Tasty cakes

First off, a pic of my socks in progress. The Show Off Stranded Socks. An easy 4 row repeat to remember. I'm using the Socks That Rock mediumweight and they are coming out quite big but they will make good slouchy socks I think.


While we were at Woolfest, Colin bought me a swift (shhh, I don't know about it 'til my birthday) so that he doesn't have to sit with his hands held out wrapped in skeins of yarn while I wind them into balls. He also got me a ball winder stick (technically known as a Nostepinne) which you wind the yarn onto by hand (link = YouTube video) to make a centre pull ball. I decided last week to have a go on a 20mm knitting needle. It takes ages to wind a ball onto it. It'll be fine for left over bits of yarn in shortish lengths but I decided to have a look for a wool winder.

I found this one second hand on ebay and it arrived yesterday.


I couldn't wait to give it a go but as I don't have a swift (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.) I used a couple of balls I'd already wound by hand. And look at them now........

I think the technical name for these is cakes, and the most tasty looking non-edible cakes they are. It was so quick!! My skeins are going to wind so fast. Wheeee.

Last Tuesday evening was Borders Knitters night. We had a total of 21 people there this time, which seems to be about the number we have each month. Another 3 new members turned up. I don't know what we would do if all the people who have ever come all turned up at once, there would be over 30 of us and I think Borders would have a fit! As it is, we are going to be going fortnightly probably as of August.

In my last post I mentioned some yarn that I couldn't show. That was because I got this for Becca and she hadn't seen it yet.



I wasn't happy that the yarns I picked for her at Woolfest were sufficiently turquoise, which was what she had asked me to get, so I got these from Scandinavian Knitting Design. 2 balls of Alpaca and 1 150g ball of Kauni Effect. She did take one of the sock yarns I got and the bluey skein of Manos Silk Blend from Woolfest too.

Poor Becca is a bit poorly at the mo and is off work and very bored, so I popped over to see her on Monday. We have decided to have a knitalong for a Booga Bag, using the Kauni Effect. This is my colour

This is one of those patterns that EVERYONE on ravelry has made, so I succumbed in the end. We knitted some swatches to see how they would felt and bunged them into Becca's washing machine at 40 degrees. Not a lot happened so she put hers back in at 60. After doing this 3 more times she eventually got a decent felted fabric. I went home and put mine in again at 60 and it felted straight away. So we have concluded that her newer machine is far too gentle and we need mine because it has a much more vigorous agitation action. When the bags are done we will chuck them in my machine at 60.

Colin is getting a new car, a Mazda 3. I quite like the Mazda 2 for myself but I'll wait a few more months I think. He is picking it up tomorrow and then later on we are going to the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art preview evening. We got invited because we bought some pictures last year. We will have to restrain ourselves I think!

Jaywalkers, Mike's hat & zoo

Here is the progress so far on my first pair of Jaywalkers. I really like how the stripes are working out, but I'm not sure if it is that Tiger-ish, apart from the colour. I have finished the gusset so it is a straight run down to the toe.

Mike was really chuffed with his Tundra hat and wore it around the office for a while. Goodness knows what his wife said when he arrived home with it.
Finally a couple more photos from our zoo trip on Sunday. I forgot to look to see what this bird was but the birds tend to get neglected in favour of more exciting animals so I thought I'd make this one feel loved by taking its picture.
And here are the lions enjoying their lunch.

Additions to the stash

Last Tuesday at work, I was looking at my page on ravelry and one of the guys who rents a room from us saw my Vince hat and wanted to see it in real life. So on Thursday I took it in and when he'd tried it on he asked if I could make him one!! He reckons his daughter will steal it though. But I went on ebay and found this...........
They assure me it will felt at 60 degrees but I'll swatch first. Also last week I got this from ebay.............. It is 75% BFL/25% nylon sock yarn called Tiger Stripe and I have started a pair of Jaywalkers in it............
Then I discovered Angels & Elephants (again on ebay) and ordered these............

The first one is called Candy Floss and the second one is called Tamar. This is 100% shetland sock weight.

On Sunday we went up to the Lake District. A couple of friends were renting a cottage for the week to do some walking and they invited us to go up for a night. So we went Sunday morning and got there about 12.30 just in time for a yummy pub lunch. In the afternoon we went to visit Fairfield Mill near Sedbergh. There was a working loom and water wheel and lots of handmade crafts to buy. There were also displays of the history of the mill and the Terrible Knitters of Dent. All the way round there were baskets of yarn, but it was all for display, very frustrating. But when we got to the far end there was a shelf of "mill ends" and I grabbed these...........
There is over 1200g of fingering weight yarn there, goodness knows the yardage, all for £6!!!

The awful thing was we also had to share the cottage with this creature..........This is Molly, ain't she cute? Sadly, Mandy wouldn't let us keep her!

This is the progress so far on the cardigan. One more front and then the sleeves. Not looking forward to doing the neckband, I have read through it and it sounds a bit complicated, eek!
Two days to go to series 3 of The Mighty Boosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vince's Tundra Hat!

