Some finished, some not

Okay, I've made a bit of progress on my wips. I've finally finished Emily's 2nd cable sock. The first one has been done for weeks but the 2nd one was slow going. I just didn't enjoy it at all but it was finally done last night and I actually knitted 10 rows too much before the toe and had to rip them out again.

I also finished the first of my new braided cable socks. This si a brand new design which I like and will definitely develop further. It's knitted in Patons Gold Wool Rich 4ply and may be a Christmas present. Not cast on 2nd sock yet. This one was a pleasure to knit and fairly quick.

Not done any sock knitting today and my only sock otn is my Lana Grossa sock which I've still got most of the cuff to do. It's only plain rib so a bit boring but I must get it done soon.

Decided to knit a felted bag today in some Cascade 220 Heathers I had lying around. It's got cables on the corners and will be slightly shaped with cabled shoulder strap and a flap. I've got some Kureyon which I may use for the flap and half of the strap but I'm not sure. Nearly finished the body and have only used just less than a skein so far. Got about 15 rows left to do. Cast on for this at 5.30 am. I couldn't sleep again and can't believe how much I've gotten done on this today especially considering I've not knitted much.

My last 2 balls of Big Wool for my Big Wool shopper came today so I can get that finished too. Will get this one done as soon as I've finished the Cascade bag.

Then I've got another eyelash scarf to knit for my neighbour. So I promise not to cast on for another sock until these 3 projects are done. Anyone believe me??? I don't!

And I've discovered anotehr forum. This one is for sock knitters. How fantastic is that. I've only been on for a few days but all the people there seem lovely and I'm loving it. Here's the link Sock Knitters Forum

Blocking experience

I've finished my first new Cable sock this morning. I intended to make it a medium size foot but for some reason (and don't ask me why or how) I got my mesaurements muddled up when I worked out where to stop for the toe and I'veended up with a size 8/9 foot. I wanted about a size 5/6. The larger foot is perfect for me but the rest of the sock doesn't fit my wide feet and chunky calves. Although I love the sock and would love to keep it for myself, I'll now have to find a recipient with slim calves and long, narrow feet. LOL. I could have frogged it but didn't want to.

Here it is unblocked. very strange looking thing it is too.

And here it is on the blocker. I've carried on the cable pattern down the heelflap which I#ve neverdone before but I really like it.

And here is the Silk Scarf with Bella (I think) silk yarn from Posh Yarns I've been working on for a while now. It was meant to be a quick project but has taken longer than expected. The pattern is just two rows repeated which I think is why it took so long as it was a bit boring. Finallyfinished it last night and here is aglimpse of it blocking. It's for my mum's birthday, which is on SAturday. She is on holiday in the far east at the moment so I'll be posting it to NOrway so that she gets it when she comes back. And I don't think this post will spoil her surprise as I doubt she's looking on the internet while shes away. Although my dad may do.

Started another silk scarf with silk boucle yarn from Posh. It's a lovely berry colour but I've got pink hands and needles now. It's great to knit with htough. The pictureisn't too great but the lace pattern I'm using is 'Crest of the Wave'. I'm hoping it 'll look okay when blocked. This scarf is for me as i'ven ot done a scarf for myself yet this year.

Back on socks

I'm back on sock knitting again. Not done too much sock knitting for the last couple of weeks but I'm back with a vengenance. After finishing the first one of my Lana Grossa toe up rib socks recently, I cast on for the 2nd one this morning (about 5am). I cast on for Emily's 2nd cable sock last night (the blue one). I don't like knitting these socks. The cables are quite intricate and just a lot of hassle and it aggrevates my neck more than other socks. So I've decided to do one pattern repeat (which is 16 rows) every morning and evening. that way I will get through it eventually without having to feel quitly when Idon't knit on it.




I had some other sock ideas whizzing around in my head this morning. So when I got back from the school round I got some of my own hand dyed yarn out and started playing. My original ideadidn't work so I started another one instead. I'm thinking of doing these socks for my grandmother but not sure if the colour is a bit too much for her. Having said that she doesn't go out that muchanyway and they're a cheerful colour to wear at home. May knit them until I get to the end of the foot and then leave them until I decide to do them for me or her. As my feet are much bigger. I'm thinking she may like a lace pair instead andI quite like these socks.

I've got another skein of this colour. It's 100gr of hand dyed Opal and I assume the yardage is the same as all other 100gr skeins of Opal. I'm happy to sell it for £10 including postage. Please e-mail me if you're interested. Payment will be through Paypal. My e-mail is yarnaddictAThotmailDOTcom. First to e-mail gets it. I won't be back on until tomorrow afternoon now so please be patient.

