Thursday, June 28, 2007

HOORAY!!!

I'm Going!!!
Well after weeks of mopeing about the house fed up because I wasn't going to get to WoolFest I have been bullied into going last night by DH, my Mum and her DH.
Finances be blowed - there's Fluff to be found!
Hopefully if you're there too I'll get to put some faces to some names!
Anyway, got to dash, there's a train to catch!
Oh, and by the way, the name out of the prize hat is.....
ArtyfartyKat!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

One Year Old Today!!

And boy has that year flown by quickly!

I did start a few months earlier on e-tribes (link in the side bar) but it is officially a year today that I started with blogger! I've not got the energy or brain power to recap all the projects that have been started and completed (and still waiting to be finished - which would be interesting - the more I think about it the more that come to mind!) over the year as Emily woke me up before 6am this morning and has been running round like a hoolie all day, and watching her makes me feel all the more tired!

Anyway back to the knitting. I suppose I ought to tell you now that I plan to have a little draw to celebrate my 1st blogiversary - nothing big - just a silly little thing as a thank you for all the comments and support over the last 12 months. And a big thank you to knit-tigger for being the first person other than my Mum to post a comment! If you fancy trying your hand at the draw simply leave a comment and I'll pick a name at random from a hat next week!
And that includes all of you who don't comment - tut, tut - what's stopping you?!


Right - lets' get down to business. I still have a bad case of Cast-on Fever and have started a new project but first of all I should introduce some new additions to the stash:

Notice how I've moved away from my green phase - I stopped myself just before I bought the loveliest green cotton DK which of course I now wish I had anyway. There's 300g of Sirdar Nova Chunky for a project (definitely a cold weather one so look out later in the year!); 350g of Rowan Linen Drape for a summery top and 350g of Patons Laguna 100% cotton to become Green Gable which brings us back to the new project, again more on that later.

And with the designs in 'Sensational Knitted Socks' still whizzing through my mind I got some plain sock and 4ply yarns to be played with at some point soon in time for Autumn.

And then I found some old Rowan pattern books (numbers 30 and 33) and decided I should rehouse them and conveniently found a pattern there using Linen Drape and I had the right number of balls for it - I can't quite remember the name of it right now but it's from Rowan 33 and involves casting on far too many stitches for first glance! Oh and if you think I must have won the lottery to have bought all this little lot, think again. All these items were priced 50p each which is fantastic but it does come at a price with the closure of one of our LYS - a real little treasure trove of a shop with shelves full of long forgotten favorites.

Now there is a reason why I've started a new project and it's simply because I think I ought to knit something a little more light weight for summer time and I've put aside my dislike for cotton yarns as well as this Patons Laguna feels so lovely and soft and is not at all splitty which has always been my problem with cotton. So far so good - it's a really quick knit. The lace panel has a mistake in it - I can see it now in this photo but I can't really be bothered to rip it back as I've done a load more since this photo was taken and it's not too bad a mistake if you try not to see it. I've not been entirely bad - I did complete the back of the 'Lacey Waves' jumper before I started this one so at least when I come back to the jumper it won't be a case of trying to remember where I was up to!!

Of course you realise we won't have a nice summer now that I'm making the effort to knit for warm weather (and when I typed effort initially I mistyped it as 'error' - which is right?!).

I will leave you for now with a quote from Mary Thomas's Book of Knitting Patterns:

"There is no work in the world more ingenious than Knitting, and this is why it's appeal has lasted over so many centuries"

See we're all really ingenious!! And if you haven't seen it already I suggest you take a look at this little gem of a book from 1943 and her Knitting Book - so many ideas there we think of as 'modern' which have been around for generations.



Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Ello, Ello - Whats Going on Here?

Well, it's been one of those weeks when everything and nothing has happened! As far as knitting is concerned I'm having a run of Cast-on Fever, but more about that later. As Mum mentioned I've been over at hers for a flying visit - just about 24 hours together with loads of knitting, gossiping and chasing Emily thrown in as well. And if that wasn't enough we did a bit of playing with sheep fluff. She'd managed to get me a Welsh Black fleece for me as well and it was rather sheepy smelling which, although not totally horrendous, wasn't an appealing thing to be in a hot car with for a 2 hour drive. So into the bath it went...
Just look at that mucky water! Pooey bits were removed before bathing of course!
And then onto the line to drip dry! That by the way is only half of the fleece as it was a bit much to handle in one go. And to think that just last week that fleece was still on the sheep! It will need a good session with Mum's drum carder to make it easier to spin so it will be a while before this becomes something wearable - other than as a sheep costume!


