Sunshine and showers

I've been a busy bee this week, work was suitably hectic (no surprises there); but my time has been filled too. I'd taken Friday off work to give me a good 4 day weekend as it's a Bank Holiday Monday again this Monday. It worked out rather well because it turned out that Ben's school sports day was on the Friday afternoon. I often have to miss it as it's difficult to get cover so that I can finish early and attend, so I was delighted when everything fell into place. But then rain fell out of the sky in large volumes on the Friday morning and sports day was cancelled. Boo!

Friday night/Saturday morning saw me take part in a local sponsored Midnight Walk. It was in aid of Hospice at Home. They are a wonderful charity offering care and support in the home for people in the latter stages of life and their families in the immediate time after losing loved ones. In my infinite wisdom I decided to knit a sock as I went around the 5 mile walk and raffle the socks off for the charity when they where completed.

The cancellation of sports day gave me some unexpected time in the afternoon, so I decided to cast on the toe of a sock in preparation for the walk. This is my first effort

I seem to have managed to lose the ball band, but it's a rather gorgeous single ply sock yarn. As I was knitting up the toe I quickly realised that this wasn't the sock to take out on a midnight walk. It was really easy to split the ply when knitting and working on 2.25mm needles meant that it was hardly going to be a quick project! So a re-think and quick shopping trip later resulted in me starting afresh with a ball of Regia 6-ply. Much better!

Dressing up in your nightwear was an option, but I wore jeans and a T-shirt as I really don't feel the world is ready to see me in my jammies! I walked with 5 other members of my team from work, our team is called the Penrith Pill Pushers! We all made it round and had a great time. At the end of the walk we got a certificate and a bacon butty! Yum!

I made good progress on the sock - I worked on it until I got to the gusset increases when I stopped knitting as it was tricky to do the increases in the dark!

 I visited my mum and dad on Saturday and stayed until this afternoon (Sunday) the drive down was stunning, I love the Lake District. I drove through stunning scenery. The sun bounced off the hills, pooled in the valleys and made the colours shine. It's days like this that make you realise that despite the horrors in this world, there is goodness too.

I often dread the drive.  It's only 2 hours, a drop in the ocean for some of you guys out there, but it's motorway driving and it's tedious especially on dull, dreary, wet days. Both journeys this weekend where glorious. I had the radio on and sang my heart out much to Ben's disgust!

It was a nice visit, my mum gave Ben a cardie she'd knitted for him. Now, at this point I'd like to say, that Ben is a good boy, he's polite and sensitive to the feelings of others; but I'd warned him about this cardie. Mum told me she was knitting him something and she was loving knitting it. She fell in love with the pattern when she saw a sample knitted up in a local yarn shop.  Mum doesn't knit often these days, she'd rather do paper crafting specifically card making. I was surprised when she said that she'd got yarn to knit both Ben and his cousin a cardie each.

Ben isn't really a cardie kind of guy. He's not a cold child by nature, and will spend the majority of his time in a T-shirt, even in the depths of winter I have to fight with him to put a coat on when he goes outside to play! I convinced my mum to send a photo of the finished object, mainly so that I could brief Ben and get him to look delighted...... So here it is!

 

I'm sorry, I love my Mum dearly but this is awful! The pockets are halfway up the chest, one's higher than the other and it's just not Ben's thing at all! I showed Ben the photo and asked him if he'd wear it, he said no.  I wasn't overly surprised. When Mum gave him the cardie, he tried it on and looked as grateful as he could manage bless him! She asked if he liked it and if he'd wear it and he cracked, there was no way he could tell even a little white lie to save his Grandma's feelings! He is only 10 after all! So she was a little deflated, but in all honesty I don't think she was surprised!

I had taken 3 projects down with me to work on, but this is what I actually produced -

I unravelled the offending cardie. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not, but I decided to pool this puddle of yarn with the yarn she'd bought to make Ben's cousin Andrew a cardie and make Andrew a blanket. I crocheted Ben a grannie square blanket and he uses it all the time. So that's my cunning plan - waste not want not!

On to the crafting -

What saw the love this week -

Well knitting wise I worked mostly on the Piper's Journey shawl. I finished it today and I'm delighted with the way it turned out. The applied edging is enhanced with the subtle stripes of the sock yarn.

 

I think I should have taken close-up photos of the edging details, so I'll do just that and update my project page with them. It's destined for the Christmas gift draw once it's blocked.  Mum seems to be keen on it ending up with her, so we'll see.

Also seeing the love this weekend was the Walking socks. This is what I've named the charity socks. I turned the heel this afternoon and I'm now working up the leg of the first sock. I'm hoping to get this one finished by Tuesday so I can put it on a sock blocker to display at work. I'm hoping to get lots of people to buy raffle tickets and raise lots of money.

