Books

I was intending to do all sorts of things today, including writing a long blog post, but the whole day got taken over by building shelves we bought yesterday at Ikea and filling them with books. I love putting together flat packed furniature (well, the well made kind). It's like lego for grown ups. There's always tomorrow.

Milestone

I did my first teaching today. It was just half a lesson about volcanos, earthquakes and tsunamis to a small bottom set class. I was very nervous when I started but was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable towards the end. Hopefully next time I'll be able to keep my head better. There's so many things to remember all at once. Anyway, it's the first of many milestones in my PGCE course. Glad to have it out of the way.

Missed knitting

Missed knitting in the Forth today because I was planning a geohazards lesson. Bum!

Lots to post

The weekend has been fairly busy. Graeme's friend Lovett was visiting. We went to the coast on Saturday. It wasn't too cold but rather windy. I think it was the first time that I've seen Saint Mary's Lighthouse cut off from the mainland.

On Sunday we went down to Durham and stopped off at the Angel on the way. I haven't been for a while. The first time I went I was slightly disappointed by the size but this time it seemed much bigger than I remember.

I also managed to finish my first hat and knitted a couple of legs for rabbit number two, who is destined to become a ballerina.

I'm in school all week this week, but when I got home this afternoon I found a parcel sitting on my doorstep. It was from my cousin Gill in Canada. Inside was this amazing and highly appropriate T-Shirt.



Fantastic!!! I love it. Thanks Gill. I wish I could wear it tomorrow, but I have to be all teachery instead and dress smartly. I don't want to get mistaken for a sixth former. I think it will be very hard for anyone to top this T-shirt design. I am a happy bunny.

Operation Christmas Child

The school I am at for my teaching practice is involved in Operation Christmas Child, which involves sending christmas presents to children in desperate situations all over the world. The school is hoping to break their record, sending hundreds of boxes this year. We all know how exciting it is to get presents and we get loads. These kids don't get anything. I know the organisation is Christian, which might put some people off but we all love giving gifts.

I've agreed to knit some hats to put in the presents (which are in wrapped shoe boxes). The lady organising it uses a simple knitting pattern, which I've put below, but I'm sure all hats are welcome. If anyone would like to help out and knit a few hats bring them along to the Centurion or Forth knitting groups and I'll take them in to school. If you're not in Newcastle send me an email of leave a comment and I'll sort something out with you.

Simple Hat Pattern

Using DK yarn and 4mm needles, CO 104 sts.
Knit 45 rows 1x1 rib.
Row 46: (k1,p1,k2tog tbl) to end.
Row 47: p1(k1,p2tog) to end.
Row 48: rep row 46.
Row 49: (p2tog,k1) to end.
Row 50: (k2tog tbl) to end.
Row 51: Break yarn, draw through remaining stitches and pull together. Stitch seam.

Use brightly colours stripes or patterns where possible.
Key: k1 - knit 1, p1 - purl 1, k2tog - knit 2 together, p2tog - purl 2 together, tbl - through back loop

Free Post

I thought I'd post a picture of the socks I knitted with the sock yarn I dyed. I sent them to my cousin for a present and they arrived yesterday, so they're no longer a surprise.

It feels like a bit of a cheat, but I don't have much else to show just now. :S

A giant leap for rabbit kind

Here's my first finished rabbit.



There was a pattern for making a little jumper for it, but I'm not sure I like the look of a roll neck on a rabbit. As Graeme said, the rabbit looks better naked.

The felted bag came out quite well, although I made a bit of a miscalculation with the handle. I was intending to use a couple of rings and attach another piece, once I'd got an idea of the shrinking during felting, but the handle sections curled up so much that I'm not sure I'll be able to fold them over and put a rivet through properly. The bag started off 26 cm wide and 24 cm tall and is now 19 cm wide and 16 cm tall. It was even smaller when it first came out of the machine, but I stretched it out to a more reasonable size.

I need to line the bag. I think I'll have to force myself to do it next weekend. I have a big backlog of sewing jobs to do. Must get on with them properly.

