Monday 24 December 2007

Christmas Eve

Well, it's Christmas Eve and instead of relaxing and looking forward to tomorrow, all I can wonder is whether I will finish the final pair of Christmas socks. I started them on Saturday and finished the first sock yesterday late at night. All I had done was knit. I reduced the number of stitches and rounds to make it quicker and knitted round and round, no fuss, no messing, no special features. I have never managed to knit a whole sock in two days, so I have cast on the second one today and am determined to finish the second one. This pair is for my Great Uncle and I won't see him until Boxing Day, so there is time but it's pretty much all I can think of at the moment.

The only other thing I'm thinking about at the moment is the Strictly Come Dancing final on Saturday night. I love Strictly and I always fall in love with one of the couples and this year it was Matt and Flavia. I did start off loving John Barnes, but he was knocked out a few weeks ago and I always love Anton du Beke, but he also wasn't in the final. In the past I have fallen in love with Darren and Lylia, Mark and Karen so it was inevitable that this would happen again this year. Did you see Matt and Flavia's show dance? It was amazing! They are amazing together. I really can't believe that Flavia actually goes out with Vincent Simone; he's no where near as nice as Matt and I really think Flavia needs to sort it and quick!

That's my Christmas Eve message. Back to the sock.

Thursday 6 December 2007

I can't sleep

I went to bed about an hour ago and realised very quickly I was having "one of those nights" where despite being tired the last thing I can do is sleep. I've not had one of these for a while but I know the signs early on and usually the best thing to do is get up and do something.

I'm feeling anxious about a couple of things at work and it's this which is keeping me awake. I haven't done anything wrong, but a recent decision at work has benefitted me but is going to upset others. I feel really guilty about it all and I'm expecting some hostility tomorrow. I'm also worried about next year's exchange because I haven't managed to fill the trip and I have to send the Germans the details on Friday and I don't want to run a half full trip. I have two days to generate more interest and get the deposits in. I know the exchange, like anything, ebbs and flows, but I've really promoted it and the interest has been disappointing.

Anyway, to counteract all this negativity and wondering in my head I decided to get up and look at the stash. Last Friday we had Knit Club here and I raided the stash and I was appalled at the state it's in and the number of "forgotten" yarns and projects I have. I have some lovely yarns and I cannot wait to start knitting some gorgeous socks for myself again. Lucy bought me a lovely skein of Natural Dye Studio sock yarn in pinks, blues, greens and purples and I cannot wait to get it on the needles. Thank you Lucy! The rummage didn't last long, because I quickly felt overwhelmed and remember "sorting out the stash" is a New Year's Resolution and cannot officially start until January.

I have finished the Jaywalker socks this evening, so I have only three more pairs of Christmas socks to go. Will I make the deadline? The next three socks are going to be plain old knit, knit and more knit, no pattern, just lots of stocking stitch. As lovely as the Jaywalkers are, I had to knit them on 76 stitches, which is 16 more than I usually knit. I'll post some photos next time and you will be impressed by the small amount of yarn left from these socks. I didn't waste any of the yarn. They do seem to have taken longer and being separated over my long weekend didn't help. Incidentally, I hadn't left them at work, but in the car of a neighbour, so they were only ever 200 metres from my house and not the 14 miles I originally thought.