A week later

It was incredibly busy at work this week. I always feel like im back from war after a week of 13-14 hour days and cycling back in the dark. And we worked Sat as well. We were supposed to work on Sunday but it was canceled. Children were at my mothers and we didnt tell her about Sunday being off so we got a nice long lie in in the morning and i had most of my chores done before she brought them back. So anyway, it was a great job, i enjoyed working on it and i didnt get angry with the photographer, not even once. I had a certain freedom from him as well, he trusted me to do what i think needs to be done as long as it achieved what he wanted it to look like. Its much better way of working, rather than having someone constantly poking in your screen and telling you how to do your job. You tell me what you want, and i'll decide HOW to do it.
Surprisingly enough i managed to do a bit of auto-pilot (whilst zoning out in front of TV) knitting on Christmas Cobblestone, its about 30% done. I think it has a lot to do with me looving to knit with Bamboo tape, its so soft and yummy.
I also did some yarn hand-painting on Sunday with some food dyes. I have fixed it afterwards by steaming it for 20 mins and letting it cool in the steamer before washing it. My inspiration was autumn
Its incredible how bright it turned out, im very happy with that. Its a shame this wool is so scratchy, i need to get some nice merino to experiment with.

Another Friday

Im tired today, tired and sort of .. melancholic. Unity was up pretty much throughout the night and was very grumpy in the morning... It was sad i didnt get to say goodbye to her properly because my mother is picking them both tonight and keeping them for a weekend, because we have to work Sat and probably Sunday. It is gonna be Unity's first weekend way and im worried sick how she will react to the whole thing.. I have packed enough clothes to last them at least a week without changing and tried to foresee every eventuality, getting all sorts of food and drinks and snacks and Calpol and dummies and blankies , you get the idea. Its weird, because im usually quite calm about my children, like i dont drop everything and run everytime there is some scuffle or fall, unless it sound really serious. And here i am, literally making myself ill because my baby is going to her grandma's for 2 nights. Like my mother said, its gonna be how its gonna be. And breathe...
So we were supposed to get these "extremely important deadline Tuesday morning" images and guess what, we are still sitting twiddling our thumbs ( well im writing this blog of course) and nothing is happening because photographers are probably most unreliable people on the planet (oh, and art directors, they may be worse, its a close one) so we are not getting any images until tomorrow morning. And that means we will have to work Sunday, and so no ironing done, or cooking or any proper knitting time for that matter... Why do i do this job anyway, someone remind me...
I managed to get Nicola, my colleague, interested in yarn dyeing and she loves the idea. Being wonderful as she is she go me and herself a book on natural dye plants, called A Dyers Garden by Rita Buchanan. Nicola is a keen gardener and i like the idea of gardening, never having time to do any. But next year i will (i will i will i will ) have a vegetable garden and at least a couple of dye plants. Now its just how to convince Colin to allocate some space for me in our 150' garden... Last time i spoke with him about it he frowned and said i could have the 5' patch between garage and shed. To which i meaningfully and articulately told him that i'm planning to plant p-o-t-a-t-o-e-s and need s-p-a-c-e. He frowned some more and said he'll think about it. So i guess i just have to remind him every week or so before the planting time comes. And im so looking forward to my yarn spinning class, its gonna be my birthday present for myself. Month later than the birthday, but hey, better late than never.

Wool dyeing

Well i was ill all weekend with tonsillitis, my tonsils got so swollen that i had to go to the doctors on Sat and get some antibiotics so i dont die in my sleep like Colin said i would. Anyway, i didnt die in my sleep and, feeling much perkier on Sunday i have dyed one skein of smelly yarn. (It is still smelly and noone seems to know what to do about it ) The result looks like that
(I have actually knitted that little bit on two pens at work just to see how it looks knitted.) I think the dyeing was a success, now its just what to do with the smell...
And here is a picture of Unity's socks
And i have made those sock blockers all by myself!! I have cut them out from the kind of plastic they use in envelopes to make them stiff and put cellotape all around the edges so it would not catch. And voila, i have 3 sets of sock blockers without spending £60. I know, im great.