Snowmaggedon

My welly boot print.

There's been a bit of snow in the UK this week, which means that people have slightly lost their minds.  It happens every year.  Somehow we don't seem to be a country that's prepared for snow - even though it arrives most years. 

Our gate 

After a couple of days of icing-sugar type dandruff - today it actually settled.  (As far as I'm aware, it's still there now; it's too  dark to go and check).  I went into the garden to take some photos, just because I could.

Trains have been slightly disrupted.  At least one train company stopped trains early last night, in expectation of snow - which then didn't materialise.  I believe they apologised to commuters today. 

 

The one thing about snow, is the way it deadened all the sounds around.  Our garden is only small, and surrounded by other gardens - but it was so quiet this afternoon. 

And the sky was so blue......

Leaves coming through the snow is the best definition of optimism I can think of

Possibly daffodils

The overgrown ivy 

Mr Knitty set off early this morning in a taxi, expecting to have problems.  He didn't.  There were extra people on the rota as 'snow cover' - but everybody who was expected, turned up. 

Our little toolshed.  All the picture needs is a robin! 

Mr Knitty and I are off to the theatre tomorrow.  The last time I went to this particular theatre was in the middle of summer - and it was sweltering.  I'm not sure if I'll need extra layers tomorrow - or if we're going to have problems with the buses. 

The one thing I do know - it's times like this, that I'm glad to be a knitter! 

Flying out on Friday

I'm flying out on holiday on Friday and have an overwhelmingly long to-do list.  So, of course the most important thing to be doing is writing blog entries!  

The multi-coloured fraternal socks are finished, and I had a happy yarn accident, courtesy of Phileas Yarns (with a 10% discount, it would be rude not to).  I went for the yarn/colourways of: Explorer - Reynisfjara, Rambler - Hot Dog in Coney Island and Rambler - Bac Ha.  There were at least three others I wanted, but I was being restrained.  There will be photos...

Pattern - Time Traveller Socks by Liz Sedmak
Yarn - King Cole 50 50 (discontinued)

I did try to make sure that both socks were started at the same point of the colour patterning, but somehow it didn't work as expected.  I guess that's part of the fun of knitting; seeing how it all turns out.  I also did a garter stitch gusset for a bit of variety. 

The toe-up Hermione's are going better than expected.  I was going to wait until after holidays to make them, but what the heck.

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson
Hermione's Every Day Socks - yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson is the book I borrowed last week - and it seemed the perfect book to start reading over Pride weekend.  I don't always like the style of writing, but I agree with the points that she's making - so am sticking with it.

 Look at the waffle-y lusciousness of these socks:

Just look!

I love them - and I cannot wait to knit another pair (or several) after coming back from holidays.  I think I've worked out how to do the waffle pattern on the toes as well.

Yesterday, we went to a barbeque, held at a colleague's house, the other side of London and then some.  (Hertfordshire, to be exact).  That meant train journeys, which meant knitting time.  I decided to take the blue and red socks, on which I'd turned the heel too early.  Sock one has been sorted and knitted up to the point that I can do the gusset increase - but hadn't quite steeled myself up to sort out sock two - until yesterday.  On the down side, it's fiddly sorting out mistakes on socks.  On the plus side, I could get rid of this:

Remember - mistakes remind you that it's hand knit by a human.

I have no idea how it got there, and I had begrudgingly accepted it was there.  However, the perfectionist in me is pleased to get rid of it.

I put a lifeline in, trying to catch every stitch:

 and then pulled the needles out and ripped.  It's only on doing that, I found the two stitches that I hadn't caught on the lifeline.  Such is.

Counting stitches on the Thameslink platform at St Pancras railway station holds no fear for me.

59 stitches.  No, 61 stitches.  What ?

So - 59 stitches. Does that include the dropped stitches or not? 

No photos of the party - I was too busy having fun.  I knew a grand total of three people at the beginning of the party, and several more by the end.  We discussed French politics, built a fire and toasted marshmallows.  I also found out that one of my consultants is also a knitter.  We've already bonded over sharing a name and now this!  She's only been in our department five days and I already like her.

Do you have a summer holiday planned?  What's on your to-do list, and what have you been knitting? 

