Awake forever and whirlwind northern holidays...

I had no idea it'd been such a long time since I'd posted. Last month we had a major deadline at work, which got pretty stressful by the end. I had some minor IT issues on the work's PC - W10 forgetting who I was, lost me 5 hours because the first IT guy tried to back up my C: to my C: , why yes, it DID run out of space! - then having to install the RAM myself on a new PC - pretty sure we're not insured for that sort of thing. Lots of minor things, which I would normally laugh off, get taken way too personally by me and keep me awake at night. This is my first time doing GMT on the epilepsy meds, and apparently they can cause insomnia (which is always a problem for me at this time of the year ANYWAY). Ironically, stress and insomnia make seizures more likely. Couple all that with the DVLA taking 13 weeks to send me the updated version of the form I sent them in August - I ended up taking advice from a lovely lady at an epilepsy charity because my brain was so shot I couldn't tell the difference between surrender and revocation; handy tip - the latter isn't voluntary! So I am now officially without wheels - I know technically this was old news, but it still stung a bit, it now being  official. Passing my driving test is up there with getting my current job and getting my degree for me.  

The Cog booked us a lovely week away - two days retail therapy in Leeds, two days in a posh spa hotel that we could have happily stayed in longer, were it not for our burgeoning bill, and two days in a more basic hotel on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales / Forest of Bowland (but it was a suite! My first ever!). I caught up with a much-missed work colleague in Leeds  - I believe I may have talked her head off, whoops - and it snowed, which is only romantic when you don't have to drive anywhere, and we didn't, so hooray! We celebrated G's birthday at the expensive hotel and both got massages - one of the barmen grew up in Coventry, madness! We had a nice lunch in Skipton en route to the last hotel, not visited since I was a teenager, when my dad's poor car broke down, leading to a very scary 12mph drive back into town and a day locked in the apartment with my younger sister, whilst my parents spent the day clambering over scrapyards trying to get a replacement part, which rather ate into the rest of our holiday money. He had an Austin A40 and had tinkered with it, and something to do with the fan belt sheered off I think. Poor dad - always the frustrated mechanic - found a garage that could repair it, but the car was so old that Dad had to go find a compatible part! We had a lovely pit stop in Morecombe (soo cold it tried to sand our faces off!) and did the obligatory posing in front of Eric Morecombe's statue, before a gentle drive back through the dales, and a lovely hot soup lunch at a tiny pub in Sedbergh. I saw so many places I would like to revisit at leisure - yes I know flights and hotels in Europe are much cheaper and the weather is nicer, but there are some real jewels in England too! We usually go away for G's birthday, but the whole LFT/PCR testing thing seemed to be a lot of trouble - just obtaining some LFT tests this weekend was a PITA, no wonder people aren't bothering! We have been making ourselves laugh, randomly yelling catchphrases from the Fast Show and we really reconnected last week, so it was worth it just for that. Strange that we have both WFH for 21 months yet need to go away to reconnect, isn't it?! :) 

It was a lovely week, but my sleep schedule hasn't been very regular - I defy anyone to have less than one alcoholic drink per day (with the evening meal) on holiday - so I am back but quite tired! On the plus side, we got quite a lot of our xmas shopping finished up last week. I only have a few more things to make / buy and I'm done! Ironically I took three or four craft projects with me, and didn't open the bag all week. There has been a bit of sewing going on, but some of it is for xmas so I can't show it here. 

Anyway, I won't bore you further! G is very kindly sleeping on the sofa for a few nights so I can get back into the swing of things, and I am feeling quite a bit better than before I went away, so that's something I guess! I tried to log in on the work's PC before we went away, just to check some insurance details - Storm Arwen had blown around the house all night and freaked me out enough to get "laid up" insurance on the car - but Windows 10 had forgotten who I was again. That's Monday's problem, anyway. Ha! New laptop, new bugs! 

I hope, if you made it this far, that you are safe and well and hunkering down for the indoors season. Stay safe and well! 

