And It's Done!

Mr H's Rugged is all finished now, yay! I am very impressed with it and feel it is my best FO yet! I can't wait for him to get home so I can see it on him, it didn't look so good on me! I will see if I can badger him into letting me take a photo of him in it to post.

T Minus One Hour, I Reckon

My Rugged sweater for Mr H is almost finished, just one side seam and the arms to sew up, phew! Just typical that it's almost finished just as the weather is getting warmer. I've told Mr H that he has to wear it every day even if the temperature reaches 30 degrees! I will post a pic when it's finished providing my camera cable is still working after my moggy chewed it.

I started knitting a Wend bolero two days ago, it's going well and quickly despite being dk weight yarn, hopefully won't take too long to finish, I've nearly finished the back already. I'm knitting it in Four Seasons Grundl Miami cotton in black, a but dull but I had about 10 balls of it sitting in my cupboard left over from a vest I was knitting and got fed up with (knitting round after round in black stocking stitch just wasn't doing it for me).

We had a bit of drama last week. Mr H woke me up on Thursday morning with his frantic calling for Trinny (the moggy) as we hadn't seen her since around 9pm the night before (this is unusual as she's a house cat and technically has no way of leaving the apartment). After searching through every cupboard and drawer in the apartment (I even looked in the freezer!) we decided she definitely wasn't there so we went looking around the neighbourhood to no avail. Mr H had to go to work, so I went and put some posters up and searched some more. To be honest, I was looking in the streets for squashed kitties, out Trin has never been near a main road in her life. I spoke to my mum who asked if I'd looked in the cave, which I had, but thought I'd have another look on my way out to put up more posters. When I got down there, I could hear her mewing but couldn't see her anywhere, very frustrating. After calling Mr H to let him know that I could at least hear her (and so that he could listen too and confirm that I wasn't going crazy), I worked out that the mewing was coming from the wall. Some of the neighbours clearly thought I was insane when they walked in the building and saw me in the cave, on my hands and knees, talking to the wall! The actually looked at me and closed the cave door before walking off rather quickly! I had to go to the concierge's apartment and explain to her in my bad french that "Mon chat est dans le cave dans le mur!" She looked a little puzzled ("Stupid English!") but came down and confirmed that yes, the cat was in the wall, but that actually it was someone's cave behind the wall so off she went to get the key from the neighbour and we were able to rescue kitty. Poor thing was so scared, dusty and smelly, not to mention hungry. On closer inspection I discovered that she couldn't walk properly and had a puncture wound in her bottom, so I called Mr H and we took her off to the vet who kept he in for a few hours for shock and on our return confirmed that she had dislocated her leg and also had a small fracture. She had clearly fallen off the balcony and climbed through a broken window in the cave. She's doing much better now, she's no longer limping so I guess her leg's gone back to where it should be and she shouldn't be needing any surgery. We were so happy to have her back, we didn't think we would see her again. Needless to say, I won't let her on the balcony unless she's sitting on one or our laps.

Sorry, I seemed to have gotton a little carried away there but my kitty's my baby!

Who Does He Think He Is, Alan Bloody Sugar?

OK, this isn't knitted related but I've been fuming about this since Friday. I got fired from my job at the school. By text message. It was a really nasty message, telling me I'm fired and not to bother coming back. Anyone would think I'd stolen a child or something! From what I can work out, I didn't do anything wrong except become disliked by the directress and had an operation. I would post the message here, but I'm thinking of things to do with it at the moment and will probably be taking legal advice. So angry.

A Slightly Felted Mess & A Very Clean Balloon

My mum sent me a kit yesterday to make felted bowls by wrapping wool around an inflated balloon and then putting it in the washing machine. I didn't end up with bowls, just a slightly felted mess.

I put it through two washing cycles but most of the wool just fell off the balloon. I think I will probably try it again but won't inflate the balloon so much next time. I certainly won't be buying the kit as it costs £11.95 and all you get are four balloons and some tights to put the balloon in when it goes in the washing machine.

I was very impressed that you can actually wash an inflated balloon without it popping!

