Happy Birthday wishes this week go to my little brother, David, who celebrates this weekend with a BBQ (subject to weather. of course! which, at the moment, is back to the normal damp and wet with sunny spells - SO much for the heatwave and glorious summer).
My sewing-pal-mad-maer asks whats our favourite Smoothie? And it was all sounding rather nice and fruity until I read it again and spotted the SPINACH! spinach? now I like spinach (steamed as a veg or raw in a salad) but not sure I'd like it in a smoothie; I have to confess, though, I've never ACTUALLY had a smoothie (and I'm not sure I know what the difference is between a smoothie and a juice "drink" but Mary seems to enjoy them rather a lot!) (Actually I think I prefer her tip for dipping strawberries in dark chocolate, but maybe thats why my middle resembles blancmange!!). Anyway, we're both in sewing and healthy eating and Mary's blog is worth a visit for either.
EPIC match yesterday! Wimbledon mens final! I was worn out and stressed by the end, but I managed to get a few rounds in on my newest sock and got sock.2 Kai-mei underway now I'm wondering whether to develop an interest in cricket ... (personal sew-pals will be wondering if this is wise, given how quiet the MMG has been thus far and his penchance for tuning in my emb. software to find the cricket ..)
Winding down to the end of the school year for no.2.son - 2.5weeks left and then in September he will begin his GCSE year 10 and it all starts again with exams and revision! Next month no.1.son will get his results and we're hopeful he's done as well as has been predicted - good luck son!
Monday, 6 July 2009
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Progress - knitting and healthwise - has been made!
First. Kai-mei sock.1 is complete. This proved to be a challenging pattern for me and I very nearly gave up, ripped it off the needles and flung it in the bin! Luckily I didn't. I set it aside and ignored it for weeks, even looked through my book, Sock Innovation, in an attempt to convince myself that I preferred another pattern. but. I didn't! I preferred THIS pattern!
My problem was trying to learn the technique of ML (while still being "new" to handling circulars) and attempting to understand a complicated-to-me pattern. Once I'd sat and calmed down, picked up the needles and decided to just follow the instructions instead of trying to understand them, I settled into it and resolved to just KNIT and not look at it until I'd completed the decreases for the section on "shape gussets".
Hurrah! it worked! happily I found that the panel stitching was easy-peasy too! (and NOT the most difficult combination of knitting stitches I've apparently never come across before!) and the whole foot and toe was knit with ease!
Pretty good eh? I love this pattern and plan to cast on sock.2 this afternoon in time for the Mens Singles final Wimbledon.
Which leads nicely (yum!) to .. STRAWBERRIES! and another hurrah! for homegrown strawberries and raspberries! We've done well this year, our best ever! And don't they taste much better than shop bought?
Well I shall be enjoying some yummy knitting and yummy fruit this afternoon, and elsewhere my Vintage Cardigan (Debbie Bliss) is nearly complete too! Just got the shaping to knit at the top of sleeve.2 then I shall block it and attempt to follow the instructions to crochet the buttonhole bands and neck edge!
Cast on, too, is another sock - I decided that just a plain ST ST was far too boring and now that I feel confident wielding my single circ. about a ball of wool, have decided to have a go at the pattern in Simply Knitting magazine - Luxe Lace, by Elizabeth Bagwell. Easy 4 row pattern combining both cable and lace I've called this my "Hospital sock"! yes! at LAST! it looks like progress has been made at the Hospitals! FINALLY, the Dr's have decided to stop messing about and just go for it! and take out my gallbladder!! (I've only been waiting since Sept 08!)
First I have to attend an appointment for some sort of "endoscopic ultrasound" which sounds fun (not!) on the 14th July, and then, hopefully, the following week I'm IN on the Wed and ITS out on the Thurs!
