Mmmmm chocolate

Oct2007 009
Originally uploaded by Bearium

Just a quick hello to say I've not dropped off the planet, I've just been busy knitting. I've some rather lovely (if I say so myself) little bags to share with you. They're mostly at the assembly stage so once I've had the sewing machine out and finished the linings, I'll get the camera out.

Counting down the days

and I'm busy trying to get enough things finished to fill my stall. Two weeks to go and counting! It's a little daunting to say the least as although I've always knitted gifts for friends and family, I've never actually put myself out there as it were and offered them for sale. Here's the results of last weeks dye fest dry and ready to be wound. It's mostly semi solid colours for felting with and I'm pretty pleased with the result so far. I've been playing around with some Ashford dyes and trying to be good about keeping records. I tend to be fairly intuitive about the colours combinations I use but if I want to be able to repeat any of the batches, I need to be a bit more controlled about it.

I've got a few bags drying and plenty more to knit up too. I'm looking forward to mum getting back from Manchester tomorrow night so I can put her to work. Not that I won't just be pleased to see her of course! Well that and the fact she's found me a big pack of sock wool to dye as well. Yay.

Have you got The Inside Loop?

I've been catching up on my bloglines and have found some exciting news, Kate and Diane are about to launch their own online knitting magazine! It's based in the UK and is going to feature British designs and yarns, the blog is live already and it's looking really good so far.

They're accepting submissions for the first issue. Will I be brave enough to send one in?

Blast from the past

Over the last few weeks I've been attempting to sort through my stash a little and as usual, it always turns up something interesting (or should I say lurking?) at the bottom of the box. This has probably got to be one of my favourite projects that I've never actually finished and if I'm completely honest, I never will. It's one of my early attempts at Intarsia and wasn't entirely successful - probably the reason it was never finished . At the time it was also an overambitious Christmas knit for mum. I did actually get as far as completing the back and one of the sleeves before I gave up and as with many things started and hidden away, I've never been able to bring myself to frog it.

Today I finally decided that discretion is the better part of valor and have accepted that while it is never going to be finished, it can be useful after all. It'll probably end it's life as a cushion or something .... at some point. Or what is also known as stuffing it back into the bottom of the box until I get the time (or inclination) to do something with it. Guilty as charged on that one I'm afraid.

See the cute little seal jumper though? I did make that one for the mighty midget when he was tiny but I haven't got a picture of it as far as I know. He looked very cute as I'm sure you can imagine. Anyhow, all the remaining yarn from the non-jumper is not going to go to waste it's going to be an EZ Tomtem jacket for him once all the bag making is done and dusted.

The pattern for the jumper above comes from Knitting Wildlife by Ruth Herring and Karen Manners and is as the post title suggests, a real blast from the past. As a child of the eighties I can't help but love it as it brings back all sorts of memories. I thought you might like to see some of my favourite designs from the book. Just look at the hair and the bat wings, you can't help but smile!

Here's one I made earlier

Jaywalk
Originally uploaded by Bearium

It's my Jaywalker socks, they're finished and a perfect fit and of course, I've already worn them! I ummed and arred about matching the stripes but in the end I opted not to bother and actually they've ended up matching quite well.

No thanks to Opal that is as, not only was there a break in the yarn, it had be rejoined in the wrong direction!! As I was mid stripe I decided to wind the wool on to make it match and noticed straight away - luckily before I'd started knitting. I don't have a problem with the stripes not lining up but I'd have been really peeved if they'd started going in the wrong order. This is the first time I've had a problem with any of the Opal wools I've had and hopefully it'll be the last.

Anyhow down to the details:
Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina
Yarn is Opal Rainforest2 in Peacock colourway
Needles: 2.5mm BB dnps

The pattern was very easy to follow and shows off the striping in the yarn beautifully. Will I make them again? yes

With the best will in the world, I don't think I'm destined to survive the blog-along but at least I do have an internet connection again today. Well, more or less anyhow. It's soooo slow!

There's several little men digging holes just down the road to fiddle with the phone lines. Goodness only knows what they're doing! It shouldn't affect us here as we're on a different exchange (or so I thought anyhow) but the internet was down late into the night. It's still pretty dicey now but at least it does seem to be working a little. Ahh, the joys of living in the sticks.

