Socks and the Single Girl

I'll say one thing for the hot weather - it really encourages me to go back to the socks that have been lying around, unloved and unfinished, in the UFO pile!

In January I received some glorious rainbow-coloured Regia Color, and immediately cast on the Broadripple Socks pattern, which is designed to make the most of variegated sock yarn. I enthusiastically knitted the first leg almost to the heel.... and then got distracted. For the last six months, they've looked like this:

When it became too hot to knit my lovely warm woollen shawls, I cast about for something light and manageable, that wouldn't end up as a pile of yarn in my lap, and found the socks again. Within a few days I had completed one sock, and then in two more days, having rediscovered the lovely and soothing monotony of knitting with very little shaping, I finished the second:

I am beyond reason captivated by them :)

Having got the taste for socks, I then picked up the Paint It Black Socks which have also been languishing. I had actually finished one of these, and cast on the toe for the second, although this is the only photo I have so far:

These are my first toe-up socks. I'm undecided at the moment about whether I'll do any more. The pattern (Ravelry link), 'Sock Stew' by my lovely friend Ari Ridpath, is excellent, but I can do top-down socks on auto-pilot, so I'm still in two minds. It would be good to have another pattern by heart, though. Hmm. I feel more socks coming on.....

What next?

I think Merlin has become a vegetarian.

OK, I know all cats go off their meat a little in hot weather, and goodness knows it has been hot.

I also know that cats often eat green stuff to aid digestion.

I have never, however, had a cat who would sit in front of me while I eat salad, drooling and attempting to steal lettuce from my plate. When he manages to get some, he runs off with it, growling, and eats it in a hurry so that he can get back for more. Meanwhile his cat food grows crusty in the kitchen.....

He's a weird cat. It's a good job we love him :)

Merlin says: "Be fair, Mum. I eat flies, too..."

An award!

I was given this blog award by my lovely friend Jan Lyn, over at Off the Beaten Path. She actually awarded it to Still Life, which she describes as "a really good Quaker read that is to the point, fresh and honest. She writes poetry I so enjoy as well." I said she was a lovely friend!

Jan Lyn writes beautifully about the nature with which she is surrounded, her family, her faith, home-schooling, the family animals, and the chronic illnesses she lives with. She writes about everything with grace, humour and honesty.

I'm replying to it here as I had a lot of other stuff to write about over there this week, and nothing special planned for here.

I have to share 7 things about myself here, now.

Hmmm.

What haven't I told you???

1. I have what amounts to a passion for roses. I think I got it from my father. Wherever I have lived, if possible, I have planted a wonderful rose called Zephirine Drouhin. It is my ideal rose - thornless, climbing, quick-growing, long flowering season, hot pink blooms - and scented! I recommend it to everyone.

2. The first time I saw 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', aged 8, I was so scared that I had to sleep with the light on all night.

3. Talking of things that scare me, I am terrified of the Jacob Epstein sculpture of St Michael and the Devil at the entrance to Coventry Cathedral.

4. I played Noah in the Andre Obey play of the same name, when I was 15. It was a school production, and we were an all-girl school. I had to have my boobs strapped down (they've never recovered!), and an artificial beard gummed on with something that ripped off the top layer of skin when I took it off. Ah, the glamour of the stage :)

5. I was at school with David Bailey's wife, the ex-model Catherine Dyer. She was always absolutely beautiful, even without makeup, and a graceful and lovely person.

6. I dyed my hair blue while I was pregnant with Richard.

7. I can ice skate (I took my first three grades in figure skating when I was a teenager), but I can't roller-skate.

Wow, that took a lot of dredging up :)

I'm supposed to nominate seven people for the award now, but I'm stopping at three:

1. My dear friend Linda. We have been friends since we were around 17. We met when I understudied her in a play. She is a marvellous writer, and very funny, as well as a loving and supportive friend.

