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.

As promised a picture of my alpaca (courtesy of mayfieldalpacas.co.uk) his name's marco and i think he's gorgeous. He's also a suri alpaca so i don't know how practical his dreadlock like coat would be for yarn but i've fallen in love with him anyway. Sadly not that much knitting's gone on lately, the journeys to and from work have mostly been taken up by bouts of revision wherever possible. The ward i work on has been far too busy lately to sit down and do anything besides grab a very quick cup of tea as and when you can hence the lack of updates here (they never tell you just how hard this business of working for a living is, especially on a student nurse wage. But i won't get into the dire financial situation the majority of trainee nurses find themselves in.) All my projects are coming along just currently very slowly, i'm sat right now in fact with the alpacs wrap on my knee which is somewhere between half and three quarters finished, the second silk sock is about an inch off the heel and the second broad street mitten is awaiting a couple more fingers and a shell and that's done. I'm hoping once tuesday's exam is over and done with my rate of knitting might reach its usual levels again. I was quite amused by the latest shreddies advert which shows the breakfast cereal being knitted with love by a group of knitting grandmas (doesn't do much to smash stereotypes, but what the hey) and leeds is having some sort of knitting festival so the local knitters apparently have all manner of odd knitted objects on needles right now including vegetables (if any of that's incorrect i'm sure one of my fellow knitting tykes will correct me)

the alpaca silk wrap's not coming on too badly, had the chance to get another ball knitted up while the long suffering boyfriend was bowling. i've also just been a rather naughty girl and spent a small fortune on the knit tin, but i got a very lovely skein of woolly wormhead yarn for a scarf which i've actually been after for a while, the skein i chose was lilac and gold very pretty though i was originally after a green one (lime green jelly) but sadly it was sold out i'm quite happy with the lovely angel delight skein i chose with the help of the long suffering boyfriend. i went onto the site to show some buttons to the long suffering boyfriend for his broad street mittens and came away with the buttons i showed him, some more in a smaller size, the knitting accessories tin, a skein of yarn and two or three button jars. oops! still it gives me a little something to do on the journey to and from my placement from next week. as of tuesday i'm back out on the wards doing proper nursing, i can't wait in a way as i love what i do when i'm out working with patients, i love learning about their illnesses and their lives especially as so many of those i work with have been in hospital since their late teens and early 20's and it's possible to see the long term effects that psychiatric medication can have over 40 years or so. but i'm also so aprehensive about the experience as i've never worked full time in a nursing role for three months constantly being assessed by mentors. and while i've so far passed all the exams and assignments i've had the results back for i work so much better in practice when i don't know the staff are breathing down my neck scrutinising every move i make, very nerve wracking, but i shall pull through.

with exams over and done with this week i've had a little time free for knitting. so i started this very quick and easy net shopping bag on wednesday evening and had it done yesterday afternoon (i should point out to anyone else wanting to do something similar it is possible to knit it in a shorter space of time but as i spent the majority of thursday and friday shopping for a dress). the alpaca wrap's shrunk a bit as i found a mistake a couple of rows down from where i was this morning and after unpicking managed to twist some of the stitches without realising and so the hour or so's hard work i put in later had to be undone to correct another painful mistake, the problem is when unpicking i honestly don't have a clue how to unpick a stitch without twisting it in the process, whether i go into the front or back of the stitch i always seem to manage it to get it twisted somehow, any tips?

Another saturday afternoon picture of the alpaca wrap and me at the bowling green. Despite all the stress and hassle this past week (2 exams down 1 to go) it is growing slowly but surely. Anyway i wanted to write a little note on the joys of knitting in public. I find it a great way to spark a relationship with someone, just now in fact while mid row two ladies approached me, admired my work and enquired as to what stitch it was i was working in and one remarked that the yarn was so soft while the other remarked that her mother had been a knitter. Ok so the ladies in question were both over the age of 65 but even younger people find the craft interesting. Not too long ago i had a teenage boy dressed like a stereotypical thug approach me in the bus station while i was knitting a scarf and ask me in a very polite manner what i was doing and what it would be when done. I suppose i don't even need to go into the appeal knitting especially socks seems to have to little children on buses and trains, i lose track of the number of times a wide eyed youngster's sat with jaw dropped in wonderment at the needles flying round. The point is knitting in public can truly rock, and in a job where you have to latch onto anything your patients have an interest in order to find the key to gain their trust chatting to an old lady with depression so bad she hasn't spoken to anyone or eaten much for days about her latest knitting project, or giving an anorexic teenager a bit of confidence and self worth by teaching them to knit something beautiful can be more important than anyone would think. It might not be something that makes sense to a lot of people out there, but i'm sure knitters reading this who have the odd day when their stressed or feeling down will undertand just how therapeutic picking up needles can be.

As i'm officially a bowls widow for the majority of the afternoon and i'm fed up of revising i decided to crack on with the alpaca wrap . Apologies for the not so great photo but i'm experimenting with the blog function on my mobile phone. So far i'm finding the yarn an absolute joy to knit with, it's so soft and lovely i can tell that when it's finished i'll love it and hopefully so will any yet to be born children of my family.

very quick update as i'm currently up to my eyeballs in university work and revision, the silk sock did fit in the end and quite comfortably in fact. i started on the dreaded second sock and am pleased to say i haven't as yet developed second sock syndrome though with all the other things keeping me occupied there hasn't really been time. as well as the silk socks i've started on a pair of mitten come gloves (the broad street mittens from knitty.com for those interested) in a lovely shade of almost denim blue rowan designer double knit and as i speak am currently casting on for a wrap from the debbie bliss home book in a dusky lavender alpaca silk which arrived earlier today from an ebay seller which i got for an absolute bargain, so not only am i a happy knitter i also plan to be a very busy one over the next few weeks.