Current mood: exhausted

Nec show and Wroclaw trip

Well, I had a delightful weekend. Friday I was helping out on the Guild of Machine Knitter's stand - we were well-staffed, though, so it afforded ample opportunity to browse the lovely stands. There seemed (to my mind) to be more fabric stalls than last year, and only 3-4 yarn stands (Toft, Black Sheep Wools, Neil the Knit and Stash Fine Yarns). I succumbed to two lengths of some gorgeous fabric from Lintons, and three Kwiksew patterns, and a pack of Noro yarn (it's not Kureyon for once, this one has silk). And then, my main purpose - to buy a new overlocker. I settled on a reasonably priced Juki and am excitedly waiting its delivery. Only disappointment - no exhibitor's lounge area this year despite there apparently being a bar space available in the "crapbooking" hall...





Friday night I joined some work colleagues on a short break to Wroclaw (Poland) - we were delayed getting out due to snow at the Polish end so it was 2am before we dropped into bed - very swanky executive apartment with three double rooms. I had my own (snow-covered) balcony - not sure if all that snow fell at once, but it didn't thaw all weekend as it was the wrong side of the building to get much sun. We spent a cold morning dwarf-hunting and trying out pirogie, cocktails and cake, then made a trip to a supermarket to stock up on nibbles for tea. Two of us went to a nightclub, I decided to stay in and natter with A and we went to bed around half 11 - K and L didn't roll in 'til 4am apparently! Which wasn't a problem, except that I awoke around 5am - yeah, my bodyclock doesn't care WHERE I am or WHAT day it is! By 11 I'd gotten itchy feet, so struck out to find more dwarves alone. Of course, didn't clock that no data/wifi meant no GPS and I got a bit lost - we'd taken the tram back the day before (it was only one stop) so I wasn't entirely sure of the way back on foot. Sunday night we visited K's relatives - three families on three floors in one house (sounds snug but it was a good size house) and then went straight to bed by the time we got home. All the food and chatter (most in Polish) was a bit much for my poor ears which gave up around 9pm.

Monday we managed to book ourselves manicures / beauty treatments and wandered over to find the cat cafe - not bad except for when two of the cats got a bit agressive with each other. A quick climb up to the Penitent's Bridge - one of the churches has two towers with a bridge between them and back for shellac - got a cut cuticle which is still a bit sore - then a late lunch, Polish donuts, and back to the airport. Liking the purple sparkly nails but the sore finger, not so much! Well, I think I have ugly hands anyway... :)








Current mood: enthralled

Brugge again - a birthday treat!

Not much knitting to report, I'm afraid - I only managed two rounds of the cabled sock, and I didn't take the crochet as, being a blanket, it's too bulky to take on holiday when one is on foot!

Had some fun taking some pics anyway - lots of lovely sunshine, good food, good beer and my sweetheart as excellent company. Best birthday present ever! :)

Holiday

No craft, not even of any kind, to report folks, hence the radio silence. The Cog and I took our weary selves to Lake Como in Italy for a week, with a boat trip to Bellagio, a drive to Lecco and Locarno, a train trip to Milan on the only day it rained (and Milan was not very interesting, although perhaps with a map and/or a decent GPS signal we'd've done better). Lots of good food, sunny weather, excellent conversation, walking, reading, good coffee. Shock to the system to come home from temps in the low 30s to the high teens back in the UK (and as we flew home Monday, straight back to work, too!). Hotel was fine, only 5 mins walk into town and an excellent buffet breakfast featuring 5 different kinds of cake every day (amongst other things). Only thing I missed out on was taking a dip somewhere. Maybe if we go again we'll try and rent a villa with a pool.


Como


Bellagio

I'm not going to bore anyone with more holiday snaps, the rest are here if you are curious. Now I'm back I need to knit a secret item for the upcoming dream week with a challenging boucle yarn, and try and find time (and mojo) to knit something for the ongoing Ravellenic games. The naughty child in me wants to sew some shorts, even though the holiday they were intended for has already passed. There's no accounting for children, eh?! :)

Current mood: enthralled

Sewing "porn"

Yeah, it's dangerous to go on Amazon. Look what I ordered:



Gutermann book of thread and a selection of sewing feet. Thanks to my wonderful friend M, who gifted me a low shank adaptor, all these feet will fit my Husqvarna Rose sewing machine. And yes, the description of each foot is on the back of the box in both English and Chinese, so all I need to do is haunt Youtube to figure out how they work!

