thereyougothen

i knew that i had screwed up the increases on the february sweater. but today, i really looked at them, and of the 4 sets of increases, only one is done right. the increases shift on all the other three.

so, do I frog it? or do I carry on and just keep it as a wear around the house cardi?

I'm three balls in, in the middle of the last increase row.  and the first mistake is on about the 10th ridge. that's way back in the middle of the first ball.

i've not even finished the yoke yet, so there's a lot of knitting left to do. it doesn't help that the cable on my needles separated today and i spent ages picking the stitches all back up.  aaargh.

maybe I should do something else instead..

Bill emailed ESO HR in Santiago yesterday to ask what the hell is going on.  Now, whether this is just inter-agency bickering or not I don't know, but Santiago said that it was being held up by NRAO.  Now, that begins to NOT sound plausible, since NRAO have managed to get him an offer for the other job.  Unless they really want him to take the Charlottesville job and think making him wait for the CHile job offer will fix that...

We talked a little last night, and the Charlottesville job is a definite no-go.  He would be away arounf half the time - we're not going to live like that for 2 or 3 years.  That's why we all want to be in Chile together, he'll still be away a significant amoun tof time, but it will rarely be more than 8 days at a time.

He's just heard from another Brit who's just gone out on ESO terms and condiditons, and it sounds as though NRAO's might be better if you have kids in school.  Aargh.  If NRAO allow you to name your home country for home leave type benefits, then it might be fine, and it migfht also make it easier to transfer to Charlottesville a few years down the road, if that's what BIll wants to do.

But we just sit here trying to imagine what things will say, becasue we don't have the damn pieces of paper.  I suppose that since the two agencies are trying to make sure their offers are near identical, and one of the agencies has just offered him another job, the liklihood is that their second job offer will be the same grade and salary as the first - right?  So maybe we already know the salary.  But who knows about the allowances.  We know what they are with ESO, but not with NRAO.

Oh this is so tedious.

As is trying to get through on either the phone or the website to book tickets for Richard Dawkins at the book festival.

Oh and, my Regia Bamboo socks?  They are very pretty, but unfortunately there are a bit hard on the feet.  And they've been washed a few times, I don't think they are going to soften up anymore.  They are fine inside my fluffy lined rocket dogs, but not in my everyday shoes.  damn.  can't wear fluffy lined shoes in the "summer".  I use inverted commas, becasue well, you call this summer?  Anyway, the socks are so uncomfortable that I'm going to have to change them before I walk up to gt Thomas, then down to get Nico.  The car is in the shop, getting its brakes sorted so that we can tow the trailer tent with confidence!

And I still can't get through to the book fest box office.  But I really want to do something with my morning that doesn't involve being sat here at the computer, so I'm going to have to tkae a chance on them selling out, and walk away for a while.

i made a crochet wire thing earlier this month, and it didn't work, it was supposed to be a beaded necklace, but wasn't heavy enough. so i thought i might make it into something else. so i think i might use it to embellish a bag. so i needed to buy some white fabric. i went to remnant kings and got almost a metre of sparkly organza for 91p, some bog standard curtain lining, which will be excellent for lining bags for £1. and some white fake linen for less than £2. and a big piece of white lycra for £4. it was priced at £7 something, which was half price, but it was a bit dirty, so I asked, and got it for £4. it will make fantastic knickers, or swimsuit lining, not quite sure what to use it for, it will stay in the stash for a while, I guess.

i want the house to myself to do the sewing though, i can't really work unless i'm on my own. don't want an audience.

never mind, i'm going spinning tomorrow.

i've uploaded a few pictures to flickr today, took ages, the wireless connection we have is so much crap. must try and lean how to fixc it.

and over the course of today, i have eaten 8 chocolates from a thorntons box. ooops.

i've done the first leg on my elijah, he needs to be done by about a week on wednesday.

speaking of a week on Wednesday, the parent council thing i was going to has been cancelled, so i will be able to go to knitting, two weeks in a row, hooray!

i have much more to say, but i have had 3 glasses of wine, and as a result, i need my bed more than i need to update LJ!

but i have remembered today that i really do enjoy my children. no more no less, i just enjoy them.

