Helvellyn

We decided to go camping in the Lake District this weekend, to get us out of the house, try out the new tent and do some walking. We were shocked to discover our newly found ‘quiet’ campsite was full! It’s not the biggest place in the world and these days tents seem to be huge palatial mansions – well, other people’s tents do anyway, if our current trend in tent purchasing continues we’ll be in bivvy bags next. So there was 20 minutes or so mild panic while we tried other sites. Thankfully the Bridge End Farm site had opened up another field for the summer season so there was plenty of room there - if quite a long walk to the shower block!

Saturday we walked up Helvellyn (950m), via Stake Pass and Lower Man.























Some sheepses enjoying the summer.









Not many takers for the ski lifts!







The weather was hazy and pretty warm, quite windy at the top, with gusts up to 31.5mph that we measured and it started raining while we were coming back down to Thirlmere, but we were mostly under the trees at this point so it wasn’t too bad. Arrived back at site just in time to enjoy the final moments of the England cricket team whooping Pakistan and then we went for tea down the pub.

On Sunday we did some shopping in Keswick – bought some Smartwool merino socks and insect bite cream (!) and had brunch in the Wild Strawberry Café which was very nice.

Returning home, there was a package addressed to me from Get Knitted. I opened it thinking there had been some mix up and they’d mistakenly doubled up on my last order - only to discover that it was a present to cheer me up from one of my best friends. I am so lucky to have such kind, thoughtful and generous friends, with obvious good taste!

Those socks

I made three starts at the toe up socks and frogged all of them. The first time I read the pattern wrong, the second time I did it right, but thought it was wrong so I frogged it and the third time I did it wrong again, realised it had been right the last time when it had looked wrong and messy and decided to make the damn socks using another pattern. As a wise duck once said, once a pattern has annoyed you it can sod off.

So I have chosen another pattern from SKS, which is done rib down. No doubt I will encounter numerous problems once I get to the fancy part, but at least I know I can graft a neat toe.

Paper craft

I couldn't sleep on Sunday so got up really early and made the envelope, which involved lots of measuring, marking, cutting and gluing. The amount of time and effort I put in to making it really was over the top for something so simple that will ultimately end up in the bin, but strangely it took my mind off other things - better than knitting those toe up socks anyway.

Here is the card I made over the last week or so

and the envelope

Shopping Expedition

On Saturday we had to take a trip out to meet a family who had bought one of our tents off eBay. We'd arranged to meet them at the Trafford Centre to hand it over. That done we then went into the shopping centre to spend the cash. I bought a few bits and bobs, some card and glue for paper crafting - which is not something I've ever really done, but I'd done some painting recently and made it into a little card and I wanted to make an envelope to go with it. More details on these in the next post. I bought loads of little bits and pieces, not spending vast amounts, but trying to get the most of my retail therapy. I felt a bit sorry for Rob when we were having lunch and I had a bit of a lapse and it was highly probable that people were looking at him thinking what a git for upsetting me over dinner.

So anyway, back to the shopping. I shopped good. The finishing touch was as we were walking back towards the car through John Lewis and I spotted their new yarn department. I let out a little 'ooh', Rob turned to look, went 'Ah. I'll go and have a look in the electricals department' and wandered off. Cue me, rushing headlong into the sale bins and what should they happen to have, but lots and lots of packs of Rowan Chunky Print! Just the thing for Blackberry. I'd tried a while ago to get it thinking I'd spend the birthday money from my Mum on it but not been able to find it in stock anywhere in colours that I liked. The only place I'd seen in was at MCA Direct, where it was reduced but still fairly pricey, and I'd just committed myself to a stashalong. John Lewis had it at half price, and there was a choice between Rage (black) and Pit (delightfully named deep chocolate brown). Pit it had to be, so it came home with me, stashalong or no.

Here it is... I got an extra ball just in case, so I might have enough to make something else too.

Crappy weekend

I had a pants weekend. It really topped off my pants week in possibly the most spectacularly crap way imaginable.

Pud was hit by a car and killed on Saturday morning. Some neighbours had taken covered her up and taken her away, and other neighbours came over to tell me what had happened. Pud was returned on Sunday and we buried her in the back garden. When the weather is cooler and we are getting decent amounts of rain I will buy a plant to go over her spot.

