Luxury Knitting

I feel like I've been in a bit of a bubble for the last week. Last week I spent most of my time frantically knitting on a sweater for a tight deadline. I finally finished it this morning about half an hour before I had to leave for the post office. I have sneaked the odd round on my qiviut cowl but apart from that for the last 10 days it's been full-time deadline knitting.

Now that deadline is done, I've got a few days before I need to start my new deadline project which is a crochet design. I've not crocheted for a while now so I'm looking forward to it. I've also got lots of new designs to swatch for. But I will find time to work on two very special projects.

Last week I got a small skein of Arctic Qiviut from Spin A Yarn. It was supposed to be 29gr but when I weighed it it weighed 35gr. That was a very nice surprise. I knitted some bright green wrist warmers when I went to London and I'm already getting a lot of wear out of them. When I saw this bright green qiviut/cashmere/baby alpaca blend I thought it would be perfect for a matching cowl. I cast on in Oxford on Friday and I did a few rounds in the hotel Friday night. Now I can focus on this design a bit more.

One of the most exciting yarns i got at Alexandra Palace was a skein of bison/silk from the Buffalo Wool Co. I'm making a little shawlette and I'm loving it. It's so soft and luxurious but not quite as luxurious as the qiviut.

I'm keen to get both of these designs published in November. But we'll see how it goes. If I get a sudden surge of design commissions my priorities may change.

We had a busy weekend. On Friday we left early for Oxford and arrived at lunchtime. We dropped the car off and hopped on the park & ride bus into Oxford and spent the afternoon visiting a museum, shopping and walking around Oxford. The weather wasn't great. It got colder and colder during the afternoon and we had some rain on and off but I still enjoyed it.

On Saturday I was teaching 'Continental Knitting with Norwegian purl' at Purlescence. This was my third workshop at Purlescence and several of the 15 participants have attended all three workshops and it was great to see them again and meet several new ladies too. I think we all had a great day.

I'll be back at Purlescence in March to teach a Steeking workshop. The Steeking workshop is a new one for  2013. If you're a LYS owner, run a knitting group or guild and would like me to come and teach in your area, do get in touch.