AT LAST!

At last!! Royal Mail may be VERY slow - but they deliver eventually! ;0)

Back in September, I joined a dishcloth swap on the Knitting Haven forum. Unfortunately, Royal Mail *lost* the first parcel my pal sent me but she was extremely kind and sent me another parcel (see here).

Well, I came home from work yesterday to find a packet in my post box - yup, you've guessed - Audrey's first parcel has turned up.

And these were the lovely goodies waiting for me inside -

the first is a very pretty blue dishcloth with hearts on

and next is a hand towel, similar to the ones Audrey's aunt used to crochet.

I'm delighted to receive both - thank you so much Audrey. :0) And sorry to put you to the bother of having to send another parcel when RUBBISH Royal Mail couldn't deliver the first on time! *rolls eyes*




In other news, I finished my Sockamania November socks. They took about a week to make. The pattern is really easy to memorise and knits up quickly. I used Fleece Artist Sea Wool sock yarn in the Marine colourway. I knit the first sock using 2 x 2.75 mm Inox Grey circs but by the time I started the second sock, I had bought some Knit Picks classic circs in the same size. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!! I've always hated the Inox Greys but they were the only circs I could get in the size I needed. I have to say that the Knit Picks are a pleasure to knit with - much quicker than the Inox Greys, which seemed to hold onto the wool more, somehow. Plus the join was atrocious!

I'm now waiting for more Knit Picks circs to arrive from Get Knitted so I can make a pair of these - I can knit fair isle but I tend to avoid it because I don't really enjoy it, but for these gloves I will make an exception. I love them! And I've got the perfect colours of RYC Cashsoft DK in my stash to make them with. Perfect!

RIP Robbie the Rat

Robbie (the brown rat, in the front on the picture) died on Saturday, 27th October, while we were away on holiday in West Wales. He was about 2 years and 4 months old. It's such a shame that rats don't live for very long - most live to 2 and half or 3 years old - because they are such intelligent and friendly animals. Robbie was really affectionate and loved cuddling up under my hair.

I'd taken him to the vet the day before we left because he hadn't been well - he had breathing problems which the vet thought was maybe a tumour on his lungs secondary to a tumour he had removed in April. He was on antibiotics and Vitamin B and seemed to perk up a bit. He was fine during the car journey and on Friday when we arrived at the cottage but he went downhill quickly on Saturday afternoon. His breathing was laboured and he was very listless.

We were debating whether to ring a local vets in Aberaeron (to have him PTS - never an easy decision) when I went to have another check on him. He passed away peacefully just as I was smoothing him. DS (5) was devastated as it's the first time he's encountered anything dying. Toffee (the rat with the pink eyes) was depressed for the rest of holiday and was looking everywhere for Robbie.
Rats are social animals and are best kept in pairs (or more) of the same sex. Toffee (in the photo to the left, aged about 2) was definitely suffering on his own so we decided to get another rat to keep him company when we got home on the Monday, after burying Robbie in the back garden.

We went to the local pet shop, who had a single 10 week old male rat available for adoption from a litter which had been brought in 2 weeks before. He had been on his own in a cage for about a week and was very skittish. However, he took to Toffee straight away and they've bonded really well. Toffee has perked up no end.

So this is Nibble (named by DS), the newest addition to the family, who is now about 11 weeks old. He's getting easier to handle by the day and is definitely less skittish than when he first arrived.



And yes, I really do have a pair of pyjama bottoms with pink cup cakes on!!





On the knitting front, I managed to make this pair of socks for DS while we were away. The yarn is Opal Prototype which I bought from Ebay a while ago, knit on 2 x 2.5mm Addi Turbo circs. DS (age 5) is a size 10-11 shoe so these were nice and quick to knit up and only took about 36g of yarn, so there's plenty of yarn left over to knit another pair for me. ;0)







Then last Friday, I started these - the Sockamania (see link in RH side panel) November pattern - Ripples. As soon as I had the pattern via e-mail on Friday evening, I cast on. I had the perfect yarn in my stash - Fleece Artist Sea Wool sock yarn in the Marine colourway which I had for my birthday in July.

The pattern is very easy and quick to knit and looks really effective. I'm hoping to finish sock #1 tomorrow. I altered the pattern slightly to knit these toe up - I've been addicted to toe up ever since I knitted Anni's Falling in Love pattern back in February. I haven't made a top-down sock since!

A BIG thank you to Audrey

I want to say a BIG thank you to Audrey for sending me a second dishcloth in the Knitting Haven dishcloth swap when rubbish Royal Mail failed to deliver the first one she posted.

I received this gorgeous circular dishcloth in the post today along with a box of Fine Inuit Herbal Tea with Labrador, Crowberry, Ground Juniper, Arctic Blend and Cloudberry flavours. I LOVE herbal tea and can't wait to try them. :0)

So, THANK YOU Audrey, you're a star! :0)

FOs - old and new

I'll start with the old. Well, there's only one. ;0)

This is the Slinky Shawl by Jean Moss. I made this about a year ago, maybe longer, but it's stood up to a lot of use really well. It's quite big and is lovely to wrap around yourself on a cold winter evening. Yarn used was Artesano Alpaca Inca Mist but I can't remember what size needles, sorry.






