End of radio silence

Firstly, my apologies - I hadn't realised quite how long it had been since I last posted.  Every so often I would think "I must write a blog post.  I'll do it on Xday." and Xday would come and something would happen, and the blog post didn't get written.

But I am back now.  I had my week off at the end of June, and spent it mainly knitting and pottering.  Since then I have been back at work, and done knitting and pottering and playing a lot of Gardenscapes when not at work.  The knitting has had results in the form of finished objects.  On the other hand, playing Gardenscapes is not very productive.  And the pottering - well, the results of that vary from day to day.

So, finished objects.  First up is my second RAK project.  It is another hat and is actually a pattern that I have knitted before.  And I used up the yarn left over from the first hat, which was part of the point of the whole RAK exercise.

This is a second Knit Night Hat, a free pattern by Judy Marples, knit in King Cole Riot DK in the Dude colourway.  I have enjoyed knitting it both times.  It is quite straightforward, starting with a nice purl and slip stitch brim and then just stocking stitch to the end. 

My second finished objects are my Petty Harbour socks.  This is a free pattern by Rayna Curtis, which I knit in Opal 20 Jahre sock yarn in the "Wir sagen Danke" colourway.  Again an enjoyable knit.  This was my first pair of socks knit on 2.5mm needles, having dropped down from 2.75mm needles because my tension appears to have finally loosened up.

Now a quick diversion to stash enhancement.  At the end of July, I went to Fibre East, which is a yarn festival held in Bedfordshire.  I did have a budget, but I also took one of the best/worst enablers I know with me.  So this is what I bought:

From left to right, the first three skeins are Charisma by The Knitting Swede, a 55% wool 45% silk fingering weight yarn - the grey is Greystone and the blues are Nautilus.  These are destined to become a shawl from a pattern by the dyer.  Next up is three skeins of Ariel by Wrigglefingers, which is a 80% Blue faced Leicester 20% Firestar (sparkly nylon) fingering weight yarn in a one of a kind colourway.  I was only going to buy one skein (for socks) but my enabler friend was with me, so now I have enough for a garment!

Then comes the odd one out - this is totally out of my comfort zone and yet was the first thing I bought!  The dyer is Siobhans Crafts and it is a sparkly DK yarn in the Unicorn colourway.  I have no idea what I am going to do with this.  Next up is a 70% superwash merino 30% silk fingering weight yarn from Bellica Yarns in the Wolf colourway - again no plans for this as yet.  Then comes a skein of Pulsar by Sparkleduck, a 55% superwash Blue faced Leicester 45% silk fingering weight yarn in the Sea-quine colourway.  There is a sad story behind this yarn.  Heather, the dyer behind Sparkleduck, died unexpectedly and far too young earlier this year, so when her husband decided to exhibit at Fibre East with some of what she had been dyeing, I was not the only one who felt the need to buy one last skein.

My final purchase is already on the needles.  If you watch the Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast on YouTube (and you should!), you will know that Jaclyn is running the Hipster KAL.  This is a reaction against the multitude of Faded this, that and the other which have been all over the knitting world recently.  The KAL runs from 1 August to 31 October 2017 and whatever you knit must be over 50g and must have had less than 30 projects listed on Ravelry at the time you chose to knit it.  My choice of pattern was the Windshield hat by Niina Talikka and I am knitting it in Triskelion Heulwen DK in the Upstream colourway.  Heulwen DK is a gorgeous yarn - 70% alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere.  I haven't a picture yet to show you as it is a top down pattern and trying to wrangle 5mm dpns for a 6 stitch cast on followed by increases done with knitfrontback has been interesting!  I will put in a photo next time.

I am still knitting on my Seaspray jumper (working the neck and armhole decreases), my Berries Snuggle (about halfway through ball 3) and my Ring O'Roses sock (just turned the heel on sock 1).  I am also working on my third RAK, which is the Honey Cowl, a free pattern from MadeleineTosh, which I am knitting in James C Brett Marble Chunky.  Finally I also have a new cast on from this morning.  I want to knit all the socks so this morning I cast on a vanilla sock using my West Yorkshire Spinners limited edition Marie Curie sock yarn using a ChiaGoo red cable 9 inch circular, which is a new brand of needle to me.

