Ooh goodies!

Look what I just the minute unwrapped (can anyone else see a bit of a purple theme going on here?) The pouch is just about to be prepared to hold my gentleman's sock in purple lana grossa cotton and the lovely skein of jitterbug, if I can resist literally drooling over it and pawing it to death will be going into stash for 2 short while while it waits to become some more broad street mittens for me. It's actually a lot darker and more purple and pink than photos had led me to believe but that's quite a good thing, made even better by the fact I purchased the last one in stock. Now I'm going to go enjoy my coffee while I knit to my heart's content. It is after all the weekend and I can rest and relax, at least until tomorrow morning when I shall be seeing my very stroppy bummed alpaca get a hair cut, and as he doesn't seem one for enforced human contact I'm going to guess he might be a little reluctant.

You can sort of see the pattern on lsb's slalom socks. I finished them on tuesday evening, presented them to him and he's not taken them off his feet since. And seen as he's rather distracted by the new socks I can actually concentrate on doing some socks for me for a while. I've got a 1x1 rib pair part way down the foot on the go which started off as an experiment that didn't turn out too well. And on arrival of my nice new shiny order from get knitted I shall be getting started on a gentleman's sock, in purple lana grossa cotton (which was also a bargain, 5 balls for £20 - i'm rather pleased with myself). The pattern was a free one from someone's site but i can't remember off the top of my head and don't get access to the world of the knitted web at work. But as soon as I've enough knitted to post I shall post both a picture or 2 and the link to where i found it.

The colour's not too accurate but finally a picture of the completed and very green basketweave scarf. It's possibly one of the easiest complicated looking patterns I've done and lsb was rather amazed at just how complex it looked (I think I should keep the mystery and just smile sweetly rather than reveal I'm actually a crumbier knitter than he thinks). 

I can only update very quickly as I've got so much to do, but just to say that this forthcoming fun packed week involves such genuine delights as starting a new community placement tomorrow and getting to see a herd of alpacas (including Marco) get a haircut at the weekend (lots of photos to follow hopefully) and getting to sit in on a fleece to fibre workshop all about alpaca. 

I'm back from my holidays, but very very busy still. I have however managed to do the smallest amount of knitting possible. Lsb's slalom socks are just over halfway done now and in between attempting to be a domestic goddess, nursey stuff and whatever else I'm plodding along with they're coming along nicely. I start another placement next week and one that requires me to participate in lots of activity groups with patients, does anyone want to take a guess at how long it's going to take me to get a knitting group up and running? It is, as we all know a brilliant therapeutic activity and so much fun too!

I've now got the basketweave scarf and the camera in the same room together, and as it's very close to being finished I promise I'll upload a photo of it next time I update. I daren't do it now as I almost crashed the internet uploading all my holiday photos and I'm not sure it's recovered yet.

By the time you're reading this I'll have just got off the train and will be about to enjoy my lovely break in Edinburgh, laptop isn't coming with me though so no blogging while I'm up there. I will return on Wednesday though, feeling very refreshed hopefully and with lots of pictures and plenty of knitting done.

I finally finished Ice Maiden some time early Saturday afternoon, and after a last bit of blocking on the collar this morning I think it's done. As I started it when I was a size or two bigger than I am now it's a little baggy in places, but nothing that can't be fixed with a strategically placed belt.

I look as if I've had a red cat sat on my knee.

I've now officially stuck more pins into a foam board than I ever will needles into patients.

I'm rather fed up of sewing in ends, mattress stitch and seaming.

If you hadn't guessed I'm sewing up a jumper. My very lovely, very red, extremely long overdue Ice Maiden. This is a pre-blog project that I started almost three years ago, finished the pieces for over a year ago and have been putting off blocking and sewing up ever since. I've managed to force myself to sit down over the last few days and get it finished, I'm nearly done and at the stage of thinking "never again" or at least contemplating shrinking myself down to rather more slender proportions so that seeming won't take quite so long in future. 

Actually that's not something I should joke about, as a future nurse whose dream job is either in eating disorders or child and adolescent psychiatry, and more importantly someone who's happy with her body and weight, I'm finding myself increasingly disgusted at the media's attitude to body image. I realise that were I a celebrity I'd automatically be labelled as lazy or on the verge of letting myself go for saying that I like the way I look. I turned on the TV a day or two ago to find some children's programme or other playing where the presenter was talking about body image with a group of pre-teen girls, some as young as 8 wearing full facial make up and talking about manicures and various other beauty treatments they have on a regular basis. And then some statistics flashed up showing the results of a survey that had been carried out indicating a high percentage of these girls were unhappy with their looks, associated thinner with happier and wanted to emulate glamour models and it girl types. I can't be the only one that finds this so wrong, and as a nurse I can't help think that if we could just stop putting all this pressure on our children we wouldn't be in half the mess that we are. Rates of self harm among under 16's is just going up and up, eating disorders among children and teeangers (particularly among boys) are on the rise and all we as a public can do is say "oh dear". 

Anyway rant over, pictures of my latest finished object to follow once I've got myself, the jumper, lsb and a camera in the same room at the same time.