New Shawl and a Sale

The new issue of Knitting is out, my copy arrived today.

 I've got a pattern in this issue.

 A beautiful shawl knitted by Pixie in Bambino Lace. It can also be knitted in Supreme Lace, Angel Lace or Pure Silk Lace. You can find them all here and you only need one 100gr skein. Alternatively you could use Manos del Uruguay Lace which comes in 50gr skeins so you'll need two of those.  

Want to see some more photos?

The Big Sock Yarn Sale has started this morning. All the sock yarns have been reduced in price. You can choose between Bambino Sock, Fantasy Sock, Organic Merino Sock, Organic Cotton Sock, Merino Plus Sock and Super Merino Sock. You can find them all here. Perhaps you don't fancy knitting socks? sock yarns can be used for so many other things like scarves, handwarmers/gloves, baby items, shawls and even garments. I'm working on a collection of easy lace shawls that are suitable for lace beginners. I'm actually thinking about publishing the collection as an e-book and do a series of tutorials to go with them. this is still all in the planning stages and something I will be working on over the summer. But the first of these shawls are already on the needles and I may be able to publish it before the end of the month. I do have an awful lot of deadlines this month though including 10 patterns that need writing up before the end of the month.

Here are some of the yarns in the sale to wet your apetite:

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There's been a lot of knitting going on too. I've  finished a secret project and making good progress on another one. I had 4 of the Manos Silk Blend designs back from Pixie on tuesday. I need to sew them all up and do the general finishing. Looks good so far though. Pixie is a fantastic knitter and so fast.

I got quite far on my little easy Ocean Silk shawl and then decided I didn't like the lace bit. It's supposed to be an easy lace pattern, and alhtough I wouldn't class it as difficult I don't think it's easy either and I'm not happy about the look.

So I ripped it back to teh garter stitch section and I'm not going for a very simple, basic lace eyelet pattern but I've only done half a row so far so nothing to share on that yet. This will be my first shawl in what will become a collection/possibly an E-book of easy lace designs designed to teach knitters the basics needed for successful lace knitting.

I've also done some machine knitting and spent most of Saturday afternoon knitting, ripping out and re-knititng the beginning of Simon's sweater. I made some silly mistakes and on the 4th attempt I finally had success and got the sweater back knitted. then I measured it against Simon and we decided it was too small. I hadn't allowed enough easy so  I started again and yesterday I finished the back for the 2nd time. It's a good think machine knitting is quick. here's the back:

And here's the close up of the rib:

Which I'm very proud of as it's not long since I learnt to use my ribber and this is my first project combining a rib with stocking stitch. It's not perfect but it passed my machine knitting mentor's inspection this morning.

This morning i spent a few minutes on the knititng machine. I've got these cones of gorgeous 4ply silk and I'm desperate to knit something for myself before we go to Spain so I've decided to knit a sleeveless or cap-sleeve top with a matching half sleeve cardiagan. I'm planning a tuck stitch border first then the rest in stokcing stitch. The problem is that tuck stitch is knitted on the wrong side of the fabric so it measn knitting the tuck stitch and then taking it off the machien turning it around and putting the stitches back on the needles to knit the body. It's not difficult but it's not easy either but my machine knitting mentor persuaded me it wasn't beyond me so that's what I'll go for. I may try to start it tonight. I'm also halfway through a sugar cane yarn top for myself which I also want to finish soon as it's a summer top and we're halfway through the summer now. Another perfect top for Spain. Oh, we leave for Spain early August so I haven't got much time and I've still got a couple of designs to knit up before we go plus nearly 10 patterns to write up. I may not be around much. Now I need to get back to pattern writing and the sock club parcels will be posted today too.