Sorry

It feels a bit like I've lost my blogging mojo at the moment. All I seem to be able to post about is knitting, I really don't want to turn this in to a knitting blog, I want this to be a full representation of my life, warts and all.

It's been hard to write about very much recently, after I came back from holiday I have worked like a maniac, I have had tone day off since I came back last Thursday. This week I've driven 300 miles getting to work (and diesel is £1.30 a litre, there goes 1 day's pay). There is only so many times I can talk about teaching climbing, while every day is different as the kids are always different in essence every day is the same, I do the same things in pretty much the same places. I do however love it. It's also been tricky because as Eliza over at Doolittle (link in the side bar) there is a great unblogablability going on with my family. No one is dead or dying, but it has meant that one big nasty event has been at the forefront of my mind since Wednesday to the exclusion of nearly everything else.

One thing that apparently my brain can focus on is my knitting however, so I am very sorry to yet again present more photos of my Nether Garments. We are now at knee height on leg 1.


I love how the varying widths is doing wonderful things to the variagated asphalt tour yarn. This is on the lower calf-



This on the upper calf-


These are perfect knitting fr a busy mind, it's just simple knit, knit, knit and just as I start to get sick of one colour the mini ball runs out and it's time to start a new colour.

GoogleHer

At the moment it seems I can't visit a blog without it talking about Blogher, while I'm a bit mystified about what it exactly is, who can go there and why you'd want to it has inspired a really good meme. Carmen over at Mom to the Screaming Masses has posted about a meme where you type your name in to Google and list 5 facts about people with your name that you find as a result.

1) The top link is to an Australian singer who I really hope never makes it to the UK as it's all a bit rubbish and teenage angsty!
2)The next is to my actual user profile on UKClimbing
3) The next is a Facebook link to someone who isn't me
4) Another one is to a diary I wrote for our local radio station during my 2 months trip in Thailand (which I still need to tell you guys about, I haven't forgotten!)
5) It also appears that someone with my name works for a corporate finance firm.

What about you, what do you get when you type your name in to Google? Leave me a comment or write a post and let me know.

Progress

Ok some time soon I promise to post about something about knitting, but I'm very proud of my progress so far.

I'm 8.5 inches in, and have started the calf shaping. It's going really well, I've even done a stripe of both of the special tour colours.
Here's a quick picture-


It's taken on my web cam so not the greatest quality but you get the idea! most of this progress was amde at my first ever knit night which I've just got back from.

All day today and tomorrow I've been or will be teaching climbing outside, I've been getting up at 7.00 each morning to get over to where we're climbing. Hopefully tonight I won't have the trouble I've been having of just not wanting to sleep! I'm looking forward to my day off on Thursday as I need to get my room organised, while everything is out of boxes some stuff is still in piles, which is making me very messy. If it's not tidy to start off with making myself tidy up what I've just arrived back with is very difficult!

More tour stuff, and a long day

All weekend I've been working. Today has been at a mobile climbing tower at a Outdoor sports festival in Sheffield called Cliffhanger. I've spent all day putting on and taking off climbing harnesses and my fingers hurt!
However despite the aching fingers I have managed to cast on for my Nether Garments tonight (finally!). I've not done as much as I wanted as I've also had to do some computer stuff, but now they're started I've stepped in the right direction!

Here's a quick photo, the colour is very wrong as it was taken in the dark and I can't get the camera flash to come on???




Here's also all the yarn I've been sent to do in between the special colourways I talked about yesterday. A big thank you to Natalie, Sussex Yorkie, Northernlights, and Jammam.

Tour de France Knitalong

Ok, now I'm back from holiday i need to get on with this! The tour started last Thursday just as I went on holiday! So far I have worked out what I need to knit and have the yarn to knit it with. The project won't get done in the remaining time which is why I signed up for the Yellow Jersey, as it means I don't have to complete it!

