Wisp

Following hot on the heels of the success of my first socks is my first piece of 'grown up' knitting: Wisp. I think I saw it on Ravelry and absolutely loved it. I wanted something that would grow quite quickly and not be too difficult. I figured I could manage this.

You're supposed to use 2 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, but at £7 per ball I decided to look for something a bit cheaper, just in case it all went wrong. I found this at Laughing Hens for £7.95 for 50 grams:


It's Fyberspates Lace Kid Mohair with Nylon. I was really worried though when it arrived and I saw what lace weight yarn really looked and felt like. There's hardly anything there! It was even more scary when I tried to wind it into a ball (any advice on this would be gratefully received!). But I managed with the help of a chair-back!


The next 'issue' was knitting something so fine on 5mm needles (which I couldn't find since Nipper had been in the knitting box and had one of them away, so it's on 4.5mm instead). I asked at the LYS for lace needles but they said they don't exist. Oh well, I'll have to suffer for my art - lol! It's not too bad so far though as I've got used to the yarn and needle combination now.


Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern. I cast on extra stitches and I'll continue the pattern repeats till I run out of yarn. This will make it more of a shawl than a scarf and it'll be lovely for the winter.


I'm going to be 'home alone' for the rest of the week as Mr Earplugs has been despatched abroad for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. The kids will no doubt drive me loony but at least I'll get some knitting done in the evenings!

PS. I also have a new pair of socks on the needles - there's no stopping me now!

Wisp

I Don't Believe It!

I had a rather horrible experience today and need to have a minor rant about it.

I was on my way into town with Nipper to meet a friend for coffee and a catch-up. I could hear my phone beeping and noticed I'd missed a call which was from my Dad asking me to get in touch asap. Now, my parents hardly ever ring me, and never on my mobile, and they don't leave messages of the 'phone home' variety. I was quite alarmed as my Mum hasn't been very well over the last month, and from the tone of my Dad's voice I thought she'd popped her clogs!

I tried to ring home but realised I didn't have enough phone credit. I don't use the phone very much and haven't needed to top-up since I got it. I usually top-up online so have no idea how to top-up otherwise. I ran the rest of the way into town, pushing Nipper in the pram, and went to the O2 shop (my network) figuring they'd give me a hand. There was a huge queue so I dashed across the road to the Phones4U shop as that's where I bought the phone a couple of months ago (after Nipper dropped mine into a cup of tea!). The shop was empty - hurrah - so I explained my situation: new-ish phone, run out of credit, don't know how to top-up, 'emergency' message, help help!

The chap at the counter asked me where I bought the phone. Every phone shop is able to do a top-up, and Phones4U isnt tied to any network, so why he needed to know this is beyond me. Then he asked how much I wanted to top-up. Great, I thought, we're getting somewhere. When I said £20 (possible long phonecall to Dad required) he then asked me how often I topped up with £20. I said not very often...emergency phone...first top up since bought it...etc, etc. And guess what??? Instead of helping me with a top-up...HE TRIED TO SELL ME A CONTRACT!

This image came to mind (photo from Google):

I nearly shouted "I don't believe it" a la Victor Meldrew! I'm sweating like a pig having run pushing a pram, and having palpitations because I'm thinking the worst, and he's trying to get his days' commission! I nearly lost it, but figured that wouldn't help, so very politely said, through clenched teeth, that I couldn't think about a contract now as I was in dire need of the top-up so I could check if my Mother had snuffed it! He then took my money, fiddled with the till, and shoved a handful of papers at me saying "follow the instructions". He couldn't even be bothered to give me the top-up voucher on it's own and explain what I needed to do. When I bought my phone from them they were falling over themselves to help, presumably to get the commission, but clearly just selling a top-up isn't worth their while.

When I finally managed to speak to my Dad he said that Mum had been taken into hospital yesterday with a suspected stroke. However, the hospital aren't sure what's wrong as she doesn't have 'classic' stroke symptoms. They sent her home this evening with a multitude of tablets and she's now waiting for an MRI scan. Presumably she's not at death's door or they wouldn't have sent her home - though you never know with the NHS - lol!

So the moral of this story is make sure your emergency phone has enough credit for an emergency phone-call, and don't expect someone to help you unless there's something in it for them!