I have spun a little this week, but not enough to warrant posting another photo. I did finish the first 1/8th of the polwarth and I've started on the second.  The gorgeous black and purple fibre I'm spindle spinning saw some action too. I'm still keen to get the polwarth off the wheel by the start of the Tour de Fleece, but the way it's spinning so thin I'm starting to doubt that I'll get it done in time. 

Goals for next week -

Finish the first Walking Sock (can I do the pair in a week?!?)

Get a wiggle on with the spinning

Wisteria!?!?

Weight loss!?!?!

EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Have a great week - until next time x

There's no place like home

Hi there folks.

This post is in response to some lovely people I've found on Ravelry. While feeding my excitement for the upcoming Tour de Fleece, I found a group called Shiny Happy People. They are most certainly both shiny and happy people! They have made me feel most welcome in their group. They asked me to tell them more about me and where I live, so here it is - for all folk especially the shiny ones!

This will be the first time I've attempted to embed a video on a blog, so this will go one of two ways!

 

My plan was to film as I walked down to collect the child from school. I hadn't banked on the child using the camera last and leaving the battery almost flat! So all you have is a brief panorama of the view from my top lawn. One day, I  will show you more. I apologise for the wind noise too, it's a blustery kind of day!

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail!

Hello there fluff fans.

Here on Planet Ellen it's been an ordinary week. There has been no excitement in my life! I've worked, I've come home. I've eaten, I've slept. I've done other things to stay alive, but you don't need the details!

Yesterday was a swimming day for Ben, another gala in Kendal. It's a long afternoon, and more so for Ben than normal as he had to swim a few races against 11 year olds as the team was short this week. He did well and held his own which is all we could expect.

On the weight loss front this week has been one to forget. My mind has wandered off course somewhat. I've cheated outrageously and this morning I paid the price. I put 2lb on. This is entirely to be expected and I'm hoping that I can re-focus my drive for the week to come. I really do want to lose a stone sooner rather than later.

Quickly onto the crafty things -

FO's -

The Half a Stone Socks are complete:

 

They aren't completely matching, but I think the patterning on the yarn is such that you can barely notice.  These are vanilla socks on 2.25mm needles. I knit them toe up with a gusset and short row heel and cast off using the Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off.

 

 

WIP'S -

 

This week the socks have ruled the roost. I worked on the Half a Stone socks for the majority of my knitting time. Wisteria did see some action though, I've separated for the sleeves, and now I'm onto the body. I have had something of a revelation though, and not in a good way!  You may remember that I decided to cast on for the 44" bust. This was a cunning plan, or so I thought! I'd have lost some weight by the time the weather chilled sufficiently again to warrant an aran weight jumper. Yesterday I investigated my gauge and it's off! I'm fairly sure that I swatched before I cast on, but the more I think about it, the more I'm doubting myself. My gauge is off, way off. I'm getting 20 stitches to 4" rather than 18.  This means that my finished but measurement is going to be nearer 40".  Oh dear, I thought. That's some serious weight loss required! Still, if it's way too small, it can go into the Christmas gift drawer!

 

I frogged a sock on Friday night.  It was one I was designing, and it just refused to progress. I know, you need to knit on a sock to see it grow! I get that, but even so, no matter how long I did work on it, that leg just wouldn't get any longer! I'm still thinking that I want to do something with that slipped cable stitch, but I think that working it into a continuous rib is too much. You can't just mindlessly knit on it, you have to watch what you're knitting and it's fiddly. I'm all for a technical sock, but a constant battle with the stitches isn't fun at all. I think that the yarn I was using wasn't helping either mind you. I was knitting Regia world college 6 ply on 2.5mm needles which was creating a very dense fabric.

 

The yarn is lovely though, the colour I have is a gorgeous pallet of blues in various shades. It does stripe as you knit a sock, but the changes in hue are so subtle you can barely see them. I do like the yarn, so as soon as I balled it back up, I had to cast something else on. I decided to knit another Pipers journey. The first was knit for a Christmas gift last year. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm over half way through knitting the garter section already.

 

On the second photo you can see the different shades of blue. You can also see where the yarn has been knitted before. I can only hope that settles down with blocking! I hadn't noticed that really before. Darn it!

 

Any hoo! Onward!

 

Spinning -

 

My desire to spin all the things continues with a vengeance! This week I finished plying the blue Wingham Wool Works blue merino/silk blend. I finished up with a rather yummy DK to sport weight yarn. I got 390yds and I'm happy with that.

 

I also plied the hateful evilness that was the massam. I N-plied it and ended up with 200yds of a worsted weight. That is destined to be made into something like a bag for felting.

 

As for what's spinning right now - I'm working feverishly on the Cornfield polwarth fibre. I'm still on the first 1/2 oz. If you remember, I'm fractal spinning it. I'm concentrating on keeping my consistency and I'm hoping for a laceweight to light fingering yarn at the end. I'm loving the results so far -

 

You can clearly see the colour changes. Despite the short colour repeats on the original braid, because I'm spinning it so thin, I'm getting long sections of colour from the smaller 1/8th sections of fibre. The 1/2 section I'm going to spin as the second single is going to give really long colour changes. I'm excited to see the resulting barber poling. 

