On The Needles

It feels like it's been raining for months. But this week we finally had some cold, sunny weather. I love cold, sunny days in the winter. I can wrap up warm and go out and do stuff. I don't think we've been out on our bikes since last August. Last autumn I was away a lot - 6 weekends in total. The weekends we were home, we were either busy or it rained. So on Saturday, the weather forecast was good but cold. We wrapped up warm and headed to the Camel Trail with our bikes. It was quite muddy but we still enjoyed it. I thought the first time on the bike in so many months would make it feel like hard work but it didn't. We did our usual route from Bodmin to Wenford Bridge and, although we may have gone a bit slower than usual, I felt great. Because walking aggravates my upper back pain, but cycling doesn't (it can aggravate my shoulders so I do need to be a bit careful), it gives me so much freedom to enjoy the lovely countryside where we live.

I thought it was a while since I've done a 'what's on my needles' update. I cast on for a new pair of sparkly Opal rainbow socks. I'm working these from the top down and they'll be my 'on the go' knitting. I got halfway down the leg before I had to put it aside for a few days to concentrate on a pair of deadline socks.

I can't show you the front of these socks as that's where the pattern detail is. But these are my deadline socks. I had a sample knitter lined up for these socks but the yarn only arrived last week and they're due end of this week so I decided to knit these myself. I cast on last Wednesday evening and I've been knitting on them most of the time. I have taken a few breaks to work on a couple of other projects though. At the moment I've only got the afterthought heels to go and I'll finish those today.

I've done a little bit of knitting on my Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal poncho since I took this photo. I've started the next colour. Once my deadline socks are done, I'll be back to focusing on this poncho as I'd really like to finish it by next week.

I'm hosting a Crescent Bay knitalong (KAL) in my Ravelry group at the moment. We officially started on Friday and any finished projects posted by 15 February will go in a prize draw. I'll be putting together the prizes this week and post details in the 'Info & Chat' thread. If you fancy knitting Crescent Bay, why not join us? There's a discount on the pattern, you can find the details in the 'Info & Chat' thread. If you post progress photos on social media please use the tag #crescentbayKAL so other participants can find it.

If you can't get hold of the gorgeous Caterpillargreen yarn I knitted the original in, choose something from your stash. I decided to join in and knit a new version to use for display at shows. I'm using three colours of Opal Uni. Grey alternated with pink and green. I'll make sure I post regular progress photos - follow me on Instagram. My aim is to work on this a little bit each day. Maybe a wedge a day.

I am waiting for yarn for a deadline project which is due next week. I did have sample knitter lined up for this but because the yarn is late, I'll probably have to knit it myself and I'll have to knit as fast as I can, which means all these projects will probably be put on hold for a few days.

What's on your needles this week? Are you joining the Crescent Bay KAL?

Would you like weekly news from the YarnAddict Studio as well as exclusive subscriber offers?

Subscribe to the YarnAddict News