Hey! I Finished Something!

While I was on holiday in Scotland this summer, just before I moved, I decided to work on my Babette Blanket, as it was easy to crochet while relaxing or talking to people. The theme for June was Wimbledon, and as we were away at the beginning of July it was close enough! I finally got around to laying it all out this weekend, and here is the blanket so far:

I'm not sure quite where the Wimbledon bit fits in, but I like the colours anyway.

And a close-up of the latest block:


I've started crocheting the next block now, and although there is a theme for September I think I've lost the plot completely and I'm just using any colours I feel like using. Oh, well...
The other idea I had during the summer was that as I was so busy, what with moving and being on holiday and so on, I would knit small things. I decided to finish my Snowflake socks that I started in January:

These are made from Cygnet wool rich 4-ply with the pattern done in Opal Lollipop. I liked the colour combination so much that I decided to do a pair the other way around:


I have got one or two balls of sock yarn, so I am quite keen to carry on and knit more socks this autumn and winter. First, however, I have some gloves to knit - and I am going to do intarsia on the backs of them in the round, for which I got the technique I plan to use from Interweave Knits 2003. More of that presently...

Summer Catch-Up - the Graduate

What with all the moving, there are lots of things which I did over the summer, including some knitting and crochet, which I have not had time to write about. Here is the first of a few catch-up posts to bring the blog up to date.
On July 14th I set out early from Ratbert's house, where I had been staying, to drive to DSoK's University and attend his graduation ceremony. I arrived in plenty of time and was able to have a cup of coffee and a muffin while I was waiting for DSoK to get his robes. His girlfriend was graduating at the same University on the same day - but in the afternoon, rather than the morning, so she joined us until it was time to go in to the ceremony and then went off to get her own robes.

Here's another photo of DSoK all poshed up


and with his proud Mum (note I am wearing the floral crochet shrug)


and his lovely girlfriend Ruby


The ceremony was in a huuuuge theatre, and there was a choir and a quartet playing. After a while the officers of the University filed in, and my were they colourful!


Afterwards DSoK had a nice certificate. I did try to get a photo of him receiving it, but it was a long way off and he was moving fast, so it came out too blurred to show. Here he is with it afterwards though:


Fans of Mr Knitbert may like to see this cameo appearance


DSoK borrowed the camera after lunch, as I wanted to get home after my early start, and took this nice photo of him and Ruby both in their robes after she had graduated too. All in all a lovely day!

Home Sweet Home

Well hello there! It's good to be back. Where was I? Oh yes, I was packing. Well, I packed and packed and packed for three days. I was up at 8.00 am and I went to bed at 10 pm and in between I packed and I might have had the occasional meal or cup of coffee. I can't remember now, it's all a bit of a blur.
Anyway on the Wednesday afternoon everything give or take a couple of pictures was packed in a box or bag, the kitchen was sparkling clean, everything else was not, and I set out for my holiday in Scotland. I had a really nice time, did some walking and some chilling and ate some lovely home cooked food, and so on. On the Friday, which was the 10th day after we arrived, we set off for home at 2pm and we reached the flat at midnight. We had been driving for 7 hours (shared between two), so we stumbled into bed and fell into an exhausted sleep. At 6 am the alarm went off and we crawled out of bed, showered and got dressed again. There was no coffee, kettle, plates or cups, so we went to MacDonalds for breakfast, much to the delight of young Cartman(15) who was staying with us to help with the move.
At 8.00 am we picked up a giant Luton van, which one of us drove back to the flat to begin loading while I drove to Surrey to pick up the keys of the new house. At 9.30 am I texted Van Man to say that phase 2.1.2 was complete and drove all the way BACK to West Sussex to help with the loading.

At 12.00 the van was full and set off, followed by me and the Graduate (who also came along to help) in our respective cars, stuffed full of things which wouldn't fit in the van, and it began to rain.

By 2.00 pm we had had lunch and the contents of the van was unloaded into the house, and we set off to the next flat and began all over again except that now it was p***ing down with rain. This time we were nearly all loaded by about 5 pm and decided to stop and do the rest with cars the next day. The rain had been getting steadily heavier all afternoon and it was now also getting quite dark. We drove slowly in convoy back to the house (except I got lost), where we began unloading again. The Graduate disappeared to fetch his girlfriend from the station. When she arrived she was wearing a lovely wedding outfit, but after one look at things, disappeared into my nice new bedroom to change and then pitched in with a will.

Finally at 7 pm it was all in the house, all still in boxes and everyone went to the Indian (except me) to get a massive takeaway and beer. I stayed behind to try and find a table and some plates and forks. I put the table legs on backwards at first and it stood up like a wobbly foal when I turned it over. Half an hour under the table with a screwdriver put that right, and by the time the takeaway arrived I had it all looking quite cosy. Well, very cosy actually, as there were 5 people round a 3ft square table!

After all that I needed to go back to work to recover from my holiday and to get internet access.

We have been in the house over two weeks now and I only have three boxes left to unpack. I have broadband again. And it is a really lovely house!
I am so getting a removal firm next time though...