Did you miss me? Did you notice I’d even gone? DH and I just spent 4 days with my parents in Robin Hoods Bay on the North Yorkshire Coast. We went to meet my parents as they finished the Coast to Coast walk from St Bees in Cumbria on the West Coast of England to finish nearly 200 miles later on the East Coast in Robin Hoods Bay.
This is them dipping their feet in the sea at Robin Hoods Bay as they finished

and at the official end at the Bay Hotel on the slipway

As you can see the weather wasn’t very good as they finished, raining for the last 2 miles which we walked with them! However, the rest of the weekend was sunny and dry, if a bit cold for July so we paddled

explored rock pools

and enjoyed a pint (or two!)

I did some knitting sitting at this pub (the Bay Hotel in Robin Hoods Bay) and managed to complete the latest clue (2 clues?) of MS3. Will pin it out later and get some photos.

We also visited Whitby where I discovered a wonderful shop called “Bobbins” in the old Wesleyan Hall. It calls itself the “Knitters Paradise” and on fist entering gives the impression it’s a craft fair with lots of stalls but it is actually just one shop with Colinette, Noro, Fisherman’s Ganseys and the yarn to make them, old bobbins and antiques, patterns, lots of yarn…..DH gave me a budget before I went in so I only bought…

… 5 skeins of Colinette Point 5 “Mardi Gras”

….a pack of 10 balls of Noro Silk Garden

…and two balls of Regia Cotton

…after Whitby (oh, here’s a picture of Whitby Abbey)

we drove further along the coast to Staithes where the lifeboat was just coming in from a call out

and where I found an Arts and Crafts exhibition in the church hall with some wonderful felting and spinning along with lots of fleece and drop spindles (very nearly bought one to try) and some hand dyed wool which was so cheap I couldn’t resist -

this is dyed by Wheeldale Woolcrafts who use natural dyes and mordants and have some great stuff on their website.

Back home now, very tired from all the driving but we had a lovely break

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Tags: yorkshireseaside noro colinette

I got a parcel today - my Magic Yarn Ball all the way from Nashville TN….I took it out into the garden to open

Underneath the pink tissue was this

It’s Crystal Palace Panda - a yarn I’ve been dying to try for ages and the colour “Violets” is just lovely. So I started to unwind and all these goodies fell out

The little monkey key-ring is probably my favourite “Official Chocolate Taster” - that’s me!

and my swap partner, Tamelyn, is obviously a mind reader as she sent a Chibi needle set. I “misplaced” mine about 10 days ago, it’s most likely lurking in a project bag somewhere but blowed if I can find it…so now I have a replacement. I think I need to tie this to my notions case or something….

I also really like the nail file which comes from Tamelyns LYS “Haus of Yarn” in Nashville and has a great knitting design on it

The other things I got were a teabag with hibiscus (haven’t had hibiscus tea since I went to Egypt so this will be a lovely reminder), a pot of J R Watkins Apothecary Red Clover Hand & Cuticle Salve (this smells gorgeous and feels wonderful, it’s a perfect size to fit in my knitting notions case as well), Clover Needle Holders shaped like little jumpers (very useful - off to fit them around my dpns right now), a sachet of Soak in flora and a lovely pearly button.
Big Thanks and Hugs to Tamelyn!! Now I have to look for something to knit with the Panda - Tamelyn tells me there’s a ball and a half so ca 250yds….hmmmmm what can I do with that???

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Tags: magic, yarn, ball, swapbot, swap, panda, bamboo

WOOOHOOOO - I got my invite to Ravelry!!!! So, if I’m absent over the next few days/weeks/months then I’m busy adding stash/projects etc.

I’m fast coming to the conclusion that all knitters are slightly Obsessive/Compulsive…..

So if you’re on ravelry just look for wendyswoolies and say “Hi”

technorati tags:ravelry

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Yes, today I have gone blogging mad! I’ve been a bit lax recently with my blogging so today you get a huge catch-up. I thought I’d share something other than knitting with you today so here it is.

