Hello!

I do knit, honestly!

I don't get as much of it done as I would like, but I do knit in real life.

If you recall, this was my holiday yarn.

And this is the elegantly crumpled version.
I almost put it in the shop, but I thought people might be put off by what appears to be a "white bit" in the middle. Sometimes though a yarn needs a bit of something pale and interesting to stop it becoming muddy.

You want to see the sock?

It's toe up (obviously) with a plain leg up so far and then a 2x2 rib cuff which is intended to be folded over. I have no idea how much yarn this has taken because the batts in my digital scales have died, but I'm sure it isn't half a skein. I am however not knitting any more until I can weigh the ball as I'd like to get maximum use from the yarn and do a nice long slouchy cuff.

And there was airport sinning spinning.

This is 80g of leftover fibre from the Club a couple of months ago.

Well no, what's on the spindle is about 15g of it, but that means there is 65g still to spin. It's 70% merino and 30% silk and I have no idea at all what it is for. Maybe I'll give it to someone for Christmas.
Giving handspun, I have decided, is much easier than giving knitting. It means the givee gets both handspun and all the pleasure of the knitting as well. Two presents in one.

I promised you a competition.

I did lots of walking on holiday.
Lots.
Not hiking, you understand, but purposeful mooching.

I also picked these up in a supermarket.

They open out to this big. Very useful items to shove in your bag when you aren't expecting to go yarn shopping but there might be the possibility of it.

Don't get excited, these are about the size of two matchboxes. Teeny tiny nougat bar-lets.

So, to enter, all you have to do is guess use your skill and judgement to work out how many of these...

... I took on holiday between the dates on the screen.

I'll even give you a clue.
One one day I took less than 10,000.
And one one day I took more than 20,000.
The rest of the time I took between 10,000 and 20,000 steps each day.

There are two stunning prizes (!) of a bag-let and a nougat bar-let to be won for the two closest suggestions.

Entries close on Sunday evening.
Prizes will be posted on Monday.
Post your answers in the comments...

n

My poor nose.

One of the things I was determined to do on holiday was to visit Grasse, ancient home of the French perfume industry. Of course it's a little late in the year for rose blossoms and lavender flowers, but I did have a little smelly activity in mind.

If you book ahead at the Galimard studio you can create your own perfume! Galimard have been making perfumes since 1747, so I thought they must be able to guide me through the process.

The studio is light and airy... and there are bottles of entrancing (and downright horrible) smelliness everywhere you look.

Bottles to the right of you.

Bottles to the left of you.

Bottles everywhere! A hundred and twenty seven of them to be exact.

This was my workstation, and it came complete with 100ml glass mixing funnel and lots of those blotting paper things you get in shops to try out new "flavours" with.
And it also came with the guiding nose or "nez" of an expert.

It sounds easy, three base notes which "fix" the fragrance, three "heart" notes which are the main character of it, and three "peak" notes which are the initial just-sprayed-on scent.

But in between each selection the liquid had to be mixed and dipped. Then after I added the main selections I had to waft the dipped blotting paper stick in front of my nose, holding open bottles of other smells beneath so I was breathing in the newly blended smell and a potential "suitor" as well. Each time I did this there were up to thirty to choose from.
I rapidly discovered that I detest jasmine and hyacinth and adore muguet (lily of the valley), mer (salty oceans) and herby smells generally.

Eventually my perfume was a blend of 18 different components in various quantities (the "nez" guides you on how much to add).
I had to choose a name for it, and it now has to macerate and mature for ten days before I can use it.
My poor nose had olfactory fatigue, I can tell you.

And do I like it?

You betcha!
It has its own recipe (with secret number) stored in the Galimard database, and I can even order another bottle when I run out.

And....
I got a certificate... how cool is that?

n

PS  There is new yarn in the shop. Just click on "new stuff" to see the thumbnails, but the bigger pictures are better.

Mixed blessings

We're home!
As usual with holidays, some things went well, some things didn't.

