I can't believe it's November already! This year is just flying by.
Didn't do much on Halloween, but Ben had a goodbye house party/halloween do last Sunday, so the fun and games started then.We've had so many good parties at Ben's parents house over the years that it was quite a bittersweet night (even if his parents are just moving around the corner!). Another closed chapter on my schooldays!
And this is what has been keeping me from doing practically everything that I've been meaning to do for the past 3 weeks!! The boy gave me a very early Christmas present, so I've been getting acquainted with my new toy. It is so much fun! My faves so far are the hula hoop games, the boxing and the ski stuff, but there's still a lot left to unlock!
Sadly, I don't think I've lost any weight yet but I'm going to have to get a move on because Ro's decided to move her wedding forward by about 8 months, to five weeks from now, so I have barely any time to make myself bridesmaid worthy! I also have to work on persuading Vicky to give me the day off work (more like swap a shift with someone) which is probably going to involve much begging as it's nigh on impossible to get time off in retail during Christmas. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
In knitting related news, I finished another Anthropologie inspired capelet for Julie for a wedding she was going to last Saturday, as she was in the same predicament as I was over the summer.
It ended up being a madcap last minute knit, mostly because I spent the first half of the week playing on the WiiFit. I told her the yardage and she bought the yarn, and I recommended against the DB alpaca silk based on my shedding and stretching experiences with it, but she brought me 5 balls of it anyway! I thought she would, seeing as the DB range is about the only yarn brand that John Lewis stocks with so many pretty and vibrant colours. No matter though, since Jules didn't the same yarn availablity issues that I had, I felt it was safe for me to knit the cardigan in a smaller guage, which produced a much more structured fabric that I actually preferred. I knit it slightly smaller than measurements Jules gave me because I knew the yarn would grow. I made the body longer, but since I was running close to the deadline, and running out of yarn, I decided to knit the sleeves at the same time in the round. I ran out of yarn before before I could make them as long as they were intended. You can really see the stitch difference between where I was knitting flat and then changed to knitting in the round for the sleeves, which really bugs me. I would have ripped it back and reknit if I'd had the time, but no such luck. Had no time to block either (damn that wii!), so left Jules with instructions on what to do, and she seems very happy with the end result! Don't think I'll be accepting another commission for such a short time frame in the future though. It's one thing when it's a last minute knit for yourself, and you can try it on as you go to make sure it fits and if it doesn't there's only you to blame, and quite another when someone else is relying on you for something! Way too stressful, even if I brought most of it on myself!
I had Saturday off because it was my mums birthday, but then she went off to LA for holiday, so I got to enjoy it all to myself! What made it even better was that my texere order arrived, and inside was my new ball winder! I've been wanting one of these for ages, but haven't particularly wanted to pay the prices on ebay for delivery from America, so when I noticed that texere were stocking them I decided to add them into my order since I was placing one anyway.
They wind soooo much faster than doing it by hand (obviously), and are so much fun that I now want to wind every single bit of yarn I own into neat little balls.
More on the yarn stash tomorrow. QI has finished, it's way past my bedtime, and I'm currently too infuriated by an email I just received from uni to do anything more that lie comatose in bed with my hot water bottle watching a dvd.
