A Brief Update

I haven't updated my blog for such a long time, for which I'm very sorry. I did manage to load a few photos from the I Knit Weekend but that sadly was as far as it got. Which is a shame, it was a wonderful couple of days which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm only hear today by virtue of being at home nursing a chest infection ( and feeling pretty rubbish to boot ) but I do intend to try to start blogging again soon because it's something I enjoy.

One of the reasons for my prolonged absence is that my mother has been in hospital for almost 9 weeks. Sadly, she won't be able to return to her own home, and I am currently looking into Nursing Home care locally to me for her. This has come at a time when I have started a new job ( no more nights, yay ) which I am thoroughly enjoying but is a bit of a learning curve and is taking some adapting to, so all in all life is a little testing at present to say the least.

So while I am not giving up blogging, it's just on hold for a little while. Please bear with me, I'll be back when I can.

Another Forest Canopy

I make no apologies for yet another one of these. When a friend needs a hug, and they are too far away, hopefully one of these is the next best thing.

The yarn is Lochan from The Yarn Yard. I used 4.5mm needles and there are four extra pattern repeats and six border rows.

The tencel gives the fabric a lovely sheen, and it also drapes beautifully.

Fibrefest 2009

What a wonderful day I had yesterday. Mr A and I chose to spend our 28th Wedding Anniversary doing entirely different things - he went off to watch his beloved Shrews play football, I went down to Fibrefest for the day.

I needed to deliver the FCS for p/hop, and I had also promised to help my friend Juliet of Artists Palette Yarns on her stall so I was looking forward to a day with a difference.

Fibrefest is held biennially at the wonderful setting of Coldharbour Mill. It's hard to imagine a lovelier place to visit, and who would know that the M5 is just 10 minutes away - it's another world altogether.

I love festivals such as Fibrefest as it gives the opportunity to discover vendors one wouldn't normally see. This stall for example, Atomic Knitting, featured some of the most imaginative stitch markers I have come across for a long time.

And there is always spinning to see of course :-)

Here are Anni and Simon of Yarn Addict. It was lovely to catch up with Anni again, and see her lovely shawls in person, especially the new Trinity Shawls.

And here is the p/hop Knitting Emporium looking suitably busy.


And forgive this little indulgence, but here's the FCS I showed you in my previous post. I feel quite maternal about these shawls, and I'm hoping it is won by someone who will look after and appreciate it.

Here are the lovely yarns on the Artists Palette stall. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed my day - or how exhausting it was! I am full of renewed admiration for all vendors, thay have much more stamina than I do!

Even the car parking was picuresque yesterday :-)

And finally, my purchases. Two balls of Peaches and Creme from First 4 Yarns

This wonderful yarn from The Thylacine

And this from The Old Piggery

Fibrefest was a truly wonderful day out, and I will certainly go again the next time. I met so many old friends, and even cyberfriends for the first time, and although I am shattered this morning it was worth every single minute :-)

Knitting in Black and White for p/hop

Here's yet another Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. This one was knitted using Caber from The Yarn Yard, I used 4mm needles and there are 6 extra pattern repeats and 10 border rows.

Yet again, this isn't for me. This shawl is due to be raffled once again for p/hop at this weekend's Fibrefest. I've not been to Fibrefest before, and I am really looking forward to it. Saturday is my 28th wedding anniversary, Mr A is off to watch his beloved Shrewsbury Town, so I am having a day out myself. I'll be helping out in the p/hop Knitting Emporium, and also helping Juliet of Artists Palette Yarns, so do say hello, I'll be wearing my Ravelry Thimblina badge. And do go and visit the lovely people from p/hop. They will have some lovely knitting patterns available in exchange for donations as well as the shawl.

I'm often asked why I knit so many of these, and there really isn't one answer to this. I have a real affininity with the pattern, and it gives me a great deal of pleasure to knit. I also have a real affinity with sock yarn ;-) and a lot of frends. So when birthdays or Christmases or special occasions come along, what better way to gift a skein of yarn. I get double the pleasure you see, not only do I get to gift the yarn, I get to knit with it as well :-)

I also here need to say a huge thank you to Susan who designed the Forest Canopy. Whenever I want to offer one of these for auction or raffle she never fails to give her permission for me to do so. Thank you Susan :-)

Another Ishbel

One of the things I love about knitting is the wonderful people you get to meet :-) Juliet ( of Artists Palette Yarns ) and I go to the same knitting group on a Tuesday evening, and wouldn't have otherwise met each other. Juliet is going to be a vendor at next weekend's Fibrefest, and wants her yarns knitted into projects as a showcase for customers to see how a yarn looks and feels when knitted up, which is how I came to knit this Ishbel for her I'm so pleased I have, not only have I tried a new yarn, I've used different colours for me ( although they are hard to photograph accurately ).