In other news, I got my Club 10 the other week at Slimming World.  This means that I have lost 10% of my starting weight and am now down to 11 stone 13lb.  I am now in two minds about my target - originally I opted for 11 stone 7lb, but am now thinking that if I go down to 11 stone 4lb, I will have lost 2 stone exactly.  Decisions, decisions.

What else?  Eldest niece will be moving to big school in September, so her year put on "Bugsy Malone" as a final hurrah.  She played the part of Louella, the wife of Dandy Dan, a gang boss.  She looked really good, did a very fine job and we were very proud of her.  Performing in the Gang Show earlier this year has done wonders for her self-confidence.

And my knitting horizons are going to be expanded.  At the beginning of September, I am going on a double knitting workshop run by Nathan Taylor, who has the Sockmatician podcast, which I am really looking forward to.  And then in December, my local yarn shop is running a brioche workshop which I have signed up for.  So by the end of the year, I will have stranded colourwork (Ring O'Roses socks), double knitting and brioche all under my belt as well as the techniques I had already picked up.

I will finish here and go and do a bit of knitting before bed.  So, all the best to you and yours, and I will try to post more regularly from now on in.

Moving Forward

Hi, it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but part of that time it was too hot to think, let alone post, and then I was busy at work getting ready to take a week off. Yes, I'm having a whole week off! I haven't had this much time off in one go for about 9 months so I am good and ready for it. I'm not going away - just chilling at home, knitting, reading and so on. As today is Monday and my first official day off, I decided to update my blog.

And I do have some knitting progress to show you this time. First up is my Seaspray Jumper - I cast off the second sleeve yesterday, which means that I have done the back and both sleeves so am well over halfway. I plan to cast on the front either later today or tomorrow.

Next up is my Petty Harbour sock - I turned the heel a couple of days after I last blogged and am working my way down the foot.

The last work in progress that I am going to show you is my Ring O'Roses sock. This is a slow burn on the basis that it is my first colourwork project and I only knit on it when I'm at home, things are quiet and I can focus. I have finished the first three charts, although you can't see No. 3 very clearly because the fabric is rolling on the needle. The next stage is going to be more complicated because there are three charts on the front of the leg and a fourth on the back of the leg, so it might be some time before you see this again.

And I also have a finish! This is part of a new project that I have started since I last posted. I had been thinking about it and then I had a chat with a knitting friend and then I buckled down to it. I am calling it my Random Act of Kindness knitting, and basically I am now using my commuting time and some of my older stash to work on items for a local charity which supports the homeless. So my first RAK project was "Barley" by Tin Can Knits - a free pattern from their "Simple Collection" on Ravelry. I used Cygnet Aran in the "Sage" colourway which I had left over from a finishing workshop that I took a couple of years ago. This is the Adult Large size and I am hoping it will grow when blocked as it currently fits me and I'm not sure that I have a 23 inch head.

I also have some new stash to share with you. From left to right, I have a ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in their limited edition "Marie Curie" colourway, which you can only get from City Knits, and £2 of the purchase price goes to Marie Curie, a charity which supports people with terminal illnesses and their families. The other two skeins are from Jo.Knit.Sew and are on a merino/nylon/sparkle base (400m per 100g) and the colourways are "Green Speckles" and "Blue Speckles" respectively.   The "Green Speckles" is actually more of an apple green in colour - it just hasn't photographed very well.

In other news, my weight loss continues. I have now lost 1 stone 2lb in total and can see a pale glimmer at the end of the tunnel, which is why I am sitting here munching on celery! Mum has had her hospital appointments and the upshot is that yes, she has mild osteoarthritis in her right hip, but apparently that is "satisfactory" (??), and the cardiologist says that the situation with her heart hasn't changed and that her GP has done everything he would have done. He also said that she should carry on doing the Race for Life and using it as a marker - i.e. if she is still getting round each year in about the same time, then she needn't worry. So she is feeling better in herself and is all psyched up to have the house redecorated.