My spindle spinning is progressing too. I'm spinning this when I can get a chance at work, so I don't expect to finish it for a while yet, but I'm loving the colour and I'm enjoying spinning on my home made drop spindle.

As the title of this week's blog suggests, I'm starting to plan ahead.  This year I'm hoping to take part in the Tour de Fleece. I'm hoping that Nunoco is going to put a team together, as I've decided to fly their flag and spin some of the mountain of fibre of theirs I'm amassing! So, to the planning. I have about one month left before the Tour starts. I aim to get the polwarth finished and off the wheel by then. I'd also like to get the purple BFL done too so that my decks are clear for my new projects.

I'm going to spin the green merino from Nunoco as my main project. I'm wanting to blend the four colours into a gradient. I'm going to split each colour into 4 and then mix them to form a continuous colour change and Navajo ply it. I don't have a drum carder to blend the colours together, but I'm hoping that if I draft them together I should get a half decent blend. Finger crossed! For the special stage, I think I'd like to try to spin a bulky yarn. So far in my spinning career, I've aimed to get the greatest yardage out of my fibre as I possibly can, but this creates spinning projects that take ages to complete. I thoroughly enjoyed spinning the last 2 skeins thicker and loved the relative immediacy of the product. So, I'm hoping I can get a bulky yarn spun, plied and skeined in a day. 100g is doable, yes?

Goals for next week -

To keep slogging at the Wisteria, stockinette is getting mind numbing!

To get the garter section of the Piper's Journey finished and start on the edging

To get at least one more 1/8th of the polwarth fibre spun

To shift those evil pounds I put on this week!

Have a good one guys, until next time

 x

 

Ouch! Bitten by the spinning bug.

As weeks go, it's been hectic but uneventful. On Tuesday Woolmakers announced who had been selected to receive their last 4 wheels, Ben and I weren't successful. The chances of us getting a wheel where slim to none, I knew that, but you can't help being a little disappointed.

While searching Ravelry for groups local to me (something I do every few months or so) I found a yarn shop that was new to me. It's up in Carlisle which is about 30 miles away. Their website isn't up and running yet, and as soon as it is I'll link it in the blog. It's called Truly Twisted Yarns and I can feel a visit coming on. I'm thinking I'll wait a couple of weeks because the owner Sue ordered one of the Bliss wheels from Woolmakers. I fancy having a go and then I can decide how much I need one of my own. They're reasonably priced at €230 for a single treadle and €260 for the double treadle. We'll see.

In an effort to achieve my first weight loss goal, I have swam my little heart out. I've done 368 lengths. That's 9.2km. I'm rather pleased with my efforts. I just need to keep it up next week! It did push me to my 5% loss goal though. Next week my eyes are on 1 stone.

Thinking about crafty things -

FO's

Ptchar! Right! That's a no then! Not even close

WIP's -

Only my half stone socks have really seen any love. I'm working down to foot at the moment. I'm not far from starting the gusset increases.  I don't think I've even managed to complete a
round on the Wiseteria jumper. Let's just say that my mind has been elsewhere this week!

Spinning -

Well, this is where my mind has been. I felt the need to spin ALL the things!

Last week I started the blue merino/silk blend from Wingham Wool  Works. This week I finished the second single and I've started plying it this morning (Sunday)

I hope to get it finished tonight after swimming and dinner are out of the way.

Whilst I was waiting for the singles of the blue merino to settle I decided to spindle spin. And why not? It's been ages since I picked up a spindle.  I spun up a sample from Brazen Stitchery. It's Polwarth in their Tree of Life colourway. It was from the October Phat Fiber Sample box. Please don't use the coupon code on the label as it expired last year and I'd hate for you to be disappointed.
I spun it as thin as I dare on my home made spindle and then Navajo plied it on my wheel. I am really happy with the resulting 35yds of a light fingering weight yarn.

I also stash-dived this week and found a braid of Massam from Hilltopcloud. Katie's shop has gorgeous fibre and assorted delights. I have to say though, I have mainly hated spinning this Massam. I thought I would to be honest as my previous experience of this breed's fibre wasn't great! I bought the braid last year when the KnitGirllls were spinning it as part of their Expand Your Horizons spinning challenge. It's a natural braid of top, I can't fault Katie's fibre prep, but I don't think there's much you can do to make this a pleasant spin. To put it nicely this fibre is wirey, it shed VM and broken fibre pieces and had lots of thick, stubborn guard hairs. Bleugh! Nasty stuff.

