A Poncho called Martini goes to Egypt

I rather like this blogging lark and just love getting comments. Its just fab being able to share your projects and ideas to anyone who fancies a look. Wonderful invention.

No real knitting news I'm afraid. The sewing-up on Iris is going slowly slowly, sort of on a 2 steps forward 1 back basis. If it doesn't look right, I have to redo it, and redo it, till I'm happy with it. I'm such a perfectionist but after spending hours knitting something I want to make sure it doesn't get ruined at the last stage. Also, my DH inspects all my finishing too - so has to pass his test as well. If we're both happy, it all tickety boo. If not, back to the drawing board. I constantly try it on to make sure it fits well and all the seams look right. I'm sure I'll get there eventually.....

I finished my Bright Socks and thought I'd try a toe-up sock and hunted around till I found a pattern I liked. Of course, then I realised I need 5 DPN's and I only have 4 as 1 went walkabouts and no matter where I look it refuses to be found. Isn't it always the way? Most annoying.

So today we have a pic of me in Egypt last month wearing my Martini poncho in Cotton Braid. No one told me how cool it could get in the evenings and boy was I glad I'd made it to bring with me on holiday. Knitting with Cotton Braid is amazing, it feel just like cotton wool. I love it.



And just to prove I was actually in Egypt here's a pic of the Sphinx I took and one my DH took of me. We fly to Cairo for the day and it was just amazing. The Egyptian museum was awesome. I could happily have spent days there.

Hike from Rowan 37 - Isn't It Lush?

Yesterday started off really well with the new Sarah Dallas Knitting book arriving with Stitch 'n Bitch Nation from Amazon. I had some vouchers I needed to use up so what better than more knitting books!!!!!

Stitch n' Bitch Nation is a much chunkier book than the first and full of lots of hints and tips and has 50 patterns which are not surprisingly, very funky. I really liked the halter top, cat toys (I don't even have a cat!) and the felted laptop bags. The beginning has instructions on designing and adapting patterns. I only glimpsed through that bit, not enough pics for me you see.......

Sarah Dallas Knitting is a real coffee table book and very purrty indeed. Her designs are very simple and look great. My favourite has to be the the slippers, which I could make using the Rowanspun DK I bought in the HoF sale. See, you never know when sale yarns will come in handy.

The day ended not quite so well and now I have no car. DH broke down on his way home so we had to get the AA to tow him home as it was too late to go to a garage. So he's taken the car and we need to get the van towed to the garage when he gets home later today. Funny how much I miss my car when I can't use it.

To cheer myself up I thought I'd share a pic of my lovely Hike from Rowan. I wear it to death and Calmer is one of my favourite yarns. Which could explain why I'm using it again......you'd have thought that DH would have told me my Hike was wonky, but no. So to proove it really isn't it wonky and was just me slouching there's another pic of it. Oh and the halterneck top is a Rowan subscriber freebie pattern in Linen Drape and fab for summer.

What a Lovely Day to Feed the Swans

It's been a gorgeous day today. Bit different from Friday's thunderstorms and Saturday's pretty much non-stop rain. So nice if fact that we had to go and find out how our local swans and their cygnets were doing. They have 6 babies now out of an original 8 and they're so gorgeous and fluffy. And daddy swan didn't even tell me off today! This is what they looked liked a few weeks ago.



I finished the Rowan shrug Iris last night so today got the ironing board out to start pressing it. This is the only time the ironing board comes out and definitely the only chance clothes get of being ironed. Ironing is one of those things I just don't believe in, so try to avoid whenever possible. You can tell I've got my priorities right :)

Will post a pic of Iris once its sewed up, which could be a day or two, or a few more depending on whether a sewing up mood descends on me or not. You can't rush these things you know.....

Thank you House of Fraser!

