Face like a balloon

Yes, that's what I've got. I've got an abcess (how do I spell that?). I had one about 14 months ago. And ended up having a root canal and crown. then 4-5 months later the infection came back and my dentist referred me to a specialist. I had a crocked root and the specialist dentist had to operate and seal off the top of the root. It was expected that this would stop any future problems. On both occasions my face swelled up like a balloon and on the second time I felt really quite ill for several days.

On Wednesday I started having some niggling pain in the same area and on Wednesday evening it was throbbing pain. Went to the dentist first thing on Thursday. x-rays did't show up anything wrong. So given two lots of antibiotics, taking my maximum number of painkillers and antiinflammatories. This morning my face was swollen from underneath my right eye right down to my top lip. The swelling has gone down a lot during the day but I still look like I've got a balloon under my cheek. The pain is not too bad when the painkilers are working but when they were off it's awful. Also waking up around 4am with pain. Yesterday it made me feel quite ill and really tired. Today ahs been a tiny bit better. Just hoping I'm okay for the weekend as tomorrow we've got Vanessa's birthday party, taking 6 girls to the cinema. Then on Sunday we're going on holiday. NOt started packing yet and still got lots of clothes to wash and iron. And a ton of other stuff to do. Time to prioritise majorly.

Now to some nice stuff. Pixie has done some sample knitting for me. This is my Diamonds Are Forever shawl knitted in Luscious Lace. It's stunning. Pixie did a fantastic job kniting it for me and she did it ever so quickly. Was it about a week? Not sure. But being such a super knitter she's now doing aother shawl for me too. Got 2 other people knitting this shawl for me too. In Merino Lace and Cashmere Lace. Their versions include beads. The pattern will be available as soon as the last 2 sample shawls come back. A close up of the pattern:Pixie also e-mailed me a picture of the scarf she's knitted with the left over lace yarn from the shawl. It's gorgeous. So keep an eye out on her blog for pics of the scarf.

I've also launched a new lace yarn club - The Lace Variety Club - the club runs for 3 months and each month will be a different lace yarn. The first 3 month will feature Luscious Lace, Cashmere Lace and Merino Lace. 100 gr each month. Not sure which order they will appear in yet. I will also include a pattern each month but the pattern won't be an exclusive club only pattern. It may be an existing Anni Design pattern or a new pattern. The Diamonds Are Forever pattern will be used for one of the months. If you'd like to sign up go to my Etsy shop. I know the club is a bit expensive but the Cashmere Lace and Luscious Lace (cashmere/silk) yarns are quite pricey to buy wholesale and with the retail price I've set I'm making very little profit. So if you add up the price for 100gr each (that's 2 skeins of Luscious Lace) you'll find that the club price is quite reasonable. The yarn will be dyed up in a never to be repeated exclusive colourway. There will also be a jute project bag included in the first parcel. Sign up quickly as places are limited.

I've also finally gotten around to taking pics of the Arabella shawl. This is a new pattern too and will be availabe for sale as soon as I get around to taking pics. It's knitted in Hip Knits Aran Silk and used 3 skeins. It's very quick and easy to knit and perfect for HipKnits Aran Silk. Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend would be perfect for this pattern too.

And here is the world's longest scarf, or at least it feels like it. It's knitted length wise and I had over 300 st on the needles. It's knitted in a mixture of Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend and HipKnits Aran Silk. I didn't intend for it to be this long but I obviously didn't measure my swatch properly or work out the tension etc properly. Anyway, it's incredibly soft and lovely and warm to wear.
This is my lovely daughter Vanessa who will be 13 on 5th April the day we get back from holiday.

Handspun

I've got some more handspun yarn to show you. First this lot of gorgeous fiber is from Dragon Fibers on Etsy. Aren't they gorgeous. One is merino/tencel and hte other two are bamboo/merino. I decided to spin one of the merino/bamboo rovings. Although I do like pastels I tend to go for brighter colours but I just loved the delicateness of this pastel roving. And it was a beauty to spin. Look how gorgeous it looks. I didn't put as much twist in this one as I normally do. It's roughly a fingering weight/4ply weight yarn. I've got it wound into a ball already ready to knit. not quite decided what to cast on yet but think it's going to be a scarf of some sort.

