I am not a completer, I am an innovator, a pioneer. I love new challenges, trying new things, learning a new technique. It’s being an Aries.

This does mean that I have a worrying collection of unfinished objects lurking in bags/boxes/cupboards all across my house. We’ve been clearing out our spare rooms and loft recently in preparation for the hoped for arrival of small people to share our home and this has lead to me having a tidy up of my knitting projects and stash. This, coupled with my new obsession with Ravelry has led me to face up to my problem. Having entered all my completed projects into Ravelry, and my stash I had to put in all those UFO’s and suddenly they were no longer lurking but were out there in the full glare of daylight…and there were lots…like more than 20…actually more like 30…..

The worst thing is that a good proportion, around 50%, were only unfinished because they hadn’t been sewn up. The knitting was all done they just needed the pieces to be fit together and I had a completed garment. So I have set about completing some of them. I tried to do this at the beginning of this year by listing them all here on my blog but they could hide away there too easily – I needed to have them shouting and waving at me….”Wendy, here we are, finish us!!!”

So in the past week I have completed (ie sewn up) these items –

Child’s Aran Cardigan

Age – 1 year; started Oct/Nov 2006
Pattern is from a Sirdar Booklet – Sirdar 299 Toddler Aran Knits
Yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Aran
Size is 5-6 years

I knit this last winter when I was making loads of things for my sale to raise money for Breakthrough and never got around to sewing it up. After a couple of evenings of CSI here it is, ready for either a Christmas present for one of the little people currently in my life or to wait for one of the little people soon to come into my life.

Orchid Sweater

Age – 2 1/2 years; started une 2005
Pattern – Orchid by Kim Hargreaves from Rowan 31
Yarn – Rowan Linen Drape colour 847 Splash
Size – S

This was part of my Linen Drape obsession in the summer of 2005. After getting Rowan 31 I fell in love with Linen Drape, bought up a ton of it on eBay, finished the Flame vest in Watermelon which I wear all the time. I knit this as I thought it would be a great wear for evenings on holiday but never got it completed for holiday 2005 (Tunisia) or 2006 (Turkey).

I’m pretty happy with it except that the sleeves are rather long, they are supposed to be long and come over the hand but they may be a little tooooo long. I do have to buy a backless bra ……

The stash still contains 14 balls of Watermelon and 1 of Splash!

Stripey Hat & Mittens

Sorry, don’t have a photo of both mittens completed but they are done (honest!)

Age – 1 year; started Winter 2006
Pattern – Patons PBN C 4847
Yarn – DK Acrylic
Size – Child

These were another item intended for my sale last year. My mum bought the DK Acrylic to knit a sweater for my nephew but it didn’t knit up correctly for the pattern she had so she donated it to me for my sale. I made a whole load of mittens and hats but these were never finished.
The Patons pattern leaflet is one I’ve had for years and is brilliant, it has gloves, fingerless gloves, mittens and hats in 4 sizes for toddler, child, woman and man. I’ve made so many gloves and mittens from this over the years in all the sizes. I’ve spent more than one Christmas Eve finishing up gloves as last minute presents from this pattern!

These are in the child size so could well end up being a Christmas present this year.

Little Girl’s Bolero Jacket

Age – 1 year; started Sept 2006
Pattern – Alpaca Bolero from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss
Yarn – Bab Softspun 4 ply in lavender
Size – 24-36 months

This was started last winter as a possible christmas present. Finished all the knitting then it stalled. This photo doesn’t do it justice the colour is a lovely shade of lilac.

I still have the following to be sewn up

1. Baby striped cotton sweater (started summer 2006)
2. Echo striped sweater from Rowan 38 (Feb 2006)
3. Toddler duffel jacket from Debbie Bliss Baby Style (Jan 2006)
4. Checked jacket in Sirdar Snowflake (umm, not sure – 1999??)
5. Polly Pocket dress from Miss Bea’s Seaside (summer 2006)
6. Snowflake Bunny sweater from Sirdar (winter 2004 …probably…)

