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.

I think I've found an activity I like almost as much as knitting... having fun on my newly acquired wii fit. After a trek to the other side of Yorkshire yesterday morning to pick up what I think may have been the last copy of the game in existence (and so escorting lsb back to the car in the guise of being his bodyguard as I'm sure he was convinced he'd be mugged for the game in the car park) I spent endless hours yesterday stood on a board, wiggling around in a rather strange manner pretending I had a hula-hoop round my middle, doing a variety of yoga poses and doing my best not to turn the air blue while straining my muscles doing some very odd things. Ah the fun! I'm sure all this exercise is very beneficial to my level of fitness and my figure, but I can't help feeling that there's a gap in the market for an activity that combines knitting with strenuous physical exercise. After all we've had extreme ironing, why not a spot of extreme knitting? Aside from the slightly scary pointy needles I'm sure it'd be a great idea. Anyway I'm going to go and think about installing a treadmill in the spare bedroom and seeing how good my multi-tasking skills are.

A very overdue update, I've finished my placement and about 5 minutes ago I finished my last essay of the year, it's now just awaiting printing off and handing in. I've also got five knitting er I mean reading weeks before I start my next placement - which actually sounds rather exciting (a community team for people with a history of disengaging from conventional mental health services).

I've managed to be quite productive in my time off, I finished the first rainbow sock but it's rather dull being stocking stitch throughout so I can't be bothered posting pictures right now. My next target's going to be finishing the second of my slalom socks, which I seem to have stalled on at about one and a half repeats down the leg. I genuinely love this pattern but given that lately my only free time in which to knit has been while travelling to and from work and the slalom sock is just a little too fiddly given that I have the memory of a fish (anyone remember Dory from Finding Nemo? Yep, that's me) so have to have something in which to keep count of my rows.  So with more than five minutes free time over the next few weeks I might actually get somewhere with the second sock and not feel quite so bad about the small amount of knitting I seem to be doing lately.

Finally finished the first slalom sock (zero free time and too much academic work do not a happy knitter make). I'm rather enjoying this project if I'm honest and as well as looking rather effective, for anyone with a bit of prior sock experience it's easy enough. I've already got lsb tugging on my sleeve and making puppy dog eyes when he asks when he can have a pair of his own. And yes, that funny blue looking chap holding my sock is the one and only cookie monster, he seems happy enough holding that rather than a cookie or two, and I'm sure his creators would agree it's more in keeping with his new healthy image (whoever decided to blame cookie monster for the rising tide of obese American children needs a serious psychiatric consultation). Anyway I'm rather proud of myself today, not only did I get my sock finished off and cast on for the second one I also got out and went for a rather refreshing run in the brief period of time when it doesn't rain in Yorkshire.

For anyone doing or thinking of doing the Slalom sock (It was in a recent issue of Yarn Forward magazine, don't ask me which one as my brain isn't working right now. But it had pretty fingerless lace mitts on the cover) don't make the same mistake I did, there's a typo in the chart that just doesn't sit right with me. So my tip of the day is to either follow the written instructions, or if you're the type of knitter who's more comfortable with charts rewrite the chart yourself in line with the typed instructions.

Freshly off needles are lsb's heel less socks, unfortunately the pictures don't show how bright they really are.















As per usual straight after this post is up I'll be starting on another replacement project. This time what I think is going to turn out to be a very nice pink version of Polly's slalom socks, and as lsb's purchased a camera battery for me as a reward for passing my last exam of the year I may actually get round to posting pictures on a regular basis.