Ring O' Ring O'Rosie

Becca and I have a long and illustrious history of getting lost at the end of coastal walks, usually when trying to find the metro to get home. Bearing this in mind you might have thought we would have taken a map with us on an excusion to Ring O'Rosie, but no. Maps are not for intrepid explorers like us. So, after a quick glance at multimap we set off for the coast.

We wanted to have a bit of a walk, so we got the metro to Tynemouth and after refulling on sweets at the market, we headed north up the coast. It was a really pleasant day. Surprising for late September. We had a lovely paddle on Long Sands and headed up towards Cullercoats. We had a vague idea where we wanted to be so we began to head inland, and soon realised that we we're quite sure of the way. So, being sensible woman we stopped to asked for directions. One woman told us it was far to far to walk and we'd have to take the bus. A lot of other people seemed not to know where Front Street was at all. But, undaughted (well, al little bit daunted) we kept going and eventually got to Monkseaton metro station.

We knew it wasn't right, because the shop should have been somewhere between West Monkseaton and Monkseaton metro stops and we'd passed them both. We decided to have a bit of a wonder around in case we found it. We stopped again at a news agents, only to be told that it was just a few shops down. And, there it was! We made it with 40 minutes to spare before closing.

I was intending to browse rather than buy. It seems stupid to buy much with my birthday coming up and I've got lots of things to be working on already. I was tempted over and over again by all the lovely goodies. I was particularly tempted by some Noro but I stayed strong. I did buy a couple of balls of tweed and got a free pattern to make some bunny rabbits. I thought they'd be a good baby present. I also got a ball of DB Baby Cashmerino for some booties.

The shop also had some fabulous quilting fabric and I starting to feel guilty for neglecting my quilting projects. I really must sit down and finish the beadspread I was making off.

Anyway, I'm so glad to have finally made it out to Ring O'Rosie and I'll definitely be going again in the not too distant future.

On a different note, my bag is currently in the washing machine hopefully being felted. I'm slightly nervous about how it will come out. Fingers crossed.

Some Knitting

I feel that my blog has been lacking some knitting recently (as well as posts). This is mostly because I haven't been doing much. I have a lot of things that I wanted to start and I haven't felt like beginning any of them. Instead I started knitting this scarf using some Debbie Bliss Baby Alpaca from my stash and a stitch pattern from this blog..

I was feeling a bit more creative on Monday so I started knitting a bag from the Lopi roving I bought at WoolFest. I intend to felt it when I've finished knitting. I've never felted anything before. Hope it turns out OK.

Today was my first day at my first teaching practice. It's only two days a week till half term and we were only observing. It was an interesting experience. I enjoyed it much more than being in university. I hope tomorrow is just as good.

Life Update

This PGCE lark is leaving me with little brain power for interesting blogging. Most nights this week I have lapsed into a vegetable-like state after getting home. This has been made worse by trying to fit in preparation for a job interview last Friday for the famous RA post which I have been going on about (though not here) for months. Well, I didn't get the job (I think), which was a bit of a dissapointment, but there is something very nice about having it all done with and knowing what I will be doing for the next 12 months. I should point out that I came second in the interviews and there's still a chance that the person who got it might not take it or might not get their PhD done in time, but I'm going to ignore that for now and get on with teaching.

On Thursday night we wanted potatoes for dinner, and too idle to go to the shops, I finally split open the two grow bags of potato plants in the yard to see what was there. They were a bit better than the first but nothing special.


Although I think I heard somewhere that vegetables grown in compost do not produce good yeilds.

I also pulled up my carrots.

They were all very tasty with dinner. I'd like to say they were much nicer than the ones from the supermarket, but there wasn't that much difference. They were perhaps a bit more potatoey/carroty tasting than the mass produced ones.

Finally, it's Purlpower's birthday today, so I wanted to say a big
Happy Birthday Helen!!!
We went to her party last night, which was in a curry house in Fenham. It was a pleasant evening and we had a good time. I don't think the restaurant staff showed themselves in a very good light, but we had plenty of alcohol and good company, and that's all that counts really.

Note to self: I really must stop taking photos at parties with my camera phone and use my proper camera. The quality doesn't compare.

For all your rabbit disposal needs...

