Progressing slowly

This applies to both getting used to works new computer system and the victorian shawl, one of which I am enjoying and one not - no prizes for guessing which is which!

We are gradually adapting to the new system, they have grudgingly made a few minor changes, but essentially, yes it is all down to money - I can`t believe such a large company can be so shortsighted - unhappy customers are not going to stay, and it is affecting the customers, not just us. I wish I was like some of the kids on the floor, but I do care and I hate providing a substandard service.

Anyway, enough of that, I`m loving the shawl, the yarn is really nice to knit with - the english mesh lace is proving a bit of a challenge though as I just can`t see where it is going, and the pattern won`t stay in my head - but I`m using the index card method (where each row is written on a separate card, they are held together with split rings and you turn the front card to the back each time you finish that row) and I would like to award a medal to the person who came up with this idea as it is so helpful to a befuddled brain like mine. So here we are so far (It`s actually greyer than this as in the previous post)



I also finished off this little lady for the Baby Pack Project

but I am concerned that she might need some psychiatric help judging by her expression, which is something I find a little worrying as an old toymaking friend insisted that a toys face reflected ourselves!!!

Squishy retail therapy

It`s been a horrible couple of weeks at work. I work in a call centre type environment where our every move is monitored, but please don`t think that it is just a case of relaying that `the computer says no`. Some of us have to have a lot of knowledge, at least of what we need to be looking out for and where we are going to find the answers - sometimes I get some very nasty people who don`t like what I have to tell them, sometimes I get to talk to some lovely people who have every right not to be - it`s a funny old world. And now in their infinite wisdom the company have introduced a new computer system, which frankly is c**p. It was designed for another division of the group and poorly adapted for our use - but still our every move is monitored and our wrists slapped if we aren`t working as quickly as we used to - which of course is inevitable, not only are we finding it hard to adapt, it just doesn`t do what we need it to.

So, in need of cheering up I went surfing, and lo this fell into my basket


Why, oh why do I find a gorgeous yarn just as it is being discontinued, it`s soft, it`s squishy 100% merino and it was cheap. I ordered it on the monday from Jannettes Rare Yarns and on Wednesday it was waiting for me, you can`t ask for more than that. I`m going to knit the Aran weight Victorian Shawl that I mentioned previously. I did start it once before, but decided that if I was going to put that much work into something it deserved to be in a nice yarn, in a colour of my choosing rather than a cheap and not particularly fetching yarn that I`d inherited.

And despite being thoroughly cheesed off, and not really feeling like doing much in the evenings except mope - I made myself get out the needles last week and produced these

Both are from Last minute knitted gifts and was the first time I had tried an i-cord edging, which I rather liked. Hopefully the baby who receives this particular Baby Pack project pack will have a suitably large head and small feet.

How on earth....

..did Elizabeth Zimmerman work out that you needed a piece of knitting this shape


to end up with this...


I know you have probably seen (or made) these before but I am still in awe of her skill. It isn`t often (in fact I can`t ever recall it happening before) that I finish knitting something and immediately want to make another one!

I didn`t get very much knitting done on the canal boat - with all the fresh air and activity we were tucked up by 9pm every night - but this was the perfect project. I just believed and knitted without question, though there were a couple of times when I lay awake and pondered on how it was going to work until I drifted off again. Well there isn`t a lot you can do on a canal boat at 2am when the other two are snoring their heads off, it`s pitch dark, and you can`t get up and make a cuppa as it is open plan and the water pump was enough to wake the dead never mind the whistling kettle!

I had lots of diddy balls of yarn (inherited) so I just knit until they ran out and joined the next, and just let whatever would happen, happen. Not that I would have had any control since I didn`t fathom out till right near the end how it would work.
Anyway, this now makes ten charity knits, so I have achieved my New Years resolution. Not that it means I will stop, I`m having too much fun.