Library Girl Knits!

Well, not much knitting done this week. I managed about 10 rows of the last front of the VK bolero. Nothing on the lace leaf pullover at all 🙁 But that’s cos of two things. The first is that I’ve been getting a job application ready for submission today. Keep your fingers crossed, cos it is a FAB looking job, but I’m not sure what my chances are. If I just get an interview, I’ll be well chuffed. The second is that I’ve been ill all week. The sore throat that started the day after I returned from the ace weekend in Leeds developed into a cough that wouldn’t go away, and wouldn’t stop ALL day. And that is literal. Doing nothing – cough. Start to talk – cough. Move about – cough. I finally went to the docs yesterday, and I have laryngitis which has become infected. Quite common in asthma sufferers because of the use of inhalers. I finally succumbed to not working this afternoon, and came home at lunchtime. DB is at a lovely end of term meal having an ace time, and I am here watching Live and Let Die and knitting a sock because I don’t feel like playing with anything else that I might ruin when I cough. And I can’t treat myself to a nice glass of wine because I’m on antibiotics to make sure that the infection doesn’t aggrevate the asthma.
BUT, I go to Coldspring tomorrow! And I am sooooo looking forward to it. My lovely friend has said that I can still go as she and her boyfriend and his mum will do all the talking for me so that I don’t have to 🙂 oooo yay! I have a list of things that I want to try and get, but must be careful to limit myself. And I am working very hard at using my stash up. Honest guv. Even with the non-knitting this week. But I think I deserve some cheering up. So there 😀

Well, things have changed yet again for knitting stuff. Because I’ve been so glum, I decided I needed some therapy, and have set aside the Tivoli t-shirt (particularly in consideration of the sizes Grumperina is having tested). Instead, I dived in to the Lace Leaf Pullover at last 😀 I have almost finished the botttom half (I love making something that is such a quick knit – I don’t often knit chunky). My justfication for making a cold weather jumper in the middle of a gorgeous summer period is that any knitting reduces the stash, which is going nowhere fast. At first I was a little confused by the lace chart, in particular with the dark squares labelled “no stitch”. Apparently I was being a tad slow, as I suddenly realised that it meant that there simply wasn’t a stitch there, and was just there to make the chart line up. Duuuuuuuh. I’ll post a pic once the bottom half is done, which should only be a day or two.
Although… That depends 🙂 A very kind Craftster soul has answered my 2 week old query on what to do with the VK bolero – woohoo! Apparently I’m supposed to follow the raglan until I get to the 5 stitches I need, something that wasn’t particularly clear in the pattern. In fact it wasn’t mentioned at all. The implication was to follow the neck decreases and when they finished, you’d have 5 stitches. But no! And I have frogged the left front (it looked rough), and am being very rational and have written down exactly what I’m doing on each row to the end of the front pieces for all the decreases. I should have the right front done by the end of today if I stick with it. Again, once I have something worth showing, I’ll post pics 🙂 It’s about time I posted some finished objects…
So, all this sudden exciting progression means that I am already planning the next things on the needles… I fancy knitting some socks, so I think I’ll use some scraps of Kid Classic to make the socks in Textured Knits (a book I got free from Knitting Magazine). I’ll have to weigh them to make sure there is enough yarn, but I have a couple of part balls of similar colours which could stripe together. I don’t fancy the bobbles tho, so I’ll skip those 🙂 2 needle socks could be quite a nice quick project, and using Kid Classic would make them even quicker, which is just what I need right now – something quick, simple, and comforting.
And I need to get something done before a trip to Coldspring this coming Saturday… 😀 Something to look forward to at last!

