Mending cables

I note it’s been over a year since I last posted. Well, it’s not like much has happened in the past 12 months…

I’m knitting a sweater for a friend of mine (they know about it, so no mad panic or worries about spoilers). I’m making this:

…and last night when I stopped knitting I noted that a moron had temporarily taken over knitting for a couple of moments a few rows ago…

knitting in progress: a cable twists the wrong way

In my defence, the cables at one end of the row twist one way and the ones at the other end twist the other way, so I only switched method about 100 stitches too early, is all. There are two ways to fix this – pull back 2 rows with 10 cable switches, 9 of which are correct, or hack in and fix just these 6 stitches.

I took photos so that you too can marvel in the skill of my advanced knitting technique, and maybe also get enough info to have a crack for yourself should you ever find yourself in this exact bind.

Step 1:  move the field of action to the place in the row where the terrible mistake lies.

knitting with incorrectly twisted cable

Step 2: Carefully drop the 6 stitches that make up the cable over (in this case) 2 rows, i.e. back to and including the cable-twist row, and place the stitches on a holder or spare needle.

knitting with 6 stitches on holder and yarn loops of dropped stitches

Step 3: decide that that isn’t going to work and separate the stitches to a holder and cable needle

knitting with dropped stitches on holder & cable needle

Step 4: now you are ready to start knitting up again. Awkwardly wielding holders and knitting needles, use the dropped-stitches yarn to re-knit the rows you’ve dropped, being careful (and I can’t emphasize enough how crucial this is) to twist the cable the right way this time.

knitting with half-completed cable knitted

knitting with completed cable and some remaining dropped yarn from row above

There is quite a lot of yarn floating around, but as the saying goes, that shit’ll block right out.

Step 5: transfer the 6 stitches from right to left-hand needle and re-knit the latest row (you could turn it around and purl them without transferring, but why make life harder for yourself?)

knitting with completed cable and subsequent row completed

Step 6: Transfer stitches back onto the left-hand needle/back to where you were. Have a stiff gin and congratulate yourself on a job well done.

knitting showing fixed cable

Step 7: knit the rest of the sweater and pay attention more better this time.

The yarn, for those who care to know is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and it’s laaaarvely.

cake …Wednesday

I made courgette cake. It’s vegan and GODDAMN it’s tasty.

half a loaf cake

I give you exhibit A. There used to be twice as much of this cake as there is now. Actually, by the time you see this, there will almost certainly be No Cake Left.

The recipe I used was this one, from Vegan Richa, although I just used normal flour with a hint of semolina flour, because we’re all gluten-y in our house. I sprinkled sugar on top to give it a nice hard crust and make it harder to slice neatly (I’ve been turning it belly-up to slice).

It’s quite Soreen-y, and is lovely with a scrape of (ahem) butter on. I really need to get hold of some vegan butter, eh… that’s been my downfall today.

I didn’t want to leave work today…

I describe myself as an IT Manager, but that’s not all I want to be. I started out as a developer, and still love to code. Career progression now means I lead a team of five people (not including me, and now temporarily plus-one as we’ve a graduate trainee on placement) and they all do IT, so for the pedantic, that’s what I am. I’m lucky enough to work in a place where I can spread my wings into new areas while still doing what’s generally considered to be “leg work”. My aspiration is to be a solutions architect – to take an instruction like (for example) “replace this payroll solution” and do the research into what’s there now, what needs to change, why are we doing this, what are the possibilities, what’s the business impact and which one do I recommend, followed by planning and managing implementing that solution. Grown-up shit, yeah. I’ve got fingers in several such pies at work, most of which are at the stage of documenting stuff I currently don’t know a great deal about.

From time to time, it feels “bitty” and unsatisfying.

A hang-over from the work I was mainly doing before – before my two application support technicians were in place and before we got on top of the shit-sandwich backlog we were handed in the form of several-hundred unhandled support problems – is that some mornings are soaked up sorting out support problems. This morning was one of them. There were only 3 things on my list, but each one took flippin’ ages. Plus, one of the things required concentration, and this morning was the morning for Asking Jude A Question. Sidebar: I’m happy to be asked questions, indeed it’s an important part of being a product owner, it just disrupts my train of thought for a good 10 minutes or so, and one of the things I was working on was difficult. Indeed, one of the Buddhist-philosophy-development tasks I’ve set myself is, at times like this, to not mind when someone comes and interrupts me with a question. Because the distraction of minding makes the interruption take up even more time & energy than it would otherwise. I’m on week 2, and I’m finding that this approach is indeed helping.

