The order of the night - socks!

The temptation was too much for me so I ordered some sock yarn from Wild Fire Fibres this morning. I got this apple green colour in merino/bamboo, and this gorgeous purple in merino/tencel. Can't wait to get them and give them a good squidge! More socks!!

It seems that socks are the project to take to Knitters Within Borders nights. Whenever I take anything else I can't concentrate and end up doing a grand total of about 2 rows. But last night I got quite a bit done on my stranded socks and only have 8 rounds to go before decreasing the toes. And they'll be finished at last. I can't believe I have taken nearly 2 months to make a pair of socks when I was boasting last night that I can whip a pair up in about 48 hours if I'm under pressure (ie in Sock Wars!) Socks seemed to be the order of the night last night with at least 4 pairs on the go from various people, including Becca's mum, although she declared that she felt inadequate as a knitter after seeing everyone's projects and kept her knitting well and truly below table level so we couldn't see it!! I was pleased that we had 12 people there last night, it gives me confidence that going for the second night a month was a good decision.

I bought my copy of Interweave Knits Fall 2008 and am quite taken with this waistcoat, and it's in a yarn that is readily available here if I want to use it, Rowan Scottish Tweed DK. I think it would look great over a long sleeve white T-shirt for work. I'll have a think about colours but the brown is actually quite nice.

Wednesday Knit Night

Tonight is the first of our Wednesday night knit groups at Borders. It will be interesting to see who comes along and what the numbers are like. We will be boosted by 2 because Becca is bringing her mum and her boyfriend's mum, neither of whom have been before, so at least there will be four of us!!

I have got stuck on my Cherie Amour at the part where you separate for the armholes. I'm sure if I sit down and concentrate I can work it out, but in the meantime I'm finishing the second of my Show Off Stranded Socks. I'm on the foot now so I can take it with me this evening and not have to concentrate too hard.

I've had a look on etsy recently and am tempted by some of the hand-dyed sock yarns on there. I particularly like some of the colours from Wild Fire Fibres. I may have to make a purchase when I get paid!!
(Edit: Aaargh, someone has nipped in and bought the colour I wanted while I was dithering!!! Sob!)

Yes, we have Lambananas.......

we have Lambananas today! There are over a 100 of these scattered around Liverpool. We found 16 of them, but here are a select few.





I think the John Lennon one is very cool!

Birthday flowers

I had some beautiful flowers on my birthday, so I thought I'd give the new camera a go and take some pictures. They are all taken on the AUTO setting (!).

These were from my mum and step-dad - except for the sunflowers which I added because I ran out of vases! (And they match the vase too.)


Sorry, can't remember who these were from - but again the sunflowers were added, they were from Paul & Kate


These were from Iain and Helen (of hand-drawn card fame).


And these are just a couple of close ups of the sunflower heads.

Colin's challenge

Please visit Colin's site where he is doing something good for Cancer Research UK.

http://www.365challenge.co.uk/

And here is the blog

http://365challenge.blogspot.com/

Thank you!

Cake!

I'm not going to bore the pants off everyone with hundreds of photos from my birthday, so here is a select few.

Me cutting cake


Me still cutting cake (can someone tell me is that T-shirt rude do you think? I'm not sure!!)


Very cute salt & pepper shakers from Mel & Stu


A brilliant birthday card from Iain & Helen. Why its so brilliant is that Helen drew it!! She is so talented. I love the way it looks 3D, but is actually flat.


I think parties are a little bit self indulgent because you know that people aren't going to turn up empty handed. I did get more cards and pressies than I probably would have done if it had been a quiet one, but hey, it was one of those birthdays with a 0 on the end.

Luckily, although it was a bit dark and dismal, the rain did stop so that we could have people sitting out on the patio. It was touch and go though. I hope a good time was had by all.

Colin bought me a fab new Digital SLR camera. I just need to learn how to use it properly now, rather than just leave it on AUTO. And find some artistic things to photograph rather than use it for snaps. Colin got all arty and took this down on the river yesterday morning when we went out for a cooked brekkie at The Blue Moon cafe.


And yesterday afternoon, rather than having leftovers for dinner, we were invited to our neighbours so I dragged the birthday out for another day!

Wahey, the BIG four-oh!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DONNA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

Yikes, 40????? Does that mean I'm all grown up now? Nah!

Twist Collective

There is a new online knitting magazine out called Twist Collective. It is a very professional job and looks just like a real life magazine. You turn the pages by clicking to the right or left, or if you want to read a whole article you follow the links.