Well, what a terrible day. It started out so promising, and declined as it went, dragging everything with it. The lovely start was that I had to collect a parcel from the Post Office that they had tried to deliver yesterday while I was at work. Hoorah! I thought! My Secret Pal stuff has arrived, and swiftly too. And it was that 😀 I opened the parcel at work (how could I wait till I got home?!), and had to try and save what I could because the wrapping was lovely. More on that later.
Then a guy came to fix something at work which is vital to the operation of a good service, and proceeded to make it more broken than it was. Then I had a meeting with the deputy big boss of the library and found out stuff about my job which totally bummed me out. No, I’m not getting the sack or anything like that, but I was told that I would be promoted quite a long time ago, but that I couldn’t be officially regraded for some time, did the extra work ex gratia for a year, managed to do myself out of it by doing some review work, and now it looks like I’m going back to my original post. Poo. It wasn’t much extra money, and it was quite a lot more work, but it did look a lot better on paper than my original post. Because of that, I felt like dropping all the extra responsibilities that I’ve had on the spot, but I still had to go back to the guy breaking and then un-breaking stuff upstairs and try and control the situation (beyond my normal role). Then, DB phoned me when I was on my way home from work (he’s away still), and I couldn’t talk to him properly cos I was at the bus stop, but he didn’t seem to offer any sympathy. Maybe he couldn’t because of who he was with, but I could have done with a big verbal hug.
Then I looked at the news, and saw London, and decided that I am a shallow young lady and that I should try and remember the bigger picture. People are dying, and I’m getting upset over a series of shabby days at work and in general. People are starving, being abused, raped, and not getting the right treatment or aid, and I’m feeling upset because my life isn’t totally in control. My mate was going home from Edgware Road only last night. She’s lucky. There are lots of people who were thinking about banal things, maybe missed the train/bus, ended up in the carriage with a drunk in it or something like that, and then realised how pathetic these things are when you put it all in perspective. And I feel really angry that half of the news broadcast is about how bad the roads are and how quickly the rail service has come back up. Who cares? The number of people who have officially died or have been injured is relatively small so far compared to other events like those in Barcelona (the nearest major terrorist attack to us), but to broadcast information on how it has effected the links out of London only serves to provide the terrorists with more publicity and demonstrate that they got what they wanted. We have to see the impact, but to dedicate half of the item on the news to the bad traffic and walking Londoners is a bit insensitive maybe to those who are related to the dead and injured.
The BBC have changed programming from Ground Force, to…. Ground Force. :/ But the one they’ve changed it to is one where they do a garden for Nelson Mandela. Talk about trying to bully up the team…
Ok, so on to nice things. When I opened my parcel, I found something like this…

Yay! Lovely wrapping. And there was rather a lovely scent coming out from somewhere.
So I opened 🙂 and found these goodies!

Double yay! A yummy White Barn candle scented in Cinnamon Cappacino (and trust me it smells so good you could eat it). Def a US brand – we can’t get that over here, especially the scent. Gorgeous! It is sitting on the mantle piece with the lid on, and I can still smell it wafting around the room! And then some fabby Bernat DenimStyle yarn in a lovely choccy brown and cream tweed. Another thing I can’t get in this side of the water. This stuff is sooooooo soft! It is 70% acrylic, 30% cotton, and blimey it is miles better than anything in that mix in the UK. If you bought that over here, you would guarantee that it would feel scratchy or plasticy, because we really don’t have the yarn thing going on that well. This stuff is lush – its the kind that you rub against your face (and I know that I’m not the only one who does that) and want to hug like a stuffed toy (I probably am the only one who wants to do that, but it reminds me of being a kid and wool shopping with my mum [sigh]). I have 3 big 100g balls, so I had a nosey on the Bernat site, and found a very cute poncho pattern to crochet up. Or I might make a little sleeveless cowl neck. I’ve only just got it and I’m looking for inspiration for it 😀 There is a nice hat and scarf pattern on the band, but I think it deserves more than that. Oooo! Maybe a boob tube type top! I’ll have to make a swatch and see what leaps out – it’s harder to see what a tweedy yarn will look like made up in the ball than other yarns, so it requires some proper attention 🙂 And the card is very cute – I wish I had a conservatory like that one – or at least a garden/house that tidy 😉
Thank you Secret Pal! You’ve made my first SP experience a fab one! I hope your pal is as good as you 🙂
The world is full of terrible people, but I am lucky, and have lots of lovely ones around me. Plus fab yarn, a roof over my head, Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimmock doing Nelson’s garden on the telly, and a glass of wine in my hand. For the pleasures in life we take for granted, that others may not always get, I raise my glass, and hope I can do something more to help improve life for those who don’t get them. I’m one lucky girl.