Also finished this lovely YarnYard merino/silk handspun. this is roughly 4ply/fingering weight too and with quite a high twist.
Next on the wheel is the gorgeous baby camel I got from Twisted Hare Fiber Arts a while back. I was advised by the teacher on the spinning workshop I attended the other week to mix it with some longer fiber to make it easier to spin. I wanted to blend it with some Tussah silk but wasn't happy with hte undyed silk blend so the ohter day I tried blending some purple tussah silk and the natural baby camel and it looked gorgeous in the rolag so i'm going to try spinning it to see if the yarn will look just as gorgeous. I'll let you know.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself these days. Have had a dreadful cold since Wednesday. It's got a bit better but it's just not clearing up. Because of the cold and my back/neck pain I've not slept very well again and spent hours awake last night, it gave me the chance to make a start on the Sockamania May socks. But now I'm SO tired. Early night I think.

Most of the Sockamania PLUS parcels have gone out now. There are only about 7 left to be posted tomorrow. They're all UK and a couple of European ones. The rest of the parcels went on Saturday. I wasn't very popular when I dropped my bags of parcels off at my local post office. It's a small post office with only one staff on duty at a time. The 3 members of staff there are so lovely and very helpful and let me leave my parcels there and come back later to pay rather than holding up the queue for ages. But on Saturday it was very busy and I wasn't sure the clerk was going to have time to do them all but he did.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.

New Additions

I'm up to my eyeballs in April Sock Club yarn right now. Been skeining like mad today. Dyeing tomorrow. Wrapping parcels on Friday. Post office on Saturday.

Some gorgeous new additions have found their way to my house. No idea of how that happened.

First this gorgeous offering from Yarny Goodness. These came a few weeks ago but I don't think I blogged about it. Yarny Goodness is a fabolous new online shop which will soon be stocking YarnAddict Yarns too.

Two new Handmaiden yarns from Socktopus. The purple one is Camel Spun which is silk and camel. It's so unbelievably soft and has got that gorgeous silk sheen. A lovely shawl I think. The bottom one is Cashbah (merino.cashmere, nylon). The colour way wasn't exactly what I thought it would look like.

My carders arrived today too with some beautiful camel fibre on the left and some stunning BFL.
And I've just done a small Etsy update. More to come tomorrow hopefully.

Too tired

Too tired to blog tonight but check this post out by Pixie. She's the first to test knit this new pattern for me. I've got another ocuple of test/sample knitters lined up too. The pattern should be done with beads and one of my other test knitters will be doing one with beads. There is still some Luscious Lace (cashmere/silk) available on Etsy. Got another small delivery of it today so there will be some more colourways soon. I'm knitting anotehr shawl in it and it's gorgeous. It's all I want to knit with now.

Like I said I'm too tired so now I'm off to bed.

Nite x

Free pattern

This pattern was finished ages ago but it's taken me weeks if not months to get around to writing up the pattern. I've got a thing about chevron patterns right now and I'm working on a stole design using a similar chevron pattern but in a different way.

I've decided to offer this pattern for free as it's really very simple. And here it is:

Ripples Scarf
By Anni Design

Needed:
4mm/US6 needles
1 skein YarnAddict Yarns Merino Sock
Yarn or Merino 4ply
Or 100gr alternative 4ply/fingering
weight yarn


Abbreviations:
k – knit
tbl – through back of loop
yo – yarn over (make an extra stitch by
moving working yarn between needles to
the front, over right needle to the back
and continue k, on next round knit the
stitch tbl)
m1 – make one (make a stitch by lifting
the strand between 2 stitches and k tbl)
st – stitch(es)
K2tog – k 2 stitches together
ssk – slip 2 stitches onto right needle,
then knit through both stitches
rep - repeat

Pattern notes:
This scarf is perfect for self striping yarn
and is worked in garter stitch(knit ever
row). You can make the increases using
either m1 or yo. If you use m1, then k the
st as normal on next row. If using yo, then
ktbl the yo stitches on next row.

