Bank Holiday and New PC update

So, for the bank holiday weekend my plan was to tidy the house. We did a pretty good job so far, but we’re going to need to spend some more time on it. We got most of it done though, as well as a bank holiday Monday trip to Ikea (mistake) to buy a desk. We also bought a narrow bookshelf (which is lush) and a big chest of drawers for my knitting and crafts stuff so that it’s not all over the place. Woo. I’ll post a pic once I’ve finished putting all the yarn and stuff in there.

I also finished the first of the socks that I’m knitting, and I’ve cast on for the second one – still working the cuff at the moment. It’s going to be interesting because they’ll have different stripes on them, because of the nature of the self-striping yarn. I'm really pleased with the first sock. There are a few minor imperfections, but I’m not the kind of knitter who has to unravel whole garments because of one stitch! I’ve got so many other patterns that I want to knit though! Well, we’ll see how sock two pans out. I have seen, in simply knitting, a fab tip about how to go back to before a mistake without the hassle of un-knitting or the risk of dropping millions of stitches. I haven’t had to use it yet though (touch wood).

The new PC rocks: it has a 20inch wide screen monitor which is soooooo cool! It also has a TV tuner, which is brilliant! I installed CivIV which I played for most of yesterday evening! Unfortunately the pos chair Leon got us (one of them posture thingys) is really uncomfortable! Well, I find it to be, Leon likes it. I may have to splash out and buy myself a different chair! Oh well.

Tomorrow is an interesting day for me, as I will be working a split shift (oh joy). I’m getting up at 6am to go to the gym, which at least means that I can make the most of my day. After the gym I might wander around the shops until the buses get a little quieter. Then I’m off home to relax a little. At noon I’m back in work for my first part of my shift. Two hours (approx) and I’ll be off again. I may see about getting my legs waxed in the interval. Then I’m back at work again at around 5pm for the evening shift. I expect to be in until about 10pm. I’ll probably ask Leon to come and pick me up, though I could charge a taxi to work – I’d need a receipt! Should be okay though.

As I mentioned above, I’m going to put my yarn all in a chest of drawers to keep it tidy. The new chest is the same sort of style as the massive wardrobes in the main bedroom, but the colour isn’t quite the same. It’s a hotch potch of furnishings in the second bedroom anyway though. We’d quite like to get a futon for in there, the reason being twofold:

1. a double futon is almost, but not quite, as wide as a double bed – will fit into the room and make it look big enough for a double bed, and will be nicer for guests to sleep on than our air mattress is at present.
2. a futon can be folded away into a sofa, which we could sit on if we did put a second telly in that room!

So, I paid for the new craft chest with the money that we got from selling the treadmill. Basically, when we sold the treadmill my Dad gave me an envelope with the money in. I put it on top of the telly for safekeeping, and promptly forgot all about it. when we were starting to tidy the lounge, before the Ikea trip, Leon discovered the envelope. Hurrah! So, I decided to use the money in the envelope to buy a “storage solution” for my yarn, needles and other knitting stuff (including copies of Simply Knitting magazine)

Lastly, I had another driving lesson last night. We went up and down the A64 and did a turn in the road. Not bad, but I need to observe more still. So we’re doing “advanced” observations to try to make me good. it was actually quite fun, but I also found that I was getting a little distracted by the observations and missing things in front of me. I am driving again next Tuesday with hopefully more of the same.

Have a great day people, the sun’s out and even I am in a good mood!

Random Birthday thing

Having been to Knitting Mama's site and spotted this, as usual I couldn't resist. Proper post later!
By the way - this one is spookily true, don't ya think?

Your Birthdate: December 31

You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good. You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship. In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing. Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you. Your strength: Your dependability Your weakness: You hate being alone Your power color: Midnight blue Your power symbol: Shell Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Spending

So the new PC is ordered, after much faffing about last night (the website for Dell wouldn't work from work, but it might be blocked. What a pain!) Anyway - Woo! Leon’s staying home to set it up on the day we get it (which might be the first, when I’m working shifts anyway) so I’ll be able to play with it later in the week without having to mess around with setting it up – it’s ideal!