I frogged Tivoli AGAIN last night 🙁 I managed to increase on the start of the row, and decided that it looked yukky and I would regret it even if I decreased to make the stitch count right. But, I do know that I really really want to make it. Whether it wants me to make it is another question… I hope so! I read today that Grumperina wants to make a standardised version with sizing and stuff, so now I’m not sure whether to wait and see what she comes up with for it. Besides, I’ve lost nearly half a stone now (not much overall, but bodes well for future non-fatness), which may require some playing with patterns. But I want to knit stuff right now! I’m not sure really what to do. I could finish my scarves off, and finish off the sock yarn, but I don’t really feel like it right now when it is sunny and lovely (well, not today!). I must be going through a really blah kind of period. Either that or I’m v tired after the weekend naughtiness of going out big time, and scared of my database ECDL test tomorrow (eek!), and the fact that DB is leaving for another 4 day conference tomorrow, the third in about 7 weeks. Or maybe all of them 😀 Maybe doing some designing would help. More about that later when I’ve got the laptop charged up
Oh well! I have lots of goodies to look forward to! That will make a big difference (Secret Pal – you timed yourself perfectly… Thank you again for that :D). Lovely secret pressie things, the Debbie Bliss club freebie joining doo dah in lovely alpaca silk. Mmmmmmmmmm. And the new Harry Potter… Hoorah! All very exciting. And I’m still planning that visit to Coldspring, but when it is happening I don’t know. Hopefully after I get paid 😀
oooo I feel better already!

Just a quick post – I’ve just got back from a weekend away, to come back to the lovely news that my Secret Pal has posted a package out to me. YAY! Just what I needed to hear after a week of pooiness from knitting, plus the downer of coming back from a fab weekend knowing you have to work tomorrow. Yay! Thanks Secret Pal! 🙂

The best thing that happened to me today was when I was on my way home. The bus goes past a fishing tackle shop, and as it drove past, the shop door opened, and a little black and white cat ran in through the door 🙂 We decided it was going in to buy waders, with special wide legs for it’s big catty thighs 🙂 It wasn’t carrying a rod, so it clearly wasn’t returning anything, but the way it ran through the door suggests that what it wanted to buy was pretty urgent… Yay!

I’m sorry I’ve been such a morky bag recently, but I’m going to moan again. Having got over the stupidity of yesterday’s wrong purchase mistake, I started on the t-shirt I mentioned designed by Grumperina (how ironic for my current mood!). I cast on with just the right amount of yarn, knit the first 5 rows, and then stopped to count up and check. I’d done it wrong. I had too few stitches. So I ripped it up to start again, started to cast on, and didn’t leave enough yarn to finish it, by about an inch. So I tried to find the end in the middle to tie on and use to help me finish rather than going through it again. Out comes a big ball with no visible end in it. I hunt around, find it, and then realise that all I have to show for it is a big mess of knots, so I can’t even cast on to the end. I rip up again, and start winding up all the loose bits. I then spend about 30 mins de-knotting the bit from the middle to make a little ball, try stuffing it back into the ball, and realise it won’t fit because I wound the outside on too tightly. Queue some unwinding on the outside, stuffing the miniball into the middle, rewinding the outside, stamping feet and swearing profusely till DB comes running out of the bathroom with a towel round his waist wondering what is wrong.
I tried again this morning, and again failed to use enough yarn to cast on. But this time the extra bit from the middle was ready for me, so I used it and literally have 1cm hanging off the edge. The yarn is slippy, and keeps trying to unknit the cast on by itself, but after 5 rows I have some hope. Incidentally, I managed to cast on two extra than I should… I knit 2 tog twice to save me the shame of ripping again. You can’t tell. Or you better not say you can if I ever finish it… And I haven’t dare count to check my stitch numbers after the first set of increases. If I leave a trail of nonsense here tonight, don’t ask 😉