and these to be completed

1. Rose Dangle Crochet scarf from The Natural Dye Studio (June 2007)
2. Nell from Rowan 28 (Aug 2005)
3. Rose Bud Cardigan from Debbie Bliss Nursery Knits (Feb 2006)
4. Chrissy sweater from Rowan 31 (July 2006)
5. Friday Harbor Socks from Knitting on the Road (July 2007)
6. Mad for Fairisle Socks by Tina Lorin (May 2007)
7. Bayerische Sock by Eunny Jang (Jan 2007)
8. Cherry Leaf Shawl from Victorian Lace Today – this only needs the edging and it’s done (July 2007)
9. Miranda Pattern Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks – suffering from SSS! as I don’t like the fit, may frog (July 2007)
10. Mad Weave socks from Sock Madness (April 2007)
11. Binary Scarf by Christine Dumoulin from Knitty 2006 (Jan 2007)
12. Everlasting Bagstopper by Amy R Singer from Knitty Summer 2007, ok for this I just need to find the right ribbon for the straps but haven’t been anywhere that sells ribbon. (July 2007)
13. Snicket Sock by Sabine Riefler from Magknits Sept 2006 (March 2007)

as well as the “current’ projects which I am actively working on (I can’t work on just one as I get bored)

1. Gryffindor Scarf for Jon from Charmed Knits (Sept 2007)
2. Amigurumi Monkey from Super Happy Crochet Cute (Sept 2007)
3. Child’s French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks (Oct 2007)
4. Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert (Sept 2007)
5. Prickly Girl by Cristiana Brenna from Knitty Summer 2007 (Sept 2007)
6. Weasley Sweater from Charmed Knits (Aug 2007)

So my aim by the end of the year is to get at least half of these finished – so please lend me your support!

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Tags: finished

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

The cobweb shawl is growing very fast – I’m really pleased how quick this is knitting up especially as it’s a gift I only decided to knit at the very last minute and it needs to be finished before the 14th June.

Not only that but I need to complete a pair of socks by then as well as it’s a wedding gift for the bride and the socks will be for the groom – and he has very big feet so they wont be quick socks!

This is the progress as of last night -45 repeats out of 62 needed. Once the body is complete there is then a knitted on border to do all round the edge – I’ve never done a knitted on border so that will be something new to add to my repertoire and much more fun than sewing on 5 metres of border as I have done with baby shawls in the past.

Close up of the Melon Pattern

This currently measures 11″ wide and 40″ long, when finished the shawl should be 17″ by 72″. If I’m 2/3 through the repeats I estimate 60″ (unstretched) when complete but there is then a border to add – I’m estimating an inch all round so this will need some serious blocking to get to the final measurements.

I’m toying with the idea of adding beads to the border as I knit, I have some silver ones and some pink ones to choose from. Would love to get everyone’s opinion on whether it needs beads. I’m thinking as it’s a wedding present and I’m hoping the recipient (who is getting married abroad) will be wearing it when dressed up for dinner on summer evenings that it needs a bit of “bling”???

On the other hand, at the moment it weighs nothing – it really is a cobweb – and adding beads may take that away (although they are tiny seed beads)….perhaps the weight of the beads in the border will help it drape????? Help!!!!

technorati tags:lace, knit, shawl, cobweb, mohair

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Just got back from a lovely weekend break in the English Lake District with DH and BB. We were camping on a wonderful site near Boot in Eskdale

when we arrived on Saturday the site was packed – it has 75 pitches and all were occupied. By Monday afternoon there was just our two tents, two camper vans and two other tents in a different field!!

The weather was pretty good, we had rain at night a few times but only one afternoon when we were actually caught out in wet weather and that was just for the last mile when we were heading back to the site.

Did some beautiful walks along Eskdale – here’s a sneak at some photos, just click to see them in flickr.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done in the evenings – working on the Sock Madness sock (I’m out of the competition but still knitting the patterns) This round came out on Friday just before I left so I printed it out and took it with me –

..this is as far as I got, it is a very short sock – the small pattern band is the “leg”, the second larger band is on the foot, the picture on the right is the sole of the foot with the heel to the right (yes there is a pattern on the sole!). The pattern is called Mad for Fair Isle and is based on batik patterns, the pattern is by Tina Lorin

I’m using 4ply sock yarn from Angle Yarns in Denim and Rose Pink and 2.5mm bamboo dpn’s.

technorati tags:sockmadness, knit, knitting, sock

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Thought I’d let you see my current project (well one of them) -

The pattern is by Debbie Bliss from her book Cashmerino DK, however I’m knitting it was published in Simply Knitting in December 2006 which is where I’m knitting it from. I’m knitting it in Merino DK rather than Cashmerino because it was in my stash and I fancied a pillar box red cardigan.

