Adventures in York

Since I've been in Sheffield I haven't really explored the surrounding areas so on Saturday I decided to take the train to York.  I haven't been to York for years so I thought it would be a nice day out.

As soon as I got to York I could see the Minster in the distance.  

The Minster is really stunning.  I didn't go inside but I walked around the outside and got lots of lovely photos.

After that, I went for a bit of a wander - I had a map from the tourist information so I knew roughly where I wanted to go.  I looked up tea shops to visit in York before I went so when it was time for a break I sought out Crumbs Cupcakery.  

Ok so I got 2 cupcakes during the day... But look at how cute everything is!

The city is surrounded by stone walls and one of my aims of the day was to walk around all of the walls.  

I managed to walk all the way around but my feet were so tired by the end of it.

York has a little old street called 'The Shambles.'

While I was wandering down there I managed to find a lovely little yarn shop called Ramshambles where I treated myself to some yarn made in Yorkshire.  This is West Yorkshire Spinners DK printed yarn and the colour is called 'Owl' - too perfect!

I couldn't resist starting knitting with it straight away so I'm making a shawl using the 'Age of Brass and Steam' pattern.

Looks like I've found my new handbag project already.  Besides, I was just getting into practice for buying wool at Yarndale next weekend.

Easing back into it...

Recently it's been too hot to knit or crochet - it makes you want to just sit around and relax.

I made a mini collage of photos I've taken since my last blog post (far too long ago).  Most of them are from my holiday with Rob to Paris but I've also got photos from when we watched the Tour de France here in Sheffield, a teddy bears picnic, and when we went sightseeing in Oxford.

Happy New Year!

A slightly belated Happy New Year to you!

It's the time of year when I promise to get more organised and sort myself out.  Since I've been back in my flat after Christmas I have spent most of my time tidying and organising so hopefully once I'm sorted I can keep it tidy.  2013 was a good year for me so I'm hoping 2014 can be just as good.

I had a lovely Christmas with my family and I think the hamsters enjoyed all the attention and treats.   Eve got them a see-saw as a Christmas present which they like playing with.

I also managed to (finally) finish the jumper I have been knitting for Rob in time for Christmas... and then forgot to photograph it before I came back to Sheffield.

Another exciting thing I forgot to mention before Christmas was that I went to see Andre Rieu in concert at Leeds Arena.  My friend won the tickets in a draw at work and invited me as his guest.  The concert was brilliant and we both loved the waltzes.  We had a great view from our seats too.

The arena itself is amazing to look at and with the lighting it really stands out.

I'm glad to be back in Sheffield and, in a way, back at work.  I missed seeing my friends over Christmas so it's good to get into my old routine and spend time with them all.

All settled in

Firstly, hello.  Starting my new job and moving has seen me rather busier than I expected so I haven't been around recently.  I've done so much in the last few weeks that it may take a couple of blog posts to talk about it all.

As I mentioned a while ago, I was moving to Sheffield for my new job and... well... I'm settled in my lovely new flat now and getting used to my job.

The van is completely full ready to move me to Sheffield

My flat now I am properly unpacked 

  Moving was fun but I am glad I have everything unpacked now and it is feeling like home.

A Day Out at the Zoo

I went to Chester Zoo on Saturday with my Bestie.  We had been wanting to go for a couple of years and finally got around to it last week.  The zoo is so much fun!  I hadn't been in years so I'd forgotten most of it.

As chief photographer I was in charge of taking all the photos of the animals (I took 254 photos and Bestie took 29).  Here are some of the nice photos:

Graduation

In my last post I said that I was about to graduate from university.  My graduation ceremony was lovely - mostly just getting to see all of my friends and knowing that all the effort we put into our degree over the years has now paid off.

We had to wear full robes all day even though the weather was so hot.  The colour of the hoods of our robes signifies the type of degree - in the case of our uni orange is for engineering.

Outside my department before the ceremony

On the stage accepting my degree

Rob was also graduating at the same time as me

Me and Rob both in our graduation gowns

Now that university is officially out of the way I can get on with thinking about work and my new flat - too exciting!

Today I ordered a sofa, armchair and a futon to be delivered to my flat in September.

I had already decided on what colour furniture I wanted so when I was in town last week I bought a cushion in John Lewis because it was nice and bright (and reduced).

Anyway this then inspired me to crochet a cushion-cover to match/complement it and got making it straight away.

I'm using the join-as-you-go method to crochet the squares together.  The cushion will be 25 granny squares on one side and one big granny square on the other side.

I've also finally cast-on the first sleeve for Rob's jumper but then the weather turned warm again so I've not got much of that done.

