A Bit of a Round-up

I've been completely out of Blog land for the last month or so - just been too busy with the kitchen re-fit and all the decorating. You really do realise just how much stuff you have when you need to clear a room out. I seem to have done nothing but shift stuff from room to room lately! But it's all finished now and I'll put some before and after shots up at some point.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I received a lovely present from Raina last week. She had mentioned that she was going to send me a little something as a 'cheer-up' following the sad demise of the Go-Go. I received the most beautiful necklace which Nipper has taken rather a shine to due to the iridescent beads - he's fascinated:

And also.........hand knitted socks! Gorgeously soft cashmere socks which fit perfectly:

I was overwhelmed. So much time and effort goes into anything hand made. I don't think I could ever let go of a pair of my hand knitted socks. Thank you so much Raina for your very thoughtful and generous gift. It certainly was a fabulous 'cheer-up'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of the Go-Go....I got an 'offer' from my insurance company for the write-off of the car.....£150, less my excess, so £50! I was rather cross at this to say the least! I got online and found half a dozen Micra's similar to mine with values ranging from £300 to £600 so downloaded the adverts and sent them, and a rather snippy letter, off to the insurers. Sure enough, ten days later I got a revised offer of £400, so result! However, I think I'm now going to equate insurance companies with 2nd hand car dealers and estate agents!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think it's about time I blogged some awards. Some of these are from before last Christmas so apologies all round!

Both Linda and Caroline awarded me the Premio Dardos award:

I'm afraid I can't remember specifically what it's for and when I tried to translate it I came up with 'prize darts' which wasn't really any help! But thank you Linda and Caroline!

The lovely Mel Mel (private blog) gave me the Hot Blog Award, which speaks for itself, and also the Marie Antoinette Award for being 'real':

This one was a little bit tongue in cheek as she passed it on to me after I'd regaled her with tales of all of us being up all night with a nasty tummy upsetting germ - and you can't get more real than that I guess!

Kitty passed along the Best Blog Comments Award:


And Linda very generously passed on the Lemonade Award:

for blogs which show attitude or gratitude (which was very kind of her since I hadn't blogged the first award she gave me!).

Having left it so long to blog them there's no way that I can list and link to everyone who deserves these to be passed on. So if you follow me, or are on my blog list, or have ever left me a comment then please consider yourself awarded with any or all of the above.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've also been tagged by Sara and Linda.

Sara tagged me for 'six random things about me' but as I did one of these before I thought I'd do a 'six things which get my goat!' instead, so here goes:

1. Since I started driving Nipper to nursery 4 times a week I'm noticing other people's bad driving habits (no doubt I have plenty of my own!). Top of the list has to be people who don't bother to indicate, especially at big junctions and mini-roundabouts. This leads nicely onto number 2....

2. People who decide to ignore the rules regarding who has right of way. This is another mini-roundabout problem and also crops up a lot as there are lots of parked cars around here.

3. And another driving related one - people who park across my drive, especially as the whole rest of the street is empty but they can't be bothered to walk the few extra feet! It's become so bad now that we have applied to the Council for a marking to be painted across the driveway. Hopefully people will notice that, though why they can't see the driveway in the first place is beyond me. (Mr Earplugs has been getting a tad stressed about this as he's worried that I might go into labour early and someone will be blocking the drive).

4. Irresponsible dog owners. Don't get me wrong, I quite like dogs ,but have never owned one and don't know much about looking after them. But I do know that I wouldn't let my dog jump up at strangers, nor would I let it off the lead in a park where there were lots of small children playing. Miss Muffett was slammed into a wall when she was about 5 years old by a dog which was charging around the entryway to the park. It might not have been so bad if the owner had come over and helped but he just walked straight past and didn't say a thing. I had plenty to say! I've also had clothing ruined by dogs jumping up and scraping their dirty paws down my clothes, and had a picnic in the park spoiled by a roaming dog which figured it was a slap up meal just for him.

5. This one could be tagged on to no 4 really - dog mess on the pavement! It's a nightmare when you tread in it or get it stuck around your pram wheels. If a dog owner can't be bothered to pick it up then at least get them to do it in the gutter where it's less likely to be trodden in!

