i finally got round to opening my first parcel from handpaintedyarn, and look at the lovely goodies! (all except the green lace on the bottom right, that was gifted to me by mum either because she wasn't keen or she knows i like green). i'll give three guesses who the bulky blue yarn on the bottom left is for (and anyone needing more than 3 guesses really can't have been paying close attention). i can't wait to start knitting on any of it, and now i've got a little bit of weight off my mind with handing in the results of my placement today i might just get round to finishing some of what's already on needles.

in the light of day the heel less socks were just too mismatched to use as even walking socks as i get the feeling that were i to be involved in some climbing/walking related incident i would die of sheer mortification if the paramedics attempted to pull my boots off. i remember being told that you should always wear matching underwear when you go out in case you got hit by a bus, i don't remember anything about socks though, but there you go.
i've managed to get through half my week of night shifts so far but with minimal knitting, though i often sit and knit on my breaks during the day i find myself feeling just a little bit more than self conscious doing it in the dead of night when there are no patients around and besides myself only two other people about (not counting the ghost, yes i said ghost - we apparently have one). i'm averaging a few rounds per night on another pair of so far heel less sleeping socks (in dusky pink opal) which will this time be my walking socks provided i don't come across some yummy pattern that i just have to do in this colour, ah i'm so fickle i know. i'd say this was something of an achievement to manage between hourly checks, jumping up everytime you hear the noise of a patient out of bed, nursing patients on 1 to 1 observations, washing and drying patients laundry, tidying up, ohmysweetjimmorrisonmyportfoliosdueininlessthanaweekandihavehugebiggapsandnoonetosignthingsoffi'mgoingtofaili'mgoingtofailargh!!!, and many other duties besides. i'm starting to like night shifts despite the fact i went to sleep at roughly 9am this morning and was out of bed and into the bath by just before 2.30pm and i'm starting to feel just a little sleepy despite pouring my third cup of strong coffee down my throat as i type this. i blame this on the fact that someone tried to steal the lead roof from the house's bay window while i was at work. the lsb sent me a text very early this morning simply asking me to ring him, which is worry in itself, the man had his mobile phone there in his hand and knew i'd finished my shift so it must be at least a little serious for him to not want to tell me in a text. so all the way on this noisy bus ride things are running through my mind as to what it could be and exactly how bad it all was, had he finally had enough and decided to leave me for a woman with less crazy hobbies? was his mum ill? had i unintentionally run up a huge phone bill to australia? no, it turned out half the lead roof was on the front lawn when he went out to the car this morning and he was having to try and ring someone up to get it mended. so each and every noise this morning has jarred me from sleep thinking it was someone coming back for the roof. or that's my excuse anyway.

the heel less socks are literally minutes off the needles, i triumphantly finished off the toe and put the second one with the first to be folded and put somewhere safe for photographing before i start my shift tomorrow only to find that the two socks are completely different colours. one is a combination of rich shades or black blue and purple, the other looks like it's been through a bleach/boil wash in the machine a time or two, oops! all i can say is i'm glad they're only going to be walking socks so it's unlikely they'll be seen outside or walking boots or my winter boots.

At last the love heart cushion's done. Complete with slightly odd embroidery. I say at last not because it's been a chore to make, on the contrary i loved every minute of it but because up until the last letter was embroidered i was worried it wouldn't get finished on time. My placement has been absolutely hectic since i got back from my summer break with only a week left to go before my first year's skills have to be signed off and i can be considered to be fit enough to start my second year's nurse training. Next week is also my first week of night shifts which i'm quite excited about in a strange way (and not just for the extra knitting opportunities it may bring on the odd quiet shift between paperwork and actual nursing). In other news the heel less socks are very close to completion with only one and a half pattern repeats left before shaping for the toe. In fact i've already picked out a ball of wool for my next pair which i had to wrestle off the lsb despite it being mainly pink, though he argued it was more purple (i know i said i was fed up with knitting things in plain blue for him but going to the other end of the spectrum with pink is a bit much for a grown man) i'm not sure on the pattern yet though. The yarn is a deep pink with occasional spots of navy, purple and a reddish pink perhaps something lacy? An unusual rib or failing that perhaps even another heel less sleeping sock as i've found they're suprisingly comfortable and great inside a winter boot.

given that british summer's only just arrived and knowing it's not going to last long i thought it best to start planning my winter wardrobe - starting with banff, last year's effort (ice maiden) is still waiting for a cooler day and more time to block and sew up. the second pair of broad street mittens are on the needles, this time for me and in pink four ply - origin unknown. picture to follow when it's done.

from this:













to this:

in roughly 24 hours.


and one of me modelling, one day i shall show my face on here i promise but today at least you've learnt that i'm a blonde. the picture was taken by the rather perplexed long suffering boyfriend when i moments ago thrust my camera into his hand and ordered him to take a picture of the back of my head. unfortunately he's rather used to these requests and now doesn't bat an eyelid, which i suppose is worrying in itself. anyway after the long suffering boyfriend did a little sulking over that being the last skein in its colour he had a little browse of the handpaintedyarns site and chose himself another skein of yarn in a lovely blue (what else? i think every single thing i've knitted him has been in one shade of blue or another) to do polly's old bean hat when i get round to it. oh and while i'm at it, for anyone interested the purple hat i just finished is woollywormhead's tea cosy hat.

i found myself just having to break off from knitting my new cold weather hat to post a picture of the lovely yarn i'm working with. it's one of the two skeins that came from handpaintedyarns, the one that i just had to treat myself to as it's such a pretty purple and it was the last one there and just begged to be taken home, the shade itself is called amethyst and as you can see from the photo it's a mix of various shades of purple, the occaisonal spot of deep dark green and navy blue. it's a joy to knit with as well, pure wool, not as soft as the merino i've used for the love heart cushion (which is done and awaiting stuffing and embroidery) but still beautiful anyway, it reminds me somewhat of debbie bliss' maya/soho with it's occaisonal movements from thick to thin and back again.

in other news i met up with my friend who'll be receiving the love heart cushion for her birthday, for lunch yesterday. she's back in yorkshire for the summer, normally she resides in glasgow which i'm now convinced must be the coolest place on earth as her course has a knitting group - which i suppose is possibly to be expected from an art school, but still pretty cool. it almost makes me want to either pack my bags and move to glasgow to persue my long forgotten dream of becoming an abstract painter in order to have other people to knit with, or start up my own knitting group at university. despite the proximity of my university to places like up country and bobbins (i think i have that right, rather famous wool shop in whitby. the one the long suffering boyfriend tends to whisk me past) knitting doesn't seem a particularly big thing, in fact sadly i think apart from some students in the school of art and design i may be the only student who actively knits (i know from talking to other students on nursing courses that many of the students with children knitted for them when they were babies but no longer knit).