Women in the UK were given the right to divorce their husbands from 1857, members of the House of Lords aren’t allowed to stand for parliament unless they resign first, and the patron saint of Wales is David.
Today I’m sitting my ‘Life in the UK’ test - basically to prove that I’m ‘English’ enough to be allowed to stay when my visa expires in October. By the way, I did get stopped last night at passport control: “Ma’am. you are aware that your visa will expire in less than two months?” “Gulp, yes, I have my test tomorrow, I promise!” The passport guy actually probed a bit further, in a nice way though. I guess they get the ‘I’m doing it tomorrow’ answer a lot.
Having done a few practice tests online (*most* of which I passed) I have decided to devote a little time in the next few hours to studying (ugh!). I truly would like to avoid the possibility of failure, and the £34 repeat test fee, not to mention the scary horror of wondering whether I will get through all this in time to have my new visa stamped and in my hands by the time I need to leave for SOAR.
In the meantime, thank you for your patience - I know I have a bit to catch up on. Appearing here in the next few days (assuming I pass) will be: a parade of birthday goodies; a couple of blog awards I’ve achieved and need to pass on; photos and commentary from our weekend in Stockholm; recent spinning; and a more detailed post on what I learned at the flax mill we visited on Monday.
Until then, wish me luck - and send good test vibes!
ETA: I passed! Woo Thank you all for the vibes/karma/prayers etc! I don’t know until my letter comes how many I got wrong, but one question was a blatant guess and there were about three I was unsure of. Other than that though - pretty easy. Big sigh of relief.
Btw, if you’re curious about the sorts of questions I got asked - you can take a practice test online here. I’d love to know what real Brits score!
Oh, and for people who are even more curious/bored/masochistic I found a similar test for Australian citizenship here. I scored 9/20
The Inside Loop posted this morning with some fab Autumn patterns and articles.
Pop over and check it out!
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Thanks also to everyone who left birthday wishes yesterday. I had a great day, there were more cupcakes, and homemade muffins and squidgy parcels. I know there’s people who will want to see so I’ll get busy with the camera later today.
32 is a very cool age to be (well, if you’re a geeky nerd that is). I checked this morning and still no wrinkles, Woo!
Kate wins the Best Bunny Award:
Mmmmm cherry cupcakes, from Nigella I think she said, and my huge cosy shawl.
From VLT, knitted in Drops alpaca. More details on Kate’s blog. I’m wrapped in it today in this most awesomest of summer weather. Thank you!!
I chose not to tempt the weather today, so I’m staying in to spin this:
Mmmmmmmmm luxury blended batts from Franquemont Fibers, a present from Ali who is going to come round to keep me company, along with the other usual suspects.
If you can’t make it around today then have a beer for me
Thank you so much to everyone who took time to complete the survey. It was really interesting reading through all the data, particularly the comments from the last two questions. I was glad to see that a lot of the answers fitted with plans I already had for the site, but I also got some valuable suggestions and new ideas for direction.
You may have noticed that the home website has a new look, there’s still some parts to finish off but the templates (thanks to Grit and Michaela!) are in place and it’s navigable. If you want a peek, check it out at www.dianemulholland.com, but if you can wait - give me another day or so to get it looking really snazzy!
And of course, what you’ve all been wondering about - the prize draw! 43 people left a comment (although 65 completed the survey - 22 didn’t want yarn?) Random.org returned me a number, drumroll…
Comment number 35 was Elizabeth! Congratulations You didn’t leave me your email address Elizabeth, so I hope you’re reading this and will get in touch.
Yesterday’s class was great fun, and everyone was making actual yarn within half an hour! We moved on quickly from park-and-draft and the new spinners were able to ply their yarn and start their next spindle-full.
It is awesome to watch a person’s face as they learn a new skill and feel that fantastic sense of achievement when they see the limp fluff turn into something bouncy and knit-able. It makes me remember just why I became a teacher in the first place.
This beginner’s class is running again in September, and Alice and I have scheduled more classes for later in the year, including a Mohair special, just in time for fleeces to arrive from the kiddies on the farm. Pop over to Socktopus to book your spot now.
The website is still bare bones, but I have now got the class schedule in place. There are still places in many of my September classes and I will be scheduling more for November after I get back from SOAR.
