Progress on 'Melon'

I am now doing the knitted border on 'Melon' and so far so good. I have never done one before, it's pretty straight forward but I prefer to use the small circulars to do it as opposed to the two dpn's I had in that size which had lousy points. I am over half way on one side . I have placed the ball by the side of the half way mark.

I do hope there will be enough yarn to do it all ; there should be, as I bought more than enough to do it , so fingers crossed.
I'm sure when its finished ,washed and blocked it will look lovely and its certainly long enough.



I have to say I am getting bored with it now though and I will be glad to see it finished as I seem to have been doing it forever but I guess that's because of the Sock Madness interval which took some of my knitting time up.
Talking of the S M, I am now looking forward to next Wednesday when the new pattern is out and I can do it at my leisure or not if I don't like the pattern ;and it will be great to cheer from the sidelines. It's a shame in a way that folks out side of the competition can't see the photos and other stuff on their site as there have been some great socks and its amazing how they look in different colours.One of the sock designers has released the 'Mad Cow' sock pattern on the main site for all to use now, so if you fancy doing them pop along there:) So far the rest of the patterns are strictly not to be shared as it was one of the conditions of entering the competition.

For now I will try & get this shawl done asap and then it's on to 'Bluebell' from Fitted Knits for me and I shall enjoy doing that .

Mind I don't know how much knitting will get done over the next few days as we are going to Kath's for a few days and to see my son's new home so it will be 'all go' for us 'country bum kins'. They have 'shops' there !!

Free Floor Loom any one ?

Remember I got given the offer of a free floor loom ? Well it arrived yesterday and it will be too big for our cottage so if any one wants it they are more than welcome to it.The lady was just so pleased to get rid of it as she is going to China for a year to teach and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be too big but didn't have the heart to tell her. She is also bringing over some tapestry frames and other stuff as they have to be cleared by tomorrow !! It's in bits and I have no idea how to assemble it; I was going to take it to a guy at our guild as I thought it was going to be smaller but I think this will have to be put together in situ.
I have taken some photos and she thinks its all there but I wouldn't know . I will be offering it to the SWD guild members when I go in a couple of weeks but if any one wants it before then let me know .



If you want more detailed shots I will happily oblidge . It deserves to be used I think .

Who's a Lucky Girl :)

The postie arrived this morning with a surprise parcel for me :)
It was a gift from the lovely Jo This yarn is so lovely and I am going to find a pattern that deserves it ; it's from Crystal Palace Yarns and its called 'Panda Cotton' and its 55% bamboo,24% cotton 21%nylon and it feels very soft.Many, many thanks Jo and I'll get you back , just wait and see :)
The needles also arrived this morning from the US and what was amazing is that I bought these off E-Bay and then when I was doing the Sock Madness competition there was someone there with the same name. I thought was it the same person? so I mailed her and it was she , what a coincidence , its a small world?




So now that I am chilled out I am enjoying my knitting again, I have finished the centre panel of 'Melon' and will be starting on the knitted border tonight. Do hope it works out okay. I have been following the very talented Anni & my heart goes out to her as she is running out of yarn for her shawl , so will be keeping fingers crossed for her.
I am also doing another pair of the Mad-tini socks but this time for DH as he really liked the pattern and would be great to wear with his walking boots. I love mine as they are so soft,I was going to do the pattern all the way down the foot as I thought they would look better,but no he wants them just like mine !!
The next project I have in mind is either 'Bluebell' from 'Fitted Knits' or the 'Lacy Waves' top from 'Lace Knits' both which I have yarns for . I am veering towards the Bluebell and its aran and so it would be a quicker knit.
But before that I am going to finish my shawl and socks. I have noticed that things have changed in my knitting, at one time I would have two or three WIP and flit from one thing to another, now I really don't like to if I can help it as I find that I would rather concentrate on one thing at a time and then move on to the next. I only have one WIP that I have neglected and that is because I have changed my mind about the pattern so that will go back in the frog pond until I decide what to use the yarn for.
On my wheel at the moment is some wool ,mohair and tussah silk I blended myself and I am trying to spin it aran weight . I say trying as I am finding it hard to spin a thicker weight after all that fine spinning I have been doing; which reminds me I must get that spun sock yarn out and try the hand painting on it that I wanted to do !! One thing is certain, I NEVER get bored , way too many things I want to do.

