Thank you

Thank you to everyone who's posted on the blog over the last few days with support for my shawl dilemma and best wishes for a speedy recovery from this awful cold I've got. Think Vanessa is next in line to get it. Just hope she doesn't get it too badly. I'm feeling a bit better today. Have woken up with an awful headache and severe neck pain though. I know I did too much yesterday. Did lots of washing, ironing, cooked 3 dishes to take away and finally packed. Only thing i wanted to do and didn't manage was to get the shopping before we go. So we're stopping off at our locas Morrisons this morning before we leave. There's no hurry to get to Spring Harvest as we can't get into our accommodation until 4pm but we're hoping to get there by about 2pm so that we can havea look around, get our programmes and the girls can have a swim first.



Really looking forward to the next 6 days. It'll be wonderful to be on a holiday with so many Christians. Never had that experience before and been told it's amazing.



And hot off the needles last night:





My contribution to SAM3 and Crafty Yarns sock a month. It's actually my 3rd pair this month but the other two are top secret for the time being.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Friendly knitters

First, a huge thank you to Linda and Helen for offering me some Posh Eva 2ply in 'Willow' for my doomed shawl. I really appreciate it ladies. YOu're both so wonderful. I've not thought much about hte shawl for the last few days as I've been ill.

Problem is I cna't remember which colour the Eva was that I'm using. I've not kept the labesl form the skeins. I've gone through several Posh invoices but can't find it. Can't actually remember when I bought it either. I've found a skein though of what looks like Eva in a similar pale green in my stash. It's not labelled. This is a skein I swapped with a forum friend recently (sorry can't remember who now). And what I was thinking was frogging the whole border and reknitting it in the new skein. The skein is not an idential colour to the main shawl but if the whole border is the same it may work out okay. I won't be starting it for at least a week anyway now. My mum has gone on holiday today without her shawl. She's coming over at the end of May so will propably leave it till then and give it to her when she comes. So that'll give me plenty of time to finish it. I'll get back to you Helen and Linda when I get back from holiday and decide what to do. Thank you so much though for offering.

Speaking of holidays. We're off to Spring Harvest at Butlins in Minehead tomorrow. Any knitters going there next week let me know and we can meet up for a bit of knitting. I'm not ready at all. Was out all day WEdnesday (hospital appts etc) and was ill yesterday. Had a masage yesterday morning and then went to bed all afternoon. Barely woke up when the girls got home from school. Vanessa had keys with her and came home first and she let Em in. I normally ocllect Em from school but the school is so close and a very safe walk so yesterday Irang the school to tell them Em had to walk home. The girls were brilliant. Kept themselves occupied. Even made me a smoothie. Simon came home and fed them and took over. He even helped out this morning as he was going in to work late. Thank you love.

I've still got packing to do though. I'm still washing clothes and have done some ironing. I also wanted to make a couple of meals to take with us. And as we're self catering we have decided to get our shopping tonight so we won't have to waste time tomorrow when we get here going shopping. I'm not sure i'll be fit to shop tonight though. We'll see. Still feeling quite rough and full ofcold. Just hope noone else gets it.

And some pics. Have been planning to make myself a Bible case for ages. It's finally done. It's not perfect. Not 100% happy with it but it's okay.

Here's the story in pics - used 1 skein of Cascade 220 and half a skein of Kureyon.

First, prefelted.

And prefelted with my Bible and a note book for comparison.

After felting with my Bible as comparison. Look how much it's shrunk. I washed it twice on 95degree cycles. could probably ahve knitted it a bit smaller to start with but it's so difficult to tell with felting and I hadn't time to much around with swatches etc.

and her ei sthe finished object. My Bible, notebook and a pen fits easily inside. Would have preferred it slightly smaller.Just need to find some buttons to sew on to cover the ugly pop fasteners.

Hoping ot be back later with pics of Em's socks. Only got foot left. Am half way through gusset decreases.

Disaster

Couldn't stop thinking about whether or not I had enough yarn to finish the border on the Victoria Shawl last night so I weighed it again. I used 45gr for the first half of the border and I've got 30 gr left for the 2nd half. I'm no good at maths but even I know that that's too much of a difference.

