tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56389388673262434342024-03-13T00:42:59.725+00:00Knits to stay saneAdventures in knitting, spinning and life in generalAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-80836049362590328182016-05-15T16:53:00.002+01:002016-05-15T16:53:59.063+01:00I will be charging for autographsGood Afternoon All!!!<br />
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How are you all keeping? I am well.<br />
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The sun is shining as it has pretty much all week. It's been gloriously warm in sunny Cumbria this week. Needless to say it turned chilly on Friday, just in time for the weekend, but at least the sun is still in a mostly blue sky.<br />
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There is nothing in this whole world that beats getting two loads of washing dry on the line by lunchtime now is there?!<br />
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It's been a rather fabulous week here. Well, work has been utterly uneventful (which is fabulous, trust me!). The Monday after I wrote last we all trolled a few juctions down the motorway to visit 1818 Antiques. They had a general sale and a music sale on. Matthew decided we should go and have a look.<br />
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We had browsed the catalogue before we set off and had an idea of some items we'd like to have a go bidding on.<br />
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This was our first auction (not the last!!) so our adrenaline and excitement levels were high..... well, mine and Matthew's levels were high. Ben was utterly nonplus . I must say at this point though, that Ben was so very patient. He wasn't overly keen about going, he was ripped from his bed at 7am so that we could set off by 9. There was an item he liked, but other than that he'd have much rather stayed at home and played on his X-box. <br />
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I registered for a bidding card and we had a first hand look at the items we'd decided to have a go at winning.<br />
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Here's were it gets good........ this auction was going to be filmed!!!! Antiques Road Trip was calling in and auctioning off the items the contestants had bought during that leg of the trip. Matthew and I had spent some time looking at the catalogue trying to work out which items might have been bought by the celebs. Matthew had a good idea, and liked the look of one of the items. <br />
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In the end, we'd decided that we were going to bid on a microscope (for Ben) , a canteen (for Ben to store his precious things in), a pewter plate (Matthew thought this was a Road Trip item), a mixed lot of jewellery (there was a couple of rather nice stones in amongst some tat),some rather tatty looking bits of watch (because Matthew liked the look of one of the watches), and a hi-fi system.<br />
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We sat down ready for the auction to begin. In front of us and slightly to the left was some reserved seating which was obviously for the turns. I worked out that we'd be out of shot and that was fine by me. I got comfy and got out my knitting. Well, what self respecting knitter would head out for a day sat down and not bring a knitting project!?<br />
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So the auction began. It was really rather good! Even though Matthew did most of the bidding for us, I enjoyed the thrill of the chase. About halfway through the celebs appeared and we knew their items must be coming up. I liked the look of a little lead token. It had a cute donkey on the front of it. It had an estimate of £30-50. The bidding started and at the last minute I decided to have a go. The bidding got to £40 and I stopped, I really didn't want to pay more than that for it. I carried on knitting. A couple of minutes after the item finished, a young lady with a clip-board approached me and said that the token had been one of the items on the show, and they'd filmed me bidding! I had to sign a form saying it was ok for them to include the footage. <br />
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Matthew set about bidding for the plate and won it! He signed his form and lo! We're both going to be on telly!!!!!! If you form an orderly queue I'll sign autographs ;-)<br />
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The program will air in September this year, so you all need to keep your eyes peeled for the mad knitting lady in the centre of the room!!<br />
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While the auction was on, Matthew decided he'd like to get the autographs of the 2 contestants but we didn't have a pen. He wouldn't go find one, so that was the end of that. <br />
Ben was starting to get fidgety, and we'd bid on most of the items we wanted, so I took him for a wander outside. <br />
Out in the carpark I saw the 2 gents in question having a cup of coffee. Now at this point I should point out that I am not in the habit of harassing strangers. My idea of celeb spotting is to spot them, say "OOH, there's such and such!" and let everyone else go get selfies and autographs. Well, this time I don't know what came over me! I grabbed Ben, and went and said hello. I was apologetic (ish) about interrupting their coffee break, and asked for a photo. They were most obliging and lovely fellows<br />
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Here I am with Charles Hanson on the left and James Braxton on the right. All round good eggs!</div>
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You are unlikely, however, to see my son. He was there for the whole day, but this is the view we had of him</div>
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Just a hood!</div>
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Ah well, at least we got him there and he was so good about spending the WHOLE day there! </div>
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So onto the crafting</div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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My walking *2 socks felt most of the love that Monday. As I said last time, I've got 3 pairs of socks on the go right now, but I wanted to take a pair of socks with me that I didn't have to look at so I could take in all the sights and sounds of the auction. These socks were just at the right point for the trip. I turned the heel on the journey down, and knit the whole leg while we were there! I was so chuffed.</div>
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I have since cast on the second toe and I'm slowly working up the foot.</div>
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I must confess to having a serious case of second sock syndrome! All three of my sock projects are on to the second sock and I want to work on none of them!</div>
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I place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of Zena aka <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDI-Z4BdH4CkTF4mHf1bNQ">Little Yellow Uke</a>. In her last episode she talked about wanting short ankle socks for summer. I promptly decided that I must have ankle socks too!! I went stash diving and came up with 2 gorgeous skeins. I must confess now, that I can't remember where I got them from. I think it was a dyer who'd posted on facebook about a sweetie themed box. I just can't for the life of me remember who it was so I can't link them here. If anyone recognises the skeins, please let me know and I'll put a link here for others to find her yarn because it is truly gorgeous!</div>
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Don't they just scream summer!?</div>
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I made myself promise that I had to clear some WIP's before I can cast on my shortie socks.</div>
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I do have an FO for you this week.</div>
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I told you last time about <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/artesian">Nebulae</a>. I'm so happy that I now have a lovely shawl. I must confess to having doubts that ripping the whole Wingspan shawl out was the best idea, but now Nebulae tells me I made the right decision. The prompt for the KAL was reach for the stars so to add extra sparkle to my Nebula I added beads. I had some 8/0 beads in stash and to be honest they're a bit too small for fingering weight yarn. Some of the beads had too narrow a hole to go over the stitches. I beaded the first K2tog on each row and I think it just gives a subtle twinkle to the finished object. </div>
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My poor WIP bag has seen no action at all. I just have no desire to work on the projects in it. BUT! I did pull one project out and frog it. I had set about knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/may-morning-shawl">May Morning</a> by Lost City Knits back in May last year while I was on holiday. It's a lovely triangle shawl with a repeating leaf pattern all over. I chose it last year to make good holiday knitting - a simple repeating pattern and beads to add some interest. I worked on it on the flight home and kept on knitting until it was about 10 inches deep. Then I put it away to work on something else. Since then it just hasn't floated my boat. I've picked it up and put it back down untouched more often than is funny!</div>
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Then I got smacked in the face by another stunning Romi Hill pattern! She runs a Pins and Lace club each year. Now this is well out of my league as the yarn, shawl pins and patterns are expensive to import into the UK, but the ebook with the patterns only is more than a good buy. I came across Romi after the first Winter pattern was published, but she release the new Spring pattern last week. It's called <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/romis-pins--lace-club---spring-2016">Emerald Deep</a> and it's nothing short of breathtaking. I called my project Citrine Deep because my yarn is lovely shades of yellow and green that remind me of citrine stones. The beads match perfectly and I'm too excited for words about knitting it. </div>
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Of course sparkly gold washi tape is a must-have for this project!</div>
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As soon as the pattern was released I just had to work on it. </div>
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The pattern doesn't call for beads, but I decided to bead all of the 3 stitch decreases. I finished the first chart and I'm smitten. I desperately wanted to carry on, but I made myself put it down to finish Nebulae. </div>
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Now, however, Nebulae is finished and as soon as I press the publish button here, I'm going to set about knitting the second chart.</div>
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I think I'll have to ration myself. I must finish one of my languishing second socks before I move onto chart 3. Another sock before chart 4,etc etc.</div>
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I'm in no real rush to finish this, so I really must make sure I get the less sparkly projects finished too,</div>
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As I mentioned last time, I am knitting 2 pairs of the same sock pattern. It's my latest pattern and I released it yesterday. It's called <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/a-path-less-travelled-2">A Path Less Travelled</a> and I'm really happy with how it turned out.</div>
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I'm offering a coupon code for the rest of May - type 'path2016' at the checkout and the pattern will be yours free, gratis and for nothing. After that it's £1.80. I do hope you like it as much as I do. Please spread the word about the socks and the coupon!</div>
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On the horizon- </div>
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I will finish some socks (maybe)</div>
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I will work on my poor Trillian which has felt no love all week (definitely)</div>
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I will work on the stunning fabulousness that is my Citrine deep (hell yes!!)</div>
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Well, I need to get a wiggle on. It's just dawned on me that I need to go do the recycling before I can settle down to some serious lace knitting!</div>
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I hope you all have a fabulous fortnight</div>
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Speak anon!!</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-72706701301990145052016-05-01T11:34:00.002+01:002016-05-01T11:34:51.133+01:00Invisible mendingBefore I get into the nub of this week's musings, can I just ask about the weather? I mean, what the what now?!<br />
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Last week Cumbria had glorious weather, I think we were one of the warmest places in the UK. This week couldn't be more different. We've had snow on and off all week.<br />
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I'm sitting this morning under 2 blankets with my fire blazing. It's freezing. <br />
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It's May for crying out loud.<br />
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To be fair, I'm sure I can remember this May bank holiday weekend being chilly in the past. <br />
The swallows who arrived a week or so ago must be thinking seriously about going back to Africa!<br />
The daffodils are suffering<br />
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Weather rant over - on to the crafty stuff.<br />
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The other day I was taking my shoes off and noticed a huge hole in the toe of my sock! It was on the side near my toe decreases. I have no idea how I managed to achieve this because it's not like it would wear through there. I'm not aware that I have razor sharp toe nails either (eugh!!!)<br />
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I think it must have got caught on something. These socks are only a couple of years old, they're made from Rico Superba 6 ply, super snuggly and no way near ready to be consigned to the bin. There's no wear anywhere on the sock at all so I decided I needed to rescue them. I had a ratch through my stash because I was sure I hadn't used the scraps from these socks anywhere else. I found the part ball and set about to re-knit the toe. <br />
I originally knit these 2 years ago and I thought at that time I was knitting my socks top down. I thought it would be a doddle to rip out the toe and knit another..... erm......... not so much!<br />
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According to my Ravelry project page I knit these on 2.75mm needles. So I used a 2mm needle to pick up the right leg of each stitch the row below what I thought was the first toe decrease.<br />
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This was a doddle. The 2mm needle was so easy to slip into each stitch. Once I had each stitch caught on the cable of the needle, I carefully turned the sock inside out so I could unpick the toe. Here's where the delight started. I expected to struggle a little bit because these socks have been on and off my feet for 2 years. I expected to find a bit of felting. This toe stubbornly refused to unzip. <br />
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Turns out I knit them toe up! What an eejit!!! I mean, now, when I look at the other sock it's obvious that the toe is increased not decreased. Well, it took some doing, but I unpicked that pesky toe.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROU7pCT6mQ3zYDChWmtqEtNz2LxSCzs5-XjKpCaqBlYKLyTBQMvtAugAOg0UHbWZG8jgbgY8c7B1NhXuEk9vExBa4ERy8HGACyg0e1wHrPdtueBrtGmkGtw1EZDhjiUl2DaVvxXQzVBzg/s1600/IMG_0703.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROU7pCT6mQ3zYDChWmtqEtNz2LxSCzs5-XjKpCaqBlYKLyTBQMvtAugAOg0UHbWZG8jgbgY8c7B1NhXuEk9vExBa4ERy8HGACyg0e1wHrPdtueBrtGmkGtw1EZDhjiUl2DaVvxXQzVBzg/s320/IMG_0703.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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I reknit the toe with no problems and kitchenered up the live stitches. All in all it probably took a little over an hour, but now I have a shiny new toe! And you can't tell there was ever a problem</div>
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As every my photography is awesome isn't it?! The gorgeous tea towel on the arm of the sofa, the minions tin of stitch markers, the sleeping dog! David Bailey I ain't!!</div>
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Any hoo, that's just last night's knitting shenanigans. </div>
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It's been a fortnight since I last wrote to you and I have been a busy little bee. </div>
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To be fair, I've been a busy been on one particular project for the past 6 weeks, but I haven't been able to post anything on social media. But now the cat is out of the bag and I can share.</div>
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Last time I showed you my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/shard">Shard</a> by Romi Hill. I might have fallen down a bit of a Romi rabbit hole. She launched her 2016 mKAL back at the end of March and I just had to sign up. Her patterns are so pretty and the Ravelry group are a lovely bunch of people. One of the stipulations of the KAL was total media silence until the end of April. The shawl was released in 5 parts. The first 3 were easy to knit, I loved knitting them. Romi stretches your knitting experiences. The fourth clue nearly had me in tears! I was knitting away merrily, I was nearly at the end of the clue when I realised I'd made a mistake. Now at this point I should note that I had a good few stitches on the needles and I don't use lifelines. I absolutely didn't want to rip out all that work and have risk losing some errant yarn overs. </div>
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Originally I thought I'd managed to shift the pattern over so I thought I'd be able to drop the stitches involved and knit them back up again.</div>
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Can you see that block of knit stitches in the triangle shape? The faggoting each side is supposed to be symmetrical. There's supposed to be 3 lines each side. I thought I'd managed to get 4 on one and 2 on the other, so I dropped down and started to knit back up again.</div>
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The sight of this may have made me weep a little, I can't lie! It took me a while to work out just how far I'd ripped down, I tried four times that night to knit it back up, but each time I had lots of yarn left over. There was just too much to block out. It was really awful. It turns out I hadn't shifted the faggoting over, I'd managed to add in a whole extra section.</div>
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So there was nothing for it, I had to take the whole shawl off the needles and rip it out. I ripped back about 15 rows. I picked up all the stitches I could see, then I tinked back another row. This way I knew I hadn't missed or dropped any yarn overs. </div>
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I put the shawl in time out for a day or so, until I had forgiven it!</div>
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Clue 5 was a knitted on edging. There was lots of discussion on the Ravelry thread. Lots of folk were nervous about running out of yarn. Romi has form for using all of your yardage. I had 72 grams of my yarn left. Romi had you work out how much yarn each repeat took before you got too far into the edging. The pattern gave 2 options, a standard edging and a slightly slimmer one with 4 stitches less. I was more than a little nervous about it, I'd already decided that the slim edging was for me but I still didn't want to be getting to the end of the project playing yarn chicken. The edging had a picot finish, so I decided to leave that out too. Just to be sure.</div>
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As it was, I finished the project with 15g left. I've looked at the other projects online and the picot edge is gorgeous, but I'm happy with mine too. It took a bit of knitting, but I'm so thrilled with the finished object.</div>
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This is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/romis-mystery-shawl-2016">Morning Trail</a> and I love it! I can't recommend this pattern enough. Will I knit another? Do you know what? I think I will!</div>
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But that's not all I've been working on since I last wrote.</div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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I have been merrily working on my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/trillian">Trillian</a>. The colours of the Wollmeise continue to delight me. They're so vibrant. </div>
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There is a little bit of pooling starting as the shawl grows. I love it! But this project isn't without it's problems. The problem is with the yarn! I know - shocker! Everyone raves about Wollmeise. I was so excited about having some and knitting it. Don't get me wrong, I really DO love the colour, the problem is with the yarn itself. It's a 6ply yarn and it's splitty. Annoyingly so! I keep splitting the yarn as I knit and I'm having to fix the splits as I knit. It's not enough to make me hate the yarn, but it's enough to take a bit of the shine off the project. </div>
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This is why I haven't made as much progress as I thought I might have done. I'll keep on with it because the colours are to die for and I want the shawl! Also I can't fail at this library knitting project at the first hurdle now can I?</div>
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I've also been knitting all the socks. I currently have 3 on the needles. I have my second pair of walking socks which are now at the heel turn. I'm only working on them while I walk to work or walk the dog. The weather has been so shocking recently that walking when necessary hasn't involved knitting!</div>
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I'm also working on my new sock pattern. I have 2 different pairs on the go. I started the sock using my usualy recipe for my foot. I cast on 16 stitches and increased to 64. I worked my pattern up the foot and turned a short row heel as is my want. After running up the leg I cast off and tried on the sock........ Too tight!!!! GAHH!!!</div>
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I should have realised that the pattern would decrease the elasticity of the sock. So I cast on another pair on different needles to test the difference in gauge. I think it's going to be much better, but it does mean I'll have to think about how I write the sizing on the pattern. </div>
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Come to think of it, I don't usually get socks test knit, but if anyone out there fancies running a quick sock up for me, let me know. That way I can see how the gauge and knitting technique of another knitter compares to mine. I'm in no real rush to publish it, so there's no real time constraints. Either post a comment on the blog or PM me on Rav and I'll get a copy of the pattern over to you.</div>
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Not content with all this sock knitting and not having any desire to finish any of the WIP's languishing beside me, I cast on another shawl. Again my Romi love continues. I'm completely obsessed by her shawls. The May KAL on her group is entitled Reach for the Stars. So long as you can link your project to this theme, you're good. So I'm using a skein of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/sparkleduck-galaxy">Sparkleduck Galaxy</a> and I think the colourway is Out of Darkness. It's a lovely merino/nylon/stellina 2 ply, round and plump. I've knit it once before, those of you who've read my earliest blog posts might remember back in February 2013 I finished <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wingspan-2">Wingspan</a>. I never really liked it. I was fairly new to shawl knitting and I merrily followed the pattern without question. I knit just the minimum number of wedges the pattern suggested and used wrap and turn short rows. I hated how those short rows looked and I really wasn't happy with the size of the finished object. When I look back, I should have worked another wedge because I think I had enough yarn. </div>
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Any hoo, the upshot of this was that I ripped the shawl out and balled up the yarn with the bit I had left from the original project. It's been sitting in that ball waiting to become something new. </div>
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When the prompt came up for Romi's May KAL it was destined to be cast on again. I looked through Romi's extensive pattern library and came across <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/artesian">Artesian</a>. It's a lovely short row shawl with garter stitch and a lovely lace mesh work. It's similar to Shard in it's construction. I cast on last night and I've got a few rows done. I'm not using wrap and turn short rows as indicated in the pattern, I just don't like how they look on garter stitch. I'm using German short rows instead. Once I finish the first wedge I'll have a better idea how they're going to look. Romi has you use 20 stitch markers to guide you. I wanted a way to make identifying those markers easier, so I used gold coloured ones for the odd numbered markers and silver for the even ones. To make the last marker stand out and make the right side easy to spot, I used a black marker for number 20. I haven't really got much progress to show you all this week, but I hope to have something worth photographing next week.</div>
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On the horizon - </div>
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With any luck, I won't be tempted to cast on anything else! I've got so much I need to finish up it's getting silly now.</div>
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I'd love to be able to finish up some of those socks, make good progress on the shawls and maybe, just maybe, pick out a languishing WIP and give it some love!!! </div>
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Or maybe not ;-)</div>
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Tomorrow is May Day. It's a bank holiday in the UK and as a family we're off for a jolly down to Kendall. It's not very far away and we're going to go to our first auction. We're going antiques hunting!!! I can't wait. I'll be taking a pair of socks to knit on so that I don't accidentally bid on anything!</div>
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So guys, I hope you all have a fruitful couple of weeks.</div>
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Speak again soon </div>
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Ellen x </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-58058611766393998792016-04-16T20:43:00.001+01:002016-04-16T20:43:20.345+01:00Knit your LibrarySurprise!!!!!<br />
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I'm back!!!<br />
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It's been ages, over 4 months I think. It's nothing short of scary how quickly time flies. Writing to you all has been on my 'To Do' list for ages. Yet again, life just keeps getting in the way.<br />
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So here I am, alone in the house. I really should be cleaning out the rat cage, but I thought I'd take advantage of a quiet few moments and jot some thoughts down.<br />
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The other half is out walking the dog on the fells. Rather him than me - it's snowing on and off!! I got caught in a shower while I was out running errands this morning. How rude!? It's April for crying out loud!!<br />
Still it's not that long ago we made a snowman in April<br />
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I just spent ages looking for this photo! Turns out it was from March 2008, so it wasn't April and it was quite a while ago. Matthew has returned from the fells saying it's too bloody cold up there and assures me that it did snow this time last year, because Facebook told him a snowy memory from a year ago!!<br />
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Any hoo!!<br />
The boy is outside playing on his new Penny Board - it's a little skate board type thingy. I'm trying not to be an overprotective mother, but I'm quietly convinced that there will be fractures and A&E visits imminent.<br />
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So what have I been up to in the last four months?<br />
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I've been working obviously and there's nothing even remotely interesting to tell you about that. I went on a jolly girls' outing to Edinburgh with my MIL. We had a wonderful time at Edinburgh Yarn Festival on the Friday and spent Saturday sightseeing before we returned home.<br />
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My only fibre event experience has been at Woolfest. I went to Edinburgh expecting something similar. It wasn't. It was smaller and was basically just a market. There weren't demonstrations or livestock, but what there was in spades was lovely retailers. I loved that there were designers there (I might have gotten a bit fan girl over Stephen West and Kate Davies!!), there was also foreign companies. I love that Woolfest celebrates all things British and fibre related, but sometimes I'd like to shop abroad. My philosophy though is that I'd rather spend my hard earned cash on yarn not import taxes and shipping so I rarely shop outside the UK. But at Edinburgh there was all sorts of companies I've coveted from afar. There was a stall selling bison which was soooo soft, but soooo expensive!!! Best of all there was the <a href="http://www.rohrspatzundwollmeise.de/en/">Wollmeise</a> stand and it was a thing of beauty!! <br />
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Overall EYF was a good experience, I'm not sure it'll be an annual event for me, but I'll go again soon I'm sure. I'd like to take a class next time I think. <br />
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My yarn haul was really rather modest. I bought 2 skeins of Wollmeise because it would have been rude not to, 2 skeins from <a href="http://www.easyknits.co.uk/">EasyKnits</a>, a set of Chia Goo sock needles and a pattern from <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/stephen-wests-ravelry-store">Stephen West</a>. All in all I think I was really rather restrained.<br />
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I've done myself an injury too since we last spoke. Way back in December I hurt my shoulder. Well, I say I hurt it, I didn't. It just suddenly started to hurt. I'd done nothing to deserve it, it just started to give me jip. The jip has continued and when I looked up the symptoms online (all hail Dr Google) I self diagnosed a rotator cuff injury. Apparently they can occur spontaneously which is rude in my opinion. I referred myself to our local physiotherapy outpatient department and the physio agreed with me. She gave me some exercises to maintain my range of movement while it healed......<br />
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It hasn't healed. It has steadily gotten worse. I now can't swim, I can't pull my bow, I can't spin and knitting is becoming more and more painful. <br />
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I've finally got an appointment to have a steroid injection in the joint, so hopefully that will help. To be fair to my physio she did suggest it at my first appointment, but I resisted. I can't see how an injection into my joint is going to help the ligaments and tendons surrounding it heal. The pain and the impact this is all having means I'm at the 'sod it, I'll try anything' stage. My appointment is this Tuesday, and it can't come soon enough.<br />
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Obviously I've still been knitting though, I just have to take lots of breaks.<br />
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I've got some stunning FO's to show for the last 4 months. <br />
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I'm most proud of my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/knit-n-slide">Knit n' Slide</a>. The pattern was released exclusively for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and I cast it on the second I got home. I'm trying desperately to use deep stash, so I used 2 skeins of Auracania 4 ply and a skein of Wendy Roam. The Auracania has been in stash for years. Both skeins were basically the same colours, just one was brighter than the other. Both were highly variegated and I just didn't know what to do with them, The Knit n' Slide was ideal. The body is knit with 2 colours and I knew these were the two I needed. When the body was blocked out the brighter of the 2 colours just popped!<br />
