Antonia

Let's Knit issue 41 arrived last week and I was very pleased to see my design 'Antonia' included. Antonia is knitted in Manos Lace and is mainly stocking stitch with a little bit of lace detail. Perfect if you fancy a lighter yarn but not too much lace. Needlesize is 3.25 mm and the garment takes only 3 skeins of yarn (in any size) and comes in sizes 8/10 - 20/22. And this is what I love about lace weight yarn. Because the yardage is so good you  get a lot of knitting for your bucks.

Antonia is worked in two pieces. Front and back is worked separately to the armholes, then stitches are added to form the sleeves, this means the lace band across the top of the yoke extends across the sleeves too. And you only have shoulder/top of sleeve seams and underarm/side seams to join. No complicated sleeve cap shaping or setting in to worry about.

And the needle size is 3.25 mm so not scarily thin either. A perfect addition to your spring wardrobe.

Look out for the new issue of Knit (formerly Yarn Forward) which has my design on the cover. I'll share photos when my copy arrives. Not sure if it's in the shops yet or not.

We've had a pretty busy family orientated weekend. On Saturday I cooked my first ever Roast Turkey. I've done chicken, beef, lamb and roast pork before but never a turkey. My excuse was always that my cooker was too small but since we had our kitchen done a few years ago it's not really been an excuse. We bought a frozen turkey before Christmas in case our second flight to Norway was cancelled and we ended up needing a last minute Christmas dinner. Fortunately we didn't so we thought it was time to cook the thing now.

It was beautiful and the meat was not at all dry, which I was very relieved about. I did roast potatoes and parsnips, boiled carrots, stuffing and yorkshire puddings to go with it. Our friend Jo joined us for a very enjoyable meal.

Yesterday we went for a walk at a local beach (Seaton) in the afternoon. It was warm and sunny and the beach was packed with families and dog walkers.

Emily was jumping across the rock pools:

The rest of the afternoon and evening I spent knitting on the wedding shawl and made great progress. With the knitting i've done today I'm nearly halfway. I should reach the halfway point tonight. I need to do some work on the edging and work out how much yarn I need to reserve for the edging before I decide on exactly what the halfway point is. The shawl consists of 3 main sections  which are then mirrored for the second half. I've worked through the first two sections and I'm on the third section now which is the smallest one.

I had planned to get some photos today but I never quite got around to it, so I will share some photos later in the week.

I'm working on getting the Pattern Of The Week done for tomorrow.

 I'm also very keen to get the new Shelterbox scarf published this week. My testers are making great progress and I just need to go through their comments and make any necessary changes to the pattern. Shelterbox are currently working in Japan to help provide accommodation for earthquake/tsunami victims. You can read about what Shelterbox are doing in Japan here. Shelterbox provides immediate emergency tent and supplies for an extended family after natural disasters. You can download my Friendship Shawl and donate money through my Just Giving page here. I'll get the Shelter scarf up as soon as  I can.