Mart-tini Socks

Well I have made my second pair of socks and before my partner but as I really don't wish to carry on with this competition ,I am waiting for her to finish before I post my photo on the group Flickr site. I don't know if this is proper or not but I find that, yes I am competitive, but not in the sense of competing with others but competing against myself and as I have found previously to my cost , this is very destructive for me so I am bowing out. I didn't go full out to do these but I still had that feeling of needing to do my 'homework ' which for me takes the joy out of creating. So I have learnt yet more about myself in doing this and that in itself has been good. So now I can look forward to doing the rest of my socks at my lesuire and cheer on all the other competitors.

I have to say I do like this pattern even if I found it hard on my hands.Even Tony has asked for a pair for himself to use with his walking boots so that's a bonus as I think he thought that sock making was a bit 'mad ' any way :)




PS: (9 am Sunday) Yeah I can chill out, my partner has finished so I can now post my finished socks and enjoy watching the competition from the side lines .
Thank you all for your support through my 'madness' I have come through it & survived :)

Yarn weight's re UK & US

Due to some of the comments on my post re Sports weight yarn I thought I would post these links here re what the difference is between our weights and those in the US. Not only are our needles different but so are our yarn weights. It does get a tad confusing and as there are only a handful of us outside the US in this competition so it's good to know the difference. I must say the US knitters have such a choice of gorgeous yarns , most of which I have never heard of and its enough to turn you green with envy.

Knitting Tension Gauge

Standard Yarn Weight System

The next pattern will be issued on Thursday between 4pm and 10pm which means we get it here at either 8pm or 12am, and no I am not waiting up until midnight for it . I have also decided for the first time ever to try and knit these using the 'Magic Loop' method using my Boye needles which are US size and for the first time ever I have made a swatch to see if my gauge was right and it is . I am looking forward to seeing what the pattern will be like and then I will make up my mind which of the two yarns I will use . Oh and the pink yarn is not really pink, more of a coral /peach shade . I never thought I would wear bright socks but they are fun and what do you think of these Clear Plastic Boots which I saw a link on Jo's blog. I think they are really cool and a great way to show off your socks :)as long as they don't have holes in them ;-)

Am I really LOL

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Ding, ding ,Round 2

After the first round of Sock Madness , which certainly lived up to its name ,I have had a relaxing few days , mainly doing my spinning and my shawl from VLT. I love this pattern as it is totally mindless and I am now over halfway through the centre piece and then it will be the knitted border which I think will probably take twice as long as the centre part. I want to make a few shawls out of this book but I was thinking the other day; when am I going to use ALL these shawls ? I already have two Ella's and another shawl I tend to use whilst I am curled on the sofa and a wrap that I use when I read in bed. It amuses me in a way as I tend to wear trousers mostly these days unless its summer time or I go out somewhere special, so how practical are they and will I get wear out of these luxury yarn shawls , or will they end up as gifts? I do enjoy making them though as do so many others of us .So will I see a flurry of 'Victorian'ladies parading around the UK this summer wearing their lovely shawls? I can remember I used to have a whole host of shawls back in the 70's when at my' hippy stage' I wore them with long flowing skirts or with mini skirts , so have I now reached the 'granny' shawl stage I ask myself ? Oh dear, I hope not !!



