If you are looking for my answers to the trivia for Quidditch Round 3 they are on a page here or follow the link over to the right!

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My partner, Adele,  has received her parcel today (after a little confusion with postcodes, DHL and a small detour to collect…) so I can now post some finished pictures of some more secret knitting to which I’ve alluded and posted some hints over the past couple of weeks - the Hufflepuff Felted Bag -

Ta da!

I am really pleased with the way this turned out, it was knit with some Latvian wool purchased on eBay which felted beautifully. I only put it through the washing machine once, on a 60% wash, so the fabric remained fairly soft although the stitch definition was pretty well gone. I wanted it to be a “squashy” bag not a stiff case…and it came out perfectly.

I added some little touches - a magnetic catch with the fixings neatly covered up on the flap with this wonderful Hufflepuff sew on patch

It was accompanied on it’s journey with lots of goodies picked with Adele in mind and, from her email of thanks, I think I nailed her pretty well! They were mainly picked to be black and yellow to keep the Hufflepuff theme going . I have to admit I really wanted to keep this parcel…

Adele is prefect of Hufflepuff so I have to give her congratulations on her the performance of her House so far in the Quidditch - well done Hufflepuffs.

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Tags: hsks3hufflepuff hogwarts bag felted

I can finally reveal some of the Secret Knitting I’ve been doing over the past few months as one of the parcels I sent off has arrived at it’s destination.

In a few earlier posts I’ve mentioned that I was taking part in a Prayer Shawl Swap and my partner was Karen who has just received her shawl. This swap was a wonderful experience, not just a knitting challenge but a real opportunity to find quiet time to knit and meditate on something for a partner. Sending “good vibes” across the world to help another knitter with a problem.. I feel as though each stitch was somehow imbibed with love and I hope the shawl will provide comfort and warmth in the coming winter months. The idea of Prayer Shawls is explained a little more here.

I started the shawl in Cornwall at my in-laws, sitting in the swing seat looking out over the sea -

I spent quite a lot of time knitting in the “orchard” ie the end of our garden where the apple tree grows and I’ve planted a plum, a cherry and another apple all very small at the moment. I like sitting up at that end as it’s away from the house and temptations to switch on the tv or do chores…

and this is the finished shawl, I love it and hope that Karen does as well. I may have to knit myself one of these… Pattern is Tri-aran-angle by Lizzi Jennings and can be found at Knitty.com

Today I’ve been working on the new sock for the Vintage Socks KAL I moderate, we’re knitting the Child’s French Sock during October & November. I’ve picked some Yarn Yard sock yarn in “Pink Ribbon” for this sock. It seemed particularly appropriate yarn as it is sold in aid of Breast Cancer charities and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

So far I’ve knit the cuff and 5 and a half repeats of the leg, the pattern calls for 11 repeats but I don’t know that I shall do that many. I don’t like the legs of my socks to be very long and it’s already 5″.

Whew, just realised it was over a week ago I posted last and it’s not for lack of things to say…quite the opposite really.

So, when I spoke last we were getting ready for our Annual Barbecue, this has become a fixture in our social calender since we invited people round for a barbecue on our 1st wedding anniversary…actually before that I used to have an annual summer barbecue for my work colleagues years ago when I was single and then a second one for my friends. Since Jon and I got married we’ve carried on inviting our friends and family over at least once during the summer for a big get together.

We have smaller gatherings with just a few friends all through the year but twice a year we invite everyone. One of these events is a pre-Christmas Mince Pie and Mulled Wine party for just our friends, not family. We have this on the last Friday before Christmas as a chance to spend time with our friends before Christmas as we are all focussed on our families over the Christmas period. This event is always very relaxed with maybe 20-30 people, we have parlour games and everyone gets a present from Santa’s Sack - it’s a bit like a bran-tub affair with lots of very silly, cheap presents.

During the summer we have our barbecue which seems to get bigger every year, all our friends and family are invited and we provide meat and veggies for the barbecue with everyone else bringing salads, desserts and drinks. It’s a wonderful day every year, a lot of our friends have children so they are running around the garden playing swingball, quoits, climbing our trees or playing on the swing. It’s open house all day from about 2pm so people come and go depending on the age of chidren who have to be taken home to bed, people working and coming over later in the evening…this year over the course of about 12 hours from 2pm to 2am we had around 30 adults and a dozen children aged 10 months to 9 years old passing through our garden.

