How to keep your biscuits fresh

So, here we have a packet of biscuits.

Coconut rings to be precise.

Our dilemma is how to keep them fresh without paying out for a storage box when you haven't taken out enough biscuits to twizzle the top like this.

So, use that little red strip thing to open the top and consume some biscuits, you should now have this.

Turn the top bit upside down and reinsert it back into the packet, like this.

It's personal preference whether you just stick it in the top of push it right down to the biscuits, personally I push it right down to the biscuits.

Of course, you could just forget about that bit and eat all the biscuits, no biscuits = no dilemma!

I can knit socks!

OK, a sock! But it's a start!

This is the Viking Sock which I've made for Matt to wear to his High School Prom in June.

It just fits!

Matt’s ankle

So, it's been over a week since Matt injured his ankle and it's still healing. I'm not convinced that it's 'just' a sprain. I'm wondering if he's cracked the bone or broken one of the smaller bones in his foot. He's still using a crutch and is still limping and requires painkillers if he overdoes it. This is how it looks today!

I’m on a roll today!

I've blogged loads of times (this'll make five), I went shopping for tiles for the bathroom and I've messed around with the blog design so that I'm actually using the majority of the screen and I think it looks much better.

I suppose I should really go and get on with those socks…do you think I'm procrastinating? I'm not a fan of DPN's. I had real trouble with that last sock I started, we came to the conclusion that my DPN's were just too long, so I've bought some shorter ones - it's easier, but the points still dig in (just in my hands now, instead of my wrists LOL). I can see the attraction, but not the obsession.

That's a shame, because I think sock knitting is so cool!

Display Shawl

Joy (aka The Knitting Goddess) asked me if I'd be willing to knit something up for her to take to shows like UK Ravelry Day and iKnit so that she can show how certain colours look once they've been knitted.

I decided to knit another version of the shawl I made for Mum's birthday.

I love how it's come out, it's really pretty and certainly suits the name 'Vernal Spring Equinox'

The yarn is 100% Cashmere laceweight and the colour is called Violet Meadows.

Took 9 days to complete.

Pattern: Vernal Equinox Shawl Surprise

Source: Lankakomero

Yarn: Violet Meadows 65% Cashmere/35% Silk Laceweight from The Knitting Goddess

Tme: 15-04-09 - 24-04-09

Matt

I knew I'd remember something else!

Last Saturday Matt and Arnie were bouncing about on the trampoline. Apparently they weren't doing any stunts or anything they shouldn't have been doing, just bouncing up and down and Matt landed awkwardly. He felt loads of pain in his ankle; it made him quite nauseous so he got Arnie to help him up the stairs to the loo in case he was sick.

After a bit, Arnie came down to tell me that Matt was ill.

I went up the stairs to find Matt, white as a sheet, extremely faint and sweating buckets. Now, I knew he was near to being sick because that's exactly how I am just before…………….well, you get the idea!

I sent Arnie down to dampen a towel with cold water, Alex to get a glass of water and Kyle to inform Mum that I'd probably be making a trip to A&E so she'd have to catch the bus to work.

I got him cooled down and when there was colour back in his cheeks I asked if I could look. He swivelled round and extended his foot towards me. He still had his sock on and it looked like someone had shoved a tennis ball down the outside of his ankle. I managed to ease the sock off and this is what I saw!

I got Arnie to carry Matt down the stairs (Arnie is 6ft 7ins and weighs about 250lbs and Matt is a 5ft 3ins twig) and we bundled him in the car and headed for hospital.

Can you believe that it's not broken? Apparently he's just sprained it!

Here is a gallery of how his ankle has gone through the week, above is the photo I took in the A&E waiting room on the 18^th April. Below from left to right photos taken on 19^th, 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd of April.

The rest of this week!

What a week, it started off last weekend dreadfully. I was putting the rubbish out for collection on Sunday evening, everything felt fine until I sat down to work on Joy's shawl a bit more. Then my shoulder really started to hurt.

