winter

I love winter in this country. It is dark at 4.30pm and it all feels so cuddly-there is absolutely no guilt in snuggling down at home with the knitting needles and a pot of tea. All the blankets I have made are in use and knitting is a perfectly reasonable use of time.
I also love Christmas -as a Jew is is totally stress free-for me it means buying last minute food at the Supermarket-who cares what and watching loads of good tele. We also act as a support service for non Jewish friends who tend to make calls or visit when the extended family gets too much.
I find the whole time quite magical-in my opinion when you are cold you can get warm with more clothes but when I am hot and bothered there is buggar all I can do. Besides knitting in the heat is a little challenging.
So my beloved readers eat, knit, blob and enjoy!

a lot of ball winding

All the yarn I got is now in balls, samples in my knitting book waiting for a new battery in my scales to weigh it all. It was enourmously satisfying making up my own yarns from all these lovely threads.

I am now really determined to stop buying and start using-I really do have enough yarn to last an awfully long time.

Now is also drama group time-we put on a show each year at the end of January-it makes me feel really energised and motivated to get things done. I am now going to go and get work done for my knitting design course.

I throughly reccomend using Texere silk thread mixed with cotton to make up the most lovely yarns.

I also did the Christmas lights tour of the West End Harrods windows were based on the new James Bond movie-how tacky is that, Liberites was ho hum, Fortnum and Mason lovely-though the prices are simply unbelievable.Regent Street is simply gorgeous. Go look!

Joy oh joy

My friend and her Dad gave me free range on her late mother's wool collection-she was a machine knitter and I have had great fun mixing fine yarns together to make knitting yarn. An incredibly obsessive activity the need to finish the cone is almost too much. I am now getting space issues big time-Julie came to visit the yarn pile/me and took some home. I do not need to take advantage of every cheap/free yarn opportunity

Shiva highlights

Up to 24 men in our lounge doing their morning prayers with their white prayer shawls and tefillin-a haunting beautiful sight.
One of my dear friends going up to Clive and shoving homepathic remedy down his throat while he sat on the traditional low chair.
His friend coming down for the day from Leeds to pay her respects.
Cakes, cakes, cakes and biscuits-I have turned into some sort of mother Channukah handing out cakes to all and sundry.
Realising how lovely it is having so many visitors.
Simply stopping for a week.
Having people bring food all week and not having to cook-I tried to convince a friend she would grow as a human being if she would take on cooking for us on a weekly basis-she would have none of it.
My husband deciding to take on saying Kaddish for his Mum 3 times a day-shis means being at shul with at least 9 other men.
One morning when we had 9 men getting the neighbours teenage son to come to make up the minyan (group of ten men) this meant 9 men in suits and one half awake teenager in a dodgy yellow tee shirt.
Doing serious amounts of knitting
Getting back to normal-tele!

Sweet and sad

Israel, see above, was an amazing experience. We stayed with Hannah on her kibbutz which was a real milestone-staying at our child's home. It was lovely to be in Israel with someone fluent in Ivrit. We went to the wonderful market at Akko originally built by the Crusaders and found amongst the smutter beautiful glass balls that now hang in the garden, saffron, incredibly cheap embroidered cushion covers and stunning coffee. In the Akko market is a hummous resturant that people will cue to get into-they sell tea, coffee, coke and 3 types of hummous with various vegetables and pickles and pita. The food is almost thrown on to the table but is really lovely.

The daughter's new boyfriend is lovely and incredibly tolerant-the first time they went out she made him get changed. He cooks beautifully in this lovely simple Italian way-interestingly no onion in his tomato sauce.

The kibbutz is beautiful we has a meal with Joseph's kibbutz family-their home overlooks the hills of the upper Gallilee and to the left is Lebanon-all the homes have a bomb shelter.

The elderly members of the kibbuts all have golf carts and all 18 year olds get their own flats.

Everyone sorts of gets dressed up for Shabbat dinner but they also serve pork-all somewhat contradictory.

Hannah will be working with problem children in a boarding school preparing them for the army as her army service. Ah karmic revenge-she will be dealing with vile teenagers having been incredibly vile herself.-I will probably enjoy it all too much.

Then we found out that Clive's Mum was very ill and she passed on Shabbat. We were due to come home on Sunday anyway. The family had problems getting the death certificate and Jewish tradition requires we bury as soon as possible.

This meant finding out at 11am yesterday that she was to be buried at 2pm on the same day-I have never got food ready so quickly. Clive is sitting shiva at home. People were amazing -between the post levaya eating and the prayers at 8pm soup for everyone in the house appeared on the stove. Endless cups of tea were made and dishes washed-I have loads of meals in my fridge already and more cakes and biscuits that a small shop.

Clive is up and down but at times like this I realise how precious community is.

