It's getting close to Christmas! knit knit knit....

And I always think of red - probably my fave colour - is such a Christmassy colour. I did this Lacey Baktus for a present for my partner's mother - who's in hospital just now. It seemed such a cheery colour and might hopefully ward off any draughts round the neck! The wool is from the stash - it's Fyberspates BFL sock wool which I got a job lot of 6 skeins last year and have just about got through them! I find although the socks are lovely I wear holes in the bottom of the heels which is kind of depressing so wanted to try  something else with the yarn instead.

Blocking it was a bit problematic - I didn't like all the little pin scallops I got or the way it was all kind of skew whiff so used the Yarn Harlot's method of thick string and pins - with a couple of needles in there for fun as well! I quite like the string idea but will need to get some blocking wires too I think!

In the bleak midwinter ...

Well the snow lasted for two weeks - of only venturing out on foot all wrapped up as if for an Arctic expedition (complete with walking poles!), occasionally starting the car after clearing it out of it's igloo and pretending it was going somewhere, and of course of sitting inside knitting and keeping warm! So I finished the Debbie Bliss  Diagonal Front Jacket and have a pair of Fuzzy Feet done in Cascade 220 ready to felt (and yes they are meant to be that huge honest, my feet are not that large). And did some more sorting out of stuff since I moved flat recently and need to get cupboards and things all sorted out!

And quickly on to winter.... brrrr!

Autumn didn't really hang around very long - it's definitely winter now. I know this because the roads are all white, there's a blizzard outside and the car is going nowhere. Probably not even to work tomorrow by the look of things. Hmm. Better go and make a pot of soup before I start the day's knitting!

So here's the world from the third floor.

Nice to get a bit of sun amidst the blizzards! Doesn't last long though!

And so to autumn...

And the need to use up stash in covering extremities! So this bout of chest infection inspired knitting has come up with two pairs of wristwarmers - the pink alpaca and a 2x2 rib that didn't make the photoshoot - a cabled cowl (very cosy) - a calorimetry that really does keep the head warm and works with hair up - cabley fingerless gloves to match the cowl - and last but not least I finished off the blanket! At least I hope it's finished - it still looks a tad narrow on the bed....

The months go flying by....

So summer has gone ... no blogging due to various things like work, and holidays and oh yes I had to move out of my flat because the one above me went on fire and living in a smokey, ceiling damaged place is not a lot of fun... So here's a quick catch up of summer '10! I spent two weeks with mum, which we spent walking on the beach... eating cake...making cakes (don't try to eat these ones!) ... making felt (and a mess) in the kitchen ... mum liked this wee bowl...

I took a stall at the Stranraer show... my sister turned 50 so we had a party (and more cake)...

We went to Woolfest!

Yay! My sister and I went to Woolfest last weekend and had a lovely time. We stayed in a great B&B with Herdwicks in the field outside and a wee tea room called The Flock Inn with a sit-ootery too. Saturday we headed to Cockermouth and spent all day walking round the stalls looking and touching and going oooh - then it was a quick whizz round before it closed to buy all we wanted to buy! I got some knitting wool - a kit from The Wool Shed called The Weskit which is a really unusual design but apparently very 'me' so my sis says. I also bought lots of fleece both for needlefelting, but also for wet felting and because I have a real hankering to start spinning again.... (watch this space!) So got some merino dyed tops, lots of different types of fleece to try them out - Gotland, Jacob, Corriedale, BFL, Wensleydale, some Jacob xNorth Ronaldsay and Jacob x Suffolk plus some other fibres to try - black bamboo diamond, soy bean and so on. I also got some off cut bags of bits and pieces of felts etc to play with, some brooch backs and keyrings bits to also play with, some olive oil soap for felting, some more felting needles, some hand dyed muslin and white silk to try nuno felting, some great notebooks......

3 things to kickstart some posts!

Life has been very busy recently - with a change of job and all sorts going on so the blog has been kind of left behind. However I saw this on Fiona's Flotsam so thought I'd play along too: 3 names I am known by: Flapsi / Auntie Karen / Dr M 3 places I have lived Glasgow / Darwin / Kilbirnie 3 places I have worked Basketball stadium / Dojo / School 3 things I love to watch NCIS / the sea / taiko 3 places I have been Singapore / Washington / St Petersburg 3 things I love to eat Cake / Rice / Chicken 3 things I am looking forward to this summer 2 weeks with my mum / playing taiko / getting fitter! How about you, are you going to play along?

So what do you do when your family is away on hols?

Why you use their floorspace to block shawls! And very handy it is too - saves me from having to walk over damp towels and stretched out woollies in my room. The pink one my mum knitted about 3 years ago from some alpaca dk and she uses it a lot around the house and as a bed shawl, so it's been in the wash. The other one is my first clapotis done out of Natural Silk Aran. And I must remember to get more glass headed pins as they're much less painful after pushing in several hundreds of them...

