Family Pride

Last weekend was one of the biggest sporting events in our region - the Great North Run. Now, I don't run, but my brother took part and his wife daughter and I were the support team.



I've watched it on TV each year since it began, but have never been up to Newcastle for the event before. What an amazing atmosphere! I had no idea so many people would be there.
We drove up to Newcastle and I was very proud of the way I managed to navigate the closed roads and diversions and still find a free parking space on the edge of the Town Moor so we could walk down to the start.




P ran for Christian Aid (and we are very proud of the money he raised) and most of the runners seemed to be carrying sponsorship for good causes. We had an emotional moment before the start as the radio DJ was reading out some of the stories behind people's reasons for running and fundraising - and by the time they played Abide With Me I, was in tears.



We drove to South Shields for the finish and watched the Red Arrows display, before managing to find P in the crowds.



Well done, P! I'm very proud of you!

Would you dare?

bungee jump from the Transporter Bridge? I wouldn't but we watched some brave souls doing it:





I still feel a bit sick just thinking about it.

Give me a quiet walk on the beach any day.



On the needles: I've just started my second Monkey sock. I'm very happy with the way the first came out. The yarn and pattern work well together.Pictures as soon as I get this one finished.

The cooler weather has inspired me to look at hat and scarf patterns. I'm thinking about knitting a cowl as I've seen some really nice ones on ravelry and I think they would workwell with my walking jacket for winter.

Two posts in one weekend

I received a wonderful swap package from Amanda, as part of the Ravelry Knitters' Treasure Swap.
The sock monkey is wonderful. I'm developing quite a knitted monkey collection.



Finished my Hedgerow socks:



I don't love the yarn - it's a bit scratchy, but they will be nice socks for work. I'm trying to amass a selection of socks I can wear with suits and dark trousers. I want to get as much wear as I can from my hand knit socks, but sometimes the bright handpaints just don't work with business wear. This was from Violet Green.

J and I drove down to Whitby.



It was very busy so we bailed quite early and headed home to clear out kitchen cupboards. (Just goes to show that romance is still alive and well after 19 years together ;)) I think the next time we drive down will probably be at Halloween to people watch during the Gothic Weekend.



Called into Bobbins and bought this:



It's Kureyon Sock by Noro and it feels like hessian, which is a shame, given the price. I keep reading that it softens with washing and wear. I do hope so. If it doesn't, maybe it will help with the dry skin on my feet...

Indian Summer

Can't believe it is three weeks since I last posted. That means we have done three weeks of the Autumn term already and there are only 5 left until half term holidays. Yipee!
It didn't feel like Summer during the Summer - cold and wet - and it doesn't feel like Autumn yet. Typically, ever since the start of term we've had some lovely, dry, warm days with lots of sunshine and an opportunity to wear the clothes I bought for work in the Spring.

Our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, but J doesn't think he'll bother with outdoor tomatoes next year. The Summer wasn't really adequate for a good long growing season.



These are a wonderfully wrinkly variety - a heritage seed plant, whose name I can't remember.

J is starting to cut things back in the garden. Everything is overblown and some areas need a bit of a rethink.



I love sea holly even when it has gone to seed and started to change colour from silver to bronze.

I've weathered some fundamental changes to my life since I last posted. I am no longer the mother of a child. I am now the mother of a young man who attends college, calls his tutors by their Christian names and has a driving licence. The driving lessons start this week. More grey hairs, no doubt.

j (I wonder if I should give him another alias that has a capital letter as he is no longer a little chap?) is attending the same college I went to between 1979 and 1981.J went there too, during the building's earlier incarnation as a school. J and I went to New Parents' Evening last week. We couldn't remember much about the building. I expect it has changed a lot in the last 27 years. We certainly didn't address our tutors by their Christian names. Although, I did have a friend who was sleeping with one of the English tutors. On reflection, she probably did.

I am finally catching up with the rest of the knitting world (no, I still haven't made a Clapotis) and have cast on a pair of Monkey socks in
Wollmeise.
After wondering what all the hype was about I can now say it's a lovely pattern to knit and the yarn is achingly beautiful.

