Knitting Hurts

Never mind the occasional back and neck ache, but I did the Horrific Thing on Tuesday night and stepped on a double-pointed needle that was sticking out of a ball of yarn. It went about a quarter of an inch into my foot, but thankfully in the bit just below the toes where I have hard skin. It still hurt like #@%& though. I now have a hole in my foot that's 3.25 mm (that's a US size 3) in diameter. Not a happy bunny. I also got rained on all afternoon when I was in Leeds, and I forgot my bank card even though the main reason I went to town was to sort out bank stuff.

On the plus side though - it looks like I'll be able to change my flight ticket back to India from October to any time up to April next year, work experience with the library is looking more and more likely now that my details have been passed on to yet another person, and I'm going to Durham this weekend. Also (although this is going to make me look stupid), the application form for a job in York that I was so worried about is actually due in next Wednesday rather than tomorrow. Ahem.

Fun things I've been looking at today:
Subversive Cross-Stitch - definitely my next branching out into another craft.
Fibre-Lover Name Generator (stolen from Leeds Knitterati, whom I will go to meet on Tuesday) - and that's *Miss* Princess Stitches All Night to you!

But back to the application form that does actually have to be in tomorrow . . .

Handarbeitskreis Hamburg

Now that's something I don't know the English word for. Err, a craft circle? Comments welcome!

Anyway, when I was last in Hamburg a few weeks ago I taught my sister how to knit. Quite strange - it felt very older-sister-like, and also like I was an expert knitter (which, to be fair, I was, relatively speaking). Once we'd sorted out her weird stitch problem (she somehow managed to make both knits and purls look like purls) she started knitting a blue and white striped scarf with needles and yarn from our grandma.

Times like these I really miss my Mum even more than usual. She was a great knitter - any intarsia you can think of she would do and we had some impressive jumpers to prove it. My sister's knee-length frog-on-a-ladder has entered family history. It's just so sad that I never picked up knitting from her, and I'm sure she would be impressed with what I'm doing. Especially the socks - that's something she never could do! We had to rely on our grandma for hand knitted woolen socks at Christmas. My grandma no longer knits either, because her arthritis makes it too hard for her. The upside of that though is that I got a lot of needles from her (all in tiny sizes - the biggest is a 4 mm) and some yarn (which stinks of smoke unfortunately - a stash that's been in an apartment with someone's 60-a-day habit for many years *reeks*!).

The day before I went to Berlin my sister's flatmate came back from London. It turns out she knits as well - so we spent a happy evening knitting: Knucks for my sister (me), said striped scarf (my sister) and wrist warmers (her flatmate).

I really should find myself a Stitch'n'Bitch now that I've moved somewhere more or less permanently. It even looks like I might have a temping job and / or work experience sorted out - people from both the temping agency and the library left messages on my answerphone on Friday while my phone wasn't working. Something to sort out after the Bank Holiday :)

Catching up post #2: The Sock

Yay! My first sock! I was so excited when I finished that. It was Saturday at about 2 in the morning, my housemate had gone to bed, muttering something about me being crazy. I ended up wearing it all night through my caffeine and sock-completion-excitement fuelled knitting session that followed (resulting only in a disappointing iPod cozy - pictures to follow).

Excuse the poor quality of the photos; I'll take more when there is a pair of them. I might also undo the cuff and make it slightly longer as there is quite a lot of yarn left.

This photo is from before I learned how to do Kitchener Stitch (see my SnB in the background?) but I was desperate to wear the sock ;)

Catching up post #1: The Puffin

The first of, well, a few posts to show off my FOs so far. This was my first one - I knitted it for my boyfriend's birthday last month. It's a puffin. The Amazing Flightless Puffin of the Farne Islands, in fact, hence the short wings.

The story behind it is that when we went to Northumberland we took a trip on one of those bird watching boats that go round the Farne Islands so you can see lots of sea birds that live on the cliffs (and also some seals, which really are much cooler). Being a city girl I know next to nothing about wildlife, but Saul is a countryside ranger, so you'd expect him to. Now, we're standing at the front of the boat with lots of birdwatchers who are glued to their binoculars and/or digital cameras.

Me: I want to see a puffin! (pointing to random bird flying across) Is that a puffin?
Saul: Don't be stupid, puffins can't fly!

. . . to be proven wrong, of course, by the man on the tannoy who points out the birds. He was very embarrassed and I teased him about it all weekend (still do, in fact).

So, as part of his birthday present he had to get a puffin. I wasn't going to knit him anything at all (the sweater curse and all that) but then I saw the pattern for the penguin on Knitty and something just said "puffin" to me . . .

The rest of his birthday presents were lots of food items I made - spiced apple chutney, red onion marmalade, fudge, shortbread, pickled roast peppers, carrot and walnut loaf, sunflower and linseed bread, chili vodka, gingerbread people, elderflower cordial from handpicked elderflowers and a chocolate mud cake with filling and icing that completely melted because his birthday was the hottest day of the year and there was no air conditioning in my train. (Anyone else think I'm subconsciously suggesting to him what an excellent housewife and mother I would make?) I had to carry all of this half way across Edinburgh too so I could buy some soft toy stuffing from John Lewis. The things I do for that man! (I did say, though, if we split up and it was his fault I was getting the puffin back.)

Here (finally!) are the pics:

The puffin in all its glory, although you can't see the wings very well. The beak is slightly on the large side, but it was quite difficult to work out how to change the pattern. The legs and feet came out quite well though. Thanks to Chris for checking for me what they looked like so I could get on with my knitting while I was stuck on a bus!

"To fly or not to fly . . . "

Greetings, welcome, hello to you all

I've been meaning to get this blog going for a while now and have finally managed. a) because I have somewhere to live and an internet connection now, and b) because I finished my first sock last night / this morning (at about 2 a.m.) and that really needs to be shared!

I've been knitting for about two and a half months now (since day 5 of the World Cup, in my football dating system). I taught myself from two books that I got out of the library. My Mum actually tried to teach me when I was about ten, but I never got beyond garter stitch. I remember royal blue yarn and very long needles being involved. The experiment didn't last very long. Now, though, I'm hooked.

As the pictures of the sock aren't quite ready yet, here's a lovely photo of me knitting the Tulip Booties from Knitty for my friend Ann's baby. I'm usually a lot more relaxed when I'm knitting, but this was the part where you have to p2tog tbl . . . Only my Dad would take a photo of me looking like that.