How I love to make life difficult

... well I realised that one of the kits I bought on Thursday required that I have a pair of 15mm

needles and a pair of 19mm needles. Of course I don't have them. I suspect that the wool stall on the indoor market doesn't either, they never seem to have anything else I want. And no way was I prepared to drive into town on a Saturday to find out

so

I drove to Wicks instead and bought some dowel, you can see in the picture my first attempt at making a pair of knitting needles.

Off to use them now whilst watching the All Blacks cream Scotland, wish me luck.

Thursday's adventures.

Well now, before I start on the Harrogate show here is the hipknits silk which I got through the post yesterday. It's my prize for the 'photo competition on the Knitspeak site. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Hazel of Knitspeak and to Kerrie from Hipknits for this lovely lovely yarn.

I've been fondling it since it arrived (Hazel says that's okay and it's normal to be a yarn perv.)! I think it's going to have to be a Clapotis. Haven't made one yet but I do want to. Probably won't start till the new year as so many pressies to be getting on with first.

AND........
............ here's the ill gotten gains from me trip to Harrogate yesterday. There was something else but I've posted it off to ...... no I can't say.

I think I've been quite restrained really. A lot of what's there is earmarked for Christmas presents. I was intending to buy a swift, but alas I didn't see a stall with any on.

The actual journey to Harrogate was a bit of a pain in the proverbial, had to do the ring road round Bradford which is never good, and the last mile or so into Harrogate took AGES. Christmas shoppers probably. (sorry, I'm trying not to use the C word, but it keeps slipping out).

The car park at the conference centre was horrible, and crowded and when I managed to find a space and buy a ticket I was just about to leave when I noticed that it had a sign saying it was reserved. I had to decide if I should try to find another space or take the risk of leaving it there. Decided to risk it.

I found the place where the show was and caught one of the security people and asked if it was okay to leave my car where it was, I think he could tell that I was on the point of hysteria so he checked it out and told me it was okay.

When I got into the actual show though it was worth it, loads of lovely stalls with beautiful things to spend LOTS of money on. As I've already said, I think I was pretty restrained. I shot round quickly once taking it all in, then did a more leisurely circuit buying stuff (well organised or what?).

It wasn't until I left that I realised that I'd gone in the wrong way. I went to go up the escalator that I'd come down on and there was a sign saying "conference delegates only". Anyway I ignored it and carried on, luckily the security guy at the top was busy telling two other people that they couldn't go that way, so I just swept past looking as if I knew where I was going.

It was well worth going, and many thanks to Ling for letting me have the ticket.

I heard a funny thing on the radio....

Three thirty a.m. travelling up the Elland bye pass in a (horrible) hire truck earlier this week listening to the world service on the radio. There was a feature about the spread of AIDS in Africa.
(I know it doesn't sound funny, but bear with me!)
The (female) health worker was talking to a (male) interviewer about how they are encouraging the use of the female condom to try to limit the spread of the virus, as many men were unwilling to use condoms themselves, and this gave women more control. The interviewer pointed out that despite these efforts, use of the female condom was much less widespread than that of the male condom.
"Do you think" he asked "that the use of the female condom will ever catch up with that of the male condom, or do you think it will remain a niche market."!

I nearly crashed me truck laughing!

pics

one finger scarf in Adriafil Graphic & Adriafil Decor (one third of a ball of Graphic & whole ball of Decor). Took about half an hour to make.
Detail of scarf.
Second finger scarf made with another third of same ball of Graphic and a different ball of Decor.
More detail of first scarf.
Gracie modeling scarf no. 2

Ro's Moebus scarf made with a ball and a bit of Adriafil Softy on no. seven circular.

All done last night whilst watching the rugby internationals.

a grand day out

Ro came up to visit this weekend and last night we went to see the Tigers play Sale in Stockport. Unfortunately the Tigers were beaten (they don't play well on Friday nights.)
Today we went over to Addingham to the Fabric Colour Workshop. We stopped off at Denholm Velvets on the way over which has a factory shop and Ro got some groovy velvet offcuts to make stuff with.
We continued on to Addingham and found the shop on the Townend Trading Estate (Next to Beanstalk Wholefoods which I used to deliver to). Elizabeth Selman owns the shop which stocks yarns, fabrics, silk painting stuff and other craft materials. Her husband Ashley imports Adriafil yarns and so that is what the shop stocks on the knitting front. They also run a series of workshops on silkpainting,embroidery, things to do witha meter of fleece etc.
Within seconds of walking through the door we were made very welcome and we even got a free demonstration of finger knitting.
I explained that I hadn't really got anything in mind so probably wouldn't buy anything, just looking to see what they had (yeah right).
I walked out with about seventeen quids worth of yarn to turn into finger knitted scarfs as pressies (pictures to follow). Ro bought some yarn to make a Moebus Scarf as she was so impressed with the two I'd made already.
The place is well worth a visit if you're in West Yorkshire, and the yarn is lovely. I don't know how widely available it is in this country, but I don't think I'd come across it before. I'm also told that you can download Adriafil patterns for free from their website but haven't looked yet.