Last night I cut out the plaid skirt again - this time I'm fairly hopeful I matched the plaid, at least vertically - and I went down from a size 22 to a size 18. Might have to taper the waistband in a bit - we shall see. It's got belt loops so hopefully it'll fit better.

There hasn't been much crafting to report, because this was what we were up to over the Late Spring Bank weekend:



And like a fool, I forgot to take my DSLR camera, so this is courtesy of my smartphone:



Stepping stones at Dovedale. Yes, we went camping at Callow Top in Ashbourne - an excellent campsite with pub, cafe, pool and shop. A 20 minute walk into Ashbourne (via the Tissington trail, a disused railway line converted into a path for walkers and cyclists). We actually had quite a bit of sun and no rain at all which is very lucky in the UK. I could have got sunburn, except we lathered up on the factor 50. A lovely part of the country, and definitely worth another visit - and it's only 90 minutes from home.

It's been grey, wet and miserable since we got home though!

Current mood: excited - I wanna go home and play with my feet! Ha! :)

OT: Iceland

We had a little trip to Reyjavik - tiny, cold, lovely food - but very expensive to eat out! I resisted buying any yarn although it was lovely. I'm supposedly working through stash but more stuff keeps arriving because, ooh, shiny! (see next post) :S We saw a few museums, and some of the tourist sites, but not the Northern Lights - they kept themselves to themselves all week :)

The Iceland Handknitting Association has a high-street shop packed with lovely knitwear though - beautiful lacy scarves for £43 (ish) and traditional yoked sweaters for £150 (ish). I didn't buy - it was tempting but I don't wear jumpers much as it is (yes, ironic seeing how many I own!) as the office is kept at around 24 degrees (!). It was nice to see that handknitting had a high-street presence there, anyway.

Surprised to see restaurants serving whale, horse and puffin. I guess it takes all sorts (and no, I didn't try any of those!).


Blue Lagoon spa


Thingvellir national park


Gullfoss falls


Geysir

More photos here

Current mood: happy

St Malo

Didn't take many pics this time, think the Cog has more:



St Laurent sur Mer, aka Omaha beach



St Malo harbour at sunset

I seem to have twisted my left knee somehow at the start of last week. After a gym workout last night it finally seems to be on the mend. Which is good, because it's impossible to straighten my legs fully whilst driving! It's also made sitting on the knee chair quite uncomfortable.

Holiday time

Haven't posted here in a bit, but for a very good reason - we've had two weeks on holiday, one in Newquay and one in Sorrento, with a quick dive back for clean clothes in the middle. 

Newquay was great, we had pretty good weather all week and ate very well. Only downside was the world's smallest room. That and the 7 hour drive to get there (Google reckons it's 4, but Google doesn't have to actually DO it). 


View of beach at Padstow. There would have been more pictures in Newquay, but the camera lens got jammed open and it wasn't until a few hard slaps that I got it working again. 

We had two parties to go to in the middle, a 50th birthday for sunday lunch and a wedding party in the evening.

The following week we were in sunny Italy, which hit 35 degrees C on one of the days. Sorrento had a lovely bit of old town to wander about, crammed full of good restaurants and shops. Had an interesting wander around Pompeii and made a trip to a thermal spa in Ischia, plus did a trip to Capri - despite the flowery brochure-speak, full of designer shops mostly - can't figure WHO would want a fur coat in the summer, nor a 9000 euro handbag. Only major downside of Sorrento - hardly any ATMs (and the ones I found, rarely functional) in a place where they seem to favour cash. You also take your life in your hands crossing the roads, because mopeds stop for nobody, zebra crossings not withstanding...


View over Marina Grande, Sorrento

Despite all that, I did get time to do a few things: 


CSM socks in Colinette Jitterbug - these were a quick knit for a relative's birthday. She was very pleased with them.


Mille Fiori bracelet. These beads were in amongst our toys for years, I've no idea where they came from but they are a very specific design from Venice (1920s-30s?) They've been loose for ages, so I finally decided I'd make them into something useful. Each bead is different. Apparently the original bracelet had small red seed beads between the larger ones.