At first I was practically out the door and on my way to the RSPCA to get another cat there and then, but as I have come to terms with things I think it will be a couple of months before I even seriously consider getting another pet. Yes the house seems strangely empty considering she was so small and I keep looking twice at jumpers on chairs and bags on the floor, but I think I would worry too much and trying to keep a cat indoors in this weather with the doors and windows all open wouldn't be fun for anyone.

Of course, as a devotee of the Way Of The Pud, she will now be in Pud Nirvana on the Great Laundry Pile in the sky.

Secret Summer Santa

The presents from my Secret Summer Santa arrived this morning. Although I knew that other people's had arrived and that I should be expecting something in the post at any time, it was still a real surprise when the postie came this morning with a big parcel for little old me!!

It all was beautifully wrapped and in a lovely bag.

























And inside were two hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Wisteria, two hanks of Colinette Lasso in Seabreeze, a Lantern Moon Bee tape measure which is really cute and my clue, which was a little bird keyring.
















So, many many thanks to my Santa, Hawkesley, and if everyone is as pleased with their presents as I am with mine then the whole thing is going to be a resounding success!!

Pud in Cat Outdoors Shocker!

This exclusive picture can now be revealed!

Amazingly, earlier today evidence was captured on camera of Pud outside! Awake! Playing! This is a rare aspect of the Way Of The Pud not often witnessed. Behold...

Fair Isle Tank Top

Tis done! My first fair isle project, and I think it went ok. The actual mechanics of the knitting is quite simple and a lot of fun to watch the patterns forming. I like to see the patterns coming out on self patterning sock yarn, and this is even better because I am doing it!

As I mentioned before, I ended up with a lot of ends that needed weaving in. This seemed to take almost as long as the knitting, and then there was the neck and arm bands to pick up and knit. I always faff around with my finishing, but took so long this time that even Rob asked me what I was playing at!! :)



Photos showing some hot back action, just for Badger ;)













Hopefully it passes inspection.






















And the completed tank top. All ready to be wrapped and handed over on the 25th. Phew!

Got there eventually...

The plan (last week) was to post the next entry of my blog with the completed fair isle tank top pictured. On Friday night I ran out of one of the colours - this was not a total shock as I had subbed the yarn from Sirdar Denim Tweed to Patons Diploma Gold and hadn't checked the meterage on the balls... - so Saturday I bought a ball of yarn. I am not counting this in my stashalong as I needed it to complete a WIP - and besides, Terri said it was ok :)

Sunday, I had a strange complusion to clean things, which is not like me at all, and only sat down to my knitting after a day of scrubbing, mopping, polishing, sorting and painting everything in sight. Needless to say my stash is still laid out across the dining room floor in what Rob calls a 'wool explosion'... well, I need to see what I'm up against.

So the weekend came and went. I finished the actual knitting and then started on weaving in the ends. I was rather concerned that I had too many ends, but having looked at some of the pictures of fair isle projects in progress on other blogs (particularly impressive ones of Eunny Jang's site) and think I had a normal amount. I must admit that I took more care than usual in weaving in the ends neatly, as I think by the very nature of fair isle it is the sort of garment that begs people to look at the back. I know I do this, especially if I think it has been handknitted, and didn't want to let myself down with sloppy finishing.

So about three days later than expected, the tank top is washed and laid out flat to dry. Which in this heat shouldn't take long.

Picture tomorrow. Promise ;)

Good post day

Some of the bits that I have ordered for my pal have arrived and I had a lovely time opening the packages and looking at my purchases, especially as some of them were for me!! Got some books:












The Alice Starmore one is just beautiful. Most of the designs are timeless and the fact that the book is about 14 years old does not matter. Not all the patterns are to my taste and certainly the majority of the yarns are discontinued now, but that does not detract from this wonderful book. The Debbie Bliss one is more modern and is very Ms Bliss. I like her designs, and this book contains possibly the cutest fairisle kiddy socks that I have ever seen :)

My new hook also arrived:







Is it wrong to be this happy about a small piece of wood?!

Work continues apace on the tank top. A slow pace.
























This is the back, after spending ages weaving in the ends. It seemed that no matter how I arranged my yarn, I always ended up with the end at the wrong side when I came to use that colour again.

