Is this really purple?

I bought this sock yarn because it claimed to be purple and as we all know, I'm a sucker for purple sock yarn, in fact for purple anything! It looked fairly purple on the website and it looks purplish here, but it's more greyish lilac to my way way of thinking and I'm not feeling terribly inspired by it. I'm trying to branch out into non plain socks this winter and I'd hoped that this would become a flowery type pattern but at the moment I'm thinking more rainclouds and thunder than floral.

Now, this, is purple and grey rather than greyish purple! I finished a sock for me, and although I didn't take a picture of this I cast on the second sock in direct defiance of the second sock syndrome. I would have got more knitting done if I'd been television watching but after getting the broadband television set up on Saturday I made the mistake of moving the television and a cable has come loose, at the moment I haven't managed to figure out which one so I'm back to square one! I do have a wireless router now and faster internet plus to my excitement I now seem to have a spam filter working to stop it being downloaded from the server - I'm amazingly excited about this!

Busy person

I've been busy today moving my computers around my flat, there is very little room here, mostly due to the fact that I have rather a lot of knitting wool so any big move of stuff has to be arranged like a series of chess moves. I've managed to get one of my 2 PC's working OK ready for the engineer coming to install my broadband TV on Saturday. Hecate isn't impressed but I'm pretty pleased with myself. This arrived - good timing, it felt like a reward, it's Socrates sock yarn in the Halloween colourway from my secret pal - it's lovely and is very high on my 'to knit' list, I have a couple of things to finish for the person I'm spoiling and then I'll get cracking.

My simple sock pattern is progressing, I'm procrastinating over the cable sock, I need to get on with it but not on the bus! Rosie, I don't think I'll get to Skipnorth, I'm really sad about it but I won't have got my sleep apnoea sorted out by then so unless you know of someone with the same complaint - or a hearing aid that they can turn off at night then I can't in fairness share a room with anyone. I wake up and/or snore/snuffle up to 30 times an hour when I sleep at present. I can't honestly afford to book into a B & B as an alternative so I shall have to count myself out.

A couple of years ago I bought a cone of this yarn, I keep this ultra simple shawl by the PC and knit the odd row while I mess around waiting for files to move and stuff like that, it may end up with a long fringe at the end depending on how much yarn I have left.
Sibille, I had a feeling you'd approve of my choice of pattern for the Forest yarn, it's a perfect match, a yarn that told me at once what it wanted to be. Healthwise I'm improving slowly, still tired a lot of the time, but the knitting mojo is returning and I'm more confident that I'm on the mend.

Stash building

I have to show you what I've been spending my money on while I've been busily not blogging! I'm addicted to yarn from the Natural Dye Studio, they dye the most gorgeous colourways and wonderful customer service. This is alpaca and merino double knitting in the hydrangea colourway, I'm planning a hat for me or possibly gloves, it's the softest loveliest yarn, I want to cuddle it!

This is BFL sock yarn in forest berries, socks ofr me I think although possibly it will end up as socks as a gift - who knows? I'm so far behind with knitting for my secret pal and for Christmas that I need Christmas putting off until next June! I'm blaming the chest infection, I actually felt too ill to knit for almost a month, incredibly frustrating and wasted a huge amount of potential knitting time.

This is merino sock yarn in forest, I'm thinking possibly the embossed leaves pattern from Interweave Knits, I've not got the book in front of me so I can't remember the name of the designer - I'll add it later.
Here's the proof that I did cast on the second sock but then stalled as I need to sit down and count carefully to get the cables right - I really will try and get on with it this week as I want to get it into the post (with its mate).

Here you can see how busy Hecate has been, now it is autumn I have to dry my clotehs on these airers, unfortunately she thinks they are intended as a climbing frame for her and my clothes spend most of their time on the floor! She does enjoy herself and demonstrates how athletic and supple she is!

Finally - a sock!

I was determined to achieve something this weekend, the plan to get the television sorted on Saturday failed and has had to be rescheduled and I mostly seem to have slept the weekend away, but, here is the first sock that I've managed to produce in months. I've even cast on the second sock of the pair which is good going for me. I have plans for this pair so I must crack on with it as soon as possible.

The second sock wil be my bus knitting this week if i can figure out how to remember where I'm up to with the cables while knitting in public.

Post finally!

Finally the strike bound mail service managed to spit out several packages and a load of bills this morning! I'd taken a days leave to reduce my first week back in the office to something manageable, sadly I then proceeded to sleep all day, clearly I needed the sleep but it feels like a terrible waste of a day off.
Anyway, this package arrived from the USA, my poor secret pal must have been wondering if it was ever going to get here!

These were inside, thank you secret pal - I have more babie sto knit for so the baby yarn will be extremely useful! The plastic stitch markers wil be really useful as I don't like to use metal markers on my nice shiny purple needles because I don't want to scratch them. The small balls are actually 50g in each, it's Maizy yarn, I've seen it in use on other blogs but never seen it in real life. It is 82% corn fiber and 18% elastic nylon, I'm not sure what pattern I'll use for it yet but the colours certainly make a nice change.

I finished sewing the new cushion cover around a cushion, it's a lovely thing, soft and fluffy and I was right, I can't easily keep Hecate away from it, she stands on it and kneads it with her claws.

As anyone who reads this blog regularly will know, I always have at least one fluffy scarf on my neeedles for the times when I don't want to knit anything complex, this is Sirdar Frenzy, not my favourite fancy yarn but I'm sure to find a home for it.

