The Knitbert List - April

April's list is My Ten Favourite Places:

1. Ambleside in the Lake District. I've had so many happy walking holidays here, with family and friends

2. The Bay of Islands, New Zealand. I love this place, especially the little town of Russell.

3. Nelson, New Zealand. This town just has a good feel to it, and is near the sea and one of the country's National Parks. It has a great market, too, where I got handmade cork shoes and a lovely necklace and earrings.

4. Cambridge. I studied here, and still like to visit and enjoy good food, the river and great pubs, with good friends

5. The West Coast of Scotland. I worked in Oban one summer, and a few years ago I walked the West Highland Way. There is a beautiful, dramatic countryside here which is lovely to walk in

6. Auckland, New Zealand. Breakfast at the Stone Oven, dinner at Monsoon, sailing in Auckand harbour, the Sky Tower, fantastic shops and a beautiful coastline.

7. Paris. I'm going to include Versailles, where I lived for a couple of years. I like the atmosphere and cosiness of Paris, and the grand sweeping avenues of Versailles, not to mention the lovely gardens of the chateau, where I spent many happy Sundays and evenings

8. Alderney. I sailed to Alderney once, the very first trip I made in a sailing yacht. I liked the empty sandy beaches covered with shells, and the little towns.

9. The Greek Islands, where I travelled and holidayed for many years when I was a penniless student.

10. Bath. What a lovely city and so pleasant to wander round. The old Roman Baths are magical too, with the steam rising from the water far below the surface of the modern city

Hmmm, can't help noticing that nowhere I am living now or have lived recently is on the list. I think maybe I need to rethink my strategy for choosing a place to live.

The Knitbert List - March

This year I thought we would have a change from Memory Lane, and have the Knitbert List. I got the idea from Jacquie. So I will publish a list of 10 things each month.

March's List is:

10 Favourite Foods:

1. Smoked salmon
2. Any other kind of salmon
3. Fish and chips (I prefer plaice, but cod is good too)
4. A mixed salad, with watercress and rocket, and assorted vegetables, and a garlic vinaigrette
5. Risotto (any kind - I had one with smoked haddock and chorizo last week, and I also like butternut squash risotto, mushroom risotto, asparagus risotto, well, you get the idea...
6. Pumpkin and Ginger soup (my favourite Hallowe'en recipe)
7. Creme brulee, which I think is a good test of a chef's ability
8. Venison. I once had a wild venison burger and chips, in Geraldine, NZ. Mmmm!
9. Roast Turkey
10. Chocolate mousse. Did you know that this is one of the lowest fat deserts you can have? No really, help yourself to seconds...

As it happens, I have been tagged by Fiona, which means I have to give five facts about myself. So there you are, ten facts for the price of five. I should really tag other people, but I'm still thinking about it.



Last week I finished crocheting my Romance squares for my Babette blanket, for the Crafty Threads and Yarns Quilt a Long (yes, I know it's not a quilt). I like how they have turned out, and I am currently planning my colours for the March theme, which is Hope. I've got some more Karisma from Scandinavian Knitting Designs on order.

I also realised this week that I was about to run out of two marvellous cosmetic creams which I purchased in Singapore last summer. They are by a company called Skin Food, and they really work well, so I was a little worried that I would age ten years overnight, which at my time of life, dear reader, is no laughing matter. Skin Food is a Korean brand, and does not seem to be available in Europe. However, I found Sweet Violet's Gift Shop on ebay, and she stocked some Skin Food products. I emailed her and within 24 hours she was stocking what I had asked about, and some new related products which I most certainly will be trying. I am looking forward to receiving my order, as I'll be able to expose my skin to daylight again.

Catbert will be pleased to learn that I have restarted work on her Diamond Fantasy Shawl, and now have only two repeats to go. Go Knitbert!

In Which the Week Ends Better Than It Began

Oh my, I wasn't in a good state on Monday was I? Well, it's Friday now and my cold is better, the weekend is ahead and I bought some yarn this afternoon. I got some Regia Crazy Colour, which looks fun, and some black St Ives sock yarn, which I think may be useful for some Skully Socks I have in mind...so things are looking up.


I had a bit of an Amazon moment, too, and I have "Favourite Socks" on its way. And aren't the Snowflakes coming on well? This one is up to the toe now. 100% of readers who expressed a preference were in favour of a contrasting toe (thanks Franney!) so that's what I've decided to do.

Soooo, what would I like to do in 2008? Mmmm, chews pencil thoughtfully.
As far as knitting is concerned, I think I'd like to do the following in 2008:

- Design something and then knit it
- Knit a lot more than I did in 2007
- Knit more socks using my impressive sock yarn stash
- Knit up some of my impressive laceweight stash
- Knit some cardigans and pullovers (maybe even ones I have designed)
- Knit some scarves
- Maybe knit a toy...or a Dalek
- Buy quite a lot more scrumptious yarn which I haven't bought before to replace what I will be knitting up (yeah right).

Most important of all, enjoy knitting and playing with yarn.

I do have a mental list of some patterns which I already know I would like to knit, but I think I won't list them, I'll let it be a surprise!

