Enabling friends...

Now, those of you who read Donni’s blog will know that she is a tremendous enabler. There are several times I’ve been extremely lucky to emerge with my bank account intact. (The time she tried to push some Karabella Soft Tweed on me still sends shivers down my spine – I was this close I tell you, this close to succumbing, but I stood firm.) But now she’s got me – who can resist joining
?
Go on – click on that image and get yourself over to yarnmonkey, read the rules, and SIGN UP!!!

Saturday sky

– a blissful 26C (79F) – now this weather I could live with. It did max out at 31.7C (89F) – but only for about 15 min.

Well, potty training is still at the “she’ll never get it, EVER” stage, but we’ll give it another day. If she hasn’t shown any signs of understanding by tomorrow evening we’ll give up until September.

And I picked 1.6kg of those wild plums:

They’re tiny, but there are lots of them, so we’ve stewed them down to make HFW’s jampote and hot & sour sauce. (Without giving away too many details – stew the plums for a while, then decant some of the syrup to make the sauce, stone the plums, then boil with the remaining syrup to make the jam/compote.) Yum!!!

And there has been knitting:

From L to R:
The black I do is finished… well, no, it’s not finished, but the knitting portion is done (this is where I need Donni’s superpower).

My first Trekking XXL sock. Sigh. I’m not loving it. I really was all set for this to be a major romance – when it first arrived, I smuggled it into bed with me, and we swatched, and everything looked set for a beautiful relationship, but somehow it’s just not working out. It took me ages to find a stitch that didn’t interfere too much with the stripes, and then when I settled on a 2×2 rib I didn’t really think it through so that the ribs would meet the stocking stitch part of the feet sensibly. I tried a new “no-wrap” short-row method for the heel and toe, and it’s OKish, but I’ve still got holes… and the stripes, well, I was hoping for something a little more subtle and gradual. I will do the second sock (it makes great mindless knitting) and I will wear them – I think we just need a little distance – absence will make the heart grow fonder. (And look at that gorgeous extra Saturday Sky in the background )

And thirdly, I was so chuffed with the success of the tomato beanie I sent off to Massachusetts to support breastfeeding. that I bought 100g DK 100% cotton for £1.50 to make a beanie for friends who are having a baby in September.

We have a winner...

... and the winner is…

Susan of My Knitting Machines and Me

Congratulations Susan – there were so many good entries (and so many superpowers that I want – I love the cartoon hole, and the cone of silence, and the milk-making (hey! I’ve been a superhero!), and, and, and… ), but I especially loved the idea of the Power of Visibility. (I do wonder if your work clothes would render you invisible anywhere else – hang on to them, they could be useful.)

Just now I’d settle for my daughter to have the power to recognise when she needs a wee. We’re potty training…

The other one that John and I have often discussed isn’t really a superpower as such, but we’d like to put in a claim for a 9 day week for parents, especially the parents of small children. The extra two days (which would slot neatly between Friday and Saturday) would be called Sleepday and Cleanday, and any non-parents would happily exist in suspended animation during them. (Purrrleeeeeeeaaase don’t tell me that they do exist but that by some loophole we can’t access them!)

I’d better go and check for puddles, Saturday Sky will appear shortly…

Upcoming Bloggiversary - and a contest.

This blog will be one year old on the 28th July. So, why not have a contest? There’s probably some good reasons, but the best one (couldn’t think what to set) has just become defunct (I’ve had an idea).

So (drum roll)...

Name your superpower.

It’s easy – just pick your ideal superpower – mine is the ability to perform household tasks by identifying them… – “Oh look – the washing up needs doing.” [pause] “Oh look – it’s done.” But there’s no need to be as boring and pedestrian as that – be imaginative (but keep it clean folks!)

Just leave a comment, and I’ll pick a winner and choose an appropriate prize on the 29th.

Update (29/7/06): Contest now closed – results to be announced later today.

Saturday sky and Hellooooooo

Wow! I’m amazed by the response to the sock pattern. I mean, I think it’s cute, but I’m delighted by the number of comments and lovely things people are saying about them. And I’ve just been having a look at the site stats – 119 people have looked at my blog just today. So: Hello new people! Do please leave a comment – and pretty pretty please, if you like my pattern, say so on your blog and send people over. (Did you ever see such shameless blogwhoring?!)

In the light of all this excitement, it’s sad to report that there’s been precious little knitting done this week – it’s just been tooooooooooooo hot – and it’s been the last week of term before the holidays, and I always get a bit odd and cranky around then. But there is excitement in the garden. One of our random trees that just grew (honestly – one year there were no trees in the border, the next year there was one tree, and the following year there were two – I love them, but the one in the pic is a bit too near to the house ) has produced this crop:

(you know the drill – click on the picture to get a larger version)
I reckon they’re plums – they’re very small plums, and they do that plum thing of tasting really sweet until you get near the stone, but hey – they’re totally free. I plan to stew a pile of them tomorrow with a few spices.