I also booked our overnight stay in the Hilton in Manchester for the night before our holiday. I’ve booked dinner, bed and breakfast for a bargain price! Also there’s a pool and a gym, for that last minute workout and relax before the holiday. Unless the chlorine will affect my San Tropez tan I intend to have!

Oh well, pub tonight, then tidying and knitting for the weekend, and perhaps some driving. We’ll see.

too much

I’m not finding it easy to stick to healthy eating. I may have a low-fat cottage cheese and salad wrap for my lunch, but I then have a galaxy chocolate bar. Poo. All my good work un-done. So I have a big number of extra calories to burn off. We are off to the gym tomorrow though. Yesterday’s gym session was to burn off the pizza we had on Tuesday night. Shocking I know. It’s remembering to get something out of the freezer the night before – I almost never remember, and Leon, though he remembers a lot more than I do, sometimes forgets. Then, if I’m having a rubbish day, I don’t want to cook so I order takeaway of some kind. Still, it could be worse! Tonight we have also forgotton to get anything out. Looks like I might be making some kind of pasta bake. I was considering doing a gratin of sorts, with aubergine, courgette, possibly carrots, tomatoes (tinned) and tuna. Does that sound horrible?

I didn’t get much knitting done last night. I only managed a couple of rounds on my sock. I did have a go at some small blanket squares to donate to the SCBU but I couldn’t get the increases to work (I want to knit from the corner). I’m also a little dissatisfied with the sock pattern I am using. I don’t like the way the heel works on these, though it looks like a common way to work the heel. Maybe it will look better when it is completed.

I also had another look at the sox on 2 stix pattern from knitty. I don’t know why mine didn’t work! Perhaps my DK yarn was thicker than intended, or maybe my needles were not the right size. Either way, it didn’t work out like the ones on the knitty website! Perhaps I should have done a swatch to see if my gauge was 20 sts / 28 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch. I am willing to bet that it wasn’t! That would make it difficult, hmm? Anyway, it’s supposed to be knitted in DK, so it should work up a bit faster than the ones I’m doing now.

There are so many knitting projects that I want to do though! It’s madness really! I want to do the zig-zag bag in the May issue of simply knitting. I also want to do at least two of the tops from the June issue of simply knitting (which I got a whole week early due to being a subscriber!) and I’m knitting the sudoku throw. There’s also all the preemie things I want to knit for the SCBU, and I love the fetching fingerless gloves from knitty! And I imagine that there will be a vast number of new patterns that catch my eye over the coming months. Mum did also ask about me knitting her a shrug like mine - though how much time that might take is anyone’s guess. I’m not sure about having an identical one, perhaps I can find some nice wool in a different colourway to do one for Mum in.

Of course, buying yarn (or wool, I try to say yarn because that covers all the cotton and ribbon yarns as well) on ebay is a bit tricky when I don’t have access to the internet at home because I don’t have a computer. I am hoping to sort that out very soon, and then I’ll have a shiny new PC that I can surf ebay and play Civ4 on! (bang goes my knitting time for a while, though I could probably knit and play Civ4.)
Even as I type, I have just spotted the perdita cuff pattern on knitty which I think is lush! And I have lots of ideas of who I could give them to!

Oh well, it’s a bank holiday weekend from tomorrow evening (Friday) and so that’s lots of tidying for me. We’re going to operate a reward system, where if we actually tidy the house we can go out on Saturday to the movies!

What am I going on about?