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The edging is something else. Holy picot cast off bat man! The edging consists of lots of clusters. There was over a thousand stitches in the end and manhandling them backwards and forwards over the needle was a nightmare. Then there was the picot bind off. It took me 3 whole days! It very nearly sapped my happiness. But the end result was nothing short of stunning.<br />
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There are days I think selfie sticks are a good thing! My arms just aren't long enough.</div>
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The mKAL bug bit hard over the last few months. I took part in Josh Ryks' <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/depth-charge">Depth Charge </a>KAL. Again I used deep stash. Using fingering weight yarn held mostly double this shawl is gorgeously squishy and I've worn it often through this winter. </div>
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The biggest FO of the year has to be my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/emyn-muil">Emyn Muil</a> shawl. It's the latest in Susan Pandorf's Two Towers series. I've thoroughly enjoyed knitting her patterns and as soon as she emailed me to say the pattern was out I'd bought it and ordered the yarn. I decided to cast on on New Year's day. I wanted it finished to wear to EYF and I did. It's a large shawl and I love it. I even bought a new coat to go with it!</div>
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Here I am in our hotel room in Edinburgh</div>
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I have also fallen hard for the designs of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/designers/rosemary-romi-hill">Romi Hill</a>. I found one of her patterns on a podcast. Amy Beth of the Fat Squirrel Speaks podcast was talking about <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/shard">The Shard</a>. It's a fab pattern which uses space dyed yarn. Every time you knit to a certain colour of your yarn you make a shard. Using these shards and short rows you end up with a rather lovely asymmetrical shawlette. I gave mine to a friend for her birthday. I'll definitely be knitting another for myself.</div>
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Not content with one of Romi's patterns I've also finished her <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/elven-cloche">Elven Closhe</a>. Even then I'm not done with my Romi crush. I'm now 4/5ths of the way through her latest mKAL. The last clue came out Friday gone. I had a bit of a disaster in that I managed to mess up half way through clue 4 so I tried to do some major surgery - it didn't work. I thought I'd managed to move the pattern along slightly. What I'd actually done is add a bit! So when I ripped down and knit back up again I had lots of spare yarn that just wouldn't block out. So 12 rows got ripped out. It took me a while to figure out where exactly I'd ripped back to, but I'm back on track and halfway through clue 4. I'm enjoying the knit and I'll chug along until I'm done.<br />
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Disaster struck, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and rip it back!</div>
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Feeling the Love -</div>
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Other WIP's feeling the love recently include socks. I've got 2 different socks on the needles. I'm knitting as I walk. Because I now can't do any of the exercise I enjoy, I've decided to walk to work. I must confess that I'm a fair weather walker. I don't mind walking home in the rain, but I'm not walking to walk in the rain! So I've walked 3.4km to and from work a few times a week. And walking for 40 minutes each way gives some good knitting time. When I'm walking, I'm knitting on vanilla socks. It's easy to knit and walk on vanilla socks because I don't need to look at what I'm knitting. The first pair I knit was given to my MIL. I used <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BritishBeaKnits?ref=pr_faveshops">British Bea Knits</a> self striping yarn in the Devilment colourway. I decided to do a slip stitch pattern when the colour changed. Snag was it made the sock a bit tight. But on the bright side, it made them the perfect size for my MIL! Win!! They took me a couple of weeks of walking, but to be honest, I had started them before I started walking. My current pair of walking socks are Austermann Step. It's a really nice yarn. Nothing fancy, I'm just working through my rather substantial sock yarn stash. This time, they are a pure vanilla sock.</div>
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Because sometimes I need a sock with a bit more oomph I'm working on my next pattern. I hope you'll like them. They're a simple repeat and are just enough work to keep you interested without being frustrated by it. I'll keep you posted with my progress and when I expect to get it published.</div>
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Now here's the rub.</div>
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The whole point of this blog.</div>
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My Ravelry library contains a staggering 384 patterns! I keep finding beautiful patterns and not knitting them! I have 24 pattern books saved! Granted some of these are magazine digital downloads and technique books, but even so I have 14 pattern books of patterns at some point I've wanted to knit. So I've decided to start at the beginning. My first ever pattern book was <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/hitchhiker-a-trilogy-of-four-patterns">Hitchhiker- a trilogy of four patterns</a>. I've already knit Hitchhiker so I've cast on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/trillian">Trillian</a>. I plucked up the courage to use one of my sacred Wollmeise skeins. They've only been in stash a few weeks, and to be honest, I wanted to pet them a while longer; but Martina likes to use Wollmeise for her patterns because they are a 150g put up and those extra 50g gives a lovely sized shawl. It had to be done, and I love the colour. It's the Pfauenage colourway and it's gorgeous jewel tones of purple, blue and green. It's a great knit, and I'm enjoying it a lot.</div>
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I'm going to plod my way through all of my knitting books and knit the lovely patterns that turned my head over the years. </div>
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What about you? Do you fancy knitting your library? Come on! Join in! Tell me what your plans are.</div>
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Well, I think I'm done for now. I'm going to sign off and I hope I'll be back sooner rather than later to keep you posted on my progress.</div>
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Keep well.</div>
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Be happy</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-51860181882587658902015-12-06T16:33:00.001+00:002015-12-06T16:33:15.685+00:00Obsessive Compulsive KnittingI had planned to write last weekend but I was completely absorbed in my knitting.<br />
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Since I last wrote to you, which must be nearly a month ago now, I've been busily knitting on mKAL's. It's the first time I've ever managed to keep up with them.</div>
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I did try to knit along with the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/advent-calendar-scarf-2011">Advent Calendar Scarf 2011 KAL</a>. It's a lovely idea. Every day in December a pattern is released to knit, typically it's only about 40 rows, and there's a repeated pattern that separates each day. I tried to keep up, but it's a really busy time and I fell further and further behind! I failed. I tried again in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/advent-calendar-scarf-2012">2012 </a>and failed again. The scarves everyone made were gorgeous and there were so many proud folk wearing their scarves on Christmas day. Me? I think my 2013 effort is still languishing somewhere waiting to be frogged. So I decided that mKAL's just aren't for me.</div>
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Then Wooley Wormhead emailed me with notification of this year's <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/woolly-wormheads-hats/3297769/1-25#25">mKAL hat-a-long</a>. A hat is a teeny tiny project. I thought I had a fighting chance of keeping up. I did!!! I love the results, I did leave off the pom-pom though. I'm not a pom-pom kind of gal.</div>
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I love the fit of this hat, the split brim means it sits wonderfully low on my head even when I have my hair in a pony tail.</div>
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And because why would you knit one mKAL when you can knit two.......... Stephen West started his <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/westknits-mystery-shawl-kal-2015">annual mKAL</a>. I must confess that I didn't pay much attention to it at the start. I do like some of his older patterns, but his more recent designs have been a little 'out there' for my tastes. Then people started posting their progress pictures on Instagram. The pattern 'The Doodler' looked so lovely in myriad variations. I just had to cast on. I was a week behind but I didn't care! I picked my yarn and set off. I can tell you now that the pattern is completely released it's a wonderful mix of short rows and streaks of colour. Clue 2 included a massive cable. I must confess to being rather nervous that the 37 stitch cable would snap my wooden needles - it was tight!!</div>
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I love the results, I finished it last Tuesday, blocked it over night and proudly wore it to work on the Wednesday. I've had lots of lovely comments about it since.</div>
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All this mKAL knitting has meant that bugger all got done! I mean nothing!!!! My housework has been done only in such a manner as the house wouldn't be condemned as insanitary. Food was prepared after a fashion - there was a lot of re-heating going on!! </div>
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Then a few days ago my mum rang me and booked a visit next weekend to exchange Christmas gifts!!! EEEEKKKK!!!! </div>
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I hadn't even thought about Christmas! I mean, I have been picking up bits and bobs as I've seen them, but I haven't put serious effort into preparing. </div>
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Shine on!!! This time in 3 weeks it'll all be over bar the fighting!!!</div>
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I need to get a wiggle on!!</div>
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In other news the weather has been wreaking havoc. The past 48 hours have been horrendous. Over in the UK the Met Office has decided it would be a cunning plan to name storms. Well, I wish they'd pack it in. We're only up to D in the alphabet and each one has been worse than the last. I'm sure the storms have gotten worse since they started naming them!! </div>
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Any how, storm Desmond has ruined many thousand's of peoples' Christmas. In Cumbria the Met Office issued a Red Severe Weather warning for rain and an Amber Severe Weather Warning for wind yesterday and today. I've not seen anything like it for years. </div>
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Friday night was the Awards Evening and Christmas dinner for the Archery club Ben and I are members of. It was held in a hotel about 30 miles north of me out in the country. As I left work on Friday night the wind was picking up and the police were asking people not to travel if they could avoid it. I really didn't want to miss the dinner and I didn't want to lose the money I'd paid for the meal, but at the end of the day it was cheaper to lose that money than replace the car! If it was summer time and I didn't have to drive all that way in the dark, I might have given the trip a go. As it stood, I didn't want to turn a corner on a twisty, narrow country road and find a tree or a flood in the dark. So I stayed at home.</div>
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Yesterday is my usual day to do the grocery shop. I looked out of my window and couldn't see Penrith for the rain coming down. I said to Matthew I'd better go in the landrover as the Met Office and the Highways Agency were both saying that travelling conditions had worsened overnight. Matthew very kindly said he'd take me shopping.</div>
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We left at about 11:30 and the water had already overwhelmed the land drains on the site. As we travelled into town, there was a significant flood on the road, but we were ok in the Landie. I wouldn't have liked to make the journey in my car! We were only in town for an hour, but what a difference in that hour! </div>
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Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, but we where driving over the bridge, so we couldn't really slow down for a proper shot.</div>
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The River Eamont broke it's bank on the Penrith side and was lapping at the houses closest to it, the flood on the road got significantly worse, and the land drains on our site completely gave up making our access road into a new river. We've just collectively spent thousands of pounds replacing those drains and resurfacing the roads. Well, now all that new lovely road is in a culvert at the end of the site! It's carnage.</div>
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As the day progressed the weather worsened, reports on the net told of flooding in the local towns, Keswick flood defences failed, as did Cockermouth, Kendal and Carlisle. The damage is horrendous. Thousands of people have been evacuated and their homes ruined.<br />
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This is Appleby the river should be behind the white houses!</div>
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This is Keswick before the flood defences gave up completely. You can see the water just starting to overflow the walls</div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span>Discretion is the better part of valour and I decided it wasn't worth venturing out last night for Ben's karate Christmas party either.</div>
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Our social lives have gone from hero to zero in 48 hours!! </div>
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I am eternally grateful that we have been spared damage, and hopeful that the community can club together to fix what's broken. We've done it before, we'll do it again. Suffice to say tomorrow will be a difficult day at work I think!!!</div>
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This morning the dog still needed to be walked so I put on my walking boots and ventured out.<br />
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When the dog's gotta go, the dog's gotta go!</div>
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Water levels have dropped significantly but all this gravel should be surfacing the road further up the valley!</div>
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The water is up to Murphy's chest here. He was unimpressed. </div>
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That lake isn't supposed to be there. That's the run off from the valley. </div>
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Feeling the Love - </div>
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I've already told you about my FO's and what I've been mainly working on these last few weeks, but let me fill in some blanks.</div>
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I'd originally promised to clear my WIP's and I have worked on<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leftie"> Leftie</a> some..... but not a whole lot! I've added a grand total of five more leaves it! I'm almost half way I think judging by the look of the ball I'm using to knit the leaves.</div>
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I also culled a project. While I was waiting for the boys to finish faffing so we could go on holiday back in May I cast on my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thankful-2">Thankful</a> shawl using some handspun. The handspun I picked was a cobweb laceweight I spun from LongDrawJames on etsy (I don't think he's dying at the moment). It was one of the first things I made and I didn't have the sense to record much vital information about it! I have no idea what the fibre content is, possibly polworth. All I know is that I got 1200 yards!! </div>
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Originally I decided to knit about half the weight of the yarn into the body and then start the lace patterning. I must confess to giving up on that idea when my stitch count on the body got over 300! I decided to change to the lace work early. The more I worked on it, the more I didn't like what I was looking at. I went down to 3.5mm needles because the yarn was so fine, but even so, I didn't like the fabric. So I ripped it out. Carefully!!! Ripping out handspun is no fun people!!!</div>
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Then of course I had the dilema of what to make with the yarn now! I certainly didn't want to re-skein it and put it back into stash. The whole idea of casting the thing on was to use up my oldest handspun. </div>
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I searched Ravelry for a shawl in cobweb weight that took my fancy and I came up with <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/happily-ever-after-2">Happily Ever After</a> by Meilindis. It's a delightful half pi shawl based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's formula. I love how the various patterns flow into each other and the leaf edging is gorgeous. The projects online are stunning and I knew it had to be mine. I bought the pattern (a measly £3.55 - all that work for so little money, Meilindis has sold herself short!!) and immediately I started to read through....</div>
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Shock!!!!!!!</div>
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Horror!!!!!!!</div>
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There are nupps!!!!!!!!! I hate nupps!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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I've tried a few times to get along with nupps, but they just want to break my needles!! They are evil!!!</div>
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But I'm determined not to be disheartened. I will once again try the nupp. And if they defeat me, I will replace the little swines with beads!! This shawl will be mine!!!</div>
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One day!</div>
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I've also worked on the yellow and blue socks I told you about last time. I'm really taken with how they're knitting up. I really need to get a wiggle on and get them finished before Christmas but things just keep distracting me!!</div>
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I also had a plea from one of the girls at work, her grandson needed a hat. A pom-pom hat to be specific! Do you remember my comment at the beginning of this post? I'm REALLY not a pom-pom kinda gal! Not only do I not wear pom-poms, I don't make them either! In my opinion they're an abject waste of yarn! But how could I say no?!</div>
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I found a nice pattern on Rav <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mock-cable-hat-7">Cute Mock Cable Hat</a>. It comes in 4 sizes and is well written. It took me all of half a day to knit the smallest size and one whole evening of grumbling and trimming to make the pom-pom</div>
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I do have concerns that the weight of that pom-pom might give the little boy neck ache! But we'll see. If push comes to shove I can make another, smaller one! In my defence Teddy's mum did say she wanted a big pom-pom. </div>
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Now that the KAL's are finished I was quite content to work on my WIP's. I thought I'd crack out the granny square blanket that's been ongoing for a good year now if not longer. I'm making lots of little squares from 3 different colours of aran weight and my plan is to edge them all with a fourth colour and crochet them together using that colour too. I'm working my way through the second of the three 500g balls - I think I'm well over half way through it. I love that I can wip up a square in 5 minutes flat! I'm trying to resist the urge to start edging them. </div>
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My original plan was to make all the squares, throw them all in a big bin liner to mix them up and then just take one at a time, edge it and sew it together with the next one. I want the colours to be as random as I can make them. I know that if I'm not careful I'll try to make a pretty pattern and then I'll be there all day trying to decide which colour to use next!!</div>
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So there I was merrily crocheting away and then...... BAM!!!!!!....... I wound up casting on another shawl! </div>
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Don't judge me!! It's a mission of mercy. A friend of mine needs a new shawl. Who am I to leave a person in need? It had to be done!!</div>
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So I cast on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/descent-into-madness">Descent Into Madness</a> by Josh Ryks. His patterns are gorgeous, I've been eyeing them up for a while, so I have to confess it didn't take much time to decide to cast on. I've named the project Madness Healed on my Ravelry board and I really hope I can get it off to the recipient sooner rather than later.I started last night and I'm thoroughly enjoying the knit. The shawl starts with garter stitch colourwork and then progresses into a slipped stitch pattern. It's edged with an icord which gives the shawl great lines and form. While knitting The Doodler I learned to hide my ends in the icord so that's my plan for this project too. At the moment there aren't many ends, but I'm carrying the yarn I'm not using up inside the icord too. If there's a way to avoid weaving in ends I'm all for it!! Huzzah!<br />
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On the Horizon - </div>
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As Christmas approaches we go into silly season at work. The pharmacy will be closed for 4 days in a row and many of my customers are convinced that disaster will strike and therefore they must order in every medication they possibly can - just in case! This means that over the next few weeks my workload will double, my start time will get earlier and my lunch breaks will dissapear. Consequently my knitting time will become more scarse and much more precious. </div>
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I really do need to finish those socks, but if push comes to shove the loveley lady in question is OK with an IOU! I'd really rather not have to wrap them still on the needles, but hey ho!</div>
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I want to make good progress with Madness healed.</div>
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So my priorities are now the socks and the shawl. Then after that, I'll finish that bloody Leftie!! If it kills me!! </div>
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BUT!!!</div>
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I've had a cunning plan.</div>
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A week or so ago I had an email from Susan Pandorf - you know, the clever lady behind the awesome <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/evenstar-shawl">Even Star</a> and the epic <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/in-dreams-mystery-shawl">In Dreams</a> shawls. She as released another pattern! It's called <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/emyn-muil">Hymn Muil</a> and it's gorgeous!!! It's a triangular shawl worked side to side with no beads but plenty of lace!</div>
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So here's my plan - why don't we cast it on together!? It was New Year's Day 2013 when I started Evenstar, so why not cast on Emyn Muil this New Year's Day 2016?</div>
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Go on!!!......... You know you want to!</div>
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Head over to the Evenstar KAL group on Ravelry and say hello, join in, cast on.</div>
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Once again this a no pressure KAL there's no time scale, the group only serves to cheer you on, cheer you up and cheer your results at the end.</div>
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Wish me luck</div>
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Have a lovely few weeks,</div>
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I hope to have another post up before Christmas, but don't hold your breath!</div>
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;-)</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-11836170499757218902015-11-08T14:55:00.002+00:002015-11-08T14:55:23.471+00:00Bet You Weren't Expecting This!To be fair, neither was I.<br />
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I'd always planned to blog today, I think I've decided that fortnightly works for me, but I wasn't sure I'd actually put fingers to keyboard!</div>
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I've pottered about over the last 2 weeks, being kind to my back and not really being very active. This is bad for the weight loss and good for my back to heal. So today I plan to get back in the pool. I had planned to go earlier in the week, but I really wasn't confident that I could haul my arse back out of the water once I got in! </div>
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I'd been really nervous about getting on the scales. Three weeks of inactivity was going to take it's toll and I was not looking forward to finding out how much damage had been done. As it turns out I've put on just 2 pounds. I'm happy with that. It could have been so much worse! Now I just have to get back into the swing of things and get those 2lb shifted.</div>
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This weekend has been a real worry. Ben has been felled by a particularly nasty virus. He told me he was sick on Friday morning. Being the good mother I am, I said "That's nice, what do you want for breakfast?" He said he'd have coco pops. I told him to get his uniform on - after all, if you can eat breakfast, you can go to school! Turns out he was actually ill and not wanting to skive off school on a Friday! I got a phone call in work at about 11am asking me to take him home, he wasn't well. Oops! </div>
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He was nodding off in the car, I dropped him at his Nana's and he slept all day. He slept all Saturday too. This morning I tempted him out of bed with some lentil soup. So hopefully he's on the mend, his throat is still sore, but he's looking better.</div>
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Autumn is here with a vengence. The rain has been biblical today and the trees are looking more naked today than they did yesterday. The wind and rain has beaten the leaves from their branches. </div>
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Itsn't it pretty? I have been looking for edible 'shrooms to no avail.</div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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A good while back a bought an antique carbouy from one of the girls at work. It has to be a good 40 years old, if not more. It was used to store distilled water in the pharmacy. I knew I had to have it as soon as she brought it in. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but I wanted to keep this piece of pharmacy history. </div>
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Now, my house is tiny. I mean really small! So buying 'stuff' that serves no purpose than to take up space and generally create clutter is not a good plan. This glass jar isn't small either! It's 18 inches tall and 34 inches in diameter. It's a wonderful tear-drop shape and is hand blown so there are imperfections in the glass. Syl had kept it in her loft for years and had tried to make a terrarium out of it so it was a tad mucky inside. I brought it home and Matthew just raised his eyebrows and sighed. Then I dropped the bombshell on him that I wanted him to turn a wooden stand for it! He sighed again. He had a look at his turned pieces on our side board and suggested I use a bowl he'd already made. I wasn't keen, because they're all quite deep and I wanted the tear-drop shape to be seen and celebrated rather than hidden in it's stand. Then I turned it upside down, so that the neck of the carbouy was inside the bowl. We had a collective light bulb moment! It looked just like a giant light bulb!!!! So, I bought some LED Christmas tree lights and hey presto!!</div>
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Isn't it fab? Matthew says he'll drill a hole in the bottom of the bowl so that the wire can come out there rather than sticking up out of the side as it is now, but I'm really rather taken with it!</div>
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On the crafting front, I've been a good girl and a bad girl! Remember last time I told you I wanted to clear my ridiculous WIP list?</div>
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Let's start by what was missing from the WIP photo last week.</div>
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I <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">had been working on a jumper. A while ago I dyed up some yarn to make <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hana-hou-2">Hana Hou</a>. I got almost the whole garment done when I ran out of yarn. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any more of the base to dye up another skein. So I thought I'd knit the next size down. I have lost weight after all and the cardigan is a chunky, loose knit. I set about knitting Hana Hou again. The snag is that when I dyed the yarn, I split it into 2 saucepans. They conducted heat differently and the yarn came out 2 slightly different shades - one was more blue than the other. Because of this I knit with 3 balls of yarn. Usually when you're using hand dyed yarn, alternating 2 skeins is sufficient to stop colour pooling and obvious ball changes. I swatched with 2 balls and found the fabric to be too stripy for my liking. So I tried 3 balls. It worked a treat, the fabric was lovely. The snag is that alternating 3 skeins is a faff. Progress was slow and arduous. It got to the point that I really didn't enjoy the knit. I frogged. I have a different yarn for Hana Hou, so one day I'll cast it back on.</span></div>
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I wandered Ravelry to find a sweater with the yardage I had. I found <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/carrie-13">Carrie</a>. I loved the chunky cowl neck and the simple diamond patterning on the body to break the monotony of so much stocking stitch. I cast it on at the beginning of October and was working on it steadily. I alternated 2 skeins and was desperate to finish. The bonus of being laid up for so long meant I rattled through and got it finished within a month!<br />
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I'm really happy with the end result.</div>
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I've worked on some of the massive WIP heap too! Jean's hat is finished. It was a challenging knit. Not difficult per se, but challenging. <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sumner">Sumner</a> consists of tucks in the fabric. You work stocking stitch then a few rounds of purl. Next you pick up all of the stitches from the last stocking stitch round and knit these stitches together with the live stitches. The snag is that you pick up a hundred and odd stitches using a circular needle inside the hat. To start with I used a 2.5mm circular needle. </div>
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This proved tricky. trying to pick up the stitches with the same size needle was tight. It took me an hour to work just one round! Time for a re-think. I was knitting the body on DPN's so the last round of stocking stitch I knit onto the circular, then I worked the first row of purls stitches by picking up a stitch off the circular and working back onto the DPN's while leaving the circular behind.</div>
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This meant that the stitches were ready on the circular needle waiting to be knitted together with the live stitches. This still took an hour to do. OK, so another re-think later and I decided to use a much smaller circular needle to pick up those pesky stitches - I used a 2mm circular instead and things progressed much more quickly. Don't get me wrong, it was still fiddly, but I got quicker with each repeat.</div>
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I also had two pairs of socks on the needles. I wasn't overly feeling the love for either of them to be fair. The brown ones with the travelling purl stitch had more mistakes than enough. In the end I frogged them both. I cast on something new. Yes, yes!! I know I said I was clearing the WIP's but in my defense it was a net decrease of ONE project! I cast on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/isanquhar">iSanquar</a> by Nathan Taylor. I've been watching his videos on YouTube and thoroughly enjoyed them. Nathan's thing is double knitting, his patterns are awesome. One day I will give it a whirl, but in the mean time, I had 2 balls of sock yarn and an itch for colourwork. I had ripped out Jean's colourwork hat because it drove me mad, but I had this itch and it just wouldn't go away. </div>