I'm also doing a Quilt Along on the Crafty Threads and Yarns Forum. The idea is to do a square each month around a defined theme. The square can be quilted or knitted. I do quite like the idea of making an afghan for 2008, with a square for each month, but after my catastrophic failure to qualify even for the Wooden Spoon award for Sock a Month 2007, I don't want to set my expectations too high. January's theme is Snowdrops, and frankly my brain hurts just thinking about it.

Hello Cruel World...

In the end I took the rest of last week off, I just could not face returning. So this is my first day back. It was cold and dark when I got up this morning. I have a cold. I couldn't remember my password when I arrived at work (what am I saying? I could hardly remember my own name), so I entered the wrong one three times and was locked out of my account until IT could get around to unlocking it.

All the things I didn't have time to do before the break haven't got done by themselves, so I still have to do them.

I hate January.

I think I need to buy some yarn...

When I'm in a better frame of mind I'll post a picture of my first Snowflake sock, which is nearing completion. Should I do it with a contrasting toe as well, I wonder?
I'll also see if I can think of some objectives for 2008. Groan.

The Past Is A Foreign Country

A friend of mine from a long time ago invited me to see his facebook album today. He is someone who takes lots of photos, and when he was a student the wall of his room was covered with portraits of his friends. He has now scanned and uploaded over a hundred photographs of us all at University, including some of me. The photo at the top was taken after a formal dinner in the month of May, when I was 21. I wasn't sure it was of me at first, but there were some others taken at the same time which show what I am wearing, and I recognise the dress, which was white cotton with flowers painted on it. I remember it because I spilled red wine on it that very evening and I never wore it again.
I think I look quite calm and collected in that photo, as if I knew what was going on and where I was going with my life, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

There are also some other photographs of the college, this time taken in winter. I had forgotten that it snowed in winter in those days, but looking at these photographs I remember the biting cold, freezing feet trudging through the snow, wearing layers of thick sweaters to keep warm and toasting bread on the end of a fork around the gas fire.




"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
L. P. Hartley ['The Go-Between', 1953]

A Touch of Frost

This week, in the morning, the roof I can see from my kitchen window was covered in a thick rime of frost, as was my car. I recently acquired a new car, and I have sold the old one to DSoK the Intern. Well, when I say "sold" - he owes me the money for the car and his insurance, road fund, MoT and service. He's a student, you see. I should do a deal like this every day, I'd be rich in no time...
Anyway, the car I "sold" had a scraper for the ice and a car vacuum in the boot. It still does in fact. MY car, on the other hand, does not. I mentioned to DSoK that I would quite like to have these items back. He laughed, and said, "you need to chill, Mum". I tried to scrape the ice off today with my Tesco Clubcard, and it sort of worked, but the signature on the back is a bit blurry now. I think I'll need to buy a proper scraper. Maybe DSoK could get me one for Christmas!

I promised photos of my Ally Pally acquisitions, and here they are. Two gorgeous skeins of laceweight from Cherry Tree Hill - in shades Serengeti and Fall Foliage.




The red is a merino mohair mix boucle from Touch Yarns, and is the same kind of yarn I bought in Auckland earlier in the year, but in a different colour.


I think the Fall Foliage CTH would make a lovely Leaf Lace shawl - one day.
I'm focusing on finishing WIPs and knitting from stash at the moment. Thanks to a swimming gala I have one of the Father and Son Socks finished now, and the other is well over half way. The next project to be finished will be my Mystery Stole 3, I think - or Swan Lake as I now know it to be. Another project which is capturing my imagination at the moment is my crochet granny square cushion cover, because the colours are so nice.
And - a decision - I am going to knit another Ivy with the red Berlaine. I'm swatching now...

In Which I Meet a Mysterious Stranger, I Mean Stole, and Mr Knitbert Completes a Gardening Task

Before any of that, I was reminded this week that I should never travel in June. Actually, I don't travel very much at all these days, which is by choice, but a few years ago I used to travel very frequently for work; at least one or two trips a month. June was always a peak time, as people want to get things done before the summer holiday season starts. For some reason, there often seems to be a sudden change in the weather around mid-June, from warm and sunny to wet and cold. Time after time I would set off, thinking that my destination would be warmer than the UK, only to find myself shivering in flimsy summer clothes as I disembarked from the aircraft, or picking my way across a sodden car park in the p*****g rain, in unsuitable strappy sandals, on my way to collect a hire car. One year I remember that the temperature in Paris all week was 10 degrees(C)lower than it had been in London. Of course I never had so much as a warm cardigan with me, let alone a coat or umbrella.

On Thursday afternoon, I had to go to Amsterdam to attend a training course on Friday. Guesss what? The weather in Amsterdam was appalling, so as soon as they had got us settled on the aircraft, the pilot announced that owing to air traffic delays because of the weather, we would be taking off two hours late. Normally this would not be a problem for me (see Last Train to Knitville) but can you knit on an aircraft? Well, that would be no. Luckily, I have plenty of knitting podcasts on my iPod to keep me occupied.

When we finally arrived, Amsterdam was swathed in a heavy curtain of rain under a lowering grey sky and it was freezing cold. Unsuitable strappy sandals? Oh yes. Flimsy summer clothes and no warm jacket? Of course.