As I said I have been busy spinning and all in all have spun up 650yds of fingering weight yarn which will be ideal for socks but then I remembered , the Sock Madness yarn requirement's said there will be Sports weight for one pair. After much debating what Sports weight was I decided I would spin some thicker yarn but unfortunately only 240yds of it as I ran out of the fleece I was spinning and they have just announced that yes it will be Sports weight and I will need 330 yds of it LOL . I knew it !! No problem though as I do have a choice of these two yarns which are a merino and angora blend and so soft. Also it means I can use my spun yarn for what I really wanted to and that was to hand paint it.




Now I don't want to do what I did in the first round and knit like fury and to heck with the results , which were okay but not up to standard . I have decided that when the pattern is sent on Thursday I am not going to rush it and spoil a really lovely yarn just for the sake of getting through . As I said I have found out that I don't like knitting under pressure as it takes all the enjoyment out for me personally and I would rather have a pair of socks that I am happy with. Getting through the first round was great but I do have a lot of other knitting I would rather be getting on with so I think that this will be the last time I do something like this as I want the freedom to knit what I want and when I want. Saying all of this it has been a good experience and a real eye opener too !! and of course I will still get the rest of these patterns whatever happens.
In this round we are paired off with another member of our group and the first to finish gets through so 'Good Luck' to ALL :)

Nothing to do with socks :)

Thought I would show you what I made in my guild workshop last week with Eta Inham-Lawrie. This is my first attempt at weaving & I truly enjoyed doing this and will be making more for sure.I have all sorts of ideas, incorporating shells etc, of which I have plenty ( I am always picking up shells and bits of wood ), for seaside scenes . We went for a walk on the beach yesterday afternoon collecting driftwood and there is so much plastic netting, rope and bits of plastic washed up along the shore after the stormy weather we had; it really is disgusting how much gets washed up (some from as far as China !!)but I do have to say that in a way there are some very artistic , colour full photos to be taken of them. So I am going to make a weaving using them so that I can take it to our gathering at C.A.T We have been invited as a guild to show how you can re-cycle some things .Just wish though that there was a way to stop all this plastic waste being dumped everywhere.




This free form sort of weaving is so simple and a great way of using up odd pieces of yarn from your stash. Kath is over and she is having a go at doing one,so look out for FO in the near future on her blog. (poor thing she is having problems with Blogger not showing her photos, any ideas why ? )

Again I can't get the camera to show up the colours properly so I have posted a photo of it before I took it off the frame which is a tad better than the completed one

Oh and I forgot to say that Eta's daughter is going to give me one of her floor looms which is small, I hope, as she is having a clear out. How lucky am I ? It does need attention but I know a man who can ;-)




Just added this after reading Jo's comments re seeing closer detail of the weaving; if I click on the picture I can see it enlarged , can any one else ?



Next are two books which I have just bought and I have to say I love them both, especially 'Fitted Knits'.
I might not get one done for a while though as I don't have the right yarn in my stash and of course I am on a yarn diet :) More reason to get the things I need to get done from my stash , I think !!

I'm done & so are the socks

Well they are done and they look okay but I am totally shattered . I have no idea where I am in the contest and don't really care :) This first round was a speed test and half get knocked out. Right off to sit on the couch with a very large G+T and watch TV and definitely NO knitting for me for a while

Many thanks for all your lovely posts , I so appreciated them.
Frankie those needles sound good what make are they and can we get them here in the UK? As I said in an earlier post I am going to try and knit socks on circular as I think it would be easier & also faster , especially if you can do the two at the same time !!

Second Sock Syndrome ?

Well I have done one sock which for me is in record time but some folks have finished their pair. There are some fast knitters out there:)
It's not the best combination to show the colour work, but the colours don't show up that well in the photos I have taken and they fit :)
I didn't alter from the pattern at all and if nothing else I have learnt how to do 'short row heels ' which was my biggest headache. I just couldn't get my head around the way it was written but the explanation on 'Knitty' was better,as was the advice from my darling daughter. Thanks Kath :). I was way to tired to understand but went with the flow and it worked . I think I will definitely try and use circulars after this pair as working with two colours and the 'hedgehog' needles was time consuming.