Election party

I will not attempt to write about the Barak Obama win-writers with far greater skill than me have written far more profound words than I ever could.
Last night we went to the Democrats Abroad party in a Bar/Resturant in Trafalgar Square. Ironically spending the evening with a load of Americans made me feel incredibly homesick even though I have spent very little time in America. Why? Like NZers Americans happily talk to strangers-such fun.
There were 2 english chappies there having dinner who did not know the party was planned for that evening. They were grumpy and sarcastic-sad sad. However this was not the norm-many of the Democrats there said that they were really touched by the number of english people who congratualted them on the election result.
Three of us abandoned knitting group for the night-such is the sacrifices of historical events

It has been far too long

The Holidays are over and it is time to get back to writing. I will try to blog twice a week.
Startitis and bus rides
I went on a fabulous Knitting workshop for my knitting course in Bournemouth. I met readers of this blog which was truly inspiring. Owing to what is known as 'planned works' on the rail but should be known as 'planned chaos' I took the bus home. I have decided it is just like knitting-beginning the trip is great-you sit back warm and relaxed enjoying the front seat view. But dear readers it changes-boredom sets in exacerbated by the complete closure of the north bound M4, the bum turns to concrete and all you want to do is get off the bus. But you can't-it is a matter of hanging in there till one arrives at the genteel surroundings of Victoria Bus Station. So it should be with knitting-no matter how traumatic the mistakes I will finish things, I will resist the call of the new yarn and that particularly appealing pattern.
Once I saw myself as a one project girl how this has changed. I will now complete the following before I begin anything else:
Gila's blanket
My socks
Hannah's socks
Hannah's jumper
Clive's socks (my son refuses to allow me to knit for him)
My scarf/mitten thingy
The sock wool cushion cover
The pink silk cotton wrap around begun last winter for the summer that has now gone.
I feel a little overwhelmed by this all.
My honorary American night
Anyway tonight is the American election which is a good excuse to knit.
Then Wednesday night I am going with some of the American women in my knitting group to a Democrats in London event to celebrate/mourn the election results. This is because of obsessive interest in the election and my commitment to The West Wing-all 7 series were obsessively watched.
Let us see what happens tonight

The waiting for the computer sock

That little egg timer on my computer drives me bonkers-it seems to take for ever. I have found a solution and am now calm and zen like whilst waiting for my computer to do connect to what ever it is I am waiting for. People I knit-I put a sock on my desk and with the greatest of ease I got a sock knitted in what used to be frustrating down time. I am not a naturally enthusiastic sock knitter but I love hand made socks-this seems a wonderful solution.

What did we do Saturday night?

After Shabbat went out did we:
1. Go out for dinner
2. Go to the theatre-something new and interesting.
3. Go rent a DVD, buy some lovely cheese and nice salads and settle down on the couch.
4. Or did the husband whilst muttering to himself about 'assignment', 'exam' and 'finances' practically dive into his office.In the meantime did I face the fact that it was very nice of me to offer to cook for friends for Yom Tov on Tuesday night, but that the reality is that Motzei Shabbat was the only conceivable time I could actually find time to once again chop onions and crush garlic.
Why did God in his wisdom squash all these Jewish holidays into such a short space of time?
When will the husband give up his non meat eating? If he can eat a fish I really don't see why we can't bung a chicken in the oven occaionally.
Next life I shall be a lesbian Buddist nun with an especially nice begging bowl.

The stash for sale

My local Help the Aged charity shop had some interesting looking yarn in the window. Inside the shop was even more yarn;half knitted projects even some still on needles, faded yarn, an old pattern and loads of odd balls. Yep someone had died/gone into a home and this was the stash being sold off. It was incredibly sad SABLE (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy) suddenly did not seem such a good idea.
All of this and Rosh Hashannah/Yom Kippur got me thinking. What do I value in the long run.
Knitting especially for my daughter and husband (my son is not all that keen on my efforts).
Friends Although I loved my mega watch of The West Wing-now all watched it was the the meals we shared over Yom Tov I really enjoyed. Especially cool was the meal with me Clive and a table of women. Clive coped but seems to now view the life of Utah polygamists with sympathy rather than envy.
Cultural stuff I am a lazy arse but when I get to Art galleries, BBC audience events etc I really really enjoy it.
So for the new year-knit, socialise and get out more often.
The thing is all of this can be so cheap-I have a range of super cheap recipies, lots of events are free and I do have a stash to use prior to my death.

Non verbal communication at Cold Spring Mill

We have just got back from 10 days holiday in Scotland. We went via Yorkshire and by a stroke of luck managed to stay close to Cold Spring Mill. What makes it all the more amazing is that last time we went to Scotland we managed to stay in Stoke on Trent which means we were able to easily visit the Portmerion seconds shop.
We did get to Cold Spring Mill-twice and New Larnark once.
The first visit to Cold Spring Mill was a wonderful example of the way we of almost 20 years of marriage really don't bother talking all that much-we have looks instead.
i.e
Clive said "Am I paying for this"
I said "Yes"
The looks went like this
Me: Look I know this is a huge pile of wool but it makes me so happy and it is really really cheap.
Him: You have got to be joking. Do you think I am made of money? Remember we have just redone the bathroom.
Me: I am an incredibly inexpensive wife-how much do I ask you for-ah go on. Please.
Him: All right but I am going to refer to this for months.

