Middle Aged Weekend

Last night Graeme and I went to see I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the long-running BBC radio 4 comedy) being recorded at the Empire Theatre, Sunderland. I've never been to the Empire before. It's unlike any other theatre I've ever been in. It reminds me slightly of the Lyceum in Sheffield, except that the interior plausterwork is painted rad and gold. It's less open than the Lyceum, giving it a very Victorian, music hall feel. Arriving at the theatre gave me a similar feeling to arriving at the Knitting and Stitching Show. Most people there appeared to be over 50 (at least).

Because I'd booked early, thanks to Rob's encouragement, we were sat in the middle of the stalls. We actually ended up sat almost directly behind some friends from uni (Sam, the famous pyromaniac from bonfire night and co.). We had a cracking view of Humph (Humphrey Lyttelton), the pannelists (Tony Hawkes, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer), Colin Sell and of course the lovely Samantha.

They recorded two shows during the evening, each taking around 45 minutes to record. The whole thing was quite entertaining and only slightly marred by the Captain Birdseye-a-like sitting next to us, who laughed raucously with tears streaming down his face for the entire performance. It was funny but it wasn't that funny.

The only low point of the evening was spending half an hour waiting to get out of the multi-storey car park. However since Graeme and I have been working like mad for the past few weeks it did give us chance to have a chat. (It comes to something when your only quality time together is spent waiting to get out of a multi-storey car park). I'm glad I went, though I'm shattered now. Better get on with tomorrow's planning if I'm even going to get some knitting time tonight.

Ran out.....

Yesterday I went to the Kitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate with Snaterkat, Pinkphish and Impressionist. We set off bright (well drizzly) and early at 8.30 am. Because I've been recently getting up to drive to school ever morning this was still a lie in for me. I woke early anyway and couldn't sleep because I was thinking about all the lovely things we would see at the show. We got there in good time and after a bit or argy bargy managed to find a carpark with spaces (we got one of the last few). We negotiated the crowds outside, eventually found the right door, paid and went in.

The place was massive with four halls of stands, each with a section devoted to exhibitions of textile art. There was a 5th hall downstairs with seating and food stalls and a 6th hall with fashion shows going on. Unlike WoolFest there was no straw on the floor or livestock to gawp at.
The whole thing was a bit commercial. There were quite a lot of sewing stalls in there two. As Snaterkat pointed out to me, it was a good thing we were only interesting in one craft or we'd never get round everything.

I was a lot less overwhelmed than I had been at WoolFest (my first experience of this type of event). But as time wore on the place got bussier and bussier. By the afternoon it was heaving. Elbows were out and the old biddies weren't taking any prisoners. Whoever said that the older generation is more polite has never been to one of these events. Whatever happened to saying 'excuse me'? I finally decided I'd had enough when I got myself into a mobbed button stall and couldn't get out again.

I didn't spend too much money. I got a couple of reduced books and some magazines. I was particularly glad to get Yarn Forward magazine as I've been wanting to have a read of it since it came out.

I got some nice 4.5 and 5.5 mm wooden DPNs for a small amount of money. I bought some cashmere (so soft), angora (uber-bargin!), some silky stuff in greens, enough hemp to make the Linda cardi from the House of Hemp book and some star shaped buttons to go with it.

I also got some tiny knitting needles.

The only bad thing about the day was that my camera wouldn't work. The lens wouldn't open and pop out like it's supposed to so I couldn't take any pictures. I'll have to take a trip down to Jessops next weekend. Anyway, that's why there are no pictures from the show and why these ones are so rubbish.

We were all feeling pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I got home at about six, had dinner and settled down to watch The Time Machine, which I'd borrowed from one of the teachers at school.

I quite enjoyed the film. I was desperate to play with my new yarn, but being a sensible young lady without much free time to knit, I decided that the best thing to do was try and finish my digger jumper. I got part way up the second sleeve and promptly ran out of yarn. My experience of knitting kids' patterns is that the yarn amounts are always underestimated. Who comes up with the amounts? I could understand it if I didn't knit at the right guage but I do. Grr..... I predicted this from the start, so I can take comfort in the fact that I was right!!! However it's annoying to have to order an extra ball just to do half a sleeve and the neck edging.

Still being sensible I decided to make a start on another knit for Christmas. It's meant to be for a little boy. I'm still not sure about the colour though. Is it a bit girly? He's only 1 year old. What do you think? I could save it for someone else.

It's my last week of teaching practice this week. I'm finding it hard to motivate myself today because I only have one lesson tomorrow. I should probably make an effort to get on though, because I will be grateful for it later in the week. I've enjoyed the experience, but I can't wait to finish and be able to relax a little. Right now all I want to do is vegetate and knit.

Diggers

I feel much more relaxed this weekend. I think it helps that I have a lighter teaching load next week. I'm also feeling more confident because I managed to deal with some behaviour issues last week that will make my life much easier this week and next. 3 out of 5 weeks of my teaching practice are done and the end is in sight. I can't wait for my lovely long 3 week Christmas holiday (can you imagine!!!).