Thomas the cat was like a cat with two tails last night when we picked him up on the way back from the airport. We've never boarded him for 15 days before. Shocking queues to get through security at Birmingham airport; one wonders who schedules 4-5 holiday flights to arrive within 30 minutes of each other?!. Thomas came home without collar or meow, but seems to be getting the hang of the vocal chords again. 

Currently I'm trying to make inroads into the stash with a few hats and baby blankets. The summer heatwave seems to have finally broken - indeed, I got drenched trying to load the car up yesterday - so perhaps production will step back up a bit now. 

FO: Hands, feet and upsy-daisy

CSM handwarmers from leftovers. These are lovely and soft since I washed them.


CSM socks in Babylongleg's Rainbow Brite yarn. Haven't had chance to wear them yet as they were still wet when we left for a long weekend in Edinburgh.



A view of the "new" town, with the Christmas market in the foreground, and Waverley station on the far right. Had a lovely weekend, ate and drank too much, and my calves are aching from all the steps. Edinburgh is a very 3D city. Rock hard beds at the Novotel, alas, so lack of sleep spoilt things a little. Finally got to see part 2 of the Hunger Games films.

Accidentally posted some pics of xmas knitting here briefly, because apparently I can't tell the difference between 27/11/13 and 27/12/13. Hoping none of the recipients read my blog!

Bad luck comes in threes?

Nope, not dead. This was my view all last week. Spent most of it sunning myself on the shores of Camp De Mar in Mallorca. I have some interesting tan lines. Didn't take any knitting with me as I couldn't figure out what would be portable. Weather was fantastic - 28 degs most days, and hardly any cloud (this photo was taken quite early, it had burnt off by 11am). The only minor downside of the holiday was that the hotel entertainment was loud cabaret every night until 11.30pm - and it being on the poolside terrace, and the bay being quite small - you couldn't exactly get away from it. Even with the doors shut and the television on, you could still hear it. I'm not a great fan of staying up late getting plastered - I'm afraid I'm a lightweight and tend to fall asleep! :) Apart from that, the holiday was lovely and I've eaten far too much food!

Back to earth with a bump on Monday - cold and overcast, had to pop to Sainsers en route to buy fresh food, had to run and hide in the car when himself spotted someone I really don't want to talk to right now. The cat was secretly rather pleased to see us, although he has figured out that G's brother (the cat sitter) lives over the road so he now goes over there to beg to be let in/fed. I got a rather disgruntled 'phone call saying he seemed to have our cat and could we get him before he peed up something - Thomas loves to mark his outdoor territory!

Today I managed to leave my mobile at home (which isn't a disaster but makes me feel kinda naked and disorganised). On the way to work a large stone skipped across my windscreen and 10 seconds later it was a 10cm crack - in fact, it's only the heating element stopped it going further - so I've already spent £75 on insurance excess today. Thank goodness it's payday! Last night I tried and failed to get my new-fangled and blooming expensive SK860 to talk to the EC1 patterning device - so I have a rather elaborate doorstop for a knitting machine. I've got some things to investigate tonight when I finally do make it home around 10pm - otherwise the carriage will need to be serviced. I tried swapping magnets, swapping cables, different combinations etc - and the EC1 functions perfectly well on the SK840 so I think it might be the carriage. Weirdly enough, I DID get fairisle out of it last week - but it took me a few attempts. Remember I had difficulty getting fairisle patterning on the main body? It took me several attempts. That was the first indication that something was amiss. Apparently there are some magnets at the front of the carriage that move about and tell the electronics I've changed direction, so perhaps something is sticking. I hope so, because replacing the EC1 would be very difficult.

They say these things come in threes, and as I'm not sure the leaving mobile at home quite counts, I'm just a bit nervous as to what will come next!

Current mood: grumpy

Knitch and kvetch

I’m gradually getting my mojo back (I think). The title is because I'm a bit stroppy this week, probably post-holiday blues. Took my “new” 950i on holiday to Wales. Alas, I forgot the end rails, and I didn’t spot that the lace carriage had had its magnet snapped off along with the rest of the courier carnage. Also the instructional DVD is scratched, so a large chunk of it no longer plays.

