A mixed bag

It's a week since I got back from Yarndale and I'm finally feeling human again. Since I was diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency and hurt my shoulder (which is still causing me sleepless nights nearly every night) earlier in the year, I've taken even longer than normal to recover from busy days, workshops, trips, shows etc. Last week I spent a lot of time relaxing and knitting while also trying to attempt to start catching up on work.  It was our wedding anniversary last week too and these colourful flowers Simon got me, helped cheering me up too (as did my rainbow socks and my new knitting basket).

After finishing the sweater deadline I've been working on lately,  I cast on for a new design. I'm working on a new shawl design in a combination of Lang Merino 200 colours. I got off to a false start with the colours I chose but swapped one colour out for the green and now I love it! 

I've also added a couple of repeats to my purple cashmere project. I'm loving this but the rows are getting awfully long and I'm not even halfway through. I'm not sure how much I'll get done on either of these two projects this week as I've got several new designs to swatch for which will take up a lot of my knitting time.

Friday afternoon was Liskeard's annual Wool Market. This is our 3rd year, I think, and it was a big success. I had a great time meeting local knitters. I basically brought all the yarn, beads and shawl pins I had left after Yarndale and a selection of patterns. I'm working on getting the YarnAddict Online Shop back up and running this week.

I was on my own so I didn't manage to look at all the other stalls but I did manage to buy a project bag from Sarah's Texture Crafts (I couldn't resist those cameras) and a few cute buttons from The Button Box.

Kate from our Knit & Knatter group cast on for her first lace shawl this summer. She chose La Manga and a ball of sock yarn 'Poems' and after a false start, she got going and finished in style. It was so lovely to see her wearing it on Friday evening and showing it off with pride. 

Rachel at Sitting Knitting and her son, James, have been dyeing yarn this summer. I think James is the main dyer. He's raising money for a World Challenge trip to India next year. I've been watching beautiful yarn popping up on Rachel's Facebook page for the last few months and a couple of week's ago I gave in to temptation and ordered this cool grey and rainbow skein. I was planning to use this for my next pair of socks.

Then Rachel sent me another skein which is equally beautiful and now I want to cast on with both at the same time. I've already got one pair of socks on the go so I better stick with just one of these for now but which one do I choose? Fancy your own skein of World Challenge yarn? Contact Rachel and she'll hook you up.

I know today is Monday and I have missed Monday Mini Tip Tutorial two weeks in a row. I did have something planned for today but I was going to do a Periscope and I just didn't feel up to it today. Although I felt better this morning, by the time I'd got through nearly a hundred e-mails, two pattern edits and some house chores, I wasn't up to doing a Periscope. Instead I'll do the tutorial later in the week. Watch this space!

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