Woolgathering

• The rubbish is out
• The laundry is on
• We have elected not to make bread today
• I shall be making chicken stew and dumplings later
• I plan to attack the workroom today
• and I would like to get my quilting homework done too.
• I would also like to take some WIP and FO photos but it is very grey again today.

But what I would really like to be doing is to light a fire (can’t) and curl up with: chocolate, a good book, coffee, and my knitting - on a regular rotation. A good three-hankie film would be nice too (but we don’t have a telly.)

Wake me up when the sun shines, please.

EDIT: still no Yarn Yard club yarn mailing… but I did get the letter inviting me for an interview for the job that I applied for. Apart from that, just junk, no swaps or other interesting mail.

This weekend is proving to be as unproductive as last weekend.  I am entirely am clear as to what happened to yesterday, the day just seemed to disappear in a haze of nothingness.  It is really odd but I certainly do not remember much about my day.  I know that we went shopping and that we went to the breast Cancer coffee afternoon and we cooked Pork Satay and ate it and that we sat and knitted in the sitting room and tried to poison ourselves.

Oh, does that need some explanation?  Well, after dinner we lit the sitting room fire and I searched out some needles and some yarn and set Mister L to work - I demonstrated garter stitch on my slipper and he followed suit on the big needles.  I have to say that he is no novice and has been keeping his knitting light under a bushel.  Okay, he is certainly not an expert - but you should have seen the way he rattled up those stitches, exhibiting considerable dexterity as he went.  We shall advance to purl stitches shortly.

I managed eight of the 10 rounds of the welt on my slipper before we decided to return to the office because the fire was smoking a bit and we were feeling uncomfortable.  We blamed it on the paper logs that we have been making.  Not long after we settled down at the computers, we heard a noise.  A most unpleasant noise.  A rather alarming noise.  In fact, it was the carbon monoxide monitor that I had with forethought asked Mister L to put in the sitting room.  We opened a few windows and then investigated, finding that the pot that runs from the stove to the chimney is in fact, rotten and needs replacing.  Finances being what they are, we now face a winter without the benefit of the stove.

Mister L says that it is a good job that I am going to get the job that I am currently applying for.  Ho Ho Ho!  Very droll.

Today was a very late start - our usual alarm clock, Nell, actually did not go off until nine forty-five.  By the time various animals had been fed, let out, and generally modified and tea and coffee had been made and returned to bed, then ablutions made and clothing donned… then, well… it was late.  Brunch being in order, I made a big cooked breakfast and we shall make that our single meal for today.  So here we are well after midday and not a thing done.  I do not expect the day to improve.

At the very least I do need to go and clean cat trays out and get the rubbish bagged up ready for morning.  I lead such an exciting life.

This weather brings warmth to the knitter’s heart, as does the odd stray husbandly comment - such as “I need some gloves.” We have suffered our first gale of the season and boats have been disrupted and thus I have no Yarn Yard Solid Club parcel yet. Fingers are very firmly crossed…

Not much knitting going on, but lots of webbing. Email confirmation of a job interview has arrived and the expected presentation to do is also confirmed. I need to keep working on my Dragon partnership in case I get the post, but have so far this morning completely forgotten to fire up my own little fire-breather. Naughty of me! Well, forgetful at least.

This afternoon is for Pork Satay cooking and for going to a coffee afternoon. So there won’t be much knitting done at all this weekend. It remains too dull and grey for photographs.

This post comes to you courtesy of my brand-new Dragon. We are up to version 10 and not only is recognition much improved but Dragon no longer clashes with Live Writer and now dictates direct into the Live Writer window - so there are no longer any excuses for sitting here blathering on about nothing in particular the whole day long and completely knackering my arm.

Despite many years of attempting to use Dragon successfully (my Dragon and I go back to version 2) I have to confess that I’m still very slow at dictating and I find the correction process quite painful in its extreme tedium. All the same I plan to persist this time because recognition levels really have improved a lot and for the first time I truly believe there is a chance that my Dragon I will get used to each other. Eventually.

Posts may be thin on the ground for the time being and they may be short or errorprone, I may even get cramp from sitting on my hands… but, who knows, with a little dedication and perseverance on my part - real results may show up much sooner than I expect.

That’s it then, me and my Dragon signing off!

