…to have so many people out there who are so generous. I’ve had lots of people wishing me well with the adoption and this week I received 2 swap parcels, so here’s what I got.

Firstly I got my parcel in the Sock it to Me swap, Laura turned out to be my spoiler and she really did spoil me -

She sent me a bag made from Recycled Plastic Bottles and a bar of Fair Trade Chocolate - both of which meet with my green principles. A set of clover bamboo dpns and a skein of beautiful Knit Picks Gossamer “Sweet Peas” a lovely little notebook, 2 sachets of Eucalan (never had this before!), a little tin of Burts Bees cuticle cream and a little packet of gorgeous wooden beads in blues & turquoises which comes with a cord and the finndings to make a necklace.

Laura must have been lurking around on my blog because the beads match perfectly with my favourite dress which I was wearing at my bbq!

Finally, and best of all, the socks! Here they are in their little wrapper

and here they are on my feet, which they fit perfectly

The pattern is Badcaul by Anna Bell and they were knit with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino which is so soft it’s not true!

Thanks so much Laura.

The second parcel arrived today and was from a Swap-bot swap “Quick Stuff Swap” to send each of two partners something from their profile. Here’s my package -

Nicole sent me some really cute cookie cutters and stencils for decorating cookies/cupcakes with a Halloween theme - my friend Tracey is coming to visit with her two girls just before Christmas so I foresee a baking session!

On the knitting front I managed to complete another of my many and various UFO’s..this was an old one that had been completely knit and just needed sewing up. I spent most of yesterday doing that and got it from UFO to FO!

This is the “Alpaca Bolero” from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss, yarn is some BabySoft 4ply I bought sometime ago on eBay. I already knit another bolero as a baby present and still have about 3 full 100g balls left.

I’ve also been working on this

this was the “secret knitting” alluded to in a previous post which is unfortunately no longer secret. It’s a Gryffindor Scarf for J from Charmed Knits. Normally J doesn’t notice anything going on around him, I organised a surprise party for his 30th birthday right in front of him and he didn’t suspect a thing. I had conversations about it with him in the room. So I’d been knitting this and hiding it when he came in the room, usually not exactly “hiding” so much as putting it on the sofa next to me! Except a couple of days ago he finally notice it…oh well - no longer a surprise.

It’s taking for ever to knit as it’s very boring 1×1 rib with just the changes of colour every 30 rows for the trapped bars. It’s Merino Wool though so very soft and is knitting up really thick and I think it will be a lovely warm scarf for J to wear on his commute over the winter.

It finally feels like autumn around here this week, today it was damp and misty as I drove to work and I’ve been turning to “autumn things” …I’ll post about them later!

Many of you will have Nancy Bush’s wonderful book “Knitting Vintage Socks” I’m sure. When I first began knitting socks this was the first pattern book I bought and it’s been invaluable. As well as the wonderful patterns there is a large section at the start of the book in which she gives instructions for several different heel and toe styles, enabling you to alter the patterns or create your own.

Shortly after getting the book I discovered a knitalong on yahoo groups for the patterns in the book and joined up to motivate myself to try some of the patterns I might not otherwise do. Litle way down the line and the former moderator bowed out and I took over. The group is going strong and the poll for our next sock to knit during October & November had 53 people voting. The majority vote was for the Child’s French Sock so that’s what we’re now knitting for the next two months.

Several people in the group have recently suggested to me that it would be lovely to organise a swap for the group. I cogitated on this idea for a while, sounded out the group, gathered some ideas and today I’ve launched my very first swap as a host !

The Knitting Vintage Socks Swap blog is up and running and waiting for swappers to sign up.

The basic idea is we each knit a pair of socks from the aforementioned book and send them to our swap partner. At the moment I’m proposing a secret swap with each swapper having a partner they are sending to and a different partner sending to them..but we’ll see how it goes and how many people sign up.

It’s quite scary launching these things, it’s a bit like hosting a party. You send out the invites and buy in all the drink and then panic in case nobody turns up and your left with yourself and a pile of chips and dips feeling lonely.

My hubby J just recently launched a blog-idea-challeng-thing (not sure how to describe it), it’s called BlogFriday (go check it out). Each week a word is suggested on the site and everyone has until the following Friday to put a post on their own blog relating to that word and then link to it on BlogFriday. When he launched it he went through the “nobody will come” angst but, as with all these things, the word spreads and it starts feeding itself. It’s been interesting seeing the different interpretations from just one suggested word.

it’s a good challenge to get yourself posting on your own blog and quite a good creative tool - take a random word and create something.