So what shall I do. Here are my options:

• Scream!!!! - felt like doing that last night but didn't want to wake up the girls or our neighbours.


• Chuck the whole shawl in the bin.


• Frog the whole border and scream.


• Carry on down the 2nd long side and then somehow frog from the cast on edge (lace cast on) until I free up enough yarn to finihs the border.

I'm going for the last option. I'm worried I may screw up the whole shawl doing it but it's better than frogging the whole border whihc has taken me so long and hopefully I can make it work.

Another option would be to beg Dee to try to dye another skein in an identical colour which I would have thought would be almost impossible with hand dyed yarn.

Anyway, the shawl is now officially in my bad books. I had allowed 50 yards extra for it but obviously the specifications in the book are wrong or did I make a mistake. I have used a different yarn from the book but surely yardage required should still be the same as I've followed the instructions and worked correct number of repeats etc and not followed the actual meaurements.

On a brighter note. Here's some pics to cheer me up. I need that. First some Blackcurrant Swoop and Aubergine. I love the Swoop yarn and have already done 2 pairs of socks in that colour combo. This si the first time I've seen the Swoop yarn in it's natural state. The other skein I had was reskeined.

And this is how it knits up:

Also got some Cherry Pie which looks good enough to eat. All from The Yarn Yard.

All bordered out.

Not had time to blog this weekend as I've been working flat out on the Victoria Shawl. Love the way the border is looking but it's hard work. The long sides of the shawl is very long and it took 20 repeats to get to the corner (each rep is 18 rows). I found knitting into the edge stitches no problem at all but when I turned the first corner and had to knit into live stitches I got stuck. No idea why - just couldn't get it right so frogged back to before the first corner. Thank goodness for lifelines. This was Saturday evening and I was determined to get around the corner before I went to bed so had a late night. By the time I'd finihsed the corner I was shattered, in agony and couldn't see straight. But I did it. And btw, this is my first ever knitted on border and I've got noone to teach or show me in person how to do it. Can you tell I'm quite proud of myself.

The shawl should have been in the post today at the latest but as you can see i've stil got half a border left so it's not going to get to Norway by Friday. I wish I'd started it earlier. Never knew how long the border would take. I'm gettig slightly worried about running out of yarn too. Should have 50 yards more than needed so should be okay. As I'm half way around the border I think I will weigh the yarn to see how much I've used and whether I need to panick or not.

You'd think I'd learnt my lesson with my Alpine lace scarf when it comes to the subtle difference between skeins of hand dyed yarn but I didn't . When i started the 2nd skein of this yarn I noticed that the 2 skeins i had left where slightly different in colour intensity so chose the yarn closest to the first skein and it was perfect. Left the 3rd skein for the border thinking it didn't matter if it was slightly brighter. And it would have been fine but I'll need half the skein I've got left from the main rectangle to finish the border so again will have a difference in colour and I'M NOT FROGGING IT NOW. Hopefuly it won't be too noticeable.

Anyway, the shawl is taking a break as it won't be finished for my Mum's holiday. I want to finish Em's 2nd Speedway sock. That'll give me something to show for SAM3 and Crafty Yarn's Sock a Month. I've actually knitted 2 complete pairs of socks this month but they're both top secret ones and can't be shown online yet. So annoying. One of the members of Crafty Yarns have seen pics and vouched for me for the Sock a month challenge but still need something to post on SAM3.

Wanted to finish a cashmere shawl for our holiday staring on Saturday and have got 2 otn. Both in Posh Sophia 4ply. One is this wonderful dark purple (much darker than in pic) but I've got a long, long way to go.

Also wanted to knit a felted bible bag before we go but can't see that happening.

While we're away it'll be sock all the way. Got a pair to knit up for a submission and a couple of other pairs to finish.

Just want to show a quick pic of my new glasses. Hubby and I had eyetests and new glasses todya. Cost us far too much but we're both happywith our choices. Might see if I can get a flattering pic of me wearing the glasses sometime this week but looking to rough tonight to haveany photos taken.

