New office is having its teething troubles - I'm down one large format plotter (damaged in the move, possible static shock?), one guillotine (I suspect when it took a chunk out of my thumbnail it was the final straw for both of us - it's 16 years old!), and one CAD monitor. On the plus side? Er... nothing, really. The carpark is in full sun all day now (no shade). The new offices look swanky, I suppose. You can walk around a manicured lake and there's deckchairs and a WHSmiths and a little cafe and a bar. But other than that, it's same old same old. We only get 30 mins for lunch, and the cafe etc are at least a half mile walk, so I haven't been in yet. Oh, for an actual dinner hour! Oh, to be back in the old office - I knew where everything was, I had a proper print room (ie not shared with a kitchen) and the car didn't try to steam me alive at hometime.
But I digress. It's hotter than Greece at the moment (or so it feels), so slaving away at a knitting machine is not top priority at the moment. I'd much rather be stretched out in the back garden. Having said that, the second sock is on the foot and racing towards the toe, and I've started another passap baby blanket in a pretty blue yarn with neon slubs (another "ooh! pretty!" yarn I picked up that I could never think of a use for). It has some mistakes again - I suspect rogue back bed pushers - but not as many as the last one. The locks are quite hard to push (the pattern is AX/N with back bed pushers in a 1x1 arrangement) and despite liberal doses of oil on the back bed it's still hard work, so possibly my definition of 3ply doesn't tally with the pattern authors (it's from the Metbury bitty book).
The black and white Passap jacket is all done, bar the bands. I unpicked them Monday night, because FNR in 3ply is just too floppy. That night, I popped into a machine knitting club, the U-Knit club, which meets in Allesley Village. I was quite excited when I discovered them initially, because I've been running an informal club at a friend's in Tile Hill, but we can only meet on certain Saturdays when she's at home. I grew up in Allesley Park and it's an easy jaunt on the way home from work. Alas, (and I was warned beforehand by the leader) the days of machine knitting at U-knit are long gone. They were hand-sewing a case for sewing scissors, although they mostly nattered. The room they were in was too small for a knitting machine, and although I think they do have two on the premises, it sounded as if they didn't have a ribber and didn't really want to get them out. Such a shame when there's a revived interest in machine knitting. U-knit was a big club and started 38 years ago - now I think, alas, that their name is a bit misleading, because the only one doing any knitting was me! They were lovely ladies, and very interesting to talk to, but I don't really have time to spare just sitting and nattering of a Monday night when I want to machine knit and I have other things I should be doing (eg housework). They didn't seem too interested in anything I might be doing now or in the future. If I ever decide I want to learn to sew something, then perhaps I'll have a rethink - but to be honest, it would be more involved eg dressmaking. Shame.
Current mood:
hot
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