And it’s Saturday, so that means sky – take your pick:

– too hot (29.6C = 85F) at 2:30 pm
or

– much cooler (20.9C = 69.6F) at 5pm

The hot sky is prettier, but I have to say that we’ve had enough of hot – I’ll go for the cloudy sky.

Right, it’s time to get off the computer and DO SOME KNITTING!

PS – Hi to Jo who commented – there are a number of gluten-free knitters around…

Saturday sky

Blue blue blue – perfect weather, 24 degrees C (or 75 F – whichever you prefer)

And following a very silly conversation at the SnB last Tuesday, I’ve recorded another audio file – you can find it here – I think it’s fairly self-explanatory… (and it’s definitely knitting-related… ) (Either download it by clicking on the mp3 button, or listen to it directly on your computer by clicking on lofi or hifi.)

Oh, and I’ve added a link to my sock pattern at the bottom of the previous post.

A sock pattern and a confession

I’m sorry dear readers, I have been keeping secrets from you (well, most of you… ) Sometime around the beginning of this year one night as I was settling down to sleep I was browsing through my Harmony Guide for a rib pattern with just a little interest to keep me going so I could make a sweater for John. But then I found myself looking at lace panels, and somehow lace panels didn’t seem right for a husband sweater… but wouldn’t a pair of socks with a narrow lace panel down the back look cute? And this lace looks best against a reverse stocking stitch (stockinette) background. Now I don’t mind purling, in fact there are times when I prefer it, but a whole pair of socks? No thank you. Hmmm. But what if I knit them inside out? ... And so a sock design was born. (And I didn’t get much sleep that night – I had to get it written down before I forgot it.)

And Knitty was asking for items for its accessories issue.

So I got my socks knitted, wrote out the pattern, enlisted a couple of test knitters (thank you so much Katie and Liz ), and submitted my pattern to Knitty. But they were inundated with patterns, so mine didn’t make it. Sigh. (And looking at their accessories issue, there are sooooooo many socks, and they all look great, so hey, you win some, you lose some.) So I tried Magknits , but again Kerrie was inundated with sock patterns, so had to turn it down. (But I have some more ideas for other designs which, who knows, may be more suitable.)

So then I saw on Alison’s blog that Angela was hosting
– a competition – enter your crazy sock pattern! The only problem for me was that Angela and her blog are German (not really a problem, except that I don’t speak/write German – although I can read very well with the aid of an online translator… ) Anyway, I left a comment asking if it was OK to submit patterns in English, and pretty much forgot about it.

And then yesterday I received an email from Angela, apologising profusely for not having got back to me sooner, saying yes, I could submit a pattern in English. So I have!

And because it’s now out in the open, and I no longer have to keep it top secret, here are the fab photos that John took with Liz and Ruth as models:

We had such a ball lying on our backs with our feet in the air (or “in the sky” as Ruth would say) so we could have photos taken against Kings College Chapel – and being Cambridge not a single person commented. Which felt slightly wierd in itself.

I just need to get my sysadmin (aka husband) to upload the pdf of the pattern, and then you will be very welcome to help yourselves. All I ask is that anyone who downloads it leaves a comment to let me know.

UPDATE:
Here is the pdf of the pattern. I’ll sort out some stuff on the sidebar soon, but I wanted to get it up quickly. Do please send me a link to a pic if you knit it (not essential, but I’m nosy, and would like to see them ) I’ve written it so that people can knit them for feet of any size using yarn of any gauge. The maths is very very easy (use a calculator – I did), but if anyone finds it offputting, do please get in touch telling me the circumference of your foot and your gauge, and I’ll happily do the calculation for you.

FURTHER UPDATE
I’ve been playing with the lace panel – it’s not easy to get it symmetrical because some of the yarnovers happen at the transition between knitting and purling. I’ve put my latest version of the lace repeat here

The right kind of party...

Now to be really cool, I would leave it at that, but cool is something I’m not (apart from the tattoo…)

It had all the right ingredients – good food, good company, good entertainment for the children and good knitting.

It was Mary and family’s leaving party. After almost exactly a year in Cambridge while her husband has been on Sabbatical, they are back to Toronto. It was reading Mary’s blog that gave me the confidence to go along to my first KTog in Cambridge – thank you so much for that Mary.

The food… – well, I always go to pot lucks with food that I know I can eat, not really expecting to be able to eat anything else. But wow! Butternut Squash Risotto, Grilled Aubergines (with how much chilli?!), Sushi, not to mention the usual nibbles.

The company… – there were knitters there – we talked Texere yarns, and space dyeing, and ribbing, and jaywalkers, and kiri, and Crinkle cardigans and… – you know the sort of thing. And there was Mark who was in the year above John at college who is now married to Hilary who is a stitcher rather than a knitter – Cambridge can be a bit incestuous like that.

And Ruth learnt to ride a bike (with stabilisers, but still – at 27 months she is very determined!)

And Mary’s daughter Elaine wore a balloon hat (at least, she did for a little while):

And because it is Saturday, there was sky:

And because I couldn’t decide between the sky at the party and the sky at home…

SEX

Hmm – there’s going to be a number of disappointed googlers with that title, but never mind.

