Highly unlikely, but not outside the realms of possibility?

Last night was all about the hand-sewing, tonight is all about the knitting.  Yonks ago, I actually can't remember when, I decided I wanted a close fitting grey jumper with rainbow stripes, so bought some Faroese wool in grey and some rainbow Kauni wool from eBay, which I promptly lost in a pub somewhere.  I swore a lot, and sulked a lot, and then bought some cream wool and some more Kauni, and just got on with it.

Of course, very thin wool on titchy little needles takes a while to knit, so I left it in my knitting bag, and ignored it, and occasionally knit it, and eventually finished the body.

You can't really tell from this photo, but there is a weird "side boob" thing going on under the armpits, and I thought long and hard about it but decided I really, really couldn't live with it, so ripped back all that knitting that had taken months and months, and started again.

I eventually finished it the other day.

It still needs a good block, and the right cuff is considerably bigger than the left, but I can live with that, as no one else will notice, and a bit of sewing will hide it as well.  

I wore it today as it was cold.  FFS April, sort it out, it hailed earlier.  The jumper still needs a block, and I will do that later on, but for now I am running around the house, cackling with laughter as my jumper looks ace and I love it, and also my denim skirt is too big and I will wash it and then send it to the charity shop to seek its fortune.  Hurrah. 

I'm sure I'll have something more to say tomorrow evening.  We're going shopping on the Goldhawk Road tomorrow.  Brace yourselves. 

Man, do my feet hurt in heels, and other things women talk about

Another September almost gone, another Yarndale whooshing by just like that.  We went up to Skipton on Friday, I spent a very happy day on Saturday shopping and taking photos, then we went home via Leeds on Sunday.  I can't believe it's already over.  

We loved Yorkshire so much again, we've sort of decided to back up there for a long weekend in May, around half term.  Shame I've come back with a bit of a cold.

Anyway, you don't want to listen to me sneeze, you want to see pictures from the weekend.

So many colours.  So many people.  Normally I freak out a bit in large crowds, but the feeling of height and light and space meant that I didn't feel under pressure at all.  It was absolutely lovely.

I've been to Yarndale three times now, it's a fixture on our calendar, written in pen.  It's got better and better each year, with more and more vendors, and more and more fun.  This year, I surpassed myself, and I am now no longer going to buy an overlocker, or go to Ally Pally in a few weeks.  So not sorry.   I shamelessly used my children as a way to photograph Lucy Attic 24 again; such a fan girl.  She was lovely and very patient; and must be utterly exhausted now.  I was, and all I did was shop.

The mandalas were fantastic, and it was so good to be able to get right up close and personal with them this year.  Mine never really got off the ground; maybe I'll send something in next year.  

I brought some things back with me.  Let's see if I can knit them up before next September.

Easy Knits sushi roll and sock yarn.  Last year, I bought a lot of Aran weight, but apparently it didn't sell well, so it wasn't there this year.  Shame.  

Ginger Twist Studios yarn to make a cowl.  Very difficult to choose a colourway, so I might have to buy more.  Eventually.

Triskelion Yarn and white undyed stuff from somewhere else, can't remember.  I'm going to use these two to make the Penelope jumper; the KAL starts tomorrow I think.  

These three gorgeous things are from Midwinter Yarns; the red is for a hat, the blue is just because.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I didn't buy this book when it first came out.  I've got it now, however, and I've also got the yarn to make the Cockatoo Brae jumper on the front.  It is drop dead gorgeous, but OMG all the miles of stockinette in fine grey wool.  Mindless knitting at its finest.  I feel faint at the thought.

Well, there's knitting to do, and a glass of wine to drink, so roll on next year, can't wait. 

I'm wearing a new, um, bra and it closes in the front and it popped-open and it threw me off.

Did you know that hippos can run at a top speed of 30 km/h, and can swim at about 15 km/h, so you really need to make up the time on the bikes if you want to beat them at the triathlon.

