Monkeys agogo

I finished my Monkey Swap Monkeys finally. I love the yarn, from Lazy Kate. I wasn't sure how it would pan out with the Monkey pattern at first, but it's blocked up beautifully! I shall be sad to see them go...

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Lazykate.net sock yarn in "Delilah"
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs
Mods: Extra rows in the heelflap

If you get the chance...

...go and see The Proclaimers live.

I dragged A along last night as we met up with V & C for the first time in over a year (and indeed with another couple, whom we haven't seem since we moved away from Macclesfield over 5 years ago). We went to Victoria Hall, which I have to say is the first time I have ever got out of the car in Stoke. (As an aside, a colleague made a comment about how I seem to know lots of rough places in Britain. I'd like to point out that I know OF a lot of rough places in Britain, it doesn't mean I spend a lot of time there - Stoke obviously proves a point! No offence to any readers from this glorious city, you understand...)

Anyway, I'm rambling again.

The gig was brilliant!

I first saw The Proclaimers about 6 years ago, with C (I think one, if not both of our respective spouses were away at the time) at the Manchester Acadamy 3 - or the Hop and Grapes in the Student Union as it was when I was doing my teacher training. I actually think that gig has the edge, since it was smaller and a bit more intimate. It has to be said, we had tickets last night for the standing area so were surprised to go in and find row upon row of seats. Not that my old knees didn't appreciate the chance to sit down you understand, but nevertheless, it fell rather... genteel. I soon sorted that though, by jumping up and down as much as space (and my knees) would allow. I think I have to accept that my moshing days are probably over.

Even A was seen to clap along and join in the words of the one Proclaimers song he knows and although he won't admit it, I think he may have enjoyed himself...

RIP

As you can see, by the power of Sock Wars, I am slain by Scar in James C Brett "Marble", a formidable weapon wielded firstly by Sockmice and then Padiham Assassin.

What a way to go... with toasty feet...

Thank you ladies!

Unshaped Shrug

Well, after a slight period of stalling, the Unshaped Shrug is finished. The last photo I showed was taken as I realised that even though I'd ordered an extra ball, it wasn't enough to take account of the extra 4 stitches I had cast on, nor the extra rib row at either end and still give me 8 rows of ribbing at either side. I could get 4 rows out, but not 8. I looked at it for a long time and decided that I didn't like the 4 rows - too thin. With enormous luck, Angle Yarns still had some of the right dye lot in and got it to me quite quickly, postal strike notwithstanding. However, by the time I got it, I was embroiled in Sock Wars, so I didn't pick it up to finish it until Sunday night. It's now finished and...



I don't really like it.

Well, that's not fair. I really like the pattern and I like the garment. I like my even tension and my neat seaming. It's just, it doesn't like me. I guess I just don't suit shrugs.

Oh well. The yarn was a bargain, so it only cost around £12.50, even with the extra ball.

Pattern: Unshaped Shrug by Just Call Me Ruby

Yarn: 4.5 balls Rowan's Little Big Wool in Moonstone (507)

Needles: 8mm and 9mm bamboo straights

Mods: Cast on 38 stitches, added one additional rib row at either end to show nicer side of cast on.

cough... splutter...

... cough... cough... splutter... what's that pain?... oh, it's Padiham Knitter... I think she's shot me... I wonder how long I have left...tell A I love him... splutter...

Funny sights on the A533

After I took the picture in the last post, I washed the socks to block them - it always looks neater when you give socks to someone if they don't look like a crumpled ball of string. Obviously I needed to get them in the post asap, so you can imagine my delight when I awoke yesterday and found they were till damp because the heating hadn't come on.

I can't imagine what drivers in the other direction must have thought as they saw me driving along, red in the face and hair flying behind me as the heater blasted hot air out onto the socks, which were draped either side of the steering wheel on the indicator and wiper stalks...

Take aim...

Fire!


Prepare to meet thy doom, Pierced Arachne!

