Interweave Knits & keys to the library

I'm having a bit of a thumb-twiddling day. My dissertation draft should be back from my supervisor by now, I've spent the last 3 days sitting around waiting for the postman. Yet again, only bills were delivered this morning, and they'd been dropped in a muddy puddle! If it doesn't come soon I'm in trouble, as I've now only got Thursday and Tuesday next week for a re-write, printing and binding. In fact if it doesn't come in tomorrow's post I can't go to Greenbelt. :-( :-( WHERE IS IT?? Have emailed my tutor in desperation but she hasn't replied yet. It's so frustrating as I could have done 3 days of paid work in this time...

However, all this postman mugging has resulted in some very fluffy parcels:

This came from Penny yesterday (Penny learnt to knit a couple of weeks ago, already seems to know more than I do & is coming to Greenbelt!). The chocolate (it was a complete bar when it arrived) is to help with my dissertation and is Green & Black's Butterscotch - VERY VERY YUMMY. :-) The pic on the card is the key to the library at Iona!!




Then two copies of Interweave Knits arrived on the same day! I'd ordered the Spring one from Angel Yarns a while ago and they'd had to back order it. The Fall one is from Heather of Doodles fame, via Ebay. I am really impressed with Interweave Knits. This is the first time I've seen it, and it is SO much better than anything published in this country. It's not much more expensive than an issue of Knitting or Simply Knitting magazine, yet there is so much more content & it's published at a more sensible interval. There are loads more patterns and interesting articles & I loved reading all the adverts. Anyone reading this in the US - you are SO lucky to have all those shops and lovely yarn on your doorsteps!

And here we have another FO! I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment. This is the Kidsilk Haze wrap from Simply Knitting issue 2. It was a bit of a boring knit, but a good way to start with KSH I think. It hasn't been blocked yet, but I thought I'd hang it up on the curtain rail for the photo in an attempt to emulate Hazel's elegant photo of River. Somehow mine hasn't quite hung in the same way, but I think you get the idea! The colour used for this was Liqueur. I'm now thinking of making my own River using some KSH in my stash.


I've done quite a bit of my thing using the Wendy variegated purple cotton. It's knitting up quite fast. I was going to post a pic of that too but it's next door at Mum's for TV knitting and it's pouring with rain at the moment! (I am such a wimp).


Thought you might like to see some garden pics. This shows the grapes on the vine on the patio. We are too far north for them ever to ripen but they look nice (until they fall off and make a squishy mess). There is a vineyard on the slopes just below the Cathedral, which somehow manages to get grapes to ripen. It's quite a sheltered spot though and faces south.


Meanwhile, the edible fruit in the garden is going mad. There are apples, plums and pears everywhere. I spent some time last night picking up all the fallen fruit , only to wake up this morning to find just as much lying there again!. We are giving it to people who come round, we've left a basketful in the staff room at the Cathedral and Mum even took it to her bereavement group at the hospice last night! Meanwhile, Mum and I are eating plums, stewed plums, plum crumble and some tasty oat and plum slices. Am beginning to go off plums a little. Although I might make some jam later today cos I hate wasting all that fruit. I'm going to freeze as many of the apples as possible to make apple pies and crumbles through the winter.


Whilst waiting for the postman, I also acquired a Flickr account this morning, and you should now see one of those photo gallery things in my sidebar with all my finished things in (scroll down, it should be between the UKHandknitters button and the hit counter). Please let me know if you can't see it, access it or it starts throwing wobblies! I have decided to do my photos in posts on the smallest size, to make it easier for people to view. If you want to see a bigger pic you should be able to click on the picture for an enlargement.

I'm off to brave the rain and rescue more plums... Byeeeeeeee