I'm running again, if you hadn't realised.  I ran on Sunday, yesterday and today, building up my distance to a mighty 5 km.  I've been avoiding running, then berating myself for not doing it, then getting depressed, then going out and getting furious within 30 seconds, and repeating a pretty negative cycle.  I've decided to go out everyday for a fortnight, alternating my "half marathon training plan" with running circuits of the track while the kids play in the park.  Apparently 3 circuits is a kilometre; I did it yesterday but with just my UP band to track it and it wasn't very good at it.  I might need to read the instructions, because you can get it to time an activity pretty accurately according to the blurb. 

It's all very positive at the moment though, with 4.9 kilometres on Sunday, 1 and a bit yesterday, and 4.85 kilometres today.  I don't run the whole way, because my ankle starts to really hurt after about 2k, and walking helps ease that.  But I am doing it.  Even though I only sporadically enjoy it, particularly going down hills.  

I don't intend to write too much about my "fitness journey" because it bores ME to tears, let alone both my remaining readers, but I will mention it now and again.  After all, it will have an impact on my sewing - less fabric used, more likely to take pictures of myself as I become happier with my body and the way I look, generally happier with everything.   I'm certainly not going to write a daily fitness journal, although I might show you a few post exercise selfies.

Cheers.

I’ll have a Manhattan. And kick the vermouth to the side with a pair of steel-toed boots.

I'm not going to mention the election.  I'm simply going to say that we personally will be a lot better off under the Tories, which is a really good thing, because now we can afford to spend even more money giving to the Ealing food bank, the Night Shelter and the Women's Refuge.  So every cloud and all that.  I'm glad London is still resolutely red, and that Farage didn't get the seat he wanted, and that my lovely MP kept his seat - a man of principle, not principles I necessarily endorse, but I'd rather that than the other thing.  I'm bracing myself for the next round of pissing about with education; I suspect all the SEND children I'm going to be co-ordinating will be expected to be less autistic, visually impaired, cognitively impaired and dyslexic.  I'm dreading the fact that the malevolent little meerkat will most probably be in charge again.  I feel strikes coming on.

I'm too depressed to take photos, and I was going to spend tonight sewing, but it's dark and there's gin to drink and Agents of SHIELD to watch, and so I'm going to do those things.  I might even finish my Miette, if I can find the rest of the green wool I've hidden carefully in the stash.

Me Made May pictures tomorrow when I'm feeling less furious and murderous.

Do you think it's possible for an entire nation to be insane?

The General Election is today, and I've done my patriotic duty etc etc, although I was nearly thrown by HAVING TO GO TO A DIFFERENT POLLING STATION, and nearly voted for the wrong person.  I get confused easily.

In other news, I've finalised a title for my next assignment essay: how can a policy be formulated to integrate and embed advice from outside agencies into quality first teaching?  Jolly interesting, but ultimately it will be a work of great fiction and we will carry on doing things the way we've been doing them.

I walked from Greenford to Pitshanger Lane today, which sounds a long way, but is barely 8,000 steps, according to my tracker thing.  It was all cognitive dissonance too - I walked along the River Brent, which is green and pleasant with butterflies and cow parsley and ducks and all sorts, and on my right hand side was the Ruislip Road and the E2.  Bonkers.  Still, more enjoyable than walking along the pavement.  It didn't rain, although it looked like it might several times.

All this outdoor activity and fitness is wearing me out.  I need a couple of glasses of wine and a little rest.  

Oh, I don't think I'm a lot dumber than you think that I thought that I thought I was once

What a terribly busy weekend and couple of days that.  My nephew turned one, I went to Bristol for a day trip to see a friend and spend money at the Outlaw Craft Fair (great), and we spent Monday walking around London, looking for more Shaun the Sheep statues.  So a fine time has been had by all.  There's even been knitting happening.  

• Nicholas' POP blanket - Finished and done and given to the birthday boy, who was predictably unimpressed by it, but my sister in law loves it, which is the main thing really.   30 circles, 30 squares, the blue border made from the remains of my Elsa jumper.  I've only had the kit for 18 months, so that's a pretty good rate of progress for me.  

• Hexipuff Quilt - It's something like 180 out of 250.  Which is great. STILL.  

