Knitted ramblings

Lots of knitting later...

2011-11-03T20:46:00.002Z

So, the hexipuffles have been breeding...

Remember that little scattering I had before?

Well, they grew to 38...

And those grew on to 52

More have since magically appeared in the basket, but I'm afraid they're on hibernation until after Christmas knits are done.

I've started more "safety socks", this time in home-dyed purple and mass dyed yellow:

One sock is done, the other just needs the cuff and heel finishing.

Then, my travelling project will be Dad's new gloves! My Mum, alas, just isn't knit-worthy, she's just not fussed when she can go buy such things. Dad, on the other hand, absolutely loves my hand knits! He wears his lovely thick hat and gloves whenever he's out in the cold and sometimes even the cowl, although it seems I made the hat too good, he's rarely cold enough for the cowl ;) So after 3 years of good service his gloves, that I knit flat and seamed, are starting to wear out. He asked for a new pair and he shall receive :) Mum is getting a box of Turkish Delight, she'll be happy with those.

Winter is slowly creeping up on us and I admit, I "borrowed" the jumper I knit for hubs last year. Well, he wasn't too pleased so I said I think I could manage one for me, if I could afford the yarn. Yep, I managed to go 11 months without buying yarn then bought this lot:

It's from West Yorkshire Spinners and was originally 10x100g skeins of aran weight BFL (heaven!) but I have plans to do a pattern around my torso so I don't go insane on the endless rounds of plain blah. So I got a pot of Jacquard Acid dye in Silver-grey. Dyed up three skeins, waited impatiently for it to dry and got those three greys. I was a bit disappointed it wasn't solid (not enough dye to go round) but then I decided I like that, sheep aren't solid grey so why should the ones going on my jumper be? The problem now is resisting that to get other things done!

I also found a lace pattern I love and thought would work wonderfully in my black DK silk...

It's called Addis Abeba (Ravelry link) and is knit on the bias, so diagonally. I admit to being a bit worried I would get completely lost but WIPInsanity has written it wonderfully and it's kind of like a sock, just do exactly what it says and it works! So I get a few rows of that done every few days. After the first half square it's 2 charts at once and my brain can only stay focused so long before it wanders. Still, the pure silk yarn on my KnitPro wooden circular is an experience of pleasure!

That's about it really. I won't confound you with my health issues at the moment, mainly because I haven't a sodding clue what is going on.

Have a lovely November folks, I hope to update again before Christmas ;)

Long time no update...

2011-09-10T07:54:00.002+01:00

Looking back, I see I have been woefully lacking in my knitting photos, allow me to amend this immediately!

I started a new Sezession, using some big yarn that's actually i-cord, I pulled out the i-cording (it'd missed a few stitches) and suddenly had metres of this stuff:

That shawl I had nearly finished? Finished!

It's soooooo soft and warm! Perfect for the odd evening when I get a little chill but still want to knit.

No, you're not getting one of moi in it!

I thought I'd found The Pattern for some yarn I'd bought at Coldspring, the pattern was terribly written and had errors on some rows, so first I had to chart the damned thing. But, I liked the look, so I got knitting...

That's as far as it got. The pattern never really became doable and about every 6th row had so many yo's and different decreases that my brain went phut and my eyes crossed. I did make the chart available for people though and some have asked for it and gone on to knit it :)

The parental flags afghan really isn't going to be done any time soon. I have finished the second of seven flag rows though:

*sigh* At this rate, it'll be a retirement pressie for Dad! It's not that I get bored, I love the pattern, but the super long rows and the lack of a thumb dent in the hook mean my right hand cramps after two rows then it goes back in the box and gets forgotten for a month.

My lap blanket is growing though, whenver I miss Tod I dig it out and think of the good times and how I started it at the knitting group in Halifax then tried it at the Bear and realised that was a silly idea.

I've also been making more granny squares for the bedspread I started yonks ago...

They block out at 15" square and I'm either making it 5x5 or 5x6. That's dozing again, me and crochet have an on/off relationship, mainly off :s

Oh yeah, I've been well and truly bitten by the Sock Bug...

Yeah... Still, they are very comfy and take a decent time to knit. The thicker, striped ones at the end are for my new safety boots. I'm starting an electrical installation course on Tuesday and we were told to get safety boots with steel toecaps AND steel shank in the sole. Well, we found some for a very reasonable £16 but the toecap in the left boot rubs my toes, so out came the needles and voila! One pair of thick, warm, comfy safety socks :) Finally, a use for all the single skeins of King Cole DK I dyed.

Last knitting photo... a hambean!

Okay, that list I made...
The joys of depression
Just it kicking in now and then. It can make the loss of a beloved pet that bit harder to bear. On the plus side, hubbie pointed out that I didn't self harm this time. So, in a way, I am getting better :)

Living in Preston
Meh. The positives are that town is a 20 minute walk, and we have the big name shops near us again. But, it's busy, it's impersonal. I did go to the knitting group at Jo's church but, I just couldn't click with the ladies there. The conversation was always about someone or other and just wasn't that engaging :s

College soon
Yep, Tuesday is my first day. It's two full days a week, 9:30am to 4:30pm. Fortunately Jo has just enough time each lunch to come home and let the doglet out for a pee. It certainly looks doable, but the negative depression side is saying "you're weak, your nerve damage will make it impossible..." I'm hoping it's wrong.

Hexapuffs (Apologies to Sam if she reads this!)

This is the latest Thing To Knit on Ravelry, the Beekeeper's Quilt (Rav link). At time of writing, there are 1315 of these in people's projects and another 2589 queued. I admit, the pattern is far too expensive for what it is and the pdf is 12MB which is enormous for 3 pages. Alright, she provides a couple of charts and the instructions, but the instructions are really 5 paragraphs. Yet... these little things are addictive! They're easy enough to knit while watching telly even. Mine is going to truly be a technicolour quilt, I'm using any 4-ply I can get my hands on and even dyeing my own.

Obsessions/addictions
First it was LOTRO, now it's Minecraft. Being able to construct Physics defying buildings, dig deep into the ground, and generally have fun is highly addictive. I will admit to getting a cheat that allows me to make certain things, this is because it's so much easier to generate a load of diamonds and make diamond armour and diamond tools than die rapidly and have to carry a dozen stone tools that wear out rapidly. That's all I cheat though, everything else I have mined.

PCOS
I've been having problems with my reproductive system. When I was 16 I went on the pill, partly because of insanely long, heavy periods and partly because, yes, I was sexually active and wanted a backup for the condoms. I've been on various birth control pills since then, including one called Cerazette, which you take all the time (no skipping a week) and that completely stopped my monthlies. A couple of years ago, Jo and I agreed that we could cope if I got pregnant and so I stopped the pill. Things have been wonky ever since! First it was months of nothing, then irregularity for months, lately I have just finished a 74 day long period. Yep, just shy of 11 weeks of constant menstruation. I had a blood sample taken on Tuesday to check my counts and it took a good 10 minutes to stop bleeding, as opposed to the usual 1minute it used to take. I knocked a scab off yesterday, tiny tiny scab, 3mm long at most, bled copiously all over my arm. Yep, I'm short on the ole platelets! Hopefully now the Period From Hell is over, my body can replace those and we'll both be happy :)

Sleep
I think I'm costing the NHS a fair bit of dosh. I've never had a sleep pattern, my Mum has confirmed this. I *tried* to keep one when I was a lollipop lady, it didn't click. I can sleep for 3 hours and be wide awake, or I can sleep for 24 and anywhere in between. GP ordered a blood test, all fine, so now I'm booked to see a sleep clinic person in October. Between this and seeing the Gynaecologist about the reproductive issues, yeah, I'm not such a well made human.

That's about it I think. Sorry for the long silence. I miss my Tod pals and have been losing myself in online games to cope. Never know, maybe I can make some new pals at college.

A little colouring

2011-09-10T07:44:00.003+01:00

I have the patterns for colouring blog liked on Facebook and there's a competition going to win some very nice markers. So, here's a linky:

http://letrasetblog.com/craft/colouring-challenge-3/

And here's my humble attempt:

(Thumbnail, click to see full size)

I will update soon, promise!

RIP Smithy Bennet, 7 years old

2011-09-05T03:32:00.002+01:00

RIP Smithy 'old man' Bennett

??? 2004 - 4^th September 2011

My ‘old man’ Smithy the ferret has passed away. I went down to water and feed and scoop poop and he was cold. He’d died in his sleep, with his friends around him and at home. It still hurts and I miss him. I can only assume it was old age. He'd been to the vet recently for a cough and it was suggested he was developing fluid in his abdomen and possibly around his heart. All I know is I found him curled up asleep and I can only hope that is how he passed, quietly and unaware.

Smithy was what I liked to think of as a “bomb proof” ferret. He wasn’t phased by anything and took everything in his stride. He was a king of ferret PR, never even thinking of mouthing, let alone biting a human. He loved to cuddle as much as run around and was the first ferret I ever truly fell in love with. As soon as I met him I knew that if he wasn’t claimed he would be mine.

He came to the shelter a stray, he had poo encrusted on his back claws, fleas, ticks, and was skinny. But that never stopped him being a gentleman and a gentle man. He taught Lou to play, he gained her trust from day one and was always there for her. When I was sad he was the one I could cuddle and cry on, he didn't mind. Now, I've lost him. I've lost the gentlest, most patient, loving ferret I ever met.

We had a glorious five years together, he got to play in snow many times, walked (and was carried) miles, converted many the ferret-phobic and was loved by all. He even got reserve best in show once in Todmorden.

While the wound is still raw, I am comforted knowing wherever his spirit may be, it’s happy. I did the best I could for him and gave him a happy, loving home for five years. He never went hungry and was taken to the vet if needs be. He had many toys and friends and knew I loved him.

Smithy, I’m sorry I wasn’t with you as you left, I like the idea someone gave me that you waited for me not to be there so I wouldn't have to see you pass. Dook on with Thomas and Lou up there at rainbow bridge and know I loved you dearly. Come visit soon, I think you were with me tonight when I felt like I was cuddling you. You, and Lou, and Thomas are always welcome in my heart.

Love,
Mum

Eight, nearly nine months.

2011-09-05T03:16:00.002+01:00

Sorry guys! Life goes on, things happen.

Some bullet points I plan to elaborate on soon:

RIP Smithy (this will get its own post, once I feel I can manage, in short: he died of old age on Sunday)
The joys of depression
Living in Preston
College soon
Socks
Granny squares
Hexapuffs (Apologies to Sam if she reads this!)
Obsessions/addictions
PCOS
Sleep

Probably some other bits too.

Nearly there....

2011-01-26T15:01:00.003Z

You know that Camilla flower petal shawl I keep mentioning? I'm nearly done! Just working the fishtail ends, 16 to do total and I've done.... 4 and a bit. I'm not doing it right at the moment because I'm waiting on phone calls and it requires a bit of concentration. I'm just glad the end is in sight, I was getting sick of counting to 30 something then doing a decrease and then counting to 30 something again. Definitely an ideal beginner shawl, gets you used to decreases, increases and yarn overs, but absolutely boring once you get the hang of it. It would have probably gone quicker if I didn't find 4mm needles and Ba ta'at yarn such a tricky combo, there's something about the two that means I was constantly splitting the yarn or missing the stitch, so I had to knit and purl at half speed and watch my hands which is booooooorinnnng!

My blocking wires are still somewhere in transit. I've asked Alison to check the post next time she passes incase they decided to ignore the redirect and send it to Portsmouth anyway.

I did have a brief surge of hope on Friday when I got a "sorry we missed you card" but when it was redelivered yesterday the hope died. What did I get? A book, even better, a free book! You see, Galaxy chocolate bars currently come with a code on the inside of the packet that you enter into their website for the chance to win a book. I put mine in and won. I had a choice of three, two were very blatantly women's books; pastel covers, titles like "she loved him but couldn't say it" or the like and the third was one that sounded vaguely interesting "Her fearful symmetry" I didn't register the author at the time, but it sounded the most interesting so I plunked for that one. When it arrived yesterday I realised it was the same author as "the Time Traveller's Wife" oooh, thinks I, maybe this will be worth a read. So, I now have a physical book to read next time my hands feel up to it.

Jo still appears to be enjoying his job, he's certainly enjoying being able to have some personal time and getting up at 7am rather than 4am. He was a bit "meh" last night but he hadn't been able to play his new game and there was an annoying story in the news and he was exhausted from the late evening.

I've been brought into a new game online, Lord Of The Rings Online, lotro.com If you find the right sign up page it is completely free, and I did lose a number of hours to it yesterday. There's a lot of back and forth which is incredibly dull but otherwise it's interesting. I've started a dwarf champion who dabbles in jewellery making.

Anyhoo, going to go play that while I wait for Dad to ring me back about a file I need. He'd ring back sooner but they're getting delivery of their new sofa today and so having to "persuade" the old one out, I remember "persuading" it in!

Later folkals.

Fluzz

P.S. Photos in my next post, I promise!

So busy!

2011-01-18T14:27:00.002Z

I'd forgotten how much work needs to be put in when you move. Not just the unpacking and finding space for everything but the phone calls and details changes.

Today I have:

Set up my registration with the GP's
Got an eye test booked for Thursday
Changed my blood, bone marrow and organ donor details
Gotten pet mince
Gotten meat supplies
Taken the house in Portsmouth off the rental and sales markets

And I'm sure I'm forgetting something!

I also got a second concertina airer so we can dry a full load of laundry in one go. Said laundry is almost done.

The doglet has finally settled and is happy to be with us still. We went to the RSPCA in Halifax to get her annual boosters and health check done, the vet was happy with her which made me happy. We popped into the local vet on the way back, just to get a positive experience for the doglet and to discuss things. Turns out the fleas here are immune to Frontline so I need to bring that up when I go to get Madam's flea and worm stuff next.

Yesterday was exhausting! The train journey was an hour, combine that with a 30 minute walk to the station, 10 minute walk to the RSPCA and repeat in reverse I could probably cope but silly little me went shopping too! On the plus side I got to catch up with Alison and have a very nice lunch in the Sainsbury's cafe while the doglet slept in the car but have you ever tried carrying a food waste caddy full of:
* 2 packs fo Fru and 1 pack of Gu puddings (6 glass ramkins!)
* 250g peanut butter in glass jar
* 1 Glass jar of Clipper hot chocolate
in one hand, holding the leash of a traffic-phobic dog and carrying a bag with a 3l bottle of squash over the other shoulder? Suddenly that 30 minute walk is far more exhausting. Still, it meant I have puds for a few days, hubbie has squash and the doglet doesn't need to go into town for 6 months.

Today's shopping was good, the butcher in the market is fantastic and very reasonably priced, 20lbs of pet mince was £11.64 a little over what the butcher in Tod charged but not so much we can't afford it, I can also set up a regular service with them so we won't go short. They come in 2lb bags which, while easy to store in the huge freezer we now possess, are a tad difficult to feed madam with, still, it does mean I only have to get one out every other day.

I'd forgotten how useful having a Wilko's is!

Last week I went on a walk with the doglet to get some things, mainly recycling bins but we also got a second back door key cut. It took a few wrong turns and finding someone employed by the Council to find the recycling bin place but once I did that was good, arranged to get the bins delivered and got some food waste bags, they don't do the smaller kitchen caddy here, they expect you to keep the big one in the kitchen, hence buying one yesterday. On the way back we made a wonderful discovery, a cash and carry that stocks mainly Indian food supplies, I got a 1kg bag of Turmeric for just £2.99 So that sorts the bulk of our herb/spice supplies. There's a stall in the market for yeast, we've found an online company for eggs and milk (both organic) and yoghurt, meat and veg from town, pet mince from town.

Still to source is:
Squash (probably Sainsbury's)
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned sweetcorn
OJ
Ferret litter
Probably some other bits I've forgotten.

For the litter it may very well be plausible to borrow someone with a car, pay for their fuel and get 6 bags from Tod market every 6 months or so. I shall have to pop up to the pet stall in the market here and check Wilko's.

My knitting mojo is back enough to knit, I've started a baby item infact, a free pattern from DROPS design, it's a santa coloured snuggle suit thing, I'm adjusting certain sections and doing it all in white. I fear though that I've chosen something for a 1yo but we shall see. My hormones aren't up to filling the suit yet but as it'll take me quite a while to knit a baby wardrobe we shall see...

The ferrets are testing me and the dog a lot. You see, in Portsmouth I used a combination of doggy gate and some firm mesh and a piece of wood to contain them, the piece of wood slotted between the laminate and the doorway so couldn't be moved. Here there's no laminate! Rumble usually does the escape but today it was Nushu, so once I had her safely out of doggy reach I went and put the furballs to bed. Need to take the drill down and put another hole in the wood so I can cable tie it to the mesh and stop future escapes. They do enjoy their cellar though, lots of room to romp and flags to wear claws down. They've also found some joins between flags that are good to dig in and I don't mind. Don't think I'll be able to make the yard ferret-proof so I'm glad they're happy. if I can get a job that pays well enough I might even be able to buy them some more tubes and toys. Alternatively, we do have 70 or so packing boxes, hmmmmm.

The fish are doing okay, not perfect yet, the stress of moving and the new water (treated with chlorine remover) has claimed two mollies but the rest are fine. I need to start finding homes for the babies though! Some are big enough to be fine away from here and my 2' tank is looking rather crowded.

The spare room is very very nearly sorted, just two bin liners of cuddlies to find a place for and it's done. Currently it's also the laundry room, it's the only floorspace we have big enough to put two airers and bars between them then leave.

Thinking of laundry, I can procrastinate no more, it must be put out if hubbie is to have boxers tomorrow.

Later peeps, maybe even some photos soon,

Fluzz

Back Online!

2011-01-13T23:13:00.001Z

Well, after 3 weeks of packing, moving, unpacking, hunting things down, etc. I'm back! I wrote a few posts while I was offline so here they are:

Friday 31st December 2010,
Hello from Preston! We're settling well. Hubs and I are taking a break to enjoy a spot of nothing much while eating cake and chocolate.
Moving went okay. Could have been a lot better. The company we chose had quoted us £300 for the move, we amended our list (added more stuff) and they didn't ring us to update it. Get to Thursday morning, sitting there waiting, nothing to do, 9:30 comes and goes, still no guys and a van.....10am....I ring the man "oh, the boys didn't get back from London until early this morning, they're just emptying the van and will be there within the hour." 11 am..... "they're on their way!" a bit past 11 and a "movers van" turns up, the guys mention something about how they were told to come and help and were told it was only a small job. 80 boxes later they rang for help! 1pm Jo, Dad, ferrets, dog and myself head off for Preston, Dad needed to be gone by 2pm so we left a set of keys with the guys to lock up after us. Few hours later they turn up in Preston, 5 men, 2 vans (1 transit, 1 large box van), their head guy is with them and explains that the guy we booked with had asked them to do it and so it was now their contract and they wanted more money, in cash no less! So, we discuss it a bit with them and Jo heads off to get some money out.
The men move us in, filling rooms with boxes and furniture and bags. I ring the first man and get told that he was going to put it up to £400, fair enough we think...tell this to head man "oh no! far too low!" After they finally get everything in we discuss money, he says if we'd used them in the first place it would have been nearer £800, but as we were quoted lower and so had nowhere near that amount of cash he settled on £495. End of this little tale: do not use "Happy Days Removals" in Blackburn for moving your whole house contents. I was informed they only own a Transit van and by our reckoning that would have been 6+ trips to do the job!
So, everything is now in, some rooms are less passable than others. I do like the house though! The garden/yard needs work but I'll leave that until it's a bit warmer outside I think.
Jo had a chat with the man on our right and he's told us a bit about the area and the landlord ("pillock" was used), burglary is an issue here so we've made sure the downstairs windows are locked and will remember to lock the doors as we use them.
So, what the house like do you ask? Great! Only two main levels this time which made the removal guys happy(!) We have a cellar too, the ferrets are settled in there and got their first play time today, much bottle-brushing of tails and general poofing of fur to look big incase anything scary came out! They soon realised it was safe and happy wardancing and running ensued. We're getting a big chest freezer soon that's (hopefully) going to go down there too. There is a sort of.....cubby separated down there but it's full of junk so we need to ask the landlord if we can get that removed then we can store our moving boxes in there and I'll have somewhere to keep the kibble. There's also the gas an electric meters, the gas is pre-pay, this took some getting organised but we now have it and have even fathomed the boiler.
Up the cellar steps is the kitchen, a bit pokey but lots of cupboards, no drawers which has caused us to problem-solve a little. It does have more surface than Tod but alas, electric hobs! The washing machine fits nicely and I may even do some laundry tomorrow, I know where the airer is and the laundry liquid. From the kitchen are two doors; the first goes to the back yard, in said yard is a mainly paved area, a raised bed and an outside toilet, The raised bed has a holly tree and two other trees in it that need a bit of a trim. There's also the door to the back alley that allows me to take the wheely bin out for the binmen.
Back to the kitchen and the other door, this takes us to the dining room, a nice big room with built in drawers/shelves unit to one side of the chimney breast, the ceilings are 12 feet up and there are 4 shelves up to that, the top two are rather inaccessible normally so we've put some boxes of things we won't unpack up there out of the way. The bottom two are currently empty. We've put the cutlery in one of the drawers, just the right size for our cutlery tray infact. I'm claiming the drawers if I can for my fabric stash.
From the dining room to the hallway, this leads to the front door, stairs to 1st floor and the lounge. I love the lounge! We're sitting in it and it's pretty much sorted. I have my PC in here, tucked down the side of the sofa, Dad gave us a monitor arm and with a little shelving adjustment and a G-clamp I can now sit and PC instead of having a laptop. We've placed some super-long shelf planks across the firebreast between shelving either side and the DVD's are unpacked. We know where the books are but where they will go remains to be fathomed. The full three piece suite is installed, the telly and the fish. We're all very glad we moved the fish on Wednesday! We packed the car full and brought them over, they've taken Jo's mini-walls (3 bricks high) and some planks to hold their tank and are happily set up under the firebreast shelving. It looks really good. Pippa also has her bed in the living room, she has her "day bed" and her crate with it's curtain, her little den where she can go if it all gets too much. Right now she's fast asleep.
Up the stairs! Immediately ahead is the spare room, this will be kept fairly clear for guests and features the futon, a bedside table and soon the spare telly, VCR and dressing table. Round the corner is the back bedroom, our bedroom, just the bed in here and a bedside table, it's a nice size and will be used solely for bed things (sleeping and the other thing). Along the landing is the bathroom, well, shower room actually, it's a shower cubicle, a toilet and a sink. It also has one of those bizarre waste things...the waste pipe is actually at the back of the house while the shower is at the front so it's got an electric box under the toilet that seems to have a blade in it and a motor and it mushes up the waste to shove it down a smaller pipe to the waste pipe, works well but takes some getting used to, especially as it regularly empties, including while you're....occupied shall we say. Just to the left of the loo is the final room, the front bedroom, Jo's study.
This is, I think, the biggest room and will be Jo's study and the dressing room. We put the wardrobe up today and the chest of drawers is in there atleast. The light fitting disintegrated on us today, the springs and contacts just fell out so we're going to ring the landlord and okay getting and fitting a new one, for now we have a lamp in there that is surprisingly effective. In here, when we're sorted, will be Jo's gaming stuff, his desk, his two PC's, my desk, the wardrobe and the chest of drawers. Possibly also the rug.
So, that's our house. The road is a fairly busy one but not 24/7 traffic and no real big vehicles. We have a B&Q and a Wickes within 5 minute walk, also the bus stop, the local vets (also the emergency vet for the area), a pharmacy, the park and several GP's.
Madam and I took a walk to the park this afternoon, she's doing okay for her first move with us, she did follow me *everywhere* yesterday (including the smallest room), she was so certain we would just vanish or something. So today, when she hadn't eaten for over 24 hours and was suffering the indigestion that goes with I took her for a walk, after she saw we could go walkies and come back she agreed to some dinner and has most of it over the day, she's also feeling secure enough to go wondering the house on her own and not howl when I go down to check the ferrets, or the loo for that matter! Although I do get a very happy pounce when I appear again, just to make sure I don't forget she loves me. The ferrets don't really care, they have eachother and their cage and bedding so they're happy. The fish are in their tank, nowt new here.
Yes, I think I shall like it here, the people in this terrace are apparently lovely and they seem to be so far. Madam has wheedled at the dog behind and it has wheedled back to her satisfaction.
Soon I shall have time to craft! Right now I'm suffering a lack of enthusiasm/restfulness and also a lack of happy skin on my hands, all the washing them and dust and general stress (only mild, but still stress) has upset the eczema somewhat so I can't really knit/crochet as the yarn catches.
Anyway, I shall stop boring you! Happy New Year!

