Just for fun

I saw this test on Annie Modesitt's blog and since book 7 is out on Saturday thought it might be good fun.

The answer wasn't really a great surprise :-)

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

I am such a Ravenclaw that I scored 92 out of 100 for Ravenclaw! What was a surprise was that I scored 88 for Gryffindor. I always wonder whether these tests are skewed towards Gryffindor because everyone wants to be in the same house as Harry. I scored 62 for Slytherin and 60 for Hufflepuff.

While we are on the topic of personality testing, I spotted there was a lot of the Myers-Briggs personality test stuff going round. If anyone is interested I am an INTJ - which explains a lot of things :-)

Knitting

I've been knitting a little sample in stocking stitch with the Debbie Bliss Rialto yarn, and it is lovely, a really nice yarn to knit with and beautifully soft. I used my Knit Picks interchangeable needles in a 4mm and had no problem with the yarn splitting even though the points of the needles are quite sharp. Last time I was at the Interknit Cafe I ordered enough of the Rialto for a cardigan in a kind of teal shade. A couple of days ago I got an email from Kareen to say it had arrived (very speedy!) so I am going to pick it up tomorrow. I have to go tomorrow because tomorrow also happens to be the start of their sale :-)

The new washing machine is marvelous and I have done 5 loads of washing since it arrived yesterday afternoon! The next load is going to be a wool wash so once they have dried I can take some pictures of the Rialto swatch and the little sweater I knitted at a workshop with Debbie Abrahams.

I'm off to go and watch the washing machine go round ...

Louisa Harding and Debbie Bliss

I was intending to post this on Monday, which was my day set aside for doing a bit of organising round the house and catching up. Monday started fairly well, I got up early and put the sheets in the washing machine and got the vacuum out. As I was vacuuming near the utility room I noticed that the washing machine wasn't moving round, and thought it must be near the end of its cycle which meant it had washed pretty fast. A while later when the cycle had actually finished I went to move the sheets into the dryer and thought they felt very wet. I put them back in the washing machine for a quick spin to try and sort them out, and noticed as I set it going that it was making all the usual washing machine noises but that the drum wasn't actually spinning. It turns out that the washing machine has decided that spinning is over-rated and that it isn't going to bother anymore, which unfortunately makes it rather useless. I had to rinse out the sheets in the bath because they were still rather soapy - it certainly makes me appreciate the machinery when it is working!

Monday ended up being spent in research on and shopping for a new washing machine, which we found and ordered and will be arriving sometime on Thursday. This one has a bigger drum than the previous one though it takes up the same space in the utility room and is more energy efficient which will be good. It even has a little display which tells you how long the washing has til it finishes!

Just to add insult to injury I managed to crack one of the heads of the vacuum while swapping heads, although I don't think it will make much difference to the functioning of the vacuum (it is a pretty useless vacuum at the best of times). I don't think I am cut out for house work!

Back to knitting related things.

I have been to a couple of great events organised by Kareen at the InterKnit Cafe in Farnham. Unfortunately I completely failed to take any photos, but I have photographed the things I bought :-)

First, on 27th June was a talk by Louisa Harding, and second on 13th July was a talk by Debbie Bliss. They were both very interesting and I enjoyed myself enormously. They talked a bit about how they had come into knitting designing, and about how they approached their designing and their inspirations for their upcoming autumn pattern books. They also both brought with them loads of garments which will appear in their new pattern books, and Debbie also brought garments from her current pattern books. We were able to have a good close look at all the knitting and also try lots on - which I did gamely despite all the samples being made to fit a 34 inch chest and me being quite a long way from 34 inches anywhere!

I am hoping that Kareen will organise some more of these events, I had a great time and it makes such a difference to actually see the garments. However fantastic the photography in a pattern book, knitting is such a 3D tactile activity that nothing can beat seeing the garment there and being able to feel the drape and see all the stitch detail. It was also very interesting to see lots of people in all different shapes and sizes try on the garments, sometimes a garment looked completely different on people of different proportions even though they wear the same dress size. I have come away with lots of ideas and quite a few unintelligeable scribbles in my notebook!

I did buy a few little bits and pieces while I was in the shop :-) First at the Louisa Harding day:

The ball at the front is actually chocolate brown Rialto DK (100% merino) and the toffee colour is Louisa Harding Fauve (100% nylon) which is a kind of suede-like thin ribbon. There is a lovely pattern for a cardigan in the Rialto book which I am going to have a go at (although having tried the model on I will alter it a bit), unfortunately I can't find a picture of it on the Debbie Bliss website at the moment.