Luckily - and this is the first time I ever thought I’d be grateful for fortnightly refuse collections - the magnet was in the wheelie bin outside when I got home, so I managed to rescue it and glue it back on. I bought a U-shaped magnet in Rhayader which will work with the addition of some sticky tape, should my repair not work.

The seller bought me a new lid – it only clamps at one end as the machine casing has been bent at the other end, but I reckon I can dig out some ribbon or string to tie around that end, should the need arise.

Wales? Wales was ok, we mostly stayed in the log cabin and I messed about with the knitting machine. Owing to a complete lack of foresight, I forgot to bring a copy of Knitware with me, so couldn’t install it on the Cog’s laptop (mine’s a mac) and calculate the dress I wanted to make. I took the knitleader, but my maths brain must have been AWOL because I couldn’t get the calculation to fit the machine bed until Friday, when it was already too late. So I started to make a sideways knitted skirt from the Mary Weaver book, but got bored with it and wasn’t sure I had enough yarn. Eventually I made a swatch testing out the various stitch settings (which is when I discovered the lace carriage damage), and then made a charity tee with some fairisle patterns. I quite fancied the sheep fairisle, but discovered that on the two rows where the background knits alone, the machine continues to do end needle selection and creates two massive floats on the back of the jumper. Ah well, it’s a learning discovery – it only happened the once, because I was wise to it afterwards.

Samples:

Slip and tuck


Fairisle



Charity tee

The weather wasn’t great all week. We travelled to the National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre through driving rain – the museum was great (it’s a working woolen mill), but most of the equipment wasn’t in use. They had a really cute animated wooden model, to show how hand-shearing is much slower than electric shears (see below). The little sheep went around in a circle. Bought a fabulous woven wool travel blanket for the car.



Of course, any trip to Mid Wales wouldn’t be complete for a knitter, without a trip to Colinette. I had a quick browse in the sales corner, but there wasn’t much on cones this time. There was quite a quantity of Colinette Lasso in discontinued colours, and I suspect the stock hadn’t really changed since my last visit in 2006. I’m surprised they don’t hawk it on their website, as they don’t open Saturdays which precludes most people shopping there unless they take time off from work.

I picked up 10 skeins of Colinette Iona, an aran weight wool with 15% kid mohair and 15% silk in the most gorgeous of colours – I picked 10 different colourways, because I couldn’t possibly decide.



All week it called to me and teased me for not bringing a skein winder and swift.

I also picked up two balls of King Cole Zig Zag sock yarn in Llandridod Wells, one ball for me, and one ball for ‘im indoors. I bet you can guess which one’s for me, right? It was nice to see the LW shop was still there, the Rhayader yarn shop has closed since my last visit.



What else did we do? Watched a lot of tv (live tv, which is a novelty in our house) – the cabin has Freesat, so tons of stations, but no Channel 5 for some reason (I fancied watching a film). It also had a DVD player, but we couldn’t get any sound from it, so we watched the first series of Quantum Leap on my laptop instead.

The Cog didn’t roll in until 8pm on the Friday before we left for Wales, so did all his packing on Saturday, and managed to forget most of his spreadsheets, a vital cable for his playstation and the book he intended to read. Luckily there was a WHSmiths in Welshpool and he stocked up on magazines.

It was nice to get away, but I missed my internet connection, my fan oven, my dishwasher, and decent not-low-energy lightbulbs. Not necessarily in that order! Couldn’t see to machine knit after dark, which is about 5pm at the moment, and didn’t roll out of bed ‘til 10am most days.

The cat was incredibly pleased to see us on our return, and promptly ran off to re-mark all his territories, before falling asleep face-down on the Cog’s laptop (he was trying to use it at the time).

To get back onto knitting content, I discovered I’d misunderstood the Rowan Kimi pattern - or perhaps it’s not written very well? I had messed up the front, and this was the second front. Luckily there is a schematic, so I figured out what it was supposed to look like, and have corrected both pieces. I am now onto the first sleeve. There are two (I think – the pattern doesn’t say “knit two pieces” ANYWHERE!) batwing-shaped pieces, and I think a long thin tie to go, and then I’m done. Which is good, because the Colinette is already re-wound into nice little balls, and is begging me to knit it, to the exclusion of everything else in my work-in-progress queue. Colinette yarn has this odd effect on me – as soon as it’s in the house I HAVE to knit it up.

