I'm having a bit of a blogging blank. My life is pretty dull right now. I'm in university for the holiday week and it is meaning that i have quite a bit of free time but not very much excitement. All my friends are busy doing university exams so really don't have the time to be out doing exciting stuff!
Anyway in the spirit of trying to keep this place fresh for all my new visitors I felt I should write a post, this will however require a bit of work on your part! I'm probably very guilty of leaving out key details when I write posts and forgetting that you guys don't know me in real life, so do you have any questions, anything whatsoever?
In the spirit of openness I'll answer anything,
as long as it doesn't involve giving away my bank account or credit card details!
Come back tomorrow for some answers.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Monday, 26 May 2008
Happy Bank Holiday
Boy am I glad that this is a long weekend. It's really nice to recharge, it's been a long half term at school, and I'm in university for all of the week that everyone else gets off as a holiday. If you've been stalking me (and if you are then please come out and say hello... I'd welcome the company! you'll have noticed the progress bars on my stuff I'm knitting have been creeping up quite nicely this weekend.
Todays to do list mostly consists of the cleaning I meant to do on Saturday and didn't get round to! Shouldn't take long, and then I am going to spend the day relaxing, and doing more knitting. I was out teaching climbing all day yesterday so the house is a bit of a bombsite as I just dumped stuff when I came in yesterday and didn't tidy up. I'm making the most of this as I have 1 month eft of living by myself. Part of me is glad, these last 6 months have got slightly lonely, but I have enjoyed being able to do everything when I want to do it. After all, if I don't want to do the washing up it's not as if anyone is going to moan about them sitting on the side for the day!
I'm really enjoying NaComLeavMo, it's been great to visit some other blogs, and has actually made me try and write posts more often!
Todays to do list mostly consists of the cleaning I meant to do on Saturday and didn't get round to! Shouldn't take long, and then I am going to spend the day relaxing, and doing more knitting. I was out teaching climbing all day yesterday so the house is a bit of a bombsite as I just dumped stuff when I came in yesterday and didn't tidy up. I'm making the most of this as I have 1 month eft of living by myself. Part of me is glad, these last 6 months have got slightly lonely, but I have enjoyed being able to do everything when I want to do it. After all, if I don't want to do the washing up it's not as if anyone is going to moan about them sitting on the side for the day!
I'm really enjoying NaComLeavMo, it's been great to visit some other blogs, and has actually made me try and write posts more often!
Friday, 23 May 2008
Fix-it-Friday
Todays post has taken a bit of deliberation. I mostly avoid talking about knitting on here, I have ravelry for that, and this isn't a knitting blog. However when I first started out knitting I had no idea how much wonderful stuff there was out there, (or how much some of it costs!). I decided for todays post to summarise where I buy stuff from (Mum you should maybe stop reading now, of course I'm not spending all of my bursary on this!)
Some sites however are places to get some absolute bargains from, even better they're all UK based, which is a common trouble I ran in to. So many places have links to lovely stuff, but it's all in the USA.
1) New Lanark
I can't quite believe how little they're charging for their wool. a 100g ball of DK weight costs just £1... I'm making my whole honeycomb vest in it for less than £8 including postage....
2) Get Knitted
This place isn't the cheapest, but they are the only place to stock the knit picks needles in the UK. I love their needles, in fact I have just used by Grandads"congratulattions n getting a job" money to buy the interchangable set. I've also just bought this . Who could refuse colours like this.
3)No post about yarn could be complete without a link to the Yarn Yard.
All of Natalies stuff is hand dyed and really reasonably priced. I love the feel of her sock yarn, and have just bought some yarn to use in my first shawl to take part in Seasons of Lace.
4)Finally is a Texere Yarns where I've not yet got my order from, but the prices are ridiculous. I've just bought some Alpaca for £3.30 per 50g ball, you'll have to trust me if you don't knit, but that's stupidly cheap! Their customer service seems really good to. I ordered last night and they were out of stock of the colour I ordered I got an email immediately today asking me to pick another yarn as a substitution. the yarn I picked is on clearance which is why they were out of stock.
Anyway, if yarn isn't so much your thing then be sure to head over to Jo and there is bound to be a post from somebody where you'll learn something new.
Some sites however are places to get some absolute bargains from, even better they're all UK based, which is a common trouble I ran in to. So many places have links to lovely stuff, but it's all in the USA.
1) New Lanark
I can't quite believe how little they're charging for their wool. a 100g ball of DK weight costs just £1... I'm making my whole honeycomb vest in it for less than £8 including postage....
2) Get Knitted
This place isn't the cheapest, but they are the only place to stock the knit picks needles in the UK. I love their needles, in fact I have just used by Grandads"congratulattions n getting a job" money to buy the interchangable set. I've also just bought this . Who could refuse colours like this.
3)No post about yarn could be complete without a link to the Yarn Yard.
All of Natalies stuff is hand dyed and really reasonably priced. I love the feel of her sock yarn, and have just bought some yarn to use in my first shawl to take part in Seasons of Lace.
4)Finally is a Texere Yarns where I've not yet got my order from, but the prices are ridiculous. I've just bought some Alpaca for £3.30 per 50g ball, you'll have to trust me if you don't knit, but that's stupidly cheap! Their customer service seems really good to. I ordered last night and they were out of stock of the colour I ordered I got an email immediately today asking me to pick another yarn as a substitution. the yarn I picked is on clearance which is why they were out of stock.
Anyway, if yarn isn't so much your thing then be sure to head over to Jo and there is bound to be a post from somebody where you'll learn something new.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
New Haircut
Crikey it needs to be the weekend, like now...