Elsewhere on the health front, although my shoulder is much more flexible (thanks to the hard work by the Physiotherapist) it is starting to ache a bit and I'm beginning to feel occasional pain again. Dr at the Ortho Hospital advises that two injections this year is the maximum and suggests painkillers if I feel I need them and is "hopeful" that the pain won't return - unless I'm very unlucky! like it did before. I'm hoping it won't return, too!
Completely fed up with this frozen shoulder and still can't believe it takes so LONG to recover from it.
I've started to "do" a bit more and think that this may be aggravating it (eg shopping, lifting stuff) but at some point I've got to just for it and carry on as "normal".
I don't have to worry about work anymore (and the heavy lifting involved) mainly because I don't have any work TO worry about! Sadly all of us around the country have been told that our services are too expensive in the current climate, and thus we're all redundant. As of 31st July. We shall all be out of a job, save for two positions retained in London. Its the end of an era and I'm very sad about it not least the fact that I'm off sick for the notice period and thus feel completely out of the loop.
One way or another I shall be rather glad to see the back of 2009.
My problem was trying to learn the technique of ML (while still being "new" to handling circulars) and attempting to understand a complicated-to-me pattern. Once I'd sat and calmed down, picked up the needles and decided to just follow the instructions instead of trying to understand them, I settled into it and resolved to just KNIT and not look at it until I'd completed the decreases for the section on "shape gussets".
Hurrah! it worked! happily I found that the panel stitching was easy-peasy too! (and NOT the most difficult combination of knitting stitches I've apparently never come across before!) and the whole foot and toe was knit with ease!
Pretty good eh? I love this pattern and plan to cast on sock.2 this afternoon in time for the Mens Singles final Wimbledon.
Which leads nicely (yum!) to .. STRAWBERRIES! and another hurrah! for homegrown strawberries and raspberries! We've done well this year, our best ever! And don't they taste much better than shop bought?
Well I shall be enjoying some yummy knitting and yummy fruit this afternoon, and elsewhere my Vintage Cardigan (Debbie Bliss) is nearly complete too! Just got the shaping to knit at the top of sleeve.2 then I shall block it and attempt to follow the instructions to crochet the buttonhole bands and neck edge!
Cast on, too, is another sock - I decided that just a plain ST ST was far too boring and now that I feel confident wielding my single circ. about a ball of wool, have decided to have a go at the pattern in Simply Knitting magazine - Luxe Lace, by Elizabeth Bagwell. Easy 4 row pattern combining both cable and lace I've called this my "Hospital sock"! yes! at LAST! it looks like progress has been made at the Hospitals! FINALLY, the Dr's have decided to stop messing about and just go for it! and take out my gallbladder!! (I've only been waiting since Sept 08!)
First I have to attend an appointment for some sort of "endoscopic ultrasound" which sounds fun (not!) on the 14th July, and then, hopefully, the following week I'm IN on the Wed and ITS out on the Thurs!
Elsewhere on the health front, although my shoulder is much more flexible (thanks to the hard work by the Physiotherapist) it is starting to ache a bit and I'm beginning to feel occasional pain again. Dr at the Ortho Hospital advises that two injections this year is the maximum and suggests painkillers if I feel I need them and is "hopeful" that the pain won't return - unless I'm very unlucky! like it did before. I'm hoping it won't return, too!
Completely fed up with this frozen shoulder and still can't believe it takes so LONG to recover from it.
I've started to "do" a bit more and think that this may be aggravating it (eg shopping, lifting stuff) but at some point I've got to just for it and carry on as "normal".
I don't have to worry about work anymore (and the heavy lifting involved) mainly because I don't have any work TO worry about! Sadly all of us around the country have been told that our services are too expensive in the current climate, and thus we're all redundant. As of 31st July. We shall all be out of a job, save for two positions retained in London. Its the end of an era and I'm very sad about it not least the fact that I'm off sick for the notice period and thus feel completely out of the loop.
One way or another I shall be rather glad to see the back of 2009.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Prom Night!
Prom night last night for no.1.son - always held in nearby Hotel it was very well organised and attended by most of the teachers and all of the year group. This was our first time at this event and some of our son's mates got together and hired a limo for the occasion - they were very excited about the whole thing and luckily the weather was absolutely glorious!
