I had the skein of yarn from hell on Wednesday night. I put in on my swift only to discover that it was horribly twisted and so knotted it was almost impossible to do anything with it. I spent an hour on it and barely wound up a quarter of a 50g skein.
In the end, frustrated and almost in tears with anger over it, I asked Himself to help. He doesn't normally like to get involved with winding skeins as he knows what a mess they can be in (and it gives him cramps in his muscles to sit holding one in outstretched hands) but he could see I'd hit a dead end and came along to help just as long as I held the skein and he did the winding and un-knotting. It must have been another hour and half before we finally got it looking like a ball of yarn.
I've been in terrible pain as a result. My right shoulder was solid and the pain travelled up the side of my neck into my face. My right eye keeps watering as a result. I've had to rest this past couple of days and naps have been the only way to cope. I'm extremely annoyed about yarn. It was very expensive, being cashmere, and I don't expect a skein to be thrown together when paying those sort of prices. The problem is that it's almost fashionable for hand painted yarns to be sold in a twisted skein rather than wound into a ball. I'm almost at the point where I'm no longer looking at such yarns because I can't bear the thought of what kind of condition they might be in.
Still, that skein of yarn is now a ball of yarn ready to be knit into a scrummy, warm and soft pair of sock for Himself. Only another 4 skeins of the same yarn to wind. I'm dreading them!
I just had to share these images from the BBC news site. I'm always fascinated with the way artists can create realistic landscapes from unusual objects:
In pictures: From edible to incredible
Mouthwatering-ly lovely.
Take this BBC quiz on modern manners and see how you do:
Himself managed 5/10.
I scored 10/10.
That annoyed him no end :)
All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile.
--Chris Hart
I babysat my youngest grandson today whilst his mum went out grocery shopping. I sit with him every Thursday morning now as he doesn't cope with a shopping trip - sitting down quietly is not something he does well - and his mum can shop in half the time when she doesn't have him there.
I happen to like Grandson2 a lot. Probably because he so obviously likes me. We sit together in companionable silence watching the Nick Jnr channel and he usually sits on my lap with his right arm draped over my neck. He'll turn his face up to me every now and again and expects me to plant a kiss on his cheek. I, of course, oblige.
If you'd like to indulge me, and you don't mind the fuzzy and blurry pictures, then take a look at him here:
OK that's all the cuteness for today. Next time there'll be more about knitting socks!
The blog is being comment spammed to death. I'm using MT-Blacklist but it's not stopping them. I don't want to have to close comments but I'm going to have to find a way to stop all this horrible porn spam I'm getting.
Bugger!
Any ideas anyone? I'm off to see what help I can find in the MT forums.
So I frogged the sock and sat looking peevishly at the ball of yarn for 24 hours. Tami suggested that I could knit a pair of socks for one of my grandchildren out of it...
...erm, I don't think so.
Why, you ask? Well mainly because cashmere needs to be hand-washed in cold water and I can't imagine any of my daughters being happy to stand hand-washing their children's socks. Besides, I'm feeling particularly selfish at the moment and want to knit something for me. I rarely knit for myself (I was going to participate in the NaNoSweMo last year and knit myself a sweater but the fibro started to bite again and it never got cast on) and I think it's about time I did.
So I've started the sock again using 3mm needles this time and not using a pattern of any kind (just stocking stitch) and seem to be doing much better. I've knit the leg length 9cm which isn't particularly long but looking at how the ball of wool is doing I should get a second sock out of it. I have got two other hanks of sock yarn in my stash that I bought from the same place. These weren't sold as being suitable for long socks so I don't know what kind of leg length I'll get out of them. I have found a pattern from Magknits that should do the job with these:
Minus the pompom though!
Well here we are in 2008. I had an extremely quiet Christmas and even quieter New year. Himself and I indulged in a glass of port as Big Ben began pealing on the telly and then I switched over and tried to find something else to watch, which was difficult as the TV programmes have been thoroughly pants this year.
I've done some knitting. Actually I've attempted some knitting. I've bought some rather nice cashmere sock yarn from Hip Knits but half way through a sock realised that there wouldn't be enough yarn for a pair. This after I bought the yarn that specified it would be enough for a long pair of socks. I'd decided on a very simple pattern and was only knitting them 4 inches long in the leg. I'm presuming the problem was that I was knitting them on very fine needles (size 2.25mm) and that there isn't sufficient yarn for that gauge. Although checking the site it says 38 stitches to 10cm and I was getting 40 stitches so it shouldn't have been that much off.
Bugger
Actually I'm rather disappointed as I paid £13 (including P&P), can't get another hank of it as it's sold out and rather baulk at paying £26 for a pair of socks even if I could get more of the yarn. Perhaps I should try again and leave off the pattern.
No resolutions from me this year. Last year was a particularly tough one with the fibro and losing my job. This year I'm going to take each day as it comes. And live each day as well as I can. Perhaps that's my new year's resolution. Looks like I've made one after all :)
Happy New year everyone!