more yarn bargains and knitting update

At knit night last night one of my friends had bought a pack of ten novelty scarf yarns from local Wilkinson store and dished them out - I remember when these were a craze and I had about three but they are long gone now, we are all going to knit them up and wear them together!!  should be fun!  funky fur scarves - lovely!

Some lovely better than half price yarn bargains!  three balls of the delicious cashsoft 4ply these will be made into lovely gloves for the winter.

And finally, two lots of the scrummy-yummy Fine Lace by Rowan!  three of the top, and five of the bottom I hope to have enough to knit a cardigan and the rest will be used for shawls!

Elsewhere, Dingle sleeve two is coming along nicely and guernsey triangle is progressing too, I have got my knitting mojo back and am looking with interest at future patterns!

Tonight we go out for a meal to say "goodbye" to our no.1.son who goes back to Uni this weekend, and "goodluck" to our no.2.son as he starts HIS uni on Monday having had "freshers week" this week.  Our elder son is studying Politics and our younger English Language, we are proud of them both with neither of us getting anywhere near a degree its lovely to see them have opportunities.

Finally the weather has been glorious this summer and its all washing on the line to finish off the summer holiday and prepare for winter it has been getting chilly so I can't wait to get the winter "woollies" out again, we knitters do prefer the winter for obvious reasons and I always feel more inspired to knit at this time of year.

I hope to catch up with long time knit-pal-Sally soon so if she's reading this - give me a ring! I want to see your lovely new sewing machine and squish some wool!! ha-haa!!

x

Guernsey Triangle

I am knitting the lovely Guernsey Triangle - this is charts A and B - the pattern is lovely to follow and very well written out and is a charted pattern.  My knit-pal gifted it to me for my birthday and I am using some of the lovely half price fyberspates 4ply I bought recently.

progress is coming along too on my other project, Dingle, I am 1/3 way through second sleeve and hope to get more knitting done now that the holiday is over and the weather has turned cold I shall feel more inclined to knit.

We turned our heating on last night it was that cold and I am starting to sort through my winter jumpers and cardi's too.  I have a couple of sock patterns I fancy knitting and my feet were that cold last night I went to bed wearing a pair of hand knit socks!!

Our summer holiday Sept 2013

Last week we were away in Spain, Calella, enjoying a lovely family holiday - the weather was terrific!  we enjoyed a couple of days on the beach, a trip to Barcelona to see the sights and the "fountains" and of course enjoy the company.  It was nice all being together and we are lucky that our children still want to come away with us and spend time with us.
Having said that, a week was just enough! ha!

half Price Bargains

Well after all I said about not buying any more yarn and what does John Lewis go and do?  only reduce to half price all its lovely Fyberspates Scrumptious ranges!!
I bought two hanks of the lovely 4ply in Oyster and one in laceweight in Rose Pink and they are currently sitting inside my drawer on our coffee table making it look all pretty inside!  They will - eventually - be knitted up.  I plan to use the 4ply for the lovely Guernsey Triangle pattern gifted to me by a knit night pal for my recent birthday and the laceweight is just such a useful colour its bound to suit some pattern - possibly even another Ishbel?

Unfortunately it sounds as though the lovely Yarnwise magazine is going to be cancelled and stop after this current issue out in the shops.  I am disappointed as its one magazine I've always looked forward to right from the early "Yarn Forward" days - I wasn't in it right at the beginning but I do have issues from early onwards which I shall keep including this the last one.

I bought an issue of The Knitter which is my favourite of all knitting magazines to send to my swap pal in US in exchange for the lovely unofficial HP magazine - next to books are magazines I just love them. 
Waiting patiently now for Sock Society to come into the shop I have Rachel's self published book and will buy this one too I already have the Fine Art sock yarn in anticipation!
With all this you'd be forgiven for thinking I'm knitting up a storm - actually I'm not! I am mostly sitting in the garden reading my kindle!  I've got to about 30% of the way through LOTR and have downloaded another 3 books - I love my kindle its great and so easy to pick up and read.
Our son and my dh both bought the kindle fire and love them too I almost can't imagine how we managed without our "gadgets"!

There will be knitting soon I promise!  I've bought home two packs of wool for knitting garments for this season and will take photos and share details next time, perhaps I will have finished Dingle too.

Celebrations and Gifts

first off let me apologise for the long delay in posting update in my blog - the weather has been glorious here and I've spent most of it outside reading my kindle and enjoying a glass or three of wine in the SUNSHINE!  yes! sunshine!  and very nearly every day too!  We've found it to be pleasant later on in early evening and means that dh has been able to sit out after work and before we eat so its given us chance to all sit and chat about our forthcoming holiday.  We are off to Spain for a week and can't wait - lets hope the weather over there is as good.

now.  First things first - birthdays!  our no.2.son celebrated his 18th birthday - I've sneaked a photo of him because I know you like to see family photos (he doesn't know btw! so keep quiet about how lovely he looks if you see him!!).  We had a nice family meal out at local pub that does English and Indian food and ended with a cocktail for us and a "mocktail" for him.  We're lucky I suppose that neither of our lads have discovered drink yet although it make for some disapproving looks as dh and I fall about giggling - ahem!  it ought be the other way round?
Anyway reason for no.2.son having pride of place is that just after his birthday we got his A level results and place at his preferred choice of Uni accepted!  hurrah's all round we're very proud and happy here for him.   He has signed up already and received letters in the post including an invite for "parents" to attend a special afternoon end of of Sept to learn all about life at Uni - as neither of us went anywhere near a Uni we're both proud our lads are going and looking forward to hearing about "life at Uni" for the youngsters.

