Oh Dear

The best plans of mice and men go astray!
Work and the world has been unkind to my plans and I have got out of the habit of doing my blog, I was reading back over the past and only the most recent ones are boring and stilted, I need to get these muscles back in running order again, and I wont try and fill me blog with a massive amounts today and just get back into the habit.
I haven't stopped while not writing, my courses have gone up and I am enjoying my work still.
I did the advocacy course from the Toronto University and it was amazing, I am still processing all that we covered, I passed with an 83% which considering I fluffed a whole section and didn't feel I had enough space to fulfill my brief and be happy was quite pleasing. I shall share what I gained here along with the future learn courses that I so enjoyed and the few I really haven't enjoyed, which was still very interesting.

It is that time of year again when I so want to go and spend heaps of money at the Highland Wool Festival, I was due run a workshop for Crochet but sadly the take up of workshops was so poor that they made the choice to get rid of them and just have a day full of stalls and things :-) means I am not so pressured to get there and may get there for lunch! My husband is working on the opposite end of the council area and is hoping to meet me at the event for a few hours as its 2 hours from me and just over 3 from him. I have too many projects on the go again, but hope to get some done. I did finish some very nice socks which I had only been making for 4 or 5 years :-) and started some fab multicoloured wool which is acid neon colours and so makes me smile. Pictures when there is enough knitted to make it worth showing.





I had got all my DK together to make kits for the crochet class so I am now planning making some granny squares either for a blanket or possibly for this coat. Which should make for an interesting make as this picture is all I have :-) my designer hat is firmly on, and if I can 'make' it I can also help my friend who also wants one to make it... or Bodge it at the very least!

Not very awake to day as I was going to bed last night noticed one of the cats wasn't in her normal spot, asked and turns out she hadn't come home and they hadn't done anything! ack, it 11.15 last night and it started raining again and I am in a thin fleece and crocs wandering the local roads calling for her with a torch, cursing the kids! Ended up making them look for her as I was getting way too cold. went to bed worried but she came in at 1.30am! but I had a broken night worrying about her. At least she wont wander for a few days.

Never too many Hats

My weekend was a wonderful mix of Knitting, crochet and chat, I have an on going project waiting for me to get my self organised and done! The knit and stitch magazine has sent balls too small to make the square that they tell you to do. I know this as a knitter of many years but I would hate a new person to feel they had got it wrong because they didn't get done what was recommended but the issues are with the wool and the supplier! But the group did supply my Title again :-) one lady said she had lots of hats another suggested they could go to the sale as she had too many, the reply from the rest was you can never have too many hats! As I have more than I can wear over an average winter I must uphold this. But when it comes to my life, I must disagree, you can have too many hats/jobs to do.

I am also crocheting a big afghan blanket one small crochet square at a time, I am keeping the finished squares in a bag and a rough tally of numbers vs colours! found 8 or 10 balls of DK left from older things so am making it with this! I am making the grey, mustard and pink one underneath! 2 1/2 inch squares into a king size bed blanket makes for lots of squares! mine is full of primary colours and bright tonal colours.

I am also making string bags! slow but very satisfying  I am part of a group which will be holding a stall on the 7th of April and I need to make things for it now! in my vast spare time (face palm) so my non-work time is make make make!

I am a big fan of Google Reader and so am a sad fan of it as they are ending the service! I realise it didn't drive traffic, maybe if it had they wouldn't have dropped it :-( but I have been checking other options out with help form Blogs I follow (yeah yeah) and this has shown to be the best for this, Phil Bradley who is so good at web 2 aspects and is so helpful if you need to ask for help. I have changed my reader to Bloglovin which is very similar to Google reader, not the most flexible and really aimed at the apps market, but will allow me to move that way and not have to change again in the future!

This morning I received my Carnegie Award shadowing pack, and in the same post the majority of the books! I now have to get them in the system and out to the kids! one text is also from the Scottish Childrens Book Awards and another was already in the system as we like Marcus Sedgwick. Looks like being a fab read this year, I am looking forward to reading them when they are in.

No matter how I look at my course in Inverness the numbers are finite, already managed to re-organise room for extra 2 or 3 bodies, worried now we haven't thought of speakers sitting! ack, just trying to get as many as I can to it :-( some names I know should have asked to go on my list haven't, and only 3 spaces left! I will have to man up and start organising one in 18 months time-ish September/October 2014, shall talk to Michael when hes up :-). Also most make sure it isn't in holiday time then ;-) so many mutterings, thought they be happy!

Must get back to work, and worry about the snow that is due to fall over the next couple of days! very frustrating, up to 25 cm predicted for us, with 15 cm today! can see me being a tortoise and pulling in my head and hunkering down while the snow falls but tomorrow I have to drive out west to Farr, all day time driving but cold and its far to Farr...