But I must be getting on with some Christmas knititng. I've got lots to do knittingwise before Christmas and the time is runningaway.



Got some gorgeous silk yarn in Mulberry from Posh Yarns which I want to make a scarf out of for me. But will have to wait until I've done some more current wips.

Finally....

..... a finished sock wip. My daughter, Ness' socks are finally finished. The first one was done in a flash but the 2nd one has taken me ages, mainly because I lost interest and put it aside (or rather left it in the middle of the coffee table). It's been sitting there staring at me together with my Lana Grossa toe up sock for weeks now. So today I decided to get them both done. Only had a few rows of Lana Grossa to do. But had only got to the heal of the cable sock. Short row heel was quick and then I motored on. It's only a size 3/4 so didn't take me too long. Ness loves it. Not sure if I'm going to type the pattern up yet or not and add it to my pattern collection.

I've now started the 2nd sock for Em. Her's is the blue cable sock under my sock wips in the side bar and I've done about 4 rows now. Her socks are very cabled and a bit of a pain to knit. But she loves them. Was going to be for me as Icast on 60 st (which is what I normally do for my socks) but think the cables must pull them in a lot as they wouldn't fit me at all. Fits Em who is 8.5 years old perfectly. Aiming to get them done by the end of the week.

New wips

I've added two new wips to my list this weekend. I've wanted to knit a bag in Big Wool for a while now. Got some in my stash acquiredin a sale ages ago. Just not been getting around to it. Have had the idea forthe bag for a while but just not enough time to get on with it. So yesterday I decided to cast on. I've done so much in sock andlace yarn lately that knitting on 15mm needles is nice. It's grown quickly. Don't really like 15mm needles but at least it's nice and quick. About half way now.

My 2nd new wip is a scarf from the Lavish Lace book knitted in Posh Yarns Cashmere Lace. This is my first project in proper lace yarn. I've got some finer lace yarn in my stash so if this goes okay then I may be brave enough to try the finer stuff which is Cashmere too. The posh cashmere is so gorgeously soft to knit with. Not sure if the colour is me but it does't matter as I'm planning to give it to my grandmother for Christmas. I'm knitting the scarf a bit narrower than in the book and in thicker lace yarn as the book uses suri lace which I'm not sure I'm ready for yet. The lace repeat is very long, 52 rows and impossible to memorize. So it's hard work to knit. but I've done aobut 60 odd rows now so not doing too badly.

My aim is to finish the Lace Scarf tomorrow. I've not got much left now and have had it on the needles for a whle.

I've got 2 more eyelash scarves to make too. My neighbour ordered one for her MIL and my MIL wants one for chistmas. Looked for the yarn today but didnt have the right colour so will have to pop into town to the yarn shops there and keep my fingers crossed they have the right colours.

Derry's in Plymouth

Derrys in Plymouth had a quite nice yarn department which closed a couple of weeks ago. It was a concession so not owned by the department store. The department store have opened up a new yanr department to replace it and I popped in yesterday excited to see what it was like. Well, what a disappointment, They had less than half the yarn before and nothing too exciting. I did notice Sublime and Tapestry which I don't think they had before but the rest was a disappointment. I used to pop in fora peek everytime I went ot Plymouth, won't bother now.

Was planning to have an afternoon of knitting after going to church this morning. Unfortunately I was so tired I fell asleep for 2 hours instead. So got some catching up to do now.

Bye!

2.30 am

Think title says it all really. It's 2.30 ish am so what am I doing on the pc at this hour?! Well, it's simple really. I was so tired yesterday I collapsed into bed at 8pm and was asleep at 8.30pm. Of course I woke up about midnight with a crackign headache and really bad neck pain. Managed to doze off again but 1 am I gave up and got up to get some painkillers. Did some knitting downstairs. Ended up here because my hotmail wasn't working yesterday and I wanted to check my e-mails and hten of course Iend up on forums and blog.

Really should get off to bed. But I want to rave about my Cozy progress. I've done 46 in now and have only 20in to go. Yeah!!!! I've not got too muchto go on my silk scarf either. And the black eyelash scarf is finished. Infact I've finished two - one short and one long- bot hfor my neighbour. Want to cast on a shawl in the lovely pink Touch Boucle and a scarf in the lovely blue boucle. They look much better in real life than in the pic. Got to try and finish the 2 socks I have on the needles to morrow though and then make a start on Em's second sock. Off to bed now to try to get some sleep. Oh and did I mention I've got tooth ache as well. It's eased a bit now. Strange thing it's my crown that's hurting and I'm sure they've taken the nerve out there so not sure why it's hurting. Got to decided whether or not to go to the dentish tomorrow or wait a week for my regular check up. Was hurting quite a lot when Iwoke up at midnight. Decidions, decisions........

