Failure

I made it to the end of term unscathed (apart from a cold) and have been on holiday this week. I have enjoyed being on holiday but I must confess to being a bit bored as everyone else is still at work and once all the Christmas stuff was done there wasn't much to do that was any fun. I've defrosted the freezer and cleaned out some cupboards. Exciting stuff.

I've knitted a lot of stuff for presents this year but failed to take photos of most of it. I was so eager to wrap things and get them in the post I totally forgot about it. I also completely failed to put things on Ravelry so it looks like I'm a completely lazy knitter who hasn't made anything for weeks.

I did manage to take a photo of the Christmas Cake I made and iced. It's a really good example of my expert cake decorating skills, that I wheel out once a year. Graeme has named the snow men Hattie and Beanie.

Jacobs

I mentioned a while back that a colleague of my Mum's had given me the fleeces from her 8 jacobs sheep. While I don't mind washing raw fleece I absolutely detest carding fleece. I find it boring and messy. I am also clumsy so I have carded my hand a couple of times and drawn blood. I think I mentioned before that I decided to spin it in the grease and see what it came out like.

That was around the time of WoolFest (early June). At WoolFest I started knitting a swatch, which I intended to felt and turn into a little bag as an experiment. The swatch got a bit out of hand and ended up becoming a jumper. I span the fleece as I was going, so it gave a an opportunity to alternate crafts.

A jumper out of Jacobs does not sound like a tremendous idea. It's not particularly soft. I don't find it itchy as I do other fibres though and the colours look fantastic.

I finished the jumper in August, but was reluctant to wear it as I think I split for the neck too late and it makes my bust look big. After leaving it sitting for weeks on end waiting for me to decide what to do I finally wore it out. It doesn't look so bad, and as Graeme points out, my bust is big. I'll let you judge.

Tagged

Cate tagged me to do this thing. Here are the rules:

1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog.

2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs

4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

The facts:

1. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that I have ever been tagged for anything. Is this just because I don't spend much time reading people's blogs or that noone reads mine? Probably both I think.


2. I have trouble with names of any kind, to the point where I sometimes can't remember the names of close friends or everyday objects. This sometimes makes life quite difficult, particularly at school. 'Thingamy whatsits' only gets you so far.


3. Looking at maps and holiday brochures gives me the runs. This makes planning things difficult.


4. I have a secret love of tinned ham (Pek not Spam), even though the thought of mechanically reclaimed meat slightly repulses me. I particularly like the jelly bit round the outsides.


5. On the same theme I also really like eating the fat from ham, and most other kids of meats. I realise this is incredibly unhealthy, and makes many people feel ill so I don't do it much these days. I can't help enjoying it when I do though.


6. I once sung for the Queen at the opening of the Sheffield Arena. It's not as good as it sounds though. I was one of many children in the Sheffield Junior Choir. The Queen never spoke the whole time she was there. She was really far away. It could have been anyone. All she did was pull a curtain off a plaque.


7. I appeared on an episode of Test the Nation as a 'Rocket Scientist'. I am not a rocket scientists but their researchers were getting a bit desperate. The only real rocket scientists in the UK are all in their dotage and so they started settling for Space Scientists instead. I really enjoyed the whole thing (apart from the demeaning lab coats we were forced to wear - what rocket scientist wears a lab coat?). Everyone on the team was really fun to hang out with (except Colin Pillenger who was a bit of an arse and the guy who got the highest score who was really competitive). We got to share a green room with the Bikers team, who were a really good laugh. The researcher admitted to us that we weren't what they were expecting at all. Makes you worry about people's images of scientists.

Anyway, that's my lot. Hopefully they were at least a little bit interesting.

The people I tag are:
Impressionist (if she has time)
Snaterkat
Emily
Kay
Lisa
Dawn
Emma

Birthday Presents

My birthday was over a week ago now but I have been very lazy about writing about it. I usually look forward to, and enjoy my birthday a lot, but this year I ended up feeling a bit grumpy about getting older. I suppose the whole thing just sneaked up on me and I feel like I ended up down-playing it a bit too much. I couldn't think of much that I actually wanted present-wise, so my family and various honourary aunties all made monetary contributions to the purchase of a new spinning wheel. I wasn;t sure what I wanted to get. I just knew I wanted something a little more reliable and versatile than my current one. While I love my own wheel and enjoy the fact that it has obviously had many years of use it is just a little bit too eccentric for a beginner like me to do more than spin the same kind of yarn over and over again.

I tried a few different ones and eventually plumped for a Kromski Sonata, which is a folding wheel, with Scotch tension. While you wouldn't want to carry it on your back, the idea of being able to pack it away and take it on holiday really appealed.

I already spun some of the silk merino I got free with it into a thick 2-ply. Some of it is a little underspun but it looks like a good, even yarn by my standards. It is certainly much chunkier than anything I'd be able to produce on the old wheel.

