YarnBombing etc.

Not only was June 11th Worldwide Knit in Public day it was also International Yarn bombing day. Yarn bombing? A search online brings up loads of pages on the subject and Ravelry and Facebook has it's fair share of items too so it seems to be on the rise. The author of the book "Yarnbombing" Leanne Prane says:

"We consider it positive graffiti, it's not there to be ill-intentioned, or to give anyone a bad day, It is supposed to be a force of positivity in the world."

Who could argue with that? I'm sure that there are people out there who see it a blatant vandalism but hopefully most will see it as it's intended. So in an attempt to add a bit of fun to the world certain people might have joined in!

I did see it getting some interested looks from passers by and so far it's still there. It does brighten up a dull corner of some railings and at least it's making the culprits happy if on-one else!

Lots has happened since I last wrote including rather a lot of knitting. Which is good as my knitting mojo hadn't been good for a while. My mission to knit 11 pairs of socks in 2011 is progressing well - I'm now up to pair number 8 thanks to a couple of socks for my mini-me which take next to no time to knit up especially if you're stuck in the car for 4 hours driving down to Devon! As a passenger of course :) I've also finished off some of my numerous WIP's including finishing off my Haruni shawl which took a surprisingly small amount of time to finish and not as much effort as I'd thought and as a result really made me wonder why it took me so long to pick it back up again.

Wonder Wool Wales was the usual fun day out but the major change for us this year was that rather than stay for the whole weekend and visit both days we only visited one day of the show and travelled back that same day exhausted by it all. I don't feel this was a bad thing - Mum and I were both out of money by then and we'd seen pretty much everything we'd wanted to. I came home with exactly what I wanted which was one of IST's Turkish spindle so I can still spin while I'm camping - while it's not really a flashy fancy wood I love it to bits as it's gleaming black Bog Oak that's thousands of years old and spins like a dream.

I suppose I should finish with a picture of my dress that was occupying so much of my time the last time I wrote - it's not the best one but here you go!

Doesn't Time Fly?

Life seems to whizz by.

I don't know if having a small child in the house makes it go quicker but it seems as if the weeks disappear as soon as they arrive. I was going to say before you know it it'll will be March.... oh dear! Proof that I am loosing my grip on the awareness of the passage of time if ever I had it!

Of course I do know it was St Davids day yesterday. I'm Welsh therefore how could I not know! Yesterday was also the first time that spring seemed to be marching closer to us (no pun

intended). Seemingly everywhere I went yesterday there were fields being mown, or mowed which ever is right, the smell of cut grass was in the air and the sun was warm on your back.

Shame I can't say the same today, the wind is biting so it'd not quite time to put any mittens into hibernation yet!

This Winter, despite saying that time flies by, seems to have dragged. Now I like Winter, to a certain degree, because as a knitter it is a season that seems to justify the purpose of being a knitter. I will not be cold - I will be wrapped in as many layers of hand-knit woolliness as I can manage for I am a knitter! But after a while the novelty wears off and I've missed those fresh new leaf greens which are only now just starting to show themselves. Still, we're not going to have one of those Narnian Winters that last for hundreds of years, Spring is coming so I shall keep my eyes peeled!

Spring as we know is a time of new life and new beginnings. As I type I'm currently having new glass put in our windows - a new era for our little old house! No more rotten frames! And I've been embracing new ideas and joining Mum in trying out some Art Yarns - no pictures today but really good fun to play with.

My lovely knitting friends have also been dragged into this era of newness with a little bit of dying as Birthday treats. Both recently had Birthdays and a hand-dyed present seemed a novel idea and something they were excited to try. So last Sunday we invaded Nadine's kitchen and got the dyes out...

The results are lovely and each of them are happy with their efforts (I dyed one as a demo and then let them dye their own) and rightly so. I think there may be some people buying dyes at Wonder Wool later this Spring :)

And the new skill learning didn't stop there. Last night Jude tried out spinning with a spindle after having tried, and not enjoyed, spinning with a wheel. And she went for it!! The concentration was immense and before long she'd nearly filled the spindle. I think there might be a new spinner out there now!

The only thing we could do with now is more practice, both in spinning and in skein winding....

I'd like to say that Tilly the cat helped but I can't! Still it looks lovely wound into a cake and is now ready to knit which is all that matters.

On a final note I'll go back to it being St Davids day yesterday. One of the items in our Etsy shop was featured in a St Davids day treasury which is a lovely compliment and I love how it looks in amongst all the other lovely green Welsh themed items.

So to my Welsh readers (if there are any other than my Mum!) I wish you all a belated Happy St Davids day and to everyone else Happy Spring watching!