My parents are spending a little over 2 weeks walking the 191.5 miles of the Coast to Coast path from St Bees on the Irish Sea coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on England’s north-eastern shore.  This long distance path was devised in the 1970’s by the legenday fell walker & guide book writer, Alfred Wainwright as a testing route from one side of Northern England to the other.

Mum and Dad headed North on Tuesday and set out from St Bees on Wednesday morning, I got a text from mum mid-afternoon Wednesday which said “10 miles done, only 180 to go”. Since then they have travelled a further 54 miles and today they reached Shap on the eastern edge of the English Lake District.

So far they’ve walked

Wednesday - St Bees to Ennerdale 14 miles

Thursday - Ennerdale to Stonethwaite 14 miles

Friday - Stonethwaite to Grasmere 9.5 miles

Saturday - Grasmere to Patterdale 10 miles

Sunday - Patterdale to Shap 16 miles

tomorrow they walk from Shap to Kirby Stephen, a distance of 21 miles, a long day but they are out of the hills so the terrain should be easier. They then have a day off on Tuesday in Kirby Stephen.

Today they walked over the highest point in the walk, Kidsty Pike, at 780m. Mum called me from there around lunchtime today to tell me they were sitting with their packed lunch looking at a wonderful view (I felt very jealous!)

I’ll keep you updated with their ongoing progress, J and I are going up to Robin Hoods Bay on the 26th July to meet them as they finish and spend a weekend there with them. It’s the day after mum’s birthday so it will be a double celebration.

I should mention that both my parents are past retirement age but regularly walk (and mum runs marathons) so this isn’t such a mad enterprise as it might sound.

Finally something which is almost knitting content, like many of you good readers out there, I’ve signed up for Ravelry but have yet to receive my invite. Thanks to knitstress I now know there is an online “where am I in the queue” at www.ravelry.com/antsy/check and having checked -

• You signed up on May 28, 2007
• You are #5725 on the list.
• 193 people are ahead of you in line.
• 10654 people are behind you in line.
• 33% of the list has been invited

Knitstress is my near-neighbour in the queue at #5738 so I’ll be popping down to share a bottle of wine if someone will hold my place for me……

technorati tags:coasttocoast, ravelry

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I spent some time this weekend fixing up the new design on my blog (do you like it?) and tidying up some of the pages.

I’ve added some additional items on the UK/US translation page (crochet hooks and terms) as several people had requested these and I updated my 2007 Finished Objects page. Whilst I was doing this last I realised that I had neglected to blog about the final result of two of my projects and so here they are.

The completed and blocked Melon Pattern Shawl and Clapotis.

The Melon Pattern shawl was knit as a wedding gift and the giftee was really pleased with it so that’s good! Here it is in the garden before it was gifted -

and here are some close-ups

I really love how this turned out and I still have three skeins of this yarn left so I’m planning to knit a shawl for myself.

The Clapotis was knit with the yarn I dyed with Kool-Aid  here is the yarn skeined

wound into a ball

knit up into Clapotis

and blocked

with a close-up

I love the way this turned out and I’m so excited that I took a skein of undyed yarn and turned it into this!!!

technorati tags:koolaid, lace, knit, clapotis, shawl, stole, scarf

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I spent this afternoon watching the Tour de France and knitting up clue 3 of the Mystery Stole - Simpson was helping me

here he’s watching the excitement as Linus Gerdemann went on his break up the Col de Colombiere

(not as exciting as it would have been watching British rider Bradley Wiggins on his 190km break yesterday…except I was at work grumble, grumble, grumble)

Combining two of my loves - knitting and cycling - fantastic.

Here is the outcome of my efforts

I’m really enjoying this KAL and getting the clues each week is very exciting. Knitting something when you don’t know what the finished product will look like is really good fun.

technorati tags:MS3, Knitalong, knitting, lace

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To be totally honest, I dont remember…..it’s like asking “When did you learn to read?” it’s one of those things that I’ve been doing so long that I don’t remember anymore when I first learnt.

