Weekend WIP

This is a progress update from last weekend, really. I have finished a sleeve and woven in 7000 ends - just one more sleeve to go.

Now I see it on, I wonder if I needed a slightly thicker blue rib at the bottom of the body...but it is at the longest it could be, really. The sleeve is also slightly longer than I intended, but actually, the red star hits the perfect spot as it is.

Now just the second sleeve to go. Unfortunately I didn't really keep any notes from the first sleeve, so it's going to be interesting.

Weeknote: 24/3

This week I have been mostly...

Knitting:
No. I haven't done any knitting. I have been busy prepping for the ski trip, for which I leave later today.

I did knock up a Wonderwoman outfit for skiing, though. I managed to find some craft foam and a reddish top enormous enough to go over my ski jacket. And I've got my new backpack to finish it off.

Going to: 
I started the week in London, at another exam board meeting. It was one of those slightly painful meetings where we didn't really solve any of our problems, but just came to a realisation about what problems needed solving. I'm trying not to be worried about the summer series but...

I went to see Matthew Bourne's Cinderella with Parpy Jo, Paul and Paul's housemate on Wednesday. We had front row upper balcony seats, so a very good view.

On Thursday, I had dinner with my old university housemate, Emilia. We haven't seen each other since 2012 and she now has a 5 year old son. She's extremely academic and I usually end up having to look things up after we've had dinner, which is sort of nice.

Entertained by:
The ballet was really very good. It was Cinderella, set in the Blitz. The costumes were all in monochrome, so it had this soft-focus, wartime romance film feel to it. In fact, there were lots of little flourishes in that vein - Ginger Rogersesque flicks of the hands, a nod to the beach scene in From Here To Eternity (I thought). The stepmother was particularly good.

The bird feeder has had a lot of visitors this week. Today there was a group of goldfinches dominating the seed feeder. Not a great picture, but at one point there were three together.

I've been re-reading Annie Proulx's short stories, Fine Just The Way It Is, and enjoying rediscovering those.

Feeling:
Soooooo excited about skiing! Leaving in two hours!

Weekend WIP

Sorry for being absent for all of February but all my words were being poured into Word files for my new book, which is finally finished (in first draft). Three things:

1. Writing a book about your own practice is flipping hard. I was regularly paralysed by imagined scenes of people sneering, 'I can't believe she wrote that, how vapid/obvious/stupid/damaging/wrong!' I had to keep telling myself, in the style of JK Rowling, that as long as they'd bought it and I had their money, it didn't matter what they said. And as my friend ('friend') Lizzy said on the phone yesterday, I've already got a job I love...subtext, it doesn't matter if I ruin my professional reputation. Cheers then.
(She didn't mean it like that. She's lovely really.)

2. I knew I would leave it until the last minute and even with that knowledge, and working hard to mitigate against it, I did. I had 21,000 words by half term. 31,000 words by the end of half term. 43,000 words by yesterday. So, between contracting and deadline, it took me seven and a half months to write the first half, and three weeks to write the second. I am coming to the conclusion that I'm never going to be able to change this about myself.

3. Thank heavens for snow days. What I mess I would have been in without them.

Anyway. Onto the point of the blog. I have been working on my (Ooo) Wonderwoman jumper when my schedule permits. I managed to finish the body and the neckline during the Olympics, so just the sleeves to go.

Please ignore my utterly foul carpet. I know what new flooring I want, I just need to get round to buying it and finding someone to fit it. No I'm not doing it myself.

I'm really quite pleased with my work. I had to make the neckline about double the recommended width and it is still quite low, but I think it works for the style.