I Don't Believe It!

Not-So-Scrummy Mummy

When I told my best friend Pete that I was expecting Nipper his comment was "you going to be one of those scrummy mummies then?" My reply was "not-so-scrummy more like". I'm not really one for getting all titivated up unless there's a good reason for it. There's no point in putting on a face full of slap, a silk frock and a pair of stilletto's when you're going to be digging up weeds or chasing a toddler. When I got married earlier this year two seperate male friends made comments along the 'you brush up well' lines. I guess I generally look a bit dire and it's a shock to the system when I put in some effort!

If you drop in on me you'll likely find me looking like this:

Though when the occasion demands it I can look like this:

The same attitude applies to my house-keeping skills really. I can cook but I'm no Nigella, and I've got nothing on Flylady! So long as the house is reasonably clean and there's food in the fridge I try to 'not sweat the small stuff' too much (unless the in-laws are imminent!). If you call in on me unexpectedly you'll find a mountain of ironing, toys everywhere and dust-bunnies around the place. But then, as we all know, there's more to life than housework!

However, perhaps I'm over-estimating my house-keeping worth. I've just come across the 1930's Marital Scale over at 'A Thrifty Mrs'. Check out my score on my side-bar. It would seem I'm beyond redemption - lol!

Not-So-Scrummy Mummy

Thank You.........

........ for all your lovely birthday wishes and kind comments about my socks!

Thank You.........

Birthday Girl!

This weekend has been just the best. We went for another lovely walk on Saturday and this time I remembered to take the camera so will be able to do a post about it later!

Sunday was my birthday. 21 again! I remember, when I was little, thinking about how old I would be in the year 2000. At that point 34 seemed ancient. I'm well past 34 now and don't really feel much different than when I was 21. How time flies.


We drove to my parents-in-law to drop off the kids so that we could have a child-free birthday lunch. This is the first time that me and Mr Earplugs have had any time on our own since Nipper was born (over 2 years ago). We didn't even have a child-free wedding night when we got hitched in January! We had a lovely lunch here and then went for a little country drive. I wanted to make the most of our precious time together as it probably won't happen again for another two years or so!

The 'birthday fairy' was very good to me and I got the top three books on my wishlist. I'm looking forward to getting some ideas for keeping Nipper entertained from Soule Mama and some inspiration on the sewing front from Angry Chicken. Best of all I can feed my new found sock addiction, and thank you Mum for your kind contribution to the sock yarn fund!

In addition I got a binder from my m-i-l for all those recipe clippings which festoon my kitchen bookshelf, a book from my s-i-l with lots of ideas for re-using and recycling, and a kitty calendar which had Miss Muffett squealing with delight (I think that will be disappearing into her bedroom!).

But the nicest thing of all was Miss Muffett's birthday cupcake. She made it at her Dad's on the Saturday and had been trying to hide it without squashing it in her bag.


I can't show a photo of the big birthday cake as that did get squashed when Mr Earplugs' neice accidently sat on it - thank goodness it was wrapped in cling-film at the time!

Birthday Girl!

Ta Da! The Socks Are Finished!

Actually, I finished them on Wednesday but figured you might want to see something other than socks for a change. I wouldn't want you to think I ate, slept and breathed socks!

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Isn't self-patterning wool amazing. They are a bit loose and as I'm used to wearing cotton socks they felt strange. They are very toasty and warm. I always have cold feet and so have decided to wear these as a sort of 'over sock' on top of my thin cotton socks.


I really don't know why I thought they would be scarey to knit. It took a bit of practice getting used to working with 5 needles. My first sock knitted up inside out so I fiddled around with my needle arrangement and got the next one the right way round - much easier for seeing what's happening with your stitches. I even managed to follow the instructions for Kitchener stitch to graft the toe.

This was a fairly simple sock pattern given to me by the resident knitting lady in our local John Lewis store. I have seen a couple of other patterns and they seem unnecessarily complicated in their instructions. I have a Regia sock yarn pattern and it's like a foreign language (and I'm usually quite good at those!).

So, to anyone thinking they can't knit socks, just jump in and have a go. Get yourself a good simple pattern (happy to post mine out to anyone who wants it - just email me). Basic sock yarn isn't too expensive so it won't break the bank if it all goes wrong, which it won't, as you can ask for help on any knitting forum.

