UK Ravelry Day 2009

I got up at 4.20am and caught the 6am ferry. Then I drove 130 miles to Coventry to attend UK Ravelry Day.

It was great!

I bought absolutely loads - I won't tell you how much I spent, I'll just show you this:

Do-over

Everyone says that's the cool thing about knitting, if you screw it up it's easy to just redo it.

I, on the other hand, hate it! I guess that's why I couldn't stand cross stitch - I couldn't see the point of going back over a stitch you'd already done!

I finished the first Vortical sock yesterday - take a look!

Pretty isn't it? Now click on the picture to make it bigger and take a closer look.

See how tight it is? Took me ages to get that damn sock on my foot!

I'm going to have to reknit the entire sock with more stitches!

I guess casting on 60 stitches for a sock just isn't enough for my wide feet and fat calves!

I'm currently swatching to find the correct number of stitches so that I can get the cuff around my heel and comfortable on my leg.

I hate swatching!

RIP Grasshopper

I just found out that David Carradine, from TV series Kung Fu and Kill Bill films among others, died yesterday. He was found in his hotel room today, it appears he committed suicide.

What a shame!

Bleurgh

I feel like crap!

Yesterday Matt had another interview for college because the hairdressing course turned him down, he went for catering instead! While he was doing that, I took Jess shopping for school shoes and to hunt for a suit for Matt to wear to the upcoming prom.

Well, shops here seem to think that men don't come any smaller than a 38" chest!

Hello?!!?!?!?! Have you seen my kids? They're beanpoles!

I wondered around for a bit then my hips started protesting so we grabbed a sandwich and went back to the car park at the college to wait for Matt.

I dropped them at home then had to turn around and drive all the way back again to knit night.

Restaurant chairs are not my friend, especially not when I already hurt.

Joy told me that at the end of the night, I looked grey! I was in agony! I drove home and promptly took two of my whammy pills. My EDS was playing up and it RAELLY hurt!

By midnight, I was bouncing off the ceiling, out of my tree. I ended up going to sleep about 3am.

Then I had to get up this morning to go and get my nails done and hunt for the elusive suit a bit more! In the end we found one in M&S for under £40! I was quite surprised, I don't go in there because their prices have always been extortionate before, but they were very reasonable and had a good selection.

We were quite lucky, all the trousers started at a 32" waist; Matt is 28" and 4" extra is very baggy. We found a pair of school trousers that matched for less than £10!

Bargain day today!

But, it was too much and I shouldn't have done it. By the time I got home I ached even more and a migraine was threatening, so I took one whammy and spent the afternoon writhing in an armchair.

Then passed out for 3 hours early this evening.

You know what that means, don't you? I'm going to be up all bloody night now *sigh*

To frog or not to frog

I started Louhi ages ago, but I'm seriously considering frogging it. I haven't worked on it in ages and while I love the look of it, the pattern itself is boring.

It's also incredibly thick and heavy! I'm thinking I might do it again later in a light weight yarn.

The trouble is, it's worked in one piece. You cable at the front then rib to the back panel which you cable then rib to the other front that has a cable.

All that rib will drive me crazy. I'm thinking of making Terra which again is very bulky and mindless which I think'll be perfect for travelling around with.

Dunno, will have to think about this

Oh, I forgot to share this with you yesterday!

There was a bit of discussion on Ravelry in the Knitting Goddesses group about 'signing' your knitting. This is doing something to it that marks it as unique and shows it was made by you.

Now, I always attach my little labels to items that are intended for someone else, but I also wanted to do something else so I decided to add a bead.

Just one bead, that's all.

I spent ages looking on ebay at beads, I thought of cats, catseyes, stars, all sorts, but they were all too big –- especially as all I seem to be making lately is lace and socks!

Then I found my beads that were left over from MD/AN! – I've got two and a half packets of beads! Another plus: they're purple! If you know ANYTHING about me, it's that purple is my favourite colour!

So here is a bead in the shawl (took me ages to find the damn thing!) and on the cast on edge of my new socks!

Another FO

That stands for Finished Object by the way!