Will blog about the pics below tomorrow. Too tired now and have got some nit combing to do. Think we've finaly got rid of the little beasts but got to check to make sure. In the meantime you can havea guess at what I'm working on below.

Discipline

.... is somethign that I desperately need when it comes to most areas of my life these days.

I had a list of stuff to do today and have achieved very little. I've suffered from severe head aches all week though andit's eased today so taking it a bit easier probably wasn't a bad idea.

Now to todays knitting adventures:

I started the border on my Mum's Victoria Shawl today. The first repeat was a bit awkward and I tensed up (and made the excrusiating headache I woke up with worse) but then managed to relax a bit more. I've done 5 repeats. I was worried about how to join the border to the main rectangle but the instructions make so much more sense when the piece of knitting is actually in front of you. Was a lot easier than I thought. And the first time I've done it. So quite pleased with myself.

I'm still a bit worried about the corner but I'm sure that'll work out okay too. Love the look of the shawl with the border. The main rectangle is quite plain and the border really makes this shawl.

Somehow this afternoon I got distracted (lack of discipline again) and started another sock. Had no plans to start another sock as I've got the 2nd of Emily's new sock pair to do and a pair of top secret socks for a magazine submission to get done. But I was rooting through my sock stash earlier and found this skein of Yarn Yard yarn I'd forgotten about so decided to combine it with another skein of Yarn Yard yarn and look at the result. I quite like it. The foot will be random stripes but the cuff will be different. I've got exciting plans for the cuff but not revealing it yet.

Read this post on Grumperina's blog this morning and it inspired me and gave me some ideas. I'd planned to try to owrk out how to do this technique when I started the new Yarn Yard socks but it kind of evolved into a standard toe up sock.

Emily's Ocean Shawl finally got blocked today. About time as it's been finished for a while. Emily has been using it a lot. She's always wrapped in it in the morning and takes it to bed every night. She was still really keen to have it blocked. And I think the blocking has definitely opened up the lace quite a bit more and it's much bigger now. I'm hoping to get a good pic of it tomorrow before Emily starts using it again.

I will get this pattern typed up soon and put it on my website as a free pattern.

While I was pinning out the shawl on our picnic table in the garden this afternoon I had another idea for a shawl using the crest of the wave pattern but it's on the back burner for now.

Nearly finished the rectangle for my Mum's Victoria Shawl. Got two repeats left. Thought i only had one left to do and then counted and found I had two. I'm desperate to get started on the border tonight but I may just finish the last 2 repeats and start the border tomorrow. A bit worried about starting the border in the evening when I'm tired. Never done a knited on border before so a bit worried about it. But I'm hoping it'll be okay. I'm hoping ot get it in the post to Norway by Saturday or Monday at the very latest. No idea how long it'll take to do the border and it'll need blocking too. So to be realistic if I won't to post it on Saturday it'll need to be finished by tomorrow evening and blocked on Friday which may be too much knitting for tomorrow.

I started a new shawl in Posh Sophia 4ply last night. I've been thinking about it for a while and I've had this gorgeous purple cashmere shouting at me for a while. I had decided just to do the chart for the pattern ready for when my Mum's shawl is finished and I'd gotten the first skein wound up a few days ago so it was too difficult to resist casting on last night. I had to check if the pattern woudl work didn't I? It's working and I like it. Will need some serious blocking though. I'll try to get a pic done tomorrow. For the next two days though it's Victoria Shawl all the way. It needs to get done.

And let's finish off with some Yarn Candy:

Here's some Sophia 4ply (100% cashmere). Lovely bright pink. Not surewhat this will become yet. I love knitting shawls in Sophia but have 2 otn at the moment so I'm thinking about maybe doing somethign else. I want a hat, scarf and gloves set in Sophia so maybe I'll use it for that. Althoug hI'd prefer something I can wear before next winter so maybe a shawl after all.

And some Camel yarn from Posh. I've never seen camel yarn before. It's lovely and soft. Feels ismilar to Cashmere. It's handspun and according to Dee felted slightly during the dyeing process but I can't tell. I'm thinking this will probably become a scarf.

What's that?

