Funny how time flies...

I can't believe that it's April.  April!!!

I've not had a huge amount of time for knitting and spinning recently, because I am spending about 12 hours a day out of the house 4 days a week, and 8 hours out of the house 2 days a week.  Add college work into the mix and a bit of housework and I'm stressing.

It's not been easy lately; the fella is out of work so the pressure is on me to bring enough in to pay the bills.  He was a student nurse, but had to give up the course because of money issues and he was struggling to do the actual course.  He's had 6 job interviews in 6 months, which is pretty good.  Especially when there were 1700 applications for 8 jobs in a new branch of Costa just up the road from me.

I really hate my flat.  It's small and messy.  We have been struggling to heat the flat because of money so when the boiler packed in at Easter, it was annoying.  Yesterday, the guy from the boiler repair place came out and condemned the boiler as the flue is leaking exhaust gases into the flat, which means there was carbon monoxide leaking into the flat.  Fuck!  Luckily, I don't think the boiler itself was hugely faulty when it was actually lit, we just couldn't get it lit.  As the flat is damp, our windows are open a teeny bit to allow the air to circulate (we think it's condensation more than anything), so thankfully, neither of us has any symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I saw my family on the weekend as it was my nephew's 21st birthday party. It was great to see the family and I got to dress up in rockabilly style clothes as it was a rock and roll theme. I felt rough though so didn't feel up to much and was a bit anti social :s

On the way back, I persuaded the fella to take a diversion to The Threshing Barn and I got some really nice yarn and fibre. First up was some 70/20/5 merino/nylon/sparkle hand dyed yarn

Then 100g of Corriedale in purple, green and red. To match the Corriedale, I got 100g purple merino to ply with it.

That was gonna be it but then I saw a 500g bump of a blend of alpaca, llama and merino for £25! All natural colours. Yay!

I've not spun with alpaca or llama before. This should be entertaining!

I'm really looking forward to getting involved with that, but I've just started spinning for my celestarium so it'll have to wait. I have no idea what I want to do with any of it, other than the yarn, might do some socks with that. I can never have enough socks :)

I'm also working through a bit of old stash to make room for new. I'm also working on wips as well, seeing as though I have 2 blankets, 1 sweater, 1 shawl, 1 pair of socks and a hat on the go. I would like to get 1 old project finished for every new project that I start. Having said that, my blankets are a long term project so I'm not worried about rushing to get those finished. Perhaps I could spend a couple of weeks working on one of them for every new project I start :)

I have finished the sock pattern I've been wittering on about for ages, but it probably only makes sense to me. I am not brilliant at writing sock patterns it seems, mostly because I can knit a sock from memory, so when writing out a pattern I leave out the really important stuff that's obvious to me that wouldn't be for a newbie sock knitter and I feel a bit uncomfortable about releasing a pattern that's going to annoy some people. We shall see :)

Back to the knitting methinks :)

Oooops!

Bloody hell, I did not realise that I had not blogged since September last year.

In my defense, I have been so busy with college and all sorts of other stuff.  Just before Christmas, a friend from college passed away suddenly. I was gutted to lose her and am even sadder for her 7 year old son and her partner.  I will always remember the fun we had, laughing and chatting.

Being skint and having next to no money for gifts, I decided that I was going to try and make all of my Christmas gifts by hand.  Firstly, I was going to knit them, then I realised I had 16 gifts to knit. No.  That wasn't going to happen.  I think I managed 7.  The rest, I made using ideas from Pinterest.  I got cheap mugs from the pound shop and then knitted cozies for them.  I got some pretzels and then dipped them in melted dark chocolate and bagged them into clear cellophane bags.

For my vegan friend, I made homemade Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.  Nom!  I also got some cheap mason jars and made homemade sugar scrub.  Sorted!

I did enjoy it, but I found it all got a bit stressful in the end.  Next time, I think I may try making things like lotion bars and lip balms.  It was my vegan friends birthday on Thursday and he requested homemade bath bombs, so I now have the kit to make them too. 