My clients arrived with a large local caught trout and a bottle of wine, plus a request that I submit an account. Very flatteringly, they informed me that they get better value from the site that I wrote for them than they do from their paid advertising - so they want to put their budget my way as a thank you for the time that I spend on their project. So - that’s two paying customers that we have gained in one week.

Mr L is still along way from retiring, though…

If I could only knit with one yarn for the rest of my life, this Silk Blend from Manos del Uruguay would be it. It’s wonderful. It feels great, it knits up with great good humour, and the colours are to die for. They just glow.

What is more, knitting with the one yarn for the rest of my days would be no penance, but a goal. Sadly, I shall never be rich enough.

Dear Santa: I know that I don’t do Christmas but if you happen to be passing by the Windswept Acre and have a few balls of Silk Blend lying around in your sleigh… could you kind of just nudge them over the edge so that they fall down my chimney? Please?

Just about everything that could go wrong today did so, and now I feel completely frazzled.

The gingerbread was good. The coconut macaroons were quite nice. The èclairs were an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. The bread was terrible too. Nell ran off and was found chasing a car down the road. Thankfully the occupants were pleasant about it. In fact, they stopped to chat and remind me that they have Nell’s brother at their house… Unfortunately we can only assume that she had chased another car in the opposite direction first - the occupants of that one may be less happy about having a demented pup on the road.

Pluses today include the gaining of another hosting customer - and this one is paying! And I picked up the stitches for my slipper and ended up with the right number. AND I completed one bobbin and filled another this morning.

I am planning a quiet afternoon. Tomorrow will be busy again.

Many thanks to Gill for providing milk for spinning coffees.

*slump*

Up and at ‘em this morning and I had the bread rising by 7:30am. I am now showered and ready to begin my other baking. I have discovered that I have no milk for the spinning ladies’ tea/coffee and no time to go seek some.

*sigh*

I got up to find that the cats had discovered by Blink; carefully washed, blocked, folded, and laid on a table by me - now in a crumpled tangled heap on the floor.

*double sigh*

Last night I began my slippers. This Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend is fabulous stuff. I knitted my first sole in bed and hope to make progress today. No chance of pictures today, light levels are v low.

And now I am off to make eclairs…

…but have no milk for my crème patisserie!

1. Yesterday we had mail from our old bank - we are closing the account, and have moved all our funds to our new bank, but they haven’t actioned the closure yet. The letter told us of a cheque that had just been presented and they wanted funds to cover it, plus £29 in fees. We were mystified. As we had destroyed our cheque books we were unable to check the problem out and had to ring the bank up.

   Investigation revealed that a cheque for £5.10 written on the 14th July had just been presented.

   (Full marks to the RBS One Account - for voluntarily waiving the fee without our having to request that)

2. A “client” who wants to come to see us about a web site sent a subsequent email at the weekend, explaining that they want to consult us to find out what questions they should be asking when they go to see a web designer.

   They want our (free) time and our expertise - to advise them on how to present their business to a competitor.

   (Clearly we are never going to become rich. Perhaps our rewards will come in Heaven…)

3. We just spent half an hour on the phone with the two of us attempting to assist FiL with his prize crossword (a weekly event.) He needed a five letter word E-I-S, meaning Arab Princess. At the outset, Mr L enquired “are you sure it’s princess, not princes?” “No, it’s princess” quoth Mr L Snr. After half an hour’s fruitless struggling and checking other answers for the letters we had - we gave up. One last enquiry from Mr L: “How are you spelling Princess?“

   “Princess - spelled P.R.I.N.C.E.S.“, the old feller said…

   (Well, what can you do except go find your sense of humour in the location that you misplaced it.)

Is it me? Or are other people just plain bonkers/awkward/unfathomable? Are they sent just to try us?

Some days I wish had stayed in bed. And there’s not a drop of chocolate in the entire house!

Right - now I need to go and brew some soup for lunch. Comfort food today.

I survived the first day of this busy week and feel pretty much unscathed. I did forget that it was Monday and failed to get my rubbish out for collection… but apart from that all seems to have gone well. I finished my materials for this afternoon’s training and then made first a gingerbread for Wednesday and followed that up by creating a very nice chicken and mushroom risotto for lunch, then sped off to do my training session. Home just after 6pm, with a list of jobs to do to fix a few gremlins on the web site, then some tea. Since when I have been catching up on reading in readiness for Thursday night’s meeting. And now? Obviously - Blink! I cannot believe that it is half past eight already.