I started these Knit and Natter posts last year when Ginny of Small Things gave up her Yarn Alongs. Turns out she missed them too, and she has re-started them as monthly link ups rather than weekly ones,here . Which is a jolly good thing, but you haven’t got rid of my Friday ramblings as easy as that. I have got far too fond of my own voice, more than that I have got very fond of the Natter that always follows. My Fridays would not be the same without our chats.
My son phoned this week to talk over a work problem. I listened, I spoke calmly, but what I really wanted to do was say ” who is this person causing you grief, I will TELL them!” Which of course would do no good. We are often told in the UK we have low productivity. It seems to me that if people spent less time on office politics and more time doing the job they were paid to do , the world would spin a lot faster, why one wants the world to spin faster I don’t know. ( Alice in Wonderland I believe). Isn’t it so hard when your adult children have problems?
Meantime the great tidy up after Christmas has begun. Just where do all the spiders live that spin so many webs in the house? Maybe it’s just me they have it in for?
Hasn’t it been lovely to see everyone writing on their blogs this week with posts about the last years highs and lows and aspirations for 2018. I so hope to stop adding to my collection of yarn and fabric and get on and work with it.
Oh, and clean the oven, January’s only goal for me. Yes it does need a clean. And I actually quite like cleaning the oven, all that gunk is so satisfying. Today I will do this.
I have been mostly crocheting this week, trying to add one block a night to the final rounds on the blanket destined for a care home.
I have 14 more to go, so in two weeks they should be done and ready to join and add the border. Maybe finish blanket should be another goal for January. That makes two.
I have started with the Jo Baker book on my January reads. Hey that makes three goals, to finish this book. Before I know it there will be 18 of the beggars.
Not only has Ginny missed her yarn along but so also has Ginny at Ginx Craft who has started a first Monday in the month link up. Ginny designs and knits the most wonderful things you can imagine, there is talk of a book, I will pre-order it if I am allowed.
I have done a little knitting on the mystery project, no-one hazarded a guess last week , and this week is no better I reckon.
It will grow, once the blanket is done. Maybe by the end of January, oh my could that be four goals for January?
Enough, I shall go and clean the oven. Do please tell what you are making, could be anything, a bird house, a widget, a jumper, a blanket, a picture, a cake.. I shall be making greasy gunk this morning!
Be Happy
Cathyx
nanacathy2
nanacathydotcom 
Comments on: "Knit and Natter Friday, 2018" (55)
Love this post of yours. Though it did remind me that I, too, have to clean my stove and oven from all of the holiday cooking and baking. Eh, not today 😉 Your blanket is coming along nicely and the colors remind me of Spring and Summer. It just may be my longing for warmer weather with no snow, but the colors really are fantastic. You will be finished soon. Love the yarns on your mystery project. Could it be a hat? Scarf? Shawl? Whatever it is, it is going to be pretty with those yarns. I wish you all the best in 2018 and that you achieve all of your goals.
Thanks Ginny, but no not a scarf, hat or shawl. There ‘s more to look at now. Have a good week.xx
My mental and physical energy is so low I am not even spending time on a second sock that I should have finished as it is a present due soon. 😦 However I have in the past found ways to minimise the need for oven cleaning as it is such hard work. It has self-clean back and sides so that just leaves the floor. It is a fan oven and every time I did a roast there would be fat on the floor. Fat that should have been used for gravy! So now I roast in a closed roaster. Baked potatoes (sweet in my case) used to drip on the floor of the oven as did stews that boiled over, so now I have an old pizza tin that I put under such things. either under the dish or on the shelf below. Now the oven does still get dirty since I roast veg in an open tin though with minimal oil but it doesn’t get as bad as it used to so I can leave it for longer!! 🙂
Seems to me you have cracked the oven cleaning chore well. Lovely to hear from you again, think about you often. Forget the sock and go for a mindless granny square! Hugs xx
Will get back to blogging and creating eventually!