Tension:
Not important in this pattern.

Pattern:
Cast on 40 st.
R1 – k all st
R2 – k all st
R3 – k3, *ssk x3, (yo or m1, k1) x5, yo or
m1, k2tog x3*. Rep from * to * once more,
k3
R4 – k all st
Rep these 4 rows until you reach desired
length. Bind off loosely.

Copyright – Anni Design, March 2008
Please do not sell or distribute this
pattern or items made from it without
my prior permission.
www.annidesign.co.uk

Needlerolls, spinning and Luscious Lace

As predicted I was feeling tired today and in quite a lot of pain which I was expecting as I've had a busy two days attending a spinning workshop. I learned a lot, although the course was aimed at a complete beginner and I'm not a compelete beginner, just almost one. And I've no idea why my words are underlined today so if it's annoying yo uas much as it is me blame Blogger.

I learned how to card which is more difficult than it looks, and how to blend fibers. And the most important thing I wanted to learn was Navajo plying as my spinning book doesn't show how to do this. I also had the chance to spin with a variety of wools and had some advice on spinning my precious baby camel from Twisted Hare Fiberarts. This fibre is just so precious and I want to spin a very special yarn from it. I played with blending it with silk but I'm not sure I like it. And now the underlining is gone, who knows why?!!

Here is 2 mini skeins I spun. The brown/white one is differetn breeds of sheep. and the one with brown, white and purple and pink is some brown and white alapca blended with pink or purple BFL and some white sheeps fleece.
These two gorgeous needle rolls are made by a very talented local textile artist, Ali. She's talented at all sorts of textile and fiber arts and has made these very special, one of a kind needle rolls. The largest one will fit long needles and the medium one the slightly shorter needles. They've both got several internal pockets which will fit straight needles, circular needles and double pointed needles and accessories. The ties are long so even when you cram it full of needles you can still close it. The outer fabric is linen and it's lined with cotton. I'm selling thse two cases on Etsy. This is just a trial for me and Ali and they are a one off.

This is some of the Luscious Lace I've listed on Etsy today. Luscious Lace is the name for my new laceweight cashmere/silk yarn. It's stunning, gorgeous, luscious, sumptious, shimmering and incredibly soft. I'm selling it in 55gr skeins which is 400 yards/366m and enough to make a gorgeous lace scarf. For a shawl you'd probably need 2 skeins or maybe 3 depending on the pattern. Although it's a thicker laceweight it knits up incredibly light. I've got a shawl on the go in this yarn right now and Pixie is test knitting one for me too. This yarn is all I want ot knit with right now. But I do have some other beauties on the go too.

If you fancy seeing what this looks like in colour, then join Sockamania PLUS Merino Sock club now. This is the April yarn and the April sock is hiding underneath. It's abit more colourful than the picture. And yes, in April you will receive either 2 full skeins or 1 full skein and one partial skein. So hurry up and join now. I'm dyeing hte yarn this weekend so get in quick before all the spaces are gone.

Luscious Yarn

This was written on Monday evening but Blogger was playing up and wouldn't let me post. Now it's Tuesday morning and I'm off for day 2 of the spinning course. Not sure how long I'll last today as my back is a bit stiff. And the weather is still bad.

The first of a brand new luxury yarns is about to hit my Etsy shop and it's called Luscious Lace and is a Silk/Cashmere blend. It's a heavy laceweight at 400 yards per 55 gr skein. It's just incredibly soft and shiny. Real luxury to work with. Knits up into beautiful, featherlight shawls. I've only dyed my fist batch of this yarn last week and some has already been caston by me. But I've bought this yarn from other indie dyers before and one of the projects i knitted with it is this 'Victoria Shawl' for my Mum from Victorian Lace Today.

