Racing for Life and a Woolly Week

Oh my - what a morning. I'd signed up to do the Race for Life in Glasgow with a friend but unfortunately she'd misread her rota (looked at July instead of June) and it turned out she had to work. There are two things about that forced me to be brave - 1) driving into Glasgow on my own and 2) I don't much like crowds and the Glasgow Race for Life is BIG.

But it all went well! I did get lost briefly on the way - I'd checked the route using Google maps/streetview but there were roadworks and the road I was following just ended so I had to take a detour into uncharted territory. Fortunately I have a fairly good sense of direction and in fact I had no problem getting to the place I intended to park, and even better there was plenty of space.

And although there were squillions of people there (fifteen or sixteen thousand participants I think they said) Glasgow Green is big enough that it didn't feel overwhelming. The weather was overcast and coolish with a nice breeze so it was pleasant running - well as pleasant as running gets anyway!

It was either the end of a busy week or the start of an even busier one, not sure which. Last Sunday was great - I went on a trip off to the wilds of the West End of Glasgow. It's kind of 'student-land' but not having been to university in Glasgow I don't know the area very well. I took my brother with me and we went to the Yarn Cake - a lovely wool-shop/cafe - to indulge in German home-bakes and lovely squishy yarn (the latter much more my thing than his but he'd said he'd buy me yarn for my birthday if I liked so he was The Money!). So I had two slices of apple crumble cake (heavenly) and left with some very nice Drops Nepal that I intended to make into a scarf but after knitting a bit I decided what I really needed was some lovely thick cosy socks:

Stripey ones. Naturally the sun came out at the end of the week and made me feel like an idiot for knitting thick woolly bedsocks but equally naturally that didn't last!

When I got back from that day out I took the notion to do another onion dye but with far fewer onion skins to get a lighter colour. Here's the quite pleasing result being modelled by the boy-cat..


He was sleeping on the chair that I usually photograph yarn and knitting on so rather than move him I just put it on him. He's so sensible with wool now - when he was a kitten this would have been a Bad Idea but he just glanced around in mild bemusement. I think his markings (think Rorschach test) make quite an effective backdrop actually!

I had more Woolly Wonderment on Tuesday night at the knitting coven* when my lovely friends gave me some Yarn Yard Moondance and Malabrigo worsted for my birthday. How nice is that? It was totally unexpected and I nearly cried! Wonderful friends... I've spent my few free moments this week trying to decided what to knit with the yarn. I often think that's one of the best things about knitting - the potential state when all the possible gorgeous patterns are weighed up mentally!

I'm pretty sure I'll use the Malabrigo to make Gudrun's Crofter's Cowl and the temptation is to cast on right away but I've got too many works in progress at the moment and should really finish something now and then!

*my Beloved's name for the knitting group - it's a small group and quite often there'll only be three of us so the temptation to cackle 'when shall we three meet again' is great. However I'm the most hag-like by far so it's not a great analogy!