The weather was lovely. Warm, 23 C and it only rained twice in the evenings when we weren't mooching about the streets.
The ice-cream was fantastic.
You can travel anywhere on the bus in the entire Alpes-Maritimes region for one Euro. Anywhere at all. We went to Grasse from Nice, a 90 minute bus journey, for eighty pence.
My knitting (on bamboo dpns) went through airport security on the way there without as much as a second look, and I finished the second Wheelie Bin sock.
I knitted almost a whole sock for me.
My Golding spindle came back in my hand-luggage so I could spin at the airport (I didn't want to risk 2.25mm metal knitpicks in the x-ray machine) and I spun while I waited for the plane - apparently there was a small interested audience for this which I was unaware of because I didn't want to drop it, and while I can knit without looking (a bit) I can't spindle without looking. It went through two lots of security with no problems.

On the down-side....
There was a one day train strike which scuppered us going into Italy for the day because the buses came out in sympathy as well.
I set off all the alarms in the airport at every secuity check because of the buckles on my birks. Every time I said "My shoes will set off the alarms", and every time they told me to keep them on. So I got frisked every time. The man at the airport in Nice was more interested in my pedometer and how it worked than in my bags. He looked at it, sent me back through the scanner and then had another look and was most impressed that it recorded an extra 22 steps!
I got bag-dipped twice.
The first time the person tried to get my purse which was double double triple zipped into pockets inside pockets in my rucksack. They failed. I realised there was someone messing with the bag and turned round.
The second time we had just come out of the supermarket where we had repacked the bags to allow for cheese, wine, and yogurt, and my document wallet was stolen. It would have been slim pickings.
Four credit/debit cards (business and personal accounts) and my Driving Licence.
One Moleskine (and you know how I like my Moleskines) which was a recently started one with not much in it.
A plastic sheet thing you can use if you need to do mouth to mouth on someone more safely (less cross infection).
And the only thing I am fairly sad about, the swatch (about 2 inches square) from the first ever Yarn Yard yarn I sold.
But.
No-one is dead.
No-one was hurt.
It's all just stuff. The cards were all cancelled within twenty minutes and new cards arrived yesterday (just waiting for PIN's). There was no money in the wallet at all and Gavin had my passport.
So, not a disaster, just an inconvenience.

I'll tell you more about our adventures in the next day or two, but I just have a couple of photos to show you.

We went to Monaco for the day. This is THE casino from the Casino Royale film. Sadly Daniel Craig was nowhere to be seen.

As you probably know the Yarn Yard has a Garden Shed on Ravelry.
Well, I am thinking of expanding the company to include a more luxurious option.

I give you...

The Yarn Yacht.
What do you think?

I think we would all look pretty cool sitting on the aft deck sipping cocktails and spinning or knitting as the sun goes down.

Why this one?
There were a lot to choose from. Several hundred, and quite a few were bigger and swankier than this.
But you see...

... it had my name on it.

☺

There are just two problems.

1. Gavin gets sea-sick.
2. I didn't dare ask the price.

A small fishing boat type craft with a teeny tiny cabin and fishing nets on the deck was for sale nearby and it cost more than my house!

A couple of announcements...

• I'm updating the shop this afternoon with yarn, and there will be a fibre update later in the week.
• There will be a competition on the blog in the next couple of days to win something French, inexpensive and completely non-knitting related... but useful. It will require no skill at all to enter, and is just for fun.
• This is almost the end of November October (eeeek), so we are approaching the time for the annual Store Cupboard Challenge. Start peering into the recesses of your kitchen cupboards and freezers and having a think about how you could use every scrap of stuff in them over the next month. I'm telling you today because it's the end of the month and it may influence your food shopping this week. The idea is to have a clear out of everything, use it all up and have an inexpensive month of November grocery shopping which will hopefully make space for Festive food shopping and baking etc in December. I did this last year and lots of you joined in with suggestions so I thought I would do it again this year.

Okay... to the camera and the photographic tent. I'll be back later.

n

Eye candy - part four

hug.
Three hugs out of about a dozen!

And that Club yarn?

Here you are....

Home soon - with a restocked shop, just for you!

n

Eye candy - part three

bonny - all semi-striping, just like the last Club yarn.

You want to see it?

n

Eye candy - part two

More toddy.

Eye candy - part one

toddy

I forgot...

Holibag knitting.

n

Holibags - Shop shutting at 20.00 tonight for a week and a bit!

Tomorrow morning, at some ridiculous hour, I will be dragging myself bouncing out of bed and putting my hurriedly squashed carefully packed rucksack designer suitcase into a taxi to go to the airport.