Having had a look at This post on Lint’s blog I wondered what the top 10 things I post about are.
As of 23rd May 2007, the things I have posted most about are:

1 knitting and crafts (32)
2 health and fitness (24)
3 driving (18)
4 Friends and Family (15)
5 Holiday (13)
6 Celebrations (11)
7 Ranting (10)
8= General (7)
8= Work (7)
10 Achievements and Resolutions (5)

I’m happier with that list than I thought I’d be. I blog most about what’s happening to me in my life. I think that work didn’t aught to be in this list, and I’ll try to talk less about work. I’m also not surprised that knitting and crafts is way up there, since I mention it in most posts. I may try this again on my blogoversary (see counter in the blogroll)

Remaining philosophical

This weekend we went back to Gainsborough to celebrate my Dad’s 50th birthday. The celebrations have been ongoing since his birthday, and are now on hold until Florida. Anyway...

On his birthday Mum and Dad organised some food from the new Marks and Sparks Food store (it’s new in Gainsborough). The following night my sister had organised for him to go se a T-Rex tribute band (2-Rex) and he got cake and champagne! We all arrived on Friday night and I gave Dad the gifts I’d got him. I’d splashed out a bit more than I normally do, and so he got a flashy heart-rate monitor (he runs and goes to the gym), the Tomb Raider chronicles (I think) for the PS2 and a bottle of posh single malt whisky (which always goes down well). Shopping on the Saturday and then Mum, Gayle and I went to the new shopping area in Gains while the boys watched the football. Sunday morning we sat up on a hill while Dad went on his gliding experience (from Mum). We got sunburn. Well, Gayle and I got sunburn! Mine is down one side of my face, so I look a right pillock. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, and I even got some knitting done on my sock, which is over half complete now.

We also went for a run on the Saturday morning (me, Dad and Leon) and managed Dad's 3 mile course in 30 minutes. Woo!

And, more good news! We didn’t win the PTH. We were mid-table this time, probably due to it being less actuarial now than it was. I’m willing to bet that the next one is even more convoluted, and I don’t like the buying big prizes nonsense. This could be the end of Bad Data.

On the knitting front, I’ve begun shaping the gusset of my sock. I was hoping it would come out with a distinct corner, like when you buy them, but it doesn’t look like that at present. We will see, I guess. I’m enjoying the self striping yarn, and will almost certainly buy more at some point. Sock yarn is so expensive though! Enough for one pair of socks can cost almost ten whole pounds! I don’t spend that kind of money on socks I buy, never mind socks I’m making and so my time has to be factored in! Oh well. I do have a cunning plan on the sock front for this Christmas (7 months and 2 days away!) but that is all I'm willing to say!

So my run of three bad luck items is as follows:

1. Car is not going to pass its MOT and so needs fixing or selling
2. Computer blew up
3. Failed driving test

Now that they’re out of the way (and assuming that no1 counts) then I should be a bit luckier now. They say that it comes in threes, but I’m not superstitious, it’s too unlucky (ba-boom-tish)

Well, I guess that’s all for now. Wish me happy hunting for my new PC and car, and also luck in getting a test earlier than the next one is scheduled for.

Remaining philosophical.

Bother

Last night, I was minding my own business surfing myspace and facebook when the screen went black and the computer started making a funny noise. I turned it off and on again, the screen remained blank and the noise persisted. So I turned it off and went to bed feeling slightly guilty.

So, this morning I asked Leon to turn on the PC and have a listen to see what he thought was wrong with it. Leon turned it on and it went and made the same odd noise as before. Then it went “bang”. It smelled of burning. I think it is now dead. It has lasted a long time (I got it in 2002 to use for my degree course) and was well due for replacement. I am slightly sad that it’s dead, it’s like losing an old friend!

So, we’re in the market for a new PC. I have been trying to decide what to do with the overtime pay I’ll be getting this month for the extra work I did in December and January. (It’s a long story) and now the decision is pretty much made for me.

It does put a bit of a damper on the car search too, because we don’t really have any spare money even without having to buy a new PC. You see I was planning on spending the money on either

1. a new mattress
2. towards a new(er) car
3. towards a new computer
4. save it for a rainy day

Looks like now I don’t need to wonder, just spend it on the thing which by becoming deceased is now top of the list, a new PC.

