Stormy skies

It's been a while and I still have no knitting to show. Well, no FOs that is, 'cause I am knitting. But way to many projects on the needles to actually finish something. And a definite urge to start even more!!!

It's hard to believe there are only 2 weeks left before we are leaving on a holiday! 10 days in Portugal will do me good. I need a break from many things. Mostly work though. It's been hectic and I'm getting stressed by a few of my colleagues. I finally got the nerve yesterday to tell one her behaviour is annoying me. Well, I only told her about part, but more is. She chatters all the time, without a break, she never listens to what someone else sais, and when I'm talking to a parent she always comes in between because she apparently doesn't want me to explain things. Horrible. Oh well, I see her less during the holidays. Lets hope it helps.

Anyway, it's busy all time at work right now, and it's tiring.



The last couple of days have been very cloudy and grey over here, and cold!!! Like 15°C. I've had frozen feet more then once.



I like this kind of weather. Everyone wants hot Summer weather, but I don't care all that much. I'm just as happy with this weather. I knit no matter what, but it's more enjoyable when it's a bit cooler.

I'm terribly exhausted though (apart from the tiredness from work). So tired it's hard to function for me. There is a lot going on in my life right now, half of it I could go without. The regular relationship problems are weighing twice as much. My father decided to show up again at my moms and sisters. Let's hope he leaves me alone 'cause I no longer want him in my life. Things were finally getting better again. Doggy school is just to much to handle at the moment. If I mention I'm tired to the bf he just sais I should sleep more. I long for sleep, but the problem is I don't want to wake up because life is just as hard as before and then I feel all bad again. It's more then just the lack of sleep. It's mental exhaustion as well.

I'm looking forward to my holiday but I'll have to make sure I have some moments alone. I'm going with the bf and my 2 sisters. Maybe getting up early, but I'm not really a morning person. It might be the best way to get some time for myself though.

Well, needles to say there might not be much knitting or spinning to show in the near future. I'm working on things, but in the evening I'm usually so tired I only watch tele, half asleep, before my eyes are getting to heavy and I just fall asleep. Knitting is just asking to much energy. It's hard to lift my arms and make the stitches.

I'll try to post and show stuff, but just so you all know why I might not be around as much.

Spinning

I'm quite in the ban of my spinning again. Well, I constantly want to spin but sitting down and actually spin is something different. I just don't see the use of starting for 5min, so I don't. And at the recent pace I didn't have more then a few min every time. In between busy things. Like in a few moments my sister will be here to pick me up, so I only have a few minutes. And I still need to change clothes! :D That's me.

Anyway, the spinning!




Spunky Club April 2007 - Strawberry Fields
4oz of Corriedale

Big skein is 263m, the little one in front is 52m. The little skein was the leftover from the second bobin I spun which was relatively finer spun (as both bobbins had 50gr on them!). It means there was 100m more on one bobbin then on the other!

Will be socks somewhere in the future!


Now I'm spinning some silk I got from Franquemont fibers. My pup got it (somehow) and tore it apart, but thankfully silk doesn't felt so I can still use it!

A thank you note!

Yes, I do have an FO to show, but first I wanted to thank a few people who have commented here over the past. I hope everyone will read it! It's just horrible I can't reply to comments, I'm just not a wiz in that area. I have been using Wordpress for the new Destash Blog, and I'm tempted to move over there. But then I wouldn't know how to move over my previous posts. I need to figure it all out a little. But I'm a bit to busy at the moment!

But, the thank yous. It goes to everyone who commented here on the blog in the past and will do in the future! I so appreciate it! :D

Thank you to Knittingajour, Julie, Ambermoggie and Minty Fresh for the comments on my test-knitting issues. I'm still not sure what to do. Blueatd, thank you for the offer on the magazines! I'm mostly curious to see if my test knitting ever made it to the 2nd one, as I'm kinda thinking it didn't.

Ann K., Angelika and PJ, thanks for the nice comments on the thief! :D It was an exciting experience and it's a nice story now! I'm still amazed with myself, but I guess more people would have some kind of reaction like this. Good thing I had my sporty shoes on and not my high heels! :D

As I said, I would reply to all of your comments if I knew how to, but blogger only gives me your profile link and no more. :( So dissapointing. Maybe it's just time for some improvement.

How to catch a thief

First the fun story, then the less fun story.

Yesterday we went to see Pirates 3 at the movie theater in the "big city". All went well and the movie was over. We were sitting next to the stairs, with one chair in between me and the stairs. I have the bad habit of putting my purse there, and in a second it was gone. I saw it all from the corners of my eyes.

And my response? I jumped up and flew down the stairs, taking more then 2 at the time (I don't remember how I did it) and just before the end of the stairs I reached the thief and jumped him! On his back. We both fell over to the side, and I was able to pull my purse from his hands. I had been yelling all the time but I don't remember. I do remember bumping into someone when flying down the stairs, but she didn't wait so I guess I didn't hurt her.

