Boring yet exciting weekend!

I didn’t do much this weekend.

We had a pleasant (and rather cheap) meal at an Italian (that I forget the name of again) on Friday evening. Friday evening was otherwise notable for being the evening of the same day that I was forced to leave work at 4pm due to desk moves and so went into town and bought some more nice wool and a pair of cable needles.

On Saturday I had intended to go into town, but as I had bought the things I needed on Friday, I instead had a much more laid back Saturday. I have almost finished the bag I’ve been making; it just needs lining.

Sunday was slightly more eventful, if not particularly thrilling. Firstly I was driving at the ungodly hour of 9:30am! This was fine, though, and my driving was generally okay. I did stop on a zebra crossing, though, which is very naughty. I will soon be booking/taking my theory test.
Anyway, I had cunningly arranged to meet L at the gym, so I thought. This would therefore save me the time of driving to the gym. On arrival at the gym I could not see our car, but I just thought that L was running a little late. Not so. After half an hour I asked at reception in the gym if I could use their phone (there being no phonebox and my mobile being in my gym bag at home) to see whether L had set off. He hadn’t, he was still waiting for me at home. Whoops! He’d misunderstood me, and thought that I was going to get dropped off at home and that we’d go directly to the gym, not that he was meant to meet me there. I must remember to be clearer and SPEAK….SLOWLY….AND….CLEARLY…. in future. But really, other than wasting a whole hour, no harm done. And L did cook dinner last night and make lunch for today. So I let him off. I’ll still make him a scarf.

Then, while I was in the toilets of the gym my parents called to let me know that they had a price for our upcoming holiday. It was a good price, so I said I was happy for them to book. Which they did, so we’re off to Florida! Woo! We do still have to work out what we’re doing car wise and save up a bit more money, but we’re sooooo close now! I’m very excited about it already, so goodness knows what I’ll be like by August!
This does also give me a timescale for when I have to be not fat by. 4 months and 14 days, and counting! I only want to lose another stone, which should be okay except for that I haven’t lost ANY weight at all going to the gym so far. Maybe I’m not exercising hard enough. I’m not sure what I'm going to do during the 6 weeks that L can’t lift weights, although hopefully he’ll be able to do some cardio.
He also can’t drive for a fortnight, which is a bigger pain. The odds of me passing my theory, getting a practical test and passing it within the next fortnight are a bit slim!

Knitty knitty bang bang

I have received a new batch of wool from a shop on e-bay. I have six balls of eyelash wool, three white, three red, and six balls of feather wool (really nice and soft), three in blue, three in pink/purple. I'm quite excited about knitting them into scarves or something. I've had a quick go with the pink this morning before work. It's quite hard to work. It recommends 5mm needles (UK size 6), but I tried 5.5mm (UK size 5) and think I may want to use even chunkier needles.

I didn't mention my new collection of knitting needles. I had bought myself a pair of 4.5mm (UK 7) and 6.5mm (UK 3) needles when I fist began so that I could knit my scarf and bag (I used the 6.5mm in both cases). However, in making a tension square (*) for my next project, I discovered that the needles, wool, and my personal tension required adjusting. The easier of these is the needles. This means that I needed a wider range of needles. L's mum kindly gave me some needles which she had duplicates of, and L's grandma also gave me some needles of which she had no further need. Then we went on a trawl around the charity shops in High Wickham and Princes Risborough. I managed to get almost all of the sizes available! The only downside is that I only have a UK size gauge, so I have to work out what size they are in mm if they don't have it marked. I even seem to have gotten some needles which are in American sizes! They are shiny pink though.

So, between my various balls of yarn (I'm not supposed to call it wool unless it came from a sheep.) and my vast array of knitting needles, I should be able to knit lots of exciting things.

I think I am most excited about the scarves that I will be knitting with my new wool. I'm also looking forward to completing the makeup purse I have been working on. I've made the base and the ends so far.