There are some nice ones from Dell at least, and for only a bit more than the money I’m expecting (5 days worth of overtime after tax is not enough to flee the country with) but we’ll see. We’ll probably end up spending vast amounts more than we wanted to. So it is.

So, no blogging from home for me for a while (is that an issue, I think not) but I do now have the hope of having a PC which is capable of running Civilisation 4.

Sock Progress

Sock Progress
Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

This is my second sock attempt, this time using proper sock yarn, proper sock needles and a proper sock pattern. The brighter blue bit is the cuff, and I'm working my way towards the heel at present.

Mostly knitting

I heard back from the local SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit) today. The nice lady who works there told me that they’d love to receive some hand knitted garments, and that they especially like to get hats, cardigans and blankets. Excellent! I have a pattern for a cardigan that I downloaded from Bliss’ (the charity) website and now I also have a pattern for a blanket square. Small squares for a small blanket would be nice, although I bet they take just as long as the big ones for my big throw. I will make a small cardigan though, and see how that looks. Everything looks sweet in small sizes! I found some nice patterns here.

We went to pilates again last night. I quite enjoyed it again, though I think Leon’s not so keen. It’s quite hard work, and I feel like I did a mega workout last night, not some stretching. (reminds me of the yellow pages ad “a bunch of ladies in leotards going ‘om’ – how hard can it be?”)I have a couple of pledges for the race for life that mean I have to get round in less time than before. I guess I’d better get into some proper training! We have found quite a nice route to run, over on Clifton Ings. We’re not sure on the distance, but it’s probably about right. I would join some of my friends’ running sessions, but perhaps not yet.

Tonight I’m looking forwards to a nice quiet night. CSI is on, so I can sit back, watch CSI and knit. I’m presently working mostly on my sock. I only managed a couple of rounds last night after pilates, but that’s okay. I’m also mid-way through one of the squares for the sudoku blanket. I think I may finish that before it gets cold again (proper cold I mean, not this miserable weather we’re having now)
Now that I have heard from the SCBU I may begin a premature baby garment too. The hat and booties were fun and so quick to do. I wonder whether the blue yarn I have will be suitable for these patterns. I may need to invest in a couple more stitch counters though, if I’m to have more than two projects on the go at once!

This site is quite interesting too.

Nothing more for now: it’s a slow news day.

Reverse order post

We’re still awaiting the PTH results. I suspect that they will announce today.

I had another driving lesson on Sunday evening. It was raining, which wasn’t pleasant. I did two rather shoddy parallel park manoeuvres, and lots of emergency stops! (Fun, in the rain)
Trying to remain calm in the face of the impending test.

After lunch on Sunday we went to New Look. I almost bought lots of clothes for my holiday, but ended up only buying a new pair of trousers for work. They are fab, mind you.

For Sunday lunch we went out and met some friends who don’t live in York any more. It was very pleasant to see them again, although it was a bit of a flying visit. We must sort ourselves out and go visit them some time. We still haven’t seen their new pad!

On Saturday night we went to perhaps the most peculiar barbeque I have ever been to. It was at the Royal York, and as it was raining, it was mostly inside. We had a proper sit-down starter with melon and strawberries, which was lovely. Then we had barbeque food (I had steak and a fish kebab) and then we had strawberries and cream. Yum. After that we had a bit of a boogie.

Saturday afternoon we went for a look around the shops at Monks Cross, to look at some t-shirts that Leon wanted. I bought some flight socks for the flight to America too. (We now have a “things for holiday” box) As I was feeling a bit low, I treated myself to some more nice Radox bubble bath and a body brush with anti-cellulite massagine nodules on one side and a nice scrubby brush on the other side. Not for use wet. We also had a look at Lily Allen’s new range in New Look. On first glance I wasn’t enamoured, but having considered that position I think I like a couple of the dresses, if worn with belts. I dislike the new “gold” range in there though.