Itchy and Scratchy

One downside of the weekend is that I got eaten alive by the midges. I react badly to insect bites and now have a lovely collection of livid red lumps up one leg, around my neck and the top of my head. It is really my own stupid fault as I know I get bitten, but didn't realise it was happening until it was too late. So I have spent today rubbing on anti-hystamine cream and zapping myself with my mini electrocution clicky thing.

Did some shopping today too. For my Secret Summer Santa spoilee. It is a very nice feeling being able to browse through the posh stuff with no feelings of guilt whatsoever. The only difficulty was trying to decide on the best colours to suit her preferences... I hope I've got it right *fingers crossed*

It was incredibly tempting to get yarn for myself at the same time, but I was a good stashalonger and just bought myself a pattern, book (or two!) and a crochet hook which will be needed in the not too distant future. Ok, so a fancy Brittany Birch hook wasn't strictly necessary (I've always managed with the bog standard metal ones before now) but I think having a nice hook will make my stashbusting more agreeable.

Blencathra

The weather forecast said it would be cooler this weekend, which as far as I am concerned is much better weather to be having than that of late and we decided to head out onto the hills of the Lake District. On Saturday we walked up Blencathra (868m) and down the other side (10.5miles) and then to the pub for tea. It most certainly was colder, hood and even gloves were required at the top.














On the way back, we passed a field with some llamas.















Posing for the camera: llamas know they're cute.

Seeing Stripes

I have made a start on the little tank top for my nephew. It is his 'Day' on the 25th July as he was born on Christmas Day and his parents wanted him to have a special day all to himself.















The pattern is from a Sirdar Chunky Knits book and I'm using some wool rich DK (Patons, I think) which is machine washable and tumbleable. Ok for a two and a half year old, I think, although it's not as soft as I would like. Hopefully washing will make it a bit comfier and it is designed to go over a t-shirt so shouldn't matter too much. I might make him some more little socks out of something nicer as well.

I started a list of all the things that I had planned to make during my stashalong, bearing in mind that I have something like 13 weeks to do it in. Once I'd reached 13 projects on my list, I stopped writing and tried to calm down. Ok, so some baby socks aren't going to take long, but some of these things are quite substantial...

So today's lesson in the Way of the Pud is relaxation techniques.

Waffly explanation of colour knitting

Intarsia is where separate pieces of yarn are used in an individual area of colour. I did this for my dodgy bunnies and carrots, ending up with many little bobbins of yarn hanging off the back of the work, lots of loose ends & much weaving in and swearing.

Fair Isle is often used to describe the method of patterning colours along a row by running colours across the back when not in use, however I believe it is more accurate to call this 'stranding' as Fair Isle is a name for a specific style of knitting which is done by stranding.

According to the Shetland Museum website "...real Fair Isle patterns are built up in horizontal bands, by knitting two coloured yarns in each row. The motifs are clearly defined by careful selection of colours."

Groovy hat!

The last progress pic. Fairisle (I should really call it 'stranding' I suppose, but fairisle is a much prettier word...) is so much more fun than intarsia. I have decided that my next project will be fairisle too.
















And finished - Just the thing for summer.

Flaps!

Apologies for the slightly messy photo, but I was difficult to get a picture of my hat so far as it has a tendency to curl up. I think this is why they put the crochet edging round it.

I am planning on lining mine with thinsulate fleece material, which I am hoping will stop it curling, make it less likely to leave alpaca fluff in my hair and hide the back...

C'est fini

The Booga bag is done. I have to admit that I was a little dubious about how well it would hold up as a bag, but after the struggle I had getting the knitting needle through it to put on the straps, I think it's tough as old boots!
























I'm quite pleased with it and am in two minds as to whether to give it as a gift or keep it for myself....

I didn't mow the lawn this evening. I thought about it. I went outside to play with the cat and noticed loads of bees buzzing merrily around on it and decided to leave them in peace. That is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Isn't he cute??

Looky what arrived today!

I got fab presents from Badger, including some moo cow buttons from the Angel Yarns open day, scrummy G&B chocolate, stickers and jelly beans!! Despite my unshakable belief that I will win the £1000 cash prize, holiday in Rome and jelly bean machine from that crossword competition, it is nice to have these jelly beans in the meantime.


I have made a start on the alpaca earflap hat and so far, I am about a third of the way up one flap. It's not really the most interesting thing in the world to look at so I will wait until it's a bit more, erm, flappy before putting up a pic.

