Views from our morning walk

I think I could get used to this blocking business

Maybe.

Well, it looks shawlish

I've been working on my first knitted lace shawl. Unfortunately, I've been mostly working on it in the evening, while half asleep and watching TV. Good job I'm not a perfectionist. Bits have been tinked and bits have been fudged but I'm happy with the finished thing.


I'm a heretic and don't usually block finished objects 'properly'. I usually just give them a quick steam or wear them unblocked. However, I thought I would try it with this. Now, I don't have a blocking board at the moment (although I am thinking of getting some of those children's jigsaw piece mats from the Early Learning Centre so, I'm using a couple of old towels as a stop gap.


Look, nupps, points and everything:


I found the nupps really challenging, but coped by using a 2.5mm sock needle to purl through 5 stitches and then transfered them back onto my working needles.

The Malabrigo sock yarn is lovely to work with and I love the semi-solid shading. I have about 25grams left from the skein.

Antidote

As an antidote to the stress that we seem to have been experiencing recently, I spent the afternoon knitting on the deck. Enjoyed the flowers, the sun, time to talk to J and finishing my Swallowtail Lace Shawl.




We've all (including the pigeons) become quite base about this chap.

Not the highest waterfall in England

apparently. I thought it was, but Cautley Spout is 9 times higher.


Drove out to Teesdale today, stopping at High Force.



We live near the mouth of the River Tees, where the beach is that features so heavily in this blog, but this is up near the source of the Tees at Cow Green.



Nice walk and the waterfall is quite impressive as a result of all the rain we've had recently.

Turner painted it in 1816, when there were two less impressive falls.


We rounded off the trip by calling in at Bowes Museum, founded by the family of the late Queen Mother who was part of the Bowes-Lyon family. To be honest, the experience was decidedly underwhelming, although the scones in the cafe were nice. The collections are not particularly well-displayed or interesting. £7 entrance, £6 for students.

Don't say anything and we'll get along just fine

J got a new car.

Haven't got rid of his old one yet so we've taken to referring to the drive as 'the forcourt'. j suggested balloons, bunting and an inflatable giant gorilla to complete the second hand car lot feel we've got going.

I drove it today. It's very big, low, powerful and black. I'm not small but I feel quite dwarfed in it. The sports seats are very low and the angle of the back window gives you just a slot to look out of. I feel a bit like Bob Falfa.


Finally made some progress on the knitting front and finished a pair of socks.


These are Aurelia, knitted in Twinkletoes sock yarn. Although the pattern doesn't show brilliantly here, they're a nice mix of cable and lace.

The wanderer returns

My last travelling scarf returned home from Germany this weekend. I love how the soft palette of colours has been maintained by all the knitters who contributed. It's lovely!
The pattern is Brooklyn Tweed's Striped Noro Scarf.

And the sky was grey

Well, more rain and overcast skies; we keep making trips out, dodging the deluges, but to be honest, it looks like it's set in for another summer. We haven't made plans for a holiday this year, but have booked for next.

A year to the day, in fact.

We're flying to San Francisco, staying for a few days and then heading off on a road trip which will take us to Carmel, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon and Los Angeles. Quite a trip.

School's Out!

First day of freedom :)

Woke up at the same time, but it doesn't matter. I'm technically on holiday for six and a half weeks. Don't consider the three boxes of work I've brought home with me or the fact that I will actually be going in next week - the holidays have started. Just as well, it's been a fairly difficult week and I'm exhausted.

Last night I cast on a celebratory sock and got to the fifth line of the pattern before my brain became so foggy that I just couldn't make sense of it, lost the ability to count where I was up to and had to put it down. Simple lace pattern, too.

He's still here. Every morning I came down to this sight from the kitchen window.


J is less enchanted than he was initially. The lawn is covered with divots as Tufty, here, rips up the top of the turf, pushes his haul underneath and pats it back down again. If these seeds germinate we will have a sunflower plantation next year. Still, he's lovely to watch.


I've bought this to inspire me over the summer.


I'd like to figure out how to make a Zig Zag vest without having to buy the kit for $170.

What I would really like to do, this summer, is learn how to spin.

Nunchuck

Now, this isn't a word you would normally find in my vocabulary, but we bought a wii console with wii fit this weekend.


I'm totally addicted - and quite good at hoola-hooping, I must say. I do have the hips for it!

Did half an hour yesterday and again today on the wii fit and we've been bowling and playing tennis this afternoon - great fun and we're not sitting down.

My wii fit age is, apparently, 56. I need to lose 10 years.

What progress on the knitting front?

Well. It's difficult at the moment. I have had little time and I keep falling asleep at 8pm on the sofa. Furthermore, I don'twant to knit any more garments for me until my weight stabilises. I'm already going to have to pull out my Hey Teach from last summer as a combination of weight loss and the cotton stretching has made it too big now.

Consequently, I've been sticking to non-garments. This mass of green malabrigo sock (lettuce colourway) is going to be a Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl or scarf. Note the lifeline. Falling asleep with knitting needles in hand is, for me, incompatible with lace knitting. I've frogged this three times already, but I'm determined to finish a lace shawly thing this summer.

Kite Festival

It has been the International Friendship Festival in Sunderland this weekend. This incorporates the Kite Festival.


Naturally, we chose a day with very light wind to visit.


So very few of the bigger kites were in the air.


Still, there were some spectacular designs.