As it happened I enjoyed my short visit anyway; I stayed in my favourite hotel, the sun was shining the next day, I met up with some colleagues I hadn't seen for a while, and I even had time for some shopping before I returned to the airport to catch the flight home. At which point I learned that bad weather in the UK had caused air traffic delays and the return flight was delayed by an hour. Aaaaargh! So I am seriously thinking of taking an emergency crochet pack with me next time I fly...

Last weekend I discovered Pink Lemon Twist's Mystery Stole 3 Knitalong. The Mystery Stole idea seemed so much fun that I joined up, and I have been receiving 200 mails a day ever since from the MS3 Yahoo Group; I have had to switch to receiving digests! There are 1800 odd knitters signed up at the time of writing this post, and going onto the group is like going into a huuuuge room full of people all chattering about the same thing, it has an amazing energy. At the moment, everyone is asking questions about what yarn to use and in what colours and whether or not to use beads.


For once, I am going to knit this from stash; I am using some Fyberspates kid mohair laceweight which I bought from Yarn Addict last year. It is in a colourway called Martian Sunrise. There is a swatch pattern already posted, and here is my swatch.


It has beads in two different colours sewn along the bottom edge, and I have decided to use the copper lined crystal beads from e-beads, which are on the left.
Or have I? Since writing this I remembered that I also have some Cherry Tree Hill laceweight merino in stash, in a lovely red colour called Wild Cherry. This morning I got it out, and here is the skein:


I have wound it (all 2400 yards of it) into a ball this morning, and now I really love the colour and I think I may have changed my mind, so I am going to swatch with this too. In which case I'll need different beads. Oh, well...

The first clue is being posted on 29th June, and the KAL is open to sign-ups until 6th July, but you can read all about it on her blog at the link above.


Well, it's not exactly a DIY project, but it's a bit more than mowing the lawn...
I planted a buddleia in our front lawn about five or six years ago when it was very small and spindly, and over the years it has grown rather large. In the summer, it had started spreading over the edge of the garden and intruding into the space where the neighbours park one of their cars. For the last two years, they have pruned it a bit and I have pruned it a bit, but it just kept on growing, and last week I decided that it had to come out.

We removed all the branches first (in some cases with a saw) and then started trying to dislodge the roots with a spade and fork. There was a tense moment when Mr Knitbert managed to spray earth all over me, including in my hair, which I had just spent hours styling. I explained, quite calmly and reasonably I thought, that I would probably have to go straight back inside and redo my hair. I'm afraid Mr Knitbert's reply can only be described as unsympathetic.

We continued digging, and after a while with little progress, Mr Knitbert decided that he would use the car to pull the roots out. This was quite exciting! We tied some old webbing jackstays around the shrub and Mr Knitbert attached the other end to the car somehow. The car inched forward, the shrub leaned over and then after a while the webbing snapped and the shrub sprang back to its original position.

We returned to digging, and this time managed to loosen, and then extract, the shrub and most of its roots. I am reasonably sure that even an inch of buddleia root will simply grow back to an enormous shrub in time, but for the moment the neighbours can park without fear, and Mr Knitbert can claim credit for finishing a gardening task.



And finally, here's my progress with the Ribby Shell. I have done 10.5 inches, so only 3 inches to go before I can divide for the front and back neck. I know it doesn't look very exciting yet, but it will...I tried it on and it fits well, which is good, so I am looking forward to completing it.


The next project (apart from MS3) is for Catbert, and it will be in this yarn, which is Lucy Neatby's Celestial Merino Dream in Fiery Fuschia. I must say I love the colours. I am going to be using Sivia Harding's Fantasy Shawl pattern, which can be done in a scarf size with one skein.

Memory Lane, June

This month's Memory Lane, appropriately, is from the Glastonbury Festival. The photograph, which has a date stamp in the top left corner, is of me and Ratbert in front of the main stage on Sunday morning. A guy with a lot of VERY expensive looking camera equipment was wandering though the crowd, and in one hand he had a polaroid camera (remember those!), and for a reasonable fee you could get him to take a photo, so that's what I did.

I was introduced to the Glastonbury Festival in the early 90s by some friends who had been going for years, since long before it was famous like it is today, and I loved it so much that I went nearly every year it was on for about five years. I was there the year that someone was shot, with an air rifle I think, and even that didn't spoil it for me.

It is such a magical event; after the first year, I remember that when I returned, as soon as I was walking from the car park to the entrance and I saw the blades turning on the big wind turbine that powers the main stage, I felt as if the Festival had been there all the time since I left, in some kind of alternate universe, and I could just walk back into it.

We generally used to camp up on the hill, overlooking the festival site, so at night I could look down and see lights and people, and hear music, and it always seemed to me that there were great flares of magical energy rising into the night. I am the sort of irritating person who can sleep almost anywhere, and I find it relaxing to fall asleep to the sound of very, very loud music, only to be woken at four in the morning by the sound of people tripping over the tent pegs, giggling stupidly and then, more often than not, puking.

In the clear, early morning light there were usually sleeping bodies everywhere which you had to step carefully over to make your way to the toilets, and at that point I will say no more, because you either know what I am talking about or you don't.

