Patience

A little while ago, we bought materials to make a blocking board. Yesterday, we made it.
Wadding, a cork board, gingham fabric, upholstery pins and the essential radio, hammer and chocolates.

Laying the board over the wadding.


After two pins to semi secure the wadding, we decided to secure both layers at once. Liz had to hammer in all the pins. And do most of the rest of the work too but I was there to supervise. We trimmed the excess wadding and now have lots of little rectangles.



The back before so more trimming.

Look how pretty!


I chose the most fun coloured stripey material I could fins. The lines are approximately straight to help with straight lines when blocking.

Grumpy

Well, obviously I jinxed it by saying I would finish the shrug next as I then realised I hadn't decreased to match the initial increases and I would have to unravel it a bit and then figure out what I'd done and blah blah blah really couldn't face it. I'm also struggling with learning fair isle as a new skill and then I saw my bank statement and realised that I should get a job and frumph.

I cheered myself up by starting a new sock though. Pictures another day.

True to my word: FO Tiger socks

Hooray these are finished. A long stint in front of the tennis on Saturday and a bit of weaving on Sunday night did the job. I think I over decreased slightly on the toe so my foot shape is rather flattered in those photos. I really like the yarn - it is Opal 6-ply in one of the rainforest shades (tiger) which I think has been discontinued now but they might do another version. I used 2.75mm needles which made it feel like I was flying through the sock as often on socks I use 2mm. In previous posts, you'll see I experimented with circulars and dpns but thanks to my birthday present I finished off just using 5 dpns. It really is my favourite method. I didn't try to match up the stripes on each sock as that would have been too much trouble for me. I did make a note of the pattern repeats and it was about 20 repeats long and quite confusing. I quite like not exactly matching socks. It reminds me of that phase everyone goes through of wearing odd socks. My next project is a shrug: I've finished the arms so will seam it and then consider a border around the neck as I have a whole ball left of Rowan Ribbon Twist.

This made me laugh...

Yesterday I was looking for some sock yarn I knew I had but couldn't find it anywhere. So, I was inspired to have a sort out. Here are some yarns I bought while travelling (because let's face it, all my good intentions of telling you all about my travels haven't materialised into anything yet so you might as well look at lovely yarn).

In Japan, I found a yarn shop near Kyoto train station. I foolishly forgot to stock up on anything made by Clover, a Japanese company. I had done some research into yarn shops in Japan but had only found details of ones in Tokyo so was super excited to just stroll past one on the way back to the inn from a day trip out.

I was going to make my friend some gloves but I don't know why I never did. Chris made himself one glove then lost interest as it required a lot more time and patience than he was willing to give.

The next two yarns were bought in a lovely yarn shop in Devonport, New Zealand, run by an expat. The names of the laceweight and the shop escape me.


It's a famous NZ brand so perhaps someone can jog my memory?



NZ is famous for its merino so I would have felt very silly not to pickup some of this. I wish I had stuck to my guns and bought enought for more than just accessories but I was feeling self-conscious about buying so much and posting it home.


The last four were purchsed in the USA. Believe me, I bought a hell of a lot more than this including Lantern MOon Sox Stix, Interweave Knits, Chibis, and more yarn.
I visited two shops in LA: the Knit Cafe which had lovely expensive needles but I wasn't even offered a drink and was a bit ignored; another shop that has White Lies Designs lingerie in the window where the sales assistant was very friendly, they had loads of sock yarn but no Sox Stix.

In Goshen, there is a wonderful LYS next to a wonderful Cafe. I didn't buy anything there but couldn't quite believe it as I didn't think Goshen was big enough to have such lovely amenities.
And the best place was Loopy Yarns in Chicago, mostly due to the company I kept there. My friend Charletta and lovely Karen. She blogged our trip almost immediately and I STILL haven't put any photos of it up. It involved sight seeing (she's a great tour guide) and a massive chocolate ice cream sundae and Giradellis.




This is what made me laugh.


18

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

My birthday

It was my birthday last Friday. Here are my knitting related presents:


A multipack of Quills which are dpns made from milk. As you know, I've had a run of bad luck with breaking and losing dpns and then I tried using two circulars but it wasn't a hit. My big sister knew I fancied this set and I've tried them and really like them! I love Decorative Knitting and it gives me loads of inspiration. Knit Kimono was mentioned to me by a friend. I haven't had a chance to look at it much yet but I love Japan and there are pages of info on Kimonos and history which I will enjoy.




This isn't really a birthday present but a little while ago, Chris bought me an organiser and today my sister and I filled it with my stash of beads and ribbons. Um, I seem to have more than I realised.

For my birthday we went to a sealife centre and camping and a castle. It was my favourite birthday ever.










I'm a bit all over the place at the moment with knitting. I have several things that need finishing (okay, more than several) and keep wanting to start more so I'm going to focus on finishing things over the next few days and then working on things to earn me some money. I've made a plan for a few projects to try submitting to magazines and might try selling some on Ravelry. I've even opened a paypal account but I don't really understand how it all works. It is very interesting to try new things.

Tomorrow, I'm having a little birthday party with my mum and might make chocolate cornflake cakes (ingredietns: chocolate, cornflakes).