Summer Knitting

In the Spring we had a week or two of beautiful weather. This is pretty common here in the UK. In recent years we've had a week or two of sunshine in Spring and then it tends to return to wetter, colder, windier weather until late August when it suddenly realises it's about to become Autumn before we've really had Summer and *then* we get just a little more sun to prevent us all from just electing for a year-long hibernation.

In Spring I thought this year would be the year for summer knitting. I knit a sweater out of cotton and linen thinking it would be the first of many. I finally bought yarn for Laika and carried it round with me for a bit before eventually knitting a swatch. I thought about what I might do with some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton yarn I've had stashed for a while now (I still don't know, feel free to enlighten me -- I have 5 skeins of this green).

Then it started raining.

It hasn't stopped.

I knit some socks to keep my feet warm.

It still didn't stop.

I knit a cropped summer cardigan to encourage summer along. It's so cold and wet that despite having been finished for over two weeks I can't possibly get a photograph of it on me -- I'd freeze.

I knit a shawl in winter colours to keep me warm and yet still the weather hasn't changed.

Tonight I plan to swatch for a bulkyweight cardigan (think winter) with a lacy pattern (think summer) in a relatively subdued blue (more winter than summer) in a cotton yarn (more summer than winter).

Now, where are my fingerless gloves?

Kite Festival

This weekend (in a that's-quite-enough-decorating-for-this-week moment) we took a trip out to 'Catch the Wind' a kite festival in Morecambe:

Lots of kites in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colours, in the above picture you can see two octopi (one green, one multicoloured), a clownfish, a blue fish, a set of dogs and a whole bunch of colourful shapes. (Also some sunbathers, the weather was pretty good actually).

Here's the blue fish closer up with a bunch of other animals:

Another close-up (ish) the blue fish, the dogs and an octopus:

We also liked this magic hoop thing:

Lots of colourful wind socks:

Walace and Gromit:

And, perhaps a favourite of mine, the humble butterfly (and a seagull):

FO: Haruni

Time to catch up on those last FOs for 2010. Haruni was finished on the 4th December, right in the middle of the UK's early snowy cold snap - not great weather for photographing a shawl!

Here's a shot of it dangling over some (unattractive) railings in our local park.

And here's a photo showing a bit of the lace as I wore the shawl over my coat. This turned out not to yield great photos either. Hobnob loves these macro shots.

I hope I remember to take some pictures of this in some better weather next year, it's beautiful.

Pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross.

Yarn: Abstract Cat Superwash British BFL Sock Yarn in Midnight Parrotfish bought online at Folksy.

Mods: None.

Project: Online at Ravelry.

Spring is Sprung

Or so these snowdrops in Hightown, Formby think...

Friday Fill-In

This week's Friday Fill In:

1. The last thing I ate was a breakfast crepe (sausage, egg and cheese) and side salad.

2.Yarn is something I recently bought. (Actually, I've not bought any this week - but I can't think what I may have bought since)

3. When it rains, it's always the weekend - sunny in the week, rainy come the weekend. Typical.

4.Tracy (my supervisors PA) was the first person I talked to today.

5. Hugs are ...

6. ...extra comfort. (read with #5)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to doing laundry, visiting the supermarket and maybe getting in a few rows of knitting - cardigan or scarf?. Tomorrow my plans include visiting Riverfront park and Sunday, I want to find a 'Y' geocache!

Leg Warmers!

What with the rather cool weather and my not-quite-complete lack of fashion sense, I have discovered leg warmers. I bought my first pair last week and quickly went out to buy another. Today I bought another two pairs on my way in to uni - that's probably enough for now!

(today's legwarmers in grey sandwiched between the two new pairs: navy and green)

Friday Fill-In

Following Clarence's lead... today's Friday fill-in.

1. My birthday, autumn leaves, visiting Chris and Hazel and having some evenings off for half term... are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.

2. Sometimes I... sing properly, but only if I think noone is listening.

3. Because one day I might do something radical ...and that's why there is a saying, "never say never"!

4. When I'm down, I... spend money and eat chocolate.

5. In bed ...is where you'll find me most often.

6. A rainy day is good for ...puddles!!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to ... going to bed..., tomorrow my plans include ...bacon and earning money, hopefully in that order... and Sunday, I want to ...feel useful!

The Weather

Today is grey and muggy. I keep thinking I might have a shower to feel better but I haven't done it yet. I'm not really sure what I have done actually... something sure :)

I've been sorting out stuff a bit, trying to make sure I'm packed to go to Liverpool tomorrow after union council. I have a dentists appointment at 10:10 on Friday morning :(

Back in the World!

Back from our holiday in sunny Stoke :) Been on the canal with Hobnob and his parents and had rather excellent weather. We saw Lizi today on our way home too which was lovely. I had some coursework due in today so I hastily finished it off on the train and submitted it when we got back. I also managed to pay for my driving lessons ~£450 :( but then didn't have one because my instructor never showed up. Oh well, made the evening longer.

Connections

Sometimes Chancellors Wharf reminds me of Spring Harvest. I don't know whether it's the nature of the flats themselves or just the feeling coming out of my block in the morning knowing it's cold now (coats and scarf cold) but could be baking later. Or maybe I'm just odd.

