Trafford Centre

Colin decided it was time he had a day off so yesterday we decided to go over to The Trafford Centre as we both needed clothes. Now, I have mentioned before that I hate clothes shopping so I wasn't holding out much hope of coming home with anything to be honest but it turned out to be not too bad.

I think it helped that the place was virtually empty. The credit crunch was certainly evident, either that or no-one wanted to go out in case they caught swine flu! So at least I didn't have to try to squeeze past people in narrow gaps between clothes displays, or queue for changing rooms. I didn't actually try much on, and came home with a pair of trousers, a cardi and 3 tops (one of which is going back because it is too small). Add to that the 6 t-shirt type tops I got in M&S on Saturday and that's me done for probably another 12 months!

While we were there I popped in to John Lewis as I needed a red button for my Serenity cardi - just the seaming and the collar to go now, should be done over the weekend - but as usual I didn't really know what size to get. I got a selection and I ended up with these.

Wow some buttons can be expensive! The six matching ones weren't too bad at 30p each but the other two! The larger one is glass I think, and was £1.30 for one! The other I think is also glass and that one was £1.45! Yikes. Good job i didn't need 6 of each of those. So now I will choose which to use and keep the others for something else. I'm bound to make something else in red another time.

I had a quick look at the knitting yarns, specifically at more of the Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton that I am currently using for the cardi. I was shocked. I bought mine for £1.99 a ball in Stash, John Lewis were selling it for £2.90. Is that allowed? (Edit: Hmmm, just looked at Stash's website and they have it for £2.90 too. Odd!)

Dogs, UFOs and The Moth

Firstly, especially for Clarabelle as requested.........more doggy pics













Yesterday afternoon I had a little bit of a tidy in my knitting baskets, and uncovered a few UFOs!

I found the Interweave waistcoat that I'd thrown in the naughty corner, but looking at it now it is easily fixed and finished.


The first of a pair of Jaywalkers in the Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn. I had hoped that this would have more of the bright blue in it, but most of has disappeared under the heel.




The unfinished pair of socks I received during the Sock Wars Day of the Dead competition. These just need a tiny bit more foot length and a couple of toes.

Cherie Amour in Colinette Iona, abandoned becasue I couldn't work out where to continue the pattern after casting off arm holes!









Then there are the projects I am currently working on sporadically, a pair of Monkeys using Wendy Happy bamboo yarn. Coincidentally I made my other pair of Monkeys with bamboo yarn.

And a Drops cardigan with the ebay yarn that arrived last week.







And of course the super secret own design socks that are not progressing very fast at all.






Then today as I was perusing the sites I like to look at regularly, I came across a tutorial for making Dorset buttons and promptly came home and made this.

I have stuck a bit of magnetic tape on the back and turned it into a fridge magnet.









Yesterday I was looking at mooncalf's blog and was reading the comments left. Sometimes I click through onto the commenters' blogs to see if I can pick up on any good ones I'd like to follow. On one called Peapods I clicked through to a site called The Moth. The Moth is a group of people who meet in two places in the USA and get up on stage and tell stories. The stories have to be true and are completely unscripted. They are a maximum of approximately 15-20 minutes long - perfect for my commute to work. I subscribed through itunes (free) and listened to a couple to and from work today. They were really good. Some people are just born story tellers and can string out an incident that maybe took 5 minutes into a whole 20 minute fascinating story. Give The Moth a try, it's worth a listen.

I am not Amused.

I finished my Amused jumper on Friday evening, but only got photos this morning.


































I think I could have gotten away with the size down from this but I'd rather it was a bit big than a bit small. I haven't blocked it so it is still a bit wrinkly! I did one cable the wrong way at the very top but didn't notice until I'd cast off so I'm not going to let it worry me.

Pattern: Amused from knitty.com
Yarn: Garnstudio Alaska, colour 04 from Scandinavian Knitting Design , 13 balls
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony Interchangeables, 5.5mm.
Mods: made sleeves full length. I may add some buttons because where the cables cross over there is a gap that would be ideal as ready made buttonholes, then it could be done up when its cold.

A bit of knitting content

At Christmas I managed to get a couple of hats finished and sent at the last minute. Amazingly they were sent by me on 23rd December and arrived on the 24th! My mum then commented that she needed a scarf to go with her hat. So this is what I have made.

Not exactly a scarf, but a neckwarmer instead, much neater without all those flappy ends that have to be tucked in.

The pattern is the Margaret Necklets from the Winter 2008 Interweave Knits Holiday edition, and this is the shorter version. It was a pretty quick knit, it just took me a few days to get some buttons, which I eventually found on ebay.

I am now working on Ingenue from the book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I am using Drops Alaska from SKD, a lovely thick aran weight yarn that is producing a really dense warm fabric. It is growing very quickly, (because I am off work settling the dog in for a few days, not that she needs it - see previous post!) and is knit from the top down on circulars needles, so no seaming, yippee!

Also OTN is a new pair of Jaywalkers as my previous pair died on me a few weeks ago when both heels went through at the same time. I am using the Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn in Landscape Fire for these.

