Captain Jack

On Valentines day the girls and I went to Bluewater and queued for a book signing by John Barrowman, Captain Jack from Doctor Who and Torchwood. Well, actually I did most of the queuing while the girls went to the Disney Store and did some shopping. After two hours we got into Waterstones for our thirty seconds of book signing. He is just as gorgeous in real life as he is on the telly and was really friendly and chatty with the girls. It was the first book signing I have been to and I'm not sure I will do another one. Too many rules, don't ask for posed photos, don't ask him to sign anything other than the book etc. I know they are trying to get as many through as possible but we were rushed in and rushed out and in the end I only managed to get one decent photo so it was a little disappointing. The girls were impressed though and seemed pleased that they had seen him so it was worth it in the end.
I finished my other ribbed sock and I am so pleased with them, they fit nicely and the yarn is lovely. I have now started another Variation on a Frill for Gran as she really likes mine. I am doing it in Posh Yarn Emily, which is lush. I am going to try and get it finished for mothers day so need to knit fast. So far I have done the frill on one end and started the main body of the scarf, I will post photos once it is a bit longer.

Life and death.

Its been a strange sort of month, the usual January anticlimax after christmas and the girls birthdays, but for some reason I've found it harder to pull myself up this year. My friend Nessie had her baby, a little girl, which is fantastic news and I'm going to see her and have a cuddle tomorrow, I can't wait. On the flip side, one of the girls in the office downstairs was killed by a tree falling on her car a couple of weeks ago. She had a one month old baby, who was in the car with her at the time and was fortunately completely unhurt. She wasn't a friend as such, more someone I said hello to in the tea room every now and then but its really upset me. I am just so bloody angry that bad things seem to happen to nice people. That poor baby is never going to know his Mum now and theres not even anyone to blame, it was just a freak accident. Life isn't fair and I hate that.
On the knitting front I did actually finish one sock in January, here is E displaying it for me. I am aiming to finish its pair whilst I am on jury service for two weeks starting next Monday. I should have plenty of time sitting around and waiting, perfect for sock knitting.

A star!

Well, first post of the new year and its nearly halfway through January! Bad blogger!! Its been a bit hectic as we had both the girls birthdays so we have had a party, a sleepover, a shopping trip to Bluewater and a trip to the pantomime in the last couple of weeks. Fun but exhausting. I have however in amongst all that finished the star blanket for Nessies baby, now I just have to wait for Nessie to finish making the baby. He or she should be here soon. I am really pleased with it, it is by far the biggest thing I have ever crocheted and was nice to do.
I have joined a group on Ravelry to make a pair of socks each month for 2008. Yeah, like thats gonna happen! I did cast on for a ribbed pair for January but I have frogged them as I didn't like the yarn and pattern combination. So I am casting on again tonight for another pair. I am using Middle Earth Knitter yarn and the colours are fab, deep blue, green and purple. I will be happy if I finish one sock a month so I'll aim for that and see if I can reduce my sock yarn stash a bit. Please feel free to roll around laughing at this point, bearing in mind I have bought some lovely sock yarn from Posh Yarn and joined Middle Earth Knitters sock club again.

Legal at last!

Well after not feeling christmassy at all we had a really lovely time. It all came together in the end, the decorations went up on Sunday, which is actually not a bad thing as normally I am getting annoyed by christmas day with retreiveing baubles from all over the house that the cats have hidden. This year they didn't have time to hide many. The kids loved thier new Wii and it provided us with lots of fun on christmas day playing all the games, even my Mum and Dad had a go. The only game I am regretting is the singalong High School Musical one, if I hear 'What time is it?' one more time i will scream!
I got some lovely pressies, a swift (at last), a popcorn teddy kit, a couple of books, some perfume, a storage box for my beads, some choccies, money and best of all, a deed poll changing my name from Sarah to Saira! So I can now legally use the name I have been using for most of my life. I need to write loads of letters informing everyone but I don't mind that at all.
I am now looking forward to finishing off my WIPs and starting something new for the new year. I have a huge list of stuff I want to make, mainly thanks to Ravelry, but I need to sort out what order to do it all in. I only have a couple of bits left on the needles, so I will finish those first.

Bah Humbug!

I'm feeling so un-christmassy its untrue! We don't even have any decorations up yet, work has been a pain, money is tight, D is Mr Grumpy and the puberty fairy has arrived with a vengence in our house! At least I am now off until Thursday so maybe the christmas feeling will start soon. I have finished my christmas knits now so I can breathe a sigh of relief on that score, I made my Mum a scarf in Knitwitches pure silk and I'm really pleased with it. I hope she likes it.

Dad is getting a cabled scarf and hat, he has been moaning that I never make him anything so hopefully that will keep him quiet! June is getting a pair of pink fetchings like I made for R as she admired those when she saw them. The other gifts I made are for Sue and Sue at work, these beaded vases.

I have also made my first ever christmas cake! I followed Delias recipe and have been feeding it with Tia Maria so I can't wait to try it. I hope anyone who happens across this blog has a very merry christmas without too much stress.

Gifts from Las Vegas.

Today I received some squishy lovelyness all the way from Las Vegas! My friend June went and bought me back some wonderfully soft Alpaca and some SWS soy wool for felting. I can't stop stroking the alpaca, it is so soft, that will become a scarf for me I think.

I finished a pair of crochet bootees for Kate at work on Friday and it was just in time as her niece was born on Sunday. They are from Crochet Today magazine and were fairly easy to make, although there were loads of ends to sew in which was no fun. She insisted on purple as that is her favorite colour, its a strange colour for a baby but there you go!

What a day!

Today I have mostly been at the Stitch'n'bitch event in London, and what a wonderful day it was! I listened to a talk by Jean Moss which was interesting, I spent some money which was nice and I met some lovely people which was even nicer!

Here is what I spent my money on, although its not all for me! Some is to be sent on to Gemma from the AY forum who is in hospital and missed out on going to London today. Lottie had the idea of getting her a squishy gift to cheer her up. I had to get the 10g Opal ball as it is so cute! I have no idea what you could do with 10g of sock yarn but sometimes useless can be fantastic!

I met Lucy from Bristol who told me how to put a link in my blog, so here is a link to Lucy's blog hopefully! http://settersknitspop.blogspot.com/ Thanks Lucy!

On Wednesday D and I went to see Top Gear being filmed! It was so good, the lads were on top form and there were lots of laughs. I'll be watching it tomorrow to see if I can spot me in the crowd. I did get a photo with James May, but you will have to excuse the strange expression on my face, I discovered that trying to talk and smile at the same time just leaves you looking badly constipated!!