I do think I'll miss Spring Harvest this year. I keep thinking about going anyway.... decisions aren't really my strong point.

Night.

When Lancaster's not filled with the shouts of many drunken students it (as many other places) can be a peaceful place to enjoy the night. Just had a very quick wander out to check my post and it's lovely. Mostly quiet and dark with the building lights reflecting on the canal. It'd be a nice night for a midnight wander - crisp, cool (but not too cold) and still. Lovely.

Yay, more snowing!

I was going to title this post 'Yay, more snow" but that would sound like there was something to show for earlier.

Yay, it's snowing again!

Hardback Books

Hardback books are an irritation because they slow down the release of a nice paperback. I don't mind reading hardbacks too much (though they're bigger and take up too much space in my bag) but I'd much rather own a paperback. Hardbacks are for libraries.

I seem to have been waiting for loads of stuff to make paperback and the only one that has made it is a silly size so now I must wait even longer for them to re-release it in the same size as all the other books I have by the same author. I'm hoping Christmas was the delay factor and they'll start being released soon :)

---

Books I'd like in paperback:


The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris)
The Dark River (John Twelve Hawks)
Sepulchre (Kate Mosse)
Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Oliver Sacks)
The Children of Hurin (J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, and Alan Lee)

Maybe there aren't as many as I thought :)

---

Also, it's not snowing any more :(

It's snowing!

Yay!

Blue skies and a slight chill

The weather's been all pretty the last couple of days. It's got that nice autumny day feel to it, blue skies, white clouds and bits of sunshine but slightly cold. It's not windy so the cold doesn't feel mean but just fresh. Given all that, I guess I should have walked to campus today instead of getting the bus.

Dog walking

Today I walked Teddy to the Post Office and then Tesco and then Whaley and then my Mum's house, I think he was pretty tired. Picked up my post though which was kinda useful. I didn't hang around for the children to appear home from school, not quite that brave yet!

(The walk was rather pretty; I like the weather at the moment - cold and sunny without gales or rain.)

iTunes fun resolved!

I found my problem in the end. I downloaded and installed 1.4.1 and nothing changed. Then I noticed I'd got a version of iTunes in 'Applications' as well as one I knew to be in a 'Media' folder in 'Applications'. Turned out that I had installed a new version (presumably when I had the software agreement pop up at me) but it had gone into the default location of 'Applications' rather than replacing the existing item. After that first time I guess it always opened the old version which didn't like the new library. Some shuffling things round fixed my problem.

I'm slightly confused as to how I opened the new version at all. It's fairly likely I successfully installed iTunes 1.4.1 ages ago but have always run the older version. The older version would have detected the need for an update but once downloaded, Software Update would have found 1.4.1 installed already and so not bothered with it. The 1.3 version was the one in the dock so I guess I must have looked for it in Spotlight sometime this (yesterday) afternoon and so opened 1.4.1 instead.

Hmmm... confusion and unconfusion.

---

I'm about to save this but I'm stopped by the sudden appearance of exciting rain! If it weren't 3am I'd think about going to run around outside.

The Weather

Why do weather people apologise? What makes the cloud pesky? Clouds are clouds, weather is weather. The weather woman saying she's hopeful that the clouds will break isn't going to make me feel better about the chances of more sunshine in the afternoon. Rain doesn't try to move in, it just happens where it happens.

Today is a day of sunny blue-skies and fluffy white clouds. It's probably warm outside but I'm inside coding :)

The Cute Guy With The Umbrella

This wasn't actually what I was going to call this post, but it's as good as anything else I can think of.

It rained today! Very very heavily just as I left work. I left my jumper off as it was still warm and enjoyed getting soaked. But a very nice bloke shuffled close to me at the crossing so I could stand under his umbrella. He then walked with me to the tube which I thought was very sweet :) Thank you nice person with the umbrella from the meeting, I hope someone does something nice for you too!


Today's other bits of excitement... (I'm sure there were lots of them when I got in)

- Oooh! Owing to being soaking wet and shivering I had a very good hot shower just after I got home. I don't get to enjoy my showers so much at the moment because they generally occur too early in the morning. Very nice.

- My book from the late bookmooching man hasn't arrived yet. I suspect it will be "lost".

- Simon offered to have Mark's children at work today.

- I have forgotten what I was going to write and I know I had stuff.


Anyway... We went to Fran's tonight for a farewell meal which was really nice. There seemed to be an awful lot of people there for one reason or another (though there often is at Fran's). It's kinda odd not to be seeing them all around again lots though :( Had a very nice meal with Haze, Chris, Fran, Beth, Corrinne and Peter. Geoff and Warren were around for a bit before going for a curry and then Dave Bignall dropped round and Shannon came with Jo. A few other members of the church were also about (doing something spiritual I assume). It was good to see so many people before I go.


It's now rather on the late side for going to bed and there's another 150 pages of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to read before sleep.


Oh, and they're laying tarmac on the road outside my window - at 11pm! It's just a bit noisy but smells lovely.

A Relaxing Weekend

My weekends at home have been few and far between for a long time. Whilst being away from home usually means a weekend of seeing people and doing fun things, it's good to have a weekend of just being, being quietly and being quiet.

I've spent today out in the sun (something I've not seen for a while), sat reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Aside from discovering what I think was a red ants nest, it has been a very nice day indeed.