On Saturday morning I was feeling especially low. I made the mistake of weighing and measuring myself. After the week we’ve had I should have expected it not to be good. It’s so frustrating though! I haven’t lost any weight (well, a pound or two, maybe) since January when I joined the gym. I also haven’t lost any girth. It’s just not on. I don’t care what all these people say about how skinny isn’t the answer because I don’t want to be skinny I want to be lean. There is a difference. Anyway, I guess we’ll see how that goes. Leon’s got me listening to a podcast by some American chap who claims to have the answer to meeting my fitness goals, I quote: “Doctors don’t know, Diet Clinics don’t want to know, Health Club Owners don’t care, Personal Trainers – they care, but they don’t always have all of the information either.” But he says that he knows. He says it’s something to do with protein and two types of carbs. Frankly, I’m as puzzled now as I was before!

PTH - Dick Turpin

It was the Pub Treasure Hunt last night, so some of the Data Team and Helen (as pictured) got together and went on a mad rampage around York along with several other teams to visit a number of pubs and to have a good time, get drunk and do a quiz and treasure hunt.

We were pretty pants on treasure, but we answerd lots of questions. There has been no announcement of the winners yet, but if we're lucky it isn't us (the winner has to organise the next one!)

5:30am

...is definitely too early to get up.

Diet? What diet?

On the diet front, the weekend has been a bit of a disaster. Starting with pizza at my parents’ house on Thursday and rampaging through cakes and cookies to a three course wedding meal (very nice though) and ending in my putting back on two of the three pounds I thought I had lost.

Otherwise it was a thoroughly pleasant weekend. We took it easy, I did quite a bit of knitting, the wedding was lovely and the dancing was not too strenuous.

Having a day off was quite nice, although it’s never long enough! Even though it was a bank holiday which made it a four day weekend, I was still loathe to come back to work!

So, I’ve cast on and completed two squares for the sudoku blanket, and almost completed a third. I started on pattern three because one and two were a bit complicated. I think that it should be possible to complete one square per evening, but as I also have socks on the go, and have other commitments some evenings, I will not complete the blanket in 81 days. (Gosh! It’s just dawned on me the vastness of this project!) So, I aim to complete all of the pattern three squares before I move on to the other patterns. Pattern three seems to be a very good starter square because the eight-row repeat is about an inch and a half high, so for an eight inch square you need six rows. I’m not entirely happy with my cast off edge; I am wondering whether I should be casting off knit-wise instead of purl-wise. Still, as long as I do all nine squares the same it should be fine.
The socks are still going. I haven’t done anything on them over the weekend despite taking them with me. I will have to train myself to knit in the car without feeling car sick. I’d have got an extra six hours of knitting in then. Well, except for when I was directing us.

My dress for the wedding was a success. It went pretty well with the shoes and looked very posh with my fur-collared cardi. Leon wore his light coloured suit, and looked very nice. He took some photos at the wedding, which he might put online soon. I don’t think he took any pictures of me (but I wasn’t the main attraction) so you’ll have to wait until I find another occasion to wear it (like the barbeque at the weekend?)
I didn’t have my legs shaved or waxed on the day, and that didn’t seem to be a problem (you could hardly tell, and nobody was looking) although I am not due to go back for another three weeks. I don’t know if it’ll throw out my plans if I go sooner. It is meant to last for 4-6 weeks, and it’s only been three, almost four. And it’s expensive, but worth it I think.

I am driving again tonight. Not long until my test now. I had a pretty good drive last weekend; I hope that today’s is good too. If I don’t manage to pass, it could be after my holiday to Florida before I get another chance. That would suck. I just have to not do anything stupid. All the things I failed on before were stupid. I have to remember to do more observations and make them useful. Looking is good but seeing is necessary. I don’t want to chat too much. I don’t mind going on the A64, but I’d rather not go on at the nasty roundabout. They are both nasty though, actually. I know that I haven’t been out for a drive with any of my friends or colleagues. This is not because I don’t think they helped Leon, I’m sure that they did in fact. I just can’t face asking them, and because I have a horrible desire to do this on my own, in my own way which may be my downfall. My instructor has been fantastic so far though. He’s sensible and is teaching me to drive, not just to pass the driving test. I’ve been watching Leon’s driving too, mostly to see things and not to criticise.
Can you tell that I'm worried about this? I promise to let people know how it goes when it happens. If it’s good news it’s likely to get out faster than if it’s not.
If I write any more I'm likely to give away too much and people will guess when it is and then I’ll feel pressured.