In a Rut

There are times when I feel as if I'm in a bit of a rut - whether it be lifestyle-wise chasing round ad infinitum after a lively four year old or creatively. I've certainly had Cast-On Fever or Startitis lately and right now I've more WIP's than I care to think about and some of them are so silly.

Why for instance haven't I finished DD's little aran waistcoat? All that needs doing is picking up stitches for the collar, I'd converted the pattern to knitting in the round so it's not like there's much sewing up to do. I did start picking up stitches but got all in a tangle when going to answer the phone and managed to rip out all the stitches I'd picked up. It was put away in a sulk I'll admit but why I haven't finished it off which is no more than a days work I could not tell you.

And there's another jumper for DD languishing in the WIP pile due to lack of concentration - I went wrong trying to knit this at knitting group and decided to start again but again little has happened with it since. Small jumper, big wool and needles - quick project (theoretically) so what's stopping me?

Poor 'Laminaria' was started last year to take with me on holiday - fat chance that it will be ready for this years holiday in 5 weeks time. It's lovely soft Posh Yarns Cashmere which isn't exactly a hardship so if someone could lend me a brain to work with (Clarabelle shawl queen might be the one!!) then maybe this could get finished. I think this has been sat there because I'm too lazy to start thinking once little Miss has gone to bed.




And I'm half way through another pair of 'Monkeys' and my heart is not in it. I'm on the heel flap for the second sock and I just can't bring myself to knit it. Even though I know I could make short work of it once the heel is done.

Yet I've have managed to spin a small mountain of handspun, much of it Alpaca (there does seem to be a theme!) which is thanks to this new wheel which is a real production wheel - new yarn seems to just fly off it! I did volunteer to represent my guild at North Wales's 'WoodFest' which was great fun and a whole day (10am til 5pm) virtually continually spinning as well as explaining how wool was made to all the kids and answering technical questions from the men. Out of all the people we saw that day (dozens and dozens) only four correctly guessed my spinning fluff as alpaca, one little girl thought the fluff came from 'carpets'. And I'm eagerly waiting to see Winghams stock another suggestion 2 other children had: 'fox'!

I've managed to knit, and finish (until I decided I'd changed my mind and wanted it longer) a handspun version of 'Green Gable' as well as a birthday surprise for a friend, who may or may not read this hence no photos. And I did knit myself a new jumper which I'm happy with as the yarn has been sat there for ages and the project lurking on my Ravelry queue for ages - so some progress with destashing (partially as there's lots left on the cone) and working through my queue.


So right now I think my creative spirit exists for the new items I knit and not the old but soon enough I'm going to really have to bully myself into finishing things off, especially if the worse comes to the worst and I can't get to WoolFest next weekend and the Tour de Fleece looms so these lamented WIP's are really doomed!

Feeling Glum

We had to have our cat put down on Wednesday at the ripe old age of 13 and I'm being a right old misery guts without him. Silly though it may be he was always a comfort when I was feeling sad - a good old cuddle with him always lifted the spirits.

Still my latest knitting - some hand spun alpaca plied with fine mohair - is black which is showing up his lingering white hairs beautifully and I'm resiting the urge to pull them all out.

I shall return with more details and other stuff when I'm in a better mood.

And Baby Came Too!

I'm ashamed to say that I've forgotten to tell you something that I've been really excited about but somehow seem to manage by the time it comes to blogging. I know I really should do this whilst I'm wide awake and not when I'm half asleep and that way I'd not forget the exciting bits and inflict you with a load of waffle instead. Well, I'm awake now so you'll have the news (as well as some waffle!).

A month or so ago I took part in a Spinners Swap on Ravelry, my first ever swap and I had a whale of a time picking out goodies and dyeing stuff up for my swap partner and after sending out my parcel I almost forgot about that fact that someone else would be sending me a parcel in return! And when I got my parcel I was thrilled with the goodies inside which 'Manicgirl'
from Sweden sent.

As well as some beautiful hand dyed merino and some luscious hand dyed silk hankies were some beautiful hand spun yarns which I'll have to find something special to use in. The middle item in the photo is the one I'm most impressed with as it's so beautiful it's almost a shame to use it! It's some flax tied in the traditional Swedish way which really does look fantastic and the smell is wonderful - my Grandad would have been interested in this I'm sure as he was from Belfast where a lot of linen is produced.

I've decided to dedicate this post to my spinning as there's been a fair bit going on lately as well as all the dyeing I've been churning out for the shop. This first yarn was from some Fybrespates fibre, I can't remember what it is as it didn't have a label on but it's lovely and soft and has a lovely sheen. I plied the singles with some rayon thread in a toning shade and there's enough yarn here to make myself another Forest Canopy shawl!