Friday 7th Jan 2011
Jacqui:0 Oven:1
With the new house comes a new oven, without a manual. Today I tried to bake bread....I sort of succeeded. The dough was alright, could have done better but cold kitchen+lack of yeast = not well risen. Anyhoo, shaped it into rolls and left them for a second rise....or lack of... Ladies and Gentlemen, the world's smallest rolls! They truly are, oh well.
Next came understanding the oven, now this oven is a tad unusual, to raise the temperature it puts the grill on. Fair enough, but if you don't know this and put things in on the top shelf as soon as the "heating" light goes out you end up with burnt buns, not too badly because I spotted the red glow but still, not funny oven!
It's been a busy time since my last writing, we have a usable: lounge, kitchen, study and bedroom. The dining room needs clearing a bit more (read: selling the coffee+lamp tables on EBay) and the box room is waiting for me to be arsed. The cellar is pretty much usable by the furballs but I would like to give it a good sweep, that's waiting for Fred to feel better, he and I came down with a cold this week so he's been in his own cage with food and water dishes right next to his bed and I've been managing the house.
I'm currently sitting here waiting on the landlord, never tell your landlord you'll be in all day, they will make you wait all day! It's 2:47pm and I have neither seen him or had a call from him, rather maddening really. Why is he coming? Because the study light fitting doesn't work. When we moved in there was no bulb so we shrugged and the day after moving in went to install a bulb...hubbie pushes the bulb in, can't get it to twist, lowers bulb and is showered by small pieces of brass. The connections and the springs just fell out! We put a standing lamp in there and yesterday hubbie got a new fitting, we were just going to stick it in...fat chance! There's more than the usual number of wires, so I wired it in as the last one had been, we turned the power back on at the fuse box and *bang pop!*, so that's now screwed to the ceiling with all the wires disconnected and pointing away from eachother, the landlord is coming to wire it in and make it work, I hope.
We had our first post of the year today, nothing forwarded which is rather concerning. We have things we know are in the system but they're not here. I would ring Royal Mail but I'm leaving it just now. You see, the newsagent rang me today asking if the house was still for rent, we're meeting tomorrow for her to look round and maybe say yes, either way I'm going to the house in Tod so I can check for signs of mail there.
Not much going on here really, Jo's enjoying his new job so far and will have almost all of Thursday off which is nice, he's also going to be able to claim expenses for his train fare to Blackburn twice a week when he teaches some Muslim A-Level students which he seems to really like.
The dog is settling well, the ferrets are settled and the fish are fine. Rumble the ferret made a bid for freedom on Wednesday, I'd left the top door of the cage open by accident and he has no fear of heights so he'd jumped out and was enjoying the cellar, he climbed up the stairs and started to dig at the door, doglet was going crazy at the cellar door, I opened it a little to find a Rumble looking at me. No animals were hurt fortunately. Pippa has a very intense curiosity with the ferrets and they with her so it's rather hard to separate them sometimes. Barry despises Pippa and will hiss, fluff up and bite her given a chance, Rumble wanted to climb on her head! Mad furballs of all sizes.
My crafting mojo is returning but undirected. I want to knit something but I don't know what, I have no internet so I can't browse Rav for inspiration. While I wait for the epiphany to strike my brain I'm working on the granny blanket I started last year, in greens, purples and yellow, it looks great but working it hurts my hands at the moment so it's going at a snail's pace. I do have a lace knit to do but enthusiasm evades me.
Anyway, I'm going to go do *something*
Later peeps.

Saturday 8th January 2011
Huzzah! We have a tenant. The newsagent was happy with the size of the place and to pay the rent as it stands, she's also mentioned the posibility of being able to buy it should they sell the shop and we said yes. So, 4-6 weeks from now that'll be sorted, she's waiting on the people who are taking over the shop to set a date and we need to organise too. We need to:
Get gas and electric certificates sorted
Get the place cleaned
Get a "yes you can" stamp from the Council.
Once all that's sorted then that's the mortgage covered and Jo just has to earn the costs of this house. Once the internet is up I can start hunting too, maybe find a job I like as much as Jo likes his. I had honestly forgotten how nice it is to have a happy husband! He sleeps better, he laughs and jokes more and he's happier to help me with the housework, it's lovely. He doesn't have to go to bed at 8pm to be up for 4am so we get time together in the evenings, he gets most of Thursday off so we can spend time together then too. Bliss!
We also have.....Sunshine! Not being in the steep sided valley that is Portsmouth, Yorkshire we get sun all year round here and it's nice to come down in the late morning to see it on the living room floor. Come summer Madam may even be able to cook herself in the living room which she'll like because then she can watch me and cook, most important the watching of the humans. She's still got full roaming rights in the house, and now a bed in the study so when I'm painting models and Jo is on his PC she can come sleep up there.
Crafting wise the crochet blanket is growing slowly and I have a mindless lace knit that I do a row of every so often. It's Camilla Flower Petal Shawl from the Elann website and once set up it gets rather dull I'm afraid, you spend a lot of time just counting, so it's not telly knitting because I have to count but it's not full on concentration knitting either, hence the dullness. Still, it should look lovely when it's done and I only have 29 more rows before the fishtail points anyhoo, only just getting to the end of my first ball too so it should be fine! (I hope)
Anyhoo, not much else to report really, life goes on, the dog does her wheedles (we left her for 7 hours today, oops!), the ferrets are all fine and the fish are as active as ever.
Later peeps.

2010 in knitting

2010-12-16T19:18:00.002Z

As next week onwards is going to be rather hectic I'm going to do my summary of 2010 now....

Firstly, the year in knits:

Kindle cosy:

Hubbie's jumper (I only have the 1 sleeve to finish by Christmas!)

Dad's hat:

Lace shawl for Dodo:

Lace shawl for me (probably won't be finished until 2011)

Socks for me

Thick socks:

Socks that went to the USA:

Socks for Mum and Dad:

A little coin bag:

Knitting bag:

Crochet blanket (On hold until after moving as it's rather substantial now)

Mitred squares (dunno what I had planned for these)

Palm tree:

Innocent Hats:

Parents Anniversary afghan (to be finished by June 2011)

Chicken jumpers!

Serenity Hood:

Tunisian crochet bag:

Dad's Cowl:

Rainbow scarf:

Shaun the sheep DS cosy:

Baby blanket:

Blanket for JuneBug (I only knit a few squares and put the whole thing together)

Chicks:

26 projects, more knits (I think I made 25 Innocent hats)

I did start and frog some things too, but I won't mention those ;) Except for the Advent scarf/shawl I was doing: I'd decided to ignore the edge stitches as I'd put my own edging on....don't do this! Turns out they do serve a purpose, and so I had to frog the whole thing when I'd done a chart that should have produced diamonds and I got spirals! Nice effect, but didn't fit the theme at all.

We're moving on the 29th this month....13 days! We will then be internet-less until Jan 13th so don't try and contact me between 28th and 14th Jan next year because I won't reply!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2011!

Fluzz, Hubbie, Pippa the dog, the ferrets and the fish.
(and a mouse somewhere in the kitchen)

Yes I'm mad

2010-12-02T07:23:00.002Z

I keep thinking of more knits to do before Christmas!

But now I am resigned that I can only finish two more:
MIL's felted Kindle holder
Hubbie's jumper (torso done, sleeves in progress)

When we went to Grandad's 90th Dad mentioned how he'd like a hat to go with his cowl and gloves, well, how could I refuse someone who loves my knitting so much? I got some cream and navy King Cole Merino Blend Aran and got to work finding charts I liked......

So that's now listed in the huge directory that is Patterns on Ravelry.

I also finished and blocked and posted the Zauberball Lace shawl:

Dodo was very pleased with it and it only took half a ball. So, should I want to, I can knit myself one.

I've also started the Lace Advent Shawl:
http://www.unikatissima.de/e/?page_id=4523

After a miscalculation on my part I've cast on and done some garter st to start. I'm adding my own border as I go because I don't like the look of the original. I'm also doing it in Texere's gorgeous Lambswool 2-ply that I dyed with green and yellow at the dyeing event with Freyalyn last year. I think I should have enough, if not, I'll improvise.

December already! Eep.

Aquarline Heaters

2010-11-28T19:05:00.002Z

For those of you with tropical fish, or who may one day get some, DO NOT GET THESE HEATERS!

I've had 2 in 3 months. The first one wasn't sealed properly and water slowly seeped in down the power cable.

The second one was worse:
The guarantee on these heaters doesn't cover the glass outer. I did my usual water change, sat back down and heard a 'chunk' noise then hissing as of air under pressure, coming from the tank. Immediately unplugged the heater. Went to remove the heater and only came away with half a heater! The glass had fractured and neatly split half way down. If I'd not been here my fish may well all have been electrocuted by now. Including my 11" long pleco!

So, don't get this brand of heater, it may be cheap but that's why. They're not properly sealed and the glass is weak. Spend a little extra and get peace of mind instead.

Resun are excellent, the one that came with my 2 foot tank has stood the test of time and can definitely be submerged.

Books for sale

2010-11-20T20:13:00.002Z

I'm having a big pre-move clearout, as I am no longer able to hold books open long enough to read any amount I'm selling my reasonably substantial collection to raise money to get ebook versions. Prices are based on condition (mainly excellent) and current resale market prices. Postage and packing will be calculated based on what you want.

I am open to offers!

Photos to come when the camera batteries are charged.

Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys - Hardback £5
Fragile Things - Hardback £5
Neverwhere - Author's prefered version, paperback - £3
Smoke and Mirrors - Paperback £3
American Gods - Author's prefered paperback - £3.50

Laurell K. Hamilton
Anita Blake 1-3 - paperback £3.50
Anita Blake 4, 5, 6 & 7 - paperback £3 each
Meredith Gentry entire set - 6 paperbacks and 2 hardback - £15 for the set

Katie MacAlister - paperbacks £2.50 each
Fire me up
you slay me
light my fire
Holy Smokes

Maria V. Snyder
Poison, Magic and Fire study trilogy - £5 for the set

Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark - £3
Living Dead in Dallas - £3

Nora Roberts
Circle Trilgoy - Box set - £5

Thomas Harris
Hannibal Rising - Hardback - £4
Hannibal Trilogy (Red Dragon - Hannbial) - Paperback - £7

Clive Barker
Abarat 1&2 - paperbacks - £5 for both

Sergei Lukyanenko
Day Watch - £3
Night Watch - £3
Twilight Watch - £3

Alice Borchardt
Raven Warrior - Paperback - £3
Silver Wolf - Paperback - £3

Iain M. Banks
Against a dark background - Paperback - £3
Inversions - Paperback - £3
Excession - Paperback - £3
Feersum Endjinn - Paperback - £3
The Player of Games - Paperback - £2.50
Look to Windward - Paperback - £3
Consider Phlebas - Paperback - £3
Use of Weapons - Paperback - £3

Iain Banks
A song of stone - Paperback (still in celophane) - £3
Complicity - Paperback (still in celophane) - £3

James Mallory - Merlin Triolgy - £5 for set

Kate Mosse - Labyrinth - £3

The Illuminatus Trilogy - £4

Mary Gentle - 1610 A Sundial in a Grave - £4

Fritz Leiber - The First book of Lankhmar - £3

Steig Larsson - Millenium Trilogy - £8 for set

David & Leigh Eddings - The Redemption of Althalus - £4

Aaron Clement - The Cold Moons - Hardback - £3

The Essential World of Darkness (White Wolf publishing) - Paperback - £5
The Quintessential World of Darkness - Paperback - £5

Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha - £2

Alex Boese - Elephants on Acid and other bizarre experiments - £2

Dan Brown - Deception Point - £2

Please do reserve books in comments or email me at Jacqui (dot) bennett (at) gmail (dot) com

Progress and Finishing

2010-11-08T13:29:00.002Z

First, some finished items:

Alright, so you could claim "item" here but as it's a pair of socks I'm saying items! Vellamo pattern from Ravelry.

Today I sat down and got a huge chunk of Oriental Impressions done:

Doesn't look like much until.....by the magic of pins....

TA DA! Only 165 rows left (over 400 for the whole thing)

Finally, it was my Grandad's 90th birthday a couple of weekends ago so I took my Flower petal shawl to work on...

I'm resisting this as it's not due as a Christmas pressie.

Thinking of the dreaded C holiday, I have:

Mum's socks
Oriental Impression
Dad's hat

All to complete by December.

Add to that the possibility that we're moving before Christmas and I'm a little stressed atm. We have had one couple come look at the house and it's getting so late that now we're looking at renting it out and ranting a place in Preston until this one sells.

Yes that means two moves but that would still be cheaper than Jo renting and travelling for months.

I also partook of some dyeing yesterday. Lidl had sock yarn last year so I bought a couple of packs with the intention of learning socks, well by the time I learnt I'd found out that the yarn felts! No good for socks! So it sat and languished in my stash, unloved, until the dye bug combined with the lace bug both bit me!

So, some blue, yellow, orange and red dye, a steamer and some fun later....

First is 4 hanks of "fire yarn" as I've called it:

Unfortunately I dyed one hank a lot more red than the others so I may give that one away and just use the the other three on some lacey project. I've seen so many fire inspired lace and never had the yarn for it.

Then, there's deep blue something...

The yarn originally was shaded from black to natural so I just over-dyed with blue and voila!

That's about it really. Life is progressing, avian 'flu is making its way around Calderdale and I have an ear infection on top of it but, I have anti-biotics and it's clearing slowly.

The doglet is doing well, still really hates the rain! This morning I got up at 4:30am and she was whining to go toilet, I opened the back door and she ran from the living room, across the kitchen and then made a sliding halt when she saw the rain! Dogs+tiled floors = amazing stops! 2 hours later I said "walkies" to her and got her coat on, leash on, opened the door and nudged her out, mean mum that I am, still, she emptied her bladder and has spent the rest of the morning snoozing blissfully at my feet.

The ferrets are also doing well, the noisy duo (Nushu and Rumble) have grown super-long, super thick fur coats and look like bouncing balls of fluff, Nushu has now lost sight in one eye, luckily they're not super dependant on their sight and as she has Rumble she's coping just fine, all I need to do is make sure she sees me before I pick her up.

The gang of boys are a bit slower on the uptake, Barry floofed first, Fred is almost done, Smithy is about half way and David is only just catching on, he's always the last to floof or de-floof. They still refuse to have anything to do with the noisy duo but atleast tolerate their existence.

The fish have had an interesting couple of months. The babies are now bigger, almost big enough to not be edible by the adults, the adult males are proving to be very randy little boys who have a very strict heirarchy, the females are little harlots and will up-end themselves for any male. Unfortunately I lost my clown loaches at the end of October, I thought they had white spot so I removed the carbon from my filter and got treating, turns out loaches can look to have white spot when the water quality drops, they get lots of little white sugar granules on their skin and rub on things, the only way to tell is to do a big change and see if it improves, if not then treat for white spot! Why not the other way? Because white spot treatment needs atleast 3 days to work and during that time your filter isn't as effective and the water cannot be changed. So, lesson learnt the hard way there. George the huge pleco is alright though and I've had a good chat with a guy who knows his stuff and now run my tank at 27'C which seriously lowers the chance of white spot ever happening.

I'm hoping when we move I might be able to get a bigger tank on Freecycle, when I got George I was told that 1foot was the maximum they reached, but now I've personally done more research and found they can grow to 3 foot! George isn't even sexually mature and he's just shy of 1 foot so I need a longer tank! Moving is going to be fun(!), I did have considerations of moving them all in the smaller tank but I'm not sure the seals will cope, so I'm on the lookout for a big lidded bucket. The babies will easily go in the lidded bucket I already have but after moving George in that once before I know he can't settle and would go crazy over the 1.5hour drive. I'm actually considering a loc-loc tupperware just for him.

Anyway, that's about it really, now I'm going to check a possible leak on the big tank and then knit some more.

Oh, I have a Kindle! So, any cheap/free book titles most appreciated!

Just the photos

2010-10-12T13:47:00.003+01:00

Sorry, life is getting in the way again! Have a load of photos of finished objects, things in progress and baby fish!

Honka scarf in beads:

Dodo's shawl, slowly but surely!

Camilla for me:

Socks:

More socks:

Beaded bag:

Baby mollies:

The new tank setup:

Baby mollies in the small tank, all the rest in the bigger tank.

Life is continuing, the dog is adjusting to not being able to go out and sunbathe now it's gotten cooler. We're weaning her slowly, today it's bed in the sun that's in the house :p

productive

2010-08-17T01:50:00.002+01:00

I have been, yes.

Spent about the last 7 weeks doing audio transcripts for a guy writing a book. That's finished now so I'm working down a list of companies that hire audio typists.

Yesterday was productive though.

Changed some of the water in the fish tank and cleaned the filter media, also reattached the heater

Painted some of hubs models, Brittonia k-niggits from Warhammer Fantasy. He's been invited to a gaming group Thursday evenings and as his idea of painting models is black undercoat I have taken on the job of the kniggits.

Decided that the christmas tree was indeed dead, removed it and cleaned the pot, replanted my 27 year old money tree and that is now living in the bathroom. THis was prompted by a bumble bee. You see, when the weather is nice I like to have the back door open, it allows the doglet to go cook herself and the air to change. I was sitting painting models when I heard a bumble come in, they're not the brightest of creatures and this one was bouncing off the window so I decided to finish the colour I was working and then capture the bee and take it back outside.

It took me about 10 more minutes to finish the colour, the bee went quiet. After a look on the windowsil I found the bee in the mass of cobweb on the 'sill, I also found a spider that was 3 inches from foot to foot. Well, once I knew it was there it had to go, sorry but I can't knowingly live with one that big in the house. I removed some of the plants, the bee and then got a jar and caught the spider. I then hoovered the 'sill to make sure that it was clear it was not welcome back.

Hubs came down to find me slightly jittery on adrenaline and with an empty pesto jar sat on the table with a DVD box on top of it. I showed him the substantial guest and asked him to "take it for a walk" It was evicted over the back wall and will hopefully find a more acceptable domicile.

So yes, did all that and decided the windowsill was getting crowded with the huge tree on there and the yukka growing the other side so the yukka is now the biggest plant on the sill and the tree is happily rehomed and repotted. I would have preffered to use more compost but I didn't have any more so that's on my to do list in the next week or two.

Cleaned out ferret litter pans and made sure they were well fed and watered and happy. Will deal with the mess Rumble and Nushu have made of their cage later today. They've decided to sleep in the litter pan and poop on the cage floor.

I'm planning Christmas presents already! Mum's going to get some hand knit house socks for her always-chilly feet. If I can manage it, Dad will get some aran socks for walking. Grandma will be some more arthritis gloves, she loves them and has actually been able to return to knitting a little. Grandad I don't know yet, possibly the ole liquorice.

I can't believe we're over half way through August already! I've got the dreaded dentist on Friday, must ring to check when, Two of my molars have sprung holes around the filling and another has just sprung a hole. I truly dislike the dentist but I dislike not being able to chew even more. Glad I have done all this work, dentist isn't cheap.

On to photos!

Last month a group of us went to Ilkley, nice day out, we stopped off at Create! for the morning, did some yarn shopping:

It's also a pottery painting place and they will post your finished things out to you. So I painted a dragon money box and a sheep ornament. Completely forgot about them until a got a box of "hand sanitiser" one morning....

The dragon is even cuter 'in person' and I love the sheep's little yellow nose.

I also started seriously working on Dodo's shawl:

I'm loving the look even though there's the odd row where I dread anyone ringing the phone or banging on the door!

Also got a serious amount of hubs' jumper done:

Ted and Miffy's owner is pregnant and has said that if anyone wants to knit for the kidlet the only rule is: "no pastels!"

I've also knit a small "squircle" bag from the pattern on Ravelry, it's the perfect size to be a money pouch.

It got me wanting to knit myself a project bag so I scaled up and am now design knitting my own with beads.

No photos of those yet, sorry.

yes, pretty productive times at the moment. That's with having watched 2 seasons of LOST and 4 seasons of NCIS.

Anyhoo, that's it for now.

27

2010-07-04T21:09:00.002+01:00

That's how many times the Earth has orbited the sun since I was born. Not bad.

Spent the day typing, my own fault, I'd had a lazy week and still had 90 minutes of tape to transcribe. Better than last Sunday when I had two hours left!

Anyhoo, my parents came over yesterday, we did some shopping, Dad got two new pairs of shoes (he loves the Factory Shop), Mum got some bits including a new pack-a-mack and some footwear and then we went to Riggs. Jo's birthday pressie to me was some new fish. I spent a while on the internet last week looking into sizes and how many my tank could support and then a fair amount of time in Riggs walking down the tanks, thinking which ones I liked. I ended up with 10 male guppies in various pretty colours (three with fire tails and blue bodies; three shimmery pale blue, three smaller shimmery blue with red tails and one orange body, red tail). Jo also rather liked the orange mollies with bits of black on so we got three of those. Also treated George the pleco to six plants.

He threw a fishy hissy fit yesterday, suddenly the tank population went from 5 to 18 and he was miffed! He's more settled today and there seems to be an agreement to leave 6" all round him.

Some photos of the tank now:

We came back home and while the fish acclimatised in their bags before being let out we all sat and had a drink and chatted. Dad showed me what needed doing for the cables the office will pay me for soldering, £10 a cable no less! and the business will pay postage on them too.

We chatted about stuff and then, once the fish were released and we'd all unglued ourselves from watching them, we went off to the Ram Inn for an absolutely stuffing tea! We all shared the "our sharing platter" and "fish sharing platter" for starters, Jo and I had burgers for mains, Mum had chicken Forestiere, and Dad had fish &chips. Dad refrained from pudding, Mum had some chocolate ice cream and Jo and I shared choc brownies with ice cream. We were all pleasantly full and then it was 8pm! Mum and Dad dropped us off at home, we said bye and they drove off home.

Jo and I played a game of Scrabble and then we went to bed, happily sated. I basically treated yeterday like my birthday and relaxed and enjoyed.

I also succumbed to startitis last week and started a Granny stripes blanket, ala Attic24, it's going okay:

Pippa spent Saturday morning lounging in the sun and I found her positions and poses so funny I had to share:

Unaware the camera was on her:

"bugger off Mum"

"Aww, sod it, I'll just flop this way"

I gave her a treat stick, she decided that while she wasn't goint to eat it, she would lie on it to make sure no one else did!

"I'm ignoring you and I'm going to look downright miserable too"

She is a funny old madam.

I got some pressies too! Alice, my older sister in law, sent me some books that were turned into the series "True Blood" that I shall read. Mum sent me some Anita Blake books and a polo shirt. I also got a cheque from my Grandma&grandad.

That's it really,

I'm going to check a few online things and then relax with my granny stripes blanket and then go to bed.

happenings of the week

2010-06-30T17:49:00.002+01:00

Innocent hats went on hold so I could knit some palm trees for the knit'n'knatter Flower Festival display. Alas, Ravelry let me down so I had to make up my own pattern....

Ta-dah!

Not bad methinks. Winifred is going to add some sticks to stiffen them and I shall endeavour to go visit the festival (hayfever drugged up to the eyeballs!) and get a photo of our display.

Went to the knit group at Three Bags Full in the Piece hall today and happened to pop into the glass shop at the bottom end, well, they had soooooo many pretty dangly things I couldn't resist!

One dragon windchime :)

I also asked Jojo to show me how to do the Japanese crochet cast on that not only gets rid of the starting chain but also gives you a starting dc or tr row, fantastic! I've started the granny stripes blanket from Attic24

The yarn is Hayfield Bonus, 100g for £1.20 I can get all sorts of colours and have fun just grabbing a ball as and when :)

That's about it really, as far as crafty stuff.

Being self-employed is taxing my self control, I've so far only done 35 min of 240, eep. Will do some more this evening, more tomorrow morning and I *will* get to 140min before the end of Thursday.

Anyhoo, later folks.

More hats!.....erm...again.

2010-06-22T19:58:00.002+01:00

Apparently I've already used that title, sorry.

All I've knit this week has been Innocent hats, they're strangely addictive and just what I need. As complicated as I want to do, excellent when I've just started doing some work and therefore am taxing the ole grey cells.

Here's my latest week's knitting:

And the tub of all the hats so far:

40 hats so far.

It's a great way of using up the wool I dyed for my shop that didn't sell and doesn't inspire me. 100g of pure wool makes about 20 hats or something insane.

Anyhoo, going to get back to transcribing. I have a busy week and need to do about 15 hours of work to transcribe 4 hours of tape.

Oooh, yes, Pippa has arthritis. She spent the weekend wheedling and on Sunday she just could not get comfy so monday morning we went down to the vets. She wheedled all the bus journey and while in the waiting room and then did everything she could to get OFF the vet table! She did NOT appreciate the thermometer, nor did she appreciate having the scab on her lady bits removed so the vet could check it was infection free. So when I finally lifted her down she was most determined to exit the room.

We got 5 days of Rimadyl, an anti-inflammatory and when we got home I ran the RSPCA to book in to see their vet about long term treatment. You see, Pippa is an EARS(Elderly Animal Rehoming Scheme) dog and so we get a discount on medications, free worming tablets and free spray on flea treatment or £1.50 per pippette of spot-on flea treatment. So if she has to be on these pills for the rest of her life we can get them at cost or even below which is damn handy when the vet charges £2 per tablet and she needs one per day.

Yep, we got the pills, I stuck one in some minced beef and down it went. This morning I was bounced at, repeatedly. Suffice to say madam is feeling a lot better! She bounded into the yard, back inside, jumped at me, back outside, all the time with tail high and waggy and mouth in huge staffy grin. Today's medicating was fun, you see these tablets are 1cm square and about 3mm thick, not exactly small, so the amount of beef mince required to hide this is quite substantial and causes madam to chew before swallowing, ergo she finds the pill. So I've split the next one in two and put those bits in two smaller chunks of beef, and just to confuse matters there's two chunks of just beef.

Thursday I shall ask for more pills and whether it's alright to freeze them into ice cube sized lumps of meat. The cunning plan being if the whole thing is frozen she won't find the half pill in each cube and eat the lot. (I know, I know, fat chance!) but also it's easier than getting out so much raw meat every day to stick the pill in.

