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Sunday 11 December 2011

This week I have mostly been ....

knitting mice and nursing a cold.  Slightly strange combination but hey, it's the festive season and that's where I'm at.  The knitted mice are a commission from my sister for a tea cosy for one of her friends.  I said yes before I got the pattern and it's proved to be trickier than expected.  Rather foolishly I thought I'd be able to knock a tea cosy out really quickly but as with all commissions, they're never straightforward!
 Here's the body of the tea cosy and the mice .....
Oh my, all the ends!  When it comes together it should look something like this, the sack of mice pattern by Debi Birkin. As always I've made a couple of mods to the pattern mostly because it seemed she was creating extra work the way a couple of the pieces were made.

The start of the week saw me finally get my package into the post for the Christmas swap over on the I love Lucy group on Ravelry.   We had a rough winter last year with lots of family illness and ultimately we lost my grandad so I've not done a swap for a couple of years.  I have to say it's been really fun to do again and my swap partner this year has been great.  Teresa writes a great blog (far more regularly than me) and from the pictures she posts, lives in the most beautiful place in the states.  If you want to get into the Christmas spirit already, her blog's a great place to start. Here's a sneaky peak of my parcel, am just waiting for it to be delivered now to see what she thinks.
Once the Chistmas knitting is all done, I'm hoping to have a play with my new inkle loom.  Well, its new to me anyhow.  It was free to a good home via one of the ladies at my knitting group, I suspect it's been gathering dust in a cupboard for a very long time. What I need now is a crash course in how to use it!  I've found a couple of websites with tutorials that I hope will get me started but all tips and suggestions will be gratefully received. 
There's no makers mark on it so if anyone know's anything about it, I'm all ears.  It's tension peg (the sliding metal one) seems to be in a different position to the one's in the tutorials I've found so am hoping that's not going to make too much difference to the way it warps up.
 Look at me, throwing in all the weaving terms.  I've never used a loom in my life!