I am going to finish here and go and get myself some lunch. Hopefully my next blog won't be so long in coming. All the very best to you and yours.

A Finish, a Start and some Fun

Apologies for the delay in coming back to you.  I did hope to be more on top of my blogging now I've restarted, but it hasn't quite gone to plan.  However I am here now.

And in accordance with the title of this post, I have a Finished Object.  I finished my Fireworks Hitchhiker on 22 May, washed it and blocked it, and have given it to my Mum, but strictly on the proviso that she gives it me back to be washed!

It is not a full Hitchhiker in that it only has 40 points - I had just over 3g (about 13m) left when I had finished the bind off.  The light is a bit off - the green is actually more yellow than you see here, but photography is not one of my talents.

Having finished one project and having received the needles for my next project, I then cast on for a new pair of socks.  But not just any pair of socks - this is my first colourwork project.  It is a Drops pattern, so free, and it is number 126-4.  I am calling them my Ring O'Roses socks - a slight variation on what Drops are calling the pattern.

Again, not a brilliant photo but at least you get some idea of how it is developing.  The main colour is Drops Fabel in the 400 Black colourway and the contrast colour is Drops Delight in the 6 Pink/Purple Mix colourway - the yarns used in the actual pattern.  I am enjoying knitting this so far, but it is definitely a at home alone in the quiet project - not one for Knit Group.

My other three WIPs have all made progress, but none of them have reached a point worth showing off.  Besides I wanted to tell you about my little jaunt last Sunday.

My oldest friend in all the world (we have known each other for over 40 years) and I have been discussing going for a walk in the Peak District of Derbyshire for some time.  The stars all aligned last Sunday and I drove out to her house, getting there about 9am.  She then drove us to Ambergate Station where we parked up before walking a short distance to the Cromford Canal.  I then got to choose between a 7.5 mile circular walk taking in the town of Crich mainly uphill through woods and probably muddy due to all the rain we had had in the previous few days, or a 10 mile return trip along the canal path to Cromford and back on the flat.  I am not a great one for excessive exercise so I chose the flat route.

We had a really good time.  The weather was just right - not too hot, not too cold.  The path was nice and dry.  We saw lots of interesting, fun things - a pike, swans nesting, a canal boat, a dinosaur, lots of baby ducklings, coots and moorhens.  The scenery was lovely.  We did lots of chatting and catching up.  On the way, we stopped at the place where the High Peaks trail crosses the Cromford Canal for a comfort break - and a dog's head appeared under the partition much to my surprise.  And when we got to Cromford, we ate our pack-up at a picnic bench and then decided to go across the road and take a look at Cromford Mill.  This was built by Richard Arkwright and is part of the 15 mile long Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Before we got to the road, we passed a building where we could see crafty stuff going on so we went in.  It turned out that the Arkwright Spinsters hold a demonstration on the 3rd Sunday of each month and we had struck lucky.  There was handspun yarn for sale and I came away with this:

100g and 198 yards of handspun Bluefaced Leicester.  No plans for this as yet, but I couldn't resist.

After having a look round the exterior of the Mill, we turned our feet back towards Ambergate, the car and my friend's house for tea.  By the time we reached the car, my right leg had put in a mild complaint at the unusual amount of exercise it had been subjected to and my left leg had thrown a major tantrum and was demanding to speak to the management!  Fortunately it had calmed down a bit by the time tea was over and I was ready to drive home, and getting up and pacing the hall several times later that evening meant that the following morning I was experiencing only very mild discomfort on my way to the bus stop.  But we had a really good time and are ready to repeat the experience.  We are also in discussions about going on holiday together next year, which would be fabulous.