Pattern: Scar by Julie Gardner
Yarn: Rowan 4 ply Soft 393 & 397
Needles: 3.25mm DPNs
Mods: Yes, but I'm not showing you yet!
Cast on: 8 am Saturday 13th Oct
Cast off: 9.30 pm Sunday 14th Oct

Reporting From The Front Line

Sock Wars II started today. The pattern was due to be released today, so I got up bright and early, only to discover that my secret dossier, containing pattern and details of my target arrived in my Inbox about 10 minutes after I went to bed last night!!

However...

For the frst time so far this term, all planning was in and on the Head's desk Friday lunchtime. A was sent out on a refueling mission and indeed has been keeping me stocked with caffeine all day. The cats have generally steered clear.

"And?" I hear you cry.

And...

For the first time ever in her life, Little Miss Slow Knitter has knit a sock in a day.



Well, okay, so I haven't grafted it, but hell, I need real daylight for that!

I need to get a move on, because my target is in the States, whereas my assassin is here in the UK... and it now appears the postal strike may be off.

Knit, knit like the wind!

I do actually do other things as well...

...it's just that at the moment they're taking so much time I'm not blogging about them and I'm not doing much knitting either!

So... no change in Pondemonium or in the shrug. However, the extra yarn I needed (I made some mods and one extra ball isn't quite enough to make the border as deep as I'd like) of the same dye lot (gotta love Angel Yarns - back to me with the dye lot within 12 hours!) finally arrived yesterday. I forsee any future postal stricks really cocking up Sock Wars II, but there you go...

The blue Monkeys are progressing slowly and somewhat painfully since I keep getting cramp using these needles, but the heel is in sight:


I wanted to play at the weekend and couldn't work on the shrug (no yarn) or Pondemonium or the socks (cramp) so I cast on for the first square in my Lizard Ridge afghan.


Yes, it is bumpy!

And finally, I found this at the weekend:


It's called Best of Both Whirls - some mathematical knitting I cast on about four and half years ago. I'm very impessed with my even tension! More designs like this can be found at Woolly Thoughts.

WIP Wednesday

Keeping it brief today, dear reader.

Monkey socks - managed about four more rows.

Pondemonium - no change.

Unshaped Shrug - the end is in sight:

Just need to pick up the second border and then join up the sleeves.

Have spent more time this week trying to squeeze an extra 90 minutes out of every school day, to be honest. Unless I master that, we'll never get any displays up in time for parents evening...

September Socks for SAM4

I am having trouble posting to Blogger this week. Do you think it's sulking because I'm playing over on Ravelry?

Anyway, here's a FO to show:

Pattern: Moss by Eleanor Doyle at Magpie Eyes Designs for the Fyberspates/Simply Knitting Sock Club
Yarn: Fyberspates space dyed 100% Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn in Moss
Needles: 3.25mm Addi DPNs
First Sock Cast On 15th Sept, Cast Off 19th Sept
Second Sock Cast On: 27th Sept, Cast Off 29th Sept

These are the quickest cumulative knitting time spent on socks. Wow!

The Wanderer Returns

A is back from Moscow, having caused much hilarity with the decrepid state of his passport. Upon returning, he gave me back my camera and proved why he has never, in all his life, had one of his own. The four photographs could be of the industrial outskirts of any city. He and his colleague did go for a very brief walk just before they left, but hewas not near to Red Square, St Basil's or anything that any tourist would wish to visit.

However...

They did get very excited when they found a yarn store and had picked out some yarn from the display behind the counter for more before they relaised that the little booth was actually closed. They were crushed, apparently.

But, all power to him - that was a totally spontaneous yarn expedition!

WIP Wednesday

No photos today, I'm afraid, I made A take the camera with him when he went to Moscow yesterday.

The back of Pondemonium is now completed, all the ends are woven in and I've completed the first set of embroidery. Once that's done, I can join the shoulders and then it's only the neck and sleeves - hurrah!

I have completed one ribbing and the first pattern repeat on the second blue Monkey.