I Do Love Me a Good Rainbow

On Friday night, I met friends for dinner - after being reminded by a colleague to actually go home at some point.  Everything you read about unrealistic expectations in the NHS are true.  I can't do all the stuff I'm expected to do and leave work on time every day; it's as simple as that.  

Jane, K, L and I will meet up every so often for a catch up, and putting the world to rights.  We had to grab K before she disappeared down the Proms rabbit hole.  She sings in several choirs and is a season ticket holder; it's how she met her husband.  I've been to three last nights (one in the seated area, two in the arena - of which one was on the grid.  Trust me, it's a big thing to be on the grid).  Annoyingly, the proms I really want to see are in Iceland, so no idea if I'll get to the last night this year. 

So, we chatted about all sorts: work expectations, Proms, holiday plans, IVF, running, knitting, cherry coloured velvet.  As usual, there was the usual swapping of stuff; I got Guide badges, turkish delight and the loan of a book.  Whilst we were eating, we had the amusement of watching the staff blowing up balloons and trying to work out where to hang them - all in rainbow colours for Pride.  It was only as we were planning on leaving that we realised, as four Brownie leaders, we would be brilliantly placed to help, but it was far too amusing to watch.  Although, it did bother me that the red balloons were in the wrong place:

Within Guiding, I am known to my Brownies as Rainbow Owl.  I love the colours of the rainbow - so totally loved walking down Oxford Street (one of Europe's busiest shopping streets) and seeing all the rainbows.

Please forgive the photo quality; the camera on my phone isn't great - and the light levels were dropping. 

Liberty's of London displaying their rainbow flag

Tea!  (I've walked past this shop so many times - still haven't been in).

 

With a pun my dad would have been proud of:

I loved this shop, whose rainbow coloured display was allowed to spill out on to the pavement: 

Rainbow coloured pavement! 

Even the bus stops wanted to get in on the act:

As I've nearly finished my current pair of socks, it's time to cast on another one.  (I'm attempting the Yarngasm Box O Socks challenge - so far at two pairs of socks, out of twelve.  I need to get the needles going.

The next pair is going to be my version of Hermione's Everyday Socks (blog entry with pattern here and Ravelry link with downloadable PDF here) but toe up.  I've not got the courage to knit a cuff down after my first attempts; I'm happy with what I know.  It would seem that at least one person has already had the same idea - so I won't have to re-invent the wheel.  After her attempts to improve the rights of elves I think she would be an ally of the LGBTQ cause, so of course rainbow coloured yarn would be entirely appropriate.  But which yarn to use?

• Top row: Austermann Step: Ennis,  Esslinger Wolle: Regenbogen-bunt; Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Feuervogel

• Middle row: West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4 ply: Rum Paradise -   Regia 4 Ply - Clown (discontinued); Opal - Funny Sparkle: Witty

• Bottom row: Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Over the Rainbow; Opal Schafpate VIII: Blickfang; Zauberball: Frische Fische

• Far right: Owl About Yarn: Rainbow

What's your next project to cast on? 

Lets Talk About Socks, Baby

The sock knitting continues.

I finished the pair for Mr Knitty.  They are a bit big, but they were made, and received, with love.  He has a higher internal temperature than I do, so wanted to wait until the weather was a bit cooler, before he wore them.  Yesterday was their maiden voyage.  He showed them to a couple of people, but told me that neither of the people he really thought would appreciate them were working that shift.

Me: Why do you think they would particularly appreciate them?
Him: Well, they've both mentioned yarn...

Regia Pairfect - Granite colourway

I knit them using the Time Traveler Socks pattern by Liz Sedmak.  As a relatively new sock knitter, this is my current go-to pattern.  This was the first time that I'd used the Regia Pairfect yarn.  For those who don't know, the yarn is provided as two separate, matching sections, divided by a length of yellow yarn.  The idea being that you can knit two socks which are guaranteed to match.  Youtube has a couple of videos which explain.  The German one is here and a Scandinavian one (I'd guess Danish) is here.

Instep of the birthday socks

The yarn is set up to knit cuff down.  As I knit my socks toe-up and knit both socks separately and at the same time, I had to prep the yarn first by unwinding it and re-winding it in the opposite direction and getting rid of the yellow yarn between the two balls.  I've heard criticism that there's not really enough of the main yarn, due to an excess yellow yarn.  As Mr Knitty doesn't like long legs on his socks, I did have yarn left over - so can't comment either way on this one. 