Thanks to all the contributors. It means a lot to me. :)

Productivity

Knitting productivity has now been high for the last couple of weeks so I've been having a go at some different crafts. I needle felted this cushion cover and then wet felted it to make it more hard wearing. The background is just needlespunch felt, nothing knitted. It was a piece of Thursday night inspiration.

I also needle felted this lavender design and there are a couple of other things on the go.

I made another felted bag with some yarn from Wingham and a hot water bottle in the same colour. Chunky knitting was easier.

Before hurting my finger I made this other hot water bottle cover from Jeager Matchmaker Merino DK

My father-in-law has requested a jumper so I've made a start in Rowan Donegal Aran Tweed.

I'm very relieved to be on half term holiday. Today I have to attend a speed awareness course due to my slight speed infringement. Better than getting the points I suppose but seems like a terrible waste of a sunny day.

Update

Well I only had one day off in the end. I sort of wished I'd taken two but sometimes it feels like more work/stress to be off than to actually go. Saturday was our School's open day so I lost part of my weekend. Bit annoying but it's only once a year. Now we're on the slow crawl to half term. I felt great on Monday but yesterday I started sneezing again. Not long to go. Come on immune system....

I don't have much knitting to write about as most of it is presents for people who read here and progress is slow. I just wanted all my concerned friends to know that I was no longer feeling like death. Thanks for the comments. :)

Physical Wreck

Anyone who knows me should know that I hate to take days off work for illness. I always feel excessivly guilty about it. Today, after being badgered by various colleagues I have finally taken a day off to try and recoup from the chest infection I have not quite been able to shake off all term. I also lost my voice on Fiday and am not yet back to normal. Then on Saturday night I somehow managed to bend my little finger in my sleep and pull the tendon on the top joint out of place. After a visit to the RVI minor injuries on Sunday and 4 hours at the hand clinic on Monday I'm now stuck with it in a splint for 6 weeks. Not great for my knitting.

All in all I am a physical wreck. Off to start on the sack of DVDs Pinkphish has lent me.

Hatastic

I bought Wolly Wormhead's hat book 'Going Straight' which is full of hat patterns which are worked sideways using short row shaping and are grafted so there are no seams. The first one I knit was Windward. I was so excited about the construction of this hat when I cast it on last Monday night that I couldn't sleep properly. I think I need to get out more. I do love the book though. I wish I'd bought it sooner. Great way to get rid of some of the single balls in my stash. I used Jeager Merino 4 ply for this one.

I then knit a Guimauve using Twilleys Freedom Spirit that my Mum gave me.

I followed that up with two Abalones using Noro Silk Garden.

I knit a Gyroscope on Tuesday but I really don't like it that much. Graeme pronounced it unmanly so I think it might be going into the frog pond. I'm currently working on a Reversible. I don't think I've ever knitted so many patterns in the same book so quickly.

In other knitting news I finished the baby surprise jacket I was knitting in alpaca, but it still doesn't have any buttons. I also knitted a bear which ended up having very perculiar body dimensions. I think I should also have used a smaller needle size but I can't bring myself to pull it out. The stupid thing is that I knew this when I first cast it on and was persuaded that it was ok. The bear looks a lot more normal with clothes on so here are the two together.

I also finally got round to posting this crochet scarf to my friend Atousa. I've been so rubbish with presents this year. Very good at buying/making them in time but terrible at actually remembering to post them out. I have a calendar on the wall with them all in and still can't get it right. Apologies if I've missed your birthday or other present-giving occasion.

The Face of Physics

As the full time physics teacher at our smallish school I teach every pupil in Y7, Y8 and Y9 (that's 1st, 2nd and 3rd year to you old farts). I also teach most of the older pupils who are taking physics for GCSE and A level. As a result I now find myself responsible, in the eyes of the kids, for all the physics of the world. When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was being turned on I got a ridiculous amount of flack from kids and teachers alike. Most of it was end-of-the-world related, for which I blame the ill informed journalists and DJs on the radio and TV. There was some genuine interest, which was quite pleasing.

I now find myself taking full responsibility for it being turned off. I feel like I must have accidentally knocked some coffee into it or something. I'm starting to hate the bloody thing.

Mercury

A link in celebration of Elbow's Mercury Music Prize win. You can't beat a load of kittens in flat caps playing musical instruments and smoking.

(Maybe getting up this early every day is starting to affect me.)

Presents

I forgot to mention in the post below that for a present I made Ade and Sarah a tea cosy and some coasters with some rainbow merino handspun. I've been keeping it under my hat (well, in my desk drawer) for such a long time now it's nice to finally be able to share it.

