Hadrian’s Walk

I wanted a challenge. Something that would be fun to do, but something to work towards.

And then Dan came up with the plan to get the great and good from friends, family and the blogging world together to walk Hadrian’s Wall in support of the Joseph Salmon Trust. So that’s what I’m doing, next July and if you fancy coming along too, let Dan know as soon as possible.

Anyone who knows me will know that I’m really not the fittest person to walk the world, so this could be interesting, but with a year to prepare, I’m sure it will be fine.

More details here: http://www.hadrianswalk.org/

Mitten Tops

I loved the Dashing wrist warmers pattern that appeared in Knitty a couple of years ago and used the opportunity of a recent lengthy train journey to get me started on them and I love them, very very nice they are too. But I decided that I wanted to adapt them slightly to make them more multifunctional, so I’ve “designed” tops to these that can be buttoned on when it’s particularly cold. Pattern below, although I’m sure it’s not written up in normal knitting conventions:

k – knit
p – purl
bo – bind off
co – cast on

As with Dashing pattern:
Cable Back [CB]: Slip next 4 sts to cable needle (or spare DPN) and hold to back of work; k4, p1, then k4 from cable needle.
Cable Front [CF]: Slip next 4 sts to cable needle (or spare DPN) and hold to front of work; k4, p1; k4 from cable needle.

As this is meant to accompany the Dashing wrist warmers, you should use the same yarn and needles as for those.

Left mitten top:

1. Cast on 44 stitches and divide between 3 needles (11, 11, 22)
2. Set up a rib pattern of [k4, p1, k4, p2] (as in the larger size of the Dashing pattern) and knit 9 rounds. (If you have particularly long or short fingers, you may wish to tweak the number of rounds here)
3. On this round you want to put in two button holes, I used quite small buttons, but if you want to use larger buttons you may need to tweak to increase the button hole size. [k4, p1, k4, p2, k3, bo3, k3, p2] twice.
4. [k4, p1, k4, p2, k3, co3, k3, p2] twice.
5. Two more rounds in the rib pattern of [k4, p1, k4, p2]
6. [k4, p1, k4, p2, CB, p2] twice
7. Five rounds in the rib pattern of [k4, p1, k4, p2]
8. [k4, p1, k4, p2, CB, p2] twice
9. Five rounds in the rib pattern of [k4, p1, k4, p2]
10. [k4, p1, k4, p2tog] x 4
11. [k4, p1] x 8
12. [k4, p1, k4, p1, k3, k2tog, k4, p1] twice
13. k2, k2tog, p1, k2, k2tog, p1, k3, k2tog, k3, p1] twice
14. [k3, p1, k3, p1, k7, p1] twice
15. [k3, p1, k3, p1, k1, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k1, p1] twice
16. [k3, p1, k3, p1, k5, p1]twice
17. [k3, p1, k3, p1, k2tog, k1, k2tg, p1] twice
18. [k3, p1] x 12
19. [k1, k2tog, p1] x 6
20. [k2tog, p1] x 6
21. [k2 tog] x 3
22. loop a few inches of yarn through the remaining three stitches and pull tight
23. sew in yarn ends
24. sew buttons on to the Dashing wrist warmers to line up with button holes on the Mitten Tops

Right mitten top as left, but replace CB with CF.

Oh dear, it’s been a bit quiet around here hasn’t it?

Sorry for the quietness! First there was the redundancy and the job hunting and now there’s the new job (which I still love) and these things have all been conspiring to prevent me from having anything to say here. But my camera is currently in the shop getting fixed, and when that comes back I will restart the 365 Project that got abandoned a while ago.

But I’m keeping this short and sweet for now, as I got back from Newcastle at about 8 o’clock this morning, and have only had about 2 hours sleep and am still feeling rather discombobulated (a word that my dictionary fails to recognise, shocking!). A few quick mentions though: I’m going to be going to TAM in October, anyone else going? I know Pewari is… we’re planning on a mini blog meet the night before for interested parties.

I’ve also been failing in providing my comedy/theatre reviews recently (for a given value of “recently” – whoops!), I will do my best to correct that from here on in (speaking of which, anyone going to see the early edition at the London Southbank Udderbelly tomorrow?

Cx

Good News!

I’ve got a job! Woohoo!!!

And the week is still young…

It’s only Monday, and I already have a quote of the week from the mexican flu story.

What we’ve got to try and do is stop people who’ve come in from Mexico, places where this is prevalent, going to their GPs and spreading it amongst vulnerable people.

Which, paraphrased, means that we’ve got to stop sick people from going to the doctor.

I can see where there coming from, but it still makes one hell of a quote.

So….redundancy…

Redundancy. Hideous word, hideous thing.

This is the first time, since I was 16, that I can consider myself to be ‘unemployed’. There were times during university when I wasn’t working, but I was at university and that was not surprising, and I worked during the holidays to make up for it. I don’t like being unemployed (surprise surprise), and I certainly don’t like having to go the job centre…I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will have a job before I next have to go back there.

The main thing that I would say, is that I am eternally grateful that this has happened while the weather is so nice. If I had to go through this in the cold, rain and dark I think I would be a little puddle of miserableness. But, it is sunny! And therefore it’s more like being on holiday… and I’m working on the theory that I’m going to get a job very soon, so this probably IS my summer holiday.

Those of us from my office that have been effected have put in motion a plan that involves picnics, and museum visits (free!), sewing and knitting and trying to have at least one thing in the diary for each day. These are good plans and stop me being drowned in a see of job hunting.

So far, I’ve had a few good interview that I’m still waiting to here back from in the next few days. Here’s hoping!

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me

Of all days, this evening some fucker had to steal my wallet, didn’t they?

I’m not having a good week.

You’re kidding me.

I just stabbed myself in the foot with a piece of glass that I had missed when picking up the shattered remains of my glasses following Sunday’s accident.

Ouch.

The only way is up…

Well, here’s hoping that things are going to get better round here soon. First there was the stress of finding somewhere to live, then the announcement at work that about a quarter of the office were going to be made redundant (including all of my team), and then I managed to get myself taken to hospital after a bungee cord back fired on me while I was trying to strap something down. It pinged back, broke my glasses, cut up my eyelid and bruised my eye up. Ouch.

After a day of doing everything in prescription sunglasses, I’ve managed to find an old spare pair of normal glasses that got packed up in the last move. Not a perfect prescription, but should keep me going until the redundancy payout. Also on the upside, I’ve heard back from one of the many job enquiries I’ve made that they are interested in me, and would like to arrange a follow up interview/conversation, but not until after Easter.

And at least, for the most part, I have my health!

A riot? Really?

Does this look like the riot everyone on the news seems so keen to describe it as? Honestly people… a protest march and a riot are two very different things, it was a very peaceful day.