princessdeia

 

1. Stitch Markers, 2. Blue Heron Rayon,
3. Malabrigo Lace, 4. Wildfoote Sock Yarn

Well I am back, and look at the goodies I brought home with me… Stitch Markers, a cute sheep and lobster (to remind me of our time in Cape Cod), Rayon and Malabrigo to make shawls and some sock yarn to make Jason another pair of socks.

1. Superwash Merino Sock - Semi-Solid, 2. Socks that Rock - Mediumweight, 3. Snarky Design Sock,
4. Margo, 5. MadelineTosh Sock, 6. Wexford Merino Silk,
7. 900 MHz Merino, 8. S.A.S.S.Y, 9. Velocity by sKnitches

When I returned home as well as getting some sad news, I was greeted by a parcel containing a Dream Stash and I have to say it really is a Dream Stash - my favourite yarn changes everytime I look at them… I now I have to find some patterns to do this yarn justice.

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! 

The last few times I have seen Laura she has been wearing one of her fabulous shawl creations (really they are more like shawlettes or mini-shawls), I don’t think I would ever wear a big shawl, I guess to a wedding or maybe as a sarong on the beach, but the mini shawls are really wearable. So of course, I had to knit one. I had always liked the Flower Basket Shawl, and I even had the yarn some Knit Picks Shimmer, I brought in the spring. So whilst watching daytime TV today, I have been knitting.

Lolly asked on her blog today about what shoes you wear with your hand-knitted socks with? I have a growing collection of converse boots (I even wore converse at our wedding reception) and I am trying to make matching socks for all my boots, this is newest yarn I have brought to go with my (RED) converse.

This is the second post this week, with my shoes mentioned - I am getting a complex.

Like most of the knitters in London, yesterday I headed up to Alexandra Palace for the Knitting & Stitching Show. Originally, I was meant to go on Thursday, but due to a heavy workload, I decided to go on Saturday, luckily Alice brought a ticket which she no longer needed, as she was now exhibiting, so I used her ticket. This helped me as well as I got to meet up with the girls - who had a list of stalls they wanted to visit.

1. Rooster Almerino Aran, 2. KnitWitches Pure Silk, 3. KnitWitches Pure Silk,
4. The Natural Dyed Studio - Alba, 5. KnitWitches Sock Yarn/4ply, 6. KnitWitches Sock Yarn/4ply

I managed to get some yarn for the swaps I am currently doing (not shown), and of course a lot of sock yarn - I also discovered a new store - KnitWitches, as well as selling some amazing, sock yarn they had some fabulous silk dyed in the most amazing colours. All I wanted to do after the show was go home a knit - but I decided to go to the pub and watch the rugby.

I had one of those amazing weekends where I got to spend time with friend (and meet some new friends) and see some family (most of whom I haven’t seen since my wedding).

A few weeks ago, Alice announced that she was planning a launch party for her online store, knowing that we were going to a wedding over the same weekend, I had to decline the invitation, but over the last few weeks the buzz on the Ravelry London Board has all been about the party.

So I managed to convince the hubby that as the wedding wasn’t until the afternoon we could travel down in the morning.

As well as getting to see the iKnit regulars Alice, Emms and Laura (and Ross), I also got to finally meet Sharon and Arianne. Then there was the lovely ladies from Ravelry - Anna, Gabrielle, Izzie, Mel, Mulene, and Sarah. (I am sure I have forgetten someone - sorry if I have).

Aside from the wonderful company and food, the real reason were all there was to sample Alice’s wonderful finds - over the last few days she has been tempting us on the Socktopus Blog with images of Shelridge Farm, Dream in Color Smooshy and Chameleon Colorworks, and of course we all had to buy, buy, buy.

Of course, what you really want to see is what I brought…

This weekend, I decided to start knitting some mini hats for the Innocent Smoothie Big Knit campaign. For the last two years, I have thought about knitting these little hats, first I was too busy with knitting Christmas presents and last year, I had too much on with the shop.

This year, I thought I should to something positive with my knitting, I found some odd balls of Cascade 220 I had lying around and soon I had three little hats…

To be honest the hardest part of making these was the little pompoms - I remember making them at school, using little circles of card and creating a yarn doughnut, but it got a little fiddly making tiny pom-poms, I ended up having lots of little un-fluffy pom-poms.

I was determined, so I did a quick google search and I found this little tutorial - which is quicker and easier.

I figured this project would be perfect for all those leftovers of sock yarn I had lying around - so I went hunting for them - I knew I had a bag some where with some Opal and Sirdar - but I could not find it eventually, it showed up and hidden in the bag was two - yes two un-used balls of Kid Silk Haze. to be honest, I am not even sure where the second ball came from.

I think it is karma - I spread the love via knitting and the knitting gods are rewarding me!

I have spent the last few days stuck at home looking like a hamster with toothache. I am on horrid tablets, and have been warned to stay away from alcohol for the next few weeks. (I will come out in a rash ). Luckily hiding out in my bedroom has given me the perfect opportunity to knit! I decided to cast on my Pure Silk Shrug - originally, I started out swatching and I was going to practice the lace pattern before jumping into the actual shrug.