I found myself delaying lunch while I finished off the last one – it was so close – so close – and then it was done.

This, at least, is satisfying – it’s clear when it’s done, I can tell the relevant people their problem is sorted, tick on the to-do list, what’s next? However, it’s still getting from a point of broken to not-broken – bringing the world back to not-broken rather than improving the world at all.

Sidebar: As I write that, I’m reminded of a trope used a lot in the first season of Silicon Valley “making the world a better place“. WHAT HAVE I BECOME?

There’s a report (data-dump, essentially) that needs writing reasonably promptly. It’s mostly not technically tricky, there’s an element of handle-turning to it, but also some stuff that I currently don’t know how to do. The sensible, grown-up thing to do would be to line it up for a developer to do. They will spend less time on it. It will possibly be solved more elegantly. There’s a risk it might get done sooner (although, quite honestly, given what other priorities are in play, possibly not). If it goes wrong, I won’t have to fix it.

So, clearly, I started doing it.

By my usual “home time” I was at the point of having the program return the most basic set of information, but had markers in for the different bits I need to put in place.

And here’s the sign that me writing it was the right thing for this afternoon: despite the mostly unsatisfying day I’d had up to that point, I didn’t want to leave. I was in the zone, nobody had asked me anything for a good half an hour, and there was a clear set of nice meaty coding to get my teeth into. At the very least, I thought to myself, you can get it up to the difficult bit… and then I remembered traffic gets worse after 5, dinner being prepared by my ever-loving, and the not-employment-work-to-do list I had waiting.

So, I peeled myself away from the screen, and here I am.

And I have something to look forward to tomorrow 😀

Sidebar: Today is Sunday. I wrote this on Wednesday but am only posting it today because I wanted to read through it the following day and post it, but then I got distracted. ooh! Squirrel!

author! author!

This post is 7 years old… I thought it was time to hit “publish”…

For a while I’ve been intending to write a book for Joel.

Finally, I got round to it. The cover:

diggy digger cover

The “best” picture of Diggy Digger. We’ll put this one on the “wanted” poster when he commits murder (please ignore the typo…) :

diggy digger wants to see the giraffes

And my favourite page:

dd & j in the bat cave

I’m now under pressure to make “When Boo-boo went to the beach” a reality.

Whoville – my new favourite sweater

I know. It’s a while since I posted, and now it’s the new year, I’m posting again. Yes, it’s related to a NYR to “write more”. Watch this space for me relapsing and not-writing a bit more.

So: knitting news. Just around Christmas I finished my latest sweater. I seem to be on a kick with this particular designer (atelier alfa), it’s the second one I’ve done by them in a row. The first one (stripes gone crazy) has been on my to-do list for a while – we know how I love unusual construction, well this one really fitted the bill, in that it has graduated sunbeam stripes which go around the back to give small stripes on one cardigan front, and large on the other front – but more of that in another blog post (eventually, when I’ve blocked it and added its buttons).  This latest sweater, 3 in 1,  has been on my to-do list ever since I stumbled across it on Pinterest (I think) aaaages ago. Or it might have been on an “also by this designer” link. The colours spoke to me, as did the fake-layering. My aspirational how-I’d-like-to-dress pinterest board has many things featuring layers, although the observant among you will note that it doesn’t feature many brightly coloured things. It should not be news that I want to come across as being more sophisticated than I really am. Given that my sophistication level is only really above a 1 or 2 out of 10 for those who know me at all well… and that only on special occasions.

