Not much knitting

Going on chez Up Knit Creek. I have started the Lotus Blossom Tank (scroll down) which I am doing in a subtle pink shade of Rowan wool-cotton. The yarn was an E-bay bargain about a year ago and has been sitting patiently waiting for the right project to come along. I've never used this yarn before but would definitely use it again. It's soft, easy to work with and the stitch definition is excellent. The tank is knitted in the round and I'm about half-way through the stocking stitch above the lace pattern - unfortunately, whilst knitting on Friday, the cord connector on my lovely Denise interchangeable needles snapped clean off causing me to drop several stitches. This is the second time that a connector has snapped so I e-mailed Denise straight away and got a very quick response, apologising for the problems I've experienced and promising to send a whole new set of cords. I'm sorry to say that if I was dealing with a British company, I would probably have had to prove that I hadn't deliberately broken the cord and then pay for the grudgingly sent replacement, promising to not be so hard on the replacements in future. The Yanks (used admiringly) certainly have a lot to teach us about customer service. Speaking of which, I was talking to Tess, the owner of Angel Yarns last weekend and she told me that they have sometimes received knitted garments through the post which have obviously been washed on the wrong programme as they have shrunk and felted, with a note from the irate customer demanding their money back. Tess usually obliges, which I think is very good of her, because, surely, if you've spent a lot of time and money on your new knitted project, you take great care with the washing of it. How can it possibly be the store owner's responsibility if you don't bother to read the washing instructions? To say that I was gobsmacked was the understatement of the year.

This morning I have done a little gardening - not my favourite pastime, and certainly not with any results worth showing - but there was little patch in front of the roses that was really bugging me, so I tidied it up. Trouble is, there's now lots more little patches which need tidying, but they will have to wait. I do have a grand plan for the garden that I drew up about 6 or 7 years ago, but so far they remain just plans - there has been no action on them whatsoever.



Mollie trying to avoid the heat.
This picture pretty much sums things up at the moment - I would like to be able to go to sleep, hidden from view, and wake up when everything's over. It hasn't been a good week really; I don't like to use the blog to air my personal problems so let's just say that whoever said that being a parent was the hardest job in the world was lying. What they should have said is that being a step-parent is the hardest job in the world - all the problems and few (if any) of the joys.