Happy New Year

Wow! I can't believe it's been Dec 14th since my last post!
So much has happened, none of it knitting. Knitting seems to have ground to a halt here for the moment. I've been doing a little bit, but nothing worthy of a picture.

Dad has been ill again, another 11 hour stint in A&E was required on Tuesday. Hopefully he's sorted now, although it takes a lot out of an 86 year old being kept waiting that long.
Mam is ok, nothing out of the ordinary.
My brother in laws mother died on Christmas Eve and was buried this morning RIP. So sad to bury a loved one at this time of year. My friend from works mother was buried on Christmas Eve, so not a great Christmas overall here.

Although, can you believe Santa brought me two balls of Quivit? I can't believe it. I must have been a very good girl. Apparently it costs more per ounce than gold? Wowee. I will post pics of it next time, but suffice to say it's going to need a very special pattern for it!

Speaking of presents, the afghan went down a storm. Unfortunately it was gifted to the brother and sister in law who had the bereavement, but they rang me from Florida on Christmas Day to say thank you, they loved it so much. When I saw them again today for the funeral they were really grateful. Made me feel really good that they liked it so much!

I'm off out for a nice Indian dinner tonight. Hopefully that will give 2009 the kick in the butt it requires to make sure it goes away and never comes back again. 2010 has to hold brighter things for me. It has to. I shall have to make up a Resolutions list for 2010, and count up my FOs for 2009 to see if I finished more than 2008!

Happy New Year everyone!

Sock Complete!

I think I've paid suitable homage to the abandoned sock:

Pattern: Scrolls Socks
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% Superwash
Needles: 2.5mm Knit Picks Harmony dpns

I loved this pattern. I reckon I loved it more than it loved me considering I abandoned it and left it to fend for itself for two weeks. Other than that I think it was a marriage made in sock heaven. Just enough to keep me interested but not so busy that it kept me distracted from the re-runs of The West Wing I've been watching.

Don't they look good?

In fun news:
I know this picture is crap, but if you could see the wrapper you'd laugh too:

It's cheese that hubby bought today in Sainsbury's. It's called "Great British Aged Cheddar" that has been aged in "The Wookie Hole Cave". That to me equals Star Wars Cheese that has come from Chewbaccas bum.

Doesn't that sound yummy?????? Huh????

Yeah. Cheese lover that I am I think I might give this one a miss. I wonder why.

The Prodigal Sock

It's back! I knew it would come back to me. Whether it would still love me or not was another matter.

The precious prodigal lost sock.
I think it's still a bit annoyed with me, but I am doing my best to resolve any issues with lots of love and promises to finish it ASAP.
I have offered heartfelt apologies for the abandonment and have squished it several times.
I can only hope it's enough.

I'm trying to focus on good news today, after the atrocity that was the Irish budget today.
I don't want to think about how much money has been taken from my pay packet as a "public sector worker". I really don't. I was planning on taking 6 weeks off this year to mind Alice while the creche is closed and also to give my Dad a break and look after Mam, but I have to decide tonight if I can still afford it as I have to give my final answer tomorrow. So sad that they might suffer as a result of the governments mismanagement of all the wealth that was created in this country over the last 10 years.

OK, rant over. I need to focus on positive stuff, for my own sanity.

So, in positive stuff, the reporter rang back today, did an interview and wants to take my picture to put in the local paper with the article! OMG! I told her that it was a no go unless they took out the HUGE airbrush.
I was also fairly honest about how much knitting costs if you don't use acrylic, and how expensive a hobby it was (for me anyway) so it'll be interesting to see how much it gets edited to suit their article.
She has arranged to call tomorrow evening @ 7pm. In my idiocy I said ok, but I'm going to see Depeche Mode tomorrow. It's unreal how I can forget this stuff. I have been dying to see them for nearly a year! I lurve this band. (Dave Gahan in white jeans, swoon) But it was all forgotten when the reporter rang.
So, I'll have to ring them in the morning and see if we can work something else out.

In other celebrity news, I got a grope of Gabriel Byrne yesterday! I was walking out of my office on the way home when I practically walked into him. Of course I had to fumble him a bit whilst I said sorry! ;) Roman hands and Russian fingers lol...
BTW, he's GORGEOUS in real life, but really skinny. I reckon I could sort him out with some good home cooking.