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I had to modify the pattern significantly because Nathan wrote it for the smaller iPhone 5. I'd just upgraded mine to the 6s plus so it's wider and much longer. I charted my pattern and set off. Using the brown as the base colour and the Opal self patterning yarn for the colourwork. </div>
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*****</div>
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!</div>
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*****</div>
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Never</div>
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Ever</div>
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Ever!!!!</div>
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Use self patterning sock yarn for colourwork!!!!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55Y1kCAlN7oNZJ687a6cjvsb0Qr8RuaWXR6NlD1OwpYDMhG4xaq2l0GpT26sn7xCglzu0Z9tht45yisoriwGsBEp3qecBrC3lF82pYRbUcQXxdnk6KshGJXWnqjA7mnFG7l3DrQIYyRbv/s640/blogger-image--415107017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55Y1kCAlN7oNZJ687a6cjvsb0Qr8RuaWXR6NlD1OwpYDMhG4xaq2l0GpT26sn7xCglzu0Z9tht45yisoriwGsBEp3qecBrC3lF82pYRbUcQXxdnk6KshGJXWnqjA7mnFG7l3DrQIYyRbv/s640/blogger-image--415107017.jpg" /></a></div>
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Can you see the purple?</div>
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NO?!</div>
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You can't!!! Honestly!! The purple as exactly the same colour value as the brown so it blends in a treat!!! Which...... funnily enough, wasn't the look I was going for!!! GGGRRRR </div>
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Having said that I persevered. After all, it's just for me and it was my first real attempt at patterned colourwork. </div>
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As a little aside - Sanquhar is a town just into Scotland which is famous for having the oldest working post office in the world, but also for their two-coloured patterned gloves. Traditionally the gloves are black and white or navy and cream, but other colours have been used too. The patterns are all named e.g the Midge and the Fly, The Duke, Shepherd's Paid and Rose. The gloves are typically knit on very small needles usually less than 2mm in diameter.</div>
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My phone sock was worked on a 2mm circular Knit Pro symphonie wooden needle. It turns out that my tension is far too tight and I managed to snap the thing! Thankfully I had a metal Addi 2mm needle to use instead. I was very good, weaving in my floats on the back. I kept sizing up the work and trying it on my phone. I quickly realised that the colourwork was once again really tight and things were going to be very snug. I knew that I couldn't increase the number of stitches because that would have made the sock too big and the patterns look out of place, so I prayed that a good hard block would cure my sizing issues. And what do you know!? A bar of Lindt chocolate is just the right size to block an iPhone sock on!</div>
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You really can't see the details of the patterns thanks to that pesky Opal yarn, but at the top, below the ribbing are my initials! Honestly!!!</div>
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Still, for a first attempt I'm happy with it. I do think I'll be knitting another mind you. I'll use two solid colours this time and I might go up a needle size to try and make the tension a little less dense. I'll also try really hard to relax, hopefully that should loosen things up a tad too.</div>
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Now here comes the confession - </div>
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I may have cast on a lot of things I shouldn't! </div>
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I was feeling the Nathan love and cast on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wuppertal-hat">Wuppertal</a>. I used that pesky Opal yarn held double to make a DK-ish weight. Nathan says he knit his in 4 hours on a coach trip, mine took a little longer than that, but I'm happy with the results. It's going in the Christmas gift drawer. I made the ribbing a deeper than the pattern called for and I'm glad I did as it would have been rather neat otherwise.</div>
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Again, that self patterning yarn means you can't make out the details of the pattern, but there's a rather nice cabled section on the hat. It made the knitting fly with a short 4 round repeat, before I knew it, I was done!</div>
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That's not all........ I may have cast on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2015-mystery-hat-a-long">Woolly Wormhead's mystery hat</a> too. I cracked out the first clue in an evening. I'm using left over yarn from my Carrie jumper and I'm loving the texture of the garter stitch. I decided that I wasn't going to alternate the 2 shades this time, mainly because I've no idea how the hat is constructed, so I don't know how easy alternating skeins is going to be. Instead I've decided that I'll alternate for a few rows before I need to join new yarn.</div>
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Spoiler alert!!!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_N0NYo4FuF5io8t1stJ8U9dhibMvte_Z-5MG_wqojuM5Z6LlE1rBOPcrWaPc1HJg4txnpkwG6x7brX_WFp-v6P9ehdxdZbC2XT_b1okfQgfjxXX2VTZDCV8DEkaqSrVEqW3OS3cUePDF/s640/blogger-image--654163785.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_N0NYo4FuF5io8t1stJ8U9dhibMvte_Z-5MG_wqojuM5Z6LlE1rBOPcrWaPc1HJg4txnpkwG6x7brX_WFp-v6P9ehdxdZbC2XT_b1okfQgfjxXX2VTZDCV8DEkaqSrVEqW3OS3cUePDF/s640/blogger-image--654163785.jpg" /></a></div>
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Well, to be fair, it could be anything so hopefully it's not too much of a spoiler!! I won't be posting more photos though, until all the clues are released.</div>
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Not content with casting on 2 new projects and not touching any of my languishing WIP's I cast on another!!!!! (hangs head in shame)</div>
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How could I resist though!? Mel is hosting a KAL in her <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/6-bits-storybooks">6 Bits Storybooks</a> group on Ravelry. It has to be the most laid back KAL in history. Knit something from her Unearth magazine... or not! Yes, you read correctly. The KAL runs from the 2nd November to the 2nd January; start to knit one of the patterns from the magazine with no pressure to finish. Post your progress in the group and you could win goodies. If you finish, great! If not, great!! If you just cheer folk on using Instagram, great!! You are entered for a prize even if you don't knit a stitch and cheer for everyone else! How cool is that?</div>
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I cast on the Unearth Mitts. I used some Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply in a rather sweet dusty lilac colour. To my mind it's rather pink, but the ball band assures me the colour is lilac. The mitts have a really interesting construction being knit flat, seamed and then the cuff is worked in the round. I had them cast off within 3 days, and those were working days mind you - there was less than 10 hours work in them. I love them. They're gorgeous, so sweet. Despite how they look in the photo, they are the same length! Promise.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdc05SfzRbGLNLndl4IPhM6Nf1jMHSLaROrGX8Xn-Coo5gthtcE0Is6MlbInY_ftsRUuKbuZnu78KQkmhDC1M0zjElWr0JF9xnhQX5HDY2_1hZgycLrGx7cZP7NpY-p18k9z_bygPx7LE/s640/blogger-image-2063656918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdc05SfzRbGLNLndl4IPhM6Nf1jMHSLaROrGX8Xn-Coo5gthtcE0Is6MlbInY_ftsRUuKbuZnu78KQkmhDC1M0zjElWr0JF9xnhQX5HDY2_1hZgycLrGx7cZP7NpY-p18k9z_bygPx7LE/s640/blogger-image-2063656918.jpg" /></a></div>
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Last weekend I went to walk the dog, recently I've been yomping the dog - the poor thing has to really run to keep up - his little, short legs mean that my brisk walk is a flat run for him! Last weekend though, my back was still feeling a tad fragile, so I decided that I'd knit and walk.</div>
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Disaster!!!!! I had no socks on the needles! After all, I'd frogged the only 2 pairs I was working on. I knew I didn't want to knit commercial yarn so I dug out a bright skein from my happy skein pile. It's from A Stash Addict who isn't dying at the moment. </div>
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It's a lovely BFL/nylon blend in the Tripping Peacock colourway.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO6N8rhCYPUZmu4MkL6hmp5Q4bogilvpc20X-Myeh3YVMnhfFDNDxEdR-6Myfi3pfPq9NxgDgK2w1W5mu6t8qtUD5ygIW1cbbBYWJYLgXUwn9WFwwnogjj9KtMOmH2qWkiWWFP-S8OBwC1/s640/blogger-image--717417808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO6N8rhCYPUZmu4MkL6hmp5Q4bogilvpc20X-Myeh3YVMnhfFDNDxEdR-6Myfi3pfPq9NxgDgK2w1W5mu6t8qtUD5ygIW1cbbBYWJYLgXUwn9WFwwnogjj9KtMOmH2qWkiWWFP-S8OBwC1/s640/blogger-image--717417808.jpg" /></a></div>
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It's lime green and a teal/blue colour. I was a bit concerned as I caked the yarn. I untwisted the skein and put it on my swift. I'm careful about undoing knots on the ties rather than cutting them off because I have been known to cut more than the tie (you aren't alone Mel!) When I removed the ties, I noticed a pale section on the yarn where the tie had been a bit too tight during they dying process.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbyYsbQFp95XMKinYKE2m9ooPhvoKRLarscf0fEEnAuByc2IFET_oWkjxDfFRhaWoY4Ba5VPcwzHh6u9tXi8ucSoUfpnNH4R8AoK8FwrTJKUfNasJBHjlzcBqN8_3ZzDSdQbVyx-AY3qXZ/s640/blogger-image--1290270690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbyYsbQFp95XMKinYKE2m9ooPhvoKRLarscf0fEEnAuByc2IFET_oWkjxDfFRhaWoY4Ba5VPcwzHh6u9tXi8ucSoUfpnNH4R8AoK8FwrTJKUfNasJBHjlzcBqN8_3ZzDSdQbVyx-AY3qXZ/s640/blogger-image--1290270690.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I did worry that it would show up on the socks, but I needn't have done, they're working up well and I love the fact that the colours aren't pooling. I don't mind pooling, don't get me wrong, but I love how these colours are working together.</span></div>
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My caston-itis is assuaged. I have returned to the WIP's.</div>
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I have mostly knit on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leftie">Leftie</a> as I promised I would last time. I really should have counted my leaves so I know how much progress I've made. Doh!!</div>
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Ah well, I currently have 23, so now I can see just what progress I make when I next write. </div>
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I've also picked up the Sun Rays shawl. I've done 2 rows and made no visual progress to speak of so there's no point really showing you a photo. Good lord it takes some knitting! Even the rest rows take ages to get around. I have a measly 960 stitches. The last round had a gut wobbling 2200!! What madness is this!?</div>
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There has been no love for any other projects. Oh...wait a minute, that's a lie.... I added ONE whole mitred square to my blanket. </div>
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So that's all I have.</div>
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I promise to work on my WIP's and my waistline!</div>
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See you all next time</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-10220843120565193302015-10-25T16:18:00.002+00:002015-10-25T16:18:42.962+00:00AccountabilityWell hello there good readers!<br />
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It's been far too long since I last wrote to you all. I wouldn't like to say that I'd given up on blogging, it's just that when I had something to say, I didn't have the time to tell you about it, and when I did have the time I didn't have the motivation.</div>
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However, I was chatting with Elly from the <a href="http://foanddye.blogspot.co.uk/">FO&Dye Podcast</a> yesterday and she mentioned my blog. I immediately felt guilty for ignoring it for so long. </div>
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So here I am. This edition is entitled 'Accountability' for more than one reason. Firstly my WIP list is getting silly and I need to get it under control. Second is slightly more important. As I write I'm lying in bed. It's 13:30 on a Sunday afternoon. I'm still in my jammies but I have been up and about, showered, fed assorted people and retired back to my bed. I'm not usually a person who would vegetate in bed for any length of time and I have a valid reason. Let me fill you in - </div>
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Last Monday I got up and ready for work. As I pottered around getting my jobs done and chivvying the child up my back went. I couldn't believe it! The pain was like a girdle of fire around my midriff, it radiated down the backs of my legs and around the front of my thighs.</div>
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"Oh Dear" said Ellen (not really, the expletives were many and varied and utterly unpublishable!)</div>
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I hobbled to the car and drove to work. I thought I'd be ok, that I'd be able to walk it off - Nope, not a chance. By 9:10 I knew I was in trouble. I rang around and organised a locum to come up from Manchester to cover for me. By 11:45 I was flat on my back and I'd taken some codeine for the pain. Well, that was my week ruined! I continued with the codeine which doesn't agree with me and as the week progressed I could move more easily and I was back at work on Friday.<br />
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Now, I can't work and take pain killers so by the end of Friday I was in pure agony again. I went home, took more opiates and went to bed (with a glass of wine for anaesthetic purposes - don't judge!) I woke up on Saturday morning and felt OK. I got out of bed without needing to cry so I classed that as a win. I went to go my grocery shop and was very, very careful all the way around the supermarket. I got to the checkout, loaded the trolley onto the belt and was packing at the other end..... then BANG!!! My back went again while I was putting a shopping bag back into the trolley! I was completely incapacitated, I couldn't lift my arms enough to put groceries into the bags and certainly I couldn't put the bags into the trolley. The lovely ladies at Sainsbury's helped me greatly they packed my bags and my trolley and helped me out to my car loaded the boot. I have no idea how I got home. The pain was 100% worse than it was on Monday. Yesterday was horrendous. I took the codeine and it didn't touch the pain. This morning I gave in and took some Tramadol I'd been prescribed when my neck went a year or so ago. I didn't take many then because they REALLY don't agree with me. This morning, however, I knew I had to bite the bullet and take them. Now, the pain is tolerable and I can move. I'm having to change positions regularly else I set solid but I'm functioning.<br />
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So while I'm on the bed I thought I'd be productive and write to you. I'd like to think I can get back into the habit of writing to you with some degree of regularity. </div>
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Back to accountability. I'm now over 40! I'm overweight! I'm over it!</div>
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I have been a yo-yo dieter for donkey's years now. I lost a significant amount of weight 7 years ago and then had surgery. I've managed to put all that weight (and a bit more for good measure) back on. I decided earlier in the year to shift the lard, but despite writing on the blog that I was going to get myself sorted, my head really wasn't in the right place. I woke up on the 1st of September and decided that I was doing it.</div>
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No messing</div>
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And I set about putting my life in order. I changed my eating habits and decided to get fit. I'm not following any particular diet or eating plan. At the end of the day the way to lose weight is to eat less and move more. So that's what I'm doing. I don't eat fatty food anyway, nor to I eat lots of sweet food. What I do do though is graze. I'm a bugger for snacking. I'll snack all day then eat a meal and not bat an eye lid. I also drink alcohol. I'm not an especially heavy drinker, but I am a regular one. </div>
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I've cut out snacks and booze.</div>
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I'm not eating processed food at all.</div>
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I'm moving more too. To be honest just moving at all would be classed as an increase in my activity levels!!</div>
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I invested in an activity tracker. Specifically I got a Polar Loop. I picked this one because you can swim with it. My preferred exercise has always been swimming. I'm good at it and I enjoy it. I've made a conscious effort to move more on a day to day basis. Starting with the smallest of baby steps - parking at the far end of the car park. Parking out of town and walking into the town centre when I'm shopping. Little things which all add up to an increase in my general activity levels. I've also dug out<br />
my exercise DVD's. I have a couple of Devina Mccall's DVD's. I like her, she has a similar sense of humour to me and by the end of the workout she's a hot, sweaty mess who's gasping for air as much as I am. That makes me feel better about myself! I set my alarm for silly o'clock in the morning and I get up and workout every day. I never thought I'd say it, but it really sets me up for the day! </div>
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The net effect of these changes is that I've lost 16 pounds in 8 weeks. I'm reasonably OK with that. I'd love it to be more, but I'm realistic that 2lb a weeks is acceptable and repeatable. I'm worried though - I've effectively been laid up for a week now, with little to no activity at all. And I've cheated with what I've eaten too. I'll be honest - I'm a bugger for comfort eating. And I've been feeling really rather sorry for myself. Earlier in the week I was ok, I ate properly, but this weekend I've eaten badly. I ate pizza (it was sssooooo good!!) and I drank beer (also ssssoooo good!) I may have eaten chocolate...... and a doughnut..... and I made greek food last night and I didn't skimp on the olive oil!!!!! </div>
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I'm dreading stepping on those scales tomorrow.<br />
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Still wondering where all this accountability comes in? I don't blame you really - I have been waffling! </div>
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Here it is - I am going to get back on track tomorrow. </div>
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I am going to blog and tell you all how I'm getting on with my weight loss</div>
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I would love it if you guys could keep me honest - chivvy me up when I need it.</div>
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I'm going to try to sort my crafting out too.</div>
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I had wanted to reduce my WIP list significantly.</div>
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Here is most of it. Starting top left - </div>
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1) Jean's hat. This is the third attempt at this hat. I think it's nearly a year ago I promised her this hat. I started knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ilkley-moor">Ilkley Moor</a> by Ann Kingstone. It's a gorgeous hat from the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/born--bred">Born & Bred</a> collection. It calls for Titus from Baa Ram Ewe - a rather fabulous fingering weight alpaca/wool blend. The Ilkley Moor hat is heavily patterned with traveling twisted stitches and despite the fact that it's designed to be knitted in Titus, I wasn't happy. I chose the Eccup colour which is a dark teal. As I worked the hat, you just couldn't see the stitches. Titus has a gorgeous halo from the alpaca content and that, coupled with the dark saturated colour, meant those travelling stitches faded into the background. I wasn't feeling it.</div>
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So I ripped it out and decided on another hat. This time I went for <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bedale-2">Bedale </a>by Rachel Coopey. A really rather lovely colourwork beanie. However..... it seems that stranded colourwork and I don't get on. I use both my hands to work the colours so I pick with my left hand and throw with my right. This means I can get quite a wiggle on and make good progress. Snag is though, my tension is hugely different between each hand so the fabric just doesn't sit right. I don't know, maybe it would block out, but I doubt it. It didn't help that I kept making mistakes, so I spent almost as much time tinking back as I did knitting. In the end I decided that I was knitting far too much venom into this hat. It wouldn't do to give my MIL a hat that I'd knitted so much frustration into. Bad ju-ju I'm sure.</div>
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So I ripped it out and decided again!..... Third time's a charm yes? This time I'm knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sumner">Sumner</a> by Woolly Wormhead. It's a beautifully simple hat with an interesting construction. It comes from her <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/classic-woolly-toppers">Classic Woolly Toppers</a> collection which is a great book. She starts the book with all the techniques you'll need to make the hats which follow. Sumner has a folded brim and rather lovely tucks worked into the body of the hat. I'm still on the brim, but I'm enjoying the knit so far.</div>
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2) Twilight - Yup, my second<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leftie"> Leftie</a> is still in it's bag. I can't remember when I last picked it up and worked on it! It's been on the needles since December last year and that's really too long! Once I'm done with Jean's hat, that's what's next on my hit list. It's not like I don't like working on it... it's just that new projects just keep cropping up that I want to work on more.</div>
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3) <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/may-morning-shawl">May Morning</a> - This has been on the needles since May. It does feel the love on occasions, but it's 100% silk and sometimes my hands are too rough to work the yarn..... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!</div>
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4) Elly's Shiny - All you can see of this project is a cake of purple yarn and my wonderful Octopus bag it lives in. Elly is renewing her vows next year and I'm making a shawl for her to wear on the big day. I've still got plenty of time to knit this and I only work on it when my mind is fresh and clear. I don't want there to be any mistakes. I want it to be perfect. Elly doesn't want to see it until it's finished, so I won't be talking much about it until it's done and in her hands. Suffice to say it's laceweight, beaded and purple. Gorgeous!!! I'm enjoying working on it lots!</div>
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5) Thankful for Handspun - This is my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thankful-2">Thankful</a> shawl I cast on while I was waiting for the boys to stop faffing about so we could go on holiday back in May. I do the odd row here and there. It's laceweight so I made the body of the shawl much bigger than my pattern prescribed. I plan to work many more repeats of the lacework too. I'm just going to keep on going with it until I run out of yarn, or I get bored with it... whichever happens first.</div>
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6) <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sun-ray-design">Sun Rays shawl</a> - This is now a project of epic proportions. I think I'm nearly halfway. I'm on the second to last chart and I'm up to about 1000 stitches around. If I remember correctly, I think the stitch count gets up to nearly 2500 towards the end. For this reason, work has effectively stopped. One round takes ages and it's not exactly portable any more. I do love this shawl, and I do want to finish it, but I lack motivation!</div>
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7) Mitred Square Sock yarn Blanket - This is an ongoing project I'm happy to spend years working on. I've been taking it to knit night recently and adding a few squares each week. I love how it's turning out and I'm content to keep chipping away at it until I decide it's big enough.</div>
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8+9) Socks - Two socks to be specific. Both of which I have no mojo to work on at all. The brown pair are a simple sock with a travelling purl stitch. I thought it would be a good plan to have a little bit of texture. Sadly I keep forgetting that purl stitch and so my lovely spirals I had envisioned, are a bit wobbly in places! The purple socks I cast on in a fit of pique a little while back. After a vile day at work I decided to cheer myself up by casting on some new socks with new needles from Dave and Elly on the FO&Dye podcast. It worked, I thoroughly enjoyed working on them. Here's the crunch though. I want to frog both of them. Because I want to try something else.......</div>
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I've been watching the <a href="http://www.sockmatician.com/">Sockmatician</a> Podcast. Nathan is a really talented man. He sings, acts and teaches and is utterly obsessed with Double Knitting. He has designed some truly stunning pieces. I'm up to episode 5 now and I'm desperate to cast on. I want to make his phone cover called <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/isanquhar">iSanquhar</a>. So I think I'll frog the socks and make the yarn into this double knitting project instead.</div>
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Don't be fooled into thinking that's all for my WIP's ladies and gentlemen!! Oh no!!!! I forgot to bring my granny square crochet blanket to photo and I haven't included the 3 spinning projects I have on the go.</div>
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The granny square blanket is another project I'm more than happy to keep chipping away at. I pick up my hook and crack out a couple of squares when the mood takes me. It might very well be years before I finish it, but I'm OK with that.</div>
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On the spinning front I have fluff on both of my turkish spindles. I have <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/nunoco">Nunoco</a> samples on one, and some pale lilac fluff I can't remember anything about on another. My wheel has Nunoco top on at the moment I think it might be Cobweb, but don't hold me to that. I plan to make a 2ply out of it. It's been on the wheel since Tour de Fleece back in July and I need to get it finished so that I can finish the project I put on hold when TdF started. I started spinning a gorgeous braid of Merino/Tencel from <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FeltStudioUK">FeltStudioUK</a>. I bought it years ago from Woolfest and was too scared to spin the gorgeous colours. I decided to bite the bullet back in June and it's spinning up really thin. I knew I wanted to make something special with this yarn, so I didn't want to lose lots of yardage by chain plying it back on itself. I didn't want to get barberpoling so I didn't want to 2 ply it. In the end I found some rather gorgeous fibre at Woolfest this year from John Arbon. It's a gorgeous blend of Alpaca, Merino and Silk in shades of light grey. I'm hoping that the grey's will make the colours of the Merino/Tencel blend pop.</div>
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So - accountability with my WIP's</div>
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I want to clear off a WIP before I start a new project. Ideally I should clear off a couple before I start a new project, but some of those WIP's are big, complex knits......... and I may be wanting to join a few KALS in the near future!!! Mel has launched a new magazine called <a href="http://www.6bitsstorybooks.com/#our-story">6 bits Storybooks</a>. There is a delightful mix of photography, knitting and words. She is having a KAL soon and there's a couple of projects I want to cast on. Then there's Woolly Wormhead's<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2015-mystery-hat-a-long"> mystery KAL</a>. I have some worsted weight yarn I need to use up and this pattern will be perfect I think.</div>
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This has been an epic, wordy blog post and I'm sorry about that! I hope to have something slightly more visually stimulating for you next time! </div>
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But it was good to catch up with you all!!</div>
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I promise to write again soon. I think I'll aim for at least monthly, hopefully fortnightly.</div>
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Thank you for sticking with me right to the bottom of the page!</div>
