Who should I vote for ?

I could vote for the Labor Party - they have a good chance to carry on destroying the economy and making the pound weaker and weaker. As the work I do might involve getting paid in euros - all in all it might not be a bad thing.

Or I could vote the Lib/dems - the guy has a Spanish wife - he might understand that being a foreigner in this country is not easy. Good job Mrs. Duffy decided to go visit her English relatives established in Canada : she might get all enlightened about how different people flock in different countries.

Or I could vote BNP - it might be my only chance somebody will get me out of here.
Just joking. Sort of.

Oh, and I'm not voting Conservatives - they want to stop public spending - and I work for a public agency so I'm not going to cut my own branch, am I? How many other millions of people are doing the same kind of thinking?
Saying this in their manifesto was clearly not very clever.

Speaking about immigration, is manifesto an English word or did we flock it from somewhere?

Hiking season started - Walsden

Nice weather yesterday, well at least sunny, so I thought we should get moving again. The car is in a right state (again) which only allows us to travel short distances around Halifax.
I had a look in my Walks in Caldardale booklet and picked the Reddyshore Scout and Allescholes farms walk, and this became the winner just based on the mileage (4 miles and the shortest of all). Too cold for long walks and we need to get back in gear first, after a winter of TV watching.
This walk is above Walsden and it ended up that the trail was way too close to the road, (at least according to my standards), in order to be fully enjoyable.
If I would have remembered to take the camera AND the memory card, I would have had some photographs.
The only thing I can do now is to steel some from the net.

Pylons all the way,

The Summit Railway Tunnel ventilation shafts,

...and obviously the main historical attraction of the walk, the Allescholes milestone which shows direct distances to Rochdale and Halifax and some other villages that I can't remember now.

It has been good as an exercise, but clearly I need to work more on selecting the trails in the future.

Charlie

I've stopped my current knitting for Charlie's first sweater. He is not born yet but I need to mail the sweater to New Zealand so I could not afford to wait longer.

Charlie has English parents, so I thought I will add a Celtic Starmore element into his first sweater. Not that he will know it now, but maybe in a few decades from now, he will see it in pictures of him as a baby.

Apart from this, I am in a very bad shape - I have a new job which involves four hours of commuting in Barnsley,almost daily, on dirty and cold and late trains and buses. Plus some twenty minutes walking in the rain or wind or snow, at half past six in the morning, to the bus stop. Just great.

I can't read while traveling because of the constant noise, half of the people in the carriage shouting in their mobile phones in the same time, and can't knit either because it's too crowded to get my gear out.

So it's nothing but a frustrating waste of time.

I wanted to post today because tomorrow's post will be about our traditional First of March Day.

I am thinking what to do next: I need to finish this sweater first. It has been patiently waiting for a while and I'm almost there.

Then I will start a coat - jacket which I want to design myself. Because I need a jacket.
I have some dark blue purple merino Otto from Pavi Yarns and it looks very nice in the ball.

Then I need to get rich (or the US dollar to go down again :) and buy some more Beaverslide wool from the States.

Then I think of using some Jaeger extra fine merino DK for a 'Japanese' sort of pattern or for the Gedifra 509 which is in my queue for a while now - but I'm not sure yet which one will be.
That's the 2010 knitting plan. Apart from this, I have an impressive hiking plan, and an even more impressive website to build. My job is definitely in the way :). I need to meet that secret millionaire soon.

2010 January

I've spent an hour today going through old posts and comments - somebody left a comment with a question on an old post, I was going to answer but I've got no idea which post was it. So, here we go.
I was hoping I can see all comments by date, but somehow blogger is incapable of this sort of advanced feature.
On a different note I think I want to keep this blog alive - the experience of revisiting was quite good. Trying to remember how the last half of 2009 went: lots of trips and hiking in the Dales and the Peak District, difficult summer back home and a very complicated end of the year.

I did some knitting, mainly to keep sane, this is my last FO - finished in December last year.

The pattern is called Demi and it's from Rowan Vintage. Very popular on Ravelry. I love the neckline style and the buttons - I am going to use it again for the next sweater.
I bought the yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods, from Montana, the colour is Lake McDonald and to be honest I can't wait to order more.
Not because I could not find yarns in England but because the experience was so positive all around I don't feel like trying anything else: very soft texture, no change in size after washing and extremely warm. I hate being cold, and this sweater is the warmest thing I've ever had.
It took me through the so called winter.

This being the first post for 2010 - just hope we'll all have a good year.

Forteen ninty five

Went out today to take a few photos of my newly finished sweater.


I can't understand this black margin in my resized photo - I will investigate later.

The place is called the Castle Hill and it's near Huddersfield. Nice countryside but grey clouds and very windy. The weather was like this all spring - on the other hand it has been a good test for my sweater which seams to be wind proof as well as warm.

