Wallpaper

Over the past few weeks I have been decorating our spare room and finally finished yesterday by putting up wallpaper on one of the walls. I've never done it before and all turned out well so I am feeling very proud of myself. It hasn't fallen off during the night or anything. Today I will be making a forray into the more familiar world of flat-pack furniature.

One of the things I didn't mention about my trip to Sheffield was going to see the Mikado on Tuesday Night at the Lyceum by the Carl Rosa opera company. The performance was excellent and was topped off with the entrance of Sylvester McCoy as the Mikado. I couldn't help giggling to myself and thinking 'it's Dr Who'. I don't get out much.

Mini Holiday

I decided to enjoy my half term holiday by spending a few days with my parent's in Sheffield. It's been really nice to relax. I got chance to see a few old friends. We drove up to Wentworth and visited Wingham Wool Work and Elsecar Heritage Centre, where we got to see this train.

We got chatting to one of the railway volunteers and got a private tour of the warehouse. I got to climb into the cabin of one of the trains, a Sentinel, which had a vertical boiler. This is quite unusual apparently, but it didn't look very efficient to me. Each shovel of coal had to be lifted and dropped into the stoke hole.

I tried not to buy too much at Wingham because I wanted to save myself till WoolFest, but it's nice to have something to spin before then. I did get this very soft 100% wool sock yarn, which I am knitting using the Hedera pattern from Knitty.

I managed to finish the RPM socks, which I am wearing as I write. The pattern wasn't too challenging, although I did make a minor alteration, originally by mistake. I decreased 1 stitch at the end of the 1st round and this means you can knit continuously k6 p3, without having to worry about what to do when you reach the end of a row. A pinkphish pointed out you could have pleasingly symmetrical socks if you increased one stitch on the second sock, forcing the spirals to go round the other way.

I know this seems bonkers bearing in mind the 2 unfinished jumpers I already have on the needles but I cast on a jumper using two strands of the 4 ply crepe I inherited from Graeme's Aunt. I needed something easy to knit and I really do need more jumpers. I'm using the Flower Power pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, without the flower. I might change the neck or do some short row bust shaping on the front. I haven't quite decided yet.

I also managed to write 120 reports while at my parents. I now only have 75 more to write in the next 2 weeks. Today it's off home to the decorating. I'll leave you with a picture of my parent's pond in the bank holiday sunshine.

Lots of gardening but no knitting.

Despite it being relatively cold yesterday (13°C) it was lovely and sunny so I decided to devote some time to the garden. Rather than looking like a shallow grave (Graeme really has gone on a work trip) it now looks green and promising. You'll notice in the photo below that I'm not being organic about it. I don't feel like I have time at the moment to hand pick slugs from my plants.

On Saturday, motivated by the special offers, I made a trip to Woolaballoo in Crawcrook. I really like the shop, although they are still building up their stock so it doesn't have everything but the range of sock yarn is quite good and I'm happy to support any small independent yarn shop since we have so few.

I also made an attempt to recreate a delicacy I know from my native Sheffield, Derbyshire oatcakes. They came out a bit thick. I've been trying to do this on and off for years and this is the closest I've got so far. I think I need to try and find some fine oatmeal. I good sustitute for the mean time anyway.

Hiatus

Sorry for the long gap between blog posts. Graeme left for a long work trip and I didn't feel much like writting anything at first. I'm used to being on my own now, although I still find it hard to find the time and motivation to do all the cleaning, washing up, mowing the lawn etc.

There has been some knitting progress. I finished my Pomatomus socks
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I also finished the Monkey Socks I was knitting. Since the only person who thought the colourway looked halfway decent was Pinkphish she is now their proud owner. Lucy knits so many items for gifts and for charity that there is noone more deserving of some handknit socks.

Lucy and Glenda both came over on the weekend Graeme left to cheer me up, eat a roast dinner and knit. We made a pathetic attempt to watch the film Ratouie but we kept knitting and talking so the film passed us by.

Encouraged by Lucy and Glenda I started a pair of plain sock in the Regia Silk Colour bought for me by Jen for my birthday. I love the colourway and it does look great in stockinette. I knit the first very quickly but saved the second to knit on the bus on our school trip last weekend. I love them so much I feel like I should keep them to look at.

Last night I cast on some RPM socks in Wildfoote sock yarn from the Brown Sheep Company.

I spent last weekend on a school trip to Derwent Hill, which is the residential centre on Derwent Water in the Lakes, run by Sunderland Council. We took 50 teenagers with us. We got to take part in the activities with groups so I spent Saturday morning kayaking and the afternoon on high ropes from trees. I went down the zip line but skipped on the Tripple Death Swing. I didn't fancy loosing my lunch from a great height with 20 teenagers watching me. The best activity was the gorge walking on Sunday afternoon. We were kitted out in wet suits and waterproofs and went sliding down the waterfalls and rocks in a river bed flowing down the side of one of the hills. A thunderstorm was brewing but it was warm. Very atmospheric. I didn't take my camera with me and for obvious reasons I won't be posting any pictures that include children from school but I'll hopefully be able to get some photos of the scenery from one of the other teachers. I pinched these off another website.

Despite all my expectations I really enjoyed the weekend and we didn't really have any problems with any of the young people with us. This week feels like a real struggle as I was already exhausted on Monday morning. Fortunately today I have a conference to attend in Newcastle, starting at 10am. I'll try not to leave my posts so long next time.