I also had college work, as well as trying to hunt for a new job and I felt myself getting incredibly stressed.  I had to drop the job hunting.  My fella is now looking for work as he is now not at college.  It's been 4 months and he's had 4 interviews, which is a start, but no joy yet.  It's been a bit of a struggle to survive on my own wages.  Driving from Nottingham to Leicester for work doesn't help, but I'm struggling to find work that will allow me to go to college.  I plan to do my Masters after this (although, given the current financial situation, I may have to defer it a year until the fella gets work), so will need to reduce my hours.  We will definitely need the fella working for that. 

So yes.  Stuff happening.   LOTS of stuff happening and not nearly enough knitting for myself.  However, I am knitting the Mr a pair of cabled slipper socks with leather soles and then I'm going to spend a month or so finishing the projects I have started (2 pairs of socks, 1 sweater and 1 shawl). 

I do have a couple of blankets on the go, but I'm taking my time with them.  There's no rush at all for them.  I have another granny square blanket, a 10 stitch blanket in random bits of handspun and a Beekeepers Quilt.  The Beekeepers Quilt is being done in scraps of sock yarn in random colours, as is the 10 stitch blanket.  They are the kind of blankets that I can pick up whenever I like.  I have two of then stored in the wardrobe in the bedroom when I'm not working on them.  The Beekeepers Quilt is made of hexipuffs, which I cast on using Judy's Magic Cast on, then graft together once knitted and stuffed (I am saving my scraps of yarn to stuff them with).  I am knitting them on 2.5mm needles, which is probably not a good idea.  I'm toying with the idea of making a 20x20 square with them, then knitting a back and adding a cushion pad and some buttons, just to test the sewing together.  I'm afraid that using the technique described in the pattern, that it'll fall apart.  Plus as I am using the 2.5mm needles, they are smaller and are taking ages to do.  So, we will see how I get on :)

I will be back with pictures soon.  I hope :)  Right now, I'm knackered and need a shower before I go to bed :)

Back!

I haven't posted in ages.  Sorry!  I do have a good reason though - My trusty laptop died and now I have bought another.  The old one had a dodgy battery anyway and the power socket / power cable stopped.  It was crackling when it was plugged in and it wouldn't start at all.  Thankfully, my college stuff was backed up onto dropbox, so I could just borrow the fella's laptop and then continue with my essay writing.

I got very stressed over that laptop.  I struggled to get it written and it felt very bad.  However, I did pass and I'm onto the second year of the course.  I am finding that it's hard, but it doesn't quite seem like me at the time when I'm doing it.  I'm always amazed by what I've achieved!  What is cool is that I'm recognising things in others and myself.  I'm getting there and feeling a bit more confident in myself.

I've just had a few days off work and I've been knitting for most of it.  In between baking bread, visiting vintage fairs (I will have to photograph my spoils!) and making crumpets anyway.  I'm very glad that I have a slow cooker.  I was able to chop some veg, fry off some sausages and then set the slow cooker and then get on with some knitting. 

I've been watching some of my Mark Thomas collection.  I have some of his stuff on a hard drive here - the Sex, Filth and Religion gig and the Mark Thomas Comedy Product.  I also have a couple of the Dispatches things he did, which was good.  I have his Serious Organised Criminal on DVD.  Met him once when I saw him tour his Walking the Wall gig when I was with my ex.  Brilliant stuff!  I did turn into a bit of a fangirl when I met him though because he's just brilliant.  He signed one of my books :)

Life is good.  Marillion have a new album out and me and the fella went to see them live last Friday in Sheffield.  It was a fantastic gig, but the venue was a bit cramped.  I think normally, they aren't so full, but this one had too many there.  I heard that normally Marillion gigs are sold to 80% capacity to allow us a bit more room, but I believe the venue was sold to capacity.