I’m afraid the colour doesn’t photograph well but the lovely cable details do –

the cabling pulls the waist in to give a lovely fitted shape. It looks much longer and thinner than it will be when finished as the ribbing needs blocking out.

However, I don’t think I’m taking this project with me to the Lake District tomorrow – we’re camping so I think I’ll need to take a pair of sock, much more portable. Let’s see how much I can embarass DH and Baby Brother (6′3″ and 35 but always Baby Brother to me) by knitting in the pub in the evenings.

The plan is hill walking during the day, back to the campsite for a wash and a glass of wine outside the tent then pub for dinner. However, looking at the weather forecast last night it seems the glorious sunshine we’ve been experiencing for the past week is about to end – oh dear…

Oh yes, and Star Wars – it’s 30 years today since it was released – I remember to this day going to see the first film, one of the defining moments of my childhood and I still watch the films on a regular basis.

An exhibition of Star Wars props and costumes opened in London today so I may have to drag DH there!

May the 4th be with you!

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I seem to be going through something of a “Purple Patch”, I was uploading photos to flickr and when I looked at them all on the screen it was just a sea of purple! And then this morning I got this –

- my final “reveal” package from my Sockret Pal who turned out to be Ruth, and it’s an extravaganza of purple/blue/pink! Ruth was also my spoiler in another blog and that plus an accidental email she sent me a little while ago had tipped me off that she was probably my Sockret Pal, but that’s ok, I still got a surprise with what she was sending me and she’s really spoilt me this time by sending all this stuff

First, my handknit socks which are just perfect.

Child’s First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush in Lorna’s Lace “Iris Garden”- anyone who reads my blog regularly will know Ive knit this pattern a couple of times but always for other people, now I have a pair for me and they are so comfy and soft

Next out of the box was this -

Ruth tells me these are from The Yarn Yard, yet another UK online yarn seller she has pointed me at (you’re doing nothing for my bank balance you know !!) They are both 4ply 75% wool 25% polyamide and don’t they look perfect together? Have to find something special to knit with these.

The third package was -

a pencil case – to use to keep my dpn’s, and crochet hooks (Ruth knows I’ve been learning to crochet) and inside a really useful notebook, some Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpns and (the best of all) some sew in labels that say “Handmade by Wendy”.

I’ve been wanting some of these for ever and actually saw some on Ruth’s blog and asked here where they came from!!! – she wouldn’t tell me

My gifted items are going to look so professional from now on.

The next packet out of the box was more (yes more!!) yarn

A ball of Tofutsies which I have been seeing cropping up on blogs and been intrigued by, can’t wait to try. The other ball is the remainder of the Lorna’s from the socks “in case of alterations” as Ruth put it – no alterations needed however…so this could become some more squares in my “memories” afghan I’m planning

The last package was ….

…this beautiful book. Ruth and I were in an afghan square swap a little while ago and I have been talking with her about crochet squares as I’ve been trying to learn so this will be great for practise and inspiration.

Aren’t I just the luckiest Swapper anywhere?

Adding to my purple day is my second try at a scarf for ISE4, the first just doesn’t seem right for my pal….can’t say exactly why but it’s just “not her”. So yesterday on our way home from Cornwall when we stopped at Trago Mills in Newton Abbot for decorating supplies (don’t ask me to explain Trago Mills, it’s a West Country thing!) I had a quick look in their arts & crafts department and found some Patons Spirit mohair blend in a purple self-striping colourway –

I took it along to my Knitting Group when we got back to Marlow last night and cast on with 6.5mm needles and just used a basic “old shale” stitch pattern so it isn’t just straight striped. I’m much happier with this. It’s coming out pretty big – 41 stitches and 6.5mm needles means it’s about 11″ wide and so far with a little bit of the first ball to go it’s about 18″ long. I have 4 balls in total so that would give a completed length of at least 72″. My partner says she likes long scarfs so hopefully that would be long enough!

Despite being wide and long, the mohair and the stitch pattern mean it’s very light and very soft – should be a lovely warm scarf I think.

I was asked about the Old Shale knitting stitch, it is in a really old book of traditional knitting stitches which I have and in that book is used in a shwal. Here’s the pattern for my scarf (such as it is!) knit in any yarn you like using the appropriate sized needles and casting on as many stitches as needed to get the width you want. I’ve given the directions for what I did using Patons Spirit which is a mohair/acrylic blend with a ball band tension of 13sts/17rows to 4″ on 6.5mm/UK 3/US 10.5 needles.

