I Quite LIke This

I am in general rubbish at the game of objets trouvees. Almost as rubbish at that as I am at flower arranging, and that's saying something. Other people can go out, wander along beaches or through woodland, pick up an unconsidered trifle or two and simply by placing them artistically on a shelf turn them into beautiful pieces of indoor décor. 

Me, not so much.

Which is why I'm so pleased with the above. I bought the little bottles with the 'sea glass' stones in them for the bathroom at Orkney Soap but when I got them home they didn't show up very well. I thought perhaps I should try and find some faux driftwood on sale somewhere because that was what they'd been displayed on in the shop.

I mentioned this to the OH on Saturday when we were walking on the beach at Brora (as you do ) and he said what about a piece of rock? We could give that a go. So we had a very short cast about and came up with two bits of rock we thought might do. 

And as you see, they do. 

A Sirdar Saga

On one of our recent trips south, and yes, there are so many they do all start to merge into one, we visited a big craft supplies shop, in search of the knitting needles that no-one seemed to be selling at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.*

*Incidentally I received an email form the organisers of this a couple of days ago about next year's event and presumably in an effort to gauge numbers there was a one question questionnaire which asked about attendance next year. It went like this

Take the #EYF2018 poll!. Are you planning to come to EYF 2018?  No, I can't make it next year  I'm not sure yet  Very likely  Definitely - try and stop me Yes you're right, there is no option for You have to be kidding? No way am I coming again until you have your catering sorted.  And oh the arrogance that assumes that if you say you're not coming it's not because you don't want to, but actually can't.  But that's by the by. We went to this place to see if they had any of the needles I wanted and they did which was  a good thing. What they also had was a sample jumper knitted in the sort of yarn that the OH loves and I - well, let's just say that I don't. He wanted one. He wanted that pattern knitted in that wool in that colour and I said yes OK then, hoping that they wouldn't have sufficient yarn of the correct colour in stock. But they did, so we bought it and not long after we got home I cast on.  Here's a picture of the yarn. Sirdar Aura.  You will see from that picture that it is a multi-stranded, multi-coloured yarn. I was not amused to discover when knitting it up that the colour changes were marked in most balls with a knot as shown below. I was even less amused when one of the multi strand balls became single strand half way up the back and made what should have been an aran knitting experience more akin to knitting with embroidery thread.  The single strand  length lasted a long time and I had to cut it out of the ball in order to continue. I was worried that this would mean I wouldn't have sufficient wool to finish the sweater and I obviously couldn't go back to the shop where I had bought it to buy a top up, so I contacted Sirdar. They managed to ignore my e-mail for three weeks, which annoyed me a little bit so I sent a follow up and to be fair this time they sprang into action. I got an apology, an assurance that they would look into both the issue with the yarn and the reason I hadn't  previously had a reply ( and maybe they did and maybe they didn't) , and an offer of more yarn to finish the project. Well by this time the project was finished and the sweater had been clinging to the OH's back for days, so I thanked them nicely and said no need, because I had had enough to complete it. However their customer service department was insistent that they must send me more wool because they don't want dissatisfied customers and I was invited to choose something from their website to the value of my original purchase.  Now leaving aside that they don't want dissatisfied customers, I thought that was  above and beyond.  Because they must have a huge customer base and I was only one person and I had in the end, as I pointed out to them, got a wearable garment from the yarn that I had bought. However, who was I to turn down the offer of free wool? So I browsed the website and chose a couple of balls of their new Colourblock yarn and it came within a couple of days. Here it is I picked up a couple of patterns from my local wool shop the next day and have cast on a wrap in the one on the right.  And here is the OH modelling the jumper that started off the whole story  Roger Moore, eat your heart out!

Meh!

It has been rather too long since I last updated the blog, but I have been totally without the energy to do so.

 

This is something that has been, in management-speak, 'issue led' , although not in quite the same way as management ever means it.

I have issues with family, and eyesight, and weight, and having too many things to do, and deadlines and spending too much time looking at screens and people expecting things of me and all sorts. Issues all over the shop.

 

The result is that I have become quite growly and  quite behind with stuff and have resorted to sleeping too much and wasting too much time on Facebook and playing computer games.

I have today managed to force myself into doing 'stuff' and with luck will manage that again tomorrow. And I may manage a proper blog post too. It's not that I don't have things to write about, it's just that I can't work up the energy or enthusiasm for it. Or for much else either.

 

Still, tomorrow, as Scarlett said, is another day.

Project 60 No 49 - Battenberg Cake

 

 

Nope, had really never made it before. Not sure why, because it's one of my favourites. Maybe I thought it would be a bit complicated, but whatever the reason I'd never tried.

.

Anyway I made it yesterday. I needed to be a it more precise than I generally am when baking, even down to measuring cake strips with a ruler - never thought I would see the day when I did that.

 

As so often these things are a learning curve and if/when I do it again; -

 

 I really will warm 3 tablespoons of apricot jam as the recipe says, rather than look at the pan with 2 in and think, that's more than enough surely. Because it wasn't.

 

I'll invest in a pastry brush because trying to put runny apricot jam on the sides of a cake with a pate knife isn't the easiest way to go about things.

 

And I'll try harder to get the marzipan join on a corner and not wrinkle it on the top and not have it sag  around the sides.

That said though, it was delish.

A Good Read?

In between all the weighty tomes I read on the history of world war two and Gaelic poetry and mental illness, to assist with the Ph D,  I do occasionally manage what you might call a leisure read. Every now and gain I even try to read some posh stuff aka literary fiction, although I seldom enjoy it and revert fairly quickly to my comfort zone of crime, with a smattering of well written fantasy when I can find it.

On a recent trip between Orkney and Glasgow  - and yes we are at the stage where they are all merging into one -  I bought a half price paperback of Anne Tyler's at Tesco. I used to really enjoy Anne Tyler's books, then I started one I couldn't be bothered to finish, never a good sign, and have steered clear ever since. This one - Vinegar Girl - appears to be her latest, first published last year anyway, and is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.

 

I can't quite go along with the reviewers quoted on the cover who seem to think it is her 'funniest book to date'  (although that was the Daily Mail) or 'every subtle shade of funny' (and that was Grazia, which I assume is a woman's magazine, although I could be wrong) but it was funny. It was also sad, and irritating and in the end life affirming. It's the life affirming that I've always liked about Tyler. Yes, she lays bare people's weaknesses and littleness with an honesty many other writers cannot or will not summon, but she reminds us that actually we are all human and each of us has our own foibles which might seem funny or distressing or frustrating to others. And she also points out that none of that is the end of the world, unless we allow it to be so. An informed acceptance of others will make a kinder world, seems to be the burden of her song, and although that might not be  a recipe for dealing with the demagogues and dictators , as a way to live life day to day, it's not a bad one.