Two years

Two years (nearly) have flown past since I last posted here.  The Lady Eleanor is now 2 years and 9 months, chatting up a storm and getting cuter every day.  The Boy is 14 and heading towards the scary world of GCSEs.  I am now self-employed (no more bosses, corporate life or working in offices, yay!) and my hair is pink.  Mr Perfect is still perfect.  The Stash is bigger than ever.

I am also the proud owner of a new netbook/laptop, bought back in March so that I could work anywhere in the house instead of being tied to the Library (the posh name we gave to our front room because it's filled with books).  The freedom this gives means I can blog more frequently: or so I thought.  I meant to pick this blog back up as soon as this pretty little blue 'pooter came into my life, but I just... never got round to it.  Better late than never!

So, what's on the hook/needles now?  I've just finished SusannaIC's lovely Thaw pattern (Rav link), it's not blocked yet hence no photo to share, but it has had its first outing when my parents took us out for a meal a couple of days ago.  I made it using Sparkle Sock yarn from a new-to-me Etsy dyer called Lamington Lass, in a colourway named "Überwald".  Black and red and gold sparkles - and boy, does it sparkle!  The pattern was written especially for hand painted yarns, the kind that look so beautiful in the skein but are difficult to show off nicely in a FO.  This pattern works brilliantly for those yarns, and as I have quite a few of them I have no doubt there will be more of these shawlettes in my future.

Currently I have been bitten by the crochet bug, and have 3 shawls on the hook.  The first is Elise, which I am making with King Cole Galaxy in purple.  It's a really lovely 'proper' purple with lots of sparkly sequins in it which Ellie loves and wants to stroke!  The other 2 are 'A-Longs' with the Crochet Shoulder Wrappers group on Rav, a CAL (Crochet-A-Long, a free pattern) of the Juliana Wrap which I'm making in Silkwood 4ply, colourway 'Gentian' and a JAL (Join-A-Long, a paid-for pattern) of Recuardos de Infancia (Memories of Childhood) which I'm making in the Natural Dye Studio's Precious Lace (see blog entry below - my word, have I really had this yarn for two years?).  As  I want to do both the CAL and JAL again in July, in the run up to the Ravelympics, I'm really trying to get at least 2 of these shawls finished by the end of the month.

I won't go into the list of WIPs, it would take all day!  But poor Perdita is still missing an arm (and some hair and a dress and a little Emo doll of her very own).  Perhaps I'll enter her for WIPs Wrestling again.

Reading: currently none
Music: Classic FM
Game: still waiting for Rayman Origins to arrive
Worked on today: Recuardos de Infancia
Billable hours: none yet, about an hour later today