I think I'm going to love it. And I want to get more Rowan Cocoon in the future - these have been mill ends bough cheap in Coldspring Mil ( 14.95 for a big bag 950 gr.) and the yarn is quite fuzzy and very loosely spun.

If I'd do this pattern again I would do the sleeves on less stitches - I could clearly see they were too large, just that somehow when I follow a pattern I tend to become dumb and not think anymore. I guess guidence comes with its limitations. And here is another photo from a nearby forest. Bluebells are out.

2009 And such a fresh start

I can't believe I didn't post anything in December - I guess it's all down to bad weather and the associated 'no trips/no photos' combination. Unless you count Blackpool as going out.

The main news is that I've started a new job and I'm quite excited about it - I went back to programming after years of project management (read 'farting around' while waiting for my papers) but there are lots of new experimental things involved in it, new technologies, rfid, hexadecimals, bla, bla, bla, so it's kind of worth the effort. The effort of remembering elementary syntax I mean.

Knittingwise I'm happy now with my last stash burner project, which obviously had to undergo surgery at the end as all the others - yes, it is important to go down a needle size while doing the ribbing.

Repeat this till it sinks in. Doesn't look like I can ever remember it. Can you spot the 'deja vu' look in her eyes?


My own pattern - and I have plans to add some elements to it as I find it quite boring now that it's finished. Some bobbles or leaves or I don't know what. I will attempt a decent photo soon - if we ever see the sun again in Yorkshire.

The other thing I'm knitting/sneezing/knitting is the Cluster Berry sweater, which I strongly hope to finish till next week, to wear it at my first management meeting with the new company. I wrote 'knitting' as my hobby in my resume - I'll see how many of my new bosses will make the association.
The yarn was a bargain (can I ever resist) and it's all over the house now, a blue angora cloud which is just taking over everything.

Plans for 2009 . I think I'll be happy to be able to complete a sweater each 3 months : Demi is first on the list but I don't have the yarn for it yet, a Japanese pattern+yarn waiting and might be actually the next one, nice green stash aran yarn + my own pattern waiting, and St. Brigid maybe. And can we fit other things in between : Yes, we can.

Let's hope for a good year.

Obama President?

The Americans are electing a new president and what an exciting chance they've got this time. One one hand they have Barack Obama which I really like for being intelligent and keeping genuine ( and what a rare quality this is in the ego land of politics), on the other hand Sarah Palin, the American chavette. What's it going to be ? Like John McCain just said - he can't understand how come Obama is not leading with 20% already.
We know what you mean John, we can't understand either.
Back to knitting. Finished the Japanese butterfly.




and I'm well into my next 'Normal and please keep me warm sweater'. Pictures soon.
I have a few other projects is mind - just bought some blue angora and some Cocoon yarn (bargains) from Coldspring Mill. I should visit more often.
Trying to catch up with life facts:
- we are decorating a few rooms in order to repair the floods damages. Chaos everywhere.
- I've got a new project at work which is very interesting but requires working at their place and not at home (9 to 5 and I hate it, but at least I don't have to contemplate the disaster at home)
- I've sent my daughter to University and her independence is scary, to say the least.

Yes - we had a good summer

I had a choice in July to stay in England and spend my birthday at a party (party which had nothing to do with me), organised by my partner's ex wife, (which BTW is still 'on board' as she's our accountant), or to fly abroad and spend ten days in Mallorca(my daughter's suggestion). Guess which one I picked (and how fast).

The resort is a small port in the north part of the island, it's called Puerto Pollensa and amazingly it's still untouched by the mass tourism plague which covers most parts of Mallorca.

This is the the terrace of our hotel - everything in 50 metres: beach, port, small restaurants, all sorts of shops and boutiques, plus live music every evening.

I don't think we could have found anything better then this. Did I mention the sea was crystal clear?

I had my knitting with me - obviously didn't get very far - discovered that I can't knit while sun bathing or swimming. I didn't miss it though. I think more and more about moving in a sunnier country.

Knitting wise I'm into Japanese stuff again- it's almost finished and I love it.

I still have to finish the sleeves - both are ready till the armhole decreases - then I need to see if I can figure out some basic crochet stitches on my own. If not I'll have to rely on ravelry again.

I've blogged it extensively here:

http://www.knittingelegance.blogspot.com/

Japanese leaf top

Managed to finish this top - it was a quick knit. I like the pattern and everything - just that I wish I would have done it a bit smaller.

Japanese patterns again

Started another summer top while still waiting for the yarn for THE.MOST.BEAUTIFUL.PATTERN EVER. Anyone trying to guess what pattern am I talking about :) ?

More about this one on the Knitting Elegance KAL.
Oh, and some white strawberry fields.

Not much else happening yesterday, apart from the fact that I've sprained my ankle coming back from the dentist, plus that I had to go through the related three hours in the A&E.