Moss socks are exactly as they were this time last week - single. If I want to count them for my September socks for SAM4, I need to get a move on...

And finally, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to completely frog Icarus. I couldn't work out why, and then this week, whilst catching up with episodes of the Sticks and String podcast, David mentioned that his being a solid colour wasn't doing it for him. It was like a lght going on in my head. Then, when I checked Ravelry, I realised that it looked much niocer in 2-ply as intended than in 4-ply as I was doing it. Haven't quite worked up the courage yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

I'm in!!!!

Hurrah!

However... in my excitement, I didn't check how long the user name could be, so if you'd like to find me, my user name is talesfromtheplai .

Doh!

WIPs Wednesday

This week's update is brought to you by the letter S and the number 1.

I finished the first Monkey sock (all bar the grafting) on Friday night, and cast on for the second one earlier this evening.


It looks a bit of a crumpled mess, but it will block nicely, Monkey always does. I love the way the colours are coming out in this. It's hand-dyed from Lazy Kate and it's really nice. I'm going to find it hard to send them to my Monkey Pal!

No progress on Pondemonium. I had cramp and I needed a change of needle size but still needed to knit socks, so ...


...here is the first Moss Sock from the second installment of the Fyberspates Sock Club. I cast on Saturday teatime and by last night, had just 4 rows of ribbing and cast off to do, which I did before tea tonight. My fastest ever sock (adult or baby!) Now I see the appeal of knitting socks in DK! I didn't really like the pattern or the yarn when I got it, so thought I would knit them up as a Christmas present, but I've fallen in love with them and will need to get more yarn to knit another pair - although I'd make that pair longer, since the recipient does like slouchy socks.

And finally... as if I don't have enough to do, I've signed up for...


Find out more here, if you dare...

Carpe Diem

I love Squeeze. When I was in the Sixth Form it was an almost constant soundtrack to my life (oh, alright then, along with U2, Peter Gabriel, Led Zep, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa and Fleetwood Mac - what can I say? I was going out with P who was four years older than me and introduced me to a really wide range of music). Anyway, P had Singles 45's and Under, the 1982 Squeeze greatest hits album and we did listen to it a lot - on his Denon (oh how I dreamt of the time I would be able to afford a proper record deck - the guy had separates with an amazing amp!), on scratchy taped version in the car, on my Walkman during private study in the Common Room... blah blah blah...

But I wasn't the only one, either. Although I went to a state comprehensive, there was a boarding house for boys, left over from BEFORE it became a state boys grammar (it was founded in 1559, lots of things in our school were "tradition") The younger boys slept in large dorms in the oldest part of the school, above the Sixth Form Centre, whilst fourth years and above (Yr 9 and beyond in today's terms) lived in large houses (formerly and now reverted to private residences) on the edge of the school campus. A good friend, N, had a top floor study bedroom that he shared with K and during the summer of 1987, a whole load of us would go over at lunchtimes and hang out in his room, listening to Squeeze. Not often, but enough to mean I can close my eyes and return there every time I hear Mussels From The Shell. And don't be following any nasty thoughts here - all very innocent. Girls were allowed, N assured us, provide we all left our shoes at the bottom of the stairs. Heaven knows what the housemaster would have made of 10 pairs of assorted desert boots, espadrilles and baseball boots then...

But I'm digressing again.

During 1987, Squeeze released the album Babylon and On - I still love it, although the vinyl is showing its age now. 20 years ago today I went with P to see them at Aylesbury Civic Hall, a brilliant gig.

I think.

I don't remember much about it to be honest.

On the way home, we decided that we didn't fancy finishing the evening just then, but the centre of town was shut due to the Fair. We knew we didn't have enough time to park at his and walk back before last orders, so we decided to bypass the town and go on to a pub in the next village.