Finally thank you to everyone who contacted me about Max it really helped

Good bye Max

We found our beloved cat Max dead in the garden this morning. He was 15-16 years old and had kidney disease, arthritis, cataracts and had been losing weight. Yesterday he looked extremely weak and could barely drink.
Even so his death is an utter shock and I feel completely bereft.
When we came to England in 1998 with our then 7 and 8 years olds we decided to adopt cats within 2 weeks of arriving to ease the transition to a new place and unexpectedly strangely different culture. Max and Izzy came from a elderly woman who had to move into sheltered accomodation and could not take her cats with her. We got them the day before the were to be put down.
Izzy (still healthy) is completely neurotic-she moved into Aaron's room when we had a dog and till this day she barely leaves.
Max, massive big ginger Max on the other hand has always been remarkaby friendly. No matter the teenage dramas, conflicts going on in the house he has always loved us all.
He seemed to love people who found him frightening (he was big) and took great pains to stay close to them to be a comfort. He was remarkably gentle and would gently tap out shoulder with his paw when he wanted to be stroked. He spent hours with both children cuddled up on couches and on the ends of beds. I am sure he did more to get both of them through adolescence than any of the therapists/counsellors etc we tried.
Max learnt to sit next to me with his head on my lap when I was knitting to not get in the way when I put the needles down he would come into my lap.
Thank you Max thank you for everything you gave to us.
Thank you

E Bay Joy

I decided to buy an armless chair for knitting and found the above on E-Bay for a fiver. The seller was also advertising a singer sewing machine in a cabinet. I told him I would offer him £10 pounds for it if he couldn't sell it for more.

He didn't sell it and Julian kindly took me to pick it up in Edgware on Thursday (his car is significantly bigger than Clive's) When we got there we met the sellers wife. It turned out that they were selling up his mother's home and contents as she is now in a nursing home. When we were there I also noticed the sewing box above that they did not know what to do with and the wife offered it to me for another fiver.

It was full of absolute treasures-the 1956 Women's Weekly pages on cleaning hints, the wonderful biscuit box and all sorts of odd things like the leather repair kit and tin full of stocking mending thread above.

The sewing machine also had old Simplicity Sewing books-I really love finding such things-I do not think they have any real value but I love them.

The joy of these finds helped me cope with dinner that night-Julian kindly took Clive and me to dinner to say thank you for staying. On the way there Clive had 'one question' to do with his econometrics assignment. This one question lasted all through dinner and all the way home. Is it socially acceptable to knit when dining in a resturant.

I love American politics

Imagine Aaron Sorkin (the wonderful writer of The West Wing-up to series 3 on my watch them all binge). pitching the following idea to his producers.
The aging Republican candidate decides to make his ticket more hip by choosing a woman as his running mate.
He rushes approval through so checks are not done properly and it soon comes to light that:
She supported Alaskan Independence
She believes in creationism
She does not believe that humanity is responsible for global warming
She is the subject of an ethics investigation for trying to get her brother in law fired from his job as a state trooper for divorcing her sister.
Her 17 year old is pregnant to a bloke who described himself as 'a f**king red neck on Facebook.

The producers would say 'aw no way mate who'd believe that' -or however you say that in American. But it has happened-simply incredible.
I went and bought shoes today and changed into a woolen top. Yep Autumn is with us and knitting season is here once more. I am doing a big mohair blanket-big stitches no pattern-lovely-goes well with The West Wing

I shall overcome

On the last Skipnorth trip I attempted to spin with a spindle and I was completely useless. I have decided the time has come to overcome this.
We went to a fab craft fair at a stately home on Sunday and I picked up this wool fibre for £2. Is that cheap? expensive? OK? I really don't know but Clive paid-bless him. I now have a bid in on a lovely but cheap spindle with ebay and using You Tube I will learn to spin. I really will. I hope.
I am also overcoming stash neurosis-I have some lovely aran weight cashmerino in a soft grey. I have not known quite what to do with it-Hannah was really keen but unsure. I am now using it for long slouchy socks I am knitting for a friend, myself and Hannah. I had lots of socks in this pattern in cotton that Hannah hupped to Israel. I really loved them and in this yarn they will be complete bliss-I have realised I will really enjoy using the yarn this way even if it is not quite what I originally imagined doing.

Simple Pleasures

Sometimes I have great conversations with total strangers that makes me feel that life is really not that bad.
Today I went to Sainsburys really early and the nice woman who chopped up my fish for me (makes fish curry so much easier)and I talked about instant meals. As she pointed out some of them can take up to 18 minutes to microwave and we reckoned we could get pan fried fish, salad and potatoes on the table in much the same time with out the chemicals, salt and fat. What stops people-washing a pot? facing a frypan? Very sad I am old enough to have owned a wringer washing machine in my distant past-washing a pot pales to comparison.
Anyway this made me feel on a roll.
Small diversion by way of explanation. Approximately 50,000 Israelis get discharged from the army every year and about a third go to India. Many come back to Israel a little spiritually arrogant and often woefully spiritually ignorant at the same time. Hannah met one such charm bucket who told her that chick peas are not used in Indian cooking.
I was telling my friend Julian about this bizarre level of ignorance and he pointed out that there may be some places in India where chick peas are not used. As you may have already worked out Julian has more niceness in his big toe than in my entire soul.
Anyway the checkout lady at Sainsburys was from India and I told her the story-she said chick peas are used all over India. It turned out she has a relative that runs a boarding house in India and she knows Israeli travellers well. We ended up doing cosmic Israeli traveller imitations and it was truly funny-even more so as you do not really expect to end up in fits of laughter at the Sainsburys checkout-as I say life is alright

