Nothing to see here

No, nothing at all. Move along now, move right along. That is still no photos. That doesn't mean no progress.

The first sleeve is almost finished, just some final raglan decreases then it goes on the holders along with the front and back stitches. The sleeve looks remarkably like the front and back, just narrower anyway, so just look at the other photos and use your imagination.

I thought I'd get in a quick post though as I will be extremely busy over the next few days and I didn't want any of you out there to think I'd fallen off the planet (haha). I will hopefully get some knitting in but I don't see any photos happening. I'm out tomorrow then I need to spend most of Thursday get me sorted for Birthday Friday and Saturday(now that is a big job). Come Sunday I'll be glad to rest up and very probably not eat.

So nothing more here until next week. I promise I will have some photos then.

CLP resumes

No photos folks, I haven't taken the camera out to catch up on progress yet. I got my needles on Wednesday but didn't get the sleeve cast on until Thursday as I was out on Wednesday. Progress has been good though, I'm about the elbow I suppose. I have made the sleeve longer by adding another pattern on the lace as I did with the body, this means it will be in proportion too. I'm rattling along apace at the moment as sleeves (at this point) are a lot smaller than the body. I'll get some photos next week but progress will HAVE to slow due to 2 big birthdays at the end of next week (and some much needed tidying and cleaning).

So this is short and sweet, just to let you know I'm progressing.

BTW I'm so looking forward to starting Lepidoptera, but .... I'm finishing CLP first.


OH and before I forget, does anybody know where I might look for a reasonably priced copy of Cat Bordhis "A Treasury of Magical Knitting" in the UK.

There will be a short delay

......while I await delivery of a set of 3.75mm DPNs.

Just when you think there can't be anything missing from your substantial stock of needles, you find a gap. I've got everything up to and including 3.5mm, then 4mm and up (well most of those). So after finishing the body of the CLP after midnight last night I decided to search out the DPNs for the sleeves before going to bed. Only I couldn't find any 3.75mm. Now I do have 3.75 circs as that was what I was using on the body, but don't have a cord short enough and I'm not sure I would enjoy fighting with a cord short enough if there was one (there probably is). I could do the sleeves flat but then I'd have to seam the sleeves and that's the whole reason I did the body in the round. I always think sleeve seams never look as tidy due to the increases anyway. So I've ordered the 3.75mm DPNs and I'll just have to wait for them. In the meantime here's the latest




Pretty isn't it. The stitch pattern will open up better once blocked I think, there's lots of stretch to it. It is beautifully soft and cosy and such a lovely colour.

I really don't want to start another project until the knitting on this is finished so I think the house will at least get a clean and the laundry will get caught up on for a day or 2. I also have the soap sack I started a few weeks ago so that will keep me going for a day or two plus all those projects needing finished off. Now I do have a plan for finishing them off just not quite yet. I had a thought of doing a burst of finishing just before the cooler weather of autumn so that I had several new things to wear. That would make it feel like a whole new wardrobe and perhaps I would get back to some smaller things and perhaps even some Christmas knitting for this year. I haven't decided on the Christmas knitting yet but I'm thinking about it. I only have 2 nieces, a SIL, BIL and DH who would be potential recipients, so not a big list and achievable if I decide to do it.

I got 3 new deliverys in the last few days - a Posh Yarn parcel from last weeks sale, 3 skeins of a lovely wheat colour, then June LOTR sock club and June Rubber Ducky club. I haven't any photos of those to show. Have to keep something up my sleeve for when I have no progress shots. So that's why I'm back so soon for an update - no CLP knitting today. My hands are itching, I'll have to pull out that soap sack later, or .... one of the hibernating projects shamefully resting in the WIP pile. Who knows what lengths I might go to later.

See you all soon.

Magnificent Obsession

Well I don't know if magnificent is the right adjective here but there has definitely been a big obsession going on here. I can't seem to put the CLP down, it has a grip on me, so much so that I have been knitting the CLP to the exclusion of everything else. Now I don't mean that in just knitting terms, I mean to the absolute exclusion of everything else, cleaning, cooking, laundry,... you get the picture. I've taken photos several times over the past few days for the express purpose of posting on progress and then can't put the CLP down long enough to get the laptop set up and logged on. So today I have forced myself to put the CLP down for a few hours to get caught up online. Yesterday's progress to date on the CLP.