• Lucy Attic24 Ripple Blanket - Nearly done.  I need to finish this now, although I honestly need more wool for it; some more orange is needed as it's her favourite colour. 

• Wisteria jumper -  Still the same.  It's too warm to work on this.

• Burton Bear Cowl for Hattie. I'm going to move this to next year I think; it's really too warm for this too.

• The Weather in the Streets 

Still 98 to go, so no photo.  I'm still pretty happy about it, although I'm thinking that I should really just get on and finish it.

• Yellow squares - 109/143 done - 34 to go
• Blue squares - 56/72 done - 16 to go
• Grey squares - 69/102 - 33 to go
• Turquoise squares - 2/11 done
• Orange squares - ALL DONE
• Pink square - DONE
• Purple squares - DONE
• Red squares - 7/10 done
• Dark Green squares - DONE
• Pale Blue square - DONE
• Pale Yellow square - DONE
• Dark Blue square - DONE
• Pinky-Red squares - 7/10 done

• Hattie's 4th birthday blanket.  This is going really well.  I've made and sewn together 20, and there are another 3 to sew on at some point.  I can finish 4 more of them, but then I have to wait for the wool fairy to bring me some more wool to finish it. I've been putting empty ball bands under my pillow every night, but nothing. 

• NEW: A Miette cardigan.   I've seen lots of these on the internet, and thought it would be just the thing to make myself to go with my soon to be finished skirt.  The skirt is gorgeous; red roses, Liberty print, salvaged from something my mum was getting rid of, which makes it super amazing: vintage, upcycling and handmade.

• Owl Obsession for one of my godsons - it's for his second birthday.  Next up. 
• Peacock Mitten - I'm almost a quarter of the way through the second mitten.  Still.
• Coraline cardigan - I've wound the wool for this, but I need to finish the Wisteria jumper first.
• Petrie top - I should probably start this one soon.    
• Knitted Coco -see above.
• Socks for me - I have no suitable sock wool that I like.
• Rainbow jumper - still depressed about losing jumper 1, and in mourning.  
• A Little Birds jumper with no steeks - still planning.  I need to sort the stash to see what I've got of this.  I might even need to sort out whether I've got the wool.  I think I bought some, but I don't remember.  How awful.    
• Reknit an unwearably large jumper for Simon - Oh Lord, I keep putting this off.

Done:

Myrna Cardigan

Hattie's cardigan.

A pair of simple socks for the children

Garter Yoke Cardigan

An Owlet for Lucy

Lucy's Cowl

Hattie's Cowl

A Burton Bear Cowl for Lucy

Simon's socks

Boreal

A tiny jumper for Nicholas

Sparkly Owlet for Hattie

Ringo mittens

Aiken

Striped jumper for Lucy

So that's your lot.  There's been sewing happening, but no photos.  Too busy and important these days.  

Are you holding back your fondness due to his unmanly blondness?

When I make something for one child, I have to make an incredibly similar something for the other.  So it was only a matter of time until Hattie reminded me that she needed an Elsa dress too.

I used the same pattern as before, but managed to count the panels on the skirt properly this time, and didn't have to bodge it at all.  When I made Lucy's dress, I made the overskirt in one piece; this time, I cut out panels.  The first method, but a bit bigger would have been better; sewing that floaty stuff did my head in.

As you can see, it's pretty sparkly.  Hattie insisted on having the jewels at the neckline, even if they're slightly lost in the whole.

A close up of the snowflakes; they are fabulous, silver on the palest of pale blues.  

Cloak.  It's not an Elsa dress without a cloak.  This one safety pins onto the shoulders.  

Honestly, I got this dress finished on either the Thursday or Friday night (they all blur into one in the holidays) and Hattie wore it to her friend's party on the Saturday.

She had a great time.

I wouldn't know. I've never been hungover. After I've had too much whiskey, I cook myself a large flank steak, pan fried in salted butter. I eat that, put on a pair of wet socks and go to sleep.