Staying on the "proud mum" bit, our no.1.son who is set to start his year 3 has received a lovely letter from his Dean confirming his "brilliant" start and mentioning lots of positives over his two years and offering an invite to continue his studies if he wishes - which he does - we're proud of him especially because we know he works very very hard at his studies.

Also on the birthday front ..

it was MINE too!  my brother came round with a bottle of JD which was very welcome! as you can see I've tested it ... hic ..
and thats not all - I am lucky to have some fab knit night pals and I received birthday cards and gifts which was lovely and a total surprise!

As well as lovely yarn and project bag I received patterns too including the lovely guernsey triangle which I've wanted for ages - I'm thinking of knitting it for the Great British BakeOff which starts again this coming week - or maybe socks!? hmm .. decisions decisions ..

While I'm deciding I'm currently reading and enjoying the lovely "unofficial Harry Potter" magazine that seems like everyone is talking about on Ravelry.

I tried to get hold of it through a UK yarn shop but they emailed to say it would not be distributed through UK afterall and I was lucky enough to have a US knit pal who was happy to do a "swap" of magazines - the patterns are lovely and there is plenty to read too - a very good magazine if you get a chance to a copy do get one.

On the knitting side not much is happening, I've knitted up to the armhole decreases on my jumper and have just started no.2.son sleeve for Dingle but I'm afraid it really has been too hot to knit and I've been reading my Kindle instead.  I finished The Hobbit and Pride & Prejudice and am now reading LOTR and am about 24% through.  I am pleased to be enjoying reading again and the novelty of reading off a kindle means I pick it up everyday.

Elsewhere everything is pretty normal no more news no outings or anything, like I said at the top its been mostly sat outside enjoying the weather and reading - its been a good summer and I'm looking forward to the autumn.

Update but no photos

There is still some knitting OTN's that is progressing, and a new jumper gone on them too but no photo's yet to share.
Our son has come home from Uni and passed his year 2 exams with a really good result that is promising over all for him as he waits to sit his final year this autumn.  We're waiting now to see if he can get any summer work to top up his bank balance but so far nothing!  everyone is anxious as we have no.2.son waiting for his A level results next month and hoping for a place at the local Uni - all our fingers are crossed, you can cross yours too for us if you like! ha!

Knitting continues on "Dingle" I am now on the 2nd sleeve ahead of sewing up and knitting the pockets and collar it will be done soon and I am "enjoying" Wimbledon while I knit.
The advantage of knitting is that it can be done while watching tv with the family and with two lads and a husband you can imagine there is a lot of SPORT on our tv!

I have not yet CO for Willowherb - although I had intended knitting it for the May/June KAL in Rachel's group, in the end I decided to concentrate on FINISHING things before starting something new but it is still there in my minds eye queue to knit next.

My kindle has been read this last couple of weeks, I've read The Hobbit and am now 40% through Pride & Prejudice and am queuing books up to follow, I shall take it on holiday when we go away later in the year.  It can be read in brilliant sunshine as I found out last Sunday when I sat out and read all afternoon in the sunshine and yes I've got a patch of sunburn too!

The weather is still horrid but I've finished the SOCKS!

A pair of plain socks!  but lovely to knit with this yarn I finally finished them and can now commit to the lovely Willow Herb Rachel Coopey socks from her super new book!
Too late now to join in on her official May/June KAL for them, they were on my list of socks to knit from this book so I'll enter them for the summer of socks instead, that way I shall feel a part of the group but not shiver under stress of doing them in a week!!

I like to knit whats going on!  and this isn't the best course of action for me, I start loads of things, get caught up in the excitement of being part of it but then it all sits there in my project bags I've got surrounding my "knitting station" aka my sofa/table making me feel guilty! and stressing me out that I have started but not apparently FINISHING anything some time soon.

SO. with this in mind I am being very mindful of finishing before starting .. Dingle has just 1.5 sleeves to go before I can start to assemble and hopefully this will be done next week or so.  I am enjoying knitting with this yarn and it feel lovely as a knitted fabric too, I will share photographs when its done.

Nothing new OTN's this month but plenty of ideas in the queue stages.  Happy knitting!

We collect our no.1.son from his Uni digs soon - can't wait to have him home for the summer!  Plus I hope he likes his socks - the socks above are actually shown on no.2.son who agreed to model them provided I kept quiet about it.  which I have.  nearly.  still.  the blog doesn't count does it?

finally.  the weather is still horrid but this time because its too HOT! more to the point too sticky!  I've had an awful few days where my funny heart AFib thingie has started up and I'm certain its the exertion in these conditions thats triggering it.