Tea pots and other weaknesses

I got this wonderful Wedgwood Tea Set for £6.25 at our local Red Cross Charity Shop half price sale. Oh joy, even if I probably have a few too many tea pots already. I noticed this set walking past the shop after hours. I did not know what it was put I was pretty sure it was good. I am getting a nose for second hand china-we all have our skills.
My other skill is de-tangling yarn and sewing up garments. One of our knitting group has sewing up issues and we have agreed I will sew up one of her projects for some cotton yarn-love the exchange economy.
If I have a tea pot collecting thing the husband has discovered Facebook and more often than is appropriate for a man in his 50's I find him collecting Facebook friends. I really do not know where this hunter gatherer thing comes from-he is a middle class Jewish boy from Surrey.
I did mention other weaknesses. pause deep breath. No it's not drugs or some bizarre perversion with tea pots it's The Westwing-I am back at series one and intend to work my way through them all. It is this alternative Bush free fairy tale. My only justification is it is great for getting boring knitting done.

Van Morrison

I went to see Van Morrison on Saturday night with knitting friends. I took one of those very low ( i.e about 4" from the ground) camping chairs. The security guard told me I could not bring it in. I told him I had gynecological problems (not true) and therefore needed a chair. This failed to move him and he still said no. I then told him I had had an operation in my vagina. As soon as I said the word vagina he looked terrified and let me in chair and all.
Why oh why are men so scared of the word vagina?
Heterosexuals are rather keen on putting vulnerable pieces of their anatomy in them and they will use the somewhat vulgar aggressive slang for vagina all the time. Yet the word seems to terrify them-I find this bizarre.
The concert was great and we of course had the most fabulous picnic between us. One group adjacent to us had a wide range of alcohol, loads of fags (outdoor picnic concerts seem to be some sort of smokers liberation meeting) and one of those packets of pistachio nuts available at all good off licences. We took pity and offered them some hand made ginger nuts, reaching out across the social divide.
I also love going to the loo at these things-the cues take forever and you get to bond with total strangers and get their life stories. Maybe the fact that boys miss out on loo cue bonding somehow result in vagina terror-interesting thought.

This is my beautiful button collection all in charity shop vases. J suggested I put it on the blog and she was right. I will not comment on the anal retentive colour sorting.
Three of us from knitting are going to see Van Morrison on Sat night-bliss. Going with 2 other knitters and a very tolerant partner (not mine he refused to come) means it is ok to knit-double bliss.
The son got his A level results today 2 B's and a D. I am trying to be cosmic and tolerant and nice about this not easy-he is extremely bright and not at all motivated. Something like his parents-my B+ average degree was something of a miracle bought about by the overnight essay and his father is extremely bright.

The Olympics

I got the guilts and thought that with all the money, all those people, all that effort I should really watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
I still felt guilty.
At one point the bread maker beeped indicating it was time to shape challah-by the time I got or back to the screen the commentator was saying that "they spent a year rehearsing that" and I missed the entire thing.
Commentators talk about these huge world wide audiences but who watches the every nano second? People drink tea, answer phone calls, use the loo and shape challah. I personally did all four.
I also became a bit Daily Mailish about the athletes on their mobile phones. They spend their lives working towards getting to the Olympics and then on the Opening Ceremony parade they talk on their phones. Now bizarre. What happened to being in the moment? Who are they talking to?
I have just finished 9 pairs of slipper socks and never want to do that pattern again.

bags and men

This is my new shopping bag knitted in very cheap Lidl cotton (doubled) and using some of my lovely vintage buttons. The bag was very easy-4 rectangles but the zips on both bags, the seams, buttons etc took much longer than actually knitting it. It does work well-it stretches out well and carries loads.

Now Men.

We had a wonderful cultural clash on Monday at aqua aerobics. The regular teacher was away and we had a tall loud male-the type used to adoring women. He failed to understand 3 things when teaching middle age women

1. We do not do 'whoo'.

2. We consider instructions to be more of a suggestion than something we have to do. In fact one of our regulars always ends up sitting on a woggle 'cycling' up and down the pool. She will do this no matter what-crashing into people moving backwards or getting ineveryones way when we do 'abs'exercises. Our instructor found this somewhat incomprehensible.

3. Popping into the pool to chat to your friend who is sort of doing the class is normal.



The husband.

If I ate like my husband I would look at doors in a very different way as I would probably not fit through most of them.

Last night he seemed surprised to find his stomach sticking out a bit. Apparently he had not eaten anything out of the norm.

So we unpicked his day's eating. Every contract my husband gets he finds a sweet thing to eat with his lunch time cup of tea. He then sticks to the chosen sugar fest the entire time he is at that contract. Sometimes it is small cereal bars-sometimes 2 crunchie bars a day. At the moment it is a daily Bounty Bar-he is maintaining himself on one a day. He also had 2 'small' Krispy Kreme doughnuts-if they are small I would hate to see his definition of a large doughnut.
He also had fried fish cakes and fried veges(?) for lunch. What makes this all intolerable is that if he manages to give up the daily chocolate bar and nothing else at all, the weight falls off.
OK I admit to jealousy.

