Today I am so overjoyed that Obama has won the US election that I am returning this blog from hiatus just to say "Hurray!"

I am a lace girl really. Most of my favourite knitting success (especially socks) have been in lace knitting. Although I am not up to the standard of wedding ring shawls quite yet. However when visiting Triskellian (who has a well known obsession with cables) last year I fell in love with the Rogue Hoodie. This is a rather gorgeous jumper with a hood and cables that look like Celtic Knotwork. It was gorgeous and when asked by my parents what I wanted for christmas I asked for the pattern and some of the wool to go with it. I ended up with a flash key with a pdf on it and many many balls of debbie bliss cashmerino aran in a sort of wine colour. It is lovely wool, very soft and I have already rubbed my face in it many times.

So then I open the pattern up and download it. IT IS 19 PAGES LONG! Once I picked myself up from the floor I decided the best way to approach this monster was to take it one small stage at a time and blog the progress so that I can learn from the many mistakes I anticipate making. So in honour of this pledge I begin.

I am in a sort of swatch hell. I have knitted two practice cable swatches in leftover wool to understand the engineering of cabling and now I am knitting two gauge swatch one flat and one in the round because my new knitting guru - the DomiKnitrix - really cracks the whip about gauge swatches.

I am aiming for a gauge of 4.5 stitches and 6 rows to the inch.

Flat Gauge swatch 0.1 comes in at 5.5 stitches and 7 rows on 5mm needles so I clearly need to drop a needle size.

Round Gauge swatch 0.1 come in at the same on 5mm so they both need to go up one.

Of course I forget that knitting a round swatch involves using the magic loop techinique which I learnt a couple of years ago but don't like because it hurts my hands. All the fiddling around moving stitches from one end of the knitting needle to the other is just annoying the joins don't look right and I am reminded why I really really prefer using double pointed needles to knit tubes. I find the joins are easier to tighten up and you need less (or no) stitch markers because the 3-4 different needles make it easier to check you haven't lost/gained any stitches.

I am trying to get more organised about swatches in general though and have taken to attaching the ball band of the wool used to the swatch and writing the needle size on the ball band. The DomiKnitrix recommends making a number of purl stitches on the right side of the swatch equal to the needle size but I guess she works in US sizing and I work in mm which it doesn't really work for as the mm are often decimalized and I can't do 2.25 purl stitches.

Ok - slightly later update as I have been writing this over the course of 2 hours. 2 hours of gauge swatching and 2 psychology course podcasts later and I STILL don't have a definitive needle size although after the last swatch it is looking like I probably need 6mm (which I don't own) AND my hands are hurting from wrestling with metal needles. I will give up in disgust and return to this when the postman delivers me some 6mm (in Wood). May as well go and cast on another sock in the meantime.

Well after 75 hours worth of lessons and 2 hypnotherapy sessions I have passed my driving test first time with only 5 minors.

Thank you very much to Mark Smith of www.all-drive.co.uk for being a fantastic instructor!

Thank you very much to James Warlock of www.insightclinicalhypnosis.com for enabling me to stop panicking about driving long enough to take my test!

Thank you very much to cardinalsin for putting up with me being constantly stressed and on edge for the last couple of months.

I think a *very* long time ago I said that I was setting up a weird shit filter so I didn't have to spam my friends flists with my musings on that subject. It was SUCH a long time ago that I think I have friended new people since then so if you would like to be added to the filter (or taken off because I never post nuttin) then let me know in comment and it will be done.

Godammit.

So although I replaced the tops of both taps it turns out that the bottom of the hot water tap has corroded to almost nothing and died on its bottom less than 24 hours after the new tap head was fitted. Back to the drawing board only now it appears that I need to replace the new tap. A challenge I see...

Apart from that today has been a great day on the house! My family came round to help out with the redecorating and gardening and we got loads done. The bedroom walls and ceiling have two coats of paint each leaving only the skirting boards etc to be done, then a carpet to be fitted and curtains & light/lampshade sorted. Lawns are mowed and almost everything else pruned to within an inch of its life.