So will I get second sock syndrome? I know that knitting under pressure is NOT for me and my wrists ache now so the second sock might take me longer to do . Also Kath and Emily are coming over tomorrow and I am not putting my life on hold just for socks ;-)



Off to cast on the second sock LOL

A touch of Nostalgia

Before I begin, did any one notice on Thursday night how slow the net was ? Well I guess it was because the new Spring time Knitty was out ;-) and we were all online . I love Isabella so will add that to my long list of want to do's

Well this has been a strange week and as Sock Madness (more on that later) begins tomorrow . I thought I would post today.
We are having extra loft insulation installed today FREE to all in our area that are deemed in need of it ; we do have some in fact, so I was surprised that we qualified but hey who am I to argue? Apparently it's because we live in a high fuel area !!. So the bad news was that we had to empty the loft and boy do we have stuff up there so we saw many 'old friends' come down .

One was this 4 track reel to reel tape recorder which belonged to my Dad. In its day it was the latest and most advanced piece of recording you could get, an I Pod of its era. My Dad was a real'gizmo' man and loved his gadgets and this was bought in 1962 when I was 11 yrs old and it still works brilliantly.He used to read us bed time stories and tape them , then wired speakers in our bedroom and re-played them for us, of course it had all the comments and interruptions that we as children said and now sound so funny. We did do a lot of our own entertainment when we were growing up and used to sing and someone would play the guitar or piano so there are some recordings of all of my family and friends at that time, also just chatting moments and poetry recitals (We Welsh love our Eisteddfod ). I thought I could cope with listening to it now after all these years but I still cried my eyes out when I heard my Mam, Dad, & my two brothers voices , all now sadly dead . They seemed so alive listening to them and I was half laughing half crying at some points , very emotional. The sad thing is I am the last of that generation who had any connection with these recordings , my two younger brothers are not on it and have no interest in it so I don't know what to do with it. I would love to transfer all the tapes on to CD somehow but will I ever be able to listen to it without getting emotional. My Mam always said I was way too sensitive and I guess I still am.




The other bit of nostalgia is this



I have been looking for a container big enough to dye large amouts of yarn for jumpers etc so that I get an even colour in one dye lot and I went to a local junk shop and low and behold there was this. Now I saw a young man carrying it as I walked in and I said 'Wow that's just what I came in for' and he said that the lady in front of me wanted it so I said 'never mind' . I got chatting to the lady and she said that she was going to use it as a planter and I said great and told her what I wanted it for and upon that she said 'have it, you will get much more use out of it than I will' She was so insistent and I was so touched by her generosity and I got it for a mere £4. Now I can remember this being used to bath us kids when we we were little, wonder what our Emily would make of it?
Oh my this post makes me feel ancient.

On a very much excited note . I went to my SWD Guild yesterday and had a fabulous workshop with Eta . I so loved doing this free form weaving. I haven't quite finished it so hopefully will today but I will most definitely do it again and it's a great way of using odd bits of yarn. I can see many gifts being made for folks doing this.
BUT the big excitement was I now own a drum carder !! The Guild had two and they didn't have room to keep them so asked if I would like to buy the Barnett for £30 !! Would I ? I nearly bit their hand off and it came with a set of hand carders so now I will be able to give Kath a pair and she can borrow the drum carder when she wants. I was over the moon as I had been thinking of getting an Ashford pretty soon. Oh and another lady gave me a really soft Jacobs' fleece. So all in all a really great day and we had so many laughs ; they really are a lovely group and I am looking forward to next month as it all spinning so everyone are bringing their wheels :)

