Sunshine and showers

I've been a busy bee this week, work was suitably hectic (no surprises there); but my time has been filled too. I'd taken Friday off work to give me a good 4 day weekend as it's a Bank Holiday Monday again this Monday. It worked out rather well because it turned out that Ben's school sports day was on the Friday afternoon. I often have to miss it as it's difficult to get cover so that I can finish early and attend, so I was delighted when everything fell into place. But then rain fell out of the sky in large volumes on the Friday morning and sports day was cancelled. Boo!

Friday night/Saturday morning saw me take part in a local sponsored Midnight Walk. It was in aid of Hospice at Home. They are a wonderful charity offering care and support in the home for people in the latter stages of life and their families in the immediate time after losing loved ones. In my infinite wisdom I decided to knit a sock as I went around the 5 mile walk and raffle the socks off for the charity when they where completed.

The cancellation of sports day gave me some unexpected time in the afternoon, so I decided to cast on the toe of a sock in preparation for the walk. This is my first effort

I seem to have managed to lose the ball band, but it's a rather gorgeous single ply sock yarn. As I was knitting up the toe I quickly realised that this wasn't the sock to take out on a midnight walk. It was really easy to split the ply when knitting and working on 2.25mm needles meant that it was hardly going to be a quick project! So a re-think and quick shopping trip later resulted in me starting afresh with a ball of Regia 6-ply. Much better!

Dressing up in your nightwear was an option, but I wore jeans and a T-shirt as I really don't feel the world is ready to see me in my jammies! I walked with 5 other members of my team from work, our team is called the Penrith Pill Pushers! We all made it round and had a great time. At the end of the walk we got a certificate and a bacon butty! Yum!

I made good progress on the sock - I worked on it until I got to the gusset increases when I stopped knitting as it was tricky to do the increases in the dark!

 I visited my mum and dad on Saturday and stayed until this afternoon (Sunday) the drive down was stunning, I love the Lake District. I drove through stunning scenery. The sun bounced off the hills, pooled in the valleys and made the colours shine. It's days like this that make you realise that despite the horrors in this world, there is goodness too.

I often dread the drive.  It's only 2 hours, a drop in the ocean for some of you guys out there, but it's motorway driving and it's tedious especially on dull, dreary, wet days. Both journeys this weekend where glorious. I had the radio on and sang my heart out much to Ben's disgust!

It was a nice visit, my mum gave Ben a cardie she'd knitted for him. Now, at this point I'd like to say, that Ben is a good boy, he's polite and sensitive to the feelings of others; but I'd warned him about this cardie. Mum told me she was knitting him something and she was loving knitting it. She fell in love with the pattern when she saw a sample knitted up in a local yarn shop.  Mum doesn't knit often these days, she'd rather do paper crafting specifically card making. I was surprised when she said that she'd got yarn to knit both Ben and his cousin a cardie each.

Ben isn't really a cardie kind of guy. He's not a cold child by nature, and will spend the majority of his time in a T-shirt, even in the depths of winter I have to fight with him to put a coat on when he goes outside to play! I convinced my mum to send a photo of the finished object, mainly so that I could brief Ben and get him to look delighted...... So here it is!

 

I'm sorry, I love my Mum dearly but this is awful! The pockets are halfway up the chest, one's higher than the other and it's just not Ben's thing at all! I showed Ben the photo and asked him if he'd wear it, he said no.  I wasn't overly surprised. When Mum gave him the cardie, he tried it on and looked as grateful as he could manage bless him! She asked if he liked it and if he'd wear it and he cracked, there was no way he could tell even a little white lie to save his Grandma's feelings! He is only 10 after all! So she was a little deflated, but in all honesty I don't think she was surprised!

I had taken 3 projects down with me to work on, but this is what I actually produced -

I unravelled the offending cardie. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not, but I decided to pool this puddle of yarn with the yarn she'd bought to make Ben's cousin Andrew a cardie and make Andrew a blanket. I crocheted Ben a grannie square blanket and he uses it all the time. So that's my cunning plan - waste not want not!

On to the crafting -

What saw the love this week -

Well knitting wise I worked mostly on the Piper's Journey shawl. I finished it today and I'm delighted with the way it turned out. The applied edging is enhanced with the subtle stripes of the sock yarn.

 

I think I should have taken close-up photos of the edging details, so I'll do just that and update my project page with them. It's destined for the Christmas gift draw once it's blocked.  Mum seems to be keen on it ending up with her, so we'll see.

Also seeing the love this weekend was the Walking socks. This is what I've named the charity socks. I turned the heel this afternoon and I'm now working up the leg of the first sock. I'm hoping to get this one finished by Tuesday so I can put it on a sock blocker to display at work. I'm hoping to get lots of people to buy raffle tickets and raise lots of money.

I have spun a little this week, but not enough to warrant posting another photo. I did finish the first 1/8th of the polwarth and I've started on the second.  The gorgeous black and purple fibre I'm spindle spinning saw some action too. I'm still keen to get the polwarth off the wheel by the start of the Tour de Fleece, but the way it's spinning so thin I'm starting to doubt that I'll get it done in time. 

Goals for next week -

Finish the first Walking Sock (can I do the pair in a week?!?)

Get a wiggle on with the spinning

Wisteria!?!?

Weight loss!?!?!

EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Have a great week - until next time x