What's up?

Where did the last week go? I meant to post again before I left for Oxfordshire last Friday but ran out of time. I worked flat out Friday morning to get the Lace Lovers Club (only a few spaces left now for the Jul to Sept period) parcels in the post before lunch. Then I packed for my trip and picked Simon and Vanessa up and we headed for Oxford. On Saturday I taught at Purlescence which I really enjoyed. There were 12 ladies, a few of them I'd met in March and it was great to see them again and the new ladies. I had a great day and I hope they did too. I'm going back to Purlescence in October to teach Continental Knitting (27 Oct). I'm really looking forward to that.

The Olympic Torch Relay started in Cornwall last Saturday, when i was in Oxfordshire, and came through our town in the late afternoon. Apparently 10,000 people turned up to watch it. We missed it and Simon was a bit upset about it. So we raced back from Oxford and caught the torch when it came through Plymouth on Saturday evening.

My main knitting on the trip was my Supreme Sock shawlette. I had hoped to finish it and although I failed to do that on the trip I did get very close on Sunday but ran out of yarn with about 2 very short repeats to go. This is a shawlette where you increase till you've used up half the yarn then start decreasing. Should be impossible to run out of yarn, right? I kept forgetting to weight my yarn and before I knew it I only had 40 gr left so I ripped back several repeats and when I got to about 52 gr I thought I was safe and carried on. Turns out I was wrong! I do have another skein of this yarn though or at least I did. I was saving it as a friend had asked me to knit her a scarf in it. But now i can't find it. I need to have a bit clear out of my yarn boxes to find it I think as it's not in the box I thought it was. So the shawl is in time out till I find the second skein.

 After my workshop at Purlescence we had the opportunity to look through all the Purlescence yarny goodies. So many tempting luxurious yarns, Namaste bags and other luxury knitting accessories. I tried to be good and only came home with this little bundle of Unique Sheep min skeins. I've got a design in mind for it. I'm thinking it'd make a good holiday project for when we go to Spain in August.

 I also got a skein of Sweet Georgia Lacey Lamb which is gorgeous. This will of course be turned in to something lacy. I've got some ideas for it. It involves beads, lots of pretty lace (of course) and a crescent shape.

 Talking of Sweet Georgia, I joined the Sweet Georgia Fiber Club again. I was a member for a few months last year and loved the fibre although I've not spun up most of it. This is my second of three club parcels and to be honest, although the fibre is fabulous, the colours haven't excited me yet.

The other 2 shawls from my last post haven't seen much action. I decided I needed a new easy 'grab & go' project. Something that can live in my handbag and I can knit on when I'm out and about. On Tuesday when I taught at Spin A Yarn,  I was tempted by a little ball of Noro Sekku. The colours are to dye for but the yarn is very twist but I'm hoping the colour will make it worth it. I swatched for an idea I had with another ball I had in my stash.

My idea worked but I decided to use different lace edgings. I cast on and knitted on it this morning during knitting group. At the end of knit group I decided I didn't like it and ripped it all out. I came home and made some small changed and cast on again. Knitted just a few rows this time:

 Then just after I'd taken the above photo I ripped out again. I've now gone with a complete different idea and cast on again. This time it was over 300 stitches so I'd better be happy with it now. Row 3 involves beads on every other stitch. That's a lot of beads and it's very slow. I got halfway through the row.

I did manage to finish a shawl last week. This was my 'grab & go' project for the last few weeks and knitted up very quickly. It's going to be a present for a friend but it will be a new pattern too. I need to finish writing up the pattern and get the photos done so it won't be released quite yet. But here's a glimpse.

Since I realised at lunch time today that's it's already Thursday, I've been in shock. Where did this week go? I had so many things i needed to do and I've not done any of them. I'm still working my way through Monday's to do list. Anyone else have this problem?

So what have you been up to since last time? What's on your needles?