Look at the view from our front door this morning:
in Cornwall we're not supposed to get snow in March. Last week it was all sunny and warm and I thought about getting my wintercoat drycleaned and packed away for the summer. This morning I wore it again and put a hat on too. It was freezing.

Fantastic News:
Got some fantastic news last week. I submitted a pattern for MagKnits and Kerrie asked if she could use it for Yarn Forward. I'm so excited. The original pattern I knitted up for myself to use so have got to knit another sample item to send off for photography. I can't believe one of my designs is going to be in a proper magazine (not that there is anythign wrong with online ones, but there is sometghing about it being on paper). I didn't want to say anything last week in case I spilled the beans and told you all exactly what the design is and showed pics and all. But I'm keeping it all top secret. It'll probably be in issue 4 so a bit of a wait yet. I'm just so grateful to Kerrie for giving me this chance.

Kerrie also sent me some gorgeous Schaefer Elaine and a couple of other yarns to do some felting with. The Elaine looks gorgeous but not gotten started on a design yet. Got some ideas but need to sit down and swatch (me swatch?!!!) and look at yardage etc.

And talking about Kerrie, read on Dee's blog that Kerrie has given birth to a girl. Congratulations to Kerrie and her family.

And I've got this shawl for my Mum that needs finishing first. I cast on last week and it's ever so quick. And if I hadn't been distracted bysome new socks for Em this weekend I think the main rectangle of the shawl would have been done. I'm halfway and my only worry is that it seems very small so far. I'm using 2ply (Posh Yarn Eva) and 4mm needles (pattern says category 2 yarn and 4.5mm needles). It does havea wide border though and needs to be blocked so may grow a bit. It's an easy lace pattern. Very repetitive and relaxing but can get a tad boring. I always try to make sure I never finish mid repeat though so when I do some knitting on it I knit at least one repeat (16 rows). Hoping to get it done by tomorrow evening and then start the border on WEdnesday whihc is going to be the real challenge for me. I've never done a knitted on border before and this one does look complicated. The reason I chose this design was for the simple main rectangle so I can concentrate on the border. I'd like to get it finished and posted by the end of the week so it may get to my Mum before she leaves for Spain in 2 weeks.


The design is The Victoria shawl form Victorian Lace Today.

Now to the socks I mentioned earlier. I'd promised Em a new pair of sock after I ruined her in a wash a couple of weeks ago. She loves this yarn from The Yarn Yard, it's the March Club yarn. I've got a new stitch pattern book called '200 ripples' whihc has really insprired me to try ripple patterns. I lvoe this chevron pattern and it looks great knitted up with this yarn. I've called it Speedway and once this pair is done I'm planning to size it up to adult sizes too, possibly 2 or 3 adult sizes as this pattern doesn't have much stretch. I wasn't sure whether or not to post photo of this as I was thinking ofkeeping as a mag submission but Ihate not being able to show pics of my wips so here it goes:
And to finish off some Yarn Candy. The bottom four balls are Yarn Yard (green ones are Pea Green boat and there's Damson Crush and the blue one is a skein of the solid that came with the March Club Yarn. On top there's a ball of Schaefer Anne. This has got brilliant yardage so I'm thining of using it for a shawl instead of socks.

There is hope!

Check this out:

Woollysockitis Addictive Disorder (WAD)
The Yarn Yard - Friday, 16 March 2007

© The Yarn Yard

Photo madness

Took my new legs, some of my sock designs and popped out into the garden in the spring sunshine today and had some fun taking photos. I'm not a good photographer but htought I'd have a go. Probably a bit too sunny for really good photos. But I've got nowhere inside I can place stuff to get decent photos. Well ,it was fun placing the legs in trees, flower beds and on the steps. The daffodils looked good so got some shots with them. Our garden is fairly big for an English town garden but very neglected and looks awful. A bit like a jungle really.

Anyway, here's a few of the pics:

The first socks i designed myself - Romance - pattern is availabe on my website. This sock is a bit worn out as it's been worn a lot but I never got a decent photo of this sock.

