Last weekend I wrote to you. Honest, I did!!!!
I saved it and neglected to press the publish button!
There are days I worry! ;-)
So, here are last week's thoughts -
Ailments are like buses-
My back continues to annoy me, then WHAPPOW!!! I get slammed with Ben's back to school cold!
Where's the justice in that?!?
I'm not playing this game anymore!!
On the life from I have nothing to report. The boys are settling into the school routine and all is well. At work, the flu vaccine season has started and I've been stabbing anyone who'll sit still long enough ;-)
Feeling the love-
Do you remember my cunning plans from last week? Finish Hapa and finish at least one of my opal socks?
I've achieved neither!
It's not that I haven't been knitting. I have. But not on those projects.
Mostly this week, I have been working on the In Dreams shawl. It's a thing of beauty. I'm approaching the halfway mark on chart 3 of 9. The beading is time consuming, and given that it happens on what on other shawls would be the rest row, it makes for slow progress.
Despite this though I LOVE it! In all fairness, I'd make faster progress if I didn't stop every couple of rows to admire my work!!
I have worked on Hapa mind you. I'm now on the final stripe before the split. On reflection, I think I should finish it before I work any more on In Dreams.
Then of course there's my sock club. Those poor Scalloped Tulip socks haven't even made it out of the bag this week! Bearing in mind Wednesday is the start of October, I should get motoring on them.
So this week's blog is short and sweet, sorry about that guys, but virus DNA is affecting my crafty mojo and all I want to do is take a couple of paracetamol and go back to bed!
On the horizon -
I'd really like to say that I'll put In Dreams down and work on Hapa and my socks.
I'm not sure I can though!
It's such a lovely project.
Who knows. Maybe when you come back next week I might surprise you all with an FO. Maybe even a HO!!
But don't hold your breath!
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Shamed into writing -
This last week saw me conquer that evil virus. Not without taking casualties mind you. I'm still plagued by a cough. But I'm better. So I'm not complaining.
Today during my lunch break I caught up with Mel over in North Carolina. I'm sure I've mentioned her new blog before, but just to remind you, Mel is no longer a single handed knitter and to reflect this she's focusing on her new blog WithMelDotCom. Mel mentioned my blog and I thought that I'd better write something quickly!!
Thank you Mel for making me get my finger out and write again!!
So onto the nitty gritty.
This past week has been busy. Flu vaccinations continue apace. This weekend we joined friends for a jolly to Blackpool. For those not in the know, every autumn Blackpool puts on an illumination show down the promenade. It's a must visit at least once in your life. Let's just say that you can see all life there! Blackpool is something of a Mecca for hen and stag weekends. My eyes were opened I can tell you!
Moving swiftly on!!
We went to the Sealife centre, we went up Blackpool tower, watched the sun set in the Tower's coffee shop and looked at the Illuminations from the tram.
While sipping my tea I chatted with a lovely old chap. He was also admiring the view, whiling away some time until he could enter the Ballroom. He had travelled all the way up from Cornwall to fulfil his dream of dancing in the Tower Ballroom. I hope he had a wonderful evening.
While we ambled down the beach I took the time to google local yarn shops. Funnily enough, I found one! My good friend Steph and I couldn't resist. So with the aid of google maps we found Johnson's Wool & Needlework. An Aladdin's cave of yarn, buttons, ribbons, fabric and all things you could wish for. It's run by the lovely Suzanne Johnson. Her passion for her craft is obvious. Not only that though, she has a passion for her town. She's heading up a team of shop owners who offer niche poducts and services. Not to miss out we also visited a shop selling diecast models (Matthew bought an airfix Landrover kit) and a rather fabulous comic shop (Ben bought a Walking Dead Comic).
Me? What did I buy? Well restraint is my middle name as you all know! I bought 3 rather lovely balls of cotton and a tatting pattern. Once I got back to our room on Saturday night I soon realised that my tatting knowledge is not nearly good enough to be able to read a pattern.
Note to self - invest in a learn yerself tatting book ;-) or bob down to Zena 's for a quick lesson.