Let the rain not stop us

We went to the Innocent Village Fete at Regents Park on Sunday.Although the whole thing shamelessly pushes the Innocent corporate image it still was a lovely day.
Lots of interesting music including the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, great food, surprisingly good poetry and of course the knitting tent.
Sunday was a very English summer day i.e loads of rain. But masses and masses of people were there. It was sort of "we're English and we have an umbrella and can therefore go anywhere and attempt anything even if we're a bit crap at it". It was enough for me to almost forgive England for being one of the many nations who have robbed the All Blacks of their entitlement to the Rugby World Cup-but let me not go there.
The poets were great but why oh why do middle class boys doing a poetry slam in Regents Park about Freud and Jung (oh my loves I kid you not) thing that putting on a bad imitation of a black ghetto accent is a good idea. Maybe when Cameron becomes PM young middle class men will feel OK about their roots again and will dust down their old school ties lovingly kept in the back of the wardrobe behind the carefully ripped jeans and scruffy but not too scruffy tee shirts.
Anyway back to umbrellas-I could not help but notice that most of us have incredibly battered cheap small umbrellas. Maybe we need to go back to big strong umbrellas-the type your child could inherit to regain national pride. Was the British Empire built on a Evening Standard freebie umbrella? Then I had the horrible thought-there are far to many people in London now to cope with big umbrellas-we would poke each others eyes out and there would be umbrella jams on Oxford Street. Depressing thought.

Weak weak weak

I thought I had ended the West Wing with series 6 but there is a final series 7. My friend has the boxed set and it haunted me. I have borrowed it and somehow find time to watch 2 episodes a day-even though I know I will feel really awful when it is over-like a binging crack addict I compulsively keep watching-living in this alternative reality of intelligent government.
My weakness does not end there. I keep starting more and more projects. I can justify MY FIRST COMMISSION, which also justifies watching the West Wing whilst knitting. But how do I justify the wrap cardigan that I buggered up and needs reknitting, the grey silk/wool jacket, the crochet squares, the socks, the slipper socks for all and sundry and the 2 shoppping bags all that need finshing. Before I know it I'll not be sewing in my ends as I go.

Taking photos, common sense and the mathematician

My friend Julian is quite simply a lovely person and profoundly intelligent-he has a Doctorate in Maths. Once when I was feeling especially humbled and stupid in comparison he told me that I had common sense and he didn't. Last night this common sense was needed. Julian went to the USA today to work on Maths Camp (where young maths genius types spend their summer doing maths and not being the maths freak for once). Last night I had to help him pack up all his belongings to send them to storage. There was stuff everywhere-Julian was very proud of the fact that he had packed 7 bookcases up. However there was still lots of rotting food left over from organic boxes, other food, papers, clothes etc etc. My job was to sit there, knit to maintain my sanity and yell at Julain not to look at bits of paper, especially bits of paper with fun maths on it. (Did you know maths can be beautiful or fun?)

Moral of the story-knitting keeps you sane in all sorts of situations.

Yesterday during the day I went all around London with a camera taking photos of anything that caught my eye especially focussing on colour. I am no artist but the more I look the more I see and it is incredibly satisfying. Some of these will be used to do stripped samples for my City and Guilds course-I really reccomend a day with the camera-you will see your stash in a new light.

Age embrassing moment

These are photos of Ruthie in her super quick knit bat wing jumper-it is actually a teal colour but this has not come out.

Amazing how good batwings can look something to do with the fact that she is 20 and has not added massive shoulder pads a la the 1980's.

The buttons are completely fabulous-the poor husband simply cannot see the appeal.

Had one of those moments-for some reason my phone started playing the music Hannah loaded on to it when it was hers-I felt like a top of the bus thug walking down the road with my Justin Timberlake shrieking on my phone.

I asked for help in the changing room of the gym. The woman I asked had no clue either-we tried randon button pushing and looking inteligent all to no avail. Finally this woman who was under 30 came in and we lunged at her with this phone now playing some god awful hip hop. (Is it just me or does any one else listen to that music and think it's only justification can be to compensate for the singers minute genitalia and lack of sexual prowess.) The poor woman looked a little worried by our presence but managed to turn the thing off in a nano second-another aged moment.

Oh joy

My neighbour has given me her button collection-oh joy! She is 73 and some are her grandmothers oh joy joy.
Time to go off and sort buttons-oh joy

Knitting the bat wing

My relationship with sock knitting is not going all that well. Learning magic loop really improved my relationship with sock knitting but the spark has now gone. I am still under the spell of the big needle thing.
I finished knitting a bat wing jumper for Hannah's friend Ruthie-wonderful-2 pieces Aran weight and it looked great when it was finished.
I am now doing a jacket for me in a lovely textured wool/silk mix-no buttons, no bands, it just needs a broach to hold it together in all it's simplicity.
In fact I should be honest I am currently in a brain dead knitting phase while in a good book reading phase along side minimal tele, difficult Sudukus and even more Radio 4 than normal. Maybe my brain can only tolerate so much loftiness and I need to be brain dead in some part of my life.
I went with a friend to see the Last Deb exhibition at Kensington Palace. The construction of the dresses was absolutely fabulous and as for the lingerie and gloves-quite frankly I think I was born in the wrong era. We then saw the Diana dresses and quite frankly in comparison they were shit. The 1950's dresses although most of them were in small sizes were still shaped for a women where Diana's dresses looked ideal for a skinny transexual.-Let us all celebrate the wonders of the pleat and the dart!