The last time I went to Glastonbury was one of the years with mud, and I have another photograph of me standing in a sea of mud which I haven't scanned. I didn't find the mud very magical, and I prefer to remember the festival as it was for the other years. I guess it must have put me off a bit, because I didn't go the following year, and then after that I met Mr Knitbert, whose views on camping and being woken by people puking outside the tent are not printable, so I have not been again since.

Some years later, when DSOK the intern had just finished his A levels, he suddenly announced that he had got tickets for Glastonbury. Once I had got over being weirded out by having a son who was old enough to go to a rock festival, I began to think I would like to go again some year. This caused DSOK to be weirded out by the idea of his mother being at the same rock festival as him, so we have agreed that if we meet there we will pretend we don't know each other, although I have a pretty shrewd idea that if he ran out of money during the weekend he might change his tune.

Anyway, I have not yet managed to organise myself to get tickets, but DSOK went again the following year, which was the year that there was a great thunderstorm and some people's tents were washed away. This resulted in the following memorable phone call:

DSOK: yuuuuuurgh? (that's his normal phone answering phrase)
Knitbert: Hey, how's it going?
DSOK: uuuuugh? Oh,hey Mum!
Knitbert: There was a storm this morning, did you hear it?
DSOK: You what?
Knitbert: Was there a lot of rain?
DSOK: Whaaatimeissit?
Knitbert: Was your tent flooded?
DSOK: Naaa I don't think so. Ow, my head! Whassatime?
Knitbert: Did you see the flood?
DSOK: Er,my phone's about to - *beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!*

Well, writing about it has made me want to get tickets again, so maybe next year...

Back to real life and the present, and here are a couple of modelled pics of Charlotte's Web, as promised:


Slow but steady progress on the Ribby Shell in Calmer:

And here is a photo of me at Get Knitted, taken by the lovely Granny Smith:

I'm knitting a tension square by the way (she said smugly).

The Glaziers Tale

Mr Knitbert and I are fortunate enough to have a lovely conservatory at the back of our house, which is fairly new; new enough at any rate to be still under guarantee. So, in January, when I noticed that there was a small gap, on the outside windowsill, between two sills which join at an angle, I had no hesitation in ringing the service department of the well known double glazing firm who built it to ask them to come and fix it. The company sent out two operatives, who looked at the gap and announced that what was required was a small plastic joint which would seal the gap and join the sills together.
A month went by, and as there had been no word from the company, Mr Knitbert called them to find out what was happening. By an amazing co-incidence, they were just about to chase the matter themselves when he rang. A week later, two more operatives turned up with the part. Imagine their astonishment when they looked at the windowsill and then at their plastic joint. It was half an inch too short! They said they would order one that was half an inch longer. Mr Knitbert suggested that they might like to measure the length of the gap to ensure that the new part was the correct size, but they explained patiently that they were highly trained operatives and could tell through their expert knowledge that the part was half an inch too small and they would simply order one half an inch longer.

A month went by, we went to New Zealand and returned, and as there had been no word from the company, Mr Knitbert called them to find out what was happening. By an amazing co-incidence, they were just about to chase the matter themselves when he rang. A week later, two more operatives turned up with the new part. This time they turned up an hour later than the latest time they had said they would arrive, so Mr Knitbert was already a little tense.
Well. Imagine everyone's surprise when the new part turned out to be EXACTLY the same length as the old part, that is to say half an inch too short.

Mr Knitbert was not amused. He requested that the operatives return within one week with a new part of the correct length. He suggested that they measure the gap this time to ensure that the new part would be the correct size, but they explained nervously that they were highly trained operatives and could tell through their expert knowledge that the part was half an inch too small and they would simply order one half an inch longer.

A week later we got a phone call to say that the new part was ready. Mr Knitbert arranged to stay at home to wait for the operatives. Forty five minutes after the earliest time they should have arrived, I got a call at work on my mobile. The operatives were very sorry but their van had broken down and they would not be able to fit the part that day. I called Mr Knitbert with the good news and put the phone down quickly so I would not have to hear anything which might distress me.

The next week the company called again to say they would like to reschedule the visit, but guess what? Mr Knitbert is now in Singapore, and it is much more difficult for me to be at home during the day waiting for double glazing operatives. I haven't even had time to call them back and arrange the appointment. Maybe I should get Mr Knitbert to call them from Singapore!

A Phone Call From Mr Knitbert

Mr Knitbert has now arrived safely in Singapore, and we spoke on the telephone this morning before he went out to dinner with his colleagues (it's evening there). Afterwards, I thought how amazing that was. First of all, in less than a day, Mr Knitbert has travelled a quarter of the way around the world. Secondly, here I am at home, on a rainy afternoon in England, knitting and watching music videos, and there he is, in Singapore, and we can talk on the phone as if he were just down the road.

Memory Lane, May

This week, Mr Knitbert decided he needed a new external hard drive. His old one is "only" 250GB and he decided that he needed a 400GB one as well. He casually mentioned at dinner one evening that he had ordered it, and the next day when I came home there was one of those irritating little cards on the mat telling you that someone has tried to deliver a parcel.

The next evening I noticed a litle pile of cardboard outside the computer room, so I deduced that the disk had arrived.

