It's here!!!! Yey!

It's been two long years of yearning and waiting but no more .... last Monday it opened its doors! Yes! StarBucks is in Lancaster. Yey!

Mind you, it's not about the coffee. Heck no! Caffe Nero does a better double shot espresso than StarBucks. What I miss the most is the atmosphere that StarBucks exudes. The nice comfy sofas, the jazzy music and lots of light to do loads of knitting. Yes, it reminds me of those lovely Stitch'n'Bitching times I had in Zurich.

I've decided now to spend a couple of mornings there during the week, on my own or with friends, just to 'knit-and-natter' as they say here. Time to get those long forgetten projects out and start making headway with them.

Freedom

This week Niklas started this first full day at school. I think he woke up on the wrong side of bed on Monday because I literally had to drag him out of the house, him crying and me feeling sorry for the poor boy. Pulling him towards school and him sniffing, made me feel like a rotten mum. But as we got closer to school, he had stopped sniffing and was happier once he saw other kids in their uniforms, even a couple of his friends waving at him. Guess this emotional ups and downs will be felt for a little while longer than expected.

No more kids from 0855 to 1510, I was free to do whatever I wanted. So far, whenever I wanted to stay home, there was always something more interesting to do out. At the moment, I find myself looking at my watch every so often afraid that I'd miss picking up the kids. Walked down Penny Street, glanced at my watch, turn down towards Market Place, looked up at the clock on the museum ..... I felt so out of place with so much time on my hands. I guess I'll have to let this slowly sink in. It's been so long since I've had so much time to kill and it feels .... unreal.

But loads of things are being lined up. They include a cross stitch project which has to be finished by December, meeting up with several groups for knitting per week and also making headway on my own knitting projects which I have too many of. When I bunch them all up, adding the household chores, laundry and cooking - it seems I have more to do than ever.

I just hope I find the energy for it all!!!

Labyrinthitis ... it's no fun!

It's been a week since I've been feeling woozy. It started when I felt the world turned while I turned from one side to the next in bed. Didn't know what it was and didn't think much about it till I picked up a friend's kid, swung her around and nearly keeled over myself.

Then I remembered my mum saying she had vertigo every once in a while, which made her feel really sick. I gave her a call and she told me more about it. Apparently, she even blacked out once when she was around my age. And that started alarm bells ringing. Ain't no way I can afford to black out on my kids, so I got to the the doctor's on Monday afternoon.

The doctor was nice and checked out my ears and she said I had Labyrinthitis which was caused by a virus. She explained that it effects the middle ear, which explains why my balance is off. Not only do I feel I'm having constant seasickness, I also get tired out really easily. Now since it's caused by a virus, she can't give me anything else but a motion sickness pill. I'll have to grin and bear it for the next couple of weeks.

Then I found this website, which tells me that it could take 3 to 8 weeks before it goes. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see .... !

School .... !

School started last Thursday with a gush! Yup! It rained and poured and no one was spared. Niklas was fairly excited and Jonas was in his element. The usual morning rush was not felt because we all woke up extra early, and Sebastian even made it a point to walk with us to school. Niklas looked really cute in his uniform and messy hair. Jonas, on the other hand, was excited about being in the 6th Grade and having new responsibilities at school.

While Jonas rush off to his classmates and new classroom, Sebastian and me lead Niklas to his classroom where Mrs Brown and Mrs Quarmby were waiting. A very colourful classroom filled with tables, chairs, computers, a play area, books etc. There are 30 kids in that room, all between ages 4 and 5. Some excited, some unsure, and a couple quite tearful. Niklas was in the unsure category. We left him with a little kiss each. Sebastian went to work and I walked around in town slightly aimlessly. I must admit I was rather nervous for him being in school at such a young age but I'm sure he would have been bored at Pre-school if left there.

After two and a half hours, I picked him up and the first thing he said to me was, 'I played computer today!' which was his way of saying that things went well. He was happy to be able to go home though, so it was good that school was only a couple of hours long the first couple of weeks. The next day, the same routine started and when I said it was time for us to go, Niklas asked, 'Where are we going?' I said, 'To school.' And he looked at me with big eyes and said, 'Again??!' Oh boy! I guess it will hit him pretty hard to know that he'll have to go to school 5 days a week.

Only time will tell now how he's going to take it!

Skeins and DimSum.

Moody Blue-ish and Phoenix Fire

This is how the skeins look like all wound up nicely. Well, as nice as I can wind them up really cause it was not very easy doing it. I also had a hard time re-skeinning them cause the yarn was sticking together at some spots, which lead me to think that the yarn might have felted a little?? But it didn't matter, it's all an experiment, for now.

I took Jonas to Manchester yesterday, to the Stitch & Craft show. I was hoping to get there early, walk around and then take him into Chinatown for some DimSum. Well, it started off quite well in the morning, we got on the train, and then was informed that it won't stop at Deansgate, where the G-mex was. Darn!!! Trust British Rail to spoil my plans. Quick text to Sebastian and got the info that I could take one of the free shuttles from Picadilly there. Nice!

