All you need is.....

You fill in the blanks!



OK, so I wilfully copied the above from Icanhazcheezburger.com because it is just so dam' cute. I don't even care if it is photoshopped - although it could be for real. It is C.U.T.E. Happy Valentine's Day.

We celebrated by taking me to the Eye Clinic for a field test. Quite fun, once I had got used to it. It is like playing a video game - you have to puch a button every time you see a flash of light. Only slightly anxious-making when you are in the gaps between flashes that they program in, when if you are like me you think that you are missing gazillions. Apparently, I scored high in both aspects of the test measured - not only do I not have any dodgy areas of vision, but I performed the test really, really well! Just don't ask me what the latter actually means because I have no clue. I just sat there and clicked. Still, nice to have a talent.........

Actually, we did then celebrate by stopping off at our favourite cafe on the way home and indulging in good coffee and in my case a piece of the most delectable chocolate cake. (The DSM had some slightly weird concoction involving apple, pecans and goats cheese frosting??) I don't usually pick chocolate, as I tend to find it too rich, but boy, am I glad I did this time! Fudgy, and chocolatey enough, but not over-sickly.

I then recuperated with an hour of knitting on the sofa - I am now more than half-way round the edge of the lacy stole. Which is great - except that it is bringing me nearer and nearer to the decision point, of whether to dye or not. I am tending to the "yes" vote, but am still mulling.

Friday was AH, and as usual a most pleasant day. Sadly, one of our number died unexpectedly just after Christmas, and on Friday her spinning &etc equipment was brought along to see if anyone wanted any of it. Well, of course we did! It was nice, actually, as we were able to have a bit of a reminisce, and many of us now have something to remember her by.

Me? Of course.

I occasionally do a little braiding. I never got on with it using a hand held disc. Then I discovered this mini-marudai (essentially, a wooden hand held disc on a little stand.



This made all the difference, as I could weight the braid and had tiny bobbins to keep the threads in order.

But when I saw that amongst our friend's things was a full-size marudai - I hadn't been able to justify buying an expenseve wooden marudai for the amount of braiding that I do, but maybe...



My little one is joined by a grown-up sibling! Even nicer is that it was made by the partner of another person who attends the group. I haven't yet got a braid on to it, but will very soon, I promise.

I am still working on all the same projects, but some are moving towards their end, so I may have some exciting new stuff (well.....) on show soon. I've done a bit more on the square throw, even took it to the cinema yesterday, but it was too dark for my eyes to be able to see to knit. Glad we went though - it was a filthy wet Sunday afternoon, and we finally took ourselves off to see "The King's Speech". It is so worthy of all the hype. We loved it, mostly for the stunning performance by Colin Firth. Like most people, we have seen him in a few things, some good, some....less so. This was wonderful. OK, so it played slightly fast and loose with a few things (apparently, and sadly, it is thought that in reality Logue did not call his patient "Bertie") but that in no way takes away from the performance(s).

Time to do some more knitting now.