I haven't blogged for a while, but hopefully normal service will now resume.
I have been away! I have actually been on holiday on a plane for the first time in over a decade. I went to Jersey with a friend and had a fabulous time. Admittedly from where I live, the flight was just up and then down again, but all the same it was nice to fly again.
We went to Durrell (Jersey Zoo as was), Mont Orgueil Castle, Elizabeth Castle, Jersey War Tunnels, the Glass Church, the Maritime Museum and Corbiere Lighthouse. We walked several sections of the coast and also from St Aubin to Corbiere (along a disused railway track). All in all, we had a really great time.
This is a view from Elizabeth Castle across the bay to St Aubin. The sea was that lovely greeny blue colour everywhere we went on the coast.
The consequence to all this is not a lot of progress to show on my knitting and stitching.
The morning of the day I went away, much to my chagrin, I discovered that I had miscounted the railway track a second time and it would have to be frogged. So I left it behind to be dealt with on my return, which I duly did. There has therefore been a limited amount of progress on Baby Express.
The actual headband of Headband 2 is currently on hold until I can secretly measure it round eldest niece's head to see how much more I need to knit. I have however knitted a leaf to be stitched onto the headband in due course. This did not come on holiday with me either.
Although Hermione's Socks did come on holiday, once again progress was limited. It was a bit difficult to knit while walking up and down cliff paths, so knitting only really happened while we were resting after each day's adventures before going out for our evening meal. However the decreases are all done and I am slowly working my way down the foot.
In other news, I went to Slimming World this week and have put on 1lb in the last five weeks, so am now 11 stone 10lb. I need to either lose weight or maintain this week or I will be out of my target zone. I have also spent some time this weekend hunting for a new car - positive thoughts would be much appreciated.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your needles.
Apologies for the delay in posting this. Somehow my work computer managed to catch a virus on Friday, which was a bit scary, and put me off going on-line at home for a few days. However I did take WIP photos so here is a catch-up.
The top border of Baby Express is now complete and since this photo was taken, work has begun on the side border. The baby is coming up to three months old and I really need to make better progress on this.
There has been progress on this headband, but not enough to be very obvious. This is another piece where I need to crack on, especially if I am going to knit a second one before mid-June.
And finally I am working my way down the leg of Hermione's second sock. I've got the pattern firmly in my head, so I just need to knit, knit and knit.
Saturday was Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day so I spent most of the afternoon and evening in my LYS. I also bought yarn which will at some point become a project and make itself known on this blog.
In other news, my blood tests came back "normal" so why am I still so tired? And cold - I wish the weather would sort itself out - you never know what to wear because it never stays the same longer than five minutes. Also I am so looking forward to the General Election being over - if one more person puts political junk mail through my door or knocks on it wanting to know how I'm planning to vote, there may well be trouble!
Anyway, all the best to you and yours, may the frog steer well clear of your needles, and may the sun shine on you every day.
I'm currently waiting on some blood test results to see why I'm so tired all the time - could be the thyroid problem back again, could be anaemia again, could be something else. Whatever it is, I'm fed up with it cos trying to knit and sew when you're yawning your head off only leads to frogging the next day.
However I have pushed on through and made good progress this week.
I got my mojo back after last Sunday's tinking session and motored on through to finish my first Hermione's Everyday Sock by Friday night and cast on the second one straight away. The ribbing is all done and I am onto the leg of sock two. I have checked with fellow knitters and the heel flap is inside out on sock one, but I know what I did wrong and will get it right on sock two.
I also got the whole of the middle section of the top border finished on Baby Express. My intention is to do the next two sections of border and then to move back into the centre to stitch the engine, before finishing the border and doing the flowers and baby's name in the bottom section.
I've also made progress on littlest niece's headband, but need to measure it and do some calculations before moving on.
In other news, I went to Slimming World this week and discovered that I'd put on 1lb over two weeks, so am up to 11 stone 9lb. Some work is needed on the healthy eating front to lose the necessary 2lb to get me back to target. Unfortunately the tiredness doesn't help because I end up just eating what is quickest rather than what is healthiest.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well away from your needles.
So do you want the good news or the bad news?
The bad news is that the dodgy part on the car can't be fixed, nor can it be replaced. I can't have a new one cos they don't make them anymore (and besides it would cost about £1,000 plus) and I can't have a secondhand one cos these computer chip things are coded to the car!
The good news is that I finally have the car back (after a week and a half of walking to work and back) and it still works (for the time being). So the plan is to carry on driving it and work on buying a new one before the MOT runs out on this one on 21 June.
On the crafty front, the bad news is that I didn't get my sock finished. I did the first 9 rows of decreases and then decided to try it on. Well, the final 10 rows of decreases was not going to be enough to cover the entire length of my big toe. Sunday morning was spent tinking back all the previous 9 rows so that I could put in some more pattern repeats. Unfortunately, after all that tinking, I lost my sock knitting mojo. Just have to try again this week!
The good news is that I stitched the whole of the sun on Baby Express (except his eyes) and including the backstitch, and got started on the next section of border. All the wretched French knots in this piece will get done at the end.
