Happy birthday to me!

Hello everyone, it's lovely to be back. We flew home on May 26th and have spent the last month trying to catch up with people and begin to sort our lives out. I am reinventing myself as a professional knitter with the help of my friend Erssie, who has more knitting and dogs than she can shake a stick at.

One of the most exciting things about being back was being presented with the blanket my mum has been knitting for me since we left. Way back a year ago, she was saying she wished there were more patterns where you could just knit and didn't have to be fussed with shaping and counting. I had recently been caught up in the log cabin knitting craze as seen here and in Mason Dixon Knitting so I gave mum my copy and a few leftovers. She has been knitting for nearly 11 months on it, interspersed with purchasing longer needles and a Denise set (in pink).
It is so marvellous, I even lugged it back to sunny Slough in my backpack and use it all the time. Most of my professional knitting career has taken place snuggled up underneath it (what happened to the weather? central heating in June?). Okay, okay, it's a two person lap blanket so it's meant to be for sharing but I like it mostly for myself ;)

For my birthday yesterday, I requested not to have presents from most people but a few had already been to the shops. My sister bought me a lovely bag for my knickers as noone wants to see them flying all over the train as I struggle to heave out my packed lunch and knitting when travelling between families. My mum bought me a copy of Divas Don't Knit which I've already started and am enjoying between tidying up to hoover and do some blocking on the floor. It isn't as compelling as The Friday Night Knitting Club but without spoiling it I was in floods of tears at the end of TFNKC and I jolly well hope that won't be the case with DDK. On the other side, my inlaws bought me some smellies and candles which I will have to redistribute as I don't like burning money and I don't like synthetic chemicals. I really should say something to them but I am partly too shy and partly don't like to be ungrateful and partly like something to whinge about. Otherwise, they are lovely gifts. From the step-grandparents-in-law, I was given a lovely box of fairtrade chocs and an apology that it was the biggest box they could find. All in all, I was very spoilt. Marie made me an amazing chocolate cake and I even had an appletise at the pub.

The reason for no presents (and if you look back a year ago you'll see a rather different attitude): my husband and I are investigating alternative lifestyles, including not having a huge house full of junk, and he even has his own webpage now. It's all very embryonic but do take a look if you like. I will stick more to knitting here though so you'll have to look over there if you want to know more about our plans.

Things I have to tell you about:
knit shopping around the world including Azerbaijan, India, Japan (which I briefly mentioned earlier), NZ, USA
meeting up with an internet friend in real life and eating lots of chocs
travelling stories from everywhere including Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Dubai, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Japan, NZ, Samoa, USA

Feel free to vote for your favourite topic.

So, what have you all been up to while I've been away?