indieknits

Always remember to check for needles

Yesterday Ross and I walked from Earls Court, all the way down Kings Road to Peter Jones. I bought two balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK to knit FrankenMitts.

By the time I got home I was so tired; we'd done quite a lot of walking and it was super busy, and the Tube was delayed. All I wanted to do was plonk in front of the TV with a glass of cider, and cast on for these mittens. I printed the pattern, and then realised I don't have the right needles. Argh!!!

We got woken up at 4:30am last night. I heard a bloke coughing, and assumed it was a drunk that had gotten off the night bus and decided our car park was a good place to pee. However, Ross, with his supersonic hearing, heard a girl with him who was worriedly saying something about 'tripping'. It's only now when I think back on it that I remembered that his cough was kind of strange. It's hard to explain, but there was something 'rhythmic' to it. Every cough that he did sounded exactly the same - something that people only seem do when they have taken acid. It brought back memories of Latitude when our teenage tent neighbour got spiked and did the same thing. Weird. It's enough to put me off ever wanting to go near the stuff. I should have leaned out the window and told him to have a bad trip somewhere else, that would have really freaked him out!

Ally Pally

Ally Pally was great fun yesterday - although it completely knackered me out! We met up at 10 am and were in the show until 3:30.

Doesn't Emma look triumphant after walking up the hill and reaching the show?

This picture was taken at a quiet moment. It got way busier than this!

I was quite restrained with my purchases, and only bought 2 skeins of sock yarn:

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in Turquoise

Natural Dye Studio Merino/Tencil sock yarn -  colourway unknown

Afterwards we had a well-deserved couple of pints and I then headed home to flake out on the sofa in my pyjamas with a glass of wine.

Well, that's that for another year then! Next in the calendar: the Stitch N Bitch Day!

Socktopus

The Socktopus launch party last night was great fun! Alice is a wonderful hostess. There were lots of yarns for us to drool over so I couldn't resist making a purchase. I also won a skein of Cherry Tree Hill, a Socktopus tote (screenprinted by Curly Custard) and an arm and hand massage! Wow!

Dream In Colour Smooshy in Blue Lagoon and Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in African Grey

The Socktopus tote (which is a little dirty because I had one too may sherries and dropped it).  Sorry Karen!!

You can see more pictures below. I'm off for a lie down.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from indieknits tagged with socktopus. Make your own badge here.

I Heart Short Row Heels

I am very elated because I completed my first ever short row heel last night. They're so quick! No heel flap, no annoying picking up of stitches (that's the one thing about knitting socks that bugs me..I wouldn't go as far to say that I dislike it, because I don't dislike anything about knitting). Just a bit of wrapping and turning and you're done.

The only thing that slightly confuses me is the lack of gusset increasing. Normally, on a top-down sock, you'd knit the heel flap, pick up the stitches, and the decrease until you're back to the same amount of stitches. This fits in with the way a foot is shaped - the extra stitches in the gusset make room for your heel, right? I don't know if it's just the pattern I'm knitting or if the same rule applies for all toe-up patterns, but there's no increase in stitches before I get to the heel?

Am I missing something? Someone please explain. I'm confused. Is it because the short row heel is 3 dimensional and so gives you more room without having to create more stitches?

Anyway. Last Friday was payday and I figured it was about time I get my hands on some Natural Dye Studio sock yarn. It arrived yesterday:

This is BFL sock in Amazon Apple. Wow. I love it!

Last night...

I get home at midnight, after drinking 5 pints of cider (but not stinking of smoke), stuffing chips into my mouth. As I walk up the stairs I think to myself 'will my KnitPicks order be waiting for me?'. I get to the front door - there is a parcel! - but wait, it's just the wire coat hangers I ordered to make sock blockers. I open the front door and there is a card from the postman. He's left another parcel with...his handwriting is illegible. What am I going to do??? I stare at the card as I finish my chips, try to work out what he's written, give up and go to bed. Then I hear Ross open the front door, say 'cheers mate' and  Ta-da! My KnitPicks delivery! The postman left it with the neighbour, who must have heard us come in.