🙁 I’ve been a bit thick. The Patons yarn I bought to make t-shirts from Knitting magazine is DK, and not, as the pattern requests, 4 ply. Bugger. I can still use it tho, to make the ballet shirt here, which is something. The problem is that I really don’t feel like swatching up again for it. I’m also totally bummed out about the bolero. I’ve not received a reply from VK yet about my problem with the fronts, althought that might be due to the time difference. I don’t want to wing it for them, because I’m not experienced enough to do that, so I might end up frogging it, which means nothing finished and pretty and wearable for my night out this Saturday. Essentially, I’m no further in stash reduction, so that means that while it will save me money, I’m also going to be cluttered up for another few weeks at least.
On the other hand, I bought the cutest little lace wrap knitted cardis from Primark on Saturday in Manchester 🙂 Buying them did not ruin my cash balance (but shopping everywhere else did!), so I bought two in different colours (one in a deep blue gray, one in a lovely green), plus a little brown shrug version, which I haven’t yet decided on whether to keep or not – I need to try it on with some stuff first. Just to put this into perspective for you yanks out there, Primark is like an ultra cheap Marks and Spencers. The shop in Manchester is HUGE, and you can get lost in it. We queued for nearly half an hour just to buy the stuff (don’t ask about the queue for the changing rooms – I tried stuff on over my jeans/vest in the middle of the store just to get an idea), but it is SO worth it! I bought the two cardis, shrug, two vests, a belt, an ankle length gypsy skirt, 6 pairs of socks (mens), 5 pairs of boxers and a messenger bag for 50 quid (about 90 US dollars). I know the US is miles cheaper than here anyway, but I hope that puts the prices in perspective 🙂 Spending 50 quid in Primark is like spending 3 or 4 times that much in any other high street fashion store… Just thinking about it cheers me up a little 😀 I might post a pic later on, because you couldn’t make them for the price I paid in this neck of the woods, but I could make a pattern up if I lose enough weight for them not to fit (it would be a shame on one side, but not on the other, naturally!), and they are just so lovely!
Also, if you are wondering what I’m doing at home, I booked the day off, knowing that last night would be a late one. DB and I went out alone together for the first time in AGES. We went to Bradford to see Blackmail (the silent version of the classic Hitchcock film), with some live music to accompany it. Film, naturally, was fab, as only Hitch can be. Amazing ideas – he was way way ahead of his time. Unfortunately, the duet of Cipher for the music was awful. Music should enhance the story of any film, nevermind a silent one, but this soundtrack totally took over, and overpowered the images completely. They are kind of an ambient duo, using instruments and sampling them so that they add depth to the music, but flutes through an amp, so heavy that I walked out of the cinema with a headache and had to put my fingers in my ear at one point, that’s just wrong… It was hideous to listen to. When they finished, there was a pause enough to make me think that quite a few other people felt the same, then a round of applause. There were exchanges of glances, and whispers of ‘hmmmm’. The cinema was the Cubby Broccoli in the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television (an ace museum – if you are ever in Bradford, visit it. It is free, but warrants a hefty donation, and has loads of stuff to see and do, including the lovely Wallace and Gromit), which is a tiny one with onlyabout 8 rows of about 15 seats. Lovely little room, but sound carries across it, so the lack of discussion about the music implied to me a dislike for the accompaniment. Loved the night out tho, and the film. Went for a curry at the Kashmir, and burnt my mouth off, but found it quite tasty, even with the after effects… :S Still don’t think I’m converted to curries tho!
Anyway, time for some lunch, and some more swatching for the tivoli – if I don’t get a success soon with something, I think I’ll just scream!

Shopping with mum today in Manchester (I am now shattered and all shopped out/skint). We treat ourselves to a snack in the Illy coffee bar in Selfridges, and I’m looking for a snack on the menu that is wheat free, as I find it makes me rather bloated at best, and ill at worst. They don’t have anything on the menu so I ask and the girl says no. Mum says ‘can’t you have a sandwich?’. Nooooooo. ‘Here, have some scone. Don’t you want one?’ Let me see, are bread and scones made with flour made from wheat? Hmmmmmm…
Just reminds me of Grandma in the Royle Family, on the discovery that her grandson’s girlfriend is a vegetarian, saying ‘can she have wafer thin ham?’