 

I was desperate to spin it as each time I go into my fibre bag it glares at me. So now it's done. I have 100g of a sport to aran weight single and after I've given it a while to chill, I'm going to Navajo ply it into a chunky weight. It's such an itchy single, it's going to have to be made into something that's not in direct contact with the skin I think.

I finished spinning this last night and thought, yes, I have knitting to do; but I soooo don't want to pick up the needles! So back into the fibre bag of goodness I went. I closed my eyes and dug deep and came up with another  braid of Polwarth in a colourway called Corn Field. This time from Longdrawjames.

The shop is closed at the moment as the proprietor, a young man by the name of James, is away at uni. The braid is a lovely combination of saturated yellow, blues and greens with the odd fleck of the natural white.  I've spun a few of his braids before and they're a dream to spin. He hand paints his fibre and there are no set colour repeats. I used to spin a braid by splitting it in half by measuring 50g and then breaking pulling the fibre apart, next I'd pre-draft the fibre to within an inch of its life before spinning each single and plying as normal. All this pre-drafting leads to short colour changes and a muddying of the original colours, especially once it's knit up.

I've increased in confidence since then and now I'm happy to draft straight from the braid, so I've decided to give fractal spinning a go. I split the braid in half lengthwise; the first half I then split into 4 further braid-lets.

I'll spin the first single from the half of the braid giving long colour changes. The second single will be from the 4 braid-lets and will give shorter colour changes. When I ply them together the theory is that I'll still get great barber poling, but hopefully with less muddying of the colours.

I completed all of this prep-work and then realised that I only had one bobbin free! Disaster. I have 5 bobbins - 2 on the blue merino/silk blend, one on the Massam, one free and the fifth one is in use by Ben and I didn't have the heart to take his efforts off the bobbin so that I could ply the blue singles. So I set that to one side and started spindle spinning again.  This time it's from The Woolclip, hand dyed combed BLF top from Jan and Cecilia. The colours are devine black and darkest purple - right up my street.  Again, I'm spinning as thin as I can and I'll ultimately Navajo ply it on the wheel.

So onto next week's goals -

To knit more!

Oh, and lose my first stone, and spin the rest of the things I didn't get done this week!

Next weekend is a busy one as there is a Diddy League swimming gala on again, so my spinning time is going to be short, but on the plus side, I have 2 hours on a coach to fill with knitting!

Have a great week,
Until next time x

A "HO", and a wee toe!

Hey there fluff fans. This week's instalment is a little late. Is a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK and everything is a bit laid back. Three day weekends are the way forward!

The week at work was uneventful, I was sure that all hell would break loose as we would be shut on the bank holiday Monday; but the mania never arrived. This concerns me slightly.  I'm sure I'll pay dearly for it tomorrow (Tuesday). Still I'll think happy thoughts and all will be well!

The weekend has been most productive. I borrowed Ben's best friend for the weekend. They had a great time playing out and playing on the computer. It gave me a great chance to craft. Sunday was swim training. The second session I coach are the club's "C" squad. They're all competent swimmers and age between 8 and 11. I set them off doing the set I swim when I train. Now, let me tell you guys that there are corpses out there with better fitness levels than me! So I thought this set would be easy for the kids. They've got 20-odd years on me and I assumed were a damn-site fitter than me! It's a 20 length set - 4x front crawl, 4x front crawl arms only, 2x front crawl legs only, 2x breast stroke legs only, 4x (1x butterfly legs only on the back and 1x breast stroke). Well they moaned and huffed and puffed. It takes me a little over 10 minutes to do it and they took well over 15! I have to be honest and say I was chuffed they found it tricky. I means I'm maybe not a unfit as I thought!

On the subject of diet and fitness, the diet is going well. Last week saw me reach my first half stone lost (hence the name of last weeks' sock). This week sees me heading happily to my first goal of losing 5% of my starting weight. I'm thinking positive thoughts that I can reach this target next week. I'm swimming harder and longer than I used to. This morning I swam 80 lengths, 2km; that's 4 of my sets. I was really chuffed. They took me just under an hour. I'm hoping I can get some good swims in around work this week.

On to the crafting.

FO's

No FO, but as the title suggests I've got a HO!

This is knit out of Opal Hairdresser sock yarn. It's a lovely yarn to use. I like the way it's patterning.  I  also invested in a similar ball that's orange rather than pink. Maybe that will be the one stone socks!

WIP's

I wanted to get to the end of the yoke chart of the wisteria jumper. I've just achieved that this morning. I had been knitting it on my shortest interchangeable wire. The stitches were severely crushed so I've swapped to using my longest! That gave me the opportunity to try it on too. I'm happy with the way it's coming out.

 

Now I look at this photo I can see the increases around the cabling. Hum..... I hope those block out a bit better, else I can see myself wandering around the yoke with a darning needle and some yarn. Grr!

