February 16th, 2018

I have been a busy bee since I posted last time, I have been monogamously knitting on my latest design and I finished it yesterday.  I have spent the past 2.5 hrs writing up the pattern and then sent the PDF to my son for him to take a look at the format and layout.  He agreed that it was good and so I published it today.  Here are a few photos.

It has used nearly 5000 yards of Paintbox Simply DK so is a good stash buster because I used two colours together.  I randomly picked the colours because I wanted it to be a bright and colourful rug for my living room.  Plus I want to stop having cold feet from the laminate flooring.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simply-rug

I have put a link above to the rug pattern above if anyone would be interested in purchasing it.

Today is a very sunny but cold day and the forecast for the evening is even colder, it is going to get to about 1 degrees so warm pyjamas tonight.  I have been planning what to cook for a meal tonight too, Frank is popping over and after much deliberation I am going to cook a fish meal with rice and vegetables.  I would not say I am enthusiastic about cooking, I do not cook many meals but when I know I am getting a visitor I will make an effort.

It is 12.30pm and for the rest of the day I intend to watch a few podcasts and cast on a new project called Reyna by Noora Laivola which is a free pattern on Ravelry.com.  I am going to use some stash yarn that I have called Louisa Harding Amitola.  It is a lace kind of shawl pattern and will be my first lace project.

Have a good weekend.

February 5th, 2018

Hi there,  just popping in to bore you about the freezing weather here in my part of the UK.  It is 11.30am right now, I got back from my interview this morning around 11am and I still cannot get warm.

It is just one degree above freezing here and when I left at 08.20 this morning I had my shawl, woollen coat, large cabled scarf, hat and gloves on and it started to blinking snow heavy.  I just thank the Lord that it is not very windy today because it would have been much colder.  My interview was at 09.30 and the bus journey became horrendous.  The traffic at the Heathway was really bad, the roadworks at Morrisons was even worse and then to top it off, the bus driver changed shifts so I rang and left a message with the Secretary that I could be late for my interview.  I have never been late and get anxious about it and so ended up getting there at 09.36.  They were ok about it thank goodness and my interview went well, they said they will contact me by the end of the week for their decision.

By the time I got home it started snowing again, just a little bit and I made a coffee and started to write this and update my Job Search Journal.

I have had my central heating on all weekend but last night felt so drafty and Frank and I decided to get a couple of blankets on our laps.  Frank has got the crocheted granny square blanket and I have the mitred square blanket.  You can just see the back of Tammies head where she is always laying.

I love my blankets and will keep on making them, I do not think you grow out of a blanket like you do with clothing styles and it is so comforting to have a warm cover to give you that extra bit of heat.

I certainly do not intend to go out again today, other than walk Tammie, I have just seen the Gritter Trucks go past so must be getting more snow soon.  I think I will just do a little tidying up and then get some more work done on Strip No.5 of the rug.  I am enjoying it so much.

I did finish one of Franks socks the other day but when I got him to put it on it seemed quite small in the foot. I could not work out why it came up short because I always do 70 rounds for his foot length so I unpicked the toe and got him to put it back on and blimey, it was about an inch too short.  I added another 10 rounds and it was better and so am now leaving to do the toe until I finish the second sock. I was puzzled why it was so short and then occurred to me that I am using size 2mm dpns and knitting quite tighter than normal.   

I am also trying to alternate the way I knit through each knitting session that I do, I am quite concerned about my thumb and the pain I am getting.  I will put on a support to see if that helps and take little break too.

Oh well, I am off to get another coffee and try to warm up.  Have a good day and will be back with good news about the job soon.

February 1st, 2018

Today is a very cold (4 degrees) but sunny day and I did not want to go out  but I told myself that the dog loves her walk and so I put on a shawl under my coat and my big cable scarf on top, plus a hat and gloves and went outside.  I just about managed to miss most of the school kids going past and there were only a few screaming teenage girls to blot out the noise from.  I was not out for very long, literally posted a letter and was back again much to Tammies dismay.

Yesterday I was up bright an early at 6am and walked to the Heathway to catch the bus to Harold Hill.  I got to Michelles house around 07.15 and got a lovely greeting from my Grandson.  We spent the day together while Michelle went to work, we played, chuckled, he can sit up now on his own most of the time with just a little wobble now and then.  He loves his racing car walker and his jumperoo but also gets a lot of floor time rolling around, talking and being quite vocal.  I managed to get a bit more knitting done on my latest socks whilst he slept and I watched a couple of podcasts like Fruity Knitting and Skeindeer Knits and then at 4pm I put on a quiz programme called Tipping Point. Now for some reason my Grandson likes this programme, he will watch it intensely at times and all I can think of is because of the bright red colours on the machine.  You can see this quiz programme on Youtube if you want to see what I mean.

My niece came in from school and then my brother came in from work and we had a coffee together. My brother David beams at my Grandson when he walks in and Martyn just beams back at him as if to say Where You Been.  David says that it makes his day when he sees him.  David goes back out around 5pm to get Michelle and they go on to a cleaning job that they do together and then by 7pm we sat down for dinner which consisted of Cornbeef, Chips and Beans which was yummy.   Shortly after Dave takes me home in his car and Michelle gets Martyn bathed and ready for bed.

So that was yesterday and as I said it is freezing today with a chilly wind that needs to blow away fast.  I did turn my central heating off for a few days because it has been so mild around 10 degrees but today, it went straight back on.  I got up around 8am today and spoke to Frank on the phone for a while and then I ended up giving my bedroom a good clean and tidy and got some washing and ironing done.  Michelle rang to say that Martyn had cut his first tooth which explained his sleepless few nights poor thing.

Housework lasted till about 11.30 am and then I did some job searching and applied for a few jobs.  I checked my emails and have been invited for an interview on Monday so am looking forward to that. I then finished off knitting the 4th strip for the rug and whilst watching The Grocery Girls Podcast on Youtube, I sewed together the 4 strips that were completed.

You can see it folded on the back of the chair and it is rather big.  I was going to take a photo of it on the floor but I will wait till I have completed it because I am hoping to turn it into a knitting pattern on Ravelry.

It is now 1640 hrs and just starting to get dark so the candles are lit and the lamp is on and am now enjoying a cuppa and some rich tea biscuits.  

Tammie is waiting patiently to be offered some biscuit and you have to dunk it in the tea or she turns up her nose at you. Rather spoiled I am afraid.

I am going to spend the rest of the evening working on my 5th strip for the rug, do a little dinner and maybe see what is on the tv. I am hoping to get those socks finished this weekend because after having a tidy up in my room I have put aside my next stash of yarn for a project and would like to crack on with that soon.

Have a good evening and hopefully be back soon.