Below you can see them meeting up in the next street to ours and dh & I sat in our car discreetly waiting for the limo to arrive to take zillions of photos! No.1.son is 2nd on the right as you look at the pic.
Here they are all piling in! gives us chance to drive down the few mins to the location, park up and wait their arrival!
HUGE excitement the other end as parents wait for them to arrive with cameras at the ready! (I think we were more excited than some of them!) Everyone was dressed really smartly and some superbly transported groups of young people added to the atmosphere - a particularly loud cheer went to the pink fire engine that arrived with LOTS of noise and filled with lots of VERY noisy young ladies!!
Below is no.1.son and his mates lining up outside their limo for a photo, he is 5th from the left as you look at the pic - you can see they are looking forward to a fun evening!
Parents gathered outside with cameras to mark the occasion and cheer each arriving party which took simply ages! Below shows no.1.son and his mates about to mingle before going inside where they had food laid on, and a disco.
It was a very long evening! he didn't arrive home until 12.40am! and I was getting rather anxious as school had said the event would finish 11-11.30pm - how I'm going to be once he gets another couple of years under his belt and starts "clubbing" I don't know!!
Dh and I sat up and waited and hoped for a conversation about the evening but - typically teenage style - he came in, announced he was thirsty, had blisters on his heels from new shoes and headed straight for the stairs!! Called up to him a rather weak "errm ..? HOW was the evening .. then .. ? .. ?" the reply, a grunt and a "don't forget to wake me EARLY tomorrow!" ..
hmm. so much for talking about it then!!
Today has been exciting too as one of the Colleges he is considering for this Sept and his A Levels had a taster day with lessons in each of the subjects he's expressed interest in and several of his friends arranged to meet up at 8.15am to travel together. Managed to get a few details dragged out of him, but teenagers don't seem to do well in communication particularly where *mum* is concerned and mostly I know that he is NOT so keen on taking A Level maths and physics! "too HARD!" was the reason! (phew! well. I could have told him THAT! just saying it sounds *hard*?)
Officially he has now left secondary school and has one super summer ahead of him of total freedom and NO responsibilities which I hope he will enjoy and appreciate. What a lovely age to be? I wouldn't want to go back to 16yrs, but its good to reflect.
Below you can see them meeting up in the next street to ours and dh & I sat in our car discreetly waiting for the limo to arrive to take zillions of photos! No.1.son is 2nd on the right as you look at the pic.
Here they are all piling in! gives us chance to drive down the few mins to the location, park up and wait their arrival!
HUGE excitement the other end as parents wait for them to arrive with cameras at the ready! (I think we were more excited than some of them!) Everyone was dressed really smartly and some superbly transported groups of young people added to the atmosphere - a particularly loud cheer went to the pink fire engine that arrived with LOTS of noise and filled with lots of VERY noisy young ladies!!
Below is no.1.son and his mates lining up outside their limo for a photo, he is 5th from the left as you look at the pic - you can see they are looking forward to a fun evening!
Parents gathered outside with cameras to mark the occasion and cheer each arriving party which took simply ages! Below shows no.1.son and his mates about to mingle before going inside where they had food laid on, and a disco.
It was a very long evening! he didn't arrive home until 12.40am! and I was getting rather anxious as school had said the event would finish 11-11.30pm - how I'm going to be once he gets another couple of years under his belt and starts "clubbing" I don't know!!
Dh and I sat up and waited and hoped for a conversation about the evening but - typically teenage style - he came in, announced he was thirsty, had blisters on his heels from new shoes and headed straight for the stairs!! Called up to him a rather weak "errm ..? HOW was the evening .. then .. ? .. ?" the reply, a grunt and a "don't forget to wake me EARLY tomorrow!" ..
hmm. so much for talking about it then!!
