Lots of little things

I haven't fallen down a hole since my last update. Its just there's been a lot of little things keeping away.

First up I finished one of the knitting projects that I mentioned in my last post - my February Lady sweater in lovely New lanark aran yarn. This yarn is made fairly close to home, is cheap and its a lovely mix of blue and purple.



Late last year I joined the Socktopus sock club and the first package arrived recently. The pattern this time is for a toe up sock which is something I've never tried. The first sock is done although the ankle is a little tight as my ankles are a little on the bigger side.



The yarn is Chameleon colorworks Evolution.

For the past week, most of my time has been taken up with the preparations for a job interview which I had on Friday. I had to prepare a presentation and do a ton of reading up for the post which would have been a promotion. Sadly I didn't get the job - I've been told that the candidate field was of a very standard and I was slightly under the required experience for the job. I've taken some solace from that as I really wasn't sure I would get an interview for the post in the first place. Still it would have been a good job. I have my eye on another vacancy though.

On a slightly more geeky note, I've been spending a bit of time spring cleaning and upgrading my computer in the past few weeks so I now have a shiny new operating system to use, OS X Leopard plus a nice tidy computer which has all its files backed up. I've also joined the Twitter bandwagon today, largely just to see what its like.

I reached another milestone in my ongoing health and fitness plan today - I have now lost 3 stone/42 lbs/19 kgs in weight since I started working out in August 2007. I didn't really start the whole thing for anything other than working on helping my back originally so the loss in weight is a great side effect. Plus in what was a total surprise to me, I actually enjoy going to the gym and the way it makes me feel. Not something I would have said 2 years ago.

Good things

There are a few things which are making me happy just now.

Firstly the back is behaving itself with me back at work now. The first week back was awful and there were a few tears of pain. There was also a few words exchanged with my boss re inappropriate work schedules. But it seems much better now as I have a few holidays to use up so I'm only part time at work for the next few weeks. And then I have a 2 week holiday off so full time will not come until late September.

Exercising is going great. I'm still enjoying the gym and keeping up the twice weekly sessions. Best of all I've lost 5 kgs (11 lbs) in the past 4 weeks without dieting.

I received a lovely exchange from Melissa on the SB BB



I sent her this fob in exchange



I spent the weekend stitching and finishing the Red lace needlebook by Drawn thread.

Here's the front



And the back



And the inside



I also finished my first pair of socks for August. They are knitted from Lorna's laces shepherd sport yarn in the shade black purl.



On a slightly odder note, I'm more than a little happy that this weekend Apple are opening their first Scottish store this weekend. I switched to a Mac nearly two years ago and I've become a big Mac fan since. It also means I'll have somewhere to go to get my Mac or ipod fixed if any problems occur and somewhere to buy Mac software and accessories locally as the only local place just now is John Lewis.

The good thing about this time of year is that all the yarn manufacturers are releasing their new yarns and designs. I got my copy of Rowan 42 recently and I've been drooling over some of the designs and new yarns. After lots of looking, I decided to treat myself to some of Rowan's new yarn Cocoon to knit the design Neaty from Rowan 42. I've got my eye on a few other things but I seem to have developed a bit of a yarn stash so whilst I'm not putting myself on a yarn diet, I'm going to try to use up some of it. Famous last words I think.