We are off on our holibags for a week and a bit. We have family coming to stay in the house and look after dogs and chickens, so no kennels this time. The dogs are delighted. The chickens are (as you know) increasingly grumpy and menopausal and unlikely to lay their devoted attendants as much as a single egg.

Clubs have been posted.
The last of the yarns and fibres are going today.
I have already got almost 5 kilos of "stuff" ready for the shop when I get back - a kilo each of bonny, caber, hug, toddy and smatterings of beautiful and lochan, not to mention new fibre colourways.

I'll upload a few pictures later so there will be a taster from time to time while I am away (I love typepad). Oh, and I'll turn the comments off while I'm not here to answer them.

I am not taking the mac, nor a phone, nor nuffink.

Today is the LAST DAY for new Club sign-ups for this month. The shop will go off-line at 20.00 this evening.
The 20% off offer (the code is mushroom) still stands but it will be gone after today.
There are a few bargains still to be had, and I'll post anything ordered today when I come home, so expect a little delay in your order arriving.

Club Subscriptions are available here. The discount doesn't apply to Clubs, which are excellent value already, and the only ones available in the UK by monthly subscription.

Bye!
Or perhaps I should say "au revoir, mes amis".

natalie

LIVID!!!

I am so cross I can hardly speak.
Last week, you may remember I sent off an order (Very Large Box) to Alice at Socktopus for Ally Pally.
I sent it on Tuesday afternoon. This was the 7th. (Remember the dates)
It didn't arrive by Thursday. The 9th.
I kept my fingers crossed for Friday. The 10th.
Lots of you went and asked for it over the weekend (Thank You).
I got an email from Alice on Monday (the 13th) to say it still hadn't arrived.
I checked the tracking number. Sure enough, the parcel was somewhere on a red van in London en route to Socktopus HQ.

BUT

The website also said the box was collected from the PO in Kirknewton on Thursday. The 9th.
I checked with Debi.
No, it was collected on Tuesday. The 7th.
You have to understand here that the space behind the counter at the Post Office is smaller than the average bathroom, and is filled with equipment etc. There is no space at all for "holding onto" a parcel.
I rang Parcel Force. They insisted it was collected by them on Thursday.
I registered a complaint on the Parcel Force website.

The only possible explanation, according to Parcel Force was that it has been given to the Royal Mail in error who had then returned it to the PO and it had then been collected by Parcel Force on Thursday. In other words, it was the PO's fault for sending it out with Royal Mail in error.

I double checked with Debi.
She said it was collected by Royal Mail.

I rang PF back. They were triumphant. It was the PO fault and therefore I could not make a claim.

Debi rang me.... to tell me that actually, ALL Parcel Force parcels are collected by Royal Mail. There has never, ever, ever, ever been a Parcel Force collection at the PO in the village. So the Parcel Force website which claims to have collected it "AT THE PO IN KIRKNEWTON, at 17.06 on Thursday" is frankly, rubbish.

I rang Royal Mail.
They said my contract is with Parcel Force. If there is an issue between Parcel Force and Royal Mail, I need to make a claim against Parcel Force who would then take it up with Royal Mail.
I have the receipt. I asked for Parcel Force 48. They did not deliver. I have a claim.
I rang Parcel Force.

All of these phone calls by the way, are on 0870 numbers, which cost a fortune.
At this point I remembered the excellent Say no to 0870 website and found an ordinary, non-0870 number for them.

I spoke to a FIFTH person, who said, "Of course you have a claim, you have the receipt dated Tuesday, we still have not delivered, you have a claim."

Yabbadabbadoo!!!

I emailed Alice.
She is lovely.
When the parcel arrives she will keep everything and add it to the Launch Party event for her new Bricks and Mortar shop which is opening in November.

And then I got an email from Parcel Force.

"After checking the tracking information, I can see that your parcel was not delivered as Parcelforce did not receive the item until 10/10/08 from the Post Office from where it was sent out."

a) They are wrong.
b) Who said anything, EVER about it being collected on the 10th!!!!

I need Chocolate.

Click for big-ness to read the small print.
I'm not sure one bar will be enough.

n

PS. I just got another email...
"After checking the tracking information, I can see that your parcel was not delivered due to being collected from the Post Office late. I am sorry but there are no details to indicate why this occurred."

Unbelievable.