 

The only other knitting I've done this week can be seen above. The Half Stone socks are progressing nicely and I aim to finish the toe and start on the foot today, ready for it to return to my handbag for the week ahead at work. It's my lunchtime knitting project of choice.  I'm knitting while I catch up  on pod casts and listen to audio books. 

 

I'm hoping to get far enough along with the Wisteria to cast on with Mel from Single Handed Knits on the 15th May. She's doing a read-along, knit-along of the Old Man and the Sea. The book is by Hemingway (obviously) and the pattern is designed by Mel. I've purchased the audio book, and I've started to listen to it. I knew that I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of reading and knitting and keeping up with the KAL. There's just not enough time in the day for me!

 

Spinning -

 

I'm delighted to say that not only did I finish the second single of the Dark Wings batt from Nunoco, but I actually managed to get it plied too! I'm delighted with the result - 906 yards of a light fingering yarn.  I'm disappointed with myself though, I had a cunning plan to use up the remaining single left on one bobbin by making a centre pull ball and using it up by adding it to the end of the yarn I plied already (does that make any sense!?) Any how, I made barf! It seems my single was way too energised to come out of the ball from the centre and the end at the same time without becoming a nasty mess...... so I lit the fire with it! Sob!!! Won't try that again in a hurry! Normally I use any singles left to practise my Navajo plying and make a cute little skein-let. I'll keep to that idea! Less waste.

 

In my efforts to spin all the things I started on a new fibre. Its from Wingham Wool Works and it's their dark blue merino/silk blend. I've spun this fibre before in different colours and it's lovely. The merino is beautifully soft and the silk element gives gorgeous shine to the yarn. My only complaint (and it's being picky really) is that sometimes the silk is a little clumpy with bits of what I assume is the glue the caterpillar stuck the silk together with. It's not a huge problem, but it takes a bit of picking out. I have finished the first single, I spun it thicker than I usually do, I'm aiming for a chunky weight. 

Goals for next week -

Finish the Half Stone socks



Make significant progress on the raglan shaping for the Wisteria Jumper
Start and finish the second single on the Blue chunky yarn
Achieve my 5% loss target!!!

Wish me luck guys - I think I may need a few extra hours in the day!
Have a great week

Ellen x

STRESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morning! It's Saturday and I'm up and at 'em. Well, I'm sitting with my pad and a cup to tea talking to you lot! That counts right!? I'm waiting for my painkillers to kick in. I woke this morning with a headache. I'm praying its a tension headache and not a migraine as I'm at a swimming gala this evening! Headache + gala = nightmare!

As the title implies its not been a great week. As each working day finished I thought the next couldn't get any worse. As the next progressed I realised that it could. I've had patients swear at me, accuse me of getting their prescriptions wrong, I've dealt with my computers failing, coped with my day being screwed up by the doctors' computers failing, all the while dealing with the fall out of stock problems while my wholesaler's computers failed!  All in all it's been a foul week and after that rant I'm drawing a line under it and starting again.

What time I've spent at home has seen me knitting and spinning. My energy levels have been low, but sitting and crafting have been a godsend. Feeding fibre through the wheel is soothing, the gentle clack of the wheel turning and the click of needles have relaxed my mind and eased my soul. It's weeks like this that remind me that my crafts are my lifeline, my therapy, my joy.

On a lighter note - I coach at the swimming club Ben goes to. It's challenging at times, but greatly rewarding too. I have a new "project", one of the lifeguards at the pool has recently qualified as a swimming teacher and asked if he could help out at our training sessions. He's shadowing me at the moment. I'm enjoying mentoring him, encouraging him to develop his skills and his teaching style. Is given me the opportunity to look at my coaching too. I have a Level 1 teaching qualification, and I'm thinking now that I'd like to do the Level 2 coaching course. I'll look into it and see what the club say.

Sunday morning - what a difference a day makes. Today is a grey, murky kind of day. I can't see the Pennines from my window the cloud is so low. Yesterday Ben had another Gala. It's the start of the Diddy League season. It's a team even for 9-11 year olds. Our club is small compared to the others we compete with, and sometimes we struggle to field swimmers for all races. It's usual for us to come last by a long way. We came last again yesterday, but I'm really please by our score. We've made a huge leap compared to last year. The number of races we were disqualified from was a lot less than previously. Speaking of disqualification, each team has to provide officials in order to run the gala. Time keepers, admin, and judges. Yesterday I had to be a judge. Normally you can find me at the shallow end herding the kids where they need to be and making sure they know what they're swimming next. It was an awful job! It was my job to make sure that the change over's were correct in relays, to make sure the finishes were correct, and that dives and strokes are legal. It's bad enough having to disqualify a kid, but when it's your own team it's worse!

On to the crafting.

FO's -

That'd be a big fat fail! Nothing finished.