More Celebrations

This weekend we drove down to Leicester for another wedding celebration. This time there was no wedding as my friends Sarah and Ade had sneakily gone off and got married in Henley without telling anyone but two friends about 6 months ago. They made up for it with a really fun party. Despite the rain we made good use of the outdoor bouncy castle and the hog roast didn't get too wet. Ade's Gran made a fab observatory cake and there was loads of good food. Unfortunately I failed to get my camera out until everyone was three sheets to the wind and dancing like loonies to some classic tunes. Here's Steve doing his best Dad dancing.

And some of the girls on the dance floor.

Thanks Ade and Sarah for a great party. What I want to know is who is going to get married next year?

Celebrations

On Friday we headed over to the coast for the wedding of our friends Andrew and Brigitta. It was a relaxed affair, which was fortunate since the bus was late and then the metro was half closed. We walked in with 2 minutes to spare to find that they had already started. No one seemed to really notice. There were guests from all over the place and Andrew gave his short speech in German, Italian, French and Russian as well as English. Here are the bride and groom being pelted with rice by the Italian contingent.

Birthdays

Yesterday was Snaterkat's birthday and so Pinkphish and I made a cake. I was in charge of the sponge and the filling and Pinkphish provided the decoration. In the growing tradition of knitters' cakes the sheep were listing to one side by the time we got there. We ate lots of pizza and then massive pieces of cake and ended up feeling quite happily sick.

Whitewater

I don't often revisit the same pattern twice, but when I was sorting out my stash last week I looked at the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and wondered what to do with it. I knitted a pair of Whitewater wrist warmers for my cousin 2 or 3 years ago now. At the time I hadn't been knitting with DPNs long and it was something of a challenge. I loved the way they looked and felt and Gillian tells me that she has worn them to death, so I felt it was time to try another pair.

I only used 1 skein on the first pair, even though the pattern called for two so this time I made them extra long. I found it much easier to knit them this time and quite enjoyed having a more complicated pattern to work. Since the demise of MagKnits the pattern is no longer online but I found an old print out tucked into one of my stash boxes. So here they are, extra long Whitewater in black.

Making the Most of It

This Summer has hardly been the best. The weather around here has been particularly awful. There have hardly been any rain-free days, which has saved me a lot of time watering but has meant I haven't done much sitting out or barbecuing. For once bank holiday weekend has turned out well. The weather has been gorgeous, particularly yesterday. After cycling to the next village for lunch we sat out all afternoon. I worked on the wall hanging I've been making for the bedroom and finished up with a barbecue tea, with tasty burgers made by my lovely husband (our anniversary was last weekend).

I was inspired by the felted table runners on this Etsy shop and spent quite a bit of time experimenting with techniques. I eventually ended up with something quite different but it is growing on me. The idea of making a large needle felted item had never occurred to me before. So here is my effort mid-progress. I am now contemplating whether to fill the whole thing with circles or to only go half way up. What do you think?

We've had quite a lot of vegetables. Most of the potatoes are gone now and we're working our way through the onions and garlic. In place of the potatoes I planted some winter vegetables. We've also had corgettes, brocoli, carrots, parsnips, french beans and leeks.

The greenhouse is producing a steady stream of tomatoes. I had a problem with rot on the peppers and aubergines. The aubergines have produced nothing at all. Each time a fruit starts to grow they go rotten and drop off. I've evicted the aubergine's from the greenhouse and the peppers seem to have recovered. I think it's been too damp in there but there's not much I can do when it rains constantly. Not bad for the first year.

As far as knitting goes I've been working on a jumper for Graeme. I have now reached the sleeves, which I see as the danger time for running out of steam. It's a mark of how poor the weather has been that I haven't been too hot while knitting this. I had to put it down on Saturday though.

I also knitted this cute toilet roll cover in a moment of boredom a couple of weeks ago. The words 'toilet roll cover' do tend to fill me with dread but they are a quick way of using up odd balls (of which I have many).

FOs

So what did I knit while I was away? Not a great deal to be honest. It wasn't my most productive holiday knit-wise. I managed to finish these Hedera socks, using the pattern from Knitty and some merino sock yarn from Wingham Wool Work (who by the way have revamped their website so it's useable).

I bought some gorgeous Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in the John B colourway from the Knit and Pearl Boutique in Santa Barbara, which looked fabulous in the Californian sunshine. I must say that they look rather orange in the British gloom. There's some pink and green in there as well so it's not as bad as it looks. I decided to make a pair of Jaywalkers from the yarn and I am pleased with the way they show off the patterning, though I can't say I'm impressed with the fit.

Since coming home I've made a couple of other things for wedding presents which I won't show you just now. I also spent some time hand dying with Pinkphish and made this little hat one evening from some KoolAde dyed yarn. I'm not quite sure what to do with the finishing at the top as there's not much yarn left. I'll have to have a think.