Now onto the new - I *finally* finished my Stansfield 27 socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I knit the first one in May but second sock syndrome set in and I couldn't face the second one. I eventually managed to finish it this month and I'm so glad I did - these are very snuggly warm socks, just right for lounging around the house today (it's freezing here!). Yarn used was Posh Yarn Emily in Carnation (shocking pink, IRL).





This sock is the first of my Falling Leaves pair knit using the Opal Autumn Song yarn I received from Jeannet recently (see previous post for details).

Although this is quite a busy yarn, I think the pattern shows up well. I'm using 2 x 2.5mm Addi Turbo circs. I managed to get quite a long sock out of 50g and still had a fair bit left over. Second sock syndrome will NOT set in on these socks - I'll be casting on #2 tomorrow and I can't wait to wear them. :0)



Finally, I made a start on The Bag Ladies knitting group Christmas project - we're putting together memory boxes for parents of stillborn babies and will be distributing them to local hospital baby units. We will knit 2 burial gowns - one for the baby and one for the parents to keep - along with a blanket, a teddy and will include a few other bits and pieces too.

This one took just a few hours last weekend to knit. Yarn used is Sirdar Snuggly 4 ply and 3.75 mm needles (Denise Interchangeables).

It measures approximately 10 in across the chest and is about 12 in long. I just need to thread a bit of ribbon through the eyelets to finish it.

This is so tiny - the ball of Opal sock yarn is there for size comparison.

An FO and another present!

First of all, I want to say a big THANKS! to Debz who made these beautiful stitchmarkers for our Bag Ladies Knitting Group.
Unfortunately, our group meet was a bit crap for Debz yesterday because some thieving scumbag nicked her handbag from the pub we were in, took her credit cards and pinched money from her account.

Anyway - long story short and all that! ;0) - thanks to Pontypool Police for being on the ball and the duty manager in Wetherspoons for searching through the CCTV for anyone who might have gone into the ladies toilet with Debz' handbag - the thieving scumbag is now in custody, Debz has her money back and apart from the inconvenience of cancelling the cards and waiting for new ones, hopefully she's feeling much better now. So a big thanks again to Debz for these lovely stitchmarkers - everyone go over to her blog NOW and DEMAND she make you some of your own. She *really* ought to be selling these on Etsy, y'know. ;0) They're gorgeous.


This is my 'Ula' cardigan made with Colinette Iona, their luscious new aran weight yarn. It's not the best of photos (my excuse, anyway!) because my camera was refusing to play nicely and kept sucking the life out of every single battery I put into it! This was the best photo DH was able to take quickly before they ran out again. ;0) I deliberately asked him to cut my head off - "manky" just doesn't adequately describe how I look today! *LOL* Anyway, the fronts really do sit much better than this photo suggests.

I must be mad, but I stayed up until 1am yesterday morning sewing this up and then had a mad steam-blocking session at 9am yesterday JUST so I could wear this to our knitting group. ;0)

I used the recommended 4mm and 4.5mm needles and the only change I made was to add an extra 10 rows (roughly 2 ins) before the armhole shaping. It's now about 23 ins long, so only slightly longer than the pattern suggested.

If I had stuck to the length in the pattern, I would have been able to make this with only 6 balls (one less than the pattern called for). As it was, the extra 10 rows took a tiny bit of my 7th ball. However, as I always buy an extra ball (just in case) and had 8 balls to start with, I now have enough to make a scarf to go with. I'm on the look-out for a nice cable pattern, I think. Ravelry, here I come! ;0)

Well and truly spoiled - times two

This week, I have been well and truly spoiled by two great swap partners. :0)

First of all, last Wednesday I received my bag from Fairynuff (aka Sue) in the Angel Yarns September Swap.

It's a felted bag in a lovely deep red colour which is a fab shape

and just look at this cute button - made by Jominx. How sweet is that?!









Also included in the parcel were 2 bars of Green and Black's chocolate (de-lish!), two skeins of Natural Dye Studio alpaca/merino yarn in Tangerine Ocean (I love alpaca) and the most beautiful silver stitch markers.

Which I think are almost too nice to use as stitch markers - I'm quite tempted to turn them into a charm bracelet. :0)










And then yesterday (Friday), I received a very large box which was postmarked "The Netherlands". My clue, on a postcard of Spaubeek, was 'feline knitting style' and my swap partner was Continental Cat (aka Jeannet).

These are the beautifully wrapped presents I found inside.


And after frantically ripping off the wrapping ;0) this is what I found -







A skein of Opal 'Autumn Song' sock yarn, which is the most beautiful colour and so 'me'. I cast on a pair of 'Falling Leaves' socks earlier and I think the yarn really suits the pattern. I like it when that happens. ;0)

I also had 2 skeins of Opal Rainforest 3 - Butterfly - which are both gorgeous colourways and again very 'me'.





