socks and pea soupers

Remember the kebab stick dpn's? I cast on with them on Sunday; partly because I was desperate to see how they worked and partly to see how my new sock yarn knitted up. I'm using the Basic Ribbed Socks pattern which was originally in Spun magazine, but I found it on Ravelry. Well, I cast on and knitted a few rows, then realised that I hadn't been obsessive enough with the whole sanding process when I was making the dpns. They felt smooth enough to the touch but when knitting with them, they would snag in odd places. So I frogged the sock back and took some fine sandpaper to them and sanded the f*@$ out of them. Then I used the beeswax polish on them that M uses on his didges and buffed them up. After that, they cast on really nicely. So remember folks, when you make your super cheap bamboo kebab stick dpns, sand them plenty to stop those hair fine splinters catching and then use a little natural beeswax polish (or similar) on them. You won't regret it.

And here is how my self patterning fair isle yarn is knitting up. What do you think? I'm a little disappointed that the purple doesn't seem to be making a distinct pattern yet. Is that normal? Are my expectations too high? Will the pattern get clearer as I go along? Are my needles too thick? Sould I go down a mil? These work out at about 3mm, should I go down to 2mm? These are only my second pair of socks and my first time using this fancy self patterning stuff, so I'm full of questions :-) I kinda like them though. The colours are a little pastel-y for my tastes, but what the hell!

And whilst we're admiring yarn, I got a closer shot of the 'still without tassel edges' wrap because you can see the silver in the yarn a bit clearer in this photo. I can't wait to get a new camera so I can start getting decent photos again. M says in about 2 weeks. I miss my camera and you lot are going to get mighty sick of me bitching about it till I get a new one *lol*

This week is the last week before half term (hurray) and my students start mock exams when they get back, so I had a little fun with them today making these textured abstract panels. They are basically watercolour board with modroc, tissue paper, foam board shapes, wire and string on them. The whole lot is painted with various acrylic colours, hot glue is dribbled over them and metalic paint and pearlex powers are applied for extra twinkle.

I did these really quick because I was demonstrating to students, but I may go over them a little with a few other bits I have at home, and maybe have a play with some canvases to see what I can come up with for future lessons. I love this technique, it's great fun :-)

The weather's real messed up at the moment, days of sunshine, with nights and early morning of thick fog. Real pea soupers. I love thick fog when I don't have to drive much; it makes everything really ethereal. I hate it when I have to drive though.

Tomorrow is Valentines Day; I have just a couple of fun trinkets for M, a packet of Jammy Dodgers with heart shaped centres and a multipack of Loveheart sweeties. He's not a real soppy romantic but he'll apreciate the fun side of this gift as well as the sugar :-) I wonder if he'll have remembered? He normally does, one year he bought me a lottery ticket and wrote me a little poem explaining the relevance of the numbers he'd chosen (like my birth date, our ages, how many years we'd been together, stuff like that). Yeah, maybe he's more of a romantic than I give him credit for although he'd hate me to say that to anyone :-) We don't tend to go overboard for Valentines Day, it's just too commercial. We tend to have a meal or do something together, maybe give each other a small trinket, nothing too expensive; it's the thought that counts. He even made me a card one year and M doesn't do 'crafts'!