There was nearly a disaster this morning.  I opened this month's Socks-That-Rock Sock Club shipment, and almost didn't make it out of the front door.  That yarn is lush.  It is practically edible.  It makes me want to take my clothes off and roll around in it, and wrap myself up like a mummy in its sumptuous fibres.  Oh my golly gee, it is stunning.

It took great, great, enormous determination and dedication to go to work.  It would have been far nicer to have stayed put, wound that lusciousness into balls, and cast on.  I'm sure I'd have finished a sock by the time I needed to leave for Brownies.  As it is, I'm having to yarn fondle at work - because the Sock Club very kindly sent a little skein of emergency yarn, with a metal loopy thing that clips onto the handbag.  So it is clipped there, and I can reach out and stroke it whenever I want to.  I feel privileged and somewhat naff at the same time.  I have yarn clipped to my handbag.  It has a label, annoucing to the world that it is there for emergencies.  Did you ever?

Winding and swatching is happening tonight, with perhaps a little work on Opie.  There shall also be winding of yarn for socks for my Mum - to be the travelling/commuting/no point in thinking socks.   Purl Soho has their own stripey Lorna's Lace's yarn, and Mum's one of two people I can think of with the right width foot and ankle for the suggested 64 stitches on 2.5mm needles (me, I like 56 stitches for my socks), so that it stripes.  The other has had socks knitted for them already.  One could argue that I am not as dutiful a daughter as could be desired.  One would probably be able to make an extremely solid case.  I think I bought Periwinkle Blue.

Excuse me.  I have to go and fondle some yarn now.

xxx

'Tis the season of swops, and I had a lovely one from Erie Pennsylvania.... courtesy of Dannielle

Doesn't it look pretty?!

There were Peeps (love them).

What she calls Sponge Candy, and I call Hokey Pokey (this provoked much excitement, and I nearly ate the whole packet in one go).

Literature

And the most glorious necklace, which has finally broken my habit of wearing my Grandmother's Cross and never taking it off.  That was a habit that needed breaking: I needed to stop feeling guilty about the idea of taking the thing off, you see.

I also have photos from my trek up Primrose Hill last Sunday, as I went digital as well as using my SLR (I've just bought a replacement SLR from EBay.  For the princely sum of £25 - just a camera, no lens, as my lens is still good, but my SLR's LCD display has gone Fubar.  Enough of the TLAs).   Can you believe how gorgeous the sky was?  That blue picture is just that - sky.  Nothing but sky.  I thought it would be interesting to take a picture of sky.  Larger pictures will happen if you clicky.  I am bad at formatting.

I've spent an inordinately boring day on a First Aid course, and I've got another to go.  However, I do have a beautiful Brownie Meeting planned round the theme of 'St George's Day'.  We're going to make DRAGONS.  In sixes.  Possibly with paint.

I have a new set of scales.  Naturally, they are being used for yarn.  This is Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn.  It is not, despite what the label claims, suitable for the washing machine.  However, the recipient informs me that the socks do fit him, so my frantic de-felting when they came out of the machine was worthwhile.  I have not had luck with the washing machine.  Last night, my white wash went greeny.  And not in a good way.  I shall dye it Emerald Green.  Which will be excellent.

xxx

Sitting at my desk, when Clancy emailed me a lovely picture of his orbital blowout fracture.  He wanted to know if ice would help.  Of course it will.  Particularly in a bourbon.

Picture in a protected posting, for those who want the gory details.

Meanwhile, my Mummy has bought me some new shoes.  Leopard print kitten heel slingbacks.  Much gloriousness.

xxx

Last night, all it took was my wind-up-frogman bath toy.  I'm probably far too old for such things, but I set him going up and down the bath, and had a lovely time.  If he's fully wound, he can pretty much complete the circuit of the bath, with a little help at the corners.

Simple things for simple minds.

I have ordered a set of Addi Lace needles: much as I love the Lantern Moon needles I'm knitting Snowdrop with, I've found that the join is giving me contact dermatitis.  I should try and take a photo of how I hold the needles, but in my right hand, I hold my needle similar to a pen, and throw the yarn around.  So, there is a nasty dry-itchy bit of skin where my thumb joins my index finger, as it were.  Which is exactly where the join sits.  Less of a problem now there's more shawl on the needles, but it could be a pain when it comes to the edging... and I dislike using the steroid cream, even though it's incredibly effective.   Some yarn slipped in while I was ordering the needles: I want to knit someone socks for their birthday in June, and I don't want to faff about, so superwash DK merino it is.  There is a six month lead time for the needles at some stores, and it'll be next year before they arrive in the UK proper, however, mine are apparently shipping as I write!

