Finally more knitting!

As you can see, the sock is proceeding, not terribly quickly but I might just get it finished before the month end. I'm really not achieving much at all in the knitting line, nor in anything else really, but I'm not feeling as down as I was at the beginning of the week so I'm working on not beating myself up over the general lack of progress.






My brother came to see me yesterday, and brought this, this is a package of several items, not just one despite the suggestive shape! I have a birthday shortly and this is his idea of birthday wrapping, goodness knows what it will turn out to be, I don't expect to resist opening it until my birthday, I never was one for deferred gratification.
He did do a couple of jobs for me that I couldn't do, and he played with Hecate - having been totally obnoxious all week she proceeded to be cute, winsome, playful and to show herself off at her best yet again. I really wish I had a video camera, still shots just can't capture her sheer athleticism and joi de vivre as she leaps into the air after her toys. When she is in that sort of playful happy mood she is a delight. Not only that, once he left she was so exhausted she curled up with me and purred herself into sleep.

Smashing times

It's been a rotten week so far, Monday my mother wasn't answering her phone at a time when she should have been in and when I normally ring her, after much phoning round my brother drove over to find her fine, but she'd pulled a cable out of her phone without noticing. No blogging while I indulged in panic followed by irritation!
Tuesday I got home from work to find broken crockery in postal boxes as pictured below. This was followewd by the female Houdini of the cat world nearly escaping out of a slightly open first floor window onto a main road - now the windows are shut and she spent the evening sulking and attacking my feet even more often.I did get a small amount of sock knitted but nothing worth taking a picture of.
You can see I suspect from this picture and the next one why I am not a happy bunny! For some reason the person who packed this item thought wrapping crockery in pieces of blanket was a good idea rather than using bubble wrap, I'm still waiting to hear from them! It is the first time I've had any breakages in transit, I know I've bene fortunate but that doesn't soothe my temper at present!

This is, I suppose minor damage as it was an odd cup with no saucer that I wasn't that interested in - it came as part of a job lot, but I still paid for it and it's worthless.

This, was a complete set prior to the seller mis packing it, I'm peeved as the chances of me finding a new cup and saucer are very slim. It's actually a dull green colour - I know it's brown in the picture, you'll have to take my word for it!

I do at least now have a jug and sugar bowl to go into the tea set that I'm trying to collect, even if I am one cup down!

I'm pleased with these, I now have 5 mugs in the same style, all different designs and shades of green and yellow, I intend using these and getting rid of some of my oldest tattiest mugs now.

The saucer here was thrown in for free, the plate and saucer match a sugar bowl and I think are pretty if a bit over decorated compared to the shamrock design.

I love these little cauldrons, this one is in much better condition than the first one that I bought, it has all the gilding still on it for a change!
I'm now hoping that the rest of the week gets better although I have my doubts at the moment. I'm planning a quiet Wenesday evening watching tennis on the television and chilling out to see if that improves my mood.

Just about back

I spent Saturday sleeping, I've no idea why, and Sunday trying to catch up rather vaguely on what I should have done on Saturday, so I can only show you a small amount of progress on the second valentine sock.

I can also show you two pretty small plates from my collection, I'll definitely have a doll's tea party soon. Now, I'm off to spend more time with my new design book, I'm finding it engrossing!

Thank you secret pal!

I had advance warning via an ecard to expect a package from London, look what arrive dtoday!! Not only does this look like a brilliant book, but it arrived at the end of a week that I have found a real struggle, my secret pal has great taste and superb timing, I consider myself very fortunate to have been matched with them. It does of course mean no knitting this evening while I curl up with book and kitten - she mostly co-operates with me when I read!





I'm still not sure what size the foot of this sock needs to be, so I've ground to a halt and switched to the other sock.

Which is over half way along the leg - my friend may get these next week some time if I keep going at this.

A shamrock plate to add to the collection.

A tree of life pattern mug, the factory was keen on celtic designs - not unreasonably as it was Irish!


A saree that I couldn't resist - 6 yards of fabric for £5!











A series of kitten pictures to show how Hecate has grown - the tins of spaghetti are weighting down the scratching post as she keeps knocking it over. I've just got two bricks to replace them but they need washing.






And this, is a kitten who just fell off the curtain she was climbing and is trying to pretend that she never meant to climb the curtain but was just planning on sitting on the box!