WIP's -

I've worked almost exclusively on the Wisteria sweater. I thought that with it being an Aran weight project I'd fly through it, but no. I've completed the collar chart, and now I'm working through the yoke chart. The collar is a lattice pattern that involves a lot of cabling and the yoke sees that latticework become a swirl as the project grows. All that playing with stitches has slowed me down. That and the fact that my concentration levels haven't been great, so I've made a number of mistakes and had to go back and correct them!

The advent scarf hasn't made it out of its bag. I decided early on in the week, that this perhaps wasn't the right week to work on lace patterns!

I cast on another sock. I've called it "half a stone socks". I'm using Opal hairdresser 4ply. It's a lovely self patterning pink/grey/ cream yarn, 75% wool 25% nylon. I cast it on to celebrate losing half a stone. I figure that if I knit Azores for every half a stone I lose, I'll be set for Christmas knitting!

Spinning -

Last week I'd wanted to finish the second half of the Dark Wings batt. Needless to say I didn't. I did make some good progress through it though! I think I'm halfway there, about an ounce to go. With any luck I'll get that done this weekend and plying can commence

Goals for next week -

Finish the yoke chart on the sweater and start on the raglan shaping

Get the second ply of the Dark Wings done and maybe start to ply.

Work on the half a stone socks.

Work on the advent shawl.

Have a great week guys. X

The things you do!

Morning! It's 6:30am on Saturday. In my opinion there should only be one of these on a weekend, but here I am awake and getting ready to go to a swimming gala with my boy. It's over an hour away from us and we have to meet the team there at 8:45. Dear lord this is early!

Back home now and I'm such a proud mum. Ben swam one race this morning he competed in the 50m breast stroke. He was a bit miffed because he just turned 10 two days ago which meant he was the youngest in his age group. He didn't have much of a chance of winning, but he did knock over 4 seconds off his personal best! Go Ben!!!!!

I'd like to drawn your attention to a post by Woolmakers. They are a company from the Netherlands who make lovely spinning wheels. They are offering 10 people the chance to try their product and tell the world what they think. So if there is anyone out there who thinks this could be for them, write to them and who knows.

I'd also like to tell you about an app I used for the first time this week. It's called Knit Evenly. It costs £1.49 in the iTunes App Store. I have to say that it could be one of the best £1.49's I've spent in a while. If you want to increase or decrease a certain number of stitches across a row or a round of knitting, it will tell you exactly how to do it. It gives you 2 choices, either one that's easiest to remember, or one that is most even across your work. It will even walk you through the row step by step. I used it on my Inspira cowl and found it to be a god send! I can't recommend it enough.

Onto the knitting.

FO's -

I cast off my Poetic Inspira Cowl this week. I'm really happy with it. My project page on Ravelry gives all the details of my modifications. I cast on more stitches than required because I'm significantly bigger than the models. If I'd cast on what was prescribed I would only have been able to use it as a leg warmer! Turns out though, 300 stitches still wasn't quite enough. I wanted it to fit over both shoulders and to be able to pull it up over my head when it's really cold. I can do this, but not if I'm wearing a winter coat. M only consolation is that we're heading towards spring, I'm unlikely to need it until the end of the year and hopefully I will have lost some inches by then. Fingers crossed!

WIP's -

I concentrated on the cowl for most of the week, but my 2012 Advent scarf came out of hibernation. I got further than I thought last Christmas. I kept up with the pace for 14 days. Rather worryingly I gave up half way through a spacer row though, so when I pulled the project out of its bag I nearly lost 20 stitches. That was a tad hairy! Note to self, finish a row before putting projects on hold.

Finishing the cowl has reduced my WIP numbers to one. I have got a sock I'm designing and a vanilla sock on the go, but these are handbag projects I work on when I've got a spare minute, so I'm not counting those! I had bought some yarn to do thePinery  sweater a while ago, I came to cast it on last night, when I realised it was reverse stockinette worked in the round. Eekk! All that purl! I know that I could work the sweater inside out and knit all the way, but I'm not nearly that experienced a knitter. So I spent a chunk of the evening trawling Ravelry for new inspiration. I wanted to use the same yarn, Hayfield Bonus Aran weight, and I finally landed on Wisteria. I cast it on last night and set to work on the collar. This morning (Sunday) I picked up where I left off and discovered a glaring error. My neckline looked nothing like everyone else's. when I re-read the pattern it says to repeat row 1 of the collar chart 12 times. I took it to mean work 12 rounds of row 1. What it actually meant was repeat the chart 12 times to complete one round. I felt a little silly until I was looking though everyone else's projects to see how other folk  had done the neck and realised that I wasn't the only one to have to frog and start again.

My progress so far! Sigh! Hopefully I can get this spaghetti knitted up tonight. 

Spinning - 

I finished the first single of my Nunoco dark wings batt. I'm pleased with how thin I'm getting it. I wonder if I can spin the second 50g this week? I'll give it a whirl. I need to clear some fibre out of stash to make room for Woolfest purchases. Is only eight weeks away now, so I need to get  a spin on! 