I managed to get the digger design on my jumper finished last night. I just need to put in the french knots and tie in the loose ends at the back, but I'll do that once I've finished the stripes at the top. It's my first bit of successful intarsia using more than 2 colours.

Graeme's mum and dad have been visiting us this weekend. It was lovely to see them. They recently travelled across Russia and Siberia on the Trans-Siberean Express. They brought us this set of Russian dolls. The smallest one is just a couple of millimetres tall.

In case anyone was wondering, I did manage to make some monsters after my last post. Here they are sitting happily on the fridge.

The parental visit meant that I missed out on the Centurian and the planned post-knitting Turkish bath this weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I'm hoping to make up for it with a visit to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate next weekend. I will be following a strict budget while I am there. Can't wait!

Blogalog

I feel like I should start by apologising for my lack of blogging. Mostly its been laziness. I was waiting till I got round to taking some photos and that took longer than I thought.

I've had some lovely birthday presents from my fellow knitters. Including this Frog Tree yarn from Suzanne. It's so soft I could just sit and cuddle it.



And this lovely silky sock yarn from Sarah with sparkly bits in it. Very glamerous. Just the ticket for some lacy gloves or socks.




Sarah also gave me this fantastic Curious Yarns sock yarns, with an extra small skein for doing the heel in. Very cool.




Becca gave me this necklace and earings, which have already made the trip out to the pub on a Friday night. I'd like to say they were much admired but I was out with boys and they didn't even notice. I felt good in them though.



Becca also got me a monster making set with modelling clay and magnets for sticking them to the fridge. I'm planning not to do any work tonight, since everything is planned already for tomorrow. I think I might try my hand at moster creation.

On Saturday evening I started knitting this digger jumper from Lucinda Guy's Designs for Kids. I'm using Rowan Cotton Glace. This is the back. Hopefully I'll be able to get this section almost finished tonight.

Job Titles

I don't have much exciting stuff to talk about at the moment. The Forth has been very odd recently. I don't think I've been two weeks in a row where the same people have been there. I like seeing new people but I miss seeing everyone else on a weekly basis. Autumn seems to be quite a busy time for everyone.

One of the good things I've found about training to be a teacher is that you get a good response when people ask what you do. When I was working in research explaining my job to people led to a wide variety of responses. Some people say 'you must be really clever' (what do you say to that?) and some people say 'that's interesting' (meaning they have no idea what I'm on about), but most people just look at you a bit funny. Everyone knows what a teacher is and most people see it as a worthwhile thing to do. Also it makes people feel like that can talk to you rather than thinking they're addressing the next Albert Eintein (which they're not). I quite like it.

Bon Fires

Today has been a good day. I went to knitting this morning, picking up two birthday parcels on the way, that had been sitting in the post office all week. One of them turned out to be these fabulous slippers from Graeme's brother and family.


I'm wearing them now as I type and they lovely. Cosy and warm.

This afternoon we drove up to Druridge bay to meet up with some friends. One of them, Sam, had planned a fabulous firework display and barbecue. I love watching fireworks and I always feel a bit cheated if I don't get to go and watch some around Guy Fawkes night. I think I've had more than my quota for this year :) Photos don't really do it justice, so I decided to finally have a go at using you-tube. I couldn't figure out how to change it round from being sideways though.

We also got to see the sunset.

This week feels like it's going on forever. I'm so glad it's Thurday. I teach in the day and when I'm not teaching I'm talking about teaching or thinking about teaching. In the evening I'm preparing my lessons and then at night I dream about them. The only knitting I've done was on Tuesday at the Forth and then I was so tired I made a mistake, pulled out everything I'd knitted and had to pick the stitches up again. I ended up only doing couple of rounds total knitting. I can't wait for the end of Friday so I can come home, go to the pub, get all my teaching gripes out of my system and have Saturday off!!!

On a different note I went to the Forth on Tuesday to see Rachel Henderson (as advertised by PurlPower). It was meant to start at 6. I was late back from school (staff meetings and traffic, grrrr....). I got their about 6.30pm and there was a group of 7 people. Two regulars and 4 people I hadn't met before. The 7th I recognised as Rachel from the cover photos on her books, though she never introduced herself. After a while 4/5 more knitters arrived (including Sarah). The coffee table was covered in yarn and books though I wasn't sure whether they were for sale or use??? Rachel appeared to have lots to talk to people about on her phone. I sat their for a hour, making a mess of my knitting. At 7.30 I had to leave because Graeme was cooking me birthday tea. In that hour Rachel had moved seats but nothing appeared to happen. I put some money in her charity tins, announced to everyone there that we'd be there again next tuesday from 7 if they wanted to come and left.

I don't really understand what was supposed to be happened. I thought she was going to give a talk, or demonstrate something and take photos for her book. None of that happened while I was there. Did I miss it by leaving early? If anyone stayed and something exciting happened later can you let me know. I must admit that I was disappointed by the whole thing and sort of wished I'd stayed at home to open my presents instead.