silly quizzes make me happy :o)

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Thanks Purlpower for the silly quiz! I am elated to think I have similar traits to Albert Einstein! He was crazier than a basketful of frogs and had frizzy hair- we're so alike! On the other hand he only seemed crazy because no-one understood him at the time... so you just wait and see. In a few hundred years I'll be clever and not crazy! Ha Ha Ha!

Ok feel better now :0)

And onto the knitting update....















Ta Da! I've done the armhole shaping and onto the 'last straight'. I'm amazed at how quickly i'm managing to plough on with this. It's categorized as a '2 ball' difficulty and this is the second 2-ball i've done now. Does this mean I'm no longer a beginner and now accomplished?? (though not super-good coz 3-ball patterns look like alien hieroglyphs are needed to decode the pattern to me!)

I thought decreasing would be difficult, but instead of getting hung up on where the slips and knits are I thought- well just look at the knitting- it's easy enough to tell so get on and do it.... and I did! I'm getting a little more confident about stuff I've never before tried now!

I've had a 'hold the knitting against me' moment and think this time I shall definately block the knitting before sewing up. (People gasp at the horror that I don't do this as part of the normal course) However, the way that the slip stitch pattern is done, it tends to squash up a little bit- this makes it feel textured but I think it will look better blocked so as to see the counter-colour better.

So yes you will probably be sick of my posting this week as I have the whole week off! WooHoo!
I'm so exhausted from work and stresses at the moment that these headache marathons are getting longer and more fierce. I find I get dizzy and feel sick as well as slurring my words and dropping lots of things before a headache attack now. Unfortunately i'm still having to get on with it as my appointment isn't til 10th october with some 'headace nurse'. Helpful? No. For the last few days I've had this aches and pains thing where I feel my body has been taken apart and put back together all wrong.

And so i'm going to do as naff all as possible and knit until i can't knit no more! And spin... must practice today as plying commences tonight. Yippee :o)

Too hot to sew!

Well folks, some sewing up has commenced.... though it got abandoned from sweaty hand syndrome! I can't believe how warm this cardigan is though it's really light and not at all cumbersome to seam. It'll be ideal once the cold weather kicks in!

Here's some boring seam shots....(sorry!)
This is the front raglan seam... not so bad.















This is the back raglan seam...hmmm not so great.














I can't believe that seaming moss stitch is so difficult! I'm really winging it this time!

And so i've started another (oh dear!) project and this is quite the finest i've knitted so far... 4ply!! Sort of. I say that as the ribbing is done on 3mm needles then the pattern is actually done on 5mm needles. And behold......














Ta Da! I started this yesterday afternoon at knit chat! Her name is 'Pandora' :o)
It is the only pattern I really liked in the new Rowan 38 so i borrowed the book from a friend at work.

This is the slip-stitch pattern in close-up....














This is the back... actually like it as much as the front so i may actually use it inside out instead... we'll se if it makes me look huge LOL!














The pattern actually uses just 4 ply soft but as I could'nt find a suitable shade to match the 'Victoria' which is sorta auberginey so I decided to use Yorkshire Tweed 4 ply instead. It's a discontinued colour unfortunately but I just love the tennsy bits of red.














And so there it is guys... another WIP but I have to say I just fell in love at first sight with 'Pandora'.

Tomorrow I shall at long last be plying my spun balls and learning what happens after that as well hopefully. Reggie is set for coming over about 7 I think.

Ah well on with the knitting until then... :o)

Enough to be getting along with...

Well as promised I have the rest of the piccys for you all. I was just so tired yesterday that I just couldn't be bothered to faff with the pc and the uploading was taking forever!
So here is what I bought...















This is some merino in lovely turquoise. I haven't yet used merino so i shall use some undyed to practice with first I think!
















This is some (??) devon and cornwall long-something-or-other. It's basically quite a rough texture but has lots of curls and has been dyed in mixed shades of green, bluey-grey and turquoise. I'm going to combine it somehow with the merino.
















This is some mixed rare breed in lots of natural colours. I actually bought this for Mum as I bought her a needle felting kit and she wanted some 'bear' colours!















Here I bought an Ashford top-whorl spindle (left) for spinning on and a sort of home-made thicker spindle to ply onto. The lovely Reggie had lent me her ashford spindle to practice with and once I get another she can have it safely back in her care! I'm definately a top-whorl gal, having tried bottom-whorls and not really got along so well.
















