Yarnbombing

So I've been a busy bee lately.  I've been doing some yarn bombing, along with lots of other enthusiastic knitter volunteers!  It's the Leicester Comedy Festival, which is sponsored by the TV Channel Dave.

Our task was to create lots of little bits and bobs to cover some of the statues and bollards in the city centre.

It got spotted by the local paper, and some of our work can be spotted here

We are really pleased with it!  Unfortunately, it clashed with a demonstration from the EDL and a counter demo by the Leicester group of United Against Fascism so we were a bit worried about it (the EDL came to Leicester a while back and tried to trash the place).  Some of the bits have gone missing - like the scarf and handbag that the Thomas Cook statue was wearing.  If you'd like to see more pictures, check out the #cheekyknitting hashtag on twitter.

I never got to see most of my work as I've been househunting - I've been asked to move from my shared house.  This is ok though, as me and the fella have been planning on moving in together for a while, so it's all go.  I've also now started my course at Uni - I'm doing a Certificate of Higher Education in Counselling.  It's all going swimmingly, but then I would say that now when the deadlines for work are about 5 weeks away.  Plus it's reading week this week.  I have a few books already and I plan to get to the library on Thursday morning so I can get some reading done.

I also took part in the KGB (Knitting Guerilla's from Birstall's) Valentine Day yarn bombing.  I was working when they were putting their hearts up, so popped down this morning.  I must say, they did a fine job! Have a look at their blog to see how they got on.  I took a few of my own photographs this morning, but with an iPhone camera as I forgot to pick my own camera up as I left the house!!

Here are my pictures.  Shame the quality of some of the pictures wasn't so good, but hey, it was cold and I was using an iPhone camera.  I got home to find that my cat had found the remainder of the red yarn and had a good play with it so had yarn bombed the house.  Cheeky little sod!

In the meantime, I am working on getting some of my jewellery onto Folksy, plus I'm looking into buying a domain name as well as getting a page on Facebook.  Keep an eye on Folksy as items will be trickling on slowly but surely.  I've been pinning some of my favourite items onto Pinterest too, which is my new addiction.  Pinterest, that is, not bragging about my own stuff, which is something I'm not very good at!!!

So yeah.  All good fun, but I'm very busy, but I'm enjoying being busy!

Ooops

Well, it's been a while. Sorry about that. Ugh, I need to clean my keyboard. Most of my key need a good bash in order to work, so apologies in advance for my spelling

What's new with me? Quite a lot.

I'm in a new relationship. I took a long time chatting to this one compared to my last one. Online dating does work, but it can be soul destroying. There's a whole new blog in that subject, I think. I dipped in and out of online dating for 2 years, talking to different guys along the way. Talked to some nice guys, some not so nice guys and received a lot of weird messages. I think the one thing I've learned is to be clear about what you want from a relationship, be realistic and figure out what's important and what's negotiable. Not an easy task at the best of times.

New guy is a fellow Welsh person, who is also living in the Midlands. Which is cool. We Welsh have a peculiar sense of humour and it's nice to be able to share that with someone. Things are going great.

I also did an intensive course in counselling. I did a course about 18 months ago over 10 weeks and although I got a qualification, it wasn't the right kind to go on with if I wanted to take it up as a career. My ex put me off doing the course, but after we split up, I took some time out to figure out what I really wanted to do (at the same time as I was thinking about what I wanted from a relationship), so decided that I wanted to become a counsellor.

I now have a place (conditional upon a reference from work, but that's a formality) at Uni on counselling course - Certificate in Higher Education in Counselling. It's a part time course over 2 years. If I pass, I can apply for another course, which is a Diploma which is another 2 years. The course starts in January Yay!!

I have designed a sock pattern, but I've yet to finish writing it up. I don't really like writing sock patterns (on the basis of this one pattern!). I think it's because I really enjoy knitting socks and can knock up a pair of stocking stitch / ribbed socks quite easily from memory. It's tricky to have to think about the steps involved when I do them automatically. I will try and get the pattern written up soon, but I can't promise it'll be any good or comprehensive though. I'm crap at following sock patterns as well, because although there are some amazing sock patterns out there, it means I have to deviate from what I like doing. Which is probably quite good for me actually :)

I am somewhat addicted to spinning lately as well. I really want to become a better spinner. For some reason I'm convinced I'm not as good as I could be so I've been trying to practise. There are spinners guilds locally, but they tend to be on far off little nooks of Leicestershire, or meet on a Saturday (and I work on a Saturday). I am spinning somewhere between laceweight and 4ply (the yarn gets thicker and thinner) and my yarn is still slightly slubby. Although it is getting more even as I practise. I notice it's dependent on which fibre I spin with too. BFL comes out lovely and smooth, while the Shetland and silk blend I spun with is more slubby (lumps of silk, usually) and fuzzy (that would be the Shetland then).

Think I need to check out some videos on youtube or something. Not now though as it's 1:30 am and my bed is calling me :)