indieknits

This weekend I will mostly be...

Last night I met up with Emmms and Alice and we headed to an I Knit meet-up, which this week was at Inn The Park. (Sharon, we missed you! Hope you feel better soon!) What an amazing venue! We knitted and drank wine for a couple of hours. As usual the more I drank, the less I knit. Well, it's better than making a mistake! Alice gave me some beautiful Fleece Artist merino in 'Spring' as a belated birthday present. Thanks Alice, I love it!

This Sunday, Ross is recording all afternoon so I think I'm going to fill my time by dyeing some sock yarn. I really want to try gradient dyeing but after reading instructions in Yarns to Dye For it does seem a little messy and I don't have any outdoor space to call my own :(

My dyeing attempts are pretty hit and miss, so if you don't hear any more on the subject for a while you'll know why!

Finally

Finally I have cast on for my Sockapalooza socks. Hurrah! Now I can stop stressing and start knitting. These are going to be my main focus until they are done. The Britanny 2mm needles are so fragile in my big hands that they feel like they are going to snap - in fact one already did when I was casting on yesterday! Luckily the pattern is knit using 4 needles and not 5. I've e-mailed Brittany to ask for a replacement (they're guaranteed for 5 years). Hopefully the other 4 will hold out at least until the DPNs I ordered from Knit Picks arrive.

Even though it's 4 months away, I am already thinking about the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally. This year I am thinking about booking the Friday off work so I can avoid the busy Saturday crowds. Did anyone else go Thursday/Friday last year? Would you say it's quieter than the Saturday/Sunday?

Just wanted to share with you...

...the fact that I am now knittng the ribbing of Orangina...the dreaded ribbing....only 4 more inches to go! I can't wait to finish this project.

Travelling Knitting

This is a first. I am going away this weekend and don't have any socks OTN. There's a reason for this - I'm waiting for a set of 2mm DPNs to be delivered so I can start on my Sockapalooza socks. I don't want to start any others in the meantime as this may delay my Sockapalooza sock progress (I am getting paranoid that I'll have to rush to get them done in time). So...Lutea is coming with me instead. I have about 3-4 inches of stockinette stitch to do which is perfect for train/coach travel.

A couple of nights ago I started a chevron scarf, using 3 balls of Wendy Fusion in Cajun that I had in my stash. This yarn is 50% wool, 50% acrylic but is so soft! As it self stripes much the way Noro does, I'm knitting 2 rows from each ball (which is why it's not coming away with me). I'm not quite sure why I've started a scarf when it's practically summer...but anyway....here's a picture of my progress:

In other knitting news, Jill called me last night and told me the delights of Silkie Socks That Rock. I gotta get me some o'that!

Anyway, signing off for now and probably won't be back until next Monday unless something exciting happens in the meantime. I will be 27 by then (my birthday is on Saturday)...glad I'm not a musician because that seems to be a bad age for a lot of them....

Not much going on...

...but thought I'd drop in and say hi anyway.

Still no progress on my work move. The guy that's helping organise it is off sick so I can't really get cross I suppose.

I have decided to listen to the majority and not frog Orangina. It is now hidden away until the spring. However I have finally plucked up the courage to fix the Swallowtail Shawl, and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Hooray! I will take pictures in the next few days.

Oh, and I revealed myself to my Secret Pal. Liia, it was great fun spoiling you!

Decisions...

I caved in and cast on for a new project last night. I couldn't help it - I was bored at work so decided to browse through Knitting Pattern Central. I found the pattern for the gorgeous Crystal Palace Kid Merino that Ross bought me for Christmas. It's Grace by Karen Stockton, and was in the Spring '04 issue of Knitty. So much for finishing existing projects first! Mind you, I haven't broken the Stashalong rules as I haven't bought any new yarn for the project.

EDIT: I've been chatting to Anna about this pattern, and have decided not to continue. It seems she and several others had a nightmare with it. I'm not brave enough to risk wasting the yarn. (as we all know mohair is a bitch to frog)

I'm just not sure I can carry on with Orangina...I love the look of the finished result, I like the yarn I'm using (Rowan 4 ply Cotton), I don't find the lace repeat too difficult or too dull...I think it's just been OTN for so long that I'm fed up with it. So the question is, do I frog or do I hide it away for a bit longer and hope that I'll get a second wind? And if I do frog, what do I do with the yarn?

all seems well

No outbreak of the lurgy today...think I might be okay....we must all send out healing vibes to Sharon though, who has just had her tonsils removed.

How ace does the new Get Knitted store look??? Sharon, Emmms and myself are probably going to visit this paradise on 10th February (I say probably because we haven't actually booked anything yet and won't be doing so until the end of this month just in case circumstances change). Train tickets to Bristol are £20 return if you book in advance and the train departs from London Paddington. If you fancy coming along, leave a comment and I'll e-mail you with more details!

2007 List

Along with Stashbusting, I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up other areas of my life. They're not resolutions as such, just ideas that I would like to try and stick to. So, here is list for 2007:

1. Stop Buying Crap! When I recently read Crazy Aunt Purls blog, It made me realise how much money I really do spend on stuff I don't need. So for example, I am not going to buy those knitting magazines just for the sake of it, and I am not going to buy random clothes just because I'm on my lunchbreak and am bored.

2. Packed Lunch! Making my own lunch rather than buying it everyday will save me approx £50 a month(!!!). I just need to be a bit more imaginitive. So far I've eaten cheese and marmite sandwiches everyday for the past week.

3. Think More In The Supermarket! I'm going to add up the costs of things as I put them in my basket, so that when I get to the till I'm not shocked by a bill for £40 (easily done in Waitrose). Also, I'm going to try my hardest to resist things I don't really need. However I will not skimp on the quality of meat; it still has to be free range and/or organic whenever possible. I just can't bring myself to buy 'wrong chicken'.

4. Tidy Up Bills! I have a contract mobile that costs me £25 a month. Sad as it may seem, I only ever call Ross to tell him I'm on my way home and my manager to tell her if I'm running late. All other calls are either from the home landline or via webcam. As soon as my contract expires, I'm switching to pre-pay. Also, I'm going to pay monthly for my water and electricity bills, so I'm not stung with a whopper every 3 months.

5. Buy Less Wine! I'm not sure if this will actually happen but the plan is to only drink booze on the weekends and perhaps as a midweek treat (I like a glass or three of vino when I'm watching Desperate Housewives on a Wednesday night). But we'll see how that one pans out...

That's all I can think of for now, and to be honest I think that's enough to be getting on with!

A completed project!

I have finally finished the Sunrise Circle Jacket! Check it out:

This beauty took me ages... but my destashing resolution spurred me on to finish it. Overall it was a very enjoyable pattern to knit and the finished result fits very well.

I'm also well impressed with myself because I saved about 3 hours of my life by machine stitching the seams!

Specs:

From: Interweave Knits Spring 2006, free web pattern

Yarn used: 7 balls of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, in Maze

My New Year Resolution is going really well.

My office is a 10 minute walk from Brent Cross shopping centre. Inside this shopping centre is a John Lewis. Inside John Lewis is a yarn sale.

So much for de-stashing! But you know what? I hadn't officially started my Stashbust anyway. Honest!

The good news is I only bought 4 balls of yarn - 2 of which are for my Secret Pal! How restrained is that?!