As soon as I had pulled my purse from his hands (I had to pull, really!) he went on but my boyfriend was right behind me and hit the guy in the face, threw him on the ground and held him down. I can tell you, my boyfriend isn't very big, but he's quite heavy at the moment (not the best thing) and has really strong arms. The thief was my posture, so I guess about 40 to 50 pounds less then my boyfriend. He had no fighting chance.

I started yelling for someone to get security and at the same time was telling my boyfriend to calm down 'cause he was ready to hit the thief till he cried! Soon after security came and they called the police, who came to arrest the thief in real movie style! (and wauw, those cops were nice to look at!).

So basically, I catched a thief! :D I have a heavily bruised hip from the fall, but I have my purse back and the stupid guy was arrested and charged with theft with agression (the fact that he didn't want to hand over my purse is apparantly agression). We had witnesses, though of all the people at the theater only 2 stayed to put their name down. The thief - I suspect a drug addict and his words were that this was his first time taking a purse, well, stupid first time and wrong purse to take - admitted the facts immidiately. He had little to defend himself.

Now I'm still amazed with myself and my reaction. I realize now this could have ended worse if the guy had a knife or something, but I would do the same if it happened again. I've always been strong willed. I don't let people run over me. I don't care my purse was a in a bad place, nobody should take it. NO matter where it's standing.

So, that's nice store. The sad one is that I was transfering the money for our summer holiday today and came to the conclusion that after transfering this money I'm almost broke. I haven't been spending an extreme amount of money, but apparently I'm spending more then I think. I can cry when I see this. It's all so sad.

Now I am selling some of my yarn, so if you are interested in any sock yarn or other, please check out my flickr account. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take some from my hands.

As it's not possible for me to cash money from a Paypal account I'll use the money from this sale for the clubs I'm in so that doesn't have to go from my bank account, and maybe I'll see for further possibilities. But I can really use the money.

That's it, knitting at a later date!

Ps.: It took me a week to get better but my stomach is finally ok again! :D

Sick

I'm at home with the stomach flue. Last Saturday I went babysitting and the older girl was down with the bug, and apparently it decided to bother me as well. I got ill around 3.30am this morning and have been feeling sick ever since. I have to say it's the first time ever I'm feeling this bad. Having stomach issues is just horrible as it bothers you at all times.

I of course haven't been knitting at all, I just have been sleeping. I think more of that is in the near future. Laying down and sleeping is the only thing that makes my stomach feel normal again.

I'm not allowed to eat the first 24hours, and only to drink Coke (which by good luck we don't have around the house so I've taken to less ideal drinks, but I just don't have the energy to go out and get coke). I was going to start a diet today so well, it's ok this way.

Anyway, I'm mostly writing this post to thank those who commented to my previous post about test knitting. A bit more about it all.

Someone told me to contact the person and tell her about it in a friendly matter. Well, I did that several times, and I always got the promiss she would be sending it out soonish. Never did though. Painfull. I stopped sending her emails a few weeks back as I was tired of and I was afraid my emails would be less then friendly.

It took me a while to decide what to do with revealing the magazine, but I decided to just do it. The reason is the person running this is also having an online shop and a while back she was really rude towards me about a lost package. She did refund me but never replied to my - friendly - email and made a blog entry about customers saying they didn't get the package while they got it and more. It wasn't about me in person, but as I had just sent her the email I was quite taken by this. I by the way NEVER got the package.

So, that all in total, the magazine is Yarn Forward. Uk based and only the second issue. I'm truly dissapointed.

This said I'm open for people telling me that this is all based on a misunderstanding! I mean, I don't want to make anyone feel bad or so, it might have been a coincidence about things happening at the same time (I know the lady had things going on, I just never got a decent reply to my emails and I waited more then long enough in my opinion). So please, don't take it personal, it's only a bit personal. Oh dawn, I can't put it into words the right way, sorry.

Back to the couch now.

Dissapointing experience

I wasn't sure weather I would share this or not, but here I go.

Back in January - if I remember correctly - I volunteered to test knit a pair of socks for a magazine (I'll keep it a bit vague, no pointing fingers). I didn't expect anything for it, I just liked the idea of test knitting.

I was promissed a few things : getting the socks back, some yarn and a copy of the magazine. My interpretation was everyone would get this stuff.

I got the yarn and did my best to knit the socks in time, and I did. I think I did a pretty good job, with my limited possibilities (I will never say I'm an expert or perfect knitter). I do think I did a good job and they looked really nice. I thought they would turn out ok in the pictures too.

I got an email from the lady who runs the magazine that she got the socks nicely and she said they were fine. But that was it. Afterwards I didn't get any emails from her. And I didn't get any of the promissed things either. No socks back, no yarn and no copy of the magazine.

It's really confusing me as I don't know what to do. I mean, I did this without wanting anything in return, but then I got promissed these things and you somehow count on it all. The biggest issue is that I never heard anything back from her, that it's like my test-knitting wasn't ok. I am hugely dissapointed and I don't even know if my sock made it to the magazine.

I like doing the test knitting, I really do. But this way it just isn't fun.