She's definitely happier already, very bouncy girly who's also happy to lay back and relax in the sunshine or in the living room with her pack. She's also on restricted exercise, no more loooong walks up and over the hills, just our 30 minute walks round the block or to the fishing lake, and no free running! Ahh well, that's enough to keep her happy and trim. She's a perfect weight so at least that isn't affecting the arthritis.

right honest, now I'm going to work.

Tod show

2010-06-19T17:14:00.003+01:00

Well, for the first time in three years the weather has been lovely for the Tod show and it was packed!

A lady we'd never met won the hand knitted item and American Sarah came second so a good do there.

I did get a few shots I will share:

The first is a funny poster I saw in the beekeeping tent:

Well, it made me laugh.

Next is the Physics defying pencil:

There are no holes at either end and the piece holding it has no joins.
(Jo reckons the pencil is infact in pieces)

Finally the most amazingly named quail:

This little peep was in the children's pets section and look petrified the poor thing.

That's it really.

Off to the Piece Hall in Halifax tomorrow for Knit in Public day. Going to take Pippa with me and she can have a day out watching the world go by and meeting people. Hopefully she'll be a good girl and not sit there and squeal all day. So long as there's sun and shade for her to alternate lying in we'll be fine ;)

Later peeps,

Fluzz

More hats!

2010-06-19T13:03:00.002+01:00

All my WIPs have been put aside for some simple mindless knitting of hats.

These 16 were completed by 16th June

I've knit these 12 this week. Mainly while watching Lost that is actually keeping me entertained.

This year one of the patterns features beads so I bought some smily beads to furnish my DK thickness hats:

I've also managed some shots of George the pleco:

He's a right moody git this week, Hurtle and Myrtle (named by hubs) the clown loaches have been winding him up so he keeps having a grump and chasing them then settling back down.

It's the Todmorden Agricultural Show today so I was up early to take in my entry to the knitting contest. Serious competition! Two lace shawls, Alison's snood, a child's jumper and hat set with intarsia design and some other knits. I did consider taking a ferret to enter in the competition but decided not to and took Pippa in to look around, she was amazed by all the smells and things and more things and dogs! We were out for about one and a half hours and now madam is zonked in the sunshine in the back yard. I'll probably take her back with me at 4:30 to collect my knitting and see all the sheep.

I persuaded Jo to get some money out and we did do a little spending this morning. We got three cornish pasties; a game pie; three pieces of Millionaire's shortbread; a lemon drizzle cake and a chocolate cake. I'm just finishing off the lemon cake (it was only small, 3" wide, 6" long, 3" high) and have had two of the cornish. Funnily enough I won't be having anything substantial for tea.

Had another fishy issue yesterday. I'd turned off the filter to clean the sponges again (yes, George poops that much!), put the sponges back, turned on filter, nothing happening, oh crap! So I changed the fuse, nothing, changed fuse actually fine, turned off again and removed impeller unit, gave that a wash (you don't want to know how filthy that had gotten!) and put filter back together, crossed fingers, turned on switch, hurrah! Yep, the impeller was fine but the water wasn't going to it because the channels between media and impeller were jammed full of fish poop.

I got paid £30 for some transcribing I'd done so I've just spent £10.50 on a new set of media (sponges, pads and micro-stuff) as that will all need replacing next month anyhoo.

I also did a little impulse buy of four balls of Regia Mosaic in colour 5558 but now I'm not sure why so I may end up selling it on to American Sarah who rather likes it too.

I'm knackered! My elbows are slowly healing and I did remember to ask the manageress what they use to clean the tables, her answer was rather vague. First it was "oh! Antibac!" then she mentioned the cleaner uses "soapy water" and that the water usually "looks quite foamy" so she's said she will ask for more detail by next week. I now have a bit of fabric in my bag for Bear trips to lean on although at the moment I can't lean on them as they really hurt when I do that.

Back to little hats: A kind lady on Phoenix forum had sent me some 4-ply in pink for the watermelon pattern but then she PM'd me on Friday morning to let me know it had been delivered back to her! So she's trying to post it again with the hopes it gets to me this time.

Anyhoo, that's it for now. I shall have a few photos from the show next post.

Ow.

2010-06-14T14:11:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I was at the Bear for three hours or so. I spent the time mainly knitting with my elbows on the table. Sounds harmless enough, yes? Well by the last half hour my elbows were starting to feel sore so I was avoiding resting on them. Got home, wrote yesterday's post, did some other things, then looked at my elbows, two huge blisters!

By that time they'd popped so I cleaned them off (ever washed raw new skin? it HURTS!) and got hubs to stick dressings over them.

Today my left elbow is better but the right, that had the bigger patch is still sore.

The point of this post other than to winge? If you ever see me resting on the Bear's tables with bare elbows and nothing between me and table please remind me! Whatever they're using to clean the tables does not agree with my skin and I would really like never to repeat this experience again.

I suspect they're using an enviromentally friendly orange oil cleaner that is stocked in the shop below, unfortunately I'm allergic to orange oil aren't I?

My future packing for the Bear will now include a piece of fabric to put under my elbows/arms.

Right, back to knitting teeny tiny hats :)

A nice weekend

2010-06-13T15:46:00.002+01:00

I've had a nice relaxing weekend this weekend. It's amazing how relaxing it is to have a fish tank in your living room, especially in the centre of the mantlepiece (fire surround without the fireplace), it becomes the centrepiece to the living room and relaxes. Also, with the blues and creams rug down the living room isn't so brown! When we first moved in it was very brown indeed.

Been to the Bear today for our monthly knit, sat opposite Pete and Carol and had a lovely chat about various topics including popping spots, boils, teaching children, actors and theatres. That's just what I remember, I know more topics were raised but I can't remember what. Oh yes, if the apocalypse happened tomorrow how useful we crafters would be! And how Jo and I consider it the sockalypse should we unknowingly wash 7 pairs of socks in one laundry load. Our laundry is rather sporadic you see, and so there is no predictable content other than clothing or towels.

I decided to take DK oddments and knit innocent hats today, I made all but the green beaded one while chatting away:

I knit these four on Friday:

Came home today and the living room was rather dark so I turned on the room light and also the tank light, this gave me opportunity for a photoshoot with George the plec.

I took a few photos but this is the only one that really shows him well. I balanced the camera on a roll of gaffa tape. Really must get a mini tripod. Maybe if I earn enough Amazon credit through MTurk I can buy one with my vouchers.

Having the fish in the living room has resulted in a few good shots of the doglet too:

She thinks they smell funny and she can see them swimming about but can't fathom how to get to them. It's all very confusing for a small dog.

Saturday I slept in until gone midday and I was much needed. I then picked up the lace baby throw and managed a few more rows before being distracted by tea and watching the Doctor on BBC. I can't believe it's the final episode next week already! I've been visiting the website after each episode as they've now started doing a jigsaw for each episode and I rather enjoy a little jigsaw.

Saturday evening saw Madam relaxing with her pack all in the same room, me knitting away and Jo on the laptop:

She does like it when she knows where we all are and the ferrets aren't making a noise upstairs. Does help that she'd been sunbathing all day and was happily cooked.

I had a mango&passionfruit yoghurt that evening and when I'd finished it she got the pot, unlike the 1kg pots hubs gives her when he's cleared them this one is muzzle sized:

She did this a few times and when I couldn't contain myself anymore and started laughing I got this look:

Yes, she can swear but didn't this time.

Honestly, for an old lady she has quite the vocabulary! Sometimes it's along the lines of "Buggerit" and other times you know it starts with a F. We managed a walk this morning before the heavens started, luckily because she still bluntly refuses to go walkies in the rain.

I think that's it really. Off to browse Rav, Phoenix and then probably knit more little hats. oooh, must order algae wafers for George.....

Bits and Bobs

2010-06-10T23:48:00.002+01:00

Well, bobs rather than Bobs.

Firstly, the fish are now happy again. The alcohol arrived on Tuesday and the sealant on Wednesday. So after finishing off some transcription work I set to resealing the tank. First was scraping off as much as possible of the old sealant then wiping down the edges with 99.9% pure alcohol to ensure there was *nothing* there to prevent the new sealant taking hold. Then put all the pieces back together, use gaffa tape to hold them in approximate position, apply generous amounts of sealant, ensure corners are 90 degrees and leave to cure. Being silicone sealant this meant the living room and kitchen were slowly filled with the stench of acetic acid, aka vinegar.

fast forward to 24 hours later:
Take tank outside and place on most level paving slab available, fill bucket and slowly pour into tank. Repeat until tank is filled one bucket more than you would usually do. Leave for 15 minutes while you go and get the syphon and consider the logistics of moving the fish. Take some kitchen roll and apply to all edges, check for any moisture. If your kitchen roll comes away dry then start the syphon and then sit on your arse on the cold concrete for 30 minutes while the tank empties.

Move tank inside, position as you would like and fill to one bucket less than level wanted (in this case, four buckets). Realise that maybe you should have rinsed the grit but decide not to try and move all 10kg of it to the sink to be rinsed.

Go upstairs and collect fish parahpenalia (tank decorations, food, glass scrubber, filter, heater, tank lid) bring bits down and place in tank. Start filter and leave for another 15 minutes to get the worst of the debris filtered.

Go back upstairs and retrieve fish. This is the fun bit! Syphon off most of the water into bucket, catch large and seriously ticked off plec with bare hand, put in bucket before it wriggles out of grip or slices hand with spines. Catch smaller fish with tub. Apply lid to bucket and drain excess water before taking bucket downstairs with plec banging against sides as it is too big for said bucket.

Unceremoniously empty bucket and fish into tank. Apply lid and you're done!

The following photos show WHY one should rinse the gravel if one has the chance:

If you look to the back of the tank you can see a large fin, that's George the plec. He isn't very sociable I'm afraid and prefers to hide behind his bogwood (the reason the water is yellowy-brown)

Still, they are now transferred and happy.

I rinsed two of the three filter media about two hours after moving it into the fresh tank, they were FILTHY. I'll give the other media until tomorrow evening to transfer it's beneficial bugs and then that will come out and be washed. As an aside, I highly recommend the Fluval U range of filters. This is the U2 and absolutely fab. It has a flip-top to get to the media and each one has its own caddy with tab for easy removal. Much more reliable than the Tetratec I had that went through two clutches before I got the U2 to replace it.

Anyhoo. Once your tank is installed enjoy the view and sounds while watching your doglet being very confused:

Thinking of the doglet, do you think she might possibly like meat bones?

I'm looking into a raw diet for her as she'll avoid eating kibble for 48 hours and I worry about her getting too thin. Raw meat and bones on the other hand...gone in minutes! She had two huge chicken thighs on Wednesday, nothing left!

On to knitting news now.

It's time to start knitting hats for Innocent drinks to put on their bottles come November to raise money for Age Concern.

They have some interesting patterns this year including a pineapple and a watermelon. For the watermelon I need 4-ply and as I am definitely lacking in this I have put out a call on Phoenix and Yorkshire Knitters. One lady has replied and will be sending me some pink. I found some cream so I'm just lacking green now.

I tried the pineapple pattern and while I can do p3tog doing p1,k1,p1 into a single stitch is taking the piss just a little so I did moss stitch instead:

I also had a good poke around EBay and found some Clover pom pon makers for a non-extortionate price. They arrived today and I had a play:

I got the 1" and 3/4" set. They work absolutely fab with 4-ply. DK comes out looking a bit floppy or ovoid. I tried crochet cotton too but as that has no elasticity it comes out all floppy and blah. I'm hoping to top off all my Innocent hats with pom pons this year. Except the watermelon and pineapple ones of course.

I also got a reply from one of the transcribing companies and was sent a 65 minute transcription to do. If I did it okay it could net me $47 Not bad, although it did take me eight hours to transcribe but that's partially because I did some while tired and so took ages to do it.

I have already done the online application with HMRC about being self-employed and am keeping records of all my earnings through transcription.

That's about it really. I think I shall go to bed. I feel pleasantly relaxed. I'm really glad the sound of running water doesn't make me desperate to pee though, the fish filter sounds like running water and needs to run 24/7

Morning all (half midnight counts as morning)

Fluzz

Chaos

2010-06-06T15:32:00.002+01:00

That pretty much sums up my week. It's half term hols you see, so I have a hubbie home 24/7 and it throws out my usual way of thinking.

Add to that a ruptured fish tank and lots of heat and my brain is a little frazzled.

First, the fish tank. I have five tropical fish; one plec named George, two neons called Eenie and Meenie and two clown loaches I have yet to name. They lived in a two by one foot base tank in a depth of one foot of water, this is approx. 60 litres of water or 60kg of water. Then there's the bog wood, about another 1kg when soaked, 10kg of gravel to a depth of 3 inches, 500g of filter and media, etc. It all adds up.

Thursday evening Ted and Miffy the ferrets came to board for the weekend, I put up their cage while they played, installed their food, water, etc. and bid the lot good night. Friday morning I pop up to check and notice T&M are asleep in their litter pan, strange but okay. Three hours later I go to the bathroom and hear running water. I assumed it was the overflow so I look outside: nothing. Upstairs, no sound, bedroom: water falling onto windowsil from inside. Oh bugger! So I run upstairs calling hubbie to man panic stations, the fish tank has sprung a leak and has already shed 40l onto the floor. Hubbie runs downstairs and grabs a bunch of towels and I start draining the tank to below the leak. George got grabbed and plonked into their new temporary home (a large storage box) and the other 4 were caught in a tub and moved. Once there is no more water flowing and the towels have done their job I look at Ted and Miffy, only then do I realise why they were sleeping in the litter pan. Their cage base is two inches deep and sealed, it contains one inch of water. Poor Miffy who is tiny to begin with is looking even tinier because she is soaked and Ted isn't looking too chuffed either. I dried them off, emptied out and dried their cage and all was well.

The fish are now in their storage box with their heater and filter and doing alright considering what they've been through. The tank is in four pieces in the living room waiting for some sealant to arrive so I can repair it. The ferrets, all seven, are cage-bound until further notice because they could get in the "tank" and that wouldn't be good for mammal or fish.

Next, the heat. It has been glorious here this week, sunshine, breezes, gorgeous! It's not been so hot I can't bear it even indoors and so I have enjoyed it, got plenty of laundry washed and dried, the doglet has cooked herself repeatedly and everyone in general has been happy. So why has it caused chaos to me? Let me explain, every Thursday afternoon I go to the Bear cafe to knit, natter, and enjoy a snack. Unfortunately the Bear only has one window that opens and three that are six feet tall and get the sun all day that don't. Get the idea? It was boiling in there! Stupid me had just come up with a new design too so I was trying to work out the details while my poor brain overheated. Suffice to say, I did not get that much done.

Today's chaos is controlled:

Sixteen, yes, one-six, balls of wool attached to one project. This is the most complicated row of the flags luckily and the next row drops down to a much more manageable nine balls. Now atleast, you can see why I have the tub. Imagine if those 16 were allowed to just roll around. Tunisian crochet is done all from one side so as long as you wrap the colours one way going and reverse it coming back there will never be a knot or "wool orgy" to unravel. This is why I adore tunisian for colourwork, it is so simple.

Yesterday I put in my application to enter my hood into the craft show, item number 4, category 1. Just 13 days to the show. Competition will be tough though, Alison is entering her snood and Sarah is entering her beaded lace shawl. But it shall also be interesting. The last few years the knitted section has mainly been baby clothes and everything done in creams and whites, our colourful entries should spice it up a little.

Nothing else to report really, the new design is a scarf but I've yet to check it works. Why do I insist on knitting all my own designs first? It takes so long some times!

Anyhoo, later peeps,

Fluzz

Knit-ins, chickens and hoods

2010-05-28T22:32:00.003+01:00

Well, my Serene hood is finished completely, tassel and all.

A week tomorrow there's going to be a stall on the market where I can submit my entry form and pay the 75p entry fee without writing a cheque so I shall be doing that and asking if they might provide a plastic head to display this on. Honestly, it loses a lot lying flat.

On Sunday Ribbon Circus hosted a knit-in to knit chicken jumpers, chat and enjoy cake. The cake was bloody fantastic! The weather was very kind to us all and a good afternoon was had.

By Tuesday Alison had finished hers and handed it to me for end-weaving and button-adding, I finished mine and added to both:

While at RC I was tempted, very very tempted.....

Not the best photo. 70% organic merino and 30% alpaca, gorgeous yarn. I have a design in mind, something involving sheep, but I don't know what sort of article to make yet. I don't want to do a cushion cover and there isn't enough for a blankie.....I'm considering a scarf.

I've also started another blanket pattern. This time a Lion Brand one called "classic lace baby throw". The original design says to knit 5 separate panels (3 lace, 2 seed stitch), seam those together, knit two side panels in seed stitch and sew those on then pick up and knit borders top and bottom. Yeah, whatever.

I decided on the far simpler approach of knitting the whole thing at once. Knit the bottom border then side and panels as you go, finish with top border, no seaming required.

Not much else happening on the craft front. 4 more rounds and I have finished the sleeve increases on Jo's jumper and can transfer the 170 sleeve stitches (2 lots of 85) to holders and just knit the body. I'm trying to get to that point but the shear volume of stitches is exhausting! It takes me what feels like ages to do one round and is so dull I save it for telly time. Alas, not much been on telly so not much jumper done.

Tomorrow a lovely sounding lady is coming to collect the saxony wheel and pay me for it, lovely. We'll be able to get to the DVD's without tripping on it and it will go to someone who wants it. I did list the faults with it but she's still happy to take it.

This coming Thursday I shall be +2 ferrets for the weekend, Ted and Miffy are coming to board while their owner goes off for a spot of fun. I do like those two, they're absolute maniacs even compared to my lot. So Thursday through Sunday we'll have 13 animals and only two humans in this house.

Thinking of animals, Pippa has a new trick. Tuesday morning at 6am I hear an almighty clang, no idea what it was, went back to sleep, 6.15 another clang. Jo went downstairs to find Pippa in the living room. She's decided she likes to clear the doggy gate between the kitchen and the living room so she can sleep on Jo's side of the sofa.

I thought at the time there was maybe a reason, Wednesday morning she did it 6am, Thursday morning it was 5.30am. This morning she didn't get to try, I locked her in her crate before I went to bed. It may sound mean but she could easily break a limb on the steel gate so I'd rather "lock her up" for 10 hours max. than she tried to jump and broke something.

We also went to the park Wednesday morning, I let her off the lead and she ran off then back then off and back and I thought great, she's learning, nope. Ran off and there's a huge "CRACK", go down the slope and there is madam screaming at the top of her lungs while trying to pull a holly bush apart. Eesh. Luckily I went prepared and after going under the holly and grabbing her she went on the 25ft lunge lead. Apparently that wasn't deterrant enough, when I slowed down on a steep hill she pulled a bit of dead hedgerow off and then carried it the rest of the walk. I had so much fun getting that off her at the end NOT.

It's the Todmorden Agricultural Show next month and I'm still pondering whether to enter a ferret in the ferret show. Smithy got reserve best two years ago but he's not the best for being out and about, he won't follow me on the lead and he hates to be held all the time, he just ends up going up and down, up and down. David will veg out the whole day but I doubt he'd win anything, he's so laid back and nothing special really as far as showing is concerned. As far as being the best damn PR ferret in the area he's amazing, he doesn't care who says hello and when in my arms will take all the attention he can possibly attract. It'll have to be a see on the day I think.

Dunno if I'll take Pippa down at any point, depends how long Jo and I will both be there.

Anyhoo, Nature calls and I'm out of things to type.

Later peeps.

groan

2010-05-25T17:27:00.001+01:00

Courtesy of my wonderful husband:

What do glue sticks use when they have a cold?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Connective tissues

Feel free to groan, I did.

My old man's a dustman

2010-05-21T07:37:00.001+01:00

I say I say I say, my dustbin's full of toadstools.
How do you know it's full?
Because there's not mush-room to be seen!

Aye-thankyou.

Finished things

2010-05-16T18:52:00.002+01:00

Well, thing really.

I finished my tunisian bag:

I didn't follow the instructions exactly I did the main section until I only had 4 foot of cotton left and I put the beads on the flap as I went, which was......interesting. It's rather bizarre to let go of the tunisian hook to use the crochet hook with bead. I did lose a stitch somewhere in there but I fudged it and all is well.

I have learnt to NEVER name a project before completing it.

Remember the Serene hood?

Well, I got to the part where you start the hood, got 5 rows into the swan chart and then went Bugger. It was going to be humongous! So I took out just the swan and the tree infront of it and will put that on the hood instead. Changing the chart was easy enough, frogging back, not so easy.

Also, the front of the hood is the join on the round so while it doesn't show too much in the leaves, the blue diamonds are skewed at the join. It won't show when being worn but still, ack.

Yep, I shall never again name a project such an inviting name to Messrs Murphy and Sod. So far I have:
Changed the leaves
Changed the blue
Cropped the swan
Added some bind off stitches to the front
Am considering some I-cord

Yep, I feel a reet numpty. Still, I am still enjoying it and am planning to enter it into the Tod Show knitting competition.

I am also currently in possession of this:

Zauberball Lace in "cranberries" colours. I offered to knit Dodo of The Mad Bag Lady blog a shawl from it as she has found it is too fine for her to see. So, I chose Sinda and Dodo bought the beads then sent it to me. I bought the pattern as I want to do it for myself if I survive this go! I say survive because while it is a relatively easy lace chart there are beads. Lots and lots of size 8 beads. Zauberball Lace is a single ply, it's wound loosely so it falls off and tangles on itself and it's fine yarn. Add to that the matter of a less than 1mm hook that can pierce skin easily and hundreds of beads and I have set myself a Challenge. The capital C is definitely required there.

On the plus side, I love the pattern although I may omit the border and adding beads isn't that insane. The designer herself has offered assistance working out how to do it with the amount of yarn I have but I think I will leave off the edging. I don't like what knitted-on edgings do to the stitches they're joined to.

I was thinking I might need to get blocking wires for blocking it but it has just occured to me that I have two 150cm cables for my KnitPro needles and those may be long enough to block the sides.....or not, the shawl is 208cm with border and even allowing a generous 10cm each end that's still 198cm. Hmmm, shall have to actually use my cable connectors!

Right, tasks for this week

finish serene hood without any more cock-ups!
start lace on Sinda
Friday morning: re-adhere the tiles around the bath!
Keep up with the washing up and laundry
take the doglet for a damn good walk once my foot is healed
Get on with parents' afghan
Enjoy myself

Yes, the doglet hasn't had a walk today and only got a little one yesterday. Why? Because I got a blister right in the middle of the arch on my right foot. Turns out I haven't quite got the straps on my right sandal correct and the arch support has infact rubbed. I was okay while the blister was intact, it just felt like a tiny pebble but then it popped and the new, raw skin underneath was bleedin' sore! So I haven't been able to walk very far. Instead of forcing it over the weekend I decided to have two days not walking much in the hope I might be able to manage a good walk by Monday. There's a "monolith" as Sarah calls it up in the sheep fields near Height Top that I plan to take the dog to and see what it is. That's hopefully tomorrow's task, assuming the weather is nice to us and my foot can take the walk. It is a long way up but the views are great and I shall be taking the camera with us.

Not much else to report really.

Later peeps,

Fluzz

Places and Things

2010-05-12T18:40:00.003+01:00

Places I really should leave a pen and pad:
Bathroom
Bedroom

I love how my best ideas and epiphanies occur when I'm "indisposed". There's something in the act of sitting and knowing you have to stay there until you're done that creates the right brain waves for deep thoughts. Just now I was sitting there and I thought
"manic depression isn't life threatening"
Immediately followed by....
"well...."
In itself it isn't but the actions that can happen because of it are potentially.

A couple of nights ago I was lying in bed and I had the most amazing idea for a pattern, no pad or pen, idea was gone before morning.

Does anyone else experience the doorway effect? You have a definite purpose, walk through the doorway and poof it's gone. Go to the fridge, open the door, poof. Sometimes you can just walk back through the doorway/shut the door and the purpose is remembered, other times you can forget for hours. Hubbie and I call it the doorway effect, it's quite powerful and also the reason I want pads and pens in the above rooms.

I've recently been on a design buzz and after designing and knitting Dad's cowl I started on a hood. The construction was easy enough it's the designs on it! I've gone through two leaf designs and two designs for the next band before making one I liked. I've printed it out three times now, once with the first leaf and first blue, then second leaf and first blue now second leaf and second blue. I'm now happy with my choices.

This is the first pattern band of leaves:

Next is a variegated blue/jade yarn (Mirasol Miski, baby llama fur!) with a diamond theme. Then it will be the hood design.

I've got a gorgeous swan on water under trees in a circle for the hood, just need to work out how to knit it! It will be intarsia but at the moment I'm unsure how many bobbins will be required. That's tomorrow's task, work out bobbin count.

I'm going to enter it into the Tod show handicrafts section! American Sarah is entering a shawl and I'm entering my hood. It does mean quite a long day as you have to get the items there before 9am and can't collect them until gone 4pm But still, we may win something.

I do enjoy knitting. It's soothing or engrossing depending on pattern choice.

That's about it really, later folks.

Looks nice so far

2010-05-11T06:03:00.003+01:00

I've designed a new cowl/hood thing. The collar part has vexed me a little, I chose a nice leaf chart but it didn't agree with the technique so I had to choose another:

Glad I went with this one now, the other leaves were bigger and would have looked very out of place.