I do remember sitting with my Nan when I was about 6 or 7 and her showing me both knitting and crochet (I could never get the hang of crochet back then!), I imagine that even before then I had probably used a knitting doll to do “French Knitting” or what I would call an i-cord these days

When I was growing up knitting was just one of a hundred crafts that I tried my hand at though. I was fascinated by learning new crafts, I would go to craft fairs with my mum where we would see corn-dollies, or macrame, or needlepoint and we’d look at them, consider buying things and then my mum would say “You could make that” so we’d go back home and get a book from the library, buy some materials and I would “make that”.

Over the years I tried everything - macrame, knitting, painting, scraperboard, calligraphy, corn-dollies….my Christmas and Birthday presents would invariably include “something to make”. I remember receiving a Spears Weaving Loom, a soap making kit, a kit to make cameo jewellery, a Red Indian (sorry not very PC these days) Bead loom (to make headbands and belts) and on one occasion I vividly remember receiving this for my birthday -

It was my sewing basket for years and has faded quite a lot! I definitely got this when I was about 6, I know I was at Infant School as we used to have birthday “show and tell” at infant school where you were allowed to bring into school your favourite 2 or 3 birthday presents. On this birthday I remember I took this sewing basket (which I seem to remember came filled with sewing articles) and a book “Down the Bright Stream” by BB. At the time I was probably knitting as well as sewing.

As I got older I started to get more interested in knitting to actually produce clothes for myself. When I was in my teens with only a limited clothes allowance from my parents I used to make a lot of my own clothes either sewn on my mums sewing machine or knitted by myself. At the age of 16 or 17 my “best outfit” consisted a black wool pencil skirt and white blouse with batwing sleeves and a huge square “sailor” collar and this cardigan which I knit in black

OK so that outfit clearly dates me as being a teenager slap bang in the Eighties!!! This may have been one of the first large garments that I knit for myself although I remember much earlier - aged 11 or 12 - the fashion was for jumpers with pictures on the front (remember that!). I really wanted a jumper which had the Willow Pattern (as in china) on the front and my mum duly got the pattern and started knitting. For some reason she gave up on it and I ended up finishing it. I have a very clear memory of standing in our LYS with my mum buying something and the ladies in the shop mentioning my jumper, mum proudly told them I’d knitted a lot of it myself and then I had to stand there whilst the ladies in the shop exclaimed over how neat my stitching was!

The oldest knitted item which I still have would probably have to be this

I can date this exactly as I was knitting it when I started at University in 1997. The day my parents dropped me off at the house in which I’d rented a room there was nobody else there. They stayed with me for a while but then had to get home themselves so left me alone in the house. A few weeks earlier my parents had been on holiday in the Lake District and my mum had seen someone selling hand-spun, hand-dyed wool and bought a huge quantity of rainbow coloured mohair for me. I had this with me along with a pattern and so being in a house alone I settled down in the lounge with the knitting needles….which is where my housemates found me when they arrived back.

Imagine yourself as an 18 year old away from home at University set for fun arriving at the house you were going to be living in to find a girl you didn’t know but were going to have to share a house with sitting …knitting! They told me later they were seriously worried about who they’d been lumbered with!

Knitting and sewing have always been part of my life, at various times they have dropped into the background or been more important but they’re always there somewhere in the fabric of my life. As a child it was all about learning something new, as a teenager it was practical - making clothes cheaper than I could buy them, and now as an adult it’s again the creative process and learning new techniques. This would explain why I have so many UFO’s, I love trying something new whether it be a new yarn, a new technique or a new garment type but once I’ve learnt it I lose interest and so the item doesn’t get finished as I want to learn the next new thing….