Yesterday I took Ruth into town – she’d turned down the chance to go swimming, but agreed to get on a bus with me. So we spent an H&M voucher and bought her new socks, then we went to Robert Sayle (our John Lewis) and bought 1 ball of red Cygnet 100% merino new wool Superwash, and 1 ball of green and made

– one tomato beanie to add to the collection for that Yarn Harlot explains so much more eloquently than I could. Since this is a wool hat, I’ll be sending it off the second address she gave in Massachusetts. (My grasp of American geography is not as strong as it could be, but I’m guessing that Massachusetts mothers are more likely to appreciate woollen hats than Californian ones.) The pattern is (more or less) this one (DK rather than Aran, so more stitches). I was a little concerned about the fit, but it’s too small for Ruth:

and too big for her doll Tilly:

so I reckon it should fit a newborn fairly well.

All very virtuous, and I refused to feel guilty that I wasn’t knitting Annie’s shrug yesterday evening. (It’s growing, it’s growing… )

After all, I have finished the other Annie’s birthday socks:

(Alpaca-merino blend, bought from the Natural Dye Studio – she recommended this exact eBay shop to me just the other day – little realising that the cushion behind her head was hiding her socks made in their very yarn!)

so does that mean that it’s OK that I succumbed to the sale bin in Robert Sayle? I did manage to leave the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk (the texture was to die for, but the colour really wasn’t), but somehow I found myself giving a home to 10 25g balls of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed:

for just £13.50. After all, I’m determined to make myself wear warm browns more (they suit me, but I still end up buying greys and blues and lilacs, which really don’t.) And this should be plenty to make what I would call a tank top, but I think would be called a vest in the US.

You wait for ages and then 4 come along at once...

... but it’s worth mentioning – I’ve bought our Greenbelt tickets!

Feeling dangerous...

Hmmm – there’s something about the combination of the heat and Aunt Flo coming to visit (aka being “on the blob” ) that destroys my few remaining brain cells.

Yesterday I decided to follow the recipe from the Guardian Weekend for raspberry granita (scroll down – avoiding the “how I cut the top off my finger” story). Have a look at it – could it be any easier? So I set to to make sugar syrup. Hmmm – that can’t be hard? I’ll just look it up and check. The recipe I found said to boil the sugar and water to the crack. I found the jam thermometer, and boiled my sugar solution until the temperature was reading crack. Except that by then it was going brown, and quite clearly would set solid in the pan if I left it. (John knew that… I didn’t.) So I had my one stroke of genius of the weekend and added some boiling water, stirring madly as I did so – and somehow managed to end up with a delicious lightly caramelised light sugar syrup.

I left it to cool. Then I put it in the blender jug with the 1lb of rasps I’d lovingly picked in the heat of the day from our garden (with just a few loganberries thrown in too because they were there… ). I hit the button and gasped in horror as sugar syrup started cascading down the side of the motor unit. Huh. It turns out that that grey rubber seal thingy is important – who’d have known? Still, I rescued the concoction and simply worked it through a sieve and stuck it in the freezer. (It is stunningly delicious, very sweet, but very very raspberry too. In theory we’re saving it until John’s parents come to visit, but I have the feeling it may not last that long… )

Then today I decided to make bread for both me and John in our breadmakers (his’n’hers breadmakers works in a household with a Coeliac) – and wouldn’t you just know that the mixer blade is important in that? Apparently the bread doesn’t mix at all without it. Huh. The things you learn. (I did rescue it by digging around with my bare hands and putting it in.)

Now, do you think I’m safe to try some washing up? No, I thought not, it’ll be safer to leave it a while…

To quell speculation...

I’m amazed – you people actually read these memes. And it appears that No. 80 is causing much speculation. To halt any wilder flights of fancy, the answer is here.

(John went to India for a month in January 2001 – the joys of a child-free existence and being self-employed – I displayed a rebellious streak and did various things such as getting a tattoo and decorating the hall, stairs and landing – in pink and yellow… )

New Toy

The birthday card given to a colleague from the maths dept reads something along the lines of

“It’s amazing – I can see what the weather is doing right now, right here, right outside my house – all on the internet”

Sadly I can see the attraction of this, so imagine my joy on finding this website

See, it really is hot today (yeah, yeah, I know – other places get much hotter, but we don’t have air-con here OK?!)

Saturday sky

Hot hot hot, but not as bad as I expected…

Swimming this morning (except that someone – probably me – forgot to pack John’s trunks, so in the end it was just me with both the children in the pool – a really successful trip – Adam managed to swim with the aid of a float and, even more impressively, jumped/slipped in and got his face wet without having a fit of the screaming habdabs.) Then this afternoon we’ve chilled. The children are painting…

... and all is peaceful.

Update: I knew saying that was tempting fate. Just as I finished typing the “ul” of peaceful I heard an “Uh Oh” – never a good sound from a boy with a painting set… – he’s not been painting, he’s been spattering. The paper looks great, but I’m really not so happy about the table, the floor, the chair… – still, it’s all wipe-clean, and that’s what he’s doing right now.