Lots of pics

Well, that title just about describes today's entry - lots of pics about all sorts of stuff.

First I had a lovely surprise first thing this morning - 7.30am. My Secret Summer Santa present from the Crafty Yarns Forum arrived. My Santa was Dreamcatcher, although it took me a while to work her clue out. But once I found her blog the other clues were all there.

She put together the most gorgeous present. This is what it looked like unopened:

And this is what I got:

Lace weight yarn from www.handpaintedyarns.com and 2 balls Alpaca 4ply from Garnstudio/Drops Design - perfect colours.

Mountain Peaks Shawl pattern - I love this shawl.

Box of chocs and a beaded book thong made by Dreamcatcher:

A small bag perfect for sock knitting - love this and used it to take mycurrent sock wip to the swimming pool this morning:

The shawl blocking underneath all the goodies is my new 'Ocean Waves Shawl' - this is the same pattern as I used for Emily's Ocean shawl a few months ago but I used a different shawl construction. This one was knitted from the top down, starting with just a few stitces. I love knitting shawls in this way - it's just magic to watch it grow.

And here is 'Ocean Waves' all finished. My model wasn't in a good mood today and was cold during the modelling session so only got a couple of photos. I'm thinking of buying myself a dress form/mannequin - makes photos a lot easier.

Also finished my 2nd 'Kaleidoscope' sock today and here's the pair. Pattern will be available for purchase from tomorrow. Either by e-mail down load or printed on A5 card (leaflet style) by post. More details tomorrow.

then there is my 'Cable Braids' socks which I finished a day or two ago - only first sock done. It's knitted in STR Lemongrass. Gorgeous yarn to knit with - I'm hooked. The 'Cable Braids' is an old pattern but with a rubbish photo so knitted it up again mainly to get a better photo and discovered a mistake in the pattern too. This pattern will go back on sale tomorrow or Monday.

And finally, I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we bought a tent. Well, tonight Simon and his Dad decided to put it up in the garden as it's the first dry (well almost dry) weekend we've hd since we bought it. It went up - took quite a long time - and then straight down again as it was about 6.30 pm by the time it was up. And here it is:

That's Vanessa helping them and peaking out from underneath the tent. They didn't put the bedroom tents in or ground sheet or anything. Its huge btw. And looks great.