Last day of the holidays today, and even though I've really enjoyed it, I'm sort of looking forward to going back to work next week.  Actually I'm really looking forward to my children going back to school; and I will actually take some time in the mornings; I'd like to spend at least one morning a fortnight doing something that isn't being at school unpaid.  After all, it's highly likely that my work schedule will change in September, so it's best to make the most of it now while I still can.  I might even do some sewing.  There's a dress I want to make as part of a Simplicity Blogging Challenge, and I've got the fabric chosen and I bought the pattern (the top pattern, the 1960s shift dress) yonks ago.  Just need to email them about it.

Anyway, what else would we spend our last day of holiday doing but something crafty, and we went to Badger and Earl again for a potato printing fun session.  The girls had a great time making their own tea towels, and choosing some fabric for another summer dress; although Hattie apparently wants a skirt now, not a dress.  She has enough dresses actually Mummy (sfx: massive sigh, eye roll).   She'll be asking for leggings next, which look easy enough.  A voyage into underpinnings, how exciting.

We all loved Badger and Earl, and I think we'll go again as a treat in half term; maybe I'll even take Lucy to make some finger puppets.   She can't sew yet, but I'll have a go at teaching her.  We saw some lovely examples, and she'd really like one of her own.  I can always help her if she gets stuck.

See these amazing works of art?  Lucy's is all her own work, and started off very careful and lovely until she realised that she could use her fingers, and then it got a bit messy.  Still great, of course.

This one is Hattie's, and she did most of it herself; I was impressed that she didn't get bored sooner.  They seem to enjoy crafty things or they could just be humouring their mad old mum.  I'm not sure I mind either way.

I do recommend Badger and Earl by the way.  It's very lovely indeed, and as I've said before, only a bus ride from my house.  The bus ride feels a lot longer when you have two children sing all 50 verses of "The Wheels on the Bus" next to you, and I apologise to all the other passengers on the E3.

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”

It's somehow still the Easter holidays, and I'm desperately hunting around for things to fill the girls' days given that we only booked one week of tennis for Lucy, and there's only so much CBeebies I can stand.  We've still got swimming in the afternoons; Lucy's now in Stage 3, but won't be for long, and my little baby seal Hattie loves sploshing around chasing monsters in the baby pool; she needs lessons because she won't listen to me, and I don't want to have the swimming argument with her.

So today we went into Central London to look at Shaun the Sheep statues.  The film came out a while ago; we haven't seen it yet, but it looks pretty good; the statues are pretty fabulous too, and we have now found 12.  It's the usual thing -  statues decorated by artists and celebrities and sponsored by companies; there was a Paddington one a few months back; what a rubbish idea having a trail walking around London outside, in the middle of winter.  

Anyway, we did the 12 from one of the trails on the app map, and took a daft picture at each stop.  The girls walked over 7km today, and then swam, and then went on their bikes, so it's little wonder that there were lots of tears before bedtime.  We're trying to get Lucy to ride a bike by herself; this is not working very well.  Hattie, with a lot of stick-with-it-ness, is happily pedalling away on her bike with stabilisers; we had a few shouts of resistance to begin with and a lot of frantic pedalling backwards with super steering into the grass.  

Happy days.

When I was your age, television was called books.

Everything keeps getting in the WAY of blogging.  Whether it's cooking, or looking after the children, or working, or not writing my essay, the blog has taken a bit of a back seat recently.  Which doesn't mean that I don't want to write anything, just no TIME to do it, and when I have time, I don't have the energy.  

Anyway, there's quite a lot of knitting going on, and sewing, and even running.  Not much running, and not very fast, but at least it's happening.  

• Nicholas' POP blanket - lots of change here, I've made 2/5 red circles, 2/5 orange circles, 2/5 yellow circles, 3/5 green circles, 2/5 blue circles and 5/5 purple circles.  AND I've SEWN 12 of them together, which is brilliant.  It properly needs a good block though, but here is a poor quality in progress photo.  I've got another month to finish the knitting, sew it together, reblock it, line it and give it a border.  Hurrah.  16 out of 30 isn't bad, but it's not great.

