Still knitting..............

............... I know it's hard to believe, given the scarcity of posts recently, but I am, in fact, still knitting.
On the needles at the moment is Tubey for Lucy which is about two-thirds complete, the Artworks Sailmaker top for me which is about 6 inches up the first piece and a secret project which has barely got beyond the casting-on. The progress on the Sailmaker top is proving to be very slow, mainly due to the fact that the chart is virtually impossible to read, being both badly printed (I think it's been copied from a poor dot-matrix print-out) and a very small scale. It has obviously been printed that size to make sure that the pattern fits onto an A4 size leaflet which, in turn, fits into a pocket on the bag that the kit comes in. Personally, I would prefer a decent size chart and no bag rather than the titchy little chart and a bag that advertises the company without paying me for the privilege! (What's wrong with the old carrier bags that I normally use for transporting my knitting, anyway?).
The secret project is destined to be a birthday present for a member of my family whose birthday is before the beginning of March. Before you say "Stop! That's too many clues - the person in question will easily guess who they are!", there are five people who come into that category ( six if you count the ex-husband, seven if you count his niece, nine if you count two of my cousin's children!) so I don't think I've let the cat out of the bag. I don't know whether the project in question will be finished in time (skinny yarn, small needles, lots of stitches) but it will be done eventually. I hope to be able to post pictures of the finished item with its recipient in due course. I love teasing people about presents - I make up terrible lies about what I've got for the girls at Christmas and take great delight in disguising presents to look like something really mundane. I think I must get it from my mum - when I was eight, the only thing I really wanted for Christmas was a heart-shaped gold signet ring, complete with an engraved "A". By the time I opened my last present I was feeling quite disillusioned that all my begging and pleading had been in vain and was sulking when mum gave me a large flat box which she had "almost forgotten". (What a horrible ungrateful child I was). When I finally managed to prise off multiple layers of sellotape and large ribbon bows from what I thought was another box of crayons I was over the moon - inside the flat box was a little heart-shaped satin box containing the most perfect signet ring I had ever seen, far in excess of my expectations and a perfect fit as well. That was 35 years ago but it still fits:

and it is still a very precious treasure. (Sorry 'bout the fuzzy pic, it's hard to take photos with your left hand - unless you're left-handed, of course).
OK that's it for today - more knitting and less rambling next time, I promise.