At the Debbie Bliss day I also bought:

The purple is Rowan All Seasons Cotton (50% cotton, 50% acrylic I think), and enough of the Cashmerino DK to make a cardigan - it is the most fantastic kingfisher / peacock colour. I am looking forward to trying all of these new-to-me yarns.

Lace Knitting Exhibition

The Lacis Lace Museum in Berkeley, California is having an exhibition on knitted lace at the moment. For those of us who can't get to Berkeley there is a slide show you can view on their website. Very inspiring stuff. I definitely feel some lace knitting coming on :-)

Four Things

I spotted this on Dee's blog and thought I would have a go.

4 Jobs I have had in my life:

Entry specialist (I always think this makes me sound like a burglar, actually it was computer programming)
Administration assistant at a University
Co-ordination assistant for events
Knitting technical editor

4 films I can watch again and again:

Hello Dolly
One of our Dinosaurs is Missing (a childhood favourite and I adore the music)
What's Up Doc
Casino Royale (the old one with Woody Allen, I haven't seen the new one)

As you can probably tell music plays a big part in the films I like :-)

4 places I have lived:

Hertfordshire
North Yorkshire
Oxford
Surrey

4 TV series I watch:

Grand Designs
Location Location Location
Time Team
Actually I don't watch much TV and I can't think of anything else at the moment. I am better with series's where it doesn't matter if you miss one!

4 places I have been on holiday:

Brittany
The Loire
New Jersey
Hadrian's Wall

4 things I do every time I go on the Net:

Check my bloglines to see who has updated
Read my emails
See what specials Elann has today
Follow the links other people have mentioned in their blogs

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world:

(I'm going to limit myself to things which actually class as food here :-) )
Oysters
Raw meat
Raw egg
Eels

4 places I would love to be right now:

Actually I am quite content to be here now, so I will fill in 4 places I love:
RHS Garden Wisley
Locquirec Brittany
Just about anywhere with Roman ruins
Oxford

4 people to tag:

If you would like to do this then consider yourself tagged :-)

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I am very flattered that Diane has nominated me as a 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' ! This may well be the first time I have rocked at anything :-) I am savouring the moment. It is very hard to decide who to nominate. My bloglines has 159 feeds at the moment, and I love them all for different reasons. Today I will nominate Fiona, Mary, Liz, Dawn, and Sue. These are all bloggers who I met first in real life and then discovered they had blogs.

PS. Sue I did manage to get home before it got dark, but have since worked out how to put the car lights on anyway so I am saved from turning into a pumpkin.

Patchwork knitting workshop

We are having a surprisingly rain-free day, so I have been catching up on photographing my knitting.

Way back on the 13th of May I went to a workshop on Horst Schulz style patchwork knitting taught by Rosie and hosted by Jill (who I think doesn't have a website yet). It was a nice intimate workshop with people working on various different techniques depending on their level of experience and what interested them. Rosie handled the differing projects very well, making sure everyone had as much help and guidance as they needed, while allowing time for people to experiment with the techniques. I had a lovely day, and it was a great opportunity to see many different directions the same basic methods could be taken in.

I had a go at some short-row work. This is the most recent design idea that Horst has been working on.


And also some shells.


Apologies for the horrid choice of colours :-) This was what I had in my knitting bag at the time.

Better go and get ready for bed. I am going to the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM tomorrow which unfortunately means getting up appallingly early in the morning. Say hi if you see me, I will try to be awake, and not too traumatised from the drive! Someone drove into the back of Paul on his way home from work last Friday while he was driving the shiny new car (it wasn't even two months old - boo hoo) and we collected the hire car this afternoon to replace our car while it is being fixed. The hire car is an automatic (we used to have an automatic but that was several years ago) and is a Toyota Corolla. It is quite different to our car which is a Nissan Note, and the Corolla is going to take some getting used to! At least I should have a good long time to get the hang of it on the way to Cheltenham and back.

Exhausted

It has been a busy few weeks, with some very long days at work. Not a lot of knitting has been done. For quite some time I have been just too tired in the evening to even knit a row which is a pretty poor state of affairs! Things are starting to look up a bit here now and I have been plodding on with the never-ending patchwork sweater - photos of the progress soon.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom here you will be pleased to know :-) I have managed to find time for a few fun knittery things which I will write more about soon.