Poor neglected blog. It’s been quite a few months now..….. Surely not that long?....... Wow! OK, a catch up


I’ve been having interesting times, somewhat like the alleged curse. I’m still in them, partly, but I’ve habituated I think

At least my spell of unemployment has come to an end – albeit temporarily. My current employ blocks access to all blogging and forums / chat rooms so agonizingly I can’t even look at Ravelry – the horror!

Creativity-wise, I’ve been contentedly knitting, star of which has to be the Trinity shawlette I’ve made with some soft and wonderful Babylonglegs Semi-Precious.

There was enough for me to do extra repeats and then when my courage ran out, to extend the border somewhat. Off the needles and preblocked it was 39” wide, 18” tall up the spine and 26” on the diagonal. After measuring, I soaked, rinsed (many times – what a lot of excess dye there was!) and towel blotted my work – always a tense time as I’m forever convinced that despite my best gentle efforts I’ll either tear or felt the work. I’d treated myself to some blocking wires (hulucrafts – fab service, particularly when there was a mix up with some needle tips I ordered at the same time) especially for this shawlette and they were a pleasure to use – definitely worth the investment. I measured during blocking and after – there was only a loss of ½” from one to the other. Finished blocked measurements were 53” wide, 25 ½” tall and 36 ½” on the diagonal – big enough to sit over my shoulders and upper arms, protecting me from the worst of the air conditioning in the office

I am very pleased with how the shawlette turned out – the interaction between the pattern and the beautiful semi solid wool (50% silk and 50% SW merino) is perfect and the weight and sheen of it – I am one proud knitter! It must have been good – DH asked ‘did you knit that?!’, then he asked ‘when?’ – just goes to show how miraculous blocking must be as he had no connection between the blue lumpy thing I’d been working on and the finished article

I’ve also made spiral tube socks for DD, am working on some much longer ones for DH and have started a Featherweight (I think – I am muddled without internet access – whichever is the paid for, Featherweight or Whisper) for myself. I also made a cute elephant that was going to be for a work colleague, but DD fell in love with it so had it instead. Top tip – if you make one, put toy beads in the rear or something else weighty as the trunk pulls it over

I wish I had some sewing or patchwork to report on. I did try to make a bag as a present for my neighbour, but messed it up and it has been punished through solitary confinement in a drawer ever since. I keep intending to make myself a nice lunch bag instead of the greenie meanie reuse of bread bags that I’m indulging in at the moment, but to no avail. I’ve taken a break from morsbagging too – somehow it all got tangled up in my interesting times, so I took a break from it.

Recently I went to the NEC to help out with teaching knitting on the Knit One Pass It On stand and although I looked out for the morsbags crowd, I don’t think they were there. Oddly enough, as I was thinking about it last week, a woman who was meant to drop off fabric in the autumn finally called me and brought around two bin bags full of curtain fabric, so I will take that as an omen and contact the inimitable Rosie.

Otherwise, life has been full of family, pie making and general baking, knitting club (including a new member flashing a photo that made us all wish for brain bleach), friends and general day to day living and all that entails (usually washing and ironing!)