Saturday 22 December 2018

Weeknote: 22/12

Knitting:
Not much of this had happened before yesterday. I am still in a quandary about the final rose from the purple Cascade skein. I've realised I can't cast off in Mother Hand's purple hat year because it is a silk blend and unlikely to felt properly. I should just bite the bullet, unwind what's left and try to bind it off held double, then rip back if it isn't enough. But I DON'T WANT TO. So, not much knitting has happened.

However, yesterday I got a bit tired of myself and went and squirreled out some yarn I had put away for a stripey colour change jumper. It's the final gradient kit that Moonlight Yarns had in this colourway (and she absolutely swore she would never do it again) that I'm striping with a dark grey I picked up in the fivemoons sale bin. This is all 2017 purchases, naturally. Anyway, I cast on a Westbourne and then this morning had to rip the whole thing out as I'd misread the pattern in a large number of tiny ways. Still, I am almost at the point where I've finished the short row shaping of the back of the neck. It's nice to have a garment back on the needles, even if it is a 4-ply one.

I also made a pink bobble for Mother Hand's hat, after consulting with her.

Going to:
On Monday, Parpy Jo made our annual trip to Gloucester Services for dinner and shopping. I was most restrained with the cheese and didn't buy any gin, either.

On Tuesday, we finished the term, so we went out. It was the Slug and Lettuce. I didn't love it. They have an extensive cocktail menu but they're all premixed and they don't taste like they are full strength. Certainly I drank enough to be trolleyed but was still too sober. We went on to the Brass Pig, which I was definitely too sober for. I bought a Hendricks which tasted of sambucca. When I say I'm too old for this crap, I don't have any regret around that. In the end I got the 1am bus home, intending to get a cab from Kingswood, but, since it was Tuesday, nobody was in Kingswood by the time we got there, so I had to walk down the hill. Ah well. I mostly enjoyed myself.


They put too much soda in the spritz, sigh. Middle class woe.

On Thursday I had my friends round to enjoy Christmas night in with multiple snacks from M&S and gossipy present giving. Much hilarity. And full-strength booze, win.


Entertained by:
I feel like there has been a lull in TV offerings. Either that, or I haven't had much time for watching anything. I've tried to pick up The Crown again, but actually I have had to cram quite a lot of work into the three additional days off we've had, so there hasn't been much time to entertain myself. I'm getting through my to do list, slowly. Just the marking and the lesson plans to do. I've written the lesson plan skeletons. I am resigned to not getting the marking done, but will keep trying.

My Outcasts of Time have reached the 18th century. I have a feeling they're going to get arrested.

Feeling:
A bit frantic, again. I just want to get everything done so I can go on holiday with no guilt or work to do, but I fear that's not going to happen. Mother Hand is here now and I can't continue to hide in the office all the time. On the plus side, though, the Bikram studio reopens tomorrow after being closed since the start of November, so I am hoping to get back in there and work on my balance, in more than one sense of the word. Then I can sit in a cafe and mark for a couple of hours afterwards.

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