6. Another driving type one - cyclists riding on the pavement at break-neck speed. I have every sympathy with people wanting to ride on the pavement as the roads are so busy. Unfortunately a lot of them forget that pavements are supposed to be for pedestrians. I've been hit twice by cyclists zooming along and zig-zagging through people, and we had a scary near miss with Miss Muffett when she was small.

Linda tagged me with a 'Reading' meme:

Who is your first favorite author and why?

I think this would have to be Enid Blyton. I read the 'Wishing Tree' books, then the 'Mallory Towers' series, and of course the 'Famous Five' books. I think I liked the 'mystery' aspect of the Famous Five.

Do you still consider him/her to be among your favourites?

Not really, though if I was a kid again I'm sure I'd still like the 'Famous Five' and I do still like mystery novels.

Who is your all time favorite author and why?

I loved 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte, which we studied for 'A' Level, probably because it's set close to where I grew up and the language of the characters is real . That really appealed at the time as I went to a grammar school and there were very few kids there with a 'local' accent.

Do you still co nsider him/her to be among your favorites?

Absolutely.

Who is the most recent addition to your favorite authors and why?

Probably Jodi Picoult. Her books often deal with difficult subjects and she looks at them from all angles.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?

Probably Jodi Picoult as I haven't read all of her novels yet. I love Sue Grafton's 'alphabet' series of crime novels. I also really like Nicci French but have to be in the right mood to read them. I like a good crime/thriller/mystery novel.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pregnancy Update:

I have only 5 weeks to go now! It has come around rather quickly, especially since I thought I had 2 more weeks than that. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather with tiredness, dizzy spells and breathlessness, and feeling a bit twitchy about the upcoming c-section. I figured it was just down to being in the latter stages of pregnancy and chasing around after Nipper (not to mention no longer being a spring chicken - lol!) Turns out that I'm anaemic and have been having the classic symptoms. So it's iron tablets for me from now on which means I have to also limit my intake of milk, tea and eggs. What'll I do without my first cup of tea of the day??

Everyone keeps commenting on how small I look (even though I feel like a whale) so I thought I'd put a recent photo up alongside the one taken at 25 weeks to see if there's much difference:

I guess I am bigger, though I don't look much bigger considering 10 weeks have gone by. Let's hope I don't get too much bigger then over the next 5 weeks.

(And this has got to be my longest ever blog post - congratulations if you made it all the way to here!)

A Bit of a Round-up

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!

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

Socks at Last!

I'm in the middle of a kind of personal crisis at the moment. I had quite a shock recently and it's left me at a sort of a crossroads. I'm not sure if it's something to be blogging about really so I'll leave it alone for the moment. However, I've been in dire need of a distraction from it (as if a house, a garden, a husband, a pre-teen, a toddler, a cat, two guinea pigs, a visit from the parents and a few days away haven't been distraction enough - but I'm sure you know what I mean!).

For a long time I've wanted to knit socks. I don't know why, I just have. I had an elderly great aunt who was a great help to the family. She had no children of her own but was like a second mother to my mum and aunties and uncles. Apparently she was an avid sock knitter and the sister of my grandma who taught me to knit. So perhaps that's where it's come from.

I've also recently come across Raining Sheep. I just love this blog. I find it interesting, inspiring and sort of soothing, and that's what I need right now. She also makes beautiful socks. So her blog and my 'crossroads crisis' have motivated me to get on and knit some socks of my own!

At least this time I had a valid reason to buy wool (rather than the norm of seeing it and loving it but having no idea what to do with it once I owned it), and the shop gave me a free (easy?) sock pattern. When I asked for double ended needles they said did I mean 'shorts'. As it happened they didn't have any 'shorts' in the right size so I ended up with long 'shorts' (approx 12") since I was too impatient to wait. This is what I came home with:

It's a Regia sock yarn with a Jaquard pattern and it's on 2.5mm needles. I've managed to cast on and do a few rows but I'm struggling with the long needles as I keep sticking myself in the stomach! I've ordered some 'shorts' (neither of the 2 stores in town had any in the right size) so I should hopefully get on a bit better very soon.

This is an exciting prospect for me - finally attempting a lifelong desire - I just wonder why it took so long, and a crisis, to get to this moment??

Edit: For the finished article see this post.

Socks at Last!