emily at beSottied.com

Has it really been over a month? I should really come up with some sort of ‘hiatus’ message to put on here when I inadvertently vanish, in order to prevent loyal visitors from sending out search parties in a hunt for my dismembered remains.

This isn’t a groundbreaking blog post. It is, however, a little promise of things to come. It’s been pretty quiet around here over the past few weeks but now that spring is in the air and the clocks have gone forward an hour, I actually feel like getting up to crimes various worthwhile activites, as opposed to lying in bed dying of dehydration because I’ve demolished a party sized bag of salted pretzels.

I have a beautiful Mary MacBook now, and I must use her for something other than watching endless repeats of Snog, Marry, Avoid on the iPlayer whilst lying in bed eating aforementioned pretzels. Though I do love Snog, Marry, Avoid.

Happy spring, everyone, and here’s to a newly refreshed, lively beSottied.com. There’s life in the old girl yet.

Woooo, it’s the freakin’ weekend!

I haven’t been in a blogging kind of mood of late. I have written two posts over the past two weeks, but I didn’t have any photos to go with them so didn’t put them up. Everything looks snazzier with photos.

This morning I’ve been up and busy with the good ol’ digital camera. I have just under a week until the most glorious day of the month: payday! I’m counting down the days this month: Muriel had a service at the beginning of February. I patted her bonnet in a “Please don’t cost me too much money, little car” sort of way as I left her at the garage. Fat lot of good that did me. I suspected she needed new brake pads. Rather, I hoped she needed new brake pads, instead of needing both new pads and discs. Which she did. Muriel does like me to prove me devotion to her, and it was with eyes half shut that I slid my debit card into the PIN machine when I went to collect her.

Anyway! Before I start ranting on about the robbing railway companies which are also having a negative impact on my financial situation, I will tell you about my thrilling week. I expect you’re on the edge of your seat =)

The name of the game for me at the moment is ‘free activities’. After much swatching and pondering I have finally started to knit myself a Peyton. I’m using a pure silk yarn from my stash, and I have to admit that I’m not too sure how things will pan out. I think the finished product could end up being a bit small, but I’ll just go along with it for now. I’ve finished Sleeve One (I like to start with the sleeves) and cast on for Sleeve Two at Knit Happens on Thursday. The fact that I didn’t even finish casting on should demonstrate how devoted I have been to my knitting this week. I’m having to set myself a target: second sleeve finished by next Saturday!

I’ve also invested in a little something in an attempt to appease my intermittent obsession with starting a vegetable patch. A grow-your-own-salad kit! It’s for ages 3 plus. Nevermind. It was a bargainous £3 and contains seeds for cucumber, tomatoes, little gem lettuce and some sort of pepper. Perhaps California delight? I forget. The way I see it, if I can manage to grow something using a kid’s seed kit, I will consider myself a potential candidate for cultivating a full-on veggie patch. I’m just not sure how I’d deal with all the wild rabbits we have hopping about around here. Big nets, I suppose, over the scrumptious veg. We shall see.

My weekend of freeness started last night as I mucked out my bedroom and bathroom. What japes. Still, both badly needed some attention. I really need to go through my wardrobe and drawers to rid myself of thing I no longer wear, but I think I’ll try to save that excitement for another day. I daren’t get rid of anything at the moment, as the shops are all full of such rubbish I’ll end up having to go to work naked. Could someone please tell the doom-and-gloom enconomists that retail spending isn’t in decline because we don’t have any money: it’s because there’s nothing nice to buy! If Topshop bother to make something half-decent, I will bother to buy it.

(Saying that, my good old failsafe Joules has brought out its Spring/Summer collection. I’m trying not to look at the site too much yet so as not to bankrupt myself.)

My tummy is full of my other free activity: making pancakes. My pancake hunger wasn’t satisfied on Pancake Day so I thought I’d break out the whisk this morning. I must admit thatI normally just use a fork, but since my friend Louise bought a whisk when we were in the supermarket last week I’ve had a desire to whisk something. Whether it was down to the whisk or not I’m quite sure they were the best pancakes I’ve ever made. Yum.

And now I’m off to entertain myself in some other cost-free way. I might clean my money pit of a car or possibly even go for a bike ride, before it starts snowing again. I could even try to sort out this website or go and make some progress on my sleeve. Only time will tell.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

In Mr Boyfriend’s village, there is a local pub that is revered by many for its food. Despite it being just a few minutes away from his house we’ve never managed to be organised enough to reserve a table; it’s small and tables get booked up fast. Last Friday we threw caution to the icy wind and trotted along on the off-chance of squeezing in for a hearty pub meal.

(I feel I should probably point out, for Neil’s sake, that I trot and skitter, but he does not. He strides sure-footedly in a manly sort of way.)

However, due to the popularity of said pub it was a good couple of hours before we were seated. By the time we had sat down I had imbibed a fair bit of wine and had also considered destroying the banana which resides in my handbag. I ordered scampi (pub classic) and there was a lot of it. There was a separate dish chock-full of lovely looking chips. I think the food was good. Sadly, mostly on account of the wine, I can’t quite recall. We ate and paid and went out to brave the cold again.