Swapbot Rocks!

I got another beautiful Swapbot package on Wednesday. It turned up just at the right time as I'd had a horrid day at work, which resulted in me shouting at my boss. Never a good idea. Anyway, the swap was Sock Knitters - embellished and I received two balls of Regia sock yarn with beads and a pattern for the Rolling Thunder socks on Knitty.com, which was actually quite funny as that was the pattern I sent to my partner, who had also sent it to her partner! I also received some beautiful handmade stitch markers, tea and chocolate. I love these packages! I have had to cut down on them though as it costs me 19CHF (about £9.50) everytime I send a package to the USA, which I just can't afford at the moment with my scummy salary. I am trying to keep an eye out for Europe only swaps for handmade items - much easier on the purse.

I have just finished knitting the front of the Rugged sweater for Mr H, although I'm not sure he really deserves it at the moment after rolling in at 2.30am this morning a little worse for wear and then fell asleep on the hall floor! Apparantly it wasn't his fault as his boss just kept buying him drinks! I will be punishing him by making him do the shopping today and then by taking me over to Divonne tomorrow so we can go to the market there which is meant to be really nice.

The sweater is looking good so far. So, all I need to do now is knit the sleeves which have some big cables on them. I was going to make the cables smaller but then I would have to change the ribbing on the cuffs or it will look strange but then the ribbing won't match the rest of the sweater, which would just annoy me, so after explaining this to Mr H, he decided that the cables aren't so bad. He had just better wear it or I won't be amused! At least it's looking like it's going to be a god fit, which is a relief.

I've decided that I am going to have a pretty lazy weekend (is that actually any different to any other weekend?!). I've been so tired lately and haven't been sleeping well so I think I really need to take care of myself. I also really need to get my first assignment written for my Montessori teaching course. It's all started and all I really need to do is fill in the gaps, it's just a matter of building up the motivation again, I'm not sure where it came from last week but I guess I should try to work that out!

Colds and Relaxation

I can't believe I have another cold. That's three in two months. I'm a little concerned as I'm on drugs that suppress my immune system, so I think I need to have a word with my doctor about it this afternoon. I'm still signed off work but am due to go back tomorrow which I'm quite pleased about as I'm missing my kids! The problem is this blasted cold but I guess it's good I got it while I'm signed off work anyway.

I didn't make it to CERN yesterday, which I was a little disappointed about but I really don't think I would have been able to handle it. A friend of mine went on Saturday (he works there and took his family) and said there was a two hour queue for Atlas by 11am, not really my idea of fun. The boys really seemed to enjoy themselves though.

So, while I have been recuperating, I have been taking the chance to relax a little, try to catch up on a bit of knitting (although not as much as I'd like as I've been in a bit of pain) and trying to write my first assignment for my Montessori course. So far I've only managed to write 500 words of my assignment, oops, I just can't keep up the motivation and I'm too easily distracted.

I've spent most of today so far listening to podcasts. I'm all up to date with the Knitpicks podcast but am still catching up with Cast On, which I have been listening to for a while, starting with Brenda Dayne's first episode which dates back to October 2005, so I still have a lot of catching up to do! I've been knitting away while I have been listening and have almost finished the front of Mr H's Rugged sweater. It still hasn't fully warmed up here yet so hopefully the weather will still be appropriate for him to wear it when I finish and he won't have to wait until next winter!

Four Little Booties

So, I just finished knitting two pairs of booties for the twins to go with the Baby Yoda sweaters all in time to give to the dad-to-be who is arriving tonight.

The booties are quite cute, but I prefer the Bud booties I knitted, I think it's because these ones were knit in an aran weight yarn so they are a little more bulky.

I had a small operation on Wednesday, so have been signed off work for a week. I'm missing the kids, especially as I just had two weeks off for Easter and was only back two days before my operation. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to school on Tuesday.

I'm hoping that I will be feeling well enough to go to CERN with the boys tomorrow. I've only been having a little bit of pain the past couple of days, so hopefully I will be OK so long as I take it easy. It's the last open day before they start the collider...