This one is a blend of Alpaca, Mohair and Wool from the lovely 'Wool For Brains' etsy shop and it was a lovely fibre to spin and there's just possibly enough for a pair of socks by I'm going to spin something complimentary for the heels and toes I think to make the yarn go farther. The colours in this are really lovey and don't really show well here.

There is more hand spun to show but I've not take any pictures of them - one of which I'm really happy with is a three ply Alpaca/Nylon blend yarn which is destined to become socks - and there's plenty of yarn for them!

Recently Emily has been getting involved with spinning too. Firstly I took her to the Frodsham Friendship Day which was help by one of the Cheshire Spinning Guilds. She was really excited when we walked in to the main hall which was full of loads of spinners and their wheels and asked if she could start spinning there and then! She even decided which wheel she wanted and virtually claimed someones Louet wheel! We met up with the lovely Jackie and her girls, who Emily loved, and I was surprised that Emily didn't protest and let me stay nearly all afternoon!

By the time we left she was very tired and upset that I'd left 'her' wheel and her new friends behind!

After such a successful day out with her I tried her out again with a trip to the Abergele Guilds spinning afternoons which again she was most impressed with. Even after packing some snacks (bribes really!), jigsaws and colouring bits I didn't see myself being able to do much in the way of spinning but to my amazement she let me get on with it. I can't say that she let one of the other ladies do much spinning, Lynne became a temporary childminder and seemed to enjoy herself being taken on riverside walks and walks on 'squelchy' fields. And the final vote of approval from Emily came when she saw our tea-time cakes - I think I'll be allowed to go again with her and the other members didn't seem to mind her at all either!

So now Emily wants me to teach her to spin, we've a spindle all ready for her but I think I'm more likely to get eyes poked out rather than yarn spun so far! I think Emily really wants to have a go soon - she's been sitting on my lap and 'helping spinning'. I don't think she's quite ready yet but she thinks she is!

I'll leave you with a shot of yet another small person who's been 'helping' me to spin - not sure if he's ready to learn or not either!

One Hundred Posts Old Today!!

Maybe it's just the time of year but I've kind of fallen under a spell of the blues and as a result I've kind of been hiding from society (OK - it may be online but it's still a society of sorts!).
Only some lovely kind words from a certain Sarah made me realise how slow I've been at updating lately and that I needed to get out and post something!

The thing is it's not as if there aren't any FO's to show you - I've been knitting and spinning like mad (that's the hiding from society bit!) and have a fair old pile of stuff on the finished pile. I should also add that there's still a pile of stuff on the WIP pile too but then who doesn't have these on going projects?!

I decided a montage shot would be less bother to post rather than inflict a load of photos on you and was surprised how many things have been done since I last posted - five finished objects and another new one on the go! Well I'm impressed at least but I suppose it is cheating of sorts as they're all small projects really.

As the days have been growing colder and darker (and then warmer again - silly weather!) my thoughts have been on making warming layers for DD. It's not that I don't want anything for myself (I don't think I'll even attempt to start a list we could be here all night but I might just mutter 'Wisteria' under my breath!) but I keep thinking she ought to be wrapped up against the cold (when it gets here for good!) so there are slipovers and tunics galore on the 'to knit' list ready for Winter. Most of the following have been made for her - OK all bar one! Hubby is still grumbling that his project isn't finished yet but that hasn't been photographed and I'm making the pattern up as I go and can't find my notes (I blame him for tidying!)

I suppose I should start with the current WIP which is a Sirdar pattern (details are on Rav - I don't do details well, that's what Rav is there to remember for me!) for Miss Emily knit in some Sirdar Sunggly Aran (which is as the name suggests!). Even though it's a simple waistcoat with very little sewing up to do I'm reducing the sewing further by converting it to (I was going to say in the round) a one piece job. The cables are really lovely looking and make for a nice think fabric but it's not the challenge for the grey cells I was wanting - the cable pattern was learnt before I'd finished the first repeat. Still it's working quite quickly (when I actually knit it) as I can get away with doing some of the cables sans cable needle! Does it look like I'm content with doing the pattern the traditional way (blind following)? The urge to 'tweak' is strong!

The Rainbow Beret (can you guess which one that is in the montage? Do you need a clue?!) was another pattern I wasn't content to follow blindly. The initial try was too pointy for my liking and more elf hat than beret. So it was ripped back and I made it up, increasing stitches like a mad thing - nothing written down of course so I'm doomed if I want to recreate it! Plus the pattern (again details on Rav - can't remember where I found it other than through Rav!) was for a 2 year old so I played and guessed whilst DD was in school and cast off with no head to double check on. As a result there's no real need to know what I did with this as there's plenty of room for growing here! As part of the developing trend the yarn for this (Colinette Cadenza - I do remember some things!) was lovely and soft to knit with and is nice and snuggly too!

