I have to keep this short because if I don't get up to the Post Office they'll lock away my gorgeous new wool that's waiting for me and I'm dying to get my hands on it...
Anyway, I've called this entry Creative Block because I have exactly that. I've normally got a list of things as long as both arms that I want to knit, but I can't think of anything, nor can I find patterns for using up my stash. But now the postman has brought me such lovely wool, at least I have a cardigan to knit which should keep me occupied. Plus, this moving house business is costing a small fortune and I should really focus on buying food rather than wool...although on second thoughts...
So not only am I struggling with the creativity of knitting, but I'm also struggling with my book which I have been writing since I was 16...and never really got anywhere. I had the inspiration a few weeks ago to kill off the main character and have him tell it like he was a ghost thus giving the reader a surprise. However, having read Anybody Out There by Marianne Keyes, I'm somewhat reluctant to do this bearing in mind just how much I wept. And, this book is supposed to be chick-lit and I'm struggling writing from a male point of view anyway, let alone making it believable AND funny.
Keyes is so talented she can combine comedy with tragedy so effortlessly. I however, am not talented and am therefore struggling. And I so desperately want everyone to live happily ever after without giving the poor sod who reads the book cause to ball their eyes out because the lovely man is dead and leaves his lovely girlfriend with his unborn child. I mean, that's not a cosy night in with chocolate is it? But if I don't kill him then I don't think it will work...I'm in such a tizz. So to kill protagonsit or let him live and be happy? Answers on a post card please. NB Please don't, not for one minute, think that I'm actually going to get this book finished. Bearing in mind it has been in the making for seven years and has had more plot changes than you can imagine, it may never be done. Plus, I fear should it ever be finished, it is highly likely to be rubbish.
Must go and pick up the lovely wool. And I best put my gym kit on now, or I'll never burn off all those cookies I ate today, and I've got a beach party to go to on Saturday night. I don't want to wear a bikini in public, it's just not right: I'm pale, I'm pastey and I don't think that well toned anymore...I might have to have some more Pringles to cheer myself up...
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Monday, 28 April 2008
Some Successes
I've not had a particularly good day at work today. I won't bore you with the details but let's just say that office politics has got me in a stew and I've been worrying about one thing or another since I got home from work. But, I'm determined to look at the positives as life is too short to dwell.
The first bit of good news is that Phil has got a new phone which means that he has signal where he works and now we can actually speak on the phone and text. Now all we need is for him to get a new car and then we're away! And it also means I won't have to literally slap myself driving back on the M25 at ridiculous times of the night trying to stay awake. I drove him back to work yesterday and it was lovely to spend an extra hour and a half in the car with him and on the way back (until I started falling asleep) I had a lovely loud sing to some rather cheesy songs. It was a 200+ mile round trip which is actually quite a long way to do in one go and now I'm rather concerned abou this wedding I'm going to in Lincoln on Saturday because it'll be over 6 hours of driving in one day for me and it looks like Phil might not be able to go because of a work commitment. I really hope he manages to swap with someone else I'll have to get the train. It's going to cost a fortune to get there and back one way or another. I might not be able to eat by the end of the month!
Anyway, more positives before I sink into the depths of despair: I finished my tank top. It fitted and everything, no baggy back and one girl at work even asked me where I bought it from. I was thrilled!
And today I finished my mum's birthday bag. It's come out ok really. Much better than I thought as I was beginning to lose faith in it. It took all evening to sew the handles on, the lining in and sew the flower on the front. I only used one flower in the end because I think it looks nicer with only one. And it's all done and ready for Mum's birthday on Friday.
Now all I've got to do is write my essay for uni by Friday and all will be good in the world! Tomorrow is Phil's birthday so I may be doing the 200+ mile round trip to see him after work tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday there's knitting on. Christ knows when I'll be able to get to the gym this week as I was supposed to go tonight but urgent present finishing was required.