Being inspired is just seeing things differently

We spent the weekend on the Isle of Wight which we love-quiet, slow and sunny and we didn't see a Starbucks or a Weatherspoons all weekend. The thing about being away is you have the space to really look at the world around you. Doing the City and Guilds course with the wonderful Loraine McClean is that I am begining to understand that design is not necessarily about thinking up brilliant things but also seeing brilliant things around you and using them in your work. I really liked the colours in this rusty container I saw and the juxtaposition of these boats on the shore. When I saw this cliff face at the Needles I saw lace knitting-should I worry?

The husband does incredibly complexcomputer stuff for a living and compensates by refusing to read instructions in his spare time. This is a middle class Jewish boy version of macho behaviour. This is why it took years for him to grasp the concept of his IPod "What's my library?" "Playlist?" He now has completely got it and is obessing about playlists. But he has no fun music-no 'Sugar Sugar' by the Archies, no Motown, no Dolly. Essentially music to bop to whilst washing the floor or cleaning the kitchen.....but wait why would he need music to mop to he wouldn't know what a bloody mop was for!

He has kindly offered me the chance to use his download service and make my own playlist-however we will put it on in the car and after 2 tracks he will look like he is in the process of root canal surgery and we will have to turn it off and go back to male jazz wank.

We went to the most beautiful garden run by the National Trust. We got there before it opened and found ourselves waiting amongst a gaggle of other middle age couples-is this what we have become-I was somewhat cheered by the sight of the husband bending over obsessively looking for butterflies and bugs to photograph when he gets his new groovy camera which is currently still a fantasy. The Guardian is too blame for this one with their handouts of insects 2 weeks ago.

May be we should have gone to Glastonbury after all.

knitting for others and M&S bras

Slipper's for my friends daughter who is going through teenage angst, (who would want to be 13 again?) and wanted some home made slippers. They were dyed with Kool Ade, it's very scary how good it is at dying yarn the stuff is.

Hannah's I Pod and Camera cover-some of her friends found these hillarious but she loves them.

Who needs cocaine when you can buy a new bra that fits my less than delicate bosom for £14 at Marks and Spencer. The woman who increased the size range of bras at M&S deserves a sea view in the world to come. It is amazing how great a new bra makes me feel-breasts defying gravity and posture remarkably improved-as I say who needs drugs.

I have decided that the reason I love my knitting group so much is that knitters are incredibly nice people. We all get really enthused about knitting for others. It is this generosity of spirit that is so nice to be around.

I have now worked out photos on my latest computer-the husband's reject. For some reason that are all entitled the 'Acestar Solutions VAT form' I would ask the husband to sort it out but this gives him too good an opportunity to be sarcastic.

He is in pre new I Pod mode. He took over a year to really get his I Pod that I lovingly bought for him but now he is really into it. He is making play lists and down loading music with gay abandon. He is also a little put out as the daughter's I Pod has 40 times the memory of his. I give it 6 months max before we happen to go past the Apple shop on the way to John Lewis for coffee and just happen to go in...

shopping and my lovely readers

This is so cool-I have readers in the USA and Israel (that's the daughter), thank you for reading-you are members of a small but growing band of tasteful people.
Anyway, shopping-me and the husband just do not do shopping. Clothes shopping is simply depressing most of the clothes I see, if they fit would look simply hideous and why oh why do manufacturers think women of my size want to wear polyester-manutacturers women who have a body bigger than a size 10 need fabric that breathes.
I have found a catalogue/on line retailer who does well fitting cotton clothes that are long and wide enough -last week I checked how much I have bought from them-it is embarrassing. I hope they do not see me as some sort of mad retail stalker.
Anyway today we had to buy various household things including tiles. The husband is amazing he looks completely miserable if he ever has to spend more than £50. The poor chap trying to sell him tiles ended up feeling sorry for him as he painfully hands over his credit card. He can even make Hannah feel guilty something I cannot do.
We are now shopped out and he is lying on the bed recovering. This pain of shopping somehow dissipates in DIY stores and for some bizarre reason stationary shops weird but true. He actually gets all quivery at Staples.
My reaction to a good charity shop is to embrassing to be anything else but private

Life changes

It is looking really hopeful for my new job working in an Orthodox school doing one to one. Less status but less stress and more job satisfaction-although I was inevitably incredibly busy as a social worker I very often felt I was achieving essentially nil.
I am attempting let go-I must not tell my son to be careful with his money until he finds a job-that is up to him.
The daughter may be in a dodgy absorption centre on the outskirts of Tel Aviv with the majority of her property scattered around flats in Jerusalem but that is her problem and I have given her the scarf, jumper and blanket and now must accept whatever their fate is.
We have friends coming for Friday night and I am really looking forward to it. I realise I should invite more often cause it is so nice when I do. I wish the husband would give up the anti meat thing-I would love to simply roast a chicken.
Once again my work plans went down the toilet as I faced the mountain of ironing that accumulated-it is so annoying ironing is even more revolting in summer but you end up changing more often and doing more.
Discipline is needed.

Time management melt down

Tuesday morning is the time to work on my course work for the City and Guilds Knitting Design course. I know this is so as it is written into my weekly timetable. However it is now 11.32 am and I have managed to fill the morning booking British gas, ordering groceries, and a whole range of other quick to dos. I am weak and undisciplined! It is amazing how easy it is to while away time.
The discussion has been had with the son who took his impending financial responsibility really well. I am pleasantly surprised.
I now have 2 episodes of the West Wing to go and will probably go into some sort of withdrawl-I will resist the tempation to rent another series-it is a gold medal time waster and even puts emails to shame.
Work calls!