It's my birthday on Sunday and I'm hoping to get a copy of Easy Knitted Socks - see, addicted already :o)

PS. I used 2x 50g balls of Regia Jacquard Color sock yarn (75% new wool/25% polymide) on 5x 2.5mm dpns.

Ta Da! The Socks Are Finished!

Lavender and Roses

I've finally managed to make a start on doing something with our garden. It wasn't much of a garden when we moved in and then got totally trashed while we had major building work. I decided to start small and tackled the narrow border which runs along the front of the house. This is what I started with (border full of weeds):


And this is what I have now (this is half of the border):


I have 3 different types of Lavender; Fathead, Hidcote and Little Bee:

A new Aldi store opened here recently and they had the Lavenders at £2.50 each. These are usually between £4 and £5 each in the garden centre so it was too good an opportunity to miss and I hotfooted it down there and bought a trolley-load. The Hidcote has gone over now so isn't looking too good but a quick trim will perk it up. The Little Bee starts off with blue petals and then white ones appear on the tip of the flower heads. They should each grow to about 12 inches wide by 12 inches high. I love them!

We were going to put a garden bench along this front border but it gets very hot and is rather exposed to the whole neighbourhood (it's the front garden) so I doubt we would have sat on it much. Instead I persuaded Mr Earplugs to buy an obelisk and a climbing rose and he sorted both out for me in the middle of a rainstorm. They look lovely:


The rose is from David Austin and it's the climber St Swithun. It's gorgeous.


But just look at these little blighters:


They do say "one years seeding, seven years weeding" so I've really got my work cut out. And that's only one small part of the garden!

Lavender and Roses

A Lovely Weekend

Following the 'mess' on Friday (see previous post) Mr Earplugs scored lots of brownie points and has redeemed himself over the weekend. I got out of the family swim and was left to knit my sock in peace (Nipper's not keen on the pool and though I like swimming I'm not keen on the water - weird, huh?) Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the pool's timetable had changed back to 'term-time' and we got there before the lessons had finished. Rather than going all the way back home we nipped into the nearby shopping centre and had a decidedly school dinner-ish early lunch. But Mr Earplugs bore it with great fortitude!
Saturday afternoon was lovely too - blue sky and a bit of a breeze. Nipper had a nap (most unusual) so I had more sock knitting time in the garden. Miss Muffett was over at her Dad's, having a great time with a trip to watch the English National Ballet perform Angelina Ballerina followed by a trip to the cinema with her best buddy to see Mamma Mia, which is apparently fabulous.

Sunday started well too with a nice, quiet lie-in - not something I get very often. As it was another lovely day we decided to tackle one of the walks in a 'local' guide book (required a 15 minute drive to get to the start). Mr Earplugs is renowned for declaring a walk perfectly manageable and then I find out that it's over miles and miles of boggy land in which I usually end up on my backside! This one wasn't too bad. It was a combination of 4 miles (which turned into 5 - see below) of the chiltern hills and areas of woodland. We had some fabulous views along the way and saw 5 different types of fungi, hedgerows bursting with blackberries, various wildflowers, lots of horses and a very large dog! I'm so cross that I didn't take the camera with me.
We nearly came a cropper at the end of the walk though. The book was slightly vague about the last section of woodland and said to follow the arrows on the trees. Once in the middle of the wood there were arrows all over the place. After a while of tromping about getting nowhere I began to feel slightly as if I'd had enough of the great outdoors and felt like I was in the film Deliverence! We staggered out of the wood onto a road and luckily bumped into a local couple who said we were about a mile off where we should be and in the wrong direction too! I was shattered by the time we found the car. I don't know how Mr Earplugs was still standing as he had carried Nipper most of the way in a back carrier! But it was a lovely afternoon out.

I'm afraid that you'll have to put up with more knitting photo's rather than gorgeous countryside photo's. In anticipation of my next pair of socks (haven't finished the first pair yet!) I have been having a go at a picot cuff edge:

and also the stitch pattern from these Broadripple socks:

The pattern calls for Cascade Fixation which is a cotton and elastic blend yarn. It doesn't appear to be available in the UK and to be honest I don't really like it. I tried the exact pattern but with no ribbing and no elastic in the yarn (as I'm not going to use the Cascade) I'm not sure how it'll work, so I tried it with 2x2 rib and added in a couple of extra knit stitches to bring the pattern in line with my basic sock pattern:

It seems ok so I'll give it a go (rubbish photo - sorry!).

