Who'd have thought?

I finished both sides of the entrelac bag last week (the pattern only requires one side in entrelac, but I did both for the practice) and almost immediately started a bigger project - Lady Eleanor from scarf style. I really like this technique - interesting enough to keep me going (so far anyway) and yet simple enough that I can pick it up for a few rows and not worry about getting confused. I'd recommend learning to knit backwards, as it is invaluable for entrelac - and surprisingly easy!

Bag panels - bag itself yet to be finished:

Due to a shopping mistake last year, I happen to have 10 balls of Noro silk garden at home in the stash, which I had earmarked for this project, and I could really do with getting rid of some stash (in preparation for the upcoming Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally) so it seemed like as good a time as any to start. Mind you, I've not got to the end of the first ball quite yet. And yes, that is some kind of shopping mistake, isn't it?!

Lady Eleanor, as of Monday evening:

In other news... I ordered my wedding dress at the weekend! I really should make more of a start on the planned shawl...

June...

The first week of June was a haze of writing handover notes for my old job (despite there being nobody to hand things over to... they haven't got around to recruiting yet...) and leaving. Everyone told me it would feel really strange to leave after over two and a half years, but all I felt was relief. And pleasure at having been able to wangle a good leaving gift through a quiet word in the ear of a good colleague...



Liberty gift tokens (real coins, none of your paper slip rubbish!) and a Liberty hankie (to make up the money I think). Didn't get much of a send-off as a lot of people were away, but can't say I'm that bothered to be honest!


Took a couple of days off before I started the new job, sorted out some wedding stuff (venue, register office stuff and found a possible shop to get my frock from...) and then started the new job, which I am travelling to by bike! Taking a bit of getting used to as I've not had much exercise for a while, but I'm actually really enjoying it (and the new job, thankfully).

Also started knitting Kiri, my first time using Kidsilk Haze (in heavenly), and despite all I've heard about it (the KSH) I'm actually getting on ok with it - 9 repeats completed so far, and into the stretch where it takes a while to get each row done.


The end of June also included a trip to the Liberty sale, but more on that at a later date...

March...

This was bit of a mad month.

First off, there were the dreaded MWoCs. Which at least led me to get on with applying fo ra new job! Then having gone to the doctor with what he thought was sinusitis, James ended up in hospital for a week. All is well now and he is feeling fine, but life was a bit crazy for while, and I spent as much time as I could visiting. On the plus side, it meant that I managed to knit myself a Forest Canopy shoulder shawl in about 2 weeks!

The magic of blocking took it from this:

To this:

My first piece of lace and I'm very pleased with it! There are a few mistakes, but they're only visible if you look very closely, and the varigation in the yarn takes the attention away from them. Overall, I'm very happy with it :-)

Project specifications to follow when I can remember them...

I also had an interview for another job, an events position for a major medical research charity, but unfortunately I didn't get it.

Thankfully, things picked up later in the month, when we took a trip to Tallinn. Things started well, when I checked my email at the airport to discover a message from my university (the one I left three years ago and have been battling with ever since) telling me I'm finally going to awarded an MPhil. Hurray! It was supposed to be a PhD, but things went so wrong and I was so unsuited to working in research that I was over the moon to salvage something out of the whole debacle.

We arrived on Thursday evening, survived a taxi journey with a driver whose English was only about 2 words better than out Estonian (which amounted to precisely zero words... always a good idea to print out a picture of your hotel and the address) and were happy to find that our hotel was lovely (never did manage to find the sauna though).

Friday we explored the city a bit and then went out for a lovely meal - Modern estonian food, quite good - then decided to climb some nearby steps to one of the viewing platforms on the hill in the old town centre, where you can look out over the city and the coast.

It was lovely to look out over the lights, and even lovelier when James asked me to marry him - I don't think the weekend could have got any better!

On Saturday we walked up to the big park and explored Kadriorg Palace. I found a yarn shop on the way, but more on that in the April installment!