Coming soon – the PTH (Pub Treasure Hunt) is on Thursday. The theme is periods of history. We’re going as Dick Turpin and his gang. Leon’s picking up the costume bits tonight, and then I have to decide whether I need anything else. I’m thinking about making a capelet, if I have enough material.
I did forget to pay our entry fee last week though. We’ll probably lose points for that! They didn’t remind me to pay up though! I have now paid, should be starting at 17:10 – venue yet to be confirmed!

Undressed Voting

Today has been manic so far, and isn’t set to get any better!

Last night I packed my gym kit as well as packing for the long weekend so we can go directly there. So we jumped into the car, drove to the gym, worked out for an hour and then went to get changed. I showered and then once I was dry started to get my clothes out of my bag:
Clean socks – check
Clean knickers – check
Trousers for work – check
Shrug – check
T-shirt… T-shirt… oh dear.
So, I dressed in what I had (the shrug doesn’t leave much to the imagination) and dried my hair, put on a little makeup and then waited for Leon in the lobby of the gym. We discussed the situation and decided that the best solution was for Leon to drive me back home and for me to get my t-shirt and then for us both to walk in to work.

Anyway, that disaster averted, I’ve got a big stack of work to do at work, including lots of chasing of other people.
Anyway, I’m then going to go home, hopefully a bit earlier than usual, to clean out my hamsters and feed and water them. Then I’m off to vote*. Hopefully I’ll have had time to stick some things in the car ready to go. Once we’ve both got home, voted and been to the loo, we’ll be off to Gainsborough (via a petrol station), hopefully in time to go get some grub.

* I have no idea who to vote for. I’m not even sure what my choices are. Having looked on the council web page, I have a choice between three Labour candidates, three Conservative candidates, three Liberal Democrat candidates, one Green candidate and one BNP candidate.
So, I will not vote for the BNP. That’s an easy one. There are too many radical elements in the BNP.
I have no idea what the Conservatives or Greens hope to do in my ward as I haven’t seen any pamphlets or anything.
The Lib Dems have sent me information telling me how awful it would be under Labour, and that they might want more recycling. However, these same councillors (whom we have presently) seem to want to build flats out the back of my house.
Labour have sent me information telling me how awful it is under the Lib Dems and that they would be much nicer and give me not only more recycling, but better everything! – oh and that the Conservatives have no chance.
So I have to vote for three candidates** for the three seats, and then hope that they don’t build flats and do improve the recycling.

** Why do I have to vote for three candidates? Surely it would be fairer if everyone voted for one candidate and the top three got in. It already feels like my vote is unlikely to count, and in any case I don’t think that these candidates stand for what I want. Politics sucks. I’ll still vote though, because I am obliged to – no vote no voice. People fight (and die) in other countries, and did in this one, in order to be able to vote. I can’t throw that away, I just wish I knew more about it. more information would be better.

Dressed Up

I have realised that I haven’t mentioned my new dresses! On Monday before Pilates I went to New Look to look for a dress for the wedding at the weekend. I was hoping to get a dress that I had tried on in town (we have three New Look stores here) but this New Look only had one of those and it was two sizes too big. So, I had to find a different dress. I picked up two dresses (and some shoes to try on with the dresses) and headed off to the changing rooms. I tried both on, and liked them both! I also showed them to Leon, and he said that he liked them both too. While I don’t normally buy clothes at full price, these dresses are fab!
One of them is a short-ish green and pink flowery patterned dress; it has a fairly high waist with a ribbon belt and pockets (which I’ll never use!). it’s really pretty, and is exactly what I was looking for to wear on the plane for Florida over some trousers. Excellent!
The other is for the wedding. It can be worn strapless or with straps. It’s a really nice cut too, the waist is actually at my waist, and it’s an a-line skirt. It has a paisley pattern to it. It’s varying shades of pink and white with a sort of spotty hem around the bottom and top. I was going to wear my newly finished shrug with it, but it was too busy! So, I’m going to be wearing my white angora cardigan with the furry collar instead. Sadly I don’t have a bag that goes with this ensemble so I’ll have to rely on Leon for cash. I will be wearing my gold shoes with it. I realise that sounds ghastly, but they’re more shiny beige than gold, quite sedate really. There’ll probably be pictures on Flickr soon enough.