Big needles

Does anyone else have the need to occasionally get out the BIG needles? 12 rows and the band is done love it love it. I am making a bat wing jumper for Hannah's friend Ruthie. Hannah wants a specific pattern with a list of subtle though mathematically challenging changes in a specific yarn that does not quite match the pattern anyway. Ruthie pointed to a pattern said 'that one' and had a range of acceptable yarns. The bat wing is done in 2 pieces, front and back. So easy. A bit of easy knitting and my current obsession with watching the DVDs of the final series of the West Wing is keeping me sane while:
the husband threatens to buy a digital SLR to run around fields attempting to photograph butterflies. No chance of persuading him that yarn stores of the nation is a much more interesting topic.
The son has his final A level exam on Monday and has reguarly looked horribly stoned in the last 2 weeks. We intend making the July allowance his last-he is blissfully unaware that adult life beckons. We will announce this when he finishes exams.
The daughter got to Israel to find the UJIA had not booked her into an absorption centre and she is on the couch at a friend's flat-essentially homeless, 19 and overseas. She tells me that it is sunny and beautiful so thats OK then.
I say thank god for the comfort of the occasional 10mm needle project.

How to get over 100kg of luggage on to a plane and other life skills

Yes the daughter left home yesterday. She was a little deranged by the time we got to Heathrow which is apparently incredibly useful when checking in luggage. The allowance for Olem is 60 kilos. The first of her three bags was 50kg and they did not even question her. However this being El Al bags are x-rayed prior to check in and she was asked why she had china and a sewing machine in her bags. She was being met at the Airport by 2 friends and a friend's boyfriend who was roped in to help with the baggage-poor bloke.
Hannah told us that she would not cope if we fell apart and we managed to be remarkably calm` Having a really nice though airport priced lunch-it only got difficult at passport control where of course we met another family we know on their way to Israel. Hannah briefly asked if we would be able to come through with her but I figured even 2 Margoli women would not get away with that one. At the last minute she pushed a lovely letter she had written to both of us. Made me feel we have done ok by this child.
I spent last night with West Wing DVDs (my local Blockbusters being unbelievable cretins did not have "The Peep Show") and chocolate ice cream. I did not even knit. I believe the occasional night of complete sloth and nutritional kamakaze has great therapeutic value.
I do not worry too much about this child (her brother I worry). We bought her a camera from Argos-well her father paid and I ran around. It only took 5 photos before saying the memory was full. It turns out that cameras from Argos are sold without a memory card and you have to buy it separately. Apparently it says so on the web site and in the catalogue, however as we did not use a magnifying glass to read the web site we missed this piece of vital information. Hannah told the manager she knew she had no legal rights in this case but that she was very upset and should have gone to a reputable retailer like John Lewis. The thing is once she gets going SHE DOES NOT STOP. The manager offered her the memory card half price at £10, although it was not due to be sold at that price till next week. This almost stopped the torrent gushing from my daughters mouth but not quite so he gave her a £5 voucher that bought the price down to a fiver. She is good.
Back home her room is now my knitting space-all rearranged, tidy and actually dusted-not Hannah's forte. The spare room awaits knitters called to London

Gulp

The daughter could be making Aliyah (moving to Israel) in 8 days. I am in complete denial-I will be back to living with my cave dwelling husband and son. I am now on the waiting list for revellry which I hope will help. Hannah did child from hell from 12 to 16 inclusively and I now look back and laugh-it is amazing how time changes your perspective.
example-seeing my 14 year old storming down the road going to school in her huge clumpy shoes and long black coat looking like a skinny adolescent Darth Vader.
-tragic at the time as she was well into achieving most challenging pupil status at her incredibly hard to get into grammer school
Both my kids are incredibly stubborn and independant and very principled in their own way. I am grateful and proud as I do not think I would have coped with wimps. Hannah and the IDF will be interesting to watch.
This means I do get my knitting room back so not all bad!

The daughter is forgiven and hard core organisation

Knitting Organisation
I realised I have a huge amount of great patterns and other bits of knitting information. However I find it difficult to go through the piles of patterns and the magazines. So I am biting the bullet and making up folders, womens patterns in one place, socks another etc (so many sock patterns. How? Why?)
It is all taking much more time that I ever realised but I feel suitably noble.
Hannah has found her bag!
It was in the back of a cupboard at her work. Talking of bags we went to Sex and the City on Sat night. The theatre was full with about 10 men of which 2 looked heteroexual. Great fun, brainless and partly an extended advertiement for over priced hand bags but till enjoyable. Anyway who wants deep and meaningful all the time.
I then vaguely rediscovered youthful pursuits by escorting my child for Tapas and Sangria in Camden Town. I am amazed how many young women look completely and utterly miserable on their big night out. One feels like going up to them and recommending birkenstocks, tea and a good book. I am perfectly willing to run anyone's life who will let me and do the matchmaking

The make up bag is no more

Hannah who often has a brief and fleeting relationship with her possessions has lost the make up bag. A replacement will not be made! I hope whoever found it on the streets of Camden appreciate the work.