A cable and rib sock that I designed for my husband and knitted in Regia Stretch. It works just as well for female feet. My legs aren't very manly tough. May have to get Mr YA to model them for me too. I love these socks and always nick them off Mr YA. The cables and rib gives them a good grip. These will be availabe to buy soon. If you want to order a pattern, let me know and i'll prioritise finishing off this pattern.

And finally my 'Butterfly' or 'Space Invaders' socks. Can't decide on a name. Brand new pattern adn knitted in The Yarn Yard sock yarn. Love these socks. It's easy to knit and a great introduction to fair isle. Brilliant way to use up bits of yarn as the fair isle section doesn't use much yarn at all. Pattern will be availabe soon. Let me know if you want it and I'll get it done quickly. It's just got to be typed up and have photos added.

Got new legs

Yes, that's correct. I've got new legs. They're slim with tiny feet and made of plastic. Arrived from Bangkok this morning. An Ebay bargain. It was cheap but they are a bit plasticy but okay for what I want to use them for. Only problems is they really are tiny compared to my huge feet. I wanted the legs to use for modelling my sock designs but most of my own designs are designed to fit my huge feet and on these petite ones they're too big. Took lots of photos today of my latest design and had to pin it to improve the look. Very pleased with the result htough.

Here are the legs, but the socks are top secret for the time being.

Have had a bit of asock frenzy going on this weekend. I knitted a fair isle pair which I can't remember exactly which day I started but probably Thurs/Fri and finished them Saturday eve. Then woke up at 4am on Sunday and started another new design. I'm knitting them in Lornas Laces Shepherd sock which I've only done one pair in before (my first pair back in September) and had forgotten how gorgeous this yarn is to knit with. The pattern I've chosen is knitting up superquick or maybe it's my needles that have gained an engine. I finished the first sock this morning. The fact that I was up at 4am again helped as I gained a couple of hours extra knitting time. Started 2nd sock this morning but making slow progress so far. Only half way down the cuff. Want to finish the cuff and start hte heel flap tonight. then get them finished tomorrow.

I did spend a while earlier typing up patterns and charts though and taking and editing photos.

As soon as this latest pair is finished I've got to get started on my Mum's shawl. Need to get it done in 2 weeks max if there's any chance of it getting to Norway before my Mum goes on holiday. I'm not sure I can make it but I want to try to get it done.

Emily has requested new socks too. She wore her cable pair to the cross country race on Friday and it was soaked in mud so I just pulled everythig off her and bundled it into a plastic bag and straight into washing machine when we got home. Trainers went in too. When wash was finished the soles of the socks were shredded. Not sure what happened but I wonder if it got caught on the velcro on the trainers.

No yarn candy today. But I'll try to dig out some for later in the week.

More yarn candy

Just have to let you all have a look at this:

It's all from Posh Yarn but some of it is bought 2nd hand from a forum/blog friend. We've got (from left to right) cashmere (I think) cobweb lace, 5 skeins of purple 4ply cashmere, 1 skein of silk/cashmere lace, 3 skeins of blue cashmere lace and dotted on the top, 1 ball of Lucia cash/merino sock yarn. Isn't it all gorgoeus? My favourite is the purple cashmere. It's Sophia 4ply and the colour is just so rich and beautiful. It's my favourite yarn/colour ever I think. I want to start knitting with it right away but got to finish some rather urgent projects first.

One of these urgent projects is a pair of fair isle socks which are being kept top secert for now and I've nearly finished turning the heel. I was hoping I might get it finished tonight but a whole foot may be too much. Knitting them to fit me and I'm a size 8 uk (that's huge).

Have wound up my Lornas Laces Georgetown for another pair of socks. Flicked through my 'Ripples' stitch book last night and swatched a couple of stitch patterns last night and there is one I want to try to do. But I want to finish my fair isle ones first.

Have had a quite day at home today. Not got too much knitting done though. The day has gone far too quickly. I'm very sore in the shoulder area, ina lot of pain and have severe headache. Simon in bed poorly. House is a complete tip. I have been trying to get it all sorted out but getting nowhere fast really. Have got a few jobs off my back though, like finishing off Vanessa's ballet costumes for her exams next week and sewing ribbons on her ballet shoes which took me ages as I couldn't find any sharp needles and then her teacher told her I'd put them in the wrong place (never done it before). Also sewn on some Brownie and Guide badges. The brownie ones have been lying around for months. Hate sewing but got my teenie-weenie sewing machine out today and it wasn't quite so bad. Wanted to do some ironing today but that's not happened yet.