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Ellen x </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-23094951780633666242015-06-01T16:08:00.001+01:002015-06-01T22:47:03.078+01:00Greek Salad In GreeceI know it's been ages and I'm sorry. I said a good while ago I'd post when I had something interesting to say. Well, there's been a few weeks I've sat down to talk to you guys, but I never get around to pushing the 'publish' button. Then when I <i>do</i> think about publishing, I feel that it's been too long and I should start again.<div><br></div><div>And so the cycle continues!</div><div><br></div><div>So..... Today I plan to sit here with my brew, my blanket around my shoulders (it's chuffing freezing around these parts!!) and I'm going to tell you what I've been up to in the last week or so. Then I'm going to press publish. </div><div><br></div><div>Those of you who follow me on Instagram may rapidly become bored because there will mostly be lots of photos of my jollydays!</div><div><br></div><div>In my defense, it's been a good 6 years since our last foreign holiday. This one was only made possible by the generosity of friends and family. To those people, I am eternally grateful. I feel rested and ready to face the world again.</div><div><br></div><div>Let me start at the beginning. </div><div><br></div><div>A long time ago Matthew's parents had a yacht in Greece. Zipcode was a fabulous little craft which was moored in a town called Nidri on a little island in the Ionian called Lefkas. Now, most of you won't have heard of this place as a tourist spot and there's a very good reason for that. A rather rich man called Aristotle Onassis bought an island off the coast of Lefkas called Skorpios. Aristotle really rather valued his privacy especially when he got involved with a rather famous woman!</div><div>He encouraged the islanders not to chase the tourist Drachma by giving the island money.</div><div><br></div><div>Because of all of this, Lefkas is still a very 'Greek' island. Yes, there are hotels and tourists do visit, but there are strict rules governing the development of the island and it's still beautiful and relatively un-marred by it's visitors.</div><div><br></div><div>When we were young and fancy free, Matthew and I would holiday in Nidri for a couple of weeks during the summer. We'd buy a package holiday which gave us our own apartment and we'd sail with Matthew's parents on their boat. It's been 12 years now since we've been. Sailing (in my opinion anyway) doesn't go well with small children who have no sense of danger!!</div><div><br></div><div>In those 12 years much has happened. Matthew's parents sold their yacht and many of their friends who sailed the Ionian built villas in the area. One such couple are Barry and Trish. They're great folk. They sold up in the UK and moved to Meganissi, another island off the coast of Lefkas. Barry is a building contractor and a very tallented one at that. He built his villa and a little holiday house next door. Ever since then they've been saying we should come out and stay. It was such a generous offer, but life just didn't work out in such a way as we could go.</div><div><br></div><div>Well a few months ago while visiting Matthew's parents here in Cumbria, Barry and Trish said we were coming and that was that. I decided that by hook or by crook we would do it!</div><div><br></div><div>And so it came that on the 23rd of this month I was crossing things of my lists as I packed cases.... Oh! And I realised that we only had one suitcase! So on the Saturday before we flew out, I was in Penrith buying a new suitcase!!!</div><div><br></div><div>Anyhoo.</div><div><br></div><div>When we used to go on holiday, we always used to go to my Mum and Dad's, they'd give us a lift to the airport and pick us back up. So habits are hard to break, and we decided to do the same this time.</div><div><br></div><div>Saturday morning I packed all our things and then settled down to chill. I thought we were nearly ready to set off when Matthew declared he had to go to a friend's to pick up some wood. Ooookkaaayyyy!!!! I thought. The only way to deal with this was to cake up some yarn I'd had my eye on and start a new project. Here is my reasoning for this - I'd made myself a promise that I wouldn't cast on any new projects until my WIP list was in single digits. BUT!!! I'd packed all the little projects to take on holiday! </div><div><br></div><div>I'd been itching to cast on some hand spun for ages. I had 2 gorgeous skeins winking at me every time I passed them! The first has been spun for ages. Cornfield - a merino from Long Draw James if I remember correctly. I spun it into a half decent laceweight. I decided while I was waiting for the boys to come back that another holiday project would be ok. My Thankful shawl is an excellent holiday project. It has a simple stockinette body and a lace edging that's not taxing and easy to read. Originally I wrote the pattern for fingering weight yarn, but the beauty of these body and edging shawls is that you can keep knitting on the body until you've got about a third of your yarn left and then start the lace. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm going to make the lace edging on this shawl deeper than I'd originally designed. I'm going to knit the body until I've got 50% of my yarn left or a multiple of 29 stitches whichever happens first. This should give me a nice deep lace edging which will go well with the delicate laceweight yarn.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoJYzxHTt6Obkx19dIjl8NRNap0ZkBMuZ-aJbb2V5dwkkyHsfHcUj1H1NY1LVA4P66JZ9WmvkDXs_FyNZH_-gPUepOYSltLJanaoBkSGoNPL7u5amrby6x-5DOD7kqL3OeVod06z9fhYi/s640/blogger-image--1290998181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoJYzxHTt6Obkx19dIjl8NRNap0ZkBMuZ-aJbb2V5dwkkyHsfHcUj1H1NY1LVA4P66JZ9WmvkDXs_FyNZH_-gPUepOYSltLJanaoBkSGoNPL7u5amrby6x-5DOD7kqL3OeVod06z9fhYi/s640/blogger-image--1290998181.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Once the boys got back we set off for the Wirral. We joined my parents for a rather good roast lamb dinner, and then popped out to visit friends. My good friend Steph rather kindly borrowed my boy for the bank holiday weekend at the start of May. She was off down to Lego Land for Star Wars day. While they were there her son and mine took part in a competition to see who could build an X-wing fighter out of Lego the fastest. Ben and Peter won!! I think they were the fastest on that day but not the fastest over all. That aside, they won a goodybag of all things Lego. We went to Steph's to pick it up before we left for Greece. We had a good chat and giggle while the boys played.</div><div><br></div><div>Sunday morning dawned grey and damp. I was happy to be leaving the cold miserable British weather for a week.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK69erfCvHGOeZh2x7NTHOfmj7iXHb1R_oMVbfq3i8_tFFyFlyfui1DgxnZVs9siJhriTU3S5GpbRL7cgB51QhK9yDkfnpdRW5jNyI0VliE5wsPUkMsVsbg-d79lUfi68DVvXmnZTbozoy/s640/blogger-image-1647197383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK69erfCvHGOeZh2x7NTHOfmj7iXHb1R_oMVbfq3i8_tFFyFlyfui1DgxnZVs9siJhriTU3S5GpbRL7cgB51QhK9yDkfnpdRW5jNyI0VliE5wsPUkMsVsbg-d79lUfi68DVvXmnZTbozoy/s640/blogger-image-1647197383.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Dad's garden looks green and lush in the damp</div><br></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div>We arrived at Manchester Airport in good time. It's a great airport with lots of opportunities for a little retail therapy. I'd already decided to treat myself to a new pair of sunglasses. The Oakley pair I had are a good 8 years old now and the finish is peeling off around the lenses. I found myself a rather lovely pair of Maui Jim's. </div><div><br></div><div>We had a burger each in Franky & Benny's. I found a piece of bone in mine! Geepers, I thought, good job I didn't break a tooth! That would have ruined the holiday!</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKLfVzeni1dB8eISB470rwo41BgPZhbooJWtaev6EyqshxoIk9avZVzr3fUI0B3mpP6yNhl6CFybA3iNlFYWnZHO7kL8OlchZlUFYS7LS64LrOsZdU3g9TAm3PaWODTucNbKizQte4P_6/s640/blogger-image--1936085783.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKLfVzeni1dB8eISB470rwo41BgPZhbooJWtaev6EyqshxoIk9avZVzr3fUI0B3mpP6yNhl6CFybA3iNlFYWnZHO7kL8OlchZlUFYS7LS64LrOsZdU3g9TAm3PaWODTucNbKizQte4P_6/s640/blogger-image--1936085783.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Checking out the view while waiting for our turn</div><br></div><div>Our flight was delight about an hour but it wasn't a bad wait and before we knew it we were in the air. Since we last had a foreign holiday, Ben has decided he doesn't like to fly. He's been getting quite anxious about it. Being the good (?) phamacist I am, I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. He's not a great traveller and often gets travel sick on coaches, so I gave him a sedating antihistamine! Put him to sleep a treat on the plane and he wasn't nauseous on the coach transfer either! (Win!) </div><div><br></div><div>On Thomson Airlines now there's no inflight meal as such. You can order hot snacks from the trolley and that's about it. Matthew and I decided to have a ham and cheese toastie. It was rather good. However I found <i>another</i> piece of bone in mine! Someone out there wants me to break a tooth I'm sure.</div><div><br></div><div>The coach transfer from the airport was good. Just 45 minutes (and a rather hairy drop off at another hotel) and we were in our hotel. The hotel Bel Air is on the outskirts of Nidri town. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Good - we're away from the hustle and bustle of the restaurants and bars. Bad - we were right next to a storm drain. Lefkas is an island with huge (ish) mountains which run right down the middle of the islands and when it rains, it really rains! All that water comes running off the mountains heading for the sea. I remember 12 years ago the streets were knee deep in water after one such deluge. Thankfully because of these drains, the water clears quickly. HOWEVER, this isn't the rainy season and the storm drains are nearly dry. Not dry enough however, they're colonised by frogs and mozzies!!!</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljmrgAUwi7utGJzTXc6XqxqXRBXO9gZVQgLfhHtdhE6spEZDDTgnRtRsbXCCGyXlk2oxyNLFSfhXMl2xtpYRmywGNUe-6YzOTIF25U7IwQ6gGFFjBqphyOm6YhQS_SihwAeEudC-jhrIX/s640/blogger-image-1142015339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljmrgAUwi7utGJzTXc6XqxqXRBXO9gZVQgLfhHtdhE6spEZDDTgnRtRsbXCCGyXlk2oxyNLFSfhXMl2xtpYRmywGNUe-6YzOTIF25U7IwQ6gGFFjBqphyOm6YhQS_SihwAeEudC-jhrIX/s640/blogger-image-1142015339.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Lovely view of the pool from our balcony</div><br></div><div>So on our first night I didn't sleep at all well. If wasn't woken by the frog chorus Paul Macartney would have been happy with, I was plagued by the high pitched whine of mozzies eating me alive despite the copious amounts of repellant I'd plastered myself and the others in. The frogs gave up just in time for the traffic to start. The bin lorry arrived at 6am and I gave sleep up as a bad job and sat up knitting!</div><div><br></div><div>We had a lazy morning waiting to head off to the ferry. It was a 15 minute walk which wasn't too bad despite the fact we were dragging our suitcases along behind us. (Note to self - pack lighter!!)</div><div><br></div><div>My pathalogical dread of being late meant we were a good 3/4 of an hour early for the ferry. We stopped in the taverna opposite for a cold drink and Matthew took Ben off to show him all the old haunts. I sat and knit - well, why wouldn't you? I had to stay there and mind the bags after all.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAWS0LH-VGpozAufhMYd5vHvZOqMy-ZCgnMZ3s0bEZlj8S6V5oO3mTKHPg9UuVv3kUp4oom4wg2kYU7k6uYfbIGRgJ4t2HO-XYHSyWozQEfZMwsgulFdeLXVy45hVT8vAa1PCwZziEpE3/s640/blogger-image-1565769425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAWS0LH-VGpozAufhMYd5vHvZOqMy-ZCgnMZ3s0bEZlj8S6V5oO3mTKHPg9UuVv3kUp4oom4wg2kYU7k6uYfbIGRgJ4t2HO-XYHSyWozQEfZMwsgulFdeLXVy45hVT8vAa1PCwZziEpE3/s640/blogger-image-1565769425.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The ferry - not quite time to set off yet</div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN66c8mVfNU1Sbxdku6Np3TS5hu6c28RKBphwikdS9pcllkzLCAGBVc4AcwTJppCEGM-XUvQL_xi0pizGij6b49zbLmCBI-yS1Yogueg3vGlIOezriES9be8AD1soAJ9K8yL918f9rpZnl/s640/blogger-image-874329567.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN66c8mVfNU1Sbxdku6Np3TS5hu6c28RKBphwikdS9pcllkzLCAGBVc4AcwTJppCEGM-XUvQL_xi0pizGij6b49zbLmCBI-yS1Yogueg3vGlIOezriES9be8AD1soAJ9K8yL918f9rpZnl/s640/blogger-image-874329567.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the ferry, waiting to set sail</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOuQeM4HOzT9NG4nd7SrvVs9Zz1d94Tu6Q5VAFJ-VE-HGXjRGW01fIZ3aiFQdiEmdPW_MydncJQCxzM6H0nsylrXV4Grf3gCzxVbpYRz5uMGIjIOkddQSjW5JAtjne9PmgJBBMuFNTVML/s640/blogger-image--1792071032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOuQeM4HOzT9NG4nd7SrvVs9Zz1d94Tu6Q5VAFJ-VE-HGXjRGW01fIZ3aiFQdiEmdPW_MydncJQCxzM6H0nsylrXV4Grf3gCzxVbpYRz5uMGIjIOkddQSjW5JAtjne9PmgJBBMuFNTVML/s640/blogger-image--1792071032.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Nidri. Pretty isn't it?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3aSX4-U1Gdkfw-qLORPFSTmgghDYaYkuco5XKfgOET8e1e8G5bFhEngjmkY1dVM0zMQiXyvmfx4zQDupZHbIo_lkt29GFf43pNJTXWaG1xQ0bOb5PFiRrj9Okv-0X-MY26DWnza80pvFy/s640/blogger-image-750447221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3aSX4-U1Gdkfw-qLORPFSTmgghDYaYkuco5XKfgOET8e1e8G5bFhEngjmkY1dVM0zMQiXyvmfx4zQDupZHbIo_lkt29GFf43pNJTXWaG1xQ0bOb5PFiRrj9Okv-0X-MY26DWnza80pvFy/s640/blogger-image-750447221.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Checking out a new view</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNhEuk2184gZwIcl3vBKCsJXLHOkT0-5VkCw0nDWDsRQy63nQHsvuUwDLWFMjjgxx_sqx5GalGsiG_AwHxir_MpY60YOtEZPMUmoJfBff97Yvq4Cq4jsKiwNvHxp8pNjDJyx47ed0s0gp/s640/blogger-image--632006026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNhEuk2184gZwIcl3vBKCsJXLHOkT0-5VkCw0nDWDsRQy63nQHsvuUwDLWFMjjgxx_sqx5GalGsiG_AwHxir_MpY60YOtEZPMUmoJfBff97Yvq4Cq4jsKiwNvHxp8pNjDJyx47ed0s0gp/s640/blogger-image--632006026.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Land ho! Vathi is in sight</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div></div></div></div><div>The ferry takes a mere 30 minutes or so to get over to Meganissi. Barry was there to meet us and took us up to our villa.</div><div>OH</div><div><br></div><div>MY</div><div><br></div><div>GOD!!!!!!</div><div><br></div><div>Don't get me wrong, I've seen photos of the villa on Facebook! I knew it was beautiful, but I had no idea just how gorgeous it would be! </div><div>Brace yourselves for lots of photos - </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGcXGl2kQFGBNHOU7gGe7oZE3-zr-owHNTSHnpXzf4hECIeLYUQ3WowrsXZo_uCft8wYVJ5NNo0XmlLUXzsvoPE6GXq_2Zjj4crD_KPxj5Q61P9iNf_OlWXa6VAOmkkEy7R321jO-X5Jg/s640/blogger-image-1801873738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGcXGl2kQFGBNHOU7gGe7oZE3-zr-owHNTSHnpXzf4hECIeLYUQ3WowrsXZo_uCft8wYVJ5NNo0XmlLUXzsvoPE6GXq_2Zjj4crD_KPxj5Q61P9iNf_OlWXa6VAOmkkEy7R321jO-X5Jg/s640/blogger-image-1801873738.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is where I sat of a morning, catching the first rays of sunshine, knitting and drinking tea</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExDSosqM0wEZEcRtyDsqc8W6zBUDLQsWYg6pzSW8-n3yODvzjr-9cW_l2p6vcCTSVEurPhQatKpXYPRuy-LaPa3KhpVMO4JZY9zMqQmixMiWOf8JIleTCNcSw4V_Kl74QLmVBLK066pc2/s640/blogger-image--1638504485.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExDSosqM0wEZEcRtyDsqc8W6zBUDLQsWYg6pzSW8-n3yODvzjr-9cW_l2p6vcCTSVEurPhQatKpXYPRuy-LaPa3KhpVMO4JZY9zMqQmixMiWOf8JIleTCNcSw4V_Kl74QLmVBLK066pc2/s640/blogger-image--1638504485.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The view isn't half bad</div></div></div><div><br></div><div>That evening we all went out for dinner in Vathi at a taverna called Stavros'. Matthew's parents and brother know the family really well, as do Barry and Trish. We had a wonderful meal and were made to feel like family. Ben wasn't sure what to make of the hugs and hair mussing that went on! He's not overly demonstrative at the moment, and he looked startled to have strange Greek men bear hug him! </div><div><br></div><div>Tuesday marked the <i>real</i> start to the holiday. Barry and Trish have an infinity pool in their villa and they'd said we could use it whenever we liked. So, while the boys were still in bed I decided to go have a good swim. </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0vvbZwp72jUdzWNqN-vdL84-5Qe2CP0wZGOEXUxwZ04fGGPq5QuhL4v5SqYQRIHaNZF3JbVyAkrdNf_cR5mewmcbbXUy3_ZG603tCIuqGs2xiOM8XDH07oG6iBQlr253WG1Un7UB39lS2/s640/blogger-image--719532729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0vvbZwp72jUdzWNqN-vdL84-5Qe2CP0wZGOEXUxwZ04fGGPq5QuhL4v5SqYQRIHaNZF3JbVyAkrdNf_cR5mewmcbbXUy3_ZG603tCIuqGs2xiOM8XDH07oG6iBQlr253WG1Un7UB39lS2/s640/blogger-image--719532729.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Forgive the hazy quality of the photo - I took it through my phone case. Not a bad view from the pool</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6TSh3AZPVP3S0V029x3E_KT371cjKNSKRdjiFMiJ6KjgBr6G58QzWNLTF0sNkrfNWCcT4LgGPMARh-a7U-qvMy71KYmcs7e4PqahG9DhcmhVREiroFj8k_lcUpQdFWp-CBqRcywcU5Az/s640/blogger-image--1720387225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6TSh3AZPVP3S0V029x3E_KT371cjKNSKRdjiFMiJ6KjgBr6G58QzWNLTF0sNkrfNWCcT4LgGPMARh-a7U-qvMy71KYmcs7e4PqahG9DhcmhVREiroFj8k_lcUpQdFWp-CBqRcywcU5Az/s640/blogger-image--1720387225.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">See? I really did swim!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div></div><div>And that I did! Snag is, infinity pools aren't really designed to be properly swam in! They're for pottering and playing in. Theconsequence of me going full chat for the thick end of an hour was I flooded out their bar! Bugger!!!! Swimming in the pool was out!</div><div><br></div><div>I went with Trish into Vathi for coffee and to get some shopping in. Dear me I wasn't ready for Greek coffee! I was on a buzz for hours. When I got home, Ben whooped my arse at Top Trumps and there was significantly more knitting!</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMhXrGyKFWKB6Skwp04EHctQNTWMIvGaXx3zVwVpUXBl3APA4KxoC_iXwDSTcypuMvSb9m2Yz0LxAHtFCB5OczyW5t6ewoQ6K_4Y7LCitJhzqBSj-BjESqaYPznRvnhbucBNWJlv4l_ec/s640/blogger-image-347134753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMhXrGyKFWKB6Skwp04EHctQNTWMIvGaXx3zVwVpUXBl3APA4KxoC_iXwDSTcypuMvSb9m2Yz0LxAHtFCB5OczyW5t6ewoQ6K_4Y7LCitJhzqBSj-BjESqaYPznRvnhbucBNWJlv4l_ec/s640/blogger-image-347134753.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's wine o'clock and time for more knitting - the Arrowhead socks are well on the way to completion</div><br></div><div>We decided to have dinner in Abalaki bay. I had gorgeous meatballs and pasta. Crikey me the portion sizes are huge! I did, however, make an impressive dent in the plateful.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Wednesday was supposed to be wet. Thunderstorm wet. We were going to go round to a bay to swim, but we decided discretion was the better part of valour and stayed home. As it was the day was cloudy and there was a couple of brief showers but I was braver than that..... I sat in the sun and waited..... in the end the sun shone.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Spx0JcIggM5BoUC8SCJwMMVoXKuNF3F4_9ac3zyZMAYDZwxqtaNycYmFoGlvCWCX8zT4NPvpfI5YqxhzS0rgHIh6GlI261GcUb-9-ts9mj9hOIQkciT0Qovxr3bgEZ8MRSaZiWyawyma/s640/blogger-image-33511066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Spx0JcIggM5BoUC8SCJwMMVoXKuNF3F4_9ac3zyZMAYDZwxqtaNycYmFoGlvCWCX8zT4NPvpfI5YqxhzS0rgHIh6GlI261GcUb-9-ts9mj9hOIQkciT0Qovxr3bgEZ8MRSaZiWyawyma/s640/blogger-image-33511066.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Spot the difference? Yes! You got it! There are threatening black clouds in the sky! Ptchar I say, I'm sunbathing anyway</div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">At the end of a hard day's knitting and sunbathing we went up to Barry and Trish's for tea. Trish made the most gorgeous beef casserole EVER!! There was a whole bottle of red wine and a glass of brandy in it! Holy Sauces Batman! It was a bit good!</span></div><div><br></div><div>Oh, and I managed to finish the Arrowhead Socks. Soon I'll even write up the pattern! </div><div><br></div><div>On Thursday we skimmed stones. Simple things are the best. I cooked my own chicken souvlaki. Not bad! Even though I say it myself.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15oMKi9OWbf3DJozFaQ9LX0QF0zIr536RAnPVFf4OmSYyoh9xScOvLEyXCwTUhVtU4jwRJs9D0glhO-WfveE0f28PPukTvwLolbTw-FGHDgM4yN_TOAHs4_6NVqWZy2exawFKm9UUa75y/s640/blogger-image--1902930721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15oMKi9OWbf3DJozFaQ9LX0QF0zIr536RAnPVFf4OmSYyoh9xScOvLEyXCwTUhVtU4jwRJs9D0glhO-WfveE0f28PPukTvwLolbTw-FGHDgM4yN_TOAHs4_6NVqWZy2exawFKm9UUa75y/s640/blogger-image--1902930721.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">New socks on the needles - Pansy by British Bea Knits. Great yarn. Quick sharp colour changes. Somehwere out there the boys are swimming</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3tcaoX2wJf4pSQrGKvU3xtZvERNdx6hoFuYEob8hPJLjtWlt8vuwJ3JPW6n0IGwq_0Z4HIMRZlfwgu8BcJkVvvvIWFhBnQAkx58RxgdrxCF5KQ9R-2zlx-HObaYfyIiTTZvvzpSPxkEK/s640/blogger-image-492941633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3tcaoX2wJf4pSQrGKvU3xtZvERNdx6hoFuYEob8hPJLjtWlt8vuwJ3JPW6n0IGwq_0Z4HIMRZlfwgu8BcJkVvvvIWFhBnQAkx58RxgdrxCF5KQ9R-2zlx-HObaYfyIiTTZvvzpSPxkEK/s640/blogger-image-492941633.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Chicken souvlaki - home made this time.</div><br></div><br></div><div>Friday I decided to swim across Abalaki Bay. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought. Half way across the water was really deep and rather cold. I got cramp in my foot. It took some doing to swim through it.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUaV1TDJ2bSUpV7TaLTZ3D-d6N5wm89Imz5kxjayNffLCmYAs9Mpc7XdffY_HpryJGSk6D0fH_eQtEIwNOSJrMLhEBEgYJ0GWY92UHPGN0AW0So3dcmksyohuU1xQpkmzUosxmhWhtxJU/s640/blogger-image-1389180430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUaV1TDJ2bSUpV7TaLTZ3D-d6N5wm89Imz5kxjayNffLCmYAs9Mpc7XdffY_HpryJGSk6D0fH_eQtEIwNOSJrMLhEBEgYJ0GWY92UHPGN0AW0So3dcmksyohuU1xQpkmzUosxmhWhtxJU/s640/blogger-image-1389180430.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A change is as good as a rest - the Pansy socks are very nearly done by Friday so I decided to cast on another project. May Morning by Denise Bell. I'm using silk lace weight by Ripples crafts and beads from Hobbycraft. The pattern is really pretty and easy to remember</div><br></div><div>Saturday I started thinking about going home. A week passed so quickly. Every second was great. Ben and Matthew went for a walk while I packed up the house. They walked around to the next bay, skimmed more stones and had a great time. Me? I packed the cases, cleaned up and then took a quiet 5 minutes to finish up the Pansy socks.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqKGCzm_Sp88W8XjEyVPdtin5WEGC2SYOZqxCruyMNhuynOTalT-RiOIyTYWeKEs5YsjXRVph2Uc88kDle3qN8Bh2-vw07q8XjzIsCM3lg_tsdBHhNksS0vdOcm6fCz-w9_t17J4TYhHw/s640/blogger-image-1955665164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqKGCzm_Sp88W8XjEyVPdtin5WEGC2SYOZqxCruyMNhuynOTalT-RiOIyTYWeKEs5YsjXRVph2Uc88kDle3qN8Bh2-vw07q8XjzIsCM3lg_tsdBHhNksS0vdOcm6fCz-w9_t17J4TYhHw/s640/blogger-image-1955665164.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Waiting for that ferry at Spartahori. Sigh, it's time to leave</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDym7eRk0xrnU5MZmkwyVl_Txj7VgaxWd7pCdMBsQaKumwEnxIno8VLnDFmlxzytSfndne4pBqXm3RpGOtE5kAIG3Lv_M31risPRwML15yInIw8iGDsqXM6JjiDw-ukaTIwMNr_xYHwhZ/s640/blogger-image--721817793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDym7eRk0xrnU5MZmkwyVl_Txj7VgaxWd7pCdMBsQaKumwEnxIno8VLnDFmlxzytSfndne4pBqXm3RpGOtE5kAIG3Lv_M31risPRwML15yInIw8iGDsqXM6JjiDw-ukaTIwMNr_xYHwhZ/s640/blogger-image--721817793.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">These ferry guys know no fear. They just charge up to the landing and then put the engines in reverse. The trucks set off before the ferry actually stops moving! Scary Mary</div><br></div></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We took the last ferry back to Nidri and went back to our hotel. Ben and Matthew had a quick swim in the pool (a tad cold judging by the colour of them) while I went to the nearest supermarket and bought all kinds of mozzi killer. In the end we splashed out and bought some air conditioning. </span></div><div>On Saturday night instead of being kept awake by the cacophony of frogs, traffic and mozzies, I was woken by the wind tunnel effect of the air con unit I was sleeping under.</div><div>Sunday was time to go home. The coach to the airport didn't leave until 4.30 so we had time to spend at the hotel, we swam in the pool (still cold, but a good size) and soaked up the last few rays of sunshine.</div><div><br></div><div>We landed back in Manchester to 11 degrees and a biting wind. For some reason the airoplane didn't stop at a gate, we stopped right at the end of the skyway and had to use a set of steps to get off the plane. </div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqsPN1HTNLrBHXgVTETKawVuwriBIgwzLCgomfUAuJtnTcRZoCvgB1ZRKY_mV6HOWE7Gf6co3kX9bSTjTorpOePbBBNC4IN5EF6ub8cIN013hBLH2dAau-j15PbPcW60UuUU9U35YyYv3/s640/blogger-image--668416690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqsPN1HTNLrBHXgVTETKawVuwriBIgwzLCgomfUAuJtnTcRZoCvgB1ZRKY_mV6HOWE7Gf6co3kX9bSTjTorpOePbBBNC4IN5EF6ub8cIN013hBLH2dAau-j15PbPcW60UuUU9U35YyYv3/s640/blogger-image--668416690.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Dusk falls. So do the temperatures!</div><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We walked across the tarmac to the arrivals area. My Mum and Dad met us with the car and we set off home. Sideways rain and wind followed us home. We got home just gone midnight, sent Ben straight to bed and got the house straight. By jove it was cold in the house. We were met by 3 of the 4 cats. This was rather suprising, seeing as how they usually sulk and ignore us for a few days. The cold must have driven them home.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Today I woke stupidly early. I thought I'd get up and start working through the mountain of washing. I set the machine off and put the kettle on. I looked out of the window and saw the sun shining. Great stuff I thought, I can get some washing dry outside..... but no..... what was actually happening outside was rain. Granted the sun was shining through the rain, but it was raining none the less. There would be no drying outside today. The weather got steadily worse as the day went on. We've had sideways rain and hail! The met office has issued a severe weather warning for the next couple of days. </div><div><br></div><div>For pity's sake! It's June!! The weather is atrocious. </div><div><br></div><div>This holiday has been great. I've had a wonderful time with family and friends.</div><div><br></div><div>On the Horizon - </div><div><br></div><div>Well, the holiday is in the past, but I'm clinging onto the memories. Tomorrow I'm back at work. Wish<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> me luck I'm going in!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">On the crafting front, I've really got to focus on In Dreams now. I'm so close to the finish, I think I've got less than 20 rows to go. Snag is they're getting more and more heavily beaded.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">My cunning plan for June is to finish up some WIP's. To be honest, that was my cunning plan in May too! But I've chipped away at 3 long term projects last month. Granted I've also finished 2 projects started in May too. Oh, and I've started another 2 large shawl projects. So, I suppose my WIP list is as big as it was back in April! But my intentions are good! Honestly!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">So, it's late, I promised to press publish and I'm really tired. So I will publish this tonight. But I'll edit it tomorrow to add in some links. But just in case I don't get back to adding those links - here is the Facebook page for Shamballa. If you're interested in independent travel to Greece. Check out the page. The villa is nothing short of stunning!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/villashamballa">https://www.facebook.com/villashamballa</a></div><div><br></div><div>Have fun crafting guys. Hope to get back to you soon</div><div><br></div><div>Ellen x </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-15775036782489390362015-04-28T10:47:00.001+01:002015-04-28T10:47:21.475+01:00Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain<span style="color: red;">Right</span>,<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">Violently</span>........... When I think about colour. </div>
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My pallet consists of shades of purple and black. If I'm feeling adventurous I add in a little blue or maybe grey.</div>
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However my comfort zone is being challenged by gorgeous and talented folk. The interwebs are groaning with delicious offerings from indie dyers. </div>
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Call it Clown Barf</div>
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Call it Unicorn Farts</div>
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I call it inspirational rainbows. </div>
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There are rainbow gradients in fibre and yarn.</div>
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OOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! </div>
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The possibilities are endless</div>
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I've been lusting over fibre goodness in all manner of colours recently.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_BAllMNEZl14CX_FkDIC0A5CIuODM0OF0_DgJjJbEuJrmkixNhW3KfPBiSvD5qfSiv3VnDTynWF6Ecv2FIg0FQZQQHRszklI2T9QFri7XvQl28Blsha3SCkUAnuyGqCYfRfwR0Rosy-8b/s640/blogger-image-1655386388.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_BAllMNEZl14CX_FkDIC0A5CIuODM0OF0_DgJjJbEuJrmkixNhW3KfPBiSvD5qfSiv3VnDTynWF6Ecv2FIg0FQZQQHRszklI2T9QFri7XvQl28Blsha3SCkUAnuyGqCYfRfwR0Rosy-8b/s640/blogger-image-1655386388.jpg" /></a></div>
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This beauty is from Spunwareoverarainbow on Etsy. It's 21 micron merino and it's begging to be spun up into something truely delightful!</div>
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Mandy dyes the most gorgeous fibre and yarn. If you ask her nicely, she even spins up the fibre and sells the handspun too! Based in Canada, there might be import duty for us Brits, but her prices are really good.</div>
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Closer to home and close to my heart - Nunoco are up to rainbow tricks too!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-kUZYCc47au808qJWmse5OPxnhnqRH14U5lmm9fnNKcmQ014kGQ12wwSt2NPedsg30r07fb3MRozzFNcocY9Dhelz01aKtMZIvSotwGzAy2qlny7QvklW7jrebDR00SS2JCa1ZAXJ2dS/s640/blogger-image--842349646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-kUZYCc47au808qJWmse5OPxnhnqRH14U5lmm9fnNKcmQ014kGQ12wwSt2NPedsg30r07fb3MRozzFNcocY9Dhelz01aKtMZIvSotwGzAy2qlny7QvklW7jrebDR00SS2JCa1ZAXJ2dS/s640/blogger-image--842349646.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is Candy and Lora's Harmony Rainbow Pack. A pack weighs 150g and contains a selection of inspiring colour co-ordinating blends, merino tops, firestar, silk and noil. Is it not a thing of beauty!?</div>
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Don't spin? Don't panic!!!</div>
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HandDyedByKate in Wales will make you rainbows to knit or crochet with!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHpJ6cgjjMi0x16dZuGaNAlTkKa0gsl_c6IMQY5qL3XlYLpba68yQFt636yxQtetWLzmtdN_XX4Md9jF_h43KSq8kpOhs9H84MgT3V73hsS_j5wo4thCD2CjlSjKnTTKPynake6RJX3N8/s640/blogger-image-410419290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHpJ6cgjjMi0x16dZuGaNAlTkKa0gsl_c6IMQY5qL3XlYLpba68yQFt636yxQtetWLzmtdN_XX4Md9jF_h43KSq8kpOhs9H84MgT3V73hsS_j5wo4thCD2CjlSjKnTTKPynake6RJX3N8/s640/blogger-image-410419290.jpg" /></a></div>
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This ball longs to become super stripey socks!</div>
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What if you don't like in your face bright rainbows?</div>
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What about this from Countess Ablaze?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUlKZ-Xy0ONjh9HW7v8XX-o8RAAEYSrXkoqO7T1zi4YeaJwMe_dlCksmkLIV5WnFEdfY2PgJl7PKq_BWO-g1xANhu-MAhHiwS3szifW7oaCH-_7bf7Do_ti0it8sqGFhjyBHZ8NNDL8MA/s640/blogger-image--340897257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUlKZ-Xy0ONjh9HW7v8XX-o8RAAEYSrXkoqO7T1zi4YeaJwMe_dlCksmkLIV5WnFEdfY2PgJl7PKq_BWO-g1xANhu-MAhHiwS3szifW7oaCH-_7bf7Do_ti0it8sqGFhjyBHZ8NNDL8MA/s640/blogger-image--340897257.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is Nerds Prefer Their Rainbows Darker. A custom blend of fibre that spins up into the most stunningly subtle yarn.</div>
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What if you'd rather have yarn that's more commercial, more reproducible? Well check out Deramores online shop. The choice of rainbow yarn is myriad. Here are a couple of my favourites - </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGBHZlX8CIHe4F4xDaAzBWQamDAMUgGFhtpzk-V_nylG5bUOdyitOhq6FCJUY_ZapgHtbiyu_TC25ylTGFJY2vvd0_cv1J1F5l0CdmmIR6oqoHYBwu-w_SqAmODHLk8IXiAnUCdOqZK8t1/s640/blogger-image-931718083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGBHZlX8CIHe4F4xDaAzBWQamDAMUgGFhtpzk-V_nylG5bUOdyitOhq6FCJUY_ZapgHtbiyu_TC25ylTGFJY2vvd0_cv1J1F5l0CdmmIR6oqoHYBwu-w_SqAmODHLk8IXiAnUCdOqZK8t1/s640/blogger-image-931718083.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is <a href="http://www.deramores.com/araucania-botany-1655">Araucania Botony</a>. It's laceweight and crying out to be an airy shawl.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9dHisIK_VfS58vPdAr8YHEs88G2Fk-E3M5nCytSdW5Q-B2v80xtVQoVSgRL-DMVEEGR7EaQihLlHXMcjOdiWccf_5AAX8FMEooiW-ZgYoRKxBDpE7GtcF8VokKyy8xAb3VFrVz5NQBSL/s640/blogger-image-803928319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9dHisIK_VfS58vPdAr8YHEs88G2Fk-E3M5nCytSdW5Q-B2v80xtVQoVSgRL-DMVEEGR7EaQihLlHXMcjOdiWccf_5AAX8FMEooiW-ZgYoRKxBDpE7GtcF8VokKyy8xAb3VFrVz5NQBSL/s640/blogger-image-803928319.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is <a href="http://www.deramores.com/king-cole-zig-zag-4-ply-rhapsody-745">King Cole Zig Zag 4ply</a> in the Rhapsody colour way.</div>
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OK,</div>
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So you're now armed with yarn. What are you going to do with it!?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo75dl1cK4t6NisWa9zZOpmU2vpNhrMIhMQN8ethGJ2nQnXCC8BWwkANE6T2ti9G9wC9UISPZVV_R_lAAw7HtYvnMu5wx7Wor_dk8LQmDJzLx8dyuF6kTsJQU9McvH_OfX4OW-68B2u2ch/s640/blogger-image-1966006799.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo75dl1cK4t6NisWa9zZOpmU2vpNhrMIhMQN8ethGJ2nQnXCC8BWwkANE6T2ti9G9wC9UISPZVV_R_lAAw7HtYvnMu5wx7Wor_dk8LQmDJzLx8dyuF6kTsJQU9McvH_OfX4OW-68B2u2ch/s640/blogger-image-1966006799.jpg" /></a></div>
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From teeny tiny rainbow baby hats by Jessica M Anderson</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_N4lPMg34XTcY4jXxmrMvem0SaOb5-zTHriU6dZFLSuC-JzrS5wk8549MzX_M9Yqdg0xYpvszEbkejST4YTuDd-LV1qfx5CLRrSvOffCNdTvOtcVup9AggfssX0cZps5KjTLvPNKMOlza/s640/blogger-image-410422782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_N4lPMg34XTcY4jXxmrMvem0SaOb5-zTHriU6dZFLSuC-JzrS5wk8549MzX_M9Yqdg0xYpvszEbkejST4YTuDd-LV1qfx5CLRrSvOffCNdTvOtcVup9AggfssX0cZps5KjTLvPNKMOlza/s640/blogger-image-410422782.jpg" /></a></div>
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To stunning rainbow ripple baby blankets by Celeste Young</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRP53lEXJXpMXUJVd8c0UlrHPLF1NCxez9Ia6ywvWpuoW0kJo7ggtnrAyC4IBj-PdCymwtujOsTrEb-lbvA7bi-XLso9r-P04CjKHrMWVB-tIxiMkKQ0K4yjSvfdK2S5Dk0PjvXdWLNum/s640/blogger-image-1239706695.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPRP53lEXJXpMXUJVd8c0UlrHPLF1NCxez9Ia6ywvWpuoW0kJo7ggtnrAyC4IBj-PdCymwtujOsTrEb-lbvA7bi-XLso9r-P04CjKHrMWVB-tIxiMkKQ0K4yjSvfdK2S5Dk0PjvXdWLNum/s640/blogger-image-1239706695.jpg" /></a></div>
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To Martina Behm's stunning Endless rainbow shawl</div>
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You can find umpteen ways to brighten up your day with Rainbows.</div>
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Me? I'm off to sing a rainbow while I knit one up!</div>
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I hope you've been inspired to make rainbows part of your life too</div>
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<em>This post is my submission to the Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015.
Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet
supplies.</em><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-9492685797530158002015-01-16T15:48:00.000+00:002015-01-16T15:48:19.137+00:00The end of the challenge.So, for the last 2 weeks I've been taking part in <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">Teapigs</a> <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/tea/shop_by_category/matcha_shop#matchatab-challenge">Matcha Challenge</a>.<br />
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The challenge is simple - have a dose of Matcha Green Tea every day for a fortnight and see how you feel. </div>
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I have done just that. </div>
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What is green tea powder? </div>
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It is the whole powdered green tea leaf. By drinking the whole leaf you're getting all the goodness of that leaf. It's not like drinking a tea made from a tea leaf were you drink some caffeine, some flavonoids, tannins and some other bits and bobs, you get all the goodies the plant has stored in those leaves.</div>
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Teapigs matcha tea is made from high quality Japanese green tea leaves. </div>
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Because you're drinking the whole tea leaf you aren't going to make a clear tea you might imagine. You are effectively making a suspension. The mouthfeel is different to a normal cuppa. </div>
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As you'll know if you read last week's matcha post, you'll know that I really did not get on with hot or cold matcha. Having said that, it's s very personal thing. I know of 3 people who love matcha shots. Straight up. </div>
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That's not for me! </div>
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I LOVE matcha in juice. I've tried lots of different juices over the last couple of weeks, and I love it!!</div>
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My juicer had been the best investment I've made in a long while. It's seen plent of action too. </div>
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So far my favourite is my trusty apple, carrot and orange juice.</div>
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The only snag with adding matcha is it does turn your lovely orange coloured juice into a very dodgy brown sludge colour. </div>
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What are my results? </div>
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The packet says that it might help me feel sprightly. </div>
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Well</div>
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Erm</div>
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I don't I think I've been sprightly EVER!!</div>
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I'm a big girl who is idle at heart. I can't honestly say that matcha has increased my energy levels. In fairness there are probably more energetic corpses around! ;-)</div>
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So have I felt any difference for my matcha daily dose? Yes. I have</div>
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Another claim on the packaging is that matcha realises energy slowly over up to four hours. </div>
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I can confirm that drinking matcha in the morning has curbed my appetite. I'm usually starving by 10:30 regardless of what our whether I've eaten. But now, I'm hungry at lunchtime. </div>
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I'm going to try a second dose with my lunch and see how I go in the afternoon. I'll not me drinking matcha passed lunchtime though. It's quite high in caffeine, and I can well do without sleepless nights!</div>
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In conclusion, will I be spending my own hard earned cash on match green tea? Yup! You bet I will. I'm enjoying the juices and I think in the long run matcha might help me with my weight loss. </div>
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I'd like to thank the guys at <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">Teapigs</a> for the opportunity to try their tea. </div>
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I'd also like to ask them to save me a pot! I'm putting my order in shortly</div>
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Don't forget. If you fancy trying Matcha for yourself, you can save 20% with the code MATCHA15 </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-22928482524247998652015-01-08T07:21:00.001+00:002015-01-08T21:04:30.910+00:00Green is good for you........... Right?!I promised you a blog yesterday - I'm a complete failure. I hadn't factored in all the things that needed to be done. I ran out of time and I ran out of zing!<div><br></div><div>This blog is a catch up of the first week of 2015 and the first week of my Matcha Challenge. </div><div><br></div><div>I put myself forward when Teapigs asked for bloggers to review their product. I was thrilled they took me up on the offer. A short while before Christmas my goodies arrived. They sent me their modern matcha kit. Is it a little bit sad to like their packaging? I love the cardboard box the kit was sent in - it says tea in transit all over it! How fab is that?! </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjIk_wuyWKjO-1Z4VI-AFMiMlPvtfzFDZSSiDPe8vKiXE7FAYO2ZC77ZJ7Do9ZC90XOAB1sIsykV4QxPdSyHedOH74tK70_X19-KnrH88FmQ8Wd2YRIshM9ajpz_HnkNqh7vdtXoARSOS/s640/blogger-image-978753653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjIk_wuyWKjO-1Z4VI-AFMiMlPvtfzFDZSSiDPe8vKiXE7FAYO2ZC77ZJ7Do9ZC90XOAB1sIsykV4QxPdSyHedOH74tK70_X19-KnrH88FmQ8Wd2YRIshM9ajpz_HnkNqh7vdtXoARSOS/s640/blogger-image-978753653.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Any hoo I digress. The kit consists of a 30g pot of Matcha, a cute shot glass, an Aerolatte whisk, a 2 week check sheet, a measuring spoon and a teeny tiny button badge. Everything you need to get started. I have a warning here - that whisk has some oomph about it! Take care when making shots. I put my measure of matcha in the glass and then filled it just under halfway with cold water. When I turned on the whisk I nearly lost most of my liquid! The Aerolatte generates such a vortex, my tea nearly escaped! Just a little hint folks - put a small volume of liquid in the glass to susepnd your tea and then top up with more water. </div><div><br></div><div>So, how have I got on?</div><div><br></div><div>Day 1 was New a year's Day. Poor Matcha. It didn't have much of a hope of making me feel perky that day! I should tell you now that New Year's Day was also day 1 of my Dryathlon (my poor liver!). I drank my Matcha as a hot tea. I wasn't enamoured. Not at all. Matcha is the WHOLE green tea leaf in powder form. Not just a freeze dried tea like an instant tea or coffee is, it's the whole leaf. Consequently I find the tea has a distinct vegetable smell and taste. One of my friends nailed it when they said it smells like henna! Ping!! The light went on! That's it! It smells and tastes like henna. </div><div><br></div><div>That's a big bleugh for me!</div><div><br></div><div>Day 2 I tried the shot. Holy smokes it was vile! Thick henna liquid is not what I need in the morning. Coupled with waking with a horrendous head that if i didn't know better I'd have called a hangover, I was feeling rather sorry for myself and not enjoying my Matcha experience AT ALL! </div><div><br></div><div>Day3 - a new low for Matcha. I made a latte. I should have known better, I hate warm milk and I'd never go for a latte in a coffee bar, but in the interests of research I tried it. The smell of warm milky henna was very nearly too much. I'm a good girl though, and I drank it all up. Day 3 was vile. I had a full on migraine all day. I seriously thought about jacking the whole thing in. But my "new me in 2015" drive was still on and I had bought a juicer. Folks on line had said matcha was good in juice, so I was thinking positive thoughts. </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5O13d6Q_ie5iLLbvv5FAruFmR9uLlk3l2AaIqUUmTOZ0tCpA904vdeJ3P9cBuMDtSpU0SyC-4kZJSzV8cvckaBnYRNOpysL3lId1L8uPG6ySoTYL7mSlUCme-TOa75cPZgZSbb4PPVLCX/s640/blogger-image--952877360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5O13d6Q_ie5iLLbvv5FAruFmR9uLlk3l2AaIqUUmTOZ0tCpA904vdeJ3P9cBuMDtSpU0SyC-4kZJSzV8cvckaBnYRNOpysL3lId1L8uPG6ySoTYL7mSlUCme-TOa75cPZgZSbb4PPVLCX/s640/blogger-image--952877360.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Day 4 - Ta da!!!!! I found my Matcha Mojo. Matcha in Orange juice was a triumph!! I think how I had been feeling had been my body going through a detox of sorts. The headaches, hungover feeling, lethargy, and the upset in my innards (sorry folks, but it happened!) were all due to me flushing my system out. Sunday dawned and I felt better. Bordering on feeling good! I pottered about the house doing my chores and realised about 2pm that I hadn't had lunch for that matter, my breakfast had only consisted of my matcha/juice and a cup of tea. Hum, I thought. </div><div><br></div><div>Day 5 - juicing is king!!! Carrot, orange and matcha!! A matcha made in heaven. ;-) I loved it. </div><div><br></div><div>Day 6 - Two apples and oranges. Delish!!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvoJ2A-_DlIaHs0DVXRrOrFVq2mljxJspnY2Ccyb7xaJ2KMpHyNHHAIpbNIx7xX9IVn-vCp30fAleiX6vv6465UgX2z3Y9nRl9VoJ9PMwvyGirgwlkw4izsG5xJiUFzRBGuKLy9kuUKM-L/s640/blogger-image--1237676466.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvoJ2A-_DlIaHs0DVXRrOrFVq2mljxJspnY2Ccyb7xaJ2KMpHyNHHAIpbNIx7xX9IVn-vCp30fAleiX6vv6465UgX2z3Y9nRl9VoJ9PMwvyGirgwlkw4izsG5xJiUFzRBGuKLy9kuUKM-L/s640/blogger-image--1237676466.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Day 7 - One week in and a review. I don't think I feel that I have more energy. I'm a fat girl, so my energy levels aren't great at the best of times. The one thing I do like about matcha is the slow energy release. Normally, regardless of whether I eat breakfast, by 10am I'm starving. Even if I have a full breakfast I could eat again by mid-morning. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7lsuU0J6EsC-TVxywln-_lLT5twbHJykqMoOpYQ6Lan3jz1A46J5UuKcjBPboOEtwOXoeQv1qLymdXupIagQFa7gH72KbPtQdD_TfJYFbp2dJ9lfDO9a_W-gHw0F6O8zJgsG4sXSsUAF/s640/blogger-image--898123371.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7lsuU0J6EsC-TVxywln-_lLT5twbHJykqMoOpYQ6Lan3jz1A46J5UuKcjBPboOEtwOXoeQv1qLymdXupIagQFa7gH72KbPtQdD_TfJYFbp2dJ9lfDO9a_W-gHw0F6O8zJgsG4sXSsUAF/s640/blogger-image--898123371.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Now, I'm ready for my lunch at lunchtime. I'm back at work now, so I'm having a bit of protein for breakfast -yesterday a boiled egg, today a slice of ham (the girls at work complained bitterly about the egg! How rude?!)</div><div><br></div><div>I'm feeling positive about the next week, matcha and I are getting along fine these days. I'm playing with juicing. I've borrowed a couple of books with juice recipes in - watch this space for more information. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm exercising more. I'm swimming hard, walking whenever I can, and I'm using the cross trainer. Who knew it was more than a clothes horse! </div><div><br></div><div>I'll drop another blog post at the end of this week with a 2 week round up. </div><div><br></div><div>Will I buy more when my tin stats to look empty?</div><div><br></div><div>Yes. I think I will. I'm enjoying the mix of matcha and juice. I'm enjoying the slow release energy it seems to give. I think I'll try a dose at lunchtime for a couple of days and see how I go. </div><div>I do have concerns about the caffeine content - 70mg per 2g measure- that's almost double my usual cup of tea, but we'll see how much it affects my sleep. </div><div><br></div><div>To those of you out there who said they'd give it a whirl with me - tell me in the comments box how you're getting on with your matcha challenge. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-51521973334993670502015-01-04T20:28:00.000+00:002015-01-04T20:28:48.351+00:00All hail 2015!Happy New Year one and all!<br />
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Did you all have a good Christmas and New Year?<br />
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Here in Cumbria the weather was gentle. Cold and crisp on Christmas Day, wet and windy on New Year's Day.<br />
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We had a lovely Christmas. I worked a full day on Christmas Eve until 6pm. Matthew came and helped so that I could let the girls go home early. Normally it goes really quiet in the afternoon, but not that afternoon! It was bedlam. I had customers queued up the corridor until gone 5pm. But they were all good spirited about their waits, so all was well.<br />
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Dinner on Christmas Eve was once again provided by my MIL. She's a star!!! I was completely done in, and to be able to come home, be handed a glass of wine and a plate was wonderful. We exchanged gifts that night and Ben was completely blown away! His uncle Tony had bought him a bow. A real bow, not a toy one!!! His face lit up and he wanted to go straight outside to have a go. We suggested that flinging lethal weapons around in the dark was probably not the best plan, he reluctantly agreed.<br />
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Christmas Day dawned cold and bright. I was up for ages before the boys surfaced. I quite enjoyed the quiet time to be honest. I'm often up before them and I love the opportunity to sit and knit and collect my thoughts for the day.<br />
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We bought Ben an xBox One as his main present. We kept it until last. He'd wanted one for months and we'd said no. There's nothing wrong with the 360 he's got. It's a complete racket.There was a new game released this year that he wanted more than anything, but it was only being made for the new consoles. Honestly! These companies have us parents over a barrel. Any how, I'd saved up Nectar points all year and I had about £80 to spend so when I took that money off the price of the xBox One it made it the same price as his 360 had been.<br />
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Ben opened his presents and was happy enough, he'd got the things he'd asked for, but you could tell he was a little disappointed. Matthew had made him a shelf for his bedroom - now that he was going to have 2 xBox's he'd need some kind of way to store them so they don't overheat. He gave him the shelf and Ben was a tad bemused to be fair. I said I needed the loo, and went off to get his last present. He opened it and nearly fainted with excitement! He was made up!<br />
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We haven't seen him since<br />
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I fear he may lose muscle tone and turn translucent!<br />
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And me?<br />
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Santa brought be lovely shiny things too!<br />
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Ben bought me a ball of yarn. He went to my LYS and picked a ball of Opal Sweet and Spicy 2. It's the red onion colour way. I've knit it many times before and I love the colours. Ben know's me so well. It's funny, he went into the shop and couldn't be swayed by the owner Elaine, he knew what he wanted to get me, she couldn't suggest anything else. I've been into the shop in the last couple of days and she was gushing about how lovely Ben was, how polite and how funny it was that he knew what he wanted to get me. I'm very proud of him.<br />
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Matthew excelled himself. I got a lovely bottle of perfume. I knew I was getting that because he rang me from Debenhams in a blind panic asking me what I wanted. His other gifts where stunning. He made me a yarn bowl. He'd been out in his shed turning something for me the weekend before. It blew me away. It's made from sapelli I think. The thing I love most about it is the lip he's turned around the top so that your ball doesn't pop out! How clever is that!?<br />
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He also bought me a book. It's called Vintage Knit by Marine Malak and Geraldine Warner. There are 25 knitting and crochet patterns inspired and refashioned for today. As it stands there's not a single item of clothing in the book that will fit me, even with the reworking of the patterns the sizing hasn't been changed much. The women of the 50's just weren't my shape or size.<br />
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That said, I love it! Right now, it's full of inspiration. Stitch patterns, shapes, design features - my creative juices are flowing! I hope that one day soon, I'll knit a garment from the book, but for now, I'll just use them as a platform for other things.<br />
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My mum and dad got me a subscription to a yarn club. I'm so excited, my first installment should ship in the next couple of weeks. It's from <a href="http://www.gingertwiststudios.com/">Ginger Twist Studios</a> there are 3 installments of yarn and patterns to create lovely accessories. Each yarn is a rare British breed. I'm just too excited for words.<br />
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Matthew's mum and dad got me something different. An amplifier for my iPhone. It's hand thrown by <a href="http://www.stuartbroadhurstceramics.co.uk/-stuart-broadhurst-ceramics-on-line-shop.html">Stuart Broadhurst</a>. I love it!<br />
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Christmas dinner was wonderful. A beautiful piece of beef with all the trimmings. Again - all hail my MIL!! Dinner was topped off with a game of Monopoly. Ben had been given a Penrith Monopoly board by Matthew's parents for Christmas, we had great fun until a tide of red wine stopped play and the money had to be dried out on a heater!<br />
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On to New Year's Eve. We had been invited to a party at a neighbour's house. It was great fun catching up with folk, eating good food and drinking good wine. Before I knew it Big Ben was ringing and 2015 arrived.<br />
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New Year's Day brought a new start.<br />
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I started the <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">Teapigs</a> Matcha Challenge. For those of you looking confused right now, Matcha is a concentrated green tea powder. It's full of goodies like flavanoids and amino acids. It's supposed to give you lots of energy and make you feel fabulous.<br />
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Disclaimer -<br />
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I have been given a Matcha kit by Teapigs to try and to blog about. I haven't been paid to big up their product, rather, to give my honest opinion.<br />
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So here it is - I am on Day 4 of the Matcha Challenge.<br />
Day 1 - New Year's Day. A hot matcha tea. Was ever hopeful that matcha is a miracle cure for hangovers. As it was I wasn't really THAT hungover, more tired really.<br />
Day 2 - A shot of cold matcha - holy smoke!<br />
Day 3 - A matcha latte<br />
Day 4- Matcha in orange juice.<br />
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Ok. Thoughts.<br />
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So far I have mostly been feeling rough. Nothing specific, just rough. Yesterday I had a headache/migraine all day. My innards (not to put too fine a point on it) have been rough too!<br />
The Matcha challenge started on New Year's Day, a day I started other things too. I started the <a href="https://www.justgiving.com/Ellen-penney-dryathlete2015">Dryathlon</a> to raise money for Cancer Research (if you fancy donating you can click on the word Dryathlon and it will take you to my JustGiving page)<br />
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I think that my body is going through something of a detox at the moment which may account for my feeling lousy.<br />
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I'm thinking that the migraine yesterday was the worst of it, and I'm thinking positive thoughts that I'll start to feel better from now on.<br />
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I'll blog a brief blog on Thursday to let you all know how I feel after a full week.<br />
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It's taken me four goes to find a way of drinking the matcha that I like. The hot matcha and the shot weren't nice at all. Matcha is basically freeze dried whole green tea leaves. It's not the tea made from green tea leaves that's been dried. Consequently there's a distinct 'vegetable' smell and taste about it. It's reminiscent of sprouts, now I like sprouts, but I'm not that enamored with drinking them. The matcha doesn't dissolve. It's suspended in what ever vehicle you choose, so by the time the hot tea had cooled sufficiently to drink it, there was a definite sludge at the bottom of my cup. I was a good girl though, and swirled until I'd re-suspended it and took the full dose. The cold matcha shot was hell! In such a small volume, the resulting liquid was thick and sludge-like. It took 2 rinses of the glass with more cold water to get the full dose. I shan't be repeating that anytime soon. The latte was the worst. I should have realised it wasn't the best plan because I don't like warm milk! Eejit! The latte made be balk (sorry guys!) The milk seemed to make that veggie smell and taste worse. But I'm a good patient/guinea pig and I finished the cup, swirling the dregs to get the full dose. And so onto this morning, matcha in orange juice. Not bad!!! There's still a distinct odour of sprout about the glass, but it went down a treat!<br />
It's the way forward.<br />
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I bought a juicer yesterday, so I'm thinking that tomorrow's matcha dose may well be in a freshly juiced concoction. This morning I had a cup of tea, a matcha/orange juice and a glass of apple and kiwi juice. I didn't feel hungry until gone 1pm. This could be a good thing!<br />
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Now I've found the way I like my matcha I'm feeling happier about the rest of the challenge. Hopefully once my body has flushed the remaining muck out of my system from the festive excesses I should start to feel the benefits of Matcha.<br />
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If you fancy giving it a go, head on over to <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">Teagpig's website</a> you can get yourself the goodies to do your own Matcha Challenge use the code MATCHA15 to get 20% off. What will be your favourite way to drink matcha?<br />
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Feeling the love -<br />
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Well on the domestic front, my kitchen has been feeling the love today. We bought a kitchen unit off eBay months ago and it's finally been installed in the kitchen. It took so long because Matthew had to strip about 40 years of paint off it! I'm happy with it. One half is a cupboard with 2 shelves and the other has 3 drawers. The bottom drawer is really deep and it's now got the recipe books I use most regularly in. The cupboard had got the coffee machine, my food processor and my mixer in. So now they aren't clogging up my work surface, but they aren't so far packed away I can't get to them to use them.<br />
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On a crafting front I've done some knitting and spinning over the last fortnight.<br />
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Firstly the spinning. I've had some BFL/silk on the wheel for months. It's a commercial blend I dyed myself a while ago, a tonal purple colour. When I started to spin it I had decided to spin it right through and ply it with another fibre. As I spun it I have to say that I got bored.<br />
I seriously considered just navajo plying it and getting it over and done with. But once I had it finished, I was intrigued - how would it look plied with a contrasting colour? I had a mooch through my fibre stash and found a braid of Wensleydale/Mulberry Silk 70/30 from Juno Fibre arts. It's nothing short of gorgeous. A beautiful silvery grey and shades of purple. It spins like butter. I split the braid into quarters lengthwise and I'm spinning each quarter straight through end to end. The braid was lighter than I anticipated at 91g so I know I'll have more of my purple singles than the Juno when I'm plying the two together. Whatever's left I'll ply back on itself. Maybe I'll even have yet another go at plying from a centrepull ball.<br />
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On the knitting front, I cast on Christmas socks on Christmas morning. I wound Ben's yarn into a ball by hand, I put it into Matthew's yarn bowl and I cast on for a toe up sock. I worked up to my usual 72 stitches and then I had a peruse through the Vintage Knit book Mathew got for me. I found a rather lovely looking sweater. The stitch used throughout looked ideal for a sock. It was a kind of rib. On the first row you knit 2 together then knit into the back of the same 2 stitches thus keeping your stitch count right.<br />
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Holy moley what a nightmare! The pattern did say it was a fiddly stitch and they weren't kidding. The knitting into the same 2 stitches was tricky. I kept dropping a stitch or splitting my yarn. The fabric it made was lovely, but not worth the effort for a whole sock! I wonder if knitting the sweater on bigger needles with more drape to the work might make the stitches easier to work. As it was, not a good look for a sock. So I ripped back to the toe and started again. I'm working a simple travelling cable now. I like how it's progressing.<br />
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I've also worked on the Congo Sally socks. I've finished the first one and I'm not too far off the heel turn of the second.<br />
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What about those colourwork socks I hear you ask?! Erm, well, about that.... it seems that going up 2 needle sizes wasn't enough to make them fit. I need to work out how to make colourwork fit, so before I try again I've got some research to do. Needless to say, I've ripped them out completely. I think I'm going to work a simple travelling stitch pattern using the blue Natalie Fergie yarn.<br />
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And that's about it for what I've been up to.<br />
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On the Horizon -<br />
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I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions. I just set myself up to fail. So I have aims for life.<br />
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1 - Spin 15 in 15 - spin for 15 minutes each day.<br />
So far so good! I've spun every day so far.<br />
2 - Operation sock draw - have 12 new pairs of socks just for me.<br />
I've got 2 pairs almost half done already!<br />
3 - 40 weeks to 40 - be happy in my skin by the time the big 40 dawns<br />
I'm on the way, I've taken up the Matcha Challenge, I'm doing more exercise, and I'm watching what I eat. Fingers crossed all goes well<br />
4 - Write every day<br />
I have a page to view diary. I'm writing in it every day. Nothing too deep or meaningful, just a few thoughts<br />
5 - Be less of a potty mouth<br />
It's hardly very ladylike after all!<br />
6 - Clear some WIP's - I have 2 pairs of socks, 3 lace shawls, a cardie and a blanket on the go. I really must clear them away before I start anything else.<br />
7- Stash down! I'm not going to bring yarn into the house unless I've used up twice as much already. This doesn't include my Christmas present obviously!<br />
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I think that's quite sufficient!<br />
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I hope you all have a happy and prosperous 2015<br />
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Oh, by the way! THIS is post 100, so check out the Ravelry group for a giveaway thread. I'll close it next time I blog.<br />
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Thanks for taking time out of your day to check in.<br />
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Ellen x<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-23571630598374952012014-12-23T18:08:00.002+00:002014-12-23T18:08:17.952+00:00You wouldn't swatch for socks........... Would you?!Well you wouldn't, I mean honestly! The joy of sock knitting for me is that I know that for my foot I cast on 72 stitches and knit away on size 2.25mm needles and my socks will always fit. I must confess, that my mother-in-law may have received a lot of socks at the beginning of my sock knitting career until I hit the formula I needed to perfectly fit my foot. But still. Hey ho!<br />
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So I've decided to design some colour work socks. I'm using the yarn from my secret sock club as my base colour from <a href="http://www.nataliefergie.com/">Natalie Fergie </a>and the leftover Araucania Ranco from last month's sock yarn club as the contrast colour. Now I've knit these yarns before and I was confident that I could just knit away with no problems. </div>
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I'd charted the colour work, cast on using DPN's, knitted an endless inch of ribbing and set about working the pattern. I knit 2 pattern repeats and sat back to admire my handy work. </div>
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Hum I thought. </div>
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I transferred my stitches onto a large circular needle to try it on. </div>
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Did it fit?</div>
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Nope. Not even close</div>
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It was so tight it wasn't even funny. </div>
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It would appear that my tension while knitting colour work in the round is MUCH tighter than I anticipated. </div>
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Needless to say I've ripped it out and gone up 2 needle sizes. We'll see if that helps. </div>
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So do you swatch? I must confess that despite completing a great course on the joys of swatching by <a href="http://withmeldotcom.wordpress.com/">MSkiKnits</a> I'm still not enamoured with the process. For a large project that I'm going to spend a great deal of time and money on I will swatch, but for something little like a sock, nope, STILL not a chance ;-)</div>
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I think of each sock as a learning curve. When I come across a new technique or process, I knit according to the pattern and see what happens. I suppose each pair of socks are swatches in their own right. I'm happy to work like this, because I know I have a very deserving recipient of all socks a tad too small for me. And if they turn out too big? Well, then they're boot socks. Problem solved. </div>
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This might not work for you, and I can well understand why. So I think I'm trying to suggest you swatch. If you've never done colour work in the round, never cabled in the round, never worked in the round at all! Swatch. Because your gauge is highly likely to differ from what you're used to producing when you work flat. </div>
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That said, I'll keep chugging away at my socks, and they'll be published in the new year at sometime. </div>
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Still on the subject of socks however, I've been asked to do a workshop on sock knitting for beginners. So my question is this- if you've never knitted on a sock, what would you want to know about? </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So far I've got a section about your equipment- yarn and needles; a section on the construction of the sock; one on cuff down and one on toe up. I plan to get the attendees to knit teeny tiny ornament socks to demonstrate each version relatively quickly. I plan to design each little sock with a different</span><br />
heel (heel flap and gusset, and short row) and toe (wedge and a round toe of some sort). This way they will have the wherewithal to make 4 different socks when they go home. I'll send them off with a couple of patterns for grown up feet too. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Have I missed out anything obvious? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Feedback would be gratefully received. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">There are only 2 sleeps to go until the big Ho Ho Ho!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Are you ready? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I am. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">And if there's anything not done - tough! It's staying not done!!! </span><br />
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Feeling the love -</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I have been a good girl. I concentrated on finishing both pairs of socks I had on the go last time I wrote. Steph's are wrapped and are now sitting under her tree. Jean's are also wrapped and ready to go. I must confess to being a little worried about the colour. As I knit it, especially in the rib sections I fancied it was looking 'dirty'. A kind of grubby cream colour and I wasn't keen, but now they're washed and blocked I'm happier with the whole thing. If Jean doesn't like the colour, I can always dye them for her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I also made a crocheted hat for Ben. I used chunky yarn from Hayfield. I love the speed of crochet. Especially when you're using a 6.5mm hook! A couple of hours and it was done. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Ben wasn't up for modelling it, so here's a rather odd selfie </span></div>
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With what was left I made a new rat bed. Ages ago I made them a hammock and it's been washed that much it fell apart, so making a new on has been on my to do list for ages. Thankfully James from the DancingGeek podcast did a live episode the other weekend. The 4 hour marathon (yup FOUR hours!! And each minute was great fun) gave me ample opportunity to start and finish a new bed. This time I decided to make a tunnel-type thing. I figured having a roof would keep them warmer in the winter. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It's a hit!</span></div>
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I've also been working on the Sun Ray shawl. Remember it?! It's been languishing for ages, but I'm cracking on with it now. I've completed chart D and I'm now slogging my way up chart E. I say slogging not because its unpleasant to knit, it isn't. But I'm now up to 880 stitches and over the next 100 rows of chart E my stitch count will grow to an eye watering 1520!!!!! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Holy Stitch Markers Batman!!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So needless to say, progress is slow! And it's only going to get slower!! I think I'll just keep you updated each time I complete a chart. Otherwise you'll not see much difference from week to week!! I do lovel how it's turning out though! It's going to be utterly stunning when it's finished. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I may have has a little sock withdrawal after finishing Jean and Steph's socks. So I cast on a pair of vanilla socks using Opal in the Kongo Sally colourway. It's a fab colour with purple, fuchsia, lime green and slate grey. I'm thoroughly enjoying knitting it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">As I mentioned earlier, I'm also on with designing another sock. It's nothing fancy, but I've been itching for colour work for ages. There's not a lot to see yet, seeing as how I had to undo my first attempt, so I'll show you more next time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">33 weeks to 40. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Erm?! I've miscounted somewhere!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Last time I wrote I said I'd increase my activity. I've continued to swim and I've walked the dog further than normal. Not great, but baby steps. Yes?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">On the horizon - </span></div>
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Santa's coming!!!!!!!!!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I wish everyone out there a wonderful, restful and happy Christmas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'll be chillin', knittin', eatin' and drinkin'. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'll be working on my socks, the shawl and on the workshop notes and patterns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">On my count down to 40 I think I'll just sim to keep moving. I don't think I'll get a swim in this week, but I'll try to do some exercise each day. Wish me luck!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'm also going to do some research. In the new year I'm going to do <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">TeaPigs</a> matcha challenge, so I'm interested in finding interesting things to do with green tea powder. I can't wait to start the new year with a bang. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">So I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll write again soon </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Ellen x </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">PS - this is my 100th post! And my 100th project was listed on Ravelry this week. Whoop whoop!!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-85895733473261080722014-12-06T09:50:00.002+00:002014-12-06T09:50:47.426+00:0040 weeks to 40I've been thinking llllooooonnnngggggg and hard. For weeks in fact.<br />
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I've written to you guys umpteen times.</div>
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Each time I pressed delete not publish. </div>
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Why?</div>
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Because I had nothing to say. I spent ages wracking my brain and came up with what I thought was drivel. </div>
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Self editing can be extreme. </div>
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In all fairness, I'd written some good stuff, some could even be classed as witty. </div>
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B U T</div>