Nite all!

So frustrating

Logged on to check my e-mails, catch up on forums etc and can't log in to hotmail. I've been trying for over 15 mins now. Saying the server is busy. Its so annoying. I'm sure there is nothing exciting in there but I'd still ike to have a look. So htought I may as well update my blog instead.

Finished the black scarf on the wips list today. Or rather finished the actual scarf in the pic yesterday and then immediately cast on for a shorter one. My neighbour ordered two, one long and one short. The short one has a hole in it to loop the end of the scarf through. I knitted lots of these sorts of scarves last winter and got pretty bored. I' m going to sound like a snob now but I'm not tht keen on eyelash or any other novelty yarn anymore. I prefer more luxurious yarns - cashmere, silk........ you get my drift. Still you've got to give people what they want.

Now I can concentrate on my Cozy which is growing. Much longer than the pic now. And my silk scarf. Doing prettty well with that too.

I've not touched socks for a few days and need to finish hte girls' second socks and the first of my LG pair. Got some other sock ideas in my head I want to have a play with. Also got some gorgeous pink Touch boucle which is just such a gorgeous colour. Not sure what to knit with it yet but want to do a shawl i think. Got some Touch lace weight yarn too in beautiful colours so have got to start some thing with that too. And Christmas is getting ever closer and I've got .... 10 pairs of socks and some scarves I'dlike to knit. Andalthough I'm a fast knitter, I don't think I'm that fast. Also got two ideas for felted bags which I want to get done soon. Would like to use them both for magazine submissions. I'm aiming high. I've already submitted one idea to an online mag but not saying which one until I hear back and there are several proper mags I'd like to submit a pattern to. If I'm brave enough.

Off to try hotmail again. Will be back with pics later.

Toe up sock with proper gusset

I quite like doing toe up socks as it minimises waste yarn. With my Lana Grossa sock I wanted to use up as much of hte yarn as possible but find it difficult to estimte how much I need for the foot. So I decided to knit them toe up. Ive done toe up before but only with short row heels which aren't great for my feet as my instep is quite deep. I saw that the 'Baudelaire' socks (from Knitty) were done toe up with a gusset so I used this as a model for my socks. And the result is great. I've got a lovely toe upsock with a proper gusset and the fit is so much better. And it's fairly easy and straightforward to do. Just got to finish the cuff now andthen the dreaded 2ndsock.

Dyeing to show you

Ness and I were busy on Friday afternoon getting our hands dirty. Well, Ness did anyway, her hands ended up bright pink. Mine weren't too bad. Last night and this morning I've been busy reskeining the yarn. Makes it look so much better and as the original skeins were a tad tangled, reskeining them have made them nice and neat.

Here are the fruits of our labours.

Here they are all together. I've done one hot pink/orange and one red but I must have gotten muddled up with the two s they're a bit similar when Iuploaded the photos on to laptop and only done one of them. But the pic below shows all the five skeins we did. The violet one and gree and purple ones in the middle were actually done in 200gr skeins (which is not easy to get even) but only 100gr skeins are photographed. I've got one more 200 gr skein to rewind. It's pink and blue and I'm not sure yet if I like it. Think I will leave the resekining till another day, asI'e got not knitting done this morning, been busy reskeining. Having said that I would have got some knitting or other jobs done if I hadn't gone to sleep for 2 hours earlier. But I was so tired having only had 5.5 hours of sleep last night.

Anyway I'm very pleased with our dyeing attempts. I was thinking of selling some of this as I've got so much sock yarn. You may ask 'why bother dyeing if you're going to sell it?' I take the point but I justlove playing around with the colours. It's fun dyeing your own yarn. And I love these colours so I may not be able to part with it. The violet (200gr) I'm using for a wrap anyway. Just love that colour. ness mixed it up for me.

New Blog layout

I've signed up to Bloggers new Beta blog and had lots of fun personalising my blog. I'm pleased with it so far. Lots of more pictures to come in the side bar I think. Thinking of posting pics of all my patterns down the bottom too.

Much better

Got the boiler fixed this mornign so we've got heating and hot water again. I jumped straight in the shower. Lovely.

Got a lovely parcel of Sari Silk this morning which I swapped for some sock yarn with Terri . Love the Sari Silk. Lovely purple colour.

Fed up

bit of a miserable start to the day. Woke up at 6am as usual and really didn't want to get out of bed. Been awake a few times inthe night too and was very tired. Got in the shower and there was no hot water. Tried to switch the boiler on and off and topped up the water pressure etc but still no water. REalised there was no central heating either.

