Rearrange These Words Into A Well Know Phrase Or Saying

Candle...Burning...At...Ends...The...Both.

Sometimes I try to do too much. I know that I shouldn't take on more than I can reasonably manage, but there is something inside me that makes me say 'yes' to things when perhaps I ought to say 'maybe'.

I didn't think that I had done too much over the last couple of weeks, but the fact that one of the staff members knocked at the door of my flat this morning and I didn't hear it because I was so deeply asleep indicates that maybe I have done more than I should have. They did manage to rouse me at 10.40 this morning and having sleepily answered the door and assured them that I was okay I went to find my glasses so that I could see what time it was. Panic ensued because I was due at a meeting at the council offices at 11am.

So after a quick wash, brushing my teeth and my hair, throwing on some clothes and picking up my notebook I headed to the kitchen to let the staff know that I was on my way to a meeting. Fortunately the council offices are only two minutes walk from where I am living so I knew that I could just make it in time.

"Is your meeting with R?" asked the member of staff. "Yes," I replied. "Oh, S took a message this morning to say that it is cancelled."

Having rushed to get ready for a meeting that wasn't going to happen, I decided that the only thing that I could do today to be kind to myself was to do nothing. And apart from a quick trip out to have a look at computers in the local PC World and the completion of a few rows of knitting, that is pretty much what I have done today. Nothing.

I now just have to remember to say 'no' a bit more often and then I won't end up burning the candle at both ends!

What An Honour

As you know I am an inveterate knitter. Knitting has been one of the most important things in my life for the last few years and has been responsible for keeping me sane at times. I starting designing socks last year in response to the suggestion that I enter I Knit London's design competition. Since then I have designed a hat that was a Christmas present for one of my knitting friends and I have designed a shawl which is being test knitted at the moment.

At the beginning of the year I started to teach knitting classes at the shop in addition to the crochet classes that I have been doing since about October last year. All of this keeps me pretty busy and I don't think that I have the time to be depressed at the moment.

One of the problems with knitting (and crochet) as a hobby is that there is a shortage of good yarn shops about these days. Twenty or thirty years ago there would have been at least one shop on every high street around the country selling knitting wool, knitting needles and crochet hooks, and some would have major haberdashery areas too. Today, such shops are few and far between, which for a yarn junkie such as myself can be a problem. I found I Knit London last year and it has rejuvenated my knitting because it has such spectacular yarns on the shelves.

Yesterday, when I arrived at the shop in readiness for my knitting class, Gerard, I Knit's owner, asked me what I thought about the idea of the shop running a sock club. For those that don't know what a sock club is, the idea is that knitters subscribe and are sent a pattern for an exclusive sock design and a suitable amount of specially selected sock yarn to be able to knit a pair of socks every couple of months. Although I have never actually joined such a club, I think that they are a great idea especially as they can introduce knitters to yarns that they may never have used before.

So, why am I telling you all about this? Well, Gerard has asked me to design the first pair of socks to be presented to the sock club. Having spent so much of last summer knitting socks while trying to come up with my design for the competition, I have a basic sock pattern which lends itself to being used as the basis for practically any design that I can come up with. And that is what I have to do now; come up with a design that is different to anything that is out there already.

This really is a big honour for me and I am determined to come up with something really special for Gerard and his sock club.