I guess I'm turning into a sock knitting addict after only one pair, and I can't believe that I'm going to attempt to fiddle with a pattern!

A Lovely Weekend

Confucius Said

I was feeling rather under the weather yesterday so as soon as Mr Earplugs got home from work (and it wasn't 'soon' either!) I took myself off for a nice hot bath and an early night. I very rarely have a bath as I can't justify all that hot water (dishwasher and washing machine - yes; long, hot baths - no). In fact the last bath I had was a 'sitz bath' to ease my stitches following Nipper's birth!

Well, I enjoyed my bath and early night. However, the promised cup of tea didn't materialise and when I got up this morning this is what greeted me (along with being pestered by the cat as no-one had fed him):

It seems that I am the only one capable of tidying up and loading a dishwasher!

A few days ago I came across a saying by Confucius on someone's blog side-bar. It was something like this: "There is beauty in everything but not all can see it". I guess you can apply this to housework and mess - not the beauty part but the fact that it is invisible when someone other than you needs to do it!


*Thank you all so much for your kind words and hugs following my last post. They were very much appreciated.

**I now have 1 finished sock and have started on it's twin!

Confucius Said

Decisions, Decisions (and a Tag)

This post contains information relating to a recent personal experience of loss. Please don't read any further if you think it will upset or offend you.

I blogged earlier about being at a sort of crossroads owing to a recent 'crisis', hence the sock knitting extravaganza! Two months ago I went for a routine antenatal scan and was told that the baby had 'stopped developing'. I'd had a miscarriage. Except that I hadn't actually miscarried but was having something called a 'missed miscarriage', something I had never heard of before and still can't get my head around. The baby stops developing but the rest of the pregnancy continues (placenta develops, morning sickness, waist expands!). And so started the worst 4 days of my life while I waited to go into hospital (emergency clinic only runs Mon to Fri). It was a terribly distressing time and I have to admit I'm still struggling with it.

But now it's decision time as we decide whether we should, or want, to try again. I'm no spring chicken (43 later this month) so we're kind of in the 'last chance saloon' and the Doctor told us not to spend too much time thinking about it but to get on with it - so to speak!
(Mr Earplugs is considerably younger than me. I have Miss Muffett from my first marriage and we were lucky enough to have Nipper when I was nearly 41).
And so I find myself at a crossroads. I'm scared stiff at the prospect of something like this happening again but will I live the rest of my life regretting giving in to the fear if we don't try again? It's a toughy and it's having a huge impact on me at the moment, hence my decision to write something here. Today was especially hard as our local toddler group resumed this morning following the summer break and 5 of the ladies there are pregnant. And yes the sock knitting is proving a good distraction - lol!

Anyway, on to cheerier things!

I've been tagged by fellow northern lass Mel Mel to tell you six fairly unimportant things about myself. This has come at quite a handy time as I haven't got much sock knitting done over the past few days so can't post about the finished item just yet!

Well, here goes:

1. I grew up in the North-West but have lived in a variety of places (including one semester at a US university) and now live in the South-East. Down here everyone thinks I have a strong northern accent but whenever I visit home I get accused of 'talking posh'.

2. I have terrible trouble sleeping. This is not good as Nipper often wakes up at the crack of dawn and I've hardly had any sleep. I'm often too cold to sleep but Mr Earplugs is always hot so doesn't want extra bedding. You'd think being a Northerner I'd be immune to the cold but not so. I've taken to wearing thermal pyjamas - soooo not a good look!

3. I'm also a terrible traveller. Much as I like visiting new places I find it quite stressful and it usually takes me a day to recover from the journey. I can't spend more than 15-20 minutes in a car without feeling sick. I'm a bit better than I was as a child, but not much!

4. My first pet was a budgie called Marmaduke. He was my only pet really as my Mum wouldn't let us have anything else as she reckoned she would end up looking after them (which is what is happening now with me, Miss Muffett and the guinea pigs!)