I dropped pins and tried to relax, but shoulder was having none of it ~ I had a muscle in spasm about halfway down the inside edge of my right shoulder blade.

I spent the night crying and wriggling around on my floor/bed.

I had a nap on Monday afternoon with Isis and a hot water bottle ~ I'd taken loads of meds and those combined with no sleep and the warmth of the hot water bottle and Isis cuddles made me snooze for an hour or so.

I went to knit night that night and asked Joy to have a look at it as I know she used to be a masseuse. She beat the sh*t out of my shoulder! Really pummelled it and it bloody hurt! But I knew it would and she stopped when I'd had enough. But it did the trick and I was able to use it a bit more ~ I dread to think how bad the London trip would've been the next day if she hadn't looked at it!

On Wednesday, I took Isis to have her summer hair cut, she looks absolutely adorable. We can see her face again and she's a lot happier now she's lighter LOL.

It's with huge regret I'm informing you that I WON'T be knitting the Mrs R shawl. Well, not for February and not for Mrs R as the wedding won't be taking place. I'll probably knit it at some point in the future, but it won't be for previously stated reasons.

I've had a week of snooker, the world championships is on at the moment, it's been quite exciting. Ronnie O'Sullivan won't be in any of the final matches as he went out today thanks to Mark Allen.

WWE Wrestlemania was absolutely fabulous a couple of weeks ago and WWE Backlash is this weekend ~ I'm getting too old for all these all night TV sessions ROFL.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm, can't think of anything else at the moment although I probably will as soon as I hit publish lol

This week

Hmmmmmmm, this is probably going to be quite a long post, so be warned!

Phantom of the Opera - loved it! It was amazing! The young man who played the Phantom was Nic Greensheilds and his performance was so inspiring, I was in absolute floods of tears!

On the way to London we stopped at Drummonds, it's one of those places that strips the insides of houses before the houses get knocked down and then sells off all the bits and pieces. *whispers* Just in case you didn't know; they're famous LOL.

Mum has always muttered about going in there, so this time we did. They had soooooo much stuff! How would you like some of this in your house? A MARBLE toilet, sink & bath?

We also found this lounge bath - Mum was in hysterics because she said it looked like something you'd dip your backside in!

After we'd nosed around there, I took Mum into the Devil's Punchbowl Hotel for a cooked breakfast. I assumed we'd get a humongous meal being as it's a well known hotel. What we got was one sausage, two rashers of bacon, one fried egg, a spoonful of mushrooms, half a tomato and a bowl of beans.

The bacon was worryingly pink, the egg yolk very dark orange, the beans looked like they'd been reheated and the sausage HAD been reheated so many times; the middle had gone rock hard.

I called the waitress over and told her it was totally unacceptable and we got up and left without paying for the tea and coffee we had drunk. I was so upset, I'd taken Mum in there for a birthday breakfast and they served complete crap!

We decided to get back in the car, get to London and then find somewhere to eat.

We arrived with an hour and a half to spare before the performance, found a quiet little pub and had a pub lunch which was totally delicious!

Then we had an ice cream at the foot of the statue in Piccadilly Circus (is it Eros, it's not, is it?).

We wandered around like the gentry as we were both dressed up. Mum was wearing her birthday shawl - which she adored and I was wearing MD/AN.

We were sat in the second row of the Royal Circle - ideal seats except for the Italian students that were EVERYWHERE!

Twice we asked them to stop chatting and fidgeting throughout the first half and during the intermission, I complained to one of the theatre staff that the teens were unsupervised and spoiling the performance for everyone else. Just before the second half of the performance, a man came over and babbled at them angrily in Italian for about ten minutes then sat glaring at them for the rest of the show LOL!

Phantom of the Opera

Yesterday my mum turned 67 so today I took her to London to see The Phantom of the Opera musical at Her Majesty's Theatre.

It was AWESOME! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I'll write some more tomorrow, but I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed now!

A trip to hospital

Matt was bouncing about on the trampoline this evening and at one point his ankle went one way and his leg went the other. It looked like this:

So I took him to hospital to get it checked. Thankfully, they said it was just sprained, not broken. He just has to rest it and it should get better pretty quick.

