135 There's a bit of a lull here. Christmas Day is past, the kids are in their rooms with their presents and I don't need to be doing anything in particular, just relaxing and catching up with internet stuff. I had invited both sets of parents to ours for Christmas dinner, meaning there would be 12 of us. It turned out to be quite a relaxed day with no real disasters unless you count the overcooked roast potatoes. I fell asleep in my chair after they all left though, but it's nice having long lies every other day now that I'm on holiday from work. Knittingwise I decided to knit all the kids a pair of socks as a present. I finished the third pair about 8 oclock on Christmas Eve, so my eldest son got two balls of sock wool. He's 19 and already has a pair of knitted socks so I knew he could cope with the disappointment. Although he does keep drawing my attention to the balls of wool! I'm taking a break from socks for a little while and have just started a very chunky sweater on 10mm straight needles that will hopefully knit up quickly. Tomorrow I'm going to the sales, most of them started today, to hopefully buy more yarn. Tom my husband tried out one of my arguments that I use on him - that something is only a bargain if its something you actually need so I pointed out that if I didn't buy any yarn in the sales I would be forced to work my way through my stash and when I got to the end of that I would then have to buy more yarn and it probably wouldn't be at a reduced price - it would be expensive. He did take the hint that I would ensure it would be expensive. I don't think he's worked out that it will take many months, if not longer, to work my way through the stash I have..... Have a Happy New Year everyone if I don't get back on here before next year 0 2008-12-27T17:54:27+00:00 832 2008-12-27T17:54:27+00:00 135 I knitted a dog lead the other day. Well a dog lead handle, more out of necessity than wanting to as Harry the pup had eaten the handle off his lead when I was in the shower and it would be a few days before anyone could get near a shop to buy him a new one. I had some dark brown yarn lying about that woud blend in with him - he's a chocolate labrador and I remebered doing bag handles a while ago that were knitted sideways with a couple of rows of reverse stocking stitch in the middle which seemed to add some rigidity. So I thought I could have a go. I measured the length I would need to make the handle and had a rough guess what the tension would be, cast on about 60 stitches and worked stocking stitch for 4 rows, purled a couple, stocking stich 2 more then cast off. When my husband got home I got him to make a hole in the end of the lead, mainly because I couldn't be bothered looking for something to make the hole with and it was his fault for leaving the lead where Harry could get at it. Finally I put one end of the knitted piece through the hole then sewed the ends of the knitting together in a loop. Result - a perfectly functional, if odd looking, lead. Harry has just today become the proud owner of a bright red new lead that goes with his collar. It will be getting kept out of his reach so he doesn't eat it too. Well at least now I can get back to knitting the things I really want to knit. 2 2008-11-01T13:18:33+00:00 447 2008-11-01T13:18:33+00:00 135 At the moment I am sitting in the living room with my feet up, balancing the laptop on my knee while trying to watch TV too. Both dogs are curled up snoring - I may join them soon. I'm having a half hour break from knitting. At the moment I have an Alpaca dress for me on circular needles just ready to be lifted while waiting on web pages to load. I also have a pair of socks quarter done - that's half way through the first of a pair for my husband; and a cotton top, again for me, that I had already knitted in the summer but it ended up too big so I frogged the lot. It tends to be the knitting I take on car journeys as I never like doing the same thing twice! We have our knitting group tonight, which is fatal as it is held in a yarn shop. That's where I got the alpaca from. I will be good tonight and not buy anything else, promise! Right, time to get back to the knitting. 0 2008-10-16T13:00:23+01:00 327 2008-10-16T13:00:23+01:00