Progress and sunshine

Well, I haven't done much substantial knitting (and no sewing at all). I did finish the felted clogs though. The Man modelled them today...


Hamish loves to get in the way.


They are great, although I think the left one needs just one more felt for comfort and equality with the other.

I have been trying to knit the Penylln socks, Last night I thought it was going fabulously till about 4 row into the pattern I got to the end of a round and realised I had too many stitches left over and couldn't figure out for the life of me what had gone wrong. I pulled them back to the rib to start over and somehow lost 2 stitches .... didn't drop them, just, lost them.... I think I will just start over.





We've had cold weather but lots of sunshine, so, in the house, with the heating on, the sun coming through the windows is making it really warm. So warm that the plants seem to think it's spring...


My Ivy went on a mad growing spree and I have to keep picking its creepy fingers out of the walls. It is pretty though


And this is a very brave chilli that is determined to flower.



Urban Lanark is going well.


I think after knitting on a much smaller gauge for so long it shocks me how quickly it falls off the needles.

I love it though, the most I have to cable is 4 stitches so no sore fingers for me.

And the New Lanark wool is lovely, I really like it.

OK, so thats just about where I am at for now. The exams are going ok, though I have another biggie in a couple of days which is STRESSING me out.

Sunsets and stitches.

Well, firstly and finally, here it is... Lost in translation. I am really pleased its finished.

I blocked it this morning.



Every night, and I just never get the camera in time, just as the sun sets there are a couple of minutes when it hits the tiles on the building next door and it looks lovely.

I thought you might like a little sunshine.

Oh... and Its about time I inroduced another member of our little family. Hamish consideres him his arch nemesis... This is Pickwick who was keeping me company yesterday while I studied and then knitted.


He's a blue mutation of a ring necked parakeet.

Oh, and I've also almost finished the first of the slippers from the felted cloggs pattern. they are huge! Pics to follow.

Lost in.... a ball of yarn

Guess what I have got....


I'll give you a clue....

Do not be distracted by the beautiful balls of yarn.....


Or the pretty colours...


Look beyond the balls.... to The Winder.... of the balls...


Fabulous...


And yes.... i did wind every bit of wool I have in the house!

Of course, Hamish found it all very hard work.... *snort*



'Lost in translation now looks like this...



As you can see, we have a neck and we are well on our way to having a covered up midrift too.


Speaking of covered up..... we have had a good deal of this the last few days...


I wonder if there is a 'real' explanation for why I can see farther in the photos than I can with my
eyes..... hmmm... its erie. It feels like we are characters in 'The Others'...


Sorry about the long pause in the posts, exams and knitting in the downtime.

Lost in a neckline

I know it sounds unreasonable, but I really want to finish this by saturday. This means that my man has endured me spending all my 'downtime' swearing at the knitting.

Still it has paid off, I am shaping the neckline
My next cast on's will be...

Fiber trends felted clogs

And.... oh my goodness.... a pair of socks....


I'm not known for my socks I know, but look at them, arnt they lovely? the pattern is 'Penllyn' by Lisa Parker.... how can I resist them. I'm glad that someone very sweetly sent me the patterns as a little trade off :).... though I think I got the better deal

New Lanark

Yesssss!

I ordered this wool last week (yes, just last week) from a mill in Scotland near where I grew up (they opened an online shop).

And it arrived already....

Check the label.... traditionally produced wool.


I ordered 'Woodland Haze' A green slightly flecked with browns and blues.



And hopefully, if it ever arrives, I will have the pattern for this

Which, I think, paired with the lovelly green aran will work out nicely.

I also ordered shade cards and will definately get more wool from them. If you are planning a jumper or something similar, lovely wool... I highly recomend them. Prices and shipping are really good.... new lanark mill

Anniversary...

Today my man and I celebrate our anniversary. Like last year we will spend tonight in our favourite restaurant and smiling a lot. We've had a great year and the one that's coming for us will be even better. Neither of us could be happier.



However, until we go to the restaurant I will do some more of this...

Lost in translation, progressing nicely, in about 6 cm I will start the neck shaping. The one thing I will say is you need strong yarn and strong fingers for the cables. (Rani, the wool is some hand painted i bought from someone online no name. I thought since the pattern reminded me of foliage, I would use the wool that reminded me of foliage. I am using 2 strands)

In other news.... my new love ....

We affectionately call this one.... ball number one. (hand dyed, hand spun, plied)


It got better as I went on.... still my own dyed stuff... there is a better consistency in width

And this one is the last one from that batch of roving. I really loved learning to spin with it.


But this is what we love..... batch number 2, which I saved till I had done my practice roving.


The dark brown and the pale cream are natural colours, the caramel brandy in the middle is my natural dye experiment.... I first spun it this time, then I dyed the skein with onion skins. very easy, very nice colour, very cheap dye.

You may notice that the wool looks a bit more consistent and looks like something you could knit with. I think i am getting the hang of it.

My next step is from scratch, fleece, wash, card, dye, spin. I think it may take longer.

Exam went ok yesterday, results next week

Lost in translation

This is 'Lost in Translation', the drops top I posted about yesterday. I got the hang of it eventually and it's coming out nicely now.

I thought I would also post the drops jacket I completed at new year. I heavilly modified the neck. I think it turned out ok, plus I did a russian bind off on the neck which is stretchy and elegant. Overall very pleased.

Patterns and translations

Well, I am not really doing much knitting or anything at the moment as I have major exams hanging over my head and it's pretty stressful. I am not doing them in English either for the first time so there is double stress present.

However, as I was a little too stressed and a little unwell today, I cast on for this....
Which I love, however, the pattern is translated from Norwegian (i think) and its not so relaxing when you knit knit knit and get to the end of a rather long row only to discover that you are not at the end of your stitches, but have 10 left over.... oh dear. I have had to start it over 3 times now. I am going to unravel it once more as I have finally sussed what is going on. Ugggghhh...

In other news, I love spinning. More on that later.

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

Ok .... we're back

It's been ages since I posted. Anyway, Christmas and new year were as lovely as it gets in terms of being out of the city. I hope everyone else enjoyed Christmas and that you had a good time welcoming in the new year.

I did my back in between christmas and new year and I got a the whole drops jacket done. I finished it off in the new year and stitched up back at our place.

While I was away, a package arrived for me..... a dying and spinning kit that I ordered before christmas.



So....



I got started....


And it was great fun...

This is officially the first little piece of my very own hand dyed, hand spun and hand knitted wool...


A little rough, but we'll get there

It's a fun way to start the year. Will be back to posting more regularly now.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's a good one