Weather, wool and warmers

Well, it looks like we have just completely bypassed autumn and gone from the end of summer to miserable beginings of winter. I was hoping to blog about this (photo from last week)...



The beautiful harvest weather, the warm afternoons, the gold light.... instead I am bloggin about this (photo from this morning)...



Flippin' cold, blue, icy light with rain, wind and chance of snow. What went wrong?

Oh yes, and on the subject of 'what went wrong'... do you remember my lovely urban aran, which I finished while I was pregnant? I excitedly got it out to see how it would stand up to the chilly winds...


Uh huh... this is urban aran, finished in all it's painstaking glory .... on my husband!!! (sorry Mr pjs, I couldn't resist your 'I'm unimpressed' pose) Clearly I'ma knitting idiot...it drowns me and I look completely rediculous in it. So in the end it's a good thing that i knitted it in a colour that suits my hubby cause it looks great on him and at least one of us has a cosy jumper.

My little sister growed up and left home to go to uni this year, she was away for one week when the weather changed and she realised she hadn't taken her warm clothes.... so I made her a little 'so-you-live-on-your-own-keep-warm' present... a neck warmer. Hope she will like it.

Triumph...at last

Well, here it is finally..... Urban lanark, finished and sewn up (not blocked yet though)...


Sadly, the bump means I couldn't do what I enjoy most when I finish something.... so it's being modled by a cushion and my bench.

Working hard

Well... look at the spoils of my week... I have managed to get back and front finished on Urban lanark....




And as you can see I have turned 2-at-a-time socks into 2-at-a-time-sleeves....



But my progress is constantly interrupted by these little fluffy things.....




And the fact that my car failed her MOT, poor darling, she needs a little tweeting.... I mean tweaking!

**If you would like to learn more about our chick raising you can check out our house blog here

Urban Chick!

Well, some of you may remember my long time work in progress .... urban aran (patons pattern)... well.... I sort of lost t, which of course puts a damper on the whole knitting side of things.... however, yesterday I finally thought to myself, this is stupid.... and rumaged around in packed and half unpacked boxes till I found it.

I had finished the back piece but when I looked at it yesterday and I remembered how cold the winter was this year, I though, "I think I would like it a little longer" so I unpicked it to the armhole shaping, then I tried to work out where I was in the cable panel... so frusgtrating, but finally I managed and it's now 2 inches longer and ready, once more, for armholes.



However, our best news of the day is this......



The first hachling on our little smallhold. Our hen has been sitting for a couple of weeks now and though we thought she was due at the weeked.... SURPRISE!

Is't it fab... heres a wee video too just because it's so amazingly sweet, he's only a few hours old!!



There are more chicks on the way too, she's sittng on a heap of eggs and there is 'cheeping' coming from under her. Very exciting, probably means I wont have time to knit today though as I have to keep nipping out to check for chicks!

Work in progress

OK... the sink isnt fixed yet but we have stopped up the leak and we just have cold water which does result in a great amount of faffing to heat water to wash dishes, but, we've still got hot in the bathroom so anything else is do-able.

I have something great to show but will do it tomoro. I also have my Pay it forwards in process (thanks for the patience gals) and here is some of what I have on the needles

My Urban Lanark... the back piece if finsished and I am on the front now



A beret... the colour in this pic is completely wrong, the cold light washed it out, it's better in the second pic



OOOOOOH and my Tsuki yarn arrived today.... soooo soft, the bridesmaids are having shawls in this and regency style dresses in a steel-blue (that's the aim at least)

Trip to the park

It was so pretty at the park I tried to get a pic of the dog. I have about 20 failed attempts but we did get 2 wee beautys


We like to think we can tire him out (silly owners) by taking him to an enclosed park where he can run in circles chasing grass to his little hearts content.



But it's not an entirely wasted trip

Progress is slow but steady on current knitting projects...

I even have a finished object.... Penllyn Socks which I knitted in my 'famous' non-descript mixed wool handpained stuff (leftovers from lost in translation) I am almost sick of knitting with it, but I feel the need to use it up... the man was muttering something horrible about wool not needing purchased till stash is used up....

Urban Lanark plods on, I have almost finished the flank detail (back). I still havnt decided to make it a jumper of a cardigan. Of course my most challenging problem was that I kept having to undo rows, thinking, 'there are purls where there should be knits' . Finally it struck me that if you go B-A-C for the panels one way, you cant do B-A-C on the way back accross... D'oh!

What's knitting a shawl like... any hints?

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.