Update

So, it’s been a while, but you’ll see why!

First, there was the PTH. I’ve been keeping schtum about the costume and theme until now, and here is mine:

This was the rest of the team. With the exception of the DS9 costume, I made all of the tops and my dress. I’m pretty pleased with how they look!

Then there was the wedding on Saturday
Leon had the camera, so most of the pictures are of me!
What do you think of the new haircut? Goes with the dress, I think!

I don’t have much other news, or knitting news, so I’ll post again when I do.
If you’re listed as Friend or Family on Flickr you’ll be able to see the rest of the pics.

Busy?

It’s been a busy week so far and it’s not getting any less busy!
Mum and Dad were up on Sunday. We visited one of the local farm shops. (The one with the chickens)

Having spent most of Saturday on the costumes, I then spent about half of Monday on them too. We then went shopping on Monday afternoon for some magi knickers for me (wait ’til you see the dress for the PTH!) and we also managed to pick up part of my Dad’s birthday gift.

Tuesday was a pretty hectic work day, at the end of which I spent several hours in a car going to Telford. At least we were staying in a nice hotel this time. The food in the restaurant was a bit hit and miss, but fairly tasty and cheap. Breakfast was the usual buffet sort, but tasty too! The meeting was reasonably useful, which is always a bonus when you’ve travelled all that way. The journey back was pretty uneventful. There was some kind of medical incident on the train which delayed us by about 20 minutes. I hope that whoever it was is okay.

So, today is the PTH (Pub Treasure Hunt) and my team at work actually have two teams this year! I’m still not telling you the theme or showing you the costumes yet. They are fab though; I’m quite pleased with them!

Then tomorrow is lots of preparation for the wedding on Saturday. (Anyone would think it was my wedding, the amount of getting ready I’m doing!)
I hope I’m not too hung over because I need to get up and epilate, dye my hair*, go to the gym for my induction, go to get my nails done, go to get my hair cut*, and have a passport photo taken. * I am dying my own hair because I’m going to a new salon and I forgot about the whole 48 hours patch test. I’m off to the York College and a trainee will be cutting my hair. Could be interesting! I’m sure that I’ll be fine, I’m pretty easy going about my hair anyway.
I have bought a hair magazine which has pictures of Posh’s hair in it. Always useful to have a picture! Anyway, there are some other nice cuts in there which are really similar too. I’ve also bought some hair colour from the “Herbal Essences” range, called “Bronze Ice” from the “Fearless Colour” range. Indeed. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes! It’s been a while since I dyed my own hair! Yey!
Now all that remains is to get a strapless or “invisible strap” bra to wear under the dress. I tried one on in La Senza (well, actually I tried two, I always start with the smaller of the options since I seem to be between sizes) and it made my boobs look a really funny shape! So I’m hoping to find time tomorrow to visit the M&S lingerie department in town (after the gym, before I get my nails done) to see if they have anything more suitable. Ho hum. My own fault for making a dress where the bra straps are visible!

There will be pictures…

Lift like a man, look like a goddess?

I went to the new gym last night for a look around. It looks, somewhat unsurprisingly, like a gym. Really though, it’s quite nice. The pool is a sensible size (20m) and there are lots of each kind of equipment. The yoga and fitness studios were both nice, and there’s a boxing area where they intend to do boxercise at some point. They couldn’t give us a program (or a log on number for the system) last night though. I’d like to think that there’s a better reason for that than that they are disorganised – we have been signed up for about 6 weeks, but they’re only now inputting the numbers? Hmm. In any case, this means that I get to make up my own program to begin with. They will automatically give us a basic program (ahaha) which I plan to ignore and do my “lift like a man, look like a goddess” (it really says that on the book) program. Woo! Honestly though, I love the concept: step away from the treadmill!

Last night I spent a couple of moments reviewing my stash, and finally got round to frogging the scarf that never was. Now I have almost two full balls of Louisa Harding Kimono Angora (Rav Link). I don’t know what to do with it. It knits at DK weight, so I had a go with the experimental search on Ravelry to see what it suggested. There are lots of scarves, some socks, hats and lots of baby things. It was being a scarf before but I wasn’t feeling it. frankly I don’t like knitting scarves because they take so long and they’re repetitive! I might be tempted with a lace one, at least that would lend some interest, and might get my lace mojo going for Muir (Rav: Muir, Muir Along) but we will see. I really want to make it into something that I will be able to wear because it’s such lovely stuff! I quite like the look of the top non-sock non-baby pattern: Branching Out from Knitty.com which looks so pretty. And I think I probably have the tools required.