A week ago I was feeling really awful, well, I'm pleased to report I'm feeling a lot better. The doctor prescriped some new medication which has eased my neck pain and headaches a lot. It's not all gone and I'm still taking too many painkillers every day but I'm down from 16 a day to about 12-13. And they're strong, on prescription only painkillers. I've been sleeping a lot better too which makes a huge difference. thank you for all those who commented on my last post and for your good wishes. I really appreciate all the support.

Now it's time to reveal the March Sockamania yarn. YOu may have already seen the socks around the online knitting world. If you'd liketo join Sockamania PLUS and receive a skein of yarn and the pattern pop over to Etsy now. You need to sign up soon as I'll be closing sign ups for April later this week. I'm hoping to start dyeing hte april yarn on Thursday or Friday and sign ups will close then. And there is a bonus for April as the package will contain a lot more than 100gr yarn.

Here's the March socks

And here's a yarn pyramid:

As you can see not all the skein are identical. the way I dyed this colourway was a fun new way for me. I also dyed it in 3 batches and in the last batch something went wrong with the colour mix and I ended up with purple instead of blue. Not quite sure how that happened. All the skeins had some purple in them. Basically they were dyed in pale blue then overdyed with navy and purple. It was a fun way of doing it and a method that created individual skeins and there was no way of getting two skeins the same. Although I did try to use the same amount of dye for each skein.

Today i've been to Spin A Yarn for a spinning workshop. I'm going tomorrow too. I didn't stay all day today and I won't tomorrow either. By 2.30 I'd had enough and so had my neck/back. I'm tired now and off to bed soon. It's a beginners workshop nd the other 3 ladies haven't spun before I don't think. I obvoiusly have having had a wheel since christmas but I'm still a beginner and i've learnt a lot today and hoping to learn more tomorrow.

I'm rattling

First a big thank you to all of you who commented on m ylast post re environmentally friendly yarn etc. It's a confusing issue that's for sure.

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog may know that I suffer from chronic neck and back pain. Lately it's been really bad and gettng worse and I've been suffering very severe headaches, difficulties sleeping and waking up in a lot of pain during the night. I also suffer from underactive thryroid and although I'm supposedly taking the right amount of medicationto regulate it I'm still feeling pretty awful most of the time. Lately my main problem apart from the headaches has been extreme lethargy. Some days I'm worn out all day and struggle to get anything but knitting done. I can knit half asleep in a chair all day if I wanted to.

So today I went ot the doctors. I was hoping she'd suggest another thyroid blood test but don't need one until June. As for my neck pain/headaches she suggested a new drug. I'm already taking a lot of painkillers, antiinflammatories and other drugs to control the pain and I've tried a huge number of different drugs and alternative treaments in the past and I've had spinal surgery. I don't go to the doctor very often now re my neck as althouhg my doctor is lovely and understanding, when it comes to chronic back pain doctors are a bit useless. Not much they can do really. I was taking between 18 and 22 tablets a day, mostly 22 lately as I've been taking the max amount of painkillers I can. That's two diferent types, 8 of each a day. all these meds, apart from making me rattle, can't be good for me either. So hoping I might be able to cut down onsome pills I'm now on more. the doctor suggested a new drug. I've forgotten the name now but it might work for the pain which means I can cut down on the painkillers. I'm willing to try it but to be honest I'm a bit sceptic as I've tried so many different things in the past. But I'll keep you posted.

Now a bit of yarniness to cheer me up. Had a bit of an Etsy update yesterday evening. Managed to sneak online while Em was in the bath and get some yarn uploaded. Some is stuff that's been dyed a while back and not gotten listed yet and some is last week's dyeing. Still got some more to list. There's Merino Lace and 4ply, a couple of skeins of Merino Sock Yarn, Bamboo and Cashmere.

And I've got a brand new yarn launching soon. I dyed a small batch last week. It's gorgeous. Some of it I already have plans for myself but there may be a skein or two listed tonight or tomorrow. If not I'll be dyeing more of it on Wednesday which will be listed by the end of the week.