I Have No Idea What's Happening

It's been a scattered couple of days. Whenever I started doing something, I've been interrupted. Today it was a very lovely man installing a new alarm system. I've got all sorts of writing stuff that I want to do, but I'm getting disrupted from, and I don't know if I'm coming or going.

I'm not impressed with the new yarn. I think I've been here before. I bought this yarn thinking that it was one solid strand with pretty bits. Instead, it's awful to work with. So far, it looks like this.

And I think I'm just under a quarter of the yarn in.

The smaller ball is much looser and feels significantly lighter. 

I feel like if I knit it, it will be like my Everest - knitting it because it's there. It will be an achievement. I'm not sure that I'll want to wear it, as it's scratchy. I can't imagine using it as a decoration for anything, even though it's shiny. I don't bother with fancy gift wrap and I don't do much crafting apart from knitting. At this point, I wonder why I want to invest time in it, apart from the challenge, which I'm loathing. 

I decided that I was feeling called to knit a blanket. I had a rummage around the back of cupboards and found a project that I abandoned a while ago. It's knitted in stocking stitch with two strands. 

I've cut the yarn and I'm starting with new yarn, and I'll join it up and knit from the piece once I've got to the ends of the cones. I thought that the stocking or stockinette stitch wasn't working, and, besides, I wanted something to knit while watching Welcome to Wrexham, so I settled down to cast on loads of stitches. I haven't written off the fancy yarn yet, but I'm considering options. 

Writing stuff - nothing today, but yesterday I posted an article in the Research and the Author series, which you can find here. I was reminded by a post on Reddit where inaccuracy in costumes had irritated a reader so that they couldn't finish the book. I thought that it was worth a quick mention that it's good to check on details, even if you think you know - I would absolutely got that detail wrong, but that's why I'm carefully vague about a lot of things. 

It's Finished!

 

That's 200g of yarn (no idea of the yardage), 32 inches long, around 81cm, and roughly the same wide. It's lovely and snuggly and I plan to use it. 

Co-incidentally, look what arrived today after a moment of weakness.

I didn't realise that it was multistranded.

I guess that I'm making a scarf. If I can knit it, I know that I'll wear it, but that's if I can knit it. Wish me luck. 

Hugs and good health to all

Drifting Along

I wanted to do so much more today than I managed. Still, I've got some things to post. Perhaps the biggest event from last week was my washing up bowl developing a split in the base. I haven't got a dishwasher, and I don't have a second bowl to the sink, so I like to have a washing up bowl so I can dump the slops down the side of the sink as I'm washing up. DH leaves a surprising amount of coffee in his cup. If I was organised and sensible, it wouldn't matter, but I'm not organised and rarely sensible.

I ordered a fresh one online. I mentioned that I wasn't sensible. My sink is quite small, so I can't just get any bowl. However, I got a couple of sheets of kitchen roll, roughly measured it against the old bowl and folded it to size. Then I brought it upstairs where my knitting tape measure was and measured the kitchen roll. This was not a good plan. The bowl that arrived is amazing, waterproof, and fits easily into the bowl. Sadly, it's too small to hold one of our dinner plates.

This, to me, is two shopping opportunities. One is obviously to get a bigger bowl. The other is the possibility of replacing my plates. I broke a cereal bowl a couple of weeks ago, the pasta dishes are looking the worse for wear and at least one has a major chip - very visible when it's white pottery under a black glaze. The plates are also showing signs of scratches. And a smaller dinner plate is supposed to help with portion control, which I absolutely need. I ordered another washing up bowl, but I've held back on the table ware. The plates and stuff weren't expensive and we've had them a few years, but it seems a waste to buy new if we don't need to. But on the other hand... That was the drama of our weekend. 

Writing adjacent - I got a chance at an advertising slot for a very reasonable amount on a YouTube Channel called AshLG. They run a sewing channel, and yes, I am not much to do with sewing but they are entertaining, pragmatic and cover a lot of historical and fantasy costumes. And the adverts, including my slot, are at 15:45 on this video. 

And I found it fascinating. I loved seeing the hand sewing stitches laid out, though what they called a catching stitch I know as herringbone stitch. So those who like sewing may like to have a look over there, and I get a chance to do a little giddy dance at my first advert.

Writing stuff - I'm way behind everything, but the latest instalment of The Guest is here.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Thank You!

I had no pics, but was determined to post, so I went out and spent a few minutes in the garden. It started like this.

It ended like this.

And I got nettled as I went, but while you can barely see the difference, I did more than nothing. If all I manage is five minutes at a time, it's better than no time at all. I wouldn't even have done that if it wasn't for this blog.

Besides, the lilac is gorgeous

The yellow rose is flourishing.

And Gladys is doing better than ever. This time last year, she was mainly bare sticks. Now there's plenty of leaves and even the hint of a few flowers despite it being colder than average.

There is still this problem. 

The tyre is from when I had the honeysuckle planted against the fence, years ago, back in 2015. They looked lovely when they were first done.

But time took it's toll, and most were evicted. Here's a pic from a few years later which is too cute not to share.

