Thursday, August 2, 2012

No honest, I really AM still here!

Woah, it's been a while!

Ever noticed how when things get busy, the time just seems to ZOOOM past when you're not really looking? Earlier this year I said that I would be posting at least once a week. I was kinda okay with that schedule, though admittedly there was the odd "week" here and there that had more of a "ten days" kind of look about it!

Anyway. I got busy. And busy in the bestest way!

After four long-ass years of being all really sick and things being ikky and stuff, I got a couple of "all clear" reports from my multiple doctors a couple of months back. YAY!! Lots of relief! Best bit? That's just the first YAY!!, read on!

So that meant I could finally start sniffing around for one of those job thingies I'd heard so much about, but hadn't managed to hold down in, urm, ooh about four years or so. Which could have been not too nice at all. Because while I was really desperately looking forward to getting back to work, there was also the not-insignificant fear of (a) crappy economy and (b) who the hell is going to hire someone who has been too sick to work for FOUR YEARS regardless of what the docs may say? Heh. This was going to be interesting.

But it turned out that my timing was impeccable (i.e. I am a completely and utterly jammy b*tch), in terms of certain places needing a certain kind of staff at that exact right moment. So guess who now works in her LYS? Where she'd been spending a rather large portion of her "hey, I can move today!" time anyway? YAAAAY!!!

So yeah, it's a lot of fun. And really busy. Busy in a very good way. I get to talk about knitting all day long, and in this context that is a very good thing (as opposed to the "please stop talking about your feckin knitting" very bad thing that it can sometimes be perceived to be. Y'know, when I'm not at WORK)!

The result of this has been very little downtime to do other stuff like, ooh, I dunno, blogposts. I'm sure you understand though! Throw in there that for two weeks I was also off dog-sitting in a house with no computer (no, I don't understand that either), so that didn't do much to boost your chances of a post either! (The dogs were fun though. More on them another time).

But anyway, now I'm back. Last time I promised you some recaps of different things, but I'm just going to give a brief rundown of some yarn/knitting stuff (with pictures. I know you're just really tuning in for the pictures!), just to give you your fix and get me back into the "how to concoct a blogpost" mindset.

So what have I been knitting? First up was a wedding shawl for a special friend not in Ireland any more (>sniffle!<). I have no decent pics to show of this as yet, but as soon as I do I'll share them. Trust me though, it's pretty. Really pretty! And most importantly it made it to the bride in time for the big day, and she looked stunning!

Immediately after completeing this, I dived in to the fantabulous birthday yarn that I had acquired at the WWKIP Day.

First up, there was some Malabrigo Finito. If you have not knit with this stuff, you really should. Really really really. Life is just too short to NOT knit with it! Really. Knit it now. NOW!!

Aherm. Anyway. I picked me my pretty pretty colours,



Natural and Azules. Very pretty. And a big shout-out THANK YOU to bunnyt for the softest birthday pressie EVER. It's just so smooshie, has to be groped to be believed! And thank you for making me get the Natural one too!

(I wasn't going to do it stripey, but she made me do it. No choice at all. She's a little scary when insistent. But in a good way. Because she's usually right!).

(And yes, my heart does still very much belong to Botany Lace. It just turns out that I now own most of the colours!)

So anyway, my Finito goodness very rapidly became this...


Isn't it pretty? Cladonia, knit as written, except for the edging, which I didn't really like, so I went for a picot bind-off instead...


Nom nom nom. It's nommy.

(So of course, having found a pattern I like, I will of course be doing a second one! New stash has been acquired, so stay tuned!)

There was also hot chocolate and lemon meringue cake, and later there was beer, and chatting, and knitting, so it was, really, pretty much, the absolutely most perfect birthday ever!

But this was not the last of the birthday yarny goodness. Ooh no. There was this one particular skein of one particular yarn that I have been coveting for, oh, quite some time now. I would occasionally visit it in the shop and stroke it and whisper to it (nothing too overt you understand, just stuff like 'someday you will be mine. ALL mine!'. Nothing that would freak out the yarn or anything. Ooh, no).

Anyway. There were those who were aware of this prolonged and unrequited love of mine, and one of them decided to put me out of my misery...



...and now it's mine! ALL mine! Thank you jewelan'darlin'! Happy birthday to ME!! Yay! I keep taking this out of its safe place, just to gaze at it and stroke it a little, then I put it safely back to bed. Still can't quite believe it's mine! Someday I shall indeed be knitting it into something wonderful, wonderful indeed...

But not just yet. First we have the Ravellenic Games to be getting on with. For those of you unaware, it basically involves setting yourself a challenge, which you cannot commence until the Olympic Flame is lit. You then have to have it completely knitted/finished/done by the time the flame goes out just over two weeks later. It's fun! And a little crazy, but mostly FUN!

The Ravellenics commenced in the shop last Friday, with Jacqui lighting the flame (and maybe possibly running a lap around the shop and balcony, but we won't mention that!) and getting our Games underway. Our team mascot José (complete with headband) is standing guard beside our flame. TeamTIK2012 will be posting FO pictures as we go (on the board that's also being guarded by José. We're keeping him busy). José will also be encouraging us as we go, so make sure to follow him at @Don_JoseTIK, let him know how you're getting on!

Otherwise he'll get all lonely and think people aren't talking to him. And working with him, it gets really difficult to stay on your game when you've a really sad little baby alpaca staring at you all day long...

:o)


4 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're enjoying the job so much! And lovely to have another familiar face in TIK!!

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    1. Aw thank you! Yes, I'm having a great time! :oD

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  2. Perfect job for you! Shawl looks stunning :) Oh and happy birthday of course!

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    1. It wasn't the shawl at all pet, it was the bride in it! Glad you liked it, and thanks muchly for the birthday wishes. :o)

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