It might have to wait, though – somebody’s expecting some socks!

Mostly OT: Beer, chocs and knitting....

Had a fantastic long weekend in Bruges (Belgium) - took the Eurostar to Brussels, and the ticket covers you for onward travel to any station in Belgium. It's really reasonable, too - £29.50 for London St Pancras to Brussels (one way) and just £9.50 for the Rugby to London bit.

St Pancras is a wonderful building (and you can walk to it from Euston). I'm afraid I don't remember it from before the reconstruction work, I may have gone through the tube station as a child. The Eurostar terminal is airy and light and has a fantastic roof, and all the shops are fronted with glass, so you can still see the building. Apparently there's a champagne bar on the upper level; but we were both too excited to hang around for long. I was instructed to get "food for the excited traveller" so got some tuna sarnies.

Out hotel was a pleasant 10 minute walk through the Minnewater park to the edge of the city centre. A lot of the streets are cobbled, and there are strict building and noise level codes in the city, so new buildings are built in the style of the old ones, and there are no thumping nightclubs or their attendant hen/stag parties. Even the hotel was built around an existing building - not a red brick Hotel Ibis as is common in the UK.

Alas the exchange rate is no longer in favour of us Brits, and couple that with 21% sales tax and 16% service charge, food and clothing are pretty pricey, but you do get decent amounts and the food itself was excellent. Bruges is a maze of streets with sudden appearances of squares with pavement cafes - every time you think you've seen it all, you discover another little nook and cranny. It has an amazing amount of churches with bells, so the skies are rarely silent, and it is ringed with canals - we took a trip around one on the last day. We hunted down some haunts recommended by friends and found nearly all of them. Alas, the Hobbit (all you can eat ribs and beer) was closed for holidays, and when we did find Stamine de la Garre it was shut (as was the lace museum, which was a bit of a walk). However, we checked out the Belhof (bell tower), a Salvador Dali exhibition, the cathedral and two other churches, the chocolate museum and the lamp museum (almost completely empty but very interesting from an engineering point of view). Might check out the frites museum (chips I'm guessing) - hoping their older exhibits are models and not actual potato!

We also sat around in various bars and watched the world and his horse-drawn carriage (with manure catchers - they think of everything!) go by. We found the pub featured in the Hairy Bikers, where they have a beer menu of some 300+, and bumped into some pub owners from Cambridge who suggested a few beers. I tried banana and passionfruit beers, and also Graal, which was kind of gingery. I like cold beer but my taste tends towards sweet, I often pick WKD Blue or pear cider or... well, depends on the mood. I drank a lot of Kriek - a lambic cherry beer - but I think I need to learn to pace myself because my guts complained all week. I'm used to more veggies and a lot less beer/fizz I think! Tried waterzooi, a kind of soup or thin sauce with chicken in it, and flemish stew (beef in local beer) and waffles. Brought back over 2kg of chocolate, because it is three times as cheap over there.

What else can I say? Had fantastic weather all weekend, it only rained as we headed back to the station. Killed some time in Brussels - not so keen, it's your normal noisy city with traffic jams and roadworks and faceless office blocks. The one bar we tried (only 'cause I needed to pee) wasn't very friendly and the bathroom - "Strictly Customers Only" - was rather nasty and incredibly ironic. To be fair to Brussels, nowhere looks great in the rain - we finally managed to find the main square and took a few piccies, and then decided we'd rather get out of the rain and get back to our suitcases before we got completely lost.

I would really like to go back again, someday. Bruges beats Antwerp and Brussels into a cocked hat I think. Photos here - far too many to choose from. The snapper was mostly the Cog.

Yes, I did get some knitting done, once I realised I'd gone wrong and frogged back some 30 odd rows. Don't tell me I never post any knitting content! It's acres of stocking stitch though, so nothing worth photographing.

We all had a go at beaded knitting at KnitWits last night. I didn't get time to practice last week, so it was a group effort, and kudos to Linda M for making a sample beforehand.

I'm back in the UK now for some time (unless work calls again) so I can hopefully crack on and work on some projects. The WIP list is getting too long!