The yarn is Sweet Feet, which is a fingering weight yarn. Each skein contains 400m, and is a mix of 80% merino and 20% Bamboo. It is beautifully soft, and has a lovely drape, perfect for shawls and scarves. I used 4mm needles.

I made 2 small modifications to the pattern. I found the bind-off tight for blocking last time and so knitted rather than purled the bind off row ( as you do with a fcs ) which helped enormously. I also found last time that the eyelets along the top of the shawl varied in size because of doing them on a purl row, so instead of k3, yon at the beginning of every row I did k2, yon, k1 which solved the problem regarding the difference in size although I'm not sure about the appearance of the eyelet

Exotic Socks :-)

There are some lovely sock patterns around aren't there. Yet sometimes I find only a basic sock recipe will do otherwise the yarn uses that special je ne sais quoi - yes, I know le Tour is all over for another year but you know what I mean, sometimes a yarn gets lost in a pattern.

These are socks for me, so they are a size UK 7 knitted using 2 x 2.5mm circular needles. The yarn is Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett # Exotic Pool and I love how it works.

I did make an error with the first sock. I'm still new to using two circular needles, and I muddled when to K2 tog and SSK and so one gusset is slightly different to the other one. I noticed what I had done far too late to set about frogging, so we'll call it a design feature shall we, and I won't make the same mistake again!

Hemlock Ring blanket

I am such a bad blogger. Here's le Tour de France over for another year days ago, and have I shown you my Maillot Jaune project - non!

Apologies mes amies, et regardez vous ici. Voila, le Hemlock Ring Blanket.

I used 4 skeins of Cascade 220 in # Kansas from their Heathers range, with 5.5mm needles.


This is the Emily Ocker method of casting on for circular shawls, and it's fab.

Here is the central flower emerging.

I am really pleased with the blanket. The edges are a little frilly which makes for patient blocking, but the end result is well worth all the effort.

I thoroughly enjoyed this year's Tour de France KAL which made the transition from Blogger to Ravelry brilliantly.

Le Tour de France

Bonjour et bienvenue à mon petit blog. Oui, mes amies, it's that time of year again, the Tour de France KAL is with us.

This year it is Ravelry rather than blog based, and it's made the transition pretty darn well I'd say.

I am trying fr a Maillot Jaune this year and am attempting a Hemlock Ring blanket. More of that to come in another post.

This is my own little personal Time Trial project - yes, that's right, it's the perennial Forest Canapé mes amies, c'est très jolie n'est pas.

I do believe my franglais is improving ;-)

This was knitted using an as yet un-named yarn from The Yarn Yard, it's a merino/nylon/cashmere mix and it's wonderfully soft to knit with. I used 5mm needles and it's destined to be a gift for a friend

More KAL news in my next post.

Woolfest 2009

Goodness, it's that time of year again! This was my third, and by far busiest Woolfest, and I enjoyed it immensely. But boy was it hot!

Mr A and I were directed to the overspill car park at 10:15 on the Friday morning which was an indication of the busy morning to come.

We soon made some new friends :-)

Sock blockers in all sizes imaginable on the Laal Bear's stall

We spent a lovely morning there on Friday, and then Mr A and I left to enjoy an afternoon on Ullswater which provided a welcome respite from humid Cockermouth. We took a lovely trip on an Ullswater Steamer which was the perfest way to see the area.

The weather closed in somewhat though which gave us a different outlook altogether.

But we did see this mum and her babies out for an afternoon swim - aaahhhhh!

On Saturday I attended a masterclass in Estonian Knitting with Nancy Bush. Nancy's calm and gentle outlook and obvious passion for all things Estonian made for a wonderful day - even if it was so hot it almost turned into a felting class ;-) I promise never to uses an "easy" way to knit a nupp and will always use the traditional method!

Some of Nancy's lovely work.

After the class therewas time for one last wonder around. The Laal bear again.

Fibrespates

The Yarn Yard

p/hop were situated very conveniently in between the ice cream and The Yarn yard :-) they were wonderfully successful, and their sale of p/hop patterns, together with the generous donation from Kindred Knitters and the shawl raffle raised a staggering £894.78. Well done to Ambermoggie and Wye Sue for all their hard work on the Kindred Knitters stall.

This lovely stall was the University of Cumbria.

This was the Kindred Knitters area - a haven for weary Ravellers and bloggers.

This is Mr Mogs looking on while Lou from p/hop being presented with the kindred Knitters donation.

Our last night out saw Mr A and I head for The Bitter End, a pub with it's own brewery. Much better than the dreadful restaurant we at in the previous evening ( the restaurant and it's food were lovely, it's clientele leaves a lot to be desired )

Our table looked right into the brewery - now that's what I call a table with a view :-)