Two out of three

Olympic knitting has continued around here for the past few days. I had set myself the target of knitting 2 hats plus a pair of wrist warmers during the Beijing games. It was quite an ambitious target given that I went back to work.

I almost did it. I've already shared my finished wrist warmers. Yesterday I managed to finish the first hat but late last night, I conceded defeat on the second one.

This is the finished hat. The pattern is Gretel by Ysolda Teague and its knitted in Kid classic by Rowan. I love both the yarn and the pattern.



I'm only about half way through the other one but hopefully I should get it finished by the end of the week.

I had originally planned to have finished posting China pictures by the end of the Olympics but I appear to have run out of Olympics before I ran out of pictures so I'm going to post the remaining ones over the next week or so.

First up more street scenes from Xi'an. The balloons are for some sort of special event in a department store.



And next a classic Chinese mass bicycling picture from Xi'an.



After visiting Xi'an, we went on to visit Tai'an in Shandong province and went up Mount Taishan. Some of the tour group climbed these steps to get up the mount. Given that it was 35 degrees celsius that day, some of us (including me) took a cable car. Everything that is used or consumed at the top is carried up the steps by porters.



This is a picture of the tour group. The two blokes were the guides and the rest of us are a multi national group - two Australians, two English women, a Singapore Chinese woman and me from Scotland. This picture shows how steep the stairs are.



I had a slight moment on top of this mountain. Very occasionally I get vertigo with heights and I had a full blown panic attack on this weird path where the path dropped down suddenly. Thankfully I recovered quickly as the scenery was amazing.

Catching up

I've been playing catch up for the past week as I finally went back to work last Wednesday. I'm not doing full time hours just yet but I'm completely worn out and I've spent the past few days catching up on sleep and household stuff.

Oh and I've been knitting a bit too. Ravelympic knitting has been taking up a lot of my time. For those who aren't on Ravelry, which is the best knitting website ever, the idea is that you set yourself some projects to start and finish during the current Olympics. There's lots of different events and teams to join. I've got one project in the Mitten medley event and two projects in the Hat dash. Teams aren't compulsary but I'm part of Team Tardis, which was started in the Doctor who themed Who knits group within Ravelry.

I've now completed the first one - My wrist warmers for the mitten medley event.



And I've started the 2 hats. Both designs by Ysolda Teague.

Gretel hat



Rose red hat. This is the same pattern that I knitted in purple previously.



Hopefully I will get these finished before Sunday.

Most of the rest of my time has been devoted to watching the Olympics. The British Olympic team have performed spectactularly well this Olympics and there has been lots of medals to celebrate. The cyclists have been amazing, particularly Chris Hoy, who has won three gold medals in this Olympics alone. Considering that at the Atlanta Olympics, Britain only won one gold medal, whereas they've already won 16 golds this time, is awesome. And only 4 years till the Olympics arrive in London.

Today's pictures from China are from the city of Xi'an. Xi'an was such an interesting place to visit. Its most famous for the Terracotta warriors, which are an amazing sight to see. Everyone is different - different hairstyles, clothing, rank etc. You can't tell from the pictures but they were originally very highly coloured. You can still see tiny traces of colour on some of them



Xi'an has a significant muslim population who've been oppressed in the past. Apparently you must apply to the Communist party if you wish to join any religion, which is pretty bizarre. The Mosque in Xi'an is beautiful. The picture below shows one of the buildings.



Another amazing place in Xi'an is the Forest of Steles museum. Steles are stone carving of important documents and poetry so its kind of a library on stone. Its certainly the most amazing library I've ever visited.



Finally I have to thank Joy who nominated me for a blog award. Its lovely of her to do so. I think everyone that I would have nominated probably has one but I have a little thing on my sidebar which shows all the blogs I look at and I'm inspired by all of them in different ways so please all consider yourselves nominated.

I should also answer Dani's questions about the socks I knit. I almost exclusively wear knitted socks except at the gym. They are the comfiest socks I've ever worn and I don't find them any hotter than ordinary socks although Scotland isn't exactly the warmest country in the world. I do like the colourful aspect of them, it kind of cheers me up to see the bright socks on my feet.