British Gas engineer came at 9am which Iwas very impressed with. He fixed a few things but main problem is the gas pump (at least that's what I think he said it was). He's ordered it and is coming back tomorrow. Luckily I'm not doing much today (apart form some jobs at home and a trip to the post office) so not too worried about people seeing my greasy hair or smelling too badly. A wash is just not the same. Hope he'll get it fixed tomorrow as I'll be desperate for a shower then.

Tidied up in my knitting basket int he lounge this morning and frogged a few abandoned projects. Feel happier now I haven't got so many ufo's in my basket.

Feeling quite fed up, very tired and in pain. Been trying to cheer myself off by reading some blogs andforums an by eating some lovely Hotel Chocolat chocs. Not working though. So off to try some knitting now to see if that works.

Lots of pics continued

Wouldn't let me post all the pics I wanted on the post below so let's try again.

Posh Yarns sock yarn. the one on hte left is silk. Can't remember what the others are. But the oclours are gorgeous.
















Silk scarf in silk from Posh Yarn













Cozy knitted in Himalaya Yarn wool/sari silk from Yarn Grove

Lots of pics

Not having a great day. In a lot of pain and very severe headache. Woke up at 2 am with such a severe headache I just couldn't stay in bed - too uncomfortable. When painkillers had kicked in I got back to sleep at about 4ish. Headache and neck pain has been getting worse all day and really flares up every time I try to do something. Been trying to get some housework done but making slow progress.

So thought I'd cheer myself up a bit by taking some photos. And as my youngest daughter is still off sick I enlisted her help to photograph my Fleece Artist socks and Koigu Hand Warmers.

Koigu Handwarmers - my own pattern - will be available from my website soon - probably next week.

Fleece Artist Socks - my own pattern - will be available from my website soon - probably next week.

And finally Nature's Palette sock yarn from Yarn Grove. This yarn is so soft and the colours are just beautiful. Can't wait to knit with it. Will definitely be my next pair of socks.

Koigu KPPM

Got two skeins of Koigu KPPM at www.getknitted.com in September at one of their Open Days. Didn't know what to knit with it when I bought it. I kept looking at it until a few days ago when I decided to kniw some fingerless gloves. Wanted to design my own pattern. The first lace pattern I decided on didn't work. Unfortunately I didn't decide that unti lI'd finished the first one. Also I didn't increase enough for the thumb. So started again using 'Twin Leaf Lace' and Cables. They're quite long so that I can keep my arms warm when wearing 3/4 length sleeve tops. I love the first one. Second one is still on the nedles but half way through. The pic isn't great but I'll redo them when 2nd glove is finished.

This yarn is so lovely to knitwith. Much silkier tham most wool yarns. I'm thinking about doing some matching socks and hat too and maybe a scarf.
















Went for a lovely family walk with our dog, Sam, today near Landhydrock House in cornwall. It was perfect autumnal weather. Chilly and sunny. The dog loved it, the girls complained about the walk but enjoyed the adventure playarea afterwards. Then we went off to Asda to buy some fruit and milk. Also managed to pick up a pair of jeans.

Off to finish my 2nd glove now.

Drowning in wips

Didn't realise I hadn't posted for so long. Not been feeling all that great this week. Been very tired and Ness has been off sick for most of the week. I'm just not getting anything done and the house is a domestic disaster again. Went to a Ladies' Bible Study this mornign adn then was so tired afterwards I fell asleep forover an hour. Struggled to wake up and get going again.

As for wips I'm struggling just as much. Nothing seems toget finished. I started a pair of hand warmers for myself in Koigu. Love knitting with Koigu - never used it before- andthis was some of theyarn I got at www.getknitted.com in September. Decided on a lace and cable design and knitted nearly the whole first glove but didn't do the thumb properly adn not too impressed with the pattern either. So I've started again. Much better this time and I've just started increasingfor the thumb so hsould be finished tonight. Have done one sock each for the girls and half of a second one for Ness, so got those two to finish. Got various other wips to finish too.

As for my Cozy I've decided that the LL Bullfrogs and Butterflies is too heavy after knittig just two skeins worth and the yarn isn't going very far either. Have got some wool/sari silk from www.yarngrove.com which I've decided to use instead. Not cast on yet though and shouldn't until I've finished some. Got two bag designs I want to do for magazine submissions and some sock pattern ideas. Also got a couple of design competitions I'd like to enter. And following the design workshop last week I'd like to start designing a jumper for myself and Em is desperatefor me to knit her a jumper so said I'd design one for her too.

So I'll just go and bury myself in my knitting basket. If I don't appear for a few days send out a search party..

Have a nice weekend everyone!