Cast on 40 sts (or any multiple of 6 plus 4 edge stitches).
Row 1: knit
Row 2: k2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 3: k2, (k2 tog) 3 times, *(yo k1) 6 times, (k2 tog) 6 times* repeat from * to * to the last 8 sts, (k2 tog) 3 times, k2
Row 4: knit (this gives a garter st ridge which just added a little bit of texture, if you prefer the alternative is to repeat Row 2 and keep the whole thing in st st)

These 4 rows form the pattern and are repeated until (1) the scarf is long enough (2) you run out of yarn or (3) you get bored – whichever comes first!

Finally this post, I promised pictures of the gifts I was given visiting our friends in Cornwall on Saturday. So here they are –

Lucy painted me a beautiful Springtime picture with chicks and eggs, as you can see it has pride of place on our kitchen notice board

She also made me a sequinned Easter Egg which is so pretty and is now hanging on my tealight tree

Lucy is not feeling very well at the moment as she developed Chicken Pox on Monday – right at the start of school holidays for Easter – Get Well Soon Lucy xxx

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….you wait and you wait and then three come along at once!

yes, that’s three parcels my postie delivered this morning, tramping through the snow to reach me. One from Wolverhampton, England; one from NY state, USA and one from Norway.

First – a parcel from Wolverhampton

this is the first of four afghan squares I’m waiting to received from the Crazy Afghan Squares swap. This one is from Roo, I read her blog and love her crochet squares, this one is Noro Silk Garden in lovely blues and purples - very me colours! She also sent a lovely ”blue sky” postcard and a lollipop (gotta love lollipops!!)

Thanks Roo

Next – a parcel from New York State

This one is from Cassandra in Philmont, NY and is another Afghan Square

the litle note with it tells me the yarn is 50% wool 50% acrylic, it’s quite a chunky yarn and is a garter stitch square in fawny colours – goes quite well with the Noro as it happens

Thanks to Cassandra for this.

Final parcel was from Norway

The really pretty labels on the outside told me it was a Magic Yarn Ball and inside was not just the yarn ball but a second ball of the yarn (Garnstudio Drops Alpaca in a lovely shade of blue), a card and three patterns printed from the Garnstudio website to give me some ideas of what to knit. Also a tiny miny lip balm and a toffee (not sure if these had dropped out of the yarn ball or were put in separately)

The patterns are for a pair of socks, a scarf which looks lovely (this is favourite for this yarn at the moment) and a pair of wrist warmers.

 I’m afraid I have no patience when it comes to gifts so I had to unwind the yarn ball right away, sat by our patio windows in my pyjamas. It was wonderful seeing all the little things dropping out and here is what was in the ball –

So – first a little cupid button badge attaching the ball band to the ball, next out was a toothbrush holder (I have to admit I couldn’t work out what this was – it’s top left, the little red smiley face - J worked it out!!), then a nailbrush, a little notebook (perfect for my project bag), a little bon-bon tin (or possibly a stitchmarker tin?), a lovely pair of silver earrings (these are very very me), a sachet of skin care cream, a spa facial mask, a bar of Norwegian chocolate, a little cat phone charm, a packet of gorgeous beaded stitch markers, a mini nail buffer, a packet of 2mm dpns, 8 buttons.

The buttons are lovely, four crackle-glaze purple buttons and four green ones with flowers painted on. Here’s a close up

I think I’ve remembered everything!

A really big thankyou to Embla for this wonderful package.

More pics on flickr.

As for knitting – I’ve been working on a pair of socks for J the last week or so – Railway Pattern from Knitting Vintage socks. I’m using Grey Regia 4 ply with contrast stripes in Regia Stretch “Denim”. These are one of my many UFO’s and I’m hoping to get them finished for Valentines Day. They are perfect for Project Spectrum being blue and grey and they will be my February socks for the SAM3 KAL!

Progress so far – one and a half socks. Turned the heel on the second sock last night and started on the foot. However there is a lot of foot to knit as J has UK size 11 feet that’s 9.5″ of sock from the stitches picked up for the gusset to the stitches grafted at the toe

update: our phone line went down at around 9.30 this morning whilst I was writing this post so I was unable to post it. I’ve been at home all day and so have now very nearly reached the toe of J’s sock! I will post some piccies later.

The BT engineer is coming out tomorrow, so how am I able to post this you ask? My neighbour has a wireless network which isn’t secured so I’m using their internet connection – ummmm!!!!!! I’m a hacker!!!!!!