I have had enough of kids, along with just about every teacher in the place. Most of them however get half term, I simply get the bank holiday off and am then in university every day. The battery recharge will have to wait.
I changed my facebook status on Monday to one that expressed uncertainty about my new haircut, as one of my friends pointed out, how is anyone meant to express an opinion if they can't see a picture. So for your approval and comments I thought I'd post a picture.
The photo was taken at 7.30am, which might explain the slightly vacant look on my face.
Anyway, come back tomorrow for a fix-it-friday post, hopefully I will feel a bit more alive then, though after taking a group of guides ice skating tonight I somehow doubt it.
I have had enough of kids, along with just about every teacher in the place. Most of them however get half term, I simply get the bank holiday off and am then in university every day. The battery recharge will have to wait.
I changed my facebook status on Monday to one that expressed uncertainty about my new haircut, as one of my friends pointed out, how is anyone meant to express an opinion if they can't see a picture. So for your approval and comments I thought I'd post a picture.
The photo was taken at 7.30am, which might explain the slightly vacant look on my face.
Anyway, come back tomorrow for a fix-it-friday post, hopefully I will feel a bit more alive then, though after taking a group of guides ice skating tonight I somehow doubt it.
Monday, 19 May 2008
Waffle house socks
It's been a while since I talked about knitting on here, but I have just finished my latest pair of socks (that's 3 so far).
They're really pretty so I wanted to share with those of you that can't get on to Ravelry. The yarn is from the Yarn Yard, and is really beautiful, I've only put them on to photograph as they're a present, but I really don't want to take them off!
Next up is some socks for me, now to decide on a pattern!
They're really pretty so I wanted to share with those of you that can't get on to Ravelry. The yarn is from the Yarn Yard, and is really beautiful, I've only put them on to photograph as they're a present, but I really don't want to take them off!
Next up is some socks for me, now to decide on a pattern!
Friday, 16 May 2008
Fix-it-Friday
Yet again it's fix-it-friday, and yet again I have no idea where the week has gone! It really has been panic round here, I have less than a month until my course finishes and lots of things going on. Added to this I'm also loosing things, has anyone seen a folder containing nearly £500 of receipts in?
Thought not, I could really do with it as well, and it would appear to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Today we've been marking exam papers from Year 10 mocks in school, I thought I'd share a favourite from todays batch.
The final part of a question about volcanoes asks why people might want to live near one. A pupil answered-
"Really, you mean people WANT to live near volcanoes?" (Insert spelling and grammar mistakes of your choosing to produce near illegibility!)
Anyway last up is Fix it Friday, today Im going to share a tried and trusted recipe for making victoria sponge.
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Margarine or butter
100g Castor sugar
a splash of vanilla extract (not that nasty essence stuff)
2 eggs
You can increase in 50g intervals for every egg you add. To make 2 20cm diameter sponges to then sandwich together with jam or buttercream I usually use 150g of each ingredient and 3 eggs.
To make up you just beat the sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy then lob in the eggs and flour and continue beating. To cook the oven needs to be about 180 degrees centigrade and it takes about 20 minutes, sometimes longer but check after 20 mins. It's cooked when it's pale golden in colour and when you prod the top it springs back up.
This recipe is pretty much infallible, and despite what people say about sponge cakes they're really not hard. Sorry for teh lack of a picture, but I'm away for the weekend so don't need to have a sponge cake sitting around!
Thought not, I could really do with it as well, and it would appear to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Today we've been marking exam papers from Year 10 mocks in school, I thought I'd share a favourite from todays batch.
The final part of a question about volcanoes asks why people might want to live near one. A pupil answered-
"Really, you mean people WANT to live near volcanoes?" (Insert spelling and grammar mistakes of your choosing to produce near illegibility!)
Anyway last up is Fix it Friday, today Im going to share a tried and trusted recipe for making victoria sponge.
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Margarine or butter
100g Castor sugar
a splash of vanilla extract (not that nasty essence stuff)
2 eggs
You can increase in 50g intervals for every egg you add. To make 2 20cm diameter sponges to then sandwich together with jam or buttercream I usually use 150g of each ingredient and 3 eggs.
To make up you just beat the sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy then lob in the eggs and flour and continue beating. To cook the oven needs to be about 180 degrees centigrade and it takes about 20 minutes, sometimes longer but check after 20 mins. It's cooked when it's pale golden in colour and when you prod the top it springs back up.
This recipe is pretty much infallible, and despite what people say about sponge cakes they're really not hard. Sorry for teh lack of a picture, but I'm away for the weekend so don't need to have a sponge cake sitting around!
Sunday, 11 May 2008
NaComLeavMo
You might have noticed (along with the redesign) a new icon in the side bar. I've decided via Eliza to join in with NaComLeavMo because I don't get many comments and I do love it when I get them, also I want to expand my blog reading horizons.
Basically I'm pledging that each day I will to go to 5 blogs off the list of participants and leave a comment, I'll also respond to a comment left here by going to that persons blog and commenting, if I don't have a new post (quite likely at the moment) then I'll pick an extra person off the participants list. It starts on May 25th!
If you want to join in you can go here and sign up.
Best go, I'm outside all day teaching climbing, haven't made any lunch, or packed, or even got out of bed yet! Have done breakfast because after all I do like my food!
Basically I'm pledging that each day I will to go to 5 blogs off the list of participants and leave a comment, I'll also respond to a comment left here by going to that persons blog and commenting, if I don't have a new post (quite likely at the moment) then I'll pick an extra person off the participants list. It starts on May 25th!
If you want to join in you can go here and sign up.
Best go, I'm outside all day teaching climbing, haven't made any lunch, or packed, or even got out of bed yet! Have done breakfast because after all I do like my food!
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