Moo & Atchoo

The funniest story this week was on our local tv news about the sounds cows make in different areas and they played a Birmingham cow mooing followed by a local West Country cow mooing. The difference was amazing. You could spot the West Country cow a mile off. It was really funny and we did laugh. Yes, our locally news is definitely not wildly exciting!

Then a couple of days later this hilarious panda video appeared on Cute Overload that had me in fits of laughter. Showed it to DH and then we were both in fits. Nothing to do with cows of course but explains the atchoo ;)

The nearest think to a miracle occurred last weekend. Remember I wanted to get the zip for York? Well, I brought it with me to the shop to choose the colour and found the perfect zip. Off home we went and suddenly I had an urge to pin the zip in. Followed by another idea of 'well I might as well sew part of one side'. Followed by 'I might as well finish one half completely'. Then I put it back and it stared at me, you know the way these things do. So I picked it up again and finished the whole darned zip. In one go! It is truly amazing and I couldn't believe. Usually any form of sewing up is kinda hidden and pushed to the back of your mind. So it was best to get it done while the urge was there.

Unfortunately the urge went and no other finishing has been done. Oops. I will tackle it soon, honestly.....it's building up into quite a pile, but I just can't put my knitting down in order to do some finishing. Funny that ;)



Knitting wise the week was mostly taken up working on the sleeves from York. As you can see they're finished and admittedly were a bit of a pain. I really wanted some nice simple brainless knitting but Kureyon had other ideas. We got there in the end but it was real close. All I got left with was these few oddments below. I used a whole extra ball too which is really unusual. Last time I knitted a Noro garment with Shinano I was left with a ball over. This time it was so close - this combined with the knots made it quite stressful indeed. Boy I was glad when it was all done ;)



I am cross that the fall issue of Vogue Knitting still hasn't been sent to UK subscribers. Its only just hit UK suppliers which makes it over 2 weeks late now. Everything else has been out for weeks for the new season. By the time we get our copies the winter edition will be on its way. Its crap isn't it? Apparently its due to a mistake by the shipper. No doubt it was sent surface mail.....and we know how long that takes!

We have had a brand new knitting magazine come out though just this week to keep me occupied. I got the first issue and am rather impressed so far. Mostly Rowan/Jaeger or decent quality yarns for once and only one nasty shiny cheapo fashion yarn thankfully! But what really made me mad wasn't the mag itself but the freebie gift, a preview of Alison Dupernex's Knitting for Beginners book. And in particular the picture of a load of horrendously long metal needles that look so very old fashioned. And it got worse with her words "plastic and bamboo are becoming fashionable, but they bend are are not so easy to use ". Lordy lord, how long ago was this book written? It certainly doesn't apply now. What a turn off. I don't know. How does this stuff get published. What was the book editor thinking???

The new mag is called Knit Today and had a lovely shrug pattern in it by Laura Long, a Rowan designer. I fell in love with it at first sight and had to have a shrug. Decided to double up some Cashsoft DK as it specified an aran weight yarn. Then was disappointed to find I didn't have any bamboo DPNs in 6.5mm so had to use some crappy metal/plastic hybrid which were not smooth at all. Combine this with a lace pattern and no surprise, it all went horribly wrong. Trust me, don't try and double up Cashsoft DK if there's any chance it all it might get frogged. It fluffs up really easy and was a real headache to separate and frog.

So back to the drawing board we went. I didn't want a lacy shrug. I wanted a warm shrug with no holes to let the cold in. That was the point. Of course there was nothing exactly like I wanted but I liked the style of the Magknits Hug shrug and happily cast on for that. Till I saw more pics on the designers site and knew I did not like the back at all. Of course by now I was almost at the back.....so a bit more searching on the web looking at shrug construction and I changed the pattern to one I liked. Phew. What a performance. Now of course I wished I'd knitted the sleeves in the round. But maybe next time eh?

We spent one day of the Bank Holiday weekend visiting my stepson in Wales who will be 19 in November. Some of you might be surprised to hear I even have a stepson, never mind an 18 year old one! I don't think I've mentioned him before. But seeing as he turned into the teenager from hell from the moment he turned 12 could explain it. But over the last few months he seems to have calmed down a lot so we're hoping its the end of his nightmare teenage years. I've always got on well with him, probably because I'm so direct. He knows where he stands and he seems to like it. We had a nice lunch and it was good to see where he's living now and that he's doing well.

How come day trips are so tiring though? We picked a bad weekend to drive to Wales. It took forever to get there but luckily the drive back was much quicker. After that we weren't in the mood to go to far over the bank holiday so had a relaxing time enjoying the break.



Here's a pic of the lovely Thunder having a real laid back moment. Bless. He looks about as tired as we were after our day trip ;)