We went to New Lanark!

Knitting again! And cake too.

Yay! The knitting embargo has been lifted ... at last. As long as I now knit with my new correct posture .... and of course not for too long without a break (Hmm). The arm is still a bit stiff but nothing like what it was. So a wee catch up - I only did half the Belinda as the variegated kidsilk I got to do the other half didn't really match in the end. So it's a scarf instead and lovely and soft too. Then it was on to finish the waistcoat ... the one that I thought about ripping out at least 4 times but persuaded myself to keep going. Bad move. The construction is ingenius but it only fits a beanpole which I am not. After a session spent pinning it onto my sister to see what could be done it got ripped out. Much to the joy of my nephew who got to do some of the ripping out. I was down at my sister's and we'd planned to watch Harry Potter that night so it was a quick Ravelry pattern search to see what I could find... and I found this great looking shawl which I thought would suit the wool. Of course the pattern was in Danish. But luckily enough I found an English translation so started off the lace edging. And after faffing around with needle sizes and exactly what to do with the yarn overs I think this is going to be good!

And the cake. Well I decided to use my Tesco vouchers to get Good Food magazine - new recipes to try out, hopefully healthy eating etc etc. So of course I made a cake! Kind of a lemon drizzle cake with potatoes and gluten free flour. And it worked.

Cold Sheeping!

I moved home at the end of the summer and was rather shocked to discover how much (among other things...) wool I possess. Some  of it has been with me rather a long time - like the wool I brought back from Harris in 1991.... eek. So even though I did get rid of some there are several rather large plastic really useful boxes in the spare room, which my partner says goes 'meh' whenever he opens the door. So I have been very good and not bought any more wool AT ALL since July 2010 - and then just recently I joined a Cold Sheeping group on Ravelry! So that's it in 2011 I am cold sheeping!! No more wool to be bought til I have used it all up....
But I have to warn you - such resolutions are dangerous. I spent a weekend sorting and organising and making notes of what I had. It was the first weekend I was at home after the New Year so of course I was rushing around like an eejit trying to get all the cleaning and hoovering and washing done. And later in teh day I realised my arm was sore. And almost two weeks later it still is! Apparently I have tennis elbow. Sigh. Which of coure means no knitting and lots of rest. So my question is how do you relax when you can't knit?

Finally finished Christmas and New Year!

Well that's me back home and finished with all our gallivanting over the festive period - from home to OH's mum's in Dundee then to my family then home then back to Dundee then home then a quick New Year surprise trip down to my mum at Stranraer. Whew. No wonder I'm tired and have spent today kind of faffing about before starting back proper into all the things I need to do! No pics of all the fun things like playing with younger nephew's new pool table and being rubbish at Wii games though...

View from the living room window a couple of days before the big day...

 Dinner table reindeers and cake...

 The Christmas knitting revealed! A herringbone neckwarmer and wristlets in Rowan Big Wool for mum:

 And a Noro Transitions cowl and wristwarmers for my sister:

And of course snowman and the felted tree came with us on our travels!

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)...