He didn't get them on his birthday, which wasn't a problem.  Of course, I had it in mind that he'd worked out that I was knitting him socks (although he denied it when asked).  So, one morning when he was up earlier than expected I said (without thinking) "normally this is the time that I'd be knitting your socks".  Oops.  Cat well and truly out of the bag. 

The advantage of that, is that I could take it with us when we went out for dinner to celebrate, at a local Chinese restaurant.  Apparently knitting and tea just have to go together - and who am I to argue? 

The rules of tea and knitting still apply when going out for dinner

Once completed, we were able to do an assessment on what worked and what didn't.  The pattern is available with either a 60 stitch or a 64 stitch width, and has a ribbed pattern.  We worked out that a better fit for Mr Knitty would either be 60 stitches with ribbing, or 64 without.  

64 stitches plus ribbing is a bit too comfortable

But they're finished and all properly woven in and have been broken in - so it all counts as a knitting win. 

Why yes, my husband was happy to pose in his socks on the doorstep.  When I say 'happy', I probably mean bemused.  He's known me long enough to be used to my quirks.  No face, but please may I draw your attention to the hairy legs; he was very keen that they should be included.  

What has your knitting week brought you, quirky or otherwise? 

The Elk Under the Sofa

I've just dropped a whole load of loom bands on the floor, and in clearing them up - found an elk under the sofa.  He's a Christmas decoration that I bought in Stockholm last August.  I have no idea how he ended up under the sofa, instead of on the tree - but we can rectify that in December.

Since last posting, we've not had any more major terrorist attacks (yay!) but we have had a General Election (boo!).  The Prime Minister wanted a strong mandate to carry on with negotiations to leave the EU.  She ended up with a reduced minority and a hung parliament.  At the moment of writing, she is still leader of the party, has just 'reshuffled' her cabinet and is going into partnership with the DUP to get a majority.  Many people, quite rightly, are expressing concern about the government now no longer having neutrality in the power sharing talks in Northern Ireland and as a result risk totally destroying the Good Friday Agreement.

But back to the loom bands. 

The loom bands were to help match up a batch of knitting needles that I've been bequeathed.  At my grandmother's memorial earlier this year, I was given unused yarn and needles from my uncle's mother, so not a direct blood relative.

Yesterday was only the single point needles; the box of DPNs will have to wait until a later date.

All together, I ended up with 36 marriages (of which three weren't true pairings, but they were the same size and length and basically looked good together) and 42 orphans.  As one of my friends said: "Knitting needles breed, but are lousy parents".

I'm knitting a secret thing for Mr Knitty's birthday, which is later this month.  He's probably worked out what it is, but is pretending not to.  I want to keep it a secret, so can only knit when he's not around.  Graciously, he's said that he's happy to wait if needed.  

Yesterday, we went for a walk in a local park and saw the birds, and a fallen down tree.  

Love where you live - the walk yesterday afternoon

As I was taking this photo - a small dog decided to take a poo at my feet 

There was something about the inside of the tree branch which seemed so fresh and meaty; I ended up taking loads of photos, all of which were pretty much the same. 

Odd that I should describe this as meaty, given that I'm a vegetarian 

Today was all about the knitting of the socks.  This pair started off so well.  Sock one had the foot done in pretty much one evening.  Sock two came with me to Gilwell Park (the headquarters of The Scouts and that's where things started to go wrong.  I was using Drops basic needles, as a friend of mine said that they were cheap, but long lasting.  This is the second pair of socks I've knit with these needles, and something happened to the join between the cable and the needle, to the extent I couldn't get the yarn past it, without it badly fraying - so I had to cut the cable. 

Yarn is King Cole 50:50 (discontinued) in colourway Jubilee 

Then I had a mare turning the heel of the first sock - all now sorted.  I'm at the heel turning point on both socks, but it's not going to happen tonight.  Pattern is Time Traveller by Liz Sedmak (Ravelry link)  Free pattern with an easy heel.  What's not to love? 

So what have you been knitting this weekend?  Has it all gone to plan?  

(Just checked.  Theresa May is still PM)