Shona/Cuddly-Wuddly

I spent all day sewing this up yesterday, and was so excited at how well it fits that I put it on this morning and went down to show the girls at the LYS. Anne was kind enough to take the photos for me.





Pattern: Shona by Tina Barrett from Yarn Forward Magazine Issue 18
Yarn: Louisa Harding Hulda, colour 15, 9.3 x 50g balls
Needles: 6mm
Mods: I accidentally started the size 30 to the end of the decreases, then carried on with the size 32 from there! But I think it has made it a better fit. Also knitted the back and front together in the round.

Look at all the lovely yarn in the background, drool!! (Yes of course I bought something!)

Satisfaction

There's so much satisfaction in finishing a project, especially if you have procrastinated for about 6 weeks over the seaming!!! Today I could have carried on knitting a pair of socks I started yesterday but no, I took advantage of the bright daylight and my dining room table to sew up my Shona jumper which I have renamed Cuddly-Wuddly. I don't have photos yet because it took me all day to seam and after three attempts to sew on the collar I finally googled "slip stitich seam" and found out it involves a crochet hook. My previous attempts were all mattress stitch of which I mistakenly thought "it'll be fine". It wasn't.

The jumper was from Yarn Forward magazine issue 18, and despite my sabotage attempt, by starting to knit one size and then accidentally switching to the next size up, it is a blooming good fit.

Last night may have been the last time the knitting group meets at its usual venue. Sadly Borders UK has gone into administration and all 45 stores are under threat. So it is time for us to start looking for another venue in the Chester/Ellesmere Port area that stays open until at least 9pm. We have considered a pub but they don't tend to have bright lighting, essential for knitting especially if you have a disaster and have to rip back or tink back. So the hunt is on.

The Big Reveal

I am now allowed to reveal the secret test knitting project I was working on a couple of weeks ago.





The pattern is by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops and the pattern is now available to buy on Ravelry for $6.
The yarn I used is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, but there is also a fingering weight version included in the pattern. At the time of test knitting there was only a sport weight version. I love the lacy pattern but the mitts did come out a little roomy, not really a keeping-your-hands-warm-in-icy-weather mitt, although the fingering weight version will probably be more snug.

Thank you to my friend Kate for being such an excellent hand model!!!

Raspberry Ripple

About two years ago I knitted my step-sister and niece a pair of socks each. When we were visiting a couple of weeks ago, the smaller pair of these appeared out of a drawer, looking none the worse for wear. But they are now a little small. So I said I would make another pair in the latest "favourite colour" of red. I had some red and white yarn in my stash from about a year ago that I hadn't got round to knitting yet, so over the weekend I produced these.

I used The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns to get the size, so cast on 52 stitches and did plain stocking stitch after about 3cm if K2,P2 rib. And I managed to get the stripes to just about match!
Pattern: Basic sock pattern by Ann Budd
Yarn: Bear Necessities 100% 4ply wool from Folksy.com, colour Raspberry Ripple
Needles: 2.5mm circs, magic loop

Marram hat

Would you believe me if I said it was TOO sunny today? I wanted to take photos of the hat I finished but there was too much sun to get the colours right or show the pattern.

The first pic is in sun but the second one is better as it is taken in a bit of shade while we were out for a walk. You can see the striping on that one. I think I probably should have used two more contrasting colours for a better effect.



Pattern : Marram by Eskimimiknits
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in colours 150 and 154, 19g of main colour, 17g of contrast colour.
Needles: 3.5mm circs
Mods: none

It's a good fit on me or Colin and is lovely and warm. I am very impressed with Mimi as she has only been knitting for a year and is already designing!!

Shhhh........

.......this morning I have just finished the test knitting I have been doing. I don't think I'm allowed to show what it is yet but here's a sneaky peak!

Celebrity week at little-acorns!

Last night we went to see Beverley Knight in concert. I'll admit I went to make up the numbers so to speak, I only know one song of hers, but Colin has somehow been "chatting" to her on Twitter and when she announced she would be in Liverpool on her tour he got a couple of tickets.

