What a week, it started with my assassination of a dear friend, Roo. I killed her with a pair of socks in blue alpaca so at least her feet will be warm and cosy in the afterlife. The weapons struck her on Tuesday and by Thursday she had sent me her partly assembled weapon in lavender Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and the assassination dossier for her target, Donna. I completed the mission and by 10pm Thursday another package was in the post box at the end of our road.

My second target fell early Saturday morning and Donna emailed me news from beyond the grave of the my next mission. Unfortunately the partly assembled weapon for this target had not been particularly well constructed and the materials were not really suited to their purpose so, after discussion with Donna and her original target from whom the weapon would be coming we decided the best thing to do was for me to begin assembly of a totally new weapon from materials in my storage facility.  I will wait until I receive the original weapon before I post the new one and then wait however long it took me to knit from wherever they had got to so as to make it fair.

but I’m not dead yet…. and I have the t-shirt to prove it….

We’ve also been rearranging more furniture in preparation for (1) by friend Tracey and her children who are visiting next weekend and (2) the future arrival of adoptees….it’s progressing…slowly

We now have one room which is quite tidy and has two single beds and another room which at the moment has a single bed and a sofa bed in it…rather cramped but hopefully by the end of tomorrow we will have disposed of the sofa and armchair in the playroom and the sofa bed can move down there….

I also managed to knit this –

…his name’s Herbert and he’s a Snowme (I’m taking part in a Christmas themed swap and need to send something for the tree…)

There are no more finished objects but I have made progress on Mad Weave socks, but no photo I’m afraid.

In other news, I won a competition on Krafty1′s blog – can’t wait to receive my prize…some yummy yarn and chocs and a bag.

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Tags: sockwars snowme competition

Yarn – Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud shade 37 Royal Blue
Needles – 3.25mm Brittany 5″ birch dpn’s
Pattern – Scar

The pattern was really nice to knit – it’s a ribbed pattern with a stranded pattern stitch which is caught every four rows on either side. Here’s a close up

Now, for anyone who doesn’t know what Sock Wars is – it’s an assassination game in which the weapon is a pair of socks. Yesterday (well actually I got mine late Friday night) all the combatants were sent a secret dossier containing the name and address of our target and the pattern we have to follow for the socks. Everyone starts knitting, we all knit the same pattern, and as soon as you’re done you mail them off to your target, once received they’re dead. They then mail their dossier and  the socks they are knitting back to you and this then becomes your new target. You keep doing this until you receive your own bullet from your assassin.

Now, I have no idea who my assassin is, where they are or how much progress they have made so I’m just hoping my socks hit their target and I get my new target before I get hit myself!

When I received my dossier it was a bit of a surprise as the name of my target was not unfamiliar to me, in fact I know that it’s someone who reads this blog. So, if you’re reading this and you are in Sock Wars then these lovely Royal Blue Alpaca socks were dropped into the post box on the corner of my road at 10am this morning and should have been collected by the post man at noon so they are on their way…..be afraid, be very afraid!

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Tags: sockwars scar alpaca

In a few earlier posts I’ve mentioned that I was taking part in a Prayer Shawl Swap and my partner was Karen who has just received her shawl. This swap was a wonderful experience, not just a knitting challenge but a real opportunity to find quiet time to knit and meditate on something for a partner. Sending “good vibes” across the world to help another knitter with a problem.. I feel as though each stitch was somehow imbibed with love and I hope the shawl will provide comfort and warmth in the coming winter months. The idea of Prayer Shawls is explained a little more here.

I started the shawl in Cornwall at my in-laws, sitting in the swing seat looking out over the sea –

I spent quite a lot of time knitting in the “orchard” ie the end of our garden where the apple tree grows and I’ve planted a plum, a cherry and another apple all very small at the moment. I like sitting up at that end as it’s away from the house and temptations to switch on the tv or do chores…

and this is the finished shawl, I love it and hope that Karen does as well. I may have to knit myself one of these… Pattern is Tri-aran-angle by Lizzi Jennings and can be found at Knitty.com

Today I’ve been working on the new sock for the Vintage Socks KAL I moderate, we’re knitting the Child’s French Sock during October & November. I’ve picked some Yarn Yard sock yarn in “Pink Ribbon” for this sock. It seemed particularly appropriate yarn as it is sold in aid of Breast Cancer charities and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

So far I’ve knit the cuff and 5 and a half repeats of the leg, the pattern calls for 11 repeats but I don’t know that I shall do that many. I don’t like the legs of my socks to be very long and it’s already 5″.