And whilst we're on the subject of going to knitting, I discovered that it will take me up to an hour and forty minutes to get to London once I move to Maidstone so I may have to considerably cut the amount of meetings I go to. I love being so near London, it's going to be hard moving so far away.
Well, I almost managed to not be gloomy, but I don't think it's worked! I hope I don't sound too stressed out either. I shall write again when happier things are happening. It's almost time for bed and I'm already dreading work tomorrow. At least I have Friday off and then I start a new unit on Tuesday.
The first bit of good news is that Phil has got a new phone which means that he has signal where he works and now we can actually speak on the phone and text. Now all we need is for him to get a new car and then we're away! And it also means I won't have to literally slap myself driving back on the M25 at ridiculous times of the night trying to stay awake. I drove him back to work yesterday and it was lovely to spend an extra hour and a half in the car with him and on the way back (until I started falling asleep) I had a lovely loud sing to some rather cheesy songs. It was a 200+ mile round trip which is actually quite a long way to do in one go and now I'm rather concerned abou this wedding I'm going to in Lincoln on Saturday because it'll be over 6 hours of driving in one day for me and it looks like Phil might not be able to go because of a work commitment. I really hope he manages to swap with someone else I'll have to get the train. It's going to cost a fortune to get there and back one way or another. I might not be able to eat by the end of the month!
Anyway, more positives before I sink into the depths of despair: I finished my tank top. It fitted and everything, no baggy back and one girl at work even asked me where I bought it from. I was thrilled!
And today I finished my mum's birthday bag. It's come out ok really. Much better than I thought as I was beginning to lose faith in it. It took all evening to sew the handles on, the lining in and sew the flower on the front. I only used one flower in the end because I think it looks nicer with only one. And it's all done and ready for Mum's birthday on Friday.
Now all I've got to do is write my essay for uni by Friday and all will be good in the world! Tomorrow is Phil's birthday so I may be doing the 200+ mile round trip to see him after work tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday there's knitting on. Christ knows when I'll be able to get to the gym this week as I was supposed to go tonight but urgent present finishing was required.
And whilst we're on the subject of going to knitting, I discovered that it will take me up to an hour and forty minutes to get to London once I move to Maidstone so I may have to considerably cut the amount of meetings I go to. I love being so near London, it's going to be hard moving so far away.
Well, I almost managed to not be gloomy, but I don't think it's worked! I hope I don't sound too stressed out either. I shall write again when happier things are happening. It's almost time for bed and I'm already dreading work tomorrow. At least I have Friday off and then I start a new unit on Tuesday.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Measure twice, cut once
Well the Uni work doesn't seem to be as hard as I thought at the moment, but then again I've not done a lot and not even started on the literature review. Which reminds me, I really must look up what one of those is.
I've actually had a very productive weekend this week - even with all the knitting. Phil and I went to Tunbridge Wells yesterday to meet his friend who neither of us of seen for a quite a while. It was acutally quite good fun, and that makes me sound like I didn't want to meet Phil's friend which isn't true because Tim is lovely. I, however, am not all that good in social situations and tend to get verbal diarrhea which Phil tells me about in the car on the way home when I can't apologise to the poor bugger who's been listening to me for the past couple of hours and means I get into a terrible stew next time I have to meet anyone. And not just people I don't know well, even friends I'v known for years. And then I get more nervous next time and the torrent of rubbish that falls from my mouth is much worse, occassionally louder and is likely to contain a lot of references to poo. Yesterday, I triumphed. I listened to them talking about DJ decks and cars - things I know nothing about - and managed short yet interesting answers to any questions asked of me. I was ridiculously proud of myself. And I'm pretty sure I didn't mention poo once.
After a lovely couple of beers (or appletiser for me as I was driving) Tim went to do some DJing in The Beacon which is his dad's restaurant which is very nice. It's in Tea Garden Lane in Tunbridge Wells and they do lovely English food. You should give it a go if you're ever there. Phil and I went into a ridiculously expensive furniture shop and played with thousand pound wardrobes and sat on sofas I couldn't afford and then we went home and had nibbles from Sainsbury's and watched Doctor Who. It was all rather civilised.