Here are some of our photos - click to see them larger or to go to Flickr to see the rest -

As you can see from the pictures the weather was VERY good to us, probably one of the hottest sunniest days we’ve had all year…very similar to the weather 7 years ago

As the sun went down on our barbecue it stayed fairly warm and there were people out in the garden till pretty late, we lit the candles and torches and one of our friends put on a show for us with his “Fire Poi”

As usual, a lovely day and not enough time to talk properly to all our friends.

Since then the weather has turned and it’s been cold and today it’s wet and windy so I think we picked the best day!

I’ve been doing plenty of knitting this week but most of it is secret so I can’t show you much - I’m in several Swaps at the moment and I know my partners are checking blogs so can only tell you this much.

This is a project for the HSKS3 swap

As you can probably guess, my swap partner is in Hufflepuff House!

I’m also working on this for my hubby

ok- so that’s just a bag of yarn I know! From the colours the observant amongst you might see the Harry Potter theme here as well, bought this about a year ago for the Gryffindor colours and it’s been lurking ever since. This is being knit into a top secret project for J (no peeking….)

Non secret knitting has been started -

I finally decided between the three projects I’ve been wanting to start - Rogue, Eris and Arwen - and went for Arwen from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. The yarn was purchased specifically for this project (or whichever of the three I decided on) with an Angel Yarns voucher I received in Secret Pal 3. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to the pattern.

As I’m substituting Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK for the Debbie Bliss specified and this has a lower yardage on the ball band I wasn’t totally sure I would have enough yarn. It was going to be tight anyway so I decided to knit the hem facings with a different yarn, this i an airforce blue Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK I’ve had in the stash for a while. Contrasts well with the baby blue Jaeger.

Also, rather than sew the hem facing up and have to do invisible stitches (and I hate sewing stuff anyway) I used a crochet provisional cast on with waste yarn -

and then when the body was the same length as the hem facing I took out the waste yarn, put the stitches on another needle and then knit together one hem stitch with one body stitch across the row. I think it looks very neat -

I’m knitting this on my Brittany Birch Needles (birthday present from hubby) which I really love using, they are so smooth and so light!

I’ve completed the back of the cardigan and reached the sleeve on the left piece of the cardigan. For anyone not familiar with the pattern it is an unusual construction in just 3 pieces. The back is knit as one piece, then the left front is knit, when the armhole is reached stitches are cast on to form the sleeve, the shaping is done with short rows and the sleeve is then knit along with the body thus knitting up and over the arm. The sleeve stitches are then cast off and the left side of the hood is then knit in one continuous piece with the body. The right side is knit the same.

I’ve knit the left front to the sleeve and currently working my way over the shoulder… I’d forgotten how much I love cables…

More swap news, I recently hosted a swap on swap-bot for Knitting Accessories - send at least 2 knitting accessories (stitch markers, row counters etc) to your partner. My partner was Marie Sierra and she sent me this wonderful parcel

 - includes a skein of Plymouth Encore DK, a box of green tea, a hand-knit wash-cloth, some lavender sachets in this beautiful pink organza bag

and best of all (I actually squealed when I opened it) the book Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Beth Doherty. I have wanted this book for so long, it isn’t sold in this country - I could get it on Amazon but I’d have to pay huge amounts of postage so this was so lovely to receive as a gift

J has already requested the monkey on the left of the picture!!!

That’s about it for now - I’ve just sent off two swap parcels so will write about them when they’ve been received.

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Tags: SP3, HSKS3, barbecue, amigurumi, arwen,

Back in March my DH bought me (amongst other lovely knitty gifts) 6 skeins of Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK in a shade called “Cocoa” - a lovely chocolatey brown. He immediately went into a slump about it declaring “I made a mistake, the colour’s horrible, 70’s sludge brown…and I didn’t buy enough for you to make anything ….”