Lets' not forget about finding at the dentist that I'll need thousands for an implant operation for my daughter. Plus having to pay £125 for a nice 10 minutes consultation=chat, about the future procedure.

Plus returning home from the hospital and finding the main computer I use for development totally dead.

I could definitely do with skipping these days entirely.

Sir Terry Wogan and the Eurovision contest

I was listening to the radio this morning and it doesn't look to me as Sir Terry Wogan got over all this Eurovision thing.
Just want to say that I completely agree and emphasise with him, it's obvious we should definitely redraw from this ridiculous competition where we can't stand a chance mainly because nobody (well, apart from Ireland) loves us .
Furthermore, in order to promote our local music ( and be a bit more certain we have some good chances of actually winning the bloody thing ), we should start a totally new contest, with UK as the main competitor ( and if possible with more than one candidate ), plus some of the following other states : Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, Papua New Guinea...and if that's not enough, let's just pick a few more from the list here.

Now, if we'll still find ourselves in difficulty to clearly win this one, maybe we should think twice about sending Andy morphed into Cico to sing a song I could not remember five minutes later. Just a thought.
(I'm not sure how to spell Cico - but somehow I can't be asked to look further into the matter).

Another important thing: we should change the voting rules obviously. The public can not be trusted therefore should not be allowed to vote. It is ridiculous how the diaspora altered all votes across Europe. (How do I know this?)

Anyway - it's not all lost. If you're in the Cabinet and reading this, I'd say urgently ask for the UK votes list, anyone smart enough should be able find out straight away the exact level of immigration in the UK.
Do not forget you might need divide the numbers by 2 though, as I voted both from the land line and my mobile and I guess everybody else did pretty much the same. Even so - I bet you anything you'll get a much better estimation than the governmental current one.

Oh, and by the way, Terry, the Russian skater is far from being 'an obscure sport figure :) '...you might need to do a bit more research here. Just saying.

Kinder Scout

I've finished the Little Rivers but I'm not happy with the neckline so I'll have to think of changing it a bit. At some point. Then I'll post a photo.
In the meantime summer has arrived finally, so I'll be out of the house for a while.

Yesterday decided to take our first real trip of this year, on the Kinder Scout mountain, in the Peak District. I'm not sure if it can be considered mountain at 700 m ? Anyway. Sunny day but extremely windy.

Did a bit of research in google then decided to start in Hayfield, which is not very far from where we live anyway.

The standard walk through William Clough starts from the Bowden Bridge car park. A word of advice. Make sure you are in the right car park and not in the village car park, otherwise you will have to walk another two extra miles - like we did. And that was because I live with a native and British people never ask anyone for directions, as it's considered cheating.

The Bowden CarPark is quite famous, as it was the starting point of the Mass Tresspass in 1932 - when a large group of ramblers decided to force the law for the right to roam on Britain's mountains and moorlands.

Five of them have been arrested but in the end the result was that the law was changed, the land was opened to the public and Peak District became the first National Park in Britain. This is the plaque on the car park stone wall, in their honour.

Have you paid and displayed?

Right, the walk starts with an easy part towards the Kinder Reservoir.

...then another half an hour along the reservoir till the bottom of William Clough. At the wooden bridge, carry on left ( do not cross the bridge). The other road, crossing the bridge, goes up on Kinder Scout as well - it was our 'escape' route down.

From here, the real climbing starts soon and it's really a bit difficult but definitely rewarding, as the scenery only gets better and better.

Looking back towards the reservoir and cursing the vicious cold wind, which delays us to no end.

Just look at the erosion that is affecting these moors. The direct effect is the disappearing of the peat bogs - the peat bogs are storing ten times more carbon than a normal leaf forest and that's why the local authorities decided to run programs to restore it as much as possible.

At the crossroad on top, turn right and start climbing again.

And this will be the view looking down. No, we're not on the moon.

The first road to the left is the one which we just came from and the one across the hill in front is the famous Pennine Way. We'll carry on on the Pennine Way, up on the plateau.

The Seal Stone.

At this point we had a choice of going further or taking an escape route down. The wind won the fight and we took the path down.

And here is the Mermaid Pool and the Kinder Downfall which is quite spectacular when it rains and the river goes down in a waterfall. Some other time maybe.

Two hours later we got home safe (and just in time for the Eurovision contest ;)) but as it's easy to imagine, today we could hardly move from one sofa to another, and the walking around the house was only related to locate the bloody aspirins.

Happy Easter

We've celebrated Easter yesterday - we are not like everybody else here in England, because we are Orthodox and we operate with a different calendar. It was enough to see what a beautiful day we had for Easter yesterday (as opposed to the catholic Easter day, four weeks ago), to simply know which calendar is God regarding as the true one :).