Anyway, I did actually get to do quite a lot of knitting yesterday as well. The tank top is coming on marvelously. I've knitted nearly all the front so just the upper back to do. I'm still scared of the pattern though - everyone I've spoken to about it says that it has gone wrong or there are errors in the pattern. Mine seems to look ok at the moment apart from two mistakes I've made.
The first mistake is that I knitted an extra row when I was doing waffle stitch but didn't notice until much too late so there's a slightly irregular pattern on the front. And then I miscounted the stitches for the front by six so when the pattern said reduce one stitch and the beginning of the next twelve rows, I could only do nine and then realised I had the six stitches too few. So I worked even for the next three rows then followed the pattern again and spread the lack of six stitches across the cast off and strap shapings. I'm not too gifted in the chest department so I don't think it'll be too catastrophic. Hopefully I won't have a baggy back...
I've actually had a very productive weekend this week - even with all the knitting. Phil and I went to Tunbridge Wells yesterday to meet his friend who neither of us of seen for a quite a while. It was acutally quite good fun, and that makes me sound like I didn't want to meet Phil's friend which isn't true because Tim is lovely. I, however, am not all that good in social situations and tend to get verbal diarrhea which Phil tells me about in the car on the way home when I can't apologise to the poor bugger who's been listening to me for the past couple of hours and means I get into a terrible stew next time I have to meet anyone. And not just people I don't know well, even friends I'v known for years. And then I get more nervous next time and the torrent of rubbish that falls from my mouth is much worse, occassionally louder and is likely to contain a lot of references to poo. Yesterday, I triumphed. I listened to them talking about DJ decks and cars - things I know nothing about - and managed short yet interesting answers to any questions asked of me. I was ridiculously proud of myself. And I'm pretty sure I didn't mention poo once.
After a lovely couple of beers (or appletiser for me as I was driving) Tim went to do some DJing in The Beacon which is his dad's restaurant which is very nice. It's in Tea Garden Lane in Tunbridge Wells and they do lovely English food. You should give it a go if you're ever there. Phil and I went into a ridiculously expensive furniture shop and played with thousand pound wardrobes and sat on sofas I couldn't afford and then we went home and had nibbles from Sainsbury's and watched Doctor Who. It was all rather civilised.
Anyway, I did actually get to do quite a lot of knitting yesterday as well. The tank top is coming on marvelously. I've knitted nearly all the front so just the upper back to do. I'm still scared of the pattern though - everyone I've spoken to about it says that it has gone wrong or there are errors in the pattern. Mine seems to look ok at the moment apart from two mistakes I've made.
The first mistake is that I knitted an extra row when I was doing waffle stitch but didn't notice until much too late so there's a slightly irregular pattern on the front. And then I miscounted the stitches for the front by six so when the pattern said reduce one stitch and the beginning of the next twelve rows, I could only do nine and then realised I had the six stitches too few. So I worked even for the next three rows then followed the pattern again and spread the lack of six stitches across the cast off and strap shapings. I'm not too gifted in the chest department so I don't think it'll be too catastrophic. Hopefully I won't have a baggy back...
Thursday, 17 April 2008
The trouble with work...
The trouble with work is that you have to go. And the reason you have to go is because you're a grown up. Sadly, unless grown-ups go to work they don't get paid (now is not the time for a rant about people who sponge off the state) and they have no where to live and no food. And no money for wool. But, what is the point of going to work if you have no time to enjoy the house you work to pay for and can't knit with the wool you've saved up to buy?
I've been at work this week, in between the house hunting, finding a present for mum's 50th, boyfriend's 27th, friend's wedding (including making my dress - what was I thinking??) I've now got Emily (the doll) with no hat or ringlets, a jumper I can't bear to finish, the first quarter of my tank top done and mum's bag...don't even get me started. I've got two weeks to knit and felt two flowers and sew the lining and the handles in place and if it takes as long as putting the stiffner in today (which took the same amount of time to watch a recording of the Apprentice and the after show) I might just have it done by Christmas. Plus, I've got four deadlines in seven weeks for uni and I think my brain might explode.
