It's arrived

The Colinette "Skye" that I ordered on Monday night arrived yesterday. Apart from taking this photo,

I'm trying very hard to resist touching the yarn until I come to wind it into balls and get started on the Sunrise Circle jacket. I'm hoping that the Rock Star cardi will be finished some time this week, as I have an extra long weekend due to the Bank Holiday and a two-day strike at work and then I can get started. I haven't even knitted a tension square yet in case I just get carried away and can't stop. (My name is Annie and I'm a knitting addict.........)

The ballroom dancing is going very well so far - neither of us has been injured- and last night we learnt how to turn during a waltz; very handy as most ballrooms have walls in them that need to be avoided! We've also learnt the cha-cha-cha, (which I really like although OH says it makes him dizzy) the quickstep and a bit of rock 'n' roll. The quickstep is simple enough from a steps point of view, but trying to fit it to the music is another thing altogether. To my mind, the sequence of steps (slow, quick, quick, slow) fits to music that has three beats to a bar, but the quickstep is danced to music that has two or four beats, so you don't always start the sequence on the first beat of the bar. For OH and me, who have both spent over 30 years playing in orchestras "staying with the beat!!!!!", it's really hard to go against the beat when you're dancing.

The girls and I had sushi for lunch today - I think I can safely say that we now have two more converts, especially Bethany, who is working out how much pocket money she will need to save in order to go there every two weeks for a "fix".

I've been a naughty girl.............

.............because I've just ordered some new yarn. This should be winging its way to me now, ready to make this and I've even joined the knit-a-long (button in the sidebar, hopefully). I had made a sort-of promise to myself that I would only use up stuff from the stash but I felt that a design like that needed something a bit special, colour-wise, and there really wasn't anything suitable lurking in the window-seat (home of the stash - well, most of it, anyway). I decided that as I had been so good by using up recycled yarn to knit the rock star cardi, I was allowed a bit of a splurge. I won't be starting the Sunrise Circle jacket straight away as the rock star cardi isn't finished yet, although the end is in sight - I have about 18 more rows of the first sleeve to knit, then the second sleeve and the ties at the front. I really love this pattern and can see me making it again in a different colour.

I was a little bit side-tracked at the weekend by this

Meet Mi-Ke the fortune kitty (pattern available here).
If I knit this again (which I probably will as Bethany has requested one, but she wants a kimono to dress it in as well!) I would use smaller needles or thicker yarn and felt it before stuffing. The fabric is too open and the stuffing is too visible but on the whole I think he's really cute.
I've also knitted a "hat of infinite possibilities" from The Knitting Way which is basically two moebius strips sewn together as far as they can be. This produces a piece of knitting that can be used as a hat, a hand-warmer (I was going to write "muff" but I know what dirty minds you knitters have!), a neck-warmer or anything else you can think of. An interesting knit, but slightly too small for my big head (it's just my hair, really) unfortunately. The book had some unusual patterns in it but on the whole I found it a bit too spiritual for my liking - whilst I totally agree that knitting can be a great stress reliever as well as an absorbing pastime, I don't really think it can be compared to any of the great religions of the world (it is just possible that I may have missed the point here, as I know next-to-nothing about any religion) and I found some of the writing a little too cheesy. Just my opinion, y'know, not trying to upset anyone.

On a totally different note, OH and I have started to learn Ballroom dancing. Every Friday evening we trudge along to the local community centre and spend an hour and a half trying not to kick each other or fall over. So far we have learnt the waltz, the cha-cha-cha and the quickstep and I love it! I sewed all the sequins on by myself!

Moan whinge moan

If you're hoping to be entertained, enlightened or otherwise diverted for a short while, look away now as today's post is a bit of a whinge.
Last Wednesday I finished work full of anticipation for the Easter holidays - six whole days off in a row! I had plans, and plenty of them, mostly for knitting but with the odd bit of wet-felting, fabric-printing and even another sock creature thrown in.
Sadly, it was not to be.
Thursday was fine. I had an appointment for an X-ray on my hip at 10.00, and by 10.20, we were in Brighton, strolling around The Laines looking at the new shops and restaurants in the area by the Library which has undergone massive redevelopment. We had elevenses (latte and hand-baked Italian biscotti - yum) and later on had sushi (double-yum) for lunch. During the evening, I remarked that my throat felt a bit sore. "Never mind" said OH encouragingly, "it'll be fine tomorrow".
Friday, I felt as though someone had rubbed my throat with sand-paper and poured concrete into my head. Saturday, my nose dripped, my eyes felt as though they'd been pumped up with a bicycle pump and my ears just bloody hurt!
It's now Tuesday and I'm beginning to feel a bit better (i.e. I can breathe without feeling as though I've just completed a marathon) but my plans are in tatters.
Back to work tomorrow and I haven't finished the rock star cardi, I haven't finished the jaywalkers, I haven't finished the machine-knit jumper I started (it's too short so it needs some hand-knit ribbing round the bottom - 360 sts on 2mm needles!!!), I haven't finished the hat of infinite possibilities, the fabric-printing and wet-felting didn't even get started and a new friend for Mr Wetty, Claude Grenache & Optricia is still just a twinkle in my eye!
I have, however, finished eating my Easter egg but it has to be said that chocolate is really tasteless when you're full of snot.