I’m also working on a blanket as part of a crochet-along and was really liking the yarn that we are using for that one – it’s a brand/line that has many colours, so is ideally suited to stripes where there are similar colours all together. I chose my colours in October, with the help of Myra at Knit-wise and could barely wait to get home to get started…

Sure enough, I ploughed through the early interesting stages, which involve ribbing (I used Woolly Wormhead’s alternate cable cast-on – my go-to when ribbing is involved BECAUSE I LOVE IT, MAN), 2×2 stripes and short rows. The curly edges for the 2 “layers” are done by casting on, on a new set of needles, working 6 rows or so in stocking stitch, then 3-needle-knit-together with your work in progress. More short rows, and on with the stocking stitch, stripes, and short rows.

I’ve said before that I “knit in” what I’m watching at the time. This part of the sweater has Orphan Black season 1 all over it for me, now :-).

Then, of course, comes the relatively long, dull slug (while maintaining 2×2 stripes) of the body. It wasn’t as dull as I feared, there’s a bit of shaping, and before I knew where I was I’m at the neck opening. Mindful of my relatively large rack, and keen to avoid the monoboob effect that can happen with high necked garments, one of the things I like about this is the placket-open henley-style neckline. Turns out it also adds interest 🙂

When I got to the neck opening, I *very briefly* considered setting myself up for steeking it in case my tension/striped/stitches lay noticeably differently when knitting back & forth around the opening instead of knitting in the round as I had been up to now. Then I reminded myself not to be quite so damn precious and just a) get on with it and b) follow the goddamn pattern for a change. So I followed the pattern, knit back & forth, and when the pattern called for it, started on the sleeves.

I did, in a slight off-piste moment (off-piste moment #1, as it shall henceforth be known), add an inch or two to the body length. Because I’m generally an inch or 2 longer than most people are in the body. I blame my Dad.

The sleeves are knitted cuff-up, so I did the same cast on and made sure they were nice & long. On sleeve 2 I went slightly off-piste (moment #2) again, and added a small heart motif on the left sleeve. This could signify many things, depending on what mood I’m in – I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve – which I frequently do – a reminder to be conscious of heart disease – which I frequently am, given that my mum and Granda both left this mortal coil due to heart attacks – and just because. Because I’m like that some days. Also, I had plenty of red yarn available, so why not.

So I joined the sleeves to the main by as instructed by the pattern, and ploughed on through the several faux-necklines – interestingly fashioned from reverse stocking stitch bands rather than rolled over actual stocking stitched until officially I was done.

However.

I like hoods, and I like the blues of the “underneath” layer and wanted more of them to be visible. So, with the sage advice of my friends at the Wednesday night knit & natter at Knit-wise I worked out how big a hood would need to be, given my gauge & preferred hood size (90 stitches), compared that to how many stitches I had on the pins (130), and then ploughed on regardless. I attached a second ball of dark bluey purple at the far end, did 8 stitches-worth of garter stitch at each end, and continued until the hood was 14 inches long. Then it was a simple 3-needle bind-off starting at the outside edge (so that I didn’t have to actually spend time finding the middle) and I was done.

Sewing the ends in was a bit of a bugger, although I carried the yarn across the stripes, but still, there were more than usual, given the different colours and many start/end places.

I chose some tasteful wooden buttons so that they were a bit of a stand-out feature rather than something that melts into the background, and they are now one of my favourite things about the sweater.

This is, in fact, my new favourite sweater and I’ve worn it pretty much every day since finishing it a week or so ago. It’s lovely and warm. The sleeves are maybe a little bit too long, but I’m coping with this adversity well. Given that they are meant to look like some of them are pushed up a bit, if they are all pushed up, it’s not the end of the world…

The pattern is well-written and easy to understand, I thought – there are helpful diagrams at each stage so that you can see what the instructions are on about. I’d thoroughly recommend having a go, if this is a style you think you’d like to wear.

Why Whoville? It struck me, when I took the picture of the sleeve trying to escape from my project bag that this sweater, with its many-coloured stripes, looks just like something from a Dr Seuss book. So, Whoville it is 🙂

 

Are *you* feeling the hexagon love?

Bizarrely, the best colours photo I’ve been able to get of this yarn is when my hand is also in the picture forcing the light levels (or so I guess).

hexagon socks in progress

I’m close to the end of the “smooth” hexagons on this sock. It’s shaping up to be a little baggy, however, I have (and I know this will shock you) followed the instructions pretty closely so far. Let’s see how they go: these may have to end up being “indoor” socks or a second layer with big boots. I’m liking how the colours are matching up – or *not* matching up, actually. No unexpected colour boundaries here, folks.

