Arabella

I've shown you pics of Arabella before and now,finally, the pattern is ready. At the moment it's a free download on Ravelry and you can find it in my Ravelry pattern store. I knitted the orignal version in Hipknits Aran Silk a couple of years ago and started this version in Manos Silk Blend about a year ago. It's a quick knit, I just had very long breaks when I didn't touch it. You can customise it to any size and use any yarn. Choose a needle size that give you a loose fabric and knit till you get the size you want. Here are some pics to refresh your memory:
A couple of days ago I taught a sock knitting workshop at Spin A Yarn. The ladies who attended were all very nice and very good knitters and I hope they all enjoyed it. During our lunch break Joyce showed us this clip (Extreme sheep) from Utube. It's really good funto watch. So if you haven't seen it yet have a look.

Glorious Day

Simon, Emily and I took our dog Sam for a walk on the moors this morning. It's about 10 mins drive from our house to hte edge of hte moors and it's wonderful to walk up there. It was warm and sunny today with just a gentle breeze. Wonderful weather for March. We walked from the village of Minions towards Cheesewring quarry. Simon, Emily and Sam walked upt to the top of Cheesewring tor while I found a big rock to sit on for a rest. My back can't cope with walking too far without a break.
There were ponies around too. Got some good photos. These are taken on my mobile so not brilliant.

The only white in the sky were white fluff from airplanes going overhead. We're on the flightpath form London to the US I think.
Here's Cheesewring:
Sam racing towards me:
Emily & Sam racing:
and having a cuddle:
Cheesewring:
Yes Cornwall is a lovely place to live on days like this.

Small update

I think most of the No Wool club parcels have arrived by now. So here's a pic of this month's yarn:
I love this colour and have saved a skein for myself.

Just listed a few yarns in the shop. We've got Almerino sock yarn
organic cotton/tencel sock yarn (much more of that soon when my new delivery comes)
Dreamy Lace

On the needles

Thought I might talk about what's on the needles at the moment. I'm working on a stole for my sister. I started it at Christmas while we were in Norway. I'd been planning to use this stitch pattern for a while. It's the classis Orenburg Lace strawberry stitch. I charted and don't remember doing much swatching which is quite normal for me. Cast on and knitted away. Did a quite a bit in Norway but then we arrived home and it got put aside. from time to time I'd get it out but I just didn't want to work on it. Something was not quite right. Then one evening last week I got my blocking boards out and pinned it out. And I didn't like what I saw. So made the drastic decision to frog it. I was probably a 1/3 done iwth hte centre panel. I changed to slightly smaller needles. Did some more charting and cast on again. This time I'm much happier. Although I've not gotten around to taking any new pics. Will try to get that one later this week.

Anyway, this is the original: Probably looks okay but I was not happy. Now it's my favorite project and I'm knitting on it as much as Ican. Then on Monday I decided it was time to make a decision about the border and work out how much yarn I'd need to put aside for the border. I had an idea for the border and spent ages looking and charting for just hte right border. Finally found it and swatched in 4ply sock yarn. It looked great. Then I changed to the lace yarn and started knitting it and was not happy at all. What looked good in sock yarn did not look quite so good in lace yarn. BAck to the drawing board. After a lot of work Ifinally found the right border. Pics later in the week.

Last night Emily asked if I could knit her a mobile phone sock with beads. She chose the yarn and beads. The one on the right is hers. The purple yarn with the beads are a lot thicker than the blue yarn and the beads were a bit too small. So I'm not 100% happy with it but Em likes it.

I then decided to knit a mobile phone sock for myself with beads. I quite like mine too.
And to finish, here's a picture of a waistcoat my Mum has knitted. It's design 29 (Ithink) from Noro's Mini Designer Knits book.

A friend is knitting the same design too but in a different colour.

For any Lace Variety Club members who happen to pass by. Parcels have gone out.

Blogging without obligation

I found this on Tutley Mutley's blog and I like it:

Blogging without obligation
~because you shouldn't have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.
~because it's okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
~because its okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.
~because sometimes less is more.
~because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.
~because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone. (nor are folk at work likely to remember you after you're gone - tiz friends and family wot count).
~because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable".
~because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won't be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time. . .

So that'll be my new blogging philosphy from now on.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on Louisa. I'm really pleased with the photography Yarn Forward did this time. Once you send a design off to a magazine it's all out of your control. They do all the photography and presentation etc and sometimes they may not have the same idea for a design that I have but the photos for Louisa are gorgeous. I even got a mention in the editor's column at the front of the mag.

For any lace club members who pass through my blog, the parcels will be a couple of days late. Posting date is 15 March which is tomorrow, Sunday, so should have been sent out today or Monday really but they've not been dyed yet. I'd hoped to do it today but been in so much pain there was no way I could dye yarn. So it'll be done tomorrow or Monday and sent out as soon as they're dry. My members are a lovely lot so I'm sure they won't mind. Although having not had a lace clubparcel since January they may be having withdrawal symptoms by now. This also means that if any new members want to join for a month or three then it's still time to sign up. See my shop for details.

Louisa

This is Louisa, my new design for Yarn Forward issue 12 which is currently arriving with subscribers.

It's knitted in Lang Pearl which is a mohair/acrylic blend and gorgeous to knit with. The sweater had a big cable up the front which continues in smaller cables up each side of the deep v-neck and around the armholes.

I orginally planned this as a vest but added sleeves. But it would work perfectly as a vest. Work as for sweater, just leave out the sleeves.

UK Ravelry Day 2009

Posting two days in a row, not bad. Let's see how long I manage to keep it up.