I've finished the shawl from hell! I love how it looks, but I really didn't enjoy making it, the yarn really pissed me off! I loved the pattern, just not the yarn and I would make this shawl in a different yarn again and again.

Anyway, enough of that, here's pics!

Pattern: Spider's-web Shawl

Source: Victorian Lace Today

Yarn: Rowan Kid Silk Haze

Time: 6-05-09 –- 29-05-09 (with a week out to make the Salami Socks!)

Jonathon Ross thinks I have weird feet!

Here are copies of a twitter conversation from today:

Wossy: My lovely feet plus 2 lovely dogs. http://twitpic.com/5x5ne

Wossy: I would like to seemore pictures of fellow twitterers feet. For comparison. Thank you.

Puddytatpurr: @Wossy here you are, with the start of a handknitted sock on :0) http://tinyurl.com/crxeec

Wossy: @Puddytatpurr sort of weird

Puddytatpurr: @Wossy my foot or the fact that it has part of a sock on it?

Wossy: I am going to have a wAlk to forget about all the feet I have seen this morning! Byeee

HUMPH

Catch up

I can now post pictures of the RAK gift I made. It's a baby jacket and I made it for a woman in the USA who is expecting a baby at the end of June. I received a PM from her at the beginning of the week thanking me profoundly for the baby jacket.

I've got loads of sock yarn here waiting to be knitted up. Some I've received from fellow Knitting Goddesses (Ravelry Link) and some I've bought!

I received a lovely RAK from Marie (stashsiren on Ravelry); she sent me some handspun, two little bars of soap and two sachets of SOAK (special stuff for washing yarn)! I'm dying to knit some socks for myself - especially as I haven't actually got any for ME - but I'm being stern with myself.

I've decided that I'm not allowed to start another new project until I get this damn shawl finished!

The Kid Silk Haze is driving me crackers and I'm bored beyond belief with the pattern, but I'm on the final chart now. I've just got to repeat that about 3 more times and cast it off and it's done! I'm not going to put a fancy border on - that will just take ages and REALLY tax my patience with the whole thing.

I sat out in the garden today, the sun was shining and it was roasting, here's a photo of my Mum's climbing rose - isn't it gorgeous?

I courted heat stroke for a couple of hours under all that KSH then came back inside - the bits of skin on show are now pink! In less than 2 hours!!!

We had Knit-A-Lunch on Saturday. It was a lovely afternoon, there was myself, Joy, Rachael, Jan, Sue and Alice (aka Socktopus) was down visiting her in-laws so I sent her a tweet and invited her along.

If you ever get a chance to go to her shop and meet her, then I would say definitely go - she is so down to earth, chatted away like we were all old friends and took a great deal of interest in what we were all knitting. Unfortunately she couldn't stay for the entire afternoon as they were due to catch the ferry to go home, but it was lovely that she came. Also unfortunate; I didn't get to meet Deuce; her little black pug. But we did show each other furry baby photos!

The kids are on holiday for the next week as it's May bank holiday, they go back on 1^st June, except for Matt who has now left high school bar his exams. It's a very strange feeling having two children out of school!

We're still not watching TV and it's been great! The only thing we've watched has been WWE and TNA wrestling so that the Sky+ box doesn't get overloaded too much. We also caught up on Medium and Bones this evening - it actually felt quite strange to have the TV on.

I've decided to cancel our Sky subscription, which will no doubt piss Kyle off no end, but I'm sick of paying £50 a month for something I rarely use and can live without! After doing a bit of research we've discovered that we can find the wrestling shows online, we can buy the box office main events through Mum's box (or keep our box for the free to air channels and pay for box office) and everything else we watch can be bought on DVD!

Hmmmmmmmmm that was quite a long post, wasn't it? If I've forgotten anything, do let me know

Rant Rant Rant Rant

A few days ago there was a knock at my door. There was a man from the housing authority standing there. He said he was looking for my next door but one neighbour.

All I know about her is that her name is Ruth, she's a widow and she works in a nursing home in Brading!

I also know that her house is falling to bits and that pigeons are living in her loft. I have complained about this to environmental health, but because it's not adversely affecting me, there's nothing can be done!

Here's her house at the front - bloody mess innit!

