I'm seeing the dawn in this morning while writing this. I had an allergy attack in the night and finally gave up on sleep at 4:30am. I thought I'd tiptoe around, make a cup of tea and start my day quietly but the cats had other ideas. They started howling about two minutes after they saw me come out of the bedroom, not for food but to go out and play in the garden. We don't let them out until 6-7am because we have some large foxes in the area and the last time we let one of them out early there was a screaming confrontation on the lawn with one of them. I've retreated to my hobby room with tea and box of tissues but now they know I'm up they're determined to crack me. I have Baldrick wailing on this side of the door and Missy on the other with Georgie bringing up the rear by ripping at the landing carpet for good measure (Georgie and Baldrick still don't get on after a year so have to be kept apart).
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Last week was a tiring week. As I thought it would, giving blood wiped me out completely, despite taking iron supplements, and I had sore itchy eyes from exhaustion pretty much up until Sunday morning. When I woke up Monday morning I finally felt rested so I spent the morning weeding, cleaning and tidying the area around the front door and the afternoon doing a deep clean in our bedroom. Can't quite be sure but I think that might have had something to do with my sneezing fit at 4am, although why it took so long to emerge I'm not sure. Seems a bit unfair to be fine all evening and scuppered in the night. Still, I decided to make an early start on my day so I can be finished early this afternoon. I’m supposed to be going on a track day with Martin at Cadwell Park shortly so he can test out the recent modifications he’s made to his vintage sports car but when he took it to fuel up about midday the throttle kept sticking and he couldn’t get it to tick over. He’s on the drive trying to fix it at the moment but it’s not looking good.
The next thing I knit I'll remember to block as I go after I finish each piece.
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We took Audrey out in the week to a local garden centre that had a boutique clothing section. This was her first outing since the lockdown last March and her longest walk since her hip operation seven weeks ago. She was looking for an outfit for her granddaughter's wedding in October. I took the opportunity to have a look at some of the autumn clothing that had just come in for knitting inspiration. Most of the knitwear was thin acrylic and hung like sacks but I did like the overall idea of a few items and have been searching on the internet for possible patterns for my next project. I do like boat necks and batwings so with a little modification to the shaping something like below would be nice and would help use up balls of wool.
I've also got quite interested in a couple of patterns for fitted ribbed cardigans in my 1950s Knitting Illustrated book but the pattern is spartan to say the least. The main pattern is for a 'younger' lady while the pattern for the 'mature' lady mentions a few modifications but that's it. I'm not kidding myself anything other than the 'mature' lady' pattern will fit. Patterns have come a long way since then thank goodness.
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I made the mistake of booking a shooting lesson for Saturday afternoon thinking I would be ok but I was tired and shot badly. I don't even think I made 20% of what I aimed for. It was hot and the thunderflies were bad. I ended up sweaty, itchy and breadcrumbed with them.
I've been hoping to get enough training and experience from a tutor so that I could hire a gun and enjoy some quiet target practice without having to have a licence, but it seems the law changed two years ago so you can’t do that. I have to have a shotgun licence or go out with someone with a shotgun licence. As I don't know anyone with a licence that means I have to either pay for an instructor to be with me all the time, which will get expensive, or apply for a licence. I started the application process on Saturday but it appears due to COVID it will take around six months, as officers are still dealing with a backlog and they only work on the licences for two hours a day. It also means I have to have a gun cabinet fitted in the house and have an inspection by a firearms officer, despite not wanting to own a flipping gun. It doesn't make sense to me. I can apply for a licence, get a gun and store it in my house 24/7 with no gun safety or maintenance training at all. I can walk into a range and start shooting at targets with zero ability. Yet I can have hours of training from an experienced coach and still not be able to rent a well-maintained gun from the range for one hour a week in a well-organised and supervised environment.
It’s an odd system that doesn’t seem to take into account people’s lack of training in handling and maintaining a gun, just their mental and physical fitness to own one.
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So, while it was a good week knitting-wise everything else was a bit of a fatigued mess. Glad to see the back of it really.
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