I have been starting to tidy the garden, given the mild weather so far. The snowdrops were being hidden underneath the autumn debris and general leaf litter and crud that had accumulated.

I had a slight set back last week when I managed to cut my left index finger with the secateurs. A surprising amount of blood. It is healing slowly and the tip of my finger still feels quite numb.

Anyway, I finished of tidying the LBE this afternoon, and a bit more besides. I will probably be aching again tomorrow.

But spring is definitely on its way early this year.

Stashdown 2012

I bought too much yarn last year. I bought it on ebay. I bought it from a couple of Ravelers destashing. I bought it from on-line stores. And I discovered Wollmeise on-line store updates. In fact the only way I didn't buy it was from bricks-and-mortar shops.

So this year I am trying very hard to not buy any.

This is helped by Paul getting me a sock club subscription for Christmas so I know I will get one package of colourful squishy goodness through the door each month.

I have set myself the goal of averaging a mile a month for the whole year. Reward will be a skein of something nice and another for each mile over and above...

January

February

The January socks have been knitted.. The February yarn is actually two mini skeins for a colourwork pair, which look wowee but I haven't decided yet whether to do the pattern.

I finished my Aran shirt at the start of February and then discovered a mis-crossed cable on the back. This caused my a lot of anguish, but I have decided to live with it as a design feature and a way of determining the front from the back. 

And then I decided to make something quick and easy from the Rowan natural silk aran I had accumulated in sweater quantity but not enough in any one colour (7 blue, 4 dark pink, 2 light pink and two white/cream). I searched the Rav database for a suitable pattern that could be adapted for stripes. This is my first ever top down jumper. 

And now I am using the leftovers(2 dark pink and part balls of the others) for a quick and easy scarf...

Chester Tourney 2012

Almost a month on from my last post.

Was off playing my first scrabble tourney of 2012 last weekend at Chester. I went with no great expectations having had about 2 months off from studying. The journey down there was a little stressful when my third train leg from Manchester to Chester terminated at Stockport because there was a freight train stuck further down the line. An hour's wait for the next train (I was not allowed to re-route because I had to go via Altrincham according to my ticket). This meant that as we proceeded to stop at every station the train was invaded by school kids...

Anyway I finally arrived around 5.15 p.m., still with enough time to chill out before a very good 3-course dinner and then two games of scrabble. A flowing game 1 against Phil Robertshaw with (T)ITRATOr to counter his early bonus, ASS(I)GNED as a 4x and a late GUESSER gave me a rare large win. I followed this up with a 4 bingo game against Steve Perry, including t(O)RQUING for 124.

Day 2 also went well, starting off with a 2 point win against Wayne Kelly with a nice bonus spot of S(U)BOCEAn, and also (B)URSTONE and SPANKER. My winning ways continued, although I was in severe trouble against Janet Phillips. Trailing slightly on a blocked board and holding rubbish I dumped TUTU/UR, keeping back ELS and was rewarded with BEIG which played parallel to TUTU for 83!

So, 11 out of 11 at the end of the day - but so was Lewis who had accumulated a mega spread.

Day 3 continued well with a couple more wins and then I had to play Jackie, who had just blown her game against Lewis. The writing was on the wall. I started with a bonus on move 2, and turning over my tiles had snagged a blank - and ENUUUV. So I changed UUUV and started a vowelfest. Meanwhile Jackie was bonusing away with gay abandon and when not, playing off the power tiles for hefty scores. I held that blank until the very last move when I got a consolation bonus of FETIDEST. I won the next two games and now for the showdown. I was a win ahead of Lewis but still needed to win as his spread was bigger than mine, And it was a horrible game.He got ahead early on and the board was fairly blocked. My deficit widened to 3 figures, and I was still way behind when I eventually bonused with (R)ePARTEE. Lewis played across it to stop an 8 down on to it, and I played SAZ for 41 for a faint glimmer of hope. It was not to be, and I lost by 21.

Still, second place with 15/17 and a tourney rating of 203 was not bad. I could get used to not studying if I could keep that up!