emily at beSottied.com

My cast-on diet has gone out of the window.

I was trying to restrain myself, but when I was heading off to Uni on Friday I thought that my piece of cream woven stitch probably wouldn’t do too well out of a rickety journey on a grubby train. And so, in a flash on inspiration, I thought of trying something with the two balls of Louisa Harding Flotsam I got in the Secret Santa swap at the Knit Happens Christmas party.

this yarn is a bit of a puzzle. All different colours, cotton threads, and ribbon, and a shiny strand woven through it. It isn’t the type of thing I would usually buy, but I do love the yarn’s summery colours and the way they twist together.

I have the Louisa Harding book Knitting Little Luxuries and so had a quick flick through, looking for ideas. Of course, I’m quite limited with having just the two balls, and it’s a summery fibre. I was thinking of a thin scarf knitted up on huuuge needles, but that seemed a bit too boring and, if I’m honest, I couldn’t really imagine wearing it. When I spotted the “two-colour rosette” pattern at the back of the book, I thought “Ahar!”.

My idea is to make a few loopy flowers from the Flotsam, and see how they look on a summery straw bag. I’m not entirely sure that it won’t end up looking a bit too hippy-dippy craft market for my liking, but it’ll be an interesting experiment nontheless.

If only the pattern didn’t start with me having to cast on 112 stitches!

*Edit* PS I had a really good time on Saturday night, and managed to get through the whole thing without making a complete fool of myself in front of Neil’s nearest and dearest (apart from my dress flying up in the wind the second I stepped out of the front door, as his friends waited just feet away in their car. Nothing like a good first impression!).

At last! Some knitting on my needles.

Agreed, it doesn’t look very exciting but it’s actually the beginnings of what I hope to be one of my first patterns. I love the stitch I’m using. It’s called woven stitch, and it’s really simple. To knit the woven stitch, you need an even number of stitches.

Row 1 (WS): P.
Row 2: K1, *sl 1 wyf, K1, repeat from * to last st, K1.
Row 3: P.
Row 4: K1, *K1, sl 1 wyf, repeat from * to last st, K1.

And repeat to your heart’s content =) Nice and easy, but really effective (and it makes a change from my usual favourite, moss stitch).

Aaaaaaaaargh! Why can’t I run anymore? Why?! Calm, calm. Regroup.

I’m going to compose a new training plan for myself I think, taking little bits from the past 5 weeks and compiling them into another week’s worth of training. Surely I don’t need to go back to run a minute, walk two minutes, times 6? Not when I was doing run-seven-walk-two for two miles, just last week?

In the words of Troy Bolton, I need to get my head in the game! =)

My week off work has started out pretty marvellously, really.

I spent Saturday and Sunday trapped in domestic drudgery, getting all of my ironing and tidying and cleaning out of the way so that I could spend my week doing whatever I pleased without the spectre of an overflowing laundry basket lurking in the corner.

I’m a really untidy, disorganised person and as a result, my bedroom usually looks as though a bomb has hit it (though, in my defence, it never gets as bad as my sister’s). I do like it to look nice, though, and quite often track down little bits and bobs to dress it up. On Friday lunchtime, I bought some pale pink and white paper roses from Laura Ashley, thinking they’d look pretty spiffy in an old glass vase I had stashed in my bathroom. Said vase actually used to be a hurricane lamp, before the sandy stuff in the bottom got really tatty and someone (me) threw it out. I almost bought two boxes of the flowers, thinking one wouldn’t be enough. It’s a good job I didn’t, though, since that one little plastic box contained approx 3 million roses and faded green leaves. I couldn’t cram them all into the hurricane lamp vase…

…so I’ve artfully - I hope - arranged them in various other places around my room. I think these three add a nice touch to my bookcase (don’t bother deciphering the titles: there’s nothing remotely sophisticated there. Lots and lots o chick-lit in pastel jackets, and knitting books).

There’s another on my dressing table, next to the old glass milk bottle I’m very very slowly filling with buttons. Yes, as 23-year-old girls up and down the country are out doing drugs and sleeping with inappropriate men, I’m sat in my bedroom, happily filling a milk bottle with old buttons.