Wiki meme

I saw this over at Spitting Yarn and thought it was fun.
You have to look up your date of birth (day & month only) on Wikipedia and list three interesting facts, two births and one death, complete with the year.

1869: The clipper Cutty Sark was launched, and still survives today.

1959: Charles De Gaulle made a speech declaring his vision for "A Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals" So, it's his fault, is it?

1963: First episode of Dr Who was screened on BBC1 (I didn't see it 'cause I was just a year old!)

1887: Birth of Boris Karloff

1970: Birth of Zoe Ball (best presenter of Live & Kicking)

1990: Death of Roald Dahl - writer of excellent children's books (and some pretty saucy stories for adults, too)

Have a go! It's easy and it's free!

Meet Mr Wetty

Optricia and Claude have a new friend, Mr Red Wetty (although I think Beige Wetty would be more appropriate - he's obviously a TOG)

Mr Wetty also sports a curved tail and bitterly regrets not going to his orthodontist as a young Wetty.

Warning! Knitting content

I actually have a FO to show you. Don't get too excited, it's not the most interesting piece of knitting in the universe, but it is finished. This was a request from MIL (who isn't really a MIL as we're not married, but it's easier than writing "my partner's mother") and she chose the pattern herself from a selection of freebies on the internet - and no, I can't remember which site it came from. Anyway:

and it's reversible (this wasn't in the pattern, I just knitted two and sewed tham together)

It is due to be presented this afternoon when we go for tea, so hopefully it will meet with approval and may even be used today.

We also have a Jaywalker
as yet unfinished and without a partner but I haven't touched this since last week as I've been concentrating on other things. I'm a bit worried that it will be too big (my feet are quite delicate compared to the rest of me!) so there may be a trip to the frog pond in the offing.
Most of my somewhat limited knitting time this week has been taken up with the Rock Star cardi. Unfortunately, progress has not been as smooth as I would have liked, chiefly because of my apparent inability to follow a pattern. This pattern uses a number of charts, which I quite like, but I get carried away and forget to look at the written instructions which say things like "starting on row 6 of chart A". In true Up Knit Creek fashion, having happily knitted away at least two 20-row repeats of said chart, I then check the instructions! "Oh dear," thinks I, "that's wrong, then." Do I frog? No. I carry on regardless, fudging as I go and tinking the odd row that is too wrong, even for me. The back is now finished, and I can't see any obvious problems.

I suppose I could be in for a nasty shock when it comes to sewing the sleeves into place, but I'm prepared to risk it...............watch this space!

Belated update

So much for my resolution to update more regularly!
Not much knitting to show - the rockstar cardi has just reached the armhole shaping on the back so doesn't merit a photo yet; I have also jumped rather late on to the bandwagon and started a pair of Jaywalkers in some Cherry Tree Hill supersock merino - this yarn is a joy to use, so soft and it knits up really evenly. The first sock is just past the heel so again, not much to show.

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all you mums out there. I had a book from the girls - Sarah Waters' "The Night Watch" which I had been reading in Waterstone's recently but hadn't quite got round to buying. I haven't started it yet as I am still reading "Saturday" by Ian MacEwen.
My Mum received this:
along with a bouquet of flowers which were apparently beautiful (that's the trouble with ordering flowers on-line or by Interflora, you never get to see exactly what you've sent). We also went out for Sunday Lunch, to a favourite place of mine called Birling Gap; unfortunately the weather was so foggy and miserable, as well as windy, that we were unable to go down to the beach afterwards

(photo courtesy of Freefoto.com ).

Three other items of news:

1. I have to have an X-ray on my hip (it's been painful for several months now and isn't getting better on its own).
2. I have had a picture accepted on to the V&A website! Check it out - yes, it's the DACC (damned Aran chair cover).
3. My brother and his partner have both started their own blogs - very different but worth a look - Michael's and Sandy's