Lastly is a present (!) bought by Reggie when really I should be buying her something for her patience and attention.... I was thoroughly shocked when she gave me this going to the car!
I'd been going and fondling it periodically during our visit because I'd never used mohair loop and the colours just made me really happy! 90grams will make me a lovely scarf-wrap sorta thing and I'm gonna have to think of something special to get Reggie now!

And I do have a little progress on 'Twiglet' a.k.a. Barra from Classic Winter.... only the last sleeve to go! And no I didn't do any sewing up so I'll have to sew all the bits up before picking up the front band, but hey you all knew I'd put it off! So hopefully I'll start the sleeve tonight and be able to get into finishing it soon!

Of course I need to practice my spinning as well! I'll be able to ply my two small balls as soon as I let Reggie know of a convenient time... so I may have my first finished hank anytime soon!

Heaven in the countryside

I've had the most wonderful assault on the senses today. My friend Reggie who's being teaching me to spin tool me with her on an outing to 'The Threshing Barn'.













The shop front

I had such a wonderful time and consequently I have a *lot* of piccys today!
















There was everything for spinners, knitters and needle felters... there was a needle felting workshop there when we arrived!
Reggie and i got a cup of coffee as well... and a piece of cake but dont tell Reggies husband ;o)

I absolutely fell in love with the place and i think if money was infinite I'd do exactly the same and set up my own farm and do what i wanted!

Due to extreme itchyness to spin and knit I'll leave you to just look at what I found at the Threshing Barn... I'll post up what i got another day and save the pics for another post! No there's not a fleece mountain in my living room... though if I'd had my way....;o)

Spin spinnity spinning

Well folks it don't look much but it's my hard work from only 2 spinning lessons:

Ball 1- Sunday















Ball 2- Monday/Tuesday















Can you see the difference?















I'm proud of both of them! I wonder what they'll look like plied together? I can't wait til my plying lesson!

The wool I used for that was called 'Pick and Super'. Dunno what it is but it's nice!

Buttoned Blossom, The Twiglet and Operation Rainwater

Oh what a wonderful Saturday!

Apart from the rain, being match day in Wolverhampton and a corker of a headache it has been an O.K. day.

1) Wore Buttoned Blossom to KnitChat
I did actually take her on a first outing on wednesday on a shopping trip with Rose, but here she is having a rest after socializing this afternoon...














Here is a close up of the wonderful buttons I found for her... i even thought they were beautiful enough for earrings so I bought an extra 2!















2) 1/2-ish way on Twiglet a.k.a 'Barra' from Classic Winter.

I wont bore you with moss stitch, I'll post up pictures when Twiglet is finished. Basically I finished the back last Sunday and have, in the meantime, being juggling it with other projects. So this week I have so far completed the left front and I'm approx 1/3-1/2 way up a sleeve.

The Plan is to sew up those seams before doing the right front and sleeve to minimise sewing up overload. Hypothetically anyway.

3) Laughed hysterically at 'Operation Rainwater'!

While at knit chat today there was an alarming announcement over the tannoy thingy for the staff to come up the the Bistro in Beatties where we have KnitChat. The announcement roughly sounded like (because i have poor recall from laughing so much!) "Could blah blah staff please blah blah 'Operation Rainwater' blah blah in the Bistro on the 2nd floor..."

The mere fact there was a name for putting buckets on the floor had an operation name was bad enough, but when said staff turned up with walkie talkies etc we just couldn't help but howl hysterically!

And as evidence.... The Operation Leader- Mrs Huckfield... I have inside intelligence who has named the 'important person with the Walkie Talkie'!















'Operation Rainwater' in action!















And here's (most) of the KnitChat group...













This is Sarah Beth and Adrienne's elbow. (Adrienne is fairly new to the group as she's just moved back to wolverhampton, and is lovely, and Sarah is just Fab! Hope I'll be able to spin as good as she does!)














Extreme left- Josie (wonderful hair!!), Rose (adopted Den Mother, dear friend and Rowan Consultant at Beatties), Jen (lovely commuter from Bridgnorth) and Reggie (fairly new but very nice lady who will me teaching me to spin-YAY)















And of course... on the far right is Steph (wearing her fab presto top and established blogger!)

Hmmm... yes I did manage to squeeze in there that Reggie is coming to my house tomorrow to teach me to spin (hopefully!!). She's bringing different drop spindles and such and I'm hoping I will be a good student for her! She's coming round early so I'll have to be up and caffeinated!

I'm sooo excited!

phew!

What a busy day I've had!

