This morning I got up at 6.15am because my body hasn’t got used to the clocks going back yet. Mind you that was fine because it gave me a couple of hours to sort out the kitchen and back oatmeal and raisin cookies to add to the birthday parcels i’m posting after lunch.

breakfast ended up being broken bits of cookies and toast. my bad.

As I mentioned in my last post, here is the bag I made for my friend J. It’s based on the front cover of this Japanese Craft book that i think i probably first saw on Bella Dia’s blog.

Inside are said cookies and a bar of dark chocolate.  :)

Also, while I was tidying up I came across W’s marble collection, and rather than leave them in their current shoebox home, I decided to fill up the big plastic jar that usually contains corks and conkers and sit it on our window ledge in the lounge. 

There are some great colours in there. I’ll have to find the time to have a play and take some photos of my favourites. :)

So yesterday W met up with his best friend A, and i stayed home, watched the first episode of 30 days (which is brilliant btw) and finished the first of the lace socks, made with the plum coloured merino I brought back from Florence.  (Unfortunately they’re christmas presents so i’m going to hold back on actually posting photos for a while…)

Anyways W came home and let me know that it’s A’s wife’s birthday (my lovely friend J) on sunday, which is on the one hand great, because I was woolly about the date and now i know it and can add it to my birthday list, yay! but also bum, because whatever happens it’s going to be a day or too late.

So this morning, while W rebuilt his road bike, I curled up with my laptop to work out what to make her, (since i’m good for time, but not really for money right now.)

I’m all ideaed up, and as a bonus have started adding useful links to my del.icio.us account.

But it will all have to wait since W and I are off to go find ourselves a desk at one of the second-hand furniture places we know. And, bonus that means swinging by one of my favourite cafes in the city for lunch. (last time we had a tropical fruit curry with huge chunks of plantain and watermelon in it - so healthy and cheap!)

:)

We’re planning to turn the box room (our first room when W originally co-bought the house), into an office so that we can move the computer and hopefully all my craft stuff upstairs. The next step in us sorting out the house.

*jumps in the shower*

Hopefully I’ll still have time to start J’s present tonight. Photos later…

…and relax.

This photo was taken at 10pm last night, just before i collapsed into bed. As ever,  it took longer than i expected, but it’s much comfier now, and it didn’t cost a bean.

plus there is a small amount of the plum coloured fabric left which i will add to my pile for making christmas presents.

all good. :)

On the day of my wedding my dad got up and make a speech that basically said:

"The thing about Oscarcat is that when she decides to do something, she does it…"

Today i realised that instead of just putting up with our mangy-falling apart futton sofa until we decide how we’re going to arrange our living room*, there was a way to fix it which would make the sofa actually nice to sit on, AND wouldn’t cost any money.

In fact since i realised this i’ve been itching to get started. So having finished other jobs, (apart from one,  but i’ll do that this evening, or even tomorrow morning) i think

i’m going to give it a go.

Here is the old sofa:

Hopefully in a few hours I’ll have other, better photos to show…

*dining table? no dining table? TV? No tv? rip out the old shelving? put in new shelving? having the chimney breast removed? we still have no firm idea…

Having spent most of this year knitting with 4ply I’m shocked at how quickly big wool knits up! Actually it’s probably not big wool, it’s kind of aranish. but anyways I’m probably going to get this finished on the bus into the city this afternoon, when I go to meet my sister.

The pattern is an adaption of the usual wave:

Cast on 20 stitches

Row 1: Knit (RS)
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: K1, K2tog x3, (yo then k1) x6, K2tog x3, K1
Row 4: Knit (WS)

Repeat Rows 1-4 till you run out of wool.

Cast off. Weave in ends.

All good. Maybe I’ll take Knitting on the Road with me and read up on how to knit lace socks, since most of my socks are based on a standard pattern I know off by heart and are just wiggled with to get the desired size or whatever. I’d start on my arm warmers but I think I want to get some of the christmas presents completed first.

I’m umming and ahhing about this month’s Month of Softies challenge, having not done either of the last two challenges due to wedding preparations, but I’ve a horrible feeling i’m going to slide this month too, and finish the sockmonkeys I was hoping to add to the kids bags, as part of their christmas presents instead. they are mostly done. it’s just a case of ears and faces and then any clothing they might need.

but anyways I should gather up my stuff and head off…