i finished twinkletoes a couple of days ago and am just waiting for the slipper bottoms so i can sew them on and finish off properly. like the blurb on the pattern says they knit up very quickly and would make a great last minute gift. the only thing i didn't like was the yarn, calmer's lovely to touch and wear but it's a pain to knit with. because it's a yarn made up of two separate lengths it has a tendancy to unravel while you work which i found a pain especially when doing the cable cast on for the ties as i'd try and make a stitch and find only half my yarn coming out the other side. looking at the picture they look so tiny! like slightly overgrown baby booties. all the time i was knitting them i kept worrying about them not stretching far enough to accomodate my somewhat lengthy feet so i was surprised and very relieved to find that they fit very comfortably on my feet.

and as promised a picture of my latest scarf, apologies for the weird looking photo. the light just wasn't right when i took it. i promise you though the colours are a lot nicer than they look on there. i'll try again next time the camera comes out.

had a real nightmare day for travelling today, what's normally an hour and a half to two hour round trip into university and back toook me four hours today due to public transport still thinking they're on holiday. i actually managed to spend more time on buses and trains or waiting for the things than i did handing the assignment into university that was the purpose of my trip. normally when faced with this sort of situation i knit and i do so furiously, travelling projects grow at a rate never before seen just to give me something to do with myself until i calm down enough to not want to scream at some poor individual working for the transport company who had nothing to do with the power lines blowing down or the leaves on the line. but today no knitting took place, i feel quite ashamed of myself really. especially seen as my travelling project is the boyfriend's silk socks and he's starting to drop subtle hints that maybe i should be somewhere near finishing the second sock instead of struggling somewhere around the gusset of the first. i can't help it though - they're just so boring to knit. he will only wear ribbed socks it seems, anything with a more complex pattern than that it seems is just too "out there" i don't mind rib, it's a nice change from the ultimate monotony of stocking stitch, but he also won't wear brightly coloured socks. so i'm knitting a pair of socks, for a man with man size feet, in 3 by 3 rib, in navy. the sheer boringness of sitting down to knit these socks makes me want to cry at the moment, especially seen as i have the attention span of a gnat, when i'm knitting something like socks or a scarf if there's no exciting pattern to concentrate on i need a yarn with a bit of something special to it, something varigated in colour or thick and thin. anything to keep my attention for more than a few minutes.

i cast on for twinkletoes today http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTtwinkletoes.html yes i realise i really am a big kid, but as i never had ballet slippers as a child (mostly due to me being the biggest tomboy alive) i'm making up for it now, plus my feet are always freezing so i decided a pair of slippers might be a good idea. even better was the fact that by starting this project today i finally got around to learning how to crochet, or at least enough to do a crocheted cast on and i'd say that's a pretty good achievement.