BOOO!!!!

Happy Halloween one and all.

I have been spectacularly bad at blogging of late. Sorry. Half term is one of those busy times - I had planned on doing so much knitting, getting so much finished and not casting anything else on... Well, the thought was there wasn't it?

I have finished something though. My nephew wanted a cushion to match one I made him years ago. So I have made one of my Christmas presents. Hooray for me! I did this very quickly because it's in the truly hideous Sirdar Foxy . A horror to knit with, a horror to feel and it squeaks so much. I shall have to educate said nephew in the delights of Posh Yarn. He really needs serious help I feel!
So glad that you all like the Golden Wedding Blanket too. I made another square - these flower ones take an age to do, but are worth every minute spent on them.

I've cast on 2 new things. The first is a Baktus scarf, not shown here, that can wait for another day. The second is this. I'm going to tease you and not say what this is. You know how I love clever knitting? Well this is clever beyond all imagining. How someone could design a pattern like this is beyond me. Keep watching to see how this mystery object transforms into something very pretty.
On the weight-loss front, I didn't get weighed this week as I went away for a few days. I am still trying hard though, but am starting to find it a bit difficult and more of a chore now. Determined to reach my target by Christmas though.

Had to go clothes shopping this week - my clothes are all now huge and look very stupid. Strange how I couldn't button up the trousers a few months ago - now they just fall down! Although it feels very good, it's a double-edged sword and is costing a small fortune. But never mind eh?

Must go and make a gruesome pudding now. I think it will have to be something green and monstrous just for Halloween. Youngest son wants strawberry jam 'blood' incorporated somewhere in it. He used to be so nice...

Golden Wedding blanket

It occurs to me that although I've talked about the Golden Wedding Blanket a lot, I've not shown you a progress picture for quite some time. I've been ordering more yarn and buying more and looking at it and stroking it and generally ooohing and aahhing over it all. Just look at these colours, don't they all look so pretty together?

There is, of course, way more yarn than I need for this project. I tend to panic buy though, always wondering if I'll run out, dreading the outcome if I've not got enough to finish that one last square. But I don't think that will happen do you? (Even though secretly I'm already worried about the amount of cream yarn left for the background hearts and flowers...)

So anyway, here it is so far. I'm planning on making it 11 x 9 squares, so am not even half way yet. However, now that the Mystery Blanket is done, I can concentrate on this one much more.

Well, once I've cast on a few more new projects, completed a bit of Christmas knitting and maybe had another go at attacking a few more WIP's..

Very quickly...

Mr Stressy is due home any minute and tea still isn't even started let alone ready. I just wondered how the diets have gone this week? Nobody's e-mailed me to say they've lost anything. I'm down another pound.

Oh, and is it just me, but does everyone's ironing pile seem to breed and multiply by the second? I swear my laundry basket could teach rabbits a thing or two about reproduction!

Mystery Blanket 2009

Yes, Rhiannon, (ah how I love that name!) you are indeed correct. The finished project is the Mystery Blanket. It is done, finished, completed. I have actually finished something!

Forgive the quality of the pictures, it's a very grey day here so the colours aren't coming out as well as they should. But I was so excited, I just couldn't wait to show you - I'm not going to hang on for a sunny day, goodness knows when that could be!

I have trouble picking a favourite square, I like most of them, but I think this Fair Isle one would be quite high on the list. I love stripes and I love fair isle. But then I love the beads too and the sequins. I have, however, hated knitting the red lacy one. It took so much longer than all the others.
The centre square was in the last parcel to arrive and kept us all guessing. Love that one too.
I did originally want to use this as a wall hanging but it's very heavy and as you can see from the picture, the squares are being stretched into rectangles. So it will be just another blanket to warm me up on those chilly winter evenings.

I have so enjoyed this whole Mystery Blanket project that I've already signed up for next year (not thinking about the price though...) anyone else fancy joining in?

And you know what? Now that I have actually finished something, I'm quite keen to finish something else. But first I must get up to date with the Golden Wedding squares and start my Christmas knitting. Oh what a shame, that means I'll have to cast on something new. Dear oh dear.

Saturday Pudding

Just to further enhance the torture which I seem to be putting myself through, I made cake for Saturday pudding. Well, cake and cookies to be exact. It was too hard to resist. I ate a cookie and a teeny piece of cake. Both tasted very good - my first cake in a very long time.

I convinced myself to be strong and leave the rest alone though. This was my pudding.

Too much to scoff alone, so all the rest of the family helped me out. They're kind like that.

Oh, and please do come back tomorrow. There is exciting news. I have a finished project to show you. And it's a very lovely finished object, if I do say so myself.

Slow and squeaky.

Well it's still here, still on the needles and still not finished. The Mystery Blanket is almost done - it's just these 300 stitch borders (4 of them) that are taking FOREVER! Won't be long though, then I can show it to you in all its glory - and even if I do say so myself, it is really rather glorious!

On the scales front, I have lost another 1.5 pounds. Pleased about that - would have been more pleased had it been 2.5, but I don't want to be too greedy.

