My knit in shining armour

I have been out of action for a long time which has been noted by my legions of followers. I have been busy holidaying in Ibiza and upskilling, developing my talent* for knitting. Thanks to my kind colleague Anna I've learned plain, pearl, casting on, casting off - the lot, with only a few dropped stitches along the way. I knit(ed) every single day to and from work on the tube for six weeks to meet my (self-imposed, far too tight) target of 24th September. I set that target because I was visiting my Mum for the weekend and I knew she'd finish it off much better than I could.

During the final two weeks, as my deadline loomed, I took it up a notch and was known to knit while in pubs, on the phone and even managed to stick my needles into Denise's checked-in luggage for our holiday.(she maintained a 'disgusted' face at any mention of the knitting). But, I did manage to turn this:

Into this:

and this:

In the pipeline I have a navy balaclava to match my camel winter coat that I have yet to buy, a tea cosy to go on our very unusual shaped tea pot and a surprise for sharon which I will reveal after I've made it otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it.

I've managed to find that pic we took in the belt shop, which gives a good view of the vast RANGE of bizarre stock they have as you'll see I'm holding up what I think might be a rather large belt for dogs...

* v loose attitude to the word talent.