In other news, I have lost another 2lb since I last posted, bringing me to 10.5lb lost in total.  According to my Mum and my sister, you can see that I've lost weight which is encouraging as I still have just over a stone to go.

I'm going to love you and leave you with some photos of my walk - what I really need to learn is how to stick them together into one montage, rather than have several separate ones - if you have any ideas on how to do this, please let me know.  Anyway, until my next post, may all be well with you and yours.

Stash, more Stash and a new Start

Ok, so there has been stash and lots of it.  There has also been a busy weekend and a new start.

I will begin at the beginning and go on until I get to the end.  In the beginning, I missed Love Your Local Yarn Shop Day as I said in my last post, so last Tuesday (9 May) I rushed out in my lunch hour to see what new yarns had arrived for LYLYS Day at my local yarn shop.  I had some gift cards that my family gave me at Christmas which I had been keeping for the occasion, and I came away with these:

      

The pair of skeins on the left is Eleanor of Knit Nottingham's own hand dyed 4ply yarn (80/20 merino/bamboo) in "The Deep", and my current plan is to make Helen Stewart's Talisman Shawl out of it.  The skein on the right is Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace (45% silk 55% merino) in the "Teal" colourway, which I bought because I love the colour.

In my last post, I also mentioned a project which I couldn't cast on until I had the right needles.  I ordered the needles on Friday night (12 May) and there may have been a few balls of sock yarn which also fell into the basket.

These are all Drops sock yarns bought in the on-going Drops sale at 35% off.  Top left is Drops Fabel Uni Colour in "Turquoise", top right is Drops Fabel Print in "Blue Lagoon", bottom left is Drops Fabel Print in "Berry Dreams" and bottom right is Drops Delight Print in "Pink/Purple".  There would have been more, but the colours I wanted were out of stock at the time of ordering.  This little lot arrived in the post yesterday, along with my new needles.

Then after ordering needles and yarn on Friday night, I went hunting through my stash of patterns and yarn to find a suitable sock pattern to cast on.  Having cast off my last pair of socks nearly a month previously, I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms.  I have plans for my first pair of colourwork socks but those had to wait for the needles that were on order.  I needed something that came between vanilla and complicated, something that I could knit on the bus.  In the end, I plumped for the Petty Harbour pattern by Rayna Curtis, which is a free pattern on Ravelry.  I am knitting them in Opal 20 Jahre yarn in the "Wir Sagen Danke" colourway.  

I cast the first sock on on Saturday morning - 64 stitches on 2.5mm needles.  I have gone down a needle size because I think that my tension has loosened up - I have been a very tight knitter and all my earlier socks have been on 2.75mm needles.  Apart from sock withdrawal symptoms, I cast these socks on because I was about to have a very busy weekend and wanted something relatively straightforward and portable to knit on.  

For the last eight years my Mum has organised an annual Open Gardens weekend on the street that I grew up on and this was the ninth and final year.  It may continue on a bi-annual basis but Mum won't be organising it.  Every year the event has raised money for a different charity and this year it was in aid of the local branch of Parkinson's UK.  There were 10 gardens open to the public, two cafes, a pop-up book stall, a plant stall, patchwork quilts for sale, performances by a local choir, folk singers and a storyteller and a Parkinson's UK stall.  

My role on these occasions has been to run the tombola (see the UK explanation).  The event is open from 2pm to 6pm on both the Saturday and the Sunday, and I spend those eight hours being polite and charming and persuading people that they want to pay 50p a ticket in the hope that they will win a prize.  The prizes are generally quite good as they tend to be unwanted Christmas and birthday presents donated by people in what is considered to be a "nice" area, so smellies, knicknacks, vouchers from the local garden centre and so on.

So for me, there is the setting up - we had about 300 prizes this year, the "selling" for four hours without a break, and the taking down.  The "selling" is the hardest part - I am not at all fond of people en masse, and after a while the "polite and charming" bit doesn't come as easily.  And this year there was the added bonus that one of the neighbours had organised a collection and presentation for Mum on Sunday night, and I had to somehow get her there without her knowing what it was for.

