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)

had my first exam today, so that's a little bit off pressure off. won't hear about results for a few days yet so i'm crossing my fingers. in between biting my nails and fretting over correct handwashing techniques among other things i managed to finish another scarf today (shade 7 in debbie bliss soho, picture to come at some point once i have 5 minutes to get the camera out) and the mitten gloves are coming along ok to say i don't really have the time to get a quality few hours of knitting in now and then, the only thing is they're masively too big for my odd shaped hands. i should point out that i'm something of an amazon woman, in fact clothes shopping is next to impossible for me. last week for example i went to buy a new spring jacket and ended up having to buy a size maybe 2 larger than i would normally wear as the sleeves on the smaller size came to halfway up my arm, shop bought socks (ladies anyway) just aren't big enough to accomodate my long but slim feet, and while i have hands the same length as my boyfriend who's very much a grown man they resemble very long thin almost alien hands meaning that it's tough to find gloves to fit comfortably, and don't even get me started on the trouble of trying to buy a new pair of trousers or a skirt. i honestly believe i've picked the right hobby in knitting as off the hanger garments are never right. anyway i think this first pair of gloves will end up going to the long suffering boyfriend as a reward for putting up with my snapping and sheer horribleness over the past few days (exam stress and i do not a pretty couple make) and i shall just have to tweak things slightly on the next pair to make them a little better suited to my preportions.

just one last note, for those people who've contacted me lately about fawne, the pattern came from rowan #36.

the first silk sock is finally finished, and after sewing up the toe last night i looked triumphantly down at my work and was amazed at just how enormous the thing looks, i'm just hoping it will actually fit. in fact i'm pretty sure it will i'm just not quite used to knitting something so large and keep thinking that surely nobody has feet this big. anyway if it doesn't fit i just intend to go and sit in a corner and cry somewhere, the constant revision and studying has zapped me of any strength i may have had and if i have to read through my nursing code of conduct one more time i really will lose my mind.mif i go quiet for a week or so it's only because my exams start next week and sadly that doesn't leave too much time for knitting or even writing about it.