A continuing theme............

Following my post a few weeks ago concerning an episode of CSI in which someone died from falling onto a knitting needle what price "The rebel angels" by Robertson Davies, in which a character commits murder by pushing knitting needles up someone's nose!

Anyone got any more?

Vote early, vote often!

Only kidding, just once!

competition

Mmmmmmm stash!

Just got back from a drivers' meeting at work. I went in specially for it as I don't work on a Friday, and I nearly didn't manage to drag myself out for it 'cos the weather was so filthy and I was feeling lazy. But I did and it was quite good fun.

One of the drivers got the piss ripped out of him because he set off for West Wales yesterday morning in THE WRONG TRUCK! Didn't realise until he got to his first drop that the truck he was driving was empty!! Now when I first started driving I heard a number of horror stories of drivers who took an empty truck, or a truck with the wrong load on it out by accident, so I always make a point of looking in the back to make sure it has the right pallets on it (at least at the back!). How on earth he managed to drive it up the Elland bye pass (quite steep) without noticing that it was pulling better than an fully loaded truck ought to I can't imagine, he must have been asleep still!

Ah well, all the other drivers got a laugh out of it!

Went to LYS this morning and did a BAD thing, yup more yarn. Sixteen balls of various shades of Debbie Bliss aran tweed @£2,50 a ball. Yippee! I also managed to pick up seven balls of Lee Target Motoravia(!?) 4 ply pure new wool at a charity shop next to one of my drops in Bristol on Tuesday. Seven balls of that and two of mohair for £1.99. I love charity shops!

There was a big pile of yarn in the hospice shop this morning too, and I got all excited, but on closer inspection it all turned out to be acrylic in naff colours so I didn't bother and just bought two crochet hooks. Probably just as well. I believe that buying yarn is addictive, god help me when I go to Harrogate the week after next. Eternal gratitude to the lovely Ling who sent me a ticket that she'd not been able to use for the show at Ally pally.

The Moebius Scarf

...................and here it is knitted with one skein of Noro Kureyon colour no 149 on 7.5mm circular needle. Took me one evening and I'm very pleased with it. It actually turned out as expected!!!!

Found the pattern here. I did adapt it slightly, cast on 100 stitches rather than the 150 stipulated as the tension swatch (yes I did! Briefly) came out with only about three or four stitches to the inch.

It's intended for a Christmas present for a chap, hence the colour. Not too good with the blue, but the salt and pepper matches my hair (curses!)

I do occasionally smile by the way, just not when having my picture taken, I end up looking like Goofy when I do!

the scarf

There, done!

In fact I sweated blood over this scarf. I think this was the third attempt and I nearly gave up on this one too. I HATE chennille! There's just no "give" in it, so knitting into the back of the stitch was a complete pain in the butt. Once I was past that though it was okay.

I'm pleased with the finished object tho' even if it does look like a clown collar! I will probably try another one but NOT in chennille! Fancy one with a fluffy edge. I was considering a picot edge on this but couldn't remember how to do it and was at Ro's this weekend so didn't have my knitting resources to hand.

Bye the way did I tell you I picked up Montse Stanley's "Handknitters Handbook" for £2.95 at the second hand market in Huddersfield? Wot a bargain, it's fab. If you see it, get it!

pictures working now.

.........there's the bag, scarf to follow.

It's a frog's life

First of all thanks to Becky for her suggestion re: the neckline of the cardigan. Haven't tried it as yet but I will do so once I've got round to concentration knitting.

Had a bit of a problem with the bag as the second skein of rayon is thicker than the first so I'm not sure if I'm going to have enough to finish the fourth quarter. If not I'm going to have to frog ALL FOUR QUARTERS and re knit them slightly smaller!!!!
(Were I not a lady I'd say a bad word here, but I'm far too well brought up, you'll have to insert your own!)

I knitted up a curly wurly scarf on Sunday in Noro Shinano, and I liked it but ran out of yarn before I felt it was wide enough. So that got frogged and I've started a new one with Cherry red chennile from my stash of which I have plenty. Ro has already said she wants it (well she wants the bag I knitted with the chennile before and the scarf will match it. I've told her she can have the bag and she can sew it up too!)

Bum, I was going to put in a picture of the bag, but blogger doesn't want to play!

Never mind, I'll come back later. Should really be getting ready for work.