A hectic week since I last posted.
First a huge thank you to everyone who sent good wishes for the blog birthday.
Last week saw me with a heavy workload for the day job so it was a huge relief to escape to the "sanity" of Olympia where I enjoyed the company of some great friends and bloggers under the pretence of running the relax and knit stand!
here's a small taster...
Silkwood have a new yarn, its a mix of 70% of their home grown angora and 30% lambswool.
As I arrived at the show on Thursday morning Les taunted me with a skein that Tess had handpainted in purples.
One minute later it was in my bag and I'd blown my self-imposed yarn ban!!!
Here's a picture of one of the volunteers wearing a gorgeous scarf knitted out of Silkwood's yarn in a Ripple Stitch pattern.
Jan was gracious enough to bring along a copy of her new book Ripple Stitch Patterns for me ( and everyone else ) to drool over. Needless to say the order was placed that night - though why I delayed I don't know as I love and own most of the other knitting and crochet books she has written.
Look who dropped by for a short visit and spent most of the day with us! I hadn't seen Gaz since the last time we played "Eltham Raiders" (at least 3 years ago - disgraceful when we live about 5 miles away from each other). I'm not sure if it was the spinning that made the crowds stop and look or if it was the fact that there were 2 men on the display.
A quieter moment at Olympia showing RBT and her mini- class
A few hectic days back at work and I'm now throwing things into a bag to head off to the Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC.
I've been looking back through the blog and realised that I missed my Blog's 1st anniversary!
It was early March last year when Polly decided that I need to be encouraged to write more and she very helpfully set me up with this blog. I promised to learn all sorts of things and have learnt very little, the most important thing I have learnt is how wonderful my friends are and what a joy it has been to meet so many of you over the last year.
One of the first items I blogged about was a sleeveless sweater I was planning to knit using DB Alpaca Silk, it's also one of the items I listed at New Year as one of the UFO's to finish. I finally did that tonight and it is now blocking with the aim of being able to wear it over the next few days.
All other knitting is on hold as I've had a plea from my youngest sister - my nieces (age 3 and 5) are to attend 3 weddings this summer and she'd like them to have furry boleros to wear. The girls told her that they didn't need to go shopping to buy them as Auntie will knit them. So the Sirdar Funky Fur in barbie pink is my yarn du jour for the next few weeks!!
At last i've done enough of the blanket for you to get an idea of the trees.
Instead of all the artsy photos I wish RYC had printed a larger chart, it really hurts my eyes squinting at all those little squares.
The pattern is in the RYC Bambino book
Another addition to the garden - hope he doesn't dig up the plants!
I'm currently on the boring bit - knitting 7 x 6 foot garden canes in Icord for the pot plants. Wish I could find my Icord machine
It's good to be home again, I finally got here at 3.30 on Monday and spent the rest of the day sleeping and answering emails + calls from Scotland with people checking I got home safely
Today was back to work and the joys of being duty manager, more of the same due on Wednesday. No knitting since Sunday but I have unpacked the few yarn purchases I made and got most of them ready to post to the recipients.
I will confess to only 1 yarn purchase at the show and somewhat predictably that was from Taj yarns - a skein of Wagtail farms mohair 4ply.
I'd hoped to make some progress on the current baby knitting project, the RYC Apple Trees blanket but I was far too tired to knit. I'd better make an effort with it soon as the intended recipient is due in May
I'm still in Glasgow when I should be at home thanks to a wonderful fall of snow!
My 5 minute walk to the SECC took 20 minutes this morning as I dragged my case through 12 inches of snow and fell over 2x.
The show was quiet but steady - amazing as there were no trains, very limited buses and no planes. There was a huge cheer from the stall holders as 2 coach loads of crafters arrived from Aberdeen after a 9 hour journey.
My 20 minute car ride to the airport took 90 minutes and my plane still hasn't left from it's point of departure to get here!
They won't allow needles on the plane so I'm sitting here without knitting listening to podcasts and watching the snow ploughs dance up and down the runways in a ballet routine which is very graceful.
No sign of the tortoise and it's loss has upset everyone involved in the project - thanks to all of you who sent emails and texts about it. I'm going to print them off and send them to the knitter so that she knows her hard work was appreciated albeit too briefly.
The curly yarn is "Knitit" by Wendy and the only colours i saw were the blue and a red/cream combination. I have 2 balls of yarn in my bag with a Sirdar "Loopa" for when I get bored tonight. If I get really bored I might be posting "action shots" in an atempt to keep awake!
