Second Year of Projects Week 9

I'm a bit late with my post this week thanks to a lovely trip to see my parents, and a not so lovely burglary when we got home...

This is our back door, somebody managed to get through that and take 2 laptops. Luckily the alarm was set, so they didn't manage to get anything else,though  they've turned the place upside down. I'll have to tidy it at some point,but I don't feel like it right now! The major problem is that our neighbours replaced the fence at the bottom of the garden, and removed our gate even though we asked them not to, so it was like an open door into our private garden. We've told the landlord and the police, so there's not much else we can do now.

So onto a more happy note, I've finished one of my Ghostie socks

I finally gave up on the original knitting I was doing, and decided to swatch with less stitches, because the socks were coming out massive.

Original size compared to swatch. I now have only 3 ghosties around the sock, and some have eyes or noses that span two rows rather than one, but they still look cute and seem to have come out well, so I don't really mind that they're not exactly as intended. At least they're not like trouser legs any more! I also substituted an afterthought heel, as I wanted to keep the ghostie pattern going throughout the sock, and the pattern itself had a flap and gusset heel which distorted the pattern.

The reason we went to my parents this weekend was to see this little thing:

Meet Amber, my parents' new, mad and slightly bitey puppy. She is tiny and adorable, but woe betide you if you are wearing shoes, skirts or bracelets, because they will be eaten! Looks like butter wouldn't melt doesn't she?

We also decided to take a day trip to the seaside at Whitby with my best friend D,who I have know since we were both 4, and her boyfriend. The weather was perfect, and we saved the other two dogs from the puppy for a while, since she won't let them sleep and likes to jump on their head.

 D and Connor decided to go swimming in the north sea in their underwear...

 Multi coloured beach huts!

There was even a pirate ship!


 I also got two amazing presents, the first was from my parents' holiday to the Orkneys

North Ronaldsay fibre. These are really interesting sheep, because they live on the beach and only eat seaweed. They eat only at low tide, then go up the beach at high tide to ruminate

I also got my first ever fleece, from a family friend's Shetland sheep

He told my dad that he had a sheep for us, and he wasn't kidding. We got a fully butchered lamb as well as this fleece, so that was very kind of him. Now I just need to research exactly how to deal with a fleece. Anyone know any good resources?