It can be found here.

At last!!

The wait is over...........I present the Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2007.


I really like this jumper, the fit is great and the yarn is lovely and soft.


Even the sleeves are the right length!


The strange increase/decrease bit at the sides halfway up the cable pattern is in the perfect position to sit under the boobage. I've seen others on ravelry where it sits higher and looks a bit odd but I'm very happy with the position of mine because it is hidden by the "overhang"!!! (Not that there is much there to overhang!)

So Stash reopened their new Yarn Barn on Saturday. It is tucked away in an industrial park so I don't think they are going to get any opportunist passing trade but they say that most of their business is over the internet anyway. It is a much bigger space with chairs for sitting and knitting and everything is spread out around the walls so you aren't falling over each other if there are more than 3 people in the shop. I suppose I was there for about 40 minutes and picked up a ball of the Noro Kureyon sock yarn to give it a try as I've heard mixed reviews.


I had a frantic text message from Becca at 10.30am saying "Where are you?!" but we were in town and she was gone by the time we arrived. She was there for a total of two and a half hours!!

She brought her purchases over on Sunday when she and Mark came for lunch. I had no idea what I was going to make so I bought a copy of Delicious Magazine on Saturday and found a chicken recipe which turned out really well. I was a bit dubious when it said to add little gem lettuces to the frying pan but it actually worked. And I managed not to give anyone Salmonella.

I finished Sepulchre over the weekend. I did enjoy the story all the way through but the ending was over a bit quick and didn't completely explain how the supernatural occurrences happened. It was obvious from the beginning that Leonie and Meredith would be related but how didn't become clear until near the end. It was a long book (over 700 pages) but didn't drag and held my interest. My next read is The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman. This is another in the Merrily Watkins series which I've enjoyed so far.

A new post...........

...........is on its way, honest. I've been waiting until my Gathered Pullover was finished, which it was last night, so I just have to get a decent photo. My wireless connection has also been a bit hit and miss for some reason.

7 days and counting to ................my 40th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!

I am liking this....

.......the Gathered Pullover. This is halfway through the cable panel on the front.


The alpaca is lovely and soft as a fabric, slightly rougher as you are knitting it. I am just praying that the thing will fit when it is finished. Once this panel is finished, I have to separate for the fronts and back so I'll be putting stitches on stitch holders and can try it on.

But, I had a little diversion over the weekend. I got some 2.5mm DPNs from Scandinavian Knitting Design (along with some yarn which I can't show yet!), and using the leftover TOFUtsies that my Sock Wars assassin sent me, I made this little fellow for Becca.




And here he is with big brother Ellie. I still didn't manage to do crochet ears, but somehow I managed to knit a pair in a decent shape this time.

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!!!!

Where did they all go?

Getting back to my trip "down south", on the Friday I went over to the Isle of Wight to see my friend Sarah. My mum came with me and we headed down to the ferry terminal with no guarantee that we would actually get on a boat. The Isle of Wight music festival was starting that day with 50,000 people expected, so we thought that if we got down there and the queues were huge, we would think again and maybe have a day in Southampton instead.

Expecting crowds of backpackers we got a 9.30 bus which went all over the world to get there. The routes have changed a lot in the 20 years I have been away! Anyway we got there about 10 and there was hardly anyone around. Where the other 49,998 people were is anyone's guess. We decided to catch the fast Red Jet which takes 23 minutes rather than the hour on the car ferry and arrived at 10.45. Sarah's husband Alex picked us up and in less than ten minutes we were at the house.

Wow, what a house. Five bedrooms (she has 4 children), 3 bathrooms, two huge fields, a triple garage converted into a games room containing a pool table and ten pinball machines, stables and a ride on lawn mower. She also has a huge static caravan on a site a few miles away which we went to see. Oh, and 10 chickens. When we were leaving, Sarah gave us half a dozen eggs fresh out of the chickens that day. They were delicious. We had a great day, with lunch out, and we got to meet the boys when they came home from school (Meg, Sarah's daughter went off to the festival earlier), before heading back to the boat shortly after.

Talking of lunches out, this Sunday we arranged to have lunch with Becca and her boyfriend Mark. I hadn't met Mark before and Colin hadn't met Becca. We decided to go to The Glasfryn near Mold. It was a lovely lunch, we arrived at 1 o'clock and we were still there till gone 3. The food was great, I had a couple of huge salmon fishcakes, Colin and Becca had burgers and Mark had steak. No complaints from any of us. The chat came very easily and it was a great success all round. (Edit: Nnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooo, I've just had a text to say that Becca can't come to Woolfest, sob!)