Anyway, if any of you fancy signing up for a swap and giving and receiving a pair of hand-made socks then get yourselves over to the Knitting Vintage Socks Swap. Sign-ups will be open until the end of October, matches sent out by 7th November (I hope) and then swap parcels to be sent by 7th Jan 2008 so there will be plenty of knitting time even with Christmas!

Oh, and if anyone has any comments/suggestions about the swap then please let me know.

I was just looking around on Ravelry at groups and spotted one for WOT (for those not in “the know”, WOT refers to the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan), I was intrigued so went to have a look and found a post telling me that Robert Jordan had died….I was shocked and went racing off to Google to check.

It’s true, James O Rigney who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan passed away on 16th September in Charleston SC. I felt so sad….I had never met this man, never spoken to him or corresponded with him but his passing has touched me because his writing touched me.

The Wheel of Time is a series of fantasy books with a huge worldwide following (just go Google it and you’ll see)…now I know fantasy books do seem to attract big cult followings but these books justified it. The world which Robert Jordan created and the people who inhabited it were incredibly real (even if they were full of magic and Ogiers and the One Power) and the story that unfolded was one which held the reader and swept them along.

I was given the first WOT book, The Eye of the World, as a Christmas present in 1993 by my then boyfriend. We spent that Christmas with his parents and family at their home in Essex, it was the first time I’d spent any time with his family and I spent almost the entire time reading the book finishing it by the end of Boxing Day. I went out the week after Christmas and bought the next two books in the series - I think at that time there were 5 published and I read them all over the first few months in 2004. I then had to wait for the 6th book to come out and my boyfriend bought that for me the next Christmas.

The next books came out at 2 or 3 year intervals and the wait each time was interminable. The final book, Knife of Dreams, was published at the end of 2005 and my husband bought it for me for Christmas. As it had been nearly 2 years since the previous book and 12 years since I’d read the first I decided to re-read the entire series before reading book 11 which I did over several months in 2006.

Whilst talking with a colleague at work about books I mentioned them to him, he’s a David Eddings fan (as am I) but had never heard of WOT so I lent him Book 1. He was hooked, went out and bought the whole series and read them in a few weeks. We’ve talked about them a lot and speculated on how the 12th, and final, book would end.

Robert Jordan has been ill for a long time and was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, amyloidosis, in 2006. WIth that knowledge he had commited most of the final book to word processor or audio tape and disclosed the story to his wife and his cousin. They plan to publish the book as per his wishes.

From a knitters viewpoint the books provide some inspiration, the most powerful society in the WOT world are the Aes Sedai - an order of women who weild the “One Power”. When a woman is made a full member of the Aes Sedai she is said to “attain the shawl” these shawls are worn on formal occasions and have a coloured fringe indicating which of the 7 sects, or Ajahs, she belongs to. I think each shawl is different - whether the Aes Sedai make or buy them is not clear…or whether they are woven, knit, crocheted….I always imagined a light, silky shawl with a very long fringe….I may have to design something…..

Also, women who have not “attained the shawl” for some reason are cast out and forbidden from weilding the One Power, others run away and go into hiding. These women form a secret society known as the Kin the leading council of the Kin is called the Knitting Circle.

So I think in tribute to Robert Jordan I’m off to design my very first knitting pattern - a lace shawl for an Aes Sedai…..may have to re-read again for ideas.

With regards to his family and friends, he will be missed by us all even those, like me, who never met him.

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Tags: WOT, wheel of time, robert jordan,

OK, this sounded like such a lovely idea. I love knitting things, I love gifting things and I love getting parcels in the post so here’s how it works.

I’ve joined in this through Devin’s blog, Devin is my house prefect for HSKS3 and she posted about this a little while ago and I decided I wanted to join in.

It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on.

In this case, I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So, if you would like to be one of the three people I gift to and would like to pay-it-forward by gifting to three others then just leave a comment. The gift doesn’t have to be knitted, just hand-made by you.

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Tags: pay-it-forward, exchange, knit, gift

Sorry for the break…been on hols in Cornwall so here is a catch up post.

