end it was only slightly over a month to complete the whole pair after starting them whilst on holiday in Cornwall. They were significantly easier to make after the practice on the first pair, although there are still a couple of techniques that I need to master. It was certainly nice to be able to sit in some strange hotel room earlier this week and know that these handmade beauties were keeping my feet warm. The only problem is that Mr C's now after a pair of socks, and seeing as his ... read more
A knitted village
Whilst catching up on world events I found this video showing the Kent village that locals decided to knit as a way of raising funds for the village. Certainly a very cute, if time consuming, idea. ... read more
A sock update
After setting myself a bit of a challenge I thought I'd better give you a progress update. This is the status of sock number two, just one month after starting the pair, after a mad knitting weekend. I'm totally thrilled at how far I've managed to get!The one thing that I'm not at all thrilled about is the blister that I now have on one finger as a result of my extreme knitting. I've never had a knitting related injury before and my finger hurts so much that I'm having to have a couple of days off knitting to recover.Quiet sad. ... read more
Anniversary sock
Before Mr C and I went away to celebrate our first wedding anniversary I bought myself a little anniversary present. I figured that with us going away in the UK in March the weather was likely to be lousy and that we'd end up spending quite a bit of time in our little cottage. I therefore bought myself a couple of balls of sock yarn, Regia colour 4-ply to be exact, in colour 5025.As you'll have seen from my posts we actually had the most fantastic weather whilst we were away - and although I got to start my socks I certainly didn't get as much done as I expected to. ... read more
A pair of socks
It's taken me a while, but I am so proud to say that I have finally finished my first pair of knitted socks!I did stop and start these quite a few times, but the practice on the first one certainly made the second one much easier. They're not perfect by a long way, and I'm not so keen on the yarn used, but they're functional as far as socks go. I started off using the pattern that came with the sock kit that I bought from John Lewis, but soon found myself quite stuck. Luckily the wonderful people at Web of Wool helped me out when I met them at the ... read more
Wintery weekend
This is the wintery scene that greeted me as I left home to go to work on Friday morning. Walking to St Albans station was like walking through a blizzard - I was wearing wellies and my ski jacket and was white with snow when I reached the station. There the staff were advising us not to venture into London as there could be no guarantees that we'd actually get home again. I pressed on though and actually felt quite silly by the time I got into London as there everything was just grey and miserable looking. My colleagues had a good laugh though when I appeared in the office dressed for ... read more
Gifts for myself
I'm guilty of a little bit of indulgence this last weekend. I had some money on a internet based credit card that I'd got as a result of a repayment following some fraudulent use of my card. I don't have the pin number for this card, but wanted to use up the money before closing the account. A trip to amazon was therefore in order and I bought some of the books that have been sat on my wish list for a while now.There's a definite yarn related thing going on with my book choices and I'm really looking forward to going through these over the next few weeks and adding more ... read more
Chaos
Ae we really only ten days into 2009? Last weekend I remember feeling so organised for going into the new year; now I'm not too sure. So much seems to have happened in these last ten days that I'm not even sure where to start. Sorry there are no photos to accompany my words - I've just not had time to take my camera out of my handbag all week.I went back to work on Monday and was expecting a quiet week before starting all the regular meetings etc next week. Someone else obviously thought differently. I feel like I've been on a treadmill that's been getting faster and faster ... read more
Jane Austen’s sock
After a morning and early afternoon viewing houses and shopping for a few bits and pieces in town it was lovely to be able to curl up later this afternoon and have some me time.Back in early December I recorded the tv adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park on our magic box and this afternoon I curled up with my knitting to watch Billie Piper's interpretation of Fannie Price. Now I have to admit to having not yet read this particular book so my views are very much of it as a stand alone piece of TV drama, rather than a version of the original ... read more