Anniversary and lots of knitting

Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. I can't quite believe it's been 19 years already. In some ways it feels like we've always been married and in other ways it's gone so quickly. Surely now that I'm over 40 (just) and been married for 19 years and have a daughter who is in her last year of compulsory education, I should be feeling like a 'proper grown up'? Well I don't. LOL. I hope I'm not alone.

We decided several years ago we wouldn't do presents for wedding anniversaries. I never know what to buy Simon. But Simon bought me a beautiful lily pot plant. It's called Princess Alexa.

I love lilies although some of them don't smell than nice. I'm not all that good at keeping plans alive so let's see how long before I kill this one.

We went out for a meal last night at Liskeard Tavern which is a 'Table Table' pub so it's not too posh but it's a popular place and the only pub in time where you can go for a decent meal. It's always very busy so I called in the morning and booked a table. The guy I spoke to took my name and telephone number and confirmed the time but when we turned up they had no record of our reservation. I was not happy. We did get a table but had to wait for a few minutes. it was nice to have a meal out together, just the two of us. And nice to be able to leave the girls for a couple of hours withou having to worry about baby sitter.

I've got some knitting I can show you too. Since Friday I've been exclusively knitting on my big secret project apart from about an hour one morning earlier in the week. I did this swatch a few weeks ago:

My original plan for this 'Easy Lace' scarf was to have plain garter stitch edge and I'd knitted a few repeats but I kep thinking about it and fancied doing a nicer edging to make the scarf look a little bit more special. So  I sat down with my note book one morning and drew up some possible edging charts. Made my decision. Quickly typed it up in Knit Visualizer and frogged what I'd knitted so far, probably about 4 inches, and re-knitted two pattern repeats. this all took about an hour. I'm much happier with it now. the edging will be knitted along with the main body of the scarf.

the scarf is only roughly pinned out and will look better when finished and blocked properly.

this is one of my 'Easy Lace' designs which may be used for the first installment of the 'Easy Lace' club. I've not quite decided yet. I'm also thinking I may do a E-book collection of Easy Lace patterns. One of the reasons I chose the main stitch pattern is that it has a yarn over before and after a purl stitch as well as between two knit stitches. If you knit the English way, there is a difference in how you work the yarn overs depending on which stitch comes before or after. This was something I'd never really thought about until I used this stitch pattern for a workshop. I knit continental with Norwegian purl which means the yarn is always in the back so all yarn overs are worked the same way.

My original deadline for my big, secret project  was Friday but I've had it extended until Monday. Which gives me until Friday evening to finish it so I can post it on Saturday. It's still going to be  a push. I had to decide last night whether ot work one more pattern repeat or now. Each pattern repeat was about 40 odd rows. In the end I compromised and decided to do the equivalent of half an extra pattern repeat. I've now got about 30 rows to go and each round is over 900 sts. I thought I would get to over 1000 sts but I should have 960 sts when I'm finished. I'd like to finish this section tonight so I'd better get back to it. At least the stitch pattern is memorised by now and the rows I have left to do are very easy ones.

ETA: I forgot to mention I'm currently looking for a new printer. My current one is an old Canon and is rubbish and cartridges are expensive. I need one that will print good quality pictures  for my patterns. I popped into PC world yesterday and they recommended the HP Photosmart Plus which was also the most expensive one she showed me. It does sound good though. Anyone have this printer? If yes, can you recommend it? If no, have you got a printer that prints good qulaity photos and would be capable of printing lots and lots of patterns. I'd appreciate some recommendations. Thank you.