In order to make the Memory Lane post this evening, I had to scan in my chosen photo, and as the scanner is in the computer room, I was obliged to open the door and go in. First of all, the pile of cardboard outside had grown bigger, and now included a few plastic bags as well. I cleared it away and flattened the cardboard for recycling so I could get the door open. Inside, I found more paperwork and MORE cardboard strewn over the floor, and worse still, in order to connect the new hard drive to the power, Mr Knitbert had had to disconnect something else, because there are now not enough sockets.

Luckily, the scanner did not seem to be the thing which had been disconnected, and we are off to PC World first thing tomorrow to get a trailing socket with more thingies.

So here is the photo anyway! The picture, which is of me, must have been taken when I was about 3 or 4 I suppose. What am I wearing? What was my mother thinking of? No wonder I have grown up obsessed by textiles and fashion!
I am standing in the driveway of my parents' house, which is where I grew up from the age of about two. The house was newly built and yet had no central heating or double glazing. There was a hearth in the living room and the fire there heated that room and the hot water. There was no heating at all upstairs, and I do remember it being very very cold in winter.

When I was about twelve, I think, my parents invested in some newfangled central heating system, which involved actual radiators being put in the bedrooms, although they were not very efficient and were never turned up too high on account of its being unhealthy to have your room too hot. My mother had a few eccentric ideas about that kind of thing! We never had heating in the kitchen, because it was heated by the cooker when in use, so that would have been wasteful; and the bathroom and toilet were never heated either because of course that would have been unhygienic and encouraged germs. In fact, there was always a window open in the bathroom even in winter. You can imagine how pleasant that was!
It is not surprising, then, that I give a high priority to having a warm and comfortable house.

One last strange fact about this photo is that my brother and his family now live in the house opposite where I am standing. My parents' house was sold nearly twenty years ago. Only a few years ago, Yugbert announced that he was moving again, and when he showed me the house they had decided to buy I was amazed. So now he looks at the house he grew up in every morning out of his bedroom window. I think that's weird, but then that's just me.

Some knitting news: I am trying with some success to finish my Clapotis so I can get on with Charlotte's Web with a clear conscience (and with the Denise cord of the correct size, which is currently in said Clapotis. Or should I just cave in and buy a set of pink Denises? No, don't answer that....my willpower is pitifully low in these matters at the best of times). Anyway, I am on the decrease rows now, so I hope to be able to show a modelled photo later this weekend.

In the meantime I have had a bit of a frenzy of lace pattern buying. I'll show what I ordered when it arrives, but I can show this right away:



Isn't it just the most gorgeous thing you ever saw? It is the Hanami stole from Pink Lemon Twist. I have a skein of Blue Faced Leicester laceweight in semi solid pink from Bright Dyes which is just meant for that stole. I don't have a photo handy, but I'll take one later and post it so you can see what I mean.

Well, I'd better get knitting!

Three Wishes

Oh, my, where has this month gone? I can't believe it is already nearly a month since we returned home. I just realised that if I don't make my Blogalong post right now, then I will be too late. You may also have missed the regular Memory Lane post this month, but it will be returning at the beginning of May.

So, three wishes. Oh, well, wish one is easy:

I wish for more time in every day, to spend knitting, sewing, blogging and talking to my online friends. I don't want to give up working, because I enjoy that too, so I need more hours in the day, or else I need to do with less sleep. Sadly, I am not one of those who can sleep for three or four hours a night, Knitbert needs her beauty sleep! I am strictly an eight hours a night girl.

Last weekend I went up to London to meet with my friend Dogbert, who is a successful management consultant with her own company (which is how we met) and who turned out to have been a keen knitter some years ago and guess what! she is now a keen knitter once more (evil laugh).
We met for coffee just outside Liberty's, and made our way to Stash Yarns in Putney. We had been to an Adventures in Knitting course here last November, and we were delighted to see our tutor on that occasion, the very talented and creative Nickerjac, in the shop again. What a gorgeous shop this is! First of all, it is very welcoming and full of people knitting and talking about knitting, and secondly it is just an Aladdin's cave of gorgeous colours and textures.
So here's the thing. I bought rather a lot of yarn while I was away, and I didn't knit a huge amount. Since I have been back I might have just bought a teeny tiny skein of BFL laceweight in semi solid pink from Bright Dyes, but otherwise I have been trying to finish Mr Knitbert's socks and frankly the stash cupboard is full. I mean really full, I can't get anything new into it. So, I was absolutely determined not to buy any yarn at all. I thought I might buy a pattern or two, and maybe some needles.
Sadly, I think you can see where this is going. Well, some evil person in Stash had laid out copies of the Charlotte's Web shawl pattern, which I have been wanting to knit for ages, and worse than that, they had laid out sets of Koigu KPPM skeins in suitable colours. Probably the time between my entering the shop and my knowing that I was going to buy the pattern and some Koigu to knit it was at least ten minutes...but the fact is, you have to see the colours and play with the different skeins together, you can't buy a thing like that over the internet, now can you?
Anyway, here is my shawl so far, and all the colours I chose (with Nic's help) for it. Isn't it fab?I am soooo enjoying knitting it.


