Christmas knitting and reading

I'm knitting myself a Christmas hat. It's not going to be finished in time for most of the Christmas events I'm going to - I've already had my book club Christmas meal (in November, so a bit early for Christmas hats anyway!) and the WI party is this evening - not much hope of completing it in four hours. It should be ready by Christmas Day though, and possibly for the craft group Christmas meal, if I am brave enough to wear it in a restaurant! The yarn doesn't show up well in the picture, it's very sparkly and Christmassy.I can't find the link to the pattern online anymore, but for fans of the Big Bang Theory, you will have seen Penny wearing something similar. 

I've gathered together all my Christmas themed books and I'm going to read at least some of them during December. I also have a novel called Comfort and Joy by India Knight, which didn't make it into the photograph, and I have to reread the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for book club. 

I'm already making plans for next year's knitting/sewing - a friend and I have decided to work our way through our yarn/project stash. The rule is one project finished for every new one started, and minimum new purchases. I have an array of unfinished projects as well as numerous unstarted ones, I'm sure I have plenty to keep me busy all year.... 

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along 

that was the weekend

I had fine plans for this weekend, for getting the tree and decorations down out of the loft and decking the halls. Just one time it would have been nice to actually do it on the 1st December, the date I usually aim for and I don't think have ever achieved. It usually ends up getting done around the 12th, and one time a few years ago it didn't get done at all! Life always seems to get in the way. 

The Prof had a sore throat on Saturday morning, but felt alright otherwise, so we ran some errands (including some Father Christmas stuff which the Prof went off to do and wouldn't tell me about, ooh exciting). In the evening we drove over to Kent for dinner with friends. By the time we came home his sore throat had developed into a full blown nasty cold, so today consisted of a lie in and then a quiet and lazy day. 

We had boiled eggs and toast soldiers for lunch, there's nothing like nursery food when you're feeling poorly. We ordered in Indian for dinner this evening, with enough leftovers for tomorrow's lunches. I did some laundry, watched some television and worked on a Christmassy hat I am knitting for myself. 

Fingers crossed that I don't catch the cold, and for getting the tree up next weekend! 

weekending with Amanda

grey days

Waiting for my bus outside the Tower of London one day last week, it occurred to me to take a photo of myself to show you my progress with growing out my grey hair. (Apparently 'selfie' is the word of the year, don'tcha know). I coloured my hair for the last time in mid August, so this is just over three month's growth. The first few weeks were the hardest, actually - I had a  very definite white line along my parting, which I have always hated and is my reason for going natural now. In the last couple of years, I've had a really noticeable stripe within 10 days of colouring, and I figure if I'm going to spend several weeks of every month looking like a badger, I'm fooling no one and I might as well be grey and honest. 

At first I wore a wide headband a lot to cover the stripe, but I have been surprised to find that as the grey has grown out more, it is bothering me less. I think because it's not just along my parting, but showing here and there through my hair in different places.  If I put my hair up in a kind of messy piled up do, it doesn't look too bad at all. I do wonder sometimes, though, if people are looking at me and thinking I've let myself go. I have to admit to feeling a bit unkempt, as I would if I had chipped nail polish, or had visitors turn up during the day and find me in my pyjamas.   

I like the colour of the hair that is coming through, I also think it feels softer than my coloured hair, which definitely has a coarser feel. I've been colouring it to cover my grey since my mid twenties, so I really have no idea what colour my hair will actually be when it grows out. I'm rather looking forward to it. 

11.11.11. - lest we forget

Finished Object! No, not the poncho

I've been knitting a lot lately. I made a red headband kind of thing - still finding new ways to cover up/ distract from my growing badger stripe of grey hair. Can't show you a photo as I'm not sure where I put it! I finished the Purl Ridge Scarf, just have the ends to sew in. I still have a baby washcloth to finish (baby due any moment) and I made myself a second wurm hat, pictured above. My first wurm hat was a bit too baggy and slouchy for me, this time I paid more attention to getting a yarn with a similar gauge to the pattern and it paid off, I like this one much better. I have a skein leftover, so I might buy some more and make wrist warmers or a scarf to match. I'm still putting off finishing the poncho I've been working on for the best part of this year. 

I just finished reading Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths, no picture as it went back to the library Tuesday evening. I read it for book club, not sure I would have picked it up otherwise. It's a psychological thriller, based on the salt marshes area of Norfolk. What I found most interesting was the details of archaeological finds in the area, the author obviously has an interest in the subject and the main character is an archaeologist. I find prehistory fascinating, so I enjoyed it, but probably not enough to read the next in the series. Next up is Homeward Bound: Why Women are Embracing the New Domesticity, by Emily Matchar, and recommended by Cameron. 



Joining Ginny (and wishing Ginny and family all the best as they wait for the imminent arrival of number seven!) 

Being Boring

I've nothing much to write about. Things have been quite boring lately. I could write about my health, but that's a constant and depressing annoyance that I do my best to ignore. I could tell you about my current favourite TV programmes, but that really would be scraping the barrel (though since you asked, Under the Dome and The Wrong Mans). So, today I was thinking how nothing exciting is happening, but actually I'm quite happy for the moment watching TV and knitting and reading, and not doing very much of note. Then serendipitiously, over at Wartime Housewife I came across this poem. I have read it before, but had forgotten; it sums things up for me quite perfectly.

Being Boring - by Wendy Cope

If you ask me 'What's new?', I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it's better today.
I'm content with the way things are going.
Yes, he is the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.

There was drama enough in my turbulent past:
Tears and passion - I've used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last.
If nothing much happens, I'm thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you're after excitement, steer well clear of me.
I want to go on being boring.

I don't go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don't need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I've found a safe mooring,
I've just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.

Learning curve

I'm making a Purl Ridge Scarf, though in a different yarn than the one specified. I chose Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend in shade 7164. It is a gorgeous hand dyed wool-silk blend. It's my first time working with such a lovely yarn, and my first time having to wind a skein into a ball. Now that was a challenge. I managed on my own with the back of a chair and then got the Prof to finish it once it got tangled - I have zero patience with knots! I didn't do a gauge swatch - yes, I know, I but I thought being a scarf it wouldn't matter. Then I realised in a cowl it did matter, as the specified 200 stitches and the 4 mm needles specified for my yarn, was going to be much shorter than the pattern. I had knitted an inch or so by then, but I ripped it out and started again with bigger needles. I didn't like the effect I was getting after a few rows,  the knitting was too loose, so I ripped it out and started again, this time with 4mm needles again and 300 instead of 200 stitches. A couple of inches in I realised that I had somehow managed to have my rows not lining up. There is a purl ridge in the pattern and on the circular needles I am using, the ridge ended a row above where it started. I was initially baffled, but now I think that after I cast on, I began to knit with the needles the wrong way round. Would that produce the effect I got, Experienced Knitters? Anyway, I ripped it out and am just about to start again. Good job I have until Christmas. 

I am reading The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood, and am really liking it so far. It is as it sounds, about a group of women who come together once a week for a knitting group. Each of the women have their own story, and these unfold through the book. It is making me think of the craft group I go to, the other women there and how much we learn about each other incidentally, whilst working alongside each other. Often when I get home I have to undo what I've done, as I have been concentrating on the conversation and not my knitting, but that's another story. 

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along