Before the beret came the BSJ - do you need details or do those three little letters tell you all you need know about the pattern?! OK, for all that Elizabeth Zimmermann wanted people to not follow patterns blindly I did with this. The maths and the whole construction of this little beauty of a pattern still befuddles me even after knitting this second one - I really couldn't conceive of thinking one of these up from scratch! If you haven't tried this pattern out yet I urge you to try just for the fun of trying to work it out and then once you've figured out how it goes together making others try to figure it out themselves! Hours of Fun!! Anyway this was for a friend baby who technically is still not due but who in reality arrived on the 3rd of October (Mum's Birthday too!) seven weeks early and coincidentally my Baby Surprise was finished the day before - I know Mum has said about being Welsh Witches but really?! Expect to see more mini knits with this same yarn (Fabel from Garn Studio - lovely yarn and great colours!) as this only took just (and I mean just - half of the last row and casting off done with the second 50g ball!) over 50g to knit and no girl is fully dressed without matching booties and hat now are they?!

Bored yet? Nevermind! Still on the list is a Sirdar aran jumper (strangely enough also knitted in Sirdar yarn - not a usual trend having the 'right' yarn for the pattern!) again converted into being knitted in the round and a baby Kimono from Lion Brand done in Mad fluffy slubby wool which was an insanely quick knit. Well, as this is turning into a huge essay I'll keep it brief on these two and move on to one of my favorite FO's and a first for me - a Crocheted FO!! I don't expect many of you to have heard of it but the little white beastie is a Totoro from the Japanese animated film called 'My Neighbour Totoro' a really lovely film for little ones (and handily dubbed in English). Totoros are woodland spirits fond of gathering acorns and disappearing when they want to hide away and this one is a 500 year old 'baby' one. Seriously this film is worth looking out for for those with little ones to amuse, it is a bit bizarre (I'll just say 'Cat Bus' and leave it to your imagination) but is a lovely gentle film, not a lot happens but DD adores it and many others from the same makers 'Studio Ghibli' Japans equivalent to Disney. Anyway this is the first ever crocheted creation I've done, other than a little freestyle dabbling, and it was only by the time I'd nearly finished and was doing the tail that I figured out how to count crochet stitches and how to follow a crochet pattern properly. The stitches are wonkey and not necessarily what the pattern wanted (or where it wanted them!) but it look like what it's supposed to and I love it as does Miss Emily! And that's what matters!

I was going to show you some hand spun I'd done but my back is aching sitting at this computer and I think I've inflicted enough waffle for one night for you. Plus it gives me something to start my next hundred posts with doesn't it?! Will try and touch base with you all and gradually rejoin society - see you out there!

Please can we have more hours in the Day?

Doesn't time seem to fly by relentlessly? There are so many things I'd love to be getting done but they just don't seem to happen! We've had a busy old time of it here lately - last week has been spent comforting Emily which has taken so much time.
She'd been ill early Saturday morning and seemed better on the Sunday so we went out to watch the motor racing with my Dad at Oulton Park in Cheshire. By the time we got there Emily wasn't well again and managed to sleep through a noisy race which our friend was driving in. So we decided to head home and pop in to Borders on the way to see if the latest Interweave Knits was out yet.
After a successful trip clutching IK for Mum we returned to the car only to see a familiar face parked next to us! Well, I recognised the yarn in her cardi before I noticed it was none other than WyeSue up in the area for the weekend - and a lovely surprise it was too! Anyway the point being that it made me realise that I haven't managed to keep up with any ones blogs for ages and feel quite out of touch with everything.
Now Ravelry is one big black hole that does seem to consume huge chunks of the day and Emily is the other, especially this week. Take Bank Holiday Monday for instance - were we passing the time of day doing something fun for her? Not at all, what should have been a quick trip to the out of hour doctors ended up as nearly six hours in the Children's A&E next door. Now there was nothing seriously wrong, other than a Urine Infection (which is bad enough), but having to wait for four hours for a sample was torture - no knitting, nothing to read (other than kids books - I'm talking of course of the brand new IK sitting at home!) and a child who doesn't want to drink her orange juice and wants to know why the hospital doesn't have apple juice? Argh!

Thankfully she is now loads better and is back to her energetic self and I'm dedicating more time to knitting again and trying to get round some blogs (bear with me - every time I tune out a little every ones blogs seem to grow by dozens of posts!). There is even a new FO to show, when I sew the button on and DD sits still long enough for a photo! Plus my Laminaria, long neglected, is finally growing again and is nearing the end of the Transition chart.

