Busy, busy, busy

I'm sitting here this morning with Radio 2 playing in the background and two dogs asleep on the sofa.

This means that after about four weeks of holidays and "working at home" days, I have the house back!

Hubby's been between projects at work, so hasn't been commuting into London as what he had that needed to be done could be done from home.  He's now going to be Very Busy between now and September though and will probably be away for a night or three at a time.  Talk about feast and famine!

The girls were off school for two weeks for the Easter break, followed by a few days back and then the long weekend for the Royal Wedding (wasn't it lovely?) and May Day bank holiday, so my time has been taken up with them. 

I, of course, working my two five-hour shifts at a local small supermarket, didn't have any time off, and even worked on Easter Sunday (which was very, very busy as we were the only shop open in the area).

So, today I'm going to do only Things That Must Be Done and the rest of the time I'm going to have to myself.  I've been knitting Jared Flood's Shale Baby Blanket (Ravelry link) so will probably do some of that and may even switch on the TV to catch up on some programmes I recorded as there was little hope of watching anything all the way through (especially as DD2 has a bit of a Spongebob thing going on at the moment, so switches over to Nickelodeon as soon as anyone's back is turned, hoping to find an episode to watch!).  I'm making the Shale blanket in yellow Cygnet Kiddies DK, so have cast on an extra couple of repeats.  The pattern's a four-row repeat, with only one row of patterning, so can get a bit tedious at times, if I'm honest, but it does look nice.  I've got four balls of this yarn, so shall just keep going until it runs out.  When it's finished, it'll go into my bag of knits for a charity that sends knitted items to Romania for orphans and street kids.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for an order from Kemps Woolshop .  I saw a pattern the other day via my friends page on Ravelry (I think it was a pattern Terri had 'faved') and decided I'd like to make it.  It's Deco (Ravelry link) by Kate Davies and the yarn recommendations are heavy 4-ply/sport/lightweight DK.  I've got some Ethical Twist in stash (bought from Kemps when it was on offer) but I've also ordered some scarlet Wendy Mode DK as I fancy a red cardigan so shall swatch to see how both yarns knit up on the 3mm needles the pattern recommends.  I also ordered some Patons Linen Touch in the coral colourway to knit a summer shrug-type cardigan for my daughter.  She's going on holiday with one set of grandparents in July/August and doesn't have any summer cardigans.  We've chosen the Little Peacock (another Rav link) pattern which is a freebie from Knotions and has a pretty peacock tail/fan pattern throughout.  DD1 turned 11 at the end of last year and is developing into a young lady now, so children's patterns don't always work for her, especially since we did chest/bust-measuring last week and decided that with a bit of room for growth, I need to knit for a 32" chest/bust for her now.  It doesn't seem that long ago that I was knitting baby/toddler cardigans for her.

The Little Peacock will be the next thing I cast on for so it's done in plenty of time for her holiday.

Hopefully, but my next entry I'll have received the yarn and cast on and will be over halfway on the Shale blanket.  There might even be photos!!

See you soon :)