The yarn I'm mostly using is a special colourway made for the tour by Natalie at the ever wonderful The Yarn Yard There are 2 different colours, one is subtly variegated and inspired by tarmac, the other is plain and is bright green, called Germolene because after all a good Tour would not be complete without a few crashes. I'm also using scraps of yarn kindly donated by other people, hopefully I have enough, I'm aiming for colourful and a bit random, if you want to send me any then feel free, email me at hilltopkatie at gmail dot com, it does need to be superwash and preferably have some nylon content though please.





I've not wound them yet, that's the job for tomorrow evening, after all I need to use my brand new home-made birthday present Swift!


(Yes I know it needs a bit more assembly, I was in a rush yesterday night!)


Anyway, we've been set an intermediate sprint by the organisers, this feels slightly like cheating as technically I haven't cast on, but I promise it will happen tomorrow! We've been asked to share more about your project, why have you chosen it, and how does it link to the tour.
In case you've forgotten I'm knitting Nether Garments by Elizabeth Zimmerman from her Knitters Almanac (that's a Ravelry link I'm afraid, sorry for any non-Ravellers).
To me they're a prefect cycling link, after all think of cyclists you think of tight fitting lycra. I used to have an ex-boyfriend who was in to road biking so know how this obsession with skin tight clothing goes! Wool shorts would be a little impractical, but a pair of wool leggings that I can use as thermal underwear in the horrible British winters would be highly useful. Some cyclists who aren't real men also ride in full length leggings to!

Let's hope however that I look more like these men


and less like these...



Except you know, without the inconvenient anatomy!

I'm back..

I just got back at lunchtime today. True to form 2 hours after I got home I was heading out again to work at a corporate session for Dad doing team building games. No rest for the wicked they say....

Anyway had a lovely holiday, in total we rode 130km or 80 miles, over 6 days and spending about 6 hours in the saddle each day. We stay at a different bed and breakfast each night and carry all our clothes and everything we need in saddle bags. I've put a couple of pictures here, but the rest are on my Flickr page. You need to be a competent rider and happy tacking up a horse but it is an amazing experience. This will be the 4th time we've been and we're already talking about next year, they also do guided rides from the main farm if they're not feeling adventurous! Their website is here.
We (my Mum and I)rode horses called Paddy and Traveller, all the horses are bred by the family who run the farm, and are beautifully well mannered, forward going but easy to control and so very sure footed, you can take horses along places you would never think possible. I don't know of many horses that would walk over a bridge made of old radiators across a ditch!
We do 1 and a half days on the beach, and the rest of the time is spent heading up in to the moors and then riding through pine forests. Access in Ireland is extremely difficult, the farm has arranged access through all the privately owned land, and for some places we even carried a key to get through a gate. Unlike in England there is no open access, or public rights of way, once you are off a road the chances are a track has a fence across it somewhere along it. We found out the hard way on teh day we made up our own ride when we stayed in the same place for 2 days.

www.flickr.com

I think this badge is set up to show a random 3 photos, and if you refresh they change, I'm still finding out everything that Flicky can do so I might be wrong. They'll also link you to my Flickr pages. After adding these photos I'm going to have to upgrade to a pro account, as I've used all my limit for this month. I normally add photos like this to Facebook but I keep my account there private, and I wanted you guys to see them.

Anyway, that's enough for tonight, I want to read a bit more of my book, and then need to go to bed before my first aid course tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back with a post about my Tour de France knitalong project.

Off on holiday

I'm just doing some tidying up of internet stuff before I leave, we got the internet working at the new house this morning (or at least I hope it still is!), I'm currently at home as I leave for horse riding in Ireland again. If you want to see the post from last year you can go here. I'll share a couple of photos with you, and say have a nice week, I'll see you next Thursday!

Everything is well at the new house, we had a house warming/birthday barbeque last night, I'll try and put the photos up of some friends climbing my garden wall in a bit. One of my housemates had a slightly sore head this morning! In the mad rush to finish off the unpacking and pack to go away today I've managed to leave my purse at home, but luckily had my Euros already packed.

Ok, here are some photos-


It started raining, Laurie decided a box was good protection from the rain.


This is our back garden wall, it has alternative uses than holding an outhouse roof up!