I am very pleased to annouce that my yarn collection has grown considerbly thanks to House of Fraser in Bristol. It was of course the start of the sales yesterday and it would just have been rude not to go. So I didn't disappoint. I was very pleased with my purchases and took no notice of the staff laughing to themselves about what size trolley I would need. Thankfully DH was with me and helped me carry it to his van. And no, we didn't need a van because I'd bought so much, it was because DH picked me up in it on his way home from work ;)

New additions to my collection are Chunky Print, 4 Ply Soft, Rowanspun DK, Jaeger MM DK, Rowanspun 4 Ply, Rowan HK Cotton and a tangled mess of Lurex Shimmer (job for DH) and also some Opal sock yarn which arrived yesterday from Ebay. Look at the size of the sock yarn balls!!!!!

Cute New Baby Socks for A Cute New Baby

Yesterday I went to see my friend Jackie, another knitting nut, who had the latest gorgeous addition to the family last Monday and boy is he cute. He is the most quietest adorable thing and just as good as gold. Which is great as it gave us a chance to catch up on some knitter natter. And he was wearing the newborn socks I made him which looked so cute on him, though a little baggy, but he didn't seem to mind. As long as they kept his feet warm, he was happy. Bless.



Have to admit these were the first baby socks on DPNs I'd made and boy were they a little tricky. The pattern I had did my head in - wrapping stitches on such a small sock nearly gave me brain damage - so after frogging it for the 3rd time back to the ribbing I hunted around the internet for a nice basic short row pattern and from then on it was plain sailing. Remind me never to wrap stitches on such a miniscule sock again!

It's Raining Knitting Supplies

Wow - a good day for my knitting collection. My order of discounted Biggy Print in Giddy arrived this morning from Tajcrafts.co.uk together with Family Circle Easy Knitting magazine. I only ordered it on Friday night, got an email Saturday saying they'd posted it. Now that is what I call good service. I'd never seeen FCEK before and was quite pleased and am thinking about subscribing.



AND I also got some gorgeous Biggy Print in Splash which is just the most gorgeous colour from another Rowanette who lives in Australia. So to Linda, THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH! It's lovely to receive something unexpected from a very kind and generous knitter that you've never actually met in person, although chatted to on the net. I think I shall make a scarf from it, though not yet, as Summer has finally arrived here and it's been gorgeous and very hot the last few days. And about time too I should think!

A Mad Hamster Called Custard

This is our cute and cuddly 15 month old hamster Custard. He lives in a super duper 2 storey luxury house and has lots of tubes to play in. He's a real escape artist and has to be locked in his cage each night with pegs and a parrot lock. If he does manage to escape, he just lays in front of his cage and goes to sleep!

My lovely Blue Beaded Bag

This was my first attempt at using beads and I found it really easy. The design is from Emma King's 25 Bags to Knit which has so many designs I really love. No doubt another one will be on the horizon soon. My bobbles came out a bit differently but never mind eh, I just say I did it on purpose.

What a Bright Sock You Are

I don't have many rules in Knitting - why would I? I love it too much. One thing I do though is only have one main project on the needles at a time - literally! So if I get bored of my current one (happens a lot - I have no patience), I wait until I've finished the piece I'm working on before starting anything new. Interestingly, what usually happens is that by then I've got the buzz back again and can't wait to finish and wear it. So I usually end up completing it. And it means I don't get that dreaded line across my knitting when it's been left for too long......

I don't count bags or socks as main projects. A girl can't have enough bags can she? And I have to continually add to my sock yarn collection so obviously I always have to have a sock on the go.

Cool Strawberry Stripe Bag

This is the lovely Strawberry Stripe Bag from Rowan's latest magazine no. 37. I changed the colours so it's not exactly strawberry but am really pleased with it. It looks great. Once I'd finished it I realised I needed some petersham ribbon for the strap otherwise it was just going to stretch and stretch and stretch. This turned into a real quest.

It started when I visited our local habedashery shop. They had it but not enough. So I tried a craft shop, who told me try the Fancy Dress shop, who sent me to the Cake Shop, who sent me to the Wedding Dress shop, who sent me to the Dance Wear shop, who said try the Fabric shop. I was beginning to think it was a wind up and me and my husband were just so amused. I ended having to go to my nearest shopping Mall in Bristol where I bought some in the lovely John Lewis. And no, I didn't buy any more yarn in there.