Foul English germs.

Okay, who gave me the foul English germ? I`d barely got home before I started a cold...sore throat, sniffle, headache etc. My ancient menopausal body can`t take these things any more....minute I get any sort of infection I fall apart. Chronic fatigue and vertigo are auto add-ons.

So it`s been a fun week, not enhanced by the fact the joiners and plasteres etc are in and out at odd moments, doing this and that and forgetting the other. Me and the boss builder...we have this List, you see, of things that still need doing, but it appears to be top secret and information is only released on a need to know basis to the actual workmen. So when a plasterer arrives to finish the front door surrounds, for example, and I ask him if he`s going to be doing the window surrounds today too ...well, blank amazement. Window surrounds? No, Missus, don`t know about window surrounds. Or they turn up at 2pm unexpectedly to finish something and the necessary previous step hasn`t been done....oh well, the list IS getting shorter, I suppose.

I think the most exciting thing I`ve done all week is wind off two of my Noro cones. Now, this has been an illuminating experience and I have learned a couple of things. Firstly, all the balls of any Noro I`ve used has had at least one knot, so I`ve been expecting the cones to have a few knots. You know how many knots I`ve found in the 1700 yds approx I`ve balled? One. Yup, one. In the equivelant of 34 balls. Of course, whatever I knit will have more knots now, since I`ve split the cones down to balls, but I think the lack of onboard knots is weird.

Also....I`ve been winding off in completed colour sequences so I don`t have to think about messy colour joins between balls. This confirmed something for me that I`ve long suspected...Noro Silk Garden (and from this one cone, Kurayon also) is dyed in runs that are approximately 80g long. Now this isn`t a problem when winding your own, as you can wind an exact sequence or you can number your balls to ensure that the colours run sequentially, but given that Noro is sold as 50g or 100g units, if you want the sequence to match, you`ll have to make a lot of joins. And that means more knots, dunnit?

Good thing I love Noro so much....and no, I`m not particularly anal about it matching, but I did make the stripes of the Bettna jacket match across the two fronts (using Noro Shinano) and I think I`d prefer most two part fronts like this. Its not possible to match the back stripes to the front, btw, unless you`re prepared to do a lot of fiddling with two identical balls, because of the number of stitches.

Anyway, it`s still been fun playing with the Noro cones, if only because the two I`ve wound have looked totally different to what I expected from looking at the outsides. The Kurayon in particular metamorphosed from being quite a black/royal blue yarn to one full of dusky pinks and purples on a background of slate blue and grey. Still no idea what to make with it though!