• Lucy Attic24 Ripple Blanket - 38/57 rows done.  Lucy loves this.  I'm tempted to call it done, but I don't think it's quite long enough, and it does need a border.  It's quite wide and not very long; she says it covers her, but I'm not so sure.

• Hexipuff Quilt - It's still 172/250; I'm going to put it in the car for our next long trip.

• Wisteria jumper -  Still the same.  I am not going to start anything new until this is DONE.

• Burton Bear Cowl for Hattie. Brown wool found again.  Hattie isn't showing any particular desire for a cowl, so I will put this on the back burner.  Plus, it's technically SPRING now.

• The Weather in the Streets 

Woohoo!  There is progress with the blanket.  There are now 98 squares to finish.  ONLY 98 LEFT TO GO.  It still looks the same, but it is bloody MASSIVE.

• Yellow squares - 109/143 done - 34 to go
• Blue squares - 56/72 done - 16 to go
• Grey squares - 69/102 - 33 to go
• Turquoise squares - 2/11 done
• Orange squares - ALL DONE
• Pink square - DONE
• Purple squares - DONE
• Red squares - 7/10 done
• Dark Green squares - DONE
• Pale Blue square - DONE
• Pale Yellow square - DONE
• Dark Blue square - DONE
• Pinky-Red squares - 7/10 done

• Hattie's 4th birthday blanket.  6/36 Rainbow Granny Squares done.

• Owl Obsession for one of my godsons - it's for his second birthday.  His birthday is in SEPTEMBER PEOPLE.  I started this.  I used the wrong yarn, but the pattern is pretty clear, until you get to the ears, at which point it becomes obtuse, so more thinking needed.  
• Peacock Mitten - I'm almost a quarter of the way through the second mitten.  
• Coraline cardigan - I've wound the wool for this, but I need to finish the Wisteria jumper first.
• Petrie top - too cold to think about spring weight tops.  
• Knitted Coco -see above.
• Socks for me - I have no suitable sock wool that I like.
• Rainbow jumper - still depressed about losing jumper 1, and in mourning.  
• A Little Birds jumper with no steeks - still planning.  I need to sort the stash to see what I've got of this.  I might even need to sort out whether I've got the wool.  I think I bought some, but I don't remember.  How awful.  
• Reknit an unwearably large jumper for Simon - Oh Lord, I keep putting this off.

Done:

Myrna Cardigan
Hattie's cardigan.
A pair of simple socks for the children
Garter Yoke Cardigan
An Owlet for Lucy
Lucy's Cowl
Hattie's Cowl
A Burton Bear Cowl for Lucy
Simon's socks
Boreal
A tiny jumper for Nicholas
Sparkly Owlet for Hattie
Ringo mittens
Aiken
Striped jumper for Lucy

ALL THE KNITTING ALL THE TIME WITH ALL THE CAPS LOCK STUCK ON.

The dinosaurs died so that chat rooms may flourish

Well Happy St Pancake's Day to you, and I hope you are full of sugar, lemon and golden syrup, in preparation for 40 days of reflection and vainly attempting to give up something you really, really enjoy.  I'm going for chocolate this year, so am eating all the stuff in the house tonight.  Well, I ran for 4.8k today as part of my half marathon training, so it's ok.  Surely.

It's half term, the best time of the year, and I'm looking after my own children and trying not to go completely ga-ga in the process.  Yesterday was all about the swimming and the screaming tantrums (everyone, unfortunately), and today was all about dinosaurs and buses around Central London.

Have some pictures of, in no particular order, the way home, dinosaurs both real and animatronic, the blue whale, Chinatown decked out for Chinese New Year and a dog dressed as a lion that amused us for a bit over lunch.  Picture taken from Twitter; I think it is brilliant.

A grand day out, all in all.  We're members of the NHM, which means that we don't have to queue - we got there just before 10 and were ushered in like the royalty we are.  Most satisfying.  Costs a bit, but it is worth it, plus I can ignore with immunity all the "please give us money" signs.

I made a Coco yesterday, but it's not finished, so expect more on Thursday.  Along with more KNITCHAT.  Bet you can't wait.