It is compulsory to buy rock in Blackpool. The North is the home of rock in my opinion. Rock must only be pink, mint flavoured and contain the name of the place you're visiting. No other flavours or colours or seniments can be tolerated! There's a gent who uses my pharmacy. I'm sure he won't mind me telling you he's a grumpy old git with a heart of gold. He walks past my counter on his way to his doctor and shouts "Morning Ladies" regardless of the hour. He gives me dogs abuse and expects nothing less in return. Whenever I have time off he complains bitterly that I didn't buy him a stick of rock. Today I gave him a stick of rock and told him to get his laughing gear around it and quieten down..... I love the bones of him really ;-)
We left Blackpool early on Sunday morning because Ben had a karate competition. I must thank Hazel of Le Papillon Hotel for getting up at such a horrible hour to see us off with bacon butties.
This was the first competition I'd been to where the whole club was participating. Before it had only been the youngsters. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the brown and black belts spar. The fights were astounding to watch.
Before we get onto the knitting, here is a quick montage of the weekend. I hope you enjoy it
Feeling the love -
In the first half of the blog, written a little while ago now, I wanted to finish Hapa. I did finish it but I ran out of yarn. So the split at the bottom of the shawl isn't nearly as long as it should be, but I love it. It's kept me snug and warm this past weekend. Winter is getting a grip on Cumbria and wooly handmades are becoming essential once more.
Huge apologies to Stephanie of Space Cadet Creations for the rubbish "bush" background!! In my defense I took this photo before I read your blog! - a must read by the way.
I have a HO too. I finished the first of my yarn club socks.
If you recall I'm making my Scalloped Tulip socks. I knit the first one as per my original pattern. I do like it but I felt the urge to tweak it on the second sock. This time I'm adding a slipped stitch detail to the central stitch. I'll see how I like it in the finished sock and update the pattern. So far, though, I'm liking it and the slipped stitch isn't proving to be a chore to work.
I'm not sure you can really see the difference in this picture, but from where I'm sitting it looks good - honest.
The love has been liberally spread around over the past few weeks, so I thought I'd do a quick recap.
My sock yarn blanket is perilously close to being finished. A long time ago I made 3 huge magic knotted balls of sock yarn. I'm onto my last one, and when it's run out I'm calling this project finished. It's plenty big enough to snuggle under while I work on it. There's no photo as it's currently living in my office and it's my lunchtime project at the moment.
Once I cast Hapa off if felt the urge to work lace. So this week, I've added a few rows to both the Sun Ray shawl and the In Dreams shawl.
Sun Ray is now almost halfway done. I'm at 800 stitches per round, so progress is slow but still very satisfying.
As always lace looks like nothing on earth until it's blocked and sadly it's crushed onto a woefully short needle.
In dreams is also progressing nicely.
Because I was travelling I decided to cast on a vanilla sock. I cast on using Opal Sweet and spicy 2 in the Star Anise Colourway. I didn't make huge progress, but it did serve its purpose keeping my hands busy while leaving my brain to socialise.
Whenu has seen some action too over the last couple of weeks. She's had the second half of the Nunoco Jewel Bug Batts on her for months now.
I chain plied it to preserve the colours and got a heavy fingering weight yarn measuring 170 yards out of the 50g batt. It's still waiting to be washed and thwacked, I'm hoping it helps it chill out a bit because right now, it's got a full twist worth of energy when you hold up the skein.
The fact I've already agreed to give up the In Dreams shawl has been playing on my mind. I've been paying close attention to the Ravelry threads in my group and there are some stunning projects on the go. Some folk are spinning for their shawl! This got me to thinking. What if I could spin for this shawl too? To that end I've put some BFL/silk I dyed ages ago on the wheel. I'm checking my consistency regularly. I'm going to spin the 100g straight through and then ply it with another nunoco product. This time it's top. It's a stunning blend of merino,silk and firestar in the Cobweb colour way
On the horizon -
Well it seems that my WIP numbers continue to increase despite my best efforts!! Next week I'll probably focus on a couple of my projects in an effort to have progress to show you next weekend.
Oh, by the way! My social butterfly status continues as we have guests next weekend. I'll write to goy as soon as I can.
Have a great week.
Ellen x
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