I'm moving...

..to a brand new Wordpress blog - you can find it here.

The end of one era....

That's it - yesterday I cleared out my desk, said goodbye to my colleagues and am no longer an Editor after 17 years in the job. The Reading office doesn't officially move to Andover until the end of the month, but they were good enough to let me go a little bit earlier than that - course, there's still all the goodbye parties, but that's the last time I'll be in the office.

Here's a few of my colleagues who I'd like to pay tribute to:
This is slug features... he belongs to Little Al.


This is Little Al - as opposed to Big Al who's Rose's brother. She worked on lots of areas of The Times but I especially remember her working on Feature articles. She has a very weird body temperature and is ALWAYS cold and has been known to wrap her blanket round her when it's around 28 degrees in the office. She runs belly-dancing classes in her spare time and we used to do Flamenco classes together with her friend, Toad. Al is always frank and very funny. (around 15 years with the company).

This is Rose. She is a very good friend and we have sons about the same age. She's running the department now and is very funny when she gets in a bit of flap, which doesn't happen very often, quietly ranting in her soft Canadian accent. She always has way more to do than is humanly possible to get through both inside and out of work and I completely admire how she's handled the recent changes in the department and how dedicated she is and wish her luck for the move to Andover. (around 20 years with the company.)

And here's Trevor. We sat opposite each other for around ten years. We used to chat about tv shows we'd watched, films we'd seen and theatre shows we'd been to. He's a budding artist and writer and has a very dry sense of humour. He works on Business news or will be until the end of the month... then he's a free man. (10 years with the company).

And this is dear Sandra. We worked together for many years as Editors and team leaders and went through a lot together hammering out differences between The Times and the Financial Times indexes. She's a very loyal colleague to have and I wish her all the very best for the future (around 35 years with the company.)

And the lovely Loig. What can I say? For the first ten years of working together, I couldn't actually understand what he was saying (sorry, Loig!) He used to work on Le Monde and is now working on digital archive projects. And my memories of him? He was an honorary hen at my hen party. And he came to the housewarming party of the very first house we bought and fell backwards off a chair into a bush and went home promptly after that - little did he know, by the end of the night, another colleague had slid down the wall and two more people were found asleep under the garden fence which had collapsed during the party - ah, those were the days! Good luck in Andover, Loig (20 years with the company.)

And an extra special goodbye to Paul who wasn't in on Friday and probably would've cringed to have his photo taken anyway. We talked a lot about holidays, cats and cars..

The end of one era and the beginning of something new...

Plum Gold spinning

I finished spinning this plum and gold merino/silk bought from Jeni at Fyberspates at Rav Day and lovely it was to spin too. Another sample to add to my handspun Zig and Zag blanket which is coming along slowly.

Lovin' Summer

There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting and spinning going on at Skein Queen hq this week. I've spun some of this delicious merino/silk which I bought from Fyberspates at Ravelry Day. And made a little progress on my Summer Pudding Cloud Nine socks.

And this little beauty arrived in the post courtesy of Rosealare on Ravelry - she kindly put in an order for Japanese stitch dictionaries for several of us and I've been on Fleegle's blog to interpret the mysterious world of Japanese symbols. All I need now is some time for designing.

Maybe if I spent less time:

Reading: I'm re-reading Snow Flower and Secret Fan by Lisa See which is one of my favourite books and is the next novel in the Queen's Reading Room club.

Doing Face-painting at the School Fete (pirate costumes devised by Unity).

Saying goodbye to the kittens:

The lady who was lucky enough to take this little guy home was going to call him Sid. He was really special and such a character and I'm pleased that he's going to a home with another little white kitten called Oscar.
We're keeping Squiggles who is, in fact, a boy after all and therefore can't be called Mabel!

And Benny's gone to live with one of my best friends and our sons are good mates so we'll get to see him again.

Going Strawberry and Raspberry Picking and making jam:

Look at that cheeky face!

Celebrating 4th July at a Fancy Dress BBQ:


Now, I know the resemblance is uncanny between Skein King and Tom Cruise - you can hardly tell them apart!

Michelle and John were hosting the party - doesn't she look gorgeous as Marilyn?

And John's a dead ringer for Elvis!

It was a fantastic night mingling with the likes of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Rambo, Pink Ladies, cheerleaders, cowboys and Indians and Wonder Woman.

Don't forget to drop by my shop - there are still some laceweight yarns left and I've dropped the price on some of them - there might be something you like so grab yourself a bargain.

Shop update - 1st July

Tomorrow - Wednesday 1st July - 8.30pm BST.

This update started off as a bit of a summer knitting lace-fest given the heatwave we're having in these here parts, as you can see towards the end of the preview, but lots of 4 ply sockweight yarns crept in too.

There will also be some Naked (undyed) Squash to support alabamawhirly's Snooks Daisy Gloves - more on those to come.

Summer Bunting in Exquisite - 1 skein

Charlotte Charles in Exquisite - 1 skein

Fairytale Daydream in Exquisite - 1 skein

Coney Island Mermaid in Exquisite - 1 skein

Sugar Plum Tree in Exquisite - 2 skeins

Goodie Gumdrops in Exquisite - 1 skein

Lady Button Eyes in Exquisite - 1 skein

Summer Pudding in Plushness - 4 skeins
see this post for how it knits up
Your chance to bag yourself some Pudding Club yarn

Key Lime Pie (semi-solid) in Plushness - 2 skeins

Key Lime Pie (variegated) in Plushness - 4 skeins

Madame Lulu in Encore - 1 skein

Charlotte Charles in Squash - 1 skein

Olive Snook in Squash - 4 skeins

Summer Bunting in Squash - 3 skeins

French Rose in Opulent - 1 skein

Bittersweet Chocolate in Opulent - 1 skein

Forget-me-not in Sumptuous - 1 skein

Raspberry Elderflower in Sumptuous - 1 skein

Silver Lavender in Wisp - 3 skeins

Cape Cod Cranberries in Wisp - 3 skeins

Devonshire Tea in Finesse - 1 skein

Miss Cicely Alexander in Finesse - 4 skeins

Magenta Dolly in Finesse - 1 skein

And introducing a limited edition Guest yarn - I won't be getting any more of this in - it's a laceweight merino - almost 800 yards (798) and it's not as soft as some of the other yarns in the SQ range, but certainly a good quality standard laceweight yarn.

Pomegranate Sangria in Guest - 4 skeins

Sky Blue Topaz in Guest - 1 skein

Peppermint Cream in Guest - 1 skein

Celadon in Guest - 1 skein

Sweet Peas in Guest - 1 skein

And the long-awaited return of Glister 2 ply silk

Cloudy Skies in Glister - 2 skeins

Gothic Melodrama - 2 skeins

Pigeon Plumage in Glister - 2 skeins

Costumier in Glister - 2 skeins