Peas, courgettes, squash and strawberries are now planted and we have finally started putting down the composted tree bark in parts of the garden around the plants - currently around the strawberries and herbs but eventually to extend over the whole of the front garden. The idea behind this is to save water by minimising the amount the evaporates off and to deter slugs from getting at the plants because they dont like the feel of it and it keeps the weeds down. As a bonus it looks pretty and smells great so here is hoping it does all the other goods things it promises. This is part of a larger plan to take up the whole of the front lawn and replace it with flowers and herbs so that we have a gorgeous view out of the kitchen window. We are hoping that the mulch will be a good way of minimising the weeding required! Keeping fingers crossed.

Firstly - apologies to everyone who asked for comments on the last meme - I really meant to do it but I left it too long. Sorry guys!

Today we worked a little more on the house (a very little really). Hopefully more tomorrow.

But this was a personal success for me. Our bathroom tap has been dripping for ages and because of the hosepipe ban I have becoming increasing guilty about it. My guilt was pretty much increasing in line with the increasing speed of the drip. Today I finally fixed it. I had hoped it was just the washer but it turned out that I had to fit a whole new tap head - because they come in packs of two I fitted the other one as well because it was looking a bit dodgy.

So go superFrax DIY queen.

Comment, and...
1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people, well, only if you want to...

Sunday cardinalsin and I are off to Turkey for a little sun, sea, relaxation and endless hours of looking at Greek Temples. I am really looking forward to the break. Work has generally been fine recently so I don't need a holiday from that point of view but I have found this winter to be one of the longest, darkest, coldest I think I have experienced for ages. It have generally felt pretty tired and lethargic for months now. I can't wait to get to Turkey to enjoy the daylight and warmer temperatures. I have already started to perk up since the clocks changed - acutally felt more awake in the mornings despite getting up an hour earlier. So I guess it will be interesting to see how I feel after next week.

In the meantime does anyone have any good suggestions about things to do in Toikey?

Well this is more of a memo to self - since I thought it would be nice to have a record of the whole "getting the house in order thing" to look back on over the years. Well at least after it is all done.

Today the council men are here in a van to remove the old Kerosene tank (and the kerosene in it) which was used in the oil powered fire in the living room to heat the house and to heat the water for the house. Since November the house has had nice central heating and today we are reclaiming a sizeable part of our garden from the tank. Hurrah.

In the vein of all things local I am also off to the local Runnymede Amnesty International Group tonight to start volunteering and get to know like minded other-local people. It is special Stop Violence Against Women meeting tonight in aid of International Womens Day so I am particularly looking forward to it.

Happy Womens Day to you to.

Well since cardinalsin has aluded to my getting ill/sick I should probably explain...

So yesterday I travelled up to Wolverhampton in preparation for my all day meeting and I stayed in a hotel.

Last night I woke up at about 5.00am with terrible neck and shoulder pain. Unfortunately this is not an unusual occurence give the problems with my neck. I stumbled to the bathroom massaging my neck on the way and resolving to sleep on only one pillow for the rest of the night. Then I noticed that on the bone behind my ear it was bumpier than usual and painful to the touch.

I tried to sleep after this but failed abysmally and was generally in a lot of pain.

I got up around 7.00 and tried to look behind my ear in the mirror and failed because me head was in the way and my eyes can't see round corners. I fiddled around with it a bit more and came to the conclusion that it was indeed very very painful and very very lumpy back there.

I generally felt ill but put this down to a little less sleep than usual and slightly more pain that usual. Apparently I was wrong.

Many people at the meeting asked me if I was ok. I expect I looked like death warmed up by this point, painkillers had failed and I was feeling pretty nauseous. Eventually my boss asked me if I was ok and I said not really and mentioned the swelling behind my ear. She took one look and packed me off home via Wolverhampton A&E. Oh and I also quickly had my photo taken for the Corporate brochure on the way - I can tell that that piccie is going to come out well!

Apparently I have a large but diffuse abcess behind my ear. It is sufficiently swollen that it is putting pressure on my neck muscles hence the huge amounts of neck and shoulder pain.

Right now I am dose up with painkillers and antibiotics and seriously hoping that they work otherwise I will be back to the Dr (a surrey one this time) so that can slice it open and drain it. That sounds pretty scary all things considered.

Generally I feel ok though.