It was however a great success.  We raised over £3,700 for the local branch of Parkinson's UK, which they were very happy about, and hopefully I will never have to run the tombola again!

Also on a positive note, despite the non-Slimming World buffet at the seminar, I managed to lose another pound last week so have now lost 8.5lbs in total.  After all the weekend palaver, which included cake at the presentation, I am just hoping for any kind of loss this week.

Wishing you and yours all the best until my next.

Good Friday bind off, Easter Sunday cast on!

I have a FO!  Yes, I have finished my third project for 2017.  On the morning of Good Friday, I settled down with my knitting determined to finish my Socks on a Plane and be able to wear them for Easter.  So here they are:

This is a free pattern on Ravelry from Laura Linneman and is knit toe up on two needles.  This was a new technique to me but I enjoyed it so much I am now knitting sweater sleeves the same way.  The yarn is Sara's Texture Crafts in her Standard Socks - Odd Sox - Line Art base in the Watermelon Neon colourway.  I bought it at Fibre East a couple of years ago specifically for this pattern - it has just taken longer to get it knitted up than I anticipated.  Sock 1 was cast on on 17 December 2016 and cast off on 25 February 2017.  Sock 2 was cast on the same day and cast off on 14 April 2017.

Of course, the first comment from everyone who has seen them is that they are odd socks, and I have had to explain that that is what the pattern was written for.  The cables go down the outside of the foot so the pink sock is the right sock and the green sock is the left sock.  I like them very much and may well go hunting for yarn to make another pair.

Having finished my socks, I needed a new project.  I have got another sock pattern lined up but I need to buy the right needles.  It will be my first colourwork pattern, so I am not expecting it to progress very quickly once I finally get started.  In the meantime, however, I have cast on what I am calling my "Berries Snuggle".  As I am not sure what size it is going to end up, whether it is a blanket or a throw or whatever remains to be seen.  This is something of a stash busting exercise, using deep stash which I bought a few months after I started knitting.  I'm using James C Brett Marble Chunky in the Berries colourway and I have two 200g balls amounting to 624 metres.  It is a 3 row rib pattern with a garter border, and currently looks like this:

Only time will tell what it ends up looking like, but it is simple straightforward knitting which I can take to Knit Group and will use up my stash.  If it works out OK, then I have the same amount in two more colourways which could go the same way.

In other news, I had a great day off with eldest niece.  We bought clothes and books, we ate toasted teacake and later on pizza, we got her feet measured (at her Mum's request), we chatted and walked what felt like miles round town.  The one big fail was the new phone cover we were supposed to be looking for - we just couldn't find anything she really liked.  My sister finally texted to ask if she was coming home at all that day so we headed for the bus and icecreams.  I'm counting it as a great success on the Auntie front, and we still need to find a phone cover :-)

I also went to Slimming World that evening and found I had lost another 2lb, so 4.5lb in two weeks!  I had hedged my bets at lunchtime by having a veggie flatbread in Pizza Hut instead of pizza, but there was garlic bread.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and as well as casting on a new project, I went to my parents' house for tea.  We had an Easter egg hunt in the back garden, which means I now have chocolate bunnies in my fridge.  We were also "entertained" by my nieces, who put on a Easter Bunny playlet with Harry Potter references - sometimes being a good Auntie can be a real strain.

Tonight I have Knit Group and tomorrow is unfortunately back to work.  I hope that all of you had a good Easter (if you celebrate it) or a nice break (if you don't).

Wishing all the best to you and yours.

Catch Up Post

Dear all, yes, I have been missing in action for a while.  Apologies for the delay in coming back to you.

There have been work related things, family related things and of course it's that time of the year when the Black Dog starts to make itself known more frequently.  So basically I have just battened down the hatches and waited it out until I felt sociable again.

However there has been progress during my absence.