You can check out all my yarn yummyness here (the last 9 pictures).

and OMG! I got my Ravelry invite! It's amazing!

Your eyes do not deceive you...

...my progress checker really does say that Orangina is 100% complete. In fact, it is blocking on my dining table as I type....

Miracles do happen!

Here's what I ordered from Knit Picks. It shipped yesterday so should have it in a couple of weeks at the most!

• 1 x Gloss in Woodland Sage
• 2 x Palette in Yellow
• 2 x Essential in Pine
• 1 x Gossamer in Leprechaun
• 2 x Palette in Teal
• 2 x Shadow in Campfire Heather
• 1 x Gloss in Cocoa
• 1 x Alpaca Cloud in Smoke Heather
• 1 x Shimmer in Morning Mist
• 1 x set of 2mm DPNs

Quite a lot of yarn, eh? and it only set me back £20 (unless customs get hold of it).

Today is a good day.

I'm having the most fantastic day today and it's not even lunchtime. A beloved friend announced she may be moving back to London, Gruff Rhys announced he is playing Latitude, and I've just bought an enormous amount of yarn from Knit Picks....

If this Knit Picks trial goes well and they decide to ship to the UK permanently, I could have a serious shortage in storage space. I ordered enough yarn for 5-6 pairs of socks, 3-4 lace shawls/scarves, and some 2mm DPNs (need this size and wanted to try out their needles) for £23.00. It's insane!

I'm off to the canteen now to read my early birthday present from my MIL.

Make your Knit Picks dreams come true...

This one goes out to all readers in the UK.

Anyone interested in taking part in a trial, which might result in Knit Picks being available to us in the UK? Missmalice Knits has half a dozen ZERO!more spots to fill for some S.E.X. (stash enrichment xpedition).  Head over to her blog to e-mail her and find out more!

I'm very excited about this!

EDIT: I just checked Missmalice's blog and all her slots are now taken! Us knitters are like crazy desperate maniacs when it comes to Knit Picks, hehe!

The saga continues...

There's a few issues with my work move that might mean more delays, or it not actually happening at all. I am so sick of the whole situation. In fact, I am boring myself with it all so I certainly won't bore you.

*sigh*

I have placed a snipe on some carders on eBay. I've been wanting carders for a while but have never wanted to spend £30 on them, so hopefully they'll be mine! Edited to add: They're mine! Auction Sniper makes me feel a bit guilty. Imagine: there you are, the only bidder on an item you've been watching for a whole week, you refresh the screen expecting to see 'the item is yours, please pay now' and then realise that in the last 5 seconds some git has outbid you!

You may have noticed that a progress bar for Kiri has appeared in the last week - I cast on for it last weekend and am hoping to have it finished in the next few days. It won't be as large as the original, as I'm using 440 yards of yarn (Knit Picks Shimmer), but should still be large enough to wrap around my shoulders.

I'll leave you with the video of Willy Mason's new song. If you are reading this and either work with me now, or used to work with me, see how many people you can recognise!

Pilgrimage

Sharon and I went on a pilgrimage to Get Knitted yesterday. We met at Paddington and 2 hours later were in Bristol. After a bit of waiting for the bus to Brislington (we only noticed that the 57 bus runs Monday - Friday after 20 minutes of waiting) we arrived:

I didn't take any pictures of inside the shop, but you can see some here.

An hour and a half of browsing and we thought we ought to get baskets and start making some decisions. Just as we suspected, sock yarn was the only yarn we put in our baskets. I almost bought some Jitterbug, as both the colours and the feel of it were amazing, but the price tag put me off (we both thought that £20 for a pair of socks is just a bit too much).

We stopped for a quick pint before getting the bus back to the station, and bought more alcohol on the train.

We both bought some Trekking XXL in 28, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (I chose Pine. What colour did you get again Sharon?) and I also got some Fyberspates in Ocean Forest.

 

Overall a fantastic day!