Updates on the neighbours…and it’s good news!

I forgot that I haven’t filled you in on the developments with our neighbours in a while. Well, the situation has vastly improved. The top floor neighbours scarpered, taking half the fittings in the flat with them if one of my other neighbours is to be believed (including, apparently, pipework to be sold for scrap metal – awesome). Since then we’ve had a single girl with a young baby move in, and I’ve not heard a peep out of her or any friends of hers who have visited other than the front door being closed. Mr and Mrs Screamy and five year old Miss Screamy, who lived directly overhead have moved out too. I’m sad for the little girl as apparently the elder Screamies have split up, but then given the amount of arguments we heard it was hardly surprising. Although the number and frequency of arguments had died down in recent months – the calm before the storm, maybe? And as they owned their flat, no-one else has moved in as yet. The eternal pessimist in me is wondering how long it will be before one or other of them starts bringing home one night stands they’ve picked up in Cardiff bars, but really I’m just enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasts! It’s just like the good old days when we first moved in, when this really was a lovely peaceful part of Cardiff to live!

Oh dear, I do sound old!

Rediscovering the yarnie mojo

I’ve just spent two hours or more shopping online for yarn. Not fun. I want to make a Velvet Morning cardigan for myself but the recommended yarn is 1. from America (which would take aaaaaaages to be delivered) and 2. far too expensive for a cardigan for me. Even though I absolutely love the blue yarn they use. So I needed to find a substitute. I was hoping to go for a Rowan or Debbie Bliss merino or pure wool blend and I even went wool smooshing (which is squishing and judging general yumminess, NOT stealing as my lovely husband suggested!) in John Lewis yesterday to get some inspiration. But when I went to find a good deal online today, the best deal I could find still involved me paying upwards of £120 to get enough yarn for just one cardigan! Needless to say that was way out of my budget, and I’ve not found a cardigan in existence which I would value at that. So I found a cheaper alternative, a James C Brett Aran with Wool. I’ve used James C Brett yarns before and they were nice so I’m hoping this one will be too. I’m still spending about £45 on the yarn, but it comes in big 400g balls, and so I will have about 300g of each of the three contrast colours left with which I can knit lots of lovely things for our niece, little M.

My knitting mojo definitely abandoned me last year. I did one large project, a baby blanket for little M, two little cardigans also for her and a handful of scarves and other small items. I’m hoping to really get back into the swing of things in this coming year, including getting back into dyeing again. Luckily I’d built up a decent collection of hand dyed yarns because I’ve not done any more dyeing since last spring. But my stocks are running a little low, so I’ll have to sit myself down and think of some good colourways shortly.

With regard to what I want to knit this year, I’d like to do my cardigan as soon as possible, so that I can get plenty of wear and enjoyment out of it before the weather warms up. I’ve been wanting to make GG a jumper for years and have never got round to it, so hopefully this will be the year for that too. I have plans for gloves or mittens for each of my three boys (GG is counted as one of my boys, obviously!) and something nice for my friend M for her birthday in September (I won’t say what on the off chance she comes and has a look!). I’m going to make a few things for little M, at least one jumpery/cardigany thing in each age range, which means at least three with the first one due in February when she hits six months old. Plus I’m planning some general non-specific items which can go on the stall once I go back to the market or can be put aside for next year’s Christmas presents. So, there’s enough to keep me busy for a while!

Reading that back, it sounds a bit optimistic. But I know that if I knuckle down, and don’t waste time in front of the TV in the evenings by having idle hands, I can get an awful lot done in a year. It will be interesting to look back in a year and see what I did achieve in 2012. Here’s to a good year!