Friday 25th September - procrastination

Somehow I have gained a couple of stitches across a row in my current knitting again, and I am in the process of 'tinking'* a few rows, to avoid 'frogging'** which is what I ended up doing earlier this morning. Patience is an acquired skill and I surely am getting a lot of practice!

* if you spell 'knit' backwards you get 'tink' which means working backwards along the row, 'unknitting' every stitch 

**'frogging' is when you abandon 'tinking' and just pull out the needles and 'rippit, rippit' back. Apparently that's what frogs say in USA instead of cro-ak in England. Helpful hint; have a needle several sizes smaller to hand to pick up those pesky little stitches. Your chances of success are instantly improved. 

Which reminds me; I learned last night on Micheal Rosen's BBCsounds podcast 'the last word' about Scottish Gaelic that sheep say 'm-e-eh, me-e-eh' in Gaelic and Welsh, not 'Baa baa'. There you go. You can now speak Welsh, or Gaelic. But I doubt this will be a useful puece of information...

 So, back to procrastination; I an doing everything except tinking, which is why you have got a blog post. 

Ang's squares arrived yesterday afternoon, but before I started posting I made a pot of tea. I'm not quite as fussy as DS George Cross in the Tim Sullivan books, but I do like a things done a certain way if I'm at home (although I'm happy with what comes my way when I'm out!)

I prefer herbal teas in my glass teapot, with a glass cup, so I can admire the leaves (if I'm using loose leaf) and the colour. For ordinary tea I  like a cup and saucer and loose leaf tea in my blue pot. Although I'm happy to use certain mugs for convenience. My current favourites are these blue and white ones. 

What's this got to do with Ang? 

Her flat gifts were a selection of herbal tea bags (I've already sampled Mint and Verbena, very good, thank you!) and a sweet little wooden spoon which fits perfectly in my tea-leaf jar. I tested the spoon and it delivers exactly the right amount of tea - how did you know that, Ang? The rest of the tea bags will join the others in my 'Tea Ration' tin. Excellent!

And the square? It's beautiful,  a lovely textured stripe pattern with chains of slip stitches going up. I love it. She's knitted the opposite colourway for herself. Block 157, 'Up and Over' from the book by Jan Easton that we are using.

Now, I  MUST carry on with this current square; it's a bit 'three rows forwards, two rows back' at the moment but I won't be beat! I WILL have just 33 stitches instead of 35 by lunch time or BURST!