Now I'm wondering if I want to put the navy blue in here at all, originally I plan a simple pattern of blue chevrons above the leaves, to mark the change from neck to hood but I'm pondering just another row of leaves going the other way and leaving out the blue altogether.

In me news: my back, left shoulder and arm are....not exactly sore. Out of sorts. I am too, no idea why, just feeling, as hubbie put it, like I'm not firing on all cylinders. Hopefully this morning's knit'n'knatter will help me get back to being me in the emotional state anyhoo. Physically I need to adjust myself. Hopefully the weather will be nice today and when I get back I can have some lunch then take Pippa for a walk and we can both click and crunch things back in place.

It doesn't help I've broken my chair. The springs are going soft so I need to get a board to put under the cushion, right now I have a collapsed cardboard box but that's going soft almost as quick. Chairs like this are not designed to be sat on for most of the day. I'd swap it for my rocking chair but the two take up dramatically different space and if I did I'd block off access to the front door.

Eh well. If the weather's nice I can go sit in the back yard in said rocking chair and enjoy some sun later.

Tunisian fun

2010-05-07T20:01:00.002+01:00

Alison had been treated by her son to a workshop with Stash Fine Yarns in Cheshire, she chose a tunisian crochet one and as I too like that method I asked my parents for an early birthday present of going to this too. Well, we've been, to Wales infact! I do find it strange the transition from England to Wales, it's not as striking as England to Scotland.

Anyhoo, yes, tunisian. We learnt 7 stitch variations, from simple to lace, accidentally discovered how to increase and decrease and Alison invented the "Alison's Weave" which is knit stitch but between the uprights instead of through.

Heike was brilliant as the tutor and put up very well with the various problems we all had, and my pointing out inconsistencies with the notes (blush). It was her first tunisian workshop, I didn't believe that because it just flowed so well! The atmosphere was great, SFY has a lovely space and I was overwhelmed by the yarn choices. I did come away with some Mirasol Miski in a blue-green, it's baby llama fuzz and is gorgeous soft, I just hope it doesn't shed too much when I work it. I have plans for a nice wrap for me.

I'm currently working on the little bag we had as a tryout, I grabbed two colours I really wouldn't go for normally but are actually really good together, a pumpkin orange and a mossy green, the orange is Rowan Cotton Glace and the green is Rowan Wool Cotton. I said I had the feeling my cotton ball was hiding a knot, dunno about mine yet but Alison's does! I was looking at it on the way home and yep, one neat knot. Sorry Heike, Rowan do knot their yarns!

The food and drinks were superb! The staff were very friendly and helpful, they kept us all watered/OJ'd, we got biccies mid morning, a brilliant selection of sarnies, salad, satay sticks and then strawberries and cream for lunch and then mid-afternoon we got danish! I didn't think I liked danish but I managed to consume half a custard one and half a mixed berry one so they can't be that bad ;) I regretted the refined sugar but hey, the flavour was fantastic.

So, thank you Heike, thank you staff of Stash Fine Yarns and thank you weather for being so nice!

Thinking of tunisian work....

This mess:

Turned into row 1 of 7 for the nautical afghan:

Each row of flags is 196 sts wide and 28 rows tall, but in tunisian 1 row is 2 passes, out and back. It's 196 rows tall too or thereabouts to that's 392 passes. That's a total of 76,832 tunisian simple stitches or, as they're called in the book "afghan stitch". Then there's the border!

Can you tell I love my parents ;) I've got until July 2011 to finish it but I'd like to be done by Christmas, we shall see. I keep getting sidetracked by other projects that don't require three pieces of A4 and 16 balls of yarn! The second flag row is the most demanding with 16 balls, it drops down to 9 or below after that.

If you're on Ravelry you can follow the progress of my afghan there: Jacqui's Nautical Afghan
Someone has already completed this: Nautical Afghan

Mine will be slightly different as I want to be accurate to the flags so the yellow with a blue circle will be black circle on mine and the black triangle on white will have a stripe of blue to make it from an unknown flag to an Alpha. Also, mine is the reverse of hers because I didn't think which way when I started so I chained right to left on the chart BUT, the chain is not the first row! So by the time row 1 is done I actually need to read the chart Left to Right! I am a glutton for punishment.

As I'd be out from 8am and hubbie wouldn't be back until 4.30pm at the earliest I asked my fantastic pal Sarah to dog-sit. She was very happy to and took Pips on a 3mile walk about which the doglet is dreaming now. I still got rammed (read: humans are Pips' breaks!) when I got home and I swear if I was shorter she'd have jumped into my arms! I was told never to leave her alone that long again, even if I do get someone in to be with her! Honestly, for a little old lady this dog knows some pretty naughty words! Doggy swearing is somehow worse than human swearing, possibly because you never know exactly what the words are, just that they are rude!

Oooh yes, since I last updated this I have designed and made a new pattern, the Mariner's cowl:

I've put the pattern up for sale on Rav. and the original has gone to my Dad for his birthday pressie. Hopefully he has it by now! I've not heard but he may be keeping it to one side until his birthday on the 11th.

It's given me the designing bug again and I'm now working on a new one. I've done the charts but I need to test knit it because I've used charts, slightly altered, that originally were not meant for knitting so the pattern may not agree with the technique. It's for a hood with a collar, based on the shape of the Mariner's cowl above but this time with a hood knit from the top with an intarsia'd swan on the back. I've called it Serene Hood but somehow I see myself swearing at it before the test is done. Alas, it will be intarsia all over except for one pattern band on the collar so it will be a lot harder than the cowl.

Thinking of making things, Madam gets a bone or two from the butcher on Thursdays and she likes to take them to her crate to chew on. While she does have two beds and so two covers this left the issue of an uncovered mattress while the cover is washing and drying. As this can take 2 days with bad weather I made a third cover just for the living room bed:

It took her a little while to believe it was hers but she decided it might possibly be comfy once fluffed:

Okay, maybe very comfy!

That's now her living room bed, the two cotton covers are alternated on the crate bed, I change them Thursday evening when I food-waste the bone(s). She spends most of her time in the living room with me anyway, unless the sun is out in which case I am ordered to put her crate bed out in the sun so she can lounge and tan her tum:

She is very good and avoids burning by alternating sun with shade about every 5 minutes. It helps she has dark fur too. Her belly has gone from bright pink to a deep browny-black. I do laugh sometimes though, she'll start whining and I go out to find it's because there are PIGEONS on the ROOF (her shouting, not mine). When the daft birds try and land in her yard you can say to her "get the pigeon" and she will Charge out the door at them. Silly girly. She also snaps at flies and tries to catch them, flies are fine but we've had the odd bumble bee and I keep telling her those ones will hurt. When the lavender blooms will be the test of the doglet, last year we had loads of bees visit and if that happens again I foresee forcing whatever it is that counteracts bee stings into madam's mouth! Thinking of which.....Bee stings are acid, wasp are alkali. So, if Pippa chomps a bee I need to get bicarb or baking soda into her mouth, oh fun! I'll get someone shouting "Rabid dog!" when the froth starts even though the UK is rabies free at the moment.

I love the fact that Calderdale Council recycle the food waste! They provide starch compostable bags and two bins, one is a little one that the bags fit you keep in the kitchen for food scraps and stuff as and when, the other is a big lockable one you keep outside and put the tied off bags in as and when, the Council guys then collect those every week and take it away. Bones the dog has cleaned, peelings, bones from roasts, scrapings, food that went off in the fridge, teabags, anything that isn't a liquid. On top of that they take plastic bottles, card, paper, tins and glass so not much goes in the bin-bin. Which is lucky because we're limited to 5 liners every two weeks and between the pets they can fill one liner a week.

I looked at our rubbish recently, the main bulk is the plastic that meat comes in from the supermarkets, mass-produced plastic tubs that the council won't recycle even though it's the same PET number and so our bin bags are bulky but not very heavy.

Thinking of recycling, I should probably put that out now as I will not be awake at 7am tomorrow when they come to get it.

Anyhoo, that's about it really. I'm going to go back to my little bag once I've chucked out the recycling.

Later peeps.

Been a busy girly

2010-04-20T01:24:00.003+01:00

Firstly, ignore the time, I have no sleep pattern, haven't since I was a 4yo kidlet, I've had them imposed on me but I've never actually managed to adopt one.

Anyhoo, lots of things this past month.

Completed one baby blanket:

Did a white i-cord border to compensate for the two different yarns, they're both aran and acrylic but one has a lot more stretch than the other so the border contains them.

That was delivered before the Easter hols, I also knit some chicks (sorry no photo) and between us all the kids raised £180 for the NSPCC. Not a bad go for 10 kids is it?

Made a cosy for my DS Lite:

That is as far as he's gotten, I've yet to sew on some button eyes and do the seams. Dunno why, I finished the knitting and just put him aside. Really must finish that.... He does have an extra pocket at the back for my game holder though so it's all inclusive atleast.

Started on a little lap blanket for me, about 4 feet wide:

It's a very basic stitch, linen stitch, but the fabric it produces is dense and hole-free, perfect for a blanket. This is my fall-back project, if I'm off out and have nothing easy I can always grab this to work on.

After lots of chatting with hubbie I am making him a jumper:

It's based on Armenius by the talented Kai but I'm not doing the cabling, just a plain top-down raglan with ribbed collar, cuffs and bottom. I did originally intend to do the Tree of Gondor chart from Rav. but daft me didn't twig that if you're knitting in the round that is going to be one HECK of a lot of ends so I trashed that idea and it will just be plain. The yarn is Airedale Aran from Texere and absolutely *heavenly* to knit! It's Blue Faced Leicester and feels like butter, it just glides along my needles.

Anyhoo, because I bought the yarn for the charted jumper I had 4 balls of cream/natural to use. Well, Dad's birthday is next month so I whipped this up in the past 3 days:

Not sure which way up I prefer, I shall leave it to Dad. The cream is the Airedale the navy is Woolcraft aran with wool (75% acrylic, 25% wool) it is SUPER warm and now I'm plotting mine! Took just under a whole 50g ball of the Airedale so that leaves me 3 and a bit to play with.

Thanks to the most amazing woman in the US I got a humongous parcel on Thursday, it contained my 36 balls of KnitPicks yarn and some Patons yarn for Alison. I forgot to take a photo of the huge parcel but this is the bit I'm working with:

You can also see my KnitPro (European branch of KnitPicks) crochet hook and the 150cm cable for it.

I tried to get the balls to be centre-pull for me but they just barfed and I had a potential MESS on my hands. So I spent Friday afternoon winding 13 balls into well.....balls.

The Nautical Afghan has begun. I've done 3 rows of 196. Put it aside to get Dad's cowl done and now I'm having a knitting/crochet rest for 24 hours to apologise to my left arm which is complaining about overuse. I did wind 13 balls by hand after all.

Oh yes, to do tunisian it's recommended to pull the new colour up under the old to prevent a gap, this leads to interesting patterns down the yarn:

Every 2 rows I stop and untwist.

Oh yeah, and 1 row of pattern is 2 rows of tunisian, you see you go all the way across putting the loops onto the cable then you come all the way back taking the loops off. So it's actually 392 rows and I've done 6.

But I love how it's coming out, should be wonderfully warm even if right now it looks like a yarn orgy!

This row of flags needs fourteen balls, the next one will have *fifteen* active balls! Hence the segmented box, can you imagine the mess if fifteen balls of pure wool were allowed to mingle? Eep.

Anyhoo, that's about it on the yarn front.

On the job front: I'm jobless. I took some time off to just get myself back together and now I'm looking. I've mostly filled out a form to be an exam invigilator at hubbie's school, it's not even part-time but it's something.

I should also go see the local junior and infants school about some voluntary classroom experience, it's only a short walk away I just well....can't be arsed to be honest. But I have until November 8th to complete this course so I better get on with it especially as mid-July to September is holidays.

Pippa is settling well. We finally built and installed the gate in the back on Easter Monday and since then we've had some glorious sunny days, Madam has enjoyed going out and cooking herself. She's quite sensible though, moves into the shade when she feels too warm and drinks plenty.

The sheep in the fields where we usually walk have had their lambs and as Pips is a known sheep-worrier I'm now not taking her into those fields, the lambs don't know any better, we saw one that couldn't have been more than an hour old yesterday, and I could just feel Pips considering a munch.

She's not too fussed though, it's so warm when the sun's out that she just wants a quick trot round the block then back to sunbathe. Thank goodness for adopting the "old lady" :p

Well, that's it. I am relaxing with a bowl of cereal and some music telly. In an hour I'll put a film on I think.

books, books, books!

2010-03-11T13:28:00.002Z

Well, yestrday my Amazon books arrived, fascinating browses, I'm just bursting with ideas!

Then today, just as I'm sorting some bits and bobs the postie knocks with another Amazon book that I ordered weeks ago, "Afghans, Traditional and Modern" by Bonita Bray. I ordered this to do the nautical flag one for my Dad's 60th (in 3 years, should manage it! ;) but I foresee me doing more of them, they're wonderful.

I've PM'd the lady in the US who's kindly offered to forward yarn from Knitpicks. I shall need 36 balls in total, just glad it's only US$ 1.99 per ball!

I already bought the hook and cable for that so it's only yarn cost now. Should keep me busy atleast, especially as I will be needing American Sarah's help photocopying the chart so I can actually read it!

Anyhoo, I'm watching wild animal rescue and need to knit more easter chicks for the school.

I'll put up photos later this week, I think hubbie has nicked the camera again!

My bouquets

2010-03-06T20:01:00.001Z

Purple/pink/white from school, cream/yellow from kids.

Two cards and the earrings made for me by one of the Mums.

Just been taking knitting photos and will update with those later this week.

Been a naughty girlie

2010-03-05T21:50:00.002Z

Well, sort of.

I spent about £50 on needles and a pattern holder from http://www.p2tog.com I got a couple of interchangeable tunisian hooks, some circ needles and a variety of cables, ends in Symphonie wood and cables from KnitPro. The pattern holder is A4 sized, landscape layout and has three magnets, two small ones for holding the pattern on the holder and a long one to underline the current row.

I've needed a better way of following patterns for months now, so far I've just been crossing off as I go but the wider the chart the more likely I am to misread and go up or down a line so as I forsee lots of knitting time I got an appropriate solution.

Today I purchased some books on Amazon. I was only looking for Domino Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro but somehow Modular Knits by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer and Shadow Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro ended up in my basket. All three was about £26 and free postage. They'll be posted on Monday hopefully and I may even have them by the end of the week.

I love knitting afghans! So long as it's not a plain thing I just love them.

Right now I'm making a pair of baby afghans. I'm just doing plain mitred squares but on my new Symphonies they just whizz along! Great TV knitting.

I got another bouquet this afternoon, a group of Years 4&5 children persuaded a local Mum to get a bouquet for them to present to me, it was really sweet, about 6 of them stood at the side of the road, waited for me to cross people and then they parted to show the bouquet.

I had to laugh, my Mum got me a gorgeous glass vase when I was 21, engraved and everything, that was in 2004, I didn't use it before today and now it has TWO bouquets in!

Photos will be coming but hubs has the camera up in Scotland. He and 3 others turned up for the interview in Kinlochbervie, 3pm they were all told the school would be readvertising but they wouldn't be discounting any of today's applicants. Weird. Anyhoo, he has another on Westray on the 15th so ya never know.

He's been applying for a year now, I dearly hope he gets one or t'other, he can't take another year here and there aren't that many jobs around I can do to substitute a lower income if he went part time.

Anyhoo, Mortal Kombat 2 is on and then I'm going to 4OD "One born every minute" or watch the late night Film4 movie, whichever appeals.

Tomorrow I'm going to collect a letter then take the dog from Tod to Hebden along the canal, should wear her out for a couple of days and then I'll be free to take her on long walks whenever we want :)

Well, that was embarassing

2010-03-05T10:34:00.002Z

This week I was asked to attend the school assembly on Friday to be "officially thanked" before my final day on Monday.

So I did, I was invited to the front and given a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, including pink roses. I felt my cheeks go bright red as the whole school, staff and kids, and the year 1 parents clapped. *blush*

I also got two thank you cards this morning, one hand written by a girl in reception and one from a Mum/Daughter pair with some hand made earrings made by the Mum. I know what I'll be wearing on Monday!

One girl has checked that I *WILL* be in on Monday because she wants to go buy me some wool this weekend as a thank you.

Embarassing but lovely. I shall miss the majority but I won't miss the verbal smacks, the nasty looks and the yucky weather.

Going to relax today, go to my afternoon shift and then come home and unwind for the weekend.

Hubbie is up in Kinlochbervie (the other side of nowhere but ever so beautiful) having a look round the school and an interview, he reckons he'll be done by 11.30 then he and the friend who has driven him up are going to meander down the West coast and be back Saturday lunchtime-ish. So tonight I will expect a phone call from the hubs, he'll either be ecstatic or miserable, I'm hoping for the former but prepared for the latter. This is his dream school and my dream location so we shall see.

Consults previous posts.....

2010-02-26T16:15:00.002Z

Right, yes, I *am* leaving the job as lollipop lady. I rang my Boss on Monday to confirm and he'd seen a copy of the letter on the Friday before (he'd been in the Bahamas for two weeks) so 3.50pm on Monday 8th March I can finish for good.

The PCSO who's been helping me get the parents in check had a friendly chat asking why I was quitting, I couldn't say the whole truth because parents were in earshot but he got the jist (gist?). I have left a message for the headmistress asking if I may continue my afternoons in the classrooms, I was going to ask about it this morning but it's been a bad week for the school due to a robbery of their tech. kit so I'm leaving it for Monday to let her de-stress a bit first.

12 more shifts.

Hubbie has two interviews coming up which we're hoping one will say yes at. He's off to the far NW of Scotland on the 5th March and the NE isles on the 15th. We're really really hoping one of them will take him on and that his current headteacher may allow him to leave early if they ask.

In amazingly heart-warming news I had the honour of sewing this together about two weeks ago:

It's for a beautiful baby girl in America who's fought really hard against a genetic disease to still be here today and free of feeding and breathing tubes and other machinery. She's called June and in the photo of her in the blankie she looks really chuffed yet you can see the determination and will she has in the expression that says "You're not taking it away". There were also a couple of gifts for Mum and family; some Belgian Cote D'Or chocotoffs for Mum and siblings and some Sirdar Escape in teal and purple for Mum to make herself something lovely.

Anyhoo, hubbie is home and wants to chat so that will do for now.

Later peeps,

Fluzz

Bugger them

2010-02-11T10:11:00.003Z

I've been getting more and more fed up with the parents at my school. Don't get me wrong, there are some really nice ones, but it's the horrid ones that make it horrid.

What I do is a thankless job. Yes, people say thank you but even more don't say anything.

This morning though I had enough. I was holding up a load of kids and parents because one was trying to park right at the edge of the zig zags and so was driving in my crossing. One of the children asked why we weren't crossing, I said because I was "watching this parent park on the zig zags" Turns out one of the ones waiting told her this but snazzed it a bit by implying I said something along the lines of "oooh, look at this idiot". Nope, not my way of talking. So the parent comes back and gives me what for, saying she "doesn't appreciate me mouthing off infront of other parents" and "I've never done it before"

Well, actually that car has done it before, I remember the number plate.

Anyway, she tipped me over the edge and so I say, with the utmost respect, fuck the buggers sideways!

To all those snooty, bitchy, aggressive, more-money-than-sense idiots I say: well done. You've gotten rid of another lollipop lady.

I'm glad I can leave the job in 3 weeks and that one of those is half term. I shan't miss the obnoxious bastards one bit.

I SHALL miss the polite, lovely ones who smile and chat and treat me like a human being and I shall miss the lovely staff.

Once my boss has confirmed receipt of my resignation I shall tell the acting head, I shall enquire if I may continue my afternoons at the school but will accept with grace if she deems that unwise.

I shall also be recommending to my supervisor he look for a thick-skinned individual to take over. Either that or one who's so bloody minded they will only do the job and nothing else. I'd love to suggest an ex-army sargeant, someone who can whip these parents into respectful human beings but I think that would be asking them to perform a miracle with some.

I've improved the traffic flow at my crossing, the obnoxious gits don't care, mainly because it's them I've asked to move.

Yes, I've wanted to slap the bastards to next year but I've resisted. I've stayed silent when I've wanted to cuss like a sailor. I've been polite when a slap round the head would work better. I've crossed when I was off duty and not been thanked.

So, yes. For the next 3 shifts and then 2 weeks after the half term I shan't politely tell people to move, I shan't inform them that if a Police officer caught them they could be fined, I shan't try to engage conversations and I shan't do anything more than cross people. I may even just do it silently, after all that's how most of them cross. I may even look the other way like they do.

6 weeks and so much to tell

2010-02-10T18:32:00.002Z

We're already 6 weeks into 2010, wow.

Sooo, what's been going on chez Fluzzlewett?

Well, we have a dog. Pippa the staffy. She's settling well, gotten used to our routine and we're finally establishing I'm boss. She did have a bit of a sheepy mishap about 3 weeks ago so she's not allowed off lead at all until I can be positive she will come to me. She'll leave honking great highland cattle alone, but a sheep that's only twice her size is apparently just toooo tempting. I even finished a jumper for her today which she wore with a little bribery.

I sent in my resignation this week, basically there's so much going on and so much uncertainty in the future that I am feeling rather stressed so hubs and I sat down and talked it through, we can survive on his wages with a few adjustments and so I've posted my letter. Once it's confirmed by my employer that'll be a big load off my shoulders.

I've managed to lose two stone since November 2009 and have been allowed to come off the medication for the ICH, although I may need to go on a support dose for a little while yet.

Hubbie is still applying for jobs in Scotland, we're waiting to hear from one in Kinlochbervie (edge of nowhere but lovely none the less) and one on Shetland.

We had looooooads of snow in January, it actually closed my school for two days (a first in 15 years apparently), infact Pippa was so used to toileting in the snowy back yard that she refused to go for most of a day when it all thawed because the back yard was wrong in her book.

So, yes. I thought I had more to type about but my mind has blanked. We're still alive and the pet:human ratio in this house is now 6:1!

End of one, start of another

2009-12-31T21:42:00.002Z

While I don't really do anything special for New Year's it's nice to look back over the year.

This year has been rather positive I think. I have:

Overcome my depression enough that I have not once harmed myself this year, I've gotten through the withdrawl period without incident. (The body releases it's own opiate when damaged and self harmers can become addicted to it)

Learnt to feed my mania energy into productive things like serious housework or studies or knitting.

Started a course that could see me still working with the primary kids I've come to like the company of but inside and more fulfilling.

Gotten the living room to look like a living room! We've been here 2 years and 3 months, it took until Sunday for me to seriously sit down and sort it all out.

Finally gotten my yarn sorted and stashed in covered boxes and on shelves, I only have (1)Crochet squares bedspread [long-term project] (2) Child's jumper (3)Sipusa's gift [changed plans on that and need to get me skates on! Sent the pressies, just not the hand-made part, bad me] and (4) chicks for the school knitting group easter project on the go at the moment. 4 WIPs, not bad.

A negative this year was being diagnosed with intracranial hypertension but it has been the kick up the arse I needed to do something about my weight. I lost a stone in 2009 and am aiming to lose another 2 in 2010, so I hope to be 19stone by 2011. Ideally I want to get down to 16 or 17 as I have been 16 stone and it was a very nice figure for me. It would still have me listed as overweight on the BMI scale but as I know at that point my ribs are easily found, my collarbone is quite visible and I only really have belly fat at that weight I'll be happy.

Another plus was Jo agreeing we could have a dog. We looked at the various websites of various rescues (Dogs Trust, SBTrescue, RSPCA, Tia Greyhound) and rather fell for a 10yo staffie girly at the RSPCA. I went to the kennels yesterday and made arrangements to meet her today along with another staffy who's just been cleared for homing. Well, we met the new one first, okay, then we met Pippa, after just 10 minutes Pippa and I had clicked. So, once we are homechecked and (hopefully) pass we will be the happy owners of a gorgeous, slightly insane, staffy called Pippa. I just hope she doesn't have a thing for knitting or that could be interesting.

So, looking into 2010....

New year's resolutions:

To work down my stash and only buy yarn I truly, desperately WANT and will do something with.
To keep WIPs to 5 or less and no more than 3 of either craft (knitting or crochet)
To master cables, I have the idea but more practice is required to get used to them.
To walk more (the addition of a dog will aid this greatly)
To complete my course (I have until November 2010 and hope to finish before then)
To lose 2 stone / reach 19 stone
To keep the house in a relatively clutter-free state (this will require the training of the husband)
to damn well enjoy myself!

Anyway, it may only be 10:03pm but I am tired and want sleep (I've got a damned cold just days before going back to work) so I wish you all a Happy New Year, may you all find happiness and peace in 2010.

Things

2009-11-30T01:43:00.002Z

Firstly, Tassimo: do you HAVE to insult knitters like that? Really? It's actually a pretty good jumper design. As for the "wife" part, my HUSBAND wants me to make him a jumper one day, so NER-NER to you!

I had a cold last weekend, made me sleep 31 hours out of 48. Was a little chesty this week but assumed it was the remains of cold. Thursday night I had a shiver session so I just went to bed early. Friday evening I had the same, plus lack of appetite and my fingernails kept going blue, not purple, BLUE. 6pm hubbie came home, saw me under 22togs and shivering and I told him to give me 2 hours. 8pm I was still unwell so hubbie takes control and starts ringing numbers:

Flu pandemic hotline say I have flu with complications, ring GP out of hours.