Cragside

Jim and Dawn were visiting this weekend. I decided to have a total break from work yesterday and felt much better. We went to Rothbury and after a short walk to some standing stones, we had lunch in a pub. Lovely fish and chips. Then we went to Cragside. Cragside was the first house in the country to have electricity. They had hot and cold running water, electric lights, an elevator and electric spit in the kitchen, before most people even knew they could exist. All that was powered by hydroelectricity. The house turned out to be shut. Apparently the 130 year old wiring doesn't come up to modern electrical standards and has been condemned. The grounds were still open and we had a good time walking around the formal gardens, pinetum, lake etc.

There were more wild mushrooms around the grounds than I've ever seen. We almost had enough photos of different types for a mushroom calender for 2007. We decided that this one was the 'perfect' specimen.

There were several art installations in the grounds. One was a four poster bed, floating in the middle of the lake. Something about it made it difficult to stop looking at it.

There was also a boat shape made out of little paper boats.

Sockedy of Errors

After posting yesterday I decided to have a quick knit of the socks I was working on. Thinking it would be relaxing. I was finishing off the last couple of rows of the heel. I've already had to undoo it a couple of times because I made mistake during the week. All I did was drop stitches and get confused. I've ended up making a total mess of it because I dropped a lot of stitches from the very edge of the short row shaping heel and even though I thought I'd got them all back there's now a big gaping hole on one side. I tried un-knitting but I can't figure out what's going on. I think I'll just have to undo the heal and start again when I'm less tired. Maybe I should resort to a plain stocking stitch scarf or something. Sigh!

School

I woke up this morning with that 'Do I have to go to school feeling?'. It's was all dark and rainy. I was with year 5 (9-10 years old) today. They were all fidgety because of the close weather. Fortunately the rain stopped long enough for outdoor playtimes. I find doing something new and different every day exhausting. I feel absolutely shattered. I can't wait for the weekend. Hopefully I'll have more time to do some knitting.

I just got an electric shock from the aerial cable for the TV? How odd, it's never happened before. My arm feels all funny. Wonder why it is.

The Group

Last week a couple of friends asked me, almost as an aside if I had many friends in Leicester and if I would miss them when I moved. The answer is yes to both questions. I wanted to write something about the people who have been a massive part of my life.

I moved to Leicester in September 2002, to do a PhD in the Radio and Space Plasma Physics group at the University of Leicester. The group consists of about 30 people, who are a mixture of technicians (building, running and designing radar components), administrators, PhD students, research assosciates (PDRAs), lecturers and professors and unusually for a physics department the group is about 50% female.

Right from the start I was made to feel really welcome. Not just by the other students, but by everyone in the group. The first day ended with a trip to the pub and that set a precedent for the rest of my time there.

It's a bit like being in a big family. People work together and socialise. Sometimes spending almost too much time with one another. There's always someone willing to join in with a sporting activity, or a trip to the cinema, a pub, the shops or a restaurant. Always someone to talk to when you're feeling down or someone to offer tissues when you need to cry.

Group members are not only sociable but they're extremely supportive when it comes to work. Everyone is always willing to offer help, encouragment and advice if required.

All that means that I am very sad to be leaving Leicester. The nature of a research group is that staff and students come and go, but I can't help feeling a sense of loss at having left. I don't think there are many people currently there who I don't consider to be my friends and there are a lot of people who I hope will remain friends forever.

On Thursday night I was presented with a folder, which had print outs showing presents that had been ordered for me. The first is a sushi making lesson, from a Japanese chef in Glasgow (I am very excited about this. There's also some rosewood DPNs, the Dr Who series 2 box set and some John Lewis vouchers, along with lots of pictures from the last 4 years. I was also given a card and these three fantastic cakes, which Sarah and Suzie spent many hours making.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone there for my leaving presents and for the last 4 years. I wish we had more than one word for thank you because it doesn't really seem like enough. I'll miss you all loads.

Teaching Begins

I had the first day of my primary school observation placement today. There were 5 other students observing. I started off in reception, which basically meant that I spent my day playing in the sand pit, building Duplo houses, looking at snails with a magnifying glass and cutting out playdough shapes. Obviously I was also making observations which will be extremely useful in my future career. It was still a million times more enjoyable than sitting at a desk running time series analysis routines on magnetometer data.

