Moping

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

I kind of lost my way a bit recently - I embarked on a small new venture, and that distracted me from, yanno, the important things in life, like knitting for fun. I didn't want to make anything in my queue, my stash offered no inspiration, and crochet had no appeal either. It got so bad I actually cleaned the oven (not my job as I don't use it), and left the house for fresh air on a daily basis. I marked the TABI tarot training exercises so fiendishly I was up-to-date with it all, and I have a rough draft of the Chairman's Report ready for polishing for the AGM. 

I know, a bit on the early side for a spooky Hallowe'en story, but did it give you chills up your spine ? I'm quite horrified really when I think about it.

Anyway, Destructo Boy's Akela (Cub Scout leader) is expecting the patter of tiny paws so yaaay baby knitting, almost my favoritest kind - though it will mean ripping out the blankey that I have used 900m of yarn for because I don't like it's texture. I've HAD to order more yarn - would you believe it ? - as I have nothing in my stash appropriate for the Christmas gifts I want to make for Destructo Boy and Mini Diva. 

Obviously, that was the cathartic experience that was necessary to unblock the artisanal pipes, since I've decided to make the Hortense Shawl while I wait for the yarn to be delivered. No, I didn't sneak any little extras in, only one ball of baby yarn to make the amount needed for free shipping: wasn't I virtuous ?

Thing is, I thought I'd just drop you a little note as half-term starts at the end of today, and I don't know when next I'll be able to have the quiet time needed to compose the literary gems that are my posts ...

Random Roundup

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

I'm feeling a little low today, mainly because the half-term holiday is over - Mini Diva is back at school, Titch is back at work. I have only Destructo Boy to console me, and he is welded to his tablet and 'Clash of Clans'.

Wilhelmina passed her MOT, the kids' cousin D. came to stay, we went to the beach, the kids went swimming a couple of times (different leisure centres), there was a sleepover, they went to the funfair with my friend K. - it was Destructo Boy's first time as he is finally old/tall enough, and it turns out he is as fearless as Mini Diva. There has been cricket and tennis.

It was a week of weatherly contrasts, too. There was this:

And there was this:

Noah, Noah - what is a cubit ??

 But there was no football. The team Destructo Boy played for has fallen apart owing to adults behaving like toddlers - I am told there has been lots of stirring and back-biting, resulting in the main coach flouncing off resigning having cherry-picked the boys from his clique of favored parents. The squad has collapsed: what is left is being run by a couple of fathers who have some innovative ideas for training, but who lack experience and the ability to impose any kind of discipline. 

If I sound annoyed, it is because I am - Titch and I, as openly confessed non-football types, were not amongst the clique, and so Destructo Boy now has no team - we withdrew him from the ruins of the squad as he will have no opportunity to grow his skills.

I think what has amazed me the most is the behavior of the adults involved: parents of kids on the A team sneering at parents of kids on the B team, committee politics, lack of support from the main club - I am hoping that it is a football thing as opposed to a sport thing. On the plus side, now we have Friday evenings and Saturday mornings free to try other things which might actually set a good example for their youth sections.

Sorry about that - I am apparently not as over the whole thing as I thought I was.

So anyway. Our potatoes are planted, along with some peas, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and one solitary pumpkin plant. There had been 6 pepper plants, but snails reduced them to 0 overnight. I am awaiting delivery on 48 lavender plants ( a deal where they were free if you paid for delivery) which will form a nice scented hedgey thing in the front garden. All that I am on the look-out for now is a plum tree for planting in autumn. I need to mention that Titch has done most of the planting, nearly all of the watering, and all of the weeding. Yes, I know !

There has been knitting - I am taking part in a new MKAL by Kitman Figueroa, which should be even more interesting since I got the name muddled in my head, so I've been thinking of it as 'Summer Flowers'. When it should be, 'Wild Flowers'. So I may have chosen a totally inappropriate yarn .... but I am looking at that as part of the mystery: will it work, or not.

And now I must away, today's chore is to order Mini Diva's high school sweater and blouses so I can collect them at her 'Transition Day' in a month's time .... and hope they might still fit come September.

FO Friday 160: Moving Right Along

The FO this week is me: I am exhausted ! I have been sadly absent this week as it has been half-term, and I have actually been out Doing Things with the kids. Nobody is more surprised about that than me. They have been swimming a few times, saw an uncle and the middle cousin, eaten large, fancy and expensive ice cream sundaes at Ra-Ra's, had a couple of play dates, carved pumpkins, gone trick or treating, and there have been a couple of parties. Here is their Hallowe'en swag:

 

Appropriate buckets, aren't they ? Skulls for the evilness of sugar, and bloodshot eyeballs for the effects of evil sugar. Yes, I have pinched some of their sweeties, yanno, just to check they're OK.

 I have a few hours to myself right now as Mini Diva and Destructo Boy are headed to Auntie Fashion's with Belo, and Titch is not yet home; so I will tell you that the Forest Pansy shawl is in a Time Out right now. I found a minor error, a difference between the chart and the written instructions, which meant tinking back 1 row. But, 2 rows from the end, I found a repeated error I had made back in chart 2, which I cannot ignore, however hard I try - and believe me, I have tried. All the large lilac section will have to be ripped back to the end of the dark violet section.