I am making a simple hat for charity….it is almost finished now. You can see a picture on my blog. I just needed something to work on when I felt stressed. I’m also reading an interesting book about a girl from Alaska.
Simple projects are great for de stressing, sorry to read you are stressed. I can’t access your blog, please feel free to add a lnk.
So I’m thinking the oven must be clean by now? The great thing about my aga is that it pretty much burns itself clean 🙂 Blanket squares are looking good.
The oven is sparkly! I started to join some of the squares and deal with the ends tonight by way of a change!
YAY! to the oven. Well done. And well done on the ends being cleared up – it’s always the bit we yarny types resist, so great to get it done while you’re in the mood 🙂
There are a lot of ends, but sometimes a good film and ends are quite rewarding.
Oven? Gunk? Noooooooooooooooo…….never in a million years!!! I’d rather scrub a bathroom and toilet.
I have been doing a teeny weeny bit of knitting, a bright red jersey for a new little girl in Germany (the granddaughter of an old friend). Finished the back, got halfway up the front then decided I didn’t like it so ripped it all out. Started again but with a different pattern. Am enjoying taking it slow. My goal is to finish it sometime before the child turns 8.
🙂
Good goal!!! 😀
Hmm I have had cross stitch projects like that, wait I have a cross stitch project just like that right now.
Oven is cleaned!!
good for you 🙂
Clean the oven? Nooooooo!
All done. Hurrah.
Lol at you making greasy gunk! An old neighbour of mine and I thought it would be easier and more motivating if we cleaned each other’s! We never did though!
I’m actually making a bit of progress on my butterfly shawl, and I’ve started reading the muse by Jessie Burton, after having watched the miniaturist on TV. It’s a totally different setting but I hope this story has surprises and amazing characters like the miniaturist did.
I would be mortified at the thought of a neighbour cleaning my oven. Then everyone would know about the greasy gunk!
Look forward to hearing and seeing more of the butterfly shawl. Socks and shawls are two things I have never knittted, maybe that is two more goals.
I have only read the Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, I shall keep my eyes open in the library for the Muse. I haven’t yet watched the TV programme, something to look forward to. Still watching my way through The White Princess.
Have a super weekend.
And blogging about the greasy gunk keeps the whole thing more private?? 😉. The miniaturist is on BBC iplayer at the moment so not sure how long it’ll be there. There are 2 episodes, totaling 2 and a half hours. I’d be interested in knowing how faithful to the book it is. What’s the white princess about?
Ah but no-one here knows where I live and to be honest I am somewhat surprised by all the comments on ovens! Seems we all put it off, unless we are one of the types who just doesn’t use the oven much!
I have recorded the Minaturist !
The White Princess follows on from the White Queen and is about HenryV111’s mother. It is based on the novel by Philippa Gregory.
The Miniaturist was a bit dark wasn’t it – but i LOVED it – the production was superb!
I was completely hooked on it and I loved how the main character developed through the whole thing and dealt with each difficulty that came her way
Oh I’m so glad you are going to continue your Friday natters. I do love them and look forward to them!
Feel free to clean my oven anytime you please, it’s probably the one job I loathe the most in housework! I’m actually considering getting one of those companies to give mine a good clean. That’s bad I know….
And as for your comments on productivity and gossip, I completely agree! Though I’m not sure office gossip is confined just to the UK. There was a sufficient amount in Australia too. It’s knowing when to stop and just get on with it that is key. A few minutes of blowing off steam is probably required and healthy!
Oven cleaning really seems to have got us all talking this week. A pet hate when it comes to cleaning. I don’t mind the effort it’s the time it takes! I like the idea of a self cleaning one, and I have always wondered if a steam cleaner would help. Or ask someone else to do it.
Blowing off steam is one thing, it’s the back biting and time spent trying to be one up that is upsetting, and I reckon it’s what has caused the current phenoninum of presentism. Glad I am retired now.