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I read some wonderful blogs. With stunning photography and thought provoking prose I looked back at what I've put out recently and decided I fall short. </div>
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I thunk and I thunk. </div>
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And I've come up with a cunning plan. </div>
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I am going to blog, but I'm not going to beat myself up about the frequency of my publications. I<br />
enjoy sharing what I've been up to. But on the whole my life is rather average. I often feel that my writing falls short of entertaining and you've better ways to spend your day than waste it here with me. </div>
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I've also been thinking about my future. As the title suggests there are forty weeks until I reach my fortieth birthday. </div>
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Well, in actual fact there are only 38, but that doesn't sound quite as snappy. </div>
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Part of my reflection over the last month or so has involved a lot of inward searching. Where am I going, what do I want to achieve, how am I going to get there and will I like myself when I get there?</div>
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Lots of questions, and frankly I've been flailing about trying to find the answers</div>
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Baby steps<br />
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Each week I hope to focus on one goal. Be it finishing a sock I'm knitting, losing 2lb of arse lard, or exercising just that little bit harder. </div>
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It's the little things that add up to a massive elephant sized achievement. </div>
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Basically I want to hit 40 running. Who knows, I might even RUN!! I want to look in the mirror and not want to cry and hide. </div>
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I'm already the thick end of 2 weeks behind, but that's ok. My first 3 tasks are - </div>
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1- make the commitment to pull myself up by the boot laces</div>
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2- swim hard. </div>
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3- get a move on with Christmas<br />
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Number 1 is easily done. I've publicly made the commitment. Now you can hold me to task if I slope off and hide<br />
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Number 2 is started. I'm swimming twice a week at the moment. I swim for about an hour each time and I do sets of 20 lengths of drill. Different combinations of strokes, arms and legs. I do work hard, but I must confess that I rarely push myself past the pain threshold. Well, on Tuesday I made a change. I decided to cut out a lot of the drills and focus on swimming hard. I changed my set to 100m of front crawl, 100m of Breast stroke,100m front crawl arms only and 100m of back stroke. I added in tumble turns. Oh dear lord!! It's so weird how just changing from touching and turning to tumble turning increases how tired I feel at the end of a set! The one thing is that I need to get a nose clip, it's most unpleasant getting half a swimming pool rushing up into your sinuses. </div>
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Number 3 is a bit wishy washy sorry. It's hardly SMART. But until today I've been rather lethargic<br />
about the whole festive season. I blame Ben. He's grown up a lot over the last year and this one is the<br />
second Christmas since he found out THAT thing (I'll not say more in case there are little eyes looking at this page). It didn't affect me last year, I think I wanted to make it as magical for him as the year before, but this time I don't know. It just feels average. It's been compounded by the fact all he really wanted was an Airsoft gun. We've discovered he needs to be 18 and accredited to have one. So that's put the kibosh on most of his Christmas presents he wanted. I'd be eternally grateful for any ideas of what to get an 11 year old boy for Christmas. My mind is completely blank. His mind is too caught up in the agony of waiting 7 years to get his gun!</div>
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In an effort to gain some festive momentum Ben, his Nana, and I went to The Winter Droving. It's a wonderful celebration of the season held in our town.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxswcNWdh9sQUD3pUFkoyRbgw3JsQFUSc2p1zIA9FATZAYpTEHFzMZlmyirBeSlZScYFqYky60J5tdACyJHaroHA1F4TtVqvhPZmraJN_ZwjAB7ZMEkOJBUUNTTSiiIcNTuVN8qbr8pH6/s640/blogger-image--2014246443.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxswcNWdh9sQUD3pUFkoyRbgw3JsQFUSc2p1zIA9FATZAYpTEHFzMZlmyirBeSlZScYFqYky60J5tdACyJHaroHA1F4TtVqvhPZmraJN_ZwjAB7ZMEkOJBUUNTTSiiIcNTuVN8qbr8pH6/s640/blogger-image--2014246443.jpg" /></a></div>
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(Ben hates having his photo taken - can you tell!?)</div>
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This year was the third year it's been held and it was nothing short of stupendous. The weather held, the town as filled with wonderful vendors selling their produce. The air was filled with gorgeous smells - mulled cider, fresh baked pizza, curry hot roasted chestnuts (we're very cosmopolitan!). Local folk sold their handicrafts from baking to art it was amazing. The whole day was topped off by a candlelit, masked procession through the streets. wow! Ben wants to take part next year, so I've been looking for masks to make. I think I've found just the thing, and I'll keep you posted with my progress next year. </div>
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Here is my video of the procession, if you're near Penrith at the end of November next year, you should definitely come and spend the day.<br />
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Feeling the love -<br />
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Gosh it's been ages since we spoke about what craftiness I've been up to. </div>
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So here it is. </div>
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I finished Lefie by Martina Behm. It was a fabulous knit and one I think I'll cast on again. I'm thinking handspun next time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3vczZud2nykfXmT_gi4VIsPEq8a6Sc-HyKmVChJluf0qNDuChoajtML0lCpAGHIcbgWBtg0QjR4rBQ2x5bAwleEidRl508grMa368slfrZcfrTXzZNJHL9UE5cKVy96q-CjAi67SuAiW/s640/blogger-image--1043423032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3vczZud2nykfXmT_gi4VIsPEq8a6Sc-HyKmVChJluf0qNDuChoajtML0lCpAGHIcbgWBtg0QjR4rBQ2x5bAwleEidRl508grMa368slfrZcfrTXzZNJHL9UE5cKVy96q-CjAi67SuAiW/s640/blogger-image--1043423032.jpg" /></a></div>
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Did you notice the artful angle of my photo? I've been reading Stephanie the chief <a href="http://spacecadetcreations.com/blog/">Space Cadet's</a> blog posts on improving your project photos. She says to shoot ACROSS your project. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjni8GYatxIRfgve3DPv8lziZf7ANNaTuPyRL1SD3RVI8WPJlnKE7l7S7IXLO1DVTt-trsN8YigqQ5GX2zU1jPSDWn6-nzWerixEQWiOcVf3SDoZksgMXxpMSPsgqE6F-VoKgXWdd93briC/s640/blogger-image-440150022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjni8GYatxIRfgve3DPv8lziZf7ANNaTuPyRL1SD3RVI8WPJlnKE7l7S7IXLO1DVTt-trsN8YigqQ5GX2zU1jPSDWn6-nzWerixEQWiOcVf3SDoZksgMXxpMSPsgqE6F-VoKgXWdd93briC/s640/blogger-image-440150022.jpg" /></a></div>
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This is Maddie from my knitting group modelling Leftie. Can you see the lovely artwork in the background? There are so many beautiful things in the gallery. I could happily go broke there!</div>
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I've also finished my first sock club socks. My first yarn was Opal from their Little a Prince range. I decided that as far as possible I would avoid vanilla socks for my sock club, so I went for my Scalloped a Tulip Socks. I know I shouldn't be quite so delighted with myself, but the combination of yarn and pattern is lovely. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4NoN_a1_nxDrCNjdrxX-578fuQMeUhzdus8TkUR3JekgyZzcrttqJ2Sn5sH-qHxzYMocQjGU5flDJFPo3TMSA7Jn_5AUlIqavjHMin0gsdt18Qsv9CZLyyFAG7vytsozSAqJPhHtju41/s640/blogger-image-1301903263.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4NoN_a1_nxDrCNjdrxX-578fuQMeUhzdus8TkUR3JekgyZzcrttqJ2Sn5sH-qHxzYMocQjGU5flDJFPo3TMSA7Jn_5AUlIqavjHMin0gsdt18Qsv9CZLyyFAG7vytsozSAqJPhHtju41/s640/blogger-image-1301903263.jpg" /></a></div>
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Since I last wrote, I've knit another sample of my Thankful shawl. I knit it because I wanted to test my re-writes of the pattern. I published it and I'm delighted with it. A few people have even queued it! I'm eternally grateful to my test knitters HarryCat1 and Kateblu2001. Their input has been invaluable. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhML4_wBpDRV9BNcC9Y-eFmtqe0LViLsPBR2eGwWwTajwV7gZiKprHOo3lSIH7zTZUunWsW3P4EDYTjcyPHCtmv8vIjmxZ76LvBqmxOXOV2jj1tmGPbQc1AL7FiS5j9P4krsRvkoOOQ4_Qu/s640/blogger-image--412105713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhML4_wBpDRV9BNcC9Y-eFmtqe0LViLsPBR2eGwWwTajwV7gZiKprHOo3lSIH7zTZUunWsW3P4EDYTjcyPHCtmv8vIjmxZ76LvBqmxOXOV2jj1tmGPbQc1AL7FiS5j9P4krsRvkoOOQ4_Qu/s640/blogger-image--412105713.jpg" /></a></div>
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It's will be soon on it's travels and I hope Mel likes it. I used Nimu yarn again. This time I picked her Torva base. A rather delectable blend of merino, cashmere and nylon. It was a joy to knit and it's blocked out a treat. </div>
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I've cast on new socks too. My second sock club yarn is Araucania Ranco Solid in a natural cream colour. I'm knitting Cookie A's Kai-Mei socks for Jean for Christmas. It's a satisfying knit and surprisingly the ribbed leg didn't completely sap my happiness! The foot has an interesting pattern that's easily remembered. I really need to motor on, I've finished the first one and I need to guard against second sock syndrome. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3T7XnwK0CHoFcgLHpZca8XqzORgUK3Roj8ISf6QwQyTqby4CyW6GD8g7fCuFiXybl8Zn1zYd-Co0ZWKRTvSZ9UIabW1CafeR3gxUwVqzRBHzz_hZ5BOW2EiuQAw2VCEhU0F7MC6WPV1-/s640/blogger-image-2024591065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3T7XnwK0CHoFcgLHpZca8XqzORgUK3Roj8ISf6QwQyTqby4CyW6GD8g7fCuFiXybl8Zn1zYd-Co0ZWKRTvSZ9UIabW1CafeR3gxUwVqzRBHzz_hZ5BOW2EiuQAw2VCEhU0F7MC6WPV1-/s640/blogger-image-2024591065.jpg" /></a></div>
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I've finished the first of Steph's Christmas socks too. I really need to pick the second one up and get it finished. I'll need to drop it off at Steph's shortly. There just aren't enough to hours in the the day are there?! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wl_im5J5Tf5J7ZcR55y_4fV-6_Dc0Adf6OXC2T-YuZAqTEBiQ9X_uJFUVcq3EM54Pb8ZsbXsKziV6wqSTJkVbN76XgogzhA56zRElBBgGFOW-u4FKcv5D92NrFjOVdKyiy2lMbGgOotR/s640/blogger-image--643667344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wl_im5J5Tf5J7ZcR55y_4fV-6_Dc0Adf6OXC2T-YuZAqTEBiQ9X_uJFUVcq3EM54Pb8ZsbXsKziV6wqSTJkVbN76XgogzhA56zRElBBgGFOW-u4FKcv5D92NrFjOVdKyiy2lMbGgOotR/s640/blogger-image--643667344.jpg" /></a></div>
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I have also worked on the In Dreams shawl. I think I've just about worked 2 rows in a month, so it's hardly worth showing you a photo, but I'm hoping to get back to shawl knitting as soon as I clear some socks! </div>
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On the Horizon - </div>
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A return to blogging with regularity </div>
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Putting up the Christmas tree. Ben is pestering. But I've no idea where it's going to go. Matthew keeps putting large pieces of furniture in tree sized spaces!</div>
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Finish 2 pairs of socks</div>
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The matcha challenge - heard of it? Matcha is a green tea from <a href="http://www.teapigs.co.uk/">Teapigs</a>. It's been ages since my last order from them (bulk buying is great!). Teapigs make the most divine teas. They use real leaves, not that icky dust that you usually find in teabags. I digress, back to their green tea. Matcha is a concentrated green tea powder you can make into a simple brew, or add to shakes, juices and you can even bake with it! It's packed with antioxidants and other goodies that will help give you a kick up the bum and help you feel fab. </div>
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I'm thinking of giving it a whirl. Who knows?</div>
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Week 37 of my 40to40 challenge. I'm going to increase my activity. Hold me to it guys!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-69503254945506165112014-10-19T22:37:00.000+01:002014-10-19T22:42:28.525+01:00I need a rest!Good evening good people<br>
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How the devil are you all?<br>
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Well?<br>
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I am, I could do with a lie down as I've hinted at already, but I'm well.<br>
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In a couple of hours I'll retreat to my bed and before I know it, it will be time to get up and get back on the hamster wheel of life.<br>
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Once again my weekend is a blur.<br>
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I finished work on Friday, went straight to the leisure centre where Ben does karate and did a 30 minute swim while he trained. Once he finished, we went home and had a very quick tidy around the house while we awaited our guests.<br>
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This weekend our friends the Fisher's came to visit. It's been ages since we've seen them, so it was great to catch up on. We had a wonderful night chatting and a smidgen of alcohol may have been consumed. I had a very productive night - more on that soon.<br>
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Saturday was an odd kind of a day. The boys went out to gather wood for our worryingly empty wood store.We ladies (and Ben bless his heart) mooched about the house, psyched ourselves up for a brief jolly around town before heading to the supermarket for something to eat for dinner. Once we collected supplies we then retired back to the house to start the roast dinner. The Fisher girls where rather surprised to find me with my hand firmly inserted up a chicken's backside (well, in actual fact I was loosening the skin over the breast, but that doesn't sound nearly as funny). Chicken suitably stuffed and prepared, it was unceremoniously dumped in the oven while we went to play in the pool.<br>
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Now at this point, I should clarify that when I take kids to the pool for a fun session, it is not my habit to get wet. To me the pool is for swimming in not playing in. I swim up and down for an hour or so and get out. The idea of playing about in the pool is alien to me. When I suggested taking the Fisher females to the pool I had forgotten that the junior-most Fisher is only 6 and therefore needs to be accompanied in the water. I gave serious thought to leaving Mrs Fisher in the water with her two girls and Ben while I sat in the spectators area and knitted. <br>
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REALLY - serious thought!!!<br>
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But in the end I decided that it wouldn't have been the most charitable plan to leave them all to it in the water while I chilled on a bench with a brew and a knitting project.<br>
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So I got wet. To my delight and the kids' disgust the inflatable which is usually present in the fun session was broken so there was less splashing and buggering about. The pool was still busy though. Ben and Mollie (the eldest Fisher child and a confident swimmer) did their own thing, racing, diving and generally having a whole lot of fun. Mrs Fisher, Sophie (the 6 year old) and I all hung out together. Sophie is not as confident a swimmer as her big sister, but she did really well swimming her first 50 metres! Go Soph!!!<br>
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At the end of a surprisingly quick hour we got out and the kids had a slushie each to refill their sugar tanks while Mrs Fisher and I had that brew I'd been fantasizing about.<br>
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Despite my reticence I thoroughly enjoyed myself.<br>
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Once home preparations for dinner where in full swing and all went well. The evening was dedicated to wine and helping Mrs Fisher get to grips with crochet. She is a fellow leftie and had struggled to conquer crochet in a predominately right-handed world.<br>
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She did fantastically! I think she's set to crack on by herself. She made a good start on a granny square and has a crocheted teddy bear in her sights. I wish her all the luck in the world. Hopefully next time I see her that teddy bear will have many crocheted friends.<br>
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Feeling the love -<br>
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This week has been all about the crochet. My knitting and spinning projects have been mostly ignored.<br>
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The wheel has had a couple of rotations. My socks have had a couple of needles filled. My shawls have looked longingly from their bags at the outside world, desperate to feel the love.<br>
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My attention has been almost exclusively aimed at my sock yarn blanket. On Friday night it was finished. I say Friday night, but in actual fact it was silly o'clock on Saturday morning when the end got woven in.<div><br>
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By later on Saturday morning the kids where already fighting over who was going to snuggle under it! I mean, there is no shortage of crochet blankets in this house! But the newest one is the favourite.<br>
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Saturday I faffed. I faffed on my sock club socks, I faffed with my shawls (both of them!!) I even spun some. But my focus was on Mrs Fisher's crochet hook, so not a huge lot was achieved.<br>
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Today is Sunday. I have mainly been doing the housework I should have done over the last couple of weeks. In between loads of washing I've been flitting over many of my projects. I even felt my fingers twitching towards the bag which contains my Hana Hou remains!! Don't hold your breath, but it may get cast on again soon.<br>
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On the horizon -<br>
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Next week is a week to survive. I am on holiday the week after, so I'm definitely on the countdown. So is Ben bless him, it's half term while I'm off. To start the holiday we'll be heading down to my mum and dad's house for their 40th wedding anniversary. After that, I'm not sure what we'll get up to. I can assure you that I should be catching up on the month's worth of housework I've been ignoring over the last few weeks (I'm a social butterfly! What can I say?)<br>
However, I'll probably take Ben somewhere for a couple of days. We'll see.<br>
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On the crafting front, it'll be a minor miracle for anything to get finished any time soon. I'd love to get chart 3 finished on the In Dreams shawl. I've made some progress on Leftie,wouldn't it be great to cast that off!?<br>
Wouldn't it be a minor miracle to get a sock or two finished!<br>
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We'll see<br>
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Hopefully it's going to be a really short week, followed by a really restful one!<br>
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Fingers crossed!<br>
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Have a great week guys!<br>
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Ellen x</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-18349244778920487802014-10-13T23:34:00.000+01:002014-10-13T23:47:46.746+01:00A blog post of Two Halves<div>
Last weekend I wrote to you. Honest, I did!!!!</div>
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I saved it and neglected to press the publish button! </div>
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There are days I worry! ;-)</div>
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So, here are last week's thoughts - </div>
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<b>Ailments are like buses-</b></div>
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You're waiting at the bus stop for ages, then two come along together.<br />
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My back continues to annoy me, then WHAPPOW!!! I get slammed with Ben's back to school cold! </div>
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Where's the justice in that?!?</div>
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I'm not playing this game anymore!!</div>
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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 ;-)</div>
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Feeling the love- </div>
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Do you remember my cunning plans from last week? Finish Hapa and finish at least one of my opal socks? </div>
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I've achieved neither! </div>
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It's not that I haven't been knitting. I have. But not on those projects. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!! </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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On the horizon - </div>
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I'd really like to say that I'll put In Dreams down and work on Hapa and my socks. </div>
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I'm not sure I can though! </div>
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It's such a lovely project. </div>
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Who knows. Maybe when you come back next week I might surprise you all with an FO. Maybe even a HO!!</div>
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But don't hold your breath!</div>
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<b>Shamed into writing - </b></div>
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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. </div>
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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 <a href="http://withmeldotcom.wordpress.com/words-with-mel/">WithMelDotCom</a>. Mel mentioned my blog and I thought that I'd better write something quickly!! </div>
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Thank you Mel for making me get my finger out and write again!! </div>
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So onto the nitty gritty. </div>
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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 <i>all </i>life there! Blackpool is something of a Mecca for hen and stag weekends. My eyes were opened I can tell you! </div>
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Moving swiftly on!! </div>
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We went to the <a href="http://www.visitsealife.com/blackpool/">Sealife centre</a>, we went up <a href="http://www.theblackpooltower.com/">Blackpool tower</a>, watched the sun set in the Tower's coffee shop and looked at the <a href="http://www.blackpool-illuminations.net/">Illuminations</a> from the tram. </div>
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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. </div>
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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 <a href="http://www.johnsonsofbondstreet.com/">Johnson's Wool & Needlework</a>. 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).</div>
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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. </div>
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Note to self - invest in a learn yerself tatting book ;-) or bob down to Zena 's for a quick lesson. </div>
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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 ;-)</div>
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We left Blackpool early on Sunday morning because Ben had a karate competition. I must thank Hazel of <a href="http://www.papillonhotel.co.uk/">Le Papillon Hotel</a> for getting up at such a horrible hour to see us off with bacon butties. </div>
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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. </div>
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Before we get onto the knitting, here is a quick montage of the weekend. I hope you enjoy it</div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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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.<br />
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Huge apologies to Stephanie of Space Cadet Creations for the rubbish "bush" background!! In my defense I took this photo before I read your<a href="http://spacecadetcreations.com/2014/10/10/taking-better-project-photos-backgrounds-for-project-portraits/"> blog</a>! - a must read by the way.</div>
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I have a HO too. I finished the first of my yarn club socks. </div>
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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.<br />
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I'm not sure you can really see the difference in this picture, but from where I'm sitting it looks good - honest. </div>
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The love has been liberally spread around over the past few weeks, so I thought I'd do a quick recap. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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Sun Ray is now almost halfway done. I'm at 800 stitches per round, so progress is slow but still very satisfying.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> As always lace looks like nothing on earth until it's blocked and sadly it's crushed onto a woefully short needle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">In dreams is also progressing nicely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It's so pretty! I just want to look at it! The beading is slow going, but I do enjoy it. I'm loving watching the pattern emerge. A stunning creation </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'm excited by the contrast in colour. I'm hoping that it will barber pole nicely and I'll get some lovely colours shifting throughout the piece. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">On the horizon - </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> in an effort to have progress to show you next weekend. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Have a great week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Ellen x </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-66611475342418501362014-09-21T10:34:00.001+01:002014-09-21T12:39:56.861+01:00I Can't Think of a Good Title, So This Will Have To Do!!Good morning good people <div><br></div><div>How the devil are you?</div><div><br></div><div>It's a beautiful day in Cumbria. The sun is shining and the sky is a gorgeous blue. I look out of my window and I can see fog burning off the Eden Valley below me. The birds are singing their hearts out and I feel all is well. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Dtp9K1oJ6Blgjif2x54n3QtqHgAQlsVnY0v73QiEsEFMF1_q9rfHOmL1P7qPjW_ZrQYfhmN2r1qGPl6vZgoDdd-e7KFNaxeKIUGc4wqWG9o5hHX4BP70qmZsCzrOffGkVqvM1oj2nkIy/s640/blogger-image-1148788428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Dtp9K1oJ6Blgjif2x54n3QtqHgAQlsVnY0v73QiEsEFMF1_q9rfHOmL1P7qPjW_ZrQYfhmN2r1qGPl6vZgoDdd-e7KFNaxeKIUGc4wqWG9o5hHX4BP70qmZsCzrOffGkVqvM1oj2nkIy/s640/blogger-image-1148788428.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Last week when I wrote to you I had just been signed off work. I felt posistive that some rest would sort it out and all would be well. </div><div><br></div><div>How wrong I was. </div><div><br></div><div>On Sunday I decided to cheer myself up and dye my hair. I was so careful washing the dye out. Taking extra care with my back. I felt chuffed with the colour and leaned forward to wrap a towel around my hair and BANG!!!! Something went. Big time. </div><div><br></div><div>I stood there and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was so ridiculous. </div><div><br></div><div>The consequence of this was that I spent the week trying to recover from the excruciating back pain I caused on Sunday rather than the just plain bad back pain I had on Thursday. This means that when I went back to work on Friday I actually had more pain than when I went off the week before. </div><div><br></div><div>"Nuts" thought Ellen. </div><div><br></div><div>I've given up on the painkillers as they make me sick before I can take enough to help with the pain. </div><div><br></div><div>So essentially I'm no further forward. But the physiotherapist and doctors agree it's not sciatic so I don't qualify for a scan. Basically I'm none the wiser and neither are they. </div><div><br></div><div>So I get on with it. There are folk out there worse off than me. Enough about the back then. </div><div><br></div><div>But thank you for your well wishes over the past few days, they were greatly appreciated. </div><div><br></div><div>Feeling the Love - </div><div><br></div><div>You'd think that a week off work would mean I have lots of progress to show you today. Bless your heart 😉</div><div><br></div><div>The consequences of taking the painkillers was a very fuzzy brain which was unable to focus on anything for a decent amount of time. </div><div><br></div><div>I had it in my head that I wanted to finish Hapa. I'm making the largest size and my erratic counting of garter rows means that my shaw is likely to turn out somewhat larger than Mel planned. I have plenty of yardage so I've no worries about running out of yarn. </div><div><br></div><div>I kept slogging away at it and I'm very close to the end. I've got the last couple of stripes to do before the split. I think that I may have gartered myself out. I was struggling with the fact that there were just too many stitches on my cable. I've swapped to a 150cm cable now and it's less crushed and I'm hoping that by next week it should be done. Fingers crossed </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNK_1npIZB2zKHaM5x6c7WlNQw9QVVUcIfKCQT63SsHsEaNL301kLvqXn3IurGijr8UDxyPXwIf8TEXBF5SYgFmUMFI8zjJ3byM5jAp5tos84E_g57d19zYZT0HMs_F9YHQiummT0xcDVI/s640/blogger-image-836090070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNK_1npIZB2zKHaM5x6c7WlNQw9QVVUcIfKCQT63SsHsEaNL301kLvqXn3IurGijr8UDxyPXwIf8TEXBF5SYgFmUMFI8zjJ3byM5jAp5tos84E_g57d19zYZT0HMs_F9YHQiummT0xcDVI/s640/blogger-image-836090070.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Monday was the cast on for my "Knitstostaysane Sock Club". I may be a little obsessed with my new sock! I'm using Opal sock yarn, a yarn with blues and pinks from the Little Prince range. 😍 and I'm knitting my Scalloped Tulip Socks - a free pattern on Ravelry </div><div>I'm sorry but I may have spammed Instagram a little with progress pictures!! </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5yVsvIXwP825B1U2YYiGHss34-dEV3FOMSuzZnUwkGlGVC7AifLU7O9MbEodohRLaq7nmaXkjoGKGttl7yaKWiVwXn7CXGNqfGAGiIWp0FXb782K2kuTSyhv4JvFNSZq8eI6cync_muc/s640/blogger-image-69334120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5yVsvIXwP825B1U2YYiGHss34-dEV3FOMSuzZnUwkGlGVC7AifLU7O9MbEodohRLaq7nmaXkjoGKGttl7yaKWiVwXn7CXGNqfGAGiIWp0FXb782K2kuTSyhv4JvFNSZq8eI6cync_muc/s640/blogger-image-69334120.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>What can I say?! It's pretty!! </div><div><br></div><div>The only other project to see any action this week is my 'I Dream of the Sea' shawl. What you see here is my second attempt. I started using 3.25mm needles as instructed in the pattern, knit until the beading was supposed to start and pinned it out. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm using recycled yarn from a commercial sweater and I'd put it at a cobweb weight. Consequently the sitches looked too wispy, too pulled out of shape when I pinned the work out. I asked the girls in the Evenstar Ravelry group for their opinion and in the end I ripped back and started again with 3mm needles. I'm much happier now. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlfju_n-6K1QK2c_WAyC131wixslxvNLKISCZa-WQmmoGpfmDx3Nq_Nxsxc4M4M1aw2o3K59nf118s3N6ku52hmB0gCq3MqWBlT4ULetzBNHCNlVZxNgV2zBslJOVL1Gj5OnpWM8pQ-4K/s640/blogger-image-1036939663.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlfju_n-6K1QK2c_WAyC131wixslxvNLKISCZa-WQmmoGpfmDx3Nq_Nxsxc4M4M1aw2o3K59nf118s3N6ku52hmB0gCq3MqWBlT4ULetzBNHCNlVZxNgV2zBslJOVL1Gj5OnpWM8pQ-4K/s640/blogger-image-1036939663.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>You probably won't see this project often, only when I reach milestones. I've no plans for finishing it any time soon. I don't want it to become a chore. It's far too much work to get sick of it and let it hibernate. </div><div><br></div><div>On the Horizon - </div><div><br></div><div>I'm hoping to finish Hapa this week. </div><div><br></div><div>I'll definitely finish one sock. It would be great to finish the pair, but honestly it's unlikely </div><div><br></div><div>I'll work some rows on the In Dreams shawl </div><div><br></div><div>I really need to cast on another sample and re-write my new shawl pattern. </div><div><br></div><div>Have a great week guys </div><div><br></div><div>Ellen x </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-76644347324087644132014-09-13T15:43:00.000+01:002014-09-13T16:00:42.795+01:00A New Slice of Crazy PieGood morning folks<br>
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For the first time in 12 years I have been signed off work. I'm gutted! My back has been bothering me for ages now, and finally I've given in to peer pressure and gone to the doctor. She gave me some pain killers and told be to go home for a week.<br>
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So, here I am, lying on my bed a little bit puddled but feeling better.<br>
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Let me catch you all up on the last couple of weeks.<br>
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Ben's start at new school has gone well. He's happy as a sand boy and doing great. He's loving his new school, all the new subjects he is taking and is thriving. I'm still having kittens each day, but he's taken the whole thing in his stride and seems frankly confused by my worry! That's the way to be though, yes?<br>
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Last weekend was our local Village Show in Askham. For the first time ever I decided to enter. I put 4 entries into the Handicrafts section and one into the Photography section. Matthew entered too. He put in a turned box he'd made.<br>
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Considering it was our first time out, we did rather well!<br>
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Matthew got a first for his box, and I got 3 firsts and 2 seconds. I'm really chuffed. I'm delighted for Matthew, he always sees the faults in his work. No one else can see these faults, but he's never totally happy. It was lovely to be able to prove to him that his work is great! Someone completely neutral thought his handiwork was excellent.<br>
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I'm already planning next year's entries. My sensible brain tells me that there is little point seeing as how I've no idea what the categories will be next year, but my competitive brain says "Get crafting!"<br>
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In other news, tomorrow Sunday 14th September is the next grand cast on in the Evenstar KAL group on Ravelry. We're all casting on In Dreams by Susan Pandorf. Feel free to join us in a huge slice of crazy pie! I've completed the swatch ready for tomorrow and I'm really happy with the bead and yarn combination. When the beads arrived I was worried about how blue they were. But when they're threaded on the yarn they look great. I can't wait to cast on. </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_t5YdWnWTCMyaGlT77tIoki3m00AQRWerbLQzh0oKBUpx504Mv1GZA47b-maJHilki6WAFxinKlbminPCbdOQ1Y6XCY955_z6SK0CmTqya5fo8cND-LlzuI-7Ai7n1ivoaoUwUMZlYSl/s640/blogger-image-2048868407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_t5YdWnWTCMyaGlT77tIoki3m00AQRWerbLQzh0oKBUpx504Mv1GZA47b-maJHilki6WAFxinKlbminPCbdOQ1Y6XCY955_z6SK0CmTqya5fo8cND-LlzuI-7Ai7n1ivoaoUwUMZlYSl/s640/blogger-image-2048868407.jpg"></a></div><br>
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Feeling the love -<br>
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Another slice of crazy pie was started on Monday this week. A friend tagged me in a photo on facebook.<br>
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It seemed that I just had to 'knit' this for her husband. After I finished ranting about the differences between crochet and knitting I found the pattern and mailed it to her (it's free on Rav, so don't panic about copyright infringement!).<br>
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However, the more I thought of it, the less I could resist the gravitational pull of that lump of crochet! (That's no planet!!!) Before I knew it I had some sock wool and a hook in my hand and a Death Star was under construction!! The simplicity of the pattern was ideal seeing as how the pain radiating down my legs was quite distracting and I just couldn't concentrate on my other projects!<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZVqyHmoOIy0g05Cd-nHCh5TOPCjCElVoH6IRDVRfosRkk-do_Jg5jdOYKIs4R2mYY_7ck_xGfAtQAwNck9Uo9BLVUtgjGTlOzIv4pg23AIEAkj2EgBE3s5SU3yLKV_Fe5uota49VVS3M/s640/blogger-image--1586852870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZVqyHmoOIy0g05Cd-nHCh5TOPCjCElVoH6IRDVRfosRkk-do_Jg5jdOYKIs4R2mYY_7ck_xGfAtQAwNck9Uo9BLVUtgjGTlOzIv4pg23AIEAkj2EgBE3s5SU3yLKV_Fe5uota49VVS3M/s640/blogger-image--1586852870.jpg"></a></div><br>
I finished it on Friday. I don't think it looks too much like one of those Pinterest fails you see, but I think I'll need some lighter grey yarn for the stitch details next time. It was fun to make and Ben quickly decided it was his! I have, however, discovered that lots of folk need crocheted Death Stars in their lives so I now have a waiting list for them! Saints preserve us!!!<br>