Stashalong

I have committed myself to joining a Stashalong until September 30th, so no more yummy yarn purchases for me in the near (or far!) future. I figure that I have more than enough projects planned to be going on with and should make a determined effort to try and do something with the bag loads of stash lurking in the sideboard. We'll see. Wish me luck.

My 4mm dpns arrived today, so I just need to remember to print off the pattern of the earflap hat from my work PC and I can make a start.

The Booga Bag is still damp. It's been two days!!

I promised a friend today that I would make her some knitted socks for her birthday. I am honoured to have been asked, as when I was starting to learn to knit again I was in awe of her skills and now she is asking me to make things for her. Amazing. I have earmarked the Regia 'Jeans' for Lisa.

In non-knitting news, I have started uploading some of my photos to our website - we get this free space with our broadband and ought to make more use of it. Link is over there >>>

At the moment there are just some recent folders to test out the layout etc, but hopefully soon most of my pics will be there. Have camera, will shoot take photos of sheep.

Phew!

After some (admittedly very little) thought, I decided to felt my Booga Bag by hand. It was more out of curiosity than anything else, to see the felting (fulling would be more accurate, I suppose) process happen before my very eyes. I also feel that seeing as I had knit the bag by hand to felt it in a machine would have been wrong somehow, like knitting on a machine. Call me strange, but to my eyes if you are going to start using a machine to knit something, you may as well just buy a ready made one from a shop. But anyway, I digress.

Before: See the bag clashing horribly with my carpet.












I prepared a bowl of very hot water (not sure about the actual temperature, but I could still put my gloved hand into it ok) with some soapflakes and another of cold water.















Putting in my bag for the first time was a little nerve wracking, but after a while I was pummelling and kneading away merrily.Every few minutes I took the bag (and cord, of course) out of the hot water and dunked it into the cold water. Apparently this shocks the fibres and helps the process happen more quickly.














After a while, I could definitely tell that things were happening...my back was starting to ache a bit and a flood was developing nicely on the counter.














At last, after an hour (yes, really!) and about three top ups with hot water from the kettle, I was satisfied with the result and rinsed the bag three times in cold water.














After rinsing, I rolled the bag up in a towel and squashed it to get the excess water out, put it over a covered box to block and had a nice sit down with a bottle of beer :)

Sensational Socks...soon

My book and yarn has arrived! The Skater is darker than I expected, the Jeans is lighter and the Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino is just scrummy (colour is 'Seashell').




















I visited both my LYSs yesterday in search of some 4mm dpns to make my alpaca hat with, but no joy. Found a bamboo set on ebay relatively cheap (I admit, I could have got metal ones for a bargain but I didn't want to spoil the experience of working with such a nice yarn by using needles that I don't like). Actually yesterday was quite an efficient day (for me) I collected my yarn from the post office, posted my blanket squares off, took a bag of books, bag of shoes* and a pasta maker** to the charity shop, bought two knitting mags and managed to fit in getting some lunch too.


To inspire me to carry on with work on my hooded cardie and not get sidetracked by the new sock and hat plans I thought I would post a progress pic:





















And lying on the floor next to it was this:















*shoes, yes, well, I might have a few....


**My name is Helen and I am a hobby-oholic. I have a problem with getting enthusiastic about new hobbies, buying the equipment and then never doing anything with it. Anyway, it was almost worth it for the look on the shop assistant's face when I handed over my donation, and someone might want it.

More Good Luck than Judgement

I had a bit of an idea this morning, while waiting for the breakdown recovery man to come and start my car so I could take it to the garage :( that it might be worth trying a swatch of the alpaca with the yarn doubled to see if that got it anywhere closer the 20 stitches per 4" that the hat pattern calls for. The ball band states 25 stitches x 33 rows on 4mm needles, so there was no way that just going up a couple of needle sizes was going to work, and the thought of trying to re-design the hat pattern was quite scary. So, I thought it was worth a shot, and whaddaya know? I ended up with 20 stitches x 25 rows on 4mm needles! The pattern doesn't give a number of rows, so I'll just have to try it and see, but I am quite hopeful. The yarn is so soft and nice to work with (although my trousers did end up looking like the cat had slept on them) and the fabric is thick and, hopefully, will be very warm.

Did a few more rows on the hoodie too, so I've moved my bar.