Knitting and a cat's tail

Knitting first! I actually cast on the second sock of the valentine colourway - a friend of mine has asked if I'll make them for her, so I'm going to see if I can get the pair finished this month, I've also decided on a home for the petticaot colourway, so I'm going to push on with this first sock at the same time.


This arrived from America today - small but pretty, I'm very pleased that I managed to get this as it fits with all my shamrock Arklow items.


I picked this up because it comes under the heading of souvenir ware rather than anything else.
Just in case you thought Hecate is absent from the blog we have here an illustration of why pictures can be tricky to get for this blog! Hecate is currently playing happily with a noisy toy ball that she is chasing around the bath tub while I type this!

It's another odd sock!

This is the Fyberspates Valentine sock, I'm happy with it, and impressed that I actually got in so much knitting time this week! After discovering curtain climbing yesterday Hecate was totally hyper active and disruptive, today she seems to have forgotten how to get back up there and is sat on my lap sulking after a few failed attempts!
The next sock has reached the gussets, it's been a cool day hence I can knit without sticking to my needles, I'm tired this week for soem reason though and am aiming for an early night.
These arived today, nothing to do with what I normally collect but I saw them and fell totally in love with them, once Hecate is older and less inclined to knock things off shelves I'll have them on display.
One of Arklow's craft range of plates came from a dealer in Ireland.
He very kindly put these in as a free gift - one has a slight chip but they're a pretty pair.

Progressing by leaps and bounds!

Not me - the cat, Hecate has been trying to get to the top of the curtains ever since she got here.


As you can see, she's figured it out today.
Not only can she get up there, she then walks along the curtain pole.
Then, she turns round and goes back the way she came.
I did think she might get stuck at the end but she managed to get down without wrecking anything!

It isn't often that packages arrive from eBay sellers done up like this!
But then not all the packages contain anything as delightful as this!

It's less than 4" high and exquisitely decorated.

This looks positively clumsy by comparison, but is rather classy in it's own way.

The Opal petticoat sock has reached the point where I wasn't about to try and pick up stitches on the bus.

The foot of this sock is progressing, I may even get it finished this week if the kitten continues to wear herself out curtain climbing. At the moment she is curled up across my feet while I type!

Socks mostly

Knitting first today - the petticoat sock is growing slowly, I may still give this colour away as I'm not warming to the amount of yellow and green in it.

I'm definitely more at home with this colour, and I'm part way along the foot now, I'll put it on one side now to do on the bus whiel I work on something for my secret pal.
This yarn is also knitting up well, but I can't show you yet what it is as it's for a friend.
The third of my set of cups - this one is a souvenir of Clonmel.
This is a large size plate that matches a side plate I obtained some time ago, I'm pleased to be able to match it.

Hecate has been thoroughly happy and active today with no apparent after effects from her self strangulation attempt so I'm content to not take her to the vets for now. Besides, I mentioned the idea to her and she tried to bite me!

Times of trauma

At 2.30 thi smorning I woke up to find the kitten had found a loop of cable running from a table lamp and made a valiant attempt to strangle herself, I don't know what woke me up, as she was lying on the floor by my bed quietly not crying or struggling and she let me disentangle her without a murmer - it was too tight to just slide over her head. Goodness knows how she managed it, I'd been round carefully tidying cables out of her reach wherever possible as she had a tendency at first to try and bite them. She'd given herself a dreadful fright (nothing to what she'd given me) I never got back to bed as she was clinging to me and eventually fell asleep curled up in my arms. It didn't make a great start to the day. She seems fine now, I made sure she had eaten before I left for work this morning and she was playing happily. I've watched her carefully this evening and she's as active and happy as usual so I'm reasonably sure that she'll suffer no ill effects from her latest adventure.
Both socks have progressed, I had to stop the Valentine one as I can't pick up stitches on the bus so I got on with this one, The Opal petticoat which is knitting up quite nicely, although I don't think it's really me! I'm not that keen on green and it is a bit pastel.




Four side plates and a dinner plate in my pattern that have travelled safely from Canada - they came by sea to save money so I've been waiting for them since the end of April, my patience has now been rewarded!








I picked up a copy of Knitter's magazine today, and I'm really pleased that I did, although buying the Koigu for this,or the Kid Silk Haze for the shawl might leave me rather short of cash, I think I'd better wait and see if I stay inspired by them. There's a nice bag pattern in it and a few other things I like, I didn't much like the last issue, but this one seems more interesting.