Quick update...

I am spending far too much time on Ravelry. It's bad, very bad. I've spent hours today, uploading projects, and I'm not nearly done - and I haven't even really started on recording all my stash, and the needles, and whatnot... Oh dear.

I've been working rather hard recently, or rather, I've tried to. Other than academic work there has been a lot of dealing with fruit - yes, it's that time of the year again...

D has been doing much of the de-stoning while I was in charge of jam-making. We now have something like 40 jars of plum jam. Should be enough for a few years!

To treat ourselves, and also because with all the rain this summer it might well be the last nice and warm summer weekend this year, we had a BBQ and bonfire.


We also managed to go to two (!) car-boot sales this weekend - how I love them! I always seem to come away with something, but this time was special. Look what we discovered:


A set of handcarders, a flick-carder, three bobbins and, not pictured, a spinning wheel flyer!! The guy who sold it all to us clearly had no idea what he was selling. He kept looking at us weirdly, for buying the disgusting old hairbrushes! ;-)

There hasn't been a lot of knitting time but I am heading towards the end of a knitting project that I've had lying around for ages - some socks that I was knitting for someone else, that got left at the bottom of the knitting basket, neglected and forgotten, when the bean entered our lives. Recently, swept up in my newfound enthusiasm for finishing long-term WIPs I discovered the lonely half-finished first sock and finished it and a few days ago I cast on for the second one. I'm so proud of myself! ;-)

Ravelry

A few weeks ago I finally got my invite for Ravelry and today I found some time to have a proper look at it.

I'm so doomed.

That is all.

This crazy life...

I feel guilty for not updating the blog more often. Life is always so busy around here. Why is that? Is it the same for other people?

The flooding saga continues, but at least the tiles in the hall have now been removed. That means that hopefully the dehumidifiers don't have to be with us for much longer. The heat and noise are driving me potty!

I've also started work, which is wonderful. I'm feeling very positive about it all, I like the people, and am looking forward to working with them, but it also means a lot of lecture and seminar planning for the start of term and also a lot of frantic last-minute research and writing for yet another conference this summer and a book article due in next month. There are also the remaining 4 weddings to go to this summer, and our holiday, which I am determined to spend with my little family rather than in front of the computer, surrounded by books, frantically writing conference papers. We have trips planned - to the beach, to a few museums around here, and then we will spend a few days at the German sea side when we go over there for a wedding in a few weeks time. It's our first real holiday as a little family, so the last thing I want is to take work with me.

I have been knitting, but only on things started a long time ago. The drive to FINISH things is still strong, so I am going with it for now. Maybe, just maybe, before it runs out, I will get a finished Cozy out of it, and possibly another pair of socks.

The picture above is from another Gimme Your Stuff Swap, this time with the fabulous Malin in Sweden. She is the best kind of swapper - we exchanged a lot of emails beforehand and she is funny and interesting, and kind. And the parcel she has sent me makes me so happy. Can you see the gorgeous handmade bag? I love it so! And the quirky mushroom fabric? And I love the Swedish recipe book. I've long been fond of Saffron and Cinnamon buns... And the copies of IK, and the yarn! There is also quite a bit of stuff that didn't make it onto the picture - there was a yummy bar of chocolate with digestive biscuits in it (eaten instantly), and some rosehip soup with almond biscuits (also already gone). Thank you Malin!!

Reporting back...

As the weeks pass, the fallout from the flooding is becoming more apparent.

We were not as badly hit by it as many other people, and we managed to carry most of our things upstairs in time, yet the noise and the heat that the dehumidifiers and huge fans produce are becoming increasingly difficult to live with. We have three dehumidifiers and fans dotted around the ground floor to get rid of any remaining water in the flooring and walls, and they have to be on 24/7. The house is soooo hot, and we are not supposed to open any windows so that the dehumidifiers can work most efficiently. Ack! Still, I shouldn't complain - in comparison to a lot of other people in this region we got off fairly lightly.

Which is why I'm moving on now to what I've been up to in the last two weeks:

1) First of all, I got a job!!! Yay!

2) tidied around the house and thrown a lot of things out that were either damaged by the flooding or that we discovered while shifting things and decided we didn't need.

3) Finally finished the baby quilt for B's little girl, shortly to be sent off to Germany with the baby cardigan:


I used Heather Bailey's instructions for Continuous Quilt Binding, and I love it - so much more neat than my previous efforts! I'm still not convinced of my wonky sewing, and if I made this particular quilt again I would choose some blue thread for the back of the quilt (not keen on the pink), but overall I'm happy with this.