Back to school blues

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm packing my bags ready to go back to school tomorrow. There it is, that sense of unease deep in the pit of the stomach. Urggh. I'm not 10 years old, but I still get that end of the holidays anxiety - even though I love my job. Goodness knows how the children feel.

A good workout

J was at a friend's house the other day when he saw her treadmill.
'I'll be on one of those next week,' he mentioned as he told her about his recent hospital admission and the follow-up exercise test 'for reassurance' he was going to have.
'We never use that,' the friend replied. She'd bought it for her daughter, who lost interest in it quickly.

J told me about it. I was interested as it was a good price for a hardly used machine. I mentioned it to j who turned it into the whole 'Can I have a pony?' thing.

Anyway, long story short, we bought a treadmill. An electric treadmill, with variable speeds and a rising gradient bed.

j and I arranged to collect it. It took 4 of us to restrain the thing and lift it into the car. Getting it out of the car, there was only j and I. We got it out and lifted it into the house, but faced by the stairs, I just couldn't do any lifting. My worst nightmare: afull-sized treadmill stuck on the stairs and J arrived home. I knew he'd want to help, but he's not allowed to lift. Fortunately, a friend and his 2 sons - all builders - came to the rescue and we had it installed shortly afterwards.



I was too exhausted to try it yesterday and when I woke up this morning I was in the grip of a full-blown flare. Managed a 7 minute walk hobble on it, though.

The arrival of this monster means I've lost my desk in the shared study, which is now j's study and gym. (I can apply for an appointment) So, I'm back to working on the dining table.



Not really as problem as we hardly ever eat at it anymore. I'm afraid we've turned into one of those families who eat in front of the TV. It isn't spoiling family conversation as we talk all the time, but I do have nagging guilt about it. Not even the really pale living room carpet deters us, although I do sometimes worry when we eat curry or pasta.

Currently on the needles:



The Antidote Socks. Really, they're Hedgerow Socks, but they are the antidote to the heavy and hard knitting of the Susie Hoodie I made for Ravelympics. Wool is Supersock from Violet Green

And stretch...

I managed to make our DVD player region-free without the help of a teenager today, so I'm quite pleased with myself. I had to do this to play the Yoga DVD I bought ages ago and never got around to trying. I struggled with lots of it, but do feel that I've had a good stretch now. I hope I can keep up the momentum as I've been feeling very stiff and achy recently.

I think one of the big causes of much of the discomfort is the hours I have put into my Susie Hoodie for the Ravelympics.



I got it finished in time to get my medal. (only finished the evening before the closing ceremony so that was cutting it a bit fine really.

Harlow Carr

J and I drove down to Harlow Carr, the Royal Horticultural Society's Northern outpost in Harrogate.

We knew we were taking a chance with the weather, but had become a bit stir crazy. Unfortunately, it was Pirate Day - part of Family Fortnight. Now, don't get me wrong; we have nothing against families. We have one of our own. It's good to see children enjoying the gardens, but we'd rather they enjoyed the gardens when we weren't there. (Enjoying = screaming, hitting trees with cutlasses, running around the coffee shops shouting and crying and smearing ice cream, being accompanied by ineffectual parents with no parenting skills or ability to cope with their own children)

It did rain to start with.



We sheltered in a greenhouse full of half-ripe tomatoes until it passed. If it had gone on for any length of time we could have survived by making chutney and living off that.

The rain passed and we enjoyed the walk through the woods, despite some minor trench foot.

Tempus fugit

The postman brings increasing amounts of post for j now. It started to happen when he turned 16. This morning brought his provisional driving licence. How did I ever get old enough to have a child with a driving licence? He's left school now and is awaiting GCSE results (tomorrow) before he starts at college doing A levels next month.

He can't use the driving licence yet. There are another few weeks before he's actually 17. Just about gives me time to recover from the cost of insuring our littlest, oldest car so that I can take him out for practises.

It'll wash you away and there ain't never enough

And the rain came down.

It's cold and wet and I'm exhausted.