Monday craftyness

I've taken a break from my Ravelympic knitting last night and today to finish up some other projects that are lingering around my flat.

First up is a necklace for my sister. It was her birthday last week but she's been away visiting her inlaws so I haven't seen her. Hopefully she will like it.



I also finished up these felted flower pins for her too. They've been lying around for a week or so waiting for the pin backs to be attached.



And finally something for me. I found a bracelet that I'd started making a while back so I thought I'd finish it up.



I did get down to some knitting tonight though and I finished up another pair of socks. Its another pair of Monkey socks in Yarn yard merino tencel in the shade birthday. I really love this pattern and the yarn is so very soft.



Finally more pictures from China. Today's pictures are of some recognisable places. First up, the Great wall.





I visited two different sections of the wall at Jinshanling and Simatai. Both of these sections are further out from Beijing that those that you often see in tourist programs and during the current coverage and as such they are less developed. The best thing about that is there are less people so its less hurried. Also its a lot less noisy. One of the major things that I noticed in China is just the sheer amount of noise. No one really seems to have a concept of quiet, probably simply due to the amount of people that are always around. Personal space also seems to be a bit of an alien concept too - it was a little disconcerting how close strangers wanted to get and at times, some people just walked up and started commenting on your appearance or the fact that you weren't Chinese or just start to ask lots of personal questions. Glasgow is kind of known for people coming up and telling you their life story on the bus but we are amateurs compared to the average Chinese person. Having said that, I don't think I met anyone the whole time I was there who wasn't polite, so very friendly and genuinely pleased to meet anyone visiting their country.

Secondly Tiananmen square.



I found Tiananmen square a very spooky place to visit. Perhaps it was just my imagination combined with the knowledge of what has happened there in the past but I felt uneasy and a little sad whilst I stood in the square. As you can see in the picture, the air is pretty smoky. You can feel it in your lungs and on your skin.

Ravelympic progress

Today I've been mostly knitting and watching Olympic events on the television. I've been watching some of the swimming and gymnatics so far but I'm really looking forward to the Athletics and the Tennis starting I did also spend a bit of time tinking back last night as I forgot that my painkillers that I take at night for my back don't really mix very well with knitting cables as I'm apt to lose my place.

However I did manage to finish the first wrist warmer this evening. Again the colour is off on the picture, its much deeper and much more purple in person.



Today's China pictures are from the Summer palace in Beijing. Its where the Imperial court went in the summer to escape the city. The grounds of it are absolutely massive and really popular with visitors. It was lovely and fresh there too - everything you hear about pollution in Beijing is true, you can just see the pollution in the air in the city centre. The building in the first picture is the stage of a theatre where actors would perform for the members of the court who were in a similar building nearby.

Nihao Beijing

This afternoon I've been watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing. I've always been interested in the Olympics and usually watch a lot of the events. I was even born during the 1972 Munich Olympics, though as I was being born, the Olympics were facing their darkest days after the murder of athletes during a terrorist attack.

I would have loved to be in Beijing today for the opening ceremony. In 2000, I was lucky enough to spend 2 1/2 weeks visiting China and having spent time there, I knew that the opening ceremony would be amazing and it was. It was a little bizarre that they had a Scottish pipe band playing during the ceremony but most Chinese people I met were very interested in Scotland.

As part of the Olympics, I'm taking part in the 2008 Ravelympics. I've challenged myself to knit a pair of cabled wrist warmers and 2 cabled hats during the Olympics and I'm hopeful of success. I cast on the wrist warmers this afternoon.



The colour in the picture is off. The yarn is actually a light lilac/purple but my camera isn't the best at picking up purple for some reason. The pattern is Rose's wrist warmers and its a free pattern based on the wrist warmers that Billie Piper wore as Rose in Doctor Who.

Seeing Beijing on the television for the past few weeks has made me think about the trip I took there and I dug out the pictures that I took whilst I was there last night. I thought I would share some of them on my blog during the Olympics.