2. Gil, who writes the blog Stumbing Blocks to Stepping Stones. She writes about her Quaker journey in a way that is never less than thought-provoking and honest.

3. Mary Anne, who writes as Miss Woolly Knits. Like me, Mary Anne has severe ME, but always posts every Friday, sharing the things that have pleased her, amused her or given her joy through the week. Lots of wonderful photos, too!

Oh, and Mary Anne - you are excused duties for this. Just enjoy the award :)

Shawl photos!

My lovely shawl came back this week, beautifully blocked by the brilliant Rosie, and I got Richard to take a couple of photos on Lobelia the mannequin:

As I hoped, the blocking not only opened up the lace, which was looking very sad and crumpled when I sent it off, but also evened out the stitches in the main section, and opened up the yarn over holes.

It's amazingly light to wear, and very warm, of course, being made with pure Shetland wool!

He also photographed a dishcloth I included in this month's themed RAK parcel. This month's theme was animals, and everyone who joined in said what their favourites were. I had to send to Sian, who loves owls, so it was obvious what I had to make her:

...the Diagonal Owl Dishcloth (Ravelry link), designed by Janelle Schlossman. I love this pattern - it's simply and beautifully designed, fun to knit and gives such a cute result!

We had a little excitement this week, as Chloe went missing for the day on Wednesday. She never goes outside, so we thought at first that she was hiding in the house. Only when we had looked everywhere did we realise that she must have slipped out without anyone noticing.

She is nearly 19, so our first thought was that she had gone off to die. Everyone we knew in the village (and several people we didn't) offered to look for her, but no one could find any trace.

I was coming out of the bathroom at 11.30pm, very sad and wondering if we would ever know what had happened to her, when I heard a faint meow outside the back door. First I couldn't grasp the key, then I couldn't unlock the door, but when I finally got it open, in she strolled, quite unconcerned - and bone dry. It had poured all day on Wednesday, so she'd obviously spent the day in someone else's house!

She casually beat up Merlin, had supper, curled up and went to sleep as if nothing had happened. It seems the old girl has a trick or two still left ;)

Shawl crazy

I've finished my 'Raspberry Ruffles' Shetland shawl, and my friend Rosie has very kindly offered to block it for me. She's even set up a project page for it on Ravelry (I don't think this link works if you're not a Ravelry member - sorry).

So, after completing a crochet project for a friend, I cast on... another shawl! Yes, I still have one crochet shawl and one knit one that are unfinished, but I had some glorious Wensleydaie 4-ply sent to me by the friend who dyed the 'Raspbery Ruffles' yarn (I'm making her a Bishop tea-cosy like Erica's, and this was thank-you yarn), and, well.... it called to me. It didn't want to be put in the stash.

Plus I'd bought Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby with some birthday money, and I was itching to try it out. The photos, as with every Interweave book, are gorgeous, and set your fingers twitching just to look at them. After much deliberation, I chose a pattern with the glorious name of 'A Handsome Triangle', which is a top-down shawl (I like shawls that start 'Cast on 4 stitches'!) in proper knitted lace, ie patterned on both sides rather than having plain purl rows.

I may regret this. On the other hand, if I pull it off, there may be no stopping me!

Cosy knitting

I end up making very odd things sometimes...

A few months ago, my sister sent me a newspaper clipping about knitted home decor, including a teacosy with MORE TEA, VICAR? on one side. She volunteers at York Minster, and joked that she should have one with, 'More tea, Archbishop?' on it. That set me thinking.

Just before her birthday I finished her tea cosy:

I made it more or less the shape of a bishop's mitre, and turned a slight problem into a resounding success by deciding to put ties in the bittom instead of sewing it up. This was actually because I wasn't sure of the size of her teapot, but they ended up looking like the bands at the base of a mitre. I love it when a plan comes together. Especially when it's accidental.