Couldn't resist putting a piccy of the finished back- i finished it about 3:30pm.

Its just such lovely yarn to knit with! I've started the front left but haven't done much on it as I've been washing/ironing. I *never* iron in a batch, usually I just iron things as i need them. However, a madness just passed over me today and I ironed about 3 months worth of stuff in the washing basket... and I've just stopped and changed the bed clothes. I'm tired to say the least!

I think I deserve strawberries and cream and a little knitting before bedtime!

broken promises and more knitting!

Hey folks

I'd stupidly promised myself that I wouldn't buy wool this month. Like I have the willpower to do something so difficult!
I was doing really well until I got to KnitChat yesterday. I had a look through the new Rowan books and Magazine 38. Hmmm not much for me in No 38- very weird or just not me, only really saw a couple of things so I couldn't justify it really. However when I looked through Classic Winter I just really liked a few things and the yarn is just scrumptiously soft! So I'd failed. It really isn't my fault is it?
I bought 9 balls (may need one more..) of Soft Tweed in 'Twig'. Sounds boringly brown... but it has little bits of blue in it and looks fab with jeans... sold to the girl in cotton tape and an unfashionable desire to knit huge jumpers in summer!















And so I'm making 'Barra'.
Here is the progress so far....















(sorry about the cheesy ironing board cover *cringes*)

It's growing surprisingly quickly for moss stitch... though I'm sure I picked it because it would take longer... these winter projects on big needles don't take more than a week for me (and then a month to pluck up sewing courage).
I think after Barra I may make Campbell.
*Thinks*....Ooh.... I must be a proper knitter now I think 8mm needles are big, before I wouldn't do anything unless it was chunky and quick!

I suppose I ought to make an effort with the other (oh so many!) WIP... here was the sleeve progress before the naughty cardigan:















I'm just about decreasing for the raglan bit... another 10 inches or so then! I just have a feeling that this is a disaster in mohair form! It's gonna be fit for the charity bin as soon as sewn probably! Maybe i'll sew the first sleeve on when I finish it to see what it's gonna be like before casting on the 229 stitches for the next sleeve ruffle...

Hmm... i know this post lacks colour... I've gone all beige since the multicoloured trip of Jenny Blossom and HipKnits silk. I guess the eyes needed a rest!
And... a treat for you.... well no it's not but it's not normal either! It's me at work (looking fed up as usual) in my lab coat and hiding while Fay takes a quick piccy:















Notice how deserted the place is... yes we really are that shortstaffed most days... one wonders why I'm stressed?! (yes I realise I have muppet hands in this picture- it's the latex gloves I wear in the lab!)

And now I've terrorised you bloggers I'll just say that Rose from KnitChat features in this month's Knitting magazine with Debbie Abrahams in an article called 'Hangbags and Gladrags'. She'll not thank me for saying that but she's super wonderfully nice and I love her to bits. Thankyou Rose!

Right better pack up the washing for Mum's (still on the blink) and get dressed and ready for sunday lunch. Yum!

Sparkly things

Hey guys... managed a mid-week post for once!

Well in the project crisis the answer literally landed on my doorstep. My friend Fiona (weird having the same name) sent me some patterns she'd photocopied for me from an old Interweave Knits magazine. I've decided to use some stash to make a shrug, though it's gonna turn out a little bigger than expected but I guess a big shrug becomes a bolero??

Watch this space! I've finished the back section and started a sleeve.















This is a bit of the back. Just boring knitting really... but at least i wont be tearing my hear out with lacy patterns... bit of simplicity does you good sometimes.
















I thought I'd lost the will to knit last night when doing the ruffle part- 229 stitches! Thankfully it reduces back down to 58 otherwise I'd still be knitting it next August!















The yarn I'm using is the 'designer' yarn made from different fibres to create a glitzy beige mix. It's nice, though the lurex isn't as stretchy so I'll probably end up with a length of yarn without lurex at the end of the ball!

Well thats really all I've done for the past 2 days... not bad though eh?

I'm actually going to see an "Alternative Therapist" tomorrow to see if she can help me with my headache marathon. I don't think I can just sit and wait for a 'headache nurse's' opinion in October. I'll go crazy if i don't find anything to help in the meantime. So... wish me luck, I'll let you know how I get on and whether she had to stick pins in me... maybe a swift axe blow would solve the problem ;o

On a happier note, 'Lethal Weapon' is on tonight... I love those films, Mel Gibson just cracks me up! Though I dont reckon I'll get that early night I could do with!