Woolfest 2008

Guess where I went last weekend?


This the bag I filled with goodies, but what did it contain by the end of the day??????

Tah-dah............(click on any of the pictures for a close-up!)


Five hanks of Colinette Iona to make Cherie Amour


Some cute buttons from Injabulo


3 hanks of Manos Silk Blend


3 skeins of KnitWitches sock yarn and 1 of Natural Dye Studio merino sock yarn


KnitWitches silk laceweight (600m) and KnitWitches cashmere laceweight (1000m)


See that grey spotty alpaca at the back?


Yep, this one. His name is Mingle.......


and his fleece is partly responsible for this. 6 balls of WhyNot Alpaca from Sedburgh, Cumbria, to make the Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits magazine Winter 2007.


We went up to Cumbria on Friday but it was a bit too late to go into Woolfest and have enough time. We did go to the site to have a look and the first person we saw was Chris, dashing out the door. She was empty handed but informed us that her car was already stuffed to the brim!

We checked into the hotel and then had a lovely Italian meal that evening.

On Saturday we "did" Woolfest. I wasn't sure what to expect, but basically it was a big livestock building where everyone had set up their stalls. Yarn stalls, spinning stalls selling wheels and paraphernalia, live animals at one end including sheep, alpacas and rabbits. The Angora rabbits were hilarious, I didn't realise they had such pointy up ears.

There were plenty of stall holders whose names I recognised, and many I didn't and there were loads of ravelry badges being displayed. I bumped into J, Beryl and Chris from the knitting group, but didn't manage to spot Mel, she was probably buried in fleece!!

I bought all the stuff above (not the animals though) and Colin bought me a swift and ball winder stick (but I don't know about them until my birthday!).

The ladies of KnitWitches were very chatty and recommended an Indian restaurant that they had been to so that evening we went there. And they were there too. And Amanda from Natural Dye Studio was staying in our hotel so we saw them at breakfast.

I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend that part of Cumbria for a stay, as we went off to the coast to have a look and it was very run-down and bleak. Such a shame because the Lakes part is lovely.

Since we got back I finished my Vegas Sands cowl. I have made it quite tall and it fits snugly so it is going to be very warm in the cold weather.


Can you spot the one (not) deliberate mistake?


Talking of mistakes I have had an absolute disaster. I finished Colin's jumper as you know and had partly sewn it up when I asked him to try it on "just to see". Well, the sleeves were about 6 inches too long and the cotton was stretching so it was pulling the shoulders down making it worse. I decided to shorten the sleeve from the cuff but the first one wouldn't unravel. I decided to take the sleeves off and frog and re-knit them. But, when I went to take the sleeve that I had sewn on off, I cut the wrong thread and a hole started growing in the BACK of the jumper. So the upshot is that I now have a lovely full bag of balls of cotton and NO JUMPER!!!! I had to frog the lot!!! I will not be making it again, certainly not in the cotton, it just hung off Colin like a sack, ulgh. I think it is now destined to be a selection of string shopping bags.

But on a lighter note, I have started the Gathered Pullover and the alpaca is GORGEOUS!!!!

Magazine & buttons

An update on the sheep stitch markers.......... they are going to be featured in Simply Knitting Magazine this month (May issue) which comes out on about the 27th April. That gives me an extra weeks grace to get them done! The following issue, (June issue) has Stash as its Shop of the Month, and Helen the owner has to do a piece for it called "Fun for a fiver". She has chosen the sheep again to be featured in that list. I popped in today to get an idea how many they wanted and they said as many as you can do, so I'm going to do 10 of each to get them started and then keep topping up as and when.

These are some buttons I got from ebay this morning to go on my Fab Lace Cardi. I'm not entirely sure they go but I will use them and see what they are like when they are on it - when it is finished. (BTW, T, I am not a fast knitter by any stretch of the imagination but this cardi knits up really quickly on 8mm needles. You could almost do a front in a sitting if you put your mind to it.)

Nina, I'm not sure about the shape of the toes being rounder by going toe-up on a sock. I wouldn't have thought it would make a difference? I'm doing them this way because I'm not sure how far the yarn will go and don't want to run out before I get to the toe!

Next Sunday I am going on a day course called 'Designer Fashion Hand Knitting' at the little arty college on the Wirral. Its all about adjusting patterns to fit, working out measurements and yarn quantities and creating your own designs. Should be interesting. I have to take a selection of needles and yarn, a work in progress, any patterns I have that I may want to adapt and any design ideas. Well I don't have any ideas, I usually just follow a pattern but I'd love to be able to design something and hopefully by the end of the day I'll have some idea how. I'm not sure which yarn to take. I guess a selection of weights, but how many of each? I'm just going to take all my circs in their folder and leave the straights at home. They should do.

I have decided on a pattern for a present for someone for Christmas. I won't show it because the person reads this!! I may even make two, for two people. I have to choose the yarn yet though.

Well, I guess the sheep won't make themselves, so off to the farmyard I go..........hi ho hi ho!