I seem to have had quite a busy week with a meeting here and there, a workshop to prepare for and teach and then the usual shopping and stuff. By the time I got home each day, I didn't feel much like being creative. Made up for that one way and another today.

Firstly, I finished the jaywalker socks for Mark the other evening. Pictures soon - they're in the wash already! This meant I needed another project to begin, since taking out the Trellis scarf, I had nothing on the needles at all. Got out the Koigu KPPPM I bought in NYC last summer and started a pair of Crusoe socks from knitty.com. Good, mindless pattern, perfect for a stitch and bitch session when I can concentrate on the important details (not the knitting!) Perfect pattern for this yarn too.

Next, the WI has a campaign about excess packaging in June, and I felt I needed to come up with an idea for those of us who don't like confrontation and wouldn't be happy creating a stir in a supermarket by unwrapping things at the checkout. So, armed with tips for making a crochet bag from recycled plastic carrier bags, I set to and began to make one.

This project needs serious quantities of plastic bags and it was very tempting to simply rip off a huge pile of them from the checkout in Waitrose this morning to take home and use for the bag. But that didn't seem to be quite in the spirit of the campaign! Since we normally do the "Quick Check" when shopping, I don't normally get any carrier bags at all, so I'm scouting around for them here and there. I'm also being picky (no surprise to people who know me!) and only want white ones with a bit of blue or green - so it's Asda or Waitrose, thank you, and that tip of red Sainsbury's one is coming out pronto.


I decided that one simple sock project wasn't enough for those moments when I need to challenge my brain a little more, so looked out the book I bought at Sewing for Pleasure a few weeks ago and settled on a pattern from there; my first go at knitting a pair toe-up. But mindless these are most certainly not! As you can see, I am trying hard on my chart reading skills, too.
In the midst of all of this, I thought it was time for another Caterpillar to emerge. After all, I hadn't got much else going on today...

It's Friday, too, and my friend Marjorie had sent me a good recipe for a Carrot and Ginger cake*. In between the knitting and the beading and the email and blogreading, I could soon whip a cake in the oven, couldn't I?

Oh, and whilst the oven was on, I thought I'd do a few cheese straws - Mark had felt so hard done by when I made his favourites for the cake stall last weekend and even threatened to buy them back, until I promised to make more soon. I took the picture quickly, before they all disappeared.

Back to work tomorrow for a few hours, but hopefully then, a quiet and relaxing weekend with plenty of new and inspiring projects to keep me quiet.

The words "boredom", "threshold" and "gnat" come to mind.

* I'm happy to share the recipe - drop me an email if you'd like it