I should have saved last week’s blog post title (A Little Fall of Rain) for today. We were going to have a day trip to Prestatyn and have lunch on the beach. Except it’s been raining. All day. Fingers crossed for drier weather in the next few days. 🤞
Today’s title is just as fitting though (Check out Waiting for the Phone by Jeff Ronay)!
We had planned to have a seaside day yesterday, but ended up waiting for a plumber for the second day in a row. On Day 1 (Sunday) we had a leak from the pipe into the toilet, so I rang the Home Emergency line of our house insurance. Yes, it was covered if I paid a £25 excess charge, yes, they could get someone to us – he was with us and done within four hours of my first phone call. Though the number of times I had to explain on the phone that no, we didn’t have another toilet, it is our only toilet would make you laugh if it wasn’t true!
However, it seemed we had merely swapped a big leak for some new piping and a smaller, slower leak. We hoped it might just be condensation on the new copper pipe, but it wasn’t. So, on Day 2 (yesterday, Monday) I rang again at 8.45am. Same procedure (except no queries about the number of loos this time) – the contractors would ring within two hours and tell us when the engineer would be there. But… Three hours came and went and no phone call.
I rang the insurers again. Got put through to the ongoing claims line to find out what was happening only to have a phone line so distorted I could barely make out what the chap was saying. I’m pretty sure he said to hang up and he’d ring me back. Except he didn’t. So, 40 minutes later, I rang again (bear in mind I’m not a massive fan of official phone calls). This time I got Tracy, who put me on hold while SHE rang the contractors and then connected me directly to them. Brilliant – thank you Tracy! Our plumber (Ben – a different chap from the day before) arrived at 3.30 and was able to fix the problem quickly, having agreed that the new nut shouldn’t be wet and dripping water on to the floor.
In theory this was all good knitting time, and in fairness I did get quite a bit of my secret project done (10 very long rows), but being in ‘waiting mode’ for that long? It’s exhausting and for some reason it stops me from being able to settle properly to other tasks. It’s been such a relief to get up today knowing we won’t have to have an another day of waiting for the phone – or keep checking the floor for puddles (they’re all gone!).
Today I plied the sparkly yarn that I’ve been working on for a while. I did include the clump of multicoloured long curly locks that came attached to the fibre batt in one of the singles, though I’m not sure I handled them very well. Looking at Hairy Dog Crafts‘ website, who prepared and dyed the fibre, I think they must be Valais Blacknose – they certainly had a longest staple (length of fibre) I’ve yet experienced. So, I now have some ‘fluffy unicorn’ style yarn sitting on my lazy Kate – the main fibre was a mix of Merino, Corriedale, ‘glitter’ (Angellina?) and Rose Fibre. It will be really interesting to see how it looks once it’s been skeined and washed.
As it’s that time of year I made hot cross buns – a week early, but never mind. They were (and still are) delicious. There’s something about the smell of mixed spice laced dough baking as well that just makes me smile. In case you’d like to try them, this was the recipe, ‘Easy No-Knead Sourdough Hot Cross Buns’. I used all white bread flour and vegan butter (Flora Plant B+tter) in these ones.
And I finished my Good Riddance socks by Lauren Rose (Laur_oftheBlings Designs) – since I hadn’t even turned the heel of the second one when I last wrote I’m quite impressed with myself on this. The ends are still waiting to be woven in though.
These did use a goodly amount of my leftover 4-ply yarns, but I still have a huge amount remaining – a full bag of little bits, as well as several bigger part-balls in one of my yarn storage boxes. I may have to make a second pair. And make more hexiflats (I prefer not to stuff them, so I call them hexiflats rather than hexipuffs!) to continue expanding my Beekeeper’s Quilt.
The transcription of my Introduction to Lace Knitting course is nearly done. Of course, this is the stage where I’m looking at the videos at my most critical and half wishing I could re-do some of them – especially the wet-blocking. Unfortunately, once a lace item has been blocked it never returns to that pre-blocked state, so it’s possible I’d have to re-knit the whole project just to block it again… I think I need to get a more objective pair of eyes on it!
If you want to see the Nos Da baby blanket in the real world and are in the North Wales area, I am glad to say it will be taking up residence at Yarn O’clock in Mold very soon! The hedgehog will be staying at home though.
That’s all from me for today. It’s time for a cuppa and to finish off those transcriptions!
Whatever you do this week, hold your loved ones close (whether human, fur-babies or stuffed hedgehogs!) and do what makes you happy. K x