Just a short post today. I'd hoped to get a progress photo of the new stole for my sister but I need to pin it out and in too much pain today to do that.

So instead I'm going to tell you about the UK Ravelry Day 2009 taking place in Coventry on 6th June. It's being organised by Jo. It's being organised to promoto British wool and to support Ravelry. If you're a RAvelry member you can read more about it here. There will be a market place and I'll be among the stall holders, lots of workshops - yes I'm teaching two - and the main speaker will be Meg Swansen. How exciting is that? You can book workshops, tickets to the event and main speaker tickets here. The event is being sponsored by The Knitter magazine and there was a mention of hte event in this month's mag. Let's Knit magazine wrote about the event too and have a good article about British wool in this month's issue.

Like I said, I'm teaching two workshops. One in the morning on knitting two socks at the same time on circular needles. It's a two hour workshop. In the afternoon I'm teaching an hour long workshop on Continental knitting. You can book workshops here. My Continental Knitting one has not been listed yet but I'm hoping it will be soon.

If you can't get to Coventry and live in the South WEst of England I also teach workshops at Spin A Yarn, Bovey Tracey, Devon. Contact the shop for details.

I'm really excited about the UK Ravelry Day. It'll be fun to meet lots of online friends and customers. And this will be the biggest show I've had a stall at so far and a good practice for FibreFest later in the summer. I'm having a stall at Fibre Fest too.

Knittingwise, I've cast on a new cardi for myself. It's a design that will appear in a mag soon so can't show any pics or say too much. But when I knitted the sample I thought it would look good in my size too so decided I'd knit one for me. It's going quite quickly.

I've re-joined Weigth Watchers today. I've been a member a few times before. The first time I joined nearly 7 years ago, I lost 3 1/2 stone fairly quickly, but put it all back on again, although I was still attending the meetings every week. Since then I've put on more weight which wasn't helped by an underactive thyroid problem a couple of years ago. I'm not on thyroid medication. I've re-joined a few times but never made much progress and since Christmas I've been putting off re-joining again. But I'll be 40 later this year and Simon and I will be going to Spain in September to celebrate my birthday and I do not want to go on the beach looking like i do now. There is no way I'll be seen in a swim suit like this. So time to take action. It's not going to be easy though and part of me feels a bit fed up about it but I'm trying to motivate myself. I'll tell you all how much I've lost next Tuesday.

Finishing Streak

So what's my excuse for not posting for ages this time? Well I have no excuse until last Wednesday when I came down with a stinking cold which is still lingering. I was really unwell from Wednesday until Friday and on Wednesday and Thurday Vanessa was home from school with a bad cold too. Slightly better over the weekend but today is the first day I feel like I'm recovering. The weekend was busy as usual. Yesterday the girls both had ballet exams. Vanessa did ballet and tap (Ithink) and Emily did ballet and modern. They both did well I think. But we won't know for a few weeks yet.

I've been finishing a few things lately but most of them I can't share any details yet. I'm also waiting to hear about a few submissions and I've got no major deadlines right now so it feels kind of weird. Since Christmas I've gone from one deadline to the next with designing garments for Yarn Forward and I finished the last one before my Mum arrived and this is the first time I've got nothing for a magazine on the needles for months. I've been swatching and planning new designs though and been submitting ideas and got several more planned so Iexpect it won't take long before my needles are busy again.

In the meantime I've been adding a couple of inches on a lace stole for my sister. I'll try to get pictures later this week.

I've also finished a shawl that's been on the needles for ages. I can't even remember how long. I designed and knitted this version in HipKnits Aran Silk about a year ago, might even be longer. I never got around to writing up the pattern. Then last year sometime I decided to do a version in Manos Silk Blend too and get the pattern written up properly. The shawl finally came off the needles this morning and the pattern will be written this weed some time.
The shawl took 2 skeins of Silk Blend. I've been wearing it as a scarf this afternoon and it's lovely and warm and soft. It's a huge shawl, especially on my tiny dress form. I'll get some more modelled pics later this week. On some of these pics my dress form is a bit wonky.

It feels weird finishing a project. Some projects I'm so relieved it's finally off the needles and others I feel a bit sad when it's finished. Sometimes I'm rearing to get on to the next project and other times I feel a bit like I've got 'empty nest syndrome'. Yes, I kow it's weird. It's not like I haven't got loads of other wips waiting to be finished.

While things are a big quiet I'm hoping to get as much done on my sisters stole as possible. I'm aiming to finish it for her birthday in May. I also want to knit a cardigan for myself before we go away for Easter so I'd better get started. I've dyed the yarn, a gorgeous aran alpaca/merino/bamboo blend. The pattern is all ready. Let's just hope i can get it done on time.

this month is Lace Variety Club time again. It's bi-monthly now which feels strange. Having said that, it doens't feel like 2 months since i did the January parcels. I've got an old favorite this month for the yarn. It's a gorgeous yarn but I've not had it in stock for months but early Saturday morning a new delivery arrived. I'll be dyeing it on Wednesday so if you fancy joining, hurry up. The pattern is a pattern that's never been used for the Lace Variety Club before.

Here's January's yarn, the gorgeous Supreme Lace.
The No Wool club will be going out tomorrow. It should have gone last week but because I was ill I didn't get it dyed until Saturday and cotton yarn takes longer to dye than animal fibres. Anyway, it's all ready now. I love this month's colourway. And luckily I dyed some extra and I'm planning to keep some for myself.

There are 3 month and 1 month options for all myclubs and there is a Two Club options too if you want to join more than one club. they're all listed here.

I've been listing some yarn in the shop over the weekend too and there will be more to come this week.