I’ve been knitting the socks for my OH again at lunchtimes. I am afraid that I don’t think that the cables are going to match up entirely. Because I have the attention span of a five year old crammed full of smarties, I keep forgetting to cable, Still, if anyone (other than another knitter) is crazy enough to get down on their hands and knees and check to see if I cabled both socks at exactly the same time then that’s their problem not mine. OH doesn’t mind. He’s happy with one sock, but I think you need a pair to get the full enjoyment out of them!
And I am so pleased with the long-tail/thumb cast on. It’s stretchy enough and it looks nice too. It’s a lot better than the knitted cast-on, IMHO. I might use it for everything from now on! Though when casting on a large number of stitches it might not be recommended. I might have to learn another new cast on then.

In other news, the PTH is coming again soon, so we’re off to buy some material to make costumes tomorrow. Our theme is so cool. I’ll let you guess what the theme is when you see the costume(s) though.

Finally!

So, some pics as promised, and the story about the flowers...

I went to the post office to pick up what I thought was a gift from Play for Leon. However, it was not. It was, in fact:

How odd - who has bought me flowers? Hmm
Anyway, I got home and realised something crucial. I don't own a vase. Nobody has ever bought me flowers before.
...
Okay, now that you've recovered from that shock, can you guess what I did?

You guessed it. I went and bought a vase:

And then another, as I liked buying vases.

Woo

And for those who are interested, here's my team from the PTH.

and me


My SP has commented that she's left a clue in the last parcel about who she is in case I haven't guessed. I still don't have any idea, so I'm very excited to get the clue! And also reminded that I need to sort out my parcel for my downstream!

Something new to think about.

Yesterday I went to a meeting at work about a new project that’s changing our department.
The idea is to be better, faster and more efficient. It’s a good plan. However, there was an interesting part of the presentation where they replaced everything my team do with a database. I can see their logic and reasoning. It makes perfect sense. It does leave me wondering what my job will be when it’s finished. On the face of it, my job might not be there any more.
Of course, this is a two year plan, and lots of things can change in two years. They may decide to do things in a different way, or simply change the role of the team I’m in. Until we get more information, and more definite information, there’s not much more to say. I am not sure how to keep the morale of my team up though. They all saw the presentation and drew their own conclusions.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s debauchery, the PTH is always interesting. As I have mentioned we’re going as the French. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going for a saucy French-lady look, or a more blokey version. I have tried on my costume and bought some nice black jeans for the event. I may wear my saucy red peep-toe shoes, but I might not. I haven’t decided yet! (If I do, I’ll need to paint my toenails!)
The costume is made by Smiffy’s of Gainsborough (my hometown) – if you search for “French man” you get it. I guess I could have gone for “French Maid” instead, but that’s a bit too saucy (and cold) for a November PTH. The shirt is pretty baggy on me, but I think I’m going to wear a vest underneath it and then tie up the shirt to the side. I will probably not wear the ‘tache.

This week I are bin mostly...

It’s raining, cold and miserable. Ick.
And I haven’t blogged in ages. Sorry about that.
I don’t really have an excuse. I got half-way through writing a post about something or other, but got way-laid. So, here I am.
This weekend, being one with nothing “booked” in it was scheduled to be Christmas shopping. But, I booked into the hairdressers first, and that took longer than anticipated. However, we got some prezzie shopping done. I still have to think of something for my mum and sister, and for Leon. I’ve bought two things for him so far, well – three if you count the thing he knows about!
I usually enjoy Christmas shopping, though town was even busier than normal. And we were paying a darned fortune for parking! I decided to pay using my mobile, you just text vast amounts of information to this number and they debit your bank account. It’s quite a good method, except that they cheekily charged extra! Poo.
The good bit, though, is that they text you when your parking is about to run out, and if you reply you can extend it; which is handy if you’re in the middle of having a cuppa at the time!