And with that, I'm going to have a knit...although what I'm going to knit I really couldn't tell you!
I've been at work this week, in between the house hunting, finding a present for mum's 50th, boyfriend's 27th, friend's wedding (including making my dress - what was I thinking??) I've now got Emily (the doll) with no hat or ringlets, a jumper I can't bear to finish, the first quarter of my tank top done and mum's bag...don't even get me started. I've got two weeks to knit and felt two flowers and sew the lining and the handles in place and if it takes as long as putting the stiffner in today (which took the same amount of time to watch a recording of the Apprentice and the after show) I might just have it done by Christmas. Plus, I've got four deadlines in seven weeks for uni and I think my brain might explode.
And with that, I'm going to have a knit...although what I'm going to knit I really couldn't tell you!
Monday, 14 April 2008
A bit of a naughty knit...
Well, with all the horrible weather this weekend, I had nothing to do but knit. Poor Phil was in a terrible rush to get home from work on Friday night so didn't have any outdoor stuff with him so we were pretty much stuck in. He did go out for a run in the hail though, bless him.
So I should have been doing something useful; you know, reading one of my many books, studying for my degree, baking another cake...but I chose knitting. I'd spent all of Friday evening sewing up and stuffing Emily and consequently had rather knotty and sore shoulders.
And then I ran out of white wool, with about ten rows to go...The whole point of this doll knitting lark was because I was wanted to bust my wool stash. There was a horrible moment when I first started because I didn't have enough white wool so I ran to the little wool shop in town and got another ball. So that all worked out lovely, and then I ran out again! Like I say, with less than ten rows to go. So now I've finished knitting, and I don't need any more white and it hardly looks like I've used the wool. I actually have more white wool now than when I started!
Anyway, the reason why this weekend was a bit of naughty knit was because I broke the other of my New Year's knitting resolutions by starting another project while I had one on the go already. And I have been itching to get started on the Back To School Tank Top from Fitted Knits. To be fair it wasn't my fault. It was the weather, and the lack of outdoor kit with the lovely boyfriend and having run out of white wool I needed something else to knit to save me from rubbish television...
So I did it, I started knitting another project. And now I've got a doll with no hat or ringlets. And three inches of top I can't walk past without picking it up for a knit.
So that's two knitting resolutions broken - to get rid of all my stash and only have one WIP at a time...maybe I was being a bit ambitious.
So I should have been doing something useful; you know, reading one of my many books, studying for my degree, baking another cake...but I chose knitting. I'd spent all of Friday evening sewing up and stuffing Emily and consequently had rather knotty and sore shoulders.
And then I ran out of white wool, with about ten rows to go...The whole point of this doll knitting lark was because I was wanted to bust my wool stash. There was a horrible moment when I first started because I didn't have enough white wool so I ran to the little wool shop in town and got another ball. So that all worked out lovely, and then I ran out again! Like I say, with less than ten rows to go. So now I've finished knitting, and I don't need any more white and it hardly looks like I've used the wool. I actually have more white wool now than when I started!
Anyway, the reason why this weekend was a bit of naughty knit was because I broke the other of my New Year's knitting resolutions by starting another project while I had one on the go already. And I have been itching to get started on the Back To School Tank Top from Fitted Knits. To be fair it wasn't my fault. It was the weather, and the lack of outdoor kit with the lovely boyfriend and having run out of white wool I needed something else to knit to save me from rubbish television...
So I did it, I started knitting another project. And now I've got a doll with no hat or ringlets. And three inches of top I can't walk past without picking it up for a knit.
So that's two knitting resolutions broken - to get rid of all my stash and only have one WIP at a time...maybe I was being a bit ambitious.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)