There are also only a few days to go on my wedding gift knitting. The couple in question are getting married in Italy on 16th June but will be flying out on Thursday 14th so I need to have the gifts finished on Tuesday night so I can give them on Wednesday…..hmmm

So, the shawl is finished

it’s had a soak

and is currently blocking in the spare room upstairs –

I’m really please with how it’s turned out and hope the recipient will love it too!

Details

Yarn – Cobweb Mohair from The Natural Dye Studio

Needles – 4.5mm aluminium circular and 4.5mm Birch dpns

Pattern – Melon Pattern shawl from Victorian Lace Today

Cast on: 25th May 2007

Cast off: late Wednesday 6th June 2007

As for the socks for the groom – one down one to go

These are South African flag socks adapted from the Gentlemans Winter Sock in Knitting Vintage Socks.

Yarn – Black & Red is 4ply Sock Yarn (80% Botany Wool 20% Acrylic) from Angel Yarns, Green & Yellow is Lornas Lace Shepherd Sock in Coral Green & Sunshine respectively and the Blue is Roway 4ply Botany in Royal Blue.

Needles – 2.5mm bamboo dpns

Cast on – 3rd June 2007

technorati tags:lace, shawl, socks

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On Saturday we finally got to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. We went to the cinema in Maidenhead to “The Gallery” — this is a more expensive ticket which means you get a seat in the back two rows of the cinema, the seats are huge leather seats (which I can actually curl up in) with loads of leg room and a table for your drinks etc. Before the showing you go to a separate little bar area where you can have free popcorn, chocolates, nachos and soft drinks. You can buy alcoholic drinks and take these in to the cinema with you. We often buy a bottle of wine and take that in. Just before the film starts you get ushered in to your seats and taken right to them….it’s brilliant and we often pay the extra for big films that we really want to enjoy.

DJ is 6′4″ and so he appreciates the leg room, I love being able to curl up in a comfy seat. Also, the seats have more banking and so you get an uninterrupted view with no-ones heads in the way, with me being somewhat shorter than 6′4″ I appreciated that!!!!!

The film itself was great – I love Pirates and so was very excited. It was funny, exciting and had a bit of mushy romance too….I really enjoyed it. Yaaaarrrrrr!

Sunday was a very busy day – did some gardening then after lunch we went down to the park in Marlow on the banks of the Thames. We bought an ice cream and then settled down to watch the cricket –

They went in for tea after the visitors were all out for 121

so we went down to say hi to the swans

and then wandered home via the supermarket where we decided to buy the makings of a meze for tea as the weather was so lovely. When we got home we made a pitcher of Pimms and settled down on the decking to enjoy our meze –

Pitta, houmous, olives, mozarella & sundried tomato, falafel and cheese pies – delicious! We could almost imagine we were back in Turkey where we went on holiday last year.

I then decided to go on a nature hunt around my garden – I aim to have a wildlife haven but even by my standards the garden is a little overgrown at the moment. I wasn’t able to do much work out there last year and so things have got a bit out of hand. Still, here are a few highlights from the garden at the moment –

This rose is called “Anniversary” and was bought for our wedding anniversary by a friend a few years ago. I love it as it’s an old-fashoined rose with a lovely scent.

Yellow Flag Iris – I try to plant native plants only around my garden and in particular in my pond. Yellow flag iris can be seen anywhere there is water in Britain. They are also called Jacob’s Sword and are a sign of spring and often thought to be the source of the fleur-de-lys in heraldry. Apparantly the root is a cure for toothache! There are now loads of these in my pond and they are about the first thing to show some colour in the year. They are going over a little now but are still a big attraction for bees and dragonflies…..

….as is this – I’m not sure what the shrub is as it was here when we moved in, (possibly a Syringa of some sort?) but the bumble bees love it with it’s sprays of multi-petalled flowers. You can see the pollen sac on the back leg of this bumble bee. I love seeing the bees in the garden and have several bug and bee houses around the garden to give them places to hibernate, I try to be organic and encouraging bees and ladybirds ensures other bugs are kept down.

Cranesbill – this is he hardy geranium and spreads like mad all around my pond. Not strictly within my “native plants only” ideals but they were here and they cover the ground so whilst other things are being established I’ll let them stay.

This is a dog-rose (Rosa Canina) planted as part of a native hedgerow I am growing at the end of our garden. The hedge also includes hawthorn, field maple, guelder rose, spindle and honeysuckle. It as reached about 5′ this year from tiny bareroot “canes” planted about 18 months ago. This year I hope to trim or “lay” the hedge to thicken it up and provide a real habitat for birds and small animals.

