The murk descends...

...yes, Europe is having a heatwave, and guess what? We get fog. It's like living under a thick blanket, feels somewhat suffocating.

Slow progress lately. Managed to twist my knee at the weekend, so have been lazing about in front of the tv instead of machine knitting. Whenever I think I've a free weekend coming up, something always comes up. It was the annual Long Buckby Knit and Natter day on Saturday, so I demonstrated tunisian crochet, managed to pick up a few spares for the Passap. Sunday himself wanted to go into Birmingham to buy a dress shirt. Clothes shopping with the Cog is always a nightmare - he has a thick neck or small chest for the "standard" size shirts, so it usually means lots of trying on and scowling and nothing purchased. Of course, the menswear departments are nearly always upstairs. Cue much inner cursing as I lurched up and down them with the sore knee. As luck would have it, Next had the best fit, but not his size, so we ended up nipping to the Fort shopping centre branch and picked one straight off the shelf. Ironically we do have an out-of-town branch in Rugby, but asides from the Burtons and the tiny M&S there aren't any menswear shops in town.

Made some charity hats to use up some (non-stash, part of last year's estate sale) yarn. Had thought I might give them to a local event, but as it is, there won't be enough hats for a decent donation, so I will probably hang onto them until there are a few more and send them to BISS instead. Have knitted the fronts and one sleeve for a tuck stitch cardigan, and then realised that I should have double-lengthened the tuck stitch pattern. Oh well, never mind. Just hoping there's enough yarn for the final sleeve and the bands, otherwise it'll be a disaster.

Finished up the rose/pink DK socks, haven't tried them on yet. Last night I cast on for an unusual project - a parrot-head for an umbrella. A work colleague is going to a fancy dress party as Mary Poppins. I hope my parrot comes out ok (he needs a beak) and doesn't end up looking like a vulture...

Electrically it wasn't a good weekend. Finally got around to testing the passap foot pedal, and it causes the machine to have some sort of fit, so I need to return it. I managed to blow up my Hague yarn winder and fuse the sockets. It needs to go into a box and be returned for a repair, but as I'm brassic until the end of the month (big HP payment on the car this month, plus a short holiday) it will have to wait until November. As my first eye op is on the 2nd, it might have to wait until I can see again! :/