Last year it was socks, they were my new thing and I wanted to try everything - toe-up, toe-down, lace, cabled, felted - this year it seems like it’s lace

…I’ve always knit lace to a certain extent. Over the past 10 years I’ve knit about 10 baby shawls for friends new babies, now I’m branching out into mohair, silk, beads…..So, when did you learn to knit? What was the first thing you knit? Bring it on!!

technorati tags:sockittome, swap, knitting

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Seems like ages since I’ve blogged - so many other things happening…..anyway here’s what’s been happening on the knitting front

First, more progress on the Mystery Stole - clue 2 was out last Friday and I knitted it up over the weekend

I do like the way this is turning out although I’m a little annoyed that though the materials list originally posted stated 1200 yards of yarn apparantly that was then amended to 800 which I didn’t know. So I could have used the cobweb mohair I first wanted to use after all….never mind, if it turns out well perhaps I’ll knit another….or I find another lace project for the mohair…

Here’s a close up of the motif in the centre of the point of the stole with the beads

Next up is Nigel the Nautiloid - he started out like this

then grew to this

and finally he looks like this

very silly I think you’ll agree? The pattern is from knitty.com, knit on 2.75mm Brittany Birch dpns using odds and ends of wool from one of the huge bags I inherited from my Grandma. He’s a possible for an amigurumi/stuffie swap I signed up for at swap-bot. There are several themes you have to work to and one which my partner said she liked was “Festival of the Sea” which he fits nicely.

I’m working on a crochet amigurumi mermaid as well so depending how that turns out I’ll choose which to send.

Finally, I just cast on another lace project, this is a scarf for my mum’s birthday. Pattern is from Victorian Lace Today, yarn is 2ply silk/cashmere from Posh Yarn in Kelpie, knit on 4.5mm bamboo Addi circular.

The scarf is knit with two end borders and a long middle section. This is the first border which you knit across so the points on the left will form the end of the scarf and the edge on the right will have stitches picked up to start knitting up the main section of the scarf.

My mum wears a lot of hand-painted silk and lacey scarves with jackets and tops so I think she’ll like this. Her birthday is the 25th July so I should get finished - she and my dad just started out on the Coast to Coast walk today and will finish on the 26th July. The walk is 190 miles across the North of England walking from St Bees Head on the West coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the East. I should point out that my family are all hill walkers and we spent all our holidays as children walking in Yorkshire or Wales or the Lake District (and still a lot of holidays now!) Mum and Dad walk at least once a week locally and visit the Lake District a couple of times a year and have done several long distance walks - Hadrians Wall a  few years ago and the Cumbria Way with J and I about 4 years ago.

We’re going to meet them in Robin Hoods Bay on the 26th so we’re getting a weekend away then.

That’s about all I have time for right now - lots more things I should blog about so will post again very soon

technorati tags:amigurumi, nautiloid, lace, MS3, mystery, stole, kal, Knitalong, knitting, poshyarn

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Having just finished with SP10 (well, I’m still waiting to hear that my last parcel arrived with my swap partner) I’ve signed up for another swap which starts today. It’s Sock It To Me and yes, it involves socks!

The questionnaire has been posted in my Swap Questionnaire page (link on the side bar at the left there)

Also, now I know who my gifter was in SP10 I’ve been checking her blog and found this great MEME so I thought I’d give it a go.

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?



1. Open your mp3 library

2. Put it on shuffle.

3. Press Play.

4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.

5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.

6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool.

7. Don’t skip songs.



My Movie:

01. Opening credits: Raised on Robbery - Joni Mitchell

02. Waking up: The Skins - Scissor Sisters (much too upbeat for me first thing in the morning…me waking up would be the Jaws theme or some sort of Requiem Mass)

03. First day of school: Everybody Wants the Same Thing - Scissor Sisters

04. Fight song: A Whisper -Coldplay (quite a laid back fight then….perhaps in slow-motion?)

05. Breaking up: You’re Tender And You’re Tired - Manic Street Preachers

06. Happiness: Saturday Night - Kaiser Chiefs (that works!!)

07. Life’s okay: Octopus’s Garden - The Beatles

08. Mental breakdown: Return to Oz - Scissor Sisters

09. Driving: Tsunami - Manic Street Preachers

10. Flashback: New Kid in Town - Eagles

11. Getting back together: Music is The Victim - Scissor Sisters

12. Wedding song: Drops of Jupiter - Train

13. Birth of first child: So Real - Jeff Buckley

14. Final battle scene: Sure and Simple Time - Alfie

15. Death scene: Less Than A Pearl - Enya

16. Funeral song: Another Sunny Day - Belle and Sebastian

17. End credits: Bold Riley - Kate Rusby





No idea why there’s so much Scissor Sisters here, don’t actually have an MP3 or iPod so this was the Party Shuffle in iTunes on my computer and the library for that is only the CDs I’ve got round to burning onto the computer.