Also today I got a card through the letter box from Royal Mail saying they've a parcel for me. Yay.
But I have to wait 48 hours before I can go and collect it. Bummer.

Shopping Update

Maybe I shouldn't surf the t'internet after half a bottle of wine. It occurred to me that seeing as I was buying a book on making socks, I would need to buy some sock yarn to make the socks with (conveniently forgetting about the couple of balls hiding in one of my boxes...)

And maybe I was feeling a leeetle jealous of all the stash enhancement going on at the Cake and Knit Day at Angel Yarns today.... hopefully they've left enough yarn to fulfill my order!!

Have just placed order for some Lucy Neatby yarn 'Seashell' which I spotted in the sock catalogue I happened upon while tidying up earlier. Some Regia Stretch 'Skater' and 'Jeans' fell into my shopping cart too.

And now to bed...perhaps to dream dreams of socks ;)

Knitting update

I have just ordered a copy of Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I really want to try more sock patterns, particularly short row heels and have seen many people recommend this book, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The knitting of the Booga Bag is complete and I am just waiting for the next jeans wash for it to go in the machine. I'm contemplating felting it by hand but need to investigate this further - would it use less water / energy than the machine? would it be hard work? would it be as effective? hmm.

So in the meantime before my sock book is delivered, I have been working on my hooded cardie. I'm thinking of updating my percentage bars to 71% but I don't think I've actually done that much more.

Food and S.E.X.

As both Rob and I have been feeling slightly under the weather lately, we decided that it probably wasn't a good idea for us (well, me, to be more precise) to go hiking up steep hills on hot days but we both fancied a weekend away so we went to Keswick for a relaxing weekend of too little exercise and too much good food and drink. Hurrah!

We walked into Keswick (9.5miles there and back, mostly flat) to try and balance at least some of the calories, along a disused railway line, which was quite pretty and shady (it was quite an overcast day, but the sun did come out for quite a while in the afternoon and then it was blumming roasting).















We had a nice lunch, did some shopping (more details later), played crazy golf (I lost, as usual, but it was very funny) and had afternoon tea (am too ashamed to put a picture up of the enormous wedge of carrot cake that I scoffed!) I resisted the temptation to go in here and try to claim free chocolate...
















On the way back, I spotted these guys















and we walked underneath the Greta Bridge, which was voted the 'Best Concrete Engineering Structure of the Century' in 1999. It curves round slightly, which you can just about tell from the photo. I wouldn't say it is the nicest bridge I've ever seen, but I suppose as far as concrete things go, it's quite impressive.















Now I have honed (!) my knitting-with-colour skills, I feel tempted to have a go at the Peruvian style earflap hat that I have had my eye on for ages; so long, in fact that the company that produced the yarn and free pattern has gone out of business. There is a small yarn shop in Keswick called Needles and Pins who stock Artesano Alpaca so I got some to make the hat with. Unfortunately, it knits up to a very different gauge to that called for in the pattern so some maths will be required but hey, maths is fun, kids.

The results of my S.E.X. - inspiringly named light grey, charcoal and dark charcoal.

Cows!

Spent yesterday being rather ill. Although the afternoon wasn't too bad, had a nap, watched Perry Mason, Fraser and Angel (the latter two I'd seen before, but they were still entertaining enough while I slumped on the sofa) but the morning is better glossed over.

The one bright spot of my day was when the postman brought me a parcel from Pie Princess with lots of cow goodies.

Thanks, Ms Princess.











Pud found the bag entertaining too. Just checking to see if there was anything I'd not spotted....














I knitted a bit more of the Booga Bag in the evening. Had a slight panic attack when I was finishing off, just pulling the end through the last cast off stitch and pulled a bit too hard, snapping the yarn about one fuzzy inch away from the stitch :( I think I have secured it ok, but it'll teach me to be more careful. I've now done about 2 feet of the i-cord, and it's looking ok. Any loose stitches are purely down to the varying thickness of the yarn, not my sloppy i-cord making....

And finally, this was the view out of the back window last night.



Ooooh.

Snot Bag

I seem to have contracted Man-Flu. I have caught Rob's cold and my head is disgusting.

Appropriately, I have been making a Bag-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. I appreciate that I am going to come in for some criticism from certain quarters for making this item, but I've had plans to make one for so long that just because lots of other people have made way, way too many of them isn't going to stop me now. So I am asserting my individuality by not listening to people (who probably do know best) and going along with the crowd. Besides, I've bought the yarn and everything.