And I've finished the waistcoat from Cotton Jeans! It's the Urchin pattern from RYC Classic Beach book but I wasn't sure about having a short sleeved cardi so just turned it into a waistcoat instead. I didn't put buttonholes in the band as I'm thinking of making it some kind of edge to edge thing instead... okay I just hate doing buttonholes in cotton - I can never seem to match them up properly somehow as cotton is pretty stretchy.

So next on the last summer sale yarn stash bust is the Diagonal Front Jacket from Debbie Bliss Home book - I'm using Rowan again - silk cotton this time - 20 balls in a lovely brick shade for 80p each last summer... can't beat that really.

A good Easter!

Well the sun shone, eggs were painted and rolled, cakes were baked and eaten, the nephews ate the chocolate while the grown ups were good and didn't, little chicks and bunnies got found in the garden and lots of pics were taken! So, definitely a good Easter! I've been knitting away on the Rowan Cotton Jeans and have pretty much finished the Urchin - as a waistcoat though I think as I'm not that fond of short sleeved cardis. Just got the button band and finishing to do. I wore the striped Buckland cardi on Saturday which was good - but the cotton has stretched quite a bit on the picked up button band edging so think I might need to frog and redo that bit. Bother! I hate doing button bands ...

Cottoning on!

It's definitely feeling like spring is in the air now. I thought about a giving the flat a good spring clean this weekend but am far too tired to be honest as I'm still not over the last bug. So I decided to chill out instead and get ahead for spring this year with the cotton knitting! I still have the clapotis to block which I'm hoping I might get to later on today. I started this cardigan last night it's Buckland by Martin Storey and is now available free from the Rowan website. I'm using an assortment of Cotton Jeans in blues and greys which I got in the John Lewis sale last summer. It's nice to knit with and will be soft and warm and ideal for summer evenings I think. I've had a quite a few knots which is a bit annoying so I'm not sure I'd pay full price for it. My guage is off and I'm still concerned about it stretching and growing so I'm doing up the 38 size and expecting it to come out nearer a 42. Let's hope I've got this right!

First Clapotis!

Finished this fairly quick knit. I used Rowan Natural Silk Aran which I bought for more than half price at John Lewis last summer - but I only bought 12 balls which wasn't really enough for a cardi, and I was having trouble with gauge and worrying about how this would stretch - so decided to use it for a clapotis - the amazing viral knit! It is very large - at the minute about 28" by 80" and that's not blocked - so the yarn does stretch like billyo and also sheds loads of bits all over the place. I'm hoping that will stop! Lovely colour and feel though so I'm hoping this becomes a much used summer wrap. And I feel great for having used up some stash!

Keep on socking!

And the birthday socks are done - yay! I left them toeless til he could try them on but the length was fine so I could have been braver and finished them off last night! So one pair of nice thick chunky manly socks which he rather likes so that's good. The wool is a mix of one strand of North Ronaldsay aran and Jamieson's dk blue- so very Northern Isles.This pattern is a great way to mix yarns to get a thicker sock and use up bits and bobs so there might be more of these on the way!

Sockity socks socks

~Socks all round!! Here are some pics of lopi socks I made for my sister a couple of months back when she'd had an operation on her foot. The pattern is Joan Gooth-Buchanan's Fireside Socks from Spin Off's Socks. It knits up really quickly and is great for using up all sorts of odds and ends. I've got another pair on the needles at the minute for boyfriend's birthday (eek which is tommorrow so better get cracking on them). This time I matched up some of the remainders of the North Ronaldsay grey aran with a skein of Jamieson's Shetland double knit - so they're Northern Isles socks for sure as I brought both yarns back from Orkney and Shetland trips in various years!

Clapotis time!

Well I've given in to the knitting forces in the world and cast on for a Clapotis, the amazingly popular (and free!) scarf/shawl pattern with a drop stitch feature. With the blanket on hold til more supplies arrive from Shetland, I needed a mindless and easy knit as the asthma has kicked in thanks to last week's cold and I'm spending quite a bit of at home trying to chill out time. So I raided the store of stash from John Lewis sale last summer when I got a lot of cotton and rowan wools. I had bought 12 balls of Natural Silk Aran which I had loved the look of before but was way too expensive at full price - but at £2 a ball it was much more reasonable. But there's not a lot of yardage in a 50g ball so I didn't quite have enough for any of the patterns I liked. I cast on for a waistcoat but I couldn't make gauge and realised that this wool will stretch and grow so decided to use it for a clapotis for the summer. There's been a couple done on Ravelry in this wool - one frogged as she said it was too heavy which i kind of wondered about -but others thought it was great so I've taken the plunge. It's knitting up pretty quickly and I'm almost half way through already.

And they're mine!!

Yes, finally got a pair of these socks that I can keep for myself.... (the others went to mum who's not been that well and loves having them to wear about the house as they're very cosy so that's okay really) which is just as well cos I'm starting to think it would be nice to do a different pattern! It's fyberspates space dyed blue faced leicester sock wool and ridge and furrow pattern. And the blanket is growing - it did really need more wool so I sent off to Shetland for about another 600 grms - there's nothing worse than a too short and too narrow blanket when you're trying to snuggle on the sofa. So, what should I try to finish off now?