I haven't even had time to dye more bits for the shop or the Spinners Swap I'm taking part in over on Ravelry and there are lovely bits of hand spun for that that can't be shown yet without spoiling the surprise! Still Mum has uploaded some natural dyed rovings to the shop so I'll leave you with a picture of some pretty roving so it's not too boring a post!

The Sorry Tale of SABLE

A friend of mine from our knitting group died this week quite suddenly which obviously upset us all but it did much more than that. This loss has made us all start to really think about our stashes and how SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) comes into the picture.
You see our friend 'L' left behind her a house full of wool. Now I know lots of us say we've a house full of wool but with 'L' I really mean it. Now I'm not directly involved with helping to clear this stash our but my close friend is and I can see how hard a job she's faced with. How best to dispose of bag upon bag of knitting needles; hank upon hank of cross-stitch threads (we're talking huge full carrier bags worth) before you even get round to the yarn itself which seems to have virtually filled rooms.
All in all it's left me feeling sad for the loss of a friend and the realisation that we barely knew her in some ways - we only ever saw her knit with acrylic yarns and yet her house was full of lovely yarns such as Rowan, Yaeger and Debbie Bliss which will probably have been there for years untouched. It's so sad to think of her sat all alone surrounded by all that wool. We will never know what drove her to gather all this wool together but I'm sure we've all been left with the huge lesson of knitting what we've got.

My stash seems to have changed over night from a growing thing to something to be used and enjoyed but with the emphasis on Used. The thought of buying new yarn is strangely unappealing as I know I've certainly enough yarn for a dozen or so socks (not including stash busting left over socks!), probably a dozen jumpers or cardigans in varying weights and half a dozen shawls. Surely that will be enough to keep me busy for the foreseeable future? And of course I'm spinning new yarns as well so the stash does grow...

So I ask you - How do we know when we've reached SABLE or at least when to stop feeding the stash? For me I think I'm there and have no intentions of adding to the pile. Now I'm sure I will fall of the wagon at times, don't we all!! But I'm certainly going to make a definate effort to knit what I've got and try to ignore the siren call of unpurchased yarns.

And on a lighter note I will leave you with the first of the great stashbusting projects - a stashbusting memorial flower garden for 'L' which we will keep in 'Made' in Wallasey, where the New Brighton Knitters meet so that 'L' will always be there with us for our knitting evenings. And quite probably some of her stash will also make it into the garden as well.

I will post again soon about our lovely holiday and try and remember to take photos of the flowers (which are really fun to knit!) but I'm not really feeling up to jollyness right now. The photos in this post were taken in 'The National Botanic Gardens of Wales' which are lovely and well worth a visit and will be the only holiday photos for now.

FO Flashing!

Well as promised I would give you all the full details of my latest knitting as soon as it was finished and here you have it! It was finished last Tuesday/Wednesday and I'm pleased with it - it really is warm but being such a heavy chunky wool has given me a case of Knitters Elbow with my left elbow and wrist being painful. So there was no knitting for a few days to ease the ache!
The pattern comes from N.Y. Yarns but mine has been modified due to lack of yarn. The original had a fold down collar which I didn't do. Instead I did some short row shaping around where the collar would have been and I also added another button hole to stop the from gaping open quite so much. In these pictures there are only 3 buttons because I didn't buy enough (typical!).

I went to visit Mum for her birthday the other week which was the perfect chance for a photo shoot! Mums treat was a pic-nic to a local beach, Black Rock Sands, where we had chip in the camper van. We had a great time going for a walk as well even if it was a wet and blustery day.

And I even braved the weather to 'flash' my FO!!

Mum called this my 'Norman Wisdom' pose!

Well in my defense it was cold and wet!!

Here's a 'normal' pose for you! It had a brilliant test drive on the beach - it's lovely and warm and cosy and I've been wearing it loads since! Definitely a success which I'll be knitting up again but will try and spin enough for a collar as well next time!

Sorry it's a bit short and sweet this time. I'm feeling a bit anti-computers lately and have been avoiding it a fair bit. Yes, even avoiding Ravelry. No Computers, no blogging, no Knitting even - what's come over me? I think it's a case of the blues right now but DH has promised me a week away at my Mums without Emily at some point in the near future!!!! Bless him, he's good and I certainly feel due to escape and switch off for a while! Right I'd better go and get ready for week 2 of my course - so far so good. I promise I will try and be a good blogger this week and attempt to catch up with all your blogs ASAP, thanks for sticking with me!

