Hello France!

All I want to say here is I DID IT!!!!!!!!


And after swimming 22 miles, I deserve all of those exclamation marks! (and that one too). I finally finished the swim on Friday night, when I tootled up and down the pool for the last 48 lengths, full of a cold but determined to complete on schedule. (I may now be paying for that foolishness given that I'm off sick and on antibiotics for the worst cold I can ever remember having.) Ah well, I've raised £296.50 plus gift aid to date, and there are still a couple of people who've said they'll sponsor me but haven't put pen to paper yet. All in all, I reckon that that was worth doing.


P.S. Anyone reading this who hasn't sponsored me and feels like throwing a few pounds in, click the sponsor button on my blog! Thanks x

Splash!

Woohoo! Yes, that's me swimming a mile! I did it! Lots of exclamation marks because I'm pretty proud of myself!

I managed the full mile on Thursday morning, and then a further 60 lengths on Friday afternoon, so that's this week's quota all done. I'm getting into it now, and am usually surprised at how quickly the time goes. Now that the psychological barrier is broken, and I know I can swim more than 40 lengths quite comfortably, I'm raring to go. Plus, no volleyball match this Monday, so that's only half the muscle ache that I'd usually have before I even start on the swimming. I have the feeling that things can only go well this week!

Oh, and before I go, Woohoo! again!

A brief update

Well, swimming so far hasn't been too bad. I managed 90 lengths in week 1, which was less than schedule by 30 in the interests of personal wellbeing. Note to all - social swim sessions on Saturdays are no good unless you're under 15 and like to divebomb, do handstands, practice underwater swimming, or are not bothered about being accidentally kicked, jumped on or swum in to.

Week 2 was a little more fruitful, I managed 130 lengths, which ate into the deficit a little. Last week was week 3, and due to the start of the volleyball season, I only managed the scheduled 120 lengths. This week I haven't been at all (again, blame the volleyball) but tomorrow I have a late start for work so intend making a splash (ha ha!) and cracking on with this week's quota. I quite fancy going for a full mile, but that might be overstretching it a bit (64 lengths). We'll see.

Anyway, in the interests of maximising knitting and dvd time, that's all for now!

Less than sensible?

So, I might have done something a little less than sensible this week. I've been trying to make Friday night swimming night, in a vague attempt to get some modicum of fitness back. I say get it back but it's been gone for a considerable length of time, so really, it's a brand new bit of fitness that I'm seeking. Anyway, while I was at my local pool, I saw a banner advertising the aspire channel swim. The aim of the game is to swim the equivalent distance of the channel in your local pool over a twelve week period. Now, this is good for two reasons:

• One - By telling people I'm doing this, and getting them to sponsor me (hopefully!) it means that I have to do it, increasing my swimming attendance threefold, and

• Two - Aspire get much needed funds to provide support for people with spinal cord injuries.

I think that this is a win-win situation, hopefully other people agree with me!


Now, the not so sensible part of this is that I must now swim 120 lengths of the pool every week for twelve weeks - my current distance is more like 30 lengths a week. Eeek!


So, should you think that I might actually manage this, (ha ha), would you fancy spending a pound or two to both help the folks at Aspire with their good deeds, and to spur me on to actually doing some exercise? If you would, I'll be carrying around a traditional sponsor form, or alternatively, I'll be setting up an online sponsor form at http://www.justgiving.com/julieratcliff
(which isn't entirely set up yet, but please don't give up that easily!)

Progress?

Well, after my foray into spinning, I had a little twinge in my elbow. Nothing too horrendous, just a little pins-and-needles sensation for the rest of the weekend. However, after working on the following Monday, my hand decided to join the club and go numb every now and then - not great when you have to drive at least 60 miles a day and use computers. So, feeling like a fraud, I saw the GP and was promptly signed off with tennis elbow. Great. 10 days off work, and I couldn't use my arm. Not the best when your hobbies involve needlecrafts.




I'm now six weeks or so on, and I'm back on track. I decided not to stretch myself and enter for anything in the Ravelympics, but nevertheless have managed to complete both pairs of socks that were WIPs, and have made great inroads into Chris's jumper - which has to be the biggest thing I've ever made. The man's a giant! It is, however, taking all my willpower not to cast on anything new at this point. I just got my copy of the Fall Interweave knits, and am itching to cast on some lovely socks with my Nino sock yarn from the Natural Dye studio, but due to a large tangling issue on Thursday, have managed not to do this (thanks by the way to those who spent forever undoing my mess of a ball last week!) I suppose it was a blessing in disguise, but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time!