I made the two sides separately, and made a diamond-shaped section in contrasting yarn (the one I used for the ties and embroidery) to go between the two pieces at the points. I fixed the points shut with a press stud, so that, if she wants to use it with a tall coffee pot, she can undo the press stud and have extra height if she needs it.

The embroidery was much simpler than I had feared it would be. I typed the phrase into my word-processing package, tried different fonts and sizes till I liked the look of it, then printed it off onto ordinary paper. Then I followed the instructions in this article. I had to fill in one or two stitches when I removed the paper, but by and large it worked extremely well.

The back looked a little bare, so I found an outline cross design online and embroidered it on in the same yarn:

It was a surprisingly quick make, and now I'm about to make another for a friend - whose surname is Bishop!

Hurrah!

Still writing poetry!

joy

the swift slip of yarn
through practised fingers
smooth wood needles
sharp and blunt

the roll and roar of language
ebb and rise
the music in my head

when words collide
and crash upon the page
the rightness of the finished line

the full moon winks
over the rounded shoulder
of the half-dressed hill
the world is silent

only my needles click
only my pen moves

The Sound of Mew-sic

For most of my school life, I was in the choir. At senior school, we went to all kinds of competitions, and had numerous set pieces, one of which was a selection of songs from The Sound of Music. As we were a convent school, our competitors found this hilarious, and I still remember the merry quips with which they greeted us ('How many girls sing in the La Sagesse choir? Nun!!'). Anyway, this has left me with the lyrics stuck fast in my memory, for better or for worse.

I have been writing poetry again lately, which has been wonderful (I've had writer's block for most of the time I've been ill), and I will be posting some of it here in future. This week, though, I want to share with you the discovery I made yesterday afternoon when Merlin was being - well, himself.

It came to me in a flash that it would be very easy to rewrite 'How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?' to refer, not just to Merlin, but to any kitten. If I ignored the half-sung, half-spoken introduction, then it would need only a few small tweaks, and I would have a song I could hum to relieve my feelings as he tears across my lap in pursuit of Chloe, sits on my crossword, and steals my lunch. Feel free to sing this to your cat (with apologies to Oscar Hammerstein II):

How do you solve a problem like the kitten?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means the kitten?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell him
Many a thing he ought to understand
But how do you make him stay
And listen to all you say?
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like the kitten?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

When he's with me I'm confused
Out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am
Unpredictable as weather
He's as flighty as a feather
He's a darling! He's a demon! He's a lamb!

He'd outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest
He could empty any belfry of its bat
He is gentle! He is mad!
He's a riddle! He is bad!
He's a headache! He's an angel!
He's a cat!

(Rpt ad lib)

Merlin says: 'Don't believe her. Look at this noble profile.'

AWOL

Just a brief note to explain why there is no new post this week.

I'm having to take some time off from my online activities because I'm not doing too well. I think the shock of Mum being ill triggered a crash which I am still coping with. I seemed to be running on adrenaline for days, and then came down to earth with a bump!

I hope to be back with more news and photos next week.....

Hippo birdy!

It was my birthday yesterday!

I had lots of beautiful cards, some of them hand-made :) I also had books, CDs, DVDs, knitty stuff, and a beautiful pewter pill box with an owl sculpted on the lid. I'm still expecting the books I ordered from Amazon with gift money and vouchers, so my birthday will be going on for a while yet!

Merlin loved all my presents. He played with every bit of wrapping paper, every ball of sticky tape, every ribbon and every piece of rustly plastic. He commandeered a big box, and has put some of the paper balls into it to remind us it is his.

He also insisted on inspecting everything. He was extremely impressed with the catnip cushions, the organic catnip, the cat treats and the cat toys - some of my friends thought he should have presents too :)

The weather was awful - grey, cold and drizzly - but I had a triple-chocolate muffin as my birthday cake (the diabetic nurse said it was OK!), and we had a Chinese last night while we watched 'W.' on Sky Box Office. Good times :)))