Princess Kate Shawl - FINISHED

FINISHED. At last.  My Princess Kate shawl.

from the front

at the back

Sorry for the rather poor photo's - I've draped it over a hanger and flung it at the sofa to "balance" for the picture mostly on account of rather scary hair-day which prevents me from allowing anyone to take a shot of me wearing it!
I get that a lot.  It has a life of its own.  My hair is very thick and generally quite well behaved but sometimes it becomes a little over-thickened and I find myself aware of masses of bush like fuzz bouncing about my head and judging from some startled expressions from people I've bumped into I know that its not just my imagination.
Take last week.  I am pretty sure the GP wanted to flatten me.  flatten my HAIR.  ok, probably did want to flatten me too .. I could see him training his eyes NOT to stare just the same as you know when you get a spot people are trying NOT to notice? 
It drops out in handfuls - when I wash it I have loads come out - and still have to get it thinned when cut by the hairdresser to manage it and thats with the side effect from the Warfarin of thinning-hair!
When my hair settles I shall try and persuade someone to take a shot of me ..

new kitchen gadget

Forgot to add the photo of my new kitchen mixing gadgety thing.  We all had a go and the lads both declared it quite "exciting" ..  on the menu for this weekend - some sort of pasta/bacon thing with mint and peas and soured cream and an apple pie with a pastry using cornflour and custard powder and NO I've NOT confessed that small detail to the family - yet! (will wait and see if they spot the difference before confessing too!) and a "self-saucing chocolate pudding" which sounds interesting and looks fattening interesting!

Lined up for tonight's knitting - Doctor Who and X Factor.  tonight's knitting will be Tender which is comimg along beautifully now and yesterday saw me finish the front and start one of the sleeves, I've done three colour stripes on sleeve 1 and hopeful that I've got sufficient yarn to complete the pair.  Slight dodgy moment when I picked up the first colour and panicked over the small amount of yarn before realising I still had a complete unused ball in the bag! phew! I do NOT want another running out episode!  I'm keen to finish this now not least because I want to move on to other things!  I've resolved to finish this before even thinking of starting something else but I'm conscious that the 2nd of the glove KAL's starts 1st Oct and I'm already "late" for the Sept start on first .. Need to look through my patterns and decide which to knit and might with some regret choose just ONE of the kal's.
Arielle is resting nicely in a plastic zippered bag but I'm keen too to pick up on this as I still feel that it will be wearable in at least some of the warmer months ahead and even if not,  I need to finish it soon ready for next spring!
The Union Jack scarf is resting on the table and next week I might pick this up and have another bash at it, else I will unpick and use the yarn for gloves.  disappointing.  I had fancied the idea of the scarf but not going to force myself just for the sake of it.

Next week is our son's last week before we take him to Uni - he's stopped work but elected to remain on their books in case he needs to top up his savings in the holidays (and doesn't/isn't able to get a more local job).  We plan to take him clothes shopping (at his expense!) and as a family go out for a meal about the middle of the week (at our expense!) and THEN we take him! Can't believe its come around so soon I keep thinking there must be a mistake? surely he's never 18yrs? and surely he's too young to leave home? (and doesn't he WANT to stay home-with-mum??) apparently not.  It will be a mixed day of emotions I'm sure for all of us and for once I'm hoping that it will be worse for US than for our son.