Friday 22 February 2013

Bargains and more knitting!

I think I need to stop buying wool! trouble is its all such good bargains at the moment in the shops! how could I resist?  I've knitted with Cocoon before, and when I saw this in the lovely green colour how could I leave it behind??  well the answer is, I couldn't! and neither, either, could I leave the bag of ten SMC select extra soft merino opera! .. sigh .. (and yes I did get in to trouble with dh for spending ££ on more wool!)

a bit of a hint of sparkle!

Elise knitted in ..

.. the lovely Cocoon!

its not all about the knitting! owl fabric
I CO immediately for a lovely cardigan - Elise and its knitting up fast already I am at the point of shaping for armholes - the one good thing about chunky and big 7mm needles!!

to the relief of dh I did put back the two packs of ten each pure wool dk in attractive blue and pink colours so it could have been worse, but I shall have to do some serious knitting to make it all up!

I knit some more of no.1.son's sock at knit-night this week and am looking forward to joining a new group of knitterly ladies that meet in a LYS monthly - next week to be precise! can't wait!

and of course I shall take my sock in my new sheepy project bag (lets hope there is CAKE!)
I've gone mad on home baked ginger sponge at the moment and this week I have baked it twice already!  luckily its a hit with the family but I shall have to stop or I shall start gaining weight again!

We had snow in the air today, and the forecast is to turn more wintry so I plan to turn the heating up put the kettle on and do some more KNITTING this weekend - next week we celebrate our son's birthday with a meal out.


Family Party

I don't want to put up photographs of dh's Nieces birthday party as there are lots of little children on each but we had a lovely 2nd birthday party to help them celebrate little Maisie being TWO and walking and nearly talking very well!  Unfortunately (and typically!) on the day she came down with a small person's bug but fortunately she rallied after two spoonfuls of calpol!  (its brilliant stuff! I remember it when mine were small! which seems a long time ago - next week we celebrate our no.1.son's 20th birthday - how did THAT happen??).

Anyway, the cake was yummy and scrummy and the food included party rings and BEER! .. lol! they held it in their restaurant which has a bar - so yes it was noisy with lots of two year olds racing about, but the Gin was good and strong!

there was a bouncy castle!

party food!

CAKE!

and BEER!
We had a smashing time and came away tired but it was worth it.



Friday 15 February 2013

wool! patterns! magazines! and life!

First off my bargain a recent purchase of some 19 balls of clearance Handknit Cotton.  I need to confess to buying more yarn (but I am so far resisting the urge to poke needles through it!  to that end I spent last night knitting two chevrons on my Killing III grey jumper and felt all the better for it.)

I have several patterns in mind for this lovely soft grey yarn and as its one I've knit before I'm open to suggestions!  Half price is always good don't you think? and with dh approaching retirement I need to get it while I can! (thats my excuse, I mean careful reasoning!!)



And a photo of me wearing the lovely Glencoe:

I am grimmacing a bit at dh, he took three photo's of me and this was the best of the bunch - anyway you get the idea, lots of fine tweed loveliness about my neck.
Last week I signed up after a good think about whether I ought or not, to the lovely Anniken Allis's Continental knitting course which starts on Monday - earlybird signing meant I could choose to the value of £10 any of her books or patterns and I chose this!
I can't wait to start the course, I have taught myself the basics of knitting in this style but I always end up going back to my usual "English" picking and although I am comfortable with this, it helps to knit with left hand for two handed fairisle and as THAT is my aim for this year, I felt it worth the money and effort to sign!  I will let you know how it goes.

This months copies of The Knitter and Simply Knitting have arrived together - good timing for nice weekend reading - not that our weekend will be that relaxing, I work Saturdays and on Sunday it is dh's Niece's daughter's 2nd birthday and we are invited to her tea-party! (I'm hoping she's not got squillions of friends!  the little-one I mean, not dh's Niece! its been a while since we've had a small toddler party and as she celebrates her daughter's 2nd, later on we will be celebrating our no.1.son's 20th!!  now how did THAT happen?  20yrs! I can't believe its been that long, can you?