Stitching wise, I have been concentrating on Crypt Club because Mum's birthday is less than a month away.  The chart is on two pages and what you see is mainly the bottom page.  I have a little back stitching left to do and there should be a martini glass on the table.  Mum doesn't drink martini, but a cup of tea might look odd - still thinking about this.  There is less to do on the top page, so fingers crossed I get it done in time.

I am still pottering on with Hitchhiker, which should properly be called Hitchhiker Plus now.  I have now done 49 points and I still have yarn in hand.  Point 50 will take me past the 200 stitches per row mark.  I really must get this finished before the end of the year, particularly as I bought the pattern last New Year's Eve.

This is a semi-unplanned new start - cabled handwarmers for Mum.  When I say semi-unplanned, what I mean is that I meant to do them, just not yet.  However I went to Knit Group yesterday, talked about doing them, then came home and cast on.  It is the same pattern as the cabled handwarmers that I knitted for myself (which are being really useful now), but in superwash merino DK dyed in the "Twilight" colour way by Truly Hooked.  I bought this at the Bakewell Wool Gathering last Saturday specifically for this project - it is black, white and purple, and feels very nice!  The intention is to get them done for her birthday if at all possible.

Progress on my Vanilla Latte socks remains slow, mainly due to the deadlines on other things.  Once Mum's birthday is out of the way, I will have more time for them.

Finally, a stash update for Leonore.  On the left, a skein of Colinette Calligraphy in the Aegean colour way, a bulky yarn, and a birthday present from Deb in my Saturday Knit Group.  Next come Opal sock yarn in the Secret Agent colour way from Wool Zone in Oakham, a present to myself on the way home from a job interview (didn't get the job).  At the top, a Crazy Zauberball in the "Der Lenz ist da!" colour way also from Wool Zone on the same occasion.  Below that is a ball of Juniper Moon Farm Findlay Dappled laceweight in the Macaw colour way which I picked up at the Bakewell Wool Gathering.  And on the right, also bought at Bakewell, is a skein of Natural Born Dyers Cobweb Lace in the Bluebottle colour way - 1200m of 50% alpaca, 30% merino and 20% silk - which will eventually become a shawl of some description.

Too many pretty things and not enough time!! 

Hoping that all is well with you and yours.  May the frog stay well away from your needles, and I will try to post more regularly from now on.

A week off work ...

And nose back to the grindstone tomorrow :-(

For most of the week, the weather was dubious, but that was only to be expected as it was Bank Holiday week.  It poured it down on Bank Holiday Monday, so when I had the girls for the day on Tuesday, they had to come equipped with waterproofs and wellies.  We went to Belton House and they had a great time on the adventure playground.  They wore themselves out and the fresh air was too much for me, so we all slept like logs that night.

One of the benefits of dubious weather when you have time off work is that you can easily justify to yourself time spent knitting and stitching, because of course there is no point going out in the rain.  So, progress pics:

Baby Express now has its first flower.  There will be a matching one on the other side when I get there.  The backstitch was straightforward so that got done too.  It only needs a couple of French knots for eyes, which will get done at the end.  Next up is the middle section of the border.

And then Hitchhiker - I am now up to point 40 on this.  The pattern goes up to point 42 (obviously), but there is still an awful lot of yarn left to work through.

Up next are three new starts.

 I know it's a bit early for the "C" word, but this is the first of two knitted Christmas stocking decorations for my girls.  I've finished the leg section and intend to work my way through the heel section this week.

Then some new cross stitching.  This is "Stitch Night at the Crypt Club" by Prairie Moon on 32 count evenweave stitched over 2.  When it's done, it will be a 70th birthday present for my Mum.  The deadline for this is late October/early November.

And finally, I needed something to do while the girls were running riot in the adventure playground on Tuesday.  So I cast on for Vanilla Latte socks in Sirdar Heart and Sole self striping yarn.  However I discovered that I had twisted it when joining in the round, so had to rip back to the beginning and cast on again, which is why there isn't a lot to see yet.

So plenty to keep me occupied and out of mischief, and only a few weeks to go until Yarndale :-)

All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well away from your needles.