Can you see the wood covering the pane of glass on the door? I went out there a couple of nights ago because the police arrived. I don't know who called them, but someone obviously did. They hammered on the door for a bit and then forced entry - I guess they thought they'd find a dead neighbour in there, but apparently the place is empty and her mail has been collected!

Yesterday was not a good day for communication :(

I ordered a DVD player months ago, it had extra speakers and a USB reader and card reader too. I thought that'd save wasting a lot of blank DVD's.

It was working fine up until about a month ago when it just decided it wouldn't read the USB stick or any memory cards inserted in it. So I phoned up and asked to arrange a collection.

The Customer Services Representative asked me my name, postcode, address and date of birth, then she says "And what's the answer to your secret question?" I paused and said "Well, what's the question?" She said she couldn't tell me that!

WTF?!?! "Then why don't you just ask me for a memorable word or phrase instead of asking me to remember a question and an answer?" says i.

She got quite queer at that point and I told her that all I wanted to do was return an item and if she arranged for the collection, she'd verify that I am who I say I am because I live at MY address!

Eventually she gave me a clue and I was able to answer my own secret question!

Then I had to phone 3 to get a PAC (Porting Authority Code) for Matt's phone so that I can move his number over to T-Mobile along with mine, Kyle's and Jessica's (whom I did last week with no trouble whatsoever). So this jerk asks me why I'm leaving 3, I told him that it was because my son doesn't get signal at school (regardless of the fact that he left school today). So this guy starts going on about why didn't I call Technical Support etc etc.

Now apart from the fact they all appear to be Indian or Pakistani and I can barely understand them, the reason I didn't call was because it's not a technical fault, 3 just don't cover that area! I told him that and he sneered and asked if I'd tried other handsets. I said yes and could I have the PAC code please. Then he wanted to know which network I was transferring to. I said it didn't matter and could I have a PAC code please.

Then he started to prevaricate even more and I lost it!

I started yelling at him and told him to either give me the damn PAC code or put me through to someone who could and that he didn't need to try and sell me a whole bunch of their crap. He insisted he wasn't trying to sell me anything and that he was just trying to see if they could save me money.

WTF - again!

"Can I have the PAC code please?" So then he says; "Why are you getting so excited?"

"BECAUSE I'VE BEEN ON THE PHONE FOR TEN BLOODY MINUTES AND I'VE ASKED REPEATEDLY FOR THE PAC CODE WHICH YOU STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN ME!"

Eventually I just kept repeating "Can I have a PAC code please?" and refused to answer all questions - he got the message pretty quick after that!

Funny, I phoned T-Mobile and told them that I wanted to add two lines to my account and when I told the man that they were for my children he said he would get the new sim cards out on Special Delivery so that I'd receive them before 1pm next day, that the accounts could be capped to prevent overspending and that it wouldn't change a thing on the account itself and that he would call me back the next day to take down the PAC codes so that we could transfer the numbers.

I also phoned the physiotherapy department. My doctor referred me weeks ago and I just kept forgetting to call and get an appointment. I got an answering machine!

So today, I woke and packed the kids off to school then less than an hour later a sim card arrived - just one. Oh no, I thought! But then I remembered that he'd had to do them separately so they'd probably arrive separately and - after a disastrous relationship with a postman - I knew that there'd probably be another delivery a few hours later.

Thankfully there was and I had the two sim cards. I put them in the phone and half an hour later the nice man from T-Mobile calls me up and asks if the sims have arrived. I joyfully told him they had, he took down the PAC numbers and told me it'd all be transferred by Wednesday! Shame 3 weren't as efficient!

Unfortunately, I also received a callback from physio - because I hadn't called them to arrange the appointment, they'd bounced my referral BACK to my doctor, so now I've got to go to my doctor and get another referral!

My second son Matt has now officially (except for his exams) left school OMG!

I ache today! Last night I went to knit night, the chairs in restaurants are awful for people with bad backs. I was in bloody agony when I came out! I took medication last night, but I feel like a donkey has kicked me today and a migraine is lurking as a secondary pain!

