Charity - Knitters do the MoonWalk

I know I haven't been about, but that's all going to change starting tomorrow! I will be taking part in a 5.5 mile sponsored walk with two friends around Belfast city centre. It's in aid of the Northern Ireland Hospice and it starts at 10pm (it's a Moonwalk, but I won't be doing it backwards).

What I will be doing is knitting - while I'm walking! There may be some injuries ensuing if I don't see lamp-posts, but it's worth a try! So wish me luck and there will be plenty of pictures to post afterwards!

Oh and if anyone would like to donate, here's our page.

Missing Mojo

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I posted here. What a disgrace!

And to add to the underachieving, I have no pictures of knitting to share *gasp* My knitting mojo has escaped me and I am struggling to knit at all, let alone finish or photograph anything. So while I knit in front of CSI and try to get something worthy of a post, I present to you my word:

Your Word is "Peace"

You see life as precious, and you wish everyone was safe, happy, and taken care of. Social justice, human rights, and peace for all nations are all important to you. While you can't stop war, you try to be as calm and compassionate as possible in your everyday life. You promote harmony and cooperation. You're always willing to meet someone a little more than halfway.

What's Your Word?

(quiz link stolen from Gilraen's Knits)

According to that description, I should be entering Miss World! What do you think? Is this me?

Ravelry Anniversary

As the title may suggest, all links in this post are ravelry links :)

So I have been on ravelry for a year now and I don't know how I lived without it (although I imagine procrastination was less fun and ran out quicker back in those days!). I love having my stash records with the wondrous location field (so I know where to find a particular ball of yarn ... well, if I've gotten around to adding it!). I love the forums, where I lurk all over the show and get lost in all manners of topics. I love being able to see patterns at the touch of a button and seeing everyone's else's FOs and comments (I read so many projects whenever I'm going to do one of my own!! lol).

So yes, ravelry I love you ... please never leave me! :D

And I have joined up for the Ravelympics and started Team Belfast SnB (I'm also in Team Stashdown). My event is the Sweater Sprint and I will be knitting Knitty's Emerald cardigan in Sirdar Cossack (Emerald colourway). So it's my Double Emerald project. I'll be in Donegal when the Olympics start, so plenty of time for my first ever sweater project.

And to keep a bit of photographic interest around these parts, here's a bad picture of a recently finished object. Can you tell what it is yet?

Shopping Spree!

Ok so it's all Nikki's fault. First of all I was at her house for the weekend and on Monday she encouraged me to buy yarn from GetKnitted:



That's three skeins of Tofutsies (the black and white at the front is Nikki's), two skeins of Koigu KPPPM (unfortunately they are also Nikki's) and three skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Tomato for my mum's birthday present (the Shawl Collar from Knitting New Scarves). I also signed up for the Lorna's Laces Sock Club - ooh the excitement!

Then she went into a LYS yesterday and discovered their sock yarn on sale for £1/ball, so I told her to surprise me with some (two 50g skeins blue and two skeins purple):

So, of course, I had to go in and check what else they had on sale today:



Two 50g skeins of Regia Stretch Crazy colour sock yarn, one 100g skein of Woolcraft sock yarn and two 100g skeins of Wendy Beach Baby - all £1/ball. And then I went and bought some non-yarn stuff too. But hey, I'm just spending my first pay check in advance! lol I start my new job on August 18th and I have lots of bus knitting yarn to keep me going now!

Random observation .....

Casting off a sock on the top of a double decker bus navigating its way across a series of speed bumps is not fun.

Take note!

*hangs head in shame*

This is my first post of the year and that is embarrassing to say the least. I have a hundreds of pictures to upload that are still residing unopened on my memory card. I'm knitting, there is plenty of knitting ... a bit too much considering all the work related stuff I should be doing ...... but anyway. It's spring, this month I turn 26 and it's time to get things in hand!