I've failed already and it's only Monday!

Hmm, that makes it sound far worse than it actually is. What I should say is that I was trying to blog along with the NaBloPoMo and try and blog everyday for the whole of November. I knew it would be difficult as I'm not a particularly regular blogger but I thought I'd make it past the first weekend at least. Oops :s Ah well, nevermind. It must have been my inner pessimist talking when I didn't sign up officially. Still, I am a little disappointed with myself.

After the way last week ended, I actually had a lovely weekend. Thanks for all the lovely comments, I don't like whinging but sometimes it can't be helped. We spent Saturday morning out beating and then went along to the local fireworks in the evening. I don't think I've seen fireworks that good since millenium night. They were superb!

So what am I up to on the knitting front then seeing as I've had several big finishes in the last couple of weeks? Well, it's a case of bags, bags and more bags. I'm also in the middle of a bit of a dye-fest.
I have, perhaps rather foolishly, signed up to do a stall at a Christmas craft fayre at the beginning of December. I'm going to be selling handbags, purses and home dyed yarn. Gulp. I'm test knitting a couple more bags patterns atm but I really need to get my finger out and get a few more felted otherwise it's going to be a very empty stall indeed.

Am I getting worried yet? Hmm, perhaps.

Could this day get any worse?

Famous last words and all that but I can't believe that anything else can possibly go wrong today. I guess I'd better warn you now that there's not much knitting content in this particular post, I'm going to whinge instead!

I am currently surrounded by washing. There are sheets and wet clothes everywhere. DS has had a couple of rough nights and I am now officially out of clean sheets. I have 6 (!!) drying as we speak and the heating on in a desperate effort to try and get some dried out before bedtime. Not to mention the pyjamas. At half past four this morning (yes, really) I was scrapping around in the dark trying to find something dry that he could put on. Luckily I haven't packed the summer clothes away as yet so I did scrape together a shorts an t shirt ensemble as he refuses to sleep naked.

To top that, I in pain again, my ears feel like they're going to explode. Nothing I seem to do helps and it seems a waste of time going back to the doctors when all they said the other week was take painkillers. Grr. When is this cold going to go away?

Oh and the icing on the cake is that I realised this morning that the car tax expired two days ago. Doh! I grabbed the folder of car documents then realised my cheque book is missing. Not to worry thinks I, I'll just get the cash out instead as the Post Office won't accept card payment yet. I drove all the way over there to discover that both my Insurance document and the renewal notice were missing. "Bother" I thought and drove I the way back home again. I turned out the drawer, found an insurance document, scrapped around and even found the renewal notice and drove all the way back over to the Post Office again. Sorry the guy says, that's not the right document, I want a certificate not a renewal document. It's more than my job's worth to put it through on that document, the police wouldn't accept that, they'd tear it up. Jobsworth is about right I thought, I'm driving round with no car tax, what do you think the policeman would say about that then?! Grr. So here I am back home again, fuming, generally pissed off and feeling sorry for myself. Watching the clock until I can take another painkiller.

sighs rant over, it'll be back to knitting stuff again tomorrow. I promise.

FO - Indian Summer Shawl

It's done and I have the pictures to prove it. I have a fairly well documented love/hate relationship with this shawl so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. The completed article does indeed look great but I think it's going to end up being wrapped and given as a gift at some point.

Being cotton, it's fairly heavy and as I'm fairly tall, it could probably do with being a little bigger. I like to feel completely wrapped in my shawls.

Maybe I'll feel a little different about it later on but for now it's decorating dolly instead of me.

So the details:
The pattern is Indian Summer Shawl by Tess Dawson.
I bought the pdf directly from the Angel Yarns shop but it is also in her new book.
Yarn is Sirdar Pure Cotton in lime and pale blue. I used two balls of each colour which is plenty for the body of the shawl but doesn't leave enough for a thick enough fringing imo.
Hook is an 8mm Brittany Birch.

Perhaps I should just give it away now? A Christmas blog competition coming on maybe.

knock knock .....is there anybody there?

Oct2007 007
Originally uploaded by Bearium

sorry this amused me anyhow. The mighty midget was playing with the camera again and in among all the blurry shots I found this.