I also spent yesterday tinking back stitch by bloody stitch of my shawl because I had gone about 10 rounds too far. The problem with Kid Silk Haze is that it's mostly mohair and mohair sticks to itself like Velcro, so you can't just rip your needles out and frog back to where you want. You have to undo each individual stitch!

It took me all day! I've got one more round to do and then I can start knitting again!

Awwwwwwwwwww get a load of this!

Dear Fuckwit

This morning my mother, who is 67, decided to catch the bus in to Shanklin, pay some bills and then catch the bus through to Ryde to go to Busy Bees garden centre.

The bus that she decided to catch was the 8am bus which meant there would be loads of school children on it. When she got on the bus she saw you sitting in the front seat with your bag on the seat next to you.

She approached you and politely asked if she could sit next to you. You glared at her, but moved your bag.

She sat down and you muttered something so she asked "Excuse me?"

You glared at her again, yanked your coat from where she'd inadvertently sat on it and said "Do you want this seat too?"

Consider yourself very lucky that it took a moment or two for her to register what you had said and that by the time she did, you had already moved.

Consider yourself even luckier that I do not know what you look like, dear fuckwit, or I would be all over you like a ton of bricks.

How DARE you talk to my mother that way! She was courteous and polite, sitting on your coat was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose and while she may be overweight (I consider us both to be cuddly hourglass figures, dear readers), your crack about her size was completely uncalled for.

If you ever see her again and she's with a younger woman with tattoos and gothic clothing, I suggest you move...fast!

Because if I ever find out who you are, fuckwit. I'll rip you to shreds!

Yours sincerely

One extremely pissed off daughter of the best mum in the whole world!

PS, I hope you enjoyed riding with all the noisy school kids!

Kid Silk Haze

I bought Rowan Kid Silk Haze to make my bloody great Spiders-web Shawl with and I'm still not sure if I like it or not.

I'm now on the third ball.

Everyone at knitting group raved about it, they said it was soft, warm and snugly. Personally it feels rather scratchy to me, but I'm hoping that will improve after I've washed it!

Another problem I have is that it's hurting my hand if I knit with it for too long! I tension my yarn by wrapping around my forefinger and the yarn is causing my cuticle to hurt, you can see where the yarn runs over my cuticle.

I don't have this problem with any other yarn –- be they chunky or laceweight. I hope I like this shawl a lot better when it's done, but I don't think I'll use KSH again.

I'm already planning another version of this shawl, but I might use the purple 4ply yarn that I've had for *ages* instead!

Post!

Nice day today where the post is concerned (if you ignore the kids mobile phone bills which I haven't opened!)

I got two books that I bought from someone on Ravelry – Sensational Knitted Socks and Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn.

I got this month's Simply Knitting issue.

I also got The Little Box of Socks from Madam Salami for the socks I made for her :D

I love contests!

And one of these days, I might actually win one!

Knittysue is having a contest here, check it out! I think I actually have that book on my wishlist!

Salami Socks

A couple of weeks ago I made the prom socks for Matt. A woman saw them on twitter and promptly asked me if I'd make her a pair of socks in return. She has purchased a book from my Amazon wish list in payment for the socks.

And here they are. I've named them the Salami Socks as her username is Madam Salami!

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A

Source: Knitty

Yarn: King Cole ZigZag

Time: 9-05-09 - 15-05-09

The post has been!

I love ordering loads of stuff at once, it means that you get lots of stuff all at the same time like it's your birthday or something!

Today I received some ink for my printer, Continuous Cables by Melissa Leapman (which I bought) and two balls of sock yarn as a RAK from Claire (aka laralorelei) on Ravelry!

Knitting injury

I picked up the Salami sock this evening after my last post and started knitting. I felt pain on my ring finger.

Look at this! I think it's a knitting injury, looks like a blister, but there's no fluid in there.

I knit continental (holding the yarn in my left hand) and the needle I'm knitting from rests across my ring finger – I obviously lean on the finger harder than I thought I did!

Giving up

We've had a family discussion today and we've decided we're going to have a trial run without the TV.

Just about everything we watch can be bought on DVD except for WWE and TNA wrestling – but there are ways around that. If we can't find the episodes online then I could always get my mother to tape it for us each week.

