I do finish things occasionally!

Finally I reached the end of the cable socks, I seem to have been working on them forever and a day, I'm pleased with them though and they're now safely wrapped up and will go in the post this week.

Just to prove that I'm a wee bit crazy I dug out an old sock-in-progress with a slightly different cable repeat and figured out where I'd got confused when I was working on it about a year ago, I've done a few rounds and will now try and keep it plodding along in between the frantic Christmas gift knitting that I have barely started. I've returned the set top box for my broadband TV and have successfully muddled up the connection of my DVD player to the TV so I've no excuse to avoid getting on with the complicated knitting that I can't do while I watch television!

Here she is!

I'd hoped to be showing you a picture of a finished pair of socks but I've made a total hash of the toe decreases somehow, frogged and picked the stitches up all wrong!
I can however (and much more importantly) show you my great niece at one day old as her parents have given me the OK to post her picture. I told you she is gorgeous and here is the proof!
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the sock problem fixed and be cracking on with the Christmas knitting - I've planned my weekend for frantic knitting and packing the final parcel for my secret pal!

Life and socks

I completely forgot to blog on Friday when I took this picture - I was wrestling with my television supply from my internet provider all day only to eventually get a tech support man to agree with me that my telephone signal is too weak for the service and they should never have offered it to me. At this point I suffered a sense of humour failure and sulked for much of the weekend. This meant that I didn't share with you the excitement of finally starting the heel of the second cable sock.
By the end of the weekend the sock had reached this stage in its development, I'm cautiously optimistic that I may get it finished in the next few days.
The lack of blogging means that I didn't thank those of you who left comments or emailed me about the arrival of the great niece, I do have several pictures of her but don't have permission from her parents to post them so I'm afraid that you will have to take my word for her being completely gorgeous!
I also didn't have the chance to share four unrelated incidents, three of which demonstrate to me that I really don't understand the local inhabitants here and the fourth goes to show that my cat understands me all too well.
Tuesday last week I waited at the bus stop and to my amazement saw a mother light two cigarettes and pass one to her son who looked to be no more than 12-14 years old - I find that sort of parenting completely incomprehensible.
Thursday morning on my way to work at 6am a young man walked past me with a single golf club in his hand, I can't think of any innocent reason for this - especially as he had his hat and scarf arranged to almost completely obscure his face.
Thursday coming home from work I passed a home made banner on a roundabout that announced to the world that some young lad was 21 that day and (apparently) still a virgin - why would anyone put that on a banner?
My cat (in my eyes) frequently demonstrates intelligence, having had part of a cooked chicken on Wednesday evening she saw the rest of it being put in the fridge, next morning she attempted to hide her cat food and stood in front of the fridge on her hind legs mewing to tell me that she'd much prefer chicken.

Officially old?

At 11 am today my niece had a little girl, I am now officially a great aunt, I am now giving myself permission to become an eccentric, cat owning, knitting, eccentric great aunt!
This is my mother's first great grand child and I just took great delight in calling my older sister grandma!

If I ruled the world!

Socks with cables on them would be much easier than this one (had I made a note of how I did the first sock this second sock would be much easier)I do love this yarn though and it will be very hard to part with the socks when they are finished!
In fact, more importantly, if I ruled the world every new pensioner would be given lessons in how to catch a bus. With the approaching festive season combined with the free bus travel that pensioners have after 9.30am and the difficulties in parking in Manchester my journeys home have been enlivened by people who haven't the faintest idea how to catch a bus. In the last week I've had to explain to a sweet lady that the bus that just drove past our stop hadn't stopped to let her on because she hadn't put her hand out to indicate that she wanted it to stop. I then had to explain to another couple that the bus we were on only stopped at bus stops, not at the corner right by their house (which would of course have been much more convenient). The buses seem to be full of a combination of hyperactive teenagers and confused pensioners with an added garnish of screaming babies in huge prams, it doesn't make for a peaceful knitting experience which is slowing down my knitting output dreadfully!

Checking in on Sunday

I'm still not making great progress with my secret pal knitting or with my Christmas knitting in fact but I did cast on this sock as a Christmas gift, it's Natural Dye Studio's yarn, I love their colours and they make lovely simple socks.

Knitting a simple sock would be much simpler if Hecate didn't try to help me all the time, she's reacted badly to me returning to work after the month I was off sick and is alternately sulky and clingy, I've never had to deal with separation anxiety from a cat before and I'm trying to get us back into a routine to try and help her to settle down again.
I have finally on about the fifth attempt managed to get the cable pattern established in the second cable sock - it might have helped if I'd written the pattern down when I invented the first one! Next sock after this will be the Embossed Leaves pattern in Forest although I may also try that pattern in the Maizy yarn as it is coloured in autumn leaf colours.

A day late!

I'd meant to post this yesterday as I had a day off work but I slept all day, I think I knitted a grand total of 2 rounds of a sock and the rest of the time was spent dozing with Hecate snuggled up as close as possible. This mug and coaster are now on my desk at work, they were a gift from my mother, surprisingly enough all my female colleagues seem to agree with the sentiment!

I found these three balls of wool at the bottom of the stairs on Wednesday when I got home, Hecate has been yarn hunting again, rather worryingly, I can account for the 4 ply, that's spare from knitting premature baby clothes, but I have no recollection of the other two at all. Is my indoor cat now sneaking through wormholes in space to find me yarn?

Everytime I think I will stop buying knitting pattern books I find another I can't resist, this has some very unusually structured scarves that I'd like to try although like my planned embossed leaves socks they will have to wait until I finally finish my secret pal gifts and do some rapid Christmas knitting! Don't worry Sibile, I will knit that forest sock yarn as soon as I can!

It's a pair!

I finally knitted a pair of socks - this is Angels and Elephants yarn that I bought on eBay, the purple is actually pinker than it looks here but I haven't managed to get an accurate picture yet. It's bonfire night here and my poor cat is completely disturbed by the fourth night in a row of fireworks, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit quieter. I promise I'll try and get another sock on the go tomorrow - it's getting colder and I need more socks!

Sunday

In the lack of blogging last week I never showed you this, I never buy Rowan books normally as they are mostly full of designs that are too small for my use, but this book being men's patterns goes larger and has a couple of patterns that I really want to make from it.

The second sock of this pair is now growing reasonably quickly, this is the end result of me sitting in front of the television watching lots of Victoria Wood repeats.

Hecate let me have the armchair today - but took over the computer table - she's definitely having an attention seeking phase again although to be fair it is some time since she last fell in my bathwater which is something!

Better late than never

My mother has been blanket knitting and sewing squares together for charity, this is my sister modelling it - I know you can't see her but I assure you that she is behind it!

In her spare time she's been crocheting this in (I think) snowflake chunky that we bought at the G-Mex when she and I went on a spending spree in September.

I've been re organising my living room so that I can relax in my armchair in front of my vastly expanding range of TV channels - unfortunately as you can see Hecate has decided that I moved the armchair especially for her benefit!

She's very good at looking so cosy and relaxed that I don't have the heart to move her, she's been disturbed by the dratted fireworks around here and alternating demanding my attention with hiding whilst turning up her nose at her cat food.

I did finish another sock, October knitting was pretty sparse I'm afraid, I finished 2 socks and a cushion cover, I finished the knitting for the camouflage top and did some of the sewing up but then I did some tidying up and can't find it to finish it off!