New project started

A massive bundle of yarn arrived at my sister's house yesterday ready for the illusion blankets we're going to make. The pattern is based on Love Hearts and is available here.  I've tried a few illusion blankets before but only my own designs so I'm excited to work from a pattern. Woolly Thoughts have some incredible illusion patterns to try and have developed there own charting style.  So far, it seems very straightforward and clear.  I'm glad to have another project on the go as the simplicity cardigan uses lace yarn and my hands are getting a bit tired . This is dk weight so it's a bit easier going. The finished blanket is (with any luck) going to be a surprise for the recipient so I won't say too much about it.

Keep plodding on

Just for the record, I do not hate my mother.

Another thing, I have not yet put the leaf pattern up for Bev.

Also, I had a comment from Noblinpa asking why he never gets mentioned.

The last few posts didn't get labelled so I think I'll go back and edit them.

I've developed a bad habit of giving knitted gifts away without getting proper photos of them. Shedir has been finished and posted and received so you won't be seeing that for a while. I'll try to get a modelled shot when I'm visiting Aunty again. I missed my chance this weekend but was very busy. I stayed with my sister and managed to get you some pictures of the hat I made my nephew for his 1st birthday. It is a Lucinda Guy pattern but I changed the yarn and colours as the ones in the book weren't available. It is adorable, especially when being wrenched off the young one's head.














I have made progress on my parts of Aunty's blanket. My sister and mum have aswell but they deserve their own post after I have blocked the squares which got very crumpled in my suitcase.






On one of the long sections, I knitted too far and had to undo several inches.




Last weekend, we saw the inlaws for an opera and a wedding. It was all very fun and tiring so then I slept late for a few days.




Noblin Sighting:

Happy birthday to me!

Hello everyone, it's lovely to be back. We flew home on May 26th and have spent the last month trying to catch up with people and begin to sort our lives out. I am reinventing myself as a professional knitter with the help of my friend Erssie, who has more knitting and dogs than she can shake a stick at.

One of the most exciting things about being back was being presented with the blanket my mum has been knitting for me since we left. Way back a year ago, she was saying she wished there were more patterns where you could just knit and didn't have to be fussed with shaping and counting. I had recently been caught up in the log cabin knitting craze as seen here and in Mason Dixon Knitting so I gave mum my copy and a few leftovers. She has been knitting for nearly 11 months on it, interspersed with purchasing longer needles and a Denise set (in pink).
It is so marvellous, I even lugged it back to sunny Slough in my backpack and use it all the time. Most of my professional knitting career has taken place snuggled up underneath it (what happened to the weather? central heating in June?). Okay, okay, it's a two person lap blanket so it's meant to be for sharing but I like it mostly for myself ;)

For my birthday yesterday, I requested not to have presents from most people but a few had already been to the shops. My sister bought me a lovely bag for my knickers as noone wants to see them flying all over the train as I struggle to heave out my packed lunch and knitting when travelling between families. My mum bought me a copy of Divas Don't Knit which I've already started and am enjoying between tidying up to hoover and do some blocking on the floor. It isn't as compelling as The Friday Night Knitting Club but without spoiling it I was in floods of tears at the end of TFNKC and I jolly well hope that won't be the case with DDK. On the other side, my inlaws bought me some smellies and candles which I will have to redistribute as I don't like burning money and I don't like synthetic chemicals. I really should say something to them but I am partly too shy and partly don't like to be ungrateful and partly like something to whinge about. Otherwise, they are lovely gifts. From the step-grandparents-in-law, I was given a lovely box of fairtrade chocs and an apology that it was the biggest box they could find. All in all, I was very spoilt. Marie made me an amazing chocolate cake and I even had an appletise at the pub.

The reason for no presents (and if you look back a year ago you'll see a rather different attitude): my husband and I are investigating alternative lifestyles, including not having a huge house full of junk, and he even has his own webpage now. It's all very embryonic but do take a look if you like. I will stick more to knitting here though so you'll have to look over there if you want to know more about our plans.

Things I have to tell you about:
knit shopping around the world including Azerbaijan, India, Japan (which I briefly mentioned earlier), NZ, USA
meeting up with an internet friend in real life and eating lots of chocs
travelling stories from everywhere including Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Dubai, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Japan, NZ, Samoa, USA

Feel free to vote for your favourite topic.

So, what have you all been up to while I've been away?