moving

This was meant to be a messy tuesdays post. But of course, I'm behind, and its now wednesday. I've decided that is appropriate.

We moved house over a week ago now, but we're not entirely unpacked yet and the mess is starting to upset me. Every time I walk across a room, I trip over something that hasn't got a home yet. So, to save my sanity, this photo utilises the macro setting to blur it all out behind a kitchen utensil*. I have too much work to do this week** to worry about the rest of the unpacking.

It will get sorted in evenings and at the weekend(s). Eventually. And then the house will be lovely. We've bought a great bed, which actually has bookshelves built inside the base (its called a 'library bed'). That's got to help the unpacking.

There has been some knitting amongst all of this. Its a cotton tee with a heart texture pattern. Not very much, as the moving, cleaning, phoning up utilities companies (don't get me started on BT...) and general screaming into the abyss of boxes hasn't really left much time for yarn. Plus, as predicted, the bicycle has been a serious competitor to knitting. I hope it'll be done in a couple of weeks though, then I'll write up the pattern.

* I'm not entirely sure what this utensil is. We use it for fishing pasta out of water. Sort of like a slotted spoon, but wire based - more slots than spoon.

** I start my new job today. This afternoon, I'm moving offices.

domestic saturday

As a balance to the last two messy tuesdays posts, here is one based on a day of domesticity. Though I dare say you can spot some mess at the back of a few of the shots. The day started with a shower, a bit of a tidy of the kitchen and a check of jobs.ac.uk, followed by a lengthy deconstruction of pantomime cross-dressing over brunch at a local cafe with Marcus. He pottered off to the football, and I picked up some groceries on the way home. I only went in for bread flour, but there was a special offer on frozen raspberries.


So now we have 9 jars of jam. I do like raspberry jam. While doing the washing up, I found an Agatha Christie on the BBC7 iplayer. I not only know whodunit, but could virtually recite the script verbatim, but Miss Marple is one of my favourite guilty pleasures. This one even starts with a knitting; a dropped stitch and skein of blue wool to be exact. So, during the rest of the radio play there was a bit of knitting from me. Socks, using 'magic-magic loop' of two-on-one-needle, I'm making the pattern up as I go.


Then some baking. Kirsty and I, in a moment of whimsy earlier in the week resolved to make a cake in celebration of the return of Dr Who, challenging ourselves to include ingredients starting with the letters d, r, w, h and o. So, a carrot cake with dates, raisins, wholemeal flour, honey and the juice of an orange. We baked it in a loaf tin and covered it in blue icing, full results here. We made up a couple of mini-muffins with the leftover mix, TARDIS door-knobs?


After that little excursion into geekery (unusual for either of us), we completed the day in relative elegance with some pre-dinner cocktails. Because one should always keep a bottle of cava and some cassies on hand. Take that Nigella.

Tomorrow, I work. Marking exams.

Messy tuesdays wednesdays

I've been really inspired by the 'messy tuesdays' posts. If you've not spotted this yet, Felix's manifesto puts it so very well "You are not your flawless surfaces. You are not your orderly laundry-pile. You are not the seamlessness of your Finished Objects. You are not your risen cakes. You are not your sewn-in ends." Domestics in drag may be oodles of fun, but our lives aren't like that. Indeed, the messiness of the world is just as interesting as that oddly modernist aesthetic that seems to have embedded itself in the world of the craft blog; its not all clean lines, good light, an apparent complete lack of 'stuff'. Wouldn't it be lovely to celebrate the forms of domesticity we experience on an everyday level rather than voguing some fantasy we don't especially like that much anyway?

Except, my life is way too messy to get around to actually blogging on a given day. So here it is, a good 36 hours later I planned. Our round-and-round knitting jar (circs and dpns). Though, there appear to be a few standard straight needles that have inadvertently made there way in there.

It once held jam, though credit where credit is due, the domestic goddess of the household did sterilise it, and probably used it for several types of jam, chutney and marmalade in the meantime. The circs are more than a bit tangled, the dpns aren't neatly sorted and knotted together with string (as they once were). Its way too full. Also, the cables on the circs stick out more than there is space for on the shelf where they usually sit. Consequentially the whole caboodle tips over on regular occasions and, domino-like, scatter all over the kitchen floor. In fact, when I went to replace it after taking the photo, I managed to knock its neighbouring mug of crochet hooks everywhere.

I have to admit, I moved it to take the photo to somewhere with more light. I suppose this is cheating; playing to voguing a world where you can turn your home into a studio. In my defence (a) the only spare time I had was at 7:40am (b) our flat's bloody gloomy at the best of times (c) there wasn't much point posting an image of the kind of grey/ brown blur you can't see anything in. Bah, I'm sure the ability to cheat is part of the celebration of messy tuesdays!

I know I probably should finally get around to sewing that circular needle case from the SnB book. But I have a thesis chapter to write, it took me nearly two hours to get home from the library, and I'd much rather spend the free time I have this evening casting on Muir. Plus, if we're talking chores, there's the hob to scrub, knickers to wash, a button to sew back on, floors to sweep, mould to wipe off the back wall, and darnit I still haven't phoned the student loans company.

I'd suggest 'Yeah, I'm a slacken, and?' pin badges, but I fear people might take the other meaning (and on that, it is a bit shocking that one word can refer to both untidy and sex-worker).