CS5

So I've signed up for the next Colour Swap. I'm looking forward to it - my partner this time seems to be more of a challenge. I've had a fantastic (even if I do say so myself) idea for the handmade item, have very excitedly found, ordered and received the yarn and cast on. Unfortuneately at the moment the way it's turning out is quite different to the way I had it pictured in my head. I'm going to keep plugging along and hope it's just the beginning phase, during which I often feel disappointed with a pattern - sometimes with reason and sometimes without.

In other knitting news, my mittens are almost finished - I have one more thumb to make and then the finishing. My cowl has been knit, but not yet finished and my Branching Out scarf is continuing slowly but surely.

Work

There are days when we win and everything gets sorted and you can walk away happy, and the kids make your whole week simply by being fantastic and you can know that you did your best and people responded in kind.

And then there are days like this. Days when you feel like you're fighting against the whole world because no one else seems to care as much as you. Days when you wonder what you can physically do help change the lives that these kids are leading. Days when you realise that our kids are no longer children, but are adults way before their time. Days when you don't know what more you can do, but keep on trying.

Spinning!

So this week at work has been kinda rubbish. We've been extraordinarily busy and at one point at the beginning of the week it looked likely that we had had our break and lunchtimes taken away from us as we have been put on duty (i.e. watching the kids in the canteen, making sure they don't fight etc) every day. We know have this sorted and so only have to do breaktime duty one day a week (mine if friday) and although we do all lunchtimes, we will get paid for it (yeay, more money = more yarn!)

However, by the time I got home on monday (yes, only one day into a very long term), I decided I needed to buy something exciting and new to cheer myself up. Something I'd been thinking about getting for a while, but hadn't quite treated mself to yet.

Yes, I bought a Turkish Drop Spindle.

So I have been doing a little bit of spinning. At the moment it is still driving me mad as I can't quite seem to get it, but I think I'm improving. I think my first yarn will be single ply and mostly worsted weight (mostly because I so far fail at keeping it even and so is kinda thick and thin). Hopefully I will have enough to make myself a scarf with it. Plus, with an added binus that Norfolk Yarns sell corridale tops for just £1.50, I should be able to get lots and lots. Yeay!

Peektures

Well, as I have now had a message that the blankets have arrived safely, I think it's only fair to post a picture or two showing them off.







And here's a quick WiP picture - this is my Branching Out - though it has grown a little more since I took this.

Not being selfish

Well apparantly I am a glutton for punishment. Just after I finished typing my last entry, I decided that the project I had made for my swap partner wasn't enough and it was very important that I should do another one. But I should still send my parcel out the following day. So I found a small project and I knitted (then WoW'd) and knitted until almost 1.30am when it was all finished except for being cast off, having ends weaved in and blocked. I got up early the next day in order to finish it off, finish the first project and finish wrapping and packing everything before taking it to the post office before 12.30pm.

I made it. By the skin of my teeth. So one parcel was finished and on it's way (or, shortly to be on it's way as I'd missed the last post).

One more to go.

The next day (Sunday) was spent picking up the stitches around the hooded baby blanket in order to make the border. Wednesday I finished that and blocked the baby chalice lace blanket. Thursday I went back to work (despite not feeling even vaguely rested or relaxed thanks to stressy holiday), but was still able to weave in all ends (and all correctly - I'm finding it much easier to do this now I know how to do it properly). And finally, yesterday (Friday) I packaged them up beautifully with a little note to Stef and Neil (mostly about how to wash them) and took them to the post office so they have now also started on their way.

I'm actually really enjoying this knitting for other people. I'm normally a very selfish knitter, but I've liked sending things off to people - especially when they don't know it's coming.

Pictures will follow at some point soon as I have actually managed to take some of my FO's!

So yesterday, I cast on two new projects. Firstly I decided to use some of the yarn Kara has given to me from her gran's stash (her gran no longer being able to knit) to cast on for Branching Out. The yarn I've picked (from the two enormous and filled to the top bin bags) is a fuzzy (probably some degree of mohair, but with something else added (acrylic?) to make it softer) somewhere between lace and DK weight in a bright duck egg blue with sparkles in. Not much of the yarn Kara donated has the labels on, so I am mostly guessing (though there is a lot of mohair in there).

The other project is finally making use of the beautiful Dream in Color Starry I bought a while ago which is burgundy with 2% silver fibre. The yarn is so beautiful I decided it didn't need a complicated pattern in order to show it off, so I've picked the Susie's Reading Mitts from this site. It's been quite cold these past few days and so apparantly I've been in the mood to make lots and lots of mittens/scarves/cowls/hats - and I keep looking for new patterns to make even more!

In other news, I *dinged* 80 on my druid (this is WoWspeak), went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (to celebrate my last day of freedom) and started back at work - it's like I never had a holiday already.

Procrastination

Yesterday was GCSE results day, so I went in to see the kids and how they did in their exams. It was nice to see most of them again. There were no tears or tantrums, so I guess everyone got what they thought they would. We only had one student fail everything, which at our school is almost good!

My swap package is progressing nicely and I'm hoping to send it out tomorrow - if I don't then I'll be stuck for a few days as it's a bank holiday. Almost everything is wrapped, I just need to finish assembling the handmade item (which I'm still worried is a little lame).

At the moment though I'm sturggling as I've got to the end of all my projects and seem to have so much finishing to do. And I hate finishing. I mean, HATE it. I've been known to wear swaether with the ends not sewn in because I hate it so much. The hooded blanket is blocked, but I need to attach the hood and do the edging. The lacey blanket still needs to be blocked. I need to bind off my other sock and sewn in the edges on both, and block them. The only real project I have still on the needles is the Crofter's Cowl, of which I have done the first half.

However, the only way it's going to get done is if I stop procrastinating on the internets and actually get on with it *sigh*.

Updatey

Decided to use the Lorna's Laces to make another baby blanket (you can never have too many of those, right?). This was mostly because the yarn has a little pink in it and I wasn't sure that Stef and Neil would want to be putting a baby boy in a jumper that had a little pink in. So far it's a simple 5x5 squared pattern using stockinette and reverse stockinette which looks quite effect. It's upstairs being blocked at the moment. I've also made a little hood which I will block then attach and then I've bought some Debbie Bliss Rialto in order to make a border. It's based on http://thriftyknitter.com/?p=293, which as a pattern allows for a lot of different interpretations - something I like now I'm becoming a little more experienced.

I've also cast on for my Crofter's Cowl. I'm using the most beautiful Malabrigo ever which is in gorgeous autumnal colours. It's going alright so far, but I keep making mistakes in the lace patterns and having to tink back. Possibly I should just pay more attention and stop having a glass of wine or two while I knit.

Also, I cast off one of my Blackrose socks yesterday. Haven't quite got round to doing the other one yet, but I have one sock. Wooties. I'm not convinced it's a perfect fit, but I'll have to see how it fits when I've blocked it. Mostly I've been feeling too lazy to do the finishing.

Life stuff has been a bit harder lately as one of my (two) uncle's died very suddenly about two weeks ago of a heart attack. He was 60 and there was no apparant reason for it. I guess sometimes these things happen. Last week was spent in a caravan in Cleethorpes in order to atend the funeral and visit with family.

I have another week and a half left of the holiday. At the moment I don't feel like I've spent it particularly well, but I'm not sure what I could have done differently or how to change this in the next week and a half.

Still, my housemate's cat just bought a frog in and I rescued it which made me feel good.