This arrived in a lovely pink package this morning –

This is “Posh Yarn” which I won on their sale last Friday. My Sockret Pal is to blame for this latest yarn purchase. I knew nothing about Posh Yarn until she sent me a skein of it and so I checked their website and was gob-smacked! All there yarn is hand-dyed one of a kind which they put up for sale twice a week and once it’s gone, it’s gone – true one of a kind knitting.

This is three skeins of Lucia a 4ply sock yarn which is 30% cashmere, 70% merino and 1 skein of Saskia a 4ply sock yarn 20% cashmere, 20% silk and 60% cotton.

From the left Lucia “Fizz” (yellows & pinks), Lucia “Sweet Pea” (purples/blues/pink), Saskia “Heroine” (blue/pink/yellow/purple) and finally Lucia “Pop” (purple, green, yellow and a splash of bright orange)

One of my friends has been lusting after my blue & pink Shell Pattern Socks so I may knit her a pair in the “Sweet Pea” but I want to use at least one of these skeins for a lace scarf from the Victorian Lace book my Sockret Pal sent me.

Current Sock Knitting

This is the sock I am working on at the moment –

these are Bayerische – I mentioned some time ago that I really wanted to knit a pair of socks with little cables and here they are. One repeat completed! These are in Opal Uni in a lovely burnt orange colour…I think they may be a long-term knitting project

UFO update 

On the UFO front, Chrissy (my Rowan All Seasons Cotton pullover) know has a complete back and front- hooray, progress! and Echo has the ends sewn in on the back and one sleeve.

One of the items in my ridiculously long UFO list is Jasmine, a cardigan in Rowan 4ply Cotton from Rowan 39.

I started this in the Spring of 2006 thinking it would be perfect for the summer to wear over little cotton dresses….unfortunately I didn’t read the pattern fully before I started and after I had knit all the panels I got to the bit of the pattern that said “with crochet hook pick up along left front, round back of neck, down right front and across back and crochet the lace border”

Hmmmm, slight problem, I can’t crochet. I have never been able to crochet. My grandma, who was a great crocheter, tried to teach me and failed. Jasmine was put to one side. I tried to follow the crochet instructions using some unwanted yarn and it looked awful. I really didn’t want to ruin this cardi so I put it to one side…I have friends who crochet so I thought, when I see one of them I’ll ask them to show me…..it got forgotten.

So now it has reappeared in my UFO list and I have to do something about it for THIS summer. So this weekend I taught myself to crochet. One of my crocheting friends gave me a book before Christmas “Learn to Crochet-A Beginners Guide” so armed with this and various internet sites I produced this –

My first ever crocheted granny square!!! It’s about 2″ square and knit with some left over Opal sock yarn.

I’m so proud of it! In the past when I’ve tried to crochet squares they’ve ended up like hats….no idea what I did different this time but it stayed flat – amazing

Spurred on by this success and having just signed up for the Crazy Afghan Squares swap on swapbot.com I looked for some more crochet square patterns and (not one to start with something easy) I have managed to produce this in just two days

This was crocheted with the same Opal sock yarn leftover, a UK no 11 crochet hook and the pattern was Granny Rose square motif at Patty’s Patterns

Once blocked it will be almost exactly 7″ square and so perfect for the swap….although I’m not sure I want to let my first ever successful crocheted item go…and being a harsh critic of myself I’m not sure it’s good enough to be sent to anyone as it was only knit with leftover yarn and the variegation makes it look odd. I may get some yarn in several colours and re crochet this motif in stripes however…

Anyway, it was only unpicked about 6 times before I got it right so that’s not bad is it – I learnt some lessons along the way…mainly that US and UK crochet terms are completely different – we say double you say triple, we say single you say double – I also kept forgetting to put in turning chains at the start of rounds…but I’m almost feeling confident enough to tackle Jasmine now.

Moonwalk training

The marathon training continued this weekend, today my mum and I went over to West Wycombe and walked from there along the valley to Saunderton and then back along the other side of the valley. It was a perfect winter day – amazing blue skies, sun shining and really cold. The walk was 7 miles and we finished in about 2 1/2 hours so not tremendously fast but we enjoyed it.

Finally, a gratuitous picture of my cat, Simpson, enjoying his Sunday

His favourite place – asleep on his cushion but close to the patio windows in case something occurs in the garden which needs his attention….