This doesn't show up very easily, but it's the camouflage sweater, I've finished teh neck band and done some of the seam sewing, hopefully it will be finished by the end of the weekend.

A second sleeve

I'm still cranking out this sweater, I just have to pick up the neck stitches, knit the neck band and seam it, in theory there should be pockets on each sleeve but I can't decide if I fancy them so I'll make it up without for now and see how much yarn I have left after I knit the trousers.
I had great news today, the premature twins that I was knitting for are doing really well, one is off tube feeding already, they're hoping the other littel girl will be soon and there is real optimism that they may be allowed home in the near future, I couldn't be more thrilled for them and their parents. I'm looking forward to knitting them full size baby clothes soon and also making something for their big sister so she doesn't feel left out.

See - I have been knitting

Please note that this is a different front (or back) as it's on a different needle to the picture on Sunday! I just have one sleeve and the sleeve pockets to do then I can start the finishing off and I'll have completed something this month!
I'm busily trying to decide if I can get a small package into teh post to my secret pal between one UK postal strike finishing and the next one starting and if it's worth the risk of putting something into the system that may take weeks to emerge from teh other end, I'm afraid for UK members of the latest secret pal swaps the post is proving a trial, I know there's a parcel on it's way to me, I think from the USA but as for when it will arrive - I have no idea, I tell myself that patience is a good thing to learn, but I've reache dteh ripe old age of 44 without getting the hang of it yet. This doesn't stop me from telling the cat to be patient when she tries to steal the food off my plate.
I made it through a second complete day at work today - despite getting soaked in a torrential downpour on my way in this morning, so far the week has been pretty much OK, better than I'd expected at least and I'm taking Friday off to give myself a long weekend. I have two reasons for that, one is to rest after being back at work but secondly I have the engineer coming to connect my TV service to my broadband, that means clearing up some more and may be a mistake as the downpour last night made my broadband lie down and die in the early hours of today. Luckily it was working when I got home enabling me to show you the knitting!

It's back to work I go

This means very little knitting as I managed to miss out somw vital decreases at the beginning of the raglan on the camouflage top and ended up frogging all the knitting I did while waiting to see my doctor. I'm still not 100% as my asthma which had been totally controlled is giving me problems, I can't work on my normal floor (the 11th) as I can't walk down 11 flights of stairs if we have a fire so I'm currently camping out on the second floor without any of my usual colleagues but it's better than being stuck at home. In the 4 weeks I've been off they've completely reorganised my section, I have a different manager from today (but he's off sick) and I'll be working on something new for the first time in nearly 4 years which I'm looking forward to. It could have been a much tougher return to work, Hecate has misssed me and showed her feelings by tryng to bite me when I came home - she's been bribed with salmon and is safely asleep in the doorway of my computer room so that she can keep her eye on me and make sure I don't vanish again. The return to work has left me shattered so I'm off to bed to catch up on teh sleep I didn't get last night as I anticipated the first day back in the office!

Cracking on

I'd had great plans for housework today, but instead I knitted a sleeve of the camouflage top while I sorted out the morass of files on my computer, I've been burning things I want to keep onto CD and knitting while it copies.

This is a finished front (or back) of the camouflage top, I have, in fact cast on the other half, but I didn't bother taking a picture as you've seen a part front and a finished one!

Actually knitting

I've been knitting up a storm today, this is the back (or front) of a T shirt style sweater for a toddler, I'm not sure who will get it yet but I couldn't resist kniting this yarn, I got it when I went to the Craft and Stitching Exhibition at the G Mex last month.

This is the finished cushion cover I was making, I just need to finish sewing it up and find a cushion pad to go in it! I suspect that once it is filled that Hecate will take it over as hers, she's taken to snuggling up with me now the nights are cooler so this will be nice and warm for her.

The sock is growing bigger, although I'm slow at it as I keep losing track of the cable pattern that I added to it, I'm not sure why I'm having such problems with it but I'm putting it down to the residual effect of the chest infection that seemed to addle the part of my brain that understands knitting patterns.

Staying awake

I wish I knew how staying awake is done, at least, I seem to have cracked the not sleeping at night aspect - I was still awake at 3 am this morning, by 10 am I was fast asleep and woke up at 14.30 with the cat fast asleep on top of me and a crick in my neck. It isn't conducive to getting much knitting done especially when you have decreases to do every second round and (foolishly) a cable to do every third! I have at least reache dthe gusset decreases and I'm loving teh yarn, I bought it from Knit'n'caboodle along with teh purple DPN's - luckily I have loads of puple sock yarn so I can match my knitting to my needles! I'm back at work on Monday provided no other calamities descend on me so I need to return to my early to bed early to rise routine in the next 5 days!
I also need to rearrange my living room as a nice engineer type chap is coming to install a different television provider a week on Saturday some clearing up is necessary and a bit of light dusting is in order!

September review

In general September has been dreadful, I hardly did any knitting as following a pattern became completely beyond me and I seem to have spent most of the month alternately coughing and sleeping. Hecate and I are at home again and I'm feeling much better, I'm back at work next week and hoping that I've recovered sufficiently not to catch anything else!


What did I actually manage to finish in September? The premature baby bodywarmers and mittens, I'm happy to have heard that both twins have arrived safely and as at last Monday were making progress although they are still in intensive care. I did manage to finish a simple scarf as well but that is as much as I finished. This picture sums up my knitting, it's out of focus! It is, however the first sock on my needles since very early in the year - I really do need to get on with sock knitting and finish Balsam but nothing is growing very quickly as I tend to doze off at regular intervals.