5. I used to be quite hot on the dance floor - I lurrvve 'la salsa'. It's where I met Mr Earplugs. Nothing quite like a good shimmy with your hubby! Sadly we cant go dancing anymore as there's no-one to babysit the kids.

6. I'm the wrong side of 40 and Mr Earplugs has just scraped into his 30's and we're newly-weds! We got married earlier on this year. You're only as old as (the man that) you feel - so they say ;o)

As I'm very new to blogging I think I'll have to wait a while before I tag someone. I know some bloggers aren't keen on being tagged (I was delighted!) and I wouldn't want to annoy anyone whilst still being a newbie! If you happen across me and want to join in then please consider yourself 'tagged'. Let me know as it would be great to learn a few new things about fellow bloggers.

And "thanks" Mel Mel!

Decisions, Decisions (and a Tag)

Sock Update

Quick update on sock progress.

Since I couldn't get hold of any short dpns I had to buy long ones. I didn't think this would be too much of a problem as when I knit I tuck one needle under my right arm for stability. I couldn't see how I was going to manage on short needles - especially using 5 at once! This is how far I got using the long dpns:

I was doing ok but they did keep sticking me in the stomach, and when the 'shorts' arrived I was amazed at how much easier it was and I soon got the hang of balancing them all. For some reason my sock is knitting up inside out. I checked out an online video and the person knitting looked like she was doing it sort of upside down and back to front! I guess that I'm the one doing it the wrong way round but it seems to be ok.

I managed to get to the end of the heel flap and then got stuck when turning the heel. My pattern had a 4 row repeat for the heel turn but I couldn't do the repeat as I ran out of stitches. I posted a question to the lovely, helpful people on the forums at Angel Yarns and was quickly advised that I only needed to do rows 3 and 4 as a repeat. This then made perfect sense! Unfortunately I had pulled back the heel and most of the heel flap too as I'd convinced myself I'd done that wrong as well. Oh ye of little faith! The heel flap was fine! Still, it gave me extra practice!

I managed to turn the heel and pick up and knit my stitches for the gussets. The pattern then told me to redistribute my stitches over the 4 needles again. I did this but ended up with my working thread halfway along a needle - hmmm? Another question to the forum and I was soon sorted again! Now I'm just short of the toes:

(Please excuse my foot!)

How exciting - I've nearly finished my first sock! I'm pretty pleased at how it's going and think I'm doing ok for a novice. Can't wait to start the next one (how long till 'second sock syndrome' sets in I wonder??)

Edit: For the finished article see this post.

Sock Update

More Distraction

As if the socks weren't enough I decided to do some baking. It's not something that I do very often as unfortunately I find cooking mostly a chore. I'm sure when I have more time I might make it a pleasure but for now it's a little way down my list of interesting ways to spend spare time! But Miss Muffett loves it and we decided to make the most of the last few days of the school holidays by making a nice pie.

We have a rather sad and somewhat scabby looking apple tree in the garden. It's both two trees and half a tree at the same time. Two trees because I discovered two trunks when I hacked back the ivy, and half a tree as it grows right against the boundary wall and the branches which hang over into the neighbours garden get hacked off. I guess they don't like apples!

This year it's produced a few apples which actually looked edible. I don't know the variety though. They are the same colour as a 'granny smith' but have a blush colour on one side. They are quite small, dense, and sharp, so I think they must be a 'cooker' rather than an 'eater'.

We cheated and used ready made frozen pastry. I've not tried it before and I quite liked it, especially as it stopped me from getting lots of pastry stuck under my nails. Now that sounds like I have fancy, high maintenance, manicured nails! I don't! I'm just lucky enough to have quite strong and fast growing nails and I hate getting stuff stuck under them! We used the apples from the garden and some blackberries which were on special offer when I did the shopping and the pie turned out quite well. Miss Muffett was chuffed with the results:


And Mr Earplugs was one happy chappy:


Not everything went quite so well though. Before I got ideas above my station and started thinking I was Delia, look what happened to the 'left-over-pastry-jam-tarts':


Still, they made us laugh and Mr Earplugs thought it was his birthday - pie and tarts on the same day! That man sure is proof that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and that love is blind!

More Distraction