The gig was my favourite, apart from the venue issues.  It was also my 7th.  It was my fella's first h era Marillion gig and he enjoyed it too.  The new album is very proggy and feels like a bit of a return to their roots.  I love it - wonderful stuff.  I've been listening to it a lot at work and it's been nice to listen to something different at work. 

I will have to do a photo entry soon, with photos of some of the work I've been doing.  I'm off work again in a month.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some Christmas knitting done.  Yes, I'm Christmas knitting, after a few years of sanity.  I'm just going to knit as many socks as I can, or perhaps some of my Flossies as gifts.  I was thinking that they'd be nice in a 4ply yarn, with a slight adjustment for stitch counts etc, and then maybe some beads instead of the bobbles. Hmmm.  I am already picturing the yarn and the beads.  I think this could be promising.  We'll see :)

Ground control...

Doing this earworm tracking thing is interesting.  It seems that my earworms are nowhere near as random as I think they are.  It seems that songs from adverts and / or documentaries are getting into my head and staying there.

It's all good though, at least I'm not getting any really annoying stuff in my head.  June's earworm playlist is here if you fancy a listen.

I successfully managed to avoid yarn buying today.  I am doing what the Knitmores call stash cultivation, which means that you build a beautiful stash.  My current stash is lovely, but I must remind myself not to buy yarn because it's on sale or because it's cheap.  I have plenty of yarn at the moment that I'd like to work through.  2 sweaters worth, 2 blankets worth, several pairs of socks worth, and several shawls worth.  I would like to spin for a sweater though, but would just like to improve on my spinning first though.  Having said that, it's getting so much better than what it used to look like.

By the way, here is my Vortex shawl project page (so you can see the link to the pattern), with pictures as promised.  I love the way the colour variations in the handspun yarn swirls with the pattern.  It sort of looks like what I imagine a vortex to look like.

I am really happy with it, naturally! I really think that the yarn suits the pattern and vice versa.

The 10 stitch blanket is still ongoing and I'm happy with the way it's going.  I'm aiming for random colours and something that's a bit shabby but lovely.  Not that I think my work is shabby, but I want random.

Things...

Just a few things to tell you about this evening:-

- I am participating in the Ravelympics this year.  I am in Team AMBAA (Ankh Morpork Bad Ass Artificers).  I am participating in the WIPS wrestling, with 3 WIPS to complete and a sock pattern to publish during the Olympics.

- College is going well, I am enjoying it.  Lots of things going on, which is hard for me to talk about on a public blog.  I would like to, but it's not really appropriate.  As it is a counselling course, I have to open up to my fellow students and perhaps reveal stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily, as do they.  Because of this, I wouldn't want to share information about them on the internet.  My real name is on this blog and it would be quite easy to find where I go to University and therefore it may be easy to work out who is whom, if you already know some of the students.  I will perhaps, write an entry about how the course is changing me at a later date.  Once I've finished the first year :P

- I was doing job hunting, at the same time, but was getting ridiculously stressed, along with the driving to and from work.  I don't get in until 8:30 ish some nights, so find it hard to search, then apply for jobs and do college work at the same time.  I have decided that I will wait for college to be done and then spend my summer applying for jobs.

- June's earworm playlist is here.  I am aware that there is a song that is on May's playlist too, but the song has been lodged firmly in my brain since late May.  I am finding that there are certain songs that are like that.  This month's song that appears to be on repeat is Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen.

- I have cast on a ten stitch blanket.  It started off looking a bit crap and now looks a lot better  I'm not convinced by the middle bit though.  We shall see.  I'm doing it in handspun yarn.  Yay!

- I have startitis.  I want to cast on all the things, but I have college work to do, so can't really.  I am planning on spinning the yarn to do a top down raglan, after knitting a Vortex in handspun yarn.  Pictures soon, I promise!  Plus I have the yarn to knit a lovely cabled jumper, plus more yarn to knit another jumper or cardi, so we shall see.  I want to learn to knit more garments like sweaters and cardi's and overcome the fear of measuring myself and calculating how much yarn I need and where to put increases / decreases.