Goals for next week - 

I'd like to get a couple of days done on the Advent scarf each week, they're mostly 16 or so rows each, so I think that's realistic. 

I'd like to make progress on the Wisteria sweater. I'm setting no deadlines for this as it's my first ever one piece sweater. We'll see how it goes. 

And lastly let's see just how far I can get into the second half of the dark wings shall we!?

So until next week, happy crafting x 

It is done!

Saturday 13th

As weeks go, it's been uneventful. The return to work was less painful than I'd imagined.  The only big thing that happened was that I got back onto the diet train.

Those of you who've read the blog from the start will see that one of my aims for this year was to lose some weight. I know I'm a quarter of the way through the year, but better late than never yes?

So, I'm following Weight Watchers on line. I usually like to go to a group, but the local meetings don't fit into my work schedule, so I'm using the Internet instead. So far it's gone OK, but Sunday is my weigh in day, so I'll see what the results are tomorrow.

Those of you out there who are also on the train to better health and fitness, feel free to comment and we can all help each other along the way!

Most of the week has seen me getting to grips with a new eating regime. I've tried to increase my exercise. So far I've swam 3 times. I was hoping to go today but my parents have been up visiting and once they'd set off home, the pool was shut for private hire! Anyway, I'm definitely going tomorrow.

On to crafting

FO's -

As you can tell by the title, the Evenstar is finished and wending it's way back to the Wirral with my mum.  It's dawned on me as I'm writing this, that I didn't get around to taking a decent photo of it! Doh!!! Here is a photo of it blocking on Thursday night

This truely doesn't to it justice. Next time I'm down at my mum's I'll take some decent photos and update my Ravelry project page.  I have to say, that it's taken some doing to give it away. It's so lovely. I have decided to cast on another though.  I'm aiming to find some new yarn at Woolfest in June.

I also didn't post a photo of my Ullswater shawl last week so here it is -

The top photo is a good representation of the true colour. I wore it to work yesterday as a kerchief around my neck. It's still chilly around these parts and it was lovely close to my skin. I was worried it may be a little scratchy because the yarn was over spun in places.

WIP's -

Since I cast off the Evenstar on Thursday night I've been working on the Inspira cowl. I've heavily modified the original pattern to make it fit a person with my ample frame! I also wanted it to be able to be worn over my head without being too wide at the top, so I've included extra decreases to make it fit more snugly around the head and neck.  I'm nearly up to the first decrease now.  I'm enjoying the knit. It's the first time I've used a single ply yarn. I'm using Superba poems, it's a lovely yarn, thick and thin in places, and the colour changes are making the pattern. I've never really done well with colour work pieces, but during this knit I've taught myself to knit with 2 yarns at the same time. I usually 'throw' the yarn with my right hand, but now I can do that with the contrast colour and 'pick' the yarn with my left. It's speeding up the knit no end. As well as that, it's given me the confidence to try fair isle. I'm not sure I'm up to a full cardie with steeks yet, but I'm seriously considering using colour work as an accent!

Other things on the needles are two socks. The first is a sock pattern I'm designing. I've been working on the sample on and off for months. I'm hoping that now my time isn't being absorbed by the Evenstar I can get some progress done on it.  The second sock is a vanilla sock, nothing special. I cast on the toe last weekend, when I thought I might be going to the cinema. As it is, I didn't go and I've done maybe 2 rounds while I was waiting for Ben to get changed after swimming last night.

Spinning -
None! In my defence, I've been focused on the Evenstar for most of the week. Hopefully Whenu and I will make progress this weekend.

Goals for next week -

Spin! Please lord!
Make progress on the Inspira cowl
Lose 2lb!

Have a great week guys!

The end is nigh

Do not fear trusted readers!

You shouldn't need to duck and cover just yet (Kim Jong Un not withstanding!) I'm talking about the Evenstar.  But more about that later.

I've had a week off on holiday this last week and its been hectic. I may have to go back to work for a rest. And that's saying something!

I've been to Hull visiting good friends, I've been to the Wirral visiting my parents and also my good friend who is a newbie knitter.

All this travel has given me a lot of time to knit on the car journeys. Is a good 2 hour trip to Hull and I rattled through a healthy number of repeats on the Evenstar border done. While in Hull it was great catching up with our friends. It's scary to see how quickly our kids are growing up. After a visit to The Deep which is large aquarium attraction on the bank of the River Humber it was time to set off home. Another 2 hour journey, but this time I could happily work on another project without guilt because I ran out of beads for the Evenstar.

I also had the chance to visit a yarn store. Black Sheep Wools is a great place. I found it tricky to find what I was looking for as I couldn't figure out how the store was organised. The same brand of yarn was in more than one place. I couldn't find any signage to direct me to weights of yarn. That said, it was great to wander aimlessly and revel in so much lovely yarn under one roof. I may have madesome  purchases!