technorati tags:Sockittome, meme

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Long time readers of my blog may remember my rant back in February about Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere coming up short? Well, it’s happened again.

Back when I bought the Pure Cashmere I also bought a pack of 10 50g balls of Debbie Bliss Merino DK also in a pillar box red (I was having a red phase) in order to knit myself a bright red cardigan. It sat in the stash for a while waiting for a pattern until I found this cardigan pattern

from Debbie Bliss book Cashmerino DK printed in the Dec issue of Simply Knitting. I decided it would be perfect for my red wool and although the stated yarn for the pattern was Cashmerino DK I checked the Merino DK I had and it stated the same tension and the same yardage per ball. The smallest size shown was 10/12 and required 10 balls - exactly what I had, so I cast on.

I completed the back and the fronts some time ago, I blogged about my progress back in March

and again in May

and was really pleased with how it was turning out. However, it then got shelved for a while as other projects took priority. This week I dug it back out to complete it as I only had the sleeves, the collar and the finishing to do.

The first sleeve knitted up very quickly and I got a lot of it done at knitting group on Monday night. That sleeve was completed yesterday evening which is when I got something of a disappointing surprise.

I checked the bag to get the remaining balls of yarn out to find that there was only one left, I had part of a ball left after casting off on the first sleeve and one unstarted ball and that was it with still one sleeve, the collar and sewing up to do.

Checking the first sleeve I had used the remainder of one ball, another full ball and the start of one more ball - so probably the best part of two balls and yet I only had one ball left. With my previous experience with Debbie Bliss yarn being short on yardage my heart sank…

Here is where I’ve got to on sleeve two with the yarn I had left on my penultimate ball

I have knitted to exactly where I started a new ball on the first sleeve and as you can see I only have about enough yarn to knit one more row. (Remember, I only have one ball left out of my 10). As you can see from the first, completed, sleeve I joined in another ball just before the start of the top shaping so from where I am now a full ball is going to take me to the start of the top shaping and that’s it….I am going to be left with the top shaping, the collar and the finishing to be done and no yarn left.

I am so angry I just can’t tell you - and this problem reminded me that I had the previous problem with the Pure Cashmere and that I had never had that resolved. To remind everyone, I bought 4 very expensive 25g skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere and the Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere pattern book, started knitting a hat which should take 2 skeins and ran out before I even reached the top shaping.

I checked my tension, checked the pattern and eventually measured the skeins and found that neither were even 37 metres long even though the ball band states 45m. This might not sound like much but it’s an 18% discrepancy and remember this yarn was £28 including postage.

I had tried to contact the UK distributors for Debbie Bliss yarns, Designer Yarns Ltd and had sent at least 4 emails and a contact via their website at the end of Feb beginning of March and got absolutely no response. Nil, nada, zip.

Can you believe that? I also left a telephone message back in March - still no response. And now I seem to have the same issue with another Debbie Bliss yarn.

I tried Debbie Bliss’ own website, can you believe that there is no contact information on there at all? No email, address or even a contact form. I tried the Designer Yarns online web contact form again and I’m waiting to here back…..

I remembered that when I discovered the Cashmere shortage I had found someone else online complaining of short yardage but wondered if there were other Debbie Bliss yarns that other people had found coming up short.

Well, after a brief search I came across this posting on a forum where someone found Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed DK came up short…….

…I’ll let you know what happens but meantime I have a cardigan with only one and a half sleeves, reminds me of that fairytale about the princes who were turned into geese….

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