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The enforced inactivity has made me think long and hard about my WIP list. I really need to clear the decks somewhat so I also finished Ben's socks. I had been hovering around the heel turn for ages and seeing as how he wanted them to be ankle socks, they were so close to being done it was silly to leave them any longer. Besides which, the rate Ben's growing at the moment, he'd be out of them before he got to wear them!!<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpIW7Wh3Q6NKoVy9HqtjyQMpJiKtKczQx8mkNg_pwDehWCqw-H8RiQ0OSZjUkJzvEOjqni9zmXSbvcJzlaKeWeTemJTWAQC-bA8EEkhRttfzST_HpuX_9jLAu17BUP7TBF15XajOqVcNPe/s640/blogger-image-798885634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpIW7Wh3Q6NKoVy9HqtjyQMpJiKtKczQx8mkNg_pwDehWCqw-H8RiQ0OSZjUkJzvEOjqni9zmXSbvcJzlaKeWeTemJTWAQC-bA8EEkhRttfzST_HpuX_9jLAu17BUP7TBF15XajOqVcNPe/s640/blogger-image-798885634.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's an awful photo, sorry, but to be honest I just couldn't be faffed! How bad is that? My artistic mojo seems to be being squished by painkillers. Harrumph. </div><br>
The next WIP on my hit list is a project I haven't even told you about!! It's a great pattern by my good friend MSkiKnits. This woman's talent knows no bounds. I love this shawl. It's called Hapa and it's a lovely blend of two yarns. The colours are combined in a way completely new to me, so there's no carrying yarn up the sides of the piece, no floats, and no ends to weave in. Joy of Joys!!<br>
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I'm using 2 hand spun yarns that I spun ages ago. They are by no means perfect - thick and thin, over and underspun, erratically plied. They really don't have much going for them! Someone once said you should use your hand spun quickly, or else as you get better you won't want to use it because you'll only see it's faults.<br>
How right that person was! As I'm using these yarns I'm seeing nothing but their flaws; but despite this, I love how they're knitting up. The crispy, overspun areas seem to be softened in the fabric; the thick and thin areas add character to the rustic garter stitch pattern. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.<br>
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What amuses me no end is the fact that despite me being a reasonably accomplished knitter, I still can't accurately count garter stitch rows!!! I kid you not! I actually had to watch a YouTube video! Any how, after that confession, I'd say that I'm probably about a quarter of my way through the knit. I think it'll become my mindless knitting. The soothing regularity of the garter stitch may become my salvation in the weeks and months to come as my other lace projects progress.<br>
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I have also worked on the Sunray Shawl. I've been faffing around with needles for ages. I had been using brass finished Addi needles. I love my Addi's but I was finding the brass finish too 'grippy. I like my lace stitches to slip over the needles. I was also finding that the 100cm cable was just too short now that I'm over 600 stitches in the round. I decided to go back to my Knit Pro interchangeables. Now, I now the wooden tips are more grippy than the brass, but I have a 150cm cable for them and I thought that some of my problems stemmed from the fact my stitches where becoming crossed over as they were crushed on the cable. I transfered the stitches over on a rest row and then tried to knit the next pattern row. Disaster!!! the Knit Pro interchangeables are just rubbish for lace! The join where the needle tip meets the cable can best be described as a canyon where lace stitches fall in never to be seen again! I'm now slogging my way through this round and waiting for a new needle to arrive in the post - another Addi but this time with a 150cm cable and nickle finished tips. I'm hoping that this will solve my problem.<br>
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When I decided I needed a longer cabled needle, I of course went shopping. I do like to spend my money locally whenever possible, but my LYS owner (bless her cotton socks) doesn't like knitting on circular needles so she doesn't stock many and those she does stock are Pony (bleugh!!!) so the internet was the way forward. I usually shop at either Deramores or LoveKnitting, but neither had what I was looking for. I searched Addi on Google and came up with <a href="http://addineedles.co.uk/">Addineedles.co.uk</a>. WOW!!! All the Addi needles you could every desire are there! I was very restrained and just got the one I needed, not the umpteen I wanted!!<br>
So now, with some good luck and a following wind, I should be able to make good progress.<br>
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On the horizon -<br>
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The big deal is, of course, the In Dreams cast on tomorrow. There is no time pressures in this KAL, so I'll probably just keep you posted with my progress as and when I reach milestones.<br>
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I have come to a decision - I have lots of sock yarn..... I know!!! Shocker!!!!<br>
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It sits in a large supermarket shopping bag. Mostly I've no idea what I want to do with it. I bought it because I liked the colour, or the feel or (coughs) the smell!<br>
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Well, I've made a decision. I've made my own sock club. This is nothing new, I've read about it or heard about it on other blogs. I pulled out 12 random skeins of yarn. Placed them in bags marked 1-12 and used a random number generator to decide the order 'they arrive'.<br>
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The first yarn I'm using is Opal in the Little Prince series. It's a blend of blues and pinks and it's just lovely. The great thing about pulling out all my yarn is that I've found things I'd forgotten I had!<br>
The other thing I decided to do for my sock yarn club is to knit patterned socks. I've been knitting mindless vanilla socks for ages. I love the portability of the vanilla sock, but I think I'm falling into a rut with them.<br>
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So my sock yarn club works as follows - I will use the yarn in order that my random number generator dictated. I will search Ravelry for pattern ideas based on what others have made with the yarn. I will commit to using at least one club yarn a month. I will NOT buy sock yarn until I've used up these 12 skeins<br>
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This way I've got a year to knit 12 pairs of socks and use 12 skeins of yarn which would otherwise be languishing in my stash. I'll probably have the odd pair of vanilla socks on the needles too over the coming months - sometimes vanilla is the only way forward after all!<br>
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I'm really hoping I can get the last of the Jewel Bug fibre off my wheel in the next week. It's been languishing there far too long.<br>
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So, until next week.<br>
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Have a good one<br>
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Ellen x<br>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-73028130676596406652014-08-31T09:43:00.001+01:002014-08-31T09:43:46.543+01:00New startsGood morning. <div><br></div><div>Happy Labour Day weekend to you all in the States. </div><div><br></div><div>Happy Sunday to those of us who aren't! :-)</div><div><br></div><div>As the title suggests I'm looking forward to new starts this week. </div><div><br></div><div>My baby (11 years old, but he'll always be my baby) starts secondary school on Wednesday. I'm a nervous wreck. He's completely nonplus. </div><div><br></div><div>September also sees the start of a new epic KAL over in my Evenstar group on Ravelry. There's a thread entitled 'The consequence of Evenstar' I encourage you to check it out. We will be casting on In Dreams, another of Susan Pandorf's stunning patterns. This one is a half pi shawl with a measly 5000 beads. </div><div><br></div><div>Yes, that's right! FIVE THOUSAND BEADS!!! No pre-stringing here, each one is placed individually. I'm not sure if this pattern will break me, but I'm going to thoroughly enjoy finding out!</div><div><br></div><div>As with the Evenstar KAL, there are no time pressures here. If you complete the pattern in a week (?!?!?) or a year that's great. The group is there to motivate, inspire and listen to your howls of frustration. </div><div><br></div><div>Why don't you join us for a little slice of crazy pie this autumn?</div><div><br></div><div>Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend here in England. We had good friends come and stay with us. They have a whippet called Floyd and while we walked our pooches down the lane our boys cycled. It seems that while the boys cycled they were also searching in the hedgerows. </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDtfzUvNfo1N9JiE9rcgba0VCQoylmmiNaACij7LXTzvSVWgfbs9msep34R-molxTNwn7oB1jVFaEODMMeeaQbv9wQ5rjEsuZd_EwdI_gwb_PUpZXizMfMw8A7DdpU-e4Y4fLaz8cBkDk/s640/blogger-image--902460159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDtfzUvNfo1N9JiE9rcgba0VCQoylmmiNaACij7LXTzvSVWgfbs9msep34R-molxTNwn7oB1jVFaEODMMeeaQbv9wQ5rjEsuZd_EwdI_gwb_PUpZXizMfMw8A7DdpU-e4Y4fLaz8cBkDk/s640/blogger-image--902460159.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">They found these three ma-hoo-sive mushrooms!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Which I promptly fried up for dinner! They were gorgeous. So fresh and mushroomy. I know it sounds daft, but the mushrooms you buy in the supermarket don't really taste of much. But these suckers taste divine!!</div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Feeling the love- </div><div><br></div><div>Since I last wrote to you I've finished my It's All xraymd's fault socks. </div><div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxspLzmFBqegF2Sdeqf7ZUfuC4lPdN9GCzNWWLINe0wWIgP4_ag561Bifk052wwZF-0tkxj8qy_uRmmCrxi72OOmOymlUmX7NXmbQnnMOWBTD3U56F4DMPrrMM2MsG1sgauLR4vuPsUIT/s640/blogger-image--680421667.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxspLzmFBqegF2Sdeqf7ZUfuC4lPdN9GCzNWWLINe0wWIgP4_ag561Bifk052wwZF-0tkxj8qy_uRmmCrxi72OOmOymlUmX7NXmbQnnMOWBTD3U56F4DMPrrMM2MsG1sgauLR4vuPsUIT/s640/blogger-image--680421667.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I'm sorry for the less than inspirational photo. I know I promised no more sofa shots, but I just realised that I didn't take a glamorous shot, and now they're in the wash!!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I also finished the With Mel shawlette. I was a little worried when I was knitting it that it would be a little small on me. Mel and I are poles apart size-wise! Once I'd cast off I felt a little better about the wingspan of the shawl, but I decided to block it hard too. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH_CDuaLl3IaFqxWoX1a3Qr-561WwICs2yMykoCC8WZEnwGvvbCB1344Lo4DYXCdBGBk93zZtHjlOKBe-MWzdp0mqOPzGO7I5W0PsMF-ck7y3FKcSdwVBRJCY7zgknktswy2ooYdgo_pI9/s640/blogger-image--481282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH_CDuaLl3IaFqxWoX1a3Qr-561WwICs2yMykoCC8WZEnwGvvbCB1344Lo4DYXCdBGBk93zZtHjlOKBe-MWzdp0mqOPzGO7I5W0PsMF-ck7y3FKcSdwVBRJCY7zgknktswy2ooYdgo_pI9/s640/blogger-image--481282.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It wraps just nicely over my shoulders, but I think I'll mostly wear it as a scarf</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74V7JKf4PONgJKBJ8bzjXTQZPeX6eKjp7LJ6wEIIOVPcB7qbGTurJPgc6bQJWFZkaIrptwBtgrzWOqE4_9iLCY89UZrW-U7wddhjpJMnN8s2bDZBWBl4crnvOpcK_bRZuonTExMiC-o8N/s640/blogger-image-1921543669.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74V7JKf4PONgJKBJ8bzjXTQZPeX6eKjp7LJ6wEIIOVPcB7qbGTurJPgc6bQJWFZkaIrptwBtgrzWOqE4_9iLCY89UZrW-U7wddhjpJMnN8s2bDZBWBl4crnvOpcK_bRZuonTExMiC-o8N/s640/blogger-image-1921543669.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is how I wear most of my shawlettes. I love how it turned out. I'll be knitting it again I'm sure. Check out WithMelDotCom for the pattern. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> The Sun Ray shawl has also come out of hibernation this week. It dawned on me that September and the In Dreams KAL was looming. I thought I should clear off as many big WIP's as I can. I've made some progress up chart D. The snag is I spend an inordinate amount of time just gazing at the shawl! I'll knit a row and just look at it for a while! It really is lovely. However, I need to accept it's beauty and crack on with it! I'm no way near half way and looking is not progressing! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've also discovered the joys of washi tape..... I know, I know, I'm always last to the party! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I have astigmatism in both eyes and even with my glasses I sometimes struggle to keep them going the same way (I'm special! I know ;-) ) when I look at complicated charts, sometimes my eyes will wander down to the row below or above. When I'm using the iPad and PDFexpert I can highlight the row I'm on, or enlarge the image so that I can only see the row I'm working on. This pattern is from a hard copy book though. I photocopied the pattern and I've been crossing off the rows as I knit, but sometimes I still wander off. Now I've put a piece of washi tape on the pattern though, I'm finding it much easier. Can't find washi tape? Well a low tack masking tape from the DIY store will do just as well and no doubt be a damn site cheaper too! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've worked some on Ben's socks, but not a whole lot. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've worked on that blasted sock yarn blanket. That ball just refuses to get smaller! The only consolation is that it's now plenty big enough to snuggle under while I work on it. The weather has turned positively autumnal this last week. Dewy mornings and a distinct chill in the air. We've had the fire lit on more than one occasion. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've spun too this week, but again, I've not made a huge amount of progress. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's been one of those weeks when I've dabbled at lots of things and got nothing to show for my efforts! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Hey ho</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the horizon - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I'll be dabbling again I imagine! I could really do with winding my In Dreams yarn into a cake and swatching. Cast on is the 14th of September, so I've got a while yet. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I'm hoping and praying that Ben survives his first days at big school. This is a huge leap for him and I'm sure he'll have a great time. I'm such a worry wort</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Have a lovely week guys</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Ellen x </div></div><br></div><br><div><br></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-76934409660809624872014-08-19T18:21:00.003+01:002014-08-19T18:21:28.227+01:00Can you spare a minute?If you wouldn't mind, would you please read this blog post:<br />
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http://withmeldotcom.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/angry-and-sad/<br />
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It's from my good friend Mel.<br />
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It's an emotional post, it made me well up while I was in work (that'll teach me to sneakily read blog posts at work :-&)<br />
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If you can, and you want to please help.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hapa">Spread the love </a><br />
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Thank you<br />
Ellen xAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-89574949580274090802014-08-17T14:09:00.000+01:002014-08-17T14:11:19.336+01:00Only Lefties are in their Right MindsHappy Sunday folks!<br>
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I last wrote to you at the very beginning of my holidays, and here I am already at the end of them! I'm not quite sure where those 14 days went, but this time tomorrow I'll be knee deep in work, the memories of the last two weeks fading fast! ;-)<br>
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It has been a busy two weeks, I've lots to tell you about!<br>
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I've ticked many things of my to do list. Sadly most of them are housework related and therefore far too boring to tell you about. Suffice to say, my cream carpet was returned to it's original glory for all of a week, now, sadly there are dirty marks on it again from a welding project brought into the house by the other half - sigh.<br>
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We went to a local exhibition centre called <a href="http://www.rheged.com/">Rheged</a>. There are a few shops there selling Cumbrian wares. The exhibition hall changes frequently. At the moment there is a Lego exhibition on by Warren Elsmore.<br>
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The Olympic Park in London</div>
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The Trevi Fountain in Rome</div>
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It was quite a sight to see - buildings from around the world made of Lego. The centre piece was St Pancras Station. Stunning. </div>
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My only complaint was that it wasn't very inspirationally displayed. St Pancras Station sat in the middle of the room with the other buildings under glass set on plinths around the room. It felt like they'd been plonked there. The room wasn't decorated, there was no flow, odd. There was, however, a couple of tables in the entrance to the exhibition where children could build their own Lego sculptures. Over all it was ok, thankfully it only cost us £1.50 each. If it had been any more, I'd have been a tad miffed.<br>
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There has been much crafting this week, so let's get to it!<br>
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As promised last time, here's a photo of my completed fulled single yarn. I'm really rather happy with it, but lord knows what it'll become.<br>
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Feeling the Love -<br>
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What a fortnight it's been. I've made progress left, right and centre, but there has been only one FO! My Enforced Monogamy socks are done. All hail sport weight socks I say!<br>
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There is quite a lot of yarn left over. I think that together with my other <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/regia-vulcano-color-6-fadig-6ply">Regia 6 ply</a>, it may make a rather cute stuffie!<br>
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OOOH! OOOH! OOOH! I lied!!! I have another FO!!!!!!<br>
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I'm really rather pleased with myself! I made a skirt!!!! I know!! Get me!?!?<br>
(sorry for all of the exclamation marks, but I'm really chuffed!!)(sorry again)</div>
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This is one of my Camp Aloha Friends projects. I'm delighted with the results.<br>
It's an A-line skirt with an invisible zip. It fits a treat. I'm so happy with it I might even be tempted to try my hand with another project sooner rather than later.<br>
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Definitely done with the FO's now. Promise.<br>
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I do have a couple of HO's though. Both <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/bens-second-pair-of-socks">Ben's second socks</a> and my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/thanks-3">It's All Xraymd's fault</a> socks have felt significant love. Ben's second sock is still a toe, but my second Thanks sock is racing down towards the toe.</div>
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The Thanks socks have been an interesting knit. I'm knitting along with Andrea and I'm helping her wrestle with the chart aspect of the pattern. I'm having to knit and conciously think about what I'm doing. Rather than blindly following the instructions, I'm thinking about what I'm doing and why, how can I best describe this in plain language to someone who's never knitted from a chart before. It's been an eye opener and seeing as how I have a pattern out at test knitters now, I'm thinking about how best I can change the instructions to be more clear. Stand by! In an effort to describe the sock to those who've never knitted it before I made a quick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5j8k69HrXs">YouTube video</a>.<br>
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In other Camp Aloha Friends news, a little while ago I made paper beads with using a tutorial from Zena. I knew I wanted to make stitch markers with them, it just took me a while. So Friday I got out my equipment and had a play.<br>
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Now, our Camp Director, Mel, wanted us to take a step in her shoes. She wanted to think about what it is to teach or coach someone. She asked us to put together a tutorial, she told us to think about anything, any task, and work out a way to present the information to someone else. "Stretch yourself" was her only guidance. So, I thought that making our beads into stitch markers would be a nice <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR-9HKt17K4">tutorial</a>. I set up the camera and started. Sadly, however, I neglected to factor in the disruption two 11 year old children can have on your plans! It took many takes, and in the end I settled for the best of a bad bunch! The end result sees my hands wander out of frame often, but you can't hear the kids hollering and having fun, so it's the lesser of two evils!<br>
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It's been a fortnight filled with helping. At knit night a couple of weeks ago, one of the ladies came in wearing a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leftie">Leftie</a> by Martina Bhem. Much cooing over it ensued and Karen decided she must make one! It is, after all, an excellent way to use up all of those sock yarn scraps. Karen got stuck! She emailed me for help with the pattern. So, I brought up the pattern on my ipad one morning, got two balls of sock yarn that hadn't been put away yet (*coughs*) and cast on. I followed the pattern past the first leaf, making notes as I did to clarify the pattern instructions and emailed them to Karen and ripped out the swatch I was playing with. Karen informed me she is flying with the pattern now. I was left thinking of all the colour and yarn combinations that Leftie would look good in. I was reminded of the yarn I used to make <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/inspira-cowl">Inspira</a> and <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitstostaysane/hawaiian-snowflakes">Mara's Mitts</a>. How lovely would the body of the shawl look in that dark fading black colour of my Inspira? And those leaves would look great in Mara's yarn. Hmmm, I thought. All of my sock yarn scraps have been made into gigantic magic cakes for my sock so new yarn may have to be purchased (*coughs* again). A quick trip into town saw me return with a black ball of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/lang-yarns-jawoll-magic">Jawoll Magic</a> and a gorgeous 50g ball of bright rainbow happiness that I promptly lost the tag of! Both are singles, and are knitting up lovely. I'm happy with the results, but picking up wraps when your yarn is a single who's sole purpose in life is to split and cause probems has proved tricky! But I'm inspired to keep on knitting, both Zena (littleyellowuke on rav, instagram and twitter) and Deb of the <a href="http://aworldofimagination-deb.blogspot.co.uk/">World of Imagination </a>blog are also knitting it and their progress photos are inspirational.<br>
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I'm loving how the leaves are slowly changing colour. I'm also weaving in my ends as I go. The idea of leaving them all to the last minute fills me with dread.</div>
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I've spent a great deal of time on my sock yarn blanket. I'm about halfway through one of those giant magic cakes I mentioned earlier. I've got another two made and I'm thinking that when these are finished, I'm going to call the blanket done.<br>
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Since I last wrote, Mel of the Single Handed Knits blog and video podcast has had a revelation. She's moving away from that blog and has started another. <a href="http://withmeldotcom.wordpress.com/">With Mel Dot com</a> is a thing of beauty. The photography is nothing short of stunning and, as always, Mel writes in a wonderfully inspirational way.To celebrate her new blog, she's designed a lovely shawlette. She has been giving the instructions for the pattern in weekly instalments. I did some stash diving and came up with a ball of Opal <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/zwerger-garn-opal-lasst-blumen-sprechen-say-it-with-flowers">Say it with Flowers</a>. I'd scored it a while back on ebay for a song, but didn't really know what I'd do with it. It's a hand dyed effect yarn with red and blue mixing in the middle to make shades of purple. I wasn't sure how it would knit up in Mel's pattern <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/menehune">Menehune</a>. It's knit with an applied edging and I was concerned that I'd end up with odd striping as I knit that edging. As it stands, I'm really happy with my progress. Here I am, Sunday afternoon, and I'm already waiting for the next set of instructions just hours after Mel released this week's video.<br>
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On the Horizon -<br>
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I'm hoping to at least finish my Thanks socks this week, I hope to make progress on Ben's socks too.<br>
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Mel has thrown another WIP-shaped spanner in the works! Tomorrow sees her release another pattern. <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hapa">Hapa</a> is another garter stitch shawl with fabulous colour work. I've caked my yarn ready.<br>
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I'm using two skeins of hand spun. The blue is spun from BFL batts I bought at Woolclip a while back. The red is Merino from Forest Fibres.<br>
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So between going back to work and having new shawl goodness to work on, I'm not sure that my existing WIP's will see much action!<br>
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Have a great week,<br>
See ya!<br>
Ellen x<br>
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P.S. This week's photography is courtesy of Ben. He wanted to help. I think he did a good job! naks Ben x Love ya!! ;-)</div><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-18405270086251136302014-08-03T09:45:00.001+01:002014-08-03T09:45:39.450+01:00If my head wasn't screwed on........I'd forget it!!!<div><br></div><div>D</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>O</div><div><br></div><div>H</div><div><br></div><div>!</div><div>!</div><div>!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Good morning good people! How the devil are you all?</div><div><br></div><div>This morning the blog comes from the Wirral. I'm visiting my mum and dad for a couple of days at the start of my holiday. </div><div><br></div><div>So far my holiday has been a catalogue of errors. Starting on Friday night. </div><div><br></div><div>We had had a lovely night with Matthew's family, catching up and having a great fun. It was the first time in ages I'd had more than one glass of wine. In fact, I'd probably had three and was a little bit tiddled if I'm honest. It got to about 10 pm and we decided to go home, Ben was getting tired and we had to pack up and leave for my mum' handy on the Saturday morning. </div><div><br></div><div>I had just settled down on the sofa with a SOFT drink when my mobile rang. 'Unknown' came up on the screen. I have to say I was in two minds as to whether or not to answer it. I did and a nice gentleman from Cumbria Constabulary advised me that the alarm was going off at the health centre where I work. There was an unsecured door. I had to go down and sort it. </div><div><br></div><div>Thankfully Matthew hadn't had three glasses of wine and was able to drive me down. So, rather than getting ready for bed as he'd planned, poor Ben was bundled into the car and we all set off to town. Thankfully I work just 5 minutes away. As we pulled up into the car park I could see two police vans and a police car parked up. I realised that this was not going to be a quick job! I introduced myself to the officers and asked if they'd give me a lift home when this was all sorted. I told the boys to go home and settled in for a long wait. </div><div><br></div><div>"Why the wait?" I hear you ask. The police officer who seemed to be in charge had decided to call in a dog to search the premises before he'd go in and see what was happening. We were stood in Penrith. The dog in question was in Workington about 40 miles away! Thankfully said dog had a handler who had a car, so he was about 30 minutes away. </div><div><br></div><div>I chatted with the police officers while we waited for the dog van to arrive. Once it did, what appeared to be a pre-pubescent boy got out! (Dear lord, I felt SO old at this point!) he was lovely and jolly and had a huge Alsatian dog who was excited to get to work. A brief search later and it was deemed safe for us to go in and try to sort the alarm out. </div><div><br></div><div>At this point I should state that I only have a key for one door in the health centre and for my pharmacy. Each doctors practice and clinic have their own alarm systems to which I have no access. All I could do was to make sure it wasn't my alarm going off (it wasn't! Phew!) and lock the offending door behind me. </div><div><br></div><div>At this point I'd like sympathise with the good folk of Penrith because I think that alarm will have sounded on and off all night! Sorry guys, but there was nothing I could do about it! I couldn't even work out which alarm was going off!!</div><div><br></div><div>A lovely young police officer gave me a lift home in a police van. I'd like at this point to clarify I was sat in the FRONT of the van, not in the back ;-) I could feel the curtains twitch as the van pulled up outside my house at close to midnight!!</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A great start to my holidays. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Saturday saw the usual state of affairs start. The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for rain and floods. Sigh!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I wanted to get down to my mum's as soon as possible before the weather got too bad, so I rushed around the house, packing up bits and bobs I'd need for the trip. Clothes, toiletries, knitting. You know..... just the essentials! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">On the way to my mum's I needed to stop in at Manchester. It isn't strictly on the way, but it's close enough. Matthew and I had decided to buy a kitchen cabinet on eBay. The gent selling it had delivered a kitchenette to us a while ago, but this time the purchase coincided with my trip to mum's so I decided to pick it up. This side trip added an hour onto our journey, so I was doubly keen to set off. I cleaned the windscreen, topped up the fluids and off we jolly well went. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">As we got further south the rain became heavier, in places I was only travelling at 40 miles an hour because of the surface water. We arrived safely and the unit fitted snug as a bug in a rug in the back of my car. I discovered you can lift the bottom bits of the seats lift up so the backs lie flat! Every day is a school day! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">After a really hairy trip down the M53 we arrived safely at mum's and unpacked the car. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Travel bag - check. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Hand bag - check</span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Knitting bag - </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Knitting bag - </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">KNITTING BAG ? ! ? ! </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">OH! Holy yarn balls batman?!?!?!?! </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Where was my knitting bag!?</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I text Matthew, praying I'd left it at home, because otherwise I'd left it on a pavement in Manchester!!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Thankfully (ish) I'd left it at home! This put me in the horrible position of having NO knitting for the next 3 days?!?!?!?!? </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">This is BAD people!!!!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">There was nothing for it! I'd have to find a yarn shop! I can't last 3 whole days with no knitting! It can't be done!!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Off we went to Voirrey. It is a craft shop in Brimstage, a small village on the Wirral. Once upon a time Voirrey was a wonderful shop filled to the rafters with cross stitch kits, yarn and other fabric goodness. My heart sank as we approached the door to find shelving outside with loom bands and other cheap tatt on. This didn't bode well. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">As you enter the shop on the left hand side used to be where all the silks and fabric could be found for cross stitch, now it was full of children's toys. If you turned right you used to find the cross stitch kits stretching as far as your eye could see, now they adorn one wall the rest of the space being filled with assorted bits an bobs, none of which was overly inspiring. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">You travel further into the shop and you still find the fabric emporium, the one area that remains unchanged and still lovely. You move further in to find the yarn section. I was bitterly dissapointed. If you look at their website you'd have positive,excited thoughts about the yarns they stock, the notions and patterns. Sadly this wasn't backed up by what my eyes saw. Most of the shelves had a single row of yarn on. Some were completely empty. The yarn was uninspired. Lots of acrylic, cheap and cheerful yarn. They did have a selection of sock yarn, but the rest was that icky stuff that essentially knits itself into frilly scarves that have never seen a sheep! </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I picked up a ball of Regia self striping sock yarn, but they didn't have DPN's in a size I could happily knit up socks with so I set it down. The only sizes they had where 4mm and 2.75mm. So I plumped for the 2.75mm and a ball of Rico Superba Country 6ply. It's a subtly variegated black/purple colour. </font></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I also picked up some lovely sparkly buttons and some fabric I'm hoping to use to appliqué onto my Camp Aloha Friends skirt. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">On the whole I'm sure you've picked up that I was dissapointed with my trip. It strikes me that Voirrey is confused about what it wants to be. It's spreading it's resources too thin, some focus is required so that it does a few things well, rather than trying to be all things to all men. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">But still, I had one project to work on now, and I cast on a vanilla sock as my mum drove us home. I was rather chuffed with myself actually. I managed to do a Turkish cast on using DPN's. Happy days. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">The afternoon was spent raiding my mum's paper crafting stash. I wanted to make some tags. I'd made some with bits and bobs I had at home earlier at camp and I was happy with what I'd come up with. I knew that I wanted to play more with the idea, so after picking some papers, cards and embelishments Mum, Ben and I settled down to some crafting. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">We had lots of fun. I also made some writing paper. I can't wait to sit quietly and use those sheets and send them off to some special folk. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Feeling the love - </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">In my bag that is languishing at home are the projects I wanted to share with you, so photos will follow next week. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I worked on Ben's socks this week, I turned the heel and I'm now working up the leg. Thankfully Ben doesn't want the socks to be too long, so in a couple of rows I'll start the ribbing. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I also worked on the shawl I'm designing. I'm still enjoying the project and I'm happy with how it's turning out. Hopefully I'll have a pattern written up ready to be tested sooner rather than later. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I also started another pair of socks. I am taking no responsibility for these socks what so ever! I received a message from 'xraymd' Andrea asking for some pointers for knitting the Thanks socks. We've exchanged a few messages, and I decided to knit along with her. I'm knitting the pattern as originally written by Regina Satta this time, the only modifications I'm making are in the way I'm making the increases and decreases. I love this sock. The way it's constructed makes it feel like a super quick knit. I've turned my first heel and I'm now racing down the foot. I even did the heel as written, my first heel flap and gusset since I discovered the Fish Lips Kiss Heel so many months ago! I'm using 15cm DPN's that I bought at Woolfest and the gusset is so much easier to work on them than the usual DPN's I use for socks. I think I'll keep my old ones for FLK heels and use the longer 15cm ones if I'm wanting to make gussets - fewer problems with stitches falling off and running for the hills!!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJvF3uueIu8njfEXX4SIi9nf3EF72tv4DqJILsAEdOVqdI06_twSJQJAPT6jSPq1PVHBGMXfk7DP0brXKpmOfFz5tpEFmwvRR8YfaqGgcz1KHHun7zxlWGAcCtpMYu7AoqB6_fknXlntR/s640/blogger-image--608558415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJvF3uueIu8njfEXX4SIi9nf3EF72tv4DqJILsAEdOVqdI06_twSJQJAPT6jSPq1PVHBGMXfk7DP0brXKpmOfFz5tpEFmwvRR8YfaqGgcz1KHHun7zxlWGAcCtpMYu7AoqB6_fknXlntR/s640/blogger-image--608558415.jpg"></a></div><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Last week I took the plunge and fulled the BFL/silk singles. I wound it onto my niddy noddy and I was pleasantly surprised that it only broke twice. I was convinced it would fall apart. I put plenty of ties on it and then gave it the shock of it's life! Ben helped me as I plunged it from hot to cold water. He especially liked thwacking it on the veranda rail.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2xSSeZ0_P3-aahQEbF9chcpzucKpEm91vLs70Zxxb0Rz1GGQ47FRzb2jTPPhkgXE-Ndfe-T8iEF8o8tEBNwlK0QjQVF_Th67M-Zxs58N66FnR-mZWjXDh73f72fr7cf668RMc1FipphJ/s640/blogger-image--2115113566.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2xSSeZ0_P3-aahQEbF9chcpzucKpEm91vLs70Zxxb0Rz1GGQ47FRzb2jTPPhkgXE-Ndfe-T8iEF8o8tEBNwlK0QjQVF_Th67M-Zxs58N66FnR-mZWjXDh73f72fr7cf668RMc1FipphJ/s640/blogger-image--2115113566.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Doesn't look like much right now does it?!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div> I had put the skein in my knitting bag along with my niddy noddy so that I could re-skein and measure it. I suppose that will have to wait now! Ggggrrrr</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Any hoo</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">On the horizon - </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Who knows!?</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">The next 2 weeks are my own. I've no real plans, so I'm excited to see what I will get done</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">On the crafty front, I've got 2 pairs of socks to finish, 2 shawls, a skein of yarn to re-skein and measure, a skirt to make, a project bag to weave fabric for and then put together and who knows what Mel has in store for us in August. I can't wait!!!</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I'll keep you posted</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Have a great week</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Ellen x </font></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-50591517011325355762014-07-27T15:15:00.000+01:002014-07-27T15:15:39.758+01:00InspiredToday I'm writing later than usual.<br />
