stash enhancement

At least I think it's an enhancement. Starting to have second thoughts!

Yesterday morning I went into town early (miss the Saturday rush). And after Tesco's I wandered along to the Kirkwood Hospice Shop (charity shop, thrift store, what you will).

There I found a bag with a load of yarn in it, looks like home dyed lace weight in shades of green and blue. The same bag also contained a small skein of something cream coloured and a bit slubby with a label on it that said "EAT ME". . . . . . . . . .

no sorry wrong book.

with a printed label on it that said "coreopsis" and a handwritten one that said "dead coreopsis". Now this is clearly incorrect so I'm sort of thinking home vegetable dying????

Anyhoo, there was a price on the whole bag of £1.00 which is what, the cost of a litre of diesel nowadays (I paid 99.99p per litre when I refilled the truck on Wednesday, nearly had heart failure. The tank was only half empty and it took nearly £200 quids worth!). So I paid me money and took it home. The lady behind the counter when I paid for it asked me what it was so I said I thought it looked like home dyed lace weight knitting yarn.

When I got it home I got out me swift and wool winder and set them up and realised that the skein didn't have an end. Well I had a hell of a job finding it anyway. Next problem was that the skein seemed to be inextricably twisted so I couldn't use the wool winder as I had to keep stopping and passing what I'd wound back through the skein. In the end I was forced to take it off the swift and hang it over my arm whilst winding it the good old fashioned way by hand.

Best part of two hours later and I've wound ONE BLOODY SKEIN and am left with a ball larger than a ping pong ball but quite a lot smaller than a tennis ball. Perhaps about rounders ball size (though my memory isn't what it was and it's a long time since I saw a rounders ball.). This ball weighs about 20 grams and the whole lot weighs about 100 grams so I have a lot of untangling ahead of me.

I like the colours though, looks much better wound onto a ball than it did in a skein and it feels beautifully springy so I don't think it was a waste of money, but it may take some time to sort out. I've been wanting to try lace knitting at some point so now I have something to practice on.

My socks continue apace I've turned the heel on the second one and finished decreasing the gusset, all downhill to the toes now.

blog, blog, blog, blog, blogging along..........

. . . . . . on the beautiful briny sea.

Okay I paraphrase (or misquote if you prefer!)

Bin a bit naughty today. Firstly I've hardly done any housework, though two loads of washing, a small amount of tidying and made bread so I've not been too lazy.

BUT secondly I bought a pattern. Now I don't often pay for patterns (I do buy magazines, but that doesn't really count), usually I trawl the web and find free ones that I like and so far I've found more free patterns that I like than I'll ever get round to knitting. HOWEVER I've recently downloaded some software for subscribing to podcasts, so spent most of the day downloading and listening to archives of Knitcast. One of these was an interview with Annie Modesitt and I was trying to remember who she was when it came to me

aha, the one who designed the corset!!!!

So I went post haste to her site to drool over it some more (which I have done many times before). I've never bought it before though and before I knew it I did the deed. Paypal makes this sort of thing FAR TOO EASY! Have to say though that paying and then downloading the PDF immediately is great as far as instant gratification goes and the price of $5.00 transalates to about £2.80 which is practically NOTHING.

Anyhow for those of you who are unfamiliar with said corset here's a pic .

Isn't that just the cats pyjamas?

As it says at the beginning of the pattern booklet

"This is flattering on all figure types. It won't make a size sixteen look like a size six, but it will make a size sixteen the sexiest size sixteen in town!"

And that's good enough for me!

Finished sock

Ha ha, first sock finished. I quite like it but have decided that it's not for me. Thus I am going to give it (and it's potential partner) away as a gift. Hence the length of the foot, it's a bit big for me and my teeny tiny tootsies. Hope it fits, I don't know the size feet of the recipient, but I know they're quite long (well they'd have to be, she's a tall lady and if she had little feet she'd fall over!).