Since his heart attack, last year, J gets regular 'stitch-like' pains in his chest. They come and go quickly and usually when he's stressed. He doesn't have angina and hisconsultant says these aren't cardiac in nature. Usually, he ignores them and gets on with life. Last night he had quite a few and we were all quite worried. Eventually, at about 8:30pm, he agreed to let me take him to the hospital to get them checked out. The y kept him in overnight, but we had to wait until 1am for a bed on the Assessment Unit to be free. To say they are busy on that unit would be an understatement.
j and I got home really late (early?) and I didn't sleep well. J was ok overnight, but awake all night because of the general chaos and an unfortunate gentleman whose IV alarm went off all the time. This morning I went in early to take J some fruit and bottled water (won't eat hospital food or drink the water - and don't ask about his MRSA fears!) and the consultant was doing roundsso I stayed. (Cast on a new hospital sock)
Upshot is, he's ok. No new ECG changes and blood enzymes all ok. Got home by lunchtime (which is something of a record) with out patient appointments and a cost of only £8 in parking for the two visits. It always feels like adding insult to injury when you are wandering about the car park in the middle of the night after an emergency, trying to find a machine that will take notes and give change.

Fell asleep halfway round a row of Susie this afternoon - I feel an early night coming on.

Perfect knitting weather

A gloomy and misty day here. Much like last summer. Maybe this is how the weather is going to be from now on.





It's so cold around here. Perfect knitting weather, in fact. I managed to squeeze in a few more rounds on Susie this morning, but will have to put her, and the Olympics, asside to get on with some housework.

My latest www. finds

Have you seen Wordle? I'm usually the last person on the interweb to find out about things, so everyone else probably already knows about this.

And! There's Photofunia.

Have you ever wanted to be on the front cover of Vogue?



Or proclaim your latest finished object to the world on a banner?

What's with all the hype?

Do you ever get caught up in the hype about a knitting product or pattern? I must admit to having leapt happily on lots of bandwagons, mostly with happy results. Sometimes I wonder "What's with all the hype?" (Handmaiden Sea Silk, February Lady Sweater-only my personal opinions!)

My latest leap stemmed from reading all about the Wollmeise phenomenon. I've been seeing these yarns mentioned everywhere, but hadn't seen the yarn. So I bought two skeins on eBay (shh... don't tell anyone, the exclusivity police might come and get me.)

Now I understand:





It's rather lovely stuff, this.



Wasn't the opening ceremony wonderful? How will we match that in London in 2012?

My progress in the WIP marathon event:

Go Team GB!

I've been knitting. Quite a lot really. I finished Hey Teach! from the latest Knitty.





Then I cast on for a top-down raglan cardigan in James C Brett marble.



I'm using an unpattern from Karen Alfke. So far I've learned quite a lot about the construction of a sweater. I'm hoping to make this the first steps in learning to design something myself.



However, this will have to go on hold as I am taking part in the Ravelympics(sorry, it's a Ravelry link), knitting for Team GB in the WIP Wrestling Event. I'm aiming to finish or get close to finishing my Susie Hoodie from More Big Girl Knits.



Go Team GB!

Castle Howard

We took advantage of a short break in the grotty weather to visit Castle Howard. We had to whizz around the house and gardens quite quickly to see it all before parts of it were closed off for a press launch of the new Brideshead Revisited movie. I loved the 1981 version.

Although it's always impressive, to be honest, we felt the house was in need of a jolly good clean. It's not a National Trust or English Heritage property and doesn't seem as well cared for. Another irritation was the proliferation of gift shops in the stable block since our last visit. I know they need to makea lot of money to keep the property maintained, but still...

Finished Objects

Georgia, done in Rowan Linen Drape instead of cashmere. Modified to be longer, have a solid skirt section and to have short row shaping to accomodate my boobs.



And Mr Greenjeans from Knitty. Again, longer. Knitted in Twilley's Freedom Spirit. I love this yarn.

Er...

I've been a terrible blogger. I admit it. I've been spending all my time over at Ravelry. I have the T shirt (and tote bag) to prove it.



Hopefully, I can get back on track during my summer break from school.