Well, I’ve been a bit slack this week. I started on the bolero in Vogue Knitting, and have the back done, but am having major problems with the front pieces. So I’ve posted on Craftster in hope of aid, and emailed the VK website for advice too in case the problem is size specific. I also asked a colleague at work who has been knitting for donkey’s years, and she came up with the same result as me – the decreases on the front do not add up to the number of stitches the pattern says I should have at the end. 🙁 Poo. I’m working on the sleeves till I find out what is wrong, and I’ll probably have one done by the end of the weekend (not much time for knitting this weekend!).
The weather has been gorgeous this week – lovely and sunny, but also very humid, sticky and sweaty. Thank goodness for the air conditioning at work that normally freezes us (I wear gloves when working at the back of the counter, it is so cold in winter!). Unfortunately, there was no airconditioning in Greenhead Park last Saturday when I did Race for Life. I’m glad my mate was there – she’d been poorly during the week, so we made it a slow walk and I ‘kept her company’ while our work colleagues zoomed off! It was a fab day, and very emotional. It is so moving to do it with so many people in a similar situation or similar experiences. And of course we earn money for a good cause, while having fun. My face, despite having factor 15 on it (more than on my body) rapidly gained a glow on the nose and cheeks which is still hanging around… I still don’t look tanned tho – just ‘rosy cheeked’. The perils of being fair skinned. The upshot of it being so hot is that I haven’t knit much, as my hands get too sticky too quickly.
I have had time to re-think some long neglected projects too. I’ve frogged the lace cami from Weekend Knitting. A shame, but a good thing too, as I realised it was going to be too big and sacky for me. Instead I’ll be making something from my new pattern book – yay! I bought A Season’s Tale by Kim Hargreaves from Amazon while buying a gift for someone (thus saving money in the long term on postage). There is a gorgeous pattern for a tank made in KSH using 4 balls, which matches my stash perfectly, plus 3 different options for a neckline: slash, v or polo. The polo neck is a bit too ruffled for me, so at the mo I can’t decide between the slash or v. I’m leaning to the slash neck – after all the fuss and reknitting with the bolero, I fancy something a bit simpler, but not less interesting. The book is full of lovely classic patterns with a little bit of a twist to them sometimes. There is something about it that makes me want to make everything, even if it won’t suit me or I can’t find a man who is willing to wear it (DB has a phobia of cotton wool, so he hates the piles of yarn balls in the corner of the lounge and the knitting swatches and stuff, and he won’t touch the finished item unless I’m wearing it. The last isn’t a problem ;), but the rest can be). The cotton 4 ply from Lucky will now make a clover free Lucky – I really want a ballet wrap cardi, but can’t find a decent pattern in the right size, so I will swatch up a plain square and see how it compares with the lace one, and hope I can adapt it to make a nice plain version of the pattern. There is also a lush pattern by Debbie Bliss, but I need to shrink my chest first for that one…
I have been very restrained on the yarn front, and despite there being a sale on at Beatties, I only bought yarn on the request of a friend to send to her. It was a bargain tho! 500g of unlabelled yarn, which when you look and are in the know, is very clearly Sirdar Wow! in a dark navy – the same I used for the cushion cover that broke the camera memory card. 500g for £3.50 (less than you pay for one ball of it!). Yay! There were many bargains to be had – similar unlabelled 500g bags for the same price, while full packs of a kilo were 5.95. I was very strong. Aren’t you proud of me? 😀 Although I am saving myself now for a trip to Coldspring Mill not far from me. They apparently have a huge collection of discount yarn (inc Debbie Bliss) for 1p a gram. ooooooooooooooooooooo. Yummy…
I’m going shopping with my mum tomorrow in Manchester, but as yet haven’t found any exciting links to yarn shops in the city centre. We won’t be travelling out of the city except to go to the Trafford Centre maybe, so it will probably be a good thing. I’m planning to spend some tho – I need loads of things, and they all come at the same time as a birthday bash shared between myself and a friend. We’ll be going out in Leeds, and stopping in a hotel, so it won’t be cheap, and I will need a new outfit so that I am glam enough for the city… Yay!
Sunday I’m going with DB to see a silent Hitch film at Bradford Pictureville – an art house kind of cinema in the Film and Photography museum. If you are ever in Bradford, you should go to both – they are fab. The museum has original models of Wallace and Gromit, so that should be enough to tempt you 😀 I’ve booked Monday off, in case we are back late, so that should be nice.
I think that’s it for now! Back to some knitting…