In my defence, one of those bags isn't mine!

So onto crafty things - 

FO's - 

I have TWO! 

As I said, I ran out of beads for the Evenstar. I ordered more on line, but with the Bank Holiday weekend, they didn't arrive until Thursday. So on the journey home I cast on a new hat. I took a skein  my pen pal gave to me for Christmas. It's a gorgeous alpaca called Swizzle and it was a dream to knit.  I made the Beret de printemps. It's a good pattern, I did an extra pattern repeat to give a more slouchy look. I still have a about 40 yards left so I think I'll use it as an accent on some mittens.

My other half took the photo, and I don't think he really wanted to. Can you tell by the quality of the photo?

My second FO is the Ullswater shawl. I cast it off this evening and its blocking on my floor as I write. I'm happy with the result. Other than my fingerless mittens, it's the first thing I've knitted with my half decent hand spun. As I knitted it I discovered just how overspun it was in places. But I think it was the second skein I'd ever spun on a wheel so I'm happy on the whole. 

WIP's - 

My only WIP has gone back to the Evenstar. Mum's birthday waits for no man! So I'm hoping that when I write next week it will be finished. 

Spinning - 

I actually spun yesterday! I loved it. It's so calming. I'm still working on the Dark Wings from Nunoco. Hopefully, when the Evenstar is off the needles I can spin more. 

Goals for next week - 

Finish the Evenstar and pick a languishing WIP to work on. 

Have a great week guys. 

Happy Easter

The week has been bedlam at work. Easter seems to creep up on folk and surprise them.  We're shut for a long weekend this weekend, 4 days in total. I think we've had to cram 8 days work into 4 not 5 days! I'm definitely ready for a restful break.

We're visiting good friends in Hull over the Easter weekend. So, today (Good Friday) I'm doing house work so that Saturday I can do some shopping and pack. We set off on Easter Sunday and we'll be travelling back on Tuesday morning. I'm hoping for plenty of knitting time over those couple of days.

Next comes a visit to my Mum and Dad and a visit to my good friend. My friend is my latest project. She's a new knitter. At the moment she loves knitting scarfs out of that frilly yarn that knits up quickly into shiny scarfs. I'm trying to convince her to enhance her stash with yarn that's seen a sheep at some point! To that end we're going to visit Black Sheep Wools it's entirely possible I could enhance my stash too! Eek!

I'm aiming to be home late on Wednesday to chill at home and celebrate the other half's birthday on Thursday.

On to crafty things

WIP's - no surprises, but this week has seen me mostly working on the Evenstar border. I've had a panic on. I'm using the circular I used to knit the shawl and a DPN to work the border. I noticed that the stitches along the edge of the shawl were starting to look fluffy through the handling they were getting as I worked the border back and forth. So to solve this my beautiful shawl is living in an unattractive food bag! I'm actually knitting the border with the circular and the body of the shawl in the bag to reduce the friction on the stitches.

It seems to be working, the stitches aren't felting and I'm feeling happier about the whole thing. It's taken me 8 days to get halfway around the border, and I'm hoping that now I'm off for a week I can get the second half done in the 5 days I have left until I visit my Mum! Wish me luck. 

As for other crafty adventures, there have been none! I'm giving my whole heart to the Evenstar. I'm dreaming of knitting other things though. I'm desperate to cast on Drizzle. It's a fab pattern and I'm excited to cast it on, you never know, if I get my finger out I could start it before I blog next. The only problem is that I haven't got any sport weight yarn in stash! Ah well, there's a good reason to go shopping if ever I saw one!

 

So here I am on Easter Saturday and it's becoming increasingly more likely that I'm going to run out of beads for the Evenstar.  I think I've got enough for another 12 more repeats.  As of tonight I've got another 23 repeats to go. So it's now a done deal that I'm not going to get this done in time for my visit to my mum's next week.  I've more beads on order, so it will be finished, but sadly I can't mee the deadline.

 

I'm starting to think about packing now for my trip.  The knitting bag is sorted.  It contains the Evenstar (obviously), the Ullwater shawl (in the vain hope I get closer to casting it off!), the Inspira shawl, my own sock design and a ball of yarn that's yet to be caked and yet to have a pattern picked for it.  I'm hoping that this is sufficient to keep my attention while I'm away from home.

 

Spinning -

Oh how I long to spin! I'm thinking that just a few minutes tonight won't make that much difference to my Evenstar progress. In my heart of hearts, I know that if I start, I won't want to stop tonight.  Tomorrow I'll feel bad about it!

 

Goals for next week -

Well, I was aiming to finish the Evenstar, but now the beads have effectively run out, I'm aiming to go as far as I can. After that, I suppose the Ullswater is next on my hit list as it's the nearest to completion of all my languishing WIP's!

 

Have a lovely Easter guys