So much for flaming June!

It rained on Midsummer Eve, it rained on Midsummer Day and it rained again today!  If anyone mentions the word "drought" to me any time soon, I may do them a mischief.  I know I go on about the weather a fair bit, but when there is a seasonal element to your relationship with the Black Dog, a soggy summer is not very beneficial to your state of mind.  I could quite happily ship all this rain to California, where it would be properly appreciated!

On a lighter, brighter note I have a finish and two starts to report.

The two headbands for littlest niece were finish finished the day before her birthday. When she opened her present, she put the first one (with the flower) on her own head and the second one (the lace one) on her sister's head.  So I'm counting that one as a success.  And my Mum really likes the leaves!

However, having finished Hermione's Socks last week and then the headbands, I had nothing left to knit.  I still need to finish finish my handwarmers, but I had nothing on the needles, which made me very fidgety (addicted much?).  So this weekend I started two new projects.

The first new project was my first pair of toe-up socks.  As it is just over 3 months since I did the workshop on these, I had some problems with the cast on.  My attempts at the Turkish cast on resulted in holey toes and my attempts at Judy's Magic Cast On resulted in bad language as I kept dropping needles and getting nowhere.  So I went back to the yarn shop where I did the workshop and got the owner to show me how to do it again.  And lo and behold we have a toe!

My second new project is "Hitchhiker" by Martina Behm.  I have been waiting to start this shawlette for quite a while now.  I bought the pattern on New Year's Eve but have only now found myself in a position to put yarn and needles together.  It's called Hitchhiker because when finished, it will have 42 points.  I'm using a lace weight yarn instead of the sock yarn it was designed with, so my shawlette will end up somewhat lighter weight.  The pattern is nice and easy and I'm enjoying the process as well as looking forward to wearing the product.

And finally Baby Express.  I think I've made some good progress on this since you last saw it and when the back stitching is all done, it is going to look very nice indeed.

I think that's everything for this post - I don't have any other news to tell you.  So all the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your needles!

Weird Weather Week

Sun, rain, sun, rain, wind - especially wind (and rain) today!  It really has been a trifle up and down this week.  And tomorrow?  Who knows?  I'm hoping for decent weather this week because my car is in the garage waiting for a part to be fixed down in London.  It went in on Wednesday morning, so there has been a lot of walking going on the back end of the week, and more to come this week.  If anyone else says that exercise is good for you, they are going to get a punch on the nose.  It just makes me tired and grumpy, and also makes my nose run.

However, despite the changeable weather, I do have progress to report.

Yesterday morning I cast off my Cabled Handwarmers, so now they need blocking and sewing up.  A close look will show you that somehow there is 1cm difference between the bottom rib sections on the two pieces.  I am not quite sure how this happened, but am hoping that no-one will notice when I'm wearing them.  I'm not calling this a finish until I can actually put them on.

Moving on to Baby Express, I have completed the whole of the next border section.  The intention for this coming week is to stitch the sun in this top right hand corner.

On Hermione's Socks, I've turned the heel, picked up and knitted the gusset and also knitted most of the foot.  I just need to compare it against one of my other hand knit socks to decide if I am ready to do the toe decreases.  It would be nice to get this sock completed this week.

And finally a new start!  Youngest niece will be 7 in June so I am knitting her a set of headbands in her favourite colours of lilac and violet.  This is supposed to be violet but the colour hasn't photographed well.  I'm knitting them in 100% cotton on 3.5 inch needles.  So this is the first couple of inches of the first headband.

In other news I went to Slimming World yesterday for the first time in 3 weeks.  Those 3 weeks include going on conference ("No calories on conference!") and family Easter Sunday lunch.  So the fact that I put on 0.5lb in that time is absolutely fine by me - I'm up to 11 stone 8lb, but still within my target limits.

All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well away from your needles.