I, on the other hand, thought the colour was wonderful and immediately decided it needed to be a v-neck slip-over/vest/tank-top (whatever word you use to describe a sleeveless jumper/pullover)…so I started looking for a pattern I liked. I was unable to find anything immediately and so the yarn got stashed but everytime I see a tank-top pattern I dig it out again to see if it would work….I was on the point of designing something myself (never designed a pattern but willing to give it a go) when I saw this post on Roo’s blog.

The pattern is Ms Marigold available to purchase at Zephyr Style

This is it - it’s perfect! So, I hope Roo doesn’t mind me being a copy-cat (they do say that it’s the greatest form of flattery) but I immediately bought the pattern and cast on yesterday evening. This is how far I got by the time I went to bed last night

and here is a close up showing the lovely way the stitches form up - think this is due to the twist in the yarn which is quite pronounced

I am really loving knitting this - it’s one of the most enjoyable knits I’ve had for ages. The yarn is gorgeous, it is so soft and slips through your hands. The pattern seems perfect for it and I managed to do the increases leaning left and right to for this wonderfully neat shoulder section

Doesn’t show brilliantly in that pic - I’ll post a close up later. Overall I am really pleased with it so far, hope my joy continues and I end up with a lovely tank-top to wear to work later in the year over a blouse!

I’ve also signed up to another swap (I just can’t help myself) this one is the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap 3, and I’m not even a Harry Potter fan (I have never read any of the books although I have been to the films accompanying my Potter fan hubby) However from what I’ve read about rounds 1 & 2 on peoples blogs it sounds like a fun swap and whatever I end up making I can gift to one of the Potter mad people I’m surrounded by.

I filled in the sign up form so I hope I’m in, I was “sorted” into Gryffindor

Get Sorted By The Hogwarts Sorting Hat!

which is good because if I’m to receive a sock kit to make something I’m going to gift I’d want it to be Gryffindor.

MS3 was completed some time ago but haven’t had time to block it or blog it - just pinned it out on the floor of the spare room as I am off to a wedding tomorrow and I am thinking of wearing MS3 …mind you the weather has perversely for a Bank Holiday weekend turned hot and sunny so I probably wont need a shawl.

Here I am blocking it

and here is a close up of the “wing”

Finally, non knitting activity in my house mainly involves my new chickens so here they are -

this is Morwenna a white bantam leghorn

this is Demelza a red mottled leghorn

Demelza made a bid for freedom on Thursday night, I was putting them to bed for the evening and I am trying to get them used to being handled by people but she slipped through my hands and ran off into the undergrowth in my garden…which is mainly brambles through which I had to crawl to get her as it was getting dark and I didn’t want her out there with my cat and the foxes…..

and this is Tegen a blue bantam leghorn

Tags: jaeger, merino, ms marigold, chicken, ms3, hogwart

I’m hosting a swap on Swap-bot, if you haven’t heard of this site and love swaps then go check it out. My swap is for knitting accessories/notions - so if you fancy receiving some new stitch-markers, row-counters, tape-measures etc then come and sign up. Full details -

As knitters we know that you can never have too many notions/accessories and we are probably all seduced by cute stitch-markers and tape measures. So this swap is designed to feed that addiction.

# Minimum Requirements

Each person is assigned one partner and must send at least 2 knitting accessories/notions totalling at least £10 (that’s about $20) not including postage.

If you want to send more than 2 then that’s fine but the minimum requirement is 2 items.

If you feel you cannot spend £10 then this isn’t the swap for you.

# The Swap

After signing up you can, if you wish, list the accessories you would like to received in the comments. If you want to leave if up to your partner to pick then that’s fine.

Items to send can be anything from stitch-markers to scissors, row-counters to tape-measures, needle cases to stitch-holders.

You can also specify whether or not you’re happy to receive handmade items. I know lots of us love to make stitch-markers and I’ve seen some wonderful beaded stitch/row counter bracelets. Obviously hand-made items should be of a quality you would be happy to receive yourself and the minimum £10 spend requirement still holds so good materials please!

If there is something you would particularly NOT want to get, for instance if you have tape measures falling out of every drawer and project bag already, then mention that in the comments too.

There will be 2 weeks from sign-up to send your items so that should be plenty of time even if you need to buy things online.

Enjoy! Any questions just contact me.