Recent garden visitors

It's that manic time of year again. Two more weeks of school and about seven weeks of stuff to fit into them.

We've had some extreme weather too, making it difficult to do lots of the usual things involving going outside.

Today was hot and dry, thankfully and I got some knitting done outside after taking j for new glasses and trying to do some shopping in hot, angry crowds.

Some pictures of our garden visitors this weekend:

An out-of-focus woodpecker. I've been trying to photograph him for months, but he's so fast and easily scared.


The reason for the recently escalating cost of peanuts and sunflower seeds.


A drowsy bee staggering across the top of a scabious, covered in pollen.

A splash of colour

A splash of colour to distract from yet another blogging hiatus. I guess I've been too preoccupied by life to write about it.

June, so far, has seen me alternately baking in the sun and freezing in my woollies again - I can't believe we had to put the heating on this week, but we did.

Work is hectic as the Summer term always is. The concept of non-contact time has gone out of the window at the moment as four of my colleagues are at Carlton Camp with one of our classes and the rest of us are filling in where we can as good supply teachers are a rare commodity at the moment. I seem to have had a lot of Continuing Professional Development Courses recently, too and these have taken me away from school for days on end. My 'to do' list grew into a 'to do' pile and now it's a 'to do' bag.

Of all the things I've been doing recently, I think the Primary Movement Programme is the most interesting.


I finished my sock monkey. I'm rather fond of him and he was a distraction. The picture above looks like a bad monkey passport picture. The greeny yarn is Twinkletoes Sock Yarn and his hands, feet and muzzle are Wollmeise. A luxury monkey.


News Flash! - j passed his driving test and is now the proud holder of a proper pink licence rather than his provisional, green licence. I'm now the proud owner of a whole new set of things to worry about.

Information Seminar

I went to the weight loss surgery information seminar last night. I found it all very stressful. I had expected to feel elated to be getting this far, but I don't.


J couldn't come with me as some friends had come over to help him with his car, so I had to go on my own. When I got there I was the only person on her own and I just felt like crying. It was such a strange experience. So many big people all in the same place. I don't often feel ashamed about my weight or size, but I did there. The seminar room had 'normal' chairs and specially-built fat chairs.

The seminar was informative and frightening. Peter Small, the surgeon, was frank and matter of fact about the statistics. My chances of dying from the surgery are much less than dying from my fatness.

The dietician who spoke about the lifestyle and diet changes after surgery was also very frank and informative. Do I want to never be able to eat bread or red meat again? Red meat I could live without easily, but bread? My relationship with bread is a given part of my life. It'scomfort, basic, a joy.

I feel ridiculously emotional, even now.

Trying not to think about going back to work

Another gorgeous day in the garden. I caught up with some knitting. Will have my sock monkey finished soon. I've had to make a lot of it up as the pattern I chose doesn't seem to be very clearly written. Maybe it's just me.

Next up, this:

Destined to be Sackboy.

I'm re-reading Men at Arms when I'm not knitting. It's another book that I must have devoured when it first came out. I'm finding so many things I missed in these books as I read them for a second time. Next on the pile is Monstrous Regiment.

I love my battered old Birks

It's this time again!




The last six weeks just whizzed by! In my last post I was moaning about the cold, but today it's 25 degrees C on the deck.

What have I been doing?

At work: occupied by preparation for SATs and then SATs, interviewing for new teachers and moving rooms around. Coping with the latest pressures and initiatives from the Government (APP - Assessing Pupil Progress, FNE - Free Nursery Entitlement, CC - Duty to Promote Community Cohesion, to name but a few acronyms)

At home: coping with being the parent of an increasingly independent young man. There is currently a space on the drive beside J's car, where my Fiat Punto usually rests on its weekends off. Today it's somewhere, filled with young men buzzing around Teesside. Yes, j passed his driving test and I am now the mother of a driver. More things to worry about.
Apparently, it's liberating driving without me in the passenger seat making 'that face'.


I've been knitting on the deck this afternoon after retreating from the shops at Middlesbrough before lunch. I can't handle that every weekend, but I do like a mooch. I bought some 'lovely' tops in lightweight cottons and cheesecloths. Looks like I'll be back in Middlesbrough next Saturday, returning them. I think I'm too old/too fat for frills and smocking.

Every year Buddah gets burried more and more by marsh marigolds and siberian irises. It's nice and shady down by the pond though.

Make the most of the weekend.

Woe is me! Only two sleeps til work starts again.

The weather is horrid and even a walk alongour favourite local beach is rather unpleasant due to the steam and smoke and smell from a fire at the Greythorpe recycling plant.



There's a haze over everywhere.

Due to the return of winter, I cast on a sweater for me:


I'm having another go with the Unpatterned formula for a top-down sweater. The yarn colour here looks quite washed out and grey, but it's Cascade 220 in Duck Egg Blue.

I'm hoping to bash on quite a way with this this weekend, in between trips out with j to practise for his upcoming driving test. Although he is very good, I think knitting in the car might count as a dereliction of my duties as supervising driver.

Plan to put my feetup and knit this evening - Britain's got Talent!. Keep threatening to sign J up for this or the X Factor. He has a very loud penetrating disabling fine singing voice.

Maybe we'll watch a movie. When I'm at work I get up early and get tired early in the evening, but I've surprised the lads with my ability to stay awake and watch a number of films this holiday.