Preparing to March Forward

So February is over.  I'm reasonably glad to see the back of it - it was far too cold and damp for my liking.  However there have been some signs of Spring - crocuses and snowdrops in the gardens - daffodils in the shops.  So now I'm looking forward to March.

Progress has been varied this last week, so I'll start with the most progress and work down to the least.

 Beginning with the Panda Hat, the basic hat itself is finished - it just needs the back seam sewing up and blocking.  The two black pieces are its ears, which need blocking, oversewing round the edges and attaching to the hat.  Still to do are the two eyes, which will also need blocking and attaching to the hat before I embroider the pupils on.  However I do have another week in which to get this done, so fingers crossed.

Moving on to Baby Express, I have completed the stitching on the second carriage and started the back stitching.  I am unsure whether the black and white creature is a zebra or a cow - what are your thoughts?  The next stage is to finish the back stitch on this section and then stitch the right hand border.

I did manage to get one more cable repeat knitted on my handwarmers, but at the moment it looks like they won't be completed before the weather changes for the better.  However, if I can get at least one repeat done a week, they will eventually reach the finishing line.

And finally a new start!  My fingers were getting all twitchy because I had no socks on the go.  So, having finally managed to ball up the yarn I wanted to use, today I cast on for "Hermione's Everyday Socks" by Erica Lueder.  The yarn is "Clovelly" in The Natural Dye Studio's Godiva HT 4 Ply/Sock (100% single spun merino).  It feels absolutely lovely!

In other news, I had a day off on Friday to have my new toilet fitted.  The porcelain on the old one was disintegrating and my plumber said that he had never seen anything like that before.  The replacement only took about 3 hours and I had the rest of the day to myself.  The only drawback was that the car had had to go into the garage to have a flashing dashboard light investigated (no definite conclusion reached - just have to wait and see what happens), so I just pottered about at home, knitting and stitching.  At least I didn't have to go to work :-)

I didn't get weighed on Thursday, partly due to the car issue and partly because I had to go to a meeting that evening, so I don't know whether I made any progress in that area or not.

I have a busy week ahead of me, so will finish now and wish you and yours all the best and may the frog steer well clear of your needles.

Happy Whatever It Is Day to you!

Saturday was Valentine's Day, Sunday was my parents' wedding anniversary and today is the day my cousin gave birth to a little boy!  So I'm wishing you a very Happy Day on whatever day you are reading this.

So WIP pictures - some with more progress, some with less.

This is a brand new start.  Mum rang me just before lunch to tell me that our new baby had arrived.  So as soon as I got home, I cast on and had bootie No. 1 finished by 7pm, just in time for tea.  The plan is to mail out two booties and two mittens on Saturday.  Last week was a busy week, but this week should be a quiet week.  Should be possible, fingers crossed.

As last week was a busy week, I didn't get as much done on Baby Express as I would have liked, but now that its owner has finally arrived, I will be cracking on with this as soon as his knits are finished.  I can say that the far right hand side is in fact the inside of the border round the edge of this piece.  So at least now I know how much space I have to play with on this side.

Again, not as much progress as I would have liked, but I am now into the cable section of this second hand warmer.  This will have to go on hold this week in order to knit baby things, but I don't see an end to the wintry weather just yet so I still might get some use out of them before the warm weather turns up.

Finally, another new start, which I began at Knit Group on Saturday!  However this will have to be ripped out and restarted.  Firstly the little girl whose head this Panda Hat is meant to fit turns out to have a bigger head than anticipated.  Secondly, I hate the needles with a passion.  I bought them at the same time as I bought the yarn for this hat because I didn't have the right size,  but they are plastic (all there was) and I am having to fight them for every stitch.  So I have ordered some KnitPro Nova straights and will frog this piece and start again as soon as they arrive.

In other news, I have put on 0.5lb this week, but to be honest, I'm not that bothered.  The weather is so cold, damp and dreary that there has been a smidgen too much chocolate in my diet this last week.  Never mind, maybe the sun will come back out soon.

Wishing you and yours all the very best, and may the frog stay away from your needles.