went to the new stitch & bitch at Borders bookstore tonight, it was nice, most of the people there already knew each other, but they were very welcoming. but Rosemary came too, and that was nice. she also noticed that the new vogue knitting was on the shelf, so i have some home with that, armed with the shaping in lace tutorial in it, i hope to feel ready for the henley perfected in last autumn's interweave knits.

came home and had a nice tea with Bill, just the two of us, which was really nice.

i've updated the city knitty website, with lots of knitting meetup type details. if anyone knows anything i've missed, let me know

but it's not.

i had pre-chemo bloods this morning, which is usually a monday thing, but yesterday was a holiday. a different nurse today and it was a bit tougher than usual. 3 needles. oh dear. i hope tomorrow is better. the 2nd needle went in and she got some blood, but then it stopped and there was nothing coming out so she had to try again, luckily it worked.

i'm to take a lorazepam tomorrow morning before going, as well as relaxing me, it might relax my veins as well. and i will try and drink a litre or so of orange juice or water.

anyway, i'd hoped to get out to lvingston in time to meet up with the mcarthur glen knitters, but we didn't get there until almost noon. oh well. still, had quite a successful shopping spree. a new teapot! and some fun stuff from the paper mill shop. i have become quite addicted to making things that involve rubber stamping.

and... drum roll.... the rowan country pullover is finished! all the ends sewn in and everything! there were eleventy million ends becasue the yarn kept shredding, but it's done. i still wish i'd used smaller needles for the waist ribbing, but i don't dislike it enough to redo it.

what next? a lighter sweater for me, or Elijah, for one of the teachers' babies? Elijah in dark orange jaeger matchmaker DK. sound good?

went to knitting today. it was nice. i went hatless. i think i may have tried to pretend that it wasn't a very big deal. but actually it was. that's the first time i've been out in public without a hat since i think mid-december.

i have made much progress on TT's 2nd sock. i'm 25 rows from the toe shaping. he'll be very pleased to have them finished.

the boys are beside themselves with excitement about my mum coming. i don't remember ever being so excited about seeing my grandparents. i must make sure my mum realises how much her grandsons appreciate her!

i started a shopping bag, finally using up what's left of what I will now know as my suffragist kitchen cotton, thanks to hfnuala  . Green, white & violet (plus a couple other colours that don't matter for the purposes of this exercise).

worked out which stitch patterns to use if I want to make the top in the bergere de france ad in Let's KNit. i tried to find a pattern, but couldn't, and from what i can see, even if there is a pattern, it will only be in french, so i'll probably manage to do it just as "easily" on my own. if i'm lucky, the very nice Sirdar Luxury Soft Cotton 4 Ply from Wye Sue's destash that eastofedin  brought me back from skipnorth will do the trick for this pattern. if i can find a picture online, i'll link to it.

now that thanks to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee I know about the Terrible (in a good way) Knitters of Dent I can imagine looking upon my married name in a better light.

what else?

my mum arrives tuesday. Barbara goes home for a two week holiday the same day.

i didn't start swatching for TT's next pullover.

i have three baby projects to do. i have no idea what. one is for a friend having another baby. the other two are for teachers, each of the boys has a pregnant teacher. each of the boys assumes that i will make something for the baby. how could I not, in the circumstances?

cardigans? blankets? should i attempt my first knitted toy?

too tired to think further about it now. good night.

we had a purple pork casserole for tea. becasue i needed to use the beetroot that came last week, and was still shaming me in the fridge drawer.

it was really nice, a bit labour intensive since i did lots of frying off of ingredients before puttng it in the oven, but it was worth it. really earthy flavour from the beetroot and the pork was very tender. main ingredients were pork, beetroot, onions, horseradish and a half jar of cranberry sauce.

and i had a play with the spinning wheel today and coincidentally, the roving in the bag i found was in shades of purple.

i think there's a bit of purple in TT's sock, and that's what i'm going to concentrate on now.

i'm trying to talk Bill into trimming off my long(er) hair. i have enough of a head covering now that i'd rather it was all the same length. he's supposed to take pictures too. so we can remember this. not sure why i want to, but i think i do.

but what i really need right now is cake. and there isn't any.

knitting is on sunday this weekend - who is going?

i have very nearly finished (well, i will in a week, and that's nearly for me) the warmest sweater i will ever have knit in my life. i am now getting hot flushes.

thanks chemo.