Even though these are my shiny new thing to knit, I’m already anticipating severe second sock syndrome, to the extent that I’m considering starting sock 2 once I’ve finished the smooth hexagons here. It could either be a Really Smart Plan or a really stupid plan that leaves me dazed and confused and gibbering in the corner with abject confusion. Only time will tell. I’m deferring the decision until I’ve actually finished the smooth hexagons.

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s The Procrastination.

In other “even though these are my shiny new thing to knit” news, I’ve also cast on something else.

work in progress - grey knitting
is-it-a-plane-is-it-a-bat

Can you tell what it is yet, kids?

An aside: we had a discussion in the office this morning about good festival acts we’ve seen. It’s no longer fashionable to say so, but I really enjoyed Rolf Harris’ performance when I saw him both at Guildford and at Glastonbury (although Glasto was hot & crazy-busy because everyone else had caught on by then). I also really liked his art. Clearly, I enjoyed these things not knowing how he was apparently behaving away from the public eye, but he was good at the stuff he did. It’s a damn shame.

No, it’s not the latest in chic gothic styled accessories… no wait… it kind-of is. Well, maybe not gothic on account of it’s not black, but the photo above made me think of a bat so I find myself going down this path. Arguably the end result (I’m hoping) will be a bit more steampunk than Goth – this will be a dark grey kinda-fitted waistcoat. I’ve been meaning to make one for a while, so clearly now that winter is over and the warmer weather is on its way I’m casting this on in the hopes that it’s completed SOMETIME IN JUNE. Because who *doesn’t* want another layer of aran yarn hugging them during the hottest months of the year?

I had another I-enjoy-knitting moment on Sunday night with this project as well (regular viewers will remember that the pink & purple yarn above is in the process of being re-knitted). Having worked on it all through the day (well, off & on and mainly during a skype meeting) and getting a good 6-8 inches up from the beginning (further than I am now) I decided that it was shaping up to be a fitted waistcoat for someone who is larger than me, so decided to undo and do the “large” size rather than the “extra-large” size where the measurements matched the size I know my chest to be. I did (round of applause or HIGH FIVE required here) remember to check my gauge before frogging, and it was bang on. So, well done to me. This is the WI aran which is sold through the large nationwide hobby supplies shop we don’t mention in front of artisan retailers in case it makes them come over all funny and I really like the way it’s knitting up. I got 2 massive balls so will probably be able to make everyone accessories to match my waistcoat, plus an extra one in their 3 for 2 offer which means I also have some bright red yarn. I *was* thinking a sophisticated match of the two yarns but actually red is the school colour for Excel Emmanuel and Forrester schools who partner with Porridge and Rice so I may just go into hat-knitting overdrive and send them out in dribs & drabs. Because, as we now know, the crazy kids in Kenya wear woolly hats when English people are sweltering in a skimpy thong.

Something I Really Like

Taking a leaf from www.yarnsfromtheplain.co.uk‘s book (who I’m guessing copied it from somewhere else – I’ve heard other podcasters do something very similar) – HERE’s a thing.

Background: I have a general intention to raise my wardrobe game a bit at work – wear shirts rather than t-shirts, not wear jeans so much, generally dress a bit less like a Software Developer and a bit more like a BA/Solutions Architect who could reasonably be expected to be pushed in front of clients. Basically, if I want to do more work alongside my boss who wears a suit to work every day, I want to look the part a bit more. However, I’m clearly not going to turn the dial straight up to 11 or I’ll just get asked what time my interview is all the time.

At the beginning of last week I took a step I’d been meaning to take for a white and sent off for a blouse from Charles Tyrwhitt. Blouse arrives – is a plain white blouse as ordered. The fabric is smooth and lovely, the sleeves are long and luscious, it’s generally pretty lovely. Except that when I’ve got it on, I can’t put my shoulders back for fear of bursting out of it. It works, but it doesn’t fit terribly well. Also, a button fell off in the first half hour of putting it on.

