Ready for some summer knitting?

In February I was very busy working on designs for the new Manos del Uruguay Serena which is a gorgeous cotton/alpaca blend. When I first heard it was cotton/alpaca I wasn't sure. I thought it may be a bit heavy. But when I got some of the yarn to swatch with I fell in love with it. It's so light and gorgeous to knit with. It has very good stitch definition and creates even stitches (which is unusual for cotton or alpaca yarns). It's slightly thinner than a standard dk yarn. I think this is perfect as an all year yarn. The colours I've seen are gorgeous and includes solid, semisolid and slightly variegated colours. Colour repeats in Manos yarns tend to be short so pooling is less of a problem. Yarns are hand-dyed so there may be some variation between skeins but I didn't find this a problem.

I had two fantastic knitters helping me. I couldn't have done it without them. thank you to Craftie Pixie and Anita (I must find out if Anita has a blog).

So grab your needles and choose your favorite and get ready for some summer knitting. These patterns are available from Artesano/Manos del Uruguay stockists in the UK and I think also in Sweden, Germany and France.

These designs are part of the English Garden Collection, hence the names, and has a very summery feel. There are other designs in the collection too by Sue Hanmore, Pat Menchini and Julie Ferguson. They are all gorgeous designs. Check them out next time you visit your LYS. These patterns are  available from Artesano/Manos del Uruguay stockists in the UK, Sweden, Germany and France.

Lavender is longer length lacy top worked in two pieces. The top has a pretty lace pattern, short sleeves and round neck line. Perfect summer top to wear over leggings for cropped trousers. 

Lemon Balm is a sleeveless, v-neck top with a zig zag eyelet pattern. Perfect top for summer.

Parsley is a stocking stitch t-shirt with a pretty lacy rib at the hems and around the round neckline.

Rosemary is a pretty, lacy top with 3/4 lengths sleeves and v-neck. Some gentle shaping is worked changing needle size. This was the sample I knitted up and I enjoyed knitting it. I'd love to knit myself one of these but I doubt I'll have time.

There's been plenty of knitting going on here and some spinning but I'll talk about that next time.

Tough Week

This has been a tough week. I started on Monday with really severe headache, which i struggled to control for the rest of the day. Tuesday I had a great day out with Pixie and Marianne at Spin A Yarn knitting group. It was my best day this week. Wednesday I dyed the Sock Variety and Easy Lace club yarns. Started dyeing some lace too but felt so rough I had to abort the attempt. Thursday I felt rough. Did lots of knitting as I had a deadline but felt too unwell to finish the yarn dyeing . Just rinsing the yarns I did on Wednesday was difficult enough. Friday I thought I was a bit better. Finished the yarn dyeing and did all the finishing and sewing up on 3 1/2 garments. Then we picked Simon up and went to the cinema. Probably my best day but I felt quite unwell in the middle of the day and extremely tired. If it hadn't been for deadline I would have gone to bed. This morning I was up at 7.30 to finish the neck line and weave in ends on one of my deadline garments, which then got packed  up and posted. Came home had lunch and went to bed and slept for 2 hours. Finally feel a bit better now but still tired. Early night tonight!

So to summarise I was in a lot of pain last week, I felt unwell on and off (but can't quite put my finger on it), extremely tired but did have a couple of late nights (11-11.30pm - late for me) and I'm extremely thirsty. I can't get enough water to drink. I normally drink several liters of water every day. I drink no tea or coffee at all. Occasionally have a hot choc or fizzy drink but none this week. Just water, water, water. Still thirsty. Wondering if I ought to go to doc next week.

Enough of that. I did finish my Manos Serena garments and got them in the post today for the deadline on Monday. Photo shoot is next week so it was close and I knew I could not be late. I had help form fantastic knitters Pixie and Anita - huge thank you to you both. i always do my own finishing as I'm a bit fussy about how it's done. It's the control freak in me. LOL. So I spent Thursday evening, all day Friday  and a couple of hours this morning sewing up garments and finishing neck and arm bands. 9am today it was all done and ready to post. I did wonder if I'd make it and I'm so relieved I did.

Here they are all piled up:

Four lacy summery garments knitted in a gorgeous, lightweight, delicate alpaca/cotton blend. Manos Serena will be launched in the UK later this month. It's such a gorgeous yarn. I thought cotton and alpaca blend may be a bit heavy with uneven stitches but this is so lightweight, a fine dk weight with wonderful stitch definition. I loved knitting with it and would love to use it again. I'm even wondering if it'd work on my knitting machine. I have some left to knit a swatch with.

I've felt a bit at a loss knitting wise today. I usually feel like this after a bit deadline. I've lost my knitting mojo a bit. I've been working on a swatch but it's just not grabbing me. I've got a couple of sub deadlines to post on Monday though so I need to get this swatching done. I may fit in a bit of spinning too. My Sweet Georgia Fiber has been taunting me all week. Staring at me, tempting me. I will have to give in to temptation tonight.

Pattern of the week will be posted on Monday. This week's offer, Mountain Peaks, does not finish until Sunday evening, scroll down for details. I'm also planning a big 'Club Parade'. I always forget to show off club yarns, so the other day i dug out all the spare club yarns I could find and took photos. Will take me some time to edit them and do the post. Perhaps tomorrow...