I took this photo a few weeks ago but never got around to posting it… Originally, this plant was meant to be for the window sill but slowly it has grown and now it is taking over our flat roof. The flowers are now turning into wonderful little chills – they are still very small but some are turning red.

I have packed away enough yarn to knit two pairs of socks. I was going to knit on the plane, but have decided it is time I attempt to finish The Friday Night Knitting Club (I put it down about six months ago and it has sat on the side all this time).

Of course, I have checked Knitmap and put together a list of stores I want to visit – it is a good job I have stopped that yarn diet!

I also figure that my time away is the perfect time to blog about all my finished projects so I have queued up some posts in my absence.

Finally, so this isn’t a photo less entry… 

My Earth ATC from Vloula.

So after three months of stash-busting, I have finally brought some yarn! I read on Ravelry about Crafty Cottage stocking Peaches and Creme Cotton in the U.K. and I had to give it a try! Jo offers nearly all the shades of Peaches N Creme and a fantastic service, the yarn arrived the next day, there was a slight error with my order, but she quickly sorted out the problem and sent me an extra ball for compensation, now I can’t wait to get knitting.

Original my stash-busting plan was not to buy any yarn in February and March and to try and use up all my pink and orange yarns, as it turns out I ended up knitting a lot slower that I thought and as it ended up, I didn’t buy any yarn in April! I am currently working through my green and brown yarn as part of PS3-Earth.

Part of my plan was to also donate all the money I saved from buying yarn to charity, but I have decided to give the extra savings to Ravelry – even though Ravelraising is over, the amount of time I spent online it makes sense. Speaking of Ravelraising did you check out the list of prize-winners , I was completely shocked!

 
Finally yesterday morning, the first of my flower appeared on my Chilli Plant! 

Every spring, my mother-in-laws orders her bulbs and flowers plugs and spends a long weekend potting the plants. Last summer she brought a strawberry pot, and various herbs. I helped her carefully pick out what the best herbs for cooking would be, basil to make pesto, mint to add to potatoes or lamb, chives to add to salads and lavender to make little sachets with. The plan was that this summer, I could buy my own pot take cuttings and have my own little herb garden in my yard. What we didn’t count on was the slugs in Hertfordshire having such high culinary tastes and eating all the plants.

So this spring we have decided to tone it down a little, as a late Easter gift she brought me this Chili Pepper Kit, which even I should be able to grow on my windowsill. I planted it up this weekend and have been keeping it indoors for the moment because of the frost. Hopefully I will be making Sweet Chili Sauce by the end of the year.

I did suceed in using up most of my pink yarn – apart from the Knit Pick Shimmer (I still have no idea what I am going to use this yarn for), and I am now ready to start working with my earthy shades – yet again I have a list!

1. The Natural Dyed Studio – Alba, 2. KnitWitches Pure Silk, 3. Lorna Lace Solid Sock Yarn

I am planning on casting on another pair of Baudelaire socks in the green – ready for the Socktopus meet up on Thursday. a scarf in the silk and more socks in the brown – stashbusting with some leftover Lorna Lace.

On a final note from PS3 – Fire, I recieved this lovely little fire faerie from Wanda.

I have had very little free time recently, which translate to very little knitting and even less blogging. So in a last minute attempt to show I have been embracing all things pink, orange and yellow! Now I haven’t painted any walls yellow or rushed out to buy a bright pink coat, I have slowly been adding more colour into my life.

I figured the reason I never considered wearing yellow or orange was because I had never found the right shade for me… so before going to Rome I brought this mustard yellow top, I thought it was a safe bet, it works well with the staples in my wardrobe (dark blue jeans or brown cords).
Please ignore the lame photo it was taken as part of the “Fontana di Trevi Experiement” on Ravelry!

However, I am yet to find the perfect shade of orange and this colour is still missing from my palette. Pink has been the easiest colour for me to play with, it is very easy to throw on my pink converse shoes, and I have previously knitted several pink socks and of course I have had another pair of pink socks on the needles this month! I am hoping to finish these tomorrow, so I can start working with the earth tones for the next cycle of PS3.

