princessdeia

I received this amazing parcel from Laura this morning.

Inside the yellow jiffy bag along with a postcard was a yellow CD, including songs from the Smashing Pumpkins and Pixies (both of whom I adore) - she even included a song with yellow in the title

Also in the parcel was an Orange chocolate bar - wish I have to say went down rather nicely with my coffee :D. 

I always underestimate the generousity of strangers in exchange programs - I am always amazed and impressed - Thank you

In Knitting news, my circular shrug is coming along amazingly, the five inches of rib at the beginning where time consuming even on 6mm needles as it has over 200 stitches, but the mock rib is easy and coming along great, I have about 2 more inches to go - then back to the normal rib.

One of the problems with not blogging regularly is I didn’t get a chance to flash the latest additions to my stash. Most of this was purchased in the January sales.

• Debbie Bliss Maya (half price in the John Lewis sale), which I am using for my circular shrug.
• Some cheap pink acrylic sock yarn, I think I will make some Jaywalkers with this.
• Paton’s Essences in the bright pink, probably with become the Anthropologie Capelet from Craftster.

Having spent the majority of the last week waiting for news from the hospital, I have managed to knit away; the twin set is almost complete. After about 3 months I have finally blocked the sweater, I was concerned that the cardigan would look too plain also in stocking stitch so I added a little pattern – based on the diamond stitch pattern from diamond sweater also in Vintage Knits.

The body and sleeve of the cardigan are done and being blocked. All I just need to do is knit the button band however, I think this is going to be like Lucky and take me the most time to complete. I would like to have this completed by this week before Project Spectrum begins.

As a distraction, I started this circular shrug, this is my unofficial Knitting Olympics project (I didn’t think I would finish it in time), this pattern knits up really quickly, two nights worth of knitting and I have completed 7 inches - I guess I could have finished it in the 16 days. Especially, as I can’t wait to wear this project.

Going away at the beginning of the year means I have been completely out of the loop in so many things in blogland. I knew it would be almost impossible to participate in Secret Pal this session as I will be away in March as well – and that was cool.

But now I have found out I miss the deadline for Sockapalooza – which I think is a good thing, as I am not that confident about my sock knitting capabilities, and I am not sure anyone would want sock I made. The obvious way to resolve this would be to sign up to something like Count Your Socks, but I think I might be too late – we shall see.

And then there is the wonderful concept of the Knitting Olympics – what an amazing idea – the only problem is I am having so many problems completing projects at the moment and I really should finish my mum’s twin set – but the thought of finishing a small project in 16 days really appeals. It will encourage me to have a FO in my gallery for 2006 – I even have a project planned the Crafter’s Circular Shrug – but I think I have to thing about this – maybe train a little first.

Then finally in Blogland found a no-pressure project. Lolly’s Project Spectrum, it is simple create something from a set colour each month – be it a sweater, scrapbooking page or bracelet - Lolly has explained it best on her blog – but is sounds perfect for me – now I can start scrap-booking rather then just buying supplies from eBay.