GP out of hours give him the Spanish Inquisition and eventually hubbie gives me mobile to talk to the nurse. She says I'll probably need to go to Halifax and she'll add needs transport to the referral. Luckily this lead to the GP coming to me, how wonderful. He took a listen to my chest, blood pressure, okay....."do you smoke?" Erm..no? Chest infection. Apparently I sound like I've smoked for many years.

So I'm now on Amoxycillin, 500mg 3x a day. I'm also house-bound and not to do anything but REST until Wednesday. So I'm going to wait until Jo gets up at 4ish, take my morning dose, go to bed, sleep until midday-ish, take middle dose with lunch and then sit and knit/spin/read/internet the day away. I'm going to aim some laundry for 7pm as I can easily get it downstairs (read: throw/kick it down the stairs) but once wet it's beyond me right now.

My parents came to visit on Saturday, Mum had told me lunchtime so I was dozing in bed at 11am when they did ring the doorbell. I went to get dressed and come down to Mum washing up and Dad organising the piles of stuff. Mum had said they wouldn't do that but with everything that's happened they decided to, very kind. I told them about the chest infection, didn't really need to after I had a cough but hey.

After a little while Mum and I retire to the living room to discuss things, they've said they can afford the gastric banding privately if that's how I want to go. They've also left a cheque to cover a private consultation so I can actually get that done while waiting for the funding reply instead of after, which may well buy me some months. Whichever route we take they're going to give me a clothes allowance while my weight rapidly drops, I do have smaller clothes stashed but as Mum pointed out it'll mainly be the bra's that will be needed, luckily there's an M&S in Burnley and once I start dropping sizes bra's will only be £5-£8 each so not too dire. I've also looked at a lot of before&after photos of ladies who've had the op. the bosoms are still quite pronounced so I won't be dropping THAT much.

I need to go to Halifax on Friday to get us new bus passes. Think I'll ring the Burnley station about those too, see if they do them, a one hour bus journey each way is a bit much for bus passes!

So tomorrow...well..today my to-do list is:
take medications as directed
call opthalmologist's secretary re: private referral/consult with gastric person
REST
call Burnley station re: bus passes
More rest
put some laundry on at 5pm
make a nice casserole thing for tea so we can use up those chicken thighs and wings
rest rest rest
Knit some more of my Tammy jumper
find payslip and check how much money should be in my account so I can plan
do some more online research for a good WLS cookbook/food guide
rest
ring pharmacist to get pills delivered.

I don't think phone calls are particularly exertive, I just sit there and talk.
If I shift a crate full of laundry from the bedroom to the landing I can take a little down each time I come down from visiting the loo.
Knitting with one needle under the arm and just doing either 1x1 rib or stocking really isn't taxing
online research also not exertive.

I shall also hunt down a little something for hubbiekins online. I believe I have a nice lady online who still wants to do an English sweets for Dutch sweets swap and she has access to some serious liquorice! Actually, I shall PM her now.

Sorry, this blog has most definitely diverted from knitting! I do have some knitting thoughts, just no photos as I'm a lazy so-and-so and haven't gotten them off the camera yet.

Still have the hanks from the Harrogate visit out, I just love to cuddle them!

Alison is going to raid Lidl for me on Monday and try to get me many packs of the pom-pon yarn. I'm still pondering what I shall do. Half wants to make a throw and half is pondering something involving the knitting club at school.

Should manage some decent progress on Tammy tomorrow so I shall hunt the camera.

17 days later

2009-11-20T19:06:00.002Z

17 days since my last update, sorry, been feeling blah and not done anything report-worthy.

I have signed up to an OCN level 2 Teaching Assistant course and am slowly getting through the notes first time, second time I do the assessments. I've arranged with the school to do two full days per week, Monday and Thursday which is when it's knitting group so I really am doing FULL days. Leave home for the 7.55am bus, come home on the 3.55pm school bus. I stop for two ten minute breaks and get about 20 minutes to eat lunch. Lunch and breakfast are free and the teachers so far appreciate the help. I've made a few oopses but nothing major. If I get worried or really haven't a clue I consult the teacher/TA. The thing that's the hardest so far is getting my head round what they can and cannot do. By year 5 (9-10yo) they talk like young adults but then you get into the classroom and some can't spell, they're still reading relatively simple books.

There are 5 optional modules in the course and I need to take 3 so I've definitely gone for Numeracy and ICT for the third I was pondering special needs so I had a chat with the two ladies in the school who are 1on1 with the special needs children, they say it's wonderfully rewarding and fun. I've also started to get to know the kids. One is a boy in Year 3, I got quite a rapport with him when he would use the crossing and he went from quiet and shy to actively saying "hiya" to me. The other is a girl in Year 4, I'd seen her fairly often crossing after school, I had my first classroom experience with her on Monday, apparently I'm not horrible or scary to her because she was happy to lean against me and listen to one of the other pupils read for me. Lovely kids.

Had my MRI on Sat 14th at some horrible hour of the morning. Jo's Dad drove us there so that was nice. I actually found it relaxing! Yes, I am officially WEIRD. It was really nice to be told that under no circumstances (except panic) was I to move or do anything but lie there, shut my eyes and rest. Bliss. 25 minutes of lying there, ear protectors on, listening to the almost musical machine whirr around me. Yes it was a little disconcerting to have a cage around my head but only when my eyes were open. Inside the machine it blew a cool breeze across my face, the nurse had put a pillow under my knees so my back stayed calm, I had a blanket across my legs and tummy and pillow cases round my arms to stop them rubbing on the machine so I was warm where I wanted to be warm and had the lovely breeze on my face. The only slightly bad bit was when the cushion was removed, my back spasmed and it took me a little while to get my head happy after lying still for so long. Results hopefully this Monday (23rd). I mentioned it was getting worse and I had the follow-up on the 23rd and the nurse said she'd do her best to make sure it was seen before then.

Alison and I went to Harrogate yesterday. It was a mutually wanted thing and personally my treat to me for being so calm through all this trouble. Alison got a free carer ticket which we used to get me in and I paid her half her ticket cost so we both got in for £5 each. I had £90 and spent about £70. I got some KnitPro Symphonie needles (1 pair straight 3.75mm, 3.75mm DPNs and 3mm DPNs) I wanted some 5mm DPNs but the people who were selling them had none, they'd made an order but it had gotten lost between planes/ships and sat in Dubai for a week, as such they didn't have all the stock they wanted but hey-ho. UK lovers of KnitPro: Http://www.knitting4fun.com I also bought two balls of Mini Mochi from them, gorgeous stuff! Destined to make some line mittens for me. I then got two hanks of the gloriously squishy-soft-mmmmmm Manos Del Uruguay yarn, I plan to make this into a gorgeous shawl, got an idea but undetermined as yet. Saw KnittyFred at the Knit one pass it on stand and dropped off a bar of choccy to keep him going ;) I would have hung about and chatted longer but by then my head was starting to go, the cold that has set in today was starting to gain momentum and Alison had vanished. I also got a braiding thing that I haven't even opened yet.

I think the funniest part was the chocolate stand. Yep, they know where to be: a show that is predominantly attended by women, aka chocaholics. I got 600g of praline misshapes smothered in dark chocolate and as I was putting them into my bag the man serving looked at Alison and said: "You won't be getting a chance with those, they've gone into protective custody" He served Alison, again witty and as we were organising he said to the next woman "how may we corrupt you?" Definitely knows his audience ;)

I felt bloody awful by the time I got home and as Jo had had a bad day aswell we just sat and stared at eachother for a while then got an early bed.

Today has been calmer. I went to work, came home and relaxed, ate choccy, had a terrible for the hips but good for the soul lunch and watched Laputa. Both shifts were completely dry which was wonderful after the torrential rain that's been around. The school were having a cake sale for Children in Need and while I'd missed the main sale in the morning I did get to have a pick of the little cakes before afternoon shift, lovely. One was green and the icing was mainly mint while the cake was chocolate, very weird TBH.

Tonight I'm planning on probably a late night doing nowt much, just relaxing, tomorrow is long lie-in and lazy day, do some laundry and bits. Sunday is more laundry and nothing else day.

Monday, Monday is the big one, I hopefully get the results of my MRI scan, Monday 11.15am-ish I get to find out if there are "space occupying legions" in my skull. If there are then we go from there, if not it's a lumbar puncture and time to talk to my GP about being referred for gastric banding. So, yeah, big day and hence the relaxed weekend. I do NOT want to be suffering from a cold when I get the news.

Aaaaanyhoo. I have a few photos and a little video of the UKHandKnitting boat-cosy and accompaniments that I shall upload when my brain is working.

Now I'm off to faff with Facebook games and generally waste time in a fun way.

I've had enough!

2009-11-03T16:23:00.002Z

The next arrogant prick that insults me is going to feel my wrath. I've had a bloody nasty headache for months, it turns into migraine in the cold but I still have to work as it's only a mild migraine.

I had the 'flu over the holiday which gave me a fever and caused my head to feel even more squashed than usual and I got bugger all proper rest. My crafting mojo has deserted me completely.

And then today.....

This morning I was doing my shift as usual, had the traffic stopped, all the crossers were just stepping on the pavement, I was jsut about to check for laggers before letting the traffic go but some grumpy git decided he was going to drive through anyway, about 1 foot from my pole and 2 foot from me!

This afternoon someone stops their car in the bus stop, a woman gets out and the car stays put, apparently her husband thought it'd be fine to keep the car there because "if he's in it, it isn't parked" Erm, actually, it is, parked is the handbrake is on! Anyhoo, she persuaded him to move.

Then later in the same shift a Dad came down with daughter in tow and a huge golf umbrella (if you're not playing golf, why do you have one????), the point of the umbrella was sitting just 4" from my glasses lense so I politely asked if he could be careful where he pointed it. "Well, the sooner you cross us the sooner you won't be worried about *something that sounded like "looking like a currant bun"* " I was flabergasted! I had a fat-ar$ed Honda parked too near me to see the traffic from the near side and was absolutely soaked with the pouring rain and had a migraine, I very nearly told him to go cross himself.

arrogant, self centred bastards! What happened to chivalry, manners and general politeness?

Add to this the fact that Jo is down and stressed from work already and I get bugger all cheer all day every day. I'm currently helping at the school two afternoons a week just to get away from the brown living room and the depression that's settling on the place.

On the plus side, I have a date for my MRI scan, Saturday 14th November. They want a person who's willing to be there for 7.40am and as it's that or wait another month I went with it.

How long?!

2009-10-26T21:34:00.002Z

I plucked up the nerve to ring the MRI unit today, just politely enquiring if they have an idea when my appt. will be. What with the postal strikes I was concerned the letter might get delayed or whatever.

Anyhoo, first she can't find me on the system, goes to ask someone else, oh yes, found you. "Due to the current waiting list you can expect to hear something in about 2 weeks" A whole month since my referral? ACK.

The CSF reducing pills are getting less and less effective, today I'm not sure if it's my brain being squished or if I have a cold coming on. No temperature atleast.

So I feel ruddy awful and still have two weeks before they even try making an appointment for me.

On the plus side I had a lovely time yesterday with Alison at Ann K's place in Brighouse. She'd done the "World's biggest coffee morning" last month and was wanting to block and join the sqaures so A and I went over to help. Turns out neither of us is any good at blocking using wires and pins while at ground level but we did get some blocked. Had a lovely lunch then blocked the last 5 and started joining them. quarter past 5 all that's left is for Ann to join her 8 to our 16 then put a border on. Think we did okay.

We did spook littlest son a bit, Saturday is usually telly day so middle son was watching telly, smallest one poked his head round the door and pegged it. He started lunch sitting under the table with his sarnies but was eventually coaxed out with the mention of chocolate buns ;) After that he was pretty much over his fear and once both kidlets got over the sugar-crash they were good as gold. My fault, I got refined sugar choccy and lemon cakes not really thinking kidlets would be involved. Turns out they're almost as sensitive as me and came crashing down once the sugar wore off. Ann got squooshed on her chair by two little squeakers and we all had a nice afternoon.

Knit'n'knatter tomorrow. I got some of the mini pom-pom wool in Lidl so might take my scarf to work on or something else equally as simple. Actually, I shall take the sleigh bottom and get myself to work on it. I really dislike knitting Sirdar Yo-Yo, it's prone to cathing your needle with a fluffy loop instead of the main strand. Ah well, it knits quick.

Going to Tesco afters, need to get the furballs more litter as my usual lady is in London until Thursday and we don't have enough to last until then. Also "need" to get House season 2 as we've finished seaon 1 and hubbie likes it.

That's about it really. Gonna go faff on t'internet for a while and generally procrastinate.

spiders, medication, pain, dieting and worry

2009-10-16T11:13:00.002+01:00

Sorry, it's not really knitting related again.

First and foremost: thank the Deities it's Friday! This week has felt so long and been so hard, I'm having trouble concentrating at work this morning and with my right eye having an enlarged blind spot I'm now missing cyclists if I don't remember to look.

This week I decided that my spare wages next month are going in my piggy bank and are being spent in Harrogate at the knitting and stitching show. It will be my reward for not just ringing my boss and saying I need time off when I really do and for not completely losing my mind this week. I told Jo last night, it didn't go down well at all. He's worried about the credit card bills and is already as depressed as he was at the end of last academic year. Sorry, but I simply cannot cope! I don't deal well with stress, it makes my eczema flare up which gets me more stressed which causes more irritation and eventaully it gets so bad I can't knit or crochet to calm myself. We agreed when I got my job that I could spend my wages as I want but every month Jo tells me about the bills, thing is, if I pay something towards the bills then I end up asking for a loan from him later in the month. Atleast with my own wages I'm managing not to ask for loans or otherwise.

In relation to spiders: we have a HUGE wolf spider in the living room, he/she/it likes the wall with the dresser against and keeps to the join with the ceiling so I let him stay. He's about 2.5" foot to foot but is ever so good at keeping away from me I really don't mind. Strange really, this time last year I would have squealed and trapped it and chucked it out, now it's a welcome house guest. I was discussing it with Alison yesterday and we both agreed we'd rather have a few spiders than all the flies they seem to catch.

Medication and pain: My back has been slowly getting more and more sore this week. Usually I deal with this by throwing some ibruprofen at it at teatime for a few days and it calms down again but my new meds (Diamox) say consult a GP or pharmacist before taking painkillers, especially ibruprofen sooo, while I was in town today I popped into the pharmacy and asked why the warning, apparently sometimes anti-inflammatories can stop the Diamox working so I can't take my usual treatment for dodgy back. On the plus side, I can take my codeine and paracetamol so I can atleast keep the pain down. Alright it's not the best solution but we shall see. I'm going to be nice to it over the weekend, tonight I shall curl up in bed early, probably with the laptop and allow my back to relax a little. Over the weekend it shall be gentle exercises for it and lots of rest. After lunch today I'll get the back support out and put that on before my afternoon shift. I'd put it on now but it squishes my tummy and makes it unhappy.

Dieting: I'm trying again. Yesterday I went with Alison to do some stuff round Halifax including visiting Sainsbury's so I got loads of fruit and veg and stuff. I also decided I might manage better if I had a big lunch and a smaller tea. I've been trying normal lunch and normal tea but my stomach being empty and grumbly that long means painful tummy after tea. Today it's fresh salmon from the outdoor market, curly kale, baby spinach, brocolli, carrot, maybe peas, fresh tomato and whatever other veggies I have plus some rice to bulk it all out. I'm gonna go cook it all shortly, but I need to wash up first so I'm giving the codeine time to kick in.

As for worry: well, I'm worried!

Anyhooo, lunch time!

Thanks

2009-10-13T13:05:00.003+01:00

Thank you to all who commented here and on Facebook, I do appreciate even just someone typing "hugs" to me.

I'm still a bit ...... off ...... today. I really struggled to be all smily at work and the new pills are making me dozey, I might move the morning dose to when I get home, it's only an hour later and I can have a banana or something with it, that way the drowsiness will hit while I'm at home and be mostly gone before afternoon shift.

To be honest I want the time between now and the scan (still no news on that) off work, I want time to mentally adjust to the suggestions instead of trying to stick to work. Bizarre. When I lost Lou I threw myself into work, now there's something wrong in my head I want time off.

It's only Tuesday. I'm knackered, my thoughts are a smoky mass and I just feel blah.

If I haven't heard anything about the scan by Friday's post I shall ring Halifax and find out what's going on. I hope I'll have a date before the weekend, it's entirely sorted by them and they've had the request since 11.30am Monday.

Jo and I apparently have very different reactions to this sort of news. I was telling him last night and he kept laughing, I nearly bit his head off but that is his way of coping.

I need time, I need not to worry that I have to be at x by y or whatever.

Whatever the result it seems I'm headed for surgery. If it's a tumour then surgery to remove it, if it isn't then surgery to stop me eating and eating. I looked up the hypothalamus and what it does, pretty impressive piece of kit actually. If it is damaged that would explain a LOT, like why I run colder than lots of people, why my moods are what they are, why my immune system is fubar, why hunger is such an issue with me and why my sleep is so utterly fooked.

I need sleep. I slept like a log to midnight, pee'd for ages, slept to Jo's alarm and then was in the wrong sleep phase when my alarm went off. I'm getting right royally p'd off by Jo's alarm. I know he has to get up at 4am to get washed and dressed and plan lessons but it screws my sleep to buggery. I hope I get this night job I've sent the form in for, then I'll be able to sleep while Jo is out and therefore no alarm to disturb me before mine.

h-c Alison's stocking is going well, done the gusset decreases, just working some length on the foot then it's a rounded toe and done. I'm going to try and get to that point by next Tuesday so I can get help on Kitchener, last time I tried it from umpteen videos and notes it looked absolutely crap so I'm hoping someone telling me each and every step might work. How funny I'm going to ask Alison to help with h-c Alison's stocking.

On the plus side, the Diamox capsules are working, my eye feels better today and it's not quite so easy to make it go fuzzy. I have drunk 2l of fluids already today and it's not my peak drinking time yet. I get thirsty atleast once an hour if not twice and each time I take a big swig. Got to the knit'n'knatter and downed a pint of squash as soon as I'd made it.

Aaaaanyhooooooo. That's about it really, emptied my thoughts that I can find onto here and now I'm gonna go either knit or spin, not sure yet. Ash is calling to me with his part-spun milk protein.

Lots to think on

2009-10-12T13:18:00.000+01:00

I am back from the opthalmologist (try typing that fast!) Absolutely lovely guy and nice and frank which I appreciate greatly.

He's got a damn good idea what's going on with my vision, he reckons it is "pseudotumour cerebri" in other words, the fluid in my skull is under pressure and causing the nerve to be swollen and irritated. I have been referred for either a CT or MRI scan to make sure there isn't an actual tumour in my skull and then more tests will be carried out.

They've contacted Halifax general for the scan and I am to ring them with the date once I know so they can make the follow-up appt.

He's also referred me to a gastro specialist at Halifax. Being overweight is a big factor in the increased intracranial pressure and as it is sight-threatening I might be eligible for surgery on the NHS. The condition is also known to occur with a hypothalamus abnormality in the section that regulates hunger. I admitted that I cannot achieve full easily and dieting just leaves me frustrated and annoyed. So yeah, lots to think about.

What have I done today?

2009-10-06T20:02:00.002+01:00

Well, I've used the wonderous knowledge of Kim Woodburn to clean our gunky microwave. Jo made Christmas cake this weekend and that involved the grated peel of a lemon, today I cut the lemon in half, stuck it in a bowl of water and zapped it for 4 minutes. This cut through the grease and general ick that was caked to the microwave and then I simply wiped round with kitchen roll and the microwave is now sparkling! Well, on the inside at least, I cleaned the outside 2 months ago and already it has 'stuff' adhered.

I washed up the line of baking trays and tins and some of the pans. The cake tin had adhered to the baking tray we'd put it on because the fat bubbled up and over while the cake was cooking so about 1oz of fat was removed before washing and the tins required personal attention from the washing liquid.

What I didn't wash-up I piled so the kitchen table is as clear as it gets.

I finished one of the pair of Pam's mitts, I love the way the wool has worked up. Photos once I remember to bring the camera back down from the ferret room.

Went to knit'n'knatter this morning, handed over the reindeer parts I'd knit and got to watch Winifred stuffing them and deciding how to put them together, he's going to be a lying down teenage reindeer. I'm also in charge of knitting a 20x5.5 inch rectangle in Yo-Yo yarn, luckily it uses 4.5mm needles so that shouldn't take too long. It will become the underside of the sleigh. I shall definitely get photos of the knitters display come the festival, don't worry.

Nushu had a fun half hour this evening, as Jo is out at his school's open evening I let the boys out in the big room and brought Nushu down to the living room, she hasn't fathomed stairs yet so she had great fun pottering about the living room and kitchen and getting black paws and dust all in her whiskers. I also treated everyfert to an egg, I broke it into a bowl, whisked the bits together and then split off a little bit for Nushi and the rest went to the boys. 5 minutes later there are five happy ferts and two clean bowls.

My right shoulder is killing me, the muscles between shoulderblade and neck are all scrambled. Also, my digestion is informing me I didn't eat particularly balanced food today, noodles for lunch and then noodles and sausages for tea is not a good idea.

I'm waiting up until near 9pm then hubbie or no, I'm going to bed. Until then I shall enjoy my music and watch my little Cafe World on Facebook.

Monday

2009-10-05T14:13:00.003+01:00

I had to laugh this morning, the sun was shining and although it was bitterly cold it was a lovely morning. Yet all the teachers except 2 came in looking like they were headed to a funeral, it was concluded they were all mourning the loss of the weekend. It was funny though, all the kids hyper and happy, all the teachers looking like zombies.

Been to Halifax today, got Jo and I both new month bus passes, got us both a bit of Thornton's choccy and had a look in M&S for shirts. £12.50! I got two shirts for £10 in Tesco's. Got home about 2 hours ago.

A week ago I lost my Eeyore keyring, the caribener I keep my keys on had opened and Eeyore had dropped off somewhere so I popped to the lost property office at Halifax station, alas no Eeyore. I couldn't see him on the roads, in the church or in our property so I must conclude he is lost. I can only hope he was found by a fellow Eeyore lover and is happily attached to someone else's keys or bag.

I now have "suicide pig" on my keys. I have a photo somewhere explaining that but it's not in my photobucket so I shall endeavour to find it. Basically, I had it attached to my Uni bag and after a while it got filthy so I washed it and hung it from our window to dry, hung from the window it looked like he'd killed himself so he was dubbed "suicide pig"

What is it with me and sad keyrings? First was Eeyore, known for his depression, now a suicidal pig.

Ah well, that's me really, I HAVE to have a cuddly thing on my keys.

Sitting in the bathroom earlier I couldn't help but notice the wooden windowsil had taken a bit of punishment since we moved in so I've cleaned it with a damp cloth and once it's dried I shall treat it to some linseed oil to bring the colour back. I already did this to the floorboards infront of my chair where the coffee table had scratched the previous coating off, it's turned a gorgeous colour and isn't as slippy as treating with beeswax. Strangely my feet benefitted too. I still can't convince hubbie that if he left his shoes at the door the floors would look nicer and not get filthy as quick. He just cannot get it in his head that even though he doesn't walk through mud his shoes do get dirty, drives me insane and that is actually my main hubbie-peev.

Anyway, enough procrastinating, I have 15 minutes to start on this application form and I shall.

Health update

2009-10-01T12:18:00.003+01:00

So I've seen my preferrred GP, he had a listen to the blood flow in my neck and a look in my eyes, he thinks it may be as simple as the retinal blood vessels contracting but he wants the opthalmologist to confirm/deny this so I got the referral. He did want to try prescribing a little bit of asprin every day which is the usual treatment for such things but asprin can aggravate indigestion and I have pretty regular indigestion.

Rang the number, booked in 11am on the 12th, a week on monday. Amazing.

I also booked the 3mo. later liver function test.

Now I *really* do need to get started on the reindeer!

Bloody hellfire!

2009-09-30T10:41:00.004+01:00

So, I got a letter from the health centre asking me to make an appt. with my fave GP. Now, you can only book appt's on the day from 8am. I get to work at 8am. My mobile is on T-Mobile but their reception is poor at work so I put my old O2 sim in the phone, couldn't check it because we live in an O2 deadzone. Get to work, SIM can't be initialised. BUGGER.

So I got home at 10 after shopping and all the appt's are gone and my GP is only in in the morning. ARSE.

So in 15 minutes I'm gonna ring my superviser and try and get tomorrow morning's shift off so I can stay home and ring the GP's at 8am and be availabe from 8.40 for an appt. It should NOT be this hard to see a GP about a serious problem.

In the meantime my vision is getting worse. On Monday afternoon I turned my head both ways to check the road and my right eye lost vision for a whole minute. Seriously worrying.

anyway, time to ring the supervisor. Wish me luck for an appt. tomorrow!

ETA: Got tomorrow morning off to ring GP's

Hello World

2009-09-28T14:17:00.002+01:00

Well, it's finally raining in a way that says I will get wet on my shift. Ah well, to get nearly 3 weeks into term before a drenching is pretty damn good.