Now I will finish with the Sado Masochist other wise known as Sock Madness . We were told at the start of the competition we needed variegated sock yarns and one solid colour but it didn't mention that the solid colour had to tone in with the others. So now at the eleventh hour we are told that the first pair of socks will be using a solid and a variegated !! why didn't they tell us this at the beginning ? We don't all have a LYS on our doorstep that sells sock yarn and certainly not Lorna' Laces which they mentioned (ok I do have two hanks of it bought off E-Bay but no matching solid). So last night I thought I would dye some pale lavender yarn a deeper shade to match some rather lovely 100% camel down sock yarn . I have to say I was loathe to use this yarn as I am highly unlikely to get any more of it and was keeping it for something special. Any way I was way too tired after my busy day & was not concentrating and have now got a really deep shade of purple which clashes way too much with the variegated. I was in a total panic and of course couldn't get to my stash as everything from the loft was piled on top of it. But the men turned up early this morning , whilst I was still in my dressing gown !! and have done the loft and I have just scrambled over to get at some of my stash and found in a box which I was going to donate to the charity shop , a ball of 4ply green acrylic which my children's Nain ( granny ) used to knit their school jumpers in and I never thought I would use it. It is good enough match for some variegated yarn I have so that will do, phew panic over .

So lesson is don't throw things out unless you have to as you never know when they might come in useful and some 'old' things bring back a lot of happy memories as well as sad.

So that's it for me for a while as it will be 'needles at noon at the OK Corral' for me tomorrow and may the fastest knitter in the West win.That is of course after we get ALL the stuff back in our deeply padded attic .

PS: Saw this on Terri's blog so I though I would try and test my Welsh middle name and this result made me laugh

Get Your Cyborg Name

Then I did Tony's and it came up with this . Looks like it could be a busy weekend ;-)

Get Your Cyborg Name

Countdown to Madness

The Sock Madness starts on Saturday so I am now beginning to wonder what I have got myself into . Having read Jo's blog today I see that some folks are in training for it !! I ask you, what are they doing, and is there a special diet like pasta to keep you going ? I am in the novice group, having only done two pairs of socks to date but there is one 'novice' that can apparently do a pair of socks in a weekend. Now that is fast; to do that I would have to knit constantly around the clock, be feed through a tube and would need to have a team of workers to mob my brow , massage my aching joints etc. Now don't get me wrong I am taking this seriously and will give it my best, but lets be honest if they are wiping out half the group in the first round then it will be 'as ta la vista baby' for me in the first round. Still, I will hopefully learn something new ,as in our group the first pair is Wendy's Toe-Up Sock and I have never done toe up socks before .

Still on the sock theme . I have finished 'Monkey' and I love them . A really lovely pattern and I love the colour of the merino yarn I used for them.




I have also made a start on the 'Melon' shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I thought that this was a fairly simple one to start off with, although I have never done a knitted border before so we will see how that goes when we come to it. I did have a little hiccup in the beginning trying to get the pattern in my head but I'm okay now and this can be my 'sock escape' knitting, well that was the theory but it looks that for the first pair I will have to get my speedy needles out :) Until then I will just enjoy doing this before the 'madness ' commences.




Saying that I have a million things on this week including my SWD Guild for which I want to do some more fleece dyeing for the freeform weaving. I am torn between doing a sunset, a seascape, or something along the lines of Frida Kahlo but for that I would need a lot of work prep so might take the easy option, just for a change.
As usual, to do all I want to do ,I need more time ; mind its so much better than being bored isn't it ?

Am I ?

Your Birthdate: October 3

You are more than a big ball of energy - you are a big ball of hyper. You are always on the go, but you don't have a type a personality. Instead of channeling your energy into work, you instead go for fun and adventure. Witty and verbal, you can have an interesting conversation with anyone. Your strength: Your larger than life imagination Your weakness: You tend to be pretty scattered Your power color: Lime Your power symbol: Lightening bolt Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Actually I think its pretty close and I do have a thing for lime for certain things I have been craving Lime Green Jelly in KSH for ages and I do rather fun than work but then who doesn't and I quit work some years ago . I am definitely 'scatty' especially in times of stress and if March is my power month them whee- hey watch out socks here I come .
Obviously it can't pin down my type of personality !! LOL

Now calm down Annie , calm down.........no, won't work ....bouncy, bouncy off I go