I’ve had a brief look at Pepperberry, but their stuff, in spite of being fashioned for the larger-booby lady, also doesn’t feel like it fits super well. I may re-visit, I’m not sure.

I went shopping on Saturday to see what M&S had to offer – just in case they had something that wasn’t a terrible fit and that I didn’t have to get 3 sizes too big to accommodate the rack. My hopes, I have to say, weren’t high. They have form in this area, after all.

Well.

It’s fair to say that I made a discovery that made me SO HAPPY that I don’t believe I’ve been THAT HAPPY in a store changing room since… possibly puberty. Not since I developed these lumps on my chest that make things NOT FIT in ALL THE PLACES. M&S have styled 2 extra buttons between the normal buttons, only facing inwards in an invisible fashion, and called them the “no peep placket”.

Oh. My. Word.

In spite of the silly name, this is a goddamn REVELATION. No more gaping buttons for me. I may even get my sewing machine out and sew extra inside out buttons onto all my other blouses (er… when I get them) because, man alive this thing really works. Complete lack of gaping.

I could go on for a while, but suffice it now to end on I think this is a really very good idea, and I will be buying more blouses from M&S in the future. But probably not the mint green spotted one.

 

Nearly famous

On Wednesday, instead of going to Knit-night at Knit-wise like usual, I went to a Special Event organised by Knit-wise to launch their new status as stockist of Baaa-ram-ewe yarns. Held in a restaurant/tea rooms just around the corner, the event was very well attended, with 50 or so eager knitters attending, including all the people I know through knitting, and some people I knew from other things.

The yarn was very well pitched – it is indeed lovely yarn – and we were clearly meant to come away with the impression (which I’m sure is accurate) that although the yarn is made entirely of British wool (heads-up: wool can be scratchy), it’s very soft and drapey. A finished garment or accessory had been placed on each table, and select individuals were asked to model them. Fran, on our table, did a marv job – if only she weren’t so busy becoming the next Mary Berry of the crafting & jam making world she would be a shoe-in for the UK’s next Top Model.

 

I’m very tempted, and it’s good to know my LYS will be stocking the stuff. Watch this space.

So, there was a woman of about my age sat at the same table as me who I’d never seen before. I was chatting amiably to her, when my eye caught the rubber bands on her wrist. I saw “BLOODWISE” and a switch flicked in my brain.

That’s the charity Sam Heughan supports. I wonder if this lady is doing myPeakChallenge? I carried on staring surreptitiously at her wrist, for the clue was there. It turns out she is. So, when there was a suitable gap/segwayopportunity in the conversation (which was already going well, I thought) I took the opportunity to reveal that I had spotted that she was most likely an Outlander fan much like myself.

We compared who had read what – Nic (for that is her name) has put in more hard yards than me and has read All The Books, whereas I am rationing myself because otherwise NOTHING WOULD GET DONE EVER. On that note, I’ve just decided (you heard it here first, folks) that I need to set myself a target or reward at which point I get to read the next one. Otherwise I’m just punishing myself indefinitely. Maybe after I’ve read a non-Outlander book I get to read an Outlander book. But I digress.

As if that isn’t enough, I then also twigged that I knew the name on her t-shirt. Turns out Nic is also a podcaster WHO I LISTEN TO. Yarns from the plain is one of the several podcasts I listen to (admittedly somewhat sporadically) while doing the totally easy and not at all unpredictable and dull commute from Ormskirk to Knutsford. I went all groupie on her ass, and got Fran the not-famous-yet Model to take a photo of us.


…which I instantly made a mess of blurring and winged into the ether.

So – I met a famous person who I’m sure is heading to big and fantastic times with her new focus on running an independent yarn dyeing company and studying textiles (see I do pay attention a bit) and who shares (and clearly outstrips me in dedication terms) my unhealthy obsession with Outlander (“whatever, Mum, nobody cares”) and who makes a podcast. My plan now is to internet stalk her (Hi Nic!), buy her yarn, attend her fibre festival and generally scare the crap out of her.

Or not. Have you recorded the next podcast yet?