I'm well on the way with h-c Alison's stocking, done the name and am 8 rows into the leg. There are only 58 rows of leg so that's good. I admit I fear the heel slightly but I know to just follow the pattern and it'll all work out and I do plan to insert a lifeline before I start so if needs be I can just rip back and try again.

Note to self: don't forget you have a DPN in your hair before heading out to work.

Supposedly some light fitting converters are meant to be arriving today, Sod's law they turn up while I'm at work.

Not got much else to report really. Jo's had his first paycheck for the new year and new wage, nicely lets us pay off the credit cards. I'm still waiting for application papers for the night job but as the Mum has had the weekend off that's fair do's.

Nowt else, sorry.

Well that was pointful

2009-09-24T14:15:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to see a GP for a routine appt, as instructed.

"are you getting B12 supplements or injections?" No, I'm taking a multi-vitamin and iron supplement because I know my diet lacks in places. "Okay, that's fine. You have a raised level of B12 but that's alright, it's not harmful and is better than a lack"

"Do you drink alcohol?" Nope. "well your one of the four liver function results is up, it could be fatty liver but as we don't have any previous results you'll need another test in 3 months to check against."

What about the iron? "You have a high level of hemaglobin for a woman but it's alright"

So, basically, I wasted a GP's time and mine to find I'm fine and just need another liver function blood test in 3 months. They already have my drinking status, half a can of cider a year, so why couldn't they just say, oh yes, all within normal boundaries, there's a few raised but not worryingly and could you do another liver function test in 3 months?

Eh well. So I still have no idea what's causing my eyesight to come and go nor what has smudged the edges of my optic nerves in both eyes. I enquired about my referral, apparently it takes 2-3 weeks for a letter from a specialist to get into the system and then more weeks for the referral to be made and more to get an appt. So my letter from the optician saying "highly recommend referral" is sitting in a folder in Reception waiting for someone to scan it and ask a GP to confirm the refferal. Oy.

On the plus side I may have lined up a better paying, more hours job. One of the Mums who regularly gives me a lift does night shifts answering the phone for mentally imbalanced and disabled people and getting people out when alarms go off and stuff. There are two ladies going on maternity leave soon and her boss is going to pass on an application form to me. The hours are 11pm to 7am which suits my natural sleep cycle soooo much better and is long enough that I can get buses.

So, yeah, need to type up my letter of notice, what on earth do you say in those things? Dear boss, thanks for the job but I want more hours so I'm going elsewhere. By the way could you give me a referral? Eep. I've had...oooh...6 jobs so far but this is the first where I'm leaving, the past have either been temp. jobs or for my Dad and I had to do other things.

I worked out if I put my notice in early next week then I can work to the holidays and then the new person can take over next half of term. Holiday ends at end of October and I have to give a month's notice.

So that will put empty lollipop crossings up to 13 in Lancashire. It has given me good experience though, before this I never really had to deal with people so that's an extra to my CV. Thinking of which....I need to make a new one as I have no sodding clue where I last saved it.

Well, so much for doing anything today. I put out some laundry and ran the machine on a cleaning cycle and cooked myself some lunch then vegged infront of the telly. Have done some stuff on FaceBook but that isn't exactly ..... productive.

Anyhoo, gonna go make meself comfy, try and guess if it's going to rain and then head to work. later peeps.

Eeeinterestink

2009-09-22T13:59:00.002+01:00

I've just got off the phone with the GP's office, my blood test results are back. All are normal except for Vitamin B12, Iron and liver function for which has been put "make routine appt." Intriguing.

Anyway, there are no appt's available today so I am to ring asap after 8am tomorrow to try and get one tomorrow otherwise it's wait weeks for a pre-bookable.

The eyesight thing is getting more and more easy to trigger, not fun.

On the plus side I was planning to go into town tomorrow anyhoo so I can visit the GP while I'm at it.

Oooh..and.....after it raining buckets this morning.....we have sun!

Now I'm off to wind a hank into a ball. (nearly typed 'wall')

3.34am

2009-09-22T03:34:00.002+01:00

Yes, am.

I have a cold, I went to bed early to try and sleep it off or atleast make it manageable. Apparently I snored too much because every 20 minutes or so I was woken and hubbie was fidgeting. So I'm sitting here, absolutely knackered waiting for him to get up so I can get another few hours' sleep.

I could have just moved to the futon but that is in his office so by the time I'd unfolded it, found bedding and gotten in I'd only have had 2 hours before he got up and came in anyway.

On the plus side he gets up at 4am so I can have 3.5 hours in bed before I have to get up for work.

Thank goodness for paracetamol

2009-09-21T14:33:00.002+01:00

Well, half-cousin's stocking is now in progress, just about to start the name but decided that is best left until after work.

I have a stonking cold. It snuck up on me. Tomorrow I shall go to work and K'n'K as usual, ring the health centre for my blood results and then see how I feel. If I'm feeling dead on my feet I shall ring the boss and ask for Wednesday off and spend the day wrapped up in bed.

Anyhoo, off to check my farm before work.

Blah

2009-09-19T16:37:00.002+01:00

I'm in that strange state that is between-moods. Usually I oscillate gently around the mid-line, neither insanely manic nor suicidal but today I am smack-bang on the midline and it does my head in! It's like having a swarm of bees stuck in your head, there's a constant hum just out of hearing.

Something will send me one way or t'other soon I hope. I hope even more it's towards the happy side.

I've spent waaay too many hours on FaceBook in the last few days, I'm now a mafia don, a farmer and a pirate.

Have started half-cousins stocking, I'm doing a ribbed top on straights and then transferring to the DPNs for the colourwork. I've charted out "Alison" and a snowflake to go round the top and then the rest is charted for me.

The hexagon blankie is on hold as it's become too unwieldy for work, work is now the granny square one. I'm winding off 6" balls from the huge 400g balls to work with on the bus and at work before shifts.

My Christmas knitting/crochet list is getting longer and longer y'know, worrying as it's mid-September already.

I had the ferrets in the garden this morning, I went inside to rinse out a bowl and put some fresh water in it, brought it out, shoo'd the boys away from the door and shut it.....on Smithy's toes! He (understandably) squealed and then went off swearing when I reopened the door. He spent about a minute sulking and muttering before coming to me and having big hugs and scritches. No skin damage, no swelling, just sore tips to the two middle toes on his front right paw. Poor old man has a stupidly low pain threshold anyway and evil Mum went and trapped his paw in the door.

Ah well, so long as it's dry tomorrow I'm taking David and either Smithy or Fred to the Tod train station for their little fair/stall/thing they're doing. I was planning on taking Nushu until last night. I had her in Jo's office with me while the boys had the ferret room when I had to go downstairs for something so I took Nushu with me, poor thing was quaking in her fur by the time we got downstairs so no strange environments for her! On the plus side we're bonding well, Barry got her through the bars today and as soon as I came to the barrier she came running for a cuddle, awww.

Not really got much else to say. Hopefully I may see someone I know tomorrow.

Oooh yes, I won a bet. The bus driver who gives me a lift to work in the afternoons bet me a whole pound it would not rain before Monday well, it's raining. I win.

Later peeps.

Oh dear, there goes more time

2009-09-17T11:05:00.000+01:00

I have succumbed and joined Facebook, yes me.

I am there as Jacqui Bennett

I'm still learning how one navigates FB so bare with me while I faff.

I have a farm in FarmVille and am playing Hatchlings

Things and thoughts

2009-09-16T12:46:00.002+01:00

Firstly, if you want some nice graphics making I highly recommend Acucena on Ravelry, she's making me some new banners and adverts and images to print on yarn cards and her work is *fabulous*

So, yeah, my lovely fellow dyers...where can I get undyed sock yarn at reasonable prices? I'm going to dye this lady 200g of personal sock yarn for her to do super-length socks and I also want to stock some in my shop.

The sun is still with us, shining away. There are dark clouds passing over but they are passing without dropping.

In other news Jo and I are seriously thinking about having kids. Scary. I like the idea of pregnancy and the baby part, not so sure once they're up and mobile. Still not completely sure, keep having thoughts. But not going to go any further than thinking until I know what's bashing my system. My Mum replied to my e-mail asking about family history of migraines, no history of that but Mum and Grandma (her Mum) get bouts of dizziness so that might explain that bit.

Anyhoo, I have a film on and I'm gonna go watch while crochet'ing my Granny blanket squares.

P.S.

2009-09-15T13:11:00.002+01:00

Is it really so uncommon for people to be allergic to plasters *and* micropore tape that nurses who do blood tests all day every day have no idea what to do about it?

Luckily I have plenty of platelets and stopped bleeding quickly but, honestly, pressure bandage anyone? The blood donor nurses know that.

Blood taken

2009-09-15T12:39:00.003+01:00

So, I was good all night and this morning, made sure all I had after 9.45pm was water. I treated us to curry last night and forgot just how salty that is so I was desperate all morning. I can't drink water in any decent amount, it makes me want to vomit.

Got to the health centre with plenty of time to spare, got in earlier than expected because some people hadn't turned up and sat down ready to lose some blood. The nurse asked if I'd fasted, I said yes and she told me I didn't have to, according to her sheet I was alright to have had breakfast. Grrrr. Anyway, that's been taken and results will be back in a week. Unless there's something "abnormal" it's up to me to ring reception in 7 days.

I also handed over the letter from the Optician, the receptionist said it was unlikely I'd need to see a GP to be referred so I should expect to hear from wherever I've been referred to soonish. Well, if it's anything like the physio that'll be next year!

So, it's waiting game at the moment, joy.

On the plus side the sun is shining and our new daylight bulbs have arrived. I think I shall go get the stepladder and finally change the living room bulb. We did make an order with EBulbshop about 6 weeks ago but they didn't e-mail confirmation and when I tried ringing I got nothing so Jo has opened a Paypal dispute to get his money back and we went with CPC, same bulbs just different supplier. We also ordered some replacements for the church so I'll be going up that long ladder into the eaves next week I expect. Maybe I can get hubbie to ladder and me to hold the bottom? Then again, the only reason I got the first bulb down was by shoving it in my cleavage (yes, it was bleedin' cold!)

Right, going to go change living room bulb and wind off hanks for dyeing which I forgot to do yesterday.

Blah

2009-09-14T09:35:00.002+01:00

Not having a good day today, got an e-mail reminding me of a £180 debt so that was bothering me through my shift, sorted it now with some post-dated cheques so I don't have to try and remember any more to write them, just that £45 will disappear from this month, October, January and February's pay checks. I've begged forgiveness for now December cheque but I have to pay for Christmas pressies and postage that month.

Not feeling so good toady. Can't seem to co-ordinate my hands very well, took me 2 minutes to write a simple address because I had to concentrate on every single letter and do them in capitals. Got tingling in my left hand, damaged nerve is acting up again. Right eye says it's not seeing properly but can't tell me which bits are missing. Just feel crappy today.

So I'm going to sit at the laptop until near lunch time, go to the shop and get something interesting for lunch, maybe a nice egg custard if they have any and generatlly rest and recooperate before adternoon shift.

Didn't ring boss last week so will be doing tomorrow's morning shift on empty tum, ah well, I shall absord the excess energy from the air that the kids give off at breakfast club and I'll be okay.

Sorry for the huge quantity of typo's today, I try and correct them and make worse ones!

Anyway, yeah, that's it really. Got a custom dye order to do this week, shall wind off for that tonight and soak it overnight to dye tomorrow. I'm going to try and get an advance appt. booking to see my usual GP when the blood results should be back, hopefully they only take 2-3 days and I might actually KNOW something by Friday. I know the optician has said to refer me to opthalmology so I need to do something about that this week too.

Later peeples.

Eye tests

2009-09-11T13:44:00.001+01:00

Well, I'm back from the Optician's.

My left eye has gotten a little more short-sighted, right eye is the same as was. She had a really good look at the backs of my eyes and says the edges of the optic nerve are ......for lack of a better term...blurry, they should be really defined but mine are a little smudged. She's written it all down for my GP and suggested I be referred to an opthalmologist for further tests.

On the plus side, my eye pressure is perfect so it's very unlikely to be glaucoma. She thinks it's probably something circulatory related. So I have a letter for my GP and shall ring first thing Tuesday morning to try and get an appt. for after my blood test appt. so I can hand over the letter and they can update the records.

I will *not* be going back to that first GP.

Busy busy busy!

2009-09-10T14:11:00.003+01:00

Honestly, in the last hour I've been up and down more than a yo-yo.

Done some dyeing today, I had some hanks soaking since Monday so I thought it might be time to dye them.

Now dripping into the back yard. I love the middle one and may well try and replicate that for myself. I've discovered to get those strong colours I have to mix pretty strong dye so it isn't exhausting, ah well. It is pretty.

I did a load of tops last week, got round to photographing them today (we have sunshine!)

So those are now listed in my Etsy shop. I have plans for others but it's getting the space in the kitchen! Also, I prefer the first hour or so of drying to be outside as no matter how well I squish the things will drip.

Rebeltrouser was making an order with Stitchlinks (I think) or some American knitting company and asked if anyone wanted to join in the order to share postage, well how could I refuse? I made a list for her and she tallied and told me how much I owed her. Two of the books I wanted were the same price on Amazon so that's how she ordered them. Yesterday I got:
"It Itches" by Franklin Habit (finished already, absolutely hysterical)
The Harmony Guide to Colourwork Stitches. I drooled over that yesterday.

I most highly recommend both, especially Itches, Franklin has it spot on about things with his cartoons and the little essays in between had me laughing out loud on the bus.

Been up for Jo's NQT certificate which was accidentally posted next door, been up for the LandsEnd delivery and been up for some call-centre somewhere saying "I happen to know you are Mrs. Bennett and in charge of the bills" Erm....No. "When would be best to ring back to talk to this person?" Actually, we'd rather you didn't. "Oh, okay, bye." Apparently being on the Telephone Preference Service List means nothing to that lot and how the hell did they get our surname?

Ey well. Got 25 minutes then time to boot-up and head to afternoon shift.

My balance is currently doing okay but the eye thing is determined. It actually aches today. I felt wonderful yesterday, completely forgot I was having this investigated, went to speak to hubbie and complete blackout in right eye, oops. Did it today too, I had bobbed down (keeping eyes pointing forward as suggested by Alison) to repair something for a kidlet, stood up (eyes still pointing forward) and there went vision again. Blah.

I am going to do my best to persuade hubbiekins to give me money for the Bear Knitters this Sunday, as one friend said "if you've been feeling ick enough to check if you're pregnant you need a treat" Made me giggle. And no, I'm not preggers although I am now seriously thinking about it. But first, find out what the hell is affecting my vision and stomach and head! So far the three suggestions from friends have been:
Menier's disease
Labyrinthitis
Migraine without headache

Funny thing about those? All three, when looked up on t'internet say "Doctors diagnose X when all others have been ruled out by testing" ALL THREE! So, exactly HOW does that work?

Oh yes, we have caterpillars!

No idea what they are, I've seen some pretty purty moths and butterflies round here so I dunno who chose our Flowering Currant to devour. I have cut off some branches from the plant, including one covered in the little things and put them in a tub with some mesh over the top, hopefully I can find out what they are.

Stoof

2009-09-08T14:19:00.002+01:00

My knitting and spinning mojo are currently AWOL so I'm doing crochet when I feel the urge to do something.

Currently on the go I have:
Giant granny afghan
Hexaghan - frogged as my idea didn't work but now I have a hex pattern I shall be restarting that.
Beginners crochet cable scarf - as I can't get knit cables down well I thought I'd try crochet.

In the works are:
Mini cover for Christmas tree festival (crochet)
Half-cousin Alison's stocking (knit)

Went to Halifax yesterday morning as I twigged 5yo+stocking=mess so I didn't want to send her a hand-wash only one. Went to the yarn stall at the top, mid-way across and said what I wanted, got what I wanted. I love that lady, she knows her stock! Got a sarnie for lunch and just had to pop into Thorntons.

Also went to see a GP at the Health Centre. For the best part of the year I've been having moments where I get off the bus and my hearing phases in and out with a rushing noise I've also been more and more off-kilter, certain that gravity is acting 15' off vertical. I've been putting it down to getting up too quick and the odd time I've had refined sugar but in the last mointh and a bit a new thing has been happening that disturbs me: the vision in my right eye goes grey round the edges and sometimes completely black. This is not normal! It's also been happening more and more often, it used to be once a week, then every few days and now it's multiple times a day so I've been concerned and made a GP appt. Well, what a rude man. As soon as I said the vision issue was only one eye he didn't really want to know any more, I told him about the giddiness/off-kilter and the hearing thing but got no reaction/acknowledgement. He told me I should have seen an optician first well NER to him, I thought maybe with everything else the GP was a good start.

Anyhoo, I have a fasting blood test a week today so I need to ring my boss and book that morning off, I am not working without breakfast as I know I'm slow without it. I also have an optician appt. this Friday. It's going to cost £24.50 with a possible extra £7.50 if they do a pressure test. So that's going on the credit card. My bank balance is looking unhealthy already, I was going to pay some money onto the credit card but haven't any to pay onto it so I feel like I'm letting Jo down.

I feel nauseous all day, I'm knackered all day and my right eye is driving me nuts because it just feels Wrong like it's not quite focusing properly or something.

So, yeah, feel rotten, Jo is feeling rotten when he's home and we're making eachother miserable and it's only Tuesday of week 1.

I'm confused

2009-09-04T16:52:00.002+01:00

I like to have the music channels on when I'm in the living room and I am confused.

"Sex"(some man - birthday sex) is allowed to be said in songs but "Muffin"(Lady Gaga - Poker Face) is silenced out. Now, as the TV video for the latter does not show her grabbing her "muffin" at the time of saying it why is it silenced?

I is confuzzed.

On Wednesday I was coming home from town when the people from two doors down got on the bus, one sat next to me and we got chatting. The old lady next door had passed away at the weekend. She'd been having troubles and eventually succumbed. I had noticed something was off but I hadn't twigged it was that I hadn't heard her TV blaring through the wall. I now also realise just how much her heating heated our house.

I actually put the heating on yesterday, it's been off for 6 months. I've only got the boiler set to 5 out of 9 and only for an hour from 12 to 1 but still, I wasn't expecting to do that for another month atleast.

Oh, weekend already. For some reason doing partial weeks of work are a lot harder than just a full week. Hubbie doesn't find that but I do. I've done 4 shifts and I'm knackered. Doesn't help that I had to force myself into a diurnal rhythm again. It is sooooooo much easier for me to be awake from 3pm to 4 or 5am than 7am to 7pm.

Not much else to report really. I dyed some fine merino tops yesterday, those are drying on the airer, they came out pastel shades which was interesting and unexpected.

Anyhoo, gonna go play "The hidden object game"

Plodding along

2009-09-02T14:37:00.002+01:00

I'm getting really ticked off by our ISP, the internet is becoming a moody thing that doesn't want to give me my webpages, including Ravelry and Photobucket, very annoying.

I was updating my Etsy shop with a few wares and wanted to consult the Royal mail website for postage....oh no I don't! So I've had to guess for now. Next time I go to a PO I shall pick up a prices leaflet.

Back to work tomorrow. Ah well, the holiday was nice atleast.

Now, a photographic interlude....

The new stock drying. The orangey and the purpley are now in my shop, the green is for half-cousin Alison's stocking which I should probably get on with if I want it done before Christmas.

The first panel for the bedspread is done and crochet'd together:

It's currently stretching under its own weight so I need to crack on with more. Went to get more cream and purple today, couldn't get the same shade purple so I got a darker one, it's not too drastically different so should be okay.

Now, you know those lovely tops I dyed with the indigo dye last month?

This is what happens when you spin them. Ooops. So, yeah, didn't wash those thoroughly enough.

My spinning has gone a bit off at the moment, I keep breaking whatever I try to spin so that's set aside for now. I did get some milk tops last month that are amazing to spin but atm I just haven't the enthusiasm.

Got more tops soaking to be dyed this evening and then the steamer can be started before I go to bed, time itself out and they'll be cold by morning. Cunning I am. Also the advantage of using a timed steamer, you can set it to 20 minutes, know it'll do the job and leave it. It even turns off the heating element if the water runs out.

Oooh, thinking of dyeing....I went into the chemists yesterday to get some citric acid, apparently I look innocent enough no problem because she would have happily sold me some if it hadn't been out of stock for weeks. Grrrr.

Alison is wanting to go to Manchester this weekend to a stitch thing so I shall try and remember to ask if we can find a chemist and try there.

I have also discovered something interesting, the way I dye pure wool dyes acrylic too. I use scrap acrylic to do ties because I thought they'd show afters, but no they dye too.

I have started my Click afghan aswell but haven't got photos yet, want to make a hex of each colour first and I've been distracted, sorry Fred I know you want pics!

That's about it really. Don't want to go back to work this term, the wet weather is back and seems set to last the rest of the year plus it's the half of the year where I get up before the sun which plays merry heck with my moods.

Yay and grrrr

2009-09-01T02:00:00.002+01:00

On the yay side I have 2 skeins of DK pure wool dyed up to stock my shop and have split off about 12 lots of merino tops to dye.

On the grr side, I couldn't find the right green to make cousin's daughter Alison'sstocking so I decided to dye the wool myself and then use that. Silly me though, put it in the bottom of the steamer and so the blue/pink/purple above it leaked and now there's a little spot of purple. Ah well, makes it unique.

Also on the grrr side, I'm out of vinegar so I'm going to the pharmacy tomorrow to see if I look innocent enough to get citric acid crystals. Also, just when I'm in the mood to niddy-noddy umpteen hanks to dye my scales have died so I can't weigh the cone to track when I've wound off 100g hanks. Grrrrr! Would you believe we have zero 9v batteries in this house? Well, unless I nick the one from the smoke detector but I a) can't as it's too high off the floor and b) ain't that stupid. Alright, it usually goes off with pork products to the point we call it the bacon/sausage detector but I'm not unplugging it.

On the plus side citric acid smells a whole lot less than vinegar so I won't chase hubbie off every time I do dyeing.

So, note to self:
Tomorrow you are to:
post hammocks to UK ferret person
Get citric acid crystals
get 9v battery or 2
put in repeat for this month and next and get reminder card

Things

2009-08-28T04:42:00.002+01:00

Firstly, if you have a few minutes to spare or are bored and want to expand your mind try http://www.freerice.com/index.php You can increase your vocab, maths, whatever and feel good because someone is benefiting.

I have no idea what I'm doing up at 4.45am but there ya go. I'm gonna go to bed shortly. I do have an alarm set for 10am and have to be up by 11am because Ted and Miffy are coming to board so I need to be decent to meet them.

I'm considering a new piercing below my current trio but I think that will wait until I'm a bit more flush. This month I'm putting £50 on the credit card to help Jo out, paying American Sarah £40 for some books she's getting for me and Alison and I are off to the new yarn shop in Huddersfield tomorrow so I want cash for that.

Assuming I've been paid today, if not it won't be until Tuesday which will be an arse as I'll borrow off Jo then have to pay him back and it gets complicated doing that.

I finished Hemlock this month:

I'm probably going to frog it though as it's too small to be a blanket (I had to stop, I was getting sick of it and my hands hurt doing it) but I did enjoy it anyhoo.

Was a busy girl Wednesday night, did two sets of ferret bedding:

The first set is for someone who wanted some, must e-mail her for her address now it's made. The second set is for Nushu in her cage. The backing is Calico which will hopefully stand up to fuzzballs.

The bedspread squares are coming on. Done 5 and no.6 is over halfway done. I'm going to do the JCB marble chunky one in hexagons but as mentioned, I need another colour yet.

Oooh yes, and I need a tenner for KnittyFred to pay him back for some yarn he got me in Coldspring.

On the plus side, Sarah is ordering the books this month so I'll have new books to pore over later this year and she's put in orders to the library system for African knitting patterns and slip-stich colourwork books so those are in the works and linked to my card so I will get a letter when they come in.

Reet, I'm off to bed for a few more hours, maybe hubbie will have stopped snoring by now!

Mmmmmmm

2009-08-25T22:17:00.002+01:00

Well, I reskeined my dyed yarns:

Pwetty.

This Saturday gone was the picknit in Shibden park. Absolutely perfect weather and we all had a lovely time. The kidlets did well even if one really didn't want to knit in order to go on the boat. Alison and I got a little lost, Nuvi actually got lost too so that was sort of reassuring.

This week I have decided to crochet a bed-spread. Madness I know but somehow soothing. I'm doing 30 15" squares to produce a 7'6" by 6'3" throw. Made 4 already in 2 days. I already have another planned but that requires some more JCB marble chunky.

Saturday Alison and I are off to Huddersfield to the new yarn shop and so I can finally give Knittyfred the sack of yarn for the yarn mountain and pay them for the yarn they got for me from Coldspring. As the last working day of this month is a bank holiday it's possible I may get paid Friday so that will be good BUT I shall get out cash and NOT, really NOT spend more than I have in cash. Anyhoo, I'm putting £50 on the credit card so that's earmarked and then I'm putting some aside to the pay-back-sue-for-the-wheel fund.

Nushu is settling well, she's happy enough being a solo fert and the boys don't mind so long as they aren't all out at the same time.

That's it for now really. Photos of throw-in-progress :

Indigo'd tops washed and dryed

2009-08-17T16:24:00.002+01:00

How pretty is this blue?

Washed some more black texel today, that's drying in the back yard.

Also, Thomas' ashes came in so he's home and on the shelf next to Lou. I feel contented now, even though his spirit was home the same day he died I always feel they're lose in the ether until their ashes are home again.