Edited to add: The yarn I used was my own chunky handspun Merino/Silk from the giant batt I got in WoolFest. I'd decided to set myself a challenge of spinning enough yarn for a garment and knitting it up before the 31st October as that will be a year from when I first had my spinning wheel and I thought it would be a good way to see how much Id learnt in that time! I am really pleased with the result and the thought of spinning for garments now doesn't seems as daunting anymore!

I'm In!!!

Hurrah!! My Ravelry invite has arrived and I'm all set up - if you're on I'm KraftyKath, come and find me!!

What a great way to loose hours - I've been meaning to post here since Saturday evening but have been lost in Ravelry until all hours of the night. And at least I know I'm not alone, a certain Piglottie was also on there near midnight on Saturday!

Anyway - there has been knitting going on as well which is another reason for the lack of action here. I've been putting a determined effort into knitting up my merino-silk hand spun after the fiasco that was 'Lacy Waves'. I did start off with one of Sirdars 'Peru Naturals' patterns but decided I'd do something else before I'd even completed the back.

I've nearly finished this now - I'm just picking up 222 stitches round the front edges after sewing the shoulder seams. I never really enjoy picking up stitches so the thought of 222 is not fun. It's a really simple pattern, just a k4, p2 rib with rows of reverse stocking stitch every now and then and as it's knitted up on 6mm needles is a quick grower. You'll have all the details soon when I do the final reveal!

I had a bit of a surprise on Friday in work when I was asked to go on a course for them today at short notice - could I get a baby sitter? Well - how hard do you think I would try to get a babysitter so that work could send me on a knitting course?! So I will be off this afternoon to head office in North Wales to join all the other paying customers in Abakhans very first 'Advanced Knitting Course'! My boss did add that she knew I could knit well already but she thought I might be interested in the chance for a free course 'to improve the service we offer our customers'! Who am I to refuse?! And Mum thinks the instructor is a lady from one of her Spinning guilds - small world!

Anyway I should go and get myself ready and stock my knitting bag in readiness! Full report to follow!

As Requested...

Well, as I said in my last post I've been responsible for the Wool Department in work the last few weeks and have had large deliveries to put away. Normally the official Wool Lady does this but she's on holiday which means I'm left in charge - ooh er!!

I arrived today armed with my camera to get some photos as requested only to find there had been 5 more huge bags of wool delivered and there were 3 more still to be unpacked. As if that wasn't enough work to contemplate the boss decided we should move all the DK weight yarns to the same area. And of course by 'we' I really mean 'me'!! I didn't escape the wool all day I was that busy shifting things. I don't know if the orders were doubled up or not but there were insane mountains of cheap acrylic DK - still a big seller with our little old charity knitters - most of which were doubled up. I did enjoy myself once I'd figured out where everything should go and was bemused when the Sirdar rep arrived and as I had armfuls of wool at the time dealt with me! Thankfully nothing more complicated than a new shade book and new posters to display but exciting none the less! Naturally the old shade book is sat here with me to peruse before being passed on to my knitting group to study.

So here's the finished result of anothers day hard labour in the wool dept!

From L to R - Click Chunky, Blur, something from Wendy with alpaca in it,
Wendy Fusion and Peru Naturals (that actually smells woolly!!)

The DK Aisle! - including the new Click DK and Twillies Freedom Spirit
and leading to the rainbow of acrylic DK!

I also hinted in the last post that I might at long last have an FO to share with you and so I have - can you tell what it is yet?!

For those in the know it's obviously another of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jackets in its 'before' mode. And here it is 'after'!



The girls had fun at my knitting night trying to figure how it all came together after I finished casting off and were all suitably impressed with the cleverness of the pattern. Obviously I haven't sewn the buttons on yet but Emily has worn it and does like it. DH is trying to train her to say 'Surprise' whilst wearing it and so it's of course known as the Surprise Jacket to little Emily as well!

I love the pattern! I really really do! This only used 144g (weighed on the kitchen scales!) of leftover DK acrylic that was in the stash - not my favorite but with messy Emily a god send really and simple to wash. I was even tempted with the thought of making a rainbow one - all I need is a decent blue and orange and I think I know where I can get those from! But first I want one for myself! And then Emily really needs a Tomten Jacket and another of EZ's fantastic patterns - do you know, I loved the patterns before knitting them. But now having actually knitted one up I'm even more in love with them all - EZ was truly a genius with her patterns and I want to knit more of them!! I can see an obsession coming on!!

Right, I'm going to try and find the buttons for this and try to crack on with finishing something else namely my Devon socks - only inches to go!!

Edited to add: The girls in work though I was mad taking pictures of the wool but one of them has decided that this is what happens when you start knitting with four needles!

And the award goes to...