Wish two:
DSoK the Intern was in a philosophical mood after my reunion weekend, and we spent a lot of time talking about the importance of friends, and how one of the best things in life is to spend time in nice places, eating good food and just talking with good friends. Many of my friends are those I made years ago, and while it is lovely to see them, I think it would be nice to make new friends, too, and to develop those friendships which have begun more recently (some of them here or on knitting forums). So, my second wish is for more occasions to spend time with my friends, and more friends to spend time with.

Mmmm, while I think about my third wish, here are a couple of other photos to prove that I have been knitting this week. I have nearly finished my Chocolate Soy Silk Clapotis, and I have made quite a lot of progress with Mr Knitbert's Father and Son socks, although they are not going to be done in time for the April Sock a Month challenge. I would just like to call attention to the fact there there are two of them, and they are on two circs (smug).



Wish no 3
I think that my third wish has to be for good health, which is not something to be taken for granted. I know that some of my friends have overcome or live with health problems and still live a full and happy life, and how much I admire them for that. Me, I'm unbearable if I have even a little cold!

Right, I'm off to read the other Three Wishes Blogalong posts now!

A Toast to Friendship

Take a seat, dear reader, relax. Have a glass of wine. Red or white? Or champagne? There are nibbles in those dishes over there, help yourself.

Well, this week seems to have flashed past, I don't know where the time has gone. Not on knitting, that's for sure! DSoK the Intern has been staying with us since we came home from New Zealand, since he has Important Revision to do and has NO money until term starts, so required a free place to stay.
He appeared to be eating his own weight in...well, in whatever he could find to eat in the house actually. Shortly after we returned I came home from work to find that he had eaten everything in the refrigerator and was starting on the freezer. A quick trip to the supermarket sorted that out, and once he had his own jar of peanut butter things began to settle down.

Last weekend we all went to stay with Catbert. It happens that she lives in the town where she went to university, which is also the town where I went to university. Two of my old friends from those days had organised a get together for quite a number of us on Saturday night, with a lovely dinner, and we were all meeting up for lunch first and then staying on until Sunday for another lunch. DSoK was quite excited at all the opportunities there would be for eating.

We met up with everyone at a pub in the early afternoon. What a glorious day it was, too, perfect for sitting in the spring sunshine and talking with friends. After lunch, some people went punting with their families. Apparently there were twelve of them in a five person punt. You would think people of our age would be more responsible, wouldn't you?



Mr Knitbert and I returned to Catbert's house to change, and to pick up DSoK, who was still frantically revising. Here we are just before dinner, all spiffied up. Mr Knitbert is wearing his Hong Kong suit, by the way. Doesn't it look great?

The dinner was lovely, and we all talked and caught up until the small hours of the morning, when the four of us walked home. Up again the next morning to have a quick breakfast and meet at a different pub for lunch. What a life! Apparently one of our number awoke next morning to find himself upside down in bed, fully clothed apart from one shoe, and with four text messages on his phone all asking him if he felt alright. You may draw your own conclusions, dear reader! He knows who he is...

I don't think that there are many better ways to spend your time than talking with old friends, with your family around you, in a garden by a river on a glorious spring day.

"Memory Lane" March

This month's photo was taken in the early nineties, on the island of Skyros, in Greece. I spent a very relaxing two weeks holiday there one summer, after a very stressful year. You could do different activities on this holiday, and there was a wide range, from physical to artistic to meditative activities to choose from. The first week, I remember that I chose to go swimming first thing in the morning,before breakfast. Now, getting up early is not really my thing, but the surroundings were so beautiful that I managed to stagger out of bed and get my swimming costume on each day in time to be at the water's edge by 6.00 am. We could dive or jump straight into the beautiful, clear water, and after half an hour's swimming I was refreshed and relaxed and ready to face the day. And ready to eat a hearty breakfast!

The second week I got up again at 6.00 am every day but this time it was to do an art workshop. The workshop leader explained that by starting so early, while we were still half asleep, we would be more in touch with our creative side. You can judge for yourselves if it was true! I made the magnificent mask you can see me holding, which I actually managed to get home safely in my suitcase. It lived on my living room wall for several years after that.

It was one of the nicest, most relaxing holidays I have ever had, and in one of the loveliest settings, too.

Speaking of holidays and lovely scenery, Mr Knitbert and I are currently packing, so the living room floor is covered with plastic bags and little piles of books, clothes and cosmetics, which I am trying to believe will presently form into fully packed and organised luggage. Here are the sock yarns I have decided to take with me. I haven't actually packed any clothes yet, or got all the knitting patterns ready, you understand.


In order to get these yarns, I have had to open the stash cupboard and take a lot of stuff out of it, which always seems to cover the entire landing, even though there is really only a tiny amount of yarn in a few bags. I tried to trap Mr Knitbert in the computer room, but unfortunately he insisted on coming to the door to see what was going on. "How much yarn have you got?!" he gasped.
To distract him, I got some colours of DK out to choose for making crochet squares. "Which colours look nice together?" I asked him.
"To make what?" he replied.

Now I ask you, dear reader, what does that matter? The colours either look nice together or they don't. Anyway, while Mr Knitbert was distracted choosing colours I was able to pack everything back into the cupboard so that when he looked again the landing was clear. Then I selected the colours I had already chosen, plus a couple of his that were not too ghastly and we were done.