The yarn

The yarn for Mrs R's wedding shawl has arrived. It's silver, soft and very fine. I think I'm going to enjoy knitting with this!

Still don’t see what all the fuss is about…

I made an entire sock - then I decided I didn't like the combination of variegated yarn and cables…so I frogged it!

Yesterday I collected some bright pink sock yarn from Joy and some yarn to make another Vernal Equinox Shawl so she can display it at shows to show off how her colours knit up.

I started the shawl late last night; the colour is called Violet Meadows and is very pretty.

I got so pissed off with the whole sock thing that I actually did another GAAA square!

Blocking

Something I've always been nervous about doing! If I stretch it too far, will it break? If it breaks, can I fix it?

You know the kind of questions I mean?

Remember Cinnamon Latte? I made it for my Mum to wear on the QE2. She didn't end up wearing it because I hadn't blocked it big enough and it didn't wrap around her comfortably.

Today I spied it and decided enough was enough - I was going to learn how to do this properly. Especially as I managed to block the Miss Lamberts Shetland Shawl and fix the border (which was unravelling as I was blocking it).

Alex kindly donated his bed to this experiment. I soaked the shawl in warm water, wrapped in a towel, walked on it, wrapped in a different towel and walked on it again. By this time it was almost dry, so I took it upstairs with a pot of clothes pins, stripped the pillows and duvet off the bed and slapped down the shawl.

I stuck one pin in and then pulled in the opposite direction and stuck another pin in, then I went halfway between those and pulled again & the same with the opposite. Then I just kept going back and forth.

Eventually I got this!

I think I did quite well, although I'm baffled as to how I'm going to block my next couple of shawls as they're humongous!

I succumbed to the lure…

Everyone kept telling me how great socks were and how I should knit some.

I've had the yarn for ages, found a pattern about a month ago, but I was too busy doing MD/AN, then Mum's birthday shawl –- you know how it is, one thing after another!

But I finally succumbed to the lure

Waste of Space

I'm talking about blogger, do you view your webpages full screen? I don't view fully expanded, but I do have the page covering most of the screen and there is loads of wasted space on the blog pages.

There's this little bit here which is about 8 inches wide and then there's at least 2 inches either side of it. WHY can't we expand the written bit?

I love the Yarn Harlot's blog, her writing fills up all the space and it goes right up to the sidebar.

I suppose she's got her own domain thingy and pays so she can have what she wants while the rest of us have got to cope with these crappy freebie thingies LOL, but if anyone knows of a way I can have my blog looking somewhat like hers without it costing me money, I'd much appreciate it *grin*

Hmmm

I finished the small shawl I was working on…and small it certainly was! I followed all the instructions and what I got was something closer to a summer scarf than a shawl!

Oh well!

So, today I did a bit more on Louhi and I also cast on my very FIRST pair of socks! They're called Viking Socks and I found them on Ravelry (naturally!). This is the first time I've knitted socks, I'm not a huge fan of DPN's but I'm giving it a go. They are doing my head in a bit, but I think I can cope - it'll be interesting to see how I manage the cablework!

I would like to try doing the two circs method, but I don't have another set of 2.5mm circs - although I suppose I could use 3.0mm instead.

I'll see how these progress and if I think they're too small, I might upgrade to the 3.0mm circs.

Pattern: Miss Lamberts Shetland Shawl

Source: Victorian Lace Today

Yarn: Stormy Sky from The Knitting Goddess

Time: 1-04-09 - 10-04-09

I been a busy girl!

Last night, I sat and wrote myself a list of tasks to do today because Mel said she couldn't come round and clean.

Oh wait, did I tell you about Mel cleaning for me?

Ok, quick review then - Mel is my best friend and the mother of my godson, Mason. I've known her since we were 8 years old. We've been through marriage, divorce, pregnancies and all the usual crap life throws at you together.