Well I'm really touched to have been awarded this:

even if it was by my own Mum. Thanks for all your support as well!
And now comes the hard part in both narrowing down who to nominate and finding those who haven't already had this award! So the names out of the shiny gold envelope (drum roll please) are as follows:

hpny knits for all her lovely inspiring photographs and projects.

Christina for managing to knit all those socks with 2 small children!

Crafty Drama Queen for all her talented creations and because she loves green as well (only joking!)

Queen of the Froggers again for all her lovely creations although I've a feeling she may have been nominated already.

I will add this though that it was very hard to narrow the choices down to just four as there are so many blogs out there that are inspirational in both their content and the talent shown and there is such a great and supportive community here in blogland that everyone really deserves this award.

I will post again soon with some knitting content but for now I feel I ought to leave you with a list of current WIP's that make me think I should rename this blog 'The Butterfly Knitter' as I'm flitting from project to project right now with the attention span of a butterfly. Definitely a severe case of Cast-on Fever and Finish-itis although I may have something finished soon!

• EZ's baby surprise - actually a toddler surprise adapted from the Adult surprise directions so it'll fit Emily better, virtually finished so watch this space;
• Lacey Summer Shrug - abandoned when the dodgy weather arrived and not touched since;
• Lacey Waves Jumper (from Lace Style) - back completed and put aside when the warm weather was on it's way in favour of the above;
• Devon Holiday Sock number 2 - not much more of the foot to knit, not sure why I haven't just picked it up and finished the darned thing;
• Lace shawl (Japanese Waves or something from KnitSpot) - 1 repeat down, forgot where I put the instructions and 'tidied' the knitting away and forgot about it, poor thing - needs good light and brains.

My handspun yarn from my WoolFest giant merino/silk batt is all done now and so I'm itching to start that soon with a different pattern to the planned one as I don't think I'll have quite enough yardage and don't really want to tempt fate. I'll revisit that pattern with more handspun when I know I'll definitely have enough to finish it.

I was almost sad enough to photograph the shelves of wool in work that I've been playing with lately. It's such a hardship but on my days in I'm being asked to take charge of the wool department and had the hugest wool delivery to put away on Friday and it was all new wools. Well it took all day to find space on the shelves and arrange them to my satisfaction (in colour groups with preference to the colours I liked!) and I was so pleased with the results I was very tempted to photograph it as a FO to show you all here but then I think that would have been a bit sad!! And then the next day I had to put out all the new patterns that had come in the same delivery and I was very pleased with myself that as I was looking at them all my first reactions were - 'I have the yarn for that' or 'I can spin yarn for that' rather than 'I'll need to buy that yarn now!'. Still we have lovely colours of Twillies Freedom Spirit and Sirdar's Peru Naturals that will be screaming at me for a while now - must remember to try and get some Twillies patterns in after hearing Dreamcatchers reviews of the new book - not just for me of course!!

Bargains in B*******!

(The name has been hidden to prevent embarrassment as you will find out!)

I am so behind with everyones blogs since coming back from our holiday and I don't seem to have had any time to remedy that. I will try to catch up with everyone as soon as possible.

After a mad-cap non stop week after coming back from Devon I had 3 days in work, rather than my usual 2, and then was straight over to stay with Mum without pausing to draw breath!

It was a lovely break as always and Emily ran us both ragged, as usual, and we before we knew it it was time to go home again. Not before we found some lambs at a local Rabbit Farm (and lots of other animals!) in an attempt to entertain young Emily who after running round came back and excitedly told us she'd found some poo! Bless her!

Cute Lambs.

We did manage to get to Mum's local charity shops and found the bargains of the titles. In the same shop where Mum found a huge pile of 'Vogue Knitting' back issues we found a set of five folders full of knitting patterns which have some little gems in them and which were only £1.50 for the lot. We also found a complete set of 'Golden Hands complete knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft guide' books. We asked the lady how much they were and she said "£2". Her colleague then piped up and said "Well it says here 6 books for £1, so 18 books... that's £2". We didn't argue, Emily was starting to get bored and it was time to haul all our goodies back to the car. It was only when we got to the car that we realised that Emily had acquired a new little car and little toy car - Oooops!

Anyway back to the books. There are loads of lovely ideas in amongst this set of books and lots of really mad seventies stuff which I'll try and find some choice selections for you. None the less I can see myself spending hours browsing through this lot!

There hasn't been much knitting going on as I've been spinning like a dervish and enjoying every minute of it all. I've just over 140g left to spin up before I can finish all the plying and get things worked out for my project. I've set myself the challenge of trying to finish the spinning and knitting up by the 31st of October which will be a year from when I first got my wheel and for me a marker of how much I've learnt in a year - we shall see! Hopefully this yarn will knit up with subtle variations of colour - each skein so far is different and yet toning as you can see. Those white parts are luscious lumps of silk!

