A lucky couple of days :0)

Yes, I certainly have had a lucky couple of days, and I am very grateful to whoever it is "up there" who's looking over me. :0)


Last sunday, I won the The Yarn Grove's prize for the Under Cover Club afghan which I finished in December 2007. I loved receiving the squares to knit each month and the finished afghan has certainly kept me warm since Christmas - it's been sitting on the back of the chair in the living room, ready to keep me warm on a cold winter night or when I've been shivering with the 'flu. :0)


And this morning, DH woke me at 1am to tell me I'd won the lottery. I was just about to start shouting at him for waking me up *just* for a tenner (three numbers), when he told me I had 5 numbers!!! I got up straight away at that! I have won .... £1,373. Not enough to give up work and retire ;0) but enough to pay some bills (and pay for our holiday at the end of next month) and have some "guilt-free" spending at Wonderwool on 26th April. :0)


I've had a stupid grin on my face all day!


And finally to some knitting. I finished my Sockamania socks for February some time last week but my didn't take a photo until today - and then my camera died on me and I haven't been able to find my batteries. *rolls eyes*


These were made with Fyberspates merino tencel in Sherbet colourway on 2.5mm circs and I love them. :0)

















I'd also like to say thanks for all the comments I had on my last post. The dog coats will be sent off ASAP to keep the dogs warm at Many Tears

but unfortunately I haven't been able to get any further on my Sirdar cable jacket. I've been working on a commission for the company (Sirdar) which was for a stocking stitch summer top with (very) short sleeves. No problem. Or so you'd think!


It's knitted in Just Soya, which is lovely yarn but has been causing me major problems. :0( My tension was out, so I went down to smaller needles, then the knitted fabric looked very "bitty" and uneven. Even DH mentioned it! I'll be ringing them tomorrow to see if it's the yarn they've sent - or just me!


And look away NOW if you've just eaten. LOL! DH, who is 6 in April, has just lost his 2 lower front teeth and wanted me to blog about it! His new teeth had come through before the old ones came out, so I'm hoping they'll all "line up" eventually. ;0)


Ready?

















Eww! Yet he thought it was sooooooooooooooo cool to have his teeth and gums on show on the 'net!













Oh, I almost forgot. I was nominated recently for a "You Make my Day Award" by Belaybunny. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have to nominate 10 people in return.


The ones I nominate so far are:


Aknita - Queen of the Forest Canopy Shawl! A Very, Very Nice Person! And As I'm not so well travelled myself, I love to see her holiday pics. :0)


Posh Yarn - I love Dee's yarn and I love reading her blog too. I'm Very Jealous that she lives in a place I would LOVE to live myself!


CJ - who nominated me in the first place, and who is another lovely person I've met IRL. I am in awe of the fact that she has started sewing clothes for her little ones. They are just soooo cute (clothes and little ones!). I can't sew a straight line to save my life !


BlueADT_Knits - This one is for a fellow dog lover who resuced a puppy and gave her the best life she could have wanted. :0) I've followed Blue's illness for a while and was very sad to hear she had passed away. :0(


I'll be nominating more people later and letting them know that they've been nominated. :0)

Where does the time go?

I really don't know where these last few weeks have gone. It doesn't help that a bout of D&V one week and 'flu the next have left me feeling weaker than a wrung-out dish cloth. :0( But enough of my whinging! Onto the FOs and WIPs. ;0)

I finished the first baby blanket for my cousin at the beginning of this month. I used 2 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK, yarn held double on 6mm needles.

One down, two to go ......


I finished these socks for my son, also at the beginning of this month. This was a ball of yarn I've had in stash for ages after I did a swap with an online friend. It had no ballband on it, so could be anything really, but from the feel of it I'd say it's Opal. I used my usual toe up pattern on 2.5mm needles.









I've almost finished this month's Sockamania pattern - Simply Love. Again, this yarn has been sitting in my stash for ages just waiting for the right pattern to come along. And here it is.

The yarn is Fyberspates Merino Tencel in the Sherbet colourway, which reminds me of Battenburg cake so you can imagine what I've been obsessing about since starting these! ;0)





I love the twisted cable on the rib, too. It was a bit difficult to start with - twisting through the backs of loops - but wasn't too bad once I'd got going.

It was worth it because it really finishes the socks off nicely.


In between my first and second Sockamania sock, I made this - Regia Silk Colour on 2.5 mm needles.

Again, this was yarn I swapped online and I really must buy more - it's lovely to knit with and feels great on the foot. I managed to get a nice long leg from the first 50g ball too. The second one will be started once my Sockamania socks are finished.





The newest Knitting magazine arrived yesterday before I went to our knitting group meeting in Pontypool. There was a lovely cable jacket on the back which kept nagging at me the whole time I was there, so I popped into my LYS on the way home and bought some wool to make it. They didn't have enough of the shade of Sirdar Click Chunky I wanted, so I went for Sirdar Peru Naturals in the Machu Picchu colurway (# 0553).

It's the first time I've used this yarn but I really like how it's knitting up, it feels a lot softer than it does on the ball.

I'm using 6.5mm needles as recommended and it's knitting up nice and quickly, which is always a bonus. ;0)

At the knitting group yesterday, I didn't get much knitting done because I was teaching 2 new members, Alison and Ruth, how to make toe-up socks. .

However, I did manage a few rows on another dog sweater - this time in Bergere de France Sport in a khaki colour.











On the topic of dog coats, I'd like to say a very big thank you to Alison and her mam who knitted some dog coats to be donated to the Many Tears Rescue in Llanelli.

Alison made this one.













And her mam made the other three. The blue one is extremely soft and I just want to keep stroking it. ;0)

So thanks again for all your work in making these sweaters - the dogs will really appreciate being toasty warm when they're wearing them. :0)