Today has been exciting too as one of the Colleges he is considering for this Sept and his A Levels had a taster day with lessons in each of the subjects he's expressed interest in and several of his friends arranged to meet up at 8.15am to travel together. Managed to get a few details dragged out of him, but teenagers don't seem to do well in communication particularly where *mum* is concerned and mostly I know that he is NOT so keen on taking A Level maths and physics! "too HARD!" was the reason! (phew! well. I could have told him THAT! just saying it sounds *hard*?)
Officially he has now left secondary school and has one super summer ahead of him of total freedom and NO responsibilities which I hope he will enjoy and appreciate. What a lovely age to be? I wouldn't want to go back to 16yrs, but its good to reflect.
Saturday, 13 June 2009
no.2.son bakes chocolate brownies!
one for him, one for them, and the rest for meee ...No.2.son baked chocolate brownies at school yesterday and as we had some chocolate and choc.chips left, he baked a second batch this afternoon!
Rather yummy and worth upsetting an irritable stomach for!
Plan to further irritate stomach further with a couple of large G+T's as we are going out to the pub tonight - well! if you can't live a little!?
Friday, 12 June 2009
WISH I'd taken my camera!
I'm so cross with myself! I sorted my camera and made sure it was charged, and then forgot to take it in the end!
Yesterday evening I met with my knitty-pal-Sally for a glass of wine and a catch up and took along my sock (see bottom pic for a look) which I cast on to knit while waiting for an appointment earlier in the week. I promised to bring along my sock knitted with one circular (magic loop) and since I have two of these circulars decided to make that my next "appointment" project which brings me to three socks OTN's which isn't ideal but never mind!
Sally brought along her FABULOUS pieced and appliqued quilt top for her dd who is expecting a 2nd baby and thats why I am cross! I'd have loved to have taken a photo and shown it to you! The quilt is going to be super! lovely and bright with super animal faces all expertly appliqued using her Janome 4000. We discussed waddings, and quilting options and I've promised to help with the binding method that I remember bring brilliantly easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy but which I've apparently "forgotten" the detail of! If I can't remember, I know I've got a sew-pal who can help me remember!
We looked through Sally's latest book purchases knitty and quilty and generally decided upon a couple of patterns for my latest yarn bargain too!
Progress is slow but steady, but not with great confidence on my sock Kai-Mei - I need to sit for a couple of hours and just knit the gussett decreases with my eyes shut tight! (and hope I'm right!)
Nearly completed sleeve one on my DB cardigan - enjoying this project! can't wait to finish/wear it!
And, below, you can see a pic of the latest appointment-sock OTN which is just your basic plain sock that can be knitted mindlessly while waiting etc.
In this month's edition of Simply Knitting there are a couple of patterns I like the look of, and have decided upon this one by Amanda Jones on page 44/45 for my bargain Rown KSS yarn - I plan silver beads/buttons.
Tempted with the Sarah Hatton pattern on page 24/25 from Rowan book - Ravenscar - in All Seasons Cotton as its currently on half price sale - however as its sold in bags of 10 and I need 12 balls, it wouldn't be much of a bargain. Easier would be the super pattern in Yarn Forward using Rowan Calmer x 8balls also half price - but am resisting! for now, at least!
Yesterday evening I met with my knitty-pal-Sally for a glass of wine and a catch up and took along my sock (see bottom pic for a look) which I cast on to knit while waiting for an appointment earlier in the week. I promised to bring along my sock knitted with one circular (magic loop) and since I have two of these circulars decided to make that my next "appointment" project which brings me to three socks OTN's which isn't ideal but never mind!
Sally brought along her FABULOUS pieced and appliqued quilt top for her dd who is expecting a 2nd baby and thats why I am cross! I'd have loved to have taken a photo and shown it to you! The quilt is going to be super! lovely and bright with super animal faces all expertly appliqued using her Janome 4000. We discussed waddings, and quilting options and I've promised to help with the binding method that I remember bring brilliantly easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy but which I've apparently "forgotten" the detail of! If I can't remember, I know I've got a sew-pal who can help me remember!
