Made of fail!

My Olympic Citron that is.

Love the pattern and am on section 4 already. It just doesn't look nice in the lovely CTH Suri Alpaca - I don't like the fabric and the variation in the colours looks like a pile of vomit.

I am an Olympic Failure.

Into the frog pond with it. It is just too icky to live.

My bed?

So I came out of the bathroom after cleaning my teeth and this is what I found on my turned back bed.

Fergus - " Hey don't come no closer. I will turn the glowing fish eye of doom upon you and you will forget this is your bed."

Lottie - " Lay back, relax. Fold back your ears like a bat and join our crew."

A year older, no bloody wiser.

M and I decided in 2009 that from this year we would not bother with birthday/Xmas gifts for each other. We both have way too much stuff and there isn't that much we need and as we tend to get what we want throughout the year, birthday gifts etc just seemed a bit of overkill.

My gift from M was him having the day off yesterday and for us to be together (with J) on my birthday. We had lovely food and a relaxing happy day, it was wonderful. However, I did get a lovely bunch of flowers from M and two tubes of my most favourite Floracology shower gel. J gave me a beautiful homemade card with some ££ in to buy a book he knows I've been after. Ma got the books I mentioned before and a little Eeyore birthday cake - hear J rejoice he loves that thick fondant icing you get on modern cakes.

But I also got a lot of gifts and kindness from friends IRL and online. My knitting buddies showered me with lovely cards, some gorgeous pastries and chocolate (diet start delayed by one day - cos I have to try one of those Carluccio pastries! Thank you Karen.) also some lovely yarn. The above CTH from Emma and Jamie, it's Supersock in Champlain Sunset (they also got me Green & Blacks - yum.) aren't the colours gorgeous? Rich and vibrant. I will explain the elephants in a minute.

And this, from Wibbo. This is just so beautiful, I swear she's been inside my head to get the colours and combination of colours that sing to me, so right. If I had walked into a yarn store and seen this it would have been the first thing in my basket. It is 4ply merino/wool blend - there is a 150g which gives 540m approx - this will be a shawl of awesome beauty. Wibbo named it 'Jaipur' - hence the elephants.

Thank you all so much. I normally get depressed and grumpy on my birthday, I didn't yesterday. My day was perfect.

**note about the elephants.

I kind of collect old elephant statues and carvings. The ebony/ivory ones and the jade one are all really, really old and made long before the ban on ivory hunting etc. In fact the larger ones were my Nana's bought home by my Poppa.

Beautiful birthday weather

Needs a lovely walk. Maybe a little paddle.

A crunch through the pebbles and a sniff of stinky seaweed.

Just too lovely to stay indoors today.

Goodbye to K-PAX

Yay. Finished book 3 - the worlds of prot and prots report today. I've put a full review of all three on the Goodreads site. I love that site! (Please note prot does not use capitals apart from planet names/titles, so that wasn't me being lazy the book titles have no capitals in them.)

Ma bought me 10 - yes 10 - Antonia Fraser books that I haven't read for my birthday (all 10 for £4.99 from The Book People). It was providence she asked what I'd like, their catalogue was delivered that morning, I showed her and said "I'd like those please." And she said "OK, go order them and I'll give you the money." They were delivered yesterday. Providence.

J also ordered Fang by James Paterson from Ma's book club - it arrived Friday he passed it to me to read on Sunday - he'd finished it. So I'll read that and an AF at the same time, just haven't decided which AF to start with yet.

1st Pyro almost done. They will be for Ma (Mother's Day) as with the closing of the lace pattern across the top of the foot they are too long for my stubby little trotters - the colourway is much more her anyway.

Citron was cast on 13/02 and I'm on section 3. Did you see the Men's Downhill last night - bloody brilliant!

2010 Knitting Olympics.

I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm ready-eddy-eddy-eddy-Eddy.

I've chosen a Citron from 2009 Winter Knitty - good knitting for watching the games as I adore the winter Olympics. Casting on tomorrow because there is no way I am staying up to the wee small hours to watch the opening ceremony live.

Haven't posted a button cos I'm a Luddite! But am on the list of competitors via The Yarn Harlots blog :o)

Let the games commence.

Birthday Sunshine for Ma

mumsocks 001
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Finished Mum's socks with a day in hand - phew.

Pattern Sunshine by CookieA from her book Sock Innovation. Nice pattern not too taxing but I still don't enjoy the combination of cables and socks much.

Yarn -Araucania Ranco Multi - a little scratchy but knits up well.
Needles - 2.75mm circs.

