Phew!

I just spent quite a long time this morning getting all the ducks in a row for the insurance claim re the lost holiday. All now done and sent off, so just have to wait now  and see how much we get. It is scary how much extra cost is involved because we live in Orkney; I know everyone has to get to the airport or train statin for their holidays but not many have to travel as far as we do. 

Getting a replacement passport for the OH proved a bit of a nightmare too. I'm sure we were promised computers were going to make our lives easier, but I'm not sure I'm convinced. 

Possibly another and much more interesting post later in the day; for now I feel like the proverbial wrung out rag. 

You Decide

unforgiveable falling off of wagon or understandable consolation?

These arrived yesterday

Three skeins of Monet inspired yarn from the yarn artist. Well, after all, I wasn't going to be seeing the real thing so this was in the nature of an appropriate comfort gift to myself. I ordered three skeins of undyed from her as well and I know what I'm going to make with them , although I'm not sure when I'll get it cast on. Soon enough for the yarn not to skew my stash numbers for too long I hope. 

So what do you think? No reason why I shouldn't look for some consolation where I could find it? Or just a case of any old excuse to buy more wool? 

A Lovely Surprise

I was expecting a parcel yesterday from the  the Glasgow Soap Company which duly arrived and yes, do click the link, their stuff is gorgeous and they're very quick to deliver. No surprise then that their parcel arrived when they said it would, but very surprised to be also handed a very long thin box from postie marked Bloom and Wild. Which, when I opened it, contained a lovely selection of flowers, as above, and a consolatory card from my sister because of my lost holiday. 

It was a lovely thought and the flowers are gorgeous. I photographed them in the usual place on the front hall window sill but then moved them into the living room because in there I can find somewhere that's not in direct sunlight, so helping them to last longer.

I was half expecting another parcel which didn't come yesterday but did arrive today. More on that tomorrow...

 

Happy Valley

We were supposed to be going to Happy Valley yesterday but the weather wasn't very nice so we put it off until today. For once, procrastination was rewarded because, although there was quite a thick haar in places today, Happy Valley wasn't one of them. 

We tend to go two or three times a year and always try to catch the bluebells. It's so beautiful there and I always take loads of photographs. Here a few from today.

It was a lovely gentle morning walk. 

Completed Projects April

I spent some time in April knitting up my Little Grey Cells Club Yarn but that's far from completed so doesn't count. 

There was the standard non-knitting project, this time a cross stitch card

It's lovely but it took a very long time to stitch. Don't think that's an experience I'll be repeating. 

Then there were two pairs of socks

These were for me; pattern Oh Hello Socks and the wool was Giddy Yarns Poisoned Apple from a fairy tale themed club she did a few years ago. 

Anyone thinking these might look vaguely familiar would be right; I tried making them as a Christmas present for the OH several years ago. They didn't fit, because I hadn't taken in that the wool I was using was DK weight and had therefore used my normal needles and cast on numbers for 4 ply. I had a lot of the yarn left over - goodness only knows why I bought so much of it in the first place - and I had always meant to have another go. The yarn was languishing in Box 2 so doing them was a bit of a no brainer. I have to say he was thrilled with them and here they are being modelled. They looked huge as they were being knitted but they fitted well. Possibly neither of us appreciate quite how big his feet are.

And finally there was a cowl; yet another iteration of the Anne of Green Gables Sampler Cowl. It wasn't meant to be, I had originally intended just to use the numbers and i-cord edging and make the centre all moss stitch. However it quickly became apparent that if I stuck to that plan I might be wearing the cowl by the time I was 75, or I might not. The yarn was supposed to be fingering weight, which I sort of doubted since it was  called Ella Rae Lace Merino but everywhere I looked said it was definitely not lace weight - and I suppose it isn't, but it ain't a particularly robust 4ply either. I've had this in my stash for years, having got it in a swap and never really known what to do with it, but I loved the colours too much to give it away. I'm pleased I've used it up and I'm pleased with the result, so win/win I suppose. 

I honestly don't feel it was a very productive month; fingers crossed for better, or at least more, things in May!

The Great Wool Sort Out Update 3

First off the stats, which are disappointing in that I ended the month with a net increase.The numbers were Wool In - 984g, Wool Out -  734g,  which was a net increase of 250g. Part of the large amount of yarn in was the clubs which was expected, and part of it was receiving quite  a large amount of yarn. much more than anticipated,  in  a swap. I didn't use up quite as much as I would have liked either because I took on two very time consuming projects in April which, although lovely when finished, seemed to take ages to do and didn't use up much wool. I am still 3179g down on the year to date though, so that's good.   

And look! what is this? 

This my friends is Box 2 and it is empty. Hooray! Some of the wool in there got sold, some of it got given away, some of it got used up. Some of it went into other boxes; the stuff I have specific plans for went back into Box 1 to wait until I have time to carry out said plans, some 4 ply went into the big 4 ply box and some stuff I was unsure about moved into Box 4 to be considered at a later date. But I have an empty box and that's a win. 

Here is Box 3 which is being dealt with in May and June. 

To the left of the demarcating carrier bag are all my commercial sock yarn left overs. The right side has various other left overs of different weights, some of which I will sell and some of which will doubtless find its way to the charity shop.  

My plan for the sock yarn is to hold it double and crochet a granny stripe blanket and to this end I added to the box all my partial balls of West Yorkshire Spinners* sock wool, after which it looked like this.

I have rather gone off WYS for socks as I find it both splitty and too thin, and there is always loads left. Some people might call that value for money, and I can't argue with that. But I would prefer a plumper softer yarn with less yardage to the ball, because then there is less left over to hang about  cluttering  up the yarn storage because, while there is too little to be of much practical use, there is too much to throw away. Hence the granny stripe blanket, which I have been told will use up mountains of yarn.  I have started this today, very carefully and following a You Tube tutorial, because I have very little confidence in my crocheting abilities. I'd like to get more confident and expand my crochet skills and although a granny stripe blanket will not do much to teach me anything new, it will hopefully make me more confident. I am on row three and so far it looks fine ....

* Yes that does live elsewhere. The six plastic boxes contain my main stash but I also have two sets of small plastic drawers where I keep specific sorts of yarn; my very small stash of cotton yarn, my mini skeins, some other bits, and my WYS yarn. The full and partial balls of the WYS took up two of the drawers  but  after I had removed the partial balls to be put into the blanket, I found I could fit the rest of the WYS into one drawer rather than two. So a double win really; an empty box and an empty drawer. Go me. 

Oh Look! Not in France

 Somewhere between boarding the London flight in Glasgow and arriving at St Pancras Eurostar Terminal the OH lost his passport. Possibly left on the plane. Wherever it is, the fact that he didn't have it meant we couldn't travel. All my lovely plans for the next two weeks gone in an instant.

There are no words to express how devastating this is for me. Other people might take it  in their stride but I am just too miserable to speak. It follows that, although I'm back, I'm too miserable to blog as well. 

I will be back here , but no idea when.