Designing, and Disturbing.

Hi guys!  I probably sounds like I'm living a life of luxury right now, but I'm off on holiday again tomorrow, so I thought I'd write an update before I go.

FOs

I've only got 1 finished knitting object to show you this time, but there is also a small crochet project, and 2 spinning projects.

First, there's the shawl I was working on for the Countess Ablaze Odyssey KAL.  The pattern is Artemis, byt Valerie Johnson, and the yarn is Viscount of Spark by Countess Ablaze, in the limited edition colourway "The pedestal is waiting".

The second, very small, finished object is a tiny crocheted rose brooch that I made because a friend and I decided to pop into our local craft shop on Love your Yarn Shop Day, just to see if they were celebrating.  It turned out that they were, with lots of yarn on special offer, as well as a free craft session on making knitted or crocheted flowers, with tea and cake.  Since I'm not terribly skilled at crochet, I thought I'd take the opportunity to practice while I had access to the help of girls far more experienced than me.  We had a lovely afternoon :)

Remember that I was working on making a sweater quantity of handspun for myself?  That I'd actually started work on in July last year!  Well, I finally finished that a few weeks ago:

Then I immediately started work on another spinning project, making the yarn for my second Odyssey KAL project:

 I'm really pleased with this, because I'm still a fairly inexperienced spinner, but I was aiming for something between sport, and DK, which is exactly what I achieved, and the yarn is pretty even too.

WIPs

Which brings us straight on to the only project I've done any work on since finishing these, and it's another thing I'm pretty proud of.  I've actually designed this one myself, inspired by a few images of modern day Greece I found online:

Based on these, I've done a bit of pattern designing:

And this is where I'm at with it so far:

Stash Acquisition

Not much of this since the last update, basically only a bit that I bought on Love your Yarn Shop Day, but I am really pleased with it, because I managed to buy a sweater quantity of Shades, by King Cole for myself for only £12!  And just because it was lovely and soft and fluffy, a ball of Cupcake by Peter Pan yarns.

Sadly, my beloved Countess has been poorly for a few weeks, so the Odyssey Trail update was delayed until last night.  I have, of course, ordered a gorgeous skein for myself, but it won't arrive for a few days.

Penguins

I can't show you one of my new penguins, because I already attached it to my knitting bag, and my knitting bag is at Stephens house in preparation for our trip to Cornwall tomorrow.

I can show you the other 2 though.  One was a gift from a friend who recently visited Norway, where he met a glass worker making glass penguins.  This chap was hard to photograph, because you can see right through him, but I think he looks a little like Private, from The Penguins of Madagascar :)

Then this rather disturbing fellow was brought home for me by Kelly:

We think he's vaguely reminiscent of the even more disturbing owl from the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, and we've decided that he is our mechanical Guard Penguin, who comes to life at night to protect the house :D

So, on that rather terrifying note, TTFN my dears!