The friendship blanket I'm constructing from squares swapped with other crafters on Ravelry is making progress though:

It is looking good so far and I'm meeting lots of new people by taking part in the swap

Exploring A New City

I mentioned here a few months ago that I had received a job offer to work in Sheffield starting in September.  Since I came back from holiday, I've been searching for somewhere to live and have visited Sheffield twice.

I have to say it is a lovely city (which is a relief!) and I am starting to know my way around.  Here are a few photos that show-off the city nicely:

Nice Buildings and Open Spaces...

...Tonnes of Theatres...

...and lots of beautiful parks

Even better news is that I have signed for a flat!  Rob and I visited Sheffield at the start of this week to view flats.  Two viewings were cancelled while we were there but we still got to see 3 different flats and agreed on a favourite.

Anyway tomorrow is a big day for me and Rob as it is our graduation.  I can't believe 4 years of university have flown by so quickly.  The ceremony is at the same concert hall that Rob and I saw Al Murray at (The Liverpool Philharmonic) and my family have seats in one of the boxes

Happy 2nd Birthday, Blog

Another year has flown by and now my blog is a wonderful 2 years old.  I've been meaning to crochet a little smiling robot to celebrate.

I'll be back tomorrow with a catch-up on my current WIPs

Wordless Wednesday - Me summed up on a mug

Catching-up

I feel like a lot has happened since I last posted so we'll have a quick catch-up.

As you may know, I graduate from university in July so have been searching for graduate jobs for several months.  I have been to a couple of assessment centres including one adventure to Leeds.  I got a job offer after the interview in Leeds!!!  I have accepted the offer to work in the company's Sheffield office starting in September.  I've never been to Sheffield but I have friends who went to university there and loved the city.

I'm the first out of my uni group to have a job offer which is exciting but I was one of the first to start applying and the company was unusually quick in offering the job - some companies make you wait a month before letting you know whether or not you were successful.

Another fun event was Rob's birthday (which happens to be Valentine's Day).  His mum and brother came to visit and took us out for a meal - it's amusing seeing people's reactions when you say that you and your boyfriend are being taken out by your boyfriend's mum for Valentine's Day.  

I made Rob a card using an idea I saw on Pinterest:

I also used the fact it was Valentine's Day to include some heart-related gifts:

I used an old jam jar and filled it with hearts

The hearts are made using this pattern - I will include full details as part of tomorrow's FO Friday post

I also decided to make shortbread as I didn't have the right ingredients for any other cookies

These are a couple of the projects I'm working on now that I thought I'd keep you up-to-date with

My granny striped bag

I have now sewn the lining to the crocheted granny square so now I'm about to start crocheting the sides to make it more bag-like.  I'll be using this tutorial for how to do the sides of the bag

Converse Baby Booties

A friend is expecting a baby in March so I'm making some little booties for the baby. 

 The booties shown above use this pattern.  They are really quick to make and so cute!

My Weekend

We had a hectic weekend as Rob's little brother came to stay with us so we have been trying to keep him entertained for the last two days.  I hope we did but I think he was a little bored by the end.

After talking to my Mum about planning to get more organised this year I signed up to receive daily emails from FlyLady.net about how to get your house and life more organised.  The daily emails just advise doing a little at a time but waking up to an email telling me the jobs to do on that day should keep me motivated.

I've also banned myself from starting any more projects until I finish the majority of the ones I am making at the moment.  I have quite terrible startitis and think the number of projects I have on-the-go at the moment is in double figures.  This was discovered when I found some great projects to make out of some of the wool sitting in my stash but then remembered that most of my knitting needles are currently in use.

I spent a lot of time over the exam time knitting the blue/green scarf for my friend and even learnt continental knitting to help speed up the 6ft garter stitch scarf and that is almost finished now.  I had done a few rows of another scarf I had been asked to make but I realised that would take forever so make so I unravelled it and started to crochet it instead using the pattern Joseph's Scarf by Cheryl Wilson which is much quicker and I have now almost completed.

Today, I managed to complete a little knitted toy robot that I had put aside incomplete as I was reluctant to do the icords for the arms, legs, and antenna but I felt like finishing something while I was sat with Rob's brother while he watched tv and played on Rob's ancient Xbox.  The pattern is Pocket-Sized Robot by Kat Lewinski.

I think making the icord headphone covers has mostly cured me of my dislike of knitting icords - oops I haven't finished making them either!

We started brewing beer again today.  This one is lager and the bucket is sat in the hall until I crochet a  mat for it to sit on so we can put it in the living room (the only room that stays warm).

I had the job of adding the hot water and stirring the mixture.