Treat myself

I'm learning Japanese! I've been wanting to for ages so treated myself to three teach yourself books when I'd (finally) met my deadline (a bit late). I have a writing workbook, a book with CD which is a bit serious and another book which is a combination and not too serious.

Watashi wa watashi no Nihongo no sensei desu. Which should mean I am my Japanese teacher.

Sunset from my window!

At last, at last

I've sent the patterns off. At last, I am a free woman again. I've rewarded myself with a CD and some books which I hope will arrice on Wednesday and then I can show you them.

I don't think it's giving too much away to show you this picture


I'm not even sure when the patterns will be published but I think it will be around Christmas.

Now for a little knitting.

Not blogging but knitting

Cripes! I have a big deadline on Thursday and I'm really going to have to shake a leg to meet it, so no blogging, only knitting.

Progress, but not as we know it

I've been struck down with a stinking cold so spent the last 72 hours on the sofa watching dvds and knitting. I can't really show you what I've knitted as it's for a magazine around Christmas 2009 but so far it is kicking my butt over the edge into madness. After 72 hours of not achieving very much, I thought I could feel pleased that I had finished both sleeves. At 10.30 last night, I compared them to make sure the length was the same. Dammit though - I'd used different numbers of stitches on each so one is wider than the other.

Well, this photo cheers me up:



It's more knitting from my trip to Portugal. My sister liked to have afternoon sleeps so while she napped, I knitted*. I over estimated how much I could get done on holiday (as always) so I printed out extra charts to take with me which I didn't get anywhere near. I've made it to row 103 now (out of 295584) and am counting stitches after every pattern row. In my first knitting session on holiday, I knitted 3.5 pattern rows before realising I had made a mistake on the 2nd one so spent longer tinking that day than I had knitting. The time it takes to count each row is definitely less than any tinking time. Of course, I haven't made a mistake since. That's life.

*If only it was Estonian lace, then I could have said, while she napped, I nupped. Maybe I'll have to hold onto that for another holiday.

None of m y lights work...

but it's not a power cut. Ah well, I'll figure it out in the morning.

Whilst on holiday, I learnt Entrelac and now have the beginnings of entrelac fingerless gloves. They are scrummy but I'm not sure how to make a thumb hole. I also worked on the lace shawl but I can't bear to take any more crummy photos by lamplight tonight.

For anyone interested in learning Entrelac I completely recommend the tutorials written by Robbyn. Here is one for Entrelac that I took on holiday and here is one I used several years ago to learn how to knit backwards. I really speeds up the entrelac and bobble making process.

I just stashed some more unicorn yarn. I only ordered it on Monday and it arrived today. Super service! It is for me to knit some socks for my sister for Christmas 2009. I've also promised my mum a pair for Christmas 2009. Notice how I've specified the year as I'm always appallingly late at gift knitting.