Distracted? Me? Never!
I mentioned in a previous post that I bought some navy Patons 100% Cotton double knitting yarn last week to knit the Louisa Harding cropped cardi ‘Tide' from the Beachcomber Collection book, and I wanted to knit it for my holiday in Wales in just over four weeks time, and I'd also bought some Patons Cotton 4 ply to knit ‘Candy' from a previous Rowan mag..




So why on Tuesday night did I rummage round in my stash bin and pull out a pack of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in a glorious shade of lilac (shade 184, Gay) and cast on the stitches to knit ‘Grace' from Rowan magazine 27?



I've been wanting to knit this jacket for ages and I've been really restrained about casting on anything else until my mohair cardigan and my James Brett ‘Marble' bolero is finished, along with Dad's Opal Magic socks. But I always get the 70% syndrome and can't wait to cast on another project about 70% of the way through my current WIPs. To tell the truth I'm fed up with the mohair cardigan and the bolero, and I had to frog the socks because they were too tight on my foot let alone my Dad's. I started them again with the exact same number of stitches and the exact same size of DPNs, but used bamboo instead of Brittany Birch DPNs and the socks are working out okay now.

Where was I? Oh yes! That's right, the Grace jacket. Someone else on the Angel Yarns forum was asking what they could knit with 10 balls of All Seasons Cotton and I suggested the Grace jacket, and before I knew it was all systems go and I'd cast on. This is the progress so far:



Distracted? Me? Never!

Decisions, decisions.....
I have to decide which projects to take with me to Wales - something interesting yet not boring, something that I can knit in the car (John the Brit does all the driving on holiday), something that I can make a dent in during a fortnight's knitting, and something that I won't lose interest in. I often take ‘a selection' of projects with me on holiday along with all the yarn for the projects, the needles, the patterns and the accessories kit. But this year I want to keep it down to a bare minimum. I'm definitely taking a sock project - or maybe two - but the bigger project?

I'd quite like to knit ‘Suzy' from Rowan's ‘Big Wool' in Big Wool; I bought some scrummy dark pink mix Big Wool called Smooch from a board member last month and Liverbird sent me the book as a gift, and I know I'll be able to get it knitted up in a fortnight. I've even got the 15mm needles in preparation. There again I quite fancy one or two things from the new Debbie Bliss book "Cashmerino DK" which I've seen at the Get Knitted site, and if I send off for the book it's a good excuse to buy a pair of 5mm Brittany Birch straight needles while I'm about it to save on postage {I used the 4.5mm Brittany Birch straights to knit the rib of Grace and they were just heavenly} And I have enough Debbie Bliss yarn in my stash (....that I bought in a yarn buying frenzy from Coldspring Mill last year.....) to sink a small cruise liner.

I did buy some Noro Silk Garden from Celticove to knit the tweedy textured jacket from Debbie Bliss' Noro Collection 2 book for a holiday project to take to Wales. But then again I might take something else. The jury is still out.....

Does anyone else have these What-to-Knit-Next crises or is it just me being distracted so easily?

On the ‘health at home' front: Danny has made an astounding recovery in the past 24 hours even for a small child, and his temperature was down to normal today and he's eaten some food. The rash is still quite apparent, but he's certainly on the mend. He'll be back at preschool on Monday..... and that means me too.

Danny's miraculous recovery today meant that I was able to collate Denver Jon's birthday present and send it off to him via Airmail today, so he should get it next week sometime. I never seem to send birthday presents on time, so being a month or two adrift is nothing unusual for me. I'm just..... not... that... organised. I can't tell you what the pressie is of course, it would ruin the surprise. But think of Denver Jon. And then think yarn and choccies. Ooops! Darn, done it again.....

Danny's Slapped Cheeks
Today's blog entry was going to be called "I Cast on What??", but events have overtaken somewhat and it's now called "Danny's Slapped Cheeks". What, you may be wondering, are those??

Well for the past few days my littlest son Danny has had a high temperature, nothing out of the ordinary in that he's a four year old and he's at playgroup with forty other children and they get the odd temperature and no-one bats an eyelid. He was sick yesterday morning and again during the night and so had to stay at home from playgroup today as he's not allowed back within 24 hours of vomiting. So he stayed at home with Daddy while Daddy worked at home. When I got back home from work at lunchtime, Danny had a faint red rash on his arms and legs, which gradually spread all over his body, back, legs and arms and all over his sweet little face. Oh, and the bright red cheeks which kind of gave me a clue to his malaise.