- I am wide awake and it is nearly half past midnight, but I have to be up at 6:30 in order to get to work for 8am, so I really should go to my gwely (that's Welsh for bed!), so on that note, Nos Da (Good Night!).

Today, I saw music in the sky...

I have finally figured out how to copy the URL to May's earworm playlist. It struck me after talking to someone the other day that not everyone knows what an earworm is.  An earworm is a song that randomly gets stuck in your head.  It's fun if you can infect someone with a tune.

It's here on Spotify if you fancied listening to it,  It's just a record of the songs that seem to go through my head.  I can't promise they'll always be traditionally earworm like (in other words, cheesy), but they are genuinely the songs that get stuck in my head.  

As an aside, did you know that one of the most common earworms isWitchita Lineman by Glenn Campbell? Heh.

Incidentally, one of my own earworms probably comes from hearing all about Rebecca Brooks getting herself arrested for perverting the course of justice / phone hacking.  The track is Paper Lies by Marillion.  Of course :)

Just thought I would come and share.  It's not complete yet, so come back and have a listen later on in the month if you fancy it.

Oh dear

I keep on meaning to write here, but I get distracted.  I am so busy these days. Work is utter, utter madness and it's doing it's best to totally send me a bit bonkers.  I have moved to Nottingham with the fella, but am still working in Nottingham as I didn't manage to get the transfer I wanted.  As work is thin on the ground, I couldn't just afford to jack in work, especially is the fella is a student nurse.  So, it's a case of commute to work and college while looking for work. 

I am keeping myself sane with a LOT of knitting and reading.  I've been rereading the Robin Hobb books that I have.  Only thing is, I left book 1 of The Liveship Traders at work on a Saturday and by the time I'd gone back in on a Wednesday after a bank holiday weekend, the book had gone and nobody claims to know where it is.  I reckon it's been binned 'cause I can't find it and the bit where I'd left it had been tidied.

Grrr.  I know it's my fault for leaving it there, but who would bin a book?  Madness.  I am taking a break from that while I figure out what happened to it and whether I'm going to get another copy, so am reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies instead.

I have visited a couple of yarn shops in Nottingham.  The first, I went to a few weeks ago.  It's less than a mile from my house and tiny.  The lady who owns it seems awesome though.  I may try and get to the knitting group she goes to once I've started work in Nottingham.  The second, I found by accident as we were visiting one of the larger Tesco Express stores - we needed to top the fella's phone up (he's on Tesco mobile and if I buy the top up at a Tesco store, I can use my staff discount - £9 will buy him £40 worth of credit!).  I spent a while chatting to the lady and it seems she's not long been open - 2 months or so.  She's slowly building up stock, but she has a lot of the luxury yarns there.  I ended up buying a skein of Fyberspates scrumptious laceweight in a dark blue / petrol colour.  It's gorgeous but expensive.  £15.95!, but then there are 1000 meters in the skein, so that's a really fabulous shawl.

I also have a mad idea to spin for a blanket.  A round blanket.  Using the exact same pattern that I'm using for my handspun shawl (Vortex, on Ravelry if you're interested).  I was thinking that I'll do 8 different colours and do a section in each colour.  We shall see though :)

I was also thinking that I seem to have this thing where I have at least 1 earworm a day and I thought it would be interesting to track them, so I am creating a playlist on Spotify that has all my earworms in for every month.  Obviously, this month will be a shorter one as I started late, but I have had at least 3 songs meander through my brain today so we'll see.  I note that I can share playlists via facebook and twitter, but I don't know if I can get a direct link for them so I can stick it here.  Would be interesting though!  I will share at the end of the month on Facebook and then see if I can get the direct link off there :)

In the meantime, I am off to make it up to the fella.  Apparently I was shouting at him in my sleep last night but I have no recollection of this.  Ooops.  In my defence, apparently I was telling him to stop snoring.  Seems legit to me though :)