An aside – Justin at work said that Knit-night sounds like a super-strong treatment for nits (nit-knight). I know. He’s put that thought in my head, so I’m making you share the pain. It’s OK for you. I have to work with him. 

Quick dash

I got some off-the-shelf orthotic insoles last night, on the hopes that I might be able to walk further than from the car to my desk without causing pain. It was late when I got in yesterday & Steve is the one who does the walking after-dark, so I went out for a quick dash around the block at lunchtime today. I only had about 20 minutes as there were timed support tasks to be done, but I thought that would be enough to whizz round the block.

It’s been so long since I did anything approaching proper exercise that I’d gone about a third of the way before I remembered to turn on runkeeper. If it’s not in runkeeper, it didn’t happen, so by that rule I only walked just under 2km ~ boo!

However, I only over-ran my timeslot by 5 minutes and so far there are no crippling after-effects. These old-lady shoe-props might be just the thing…

Gentlemen, please… (Waddesden Manor at Christmas)

When we knew we would be in Aylesbury for New Year, the suggestion was made & eagerly accepted that we should book to see Waddesden Manor’s Christmas decorations. We had tried a couple of years ago, but timed tickets for the house sell out in advance, and it would have meant a 3+ hour wait in cold, windy gardens, so at the time it was felt to be too big a commitment.

So this year, we booked the house & restaurant and a stress- and wait-free time was had by all.

Lunch in the restaurant was most civilised with Joel having his first taste of shell on prawns, and several helpings of hot chocolate, some including a tot of Baileys. As I said: very civilised. Edited to add: Joel did not have Baileys. Only grown-ups drank Baileys.

We pitched up for the house tour two minutes before our appointed time and were somewhat concerned to find a group ahead of us being turned away because they were too early. However, it transpired that they were 12 minutes too early and we were allowed straight in.

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While the outside of the property is styled like a French Château the inside is more like a classic country house… only on steroids. A deceptively modest entryway leads to a generously proportioned corridor in which there are a couple of pictures as big as my living room, and some equally generous Christmas trees. The children had a passport to collect stickers in, where they had to identify which country the Christmas “legend” the room was themed around related to. Some of the attendants were more generous than others in giving the children the answers, which frankly weren’t tricky, but the last lady around the trail was especially strict and insisted that they go to see the relevant boards before claiming their stickers.

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The upstairs dining room was my favourite room with an astonishing chandelier made from broken crockery – very stylish. I’m hoping I might build to achieve this with my own dining room one day…

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There was a “snowy” corridor which for some reason reminded me of some aspects of Farmaggeddon… I’m not sure why.

I also especially liked the treatment of the stairs which could’ve been a complete non-area however decking it out for Chinese New Year made perfect sense and was done really really well.

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As we are National trust members, there was no entry fee to pay. I think I would have baulked at paying the full price for the portion of the house that is open this time of year – just the gentleman’s wing – the rooms themselves are indeed splendiferous and were very nicely decked out for the season.

The light-trail outside would also probably have been significantly better in either the dusk or the night-time …but we were there during the day, so they were a little underwhelming, as one might expect.

All in all, if you’re a member then it’s a good trip out but do make sure to book your tickets in advance. If you’re not members then it could prove to be a little bit pricey and not feel like awesome value for money. I plan to go back to the house in the summer to see what I’m sure are some blow-you-away awesome interiors…

This is a Thing, then

I thought I should post an actual post on the timeline so that anyone stumbling across the blog will know…this Sunday I will be running in a 10km race at Weston Park near Telford in an effort to raise funds in support of a forthcoming charitable trip to Kenya that I am doing in January. I’ve set up a special page which tells you all about it – read all about running for Kenya (not *to* Kenya, that would be insane) on its own special page (see the Kenya-ish link on the menu if you don’t click through here)

If you want to donate but don’t really care about the detail, use THIS DONATION LINK to send sponsorship money.

Shortly I will be selling xmas stockings – if you want something special or novelty, get your orders in sooner rather than later.

I had my second set of travel vaccinations this evening so am feeling a little bit pin-cushion-y and there are A LOT of things I’m not supposed to do or touch or go near when I’m there – it’s an awful lot to remember…

ONWARDS & UPWARDS, though, eh?!