I'm getting very excited about our trip now, so to finish here is a photo of Auckland taken on our last visit to New Zealand, by way of a taster. This was taken from St Helier, looking back across Auckland harbour to the city centre. The very tall building with the spike on it that you can see is the Sky Tower. There is an amusing story about Mr Knitbert's and my visit to the Sky Tower, but I will save that for another post.

Guess the Baby

Some while ago there was a bit of a crisis in the Knitbert household. It was sparked by an event I am organising at work, for which, to add a bit of fun, we decided that the management team should all provide some baby photos. The idea was to put them on the wall and ask the attendees to guess who was which baby.

So that weekend I asked Mr Knitbert to go into the loft, where there is a box containing all the Knitbert family photos for about the last hundred years (no really) and drawings made by my Aunt Dorothy, and my grandmother Molly's notebooks, and to bring this box down. Well, Mr Knitbert searched the loft, and brought assorted boxes to show me, and I shouted instructions from the top of the ladder until I was hoarse, but the long and the short of it was that we had lost the box of photos.

Now of course I know that this cannot have happened. My brother Yugbert, who previously had custody of this box, had brought it to us a few years earlier, when he was moving house, and asked us to look after it for a while. We said no problem, and we took the box and put it in the loft. Since then there have been no untoward occurrences, no break-ins, no coming home and finding the loft hatch swinging mysteriously open, and we haven't touched the box ourselves. So it must still be in the loft! The problem seems to be that Mr Knitbert can't find it.

I daren't mention to my brother that we might not exactly know, just at this precise moment, the exact location of the box, and also I do need a baby photo for the event at work, and even more than all that I would actually like to find the box because it has Important Things in it. So this last weekend I sent Mr Knitbert up to the loft again and we tried a more structured approach. This time I just ordered him to describe things from the boxes that are in the loft, and then bring them to me. I have a suspicion that Mr Knitbert is applying too much personal judgement when looking at boxes and is dismissing candidate boxes just because, in his opinion, they don't look like The Box.

Well, we didn't find The Box yet, but we did find a box which has a lot of my photos in, including some baby photos, as you can see from the photo of me and Yugbert at the top of this post, so that was a good start. And Mr Knitbert has offered to put flooring in the loft and put up shelves so I can look for my own d___n Box in future. Isn't that sweet of him?

I received two items in the post this week which were not yarn (I blushingly confess that there were also items which are yarn), one of them was this book, which was recommended by Jacquie, and is very interesting, and one was the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. I like a lot of the things in this magazine, and in particular I would like to knit the Ruffled Surplice, the Ribs and Lace tank, the Dollar and a Half Cardigan, the Slanted Neck Pullover, the Cable Down Raglan, the Merry Maiden's Dress for my twin cousins (they'll be the right size in about five years, luckily) and the Bauhaus Fair Isle Sweater for Mr Knitbert.

I am overwhelmed with admiration for the technical virtuosity of Eunny's entrelac socks, but I personally would not care to wear them. And let me reassure you now that there will never be any knitted items in the lingerie drawer chez Knitbert.

"Memory Lane" February

I have decided to start a series of posts, once a month, which I shall call "Memory Lane". The idea is that each month I shall take a photo or an item which reminds me of something in the past, and tell the story which is associated with it.
This photograph was taken about ten or twelve years ago, do you recognise what is in the background? That's right, it is Niagara Falls! At this time I was living in Paris, and during my summer holidays I had met and become friends with a Canadian lady, let us call her Alice. Alice and I remained in touch after our holiday, and I nearly visited her a few months later when I came to Pittsburgh for a conference, but in the end I just did not have time. She invited me to come and stay for Christmas instead, and on impulse I accepted.

The cheapest flight was with KLM, so I had to fly first from Paris to Amsterdam, and from there to Toronto. I remember the first evening in Toronto; Alice drove me around her neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights, and what really impressed me was the snow, which was several feet deep. Actual steam was coming out of the drain covers, just like it does on the movies, but just like it doesn't in the South of England! Or in Paris, come to that. We had been invited to a friend's house for dinner, and at about 9pm I nearly fell asleep in my dessert, as it was about 3 in the morning for me, and I had to be taken back to Alice's place for some sleep.

It was a lovely Christmas, very very cold outside, and I enjoyed visiting Toronto, which seemed to me to combine the energy of the New World with that sense of the past that I am used to in Europe. I wasn't much into photography in those days, so this is the only photograph I have of the trip. Alice was very worried that I was not used to real cold and would not dress up warmly enough, so as you can see I look like Michelin woman. I think I had about four coats on and the earmuffs just complete the picture.

This trip did not take place during one of my knitting phases, so I purchased no yarn, but I did buy a delightful jacket, which I still have.


After writing this I went to my wardrobe to try the jacket on this morning. I had forgotten how nice it is! It came from a shop called Ms Emma Designs. In this shop, you chose a garment and it was then fitted to your shape by pinning. A few days later, the custom fitted garment was ready to pick up. What really pleased me is that it still fits perfectly even though it was fitted to the shape I was over ten years ago!

