Happy Feet

I've got those happy feet....

Oops

After the huge excitement of finishing the shawl, I haven't managed to blog anything since! Naughty Gemma!

So, what have I been doing with myself I hear you cry? Well, a few things really. Firstly i've been knitting my first pair of socks. I'm just doing the rib cuff on the second one, but heres the first one so you get the idea..



No completely sure I like the colours, but they are certainly comfy! I did a short row heel and toe, next time i'm going to try a heel flap I think.

I've also been dyeing again. I did this lot on tuesday and then reskeined it yesterday, and here's the finished result. It's aran weight BFL so good for soakers etc, and I like it a lot! I asked my friends opinions on it in terms of selling it, and I sold it all to them more or less immediately, exciting n'est pas? Now I need to do some more, and then work out a good way to sell it, i'm sure my mates won't want it all!



Sitch n Bitch tonight, I missed it last week because I was poorly, still full of cold now but need to get out of the house!

Happy Thursday!

Because the sun came out

Perfect opportunity to take more pictures of the shawl. You can tell I'm pleased with it can't you!

Wonderful Wednesday

Yes it is indeed a wonderful wednesday!

Forest Canopy is done! Let us all bask in its wonderfulness!

Before blocking

As it is right now blocking on the spare bed

And the close up of the lace detail

And now for the geeky stuff...

Pattern - Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence (available here) knitted with a few extra sets of middle repeats to make it a bit larger.

Yarn - Alpaca / Merino DK in Moonbeam from The Natural Dye Studio

Needles - 5mm Addi Bamboo Circulars

Time Taken - Hmmmm, about 4 weeks on and off

Recipient - My SIL for her birthday

It's beautiful isn't it? And it was surprisingly easy to knit, although I now wish i'd listened to the pattern and put in a lifeline now and again as I had to painstakingly undo several rows on a few occasions due to missing a yarnover.

Wednesday is also wonderful for yarn porn!!!!

Firstly we have my own handdyed aran weight BFL, 500g of the stuff in muted sea shades of blue and green. This is to make a pullover for Thomas. I think I will be good and finish off some of my WIP's first though...

And then there's this. I think this is the singlemost beautiful skein of yarn I own. Seriously, I might never use this, I will just get it out and gaze upon it frequently. I am totally in love with it. It's Colinette's new sock yarn - Jitterbug - in Jewel colourway. I am smitten.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Why I married him....

My husband doth rock!!

My ball winder arrived on friday, but as useful as it is, it functions much better with a swift... I looked at some on the web, and while pretty, they aren't cheap. I just wanted something functional, it didn't have to be a work of art. So I found a link to a build-it-yourself-swift on a forum, and my lovely husband just made it for me!

Behold, my new swift in operation!

Thomas proving you are never too young to help mummy wind yarn!

Yay! A cake of yarn ready to knit! And it only took 2 hours less than usual to wind (yes I really was that bad at it!)

This will be mighty handy for the 500g of BFL I currently have sitting in a dye bath downstairs!

Viva la yarn swift!

Slacking

Just a quickie update today, no piccies either which isn't like me!

Had a busy week, for some reason i've had the cleaning bug and i've been doing a lot of tidying up. Even managed to unpack the last of the boxes, impresive no? After all, we only moved in 8 months ago!

Big news of the week - i'm going to SkipNorth! I'm oh so excited! Going with the MO girls, Sarah, Nic and blogless Lottie, going to be much fun, will our other halves manage the kids without us!

Knittingwise, still plodding along with the shawl, won the last lot of yarn I estimate i'll need today on Ebay, note I said estimate, there's every chance i'm wrong. My friend Andrea from stitch n bitch called it extreme knitting and I think she might be right!

And I started the kids crimbo shopping today! 1 huge order from ELC later and I think I may be done.

Have a good weekend!

Paint a Woolly Rainbow

First off, i'm miserable, be nice to me! The dreaded root filling turned out to not be possible due to a large abcess, so instead they extracted the evil tooth. So now I have a big gap and i'm feeling a very fragile. I'm not good with anything relating to my mouth, so i'm hating waiting for the horrid hole to heal up. Yuk yuk yuk!

To take my mind off it yesterday, I retreated to the cellar *cue Phantom of the Opera music* and did some dyeing. I'm seeing Sarah and her family tomorrow, and I owe her 400g of rainbow koolaid BFL so I did that, and while I was at it I had another go with the Omega dyes. I wasn't as successful this time, but I was trying a different technique (wet wool, sprinkle dye, squish with gloves on). Its not even enough for my liking, so i'll go back to the turkey baster method that works with the koolaid.

Made a couple of purchases this week, firstly a yarn winder from Ebay, because i'm fed up with winding skeins into balls, I want a machine to make centre pull balls for me. Secondly, I invested in a KnitPicks Options set. I've read good things about these needles, and i'm fed up of having circulars all over the place. KnitPicks don't deliver to the UK, so i'm having them delivered to my good friend Melody in Virginia, and she's going to forward them on to me. Yay!

Haven't done much knitting this week as i've mostly been moping and feeling sorry for myself (everybody say awwwwww), but i've been chugging along with the Forest Canopy Shawl when i'm feeling like it. Since I need it finished in a few weeks, that probably isn't the attitude to have!

I'm actually on top of the cleaning this week as well, upstairs is tidy, just needs a hoover, i'm working my way through the huge pile of washing that I swear multiplies while i'm not looking, and there's a beef stroganof simmering away in the slow cooker. Yummy.

I may go to S n B tonight, depending on how i'm feeling.