Both these pictures were taken at the Temple of heaven in Beijing. Like most older buildings in China, they were constructed without nails, just held together with the wood joints.

Exchange and update

I've received another exchange today. This is the first of a set of three that I've got coming up in the next month or so. I've sent off my half of the exchange to its recipient today a day late because I remembered late on Monday that I couldn't post it then in my town as it was a local holiday. I could have gone to the city post office if I'd remember early enough in the day as they have this holiday on a different day. Scotland has this weird summer bank holiday in July/August which is taken on different Mondays in different places and some businesses even now take the English bank holiday at the end of August instead to confuse everyone even more.

Anyway I was lucky enough to receive a lovely needle case and some other goodies from Tuula. I suspect she might have noticed my sock knitting habit given that she included some very pretty yarn.



Speaking of knitting, I've been keeping my needles busy since my last post. First up, I finished a cotton top - Tomato by Wendy Bernard (Ravelry link)



And then there were some more socks.

Plain stockinette socks in Regia yarn



Some Hedera socks in Yarn yard sock yarn (Ravelry link to pattern)



I must confess that I was so glad when I finished the Hedera socks. I love the way they look but I found them a bit tedious to knit by the end. The pattern reminds me of the lacy white socks I used to wear when I was a little girl.

That makes 5 finished pairs of socks for July which is pretty cool and certainly means I'm going to have plenty more socks to wear.

Stitching, knitting and exchanges

I have been meaning to post but just not getting around to it for the past few days. Given that I'm not really short on spare time at the moment, I'm not really sure where the time goes each day. Mostly it disappears into more sleep time, doing strange stretching exercises and general household stuff. I have been catching up on a lot of household tidying over the past 2 weeks as I seem to be further along the road to recovery than I was a few weeks ago. Returning to work soon is looking a lot more realistic just now and I should hopefully have a better idea after a round of different hospital/GP appointments this week.

Saturday I got a lovely surprise in the post. I took part in a Valentine's exchange on the SBEBB earlier in the year but something went wrong and I didn't receive an exchange. On Saturday, I got a lovely replacement stitched by Cathy B who stepped in so I got an exchange.

It is a lovely sweet LHN design finished as a little pillow and she also included some DMC threads and some sampler fabric which will be made into something soon.



A slightly better picture of the pillow



I've also finished some stitching. First up a little biscornu pincushion which I stitched to try out the finish as I've signed up for an Biscournu exchange.



The design is a freebie from Barbara Ana which I found via a link on her website. I also signed up for her newsletter which sends out some lovely freebies. I can see a few more biscornus in my future.

I also finished a Shepherds bush design On the haunt. The fabric is a lot more orangey in real life.



The sock knitting continues also. I've finished knitting the two pairs I was working on and cast on for some more.





I haven't actually finished any socks in the past week or so. I've been doing some secret knitting for someone and also knitting some squares in leftover sock yarn for a charity afghan that I'm taking part in the Who knits group on Ravelry. Speaking of knitting, this coming Saturday, the Guardian has a knitting supplement featuring designs from a knitter that had a Doctor Who related run in with the BBC

Thanks for the nice words about my baking. I do appreciate it and the biscuits and cake were lovely. I do agree with Lena-lou about the shape of the Dalek cake though. The Dalek cutter came from a kit that you can buy in a local supermarket and I've saved it for further use.

Daleks and other things

Well I think I've just about recovered from the excitement of the series finale episode of Doctor Who. Sunday was nearly as exciting as I spent most of the afternoon watching probably the best tennis game I've ever seen - Federer v Nadal in the Wimbledon final. I was supporting Federer and it was such a shame for him at the end of the match as he looked absolutely heartbroken. Nadal was amazing and is a worthy Wimbledon champion.

Anyway back to Doctor Who. Whilst my mum taught me the basics of cooking and baking, I've not made icing for years and I had never made buttercream icing before. I did have a ton of fun making them.

Dalek Cake minus plungers as I forgot to buy anything to make them with.



Dalek biscuits. The icing went everywhere.