Alice and I stayed friends for a few years after that, but sadly have lost touch now. But I still have the warmest memories of my magical, white, Canadian Christmas.

Treasure

This post is part of a Blogalong organised by the Bloggers Paradise Forum. Each month, members of the forum post a thread on their blogs using a title which has been agreed for that month. This month's title is Treasure.

When I started to think about this topic I realised that many of my treasures are memories or keepsakes which remind me of people or events in the past. Probably something to do with my age! Anyway, I have chosen as my treasure something which links me to my paternal Grandmother, who was called Molly.

Molly died before I reached my first birthday, so I do not remember her at all, but I have a few of her things. The mirror in the photo (which I regret to say is real tortoiseshell, but I suppose those were less enlightened times) is part of a set, which includes a matching hairbrush and jewel box. I was also given an ivory hand mirror engraved with her initials. For many years I have used the tortoiseshell mirror every morning.


Anyway, that's not the treasure! I always believed that my grandmother and I had never met, but a few years ago I came across a letter among my mother's papers. It was a letter from my grandmother to my mother, written just after she had returned from visiting my mother in hospital after I was born. In the letter she mentions the visit and talks about seeing me. So we did meet, even if it was only that once, and my treasure is that letter which tells that story.

Looking Forward and Looking Back

I don't typically make New Year's resolutions, but I do like to look back over the past year and think about what went well, what I would like to change, and what objectives I might have for the coming year.

What Went Well
1. I changed my job, to reduce the amount I travel, work closer to home and have more time. I've really enjoyed being at home more, and being able to cycle to work sometimes.

2. I took up knitting again, partly because of the first change, as it is an activity which I can do in my lunch hour and easily pick up and put down at home. Boy, has this had an impact on my life last year! I used to do dressmaking, and this needs special equipment and much larger time slots. Originally I thought that I would fill in additional spare time with knitting, but in reality I just knit all the time now, and as a result I have (ahem)a few sewing UFOs. Last year I joined knitting forums, made lots of new friends who also like to knit, learned new techniques and improved old ones, discovered yarns, patterns, tools and resources I had never had any idea existed. Wow!

3. Also as a result of the first change I have been able to exercise more regularly and eat more healthily (as I have not been staying in hotels half the time).

So the lifestyle change has been successful and had a lot of beneficial effects. If I decide to change my job in the future I think it will be important to take these other aspects into account.

What I would Like to Change in 2007
1. Well, I'd like to give a little more attention to some projects in the house and garden this year, I think. There are some small changes and improvements to make in the garden which we have not got around to in the last few years, and there are a couple of rooms in the house I would like to decorate, or do some maintenance in.

2. I'd also like to have a bit of a clear out in DSOK's and Catbert's rooms, as they don't really live here any more, their rooms are just being used for storage. A lot of what is being stored is just rubbish, or could be stored more efficiently. DSOK has one of those beds on stilts, and I'd really like to store that or give it to him, and redo the room as an office.

3. I'd like to do more walking and cycling with Mr Knitbert, especially in the warmer weather. I know that Mr Knitbert, who reads this blog, will be turning pale with horror as he reads this, but I assure you it WILL BE FUN.

So there isn't really anything very fundamental I would like to change, and that makes sense because my job change last year was quite a significant change which I had been trying to bring about for a while.

Objectives for 2007
1. Knit some more lace, knit some nice, wearable garments which fit well (for me and others), and knit loads and loads of socks (12 pairs to be precise! See sidebar and more of this in a future post). Try to do some sewing as well as some knitting.

2. Review ways to improve work/life balance even further and consider if any changes might need to be made.

3. Relax, enjoy life, make the most of time with the family, stop worrying so much about achieving objectives!

Back In The Jug Agane...

...in the immortal words of Nigel Molesworth, the goriller of 3B.

Returning to everyday life after the Christmas and New Year break is always painful, I can't remember what I was doing, what the plan was, what on earth was happening or why it all seemed so important. I didn't even have a single meeting in my diary today, and a significant number of people have not returned yet from Planet Christmas. Those of us who were here sat quietly staring at our LCD screens trying not to attract attention. I've eaten a normal packed lunch, which seems like starvation rations compared to what I have been subsisting on, and I had to get up while it was still dark. Snivel. Tomorrow I'm going back to the gym. Snivel, snivel.

During the day I have managed to acquire two new meetings for the rest of the week and a list of key points for Q1 2007. So tomorrow I may feel more like I know what I am supposed to be doing.

I managed to finish the tiger socks on New Year's Eve, here modelled by their proud owner.

and yesterday I cast on for Ivy. Here's how far I have got.


I am using Patons Diploma Gold DK in Lupin colourway. It doesn't seem to be a very complicated knit, and the twisted rib pattern is rather pretty. The most difficult part of Ivy seems to be the simultaneous decreases and increases on the fronts, however I have worked through the pattern and extracted information, which I shall put into a spreadsheet, so that I can easily see what I have to do for each row.

I'm looking forward to making progress on this, it will be the first fitted garment I have knitted for six or seven years. It is also a much better written pattern than I have used in the past, and I am confident I have improved my finishing skills (my mother never told me much about blocking other than that it was a waste of time), so all in all I'm quite excited about how it will turn out.