Anyway, back to the knitting. Emily's BabyJay mark 2 has been completed - no picture as really it looks no different to the earlier photo. However I did do a different toe to start with as I wasn't too keen on the short row toe the pattern suggested and so did the Figure of Eight cast on found here It's actually a good article for Toe-up's and I rathered the Figure of Eight even if it was really fiddly to get going. Which is probably the reason why sock number 2 hasn't been started, so SSS has struck! Which is really silly as these toddler sized ones do not take ages to knit at all and it's such a simple pattern, I think I've just been too tired to be bothered concentration to cast on. That is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!


Knitting group was fun on Tuesday night with a real party atmosphere - but then that could have been down to the cocktails filling the tables for those none driving/ none tee-totaler knitters. There was yet another knitting themed novel making the rounds which has been borrowed and read and rather enjoyed. This week it was 'Diva's Don't Knit' by Gil McNeil which was full of Rowan yarns (not always by name but recognisable by description) and tales of being a single Mum with 2 young boys which was entertaining. I do love reading but knitting seems to have taken over now but this book and 'A Good Yarn' by Debbie Macomber, another novel on a knitting theme (including a sock pattern!!), makes me feel as if I'm not wasting knitting time simply because of all the knitting going on in them. Ideal reading for those holidays!

The 'No Yarn til WoolFest' took a bit of a bash the other day as well as I found yet another LYS that is closing down and treated Emily to some beautiful Freedom Spirit in beautiful cottage garden colours, ideal for my little girly girl and destined to become a lacey shrug soon-ish possibly!

I was feeling a bit bad about buying more yarn on the way home but thought no more about it. Emily has a new phrase that turned up after she'd spilt a drink and co-incidentally a police car went past with it's sirens on. "The Police will Get You" she said, which is cute and so I've been pointing out why the police will get you. So on the way home from buying wool, after passing a police car I told her the police will get you if you drive too fast but not to worry as Mummy was being good. 200 yards down the road the police were doing random checks on cars and guess who got pulled over? Talk about speaking too soon! Anyway, the Tax and so on were OK so I went on my way and my yarn purchase served to calm me down after this excitement!
Today the Welsh Police were also doing random checks, which I managed to drive past unchecked... but was followed by a police car. Emily was whinging about something so I told her I couldn't help as I was driving and the police were after Mummy. And yet again I was pulled over!! Arrgghh! My Dad, who was in the car with me, thought this was hilarious and told me, like the police man did, that I needed to get a new tax disc holder as mine had given up even trying to stick to the window.

I am NOT going for a third try like Mum suggested! In fact I shall try to avoid the police as much as possible from now on!! I should actually stay at home and try to finish some of this small mountain of FO's I've accumulated recently.

The purple bits are some slippers stared when we had that cold spell and only one need sewing up but I can't find the right yarn again to do that. There is Emily's BabyJay pre-cast-off along with some of Mum's left over hand spun sock yarn to knit some for Emily. And finally the green is my Jaeger Matchmaker DK which is set to become Norah Gaughans Lacy Waves Top from 'Lace Style' and can be seen if you scroll down a bit here. So far there's 14" of plain stocking stitch which is not inspiring me and feels as if it will take ages to knit up. All I can say is I can't wait to start the sleeves and neck insert which is where the brain will have to wake up!And as if I haven't got enough projects on the go already I got a copy of Sensational Knitted Socks (which I love) and have rummaged in the stash to find these two yarns which I fancy trying the cover sock with. Oh, yes and I've a lace stole screaming at me to knit it now. And more socks, possible a couple more stoles.... need I go on? I think I'm finished being good and not starting anything until I finish something - I will be here spinning and knitting away frantically at anything that catches my eye - and possibly all at once!! Right, sorry for the waffle and mad ramblings am off to knit, spin and have a glass of wine, or two!!