I enquired about getting Nushu microchipped, the vets charge £30 for it! So she won't be chipped. She had her first trip out today, put her in her harness and we went to get the ashes, she was hyper at the idea of the bus and the people and the sights and ooooooooh! She was a good girl though and when random people came up to her she was happy to be stroked.

Anyhoo, that's about it really. I'm trying to fill out the provisional licence form so I can start learning to drive but we need to print off an extra form as I have depression and all I have to do with that is cross a load of "no" boxes, give my GP's name and address and what meds I'm on for it.

*sigh* Oh well, we're going to attack the house this week and try and get some space or atleast get the stuff organised. Starting with the living room and working up. I reckon there's a few crates of stuff can go in the boiler cupboard out of the way and then there's the bathroom cupboard that can store stuff if we organise it better. Will send off the maidens on my first wheel at the end of the month to get those re-leathered and then I can sell that off as a working wheel.

Need to repair the bed too, the little metal legs provided for the middle section were only held on with one bolt and the wobbling of 4 years has seen those die so I got some 2x4 blocks and shelf supports to make super-legs and hopefully see us not sleeping on the mattress on the floor.

Then Jo has ordered new bulbs as the one in the living room has gone dim so I'm up the stepladder to change that. I also volunteered to get a dead bulb down at the church so they can figure out what type it is and then I'm up the ladder to replace those. Doesn't sound so bad until you think about how high the rooves are in churches...........eeep. Still, I reckon I can get Irene to sign my photo in return :)

Now I go to browse t'internet and relax then maybe attack the boiler cupboard and get out the folding cage for Nushu so Ted and Miffy can have the single-level for their hols next week.

busy busy busy

Dyeing Day

2009-08-16T17:17:00.002+01:00

So many of us got a laugh out of telling people we were off to "our dyeing day" this Saturday.

So, yes, yesterday Freyalyn did a dye workshop through Bradford Guild at Queensbury. How fantastic it was! We played with dyes, learnt about indigo dyeing (I now feel I can get mine to work) and had fun.

My photos:

Ladies at work:

Things steaming:

(yes, you really can use a veg steamer, it did a LOT of parcels that day)

Penny's indigo'd yarn:

She dipped just one end in and the indigo travelled up, don't know how much will have stayed though as it depends what state the indigo was in when it got to those bits. I shall try and get a photo of the done stuff from her.

My indigos:

Those are in order from left to right. The left little bits went in at the start of the bath, the bit on the right went in at the end and pretty much exhausted the bath.

My laceweight:

100g DK:

Mohair tops:

Merino tops:

More merino tops:

FInally, all the tops plaited up:

The mohair would have been one skein but I had a stupid moment with my niddy-noddy and the tops split

And the hanks:

So, yes. Busy day. I was absolutely knackered but it was worth it. The indigo are now drip-drying on the airer, you have to leave them 24 hours to cure before rinsing y'see.

I am now no longer afraid of using synthetic dyes and indigo isn't as scary as I thought. I may even do my own bath before the end of the hols, I have a dedicated dyeing pan so I won't be trying to poison us.

Holiday photos

2009-08-13T17:57:00.002+01:00

Firstly though, thank you everyone for your comments on Thomas, I know he's happy and whole over the bridge and keeping Lou company. The gang are happy here, I think the new girl is distracting them, she's deaf and they're learning how to deal with her as she's really *really* good at squealing if she feels they're too close :p

Anyhooo...photos from Orkney!

One of the baby sparrows looking cute and fluffy

This is Boris the highland cow modelling my little Innocent hats as I finished them.

My new shawl design that I made for Clickyneedles as a swap gift. The title was "summer swap" but with the way English summers go I thought this suitable.

The conservatory we enjoyed.

Feed me

a small gathering

The view from our Inverness hotel window

Gathering on the roof

Six hats for Innocent

The main house on the land had this strange face sticking out of their chimney stack.

More sparrows

Sunset views

There were also swifts at the place

Ten hats

Another shot of the view

This little bun was sitting in a patch of sunlight at Wick train station.

And that's it for those. Yesterday I was home alone so I made my first bread ever:

They were in the oven a tad too long but that was because I was on the phone to MIL and lost track. Taste good though and nice and fluffy.

Now I'm going to find out what went thump in the ferret room. :s

I can't find them

2009-08-12T16:03:00.003+01:00

Last year Juliebie on Ravelry made me some shrinky-dink stitch markers with all my pet names on. The ferret ones had little coloured in ferrets to look like my lot. The Lou one has helped me through her loss so I was thinking last night..... I can't find Smithy or Thomas.

I'm actually rather distressed by this fact. I know markers go walkies but to lose two from the same group.... I've checked all my WIPs. Where are my babies?

ETA: Found them! They're marking where to do the pattern on a DK bag I've had hibernating for months. Maybe I really should frog or finish that bag....

Thomas Bennett (June 2006 – 15.45 11th August 2009)

2009-08-11T20:01:00.001+01:00

A.K.A.: Thomasy Thomasy Thomas-Fluff or “the temperamental one”

Thomas was born some time in June 2006, his Mum's owner was a breeder but unfortunately he died so the neighbours took her in and looked after her until the babies were 10 weeks old and then they split off 6 of the babies (5 binos and one silver mitt) and brought them to Animal Care in Lancaster.

Lou had her nine at that time but she was happy to take in 6 more so 15 kits and one hyperactive mum took over the 6' square pen.

A few weeks later I was going to choose my gang, I came in to find blood in the ferret pen. I asked at reception if someone had been bitten but it turned out one of the bino boys had been beaten over the head with a rope ball by a volunteer. The volunteer was sent home and the ferret had been rushed to the vet. Well, once he got back he had to be mine didn't he? I needed a companion for Barry and Thomas was chosen.

He took a little while to fathom hammocks and things and slept the first few nights on the floor of the cage.

He experienced the shelter open day when he was still young and fell asleep in the little run he was sharing with “daddy smithy”

Once he learnt that I was boss he never bit me again. He was the scuba-ferret, when in the park he would walk into the pond and stay under. He loved the spray bottle and drinking from it.

He also loved to fish plastic bottles out of water on hot days.

Even if it meant wet face:

He never liked the sound of running water though, that would make him panic. Once it was run out of earshot though he enjoyed.

He loved to dig in really dirty things. Including the pile of used coals from the BBQ:

He was a big boy:

About May this year he got a serious tummy bug, 2 days in he had a low-blood-sugar fit and threw out his back. His back legs went.

Still, I got medication for his tummy bug and painkiller for the sore back. He managed another 2 months before succumbing.

Yesterday he could barely use his front legs and he spent 24 hours in the same position in a blanket. I washed him this morning and that's when I knew. I feel bad for not having photos post-ick but somehow photographing Thomas when he's only front-end mobile just isn't capturing Thomas.

He had a damn good 3 years with me, I never abused him and always gave cuddles even when he wanted to play. He adored the huge extendable grey tube I got through Freecycle last year and I just know he'll have one over the bridge, he loved to sleep in it.

Dook on my gorgeous man, I love you dearly. Give Lou lots of fuss from me and I'm sure she'll make sure you know your way about.

Love,
Mum.

I'm sorry

2009-08-11T13:59:00.002+01:00

As I sit here Thomas is wrapped in a fleece blankie on my lap. He's given up, enough is enough Mum.

Yesteeday he was letharigc but today he's just given up. The spark has gone and he's just tired. I've bathed him so he's all clean and we're waiting for the 3.15 bus to the vet for his last visit.

He peed blood overnight and didn't move at all from where I'd put him.

His front legs are losing muscle rapidly and now all he can really move is his head.

I wish he'd just pass on now but, like Lou, he's too stubborn. He's only 3.

Damnit! why does time go so slow?!

So, yeah, if I'm not responding to messages for the next few days this is why.

Also, hubbie is off to an interview this evening and away until some stupidly early hour Friday so I'll be home with the fuzz and a hole in my heart.

I'll write a proper obituary later.

Finally finished

2009-08-05T22:12:00.002+01:00

A HUMONGOUS thank you to Alison for re-knitting the front and back of this and showing me how to sew up! It's finally complete.

So my lady is going to be happy and I'm happy now it's done. I've learnt a LOT about working from patterns and planning ahead. I also learnt I hate knitting big things in cotton! The lack of stretch makes my hands ache.

Also, some dyeings I did before we went on hols and left to dry on the airer:

Merino/silk blend dyed with Procion MX dyes. The jet black came out interesting, the silk took as black but the merino came out brown. Strange as when you dye cotton with it it comes out black with a purple tinge....so where'd the brown come from???

I'm gonna process the holly photos soon, chickens and sparrows and amazing views and little knit hats.

Insomnia or something else?

2009-08-05T03:20:00.002+01:00

I don't know why I will switch to going to bed at 4am if I get the slightest opportunity but I do.

Alison gave me the re-knit front and back of the Medina top on Monday. Sewed it all together yesterday, think I did a damn good job. Just need to spend a little time doing the i-cord collar and it's done. We're going to Texere on Thursday so I plan to get it all done and sorted by then and drop it off before I meet Alison.

That's assuming I'm well enough. Something has been niggling at my system since Tuesday morning and I'm hoping it's just readjusting to Tod air. Y'see, up on Orkney there were HUGE open panoramas and always a breeze if not a wind so coming back to the close air of a valley with humidity and warmth it's hit the system a bit hard.

So, yeah.

I'm pretty damn certain Nushu is deaf but at the same time she's not screamed nearly as much today and is happy enough in the big cage with Smithy, David and Fred so we shall see. I'm going to ring Jean today and ask if she'd tested for deafness and let her know how we're progressing. Jo pointed out that if Barry can share with Thomas why did I get another? Honestly? There was a gap. I felt we needed another about the youngest age and this little girly may well fit the gap.

I hope we get some decent weather tomorrow, I want to use the back yard for some air and maybe spinning.

I'm knitting a test-knit capelet at the mo. and need to get on with that. I did a whole chart repeat and have another 10 to go. It's not tricky or anything I'm just having "knitting dribble" as someone on Phoenix forum described it. I can't really get into anything, knitting, spinning, books, I just want to sit and veg.

Aaaaanyhoo. I'm going to go bed.

I do have an item I dearly want to share photos of but I need to post it to Clickyneedles first. Will go visit the PO either today or Friday, depends on what else I have to do.

I'm baaaaaack

2009-08-04T16:38:00.003+01:00

So, we got back about 11pm Sunday and yesterday was catch-up day.

Today we're back to a semblence of normality.

I've come home with a new little jill ferret called "Nushu" I've got the strong feeling she's deaf, I've tried whistling, shaking tins of pencils above her, the works, and not a hint of recognition.

She screams like a banshee! The boys aren't doing anything to her but existing and she'll scream so loud you can hear it two floors down and over the telly.

Originally she was going to be a pal for Thomas but as he doesn't seem to like her that much I've put Barry in with him and am trying to integrate her with the other boys (Smithy, David and Fred). S, D and F are being ever so patient with her, trying to settle down to zuzz with her and when she squeals too much they run off. I did find her in their cage earlier so she's obviously not scared of them just not used to them.

She's an abuse rescue, she was kept in a wooden box that was screwed shut and the "owner" chucked food in when they could be arsed.

Anyway, holiday was excellent. So relaxing to sit on a comfy sofa in a conservatory with amazing views and sunshine and just watch the world go by. The owners had 5 chickens that amused me with their antics and about 3 dozen sparrows. Didn't really go out due to location so the camera memory card is mainly full of bird photos and Innocent Smoothie hats.

I'll do a proper update some time in the future, promise. Right now my brain is still getting back into gear after shutting down for 5 days.

On hols

2009-07-24T07:03:00.001+01:00

I'm orf in about 37 minutes for 9 days of holiday. I shall be offline so I wish you all a wonderful nine days, I hope the sun shines down on all.

The Illustrated Wheel

2009-07-17T10:50:00.002+01:00

A few friends have given me fantastic blank looks when I've been describing bits of my wheel to them sooooo.....here, with help from my spinning book....is The Illustrated Wheel....

This is the Treadle, you pedal this to power the wheel. Treadling is a skill in itself, you have to remember to lift your foot aswell as press down or it's twice the effort.

This is the main wheel, the one that drives everything. On most wheels it has one groove.

This groove holds the Drive Band that takes the power from the wheel to the other bits

Here we have the shaft equipped with Bobbin and Flyer The Flyer is the u-shaped part with hooks on, note how the blue Leader (strand of cotton in this case) lays over the hooks and is tied to the bobbin.

This is the Mother Of All It holds the Bobbin, Flyer, Shaft and the Uprights. The round knob at the base is the Tension knob, in this case it moves the MoA closer or further from the Drive Wheel. It doesn't need moving much, once you find your tension you can pretty much forget about it.

This is the Orifice, your newly spun single or plied yarn will go through here

This is the other end of the Orifice with Orifice Hook in place, the Orifice Hook is used to draw the single/yarn/Leader through the Orifice prior to spinning or when it gets away from you.

This is the Scotch Tension. It's a length of plastic that goes from a knob on the MoA, through a hook and over the bobbin to a spring that's hooked on the other side of the bobbin.

Here's another view of the Scotch Tension where you can see the adjusting knob, just a quarter turn makes a huge difference in the "pull" from the tension.

So, yes, that's a guide to my Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel. I know more experienced spinners read my blog so if I've mis-labelled something or made a right balls-up let me know please.

Daft Pigeon!

2009-07-14T14:29:00.002+01:00

You know those pigeons I mentioned I was feeding? Well I stopped feeding them because they had chased all the smaller birds off. This has driven them to try new things. Some manage to use the feeder while others dare to venture indoors.

Usually they only go in as far as 2 feet into the kitchen but while I was sitting here engrossed in my book I heard a funny rhythmic noise, looked to my left and there's a pigeon in the living room. It panic'd and flew up, banged into the window then turned and settled on the books above my chair....

As you can see, it would have been quite happy to sit there but I wasn't having that so I took the lazy kate from my spare wheel and tried to convince it to hop onto that, no luck. But it took flight again and was banging on the window until I grabbed it, I took it to the back door and threw it up where it flew off.

Daft thing.

wet wet wet

2009-07-03T11:00:00.002+01:00

Yes, I do indeed have a CD of their songs.

Well, the heatwave has broken and it is *Pouring* down right now. Cool air is flooding the house and my wilting dye plants are soaking it up.

I was talking to one of the school bus drivers who gives me a lift last week asking him if he knew anyone who wanted a load of poo-encrusted fleece scraps. Well, he did and mentioned that if I took it up to the allotments near here and put a note it'd probably go. He also told me how to make liquid fertiliser using fleece scraps.

Take a pair of the missus' tights, stuff/pack full of fleece and add a brick/heavy weight before tying closed. Put in a bucket/barrel and cover with water, leave to ferment. Depending on weather conditions that's 3 days to a week. Then use a cup to a large watering can, if you just pour the stuff on your plants they keel over apparently.

It's so great. When hubbie and I eventually get a croft (we are hoping to one day) we can get winter male lambs, keep them for their fleeces and make fertiliser for the veggies and dye plants.

I also accidentally discovered another use for fleece scraps or even whole fleeces that aren't spinning quality: weed blocker. Pile it up over patches of earth you want to clear the weeds from and leave, it blocks out all the light and adds nutrients when it rains.

Or, wash them in the machine and give to your pets. I have a "fleece bucket" that David adores sleeping in. End of play time you can guarantee David will be curled up in that lovely snuggly place. Must get photos of them all.

So many uses for fleece and yet farmers are only being given 65p/kg I was watching someone demonstrate hand-shearing using the big scissor-style shears, took her a good 10-15 minutes, she'd get 30p for that fleece. 30p!

I've just realised: Hubbie's school are doing a sponsored walk up the hills near the school. He packed about 10l of water and squash and a bottle of sun screen. So, what's the weather doing? PEE'ING it down! Oh well, atleast none of the kids will get sun stroke! :p

Mmmmmmmmmm, it's lovely sitting indoors, comfy and cosy while listening to the back yard being soaked. I do love the rain so long as I'm not out in it.

Oooh, yes, I've joined the Tour De Fleece this year. I don't usually watch the cycling but it'll be nice to have some spinning motivation. Especially when I only have one bobbin for my wheel so spend more time winding it off then spinning/plying. Hopefully I'll get some money for my birthday and can buy myself some more bobbins but first I must e-mail Sue incase she's bought me some at Woolfest.

Ooooh, it seems I haven't told of my discovery last weekend. I got a lift from my great friend to a little hobby farm just outside Hebden on Saturday to see a lady about some Fleece, Spindlers has apparently had fleece from her before. Anyhoo, she was wonderful and we had a good chat about sheep and I came away with some bags and a fresh-sheared black x-breed fleece.

I sorted them that day so I could store them inside (I store new fleece outside until I'm sure it hasn't got "guests") Unfortunately the sack I'd chosen had been attacked by moths and was so riddled I didn't want to risk it so 4 fleeces were lost but have gone to the allotments instead so not wasted. Anyhoooo, before I re bagged them I took photos of the little varmints so others can see what to check for.

***WARNING: icky bugs!***

One of the moth parents:

Young Larva on my dust sheet

Larger larva on fleece:

Still, I did get 2 "ginger" manx loughtan fleece out of that and the huuuuuge black cross.

SOme manx drying:

Some x-breed drying:

So, not a wasted journey and the lady was very kind and said to contact her should I want more. The track was rather vicious to Alison's car so I might walk up that in future.

That's about it really. Going to go make lunch then sit down and watch The Zoo on TV while listening to the storm pass over.

Thoughts of the day

2009-06-26T20:08:00.002+01:00

Ferrets that have just been burrowing in freshly washed fleece smell wonderful.

Our washing machine can clean Shrewsbury fleece in 40 minutes without felting it. Hurrah for the 30'C woollen wash and old pillowcases.

It can also spin loads more water out that I can squeeze so I shall use that in future after hand-washing fleece

Why are drum carders so bleedin' expensive? 209 pounds.

Hand carding just one fleece takes aaaaaaages.

half-filling the standard size bobbin that comes with an Ashford takes about 20 minutes. Must get bigger bobbins so I can spend more time spinning and less winding, plying and setting.

Alpaca plied with merino is heavenly, glad I bought both.

Where am I going to store all this fleece?

Must ask coffee places tomorrow what they do with the sacks

Wonder how much I can sell hand-washed, hand-carded organic fleece for?

My month's wages are spent before I even get them

Ashford jumbo bobbin assembly: £75 includes 4 bobbins though

I swear Barry has a secret stash of E-numbers somewhere, that ferret can go for hours!

Shrewsbury Hoggs (5mo old lambs) are HUGE. One fleece I collected last night had a 10 foot girth.

Tomorrow I go to a local lady who hobby farms sheep and has loads of individually packed and dated and labelled organic fleeces. I shall discuss with her my intentions of selling the yarn/rolags in my shop and offer her a slice of the income or a donation to her chosen charity should she not want it.

My foot has gone to sleep

Need to move cages and fish tank around this weekend.

Now, I go to enjoy myself with some telly and hubbiekins

Mwahahahaaha

2009-06-21T00:56:00.002+01:00

So, insomnia strikes.

I have slept rather well this week so I suppose I'm due a bout, atleast it's tonight so I can early-bed tomorrow and be okay for work.

Aaaanyhoo, this week's been rather nice in spots.

Tuesday was good, if busy. First was my usual knit'n'knatter but that evening it was Valley Fibres, a local group of spinners/knitters/weavers/dyers/etc At this meeting I was due to collect my new wheel, carders and niddy noddy. Well I did!

Meet Ash:

I rubbed him down with some linseed oil so his wood was fed, oiled his axels and we got going! In just one day I finished carding and spun 95g of Jacob fleece, plied it, rinsed in the twist and.....

How cool is that? 141.6 yards (129.5 m) of plied jacob fleece, came out somewhere between aran and chunky so I'll knit it up on 5mm needles. Will make a great pair of really warm mitts.

I also spun up 50g of that huge bag of shetland I got 2 weekends ago, plied that and got it off the airer today. Lovely.

Ash and I had a little arguing first though, he'd worked a screw loose (who hasn't? ;) so the bobbin was completely out of line with the wheel and causing him to be a moody git. A little adjsuting and tightening and he spins like a dream.

I've listed my other one on Rav and Phoenix but no-one seems to want it. I *could* keep it but I think hubbie might be miffed. So if it's not been asked for by pay-day I shall hunt down some bits of leather and replace those on it, then it's be a fully working wheel rather than slubby-only.

Yes, today was the Todmorden Agricultural Show. I'd already e-mailed the organiser of the sheep section about fleece aquisition so we met and she introduced me to a couple of people. The first was demonstrating shearing and owns a farm up above the school and the second is up the road from us a fair bit. The latter gave me their number and apparently own "the best sheep in the area" and have permitted me to ring them to arrange collecting some fleeces so I shall be ringing them tomorrow evening to find out what they have then seeing what people want me to get and pass out from here, seems better than umpteen people visiting the farmers.

The shearing guy was great, he was shearing Mule/Tencel cross ewes who were pretty darn big and he just gave me a fleece, said to put a pound or two in the next charity pot I see as that's all the Wool Board would give him. So I've put £2 in the Sue Ryder Cancer Care pot in the Factory Shop and started washing my new fleece.

Raw Mule/Tencel fleece:

Some washed bits:

I can't get all the muck out without felting those bits so I'm hoping that between drying and carding those last little bits will fall out. As you can see, she was quite the dirty girly! I've got out my dog crate that I plan to use as a collapsible ferret display cage, lined the tray with a towel and put some mesh material over the top, excellent fleece-drying rack.

Not all the blue marker used has come out but it has distinctly shrunk! What was about a square foot of blue is now about 3" square so if I do decide to ditch it, certainly less need ditching.

So, yes, happy me.

My parents came to see us today. They didn't want to see the show but we did take them shopping, did a little in the Factory shop first. Dad got 3 pairs of shoes! He loves that shop, only place he can get shoes that are perfect for his size 13 wide UK feet so he took full advantage of their £15 a pair. Mum got a new work mug, a tray and some other bits and bobs, I got 12 silicon muffin cases (I'd rather wash those than bin lots of paper ones) and some folding plastic colanders, perfect for washing fleece! Then it was Lidl shopping, we got some juice, restocked the choccy supply (very important!) and some other little bits, convinced Mum to get some fairly traded coffee although she did still buy a jar of baby-killer coffee, she also got some wine and some little bottles for play-in-the-park back in Lancaster.

After that it was time to go home, have some choc-chip-choc-coated cake and coffee for the 'rents and generally sit and chat for a bit. Dad visited the ferrets, he does like to visit my pets :) They also brought an old suitcase wheel adapter thing that should make a great ferret-wheelchair with a little work so Thomas might be able to start working on those back legs.

After chatting it was off to Ridoy between here and Burnley. They are a *fantastic* Indian restaurant and my parents were won over after just the starters. Amazing food, not overpriced, decent amounts of meat and the sauces don't just flow off the plate. Also, if you order take-away you get a free bottle of wine instead of the usual bottle of Coke or whatever.

Yeah, good day. Hubbie was happy as he'd just sent off what he thought was a good job application, I was happy, David the ferret made so so so many kids' day and was completely zonked afters and seeing my parents was nice.

Now I'm off to post some fleece-washing queries on the fleece group I'm in on Rav.

W00T!!!

2009-06-17T11:45:00.002+01:00

Okay, I don't usually use l337sp3ak or however one spells it but this is important, IMHO

I am now the happy owner of:

1 Ahsford Traditional spinning wheel
1 Pair of "good quality" carders
1 full size niddy noddy

Huzzah!

Alison, being the wonderful friend she is, kindly drove us to last night's Valley Fibres meeting where we sat and knit and generally chatted with like-minded peeps and I chatted with Sue about the procurement of above articles. The wheel fit fine in the back of Alison's Ford Focus and is now in my living room.

I cleared out the carders using a knitting needle to persuade the bits of wool up and out and linseed oil'd the wheel. Spun 5 rolags of Jacob already.

Ranyart who extremely kindly turned a new drive whorl for my other wheel has said I can sell it on so I shall list that shortly. Going to put it up on Phoenix first methinks.

So, yes, happy Fluzzlewett!

Now I go to list wheel, have lunch and watch The Zoo

WWKIP day

2009-06-14T13:18:00.002+01:00

World Wide Knit In Public day was yesterday, 13th June.

It was lovely to see soooooooo many people! My local meet was at the Piece Hall in Halifax, Alison drove the two of us over and I think we had 16 at one point. It was also a food and drink festival but that didn't stop us taking a bench at a cafe and camping out on the grass next to it.

The weather was fantastic, a fair few of us have a little sunburn to show for it. Carol was fantastic and showed a couple of ladies how to spin, sorry I set you up! I did intend to PM you about it but our internet is a right moody so-and-so this month.

I think one of the best parts was seeing the two men knitting together. Pete is usually all on his own (not that he seems to mind) so it was wonderful to see him sharing tips with another man :)

So, yes, absolutely wonderful day. Now I think I shall go on a walk and see if I can find some dye plants to harvest later in the year.

Top 100 Books

2009-06-07T23:19:00.002+01:00

I was looking at a friend's blog and saw this, apparently most people will only have read up to 6 of this list soooo....Instructions:

Look at the list and bold those you have read.

Underline those you intend to read.

