Knitting on the go, tiling, and (ch)eating

I took the Denali throw away for the weekend but it was never released from the locker. This surprised me as I expected to be in need of gainful employment during the long evenings. As things turned out our evenings seemed to be fully occupied in preparing and eating our meal and lingering over a glass of port or three after. It has to be noted that the throw requires a great deal of space to work on it and the little camper van table, strewn with cheese, crackers and port glasses simply was not up to the job. Nor was I, being slightly squiffy, as it were.

Luckily I also had with me two sock kits, one of which I cast on during the ferry ride to Kirkwall on Thursday. This I was able to knit upon in odd moments both at the table and away from it and I made considerable progress on the road as we moved from location to location.

Mull Head sock at Skaill
Mull Head sock at Skaill on Sunday morning

I am calling this project Mull Head, as that was our first destination.

This photograph was taken on Sunday morning, mid-eye-of-partridge-heel-flap whilst Mr L was replenishing our water supplies before we left Skaill Bay.

You will detect traces of sunshine and indeed the day looked pretty good. Squint a little more closely and you may notice the grass being flattened by the bitterly cold gale force wind passing by.

I had actually cast on a second sock kit on the road between Hoxa and Kirkwall on Saturday morning, when we went into town to look for wall tiles for the kitchen. Brunhilde is a left-hand drive vehicle and Mr L likes me to ride shotgun and look out for traffic coming from the right or full on when he wishes to pull out from behind another vehicle. This I do not mind but it was playing havoc with my eye-of-partridge. I put the orange socks away and cast on a pair of Boring Brown and Manly socks for Mr L.

Skaill sock at Finstown
Skaill sock at Finstown

This sock is named Skaill as that was our destination for that evening. The photograph is  taken at Finstown on Sunday, which is where we had to pass the night when the ferry home was cancelled. Again, do not be misled by the apparently gorgeous weather. The wind was lifting the van from its stays and banging it back down again. Nerve-wracking behaviour.

Both socks have reached the gusset stage, with Mull Head ahead by a nose as all the stitches are picked up – Skaill has half of one side of the flap on the needles, with the rest remaining to be picked up. Denali had  one Broomstick section done at Spinning Group on Monday afternoon.

As for the outing to hunt for kitchen tiles, which i had expected to be long and arduous and argumentative…

Believe it or not, we picked our tiles in five minutes flat, in the first shop that we went to and the second tile that we looked at. We both agreed instantly, this was The Tile For Us.

They are considerably dearer to buy in Orkney – Mr L looked them up on the Internet when we arrived home and found them available for under two thirds of the price. However, the delivery quotation was ludicrously expensive!

Whilst we were in town we popped into Kirkness & Gorie with the idea of purchasing cheese for a bread and cheese supper. We not only bought cheese (way too much of course) but also olives, crackers, a lovely wine… and a sausage. Previous visits had afforded us the chance to enjoy the peppercorn, mushroom and wild boar varieties, so this time we decided to try the herbed one.

Of course, since we had so much cheese, the sausage was not sampled until after we got home – when I used half in a spaghetti dish. It got our vote as the best of the lot.

Delicious Dried Sausage
Delicious Dried Sausage

Since we got home I seem to have been endlessly employed in unpacking the van (still not finished) and doing the laundry (ditto) so today I am knocking up a quick meal with the remainder of the sausage. It’s a bean stew made  with some pre-cooked beans that I got from Approved Foods (I had 6 at just 75p a packet and still in  code) with the idea of their being useful on Brunhilde trips. I have a pan of onions, carrots, celery and bay leaves gently sautéing right now and will soon add the sausage, beans and some passata, There will be garlic bread croûtes, on which to park the finished stew. Hearty, warming, and easy.

No, please, I’d really rather you do not enquire as to how the fasting went over the past few days. Truly. Let’s keep mum on that subject, shall we?

This afternoon I hope to complete writing up the trip for Brunhilde’s blog – the photos are all done and uploaded, I just need some text.

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