I never got round to reviewing a couple of books I have recently finished. The first one was A Metropolitan Murder by Lee Jackson. This was set in the late 1800s when the first line of the London Underground had been built. A young woman is found dead in one of the train carriages and a man flees the scene. Did he do it? You'll have to read it to find out! There are twists and turns and it gives an interesting insight into the seedier side of London in those days. I enjoyed it.

I then read My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick. I was looking at the Hay on Wye Festival website when I noticed this author and this book. When it mentioned vampires I had to have it. It is actually categorized as a book for teenagers but that's never stopped me, I'll read anything if its good. Although it is quite short, it could be an adult book. It is again an historical novel, set in Eastern Europe in a tiny snowy village. There are a couple of gruesome murders but then the victims are seen supposedly back from the dead, and it is down to Peter, a woodcutter's son, to try to stop them. Along with a band of wandering gypsies and a secret his father has kept from him his whole life, he tries to track them down and save the village. Again, I enjoyed this. There was an epilogue at the end which felt disjointed from the main story, as if it was tacked on to bump up the word count but overall a good story.

After that I decided to try Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre. A friend of ours had mentioned this author a while ago and I only just got round to getting one of his books from bookmooch.com. Well, I abandoned it after about 20 pages. It shouldn't be right to say that a book is for either men or women only but I'm afraid that this is definitely a "bloke's book". The graphic descriptions of the results of alcohol overindulgence were far too much information for me, and the description of the murder victim was very gruesome. Ulgh! No, there are many more books I would much rather read than waste any more time on this one. I have gladly left it and moved on to Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (not that one, the one with an e). I really enjoyed Labyrinth and this one appears to be along a similar vein, though I am only 100 pages of 732 along so far.

I suppose I should mention a bit of knitting before this post gets too much longer. OTN I have the Vegas Sands neckwarmer which is coming along very nicely. I think there may be a few of these for presents this Christmas!! The yarn is lovely and the colours are completely random so there is no striping. I think it will be quite fitted to my neck, (I was slightly worried at first whether it would go over my head) so I am going to knit until the yarn runs out so that it folds when I wear it.

I ripped out the Nutkin sock, so the only other WIPs are the Clapotis and the jumper to be sewn up. I have done the shoulder seams so I have made a start.

I was listening to the Sticks & String podcast on the way to work this morning. David was interviewing Franklin from The Panopticon and he was telling a story about how he was knitting a baby hat on a coach, and at the end of the journey another passenger asked him about it. After the usual exchanges, she then asked him "so did you learn to knit in prison?" He didn't know what to say, and as they were getting off the coach at the time. he never did get round to asking her why she would have thought that. What goes through people's heads? Obviously the only men who knit are those that are forced to because they are (quite literally) a captive audience! Sheesh!

Just on a final note (and in small writing so as not to upset anyone), please leave me a comment, I really like reading them and I haven't had many for a while.

Serendipity

Isn't it funny how life works? You go for 39 years of your life not knowing of the existence of someone else who you end up meeting and really liking. And all from a quirk of fate.

That's what happened when I started the knitting group. It was a quirk of fate which got me in touch with J through ravelry and we both said wouldn't it be great to have a knitting group at Borders in Cheshire Oaks. And it was a quirk of fate that brought the various knitters there on the first night. And that there was someone there who wanted to learn how to knit socks, and asked if I could show them.

That person was Becca. And we hit it off straight away. Enough that we met up independently of the group a couple of weeks later, and have done so a few times since. I think we have become quite good friends and to think we didn't know that the other existed 4 months ago!

Anyway, what I'm getting on to is this.....


Lovely yummy squishy hand dyed BFL DK that Becca got for me in Hay on Wye. There is about 200yds there, which hopefully will make one of these. Isn't she sweet?

I finished Colin's jumper yesterday. Well sort of. It is now lying on the arm of the couch in four pieces, taunting me with it's need to be sewn together. Any volunteers out there?

I'm probably going to rip out the Nutkin sock, eek. I knitted a round twice 10 rounds back which has caused a hole and if I rip back I don't think I'll be able to pick up the stitches. I could do it one stitch at a time but that is a total of 640 stitches one by one! I'm not totally happy with the yarn anyway so I may just go for it and then start over with the Socks That Rock. Now that I have wound it into a ball it looks an even more yummy colour.