So after finally finding somewhere to park near the Royal Philarmonic off we went and sat in our box seats! How posh!

The support band were Mama's Gun and they were pretty good. Very tight.

After that Beverley Knight came on. After about 5 songs she said "This next song is dedicated to someone I never met, but ....(something I didn't quite hear but was something like "through the power of Twitter" )........ I know her brother. His name is Colin and he is doing amazing things through 365challenge to raise money for cancer research." Everybody shouted and clapped at this point. I just looked at Colin, and he was as stunned as I was!! "I don't know where you are Colin but this song is for Brenda." I was saying to him "stand up and wave!" but she wasn't looking in the right direction so he didn't. I said "you have to try and see her at the end, I'm sure she'll want to say hello after that" so at the end we went down to the edge of the stage and explained who he was. We eventually got ushered outside to the stage door with the other people waiting to get things signed and eventually at 12.15am she came out! We let the other people get their stuff signed and then Colin told her who he was and we got a picture. Unfortunately I only had my iPhone with me and no flash so its a bit dodgy but here she is with Colin.



Then her manager whisked her away and she shouted "I'll tweet you later".

The song she sang for Brenda was Gold. You can watch it here on YouTube.

What a pair we are with our celebrity friends!!

Strictly M6 Services!

So there we were sitting having lunch in the services on the M6 toll road today, and Colin had just casually asked if I'd seen anyone famous yet and I'd said no. (We often spot someone well known, it was Ross Noble when we were in London a few weeks ago).

And then I looked up and said "Vincent Simone is right behind you!!" He'd walked across to speak to someone so I pulled my camera out of my bag to "kinnear" him, but he headed for the door again. I dithered a bit and then thought "Why am I letting him walk away?" so I jumped up and ran after him, was almost thwarted by the automatic doors and dashed outside just in time to see him disappear up the steps of the Strictly Come Dancing coach parked out the back. The driver was standing outside so I asked if he would ask Vincent if he would mind having a photo so he went in and then Vincent came back out and gave me a big hug and kiss and the driver took a photo of us!!!


I was so excited I didn't think of the fact that all the rest of Strictly were probably all on the coach too!! But Vincent has always been "my favourite" so I was well chuffed with that.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Well I am quite excited. I was chosen as one of six test knitters for a quite well known knit blogger/designer for their latest pattern.

These are my tools for the job, but that's all I'm going to say for now!

Felted Tweed Gloves

I now have a lovely pair of winter gloves. Amazingly they only took 37g of Rowan Felted Tweed, less than one ball. And I got the yarn when the old John Lewis was closing in Liverpool for £1.25 a ball, meaning these gloves cost about a pound!! Bargain of the year or what?





Coincidentally Knitting Daily have been plugging the book The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns this past week which this pattern is from. It's the first time I have used this book and it was really useful because I chose my yarn and gauge and then looked at the chart and found the number of stitches to cast on and away I went. As the meerkat would say - Simples!

Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern from the above book
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed
Needles: 3.25mm

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have not seen the TV show based on this book so didn't really have any idea about Dexter before I read it. I'm not giving anything away by saying that he is a serial killer, who only goes after bad guys - or does he?

A number of prostitutes are being brutally murdered in Miami, and as Dexter actually works for the police as a forensic blood splatter specialist he is in an ideal position to get involved. However his urge to kill his next victim is strong and when he starts having strange dreams about the murders as they are happening, he starts to wonder if he is actually committing the murders himself.

In the process of the book we get into the mind of Dexter and at the end of the book discover why he is the way he is.

An interesting slant on the serial killer genre, but there were some huge leaps forward in the plot which weren't that believable. I won't rush out to buy the sequel but might watch an episode on TV if I catch one.


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Eddie Izzard..........

........at the Liverpool Echo Arena last night.


I'm quite pleased with my new Nikon Coolpix's efforts considering this is how far away we really were!!!