 

 So, it is in the Seriously Naughty Corner, because I had been hoping to complete it this week, in time to start NaKniSweMo today.

 

I am starting NaKniSweMo anyway. I just need to either find an app for my Nokia Lumia that will do stitch counting, learn how to use Excel in a millisecond, or - most likely - record how many stitches I knit each day using good old pencil and paper.

Blackberry Cabled Cardigan, made in Strawberry

And seeing as how the stitch count that needs to be knitted each day to complete a 50,000 stitch cardigan in 30 days is phenomenal (apparently, I have been told, I haven't done any math myself) I really must get going and make a start. You, however, can pop over to Tami's Amis and see some real FOs .....

Short Report Card

Pagan Tarot

Half-term week was fabulous, not least because DH was home for the whole week. OK, that was mainly to take care of Wilhelmina the Volvo's MOT and any issues arising from that (a new tyre and whole set of brake discs and pads, so she is not a cheap date), but even so - we even had some grown-up time on our own, as the kids had a sleepover at Belo's, after which he put them to work weeding his garden.

Sure, I can tell you what we got up to, why wouldn't I ? 

We ate, drank, went to sleep early, and slept til late - as one ages, one begins to truly appreciate a long night of uninterrupted sleep all the way through until mid-morning. In separate beds. It was blissfully good.

But lest you think that all I did was lie around delicately munching peeled grapes, let me show you the front garden. It is only tiny, but what with the weather (drought then floods) and other things, I had really left it to itself for the last year and a half. It just shows you how messy Nature is when unsupervised:

And after a few hours and half a bottle a little sip of wine, we have this slightly less messy and with more gaps/spaces result:

 

 

Tottering away dragging my trowel behind me, I decided that the only thing that could possibly revive me would be more wine and a doner kebab the size of my head; then I collapsed in a catatonic heap of digestion ....

 But now I must be off and attempt to be productive - another shawl needs blocking. I finished it yesterday - binding it off took all afternoon (really, it was like a squillion million stitches AND a picot bind off) sitting in the sunshine; I have the sunburnt inside knee to show for it. How do you burn just the inside of one knee ? All these mysterious things that I never used to worry about.

Captain Oates

Housewives Tarot

Like the good Captain, ''I am just going outside, and I may be some time''. 

I just popped in to quickly let you know that it is half-term, and because I know no fear, not only is Mini Diva's BFF here for the day and to sleep over, this afternoon we are going to collect one of Destructo Boy's friends and his little sister, and all head over to the park.

Wednesday the children are going out with Belo for the day, Thursday Mini Diva is out at a friend's house, Friday Destructo Boy is at a 5 hour football coaching session, during which time I have Secret Plans for Mini Diva before she goes to a friend's disco party in the evening.

How this all fits in with MIL's (so far) present-less birthday tomorrow, I don't know  - I have the pattern, the yarn and, to DH's utter disbelief, some new circular knitting needles. 

What he didn't believe was that I have so many pairs already yet still lacked this particular size (3.50mm). All I have to do is sit down with no other distractions and nothing else to do and knit like a fiend. Uh-huh, that's so gonna happen.

Oh, and I have signed up for a KAL for eskimimi's latest pattern, Mrs.Tumnus; fortunately, that won't start until half-term is over, thus giving me time not only to wind the yarn, but to catch my breath ....

Pop by later in the week and see how - or if - I'm surviving ....

Half-term Slobbery

The kids and I have had the most lovely, relaxed half-term: they've had friends round to play most days, yet the house only got trashed once - note to self: of Destructo Boy's friends, only ever have ONE at a time to play.

We stayed up late at night, and got up late in the morning. We averted the crisis (but not the drama - she isn't named Mini-Diva for no reason) of unexpected glue-lessness by an emergency trip to the pound shop. We ate junk food (I can only eat hotdogs if I don't think about what's in them). We left our hair unbrushed.

We sloughed around in our scufty clothes. We had a magical film marathon: every DVD we watched involved magic of some sort, although Destructo Boy doesn't understand why (a) not all witches are bad (b) I don't have purple eyes.


Anne Lambton in 'The Witches'


Juice was spilt all over the floor only once - and, for a wonder, not by Destructo Boy - and nothing is broken except for me: but the amitriptyline should take care of that.

And right now I am feeling very positive about the Sweater of Doom Mark II: I made a start almost as soon as the yarn was delivered, and after 1 ball, I have this to show for it:



It takes nearly an hour, I think, to complete the 8 rows of the pattern repeat. I don't know whether I might have bitten off more than I can chew, in terms of size .... I'm so much more used to baby and children's knitting, that this seems a giant, mehusive project, even if we don't factor in that I'm knitting the 48'' size - the largest. I just need a place to hide it, and something else to knit that will be convincingly slow so that he won't comment on the lack of progress on it during the week.

It's just over 6 weeks until the Xmas school holidays ...