My creativity has been experiencing a temporary hiatus while I turn my attention to decorating our bedroom. Because I've been painting the built-in cupboards all our clothes are piled in front of my stash and as I result I find myself unable to make anything without feeling slightly uncomfortable about it. Yes, I do know I'm weird. I've nearly finished now though and am planning to have a major stash organisation in the near future which should help me along.

National Parks

So, by now if you've bothered to read all of this you must be pretty sick of hearing about my holiday, but I enjoyed it a lot so I'm going to write about the last bit today. Feel free to skip it.

After leaving San Francisco we drove inland, heading South East. We passed through loads of flat, dry farmland, where citrus fruits and grapes were growing. It was stiflingly hot. Reaching the mountains was a real relief. We got to Sequoia National Park first and stopped to see the General Grant tree, which is the 4th largest (by volume) in the world. It's so amazing how something living can be so big. (please note the small people standing next to the tree)

I find it interesting how the ecosystem depends on fire. The sequoia trees don't burn well but the forest actually grows better if there's a small natural fire from time to time to allow light to the ground.

We drove through the park into Kings Canyon National Park, where we stayed in a lodge (more like a motel). The canyon is really impressive. We walked about 6 miles from the end of the road up towards the mountains and back. I was petrified about seeing a bear, so I sang and made noise all the way. We didn't see any bears. We did see some deer and they didn't seem upset by my singing at all. G was probably the most disturbed by it. After 14 men went to mow he put his foot down. It was good to get into the wilds for a bit (and not see bears), but in the afternoon it was way too hot for walking. I really am a northerner.

So that's pretty much the end of the holiday. We drove back to Santa Barbara, staying overnight in Buellton, home of the famous split pea soup (no, really), where we had a really good steak at the Hitching Post.

San Francisco

At the end of our coastal journey we arrived at San Francisco. I was fairly sceptical about staying here. The guide book (Lonely Planet California) wasn't very inspiring and I'm not a bit fan of big cities. G had booked us into the Hotel Des Arts which was fairly chilled out and quite interesting. They're still in the process of adding the art so things changed in the foyer every day. Some of the guests were trying really hard to achieve that starving artist look, but the $200 trainers give it away every time. This hotel wins the prize for best shower of the entire trip (tall building = high pressure water supply). This was our room in the hotel. I'm not sure I'd want this on our wall at home but it made a change from the chain hotel chintz.

We didn't try to fit in all the touristy things, but just wondered a bit and did what took our fancy. We went in the Musee Mecanique which has loads of old slot mechines. My favourite was a football (soccer) game where all the metal men had little crochet jumpers on.

We also went round the historic boats in the harbour and on the trolley/cable car etc. We tried to go to the Museum of Modern Art but ended up at the Cartoon Art Museum (excellent Keith Knight exhibition) and Textile Museum instead. We cycled out to see the Golden Gate Bridge one afternoon. The rental place urge you to cycle over the bridge and back, but since I am so rubbish at cycling we didn't make it there in time to return the bikes so we just looked from one end.

On the way we stopped to see the Wave Organ, which is on the end of a pier. There's loads of pipes going out into the sea. The tides and waves cause notes to be played. Surreal.

We also went to the Stinking Rose garlic restaurant, which was amazing. How I love garlic.

Big Sur and the Coast

After leaving Santa Barbara we drove up the coast staying in San Luis Obispo and Monteray on the way to San Fransisco. One of the things I really loved about seeing the coast was the pelicans. They look so prehistoric. I spent a lot of time almost falling over backwards while I tried to take a photo of them flying past.

The aquarium in Monteray was really interesting. While we were watching the deepsea tank a shark took a big bite out of one of the smaller fish and then all the sharks started chasing this poor fish until it gave up and was eaten. The other small fish got really jumpy, swimming and changing direction quickly in their school.

The bay itself was full of seals and sea lions, with the odd sea otter and dolphin swimming in the bay.

Further up the coast we saw a group of elephant seals on a beach, who have returned to the coast after many years of absence. They were enormous, with rolls of fat with rippled when they moved. This time of year only the males are on shore.

Big Sur was amazing to see with its massive cliffs, mountains and beaches.

We stopped at a the Nepenthe cafe on the way, which turned out to be owned by Kaffe Fasset and his family. The gift shop had some of his knitted items for sale. I had one of those moments when I picked up something looked at the tag and realised I really shouldn't be touching it at all. $148 for a pair of entralac socks. I daren't even look at the sweaters. I'm sure they are collectors items, but totally not worth it. I can knit my own socks thankyou. I must say while I admire Kaffe Fasset's ability to select beautiful colour schemes I can't say I like his knitwear designs enough to go to the effort. They remind me too much of the 80s.

The reason we stopped at the cafe was because during the recent forest fires the cafe owners had been the only people who refused to evacuate the area. Shortly after leaving we passed the fire site. It is still burning in the back country.