I have along term ear ring fantasy-one day I find spread out on a table every ear ring I have ever lost reunited with their partners-it is a beautiful moment. Sort of like the film at the Mormon Temple Information Centre where the dead are reunited with their families. Pesonally I would prefer to be reunited with my ear rings than most of my dead relations. Anyway I now have the fantasy being reunited with the knitting I have done for Hannah that has been lost.

I have just realised the Mormon thing probably needs some explanation. I grew up in Hamilton NZ where the Mormon Temple for the Pacific can be found. Trust me there was buggar all else to do as a stoned teenager and the electronics were suitably impressive.

At this difficult time may I present some of my teapots. My genuine Brown Bettys and 2 Alfred Meakins

Max is snoring

Max is asleep as per usual and all seems well in the world. I have once again changed work patterns. I was doing part time South London Child Protection social work. This was followed by an extended period of unemployed recovery during which I realised how many repeats there are on Radio 4. I am now working 10 hours a week as a home based P.A doing anything from cleaning to research. I also hope to be doing one on one work in a strictly Orthodox primary for 10 hours a week.-mental note to buy long sleeved tee shirts. This means my work is often physical and I feel much better for it. I also do 3 Aqua aerobics classes as well-very noble. So how does this connect with knitting? It all seems to flow so much easier when I feel well and not stressed and the decrease in income means I will actually use my stash!

Forgiving men in fast cars.
I alway thought fast techno whiz bang cars were a dick extender for the sexually inadequate. I now have my 2nd pair of Addi double pointed needles to magic loop socks with and I am besotted-it is totally different to the other ones I had. I now formally apologise for decades of sarcastic words and thoughts-I now appreciate precision engineering.

How I envy the cat

This is Max. He is about 15 years old; it is hard to be exact with a rescue cat. Max has cataracts, kidney problems and very stiff joints. He thumps down the stairs like an extra in 1950's horror movie

We also suspect that if cats canbe senile he is. He will cry for food and we have to shake his bowl to remind him about eating when hungry. Yet he is incredibly content, amazingly affectionate and adored by us all. Interestingly his sister Izzie who is from the same litter and completely neurotic is absolutely healthy. The only person she has time for is the anti social teenage son.

How on earth did I mange to get this writing in Hindi

my title was changing into Hindi-I found some thingamijig that I have now turned off. The Mexicans have gone three of them smartly dressed in black plastic bags as they do not own raincoats-apparently it rains for two weeks a year in Mexico. They seem to think it will not rain in Europe for the 6 weeks they are there-makes me wonder about the quality of geography teaching in Mexico. All in all it was fun having them-I feel the need to tell the dishwasher how much I appreciate all it's hard work.
As usual it is the differences of daily life I found interesting i.e
One of them went to a Conservative Jewish school where he was taught Yiddish-unimaginable here.
They talked about the air pollution in Mexico City there schools had a flag system-greem ok to run about outside, orange walk out side. red sit outside only and black stay indoors and P.E lessons became Backgammon.
They all grew up with maids and lacked basic skills like coffee making. They made sincere but incompetent efforts to tidy up after themselves. One of them said their maid converted to Judaism. They all describe the maids becoming part of the family-I can't really see that but obviously a different world. One of them said they paid for their maid to attend school one day a week.
The daughter is slumped in the love of my life is gone misery on her bed with Family Guy DVDs. She does seem to have a remarkably mature attitude about it all-Ruthie (her best friend) is due this afternoon to watch movies with her on the couch with therapeutic dosages of Ben and Jerry's.
Confession Time
Knitting Neurosis Part one (of way too many)
I am incapable of having a number of projects on the go and doing what ever I fancy. I mean how
hard is that!
I am working this system of finishing a project then doing one sock, adding a colour to my left over sock wool scarf mitten thing (a photo on completion is promised) doing the next sock adding another colour to the scarf and then doing the next project. On completion the scarf will be replaed by working on log cabin cushion covers.I am also doing all corrections before beginning anything new. Hence my knitting stretches before me life some sort of sentence-if anyone i like this please let me know-I need not to feel alone.

Other cool photos or I will do this without disturbing the husband

How do you rotate pictures? This is the husband looking especially calm and happy in Israel-I very occasionally irritate him

I love china and my daughter has inherited this obsession. She took this soon after coming back from Israel. I have a major teapot collection-latest aquisition is a Alfred Meakin 60's teapot and matching milk jug for 99p from the local Age Concern shop.

Ok. These are Hannah's Mexican Jewish friends she met in Israel collapsed on her bed. The poor babies thought they would get through Heathrow in 30 minutes. They are currently running around London doing touristy things we Londoners never seem to get around to. Be honest when is the last time you went to the British Museum or saw the Changing of the Guard. Having people to stay makes me realise how much I fundamentally love my environmentally incorrect dishwasher

Look I can upload photos!

Why oh why have I avoided doing this-the world is full of people who can put photos online-if junior South London criminals can why can't I? I will now photograph the make up bag I knitted for the daughter (and lined, stitching it by hand) and put it on this blog-more in 5 minutes or so...

Ok so it took a little longer than 5 minutes and I had to get the husband to help but no one else in this family seems capable of wiping down a sink so we all have different skills.

This was fun to do, it is not so clear but it does say slap.