I suppose it's only fair that I include gratuitous pics of my achievements to date - the blue toe on the Francie socks (Rebekkah Kerner) is a feature, and a lesson not to use Colinette jitterbug for any socks with a long-ish leg. I think the plan is that my next use of that yarn will be toe-up socks that will be carefully weighed to ensure I have enough to complete sock number 2! The darker pair are the Retro Rib from Interweave favourite socks, and I like them a lot. They're for my Dad for Christmas, so they'll shortly be being buried in a secret place for the next four months. Chances are I'll rediscover them around February.

Spinning

I recently acquired a spinning wheel from a lady - curiously through taking to a stranger in a pub. It was in a state of slight neglect, but after a few squirts of Mr Sheen and a smartening up with an Ashford maintenance kit, I am now the owner of a dark-stained Ashford Traditional. I confess, I'm not sure whether this spinning lark is my cup of tea, but I'm willing to give it a fair try, so today the wheel and I joined a couple of friends and trekked along the A59 to Gisburn to a spinning guild friendship day.




Once we finally found the village hall, we were greeted by lovely ladies and had tea and biscuits pressed upon us. Moving into the main hall, I was amazed at the number of people - men and women - who were sitting in companiable chaos amongst an amazing collection of spinning wheels and spindles. I finally learned the basics of spinning, and now have a small length of Corriedale spun onto a bobbin. To be honest, it probably ranges in thickness from laceweight to aran and back again, and in some parts looks like a coiled spring, but the point is that I did it myself.




I am proud!





Despite remaining unconvinced that spinning is for me, I splashed out on some merino fleece dyed a lovely teal colour, for practicing with, and came home with a sense of achievement. Apparently my local spinning guild meets every month, so maybe I'll make it along there on Saturday, and see whether I'm in it for the long haul or not.

Evening Star

Well, I've finally managed to finish my Evening Star bolero/cardigan (call it what you will). I think I like it, but to say its supposed to be a size 10-12 it's quite roomy. I'm not too sure about one of the shoulders - it's all knit in one piece, so you start at one wrist and work up the arm, along the back and across the front, putting waste yarn in to fit the second sleeve later, and it's this sleeve that doesn't seem quite right. However, it does look a tad Per Una-esque, which can't always be such a bad thing, and given that the pattern wasn't already listed on ravelry, there can't be that many people wearing one!




I used Sirdar Medici in a beige/blue colourway, which I have to say is rather nice. It took about 4.5 balls to complete.



My next challenge is to finish something else that's already on needles rather than succumbing to the lure of the lovely new yarn and casting on something completely new. I'm trying to be diligent and work on the Francie socks (Rebekkah Kerner) but the lovely fluffy stuff from the Natural Dye studio keeps calling to me. I've already managed to start a new (extremely long term) project by knitting one tiny fish that will eventually become a blanket of tessellated fish made from my sock yarn leftovers. I tell myself that this doesn't count as a new project as it's really using up the leftovers from other projects.



I think I need help.............

The reason for my return

Well, it's been a while since I deleted my last (paltry) blog, and if you know me, you probably wonder why it is that I've set up another. The truth of the mater is that I feel that I need to manage down my stash and by writing about it, I might find that I achieve it. Then again, I might not and then delete the blog in disgust. The stash doesn't look huge on Ravelry, but it's now got to the point where I'm starting to fret about all these odd balls of yarn and what to do with them (you know me!).

After hiding more than half of it all in the attic, I pushed the matter from my mind and started to collect more to fill the basket in the living room, but now that's full again, and there's a small overflow under the stairs from the Woolfest purchases. The trouble is, I love it all, and want to be working with it all, but I only have one pair of hands!

I think job one is to establish a temporary ban on yarn purchases, with the proviso that if I see a ridiculous bargain (like the famous Rowan at 99p bargain) I can still buy, but unless it's absolutely necessary to finish a project, I won't be buying more until what I have will fit in the basket. (Excluding the 99p Rowan of course - that's far too bulky to go near the basket!)

Job two is to complete a few of my projects that are in progress - dad's socks, Francie socks and my Evening star bolero. Then I can crack open the Woolfest stash! Isn't it pretty?