Black Dog

I have been awol. I am not having a very good time of it at work. It's only little things but I am feeling all full of whinge and not in the mood for cheery posting, so I have thrown myself into my knitting and Facebook Scrabble by way of a distraction.

I am knitting a garter stitch pullover (Rav link) for my friend Alison's baby, who is being christened in March but I can't go. And I am preparing for the Ravelympics. I want to knit a laceweight pulloever; my only concern is, I have 100% silk laceweight and mostly this is only used for shawls, from what I can find on Ravelry. So I am going to swatch for the Shirley sweater ('nother Rav link) and see how it goes. It's a Kidsilk Haze pattern, but I am hoping it will work out, even if I have to knit it a size down to keep it clingy.

I REALLY hope it works out, the yarn is absolutely stunning! It is by Knitwitches and is the most amazing shade of blue, called Lapis Nights. Yes, blue, of course! But deep blues like this aren't too common. I will photograph it if I am ever at home in daylight again.

I am in danger of developing a serious Knitwitches habit since discovering them at FibreFest in August. Then, I bought 3 skeins of undyed pure silk and a skein of luscious grey cashmere (which, actually, I had forgotten about blush) and now that I am more amenable to laceweight it's like a whole new yarn wilderness stretching out ahead of me. Heaven forbid, I find I love knitting socks....I think I would have to buy a new house.

(I have decided, it's definitely one of those fundamental knitting truths that the more experienced you get, the thinner the yarn you work with. I still like working with chunky but it's definitely not as comfortable as working with smaller needles.)

I am thinking of setting myself a knitting goal for this year of a sweater a month. This is mainly because I urgently need to see to my stash, as well as knit some things from my queue. So I was thinking - a top a month (not necessarily with sleeves) and an extra, like the baby jumper this month. I don't think it is unachievable. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, ROLL ON HALF TERM. Still no sign of Ofsted but honestly, I don't think their visit could be worse than the endless build up to it. I shouted at a member of the leadership team in the staffroom this week, and I'm normally Little Miss Sunshine. It's not a great time. But, yey, I am out Wednesday at a meeting and Thursday visiting the college in Oxford that will be hosting our conference this year (HOOGE feather in my cap) so it's only really two more days til break, and then I am off to Warrington and then Sheffield so I can just forget everything for a bit....and knit Shirley. I booked train tickets so I have lots of free time!