More than football, more than anything else

I found a great card for the boyfriend in John Lewis.



And it's true! I even videoed the live cup game between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham to watch "as live" later on so that we could go for a nice walk and cup of tea at Blenheim this afternoon instead. I'm so happy that the palace is open again after the winter break. I'm looking forward to many more cuppas on the Water Terrace as the weather gets warmer.

The boyfriend and I don't make a huge big deal of V day (at least we try not to get sucked into the rampant commercialism of it all) but we had a nice dinner from M&S and some lovely champagne which was a pressie from my parents and we're going to watch Cyrano de Bergerac later which is both extremely funny and heart-breakingly sad. Anyway, I have a few Valentines links for y'all.

I just this minute came across the Missed Connections blog via Cast-On (thank you Brenda). This is so sweet and beautifully drawn.

I have loved xkcd (even if I don't get all, ok any, of the maths jokes) since I first came across it on Language Log (thank you linguistics geeks) and especially these four* Valentine's cartoons.

Finally go to Fat Orange Cat Studio if you want to know what cats do for Valentine's day.

Happy Valentine's day to all of you!!

[ETA: btw this is post number 500! Thanks for reading, I've really enjoyed blogging to all of you.]

[Also ETA: I just found another link for you. Apparently the boyfriend was looking for ukelele songs (no, really).]

* originally this read "two" but then I kept finding more of them!

Knit One (and Other)

On Monday evening I went to see One and Other (aka "the plinth") in Trafalgar Square in company with Felix, Lara, Brenda Dayne and a bunch of other knitters. We were all there to see Marian Cinnamond who was up there knitting on what looked like a sleeve between 6 and 7pm.



It was such a delight to meet Brenda who is the host of Cast-On my favourite knitting podcast. I've been listening to Brenda's while I knit for around four years now so it seemed perfectly normal to be sat alongside her in Trafalgar Square in the sunshine knitting and watching her swatch for another Liesl.



Felix was also swatching but on the gigantic needles with the ultra-chunky Swaledale rope yarn from Prick Your Finger.



Lara braved the very mucky floor and knit on her sock.



It was really fantastic to see the people on the plinth and to feel all the energy and enthusiasm around the project. If you're in London in the next couple of months I really urge you to take an hour and head over there - it's really inspiring. In fact I was so inspired that I've just signed up for the ballot now.

A hat a day

The deadline for sending in hats to Innocent Smoothies for their anuual Big Knit in aid of Help the Aged is earlier than usual this year on the 22nd October as I realised when listening to Cast-On last night. I've been a bit behind with my hat knitting this year and so resolved (in the mad way that one does at 1 in the morning) that I would knit a hat a day (on average) until it was tme to send the hats in. This should give me a total of at least thirty hats which is more than respectable.

Presenting..hat #1



I need a slightly smaller circle template for my pom-poms, at the moment they're coming out larger than the hats.

Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK
Needles: 3mm dpns

On the other end of the knitting scale I've finally made a decent start on the Anya sweater from Rowan 40. I had a go at casting this on months ago, got freaked out by the cable ribbing at the start (obviously Rowan don't believe in leading you in gently) and in the end ripped back because I wanted to use the needle for the Mystery Stole. One Mystery Stole later and I've completed the ribbing (which took the entirety of Shaun of the Dead) and made a start on the chart, which is worked mostly in KSH* and Kidsilk night stranded knitting with some beading thrown in for extra fun. At least the yarn is held double.



OK, they're playing the national anthem on Radio 4 so it's definitely time for bed now!

* Brenda Dayne describes this as a 'gateway' yarn, but I think it's more like the hard stuff.