If this experiment is successful, then I'm going to cancel our Sky (satellite/cable) subscription – this will save me about £60 per month! I wonder if owning a TV, but only watching DVD's mean I'll still have to pay the TV Licence fees...

I rarely watch TV myself, I only watch the odd serial, Medium, Bones, Heroes, Lost, 24, Dr Who, Torchwood (which are all seasonal programmes) and the wrestling (year round) and all of those can be bought on DVD.

I prefer to listen to audio books while I'm doing my knitting.

The kids – except for Kyle – are all agreeable to the idea. Kyle is flipping a little bit about the change, but I'm sure he'll adjust. He's recently discovered youtube and all the videos available there. It helps that his new laptop arrives tomorrow!

We'll keep you posted!

Wow, posting via e-mail works!

So, I posted off the RAK gift this morning - hopefully the recipient will have it by the end of the week!

I also sent off some RAK stuff to people in the Knitting Goddesses (and Gods) group on Ravelry.

I feel all warm and fluffy now LOL

I just sat and looked through my pattern files - I had this brilliant idea that I'd give some of them away, this would help whittle down my queue some. Ummmmmmmmmmmm, I didn't take any out! I like them all too much and I really want to knit them all NOW!

I had my ears syringed this morning. I've been deaf as a post for about three weeks. Everything sounds so damn loud, even my fingers hitting the lappy keyboard!

Right, I must go and get on with these socks, I can't sit around here chatting to you all day! But only because I can't type and knit at the same time!

This is just a test dear readers - apparently I'm supposed to be able to blog via e-mail, so I thought I'd try it before going to sleep!

I'm trying to be good where my WIPs are concerned & alternate every day. Today I worked on my shawl & tomorrow, I'll work on the Salami Socks. I hope I get something finished this week as I'm starting a sock KAL on the 15th. I'll be knitting vortex socks!

Anyway, must sleep!

A Happy Mothers Day to my American friends.
------------------

So much yarn!

I've purchased so much yarn lately! I've got 6 skeins here waiting to be turned into socks for my feet and about 30 patterns saved on my laptop and some already printed up and put in my bag.

The trouble is, you start yourself off with a few patterns and a few balls of wool. You tell yourself that you're going to knit through all of that before buying anything else.

Then you discover Ravelry! There are sooooooooooooooo many free patterns on that site that it's just not funny! I put in a search for free sock patterns and it came up with 130 pages worth!!!

I think I'm gonna need more than 6 skeins!

Have you noticed the new gadget over in the sidebar? The one that tells you how many meters I've knitted this year? Isn't that cool? I found it on KnitCave's blog and just had to have one! If you click it, it'll take you to the site; just follow the instructions to get one for your blog.

I've decided that I'm going to go for a walk tomorrow. I'm going to wander in to Shanklin to see if I can find some buttons for the RAK and return the extra ball of yarn I had left over. I hope it's a nice day, I really need the exercise and if it's not nice; I won't go anywhere!

So, on the needles at the moment (besides Louhi and the GAAA which are determined to be loooooooong projects), I have a Spider's-Web Shawl. You can find it on page 44 of Victorian Lace Today.

I'm using Rowan Kid-Silk Haze in a sort of plum colour (because everyone at knit night said it was 'me'!) I'm not sure about the yarn; the kids think it's lovely. I don't particularly like holding it in my hands and I'm hoping I'll like it a lot more when it's draped around me. Here's a pic of my progress so far, it's draped over my knitting bag - I've used one ball of KSH so far!

It's a basic pattern - mostly just stocking stitch so I think I might cast on Madam Salami's socks tomorrow, just to break the monotomy (did I spell that right??) because I don't want to get bored with it after spending all that money on Rowan yarn!

RAK

I started doing a matinee jacket for one of the women in the Reclaiming the Home group on Ravelry as she is expecting very soon.

Unfortunately I can't give you any more details as it's supposed to be a surprise. Once I've put the buttons on and I know she's received it, I'll post pics!

Now I'm agonising over whether to start another pair of socks (I haven't made me any yet, or the pair I promised Madam Salami!), or whether to start the gorgeous Spiders-web Shawl in Victorian Lace Today...decisions decisions!!