Oh, and another thing, not that it affects any of you, but I've almost lost my voice. The children at school think it's funny - I've developed a very high squeaky sound. Most unlike my normal husky tones (oh ha, ha!)

What a cow!

It's amazing what you see when you're trying to have a nice quiet bowl of bran flakes for breakfast. Looking out of my kitchen window this morning I saw this greedy cow looking in at me. And before you complain about me calling her greedy, let me tell you that this beast has single-handedly (or should that be single hoofedly?) devoured our pear trees, ivy plants, privet hedges, laurel hedges and anything else that she can reach from her field. There is a barbed wire fence holding her back from our fence, but such is the age of the thing, she just steps over that to get to our greenery.

Some years ago, one cow escaped from the field and got onto the road. To prevent an accident, a well-meaning neighbour ushered her into our front garden and closed the gate before calling the farmer. Now those of you who know Mr Stressy will know that he is a fanatic when it comes to his garden - not a blade of grass is out of place and once a week he sweeps the gravel. Yes, I really did say that. He sweeps the gravel with a brush. So to find a cow on the drive was not his idea of a good plan. However, it all ended reasonably OK, we had a few smashed plant pots, a few nibbled plants, but nothing too serious.

Thank goodness it was not this Greedy Cow who ended up on our drive. Mr Stressy would surely have had her in the freezer before you could say horseradish sauce.

Two for the price of one!

Here is my Saturday Pudding. Fat free rice pudding, flavoured with orange, lemon, apples and nectarines and fat free yoghurt. Too much lemon. Way too much lemon. Sour. Horrid. So revolting, I can almost see the pounds disappearing - after all, something this vile must surely be good for weight loss?

But it didn't really help that the rest of my dear family were tucking into this. Profiteroles, filled with white chocolate creme patissiere and smothered in warm chocolate sauce.

There were some leftover, so rather than keeping them in the fridge to torture me even more, I went round the neighbours offering them out!

As I have said before, losing weight is not easy for someone with such a sweet tooth as me. Especially when I keep being so stoopid as to make puddings like this.

What would you do?

Knit with some delicious new yarn from Nimu Yarns,
mmmmmmmm....

Continue knitting my latest obsession
mmmmmmmmm...

...or tackle this little lot.


Oh, and by the way, the last post title, 'Nothing Changes' was sadly prophetic. No weight loss this week for me.

Nothing changes...

I'm still swamped by my many unfinished projects. Starting to panic at the amount needing to be done. Wondering how I can ever work my way round to finishing something - anything even. So am I getting any finished? Am I finally getting out the long forgotten needles from some long forgotten project?

Er, no. I am doing what any other self-confessed knitting nutter actually does. I'm casting on something new! Yes, yes, yes, I know, I've heard it all before. Finish something before you start something else. Finish one thing, start on another. Easy peasy. Just like how easy it is to have just one square of chocolate from the huge family sized bar of Dairy Milk in the cupboard right next to me HERE!!!!! Yes, just as easy.

Remarkably though, my will power with the chocolate is much better than my will power with the needles. So I've cast on a scarf and left the chocolate alone. It is now October so Christmas is just around the corner and the sum total of my festive knitting amounts to a pair of socks for mum. Whilst thinking of this, I decided that my poor dad rarely gets any knitting for himself (though it could be argued that socks for mum mean that she doesn't warm her cold feet on him, so that's sort of a present?). Anyway, I digress, I thought my dear dad would like a nice cashmere scarf to keep him warm on those cold winter walks. So I dug out all those scraps of leftover cashmere from Tipsy and cast on a mere 400 stitches.

Oh this pattern is good. Easy, quickish - for 400 stitches - and very pretty looking. The colours actually work far better in real life than it seems here.

So whilst the Mystery Blanket will remain a mystery to you all for another week or so, Carica is still only half way up the back, Soho is just a square rather than a massive rectangle, the zig-zag anklets are just singular, the Golden Wedding Blanket is more like a cushion, the teeny Rowan jumper is still awaiting more weight loss before it fits, the quiviut snood is somewhat short, the million miles of cotton i-cord remains a million miles of i-cord, I am enjoying knitting a scarf.

Oh to be strong and finish something once in a while!

Thursday again

Thursday has come round yet again, and we all know what that means don't we? Get on those scales everyone! I have another loss to report - 3 pounds this week, so much better than last week's measly pound. (Still, a pound is a pound as so many of you told me - oh and if any of you complain about 'just' losing that much, don't expect sympathy from Mrs Moog. She's very scary!) (I got seriously told off, but not as badly told off as Trashy this week - from someone else, but oh that's another story...)

Anyway, here we have another raffle prize sent today from Daisie - a newbie to our little group. It's so exciting - all these prizes are so gorgeous - I want to keep them all!

This prize is a Della Q circular knitting needle case. It is beautiful, silky and oh my word, just look at the price of these things! Don't you just need to win this? No more messy circulars in the bottom of the case / pot / tub / whatever you keep them in.

Own up then one and all, have you lost anything this week? (Not just weight, have you lost anything at all? I've lost my rag quite a few times, but again, that's another story.)