A few months ago I was moaning to her that it felt wrong for my mum, who is about to turn 67, to clean my house because I couldn't do it. Mel joked that I could hire her to be my cleaner (it's what she used to do for a living). I took her seriously and asked how much she'd charge. Eventually we agreed on a price and a method to get my house sorted (I drive her batty because I'm not at all organised and she's a clean freak {she's gonna flip when she reads this LOL, love you Mel *grin*} and she couldn't wait to sort my house out!) and she started on my home.

She comes every week and cleans for a few hours while I trail along anxiously getting in the way making sure she doesn't throw any of my unused-crap that-I-might-want-one-day away (because that's what my mum would do). The arrangement works well for both of us, I get to brag that I have a cleaner, we get to spend a few hours a week together and she gets a break from Mason for a few hours.

So this week Mel has been absolutely rushed off her feet with one thing or another and can't come today to clean. So I wrote myself a chore list

• Do the laundry
  
• Put in new light switch in the Smallest Room
  
• Order 12mm KnitPro needles so I can make Jess a Very Cropped Hoodie
  
• Phone speedauction.tv about returning an item that's developed a fault
  
• Phone my handyman about putting new window in bathroom and then tiling the bathroom
  
• Give Mum her suitcase back
  
• Tidy the hall cupboard
  
• Tidy the kitchen
  
• Vacuum
  
• Wash the floor with my new steam cleaner
  

So there you go, not major tasks that'll cause me pain (except for vacuuming), but enough to keep me busy and give me a sense of accomplishment when I've finished!

In the past two hours I have done all of the except for the last three. I'm waiting for the dishwasher to finish so that I've got somewhere to put all the dirty crockery so that I can clean out there properly lol

Edit to add: I tidied the kitchen, vacuumed everywhere, washed the porch & kitchen floor and now I'm in agony, so I'm stopping. Might do the hall & lounge tonight if I've sufficiently recovered!

It’s not funny!

I went to the garden centre with Mum yesterday - she's after some blueberry bushes for the garden. We had to try a couple of different places, but eventually found some. While there, Mum also decided to buy a couple of bags of compost.

These bags are huge and it takes two of us to lift!

We snagged a trolley - one of the ones that has two wheels in the middle, when it's not moving it rests on the front or back forks and when you're moving it you balance it on the wheels and push it along. We pulled the trolley up alongside all the compost, grabbed a sack at each end and heaved it in to the trolley.

At this point the trolley decided to move with the weight from resting on the back forks to resting on the front forks, in the process the handle (which extends up from the back forks) rose upwards - extremely quickly as we kinda threw the bag in there - and smacked me right in my left elbow!

Now, this is normally the place where when you bang it, you laugh because it hurts so f'n much, right?

Not this time, it went beyond that!

It hurt so f'n much that my vision greyed, I jumped around like a loon, felt nauseous and kicked the pile of compost bags so hard I felt it through my steel toe capped boots!

Now my elbow is seriously bruised, I can't lean on it, it hurts to bend it, it keeps stiffening up and is seriously bugging me. I guess I should be glad I didn't break it!

Banging your funny bone is NOT funny!

Mum’s Birthday Shawl

I finished Mum's birthday shawl yesterday. I was going to just carry on with Louhi and not start anything else, but it felt so chunky and my hands started to hurt, so I cast on for a pattern from Victorian Lace Today, called Miss Lamberts Shetland Shawl, it's on page 50.

I'm knitting in yarn that I bought from Joy ages ago and just never got around to using, a lovely silk/cashmere blend in a colour way called Stormy Skies - a mixture of blues and greys - I think it'll look quite effective!

Here's some pics of Mum's shawl, this is just stretched, not blocked yet - I'm taking it to Joy's to block because when I tried to block MD/AN, I gave myself a migraine bending over it and my back went bananas! I'm going to have to figure out a way of blocking without bending over something on the floor - any ideas?

Pattern: Vernal Equinox Shawl Surprise

Source: Lankakomero

Yarn: 65% Cashmere/35% Silk from The Knitting Goddess

Time: 23-03-9 - 31-03-09