No TV? You know what it means when there’s no TV? No MTV!

To be fair, we have a television and we often watch downloads, but not having a television does free you from certain routines. For instance, we usually watch a whole series on one go now, missing out all the adverts and breaks and waiting. And it doesn’t go on until at least 8:30 pm and it’s off before 11:00. How virtuous we are!

Well… how virtuous I am. Steve has all manner of ex-pat IP shields that mean he can watch BBC iplayer, ITV, Channel 4 etc. My computer is so slow it won’t keep up with anything beyond words and a few pictures. He makes up for not having television by watching Cops and other such illuminating stuff.

Anyway, this joyous liberation has led me to be able to be free with life and with the onset of winter and long evenings, I’m back to the knitting. Rural France has a lot of wool shops. I can only think of John Lewis from which to order wool in England. Rubbish. I’m down with the knitting. I wish I had a stitch & bitch group. Although I’m not down with the bitching. Unless it’s about politics. Maybe I should have a stitch and politics group. Don’t laugh. Knitting is the new black.

Long evenings and no TV and no channel hopping in search of something across 700 channels that is interesting mean that all kinds of productivity takes place in the evenings. It’s all good. Whether it’s writing, drawing, painting, knitting or cooking, it definitely leaves you with more time when you’re not attached to the remote.

I used to go into this strange MTV trance. I’d start on MTV and work my way through the music channels, vainly hoping for something interesting to come on. When I found something after 10 minutes of +, +, + and -, -, -, it was invariably half way through and at the end of the song, when something crap came on, I’d be forced to + + + – - – once more. I’d do this for a good hour or so, just in a complete trance, hopelessly believing I’d find something good to watch. Youtube has revolutionised this. Add a playlist, add your favourite video tracks and off you go.

Playlists and youtube and spotify and downloads mean I’ve got about 23 hours of spare time more a day.

However, this means I have been trawling t’interweb in search of patterns. I have lots of favourite sites. My favourite right now is Drops  and I’m starting on a ballet-style wrapover cardigan. I used to love ballet cardigans. I might also start some legwarmers now I have invested in a circular knitting needle. Oh how I’ve moved on!

I am addicted to knitting, and if you don’t see me for a while, you know why.

Super-tricot

I officially ♥ knitting

I’ve nearly finished the gift that I’m making – though I’m keeping it under wraps until it is complete and the receiver has it in their hands. After this, I’ve decided to make a poncho. I like a poncho, 70s as they might be (well, I’m  a 1970s kid myself, so ponchos-a-go-go) and whilst I haven’t found a pattern I like, I’ve decided to make my own!

I’m going for 8 squares, front and back – 16 in total. I shall measure it out afterwards and then work out how big it needs to be (though I like ‘em big!) and I’ve decided to go for multi-coloured squares which I’m going to piece together. If I were more ambitious I’d go for cabling and fancy stuff, but I’m not ambitious so I’m just going for something simple. I’m going to knit the edge three stitches and purl all the insides, do three knitted rows on each side, to kind of ‘frame’ it. I’ve not decided on colours yet – depends what’s going cheap and what there’s a lot of – but I can’t wait to finish the gift to get on with the next knitting!

The world is my oyster and I am its purl.

Do you like what I did there?

Les aiguilles a tricoter

For a while now, I’ve walked past a certain shop in La Rochefoucauld which sells wool. Now, as you know, I’ve gone back to creativity following a long absence. For the first time in years, I’m drawing, painting, making stuff again. It’s fab.

However, today, I took the plunge and bought two balls of wool and some 7 mm needles. I cast on (with a little reminder from Youtube) and I’ve begun to knit something for someone I love very much. I hope she likes it!

I have had a 25 year gap between knitting this and the last thing I knitted, so I’m amazed it came back to me. In fact, better than I thought it would. I was knitting in no time and it actually looks really good. Photos will follow!

We also had an accidentally long walk. I say accidentally because it wasn’t supposed to be so long. I managed to take us a very sensible route and get us back to where we were the other day with Molly’s branch swing, though Steve did not believe we had been there before. Then we walked up past the rifle range and past the boar run which Molly loves. On the way back, I saw a bit I’d not seen before – the Black Lake ( a green puddle) and we took a different route. We somehow ended up 3 km away from where we should have been. Steve got a bit irritated with me saying I recognised the road or the trees, but we found our way back eventually. We were miles away from where we should have been, and all the dogs did remarkably. Saffy goes from strength to strength, making me wonder if it’s her thyroid at all, and not just being overweight. She’s like a different dog!

Photos of the day will follow. It’s been much warmer today – 9° – and it rained steadily all afternoon –  we got back with three very wet dogs. Loving the wet dog smell! I’m waiting for tomorrow to plant some leek seeds – the temperature is predicted to stay above 5° til next Wednesday, so it’s warm enough for seeds in the lean-to. I should take a photo of the lean-to, as well!