Bars!

I have bars! Hurrah!

Many thanks to Auntie Noo for putting in the link to the percentage bars. I've been wanting some for ages and now I have some that really work. Although it is slightly embarrassing that the Debbie Bliss cabled hoodie is still unfinished. I did a couple more rows on it the other day, as someone asked me to show a picture of how I hold my knitting needles. Hopefully having my new bar will shame me into getting on with it.

These are the latest pics of it seeing the light of day.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Wales had been calling to me lately. So we went. Unfortunately we went on a Bank Holiday weekend, but it wasn't all bad. Had nice evening at the Stables in Betws-Y-Coed under their umbrellas, which had heaters during the warm afternoon and then switched off as the evening turned cooler, I got pushed out of my seat by a Norwegian but the scampi was nice and the beer went down well.

It was quite amazing on Saturday to see the hoardes of walkers getting off the buses at Pen-Y-Pass to go up Snowdon. There were people everywhere. Thankfully we were going the other way, to walk from Nant Gywnant back to Betws (15.5 miles) over Moel Siabod (872m) - in other words, bloody knackering.















Looking back towards Llyn Gwynant with Snowdon topped in cloud in the distance. Just imagining the crowds at the top makes me shudder. We saw seven people all day while out on the tops, a family of three in the distance, a couple of blokes who were ahead of us during the slog up Moel Siabod and a (french?) couple who asked us to take a photo of them at the top.














A bog! This just about sums up most of the first half of the walk.












And a welsh windswept sheep.

We tried a new campsite, which I think would be ok at any time other than a Bank Holiday, but then at any other time, the Riverside would be a little quieter too (I was quite surprised that there were any spaces left when we arrived on Saturday afternoon) and it's a much nicer site, so I don't know that we'll ever use this one again. The 'Site Full' sign went up on Saturday evening and the number of people on site was reasonable, but we ended up coming home early because of ignorant, rude people who arrived on Sunday, having no idea about being considerate towards others and put their tent up between our car and tent where there wasn't even enough space for them to pitch their tent straight, let alone put any guys in. I feel that we kind of let them win by leaving, but I really didn't want to spend the night knowing they were within 3 feet of me. So Rob drove us home and I slept till 10am in my own bed. Hurrah!

Warts and all

I completed my blanket square last night. It was a touch and go thing.

I very nearly ripped out the lot about half way through as I could tell that things were not going well. But I decided to stick with it and get used to the fact that my first attempt was never likely to have been brilliant and that practise makes perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but at least improvement. So I persevered and I am glad I did, as it was definitely a learning experience. I learned that I need to leave longer strands to stop it puckering. Weaving in the ends is time consuming and boring, and yet very important that it be done right, and there is lots of wastage. Blocking didn't help as much as I'd hoped it would... although I suspected that it was unlikely that a wash and a pull about was going to suddenly produce a perfect result.

I was equally unsure about posting a picture as I was about finishing the thing. But here it is. All my own work... Yes, it really is that wonky!



















On the plus side, my maths was right and the square measures exactly 9 x 9 inches.

On the plus plus side (and this is a big 'un) I spoke to Mum today and her Maneki Neko seems to be working it's fortune magic. So I am going to reward it with a fish.

Bring me the head.....

I got the pattern for this purse yonks back in the Jaeger book that I bought for the 'Dolly' wrap cardy and although I really fancied making it, had never got around to it. But for some reason yesterday I remembered it, and thought it would make a nice change from the colour square which I needed to take a breather from - ok, so I did no knitting last week when I was in Germany, but I couldn't face it straight away on my return. Crocheted in double DK yarn (Sirdar Denim Tweed) on a 5mm hook yesterday afternoon while watching Doctor Zhivago.
















It's supposed to be a teddy bear, but we decided that it looks more like a kangaroo.

Colour? Well the air is blue...

This knitting with different colours thing is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be

:(

Living Colour

I am a procrastinator. Yes. There, I said it. I will put anything off until it absolutely cannot wait any longer. And so it is even with knitting. I have been putting off starting the chapter on colour work in my How To Knit book for ages. Until this week. I took a deep breath and decided to make a blanket square for Tess's charity blanket. I had an idea, I did some scribbles, drawings, got some knitted graph paper (links here) and made my design. I went to a couple of local yarn shops and eventually picked up some yarn that sort of might maybe do the trick. I had all these great plans of making it with subtle and pretty colours, like something you would see on a baby's blanket. So what did I get? Insipid green and radioactive orange.

Here is the mess that is my current WIP.











And to relieve the eye strain caused by those colours, here is the yummy Kureyon in shade 153 making itself at home.

Thank Crunchie it's Friday

Walked to work today (I thought I should after it had been decided over dinner last night that my car is killing the planet) - it was a lovely morning and very pleasant. Went to shop (Tesco, shhh!) at lunchtime to buy plasters for feet....

Sat out the back of the building at lunchtime in the sun and was visited by a squirrel, which was most unexpected. We see quite a lot of foxes in the shrubby bit under our window, but I didn't know that there were squirrels there as well. My reward for being green and not using the car maybe :)

I got home to find parcels of yummy fudge and yummy Noro yarn waiting for me. Thanks Groove and Pictish!

And to honour the fact that she is moulting and leaving great clumps of herself all over the carpet, here is today's lesson in The Way Of The Pud.

It's Spring time for Lamb

Ahhh.

Well it wouldn't be right that the Sheep Happens website didn't have a cute lamb chop sorry shot sorry photo at this time of year.

Daffs! II

They worked! Isn't nature amazing.

Holiday reminiscing

In between all this knitting there have been a couple of holidays.
We went snow shoeing in the Dolomites in March which was great, although it was knackering and the flight times were slightly inconvenient.The pic below was taken on the last walking day, up on a plateau which was the scene of fighting during WW2. We were warned to not stray from the path for fear of falling in trenches! Rob is one of those little trugers... I was lagging behind to take the photo!















Last week we spent in Northumberland, having spent years talking about how we would love to visit. It was very nice, although windy on the coast. I got to see Lindisfarne - shame that the real Book of Gospels is hidden away in the British Library, but they have a very good exhibition, complete with amazing patchwork quilt!

Catching up

So *blush* much time has passed since my last post, but life has trundled on much as usual. The scarf for Katy looked like this when it was completed. It looks pretty short on me, but Katy is only little so it fit her better.















I also made a Maneki Neko (fortune kitty) for Mum. This was lots of fun and I want to make more toys - I have my eye on a lovely teddy bear!











The Sirdar Bigga that has been hiding away for a year got made into the cabled hoodie from Knitting Magazine (Nov 2004 edition). So you can see how lazy I am with knitting stuff, it's really no surprise that my blog was so out of date!











I made a pair of Opal socks for Rob, but haven't taken a photo of them - they are in the wash because I wore them... and my last finished item was an ipod cover. This was all my own work and I was quite pleased at the way my first knitting design turned out.











It's strange, as when I was a child and first learned to knit and crochet, I would think nothing of picking up my hook or needles and just making clothes for my teddies without ever worrying about patterns or tension. These are adult stresses and I should try and get back to that carefree state. Mind you, I expect my creations were quite dreadful!!

Fetch a duster!

Well then. It's been a while since I was here and it could do with some spring cleaning.
I promise to try harder in future :)