The Cruel Side of Knitting

I'm heartless. Cruel, even.
First I left my poor sock in the cold dark glovebox, where it still resides. Alone, lonely, cold and scared.
Do I care? I thought I did, but apparently I do not, as I cast on another sock on Saturday. Gasp!
I think I may have even said in my last blog post that I would pine for it, and wait for it to be returned to me. I would save myself for it and not cast on any other socks.
Fickle. That's me. Although I am meant to get the socks, I mean car, back tomorrow so hopefully if I spoil the socks they'll forgive me.
Let me explain why I betrayed them. I went to Galway for the night on Saturday to see my friend who lives there. We're friends since school and we hadn't seen each other for ages so I was excited to go. I got the train there and back and it's a journey of approx 2 1/2 hours each way so what else could I do? I could hardly bring the sweater with me, or the Christmas lights so I really was left with no choice. It was socks or be bereft of a project in a prime knitting situation. I couldn't do it.
These are the socks I cast on:

Cauchy Socks from Cookie A's fantastic Sock Innovation book.
These are for hubby as he loves maths and these are kind of based on the mathematical symbol for inequality: <>. I'm knitting them with Sirdar Pure Cotton 4ply as he remains a wool hater. I think he's faking it though as he hasn't taken off the 50% wool Noro scarf and professes his lurve for it all the time. I cast on 70 sts instead of the 60 the pattern calls for so it will fit his manly hairy legs. Hopefully it's not too many!

So, dear abandoned sock, am I forgiven? I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise. I'll bring you to the knitting group tomorrow and pet you a lot.

In Seamless Colourwork Yoke Sweater news, there has been progress on the body of the sweater, but not a lot to look at.

Kinda boring looking, isn't it? What can I say - it's grey, 3 inches of ribbing and the rest stocking stitch. That's about as wild as it gets. Perfect tv knitting though!

No progress on the Christmas lights garland, I need to buy some stuffing for the ornaments. I thought I had an old pillow lying around that I was using the inside of for stuffing, but it appears hubby must have had a sly clean up and disposed of it whilst laughing demonically. (I'm guessing about the laughing, but it's not too far of a stretch, believe me.)

Oh! I almost forgot. I'll give you all a laugh. At the end of last week I got a phone call from the guy in the library who looks after the meeting rooms where we meet every week. He gave me the number of a journalist who wanted to write an article about knitting for a local paper. Yay! I thought, some publicity for our fine craft.
I finally got the journalist on the phone today. She told me she would ring me back on Wednesday for the interview, but that she was writing an article to publish next week on saving money for Christmas by making your own Christmas presents, and that knitting would fit it, wouldn't it?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That was my response. Save money? Have you seen my stash in the spare room wardrobe? Have you any idea how much I've spent??
Oh, and publishing the article next week? How long do you think it takes to knit a pair of socks in time for Christmas?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I wonder will she ring me back now. Probably not. Oops. I did invite her to the group tomorrow night, but I doubt she'll come...

So that's it! I can't believe it's almost a week since I last posted, time sure is flying faster towards Christmas, and not a present bought for anyone or a card written!

Good knitting!

Ho Hum

It's been a bit of a ho hum week here.

I'm terribly concerned about the pay cuts that the Governemt are demanding for us Civil Servants and wondering how I'm going to manage next year. Plus it's not very nice reading nasty articles about yourself and the place you work in the press.

This recession is bringing out the worst in the Irish people, turning them against each other. Pretty nasty stuff.

Still, there's always knitting to take my mind off things and realise that there are lovely people around as is proven by my lovely knitty friends.

On to happier things, there's been a little bit of knitting since we last spoke:

I cast on for the string of lights from the Knit Picks Ornament kit.

Basically what you see is the Icord string and where the safety pins are is where the "light bulbs" will be. It's a really fun knit!

I also decided to cast on for something I have wanted to make for ages:

What you see here is the ribbing for a Seamless Yoke Sweater in colourwork by EZ. I'm doing the same pattern as in Newsletter #1 from The Opinionated Knitter, or on the Knitting Around DVD.

I'm mad excited to have started this, I really hope it turns out well!

My colourwork exercises so far have been very tight, almost puckering so I'm really going to have to concentrate on this one.

I've also deliberately cast on for a size that doesn't yet fit so that I might be encouraged to lose a bit of weight and fit into it. We'll see if it works!

Still no sock cast on yet, I think I haven't cast on another one in honour of the lost sock in the glovebox. I still don't have my car back from the garage yet, and I think I'm going to wait until I get it back so that I'll be so happy to see my poor sock that I'll knit like the wind to get it finished and make it up to it!

I never said my thought process was one containing logic.

Happy knitting!