Olympic outing

We were lucky enough, through Mr yrh's work, to be invited to the first day of the Olympics. 

Our trip included tickets to see the morning session of the swimming where we had excellent seats directly opposite the start/finish line.

the warm-up

All our photos are a bit rubbish as in our rush to leave the house on Friday night we forgot the camera, so they've all been taken on a camera phone.

The Olympic park is huge, but after lunch we had a bit of a walk around. Here's the Orbit with the stadium in the background...

some props from the opening ceremony...

and dotted around were pretty areas filled with wild flowers...

We had a good day out - I don't have much interest in sport but the atmosphere in the aquatic centre was enough to incite my interest. And those athletic swimmers were enough to incite anyone's interest. Well, have you seen the Australian male swim team?

Motivation...

is something I haven't had a lot of in the last few weeks. I've wanted to curl up on the sofa with my arm over my eyes, much like this...

I get out the granny squares I've made but making more seems an insurmountable task so I put them all away again without even getting out my hook.

I look at the dust collecting in the corners of the upstairs rooms but dragging the vacuum upstairs to deal with it seems a step too far. It's a wonder we haven't got rats as the children have a habit of eating cream crackers in bed.

I think about going to the gym, but if there isn't an organised class to go to (in other words, if I have to motivate myself) I end up not going.

I need a hair cut... the children need hair cuts... I've been letting the fridge get so empty that there's no fruit for the children's packed lunches... the list of things I've not been doing goes on and on...

But then this week the sun has come out... 

the repetitive day-to-day routine dictated to us by school has gone and I went to a Zumba class yesterday and actually found myself enjoying it instead of just going through the motions. 

This is good, yes?

Just because...

one of my local yarn shops started to stock Rico Creative Cotton yarn and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about...

and because I've long been admiring the crocheted wash cloths I see occasionally on the interwebs (like these and these), I bought a couple of balls of said yarn and hooked up two small cloths...

The cloths are lovely and soft, but I must say that I found the yarn to be annoyingly splitty.

There are lots of washcloth/dishcloth patterns to be found. I used the 'Oh so soft baby washcloth' pattern by Theresa Grant, available as a free download from Ravelry. They were quick and easy to work up (splittyness aside) and I think the stitch pattern is really pretty.

Hook :: 3.5mm

Yarn :: Rico Creative Cotton which is an aran weight yarn

Pattern :: as linked above