Knitting and Stitching show

And a crochet class!

 I came back with a bag of swag, and a rather lovely complimentary bag it was too.

 As you can see, I was much more restrained than in 2008, and I was very pleased with myself for not revisiting the cash machine. I bought from all new to me shops and enjoyed a crochet class, which turns out wasn't as new to me as I thought.

 These balls of brightness are from New Zealand.  I'm told they retail at £9 per 50g which was too steep for me this time, but these ones were in the seconds bag for only £3.50 each.  I can't resist a bargain but for some reason rejected the orange ball.  I think it was because Liz and Autumn had been teasing me about yellow and orange earlier. I do like orange.

 Silk from Thailand.  I don't think I've seen yarn from Thailand before, so I got sucked into a conversation with some lovely people and bought 25g of silk. I didn't get much change from a tenner but I'm hoping to crochet a tiny hippo so I'm sure it's worth it ;)

I have very little room for more yarn, but as Autumn is an experienced quilter, I was allowed to spend plenty of time looking at fabric.  Being a fan of most things Japanese, I couldn't resist these lovely fabric squares from Euro Japan Links.

 

Japan were well represented this year, and while I couldn't afford a whole set, I bought a single crochet hook from Tulip and received a brochure and bag.

I saw the hippo tape measure almost as soon as I walked in and bought it there and then.  It was available from several stands for similar prices.  And I don't remember where the zip was from either, although Liz may have bought some fabric there too.

Yarn explosion

The yarn in my house seems to be breeding. It no longer fits in the boxes and bags designated for it and has spread all over my living room. I'm trying to knit as fast as it breeds but I'm losing the fight.

I have started Rock Island for my mum's xmas present. It's going mostly smoothly.  The edging was surprisingly quick but then the first pattern row of the main shawl proved I can't count to 6 consistently. 

Having a new project means a new project bag.  I picked this one up in London when I saw the Lion King with my neice for her birthday.

The Yarn Yard Steeplechase Club

I received the 2nd instalment of the Steeplechase lace club yesterday. It's rather behind the original schedule of mid-July but I wasn't disappointed by the contents. It's a beautiful colour, a beautiful yarn, probably something that I wouldn't be brave enough to buy for myself. It arrived in two skeins of 50g, 600m each which is less daunting than one whopper of 1200m. I've no idea what to make with it so I'm content to look at it and cuddle it lovingly.  Click on the photo below if you want to see - I didn't want to include any spoilers for people who hadn't received theirs yet. 

The Natural Dye Studio Great British Wool Club

These are my July and August instalments from the GBWC.

I was a bit concerned about the July instalment. It is undyed wensleydale plied with BFL. I was expecting something dyed and I didn't like the barberpole effect.  It also reeked of sheep and I didn't like it.  I'm happy to say the smell has faded and the colour has grown on me so much, I'm looking forward to using it.  Go figure.

The August instalment was much more immediately my cup of tea. A blend of wensleydale and dorset poll and dyed a lovely shade somewhere between petrol blue and navy.

All the yarns in GBWC are spun to the same specs so they can be used together on larger garments.  I'm going to wait to see what September brings before I make any decisions on these, and whether I want to sign up to the next three months...which I mostly do want to.

Here is the Sirene I bought earlier.  I briefly thought I could use them all together as I liked the colours together but the Sirene is much finer, and I want to make a Rock island with it.

Buy British

With the news that Britain is in a worse recession than the experts expected, I continue my one knitter quest to boost the economy.

Exhibit one: Big sporting event themed stitch markers from Fripperies and bibelots. Shhh, don't say olympic or we all might get arrested.

Exhibit Two: Vampire's Kiss stitch markers. 

 I felt a bit bad yesterday morning when I was waiting for the stitch markers to arrive.  I am using about 30 at the moment, of the 50 I bought before, so that brings the total to 70, and then I ordered a club set that will be sent out next week.  When they arrived though, I didn't feel bad anymore.  They are pretty and they live up to the claim of snag free and they make me happy.  I have decided not to buy anymore for a while though, as each time I see a set I like, I will end up buying four or five as I have very little self control.  I'd rather have one in every colour or not at all than just one.