Blackberry brambles – yes, I have brambles in the garden….probably a few more than I’d like but I do encourage one particular patch of them at the end where the native hedge is as they are the archetypal English hedgerow plant as far as I’m concerned. It also means I don’t have to go far to do my blackberrying in the autumn.

Victoria Plum – we have a large, ancient apple tree at one end of the garden and last year we planted a plum, a cherry and another apple tree close to it as the start of a small orchard. The land our house is built on was once an orchard, or so we’ve been told, and so our old apple could be one of the original trees from that orchard. The trees we’ve planted are only about 4′ tall at the moment but the plum at least is loaded with fruit.

Lupins are my favourite plant, they are just so “cottage gardeny” the flowers are these wonderful spikes in various colours and the leaves are like little hands. After it’s rained each leaf has a water drop caught at it’s centre. I’ve planted loads of these but so far this year these are the only flowers I can see.

Foxgloves – these self seed themselves everywhere in the garden and pop up in the most unlikely places in all sorts of colours. I’m trying to encourage them at the very end of the garden where I’m trying to establish a small “woodland” area – I’ve planted a silver birch, a rowan an alder, spindle and a few woodland plants so far. Hoping to get bluebells, snowdrops and anenomes down there too.

Simpson loves our garden as it provides lots of places to prowl and hunt, unfortunately he does this quite successfully and last night came in with a mouse! Luckily (or unluckily?) he always manages to capture his mice alive and so we have to get him to drop them and then try to catch and release them. The one he brought in last night managed to run straight into the utility/downstairs shower and is now hiding somewhere behind the washing machine…..

…that’s what he thinks of that!

Later on Sunday evening we had an online, transatlantic baby shower for our friend Lunesse and her hubby. We’ve known Lunesse for a long time but never actually met in person. We communicate via email and i-chat so we do actually speak “face to face” as it were via the wonders of webcams and the internet. Lunesse was feeling a bit down as nobody had organised a baby shower for her so we decided we’d throw one, after all if we lived nearby we would have been holding one for her so why let the small matter of 7,000 miles, an ocean and an 8 hour time difference stop us?

We posted off a big parcel of goodies and instructions not to open until they were online through the webcam. We organised for the party to take place at 9pm our time on Sunday and so we got ourselves settled with a glass of wine and some baby shower decorations up. We also sent decorations across to the US and so we had the same decorations both ends of the web link-up. We had a great time chatting to our wonderful friends and I think they liked the presents we sent…..they have about 10 weeks to go before the arrival of the baby and hopefully some day we will get to meet them all.

Incidentally, in order to check the distance between us for this post I typed their zip code in google maps and then requested directions to our postcode in England. I’ve no idea what I thought it would give me as directions but this is what I got. Drive out of their place in the west of the US, drive right across America to New York and then…

28. Turn right at Long Wharf

29 Swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Entering France

30 Slight right at E05

Can you believe it, someone actually programmed it to tell me to swim across the Atlantic!!! Made me giggle for quite some time! Interestingly to cross the Channel I’m not advised to swim (guess I’d be too tired after the Atlantic) instead they suggest the train through the Channel Tunnel.

Finally, knitting! Yes, I did manage to do some knitting as well

The Cobweb Shawl in Melon pattern is progressing –

The border is actually now much further on, I’ve complete one long side, the corner, one short side, the next corner and about a third of the second long side. I think this should be complete in the next day or two and then will have a severe blocking.

I also started the groom’s present for this wedding – I’m using this

to make these -

I should point out that my friends are South African and so these socks are in the colours of the South African flag – black, red, green, gold and blue (I know there’s also white in the flag but I’m not sure if I’ll use any white).

So there you have it – a June weekend in rural England!

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when we arrived on Saturday the site was packed – it has 75 pitches and all were occupied. By Monday afternoon there was just our two tents, two camper vans and two other tents in a different field!!

The weather was pretty good, we had rain at night a few times but only one afternoon when we were actually caught out in wet weather and that was just for the last mile when we were heading back to the site.

Did some beautiful walks along Eskdale – here’s a sneak at some photos, just click to see them in flickr.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done in the evenings – working on the Sock Madness sock (I’m out of the competition but still knitting the patterns) This round came out on Friday just before I left so I printed it out and took it with me –

..this is as far as I got, it is a very short sock – the small pattern band is the “leg”, the second larger band is on the foot, the picture on the right is the sole of the foot with the heel to the right (yes there is a pattern on the sole!). The pattern is called Mad for Fair Isle and is based on batik patterns, the pattern is by Tina Lorin

I’m using 4ply sock yarn from Angle Yarns in Denim and Rose Pink and 2.5mm bamboo dpn’s.

technorati tags:sockmadness, knit, knitting, sock

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Pattern: Fancy Silk Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock colour “Desert Flower”

Knit on 2.5mm dpn Addi Aluminium

Mods: Changed the toe slightly, decreased to 16 sts then used a Kitchener Graft as I think it’s neater than the suggested decrease to 8sts and then draw the yarn through to finish.