Karin's destashing community in Ravelry has a challenge this month to spring clean the projects basket. It's just the sort of thing I need (my WIPs are in double figures and that's as much as I'm willing to divulge) so I'm embracing it fully ... and extending it ... I'm going to spring clean my whole life, including this blog. So more posts are expected here (where have I heard that before?) and hopefully they will be more interesting too .......

So, knitting plans for April:
1. Gather together all WIPs and frog, finish or schedule them.
2. Gather as much stash as I remember I have into one room, organise it and update it onto ravelry.
3. Finish at least 10 projects.

Just three things - easy, hmmmmmm ...... well, at least if it doesn't work out I can call it an April Fool!

Speed is of the essence .....

At last! A step forward in the Christmas gift knitting department, no a leap! I discovered the wonder of washcloths as gifts and since Saturday night have churned out no less than five - marvel in the splendour:



From left to right we have the gift dishcloth and the nine- patch from Mason-Dixon Knitting and a bath mitt, eyelet dishcloth and simple ridge from the Lily Sugar 'n' Creme ballband patterns. So thanks to the wonder of fast dishcloths I now have 6 gifts finished. But plenty more to go! (Also, please excuse the vegetation, it's my sister's idea of Christmas decorations.)

Also I had to share - the love of yarn spreads to all reaches of this family you know. Here's my oldest cat Tia who has spent all of today sleeping in one of my yarn baskets.



Thank goodness it's only the odds and ends of acrylic, because no matter how much I love her, if she'd been lying on the merino we would be having words right now.

Now wish me luck, I have Christmas decorations to dig out and more presents to make!

In the holiday spirit ....

... please forgive me for broken promises. I have been atrocious at keeping an account on here or on my LJ account. But I am beginning my New Year's resolutions early and am determined to get going here. :)

The Christmas gift knitting frenzy is in full swing at my house. I have only completed one gift so far and have at least 14 left to do. Am I mad? Why of course! I didn't realise it was being contested. But I have some pretty things to talk about first ... a gift to myself.

When we were in New York I had a slight mishap with my bank card and wasn't able to lift the last of my funds. So when we got to Purl Soho I was working on money I had borrowed from other people. Not a nice situation to be in. I wanted to get something so I bought some Bryspun flexible needles, but the Blue Sky Alpaca and the Koigu had to stay on the shelf. Again on our second trip to School Products (we liked that store), my hands had to stay in my pockets. (Everybody say awwww). But when I returned I had some money in my bank account, so I treated myself:



Lorna's Laces Swirl DK in two colourways - Mt. Creek on the left and Pioneer on the right. It's a lovely blend of merino wool and silk and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. But at the moment, I'm just enjoying looking at it. *grin* And maybe stroking it occasionally.

But also I need some help. Before the cash crisis in NYC, I did manage to purchase some Koigu KPPM in School Products (might I say I love both that shop and that yarn). Some was for my sister and is currently being knit into socks for her. I'm using Wendy's toe-up gusset and slipstitch heel pattern as usual, with some changes in numbers for gauge etc. See?



Now my problem is a little loose stitch on either side of the heel where I join it back up to knit the leg. At first I thought it as coming from the instep stitches that sit on the needles unused while the heel is knitted, just a by-product of being left unused on the needle for so long. However, I've realised that is only the case on one side and on the other side the loose stitch is actually part of the slipstitch heel.



Excuse the less than great photography, i have yet to master macro settings, but I think you know what I'm talking about anyway. I'm going to darn up the little holes here and the sock will be fine, but I'd rather avoid it in the future.

Does anyone else find this happens with their heels or is it just me? Is there something I could be doing (or not doing as the case may be) to prevent it? Or is it an inevitable part of my knitting that I should just suck up and move on? Answers on a postcard comment please!

Tomorrow, tomorrow ....

.... I love ya tomorrow,
you're only a day away!

No, wait .... that's not the right one .....

Start spreading the news,
I'm leaving today ...

Well, not quite today, but tomorrow I am indeed leaving and heading to the city that never sleeps for sightseeing, fun and (most importantly) plenty of yarn shopping.



See you in just over a week! (And I promise I'll post more then!).