Anyway, other than getting a new hair-do (->) and a bit of Christmas shopping, I also bought some yarn. I bought seven balls of beautiful praline coloured rowan pure wool aran. Okay, it’s brown. It’s for the “Manly Sweater” for Leon. I thought that I had enough of the contrasting colours (Ivory and Sage) but it turns out that I need two balls of the ivory, so to make sure that they’re the same dye-lot (it’s very slightly off white) I’ve had to order two more. Still, I’m sure I can think of something to do with a ball of almost-white pure wool aran weight yarn! :)

I know, I am not meant to be buying any yarn until the S&C in Harrogate, but I do like to have the yarn I want for a project. I’m planning on casting on my Urban Vest as soon as I finish the last of my Christmas knits (although I really should go back to Gypsy Socks first) I’m also inspired to knit more gloves.
My sister asked for gloves rather than mittens for Christmas, (she’s the only person who has asked for specific knitted items!) and so she’s getting some. They’re in a really funky colour (I’ll be updating the finished items blog en-masse after Christmas with all the gifts I’ve been making!)(If you’re on ravelry you can see the yarn already) and I’ve used the pattern for Web Generated Hand Knit Gloves by the Knitting Fiend - she also does socks and the like. Anyway, I am really enjoying knitting the gloves - I’m up to the index finger on the first glove (so I have not just four dpns but also three stitch holders and a stitch marker in play - I’m considering an extra stitch marker too to mark the beginning of the round on my 9-stitch finger!) I’ve been intermittently trying them on (no pun intended) and they’re slightly too big for me - by only a teensy bit. I figure that’s good though, as my sister has slightly bigger hands than me. The cuff is big on me too, but I have unnaturally skinny wrists! So, I’m confident that they’ll fit; I like the simplicity of the pattern and I am seriously considering making a full hat-scarf-glove set for myself, if i can find some suitable yarn!
I’m currently lovingRowan Tapestry, it’s 70% Wool and 30% Soybean Protein Fibre. You get 120m per 50g ball and its tension is 22sts and 30 rows to 10cm on 4mm needles – so I guess it’s basically DK. All the balls look so nice, and I think would make lovely gloves. I’d think about doing the Argosy scarf from knitty. They did it in Noro, but I think that it would work in Rowan Tapestry. However, the gloves are plain old stocking stitch, so a posh scarf might be a bit much – but all that in just stst would be sooooo boring! Hmm. I guess I could add a cable or something to the gloves, and then add the same cable to the scarf and hat. – eek, we’re back into design-it-yourself type territory! But I do enjoy that, hopefully the Gypsy Socks will be a testament to whether I’m any good at making up my own patterns (sort of) or not. Taking a basic pattern and embellishing it is not really designing, is it?

Well, those of you not into yarn will probably be bored stiff by now.
In other news… umm. I do have more craft news, but I guess I’ll save that for now.

We went back to the gym yesterday. I now ache. Anyway, it was actually not bad. My cardio sucked, but then we haven’t been to the gym for a month! (Except for Pilates) I plan to go either Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

Thursday this week is the bi-annual Pub Treasure Hunt! Woo! Bad Data will once again be competing in rounds of dressing up, drinking, answering questions on random topics, and collecting treasure. We usually score about mid-table, though we have in the past won the fancy dress part of it. Depending on the organising team we could end up carrying large fruit items, balloons or eggs and have to find monkeys, light bulbs, photos and the like. The theme this time is “stereotypes”. One could argue that any dressing up contest is usually about stereotypes.
In the past, Bad Data have dressed as:
Batman Villains
Pop Idol Judges
Captain Scarlet
Wacky Races
Dukes of Hazzard
Witches and Wizards
Highwaymen
And now… The French.

I was hoping for a more interesting theme, but still… sadly “geeks” had already been taken before we entered. Shame, how could any team make better geeks than programmers? Oh well, I bet the team doing geeks will accidentally end up dressing as nerds – haha, then we’ll laugh. Ahem.
Really though, we’re being the French. Complete with berets and striped tops. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to wear the ‘tache or whether I’m going to try to do “la resistance” a là ‘Allo ‘Allo.
But, I will be taking the camera, so look out for the pictures!

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.

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!)