These are currently blocking on a towel in front of my patio doors (I don’t have any sock blockers )

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This week we arrived to find the quiz had been totally revised, it’s organised by the pub themselves whereas before it was someone who came in to do it. You no longer have to pay (it was £1 per person entry before with the money going into the pot for the prize). And the quiz questions themselves are much better – an encyclopaedic knowledge of soap operas, football and the Sun newspaper stories for the week is no longer necessary!!!

So, we thought we’d done pretty well and when the scores were announced – we’d come joint first again…..oh great we thought….but wait, there was to be a tie break. One person from each team was nominated to answer the tie break, my team nominated me (thanks team, no pressure!!). The question was What year was the MCC founded – with the nearest to the correct year winning. First off the girl from the other team asked what MCC stands for – well, I know nothing about cricket but I have at least heard of the MCC…(it’s the Marylebone Cricket Club whose ground is Lords and who oversee the rules of the game). OK, so I had no idea of the date but through a little bit of logic came up with the date 1820……the answer is actually 1787 but I was nearest so we won….I have no idea what the other girl put…

We got 2 bottles of Jacob’s Creek white wine to take home with us…very nice.

Yesterday my winning streak continued. Saturday was the running of the Grand National – for anyone not familiar with the Grand National it is, apparantly, the world’s most famous steeplechase. A horse race over fences staged annually at Aintree racecourse, the field is around 40 horses, the fences are enormous, the course is two circuits totalling 4 and a half miles, and usually only a handful of horses finish with the rest unseating their riders or refusing at the fences.

In England, the Grand National is an institution and even people who never bet on horse-racing put a few pounds on their favourite horse. The best thing about the National is that with amateur riders competing with professionals and so many horses not completing the course anything can happen and so it’s a lottery with no knowledge of horse racing form being of much help in picking the winner.

In our office we had a sweepstake which we picked out on Friday, as there aren’t many people in our office we each drew two horses. I got Liberthine and Silver Birch – neither of them were very far up in the tipsters lists but Liberthine was tipped as a good outside bet so I put £5 on as well as the sweepstake.

So, guess what, the other horse, Silver Birch won! So I lost my bet at the bookies but I did win the office sweepstake – £40 for a £2 stake can’t be bad can it!

My winning streak has just ended however. I mentioned in previous posts that I was taking part in Sock Madness -well not any more. The pattern for this round was issued yesterday at 2.30pm BST but as I was at my parents and we took them out for dinner we didn’t get back home until gone 7 yesterday evening. I cast on as soon as we got in and sat knitting almost continuously until 2.30 in the morning when I decided I had to get some sleep….others obviously don’t bother.

This was where I’d got to when I went to bed –

The yarn is from Posh Yarn and is Lucia 4ply sock yarn (30% cashmere, 70% merino) and the colour is called “Pop” but reminds me of Refreshers (sweets). The colours are a bit washed out in this photo – this one is probably closer to reality -

Up until I went to bed I had been checking the flickr group regularly to see if my opponent in this round had posted a progress picture to get an idea of how I was doing – nothing. When I got up this morning at 8am to start knitting again there was a picture posted 10.34pm but I am assuming that was US time and I don’t know what time zone but say that was 4am UK time…it showed a single sock complete to a few rows past the gusset. I was at the same point on my sock and knowing it was now the middle of the night in the US I began knitting furiously….until 1pm when my opponent posted a picture of two completed socks.

She knit these in less than 24 hours so I’m assuming she didn’t sleep…..her progress picture was actually taken at 10.42pm PDT on Sat 14th but wasn’t posted until 12.17am Sunday 15th …if she’d posted it when it was taken I wouldn’t have bothered staying up till 2am but would have thrown in the towel and realised I was not going to catch her. Her completed socks were photographed 6 hours later at 4.20 am so I wonder if her progress pic wasn’t actually of her second sock….

Anyway, I’m out.

So – other knitting….have a few Secret Pal knits ongoing so can’t post any pics I’m afraid. Also nearly finished the Fancy Silk Sock in Lorna’s Lace – will post some pics later

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So far I’m doing well and made it through to Round 3 which started on Wednesday afternoon UK time – I have great problems knowing about the time difference between here and each of my competitors so far who have all been in the US. I go to bed knowing they are still awake and knitting – I think I’m going to wake in the morning and find they’ve finished!