Also, L has found me a pattern for making "monkey" from the ITV digital / PG Tips adverts. I have bought some of the PG Tips which come with the free Munkeh so that I can compare it for colours. He's greener than he looks! That will be quite a challenge to knit. Also, he will have to be stuffed, so I will have to find somewhere that sells toy stuffing.

Another thing I hope to do is to make a needle roll. This will not be knitted. Basically, a needle roll is a good way of storing knitting needles (the straight ones, at least) and some of the bits that go with them. It’s a bit like a painter's brush roll, or some posh make-up brushes come in velvet brush rolls. I'll put pics and a pattern on here when I'm done. (which reminds me, I need a scanner.)

So anyway, lots of craft based aims for me, so many in fact that I have another list of things I want to do. Since this one overlaps with the "make one garment each month" goal, I'll not add it officially to the side bar, but here are the things I want to make over the next few weeks/months:

• Knit pink scarf
• Knit blue scarf
• Knit white scarf
• Knit red scarf
• Make needle roll
• Make knitting bag
• Knit makeup purse
• Knit monkey
• Knit ape rucksack

* A tension square is when you knit a specific number of stitches and rows and measure the size. The aim is to get to the same size as the pattern specifies.

I've been driving again

Driving last night went okay. I wore heels, which wasn’t such a good idea, but it didn’t affect my driving too much. I am concerned about my vision though, I may have to go take an eye test. It’s been three years now, and I’m meant to go back every two years, and I always seem to need a stronger pair of glasses when I go. It’s so expensive though. I’m also expecting to have to wear them all the time, which is a bit of a bind. Still, I’d rather have to buy new specs than hurt someone on the roads.

...like a wet weekend

So, today I am back at work after a much needed holiday. So much needed, in fact, that I was down with a heavy cold for two days before my holiday, and I have to be really sick before I take time off.

The weather seems to be in the same mood as I am, it was really nice for almost all of the holiday, but now it is misty and looking like it's going to rain.

Indeed, it seems that much has happened during my week off, and though I needn’t go into detail, things are changing at work again. I wish that I liked my job, but I can't quite place what it is about it that I dislike so much.
Part of the problem is that I find the financial services sector to be unscrupulous. Although I appreciate the need to be profit driven, I find it disheartening that basically money is made from people being afraid. To some degree the adverts are billed in this way too. "If you were to die, how would your loved ones cope with the financial burden?"
The other part of the problem is that my job does not require me to produce anything tangible, or any visible service to anyone. Nobody is better off as a result of the work that I do. I do not improve the quality of anyone's life.
Now, to many people this will not sound much like me. I am very much re-evaluating my standards at the moment. This was partly triggered by the goat centre that L and I visited on our holiday, but it's been something that has been playing on my mind for some time.

I guess we’ll see how things go. I'm not sure that I’m brave enough to go for a complete change of career.
Yet.

Awfully Remiss

I should have already mentioned this by now I am sure, but my totally insane friend Jaq has set up on the Microsoft Challenge Whatever that may be, it requires both training (on her part) and sponsorship (when I get round to it) so check it out, if you like.

PS. Coming soon: Race for Life 2007.

Knit-wit

I've been knitting (as mentioned in an earlier post) and have now uploaded some pictures of the things I have knitted. On the right here is my first project, a scarf in knit stitch. It's pretty easy to knit a scarf, although it took a while. If I make another I may choose to make it a bit narrower. I like the tassles though. It's very cosy.



On the left is my second project, a bag. This is also in knit stitch, but with stripes. They were also reasonably easy to achieve. Could be difficult on a two sided item like a scarf though, as the ends are neatly tidied inside the bag, which wouldn't happen on a scarf.

I'm currently working on some wrist-bands. I've done one so far which says "geek" in pink on a black background.

Yet More Driving

You'll all be glad to hear that I went driving again.
I went on the A64 this time.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

And the car is no longer a Corsa, it's a mini.
That is all.