Winter day

Firstly, many thanks to Kath nominating me for an award. Very surprising and flattering!

With my apologies if you've already been got, I nominate Fiona and Posh Dee.

The next surprise of the day is that we went out! Yes! Outside. For a walk. It's been a while, I know, and the waist bands on my trousers have been giving me hints for a little while now that perhaps I might like to get up off my behind and actually do something vaguely resembling exercise. So, although there weren't many leaves left on the trees to be brown and the sky most certainly wasn't grey, but we did go for a walk on a winter's day. Just a local walk, about 7 miles, along the Pennine Way for a while and back around Green Withens Reservoir.

Not a cloud in the sky

Blackstone Edge

Ice - not necessarily thick enough to hold your weight...

Pollution

There was a bit of a cracking ice and ending up knee deep in the mud incident but still a good time was had by all and those trainers needed a wash anyway... Who knows, we might venture outside again at somepoint this year.

Experiments with Alpaca

Last year I bought some alpaca/wool mix yarn on discount and it has been sitting in the stash ever since waiting patiently to be made into something deserving of it's softness, warmness and all round general snuggliness. And there is nothing more deserving of warmth, softness and being snuggled than my feet. So I set about making a pair of socks - as I don't have enough of these already. Nope, and pointing to my overflowing sock drawer will not convince me otherwise.

I don't have a pattern for socks in such chunky yarn, I'm knitting these on 6mm needles, so am using a basic formula and trial and error... mostly error, as it turns out. There was a cuff

and then there was a heel - which I didn't think turned out too badly considering I was watching Supernatural while knitting it and hence rather distracted.

And then I decided to try them on. They were far too big and stretchy. Super soft and snuggly though, so I am convinced of the right-ness of making these and, to be honest, the yarn is so lovely that knitting them again and again and again would be no chore.

Even Mr C couldn't resist the lure of the yarn!

Birthday pressies and a finished shawl (gasp!)

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I had a lovely day with lots of pressies, Tapas for lunch with sangria and shopping. I also had some new holes put in my ears (this is maybe not everyone's idea of a cool thing to do on their birthday but it didn't hurt much) and I am very pleased with my new look five ringed ear. Then we went to see the new Alien vs Predator fillum which is very jolly.

From Rob I got some books (including the thickest novel I've attempted since Bleak House and the most dense book in the world ever) and a painting DVD so I will have a better clue what I'm supposed to be doing with my paintbrush and the needle roll was made for me by my (blogless) friend, Kirsty who is very handy with a sewing machine. Mum bought me lots of pretty wool to make something nice for myself and Rob bought me a handy drawer unit to keep some of the stash is. The loopy sheep kit was a pressie from another friend, Lisa, and is the coolest thing ever! I just hope that I can get the expression on the face somewhere close to that in the picture.









And finally, the shawl! I had a big push at knitting on the border on Sunday and got it finished and pinned out. I am really very pleased at the way this turned out, and I think it possibly is one of the most demanding patterns that I have attempted. Am in two minds as yet as to whether it was worth the struggle, but I think so!

It is in Posh Yarns Eva 2ply, which is lovely to work with and, as mentioned a lot already, it is the curved shawl from Victorian Lace Today.

Birthday!

Today I am another year older and I am contemplating whether it's about the right time to start having a midlife crisis. I have the day off work, as working on your birthday must be the most depressing thing ever, and so far there has been coffee and pressies (photos later!) and there will be shopping and hopefully not getting stuck in the snow (February is a bit of a rubbish time to have a birthday!)

To prove that I am a real child of the 70's, check out the paisley on this!

Thirty years or so ago!