Over the past few days there have been a few event anniversaries that have been on my mind. Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the creation of the UK's National Health service. I'm slightly biased as I work for the NHS but I think that inspite of any problems it has, its an amazing organisation. Staff from the NHS helped to bring my sister and I into the world, cured my sister's hip dysplasia as a child, saved my Dad when he nearly died from Cardiomyopathy/heart arhythmias and made sure he stayed alive with life saving drugs. The NHS has helped most of my family in some way - My uncle who's beat the odds and survived more than 5 years post lung cancer diagnosis, My aunt who is now more mobile after knee replacements. I've been helped to become a nurse by lots of dedicated staff and helped by some great physios to get better from my current back problem. All without having to worry about how we will pay for it. Happy birthday NHS, here's to many more.

The second anniversary was on Sunday - 20 years since the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion off the North east Scotland coast. I've lived and worked in Aberdeen where many people from the UK oil industry are based and I worked in the hospital that the victims were taken to, years after the event. Aberdeen is such a small city that everyone knows someone who is in the oil industry and I worked with staff who were in the hospital that day. Its hard to imagine how they coped but coped they did. Hopefully they won't have to do that again.

The week so far

The needles have been pretty busy this week. I broke away from the sock knitting just after my last post and knitted my very first adult sized hat.



The pattern is Rose Red by Ysolda Teague and is wonderfully written. The yarn is Orkney angora St Magnus DK in violet and its so very soft.

Tuesday I was back to sock knitting though. For no apparent reason, insomnia hit on Tuesday night and I barely slept. After struggling to sleep for a while, I end up getting up and getting my knitting out for a while.

Prior to bedtime, I finished my first pair for summer of socks - the Uptown no purl monkey socks from my last post.



And then I finished the first sock of my second pair in the early hours of the morning when sleep just wasn't happening.



Its just a plain stockinette sock in Garnstudio fabel and I'm knitting away on the second one. I couldn't resist starting a third pair on some slightly thicker yarn.



The yarn is Evolution by Chameleon colorworks and its merino yarn stretched and heat set. It feels absolutely gorgeous and cashmere like. The pattern is by Gilraen.

I was also cheered up this week by a very short haircut which I'm gradually getting used to. I'm not sure that the hairdresser and I shared the same definition of fairly short but it will grow again lol. I also got a very sweet letter from my Great Uncle in Australia. He's 97 and I've started writing to him recently as he loves getting letters. We've never met but I have met his son who my dad didn't know existed and its turned out last year that he lives in Glasgow. My Great Uncle was apparently a bit of a rogue in his younger days but he's had an interesting life so there's always little interesting bits in his letters about moving to Scotland from Ireland and then on to Australia.

The weekend brings something that I'm very excited about - the last episode of the current series of Doctor Who. I shall be glued to the TV on Saturday night and probably sobbing on the sofa after it. In honour of the finale, I'm going to have a go at Blue Peter's instructions for making a dalek cake. Pictures to follow if it turns out.

Socks, socks, socks

Summer of socks is now underway so its socks, socks and more socks around here. I had said in my last post that I was going to try and finish my current sock KIPs prior to the start time. Well it almost went to plan. I finished the multicoloured monkey socks.



And then I went on to knit the second sock of a pair in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in rainbow.



Which left me with one sock on the needles - a purple/grey/blue pair. They are still on the needles and sleeping peacefully there to be finished at a later date.

Then I got ready for Summer of socks. I wound some yarn.



Printed lots of different patterns.



And got underway with a favourite pattern and favourite yarn - No purl monkey socks in Lorna's laces shepherd sock in Uptown.



The first sock is finished as you can see and the second one is now at the heel.

I've also cast on a second pair. Plain stockinette socks in Garnstudio fabel.



Which I've now turned the heel of the first one.