When I woke up the next day I was greeted by more snow. More snow! It’s only just melted! Obviously that’s what the icy wind was all about: it was ushering in its chilly friend, to ice up ponds and pavements and Muriel’s windscreen washers! I was meeting Laura for an early afternoon hot chocolate but only had inappropriate footwear: slippery of sole and wobbly of heel. As a girl who is fond of her wellies my feet felt woefully naked as I tottered out into the bleak midwinter.

The snow quickly melted away and had turned to rain when I returned to university in York on Tuesday. Unfortunately I’m back to 9 am lectures, which means a 6.20 am start to catch the half past 7 train. It’s not too bad, though: I don’t have much time lounging around in between lectures this semester and I’m home for 5 pm, unlike the 10 pm hometime of the first half of the year. Of course, university usually means…. train knitting! Recently I’ve been eyeing up two of Connie Chang Chinchio’s patterns, Peyton and the Apres Surf Hoodie. However I had the beginnings of a migraine on the way home yesterday, so didn’t knit. I actually fell asleep on the train, which is something I’ve never done before. Luckily I didn’t miss my stop! I got home and went to bed, fell asleep again and was late for horse riding with a bouncy, bouncy head.

When I got home from the stables I ate some mashed potato (I couldn’t bear chewing any solids) and went back to bed again, sleeping through until this morning. This migraine thing is quite new to me, and I’m a bit worried I’m going to become one of those women you read about in post-wartime novels. You know the kind: lives in a grand old house, vanishes up to bed for days at a time, shutters drawn, appearing all dolled up in a fine silk blouse as soon as there’s a sniff of a gin cocktail.

Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad! I might just go and get myself a Tom Collins.

Well, I didn’t quite hit my 24-hour hat deadline - not quite, but almost. I cast on shortly after my post on Saturday:

And this was about an hour later, when I finished the ribbed brim. Mary Mac is making a debut appearance, poking out of the background. She is lovely.

(I went without tubular cast-on, as it takes me forever to do it in the round and it makes me stroppy.)

On Saturday night, I went out to eat and then to the cinema with Helen. We saw Up In The Air with George Clooney. It was good! However, it impacted greatly on my knitting time. Still, I got two full pattern repeats done when we got home.

On Sunday morning, Laura and I went for a stroll at a country park near my house. There were lots of swans, swanning about and generally looking a bit threatening. We had a nice energetic walk and a bargainous cup of tea.

I headed home back to my knitting and finished the third (and final) pattern repeat before nipping to Boyes (weird department store type place. I had a ribbon emergency (if such a thing exists) and Boyes sells ribbon) and having to get ready to go out for Neil’s sister’s - also, slightly confusingly, called Helen - birthday dinner. So, at three o’ clock yesterday, my deadline, my hat looked liked this:

The brim is split open like that because I knit it flat and sewed it up later. Time was money! I suppose I could’ve just left it like that and always worn a ponytail poking jauntily through the top.

After our meal, I got clacking on the last 6 rounds before the crown decreases, and finished them last night. I had to stop there because I was at Neil’s and didn’t have my double-pointed needles, tapestry needle, or (crucially) the pattern. Not to be beaten, I got home after work tonight and finished those last few rounds. The hat is complete! Over deadline, yes, but I think my excuses are valid: I was barely home this weekend.

I liked my little deadline idea. It made me focus on one thing instead of flitting about procrastinating. I think I’m going to go and steam block Mr Hat. I wet-blocked my red one over a plastic picnic plate, but my brim stretched out pretty badly. Without blocking, however, the hat has little points poking out all over. A bit like a pine cone. Snazzy!

I’ll be trotting off to work tomorrow in my pine cone hat. I hope you all have a merry Tuesday at your various places of education and business. Powerdown!

I am being silly. I want to do so many things that I’m managing so achieve absolutely nothing.

Switching on the computer to give beSottied a bit of a spruce up results in ten minutes of drooling over gorgeous websites made by professionals whose skills far exceed my own, before going onto Neopets to play 40 consecutive games of Hasee Bounce.

Thinking about knitting anything of my own design ends with me faffing about with numerous tension squares and accomplishing little else.

Checking my email reveals many fantastic discounts on Viagra pills, which I am (foolishly, I’m sure) not taking advantage of.

The type of mood I’m in, I daren’t get started on the Amy Butler bag I mentioned in my last post: the cut pieces of fabric will just end up languishing, lonely and unloved, in a creased John Lewis carrier bag for weeks.

But, as is often said, I want solutions, not problems! In order to get myself out of this funny mood, I’m setting myself a challenge.

A 24-hour challenge, no less.

I am going to see if I can knit another Grace Lace beret by this time (3 pm) tomorrow.

I’m using white RYC Extra Fine Merino DK from my stash and I’m not going to mess about checking my tension. Oh no. I’m just going to go for it, all guns blazing.

Will I do it? Only time will tell. Hold on to your hat, and await news of smug success/pathetic failure!

(PS, I got my hair cut yesterday and I now have a full-on fringe (bangs). I would take a photo but I’m not very good at styling it yet. It’s quite angular. Maybe in the next week or so!)