On ravelry, I am one of the moderators on the group called The Coconut Lodge, which is for fans of The Mighty Boosh to chat about the Boosh and also show off any Boosh-inspired knits. Knittyinpink suggested we had a bit of a knitalong based on the hat that Vince wears in the series 1 episode Tundra. I found a couple of suitable-ish patterns but I wanted to make a felted hat. I was using the leftover Lamb's Pride bulky from the Fabulous Lace Inset Cardigan, and 8mm needles, so I went with Ryan's Hat from here but using the larger yarn and needles. Once I started it was a quick knit, and grew very rapidly into this..............
I was a little bit worried it wasn't going to shrink enough during the felting, but after 2 goes through the 40 degree cycle it came out like this................
(that's me pretending to be Vince asleep in the snow, didn't quite carry it off!!)

Anyway, I'm really pleased with it, apart from it maybe could be a bit taller. It is worked down from the top, so maybe the increases could have been done on every 3rd row instead of every 2nd row. I had bits of skeins left so I think I used about one and 3 quarter skeins on it. I'm not sure if I will add any Booshy embellishments, I'll see what everyone else does with theirs first. I don't want to make it so that I don't want to wear it in public for fear of ridicule, at the moment I think it is wearable apart from being very RED. I shall have to get one of the red T-shirts with the lightning bolts on, and then I can wear it with that and the Glam Rock Ski Suit Socks while I'm watching the DVDs!! (Colin thinks I'm bonkers!).

We had a lovely evening with Gill on Sunday, and then Tuesday we met up with some friends who moved back to Ireland in January, and who were over for a visit to sort out some things on the house they are trying to sell. We had lunch at The Rake near Cheshire Oaks and then popped into Borders for coffee afterwards. We were too busy chatting that I didn't get a chance to look at any books!!!

Yesterday we went over to Manchester for Colin's first radiotherapy appointment. I sat in the waiting area listening to the Jonathon Ross podcast and trying not to make a show of myself by stifling my sniggering. I did think of taking some knitting but I think sniggering and knitting in a corner may have resulted in 'the men in white coats' carrying me off!! The session all went fine and there were no nasty effects so he is going to go on his own for a couple of weeks, and then see if he needs me to drive after that. I gave him a session of Reiki last night to help things along, and I'll do about a 20 minute top up each day.

So it means I don't get to skive off work now!! Pah!

Felted ruffle bag

Before and after felting pics of a little pink ruffle bag I made yesterday. It is for my neighbour's little girl. Her birthday isn't until July but I thought I would get it done in plenty of time. As it was, it only took me a few hours while the FA Cup was on yesterday. The pattern is here

http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/bagfeltnororuffle.htm

and I used the Splash Aran yarn that I got from Stash a few weeks ago. I stuck a milk bottle in it when it came out of the machine, and it was the perfect size. I was wondering whether to knit a little flower to go on it? Any thoughts? Or just leave it as it is.

Bag, Europants & hair.

I'm back in the land of the living!! Had a yucky couple of days, then the internet connection went off, so I'm trying to catch up.

I managed to get my mum's bag done anyway. I have found that I can knit for a while, then I stop and my thumb really hurts for about ten minutes, and then it calms down again. So I am doing bursts of knitting once a day. Anyway, here is the bag, I just have to sew the button on.




I didn't know what size it was going to come out as, but it is actually just the right size to get a magazine in and other stuff too. Which is just what my mum wanted. I had to put it through the wash twice to get it nice and thick.


So, a bit of catching up.............Last Saturday we went over to Macclesfield to visit some friends. We took the dog because otherwise he would have been on his own for a long time by the time we got home. They also have a dog who is much younger than Podge and wants attention from him all the time. We left them outside while we chatted and suddenly I heard a splosh. When I looked out, I could see Podge, back legs in the pond, front legs out of the pond, ears flat and looking most sorry for himself. Because of his poor old legs (he's fifteen and a half) he couldn't get out so Colin had to lift him. I don't think he fell in, I think Max pushed him in!! No, they were probably playing and maybe Podge stepped back to get away from Mad Max, and in he went!!

Later on we watched Eurovision!! Because there were 6 of us, there was a lot of chatting and the sound wasn't very loud on the TV so we didn't get the full experience. And the voting. Oh come on!! I was disgusted that only Malta nad Ireland voted for us, but obviously the rest of Europe either doesn't have a sense of humour or as Verity said they all hate us because of Iraq. Hmmph, I may not watch it next year!!


When we got back there was a message from Colin's sister in Ireland to say that his dad was in hospital. He is home now, but had a small stroke. He has had all kinds of tests and they can't find anything wrong or what might have caused it. But as far as we can tell he is back to his usual self thank goodness. And he has had a thorough MOT. There were a couple of days where we were ready to drop everything and go over but that wasn't needed in the end.


Colin has just been in London on a course for a couple of days so I was mooching around on my own. And I couldn't even go on the internet cos that packed up! I did pop into the office on Thursday but had yesterday off. I'm not in much next week either, cos my parents are coming up on Wednesday from Southampton for a few days and Monday I'm getting my hair sorted out. I only go twice a year and it needs a damn good chopping!!