Before we went away my chicken ark arrived and had to be put together

and painted

Then we packed up the car and headed for Cornwall on Saturday morning. We were staying with Js parents in Talland Bay but on Saturday night we were invited to a party being thrown by a friend of our pal Tracey (FairyCross). It was a “tent party” - meaning we were all staying over in tents in Steve’s garden on the night of the party. There are plenty of embarrassing photos on flickr and here are some of my favourites

The host himself -

Some rather drunk people -

Some VERY drunk people dancing (I’m told) to Grandma’s Feather Bed by John Denver - don’t ask it’s safer not to know -

Katy playing DS the next morning -

Pretty pictures of Cornish scenery

I did some reading -

and I did some knitting -

I am in a prayer-shawl swap and started my shawl whilst in Cornwall as I was in a lovely relaxing setting where I could meditate on the shawl. Here I’m knitting in the swing seat at my in-laws looking at this view  -

that’s the sea at Talland Bay.

Arrived back home this afternoon having visited Tracey on the way to collect the chickens which her hubby was letting me have (he breeds them) so when we got home we showed them their new home

and introduced Simpson to his new family members

this is Morwenna - she is a white leghorn and is already proving to be the bossiest and the bravest of the three. The other two are Tegen and Demelza.

Will write a proper post tomorrow

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Tags: chickenark cornwall party

Books!

Whilst making a cup of tea this morning and talking with J we were running through the various things that B could stand for in my life…it’s the first letter of our surname but as that’s my married name and I’ve only had it for 6 of my 38 years I don’t really think of it as “mine” yet….J threw out some rather silly suggestions “bananas!”….I pondered Bristol for a while (it’s where I went to University) before realising the obivous….Books!

Books have always been a huge part of my life..I learnt to read very early in my life probably because my parents both read and I grew up in a house full of books. Even now if I enter a house that doesn’t have any books on show it doesn’t feel like a home. When I was very small I was constantly asking my parents “what does that say” going shopping with me must have been very hard work with me demanding to read every sign and label!

As I got older books were an absolute neccessity - in the house I grew up in the bedroom doors had little “windows” above them - I guess to let light into the landing and stairs - and my brothers and I would sneak out of bed to turn on the light on the landing so that we could read in bed from the light coming through. This way we figured our parents wouldn’t know who was to blame and so couldn’t punish any one of us, whereas if we turned on our bedroom light they would know!

My bedroom in the house we grew up in was tiny - just room for a bed and a wardrobe and that was it - literally. It must have been about 7′ x 5′ as there was about a foot at the end of the bed and just room to open the door next to the bed! However I had a book shelf squeezed in at the end of the bed and my dad built me some wall-fixed shelves. I still have all my childhood books- this is one of my problems with books, I can’t get rid of them.

When I first met J I was really pleased to find that he had 3 floor standing huge bookshelves full of books. This became a problem when we got married and bought our house - we had so many books we had no where to put them. A trip to Ikea resulted in this -

we also still have 2 of J’s original huge bookcases, one in the spare room and one in the play-room. Another one of these Ikea bookcases in the study and a bookcase which my grandfather made which is also in the spare room. And we are still buying books so they are stacked up beside the bed, on top of bookcases….everywhere.

My favourite books are -

The Secret Garden - this was my favourite book as a child and I still re-read it at least once a year. I don’t know what it is about this book, the descriptions of the moors and the garden, the relationship between Mary & Colin, the wonderful moment when Colin’s father finds them in the garden….I just love it. As a child I was diagnosed with a scoliosis curve, luckily a very minor one which responded to physiotherapy but as a young teenage girl with all the hang-ups they have about their bodies anyway I used to get very depressed thinking about it so I probably empathised with Colin and his father…the hunchback was probably a scoliosis curve.

The Lord of the Rings - as a child my grandfather gave me a copy of The Hobbit which introduced me to Tolkein. He was a Tolkein fan but my dad was not so I think he saw me as a fresh mind to indoctrinate…whatever it worked and I was hooked. The Lord of the Rings is another book which I’ve read again and again and it always makes me think of my grandfather and the wonderful conversations we used to have.

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo - this book was given to me at a time in my life when I needed to regain a sense of self and some purpose in my life. It gave me the final push I needed to go out and do things for myself, I went to Egypt on my own and had my own voyage of discovery and came back a stronger person. Everybody should read this book - I passed it on to another friend who needed some guidance. I think it’s one of those books , a “pay it forward” book.

There are loads more but they are the three that mean most to me.

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Tags: bookmeme encyclopedia

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

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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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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