Ovens? No ovens in use here at the moment – going up to and maybe over 40c/104f today lol. Cold meat and salad will be the order of the day.
Now windows I can talk about – the glass type that is. Cleaned a few this week!! As Kerry mentioned it’s nice to see the difference and I certainly noticed it when I finished. Quite sparkling they were.
And on the crafty front I’ve been knitting squares, big 25cm ones for a new charity group who don’t like sewing the little ones together. 8ply – 50 stitches – 104 rows – garter stitch. Easy to do while watching tv or even reading as long as you don’t forget it’s knit every row and end up doing several rows of stocking stitch. Ribbit Ribbit 😒
Mm windows they could do with a clean too now you mention them, all the wind and rain and snow and sleet! Maybe I will phone the window cleaner.
Those charity squares sound huge and I am not a big fan of garter stitch it takes so long to grow. I think I would sooner do smaller ones and sew them together.
Have a great weekend Cathy and enjoy the summer.
I think I need to set my oven to clean. It is self cleaning, but I’ve not done it yet, so need to pull out the instructions. My last oven did an amazing job cleaning, it locked it self until it was safe to open, which always seemed a little ominous!
Well today has been a good day…did my 5th day of yoga in a row (it’s only 10-15 minutes), but five in a row is good for me! I finished sewing my Christmas bed runner this morning and even completed the current afghan block! On to the sock after I finish giving Evelyn her daily workout 😄. Only one more week until the piano tuner comes, though she doesn’t sound too bad, really. I have been very good and not gone to see the mitten KAL
Well done on not going to the mittern Kal it looked so pretty, I avoided doing a hop from your blog earlier too.
I must get a self cleaning oven next time I think. I am getting too old for all the scrubbing and rubbing.
Very impessed with the yoga, and how good to have afinish under your belt so early on in the year.
Have a super weekend.
Today we are shoveling out from a “bombocyclone” who knew such a thing existed? I swear they make up words to make the storms seem more ominous! Anyway I knit a bit on a sock at lunch time and I will spin a bit tonight. That will make me feel better about the weather. I did look at the oven the other day, but I think it will last one more week… month?
That sounds a good way to spend a very snowy day. They have been reporting your bombocyclone here! It must be bad. I am sure your oven will be fine!
It was a hard hitting big storm, but luckily a fast mover. Now we are back in the deep freeze.
I am getting really frustrated not being able to crochet or knit – or open jars or do anything very useful – because of this bloomin’ tendonitis thingy I have going on in my thumb/wrist. It’s been 5 days now without a hook or needle in my hand and I’m getting desperate – what a time to be doing Dry January 😦
Any tips for cleaning ovens gratefully received – mine’s disgusting and it’s supposed to be self cleaning – do they really ever clean themselves? You’re not supposed to use certain products on a self cleaning oven but, frankly, the original surface has disappeared and it would be a miraculous product that could penetrate the black crispy covering to reach that original surface so I don’t think there’s any danger there. Anyway, this task will have to wait until that glorious day when my hand doesn’t hurt any more. But then there will be many more interesting things to do. How much does a new oven cost?
I thought that too, half way through, why don’t I just get a new one, this one is tatty. I am sorry about your tendonitis, have you got some good books? You could try dryish January!
You have made me laugh out loud!!! But not about your tendonitis, that is really crappy to have. Please take it from me and my own experience – if you do not rest it (as I see you are doing, albeit reluctantly) it will only worsen. Good luck, hope your arm recovers soon.
Knitting hats and sewing passport cases and gift card cases this week. But bigger things are planned for January!
I like the sound of bigger things. Hats and passport cases are very good too. Can’t have too many hats..
I like to wait until something–an oven, a drawer, a closet–is *really* filthy before I clean–I love to be able to see where I’ve been! It’s wicked cold here, a perfect excuse to sit under a quilt and work on the stitching. I’ll do that and maybe weave, and read, and nap . . .