Now the turn for Moreton is on a bend on a stretch of road that is notorious. P drove a black Mini 1275 GT, his pride and joy and as he slowed down to turn left, a Ford Cortina came round the bend towards us. He hit the bend too fast and time slowed as the back end swung round, hit the front of the mini at an angle (imagine a line from driver's headlight to gear stick) and then his petrol tank exploded. I had pulled my legs up to assume a kind of crash position and the stereo (neatly placed in the space where the passenger glove box would be) made a tiny hole in the knee of my jeans, and the biggest bruises under my kneecaps that I've ever experienced. I was out of the car and in the ditch before I had really made sense of everything, but I then realised that P was still in the car. I dashed back and got him out - he had been unconscious briefly when his face hit the steering wheel (poor guy looked like a cross between a panda and a tapier for a couple of weeks) but he was able to work with me to get out. The engine came in and lacerated his legs nicely. Since one of the passengers in the other car was injured worse than P we went in an ambulance with the driver of the other car. Nice one. Turned out he'd been drinking - they'd been to a darts match or something.

The Mini didn't end up at this angle, it was only about 45 degrees off the original path, but I guess the Fire Brigade moved it to the side to clear the carriage way.

Friday night in A&E is certainly an eye-opener. I still remember the couple in full rock and roll gear who'd obviously been in a fight - or maybe it was just him, with another Teddy Boy. I couldn't make sense of her screaming much. Another girl from our town came in having slit her wrists, so unsurprisingly, she jumped us in the queue. I finally got someone to see P when he kept asking for a nice cup of tea and then slid elegantly out of his wheelchair, out for the count. I'd never shouted at an adult before that night. Still don't, really, but it felt good for a brief moment.

And, as usual with a Nic story (and this is God's honest truth), there has to be a small moment of ritual humiliation.

When I was finally called in at about 4 o'clock in the morning (P was no longer in A&E), I was asked by the nurse to drop my jeans ready for the examination and told to sit and wait for the doctor. He walked in a few minutes later, looked me up and down and, quick as a wink, asked "And what do you do for an encore?"

Smarta**e.

And if that night taught P and I anything, it was indeed to seize the day. Teaching may occasionally knock the stuffing out of me so I can't practise what I preach, but although my number was obviously not up that night 20 years ago, it taught me that it could be, and that I should never put anything off too long.

So I jumped out of a plane at 2500 feet the following weekend, but that's another story...

Gotta love it!

I'd like to include this in one of my forthcoming lessons, but I may chortle too loudly...

Looking for Something My Dear?

P.S. Now you see where the inspiration for the Lone Star State socks came from...

Wednesday already?

Yep, time to review the WIPs again.

First up is Pondemonium. This is the back view, left where I split for the sleeves.

And here is the front view. I love the fact that I'm knitting in the round so there will be no seaming, but I have a lot of ends to weave in and of course, it will need embroidered details - but those get done before I join the shoulders and pick up the neck and the sleeves. I am so excited, it actually looks like a jumper!

The first monkey sock is making slow progress, but I got very distracted by the jumper over the weekend and since Sunday the only knitting I've done is one round on the sock.

And by popular request, my yarn present from Gothenburg: 3 balls of a gorgeous Fabel sock yarn thatreminds me of sweets and some Karisma 100% wool for mittens. Apparently grey red and cream are this season's colours, A tells me! Now I need to find a pattern. there are loads on the Garnstudio website, but I want a traditional style, possibly with a snowflake and I haven't found the right one yet.

But isn't he a peach?

I know my husband loves me...

...because today, during the lunch break in the conference about heavy duty diesel emissions that he is attending in Gothenburg, A nipped out to Deisy Design to get me some yarn I had regretted not buying when we there.

But get this: not only did he do that as I had asked, he also remembered that I had said afterwards that I wished I'd asked the sales girl about making traditional style mittens, so he decided to ask her advice on the matter. She gave him chapter and verse and he's bought three colours and another customer who A reckons was in her seventies took a shine to him. Looking him up and down in his suit, she said "My husband would NEVER buy me yarn as a present, can you come home with me?"