Weekend visit

At the weekend, Colin went on a course in London so we drove to my parents' in Southampton and he got the train up from there, leaving me behind with these two!



On the Friday I went to the Isle of Wight to see my friend Sarah, and on Saturday I popped down to see my step-sister Sue.....

and Mollie (6)

and Alex (9).


It was Alex's birthday a couple of weeks ago and he got a Wii so I got him the sport accessories (tennis rackets, golf club, and baseball bat). Of course he beat the pants off me!! But I was definitely the best at making an a**e of myself on the trampoline!!

In a lull

I am in a lull - is that the right word for it? Nothing much is happening, the knitting is fairly dull and uninspiring and all that there is on telly is football!!

But tonight is knitting group, yay! Although, despite sending emails to all 20-plus members asking for any feedback they may have on how the group is going, I received a total of 0 replies. Unless you count the two people who were just letting me know that they couldn't make it to the group this month. Never mind, they are all obviously enjoying the group so much and don't think any changes are necessary. That can't be a bad thing can it?

I get to see an old friend on Friday. Sarah and I met at primary school in Southampton and despite her moving to the Isle of Wight when we were about 6 we have stayed in touch all these years. The last time I saw her was 9 years ago at her wedding but on Friday I am going over to see her. She now has 4 children!! My mum has stayed in touch with her mum too so we are having a girls' day out together! I am hoping to do a bit of famous person spotting on the ferry/hydrofoil as it is also the Isle of Wight Festival this weekend, and all those "stars" have to get there somehow don't they? Maybe I'll spot Sting doing a bit of yoga on the open deck!

Going a bit posh

Thanks for the comments about Ellie, it was a quick fun knit - 2 days - and I may make another at some point, possibly a smaller one. Ellie is about 5 inches tall and is knit from this pattern, using two strands of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn held together, and 3.75mm DPNs. The DPNs were the purple ones which were free with an issue of Let's Knit magazine and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were for a freebie.

Still OTN - Joma, Clapotis and Nutkin.

My Sock Wars assassin sent me some more gifts this week. The leftover Tofutsies from my socks, some jams, and some Socks That Rock sock yarn!!!!!!!!!!! It's fab, and a great colour. And the colourway is called Backstabber, hahahaha!!!


I got through quite a few episodes of another podcast last week. Sticks & String is from "an Australian bloke who knits". It's only half an hour long and easy to listen to, and gives a male perspective of knitting. I also found Stash & Burn a couple of days ago. A bit similar to Lime & Violet but not quite so manic!!

Yesterday we were wondering what to do with ourselves so we went into town to see what was going on. There was a home & garden show on at the racecourse but we didn't fancy that so we walked along the river for a bit and up through Grosvenor Park. Had lunch in The Gallery cafe and after Colin had bought some new sandals, headed back towards the car. There just happened to be some Polo going on at the Racecourse too so we wandered in and ended up finding some chairs right beside the pitch. The match turned out to be the final of the Coutts International Polo Tournament. There were quite a few posh people there whereas we were in shorts and t-shirts!! We watched 2 "chukkas" and took part in the treading in, where the crowd goes onto the pitch and treads in all the divots that have been thrown up by the hooves. I think traditionally it is supposed to be the ladies who do this while carrying a drink in a posh glass but there were men and kids and dogs doing it yesterday. The weather was fabulous dahling!! I came home with a bit of sun. When we looked it up later we should have paid £10 each for the priviledge but there was nowhere that we could see that said we had to pay. We just wandered in off the street!

This morning we went for a walk along the river but this time at The Meadows. Very pleasant. And this afternoon I finally finished reading Grave Doubts. It has taken me quite a while to get through this, it is about 600 pages long and I kept having long gaps between readings, but when i did get down to it I read a chunk at a time and the pages turned very quickly. It was pretty good for an English murder story, I've never been able to get into Ruth Rendell etc, but there were rather a lot of very annoying typos throughout the book. (she says, quickly checking this post for errors!!). I have now decided to have a go at A Metropolitan Murder by Lee Jackson. It is a much thinner book so I should get through it quicker.

On Tuesday night we went to see Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I thought Harrison Ford was really good in it and completely forgot the age issue. It was a good old romp but the ending was a bit daft, reminding me of the X-flies movie. Talking of which......the new one is out soon. Woohoo.

Ellie