My question : what should I do now? Should I just leave it at this? I just don't think it's fair to promiss stuff and then don't keep that promiss. Not to me and not to anyone.

I usually don't get asked to test knit, don't know why. I have signed up in several test knitting pools, but then many people do that. Oh well, I'll live with it. I'll just knit for myself. I'm just always looking for some kind of confirmation.

Perfect start of the month!

It's totally amazing, but June only just started and I already finished my first pair of socks! Don't expect me to keep this up, but I hope this is a good sign for the month!

So, I present you socks!




Gentlemans Socks with Lozenge pattern (I'm to lazy to look for the book for the correct title).

Pattern : from Nancy Bush, Knitting Vintage socks
Yarn : handpainted superwash in reds
Needles: 1,5mm (switched between DPN's and addi turbos)
Started : July 2006 (in Turkey!)
Finished : June 2nd 2007




It took me ages to knit these socks. I went down to 1,5mm needles to make up for the size (as the pattern was for mens socks) and this is what usually is mentionned to change size. Now I don't mind the knitting on these small needles, but it does take a lot of time and the socks ate yarn! Crazy! I hardly made it and I swear I have really small feet! But I picked them up again and decided I liked the DPNs better for these socks as the circulars were really fragile and always bent in different ways.




With time, and probably the needles, my gauge did change significantly and the second sock was way bigger then the first. Luckily blocking did make up a lot so they look the same and I can't feel the difference.

One thing is that I didn't make the first toe as the pattern said, and I didn't write it down. So I started on the second toe without checking the first sock and now I have 2 different toes! It looks a bit different but doesn't feel different at all. But apart from that both socks are perfect.

I didn't mind the small needles at all! It's not that different from 2mm needles - my favourite for socks - and it goes just as fast, but then again, I think I used up a lot more yarn. I might have lost some yarn while skeaning the yarn though, I'm not sure anymore. Long time ago!

These socks did go through a lot the last month or so, with the pups getting hold of them several times. But they lived through it!

Another FO is some finished handspun I got around to taking a picture of.



Handdyed, handspun Merino/Tencel mix.

This yarn turned out ok. It took me a while to spin this as the yarn was a bit difficult at first (slippery!) but I love the yarn! You can't see the sheen to good on the picture, but it's nice! It has green, yellow and pink in it but it has an overal Yellow feeling. Normally not my fave colour but it's ok.

It's a total of 150gr (2 skeins of 75gr), about 450meters (which I think makes it fingering weight). Will make a nice pair of socks! :D When I come around to knitting it up.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of my evening/night now with spinning and knitting!


PS.: Is anyone like me a bit dissapointed with the last issue of Magknits? I used to like the magazine but lately there aren't much interesting patterns in it. I'm not sure if switching to a monthly publication was so great.

One small FO for one month

I had the most horrible day yesterday, I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life and I can't put it out of my mind. I should, it's past me and well, I was lucky and the results were less harming then they could have been. Still I'm so upset.

So I don't know if I'll get much work done today. It's all a big chaos in my head, which is beating like hell. I'm trying to keep myself uccupied, and I'm trying to think of knitting (usually all over my thoughts, but not today :( ).

Anyway, we went on a little trip last weekend (as it was a long weekend), and look what we did most of the time :






Having a great time on the beach! :D We went to the Netherlands, to a beach area. It was great fun! We were my sisters, my mother and my boyfriend (oh, and me!). The dogs had a great time, running on the beach, playing in the water, chasing other animals, or just pieces of paper. 2 days of non-stop activity, and no knitting. I didn't even mind. I was to tired in between the walks and the sports that I didn't think about knitting.

And this is how we returned :




Exhausted!! I didn't sleep the whole way back (I knitted), but the pup did! It was great to see her and nice to see her comfortable in the car, as the big girl still doesn't like car rides. She stayed awake the whole ride home, poor thing, and crashed back at home.

Me? Tired, but happy. It was great during the weekend and I'm just happy we had a nice time, even if there was no knitting.

So, I only have one small WIP to show for May (wait a minute, I have 2, but I only have a picture of one right now) :




Anklets, no specific pattern, just toe up (dutch toe) and short row heel.
Yarn : my own handdyed, less then one 50gr skein (I have small feet)
Needles : 2mm addi turbo, my fave size of needles

They took me longer then they should have taken me as I tried to do 2 socks at the same time on one circular, knitting from both ends of the ball (I did find out that one end is a lot lighter then the other, strangely enough, need to experiment more with dyeing to get the perfect fiber). I didn't like the knitting 2 on one needle. I did it before but I didn't know it wasn't this annoying. Back to one at the time for me.

New Project Spectrum colours, and I'm very happy! Not sure yet what to do with the metalics, but the black is just perfect! I'm not a red kinda girl except for burgundy. Might be a nice combination. I do have some nice gold and silver stuff, but for socks? I don't know just yet.

Lets just hope I get a bit more done this month. Oh, and I have handspun to show, but no pictures. Maybe I should get my ass in gear and take some nice shots! The weather is supposed to be nice over the weekend, now just to find the time *grin*.