the broad street mittens came off the needles on wednesday afternoon, still minus buttons though - a job for tonight i think, i finished yet another hat (this time woollywormhead's i cord beanie) and cast on for another, and even better i'm teaching the lsb to knit - we went to holmfirth yesterday in search of some rowan big wool so i could teach him how to make himself a scarf and i'm quite pleased to say he's actually quite good at knitting, and even seems to like it. in fact he's sat next to me as i type this with about 20cm or so knitted on a blue and white stripy scarf.

the alpaca wrap's been finished for a few days now (no picture cos, let's face it. moss stitch is pretty dull to look at and this is a 2ft by 5ft 8 splodge of moss stitch) and has hardly been off my shoulders since - why is it autumn comes on so quickly? so with that done and placement out of the way now my main focus has been my broad street mittens and with most of today dedicated to it (so much so i'm being a slob and neglecting the housework) i've just about finished these as well - i've one and a half fingers to do and the mitten shell before i finish, but i'm pretty confident that if i'm not finished today i will be by this time tomorrow.

so with the prospect of no long term projects on the go i'm looking round for other things to knit, on my to knit list i have sweaters, shawls, socks, hats and i dread to think what else right now. in stash i've got two balls of lace weight wool from handpaintedyarn, one i've known for a while will be made into a forest canopy shawl, the other a lovely vibrant green i've been looking for something a little bit special for, yesterday i think i may have found it in the shape of muir

anyway, you heard me correctly - after three months my clinical placement is over and i'm back to university on monday. i'm a little sad to go because the staff all looked after me so well, and the patients were all so interesting, i already know where i'm going next for a few weeks before christmas - all i can really say is it's going to be a challenge.

and one last thing before i go (taken from metro.co.uk):

Hospital accused of knit pickingMonday, September 17, 2007

A hospital has banned patients and visitors from knitting – for health and safety reasons.
Managers at Congleton War Memorial Hospital in Cheshire fear that children could be hurt by knitting needles.
Patients' groups branded the decision 'pointless and insane' yesterday, saying people had used a knitting box left out in reception for the last three years without any problems.
Hospital officials said knitting material was still available on request to 'older people'.

just a couple of pictures of recent finished objects, first up his and hers hats: mine, the purple one on the left - woollywormhead's ribbed beanie, and the lsb's in blue (what else) on the right - polly's old bean hat. both done in colonia140 from handpaintedyarn which is fast becoming one of my favourite yarns to knit with.







next up we've got my freshly finished cascade scarf from get knitted in sea and sky colourway. very nice to knit even if the picot cast off took me close on 24 hours solid to finish (ok maybe not quite as long as that, but it did take me most of saturday afternoon and well into sunday afternoon to do).














the alpaca wrap is now less than one ball away from completion, and the first glove of my pair of broad street mittens has about half of it's mitten shell done so far, it's been a good few days for knitting.

how to ball up a skein of yarn (without swift and ball winder)

1. grab stool.
2. unfasten skein and attempt to place round legs of upturned stool.
3. realise skein of yarn is too big to fit round two legs, but too small to fit round three.
4. mutter under breath and curse long suffering boyfriend for not finishing work at a reasonable time to sit and hold yarn.

just a quick update on the state of things as i'm currently madly busy on placement, currently being cook's little helper doing dinner and listening to the new darren hayes album (i'm a little bit ashamed to admit that as my tastes usually hover around punk rock, but what can i say). the love heart cushion was very much appreciated by its recipient when she unwrapped it last night, so much so that every guest who walked in had it thrust in their face. my knit picks options arrived a couple of days ago, and while i haven't knitted anything on them yet i do rather love them having knitted with my mum's set for a few minutes, the arrival of my circulars now means i have no real excuse not to get started on my lace shawls and to be honest i'm itching to.