I quite liked the pattern, it repeats over four rows and is pretty straight forward; once I'd got the hang of it it wasn't difficult to remember. The lace has turned out better than I hoped when I first started despite the bobbly nature of the yarn. You can see all the technical details on the previous post when I started the socks.

Here's to the second one.

Still haven't got the new yarn for my Haagebutte Clapotis (which I discovered from the KnitCast podcasts is actually pronounce "Clapotee", bet you all knew that already huh?) but I'm told that it's now on order so with luck I'll be able to pick it up next week. It would have been quicker to order it myself direct from "Get Knitted", but I'm saving myself the postage costs and the possibility of it going missing in the mail. (Not that I'm cheap or owt like that!).

I've found a new online knitting magazine (well new to me) whilst blog browsing. It's called Spun Magazine and it's based in Toronto. I found it through Whip up, which has some fantastic links on it; well worth a look. I'm dying to try the home made bath bombs! (Hope that last line doesn't get my blog picked up and investigated by the secret service! (That's probably compounded the matter!)

Hmm, better stop while I still have my liberty.

New project

And it's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .






. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a pair of socks!!!

Bugger me, who'd have thought it.

Here are Hedera , from the latest issue of Knitty. I'm knitting them in some Rowanspun 4 ply that I had in the stash (There you see I don't just buy it and hoard it away, I'm actually using some of it! So there!). It may look better in a plainer wool, or possibly a cotton mix in a plain colour, this is a bit bobbly and I feel that it detracts from the lace pattern. I'm also not 100% sure about the colour, but I'm quite enjoying knitting them so I'm going to carry on and if I decide they're not me I'll give them away.

competition and a good cause

On Kat knits site five place you have knitted. In my case

1. At Welford Road rugby ground, home of Leicester Tigers Rugby Club.


2. In my truck when parked up on an overnighter.

3. In the MAN dealership in Brum whilst waiting for my truck to be repaired.

4. At co-op meetings at work (and drivers meetings at work too)

5. Cafe Ollo in the mediacentre in Huddersfield (knit & natter second Thursday of the month 5-00pm to 7-00pm)

Last one's a bit of a cheat but I couldn't think of anywhere else.

On to the good cause.

Someone at work sent me this email

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meettheir quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

I've been and done it now you all can too. (i'm putting a link to it in my sidebar too so that you can go and do it every time you come to my blog!) cheers.

diving in headfirst

Have started a mini clapotis with the remains of the Opal Hagebutte I made my socks with. I just lurve the colours in this yarn. The diving in part relates to the fact that I only have half a skein left. I popped into the shop in Bristol where I bought it on Tuesday and they'd run out so have promised to order me two more skeins to arrive at some unspecified time in the future. I don't know if they will be at all similar in colour / pattern etc to what I have now so it could well prove to be a disaster, but I'll worry about that when I get to it. I'm sure it'll work out fine.

It's a bit of a new feeling, optimism I mean, it isn't something I usually do.

Wish me luck.

Another pair of socks

Finished the socks I was knitting at last. They started out as Crusoe but I had to frog them as they were waaaaay too small (that pattern must have been written by someone whose feet had been bound or a VERY loose woman).

Anyhoo, finally frogged them and went back to the tried and tested free pattern that came with the Opal sock wool. I can now practically knit this one in my sleep. In fact I managed to knit from the end of the shaping on the instep to the start of the toe decreases at a drivers' meeting at work on Friday evening (so it wasn't a complete waste of time).
As you can see I stuck to the rolled top from the Crusoe pattern 'cos I quite liked it as a bit of a change. I have loads of the wool left over which is Opal Hagebutte (Rosehip), and I think I may be able to get another pair out of it. Hope so I think it's lovely. I may even go back to the shop where I got it and see if they have any more. I quite fancy it for a scarf or a pair of gloves (or even both!).
Blogging seems to be a bit in the doldrums at the minute, don't know if it's the time of year or what but people don't seem to be posting as much (come back Tutley Mutley, we miss you!!!). Probably have better things to do now the weather is improving.