Well. that aside. the Magazines.
Firstly, every turn of the page on issue 55 has me queuing or fave'ing every pattern BUT there are some that I have my eye on in seriousness.
"Winterbloom" a rollneck jumper with cables and lace by Martin Storey
"Jellyfish" a crescent shawl shaped using short rows by Anniken Allis
"Sugar Kelp" loose fitting jumper with cables by Emma Vining
"Whernside Cushion" slip stitch cushions by Sheepfold
"Henri" a trendy shawl collar cabled jacket (for no.2.son)
"Curlew" by Twilleys of Stamford a short sleeved, textured yoke cardigan
and "The Herring Girl Wrap"!  (unless of course I buy the Guernsey Triangle pattern I've been stalking for ages till it came up for sale).

Talking of stalking, I've been watching for some tv inspired knits and in particular the oversized plaited cowl/scarf thingie that Watson wore from Elementary and THIS according to the group I joined, is the closest pattern to it.
there is a KAL for it and I'm considering joining however it would mean compromising on my strict no-finish-no-start (same) projects rule for the New Year.  I have, though, finished Glencoe which as a scarf is sort of giving me a gap to slot something "new" in?  (but, then again, I've slotted in a pair of ribbed socks for no.1.son. bah.  too MANY projects and YARNS I wants to knit NOW I need to get a grip).

The Knitter and Simply Knitting both have pretty good small supplements of additional patterns this month too, its rare to get the magazines both with patterns I love and makes up for the weaker content in other issues, but I need to make a decision about which magazines to keep and drop.
its proving expensive to buy Knit Now and Yarnwise monthly as well as subscriptions to The Knitter and SK and at the moment dh is working, but presently he will be retiring and ££ will be tight.

Elsewhere we had an unproductive wasted and stressful visit down to our son's dentist and we have resolved now to accept that just "giving up" and him requesting extraction in place of root filling is the way to go.  I'm so cross about it I don't want to talk.  It was nice, however, to see our son midway through his term.  He has a birthday coming soon so we will travel down to take him out for a meal and then it won't be long before he breaks for Easter.
This year our youngest son will be applying to go to Uni and we face the prospect of NO children in the house (and dh IN the house full time!!) I don't know which I'm dreading the most!!

Knit-wise, my aim to be more organised is paying off, I picked up the chevron sleeve and with relative ease compared to my usual method of tracking, I found my place and it was stress-free to pick up and continue with the notebook system I put in place.


Monday 11 February 2013

Some sewing! and knitting

There has been some sewing this week!  A couple of knit-pals have birthdays due and I decided to make project bags for their portable knitting as gifts and bought myself some lovely owl fabric for one of my own.  To try the pattern out I sewed a lovely blue sheepy bag for myself - the pattern is currently half price at John Lewis store and the fabrics can be picked up half price too which makes it very affordable.  Inside a couple of hours you have a lovely drawstring bag!

We bought some new furniture this week too, a rug and coffee table and nest of tables, this has meant I was able to bring my large daylight lamp down and it has been brilliant for knitting in darker colours in this dull weather.  Mind with the snow we had overnight its all looking a bit BRIGHT outside .. but you get what I mean generally?

Two strange and rather large cats have been spotted crossing through our garden - a ginger and a black cat - no.2.son took a photo of one of them - needless to say our cats are not impressed!


new furniture

owl cushion
 I picked up a kit to knit a felted owl cushion in kid classic for half price and am loving the knitting, I think it will go nicely with our mostly brown and green/blue decor don't you think?

drawstring project bag

sheepy bag

filled with project knitting to demonstrate how it looks full

the pattern is half price, and the fabrics too!

wool cotton
 ok so I said I wasn't going to buy any more wool! but these two bags were less than half price! how could I not? ..


The fabrics I bought with project bags in mind include the lovely owl themed cotton which wasn't half price but I'm having a bit of a thing about owls at the moment and couldn't resist!

On Wednesday we go down to take our son at Uni to his dentist for another no doubt fruitless, attempt to get a dentist to actually DO something permanent to his tooth that has been troubling him for 14months now!  honestly no wonder Dentists have a bad name, its too tedious to tell the tale suffice to say its a long drawn saga and it might well end with an extraction!