Friday 26 January 2018

Getting it right

Hello, It's Friday! I hope you had a good week. I thought I'd join 'Five on Friday' today with five things that have been 'happening' in my home this week. Grab a cuppa and something nice to eat, today there's cake. There's been cooking, finding lost things, eating muffins, listening to talking books and unpicking, yet again! 


Today when M arrived home, he gave me this beautiful bunch of flowers. They look so bright and cheerful, especially after all the Christmas colour has been packed away. His Christmas mug is ready for outside jobs, plenty of borders to straighten out. 

Correct pattern sequence on the needles

I've been doing some unpicking this week, as usual M would say. When I bought this yarn, I'd wrongly assumed it was a self patterning yarn with a total random pattern. Even after knitting the first sock it hadn't clicked that I needed to 'sort out the yarn properly'. Hence the 'Getting it right' title of this blog. In future I'll definitely be taking this into account, though it wasn't a big problem to sort out. The yarn is Rico Superba Harmony 4ply and the pattern is in Winwick Mum's Super Socks book. Her blog is very helpful and I discovered the Kitchener stitch on her youtube video. I have made 2 pairs of socks a while ago and felt a bit rusty. 

Wrong pattern sequence rib cuff!

I've cut off the this first piece of top ribbing as it's completely the wrong colour and started again. M said he didn't mind but I just wanted it to be right. I made some blueberry muffins before unpicking and starting again. I suppose people talk about their OCD nowadays, I just always thought I was a fuss pot and would need to unpick it. Many times I've sat nattering away at knit & natters, only to return home and unpick it that evening. M calls it my anti-knitting. Well, it's sorted now and I really do need to pull my finger out and get this pair of socks finished and given to the husband. Afterall I had said I wanted to knit a pair of socks a month. I can't remember if I actually put that on my blog already but I've said it now so...



I seem to have been cooking a lot this week with Muffins, gluten free Millionaires Shortbread, Cheese and Onion Pasties and 2 recipes for the Cookery Calendar Challenge that I'll blog about in February. We had some gluten free sugar coated puffs in the food cupboard, they were awful! Not at all as I expected them to taste, I was convinced they were rice crispies when I bought them, apparently not. After stirring in some melted chocolate and leaving them to set pressed into a tin, the taste was much improved. A kind of rice crispie cake with attitude, lots of chewy crunch.  


On Wednesday I realised I'd lost one of my gloves, they weren't purchased as a set but were a good match. The scarf was from Lidl one year and the gloves were a reduced bargain. On checking the label, it seems they're originally from Marks & Spenser. Later in the day I found it under a chair, it's the little things that please here in this house.


I've listened to another audiobook at the weekend. Lucy Diamond writes a very entertaining story with satisfying plausible plots. She does include lots of fruity language that some may find unwelcome but... c'est la vie.

At the moment I'm listening to Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol. I know it's getting a bit late, or early, whichever way you look at it but every year I fully intend to read the book and then forget. So I decided I'm going to listen to it instead. I quite like Charles Dickens and his humorous observations of the class system. In fact my favourite book of all time is one of his, Great Expectations. With Estella bred to break men's hearts by making them fall in love with her, but never to return their love. Pip the young lad is sent to 'play' with her and later believe Miss Havisham to be his benefactor of great expectations, a misunderstanding that is exploited most cruelly. There have been many film adaptations of this and they all have a slightly different ending.

What have you read this week?
Would you read a Christmas story after December? 
What would you have done about the socks, would it have bothered you?

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.
Cx
 

14 comments:

  1. I tend to save Christmas books for over the festive period, I am reading Selected To Live by Johanna-Ruth Dobschiner in the God changes lives series. As i have never knitted socks before I would probably have left it. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds a good book, particularly as it's Holocaust Memorial Day today - 27th January.
      I donated a few Christmas titles and the rest are back on the shelves. Cx

      Delete
  2. Enjoyed reading your post. I always think I'm going to read my Christmas stories in December but never seem to have time. Not sure I could get into one in January though. Maybe in July perhaps. I'm currently reading Wesley The Owl, the true tale of a biologist raising a baby barn owl. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jean, you are very welcome. Just finished the Christmas one today. I think I've seen The Muppets version of A Christmas Carol several times as my son and husband love it. I Do Not! lol. But, the real book version is so much better thankfully. All Christmas books are back on the shelf now until Nov / Dec. Cx

      Delete
  3. I just finished listening to My Not So Perfect Life by Sofie Kinsella, it made me laugh out loud as I was driving. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds good, I've just had a quick listen. I need a book that makes me laugh out loud for the 2018 reading challenge. Though I'll have to get a reading copy, M says it's cheating to listen, it's not proper reading apparently. Cx

      Delete
  4. I have just finished Christopher Brookmyre's first science fiction novel "Places is the darkness". Love this author, very Scottish. Yes, I would indeed. And finally, I don't think I would have unpicked the socks. Have a good weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Christina for your thoughts. I'll pass on the book recommendation to my husband as he love science fiction. Cx

    ReplyDelete
  6. The socks look great, I'd have probably unpicked it too, though I do have socks which don't match exactly and they don't really bother me. I do try to match them up though. I've decided to read my Christmas themed books during the course of the year as I just don't seem to have enough time to get through them all over the festive period. I've finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this week and also read I Won't Be Home For Christmas by Amanda Prowse. A predictable story but enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've learnt a good lesson with the socks. I have read on Christine's blog about sorting the yarn first, it just didn't register. I had random, self patterning on the brain. I've downloaded Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine on audible book and also listening to another Lucy Diamond from the library. That should keep me busy for a while. I'm still in 2 minds with the Frieda Klein series for the 2018 Challenge. Cx

      Delete
  7. I love the colour of the blue wool! Your socks look really good, I can't imagine being able to knit something so small as well as you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Anna, I think you get used to using the small needles quite quickly. If you ever want to make socks, Winwick Mum's blog and helpful links and book is brilliant. This small single needle is the first time I've knitted this way. I'm hooked, it's so fast, you just keep going round in one piece. Obviously you slow down around the heel and toes, but the rest is super speedy. Cx

      Delete
  8. Loving those socks Cathy. I use one of those needles too.
    Jo xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jo, I'm amazed at how much faster the socks knit up (straight parts) using the small circular needle. I've finished them now, phew! Overall they took far too long, the usual story, keep putting them to one side and doing other things. Cx

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...