Happy Birthday to Me!

I've had a particularly lovely couple of weeks since my last post, which included my birthday. I really do love a birthday (it doesn't have to be mine!) and I felt particularly special and really quite spoilt this year. The birthday started last Thursday with tea, cake and flowers at work and I still feel as if I'm celebrating as I'm yet to spend my birthday book tokens - this is always such a treat. I'm thinking about buying The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket, Homemade by Ros Badger or The Journey is the Destination by Dan Eldon.

My present from David was a swanky new iPod, which is now pretty much surgically attached! I've gone from being a podcast novice to a subscriber of not one, not two, but eight different podcasts. These range from The Archers to the Topshop fashion videocast. On the knitting front I am loving Stash and Burn, Let's Knit2gether and I am really quite hooked on Craft and Make (after the magazines). It's a whole new world out there and I love it! It had been looking a bit touch and go as my lovely little BabyMac laptop, at the tender age of five and a half, was looking too old to take the upgrade that would allow me to use my new Nano, but luckily a very kind IT guru from work found an old Tiger lying around and sneakily put it onto my computer. I am now the proud runner of OSX 10.4.11! Thanks, Mark! The Mustard colour iPod cosy was rustled up this afternoon, while watching cricket for the first time. India vs England in the ICC Twenty20 at Lord's. I am really quite surprised by how much I got into it!

I've also started a blanket for the sofa that will go into my study/studio when I finally finish the decorating and am ready to move in. It's based on the same pattern as the baby blanket that the Walker Knitting Club made for little Oscar. I love that it's all knit on one piece (not least as I hate finishing things off) and I'm going to be reducing my stash dramatically as a result! It's going to look pretty random as I'm using every shade of pink or red, regardless of how well they go together, but I think that will just add to its charm and it'll be just as warm to snuggle up into in the winter regardless of how much it clashes with itself! I'm slightly concerned about the size of the finished object - I'm guessing that after a while it'll be far to big to take in to Knitting Club! Speaking of which, Libby's mum made her an amazing birthday cake in the shape of a purple ball of wool, which Libby kindly left a chunk of on my kitchen table, so I shared the love and took it in for the knitters to share. Brilliant - I can't think of anything more perfect for a Squiblet birthday celebration!