Anway, here’s the socks I’ve knit so far:

Round 1 – Mad Cows by Jennifer Booker Young

Yarn = Opal petticoat shade 1295 and Opal Uni in a sky blue.

Needles – Addi Bamboo 2.5mm dpn’s

Time taken – cast on 11.45am Saturday 10th March, second toe grafted 1.15pm Sunday 11th March (all times GMT)

The pattern is available on the Sock Madness blog here.

This sock is lovely – the pattern was really easy, just repeating stripes of solid and variegated with a short row heel and a flat toe with a kitchener graft. Very comfy to wear.

Round 3 – Madtini by Karin Bole

Yarn – hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester sock weight from the Natural Dye Studio colour “Blossom”. The photo on the left is much truer to the colours – the finished photo was taken under electric light at

Needles – Brittany Birch 3mm dpn’s

Time taken – the pattern for this arrived sometime on the evening of Thursday 22nd March but as this was my birthday I was out having dinner with my DH. I was off work the following day however and so managed to cast on about 9am Friday 23rd March and then finished sock no 2 at about 1.50 am Saturday 24th March (yes I stayed up until nearly 2 in the morning to finish – and this was actually 2.50 British Summer Time as the clocks went forward an hour at 1.00am, so I lost an hour!!!

I think these are my favourite Madness socks so far. The twisted rib on the cuff is really interesting and the simple spirals of looped stitches works brilliantly with the hand-dyed yarn. The heel is eye of partridge and this is the first time I’ve knit this.. but definitely won’t be the last, and the toe is again a flat toe with a kitchener graft.

Round 3 – Painted Madness by Tricia Weatherston

Yarn – Opal Handpainted “Herbstmelodie” colour 1980, this is a limited edition hand-painted yarn which is 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamide (and so machine washable – hooray!). It’s very much an autum leaves colour which makes it odd to be knitting in Spring – but I love autumn colours.

Needles – brand new Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpn’s sent to me by my Sockret Pal, Roo.

Time Taken – pattern arrived about 3pm Wednesday 4th April but I was at work, well technically I was at home but I was working from home which made it worse as I knew my yarn and needles were in the next room calling to me but I had to carry on working! I hadn’t actually decided on a yarn before the pattern arrived, had several to choose from. Finished work at 5pm but didn’t then cast on till about 5.30pm as I had to make a final decision on the yarn and then wind it. Finished 1.50am Saturday 7th April BST – another late night!

This time around I really didn’t think I had any chance, what with being at work on Thursday and then having a Moonwalk training walk that evening. Friday was a public holiday here in the UK (Good Friday) but we are indulging in the traditional British Easter weekend activity of DIY so I spent all day yesterday stripping wallpaper off walls, filling holes with plaster and scraping paint off windowsills – we are trying to get our spare room re-decorated so we can transform it into a child’s bedroom in preparation for our adopting a child/children.

However, my opponent this round, Neecie, emailed me on Thursday afternoon to say she was having to pull out injured….I’m really sorry for her but it did mean I’ve gone through to Round 4. Managed to knit Wednesday evening until I was about halfway down the foot. Completed sock 1 when I got home on Thursday before I went walking. Then cast on sock 2 and knit the cuff. Knit a bit of ribbing when I got up on Friday then the rest of the sock on Friday night after we stopped the DIY.

Not sure about these socks – love the colours and love the points on the cuff, however for me I would like the cuff a little less deep and to knit a little bit of leg between the ribbing and the heel because this would make it fit better with the sort of shoes I tend to wear. The heel is a flap heel which is fine but the toe is a “round toe” which I don’t find very comfortable to wear. Not sure if this is because I have very narrow long toes but to me the round toe looks like the sock has just been grabbed and drawn up like a drawstring bag – it doesn’t follow the shape of my foot like a flat toe or even a star toe…I may well unpick the toes and put a different one on now the competition is done. The photo below illustrates this  I think –

So, more DIY today, here’s the progress we made yesterday, forgot to take a before photo but if you look at the photo on the right – yes that wall is painted in camouflage! Imagine all four walls painted like that! The other walls were covered in wood-chip wallpaper painted in camouflage so we spent yesterday stripping that off.

The white spots everywhere are where we had to take out screws and rawl plugs and then fill the holes in the plaster…yes there really were that many screw holes in the walls! Today we have to sand the walls to get them smooth where we’ve filled and hope to paint the ceiling and put a base coat on the walls. My dad was helping yesterday and my brother is coming over today…. and the weather is lovely outside of course, if I’d planned on gardening it would be raining non-stop.

Enjoy whatever you’re doing this weekend.

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