And this is how it goes in term of food. The main part is painting some boiled eggs in all sorts of colours. This tradition is lost in England so I've ordered my paint in Germany and a good friend of mine sent me the Mercedes of paints. Never had metallic eggs for Easter before but there is a start for everything, right?








You can imagine it took me one good hour at least plus cleaning the kitchen afterwards.
Next was the boeuf salad. This is a traditional dish in Romania and we like it a lot so I've agreed I'll do it.

You start with a mayonnaise. I definitely don't like the Tesco's one, and I don't like using the mixer simply because you lose the connection with the food. So if you want a really special mayonnaise, do it by hand.

It will take a while obviously, in order to sloooowwwly incorporate the oil.

Then you've got to cut the boiled vegetables and the chicken breast into billions of small cubes.

And voila, three hours later, here is the main one:

and the leftovers made a smaller one - with my mom's decoration pattern on top, which used to terrify us when we were kids.



The power of early conditioning.

At this point in time I got fed up with taking pictures, so next we'll go straight into the final phase of the deserts.

They are a special kind of tarts called 'pasca' - one is filled with a custard type of cream, the other with a 'chocolate style' cream.

The pastry was not high enough for the second one but one can only learn for the next time. Otherwise they've been absolutely DIVINE ( you can guess it's not much left today).

The main course, and this was the easiest part : lamb and potatoes.

My diet went completely down the drain. 5000 calories per day, yesterday and today.

And please don't ask anything about the knitting - I am still recovering after all this food...

A very special wine

I'm almost there.

I need to assembly all parts together just to see how it fits - I have a feeling that the sleeves might be a bit short. I want to have it ready for our Easter on Sunday, so everything else is on a (very) slow burner.

Dreaming of a white Easter?

That's what we unexpectedly got this year for Easter. (And no, we can't afford a new gate yet.)

Snow is rare in England and when it snows the natives become highly anxious about anything involving outdoors, all traffic is declared 'chaotic' and the few inches of snow will make the headlines in a big way alerting everyone to maximum vigilance.

It doesn't look to me like the English are in any way aware of other countries experiencing months and months of good snow every winter, and actually getting on with it without any associated fuss.

Anyway - I have to admit I didn't like it either - I kept moving plants pots in and out, hoping to protect the new buds and praying for the flowers in the garden.

And here's our Easter adventures.

Despite the cold wind, we kept on track with our Good Friday ritual which involves attending the Page Eggers festival in Heptonstall.

The Pace-Egg is based on the oldest play in the world, The Mummers Play.

The play is about Saint George's triumphs, and the whole play boasts his great champion status. Throughout the play three challengers try to defeat Saint George: Bold Slasher, Black Prince of Paradine and Hector, obviously with no success. It's the same script every year, it's just that it doesn't look we can get enough of it.

Easter Day was all indoors (don't forget I live with a native and therefore we don't drive in the snow) but some interested cooking took place.

It is breast de la gallina wrapped in bacon de il maiale and stuffed with farmhouse pate. Garlic, Mediterranean spices with fennel and chicken stock.

You can see I've entered a new cooking stage plus I'm doing Italian lessons from Francesca's new blog. I wish I could afford a proper cooker though :).

Yesterday was a bit sunny so I just decided to threaten everybody with a nervous breakdown. As a result I was finally taken out for a walk on the hills above Halifax.

Great crispy fresh air and needless to say the roads were cleared of snow and no traffic whatsoever.

And yes, we managed a bit of knitting as well...

A gate with a view

This is our gate after the storm.

We forgot to lock it so it just banged all night long, till the pieces started to fall apart.

Even the bloody postman is now walking in and out through the hole.

There is something scary in this though. Few days ago I was thinking what a pity nobody can see our crocuses on the lawn - well, it looks like the Universe solved it for me.

I'd love to understand how this comunication with the Universe works and, if possible, before I play the next lottery ticket...

No knitting to report. I am only doing the Little Rivers and it's SLOW...

Noro again

I bought this yarn on sale last year, and decided to make it into a quick knit.
It is Noro Silver Thaw - lovely, nice and soft and I only used a bit under 10 balls.

The pattern is all mine - I've applied my Universal Method of Designing a Simple Size M Sweater : if it's going to be knit on 4.5 mm needles and has no cables then it's 96 stitches to start with for the ribbing - increased to 106, a bit of raglan shaping later on, and voila:

Disclaimer : If you want to try this at home and it does not quite work, it's all your fault. You should have known better.

When this was almost finished (and supposed to be mine), my daughter decided it's cool enough for her to have it instead, but only if I was to agree to re-shape the neck line so it drops off one shoulder. Have teenagers? Familiar?
This was an easy task - all I had to do was to frog half of the damn thing but hey, who's counting, I've got a happy customer now. And I've been 'repaid'.
Look what she bought me for the Mother's Day - out of her own money from her first weekend job!