First was this parcel from Karin, as part of the Mystery Swap, she picked Miss Marple as the theme but as I have all the books, she is calling it “The Miss Marple package without a Miss Marple book” package… Karin thought the darker blue yarn would be perfect for the Reading-In-Bed Shrug (pdf file) – which I think is very Miss Marple.
Also included was some sock yarn, rose napkins, a pattern book and frog candle (not pictured).

Next was an ATC as part of the PS3 – Elements, this firey creation was by Meg, she was lovely enough to also include a spring ATC for my collection – but for some reason I forgot to photograph it :S

As I am blogging about PS3 it make sense that I should show off my fire inspired knitting. My second pair of Pomatomus Socks this time in Knitwitches sock yarn.

I guess for me, my stash has become a little overwhelming, I have all this lovely sock yarn and no idea which one to use first, or I find it hard to select a pattern every though I have loads in my queue. Project Spectrum has made this a little easier, as I am using my firey shades at the moment. As I needed to collect all my pink and orange yarn I decided to take advantage of this time to re-organise my stash.

Normally my stash is in three boxes one for sock yarn, one for wool and one for others (mainly silks at the moment), Now it is colour order (depending on the colours for each theme). Also I am taking advantage of Ravelry, now when I see a pattern I like as well as adding it to my queue, I am going to assign a yarn it. For patterns I like that I don’t have the yarn for, I will send them to the end of my queue, ensuring the next project in my queue is a stash busting one. As for all the yarn in my stash I have no idea what to do with, I have been using the pattern suggestion tab on the yarn page, to look for inspiration.

After the issue of TWIR last week, I tried to calculate how much money I have spend on yarn per year. Looking through my blog entries from last year on yarn I brought for myself (not including yarns for gifts or swaps), I estimate I spent about £250 ($475), I don’t think that is too awful, the yarn kept me amused for a the year and I have some wonderful projects to show for this money. However, seeing it in black and white has made me realise I do spend a lot on this little old hobby of mine and potential I could save some money this year by stash busting!

What am I going to do with this money?
The answer is simple I am going to use it to build a house!

Last week, I also read about Christy‘s project to get knitters to donate money to help build a house in Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans (the area worst effected by Hurricane Katrina). I remember taking up Yarn Harlot’s TSF challenge a few years ago and realising how much money I “waste” in a week on things, and it is the same with yarn I could easily spend £30 a month in my LYS and the yarn will still in stash until next year, so I am going to do something positive with it.

The project is starting of with FIRE incorporating oranges, reds, and pinks. I am hoping adding elements to the project will really help me get a little more creative, I am apart from just experimenting with colours now we have a theme, knitting Flickering Flames Socks or Candle Flame Shawl.

I want to experiment more with colour for me, I live in a uniform of jeans and tee during the day and dresses in the evening. All are shades of blue, black or brown. Occasionally, I buy a red or pink t-shirt and only wear it once. I would never dream of wearing something orange or yellow (I barely even wear green). My home is exactly the same, shades of blue and brown, the only colour is on the beds with a pink or lilac duvet cover.

For Christmas, I got the Kate Spade Style book, I love the ways she talks about colour and it’s relation to the world around us, from, people to film, to clothes to everyday objects. She also then gives tips to add colour to our lives. I figure this is the perfect time for me start examining colour and also experimenting with it in my life.

As this is a knitting blog, I guess I should show off the firey yarn in my stash.

1. NDS – Dazzle, for a special project, 2. Cascade 220, for a Hot Bottle Cover,
3. KnitWitches Sock Yarn, 4. Knit Picks Shimmer – I have not idea what to do with these yarns.

This amazing postcard arrived on my doorstep this morning, the envelope was correctly addressed, the correct stamp for airmail and the postmark is from the 19th August, but it still took nearly two months to get here – I am sure it has an amazing tale to tell. It was my final postcard from the Project Spectrum Postcard Swap, created by Jody and Javajem for August, the Neutral month.

I have been extremely busy at work over the last few weeks (hence the lack of updates), the top secret project we were working on over the summer is still on-going and hopefully, I can post some very exciting news soon!

To make matter worse, I am still working on my grey dress, and it is going very slowly 228 stitches per row. Last night, I was watching a movie and after 2 hours of knitting it didn’t seem to grow at all.