Got to the G-Mex and Jonas was ..... disappointed!!! Why? Cause he thought it was a stage show of some kind. Guilt ridden, I tried to encourage him to look around and see if something might take his fancy. We walked about a bit and ended up at an Oxfam stall, and what did they want us to do? Sew up squares for the less fortunate. That was something Jonas said 'yes' to very quickly. He's always one to help out. After 15 mins of sewing, we both handed in our proud looking squares and headed back into the crowd. I think our rumbling tummies just got the best of us as we spent only the next half hour looking about before agreeing that it was time to go.

Tai Wu, that was the place which we went to for our Dim Sum and it was the place which Gi suggested we go to. It was loud, efficiently staffed and had great food. Jonas loved everything I ordered (a pat on the back for Mummy) and the day was saved. Yey! I think the both of us would have loved to have eaten more, but our tummies were near bursting.

After an hour of walking about Manchester, Jonas had had enough and we decided to head home. At 1611, the crowd was already gathering for this 3 coached train. Why on earth don't they add more coaches during peak times is beyond me. Beyond quite a number of people actually. As soon as the train opened its doors, Jonas squeezed in and saved Mummy a seat. We were joined by two other ladies, who were travelling in a group of 4 to Blackpool for the weekend. Must be because Jeremy Clarkson was going to be lighting up the Illuminations. Anyway, they were a friendly bunch of ladies who were having a nice laughing time in the stuffed train. Jonas then mentioned to me in German that they were really thirsty since they kept drinking their Cola Light. He was slightly shocked when I told him that they were drinking Vodka with their Cola Light, told him that the white liquid in the Cola Light bottle was not exactly water. He wasn't very sure about it till .... when the plastic bottle ran out, they brought out the real Vodka bottle. They even offered me a drink but unfortunately, it was our stop and out in Preston we got.

Half hour later, we were back home. As we settled back in, Niklas came running down the street into the house, into my arms saying 'I played computer in Pre-School today!!!' which was something he knew would start me tickling him. It was his last day at Pre-School yesterday and I don't really know if it has hit him yet. Oh well, school starts for both boys next week. We'll just see how it goes ..... !

My first two skeins

Phoenix Fire (top) and Moody Blue-ish (bottom)
I'd say not bad for a first and second time around. Still, I've a long way to go I think from dyeing something that I, myself would deem purrr-fect.

Did it again .... !

Yes, I dyed another skein. Just couldn't help it. I think I'm slightly addicted now. Gi came over today, so I dyed it with her around. She showed me some really lovely alpaca yarn which she bought in France for her next project. Wonderfully soft!

Anyway, today I did red and blue, and purple where it bled together. I added salt to the blue dye mixture because I read on the Ravelry group thread that it needed a little kick to help it absorb into the fibre. The colours are less intense as yesterday, so I might call it moody blue-ish.

And yes, picture to come when I get it dried and re-skeined.

So let's try this out!

So, the idea of a blog is so that one can put down ones thoughts and go ranting about what comes to mind. Mhm ... don't know if I can keep it up but I guess I'll just give it a try.

What did I do today? Apart from feeling jetlag from lack of sleep, I've managed to dye my first skein of Bluefaced Leicester with food colouring from SuperCook. I've been playing around with the idea of dyeing my own yarns now for some time. Button on Ravelry sells wonderfully coloured, cuddly soft hand-dyed yarns and I thought to myself, 'Could I do that?' Being a knitter, although I don't have as much time as I would like to have to enjoy my hobby, I guess the next logical step would be to learn how to spin yarn from roving, and then dye it. As I'm not a person with much patience, I thought I'd skip a couple of steps and dive straight into dyeing.

Button was really helpful and steered me to the right groups on Ravelry that would help me with questions I might have. After reading up and having an information overload migraine, I decided to take the plunge today. I had bought undyed yarn in a cone from Texere which arrived last week, and was pretty stump as to how to get a 100gm skein out of it. And without a niddy noddy, I was pretty much faced with the idea of either using the back of a chair or my arm (got this idea from YouTube). I chose my arm. With the cone on a weighing machine, I skeined my 100gm till my arm protested.

I first soaked the yarn in vinegary water, more water than vinegar cause vinegar really stinks. The idea is to wet the yarn to take in colour and the vinegar helps absorption faster. I then mixed up my yellow and red dye colours, with some water and vinegar (just a touch). I then dyed the yarn on cling film, yellow on one side and red of the other and orange in the places when they bled together. I then re-wrapped it in new cling film and moved the whole thing to my steamer, and steamed it for 40 mins. I think 30 mins would have done the trick but I really wanted to make sure it worked.

40 mins later, I had my first hot phoenix fire looking yarn. Well, it felt really hot coming straight from the steamer, and with it's bright colours (I need to experiment more to get more subtle colours), it looked more acrylicky than pure wool. I waited a bit then rinsed it, and then washed it with a little wool detergent. Mainly to get the vinegary smell out. It's now hanging on the line and I'm waiting for it to dry. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I can figure out how to.

Well, guess that's it for the first blog. :-)