This was a few rounds off the armhole. I haven't taken a photo today but I am now approx 16 rows from finishing the raglan on the back. I'll have that done in the next couple of hours and hopefully by the time I go to bed I'll be well up the front raglan decreases. I can't believe how fast this is going, of course that's proabably to do with the obsessive knitting. Perhaps I'll get a sleeve started and come to a halt, who knows. Mind you it's not as if I'll be wearing this before September/October as it is alpaca and will be a cosy sweater. I'm finding it difficult to get the colour right in the photos. It is a lovely strong honey yellow - yes Katherine a good "redhead" colour. I absoloutely love yellow, strong warm yellow.

Speaking of yellow I won a prize in a competition over at RockpoolCandy. The prize was a skein of yarn dyed especially for me in my fave colour. Here it is


Pepper on guard duty (or sleeping on it), actually she is doing her best to ignore me setting the photo up and flashing at her. The photo doesn't do it justice, it is multihued.


She named it Anne's Egg Fest as she based it mostly on egg yolk yellow. The yarn is a mix of Merino, banana, texel, wenslydale, silk and corriedale. I have no idea what it will become YET, in the meantime it will rest for a while and wait for inspiration. When the time comes I will keep you posted on its development.

Now I promised a photo of a recent delivery from The Unique Sheep so here goes


The shawl is called Lepidoptera and I'm doing it in one of the Unique Sheeps Gradience colourways - Daybreak. The colour starts with number one on the far right and number 6 is the far left. The pattern has instructions how to work the gradience colours. I think this will be my next major project after the CLP and once I get through the birthdays coming up in July.

I'm organising a night out for a friend's 50th birthday. Her birthday is July 2nd but their wedding anniversay in July 4th so a group of us are going out for a meal on Sat 4th July. She doesn't know about it, I'm coordianting with her husband. Then we have MIL 88th birthday on July 3rd, so DH and I are taking her to lunch on Friday 3rd. We won't need to eat for a week at least after those few days.

Now back to work on my CLP. I'll be back soon with more.

Decisions Decisions

Well as my previous post said I ordered 4 sets of buttons in my quest to find the perfect ones for my FLS. Here they are all together, the following photos show each set on the FLS



The next photo shows the set on top left, they look OK yes? They would do but just not the perfect button.
Second set, these are the ones on bottom right. They are a better choice than the first set but again not the perfect set.

Set number 3 - from top right. Now these are great and if I wanted the buttons to be unobtrousive these would be perfect.

In fact it was difficult to choose between these and the last set but here you are the ones I chose, bottom left. Now I know some of you out there will disagree but then it is my choice and I happen to think these are perfect.


And the long shot. They have come up more orange than they actually are, more amber coloured. Anyway I think these are the best.



Which ones would you have chosen?

Still no photos of me modelling the cardi. I'll have to get around to asking DH to do the honours. Some day you will get a surprise photo of me modelling the FLS, but I won't say when.

I've been working away on the CLP (Chinese Lace Pullover) and have finished the lace section and now into the body increase shaping. I wanted to make the sweater longer as I don't like short sweaters. When I read through the pattern I decided the best way to do that was to increase the lace panel on the bottom as the waist decreases are achieved within the lace. The lace pattern is 24 rows and the sweater called for 34 rows (1 full pattern + repeat the first 10 rows) I worked 2 full pattern repeats then first 10 rows again. This added just under 3 inches to the length.

I am further on than this photo shows, I took this a few days ago but I haven't a more up to date photo. Here's a close up of the lace panel


I'll give you a progress update on the CLP in a few days time and photos of a new delivery. Yarn from the Unique Sheep for a shawl. You'll have to wait for those, the yarn is amazing and special. Come back for a look, you won't want to miss it

Must run now, time for the latest episode of the new House.

Just passing through

Just a quick entry, no photos.

I found the buttons for my FLS. In the end I ordered 4 different sets of buttons during my search and of the 4 sets 1 would do but doesn't really enhance, 2 of them look nice but 1 of the sets is it, the best. It sets the jacket and the yarn off at its best.

I'll take some photos of all the sets and then I'll get the FLS finished off. Photos of progress on the CLP will be coming soon too.