I took these photographs so that I could email them to Mutti in Dubai, to prove that my room was actually tidy at one point this year. Though I’m going to try to keep it tidy I can almost guarantee my abode will be back to full-fledged bombsite status by the time she gets home next week. Does the ability to stay tidy come with age? Or at least, get easier with age? I hope so, because at the moment I think Laura is the only person on Earth who can put up with my mess, and as much as we joke on about it, I really don’t think she wants to marry and spend the rest of her life with me.

I did actually manage to get some knitting on the go, too. I’ve only knitted about 6 rows so far, but it’s better than a kick in the teeth. I spent Monday with Neil, romping up various hills in the Cleveland Way and eating ice cream cones (why are they called 99s? Why? Keep meaning to look that up) in the sun, each of us trying to ignore the Force 9 gale that was buffeting hair, leaves, and bad-tempered ducks alike.

We had a bit of a walk today - more a slow stroll - in the park after lunch. I’ll have to get my running shoes back on tomorrow, as I’m in week 5 of my 8-week training plan and it’s really not going brilliantly. I’ve just been struggling to keep running for the right amount of time, and it’s really started to bug me. I think I may need to do this week twice - I’ve given myself plenty of time to do so - but would really rather not. Neil (a runner himself, booo) has given me a few handy tips to try out, so I’ll wait and find out if there’s any improvement in my performance tomorrow.

If not, I’ll just have to go into full-blown Oh My God I’ve Entered a Sodding Half Marathon And I Can’t Actually Run panic. Looking forward to that!

Sunglasses!! I had to wear SUNGLASSES on Friday! And yesterday! Isn’t it amazing how much difference just a little bit of sunshine makes to your mood?

Friday turned out to be a gorgeously sunny day in York. Unfortunately, it had started out as a pretty murky, chilly day at home so, with train station lurking in mind, I set off to Uni wearing some pretty heavy-duty socks beneath my Converses. After a lunch hour spent walking around the city shopping for a new handbag (during which I weirdly bumped into Sarah from my knitting group, in a shop called Boho Belle), I thought my feet were going to explode with the heat. I should probably have spent my lunch hour shopping for flip-flops!

However, the handbag was a Crucial Purchase. Well, OK, it wasn’t really, but I was in the market for some new bits and bobs to go with a dress I bought from Dolly Dagger a few weeks back. The bag and dress will be coming with me next Saturday night when I….. (drumroll) …..Meet The Parents(!) Neil’s parents, that is, not mine. Mutti and Keith have skipped off to Dubai to visit Sue and Dave and enjoy a bit of sunshine (and a modicum of alcohol, no doubt) and won’t be back for another week yet.

Yes so, I’ve been invited to a fundraising dinner thingymajig with Neil and his family. So I suppose this means I’m an actual girlfriend. Har har har. I’m sure this is the case, actually, but we’ve never really declared it. Thankfully, there’s been none of that ridiculous Facebook relationship status nonsense to deal with, though I committed a knitterly sin on Thursday by going off to the Hamilton Russell with Neil instead of tripping along to Knit Happens, but in all honesty, I really wanted to see Neil and since my knitting is going absolutely nowhere at the moment (grrr) I don’t think I would have benefited the group all that much, anyway!

I’m determined to get some knitting done over the next few days. Even casting on would be a huge step. I picked up some 2.75mm needles from Sheepish on Friday (once the clutch bag had been secured, of course) in preparation for a bit of clackitty-clacking. I did a sterling job of heading straight for the needles without looking at wools or pattern books, despite Sarah currently working from a Rowan pattern book which is chock full of delicious stripey cardis, all of which I want to make. But I’ve got to be realistic here. I think the last ‘for me’ project I managed to complete - aside from my tension squares last week - was my Cashmerino Calorimetry back in January. Which is appalling. I’m not allowing myself to buy any more yarn or books until I actually complete something first. I think I’m going to choose something from my Kim Hargreaves book, Heartfelt to work on next.

I’m off work all of next week, though, so may actually get some knitting done. Or I could go for an adventure on my bike. Or go up to Newcastle to look for shoes to accompany the dress and handbag…. Or - or - I may just lie on the sofa and eat Maltesers. Only time will tell.