The shorn vomit comet.

Aka Fergus. M gave him a trim yesterday, he looks all cute and puppy like and actually more like a Scottie than ever. He has soft silky fur and is all snugly, problem is he smells of sick! Poor little boogar. He's such a dustbin hound and even now will eat poo, something he snaffled yesterday meant that last night was a case of "Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be the Duke of Puke!" Lottie is also a dustbin truffler and she had us up at 3.30am with the other end, she wakes us if she needs to go and we got her downstairs to the garden in time, but still there are days when I go off the whole concept of owning dogs! Now the cat just needs to hairball and I'll have the hat trick. Thank gourd the tarantulas do none of this!

M was on call this weekend so we had a quiet one. Nice. I finished listening to The Warden and started on Barchester Towers.....got to love Mrs Proudie. Am also listening (again) to Wuthering Heights.

Book wise still on K-PAX 3 - didn't read much.

Listened to a lot of music.

Knit on Pyroclastic - ooooo is pretty - nice pattern so far. Also worked on 2nd sock for Ma.

All the rest was boring, mundane stuff - like ironing.

Am loving the new David Dimbleby (sp?) series on One - fab. Also watching the Bible series on 4. Previous two have been really interesting (even though I'm a Humanist) but Anne Widdicombe last night was a disappointment plus OMG (lol) her voice!! WTF, scary.

Have quite a lot to do this week so better shift and get to it.

To answer Jo.....today :o)

And sock package number one is......Pyroclastic to be knit in Lorna's Laces, Shepherd Sock Multi in Georgetown colourway. Now I just have to resist casting on...got to finish Ma's birthday socks. Awwww who am I kidding?

A-Very-Peri-12-month-Sock-Club.

All bagged up, labelled, yarn and pattern filled (not all wound yet) - 12 months of sock knitting frolics.

So here's the list - they will be knit at random as I lucky dip them - some are going to be quite a challenge, others less so.

In no particular order......

1) Spring Forward by Linda Welch using Jitterbug Raphael. (revisited pattern)

2) Greensocks-no-Ham by Me using Lorna's Laces Andersonville. (revisited pattern)

3) Embossed Leaf by Mona Schmidt using Jitterbug Gauguin. (new knit)

4) Nutkin by Knitzi using Lime Green Jelly hand spun in a crushed berry. (revisited pattern)

5) Angee by Cookie A using Easyknits Bambo mix in Choc-choc-cherry. (new knit)

6) Cachoeira by Kristi Geraci using Lorna's Laces in Wisteria. (new knit)

7) Mermaids Lagoon by Sadie Bellegarde using Sockomoko in raspberry. (new knit)

8) Pollyjean by M J Kim using Kate Fords Hand dyed Sock Yarn. (new knit)

9) Hourglass by Bev Elicerio using Wibbo's Works in Salmon Run. (new knit)

10) Flicker by Cookie A using Brooklyn Hand spun in Cocco Rose. (revisited pattern)

11) Saviano by Yarnissima using The Knittery Moses Fire. (new knit)

and last but by no means least,

12) Pyroclastic by Marlowe Crawford using Lorna's Laces in Georgetown. (new knit)

I have had so much fun rootling about in my stash and pattern hoard today doing this. I can't wait to start.

Wallow

I love that word. And today I am wallowing in sock yarn. Kind of naff as it may seem I love the Yarn Harlots idea of her own sock club - using her stash. So today I am wallowing in my stash and collection of sock patterns (found 10 so far) and I am going to make myself a 'Very-Peri-12-month-Sock Club'. This will allow me to have 12 sets of yarn/patterns bagged up and ready to go. I can use up my stash, knit some of the patterns I've been meaning to do and revisit some favourites.

I am excited by this idea. They will be little packets of ready to go, socky goodness and the fun I am having trawling patterns and matching the designs with my stash is immense. I will even ball the yarn up ready so it will be a case of grab a bag and getting knitting....wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Plus I am so stoked on this idea it may make get my arse into gear and get Ma's 2nd sock on and off the needles in a jiffy. Number one is finished just need to get her to try it on for length - she has astoundingly long toes!

Number two - not that kind.

Finally finished 'K-PAX II on a beam of light' by Gene Brewer - loved it, loved it, loved it.Can't get over how much I am enjoying this mix of Sci-fi (ish) within the setting of a mental hospital - it shouldn't work, but oh boy, it does.

Have started number three - but not got very far - where does time go?