Quck tea tonight I think. May just pop a couple of pizzas in the oven. Then a quite evenign with sock knitting and an early night. If I'm in this much pain in the morning I won't be able to sit through church. And I want to go tomorrow.

Cross Country

No, I'm not doing a cross country. Emily is. There is a big cross country race every year in a nearby village and Emily took part last year for the first time. It's 2.5miles and quite hilly/muddy. Em ran it quite well las year (she was only year 3/nearly 8 yrs old) and she enjoyed it but when she'd finished she was quite miserable as it was wet and cold. She was covered in mud having run through a swamp. But assoon as she was cleaned up and warm again she started talking abut doing it again next year.

Well, next year is here and the race is this afternoon. Emily is very excited. Weather is much better today so I'm hopingit won't be as muddy as last year. actually sunny now so watching shouldn';t be so bad either. Emily's primary school was trying to get all the juniors to take part but as it is a tough race a lot of parents rebelled and refused. It'll be interesting to see how many teachers and teachign assistant take part from their school as I think if they expect all kids to go all the teaching staff should go too.

I'm taking my camera today and hope to get some nice pics. Vanessa did it as well last year but she's at secondary school now so can't take part.

Didn't sleep well last night. Went to bed and switched lights off by 10.30pm. Got up again an hour later as I was in too much pain to get to sleep. Didn't gt back to bed until 2am. And got up at 6am. Dropped Em off at school for breakfast club and took Simon to work as I needed the car today for the cross country race. Then came home and went to sleep for nearly two hours so feel much better now.

I did somehting useful last night though. I brought the laptop down stairs and did some pattern typing. Got two patterns almost completed to do the test knitting. And got some more charts done. Problem now is that our printer is playing up so when I tried to print the patterns the black lines in the chart won't print out as our black cartridge doesn't seem to work (it's full). So got to work out how to fix that now. Calling Cartridge World to see if they can help me as I got them refilled there. Quiet pleased with my productivity last night. I didn't want to knit sa Iwas in too much pain. And sitting in a comfortable chair with the laptop on my lap didn't aggrevatge my neck at all so think that's how I'll deal with pattern typing from now on. Won't do it in the middle of the night though. Just wish we had wireless so that I could surf the net from the comfy chair too. Although if I did I wouldn't get any knitting done.

Off to cast on another sock to take with me to the cross country. I'm sure there will besome hanging around.

Eye Candy

Some more beauties for you:

Duet sock yarn in Berries from the Yarn Grove. It's 125gr of the main yarn and 30gr solid. This is gorgeously soft and looks fantastic. Can't wait to knit with it.

And some Lornas Laces in Georgetown from the Yarn Grove too. Love this colour.

Been working on a new pair of fair isle socks today. But I'm not showing any pics as they're reserved for magazine submissions. No guarantee they'll be chosen but I'm going to give it a try anyway. This month both MagKnits and Knitty are on my hit list. So wish me good luck.

The fair isle pattern is driving me a bit mad actually. I've got a squint whihc gets worse when I'm tired and reading charts can be difficlt and today I have been struggling and getting muddled up afew times whihc has lead to a bit of unpicking at times. But only got a couple of rows to go of the fairl isle now. Will do that in a minute then go on to one of the shawls I'm working on for a bit of relaxing knitting.

Not had a very excited day. Went to weight watchers this morning followed by a blood test. Don't I know how to have fun eh?!

Then home for a bit of ironing before collecting Em from school. Only exciting bits have been working on the sock in between. Off for some more knitting now. Want ot get the fair isle section finished.

Until tomorrow enjoy drooling at the yarn and pop over to the Yarn Grove for a look. Jane and Debby are fantastic!