I am back .....

Fear not, I have returned. The interview was awful so I'm not moving anywhere any time soon. I have decided to give my PhD thesis a bit more space to be right before I rush it to take a full time job. So I'm on the look out for something part-time (working in a yarn shop would of course be the perfect thing right now) while I finish the write-up in the rest of my time. And I might even give some of my business ideas a bit of a run if I can find the money. So wish me good luck and let me know if there's any part-time jobs going in the Belfast area. Now on to happier things - yarn!

I have a lot of purchases which have not been shown and I'm a bit late for my promised post, but better late than never eh? Firstly we have the haul from way back at the end of August when I went to Waterford (Ireland) for a conference. I found a lovely little yarn store called Needles and Pins (I must admit this amuses me no end) and made a purchase or 14:



I got some present yarn (which has long since been handed over), some random blue acrylic which has already been knit into a competition thing (which could be a contender for you knit what?! if it was still around) and then what you see above. We have more random acrylic because I liked the look of it (this is what I need to stop doing because I have no idea what to do with it!), some Debbie Bliss pure wool because it was gorgeous and I had never seen it before and some Rowan Tapestry - on sale! Oh my, I was a happy child that day!

Moving swiftly on to a trip to the Ballymoney yarn shop, of which I had heard a lot. And it definitely had a good range, but alas no prices on the shelves. So after asking a million questions and getting confused at how much everything I liked was, I turned to the pattern books (which were priced).



I got the new Freedom Spirit/Wool book and picked out two winter sets that I liked, so the yarn was needed. The purply-blue is for a fingerless mitts and scarf set (I have boldly already cast on the scarf, bad knitter that I am). And the green is for a hat and gloves set. Also I got a little Rowan book because it seems almost impossible to find Rowan anything in Northern Ireland from my experience (please tell me if I'm wrong on this, I'd be ecstatic!). And the little Christmas Nativity book in the back is one my mum saw in Waterford but didn't get so I had to buy it for her when we saw it again.

And now we've reached Craft and Skills day at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, which was great! We met great people, talked forever and had a thoroughly fun day. Of course we had to go into the Bangor wool shop for a nosy as we were in the vicinity. And anyone who knows me knows that I don't just look in a yarn shop, ever.



My darling sister is after some knitted garments for presents so some Sublime and Peru books were necessary. I got enough Noro to do a full hat/scarf/mitts set for my New York holiday, some Sirdar Hug because it is so soft and some lovely Peru Naturals because I had to have it. And a little baby blanket book because I have become addicted to blankets. Some seriously cute buttons and sheep cross-stitch (for laughs and giggles) rounded off the swag.

Later that night we were heading out to Proms in the Park in Carrick, so had another nearby yarn shop to peruse:




I was good this time and stuck to the bargain bin. Got some pure wool (6 50g balls) for a cabled scarf I want to make from the pattern book way up at the top and 300g of cotton blend aran, all for less than £10. Can't do bad to that now can you?

And at this stage I was done, after all I am very nearly unemployed and have to keep my pennies while knitting through my stash every night because I can't afford to go out (not much of a punishment really is it?). Or so I thought ......

The interview did not go well, so a little yarn purchase was necessary. I mean I was in England after all, and it was a very nice yarn shop and when was I going to be there again?



Excuse the odd photograph, it was an impromptu at the desk shot! Here we have some bargainous Rowan linen print (6 balls at £1 a ball), some Regia Bamboo sock wool that I have been lusting after for some time, some Kaffe Fassett Regia for the sister's Christmas socks and an almost edible green skein of hand-dyed sock yarn from Chile. I felt better immediately!

Now I still have about a million WIPs to blog about (I cleared out the yarn black hole in my dining room and unearthed an archive), not to mention the advent of the crazy gift knitting season (why do I have to have so many family and friends' birthdays so close to Christmas?) and my envy of my sister's newly created stash. But all that will have to wait - I have rambled on for quite long enough. Perhaps I can remember to come back more frequently in future :)