The tyre is the last left. Bear evicted it when he cleared out the honeysuckle. It will find it's way to the tip, but it's the pot that's the problem. 

Many, many, many years ago, I planted a rosemary in there. I neglected it, and it became too entrenched in the pot, straggly and woody. I've been trying to dig the dratted thing out for ages, now I'm reduced to turning it upside down and hoping that gravity will kick in. I want to get the plant out, refill with decent growing medium and plant something new there. If I can't get the soil out, I can see me resorting to a hammer to crack open the pot and get rid of it that way!

Here's hoping for more pics tomorrow. Thank you.

A Normal Thursday

Well, it was a normal Wednesday followed by a normal Thursday.

Yesterday I started to pot up the two eau de cologne mint plants that I bought.

I want them outside the kitchen window to keep away the flies. I dug out two large planters, because they're mint and I know how it can get, and then dragged over a bag of compost that must have been sitting there for years. Or tried to. The dratted thing had already split and there were miscellaneous roots going through it. I still heaved it out, cut it open, flinched at the creepy crawlies, and split it between the two planters. They were maybe a third full, which is completely insufficient. Then it started to rain heavily so I gave in. 

Today I found a coir brick in the walk in cupboard. It's one of those where you add water and the brick magically becomes soil. 

That was this morning, it isn't soil but solidly brick like despite the water, and I nearly broke my neck slipping on the water I spilled trying to rehydrate the dratted thing - see, normal Thursday.

I'm full of the sniffles and fed up. I've got some other coir bricks, and if they fail, there's soil in the garden I can use. I'll have another go tomorrow.

I've done a little more on the emotional support shawl, and I'm feeling better for it. I've done about two inches, which is a lot for that many stitches, and hopefully I'll post a pic tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - the reason why I've been a little distracted is I've been planning out some writing, and you can see my provisional plans here - Provisional Plans or What Might be Going On. But I'm guaranteeing nothing. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Is It Tuesday

I've not done enough on the emotional support shawl (superb name, Kirsten) to make it worth taking a pic, but I'm keeping on. Instead I took this picture.

It's at least ten years since I bought the greetings card, but I was sorting through things and it turned up. I dug out a frame and DH kindly put the pic in the frame and hung it up. It is so like evil cat. She could have posed for it, except normally she looked either angelic or evil. But the colouring is hers, and I can imagine stroking that incredible, silky soft fur. 

Otherwise, it's been a quiet day with loads of writing stuff. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Nearly an Incident

My emotional support shawl (thank you, Kirsten, for that perfect description) has only grown a couple of inches over the weekend, but I've finished one ball and started the next. I plan for it to be extremely large!

It's gone from this:

To this:

I'll probably get another row or two knitted tonight as I'm hoping to catch up on some of last season's Welcome to Wrexham, as the new series is about to start and I can knit to the documentary. It increases one stitch every row, and there's around 200 stitches on the needles at the moment, so it's not likely to grow as quickly, though it's still relaxing. 

As I may have mentioned, it's the yearly 'make gluten-free food almost affordable' time, and both Tesco and Morrisons have deals going. Today I booked Tesco, because I wanted to get an early order in and I booked it for between 9am-10am. Then Morrisons were supposed to come between 11.30am-12.30pm. Both were laden with stuff to stash away and I'm not sure that I can find room for all of it. It's piled all over in cupboards, and I don't want to miss anything.

Regardless, Tesco were late. They were significantly late. The driver said that there was a mix up in the depot and sounded incredibly fed up. I commiserated as these things happen. I managed to get the chilled and frozen stuff away, frantically aware that Morrisons were notoriously early on Mondays. And I was just in time because, yes, they were. The vans of the two supermarkets missed each other by fifteen minutes. I had a vision of a comic duel between the vans, though they would probably have just laughed and grumbled about their jobs. 

Normally Morrisons come on Mondays, because DH likes their salad, and Tesco come on Fridays, because he likes their cooked ham. I should have just booked Tesco in for Wednesday or something for the extra gluten free stuff. Mind you, I've got a Tesco delivery booked for Friday, with the ham and bargain gluten free stuff, and I'm not sure where I'm going to put it all. It's pennies on each item, but I'll be saving at least enough to cover the water bill for the month, and I'm happy with that. 

Speaking of supermarkets, I saw that Lidl had revamped their reward scheme, and I really need to call in to have a look. They seem to have some great deals. Besides, I love their latest advert. Does anyone remember Liberty X?

For once, it's an advert that genuinely made me chuckle. If you watch, put on subtitles. The original, back in the day, is here if you're interested. 

Supermarkets seem to branch out into all sorts of social media. Tesco have recipes on YouTube here, non of which I've tried. I considered the dal that they posted, but it called for a lot of ingredients that I don't normally use, so I wasn't sure if it was worth it. I don't want to have a load of stuff left over. 

Writing stuff - I've missed out this week's chapter of The Guest and I've apologised here. It should be back to normal service next week, but I swear that sorting out the White Hart stuff is driving me nuts!

Hugs and good health to all.