Not waving, only drowning

Yes, it's been pretty quiet on the crafting front chez Needles of Steel lately. There's just been too much going on to do much knitting (and forget about machine knitting - that needs a few hours run up!). We're decorating the living room and this also meant painting the ceiling, as someone who shall remain nameless (ie not me!) let the bath run over a few years ago and there was water damage to the ceiling. We spent the bank holiday weekend painting the walls, unfortunately we had to do this around the sofa/armchair and coffee table as the charity (who shall also remain nameless) we'd arranged to take the big stuff away didn't seem to realise that the doorbell was on the fritz and didn't bother to knock on the front door on Friday as arranged. One wonders about the intelligence of people sometimes (they also had our telephone number)! The furniture is now gone so we've deckchairs to sit on. The "feature" wall is now burgundy, three coats over the magnolia and I'm still not entirely happy with it. There have also been some casualties - the dining room lights no longer work, and a large mirror dropped off the wall, bounced off the fireplace and telly, and smashed (nobody was anywhere near it at the time, which was lucky, because it could have been a lot more serious!). The room looks empty and uncluttered now - until you turn around and discover all the things are at the dining room end (can't currently get to the table). The carpet looks like it came from a crime scene - luckily it's going on Saturday. The new sofa arrives at the end of September.

Last weekend we had a family wedding to go to, it was one of my cousins. It went off ok despite the weather being rather chilly. The food was good but the evening buffet was a bit of a cheese fest and gave me indigestion. The Cog hated it I suspect - he only knows one of my cousins and my Mum, plus I think it was the start of the football season? We had planned to leave earlier but such events are rare so it was nice to catch up with a few folks.

Work has also been pretty flat out, I tend to pick up the extra CAD work during the summer months as the Dutch take looooong holidays. They're bringing in a new software that runs on top of the CAD which makes my job take ten times as long, removes the creativity and offers no benefits whatsoever. I can't sleep for being quietly furious about the whole thing and sleep was wrecked tail end of last week doing the training over there (I never sleep well in strange places). The programmers were lovely but they don't know how I do my job, or how to use CAD. Yes, I really did start this post at 5.30am!

So, any knitting? Well, I'm still hacking away on the bias knit bag in sari silk but it's heavy going on both my hands and the needles. I have mislaid a 2.5mm DPN so can't finish the socks - all they need is a bit of 1x1 ribbing. Everything else is on hold and is packed away somewhere. I did manage to make an entry for this year's Dream Week competition, but it's not up to much, and my grand plans to knit an amazing fairisle cardigan to show off have come to naught. In fact, the last time I touched a flat bed knitting machine was probably at Fibre East! Yikes!

Still, Dream Week next week. Must focus on the positives. I can forget about other stuff for a few days, and think about knitting all week! Hurrah!