4) Since I was in a finishing kind of mood I tackled a project that is so old I can't even remember when I first started it, although I'm fairly sure that the yarn came from Sherrill at Baa Bonny Belle (thanks again Sherrill!): my Jaywalkers:

I like them (and, as you can see, so does Bean), even though, due to the fact that I knitted half of one sock a long time ago, there is a change in tension, which means that one sock is just right, while the other (the one that was started first) is rather tight around the leg - looks like I don't knit as tightly nowadays... Still, as with the quilt, it's not enough for me to bother changing it and I do like the socks. Somehow the colours remind me of dark cherries, which in turn reminds me of my birthday when I was a child - we always had crates full of cherries in June. :-)

5) I won the birthday contest on Craftylilly's blog and received my price (arrived yesterday) - a beautiful skein of Duet sock yarn in the colourway 'best friends'. Thank you Jennifer, I love it!! Looks like I'll be knitting more socks soon. :-)

6) I received my Gimme Your Stuff swap parcel from Ankaisa in Finland:

It was full of lovely things - a knitting pattern booklet, some pretty yarn, some fabric, two fabric bags, and some pine soap in a cute knitted bag, Thank you Ankaisa!!

It's been a busy few weeks... :-)

Oh what a night (and day)...

Do you see this? That's D and my dad on our doorstep. Yes, like so many other people in Britain, we were flooded on Monday afternoon.

This is what the back garden looked like:

Apparently this hasn't happened in this village in 70 (!) years, so so an old neighbour who has spent all her life here tells us... Isn't it grand that we get to experience such a momentous event in our first year of living here?! My dad is visiting us right now - he feels so privileged that he was here to witness this. ;-)

Fortunately we managed to get most of our possessions upstairs in time - the sofa remained but we put it on a few buckets to keep it out of the water, and some of D's office furniture suffered, but the main damage was done to the flooring. The carpet soaked up the water like a sponge, and I have no idea how things look underneath the tiles in the hall and kitchen... There is also some damage to walls and skirting boards and the like. We'll see what the insurance company makes of it all.

On the bright side, and to leave you with something more pretty to look at than drains water in a garden, a while ago I FINISHED THE BABY CARDIGAN ON TOOTHPICKS! I have finally got round to photographing it so here it is:

I am so happy with it! I'm even pretty happy with the seaming, and that is something that usually goes wrong for me! Not that I would necessarily knit this again, but I am glad I made the effort. :-)

Mememememe

Baa Bonny Belle tagged me for the birthday meme:

The rules are to go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday month and day only. Then post 3 events, 2 births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday, then tag 5 friends.

Events

763 BC - Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.

923 - Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France is killed and King Charles the Simple is arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy.

1215 - King John of England puts his seal to the Magna Carta.


Births

1843 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (d. 1907)

1330 - Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales (d. 1376)


Holiday

Roman Empire – ninth and final day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta


I am not going to tag 5 friends, simply because I fear that since I've been quite busy the last week I'm already quite late with this meme and I won't have time to check in the next few days who has or hasn't already been tagged. So if you so far haven't been, and you like the look of this meme, please consider yourself tagged! :-)

FO!!

Once Upon a Time Productions presents...

THE TWO-TONE (ONE-TONE) RIBBED SHRUG!

This was such a quick and enjoyable knit. If I made this again I would trust my instincts more than my gauge (which was a bit off, so I decided to knit the smallest size) and would make this bigger - as you can see, it is a little on the small side... Still, it was fun and I've already worn this today. Also, the yarn was wonderful to work with - Knitpicks Andean Treasure - I can only recommend it.

Stats:
2 1/2 skeins of Knitpicks Andean Treasure in 'Granite'
Needle Size: 4.5 and 2.
Started: 31 May 2007
Finished: 7 June 2007

Sometimes it's nice...

... to knit for yourself.

Progress on the baby-cardigan-on-toothpicks has stalled because even though I was following the pattern I managed somehow to run out of yarn. And not only that, I managed to run out of yarn about 3 rows before the end, or rather, 3 rows into the trim for the cardigan. Rather annoying. A third ball of yarn is on order (hopefully they will be able to send me the same dye lot), but until then I'm stuck with this project. Not that I mind too much, because instead I've been doing other things...

Like this:

This is the start of the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug (well, in my case it's a One-Tone Ribbed Shrug) from the newly acquired Fitted Knits, and it's for ME!! After knitting for the bean and then for other babies, it feels positively sinful to knit something for myself. At least I am using yarn from stash. It's Knit Picks Andean Trasure in 'Granite', a 100% Baby Alpaca yarn that's sooo soft, I could fondle it all the time. I bought it off Amanda a few months back and have been itching to knit something with it ever since.

I have also started another quilt, also for the recipient of the baby cardigan:

The fabric is Alexander Henry, and the backing is denim. I made it extra thick by adding an additional layer of fleece fabric on top of the batting, just to make sure that my little girl is never going to feel a cold floor when she is lying on it. This is my second baby quilt - I made one for the bean a while ago that I completely forgot to photograph. It was made with another Alexander Henry fabric - this time with Cowboys on it. Might take a picture once it's out of the wash...