Some ******! stole the tortoise from the stand this afternoon!
We were manically busy and it was last seen at 2.30pm , the loss was discovered at 3pm. The team are in mourning...
I love these new additions to the garden
Here's a new visitor to the garden knitted by Jane's next door neighbour
One of the joys of travelling to shows around the country is meeting up with email friends so it was great to see Juliet again on Thursday with another visit promised for Saturday.
This time she was bubbling over at discovering an alpaca farm a short walk away from her home. She was generous enough to bring me a small selection of their wonderful yarn and I need to share this with all of the other alpaca fans out there!
I love this business card!
Wonderful yarn just begging me to knit it! think I might have to find a suitable Scottish project - perhaps Sanquar gloves.
Future shawl - what do you think Fred? Is this a suitable colour for the MIL?
Warning - don't drop the skein when trying to wind this loopy nylon - it toook me 7 hours to undo the tangle of knots. I can't actually face knitting with it now!
A new yarn from Wendy - I'm not at all sure what to make of it , I find the way of working fiddly and I'm not sure if I'm ready for all those frills
This yarn knits up in frills and depending which way you start the ball you get a different colour frill - what do you think?
I had a great journey up here on wednesday, checked into the hotel, then the SECC where Susan (Sirdar) and Jane (ICHF) had done a wonderful job with setting up the stand for me. Feeling redundant I took myself into Glasgow for a little theraputic yarn shopping.
A rummage in the reduced bin at JL meant I came away with green yarn for cabbages for the garden. I then went sightseeing in the Botanic Gardens followed by a trip to K1 where a few purchases were made on behalf of others!
An all too brief meeting with Sally and then a Glasgow Knit Night at the Blue Star Cafe with friendly faces, wonderful coffee and fresh baked scones.
The wrap and hat took 19 balls of Elsebeth Lavold's Chunky Al.
I may knit another one for me but anyone else who wants one will have to make their own! We were discussing how it would work in Debbie Bliss Aplaca Silkand asI happen to have some in stash I'm very tempted.
The pattern is in the Winter Vogue and there were no copies left in Borders in London last week.
AK - refers to the Ample Knitters group - the most fantastic group of people who I have learnt much from over the years.
There are 3 shows coming up this month where I will be attending with Knit and Natter. The first is Glasgow on Thursday where I'm really looking forward to meeting up with Juliet, Johanna and others. I'm hoping to arrive early enough on wednesday to try to find K1 - a lys I've heard good things about. I think they have their knitting group that nihght as well.
The next is at Olympia 23-26 March where I'm hoping to meet up with a few blog pals, two of whom both have books recently / about to be published and then the NEC 30 March - 2 April where I can get to look at the entrants for this years BHKC competition.
Anyone interested in volunteering please click the link on the www.ukhandknitting.com website. There are sometimes mis-communications as so many people and agencies are involved in setting it up - if in doubt contact me at the email address on this blog.
The materials we use are provided by the BHKC and the volunteers provide their skills and energy. It has been a great way to meet other knitters and to share my love of this activity.
I took the wrap to Liberty's last night and for once was really happy to show off my knitting, lots of positive comments even from the non-knitters in the cafe and several people enjoyed trying it on - what was amazing was how well it worked on everyone.
The rear shot for my AK friends who wanted to see if this design worked
Sue was the last to try on the wrap and I nearly had a wrestling match trying to get it back.
Yoga hat
My Olympic lap of honour - the Yoga Hat!
It took about 70gms of Elsabeth Lavold Chunky Al and size 6mm needles
Cast on 72 stitches and join into circle. Purl 4 rounds, knit 4 rounds then follow Yoga Wrap stitch pattern (without edge stitches) and work 2 pattern repeats.
Purl 2 rounds and then decrease by Knit 7, K2 tog for one round. Work 1 round knit. Knit 6, K2tog for a round, knit a round. Continue in this way until you have 16 sts left. K2 tog across round and draw up sewing in ends.
One of the joys of a day off is being at home when the postman calls and along with the bills he brought this wonderful package from Pally.
The chilli is already in use in the crockpot though I'm not too sure if I'm up to full Texas strength. the dips have been hidden away for a couple of weeks and will come out and be made for Matt's birthday party in a couple of weeks time. The little sachet smells wonderful and the Nicky Epstein book is one that I have wanted but never got around to buying - the timing is excellent as I'm off to another show, in Glasgow, next week to work on the Knitted Garden and there are some great flower patterns in here.