I’m with you on waiting for things to be WORTH cleaning – so glad I’m not alone!
Me too, hence the gunk. Two pairs of rubber gloves have gone, one tin of oven cleaner, two brillo pads a and a j cloth. No gunk! Next the kitchen cupboards, but they can wait till next week.
Gunk Grannies! Ha!Ha!
Well, I’ll be taking down the decorations, fairly reluctantly in the case of the twinkly lights, which I love. I’ll be making some fruit buns, sorting out some filing to put into the filing cabinet I assembled from a flat pack today, and carrying on with the English Paper Piecing pattern I’m testing for Granny Maud’s Girl – it’s gorgeous, and I’m allowed to post a bit about it soon, so watch out for that. I am studiously ignoring the gunk in my oven…
Looking forward to seeing your new pattern. Love ‘studiously ignoring’ – me too! I’m going to adopt that phrase. 😉
Kate – you don’t have to take down all your twinkly lights. It’s an interior design decision that you can make for an all year round bit of sparkle 😉
I was just thinking the same thing!
I did a load of filing this week too. I don’t know where all the paper comes from! Fruit buns sound very nice indeed and I shall look forward to the paper pattern piercing post. I doubt I could say that fast four times, a real tongue twister.
My Gunk is now ALL GONE, Smug Mode!
🙂
I salute your smugness! You have every right to be smug! Me – I’m more slutty slug! 😀
I wish I enjoyed cleaning ovens – mine badly needs doing as well! But as ever I am going to find much more interesting things to do …. like take down our Christmas decorations – and find them darn spiders!!
I found another cobweb this morning. I think they are making themselves without spiders! Oven is half way there.
Spider ghosts!
It is a bit of a red letter day for me here in Blogland – your Knit and Natter Friday – I always look forward to that; the first Friday Photo in Postcard From Gib’s new challenge – isn’t it great that she enjoyed our weekly challenge so much that she wanted to continue 😉
AND
the beginning of Attic24’s Woodland CAL. I’m in a spin enjoying it all – I definitely won’t be cleaning my oven today! Although I have been cleaning every nook and cranny of my large fridge/larder on and off for the past 3 days. 😦
Now you mentioned ‘making a Widget’ and I see that you have been clever enough to add BUTTONS to your sidebar. I tried and failed, can’t seem to work it out – I suppose they go in a Widget do they? Feeling techno-dim!
It was easy on the widgets. Save the picture onto your computer, then upload it as an image. go to appearance then widget, then new I think choose the picture then it was done. Believe me if I can do it so can you.
There are lots of new things happening you are right, so exciting, don’t want to leap in and commit to too much!
Friday is going to be a big day , and of course the first Tuesday in the month!
My oven needs cleaning too… I was going to do it last week, but somehow I found more interesting things to do. Maybe this weekend…
I spent yesterday ordering seeds, which is always a joyful thing to do. For my birthday Mr Snail bought me Rick Stein’s ‘Road to Mexico’ book and so I spent time reading up on ingredients and have managed to track down some seeds so that I can grow a couple of the Mexican herbs and some specific varieties of chilli. I love this sort of involvement with the food we eat.
As for makes…I’m just turning the heel on the first one of a pair of wellie socks for Mr Snail and I’ve cast on a tunic sweater for me (wool from stash). I have no crocheting on my hook at the moment… I’m recovering from Sophie.
No specific goals for me this year – I’m going to go with the flow and do what inspires me.
How lovely some new seeds to go with a new cook book. I enjoyed the Hairy Bikers in Southern Italy yesterday, they used bergamots. I wonder if you could grow them in a limery?
Two super knitting projects on the go there, after Sophie I can see why you would want a break from crochet. I can’t wait to finish the two blankets and start on my Attic 24 crochet bag. I am determined this year to finish things off!
With you on the goals! Oven nearly done, stopped for a coffee break.