I had hoped to have a little more progress but I've been a bit stressed and down this week. I had a discussion with my manager about what I'm going to do re my job and back problem. Currently I work on an acute surgical ward and for all my nursing jobs so far I've had similarly heavy nursing jobs. My back is, to be frank, not really up to that long term so I'm now waiting for an assessment by the Occupational health department and what that will bring. Hopefully I should be fit enough for work in a few weeks but I'm not sure what my work schedule will be as I think I might be eithermoved to another area if a job is available or more likely, a back to work programme in my current workplace with shorter shifts. Either way, its all a little uncertain and I'm not good at coping with uncertainity. I'm also coping with the frustration of feeling up to working out more/doing different exercise but my body rebelling and not letting me do it. Very frustrating. I can feel myself getting down about it too and know I need to fight that as things are better than they were. I can do more that I could when this all flared up again in April, the numbness in my foot is gone and the pain is a lot less. If keep reminding myself of this and keep myself busy, I know I can get through this frustrating time. It helps just typing this all out.

Anyway if you managed to read though that, thanks.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. Someone asked what fabric I stitched Happy Haunting on. Well I used the fabric that came with the kit when I got it at the retreat. Having seen Joy's WIP recently, its obvious that the fabric in the kit in the shops just now is different. The fabric I have is much more yellow/green.

Yay stitching

I've just about recovered from last weekend's stitching GTG and now its the weekend again. The GTG was lots of fun and I really don't think I've laughed so much since the same time last year. During the weekend, I dyed a couple of pieces of linen which I'll share pictures of once I've managed to get around finishing rinsing them and ironing them. Ironing is really not my favourite thing to do but I'l force myself lol. I also made a small trip to Wye needlecraft but I didn't go mad - I only bought a small piece of linen plus two mirabilia charts which were a particularly good price. We also had a stash giveaway in which I managed to give away a good amount of used charts and I gained a couple of pieces of fabric and two chart. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Anyway being around lots of stitchers certainly helped my stitching mojo, especially with all the finished pieces and WIPs that I saw. It helped so much that I actually finished a fairly long term WIP Happy Haunting by Shepherd bush.




I actually finished it on the train whilst the train got very close to Glasgow. Its one of the only good things about public transport - the ability to stitch on trains.
This was the retreat project from the 2006 Shepherds Bush retreat. I had planned to go again this year but being off work and still having back pain, I had to email to cancel. I'm a little disappointed but I had to be sensible.

Inpsired by one finish, I decided to pick up one of the numerous small projects that was waiting to be started and so I started, finished and finish, finished the Purrfect Bookmark from Cat's Whiskers. Its stitched on 40ct.



I'm off now to try and finish my multicoloured monkey socks. Next weekend sees the start of the Summer of socks KAL. I've joined in to try and use up some of my frankly too large sock yarn stash but I need to try and finish some of the socks currently on my needles as only socks started and finished during the time of the KAL count towards it. Currenty I have 3 pairs of socks at various stages of completion on the needles and it would be nice to start the KAL with none on the needles. That hasn't happened in a while.

New month, new look, new projects

June already, it seems this year is going very quickly. Anyway for the new month, I decided on a new look for my blog. I found a few different layouts I liked so there might be a few different layouts during the rest of the year.

There has been a lot of Little house needlework designs being stitched around stitching blogland lately so inspired by that, I've finished up one that I started earlier in the year.



Pumpkins stitched on 32ct lambswool linen. I plan to finish it into a pinkeep.

I've also stitched and finished a little kit given to me by Simone as part of the Here's to ewe SBEBB exchange. Its a dutch kit which came with all the bits to finish it as well but all the instructions were in Dutch too so I guessed when doing the finishing. I used the kit picture as a guideline.



I also managed to finish the first sock of another pair of monkey socks. They are knitted in Shelridge farm soft touch ultra like one of my previous pairs. It is so very soft but without being too fluffy and the stitches are very well defined in it.




This weekend, I'm off on my travels. Myself and 15 other stitchers are headed for a weekend away in some farm cottages. There will be lots of stitching, knitting, eating and drinking plus some shopping hopefully and a dyeing class by Kate of Sparklies fabric. We had a similar retreat last year which was lots of fun so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully when I return on Monday, I will have lots of lovely stitchy progress to share.