Knitting on circs is fun, totally mindless and I got to try out the Russian Join.


Join about to be knitted.

Join having been knitted in. It's barely noticeable as the Kureyon yarn changes in thickness anyway.

Notice, if you will, Pud on the sofa in the back ground. Looks as though she's been there for hours, but no, the little minx only got up there the second after I'd stood up to fetch my camera. That's vermin for you.

The Bunny Returns

Final part of the knitted square trilogy has been finished. I am quite pleased with the result, although I think the bunny should have been slightly bigger, and it is still alittle wobbly around the more complicated bits. I have decided that weaving in ends is quite possibly the most tedious thing in the world of knitting.
















I also mowed the lawn this morning, and darn hard work it was too! Here is the evidence.

Oot 'n' aboot

I can't believe that it is only a week since my last post. It feels like much longer than that because I have been so busy and much away from home.

Last weekend was amazing. After the previous weekend of knackering myself out and having campsite issues I had declared that we were staying in and avoiding people. However, on Thursday night we wandered up to our local for dinner and a few pints and both confessed that we'd been thinking how nice it would be to go camping and that we ought to get back on that horse.
So we decided on the North Lakes as it would hopefully be a little quieter than the central area around Ambleside and picked a campsite that was new to us having been told that they weren't full but we would be 'up on the hill'. Up on the hill is a very accurate description. There was a small carpark, a toilet block and a few statics there - and a flat area the size of a postage stamp with dozens of caravans and big tents crammed on. The rest of the site would have been enormous had it been stretched out and laid out flat, but as it was a one in two slope with a few little flat ledges dotted around there was actually only about 6 or 7 decent pitches in the entire place. We could have pitched up near to someone else's space as theoretically there was room, but given that I would have had a hissy fit if someone had done that to me and it was still early evening, we decided to try our luck elsewhere.

Luckily, our Good Lucky Fairy had decided to join us for the weekend and we found a dead nice (and quiet) campsite that isn't on the map. It was by a river and on both evenings we got to see lots of bats flying around unbelieveably close to us. There were also some ducks, chickens, some cute little dogs and a big dog that cocked his leg on our tent but I screeched at him so he ran away, but the bats were by far the most interesting.
We had a lovely walk (about 10 miles) on Saturday around Derwentwater and back over Catbells (451m), a dead nice pub that served cheap beer and scrummy food and on Sunday I purchased lots of shiny new kit. Including a new spork for my collection!


Buy that Luck Fairy a beer!

























Monday morning involved horrendous panic and stress, followed by a five hour car journey to Southend-on-Sea for two days of meetings. In an ideal world I wouldn't get nauseous if I read while being a passenger in a car and I could have used the time constructively, but as it was I sat in the back staring out the window trying not to worry about how close the driver was getting to the car in front on the motorway.

Actually, no. Scratch that, in an ideal world, I wouldn't have been going in the first place but lazing in my backgarden with Badger, knitting and eating jelly beans.

Southend seemed quite nice, the front was quieter than I was expecting considering the weather was so nice but it was early in the week. The hotel overlooked the sea front (although it didn't feel very sea-like to me because you could see Kent quite clearly on the horizon) and was very pink and the average age of the other guests must have been about 75. I didn't take my knitting, as it was a business trip, but I wished I had as I bet I could have got some really good advice!
















So now I am back, and am thinking that I would like to stay at home this weekend. The weather really is too hot for me to be much outside and I am getting withdrawal symptoms from knitting!

As Calm as a Carrot

Firstly, thanks for the nice comments people have made about my first blanket square. As I think might be clear from my post about it, I am not totally happy with it - so in the spirit of determination decided to simplify the design and try again. Here is the carrot square, sans lapins.














There is definitely less puckering and general wonkiness going on here.

Bunnies may well feature again in the next square, I think I need to another one to really get to grips with it (and use up the nasty green acrylic yarn!). So I am now embarking on the 3rd part of my blanket trilogy.

In other news, I am currently obsessed with crossword puzzles and trying to win my fortune by entering compemetitions. It's early days yet, but I have high hopes that I'll be able to give up work and spend my time lazing around, knitting and scoffing jelly beans very soon.

And I have a nasty blood blister on the inside of my mouth :(