However, when I realized the sides only started with 18 stitches (I am making the medium size), I jumped straight in, and night and mornings worth of knitting and I am on the second side. I thought I should do the back last when I was more confident about the lace and cables.

Stupidly, I could have used this time to finish off the socks I have on the needles and then I could post some FO (I think my lack of knitting this year is embarrassing).

Still to the yarn goddess is around to cheer me up and my Knit Picks order arrived look at all the goodies. Most of this is planned for future projects, Central Park Hoodie, Fetching, Coronet and maybe a River Stole.

1. Undamaged Box, 2. Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor, 3. Shimmer in Morning Mist, 4. Shimmer in Stained Glass, 5. Andean Silk in Navy, 6. Wool of the Andes in Arctic Pool Heather , 7. Palette in Brindle Heather, 8. Palette in Navy

Without a doubt the best thing about this weekend was the arrival of my One Skein Secret Pal Package, from the moment I saw the parcel with the Hawaii postmark I was smiling.

Inside, was a ball of Mohair Premier, I have never seen this yarn before, it seems to be a thicker version of KSH, and is amazingly soft. My pal informs me it is from Japan and pretty hard to get hold. As soon as I saw the colour, I thought of our bedroom walls, as it the shade I am hoping to paint our room later this year. So obviously, this yarn will have to become something for the room, I am thinking a cushion cover.

Also in the package was some Burt Bee’s Hand Salve, as a fan of their lip balm, I couldn’t wait to try this (The yarn also smells on this which adds to it’s yumminess). The yarn was also gift-wrapped with a lovely knitted flower, which I am going to add to my felted clutch (when I finally get around to making it).

In World Cup News, not only was this weekend a bad time for the England team, it was also a bad weekend for my knitting. I am still on the second sleeve and am pretty sure I will not met the deadline :(. But I am going to keep trying.

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.

All my orders from the weekend arrived this morning - I love post
So I have a nice stash enhancement – luckily all the wool is earmarked for projects.
My orders included:

• Good Fortune Cotton in Wine.
• Destiny Mohair in Petrol
• Hipknits Silk in Surf

The cotton is going to be turned into a twin set - I think the one from Vintage Knits. I brought the mohair for a scarf for me - I am planning on making scarves as Christmas presents - yes I am thinking that far ahead), I was going to use Rowan Kidsilk Haze, but thought I would try this out as an alternative. I adore the colour, the shade was petrol - but it’s a dark turquoise, and in a certain light a jade green.

I got so excited about the Hipknit Silk - I have seen so many other people in blogland use this wool and I was so eager to start knitting with it - I rolled into into balls by hand and what I read is true it does shred, It is really hard to see in this photo, but it is shades of sky blue, mint green and a pale turquoise I am pretty sure it will become an Arabella.

I have done about 12 inches of Marco - I wanted the jumper to look really chunky (even though it is in cotton), so I did the rib in 3 stitches of purl and knit.

I think I need a a session in front of the TV watching some cheesy show or a DVD, so I can just relax knit… oh it would be even more perfect, if I could convince Jason to bring home a bottle of wine.

I am in a little bit of a knitting slump at the moment – I have still got to finish Spring Fling, however, I am not in the mood to knit a big project – I preferred knitting my socks or a scarf. I cast on Branching Out with the green crochet thread I got in America, but I don’t think there will be enough – so I was going to get some Rowan Lurex Shimmer to make a stripe scarf – maybe in Feather and Fan pattern.

I signed up for the Yahoo Mystery Stole Along, as I love puzzles and the idea of only having a few rows of a pattern really appealed – I am a little behind on this Knit Along as it started a few weeks ago, but hopefully, I can catch up and then get solving the clues to work out the next part of the pattern.

So I finally managed to get to Hobbycraft on Sunday - and spent a fortune - they didn’t sell the DMC Perle 8, I needed for my MaryElla – they seemed to only sell Anchor threads, I got a few colours - but they only have a limited range – however, I did find a place online that sells the thread so I can order it.

They didn’t really sell a lot of wool in Hobbycraft – mainly Sirdar and some Paton’s – all DK cotton – but there were some lovely colours… I did buy

• 2 balls of Sirdar Duet in a gorgeous brown shade –for a scarf.
• 4 balls of Sirdar Snuggly 4ply – for the Mystery Stole Along.
• Some 10mm needles – not photographed as I am using them on a project.

Well the rest of my holiday involved baseball, eating and a whole lot of drinking. In Chicago I didn’t manage to get to Arcadia, and so didn’t manage to buy anything from my knitting shopping list, I did find Close Knits in Evanston (it was near one of the bars we drunk in), and get a Clover Chibi Jumbo Darning Needles set – in green not pink.

Also on the drive back to New York, we spend the night in a motel and in the morning I discovered we were across the road from a Jo-Ann, I wasn’t overly impressed with there selection - however, did get some great wool for summer scarves.