I am lucky.

xxx

I'm actually 'working from home while sick' today - which means that I do the basics, and nothing too taxing.  It's an upset stomach, and I am in no mood to stir too far from my bathroom.  It does not help that I consumed at least four green chillies whole last night (they were cooked), in an excellent curry.  I think it's my system reacting to the chillies and the spice, rather than anything nefarious in the way of salmonella.  But, oh, my tummy hurts!  It's not surprising that I had an interrupted night's sleep: I overslept, even though I'd stolen Jo's battery alarm clock to compensate for the fact that there was a power failure starting at around midnight - it went on for around 4 and a half hours, based on the time on my mains alarm clock.  Very odd.  I have photos of my street in almost-darkness.  It wasn't the whole street, or the whole area, and various buildings have emergency lighting etc.  I was slightly freaked by how dark my bedroom was, and I've got candle wax on the carpet.

Anyhow, I finally, after some conversation with my Mum, came to some conclusions.  Firstly, that I ought to ration her Easter Egg consumption better.  She got through most of an egg, and was as hyper as a toddler on a sugar high for most of Sunday afternoon.  It was absolutely exhausting.  Maybe I should have eaten more of my egg (for the record, Green and Blacks, which I think is rough as old boots.  However, they do not make Tesco or Sainsbury basic el-cheapo dark chocolate eggs.  Shame).

My conclusions are this:

I want to allow myself more peace and quiet, in order to contemplate, to think before I act, and to be creative.  I will not take on any more external activities, except for those that allow creativity (I will resign as County Secretary as soon as I can get someone else to take over).  I will drink more water and eat more fruit. I want to spend less time with people who are negative, and more time with people who are positive.  Fun as it is to spend an evening bitching with the girls, I then spend the next day moaning, and that is not fun for people who weren't in the original bitch-fest: I can't help thinking, too, how hurt we would be if other people were talking about us behind our backs in that manner.  I spend far too much time rushing from pillar to post: what I really want is to be comfortable with msyself.

I now need to work out a bit more of the how.  In the meantime, this blog is going to become more about knitting, and less about me.  So I should take a photo of the Snowdrop Shawl in progress...Voila!

xxx

Currently defined as: finally paying in the cheque that's been in my wallet since February and discovering that Pret a Manger had exactly the soup I've been craving for days.  With the abrupt cessation of the bitterly cold wind that's been pissing everyone one off for the last few days and a completed repeat of the Snowdrop Shawl in Mongolian Cashmere thrown in for good measure.  There is happiness here.

As long as I don't move outside these parameters, except for something non-threatening, such as coffee, all is secure and cosy.  And will be even cosier when the shawl is knitted.  Honestly.  I started off by thinking, last night, well, I'll just wind this one skein, and, before I knew where I was, all three skeins were wound and I'd cast on and knit some.  Which made a change from everything I've been knitting recently, and made me want to skip morris too.  I was good, though, and didn't, so we had 12 dancers, and 2 sets, and it was far more fun than normal.

I have a meeting.  Damn.  The parameters just shifted.

xxx

Da-Da-Doooo!

Can you guess what I'm singing?  No?  Am I really that bad?  Well.  Maybe if I put up a picture of Indiana Jones and the Last Sweatband, it'll be a bit better.

I do not know if he promptly fell in the river after having had this picture taken, however it is amusing to imagine that it may have happened.

OK.  I am amused.  However, it takes very little to amuse me.  Last night I achieved it by knitting during an after-hours meeting.  I completed almost two inches of sock while sat there, very quietly and unobtrusively.  There were Easter Eggs at the meeting, which kinda indicates how dang-blasted serious it was: more of a celebration than anything else.

I have decided.  It is time to embark upon lace knitting.  The alpaca laceweight is calling me.  As is the cashmere.  I think I may start with the simpler cashmere pattern.  The office, however, is cold, and I need something snug to hug me during working hours.

xxx