Friday 23 April 2010

Nobody Panic.

Take a deep breath.

And remember they can't travel via the world wide web.

Perhaps you should sit down.

I've got MOTHS!!!!!

It doesn't look like they've found my stash.  (But I'm freezing it all anyway.)(Well, in batches - my freezer isn't very big!)

I haven't found any clothes damage (yet) - but I'm washing and/or dry cleaning every single thing I own.

They have made good headway on the carpet -- hiding under a bunch of shoes I never wear.  Luckily I've always hated the carpet - so I'm going to rip it all out and have some wood floors put in.

So no time for knitting.  I've got wool to save!!!!!!!!

Sunday 18 April 2010

In Spring a Young (ish)(in her heart) Knitter's Thoughts Turn to...

Tea Cosies!

My lack of focus continues so I've decided to just go with the flow for the time being!  And the flow this week has me thinking about tea cosies.

Some of you will recall my last cosy knitting phase -- it led to these 4 beauties.



Recently someone from the Marie Curie Cancer Care fundraising group found my cosies and let me know about their latest fundraising event - 'Blooming Great Tea Party' and design a tea cosy competition!

Although I like the Tea Party idea (who doesn't love a tea party!)(scones - yumm) and have decided to hold a small but elegant party to raise a bit of money it's the tea cosy competition that has my attention this week.  I've been swatching up a storm and drinking gallons of tea for inspiration - but so far all I've got to show for it are lots of swatches and an empty tea canister.

Luckily I've got until the end of August to complete my masterpiece as that is when the competition ends.  (Entries will be displayed and raffled at the London Knitting and Stitching Show in October.)

In non-tea cosy news I've made a bit of progress on the socks and managed to not cast on any new ones! (Well, not that I recall.)  In a slightly more surprising move I am pretty sure that I'm going to put the Queen Susan aside for now and cast on the Wedding Ring Shawl. I have no rational explanation for this but ever since the Wedding Ring Shawl pattern arrived it's been calling to me.  And I'm a sucker for a knitting pattern that calls to me.



For my non-lace obsessed readers a Wedding Ring Shawl is a traditional shawl knit with very fine yarn which should be fine enough to be pulled through a wedding ring.  This particular pattern will be approximately 5 ft - 6 ft square when it's done.

Of course given my current attention span you may pop by next week to discover I've taken up matchstick models.

Friday 9 April 2010

Where's my Stick-to-it-ness Gone?

Jessica gently pointed out that although the pictures of niece Dylann's socks were nice the first time....they start to smell just a little after the 5th trip!!  (She was far kinder - but I know what she meant.)

And in the course of deciding what to blog about -- I discovered that my stick-to-it-ness has up and gone.  I have lost the ability to focus.  Let me take you through the evidence.

First, the Queen Susan - is exactly where it was the last time I blogged about it.  I was going to pick it up but somewhere in my brain I seem to be hatching a plan to start the Wedding Ring Shawl (the pattern arrived in the post a few weeks ago).  Clearly this is a silly thing to do right now so I just parked the idea...and the Queen Susan.

Knitting socks for Dyl reminded me of two things - first - that I like making socks - and second - that there is someone who really deserves some socks and has been waiting (probably without any hope) for a long time for them.  With this in mind I picked up some Duet Sock Yarn and started knitting.  (And yes - in my experience it does always make these lovely little stripes.)

I have pretty much completed this pair -- but here you can see the first signs of un-stick-to-it-ness -  the ends aren't woven in.

Then I started these Embossed Leaves socks (from Favourite Socks)...


...and for some reason that I can't quite remember I became obsessed with buying a set of the shorter Knit Pro (Knit Picks) sock needles.  This forced me out to IKnit where I bought the sock needle set and some more sock yarn - .  (Because really, what I need is more sock yarn.)(Sigh.)

The Knit Pro needles are shorter than I was expecting when the obsession began -- in my head they were 5 inches -- but in real life they are four inches (feel free to make your own joke here about size).  I haven't decided yet whether I like them or not.

On my way home from IKnit I started another pair of socks with the new yarn.  I actually made it to the second sock, right down to the toe before I abandoned them ...

....because gorgeous goddaughter Genevieve pointed out that I had made no progress on the Summer Night Top for Caroline.  So I picked that up, finished the front and cast on for the back and worked diligently on that for about 10 rows before I....

.... I cast on these socks (Colinette sock yarn). 


Most worrying of all - I've come across this sock in progress -- and I have no recollection of when I cast it on.  Is it possible to have sock knitting blackouts?

My goal now is to find my sock sitck-to-it-ness and finish these babies so I can get on to some serious lace knitting....