Yarn & Wips

Was a bit busy on Friday or was it Thursday doing some dyeing. I dyed lace weight yarn for the first time. I got 2 skeins of Touch Yarns lace weight merino in a lovely white shade but white isn't really for me so I dyed it. The idea was to dye the skeins in an identical colour so I could knit it all into a shawl. I mixed the dye, put the first skein into a bowl and poured the dye over it and made sure it was covered properly. The yarn soaked up the dye so quickly and actually ahd to drain off the excess water which had had all the dye sucked out of it by the yarn so Ihad to mix up more dye for the 2nd skein. Popped the 2nd skein in and mixed up more dye but most have gotten it lighter. I love both colours and they don't look too different in photo but they are quite a bit different. Still like them though.

Also did a bit of Opal. The blue didn't quite turn out how it was supposed to be. And the burgundy started out a rather murky green/purple. Which looked hideous so I soaked it in black dye and it came out red. Not sure how that happened. But I do like this colour. Nightmare to rinse all the excess colour out though.

Finished this shawl on Saturday. It's my own design knitted from the neck down and will be available for sale on my website soon. It's knitted from 100gr of Posh Yarn Sophia 4ply (cashmere) and I like it but the colour is a bit too pale for me and it's nowhere near large enough. Not blocked yet so may see if I can stretch it a bit.

I've cast on for another one also in Sophia 4ply. But I've got 4x55gr skeins of this so should be bigger. I decided on the border at the last minute and quite like how it turned out.

This orange/pink/ purple colour is gorgeous but didn't photograph too well. You may need your shades.

Another Posh wip. This time in Eva 4ply (cashmere/silk). Love the colours in this. Thsi yarn has been tried out for a t least 3 patterns before but didn't like it. I like this pattern though. And I've got 4 skeins again so hoping it'll be a decent size. This pattern is so nice and easy to remember. Short vertical and horizontal pattern repeat. My own design again.

Also got some socks otn but no pics of them yet.

Look what I got

Look at what my postman brought me this morning:

Gorgeous sock yarn from the Yarn Yard. Thank you Natalie. Love the colours. I'm casting on for a pair of fair isle socks this evening. New pattern ofcourse. using the miniskein for the fair isle bits. will be interesting to see how this knits up.

And finihsed Emily's new 'Ocean' Shawl at 4.30 this morning. Couldn't sleep as my neck pain was too bad so got up and did some knitting. Emily loved the shawl when she woke up and has been wearing it ever since. I like it too and think I may do it again a bit bigger for me. This one is knitted in Posh Yarn Helena dk.

Busy, busy, busy

It's been one of those days where I seem to have been very busy but got nothing done.

The house is a mess and I'd planned to tidy up, do lots of washing and some ironing. Done one load of washing whihc hardly counts as a lot and the other jobs. Well, I'm sure you can guess how much of that I've done.

Part of the reason is that I decided this morning to have some fun with colours and do some yarn dyeing. Had 2 skeins of Opal and 2 skeins of lace weight to dye. I had some ideas of colours but they went right out the window. I'm thinking about green all the time these days but couldn't get the shade right so I ended up with a blue skein and a dark red/burgundy skein of Opal and two purple skeins of lace weight. The burgundy/red skein started out as green and purple but it looked awful and murky so just got some black dye adn shoved it back in the microwave and it came out reddish. But hadn't all taken the colour so mixed up some more black and sloshed some red dye in too and quite like the colour I got. Took me ages to rinse it though as I think I used too much dye. I think I'm happy with it. I'll decide when it's dry.

Not got much knitting done iether. Had promised Em I'd finish her shawl but haven't. Cast on for a pair of plain toe up socks with Tofutsies yesterday because I was curious to see how it knits up. But decided nearly half way up the foot that it'd be too boring just doign plain socks so frogged it and now I'm knitting a pair toe up with mock cables. The cables don't show up too well though with the yarn but think I'll carry on anyway.

I'm really excited to see what the Yarn Yard club yarn is like. I'm hoping it'll come tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed for green. But Natalie won't tell me. I'm planning a fair isle pattern for these. Got the pattern all ready.

