Bimbling Along

A slight blogging holiday last week, as DH was home for a few days; so Ingrid has a new alternator, and we all attended Mini Diva's school sports day. It was disorganized chaos as usual, but her team (Blue) won, so she was happy.

This is the final few days of the summer term, and I am really looking forward to the holidays. That, of course, will last only until the first morning, when they are at each other's throats. But the high winds and heavy showers of early last week are over, and the sunshine has returned, which makes life a lot more optimistic.

Auntie Fashion was down this weekend, and we went shopping together in town. Having been given some gift vouchers at Christmas, I bought a new skirt, sweater and a couple of tops to go with them, hopefully to wear to the wedding party this weekend if it stays warm. Auntie Fashion and I having got separated, I had to call her to come rescue me from shopping hell - the shop I was in is huge, busy, crowded and has no system as to how things are set out - and then the demon Indecision set in. It was the work of a moment for her to make my mind up for me and get me to the checkout before I had a meltdown.

I never used to have trouble shopping for myself, or deciding - but it has been so long since I actually bought any clothes, and since money is an issue, I have also become far more discriminating. It was an unwelcome surprise when I was weighed at the hospital to find that I have put on 14 lbs (and I know where it all is too) and that affects what I wear. I am not overweight (BMI of 22.2 and 'green' on the calculator) as yet though, which is a good thing as dieting takes considerably more willpower and need than I was born with ...

I've also taken a break from Christmas knitting and instead managed to complete in a few days this little lace shrug for my youngest niece:




















The pattern is Sirdar 1690, it's knitted in Lavender Stylecraft Kon-Tiki, a cotton/acrylic blend that was a pleasure to knit with. It has a great drape and semi-shiny finish, and should be cool enough to wear during the summer. The only thing wrong with the pattern is the lace border - all two million miles of it is sewn on.

Now Mini Diva wants one, but the pattern only goes up to age 6; the maths/knitting sector of my brain is not turbo-charged enough to handle the increases necessary to size it up and keep the stitch pattern right; there does seem to be a dearth of patterns for ages 7 through 14 or so: any suggestions, please let me know.