We looked through Sally's latest book purchases knitty and quilty and generally decided upon a couple of patterns for my latest yarn bargain too!
Progress is slow but steady, but not with great confidence on my sock Kai-Mei - I need to sit for a couple of hours and just knit the gussett decreases with my eyes shut tight! (and hope I'm right!)
Nearly completed sleeve one on my DB cardigan - enjoying this project! can't wait to finish/wear it!
And, below, you can see a pic of the latest appointment-sock OTN which is just your basic plain sock that can be knitted mindlessly while waiting etc.
In this month's edition of Simply Knitting there are a couple of patterns I like the look of, and have decided upon this one by Amanda Jones on page 44/45 for my bargain Rown KSS yarn - I plan silver beads/buttons.
Tempted with the Sarah Hatton pattern on page 24/25 from Rowan book - Ravenscar - in All Seasons Cotton as its currently on half price sale - however as its sold in bags of 10 and I need 12 balls, it wouldn't be much of a bargain. Easier would be the super pattern in Yarn Forward using Rowan Calmer x 8balls also half price - but am resisting! for now, at least!
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Hurah! look what I got! a new toy!
LOOK at what I've got! HURRAH! its brilliant and its MINE! DH bought it for me as a surprise as he knows I've been wanting one for years! (we'll gloss over I waited years to get what I wanted! lol!!)
JUST as I'd leaped into the shower yesterday morning after seeing both lads off to school for the day and exams respectively, the door knocked! I thought it was one of them returning to pick up something they'd forgotten and nearly ignored them thinking, lazy lads! they've got a KEY! Luckily I didn't! it was the postman! (who didn't know where to look as I stood, dripping slightly, just about covered with a rather skimpy towel that I was just clutching at myself rather than the large bath sheet that would have amply covered me on account of I thought I just had to turn the key, let a lad in and scarper back to shower!
DH had told lads that he'd ordered the walkman for me and it was due that day but sworn them to secrecy, they kept the secret all day and didn't let on!
Lovely! to have a surprise gift and lovelier still that its something I wanted!
NOW to find some yummy knitty podcasts to add to the music that no.1.son has already added to my file AND I need a cover! anyone got any suggestions for good pattern for standard walkman?
On Thursday I'm meeting with my knitty-pal, Sally, and she promises to bring with her goodies she purchased from the Ravelry Day in Coventry at the weekend! Looking forward to seeing her, catching up with knitty gossip AND a large glass of wine!
Sunday, 7 June 2009
More dismal weather (more sewing!)
I wish I could send Val some of our rain! what am I saying? I wish I could send ALL of it! the cats are thoroughly fed up now and keep following me with the clear expression they expect ME to do something about it!
My no.2.brother has gone to the races and informs us that after a delay in the ferry crossing and with the awful weather he has finally arrived - completely soaked through, but happy to be there!
The wet weather seems to be everywhere at the moment which is disappointing as its meant to be summer! surely?
Today I'm going to sort patterns and fabric! Mind, with the weather as cold as it is wet, I don't feel much inspiration for summer garment sewing in fact last night I got out and fondled my stash of Cocoon and wished I'd started on that! And that, I suppose, is the best way? to sew and knit ahead of season? I wish I could be better organised. I need to sew with a plan!
Hope the weather is better for you.
My no.2.brother has gone to the races and informs us that after a delay in the ferry crossing and with the awful weather he has finally arrived - completely soaked through, but happy to be there!
The wet weather seems to be everywhere at the moment which is disappointing as its meant to be summer! surely?
Today I'm going to sort patterns and fabric! Mind, with the weather as cold as it is wet, I don't feel much inspiration for summer garment sewing in fact last night I got out and fondled my stash of Cocoon and wished I'd started on that! And that, I suppose, is the best way? to sew and knit ahead of season? I wish I could be better organised. I need to sew with a plan!
Hope the weather is better for you.
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