Italicise the books you LOVE.

Post your list so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger

19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34. Emma - Jane Austen

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding

69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte's Web - EB White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Yummy photos

2009-06-07T14:20:00.002+01:00

I took these yesterday but between being knackered and our moody internet I couldn't post them so......

Yummy fibres to be spun:

Two undyed lace and the krafy koala lace for the Nancy Bush workshop:

I also got some bamboo DPNs yesterday, one set is for the workshop and the other 3 are for general use. While I prefer metal DPNs most of the time, for small numbers of stitches I need wooden/bamboo in order for the needles to stay in the stitches and not run off.

Anyhoo, I'm shattered so I'm going to go lie down for a bit.

Kewl

2009-06-06T22:12:00.002+01:00

I noticed on Rav that a friend had sorted her queue so she could find things easily.

How cunning. Up to today I've been using my faves to keep potential patterns aswell as faves. Well, I've just done that. You can create groups for patterns based on tabs so I now have:
Lace
Colourwork
Cute
Prem

I'll add crochet soon.

Yes, much nicer to have my patterns organised by type so I can decide based on my mood.

In other news it was UK Ravelry day today down in Coventry. Alison drove two friends and myself down and we had a pretty good time. Alas, it rained all the time and it wasn't so good for people on mobility scooters, the stalls were too tall to see clearly from a scooter and the indoor stalls didn't have enough passing room so poor Alison spent a lot of time waiting for people who didn't see her to move out of the bloody way.

Honestly, I think I must be a strange human, you see, even when I'm looking for a gap in a crowd I still notice what's directly infront of me, regardless of size. I couldn't believe the number of rude people today, considering knitters/fibre lovers are usually nice people it was so bloody annoying. People would either be oblivious or look at the scooter and assume, even though it's pointing at them, that the person isn't wanting to go that way. UH?????

Anyhooooo, I did some shopping ;)
I got:
300g black alpaca tops from Fibre Harvest
150g Merino/silk blend tops from FH
A plait of BFL in "humbug" from Krafty Koala
A 50g skein of gorgeous laceweight from KK
A Pure wool sample pack from Jamieson and Smith
500g black shetland from J&S
2 skeins of natural lace to dye (one hank is organic too) both from FH
A hank of white and black shetland to spin from FH
Natural dyes, mordants and indigo kit from Mulberry Dyers

The Fibre Harvest people were fantastic, the man who weighed off my alpaca and the merino gave me 1/3rd free basically. I paid for 200g Alpaca but got 300g and 100g merino but got 150g THey were also rounding to the nearest pound so I was very happy indeed.

It wasn't what I expected, nor any of us expected but it was a nice day and I do now have a reasonably sized fibre stash.

Anyway, that's about it really.

On the ferret front, Thomas is on 1mg Prednicare for the rest of his life and is now classed as disabled. I was looking him over this evening and spotted he has a blocked anal gland, typical, so I relieved it enough to make him comfy and Monday I get to ring the vets again. He's also on Anti-biotics to combat the infection. Poor little man was not impressed when Mummy stuffed one pill down his throat, squeezed his swollen bum and then chucked another pill down. He showed his unhappiness by going to sleep in the 7' long plastic tube.

I did clean their room though, swept the floor, tidied and changed the ball bucket to a fleece bucket, when it came to bed time I found Smithy, Fred and David all playing in it. So, yes, unspinnable fleeces and fleece bits welcome, ferrets love to burrow through the stuff.

Right, that really is everything now.

Of pigeons and knitting

2009-06-03T17:40:00.000+01:00

I write this as our poor router tries to persude the phone line to co-operate. This is happening more and more, TalkTalk say they're going to update the interchange near us "soon" to deal with the increased load but until then it's first come, first served.

It appears we are a pit-stop for racing pigeons. We had a trio stop and hang about for about 4 days who have now flown on and now there's a new pigeon looking hopefully at me when I go in the kitchen. they've seemingly done the pigeon equivalent of putting up a sign saying "free grub here, look pathetic" Okay, I did buy a 15kg sack of black sunflower seeds last year, but that was for the tits, we have the coal and blue varieties here along with a wren or two and a pair of robins, one is skinny and the other looks like a brown tennis ball with a head and tail. Luckily these little birds don't get their seed nicked as it's in a huge feeder hung by some handy tall plants in the back garden but since we started putting oddments of bread, flapjack and such on the back wall I am now expected to put some seed on said wall atleast once a day for pigeon delight.

Once they're indulging in their meal I can usually get a good look at them without them taking flight, they all had/have green rings and some even a white ring on the other leg which, I believe, denotes them as racers. Alas, I can't be certain as the internet, as mentioned, is down. So far luckily no-one has complained that I am feeding them, i know it's common practice in towns and cities to put up big signs saying "do not feed the pigeons, they are pests" but as these are ringed and look well kept it's only fair to give them some fuel to get home. Okay, we have three again, photos when I can upload them, but only one is ringed so the others could just be taking advantage.

Anyhoo, yes.

My commission is coming on okay. I've almost done the back, I would be done but I had to frog two repeats (about 7cm) as I'd gone 1 stitch over and they were skewed horribly. Anyhoo, about 8cm to go then the shoulder bits (about 5cm each) and the back is done.

One of those nights/days

2009-05-30T05:40:00.003+01:00

On Thursday I spent 2 hours arguing with a tree in our front yard. It had to be removed because if it continued to grow there not only would it attack our elderly, unstable neighbour but it would also push against the retaining wall that stands between the 4 foot high, 8 feet deep mass of soil and rublle and the main road. So, unfortunately the end result was a broken tap root but it was collected today along with two other unsuitable-for-small-gardens shrubs to go to a new home. Oh how I love Freecycle, someone always wants plants be they house or garden variety. Also unfortunately (I hate that word, it's so hard to type!) three hours total trying to wrangle a tree from the earth left my arms in agony, I pulled every muscle, tendon and nerve from shoulder to finger tip so I donned my wrist splints, asked hubbie to kindly cut up my tea and make me a drink, dosed myself on some painkillers and went to bed.

I have now boogered my sleep pattern and I'm going back to work on Monday. Friday morning, wee small hours, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, when I eventually did i slept through to 11.30am. This morning I join hubbie going to bed at 11pm but silly me had a nap 3-7pm because my neck was trying to rip my brain out (well, it felt that way) so I didn't go to sleep and am infact still wide awake. Dawn started at 3.30am it's now 5.46am

On the plus side I am making progress on a Branching Out scarf in my henna'd brigantia, on the not so plus side I learnt why people strain off the henna *before* dyeing. I wound it in the wee small hours yesterday and covered the table, laptop, wii-mote and surrounding area in dried henna, every time I knit with it I get a little pile on my tum. Ah well, lesson learnt and it does make a pretty branching out scarf.

What else? Hmmmm..... Oooh, yes, Yarn Forward magazine are being clever and green, they're now offering a digital subscription of £25 for 10 magazines to anywhere in the world by e-mail, wonderful idea I think. Although I also think I may subscribe to The Knitter instead but not until my next paycheck as this one is completely ear-marked.

June is looking busy, seriously busy. For one thing I shall be doing my usual two shifts each day on work days and Tuesday morning knit'n'knatter but also.....
Thursday 4th - meal out with pals
Saturday 6th - UK Ravelry day down in Coventry
Saturday 13th - World Wide Knit In Public Day, my local meet is in Halifax at the Piece Hall
Saturday 20th - Todmorden Agricultural Show where i plan to talk nicely to sheep farmers about fleece aquisitions.
Monday 22nd - Hubbie's birthday, no idea what we're going to do, probably order take away.

So, yes, there go all my wages!

But now I think I shall go attempt to get some snooze in. I shall get up before midday though so I don't completely throw my system out.

Hey-ho. Atleast my arms aren't so sore I can't knit at all but I can only do limited knitting. I'm working on a commission in cotton and that is on hold as working cotton is hard so that's why I have cast on the branching out as it's a nice loose knit, ideal for sore, bored hands.

Busy busy busy

2009-05-26T15:10:00.002+01:00

So this weekend was a bank holiday and I offered to go help at a demonstration of knitting and spinning and general fibre-crafts at the Alternative Technology Centre in Hebden Bridge. So Alison kindly chauffered me down on Saturday so i could take my wheel and get some expert advice/opinion.

In the end the general consensus was that A) my wheel needs work and may only ever be good enough for an uneven yarn and B) there's an Ashford up for grabs and I'm at the top of the list so long as the current owner will accept me paying in monthly installments. So Tuesday 16th June I shall have an Ashford Traditional, a pair of carders and a niddy-noddy if she's happy with the arrangement.

So, yes, the weekend. Absolutely fantastic weather, sun, dry, gorgeous! loads of people walking along the canal path so we put Baaaaaaarbara out to catch attention:

You wouldn't believe the number of dogs that bluntly refused to walk past this "sheep", some were completely spooked, one would only go past once we moved the sheep inside and one sat on it's haunches and barked at her. The collies amused me the most, they wanted to herd it but it didn't move.

We had loads of stuff on display:
Peg loom, a shawl by me and some natural dyeing stuff and my dyed cottons:

Various plants for dyeing naturally:

(I got to keep these and re-potted them today)

Rugs made on peg loom and rug loom by the talented duo of Sue and Martin

Knitted things and rolags:

The corner where we sat and spun:

Sue was excellent and was happy to teach me to card fleece and make rolags to spin from. She brought in a Jacob's fleece for a lady who'd got a fleece but it was too old to do much but make twine from and as I'd given this lady some of my linseed oil she gave me half the Jacob so I carded most of that and started spinning it on my drop spindle. I got a pretty even single that I plan to use for a lace project I have in mind.

So, yes, over the weekend I got a fair bit of spinning done.

From left to right:
"hope" falkland tops from Black Cat Fibres (plied)
"Jacobino" It has one rolag of merino that Sue kindly let me try(single)
"Northern Lights"(I think) Merino tops from Freyalyn (plied on spindle, spun on wheel)

I also made about 17 jacob rolags to spin into more singles. The single above is only 62.2yds so I need about 10 of those for a big project or about 5-7 for the project I have in mind.

Also this holiday I decided I was going to attack the back garden. I resisted the temptation to just get a flame-thrower and instead got a lift with Alison, grabbed hubbie on the way past and went to Tesco. I got a garden fork, 50l of compost and some new pots.

So I spent 2 hours in the back garden and attacked it. I pulled up all the green'/white grassy stuff that had invaded and dug up another plant that was just sprawling out and chuck them on the compost heap:

I generally tidied, moved some little plants to the newly cleared spots and picked out all the fag-packet-wrappers that had invaded. I then potted my newly aquired dye plants and arranged those. So our garden now looks more organised:

I was given some anti-slug tape earlier this year and finally installed it. I wrapped it round the Woad, Weld and one-I-can't-remember pots to hopefully protect them then used the last of it to hopefully stop the annoying slimy things invading the kitchen.

Anyhooo, Golf on the Wii now :)

My first natural dyeing

2009-05-20T14:09:00.002+01:00

So I was reading a thread on Phoenix knitters about dyeing hair with henna. I found it fascinating and as I found chemical dyes to be harsh to my scalp I asked if anyone had a little sitting about i could have to patch test myself before taking the plunge and buying enough to cover my hair 9I have a LOT). Well, someone kindly posted me some out, rather a lot actually. I did the bit for patch-testing and so far (21hours in) no reaction, but I need to leave it 48 hours to be certain.

anyhoo, with the rest I said I'd dye a hank of Brigantia I had sitting about. It was natural, unbleached DK weight. So I boil the kettle and let it cool a little, pour into my huge pan and let it cool a little more (I read that boiling water+henna = brown rather than orange/red) Put the hank in and made sure it got covered, flopped it over twice to be certain then put some cling film over and left it for an hour........

Looks interesting...

Hmmm....

Then i put the camera aside and made sure my rinsing water was the same temp. as the wool. three rinses later....

Without camera flash:

So that's drip-drying over the tap at the moment. Once it's a bit drier I'll transfer it to the airer.

Also, this weekend Alison and I went to a talk about natural, eco-friendly fibres in Bradford and we used the Satnav each way. Now, Alison's satnav has a bit of a quirk, it never comes back the route it leaves, there's always some changes. In this case it took us past Cold Spring Mill, a place we had heard lots about but never been to. Well.......we couldn't just go past could we? I owe Alison £11 for this lot:

Each hank is about 300g of pure wool. I'm going to make myself a top-down raglan jumper with it, striping the two yarns.

It's bleedin' well raining AGAIN! honestly, it's done very little apart from rain this week. My work waterproof hasn't really dried out properly for days and the mildew on the inside has infected some eczema patches so I shall have to work up the nerve to ask the boss for a replacement. Same with the baseball cap because at the start of the week I was caught out in a humongous downpour and it has now succumbed to mildew too. Yuck.

Anyhoo, got 20 minutes to cross-post this on Phoenix and check in there.

Later peeps.

Busy busy busy

2009-05-06T17:31:00.003+01:00

Firstly, Thomas is doing great. The vet gave him a tentative thumbs-up and he's got 9.5 more days of steroids before we wean him off slowly. He's finally using his back legs again and his tail is slowly regaining muscle mass.

In other news, I've been busy. The weekend before last Alison and I went to Anfield racecourse for a craft show, we had a good browse, I helped when the stall was too tightly packed for her scooter and we bought some bits. I got some praline misshapes that disappeared in 48 hours, a vibrating massage cushion for my poor back, a leaflet from someone who does amazing embroidery kits and some stencils and stencil paint:

These are to decorate my (currently) very plain rocking chair as it'll be easier to re-paint it white and stencil some patterns on than sand off the paint currently on it. The big celtic knot will go across the head rest and the dragon will go on the seat. I may also get some coloured paints to liven things up a bit.

Today I went uber-shopping. I got pasta, corn flakes, toothpaste, paste bandages, J2O (on offer and working out at 50p a bottle!), deodorant, cotton yarn and a new storage box:

It's surprisingly roomy and weighs nothing really in itself. Shame they only come in green and yellow, I'd love a colour for each stash. This one is my fibre stash, tomorrow I may well get another 2 or 3 for my natural yarns stash and my "other" yarns stash. I also cleared another shelf in the living room and half the videos are now in the bedroom, the other half are in a crate on the floor. I have a box of stuff for a charity shop (just need to go into a shop and ask if someone can come collect it), a box of things to keep to go in the boiler room and the living room feels less cluttered.

I'm just going to get everything where I want it and we're going to move aren't we? What with hubbie looking for jobs in Scotland and just sent off an application for one on Islay it's entirely possible. On the plus side, one way or another, we WILL be hiring removal men who pack everything for you if you want it insured against damage (Bliss!).

Anyhoo, Simpsons time :)

My poor babba!

2009-05-01T18:47:00.002+01:00

So, as you probably all know by now, Thomas has been in the Wars, last week he had a tummy upset and this week his rear end has been a little weak.

Well after he screamed the place down last night we saw the vet this morning. She took x-rays and there's nothing wrong with his bones. His kidneys, liver, pancreas all feel fine but his mid-spine down are very tender. He hasn't been able to leave his bed to relieve himself.

There are two things high on the "probably this" list:
Lymphoma - a cancer of the lymph system, no known cure
Some long-named thing - newly entered the ferret world, ominously it starts with diarrhoea and rear end weakness, ends in complete nerve death.

I cannot tell you how distressed I was when I got him home.

Anyway, as it's a long weekend this weekend we're having a last attempt to get him better as he's still bright eyed and still interested in life. So I have "Prednicare" steroids and the usual antibiotics (steroids lower immune function so the AB's act as a back-up) to give twice a day until Tuesday when we decide.

I can't bear to think anything but he's going to get better. I put Lou to sleep in February, losing my 3yo cuddle-bug is too much to consider.

So I ask you all, whatever religion you may or may not practice, please wish my little boy the best.

Thank you.

Can't get into anything

2009-05-01T12:51:00.002+01:00

So yesterday morning I popped into the vets to leave a message saying Thomas was doing fine. 6.45 that evening he starts screaming. I thought Barry was just wrestling with him in the bed but no, he comes out of the bedding and is just screaming! I pick him up and get bitten for it.

I don't know what in particular triggered it but his back had gone into spasm and he was in agony. So I held him while it passed then put him back in solitary with food and water at neck's length. I ring the vets, I can't get to their emergency office as it's over an hour by bus and then completely off the bus route so I book him in for first thing this morning.

I slept fitfully all night, took him to work with me as there was no time to come home and get him adn then we went vet-wards. He relieved himself on the table as is his wont but then his back legs gave out and he flopped in his own pee. Poor boy looked miffed.

Anyway, I agreed it was the best to leave him for x-rays.

That was 3 hours ago.

I can't get into anything. My mind worries. Not to mention it's my time of the month so my hormones are going haywire!

I did lose an hour this morning to getting some malware off the laptop. I didn't even suspect we had any until I tried to get to the windows update page and kept getting google.com Luckily AdAware found it and killed it.

I've got the rough design for a prem. baby snuggle suit written up and am just knitting it now to get the dimensions and numbers sorted, but can I sit and get on with it? nope.

Gah.

I think I shall go lose myself in webcomics or something.

The cotton is dry and other things

2009-04-22T13:40:00.004+01:00

I'm going to have to fathom how to dry this stuff quicker, it's taken nearly 4 days!

Anyhoo, it's dry and listed in my Etsy shop, I tried to be "artistic" in my photography so here we go:

Turquiose noils:

Emerald Green: (not sure if this will sell looking like this, may have to overdye)

Fuschia

Lemon Yellow (colour improved now it's dry)

My Hemlock is going well, just done round 21 on the chart. I knit and tinked and knit and tinked and knit again on Tuesday morning at knit'n'knatter. I hadn't at any point actually cocked up the knitting, just my thinking. So that was frustrating. I couldn't crochet because the eczema on the side of my right hand is right where the hook rests and bleedin' well hurt!

On the plus side, the weather is being wonderful, it was a little drizzly yesterday afternoon/evening but nothing amazingly wet. I've got the bedding out on the line, put it out 9.15, dry already at 1.15. I'll leave it out until I get back from work anyhoo, it's nice to have aired and sun-bleached bedding on the bed. Some stains in the sheet haven't washed out, Jo had a bad nosebleed and the blood is set in because numpty me put it through at 60. Ah well, we should probably replace the sheets soon anyway, they're getting rather stained, serves us right for using a cream and a white sheet.

My back is giving me hell at the moment. Still no letter from the physio, I would have gone in today to ask about it but I had Thomas with me and the receptionists glare at me for having an animal (fair enough).

Thomas has a tummy bug. Luckily it's only him, the other 4 are fine. His back end was all floppy on Sunday but as he was eating and drinking I left him in isolation and got to the vets for Monday. He's on anti-biotics, pro-biotic/fecal binding agent and now has some fuciderm cream for the ulcers and skin irritation in his nethers. So 7.30am he gets the AB, 9.30 is the probiotic and cream, 6pm is the second AB and 7pm is the second probiotic and cream again. Poor little man, he's not happy about all this but he does get spoilt after each thing with a whole ml of ferretone, the catnip for ferrets. I even got them all a diced chicken breast for bedtime treat today and as Thomas is in solitary he gets his portion all to himself. This is ofcourse when I discover he's not one who eats it ;)

I was getting a lift back with Mick, one of the MyBus drivers, yesterday afternoon when we got to talking about the hols. I mentioned I'd done some ferret racing and after this weekend I shall be in posession of my own kit for doing so. He's asked me if I could do some in September :D I shall have to ring Jean first though because I want to know about insurance stuff. Currently if I help her I'm covered under her insurance and for the racing I did at Easter I was covered by the owner's insurance so I need to check with Mick if the site will have insurance or do I need to sort my own. I'll ask Jean how much she pays for hers and who from, may be worth getting. I may even advertise a little ;)

Anyhoo, not much else really. I've re-joined Friends Re-united, I had joined but completely forgotten all the details then remembered someone I wanted to check on this weekend and so it went from there. One pal from Uni is now an electronic consultant and a pal from school is happily over in Australia where she always dreamed of going.

I realised at the weekend I actually miss one of the boy who bullied me from the first day he was at the school, weird but true. I miss his piano playing mainly. We did music GCSE together with some others and that was the only lesson he didn't bully me in, he even respected my vocal ability. Wonder what would have happened if I'd taken singing as my specialisation rather than piano?

Really shouldn't have done piano, I can't read along a line easily so discerning which line the note is on was almost impossible, I still remember getting rapped on the knuckle with a pencil every time I hit the wrong key or dithered. My poor teacher ended up telling me to label them all becuase that way I could actually progress. I got rid of my piano books when I cleaned out my bedroom at my parents' bit of a shame now, ah well, not as though we have a piano or even a keyboard anymore. My keyboard was sent to charity when my hands got too big for the tiny keys.

Ahh, the road not travelled.

Anyway, it's much too nice a day to sink into gloom so I am going to go browse ravelry, check e-mails and then knit on my Hemlock blanket, never know, might be done by Christmas ;)

Been enjoying the sun

2009-04-18T19:31:00.002+01:00

First some Emerald Green and Fuschia Pink:

I rather cocked this lot up as I added the mordant at the start so some of the cotton noils didn't take:

I'm going to let them dry overnight and see if they want overdyeing tomorrow.

The viscose (seen hanging between the two pots) took amazingly well. It's a pleasure to dye but doesn't half scrunch up when wet. Sort of like a super-absorbent cotton.

I also did some Turquoise and Lemon Yellow. I added the mordant after 40 minutes and it did take a lot better. The yellow after rinsing looks more like vomit but we'll see when it dries.

I also worked on my hemlock in my rocking chair:

I really want to decorate that chair, I hate the white but I've looked at the repairs it's had over time and know that stripping the paint off won't look nice either. Maybe next month a trip to Hobbycraft again to get some stencils and paints. Unless any of my local readers know somewhere?

So yes, round 41 of the hemlock is in progress. Only one more patterned round then three rounds of knit before starting the feather and fan rounds. Kewl. My knitting mojo is waning at the moment. 2 weeks of hols has slowed me, the ferrets haven't had all the time they should either. Ah well, 2 more nights and it's back to work. Going to be a jolt to the system getting up at 7.30am rather than 2pm but I'll manage. I plan to sort, list and photograph my entire stash so that should keep me awake on Monday atleast.

Goodness knows what I'm going to do over the 6 week summer holiday. Maybe finally get the cleaning sorted that I meant to do this holiday. Jo has been spontaneous this fortnight and he's done anything but help me clean *sigh* On the sort-of plus side we've now got an order for the washing up: he does it over the holidays, I do it during term time. If we hadn't had an estate agent over to let us know the value of the place the kitchen would still be lost. My husband does not "do" washing up. He got it ALL done Wednesday evening (yes, I was dragged in to help) so what does the kitchen look like now? Yep, you guessed it, a tip again! During term time I shall hope my example might let him see how easy it is to prevent this. I shall do it when I get back from my morning shift each day and hopefully it'll weedle its way into his head.

Hah, yeah.

Anyhoo, thinking of the fuzzies, I shall go scoop the poop, top up food and water and make sure they're all okay. Will also do some ferret laundry this week, I binned a lot of old bedding and they only have 3 sets now, they're sleeping in the 3rd set (oops).

Maybe I can get control over the human laundry that never seems to stop.

Meet Ted and Miffy

2009-04-11T20:08:00.002+01:00

I'm doing some ferret racing for chairty tomorrow and have "borrowed" these two to up my numbers for racing. Jo doesn't have a ferret-proof garden so I let them loose in ours this afternoon once it was cool enough, I took many photos:

All clickable thumbnails.

The hugely fluffed out tails are because they're excited and a little spooked by this place. Ted (the albino) finally got the idea and had a little dig but Miffy ended up under my hair feeling a little overwhelmed. She's half Ted's size and a quarter of any of my boys but she's got more character than the big ones. :)

Knitted ramblings

Lots of knitting later...

Long time no update...

A little colouring

RIP Smithy Bennet, 7 years old

Eight, nearly nine months.

Nearly there....

So busy!

Back Online!

2010 in knitting

Yes I'm mad

Aquarline Heaters

Books for sale

Progress and Finishing

Just the photos

productive

27

happenings of the week

More hats!.....erm...again.

Tod show

More hats!

Ow.

A nice weekend

Bits and Bobs

Chaos

Knit-ins, chickens and hoods

*groan*

My old man's a dustman

Finished things

Places and Things

Looks nice so far

Tunisian fun

Been a busy girly

books, books, books!

My bouquets

Been a naughty girlie

Well, that was embarassing

Consults previous posts.....

Bugger them

6 weeks and so much to tell

End of one, start of another

Things

17 days later

I've had enough!

How long?!

spiders, medication, pain, dieting and worry

Thanks

Lots to think on

What have I done today?

Monday

Health update

Bloody hellfire!

Hello World

Well that was pointful

Eeeinterestink

3.34am

Thank goodness for paracetamol

Blah

Oh dear, there goes more time

Things and thoughts

P.S.

Blood taken

Blah

Eye tests

Busy busy busy!

Stoof

I'm confused

Plodding along

Yay and grrrr

Things

Mmmmmmm

Indigo'd tops washed and dryed

Dyeing Day

Holiday photos

I can't find them

Thomas Bennett (June 2006 – 15.45 11th August 2009)

I'm sorry

Finally finished

Insomnia or something else?

I'm baaaaaack

groan