And lastly, today I got this in the post:

Isn't it pretty? It's a print by the talented Rachel Salomon that I ordered a while ago. I love it. It's going to be part of my growing collection of small prints that I am planning to frame and hang in the hall.

More reasons to be happy...

#1 - Discovering that there are deer in Richmond Park:

We spent last weekend in London, visiting friends. Rather than a planned trip, this was more of an emergency solution that turned out absolutely lovely. What we had planned was something much less lovely, so I'm doubly glad it turned out to be such a fun weekend after all. Sometimes I wonder about D and myself, though - two PhDs, and at times we don't seem to have a brain cell to share between ourselves...

This is what happened: We had an invite to the naming ceremony of the little daughter of an old friend of mine on Saturday afternoon. The plan was to do drive down to the Midlands on Thursday, down to London from there on the Saturday morning, and back up to Yorkshire on Saturday evening after the ceremony. Quite OK in theory, but not so much in practice.

First of all, it took us almost 5 hours to get to our destination, all the while relying on the dubious navigation of Multimap. We were led right across central London, passed Westminster and Marble Arch, and you can imagine how crazy the traffic was. Bean had been asleep on the journey to London and chose this opportune moment to wake up and start screaming, we were tired and in need of food, drink, and the loo, and generally pretty frazzled by the time we arrived in south-east London. At least we were on time... just!

The ceremony was beautiful and it was great to see our friends, but clearly the last thing we wanted to do at this point was think about an even longer journey up North. Also, in order to arrive at a reasonable time we would have had to leave barely an hour after we'd got there in the first place. Honestly, what were we thinking, planning to drive back up on the same day?! We agonised over it for some time and then decided to pounce on some other friends and ask if we could stay with them. 5 minutes later, the life-saving SMS arrived - no problem at all, we are welcome to turn up whenever we want. Aren't friends great?

They put us up, moving out of their own bedroom no less, so we could put bean's travel cot up in the bigger room, and even cooked dinner. We had a great evening and the next day decided sensibly that we might as well take some more time and drive back in the late afternoon. We decided to have a picnic in Richmond Park.

I'd never been, so to discover wide open fields, forests and lakes, complete with whole herds of deer, all in the centre of London, came as a bit of a surprise. We had a lovely day and a good journey up, and arrived in Yorkshire just in time for bean's bath and bed.

Now why didn't we plan it like this to start with? Why do we need to always rush around?

~ * ~

#2 - going to the cinema with D:

We are going to see Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End tonight!! We will put Bean to bed and then MIL will look after him for the evening. Hopefully he will be asleep the entire time anyway. I'm ridiculously excited about this. We haven't been out, just the two of us, ever since LAST SEPTEMBER when the little Bean arrived!

~ * ~

#3 - almost finishing the little baby cardigan for my friend B's little girl:

This is the second sleeve. After that I only need to assemble the damn thing and add the borders... It feels like I've been knitting this for ages! I do like the way it looks, though. Hopefully B will like it too.

~ * ~

#4 - spinning again:

I've been spinning up a bit of the merino superwash that Tawama of Rooted in Knit-reality sent me for Yarn Abroad! over the last few weeks. I love the way it spins up and I am planning on Navajo plying it.

7 random facts...

I've been tagged by Baa Bonny Belle.

Here are the rules:
Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

OK, here goes:

1) I'm half-Korean but other than the words for grandma, grandpa, milk, and thank you, I can't speak any Korean at all. I can, however, sing an entire song in Korean - apparently it's a children's song about how pretty the dew looks when it catches in spiderwebs and blades of grass, but I don't understand a thing of what I am singing. It could be about anything...

2) I can't dive without pinching my nose shut. As you can maybe imagine, this is not particularly conductive to efficient diving and, during swimming lessons at school, led to various embarrassing incidents with me trying to retrieve items from the bottom of the pool, padding with one hand while the other was taken up by me pinching my nose shut. It also led to me failing most of the swimming proficiency tests.

3) I'm appalling at sports. During PE lessons at school I was ALWAYS the last person on the bench. I started to feel sorry for the team who had to put up with me in the end because really it was as if they had one person less on their team.

4) When I think of something that I find embarrassing, I start singing. This is something that I do completely involunatarily and I have no idea why.

5) When I was little, my dad used to tell me that there were what he called 'Shrunk Germans' who sometimes visited him when I was asleep. They were the size of a thumb and he managed to convince me that they were all around us and only hid from children because they were scared of them. For years I longed to see them and convince them to live in my doll's house.

6) I think and dream in both German and English.

7) I'm much better at starting projects than at finishing them.

I am tagging:
Union Centre Knits
Felt Like Knitting
Craftylilly
La La La
The Woolpalace
Clothesknit
Lixie Knits It