Next was a pattern book - Denim by Lang Yarns. There are *heaps* of designs in this book - sweaters, cardigans, hats and scarves - and I can see myself making quite a few of them in the future.

On the edible front - ;0) - I had (from the left) -

a bar of real 'hot' chocolate (I discovered why it was hot when I took a bite - it's *very* spicy! But very nice. ;0)

a pack of spicy cinnamon biscuits (I love cinnamon) which are a local speciality, only available between end of September and beginning of December, to welcome the arrival of St. Nicolas, a glass jar (which itself is very cute!) of Hill Country Marmalade, which tastes of summer fruits, a pack of fruit tea (made with apples, cinnamon and almonds) and two blocks of chocolates on wooden spoons - a brilliant idea - you dip them in a warm drink and suck the chocolate off. Lush!

So thank you to Sue and Jeannet for my wonderful presents. :0)

The presents have been a welcome distraction this weekend because I'm full up with yet another cold. :0( It was only the week before last that I had another one - and I was off work for 4 days with it. If I feel like this on Monday, I'll have to drag myself into work - and hopefully pass out cold on the floor so they send me home ;0) - because if I call in sick again with a heavy cold, they're bound to think I'm pulling a fast one! Annoyingly today my ears have been blocked so I feel like I'm hearing everything through cotton wool.

Anyway, enough of me and my ailments - ;0) - I'm off to knit some more falling leaves ...............

WARNING - yarn pr0n!!

At the Colinette course yesterday - Knitting in All Directions - I was feeling quite restrained.
I bought just 7 skeins of Wigwam in 'Morello Mash', a gorgeous deep cherry colour, just enough to knit a textured v-neck sweater.


I then wandered around the shop for a while, having a squish of this yarn and that yarn, feeling quite smug that I could resist the loveliness all around me and that I hadn't gone mad and bought all the lovely skeins of yarn I could see hanging everywhere.









And then I happened to see this - Iona

As the Borg would say "resistance is futile"!!! ;0)



I *had* to have it. It's probably one of the most expensive yarns in the shop and I really don't need another WIP at the moment but I had to have it. It's such a beautiful colour that words fail me when I try to explain just how beautiful it is. It's so gorgeous I'd happily have its babies and cook and clean for it for the rest of my life! Seriously, it's *that* gorgeous!



I quickly gathered up all the skeins on the shelf - well, I didn't want anyone else getting their mitts on it, did I?! ;0)


When the fog of pretty-yarn-frenzy had lifted slightly, I realised it might be a good idea to have a flick through the pattern book that accompanies this yarn to see what I could actually knit with it. There are at least 4 things in the book I want to knit - my family will be pleased that buying Christmas presents for me this year will be a doddle! ;0)


I spent most of last night looking longingly at my lovely blue Iona (and trying not to get any drool on it) and then wound it into cakes this morning ready to get knitting with it tomorrow. I can't wait. :0) I still don't know which design I'm going to knit but that doesn't matter because they're all so pretty. ;0)

A strange thing happened to me on the way home yesterday and I'm now convinced that fate somehow intervened and I was *meant* to buy this yarn.

Let me explain - the colourway of this yarn is 'Salty Dog' - I know, not the prettiest of names! Anyway, as I was driving home after the course yesterday, I happened to be flicking through the radio channels. These days I very rarely listen to the radio in the car as I always have my i-Pod plugged in. However, I'd forgotten to charge my i-Pod so was stuck with the radio. ;0) As I surfed the different channels trying to find something half-decent to listen to, I heard a woman singing a bluesy sort of song, maybe from the 1940s (ish). But the spookiest thing was that this song was called - "I'm a Salty Dog".

What are the chances of that?! Spooky indeed! I'm now convinced that I was *meant* to buy this yarn. ;0)

Oh, I'd better tell you about the course I went on! ;0) It was called Knitting in All Directions and was excellent. I met up with Joy and it was lovely to have such good company all day. :0)


Colinette herself was teaching the course and started us off knitting mitred squares. We knit 2 of these and then moved on to mitred rectangles -

In this photo (in the darker yarn) I have 2 mitred squares on the bottom and a rectangle on top. To the left (in the lighter yarn) we then picked up stitches along the edge and knitted a garter stitch piece. I was amazed at how this worked. Until I tried it, I just couldn't see how it would turn out.

We then moved on to equilateral triangles -
here are 4 small triangles. Next, you could pick up enough stitches to make a larger triangle along one edge and just keep going until you get the effect you want.


Finally, she showed us how to make shells. These would make a really pretty border - unfortunately, the yarn I chose doesn't really show up the pattern but you get the general idea. ;0)

I had such a good day and would definitely recommend Colinette's courses.


I've come away with loads of ideas of how to use up all my spare yarn by knitting cushion covers and throws - in all directions!