Current obsessions

Knitting books
I bought two last month and have pored over them endlessly. One is Stitch'n'Bitch Nation, which has at least a dozen patterns in it that I want to knit, and the other is No Sheep For You which has taught me a lot about non-woollen fibres and been quite helpful in the knitting of Ester. I have added at least another three to my wishlist. This is pointless - I already have more patterns than I can ever knit. I feel I am just using knitting to justify the augmentation of my library.

Knitting
I am exactly halfway through Ester. I lazily decided against buying a circular needle today since it involved a car trip, but I realised today I can't continue without the circ. Boo. It will have to wait until next week now, I expect, only I am so into it now that I don't want to stop and I may find myself driving over to John Lewis tomorrow to buy one, even though I don't have enough petrol to get to work on Monday, let alone fork out for knitting supplies.
Here are some pictures, anyway -















Above, the whole thing in beautiful lustrous silk, and to the left, a close up of that beautiful cable work.

Yes, I'm a knitting geek at the moment. I'm loving it.

20 Minutes a Day
I managed to stick to my 20 minutes of exercise a day for a whole 13 days in a row. Unfortunately I slipped up yesterday - I was so tired after my first week back at work I went to bed at 7pm. Now I have a new challenge - trying to beat 13 days in a row. It is very motivating to know I don't have to do longer than 20 minutes.

Being green
Today, I walked up the 'wood (thus reducing fuel emissions), went to the green grocer (supporting local businesses), bought mostly British/local food (cutting food miles), put them into string bags (reducing the amount of waste), and walked home. I was so smug, because this included my 20 minutes as well. I am trying to work out the cheapest way to buy a bike, too, because I have discovered there is a train from the nearest station that I could take to work. It would cost almost double what the petrol costs, but once in a while it might be a nice change. I really want a bike with a basket on the front, so I can carry the mitten around in it with a bunch of flowers and a baguette, or something. I'm sure she'd love that, and wouldn't at all try to jump out and commit suicide under the front wheel just to escape the indignity of being such a shameless cliche.

Nice weather
It's been utterly gawjus this week. Apparently it's going to be 23 degrees tomorrow. There may be much hammock-dwelling, ahead of the rain predicted for next week.