Tha thats all folks

Crossing the finish line

And, Yes she did it, Yeah. The FLS is now off the needles. I cast off the 2nd sleeve yesterday afternoon, took some photos (which all turned out to be really crap) and then immediately cast on the next big project. I will let you have one photo, and believe me it's the best of them. I cannot take portrait photos of myself. Perhaps if I had a better positioned large mirror it might work. My only big mirror is directly opposite the front door so when I try to take self portraits you get the light directly behind my head bouncing off everything. So enough excuses about the crappy photo and the mess stacked up in the hall behind me too.


I think you'll all agree that is one ugly photo. The FLS is truly beautiful in real life and I am so pleased with it, I'm not sure if any photo can really do it justice, the colours are jewel tones yet soft and the yarn is so snuggly soft and delicately fluffy. This piece must have the least finishing of any project (except socks) I've ever done. The yarn was in 2 enormous skeins and as the whole body took just a bit less than one skein there are no ends but the 2 CO and BO tails to weave in. There are 2 more tails at the underarm pickup and sleeve bind off and that's it. I have to go look for more buttons though, I did get lovely buttons which would have been ideal but they are too small for the buttonhole so I have to do another search. I'll try and get DH to take a few more photos outside this weekend (if the weather holds) as you might get a better idea of the true colour in natural light. Changes - I happened to read the Yarn Harlots blog entries on her FLS just before I started mine so I followed her modification, swapping the YO increases for M1 removing the eyelet row.

Yes I have cast on the Chinese Lace Pullover and have got as far as the 12th round, no photos of this yet, there's not enough to show but I'll keep you up to date on progress next week. I'm one of those people who casts on the next project immediately after casting off the previous one (provided this has not already happened due to startitis). I have to have the next project in swing before I do any sewing on the finished project - so that I have actual knitting. That way I can do the finishing over time, it always takes me ages to get from casting off to completed project (unless it's something small like socks or scarf/shawl).

To make up for the crappiness of the FLS photo here are a couple of good photos I took in the garden the other day. I think you'll agree these are much better - there's no me in them.


A beautiful sunny day and my Laburnum looking good. This is my gateway. The Laburnum is now past its loveliest for this year, the blooms are fading and falling but I do so love it when its in bloom with all its pendulous bright yellow flowers. It was covered in masses of flowers this year, compared to last year when it wasn't at its best. I don't think any of our gardens were at their best last year. Hopefully the fact that we have had such amazing colour from our blooms so far means we are going to get a proper summer this year.


And for you further delectation - a glimpse of my Pepper waddling up the garden. She doesn't do the heat so well and while she likes to spend time in the garden with me I try to keep her inside when it gets very hot.

It's DHs birthday on Sunday and when asked what he would like to do for his birthday his answer was "forget it". Anyway we're going out to a nice restaraunt on Saturday night and there will be croissant for Sunday breakfast (we normally only do those on bank holiday weekends). OK off to do some more rounds on my CLP and attend to the laundry before DH comes home with the Friday night fish and chips.

Sunshine, you are my sunshine

Oh boy, have we had sunshine here for the past few days. It is so welcome, our weather has been dull and cold for so long. Of course that doesn't mean a mad rush into the sun, slowly, slowly does it. For an Irish redhead like myself one has to be careful. So, short bursts, not getting burnt or going red. If your skin has gone red in the sun you've suffered burn damage already. I do eventually take a colour - with care. The forecast is for sunshine and showers from tomorrow on but I'm hoping we are finally going to get the long, hot summer we've been promised especially after the NON summer we had last year.

No photos of knitting or anything else. I've been working away at my FLS and I'm 2 patterns and a garter stitch border from finishing the second sleeve, so nearly finished. I'll try and put a spurt on later tonight, see if I can finish it. Of course the heat we have had recently hasn't exactly made it great for knitting fluffy yarn, it gets very warm with a fluffy cardi on your knee.

I've resisted casting on my Chinese lace pullover with the mantra "I'm nearly finished my cardi" keeping me going. My friend Susan paid a quick visit last week and here comment on my FLS was that she thought it the loveliest thing she'd seen me knit to date. Of course she hasn't seen everything I've ever done and some of my earlier stuff - as in before I knew Susan - was just as nice. Of course I put off taking photos thinking I'd wait until it was finished. So photos on that soon, finished (except for buttons) and then it will be on to cast on my CLP (chinese lace pullover). I did order buttons but I think they are too small, I'm a terrible judge of button size, so I'll have to look for some more.

Pizza and tossed salad tonight I think with some cider and ice creams for afters. It is summer here after all.