The other news I suppose I should tell you all about is my lovely parcel I received. Can you tell what it is yet?Maybe this shot will help you!

That is it - my spinning equipment supply is complete with my lovely new drum carder. What with all these fleeces I've got in the shed I decided it was a must have if I'm ever to work my way through it all within my lifetime (I exaggerate of course!). Haven't really stopped long enough to have a really good play with it yet but all the ladies in Mum's guild have said the Ashford is the best out there to go for and with all their experience and talent who am I to disagree with them?! What I have done with it I am pleased with but really want to get this project out of the way before biting off another thing right now.

Oh and one of the girls I work with brought me a shearling Suffolk Mule fleece from her sisters small flock in West Kirby so I now have two local fleeces to play with ( and wash ASAP!) as if I needed more! But bless her it was going free and she thought of me!

Right, as I'm really waffling about nothing I shall leave you with some pretty pictures from our Devon trip as a reward. These were amongst the few that don't have Emily in and I hope you enjoy them!

Beesands beach, Start Bay.

Slapton Ley, also Start Bay.

Streete Gate.

Looking along Slapton Ley to Torcross.

As you may have guessed these are all in Start Bay and local to where we were staying. For those of you who don't know the area it's South Devon down the coast from Torquay and Paignton and so peaceful and beautiful with all these pebbly beaches and rolling hillsides. Well recommended for a visit if you're ever down that way.

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!!

I'm still here - honestly!

Where has the month gone? I've been meaning to post for ages now but have been so tired of an evening that I couldn't face sitting at the computer and so I've sat and knit instead. Saying that though I've not really had a load of time to be able to knit as gone are the days when Emily would have a nap so I've less time to be a everything in. I really want to get some spinning done as well soon so I'll have to make myself put my knitting down one evening!

Spring has arrived in our village and brings with it the impressive avenue of cherry blossom with I just love. So Emily and I have been out admiring the blossom in between playing on the cricket field (yes it really is like a stereotypical English Village with cricket on the green!) and we thought you may like to see it for yourselves!

I do have some knitting content for you as well in the form of a progress shot of 'Butterfly' form 'Noro Knits' (I think). I'm using my American Noro-esque yarn which is lovely to knit and the colours are lovely as well. And wouldn't you just know it - the pattern for this is virtually the same as for Jaywalkers!! Speaking of which since I made them I've seen about 5 or 6 Jays and I've not seen any for years before now - magic socks!
You can also see the kind gift from my wonderful benefactress (Mum) of a set of Boyes of my very own!! And fabulous they are too! Anyway I'm keeping this short and sweet today as I'm hogging Mum's computer to update this for you and we have plans afoot to venture out into the rain for some food shopping and maybe some beads in the new local bead shop - fingers crossed for beads large enough to spin with!!

Projects and Photos.

Rummaging in the stash mountain I came across this combination and have been trying ever since to decide if these two yarns go together or not. I've even knitted up some small swatches to see how they look knitted up. So the question is - do they 'go'? At times I say 'yes', then change my mind and think 'no' the green needs a quick bath in some blue dye to take the edge off it a little....
I may make my mind up at some point. And what is this all for? This is Poppy. The pattern was in one of the UK Knitting mags (Knitting - if I remember correctly!) and the original was done in Noro Silk Garden and Cash Iroha (spellcheck says this should be IRA!! LOL)- well I've no such luck to have a stash of Noro to use. (I do have a ball each of Silk Garden and Kureyon but then I want a jumper for me not one of Emily's dollies!) I have enough of the green to do the sleeves of Poppy with the body being variegated and am not sure if this would work or not - can you tell I'm desperately trying to get my stash yarns to play nicely with each other and give me something wearable?



FO-wise I've one sleeve to go so not too far off now! I will get cracking tonight!

Anyway - as we've had some beautiful spring days lately I suppose I should change the subject and let a little light in.


These following photos were all taken not too far from where I am in a place called Eastham Woods. There's a lovely coastal path that follows the banks of the River Mersey to the woods which were formerly a Victorian Pleasure Garden complete with Bear pit and Water Splash (an early roller coaster) which nature has now reclaimed but remnants are still to be found like fountains and rhododendrons in amongst the trees. It's a bit like finding the lamp-post in the woods of Narnia but not quite as magical as you're under the flightpath for Liverpool Airport so you get loads of planes taking off and landing not so far above you. Anyway I didn't get as far as the fountains etc but enjoyed natures display of blossom, catkins and fresh green leaves so thought I'd share these with you. Doesn't Spring just lift your heart? It always does for me!