His temp was still high, so I called our private medical insurance helpline, and the very nice lady suggest that I take him to see a doctor - immediately.
"But I think it could be Slapped Cheek Syndrome" I said
"Ah yes, but it could be something worse" she added.

So off we went to the local Walk-in Centre as our ever helpful GP surgery is closed on Thursday afternoons (so Gawd help you if you're ever ill in our village on Thursday after lunch).

We booked in and waited and saw the triage nurse
"I think it's Slapped Cheek Syndrome?" I queried
"I think you're right. But you'll have to see the doctor" he replied

We waited. We saw the doctor, who gave Danny a thorough examination.
"I think it could be Slapped Cheek Syndrome" I was feeling a bit more confident now.
"I normally wouldn't ever agree with my patient's diagnosis" said the wonderfully dry witted doctor, "But you're right"

So Danny is off from preschool until at least Monday and the rash should be fading and he should be feeling and getting better. Lots of fluids, rest and paediatric paracetomol and ibuprofen for his temp - which automatically means more knitting time for me doesn't it?? .... ;-)

PS - I've just had mega-fun spell checking today's blog entry. At one point spell-checker wanted me to replace 'yersterday' with 'airship' - errrrrr, no, I think 'yesterday' would be a better option, don't you??

It's my Dad's Birthday Today........and he is 77 years old. I've just called him to sing "Happy Birthday to Yooooooo" down the phone to him, but then stopped halfway through to check that I had the right number. How embarassing would that have been??

Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment on my new blog! And thanks to Denver Jon of Colorado Knits for pointing peeps in my direction ;-). I'm not half as witty or amusing as DJ I'm afraid, but I wish I was *sigh* Jon has suggested that I should change my blog name to ‘Deb the Brit Knits' or something with Deb the Brit in it anyway - you know that's a good suggestion DJ? Off to do it immediately if I can get Blogger to act nicely and do what I ask.

What's Been Happening Today?

I had a great day at work today and it's actually the 26th June, not 27th June (!) - now the pressure of my college course is over I feel like a new person. I feel immensely tired though, like my body is getting used to the fact that it can relax a little and not have to live on adrenalin. I fell asleep while the boys were watching "Totally Spies" as I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer! I managed to finish all my inking over yesterday afternoon and so the assignments are well and truly over and done. I have to go into college tomorrow evening to hand them in; I might take my knitting with me in case there's any waiting around to be done and sit in the coffee bar with it. A little late for Knitting in Public Day, but better late than never....!

As I've signed up for Stashalong from 1st July to 30th September (ouch!) I've started destashing early on this time and have already sold five cones of yarn through the Angel Yarns forum - two cones of luscious lambswool 2 ply in cerise and two in lilac, and a 975g cone of scrummy Debbie Bliss Cathay double knit in a beautiful lilacy lemon variegated mixture that I picked up from Coldspring Mill last year. The cerise and lilac 2ply will make someone a beautiful shawl in lightweight lambswool - it's a pity I couldn't wear a shawl at work really, but it would get covered in PVA glue and paint in an instant. Imagine all that hard work ruined by a flick of a paintbrush.... *shudder*

By the way, this is me wearing a ribbed cropped cardi that was my last finished project at Easter:

The Start of a New Knitting Blog.....

Hi!
I promised myself that when my college course was finished I would award myself a blog so that I could keep a diary of my knitting progress and projects. The college course has finished, work has been handed in and here I am writing the first entry into the Melody Yarns Knits blog.

I've got a lot to learn about blogging, but hopefully my blog friends Denver Jon of Colorado Knits and blueadt will be able to offer me friendly advice if I blog horribly wrongly! My typing is abysmal so the first thing I have to find is spell check I guess......

Stashing Along.....
I didn't do very well in the last Stashalong :-( but I'm putting it all down to the pressure of assignment deadlines. My knitting friend Liverbird on the Angel Yarns forum has suggested that we all start another Stashlong on 1st July for another three months and I've agreed to join in again. I haven't managed a yarn splurge from the previous one yet though, although the other day I did buy myself some Patons 100% cotton DK in navy to knit the Louisa Harding beach cardi and some Patons 100% cotton 4 ply in Redwood to knit Candy from Rowan mag 33. I'm doing the Candy cardi plain and without the intarsia bobbles - I don't 'do' colourwork!!

So I guess I have five days to spend, spend, spend!!

6/25/2006 Edit Melody Yarns Knits