More good news in that I made progress on the first headband for littlest niece. There is still a way to go and these needles are not good with the cotton DK, especially when doing the k3tog stitches. I also managed to measure eldest niece's head at the right angle for a headband, so I do know what I'm aiming at as they are very similar sizes.
I was supposed to be going to Wonderwool Wales this coming weekend, but all of the problems with the car mean that I have put it off until next year. And I am definitely going next year whatever happens!
Right, I'm tired and grouchy so am calling it a day. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your needles.
Sun, rain, sun, rain, wind - especially wind (and rain) today! It really has been a trifle up and down this week. And tomorrow? Who knows? I'm hoping for decent weather this week because my car is in the garage waiting for a part to be fixed down in London. It went in on Wednesday morning, so there has been a lot of walking going on the back end of the week, and more to come this week. If anyone else says that exercise is good for you, they are going to get a punch on the nose. It just makes me tired and grumpy, and also makes my nose run.
However, despite the changeable weather, I do have progress to report.
Yesterday morning I cast off my Cabled Handwarmers, so now they need blocking and sewing up. A close look will show you that somehow there is 1cm difference between the bottom rib sections on the two pieces. I am not quite sure how this happened, but am hoping that no-one will notice when I'm wearing them. I'm not calling this a finish until I can actually put them on.
Moving on to Baby Express, I have completed the whole of the next border section. The intention for this coming week is to stitch the sun in this top right hand corner.
On Hermione's Socks, I've turned the heel, picked up and knitted the gusset and also knitted most of the foot. I just need to compare it against one of my other hand knit socks to decide if I am ready to do the toe decreases. It would be nice to get this sock completed this week.
And finally a new start! Youngest niece will be 7 in June so I am knitting her a set of headbands in her favourite colours of lilac and violet. This is supposed to be violet but the colour hasn't photographed well. I'm knitting them in 100% cotton on 3.5 inch needles. So this is the first couple of inches of the first headband.
In other news I went to Slimming World yesterday for the first time in 3 weeks. Those 3 weeks include going on conference ("No calories on conference!") and family Easter Sunday lunch. So the fact that I put on 0.5lb in that time is absolutely fine by me - I'm up to 11 stone 8lb, but still within my target limits.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well away from your needles.
I didn't post last week because I had been away on a family history conference and the do on Saturday night coincided with the clocks changing, so what is normally a very late night became a very early morning. By the time I got home again and got caught up with myself, I thought I might as well leave posting until this week because the conference week didn't produce much in the way of progress. And yesterday was Easter Sunday, which meant a family get-together and late coming home, so here I am today.
This is what I have achieved over the last two weeks on Baby Express. I have stitched the relevant section of the train tracks, but not back stitched them. I have also done most of the last section of border, but need to fill in the white dots with a pale blue thread. Baby will be two months old next week so I really need to crack on with this.
This picture shows that I am working on the heel flap of Hermione's Everyday Socks. I'm reasonably convinced that I have made a mistake and done the heel flap the wrong side out, but never mind - let's call it a design feature. I have actually done a lot more work on this sock today, but you will have to wait to see that.
And finally the Cabled Hand Warmers have made an appearance. Since I got back from conference, I have done about four cable repeats on this piece. I do need to measure it again, but I think that I am not far off finishing the cabled section. I'll look good wearing alpaca hand warmers in the middle of summer :-)
In other news, I haven't been to Slimming World for two weeks. Whether I get there this week will depend on the car situation as it needs some more work doing on it.
Back to work tomorrow, so here's all the best to you and yours and may the frog steer well clear of your needles.
Honesty is generally the best policy and so I will say now that there has been limited hermitting and limited stitching this weekend, and even this week. During the week, I had the "pleasure" of a streaming cold, and then this weekend a lot of Sunday's jobs had to be crammed into Saturday so that I could attend a knitting workshop today.
So let's start with the workshop.
It was a workshop on finishing techniques - how to give your knitted item the final touches. And this is the "evil elephant" that came home with me. What you see there is my choice of cast-on, four different ways of making buttonholes, some short row shaping, two types of cast-off, mattress stitch, picking up stitches and Kitchener stitch. I had a great time and feel a lot more confident about finishing off my knitted pieces so that they look nice.
Moving on to some stitching, I did manage to complete the whole of the next section of border on Baby Express this week. It is stitched in two shades of purple and the bottom row is also the bottom row of the sampler.
And as for Hermione's Socks, I have now done 15 pattern repeats and only have 3 more to go. Unfortunately I found that knitting and blowing my nose every 30 seconds were not compatible. I am definitely hoping to get the leg finished and move on to the heel flap this week.
In other news, I went to Slimming World and found that I had lost 0.5lb so am back down to 11 stone 7.5lb. I have also had a haircut, which was badly needed. I now just need to dye it to cover up the hereditary grey bits in the front and sides.
I've got another busy week ahead of me, so all the best to you and yours and may the frog stay away from your needles.