Moving

Well I've now unpacked most of my stuff and there's a little more breathing space in the house. I did have to spend all of last night reorganising my clothes and the linen cupboard in order to fit everything in. I decided I had to get rid of a lot of old clothes that I no longer wear. Most of them are too worn to be any use for a charity shops. I think I might try and turn the old T-shirts into a knittable yarn. I feel terribly guilty about throwing things out because on Friday I listened to a program about the environmental impact of people buying a throwing out lots of cheap clothing. I'll have to just be more careful what I buy in future.

I went to the Centurion knitters for the first time yesterday (after I managed to locate my clean clothes amoung the boxes). It was fun. Hopefully I'll be able to continue going now I've not travelling so much.

Sorry for the lack of photos. Have been too busy to remember to take pictures or to knit much.

All Change

Today I left Leicester and my job there for good. Feels very odd, but nice to be home and know that I am stopping.

For those of you following the degree notes saga, they ended up staying in Leicester because I couldn't fit them in the car. Their future remains uncertain, but they're currently hiding on a high shelf in my old office.

Moving

I've shed about 50% of my thesis work notes and papers today. I've kept the 'important' stuff and thrown out all the duplicates and slightly wrong plots that I was keeping because they seemed useful at the time. I also have all my undergrad notes sitting here. I'm not really sure what to do with them. It would be most sensible to throw them away, since I haven't used them since graduating, but every time I take them off the shelf I think about how much effort I put into the work and can't bring myself to do it. I should also mention that I realised today that I have 5Gb of pointless files on my computer, which I am keeping 'just in case'.

My grandad was a bit of a horder. I have hording genes. Every so often I have fits of ruthlessness and throw things out, because I also have some conflicting genes that hate clutter. I am a tortured soul. It's hard to say at this point which side of my genetics will get the upper hand. Maybe I'll snap when loading the car and decide to chuck them out. It's feeling like a stessful process.

Faffy Faff Faff

It's my last week in Leicester this week. I'm sitting at my desk, surrounded by half packed boxes. I keep trying to contact the education office in Newcastle, who said they'd get back to me in 10 minutes 2 hours ago, to find out whether I am going to be able to do my primary school placement next week. I still don't know whether I'll actually be doing the PGCE because I'm still waiting to hear whether or not I'm going to be interviewed for a research job I applied for. I just had to call up the people supplying my new laptop and remind them that it needed to be delivered to me. They said it would be here last week, and despite making some excuse, it seems that they just forgot to deliver. Probably more to do with the fact that the guy I talked to on the phone when ordering seemed more intent on giving me the hard sell, rather than actually lisening to what I said. Why do people insist on trying to sell you things which you've already decided to buy? All it does is put me off. I still need to arrange with my land lady when I am leaving my flat and cancel all my utilities. All in all it's not the most relaxing Monday ever.

We were planning to go camping over the weekend, but I decided that I just couldn't face it in the end, what with everything else I had to do. We thought we'd just go for a long walk instead, but when we got up on Saturday morning and saw that it was raining hard and was forecast to do so for the rest of the weekend, we decided to give up on the whole thing. I'm not too much of a wuss when it comes to rain. I've done my fair share of eating sandwhiches, while sheltering from driving rain in ditches behind walls, but it just seemed to take the fun out of the whole thing. Instead we decided to start decorating the flat so we can think about selling it. So we had a trip to B&Q, which is always fun, and then set about painting all the wood/metal work in the hall, which there's quite a lot of. The emulsion will have to wait until next weekend. I still keep finding paint on my arms and things, despite having two showers.

All this activity meant that I didn't get that much knitting done over the weekend. I finally got a ball of matching alpaca silk, so I did some work on my ruflette ruffle, and started knitting up my KoolAid dyed sock yarn.

I quite like the colour (sorry about the crap picture). I started knitting some lacey socks, but I just can't seem to convince myself that I or anyone I know would actually wear them. I also think they look wrong in the patterned yarn. Maybe next time.