As well as hosting this swap I have just signed up for a Christmas (yes Christmas!!!) knitting swap and there are still a few places left on it - go visit the Christmas Around the World Knitters Swap - to find out more. If you love Christmas, love knitting and like finding out about different traditions around the world this is the swap for you.

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Tags: swap, swap-bot, accessories, notions

I arrived home from work today to find a parcel on my doorstep - luckily the recent rains have not returned so the package was still safe and dry!

I had already been told by my swap partner that this was on it’s way and had received an email with instructions not to read it until the parcel arrived. I took my parcel out into the garden to enjoy the last of the light….

What a wonderful parcel I found,  there was a fantastic little note with all the goodies and this was the email which Cad Lady had sent (I added in the pictures!)

“the “bio” for your amigurumi:

his journey began in search of a new home after leaving his home planet. politicians and media told him he’d never find a place where people cared about strangers. he didn’t believe them, so he ordered his magic carpet in ostentatious peppermint colors and left. when he landed on our planet he found out about magical pens and papers these Earth people actually still sent real mail to one another! fascinated he collected some examples that seemed to show that these people really DID care about strangers.

moving through the distances he also collected a “space ship” (a rocket-shaped tool for opening sodapop cans without breaking a nail).

nibbling on a comforting foodie treasure that had traveled with him, he found a quiet place to sit and rest and watch this world. there were lots of little square buttons with markings on them (he sat on my keyboard)

and when he wobbled accidentally onto a bigger blank square a view screen bigger than his previous house lit up. he settled back and watched videos until he slept. sometime during that first night he noticed this planet had a moon and it smiled at him. the morning broke with a happy-looking sun peeking from behind a fluffy white cloud.

waddling around, the little alien decided this planet had to be the one he’d been seeking. he rolled up inside his magic carpet and settled in. sometime later he woke up and the trees and grass had changed and he was moving!

a huge hand lifted him and giant eyes twinkled in glee! these people were huge! this one, however, was gentle and put him down on a shelf near one of those big view screens and laid his magic carpet along side him while it looked inside a package. ahe smiled a wise smile. this looked like exactly the sort of place for him to make a new home.

there was obviously a whole lot of caring going on in this world.

the end.”

I showed the alien around his new home - he met the natives

he was a little scared at first but decided they want to be friends. He found a device these humans use for telling time by the sun….they are obviously not as advanced as he first thought….

….however, he decided he’s going to stay for a while.

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Tags: swapbotswap amigurumi

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

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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….but I still don’t know who you are!!!

On a day when I needed some cheering up another parcel arrives from my wonderful pal in SP10 - here it is

As the weather here has finally decided it’s summer and after weeks and weeks and weeks of rain today the sun is out, so I decided to take my parcel out into the garden. After all- it has travelled to me all the way from Fort Lauderdale in the Sunshine state so it probably would like a bit of sunshine to make it feel at home right?

The first thing I saw was - pink!

and then - can you believe it? - this!!!

How cool is that! What a greeting!!! So this wonderful box

opens up to reveal this

Dark chocolate (my favourite) and the tea-cup is so fantastic it has a little motto printed around the inside of the rim “simplici.tea - n. the appreciation of life’s little moments while drinking tea”, that is sooo me. You’ve got me nailed SP

Next out of the box was a postcard, a fantastic Florida/Finding Nemo fridge magnet and all these gorgeous little pink parcels

which opened up to become this

Where do I start? Well - from the left: Fort Lauderdale postcard, 2 skeins of Knit Picks “Bare” superwash wool in Natural and loads of Kool Aid to dye it with (the Knit Picks yarn is sooo soft), a fridge magnet with Dory saying “hellooooooooo there from Florida” (so cute and I love Finding Nemo), tea-cup & chocolate, pattern for Chuck’s Cabled Sock by Eunny Jang (been drooling over these for a long time), Knitting on the Road (this book has been on my wishlist for such a long time), Skein of superwash merino from Wooly Boully “Neopolitan” (good enough to eat), and the wonderful box with the “Fabulous” key chain.

The one thing that wasn’t in here? My SP’s name - who are you????? I love you!!! Thank you so much.

Off to make a cup of tea, eat chocolate and sit in the garden flicking through Knitting on the Road….

Update: She has revealed herself as Sarah from Florida check her blog!!!

technorati tags:SP10, swap

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