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This morning's routine has been skewed slightly by a visitor. This lady makes my heart soar. She is a truly inspirational woman who came and gave her time freely and with passion. She came to help Ben.<br />
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I know he's mine and you may think I'm biased but bear with me for a bit. Ben is an intelligent boy who struggles with his handwriting. On a good day it's barely legible. It seems school doesn't teach penmanship any more. As a leftie, no one took time to teach him how to form letters the left handed way. I'm a leftie too, and I have tried. But as a full time worker, by the time I get home from work and make tea he's tired and he's had enough. On and off I've tried at weekends, but I'm not a teacher and it's been difficult.<br />
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This lady works as a volunteer and his school. She has always had time for Ben. She's encouraged him to read books that interest him, not just the stories given to him by teachers that don't fire his imagination. She challenged the year six children to read 6 books in 6 weeks and write a report about them. Ben didn't want to do it, but she convinced him to give it a go. He read 5 non-fiction books in 5 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it. His reports were brief and concise. Perish the thought he'd write any more than he thought he needed to. He hates to write. I mean he hates it! I'm sure he feels that writing things down shows the world how bad his writing is, so he'll do anything to get out of it.<br />
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It turns out though, that these reports have been a wonder. They've opened up opportunity for Ben we might never have had. This wonderful woman knows things. She knows people. She's given her time to try and help Ben and I'm so happy.<br />
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For too long I've felt that Ben's intelligence has been locked behind a wall so high it can't get out.<br />
That barrier is his processing. Getting his thoughts down on paper.<br />
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Well no more! Ben starts a new chapter in his learning career in September and we're drawing a line under all that has gone before. He has a fresh start, a new page, new opportunities to shine.<br />
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So thank you Wendy. Thank you for seeing past the paper and recognising the potential of a young man who wants to achieve great things.<br />
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On a lighter note it's been a great week at Camp Aloha Friends too. Our swap partners have been announced I have been matched with two truly inspirational women. Both hugely talented. I'm in awe! Nan is an excellent seamstress who has raised a truly inspirational daughter ;-) I'm looking forward to getting to know her better over the next few weeks. I've also been paired with Deb. You guys may have heard of her. I've been following her blog for a while now. It's a lovely read. <a href="http://aworldofimagination-deb.blogspot.co.uk/">A World of Imagination </a>is beautiful. I love the way Deb sets out her writing. Her photography is gorgeous. </div>
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She has inspired me to better with my photography. I'm going to try really hard to avoid photos of my sofa or my carpet! Bear with me though guys. I'm not the most creative of folk! </div>
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Camp this week has been all about fabric. Posting off our yo-yo's, making skirts or pillowcases or both, and what to look for in a sewing machine. It's been lovely. I'm not confident with sewing. I've done a bit while I was at school, but produced nothing I'd be happy to show anyone. I have a machine. Mostly it mocks me! I'm having none of it! From now on, I'm the boss! I'll show this machine who's in charge! ....... Well I'm saying now, but it's probably going to be in a week or so! I'm off then and I plan to make it a very crafty fortnight! To that end I've been shopping. I've bought supplies for my skirt. And some thread to make Chinese knots. I've also bought some yarn to weave with. Now, don't get me wrong, I know I've got DK weight yarn in my stash, but it needs to felt a little and all my yarn is superwash! </div>
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I'm so excited so it what's to come. This next week could seem really long as I plan my time off. </div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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This week I've spun my heart out. I finished spinning the BFL/silk blend from last week. I've decided to keep it as a single. At the moment it's resting on the bobbin. Mainly because I haven't plucked up the courage to wind it onto the niddy noddy and start to full it! I think I'll do that next weekend. That way the energy from the spin should have settled a bit. I'm kidding myself! I'm just scared silly of ending up with 100g of barf!</div>
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My spinning mojo was strong this week. I started spinning the second of my Nunoco jewel bug batts. This one is the gorgeous orange to pink batt. I've not got much to show you, so I'll leave that until next week too. </div>
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On the knitting front there has been highs and lows. I've worked a lot on the sun ray shawl but there is nothing to see. I'm crossing rounds off the chart, but the shawl doesn't seem to be growing much now. I'm still loving it though, and I'm enjoying each and every chance I get to snatch some time with it. </div>
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I also worked on my RainShine shawl. I cast it on last week if you remember. I've been happily working on the stocking stitch body of the shawl. Now, don't ask me why, but yesterday I decided to look at the pattern again. It does say you can use any weight of yarn but your yardage will obviously change according to the yarn you choose. I suddenly realised I didn't have nearly as much yarn as I'd need. I'd taken the laceweight yardage and decided that's what I needed for fingeringweight too! What a clanger to drop!</div>
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So now I'm back making it up as I go. I'm keeping a note of what I'm doing and I hope it will all come good in the end. The fabric I'm creating thus far is lovely. </div>
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The sheen given by the silk and BFL are stunning and the cashmere content give a luxurious softness. I love this base! The colours aren't bad either are they?!</div>
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My fyberspates gleem is undergoing another transformation. It seems like it didn't want to be Almost Autumn any more than it wanted to be Peacocks Feathers. Now it's going to be Heliophysics. </div>
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With any luck the third time will be a charm and this will be the last pattern for this yarn!</div>
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Last night we went out as a family. It was the Penrith Agricultural Show yesterday. It's a big thing locally. Friends of ours always finish off the day with a barbecue. I took a huge dish of Bombay potatoes and some knitting! The potatoes went down a storm and I made great progress on Ben's socks while chatting. </div>
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The weather here has been glorious all week and yesterday was no exception. I got 3 loads of washing done by mid afternoon. </div>
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The curse of the British barbecue is not to be trifled with. By 9 o'clock the rain was dancing 2 feet off the pavements! It was REALLY wet! And not overly warm either! But on a positive note I did get to the heel turn of the sock before we lost the light completely. I sat this morning and turned the heel. </div>
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On the Horizon - </div>
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I'll work on most projects I'd say. I'll be gearing up to leave the dispensary for a fortnight, so I'll be spending a lot of time tying up lose ends and making sure that everyone knows what needs to be done while I'm away. Hopefully despite all of this I'll have some good crafting time too. And looking even further ahead, I'll have 2 weeks of crafting to look forward to! </div>
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It's my birthday soon. I've asked my other half to build me a summer house. I'm hoping that he can find the time to build it sooner rather than later. I'd love to have some space to call mine just for my crafting. I can't wait! Fingers crossed people!</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-8163061342625372912014-07-20T09:35:00.002+01:002014-07-20T09:35:11.390+01:00Oops I did it again!Once again I must seek the forgiveness of the collective!<br />
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I missed blogging again last weekend! In my defense, I was a tad pre-occupied!<br />
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It's been a difficult fortnight. Friday was the end of the school year and marks the closure of a big chapter in my son's education. He's finished primary school now. It's very exciting for him to be moving schools and heading for the big smoke. He'll be going to a huge secondary school in town. There are more children admitted each year to his new school than there are in the whole of his old one! </div>
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His new school is great. They put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the transition is as smooth as possible. Teachers go to the primary schools and do sample lessons, the kids go to their new school to experience a school day and meet their new classmates. Ben has been excited about this for months. But when it came to the crunch of going for the whole day, he had a bit of a wobble! Who can blame him? He's going to be a teeny tiny fish in a huge ocean! In the end, he had a great day and all was well. His enthusiasm for moving schools has returned. Praise be!</div>
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Leaving his old school was stressful too. Not for him, for me. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say I'm also glad he's moved school. </div>
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I have relied on my crafting to keep me sane over the last two weeks. I've achieved much. </div>
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So let's get to the nittygritty. </div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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Gosh, where to start!?</div>
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Well needless to say, the fyberspates gleem lace I unraveled in the last blog was quickly cast back on as Almost Autumn by Booknits. The Close to You collection it comes from is truely stunning and inspirational. I want to have ALL the shawls NOW!!! I was so taken with the patterns I may have bought her other collection too it's called the In Love collection and the shawls are as beautiful.</div>
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Wow!</div>
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On a more mundane front I've picked up, worked on, and put back down many of my WIP's in the last two weeks, my sock yarn and spiral blankets have both felt some love. They're getting big now, so a lot of time working produces little visible progress. But sometimes I like to mindlessly crochet so they will continue to see action for a while yet. </div>
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Ben's socks have had some progress made. Mainly because he asked me how they where going and I had done nothing much with them since ripping them out! I took them with me to a production the school put on. Dear lord help me it wasn't good. It's was like interpretive dance. It mostly washed over my head. Essentially I think the point of the production was that the school had looked into what makes girls girls and boys boys. It's odd listening to a 5 year old explain what they understand of gender stereotype. I mean, does a 5 year old really need to be posed these questions at this stage of their life? I'm not sure. But at least that hour or so in the hot, sweaty and frankly smelly hall allowed me to make good progress on the foot of his sock. I'd say I'm probably about halfway towards the heel. </div>
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The sun ray shawl has seen lots of action. I've completed chart C and now I'm racing to the top of chart D. I say racing, it's all relative really. The transition between charts saw the stitch count rise to 640. So one round takes quite a while to complete now. But I love the yarn, I love the fabric I'm producing and I love the pattern, so slogging my way through each round isn't a chore still.<br />
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I've spun some too. I'm halfway through a naturally coloured BFL/silk blend. I bought it last year at Woolfest, it's a commercially produced top which was sold from a huge bag you just ripped off as much as you wanted. I neglected to weigh the top before I started, but I think it's 100g. I weighed what's left this morning and I'm at 50g. I'm now stuck. I'm not sure if I want to carry on and spin the lot then chain ply it, carry on spin the lot and then ply it with a completely different and colourful single, change bobbins and do a simple 2 ply or spin the lot and leave it as a fulled single. </div>
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Do you know? I'm going to make a poll on the knitstostaysane rav board. Let me know what your opinion is!</div>
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I've spun on my little spindles too. My Turkish lives at work and I'm loving how my turtle is developing. At home my alien spindle is bedding in. I'm still not overly happy with the length of time it spins for, but it spins fast and you can't have it both ways. So for spinning as thin as I want to go, it's fine and I'm enjoying it.<br />
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Friday just gone was particularly difficult. Lots of things made a particularly rubbish day. So I cheered myself up by casting on a new, beautiful project. What's one more WIP between friends?!</div>
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I'm using a beautiful yarn by <a href="http://www.nimuyarns.co.uk/en/">Nimu</a>. Now I'm telling you how gorgeous this yarn is, but the snag is you'll only get it in a de-stash right now. Sorry!</div>
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The lovely lady (who's name escapes me sorry!) who runs Nimu has essentially closed her shop. She's gone back to university. She now only dyes sporadically. She did offer a summer club to those who are on her mailing list. I can't recommend enough to you guys to sign up to that list, the opportunity to get your hands on some of this yarn can't be missed. </div>
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Any hoo, I'm working with her Isel base. It's a fingering weight BFL/silk/cashmere blend which is pure joy to use. The fabric it's producing is nothing short of divine ! The lustre and softness combines with stunning colour saturation to make for a wonderful knit. I knew this yarn must be<br />
something special. So I cast on another Booknits creation. This time is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rainshine">Rainshine</a>. I can't wait to see this finished. But equally I don't want to have to stop knitting this yarn and cast it off! It's lovely.<br />
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In other news, Camp Aloha Friends continues apace. Since I last wrote to you I have mainly been making yo-yo's. I may be a little obsessed with them now! </div>
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As you can see, I'm well on my way to filling my second vase. We will have a little swap shortly so I must reign in my desire to use all of my circles. I need to pass some on to my swap partners! </div>
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Craftiness know no bounds at camp! The main reason I didn't blog last weekend is because I spent the time I'd usually write to you making beads. It was such great fun. </div>
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These cute little critters will be stitch makers soon...... Hum, maybe I'll do that this morning after I've finished my house work! </div>
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There are many more things for me to do, I need to get my finger out and make myself a loom. It's so clever the way it's done, I just need to sit for a bit, collect my ingredients and crack on. The fabric we are going to weave will be needed later, so I'd like to make a start soon. </div>
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Speaking of ingredients I cooked up a storm last weekend. I made ganache puddings, s'more clusters and a lovely vegetable soup. This weekend I think roast strawberries have been mentioned in camp, so I'll have to investigate that recipe too! Nom nom!!</div>
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I have 2 weeks to go until my summer holidays start. I can't wait. I'm starting to get tired! So I'm counting down the days. </div>
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On the crafty front, I'll see what you guys think about that spinning project.</div>
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I'll work on all of my WIP's. </div>
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I'll crack on and finish processing that yarn I recycled a while ago. I sat and wound 1000yds onto the niddy noddy last night and there was no visible change to the ball!</div>
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I need to get on with it as I need it to be relaxed by September. I'll be starting a new KAL. It's another Susan Pandorf pattern. This time we'll be knitting her<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/in-dreams-mystery-shawl"> In Dreams</a> creation. You can find information about the KAL in the Evenstar KAL group on Ravelry. It's being organised by Annagret and CODfishh, if you want to join us, check out the thread on the group. The Evenstar KAL was great. A lovely group of people supporting each other with no pressure. </div>
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So, enough pontificating. I'm off to get this day started!</div>
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Until next week (hopefully!)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-90049562222367902362014-07-06T10:47:00.000+01:002014-07-06T10:47:37.087+01:00Sometime you gotta do whatcha gotta doGood morning readers.<br />
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Welcome to another sunny day on Planet Earth. </div>
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I hope the weather is treating you well wherever you are. For those of you in the US, I hope Endurance wasn't too destructive. </div>
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This week has mostly been about clean starts. </div>
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My evil cats from hell have mostly been bringing catches home and wreaking havoc in the house. We've had a rabbit, a shrew, a mouse and 2 birds. The only saving grace is that they do eat their catches. At least they aren't wasted. The snag with that is that I have to clear up fluff and feathers regularly! I should have stuck with the rats. Much less mess to clean!</div>
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I've also come to a major decision. Do you guys remember that shawl I've been knitting since January? Well I've been working on it all week. I mean religiously. If I've wanted to knit, I picked it up. I've completed half a repeat this week, which is no mean feat when you think that a pattern row and a purl row now take me 1/2 an hour to work. </div>
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I discovered yesterday that somehow or other I'd managed to muck up this repeat, I'd worked the same pattern row twice. I don't know how I did it and keep the stitch count correct! But by the time I'd noticed the mistake was about 6 rows down and I wasn't about to tink back to fix it. No worries, I thought, it will be a longer leaf on this repeat. </div>
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Well, last night I let the rats out for a run, and went to sit next to the cage with them. I took my knitting too. As I sat down, I yanked a load of stitches off the needles. Those stitches took one look at<br />
me and ran for the hills. Me? I cried a little inside and then ripped the whole thing off the needles. I<br />
decided it was a sign. I had been knitting venom into that shawl for months. I didn't enjoy the process of knitting it. Don't get me wrong, I loved how it was turning out, it's just that the process was sapping my happiness. I'm very much a process knitter. I think that's why I give so much of what I make away. It's the thrill of making the item that makes me happy.<br />
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So this is the peacock's feather shawl this morning. </div>
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But I'm not glum. The pain, disappointment and frustration of frogging is soothed by the thoughts of a new project. This yarn is too lovely to languish in a ball for long. Yesterday there was a truely stunning shawl on the front page of Ravelry. It was a beautiful white lace affair made by Izi. The pattern was called <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1546269013"></span>Snow Angel<span id="goog_1546269014"></span></a> and it was from a collection called <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/close-to-you-collection">Close to You</a> by Boo Knits. </div>
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WOW!!!!</div>
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I had to buy the ebook there and then. A measly £9 got me 5 stunning patterns. Truely beautiful works of art.</div>
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And so the Peacock's Feathers will become Almost Autumn. </div>
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Feeling the love - </div>
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Clearly the Peacock's Feather has been given a lot of attention this week, but next to no love!</div>
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But all is not lost. I have worked on other things. </div>
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My sock yarn blanket continued to grow. I made myself promise that when I finished the ball I was working on, I'd put it down and work on something else. It has been absorbing most of my time for a while now</div>
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I was a good girl, I joined a new ball and set it aside. </div>
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The desire to crochet all the blankets was strong, however! A trawl through Pinterest (and another hour lost!) saw me try to figure out how to make a spiral blanket. You must understand, dear readers, that crochet is not my natural state! It took a bit of working out, but I'm rather pleased with myself!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTM1mBHZqp1Jf1IThOdu0G8ZcYLoKrm9YJJRc1BEHot2SWEN4WchGH5HZl5DUL6WXNGSWWUybUJvhDo6vnMybqRnFL7L3IPdXWDQ3FDKt77pBEJJaG4fKsmsLoeGa0NsYAtYeGBkFKkR_J/s640/blogger-image--774982306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTM1mBHZqp1Jf1IThOdu0G8ZcYLoKrm9YJJRc1BEHot2SWEN4WchGH5HZl5DUL6WXNGSWWUybUJvhDo6vnMybqRnFL7L3IPdXWDQ3FDKt77pBEJJaG4fKsmsLoeGa0NsYAtYeGBkFKkR_J/s640/blogger-image--774982306.jpg" /></a></div>
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As you can see, it's a tad frilly in the middle. I was increasing too many stitches in each round to start with. I've settled in to 8 increases now, and I'm hoping that the excess fabric will stretch out a bit as the blanket grows. I'm using four 400g balls of acrylic/wool blend. It's cheap and cheerful and ideal for blankets that are going to be lived with. </div>
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The rest of my crafting week has been focused on what promises to me my latest obsession. </div>
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Those of you who are at Camp Aloha Friends with me may have an idea already. </div>
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Yo-yo's!</div>
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No! Not the spinny things on string! </div>
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Yo-yo's! You know, little pieces of gathered fabric</div>
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Get me?! Fabric!!!!</div>
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The lovely Deborah from WhipStitch has shown me the light. Now, I'm not saying that from now on my sewing machine and I are going to be best buddies (it's mocking me from where it's sitting on the living room floor as I write!), but I'm really enjoying this project. </div>
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The joy of camp is that I'm getting to try out things I'd never even contemplated before! </div>
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So, do you remember a while ago I decided to make a project bag? I started out by trying a dummy run with recycled jersey material - FAIL! Well, since then the beautiful fabric has been sitting on my work box sighing at me. Longing to be made into something lovely. </div>
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Then along came yo-yo's. I bit the bullet and cut up that lovely fabric into 120 circles. I also may have bought a couple of fat quarters from Woolfest to complement the fabric I already had.</div>
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That also got chopped up giving me a grand total of 180 circles measuring a stunning 7cm high!<br />
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I started to stitch. I quickly realised I'd made a boo boo. Once my yo-yo's were made, you couldn't see the lovely patterns. </div>
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But I like the colours, and at least the fabric is being used rather than sitting in a carrier bag. </div>
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My first evening saw me make a good handful</div>
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The project suggested for us to make is a shadow box to hang on the wall. Wall space is at a premium in my house, so I lost another hour on Pinterest (sigh!) and came up with the cunning plan of a cushion cover. I also saw a stunning method of storing my lovely yo-yo's </div>
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Flowers are a rarity in my house, so I think this is a much better use of my vases!</div>
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On the horizon- </div>
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More yo-yo's!</div>
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A new shawl!</div>
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Crochet blankets-arama!</div>
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I think I'm going to rip out that sock of Ben's that was too small and start again. </div>
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So, lovely readers - have a great week. </div>
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PS - here's what I've been listening to while I wrote to you this morning!</div>
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Ellen x </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03863322952524402095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5638938867326243434.post-32939460545167997402014-06-30T07:40:00.001+01:002014-06-30T07:40:45.845+01:00A good weekend was had by allGood morning good people.<br />
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Are you well? </div>
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What a week!</div>
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I paid the price for forging on last weekend. I went to work on Monday and was utterly exhausted. By the end of the day I had nothing left at all. I took Tuesday off sick and didn't go to a meeting I had planned on Wednesday. I slept for near enough two days. I felt basically human again come Wednesday night. Note to self - when you're sick, give up and go to bed when your body tells you! Else it's much worse in the long run! </div>
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Thursday I went back to work and Friday was the start of Woolfest! The tenth anniversary year was a great one. Lovely stalls and lovely people. </div>
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I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I meant to. The two days seemed to pass me by! Friday was my day. I helped the organisers through the day, but essentially I could go where my heart pleased. I watched the rare breed parade commentated on by Peter Titley who is the president of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust; a man passionate about the preservation of our native breeds of sheep. It was lovely to see the variety of sheep who live on our shores. I may have seriously thought if it was possible to slip out with a Hebridean! </div>
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I mean?! Why wouldn't you?! They're so small and cute!! Those horns might scratch if you're sneaking out with one under your jumper though!</div>
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My friends arrived on Friday night ready to hit Woolfest hard on Saturday. We watched the shearing demonstration first, there was so much knowledge and expertise in that ring. Wonderful to watch. </div>
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Then a quick bite of lunch - Herdwick mutton kofta- yum! Then more helping out. One of my jobs was to help at an auction. Woolfest visitors where asked to craft an animal which bears fibre to donate to the auction. Proceeds went to the Allerdale Red Squirrel Society. I'm never doing it again!!! I ended up buying two lots!! A lovely massam brooch and a lazy camel! Still, it's for a good cause. We raised about £700! </div>
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Social media has been awash with folk showing their haul this weekend. Mine is really rather tame! I wanted an <a href="http://www.almostalien.com/mds.php">Alien spindle.</a> It's a cunning modular spindle system. The one I bought is 3D printed and </div>
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kit and although it doesn't spin for very long, I'm enjoying it. The other thing I wanted was a mini Turkish spindle. I found one at <a href="http://www.thewoodemporium.co.uk/dropspindles.php">IST</a>. It can best be described as a thing of beauty. I didn't want fibre. I've got loads at home that I really need to work through. But when you've just bought 2 new spindles you need to try them out then and there, yes?! So I went to <a href="http://www.hilltopcloud.co.uk/">Hilltop Cloud</a> and bought one of her tiny batt bumps. A snap at £3 - just enough fibre to play with and not have to wrestle with a huge batt or a long braid. On the boring front, I needed a drive band for my Kiwi. I also vowed that I didn't need yarn. FAIL!! I bought a lovely skein of Titus from <a href="http://baaramewe.co.uk/collections/titus-shop">BaaRamEwe</a> along with a pattern for lovely mittens, and a skein of Teasdale lace weight from the <a href="http://yarngarden.co.uk/">Yarn Garden</a>. Beautiful yarn to make beautiful things. Snag is I want to cast them all on NOW!!</div>
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I also bought a button. Just the one. It's made from African ox horn and it's stunning. I bought it in the vain hope it inspires me to cast Hana Hou back on!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN-owWR7PA2mEnAG7f91rRd7PBNOqB23jNnUvRAjm-iA_HPeY6vE5UTMvDHkzjkkcjEaF7aPN1XYLHB65ThjkOhRbWX3zUFwihunc1NOnOH0OW6SKQY6o-HmaYTyZQtFt1jpBWSdbPgpr/s640/blogger-image-617517732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN-owWR7PA2mEnAG7f91rRd7PBNOqB23jNnUvRAjm-iA_HPeY6vE5UTMvDHkzjkkcjEaF7aPN1XYLHB65ThjkOhRbWX3zUFwihunc1NOnOH0OW6SKQY6o-HmaYTyZQtFt1jpBWSdbPgpr/s640/blogger-image-617517732.jpg" /></a></div>
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As hauls go , I thinks it's really rather tame!</div>
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The best thing as ever about Woolfest are the people. I met up with Joanne and her husband. They had travelled all the way from Oregon. They are lovely people and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them. I was so worried that Woolfest wouldn't hold it's own against the big American fibre shows. Joanne assured me she enjoyed her trip. I hope to be able to stay in touch with her. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsbUZCf84p6fqFVMmwIqWD7OZ5mP_qxAb4kzpJOBQmTHiztcHxO4BvfQsn5HHGUYT_5N5H2AROBmtadPL4Ev-lsDX3cOzpAAnhWKO-2mqKz4fgsMKthevKfwZnxL8Q_3AjeOzMxTIl_Ix/s640/blogger-image-1418862512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsbUZCf84p6fqFVMmwIqWD7OZ5mP_qxAb4kzpJOBQmTHiztcHxO4BvfQsn5HHGUYT_5N5H2AROBmtadPL4Ev-lsDX3cOzpAAnhWKO-2mqKz4fgsMKthevKfwZnxL8Q_3AjeOzMxTIl_Ix/s640/blogger-image-1418862512.jpg" /></a></div>
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This isn't the best photo in the world - my 11 year old was in charge! Ah well!</div>
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Feeling the love -</div>
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The virus from hell sapped all my mojo for the majority of the week, but a lot of my projects seem to have grown recently so I'll update you with photos. </div>
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Ben's second pair of socks have proven to be a disaster. I cast off the first sock on Saturday evening and it doesn't fit. It's way too tight. Give me strength. The last pair I knit him, I increased to 60 stitches and they are too baggy. So this time I increased to 56. FAIL!!! I'll continue with the second sock and then give them away to some slim footed person! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgP5cKVTqPUDstbjFsMzapY_bGsiaa6nyBQAY0EqCPmL6fTU6RiG5dGOLYryj0-OR_CFmpGrSgnrx1nEdgk7IsP8GkBRQrH0TZG1Wwzg05db6eTrnnNfvHS3XjB6g7dX7SWRCCPWl_agL/s640/blogger-image-751205002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgP5cKVTqPUDstbjFsMzapY_bGsiaa6nyBQAY0EqCPmL6fTU6RiG5dGOLYryj0-OR_CFmpGrSgnrx1nEdgk7IsP8GkBRQrH0TZG1Wwzg05db6eTrnnNfvHS3XjB6g7dX7SWRCCPWl_agL/s640/blogger-image-751205002.jpg" /></a></div>
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Also getting attention recently is the sock yarn blanket. In all fairness, it's seen the most action. The other day, when breathing seemed to take way too much effort, I faffed about and made 3 huge balls of sock yarn. I was sick of all my odds and sods falling out of my project bag so I magic knotted almost all of them into 3 gigantic balls. I've nearly finished one this week. It's starting to look really rather pretty. I'm happy with how it's turning out. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR1-d2rvnEDYOXCkAWN0I-qLnRCp-Zn22NbBQ60tgYlUBvXkVTsJTlUdv58_5NGI3ylaJbVZKBWmn-Jkzcc3LvpwFaigpNQjnF-BY6Jzw8zXgc5enAywgYKPCERcn51-M_DKRPqNIKqCon/s640/blogger-image-937369623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR1-d2rvnEDYOXCkAWN0I-qLnRCp-Zn22NbBQ60tgYlUBvXkVTsJTlUdv58_5NGI3ylaJbVZKBWmn-Jkzcc3LvpwFaigpNQjnF-BY6Jzw8zXgc5enAywgYKPCERcn51-M_DKRPqNIKqCon/s640/blogger-image-937369623.jpg" /></a></div>
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The sun ray shawl ahas seen some action too. I had thought I was making great progress until I realised I was only on row 82 of 258! Sigh</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYjK5Jv6QPwQM_2bjCgJmiz-xFQwcPknRyCujpYWeCGsc_fC1GYS_xUGkwDxO_DDMz8XbEE0STxBhR_OiVojx7S492SOAOA1v2UUjqvdkZGGr4H6YNemmVshOmLqviNMZt11SaI1Af-tW/s640/blogger-image-2055265907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYjK5Jv6QPwQM_2bjCgJmiz-xFQwcPknRyCujpYWeCGsc_fC1GYS_xUGkwDxO_DDMz8XbEE0STxBhR_OiVojx7S492SOAOA1v2UUjqvdkZGGr4H6YNemmVshOmLqviNMZt11SaI1Af-tW/s640/blogger-image-2055265907.jpg" /></a></div>
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But it is looking pretty. </div>
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On the horizon -</div>
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I desperately need to catch up on some housework. :-(</div>
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I'll continue to work on the blanket, shawl and socks. </div>
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I will resist the urge to cast on anything new with my shiney yarn, but I'm promising nothing!</div>
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Here's a quick montage of the weekend - enjoy!</div>
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