Exhibit Three: Sirene, BFL and Wensleydale 600m per 100g, from The Natural Dye Studio

This is lovely, less orange than I expected but still a lovely peachy colour.  It does have a sheepy smell but it's not as strong as another hank I have, which as I type, I realise I haven't blogged. So that could be another exhibit but I'll leave it for now.

Exhibit Four: Spyder Silk, 420m per 100g

I bought this in case my aunt is too allergic to wool to wear her Percy#3, in which case I'll keep it and knit her something in purple silk.  Unless she also doesn't like pale purple, in which case I'll keep everything.

Exhibit Five: Sparkle Sock, 600m per 150g in Midnight Purple from Fyberspates

This is for a Rock Island for my mum and it's so beautiful I have already wound it and am itching to start.  I'm going to keep to my new rule of not starting a something until another is finished so either that will be Echo Flowers or Simplicity cardigan.  I'm alternating between the two as a whim takes me and making use of my stitch markers on both.

Stash enhancement

Work on Percy #3 continues and I'm still enjoying it. I'm thinking of adding an extra repeat of Chart B if I have enough yarn, which I'm fairly sure I do. I've also started a sock in yarn I bought when I was in Berlin. It's going to be very simple and hopefully won't end up totally the wrong size.

Not content with buying enough german sock yarn for three pairs of socks, when in Berlin, I have also been adding UK yarn to my stash. Well, it is the Jubilee, so supporting local companies is my excuse for spending money that I probably shouldn't. The first is from the Natural Dye Studio, and I also signed up to their Great British Wool Club from July.

Then, I signed up to the Yarnyard steeplechase lace club, as I'm loving the laceweight percy, and then I noticed Nimu were having a sale so, fell off the non-shopping wagon with quite a bump.

It's all rather glorious and I'm glad I tell you, Glad, Glad , Glad, GLad, GLAD.

FLASH MY STASH

KnitNation 2011

I went to knitnation and even took my camera but didn't dig it out until after I'd had lunch. I took a dreadful photo of Ysolda and am farily sure she glared at me for making it so rubbish. I would have tried kinnearing LilyF rance or Cookie A or Franklin Habit but I was too slow witted.

I did buy a few things.  Some dpn keepers and chart markers from Atomic Knitting.

Some To Dye For Yarn from Loop. I didn't buy any Wollmeise but perhaps I should have.

A merino tencel blend from Juno - very georgeous peaceful colourways.

Very bright Sunshine sock yarn that Katie wasn't totally convinced by.

5 balls of Angora blend, three red and two grey. Very excited about this.

Pile of goodies complete with signed copy of Little Red in the City. I also did a lucky dip and won a coupon for another of Ysolda's patterns from her website.

I finished the first square - YAY!

Moths

I love the longer evenings and the sunshine and the warm weather but keeping the windows open all the time seems to be an open invite to moths.  Moths used to really scare me - I think it was after watching an episode of casualty where a woman had a moth stuck in her ear. Travelling and living in a mosquito net for nearly a year and then in a draughty converted barn helped me through that fear - eventually you just have to fall asleep.  I've also been concerned that they'll eat their way through my stash but I had to get over that too.  I can't knit any quicker and I don't often add to the stash so there's no point stressing.  Knitting's supposed to be fun not grim. 

Turn it up to 11

My lovely squooshy yarn arrived from the yarn yard today.  It is gorgeous! It was a bit much first thing this morning as I had a supreme tiredness hangover and my eyes were really sore.  The colours of the yarn were a lot brighter than I expected.   The pink had definitely been turned up to 11!  It is 50:50 merino and silk and has a lovely sheen. It makes me think of sweets and ballet dancers and lipstick.  The purple is 100% merino, 750m to 150grams.  It's a heavy lace weight, only a little finer than the sock yarn so seems like a good compromise for me.  I have only finished one shawl in lace weight, for my mum's 50th birthday present, and then it went AWOL.  I've started another shawl since but the pattern doesn't seem to be at all memorisable so I only seem to do a few rows at a time.  I like to knit in front of the tv and I definitely wouldn't enjoy either the program or the knitting if I tried it with that shawl. I'd like to cast on the patterns that I queued but I'll have to wait until my project for Let's Knit is finished.  It's well under way and quite relaxing which is what I need tonight. I'm watching Alfie (Jude Law) to keep me company.

