World Wide Knit in Public Day 2008

People all over the world today have been knitting in public places... including the Swampy Ewe-Knitted girls! Hoorah!


We gathered around the clock tower in Sheerness today at 12pm with a little display and did our knitting. A few people came up and spoke to us but sadly no-one came along and joined us. We also thought that the local yarn shop missed an opportunity to promote itself because they could have displayed some of their wares. Oh well!


The local press came and took some photos of us so we'll see if we actually appear in next week's paper. I took some piccies myself as you can see and I'm hoping to send something to the knitting mags. Anything that points out we have a knitting club will help! Through speaking to a few people though it did mean that I'm now looking at organising a monthly Saturday evening meeting so that those who can't make our fortnightly lunch meetings can come along. So that'll be fun to sort out. See what happens when you talk to people!


The best thing was watching my mum teaching a 3 1/2 year old girl how to knit! She came over with her mum who told us how she'd tried to teach her because she had been asking to learn. She managed a row before the novelty wore off but it was so sweet to watch! And Mum was so patient with her! At least it proves that there are young'uns interested in these things if only people take the time to teach them! Good job we brought the spare needles and yarn!

If we do end up plastered across the local rag, I'll scan it and post it up on here - got to enjoy my 5 minutes of fame! lol

Back from blog obscurity!

I really am crap at this blogging lark! Haven't put anything on here for ages! Can't even remember what I was last ranting about! haha!

Well, today has been one of those shockers you have now and again... actually yesterday evening was the biggest shocker of an evening in the history of the world ever and today just kind of followed on!

Why is it that when you write something in an email, it always gets read the wrong way? As much as I love the internet and telephones etc, there's nothing quite like face to face conversation for getting the message across. Especially when the person you're trying to convey something to is a thick arsed bloke who just reads bits of what you have to say and basically ignores the effin point! GAH!

Anyway, after relying on technology initially, spending most of yesterday evening and this morning in tears of frustration, I finally managed to talk to the bloke in question for 5 minutes on the telephone and I *think* things are now sorted! God, it would just be sooooo much easier if he didn't live over the other side of the sodding estuary!

Bring on the Invisible Wet Fish!

What is it about me that means the Powers That Be feel the need to slap me round the face every so often to check I'm paying attention? God(s) forbid I should go through a day or a week without realizing I'm rapidly turning into a down and out! Just a quick slap with an invisible wet fish every so often and I'm back in the land of reality where I'm skint, fat, miserable, scruffy and living in a craphole with no shelving whatsoever with only a 2 year old to keep me company! I crave adult company and conversation and sometimes it'd just be nice to have a cuddle that warms a bit more than just my knees!

Today is one of those "invisible wet fish" days. My lovely little black bunny rabbit, Malcolm, appears to have a recurrance of the abcess that's above (or possibly behind) his right eye. Not satisfied with fating him to be abandoned when he caught myxamatosis and having to go through what must have been the most appaling pain as he slowly recovered, those same Powers That Be, in their infinite wisdom, have seen fit to give the poor sod a recurring abcess that's obviously affecting his already badly scarred face and making him feel wretched. I've phoned the vet and the PDSA about it, hoping that either the vet would be nice enough to treat him again free of charge because they obviously didn't do the job they were supposed to when he had it operated on last month or that the PDSA would offer me something positive. As it is, I have to take him to see the PDSA tomorrow morning (nice drive all the way to Gillingham - means I have to prevail upon Mother again for transport and go complete with 2 year old son in tow) so that they can assess him and decide if there's any point in them treating him. The woman on the phone said there may be nothing more they can do for him and it might be best to put him to sleep. I don't want to do that if I can help it. I gave Malcolm a home because he deserved to have a better quality of life and someone to love and care for him - something his previous owners obviously didn't do. I still want him to have that life if he can.

So that was my first slap. The second slap? My dear soon-to-be ex-husband phones to tell me he's paid a measly £60 into my account - £10 of which is to buy myself a birthday present from our son Aston. Whoopdidoo! Gonna buy a lot, that! I'm bringing up our child on my own and all I'm worth is a tenner. Thanks. I get the hint.

Third slap? My friend Maria finds a link to the sale details for the lovely house I was pushed out of by said soon-to-be ex. Just looking at the pictures depressed me. That was supposed to be where we would live for some years and bring up our children. Now it's sitting empty because he never bothered to keep up the mortgage payments because making sure his car looked its best and was always chugging the best petrol was more important than ensuring there was a roof over his family's heads. I sold my little house in Sheerness to help buy that place. If I hadn't, we'd have got nowhere. And what have I got to show for it? Nothing. And I doubt if I'll even get anything out of the sale once the debts have been paid off. The ex won't acknowledge the amount I put in to buying it so there's a big fat zero of a chance of me getting back an equivalent of what I put in.

They must have pulled out the biggest, wettest fish they could find today *shakes fist ineffectually at the sky*

How many times am I going to have to unpick this one?

Already had to unpick 2 rounds! Grrr!

Heel turn seems to have gone ok now that I've finally figured out the instructions in the pattern but I had to unpick because I hadn't done the instructions for the selvedge at the same time as knitting the heel flap and had to fiddle about picking up stitches along the edge myself and doing that every alternate row would have meant only decreasing one stitch for the gusset which I knew couldn't be right. Going to have to do exactly the same thing on the other sock just so they look right so doing the heel turn correctly could end up being purely academical! Pffffft!

Well, better get on with it. For now I'm going to bed cuz I still have a stinking headache that came on this afternoon. Actually, I want to go to bed but I'm kind of halfway through watching The Chronicles of Riddick now and I can't just leave Vin Diesel on his own.... tee hee!

Sodding sock pattern!

Why did I have to get lumbered with possibly the worst sock pattern ever?

I thought life would be easier if I used a kit but no! Even a pattern allegedly for beginners leaves me in a state of confusion (cue The Kinks!) so thanks to all those lovely knitters out in Forumland who have helped me make some kind of sense of it!

Fingers crossed, the socks I'm now making for my dad (lovely blue and grey stripey ones, thanks to Regia yarn!) will end up looking ok! Now I just have to hope that I can get the pair done by Sunday!

So everyone needs to cheer me on so that I knit my life away over the next few days to get the job done. All knitting energy should be sent this way - hopefully the next meeting of Swampy Ewe-Knitted will help me big time!

Done it! Hoorah!

Woohoo! I've finished my first pair of socks!!! The heels are not as per pattern but they work and more importantly, the socks fit!

I'm so pleased with myself - first time knitting with DPNs and I expected it to be a total nightmare but I've managed it! Now making the socks for my Dad should be a doddle!

Getting there... slowly!

Well, I've managed to get past the heel turn on the 2nd of my multi-coloured socks. Jeez this one was a bugger! I couldn't for the life of me remember how I managed to do the heel turn on the last sock and made several attempts at following the pattern before giving up and doing it my own way! It works exactly the same so what the hell!

I still don't think the sock looks entirely right. It just seems to me that the inverted V of the heel gusset is too big. Seems to be quite vast and kind of takes over the look of the sock... maybe I'm doing something wrong. Certainly doesn't look like that on the pattern! I think when I do the socks for my dad, I'll follow the heel turn instructions for one of the socks from the 1949 book my Nan lent me! These German heel turns aren't aesthetically pleasing if you ask me!

I'm up to the toe now so I'll be finished in a short while then I can post a piccie of the final article, as modelled by moi!