Shrug

I have now uploaded some pictures of the shrug I knitted, on my Completed Projects Blog

You can find the Evening Star Shrug here.

Neutral Spine, Ring-ring

Last night was my first pilates class. We arrived a bit early, so got to sit in the heat and humidity of the upstairs of Waterworld. However, once we got into the crèche (where the class is held) it wasn’t so bad. We met the lady running the class, Grace, and the other class attendees. One of the improvers reminded me a bit of Andy. Anyway, there was about a half-and-half split between beginners and improvers which was nice. We had a go at standing up properly and getting neutral spine (that’s where the spine should be). Then we had a go at rolling down, which is basically bending over but in a complicated way. It wasn’t easy actually, especially getting the breathing right and relaxing and tensing in the right places! Then we did lying down properly, which was less difficult. We also did some balancing which I was rubbish at! I found the experience quite relaxing, and I am looking forwards to doing it again, but we don’t have a class next week because of the bank holiday.

We have new phones at work. They have a choice of irritating ring-tones. I have insisted that my team stick with ring-ring, although nobody seemed to want to change it anyway. We’re all glad to have turned down the ringers too. And we have voicemail. Perhaps some of the other teams around us will get the idea that you don’t need to have the phone so loud that you can hear it from outside. Eventually.

I have now finished my shrug. I sewed on the buttons last night. It looks fantastic! I’m really pleased with it – there will be pictures on my Completed Knitting Projects blog once I get around to taking them. It may have taken me about a month to knit, but I haven’t spent time on it every day, and probably no more than a couple of hours at a time. Even so, it’s been on the needles a while!
I do have a minor issue too, I have my needle roll on my size 8 needles, with my small row counter. I’m currently using my big row counter on the 6.5mm needles I have, I was using that for the shrug, now I’m using it in a slightly Heath Robinson manner for the socks. The issue I have is this: when I begin the throw I want to make sure that all of the squares of each type are the same size, for which I’ll want to count the rows. It tells me in the pattern to keep knitting to the length I want (10cm or 10 inches, I don’t remember!) and so I want to knit the first square to size and then knit all the squares of that pattern to the same size in all the different colours. That means that I need a row counter. The big row counter would be best because it’s good for the big needles I need. So, I then have no row counter for my socks. I need a row counter for the socks – so I was thinking of using the one on the needle roll. So, this leaves me with the question: do I put the needle roll onto a stitch holder for now or unravel it? Now, I don’t like “frogging” (or ripping out, undoing) my knitting, but there is a good case for this. The yarn is nice and I have almost two balls of it. Also, I now have somewhere to store my needles as I got a needle case in Simply Knitting. So, perhaps that’s the answer? We will see.

Oh, and work sucks at the moment. I’m not going to go off on a major rant about it though. It’s a shame because it’s been going well and I have all sorts of things in place to try and make sure I don’t make mistakes. Sometimes it seems that my best just isn’t good enough. I guess that it doesn’t matter though, whatever will be and all that.

It could be worse, though, I am sitting in a warm(ish) office with free tea (okay, it mings, but it is free). And maybe something good will happen.

Speaking of something good, on the way in to work this morning we saw a pair of geese with eight goslings (all cute and fluffy and yellow) and a pair of ducks with four ducklings (all fluffy and black and green – so sweet!) which cheered me up. I like this time of year!