Yes sir, yes sir, a big bag of wool

I have a lovely big bag of wool ready for a new project for Let's Knit. I had meant to get started on it at the weekend but I was a bit busy basking in the glory of stumbling round a wood for an hour and a half.  My limbs are still achey and today I felt grim - I think it was a come down from the high of the physical exertion.  It's just aswell I have all these presents lined up for myself which will hopefully start arriving tomorrow. I don't know how sensible it is buying more yarn and computer games, though, when I don't find the time to use up the ones I already have.  I thought I would finish Flossie's cardigan this evening but had a mini mental breakdown and did my ironing instead.  I just wanted to put it away.  My younger sister has been encouraging me to tidy up as I go along and to be honest, I was so fed up this weekend of my house looking like I'd been subjected to an FBI investigation, I tidied on Sunday and I did my washing up before bed last night and today I put my clean clothes away.  Freakish behaviour, I doubt it will last long.

Rewards

I'm very much one for rewarding my own good behaviour.  As there were some definite feelings of panic and impending doom before the race, I made a little list of things to buy for myself as something to help look past the run itself.  As it turned out, I really enjoyed the run so didn't need any cheering up afterwards but I shopped anyway :)

I bought a selection of songs from the recent Glee episodes, including Pretty/Unpretty as the TLC album was one of the first I bought at uni.  I've also become the last person on the planet to buy Lady Gaga, Fame monster.  I should say Queen Gaga. I've never seen her perform before and I was totally impressed watching coverage on the beeb of the big weekend.  I can fully understand why she is the total superstar she has become. 

I went to The Yarn Yard and ordered a skein of pink Sugarsugar sock yarn (it was reduced dontcha know) and bought Manolo to use it up on. This pattern looks like a nice balance of patterning and stocking stitch so I might make it all the way through without too much cursing.

I also bought a skein of purple Enchant lace yarn for a Simplicity cardigan.  I rarely use lace yarn and it's even rarer that I finish something using it so maybe a one skein cardigan is the right idea.

Oops, I've just had a little splurge on Amazon but let's call those birthday presents and save them for another day.

Next project is an old one

After the success of finishing the Honey cardigan I felt spurred on to knit another cardigan.  I started looking around for a pattern but my sister reminded me I should finish something already in waiting.  I like this idea as it's like getting free clothes - I've already got everything I need and I'm actually further on than I expected. I've been pleasantly surprised by this project before. Periodically, I pull it out of its bag and knit a few rows.

This time I found that I'd actually finished the back and front and done half a sleeve.  I also found some scraps of other yarn - I don't know what they're doing in there.

This is Scrumptuious DK that I bought waaaaaay back when, around the same time my husband was thinking of walking out on me*, so perhaps some of my reluctance to finish it is that association. Naah! I think the real problem is, I didn't get gauge so I blithely thought I'd make my own calculations.  It's hard enough putting down a project and picking it up again, but it's even worse if you have to remember what nonsense numbers you were using.  I did make some reasonable notes though, another nice surprise, which is why I managed to finish both fronts and make them match.  I don't remember which notebook I wrote them in though or where that notebook might be.

*I wonder if that also encouraged me to buy so much.  It's certainly entertaining to look back at all those purchases and see that I have knitted myself three pairs of socks from it.  THREE PAIRS, PEOPLE! Out of a possible 9 pairs, a cardigan, a jumper and a shawl! That is not entirely surprising. I think one hank of sock yarn went to my sister as a present, one is on the needles at present, the lace yarn was started, the cardigan started (see above) and the rest is admired fairly regularly.