I'm also thinking of what to submit for consideration to MagKnits and Knitty. Both have deadlines on 15th March and I want to submit a design to both. Just can't decide. Got too many new things ont heneedles and need to decide and concentrate on finishing that. I want to start a shawl from 'Victorian Lace Today' for myMum too so it's ready for her holiday on 30th March. The yarn for it which Dee especially dyed for me will be posted tomorrow or was it today. So I'll hopefully start it on Monday at the latest. Some speedknitting coming soon.

Back to my Tofutsies socks.

De-stash now on my website

Pop along to my website to see my stash sock yarn for sale as well as some Opal I've hand dyed. It's all for sale at bargain prices with free postage. I'm hoping to have some more hand dyed yarn for sale next week. Got some undyed yarn I've been meaning to dye for ages and planning to get onwith it tomorrow.

Destashing

I've done it. Tidied through my entire stash and pulled out everything I'm willing to part with. But be quick before I change my mind.

I've listed it all on Crafty Threads & Yarn to start with and will start listing it on my website later. Just sock yarn so far but I've got more to come later.

Here is what's left of my sock stash. Even found some yarn I thought I'd lost.

Can't think of a title.......

Lacking ........ inspiration today. Yesterday I had lots to write about but didn't get around to it and now my mind has gone blank..........

Okay, here goes. I got this book on Tuesday. It's written by the Yarn Harlot. Brilliant book. It's so funny. I keep laughing out loud when I read it. Read some while sitting in the car outside school yesterday. The other mums must have thought I was mad when they walked past with me sitting there laughing. This book is seriously funny. Would love to quote some stuff but don't won't to infringe copyright. So get the book yourself.

I'm having a bit of a destash later. I'm hoping to sort out some stash that I'm happy to sell. I've got far too much and have got yarn that I know I may not never get around to knitting although I loved it when I bought it. I'll be listing it in the Craft Market on Crafty Yarns & Threads forum (link in the sidebar) and on my website. But be quick. I'm hoping it'll go quickly. I'm offering free patterns with yarn purchase too.

Talking about my website, I've finally (after nearly a year) worked out how to add a Paypal shopping cart to my website. Yes, I'm a bit slow and a website numptie. But I've done it. Have had to redesign my website a bit to fit it in and I'm not finished yet but it's nearly done so hoping to launch the new site later today. It'll make it much easier to purchase patterns directly through my website via Paypal. I'm hoping this will increase sales. I've also got several more patterns I'm working on. Some are finished and need photographing and typing up and some are still on the needles. But I'm planning to be much better with getting my patterns typed up promptly.

And good news for Norwegian 'Falling in Love' sock knitters. Anne-Ruth has kindly agreed to translate this pattern to Norwegian for me. Yes I could have had a go at this myself but I've not knitted a sock from a Norwegian pattern for probably over 20 years and I would be just useless with the Norwegian knitting terminology and when I came across Anne-Ruth's Norwegian translation of the Hedera socks I was so impressed. Then I also saw pics of her 'Falling in love' sock so decided to ask her. Thank you Anne-Ruth for helping me out. Check out her blog if you can. It's brill.

What else is new? Not much really. I've been going through some of my patterns and photos and decided that my photos aren't good enough so I'm going to redo some. For some socks especially this means I'm going to have to reknit the socks as most of the ones I've knitted for the patterns are on my feet or someone elses feet and are getting worn out now. To help me get better photos I'm thinking of getting some mannequin legs. I've been looking on Ebay and prices vary so much but some are really cheap. Also been looking at Dress Forms and found some as cheap as £5 including p&p. Just wonder how good they'll be. Would make taking photographs so much easier though. Difficult decision though. Were would I store it forstarters. Especially the dress form would take up a lot of room and I don't have my own work room and the spare room is already full of junk. will have to think about this for a while.

Quck pic of one of my wips. This is a shawl for Emily using Posh Yarn's Helena 4ply. It's much thicker than any other 4ply I've ever used though. Lovely to knit with and lovely coluors. The pattern is 'Crest of the wave'. Emily loves it and I'm getting close to finishing it. May prioritise this today to get it done.



Anyway, enough of my mindless dribble. Off to do some more work on my website and start that destashing.