Balls, birthday

I wasn't organised enough prior to this week's Monday night Knitting Circle to have everything ready for the socks I have decided to knit as my next project; so instead, I turned the skeins of 'Good Evening, Aviator' I got two weeks ago, into wound balls, in preparation for taking the sock plunge. A lovely woman who came to Monday night Knitting Circle for the first time helped me and we followed the instructions in The Bible for winding a ball of yarn; I think they look pretty good.


Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and I ended up having a pretty good day, in spite of the not-so-nice early birthday present I received on Sunday night in the form of a break-up. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to mention it on here as this isn't a blog about everything that goes on in my life, it's a blog about everything that goes in my 'creative' life (that sounds a bit flash!), but seeing as I have mentioned Guy quite often on here and it's a big change in my life after four years, I figured I might as well.

My morning wasn't so fun but it cheered up a lot after I received these things from my Mum, my step-sister, and some lovely colleagues at work:

These smell AMAZING and came in a square-ish pale green ceramic vase, which I can keep once the flowers have wilted! They were from Juliette Florist in Kelburn.

This is a Tempt cupcake. I hadn't had one before and the icing was delicious! I always feel a bit strange eating glitter though...

A taonga pounamu, aka a greenstone necklace. The card that came with it said the shape was 'Punga: Anchor - Stone. Reflects strength and confidence, a steadying influence during rough times, the security of holding steadfast and sure, affording stability throughout life.' Entirely appropriate at the moment and it's my first greenstone so it's really lovely.

I also got lots of other lovely little gifts and had a delicious dinner with friends at Caffe Italiano (it was two-for-one pasta Tuesday- good deal, good pasta, gooood dessert). And I believe I have a knitting related gift waiting for me in the Wairarapa at my Nana's, so I'm looking forward to that!

I hope to cast on the socks sometime soon, the pattern calls for using two sets of circular needles like Anita used on her handwarmer. I wish I'd taken more notice of how she did it because I don't quite understand how to 'divide the stitches evenly between the two needles'. Which is exactly the problem she had and overcame but unhelpfully, she's in England right now. A couple of people have said just to use dpns but I've already got the circulars so I am going to use them dammit! I have an idea of how to do it so I'll see if that works out.