Tuesday 29 April 2008

The knitters friend

Films are a knitter's friend. Especially when the knitter is producing endless amounts of stocking stitch, like sleeves.
We watched a good film (but not so good I couldn't drag my eyes away) at the weekend - and I ended up knitting and crocheting the second sleeve of the Beachcomber Tunic in record time.
I'm now on the lower crochet half of the front. The finish line is in sight!

The Beachcomber Tunic is too big to be easily portable now, so I have a new work lunchtime project - my first pair of commissioned socks!
Instead of cash payment I'm bartering services with the recipient. I'm getting a big jar of chilli olives in return for the knitting, and of course the recipient has paid for the wool.
I'm using the same
Irish Wellington Socks free pattern, with the Big Fabel yarn in the green colourway - as chosen by the recipient. Very nice it is too.

I also managed to summon up the energy and enthusiasm to tidy up our building site back garden a little at the weekend. I planted some violas and pot-bound plants, so we should have some flowers soon.
Just look at the garlic! Hopefully I'll be able to dry those off and start eating them soon too - yum. :-)
Hanging baskets are next. We will have colour!

Thursday 24 April 2008

Stocking up

I mentioned a few purchases last time didn't I? Well they've been trickling in ever since:

Firstly there is a small package of 4 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from the sale at Stash.

They are a gorgeous salmon shade, intended for a
Baby Shrug as a Christmas present for my new niece Sara.

I know it's a little ahead of time, but there's nothing like being organised. And anyway I wanted to buy some more stash. ;-)

Since they arrived though, I realised that they match a dress of my youngest DD's perfectly - the only dress that we don't have any cardigans that match at the moment. So I may have to buy some more...

Next up is an ebay bargain that I shouldn't have bought really but couldn't resist.

It's 500g of Lana Grossa Pina yarn which is 100% viscose. I love viscose, and it only cost me £5.50 plus postage. The colour isn't ideal for me, and I have no idea what I will make with it, but the price meant I had to have it!

Finally (for now) is a parcel from Web of Wool. It's the Panda Cotton sock yarn - 2 skeins of Chocolate Almond and 2 skeins of Strawberry Lime. Who could resist colours like that?!

I had to try it, and seem to be getting more into knitting socks - or at least buying the yarn. Plus it's a bamboo/cotton blend - my favourite right now.

I have been knitting some of the newer stash too. My enthusiasm was waning for the Beachcomber Tunic so I decided to make my welly socks!

They only took a few days to knit - chunky and easy. I followed the
Irish Wellington Socks pattern using the 200g of the Garnstudio Big Fabel yarn in the red/orange colourway on size 4.5mm needles.

I guess it's back to the Beachcomber Tunic now!

Monday 14 April 2008

Playing catch-up

Oh, hi there! I'm still here - life just took over for a while. So, lots of news:

Baby SaraI have a new niece! Sara was born on 3rd April, weighing in at 6lb 10oz. I'm saving up lots of special auntie cuddles for her until we next go up country to visit. :-)

I've also had some of my family come to visit - for the first time since we
moved to Cornwall!
My dad and step-mom flew over from Alicante and we collected them from
Newquay Airport - so handy. They stayed with us for 2 nights then flew on to Glasgow to visit other relatives.
We visited
Falmouth (my dad loves boats) and had dinner back in Perranporth at the Watering Hole - absolutely gorgeous food including warm goat's cheese on a roasted red pepper and rocket salad with crushed new potatoes - mmmm!

Beachcomber Tunic sleeveOn the knitting front, I've been progressing slowly with the Beachcomber Tunic.


This is getting to the tedious stage now, as I've done nothing else for 3 weeks. I do still love it though, and finally feel like I'm getting to the home straight.

Just one more sleeve to go, then the crochet part of the front and the seaming. Shouldn't take too much longer!

Big Fabel yarn stashAdmittedly I have succumbed to stash enhancement to relieve my WIP frustration.


Here is the latest to be ordered - and the first to arrive, from Scandanavian Knitting Design.

There is 200g of aran-weight Big Fabel sock wool in reds for a pair of socks for me, 200g of the same wool in greens for a pair of walking socks for a work colleague (he's making us some chilli olives as a trade!), and 50g of Muskat mercersised cotton in black for another colleague to crochet a phone cover with.


More on the way from various sources!

Thursday 3 April 2008

Working down the list

I wasn't too enthralled with Ravelry to start with. It seemed like an awful lot of work to log details of all my stash, needles, hooks, books,magazines, FOs, and WIPs. I'm still a very long way off; I'll probably never get it all in there.

Since then I've wandered around the site for a few hours, and it's grown on me like ivy up a wall! I'm finding it fascinating and inspiring to look at how others have used the same yarn, to read notes regarding patterns on my waiting list, to discover new patterns for an old stashed yarn, and so on.

I still haven't found a local knitting or crochet group, but then I guess you can't have everything.

It's also finally given me the incentive to actually work through my project waiting list and ridiculous amount of stash. After all that IS the point of buying the yarn... isn't it?!

As for the current WIPS:

Beachcomber Tunic: progressing daily.
(The colours don't really change like that - I took the photo with my mobile at work!)

I've done the 3-needle cast-off to seam both shoulders. I'm now working on the lower back - the crocheted part.
The pattern is easy enough, but takes a while to do a repeat thanks to all the double treble clusters. I really love the effect though.
Fingers crossed that it ends up looking and feeling good when I wear it!

Bamboo Top: on hold.
I just have to seam this and oversew all ends with needle and thread as the lovely bamboo yarn is slippy. I need some warm weather to inspire me!

And finally a FO - a new member of the family! DH's cousin gave birth to a beautiful 6lb 2oz daughter Aimee Louise at the weekend. Well done Karen! That means that the Lucy cardigan should be in use soon. :-)