For some reason, August always seems to be filled with birthdays. Family birthdays and yarny-friend birthdays often warrant some knitted goodness, especially in places where August happens to fall in the middle of winter.
These projects will be winging their way south tomorrow, almost certainly not in time to make it to the birthday pair on Monday, but still not too late I hope.
Project notes Pattern: Treenah, by Megan Marshall from Issue 1 of The Inside Loop. Crocheted from Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca silk, 3 skeins, 4mm hook. This was a great project - easy to follow charts and enough happening in the pattern to keep it interesting without being too hard. I think I shortened the pattern a bit maybe, I just kept going until I ran out of yarn. It’s plenty long enough though.
Project notes Pattern: Koolhaas, by Jared Flood from Interweave Knits Holiday Knits (but I bought it from Knitting Daily). Knitted from half a skein of Malabrigo Merino Worsted. I never measured my gauge and it was perhaps a bit loose with this yarn as the women’s size is plenty big enough for Neil. I love the attention to detail in the decreasing particularly - the crown spirals down to a perfect finish.
I have one or two more August gifts, but they are destined for people who hang around here - so there’ll be no pictures just yet
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Thanks so much to everyone who has answered the survey so far in yesterday’s post- it will be open until Sunday. Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered in the draw! It’s been really interesting watching the stats and reading everyone’s answers - as I suspected, a lot of things coming up in the suggestions are things I have in mind already. So I’m on the right track. For those who asked about the spin-a-long, yes it will be back hopefully soon, and in a slightly different format.
The website is a bit of a mess at the moment I’m afraid, but the blog won’t be affected (except sidebar links may not work), and all the tutorial downloads etc. are still available. Patterns are all now on Ravelry.
After eighteen months of faffing around and telling myself that ‘all new businesses take a while to get established’, I have taken the bull by the horns and started listening to that inner voice. What’s it saying? “Do it properly - this is a real business”.
So this is what’s been happening today:
And I need a little help from you guys out there! Please take a few moments to fill in the survey below. It’s anonymous, but leave me a comment to say you’ve done it and I’ll enter you in a draw for a yarny prize. Survey closes this Sunday evening UK time.
There’ll be a lot more new stuff going on around here - including a total overhaul of the website. All your input and constructive criticism will be much appreciated.
Thanks!
P.S. Pollen seems to be lying low for now - I slept flat last night Woo!
I don’t care how much everyone else loves summer, I’m rejoicing in the rain today.
The light’s better for photos, it’s not so hot, and the evil pollen might just stay on the ground or somewhere - anywhere but in my lungs.
Thank you so much to all the people who left kind comments on my previous post. I am still sleeping sitting up - but at least I’m sleeping! And there’s really no other symptoms. This is how I’m pretty sure it’s asthma/allergy and not an infection - there’s no chest pain or tightness, no fever, no sore throat or headache. Just a case of waiting for the rain.
Woke up again, coughed uncontrollably, suggested Neil might work from home in case I needed a dash to A&E to make my lungs go again. Fell asleep.
Woke up, had bleary-eyed breakfast, attempted to knit, failed, coughed.
Decided that no knitting/writing/spinning/thinking/talking could occur while I only have half a lung, so I made this:
It really was brainless, after a little bit of maths to begin with (which I messed up - you can see in the first picture that the warp is off-centre). I happily wove all afternoon, without the added brain-distraction of TV or music. The breeze came in and the pollen stayed out (thankfully!)
The yarn is handspun merino/silk blend which I spun at Mum’s last Easter with weaving in mind (it’s the yarn in the new blog header btw). The pattern is based on the one in the Schacht Newsletter, Winter 2008. It’s floaty and blue and gorgeous and took five hours from start to finish. Weaving is the new black.
I still call myself Australian even though my accent is becoming more British by the hour. When am I going home? Who knows. Not till the rain stops at least.
Find me online:
Thank you all for the vibes/karma/prayers etc! I don’t know until my letter comes how many I got wrong, but one question was a blatant guess and there were about three I was unsure of. Other than that though - pretty easy. Big sigh of relief.
who is going to come round to keep me company, along with the other usual suspects.
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