I've been on holiday twice, back and forth between Newcastle and Sheffield a good few times, celebrated Yarn Shop Day, started learning a couple of new skills, and rekindled a couple of old hobbies. Dad got his scan results after his first 12 weeks of chemo, and so far it's good news, the tumours are shrinking, so he's currently working through another 12 weeks of chemo. I've not actually bought very much new yarn, but I have either finished, or worked on quite a lot.
FOs
So, let's get started on the things that I've finished:
This is a 2-for-1. I was in the process of spinning this yarn last time. Since then I've finished producing this rather nice chain-plied DK, and knit it up into a pair of little ankle socks for myself. Again, no particular pattern, but I used a 2&2 rib, and a heel-flap construction.
It's been a while since I've been to Ashington Woods, but next time I go this is a gift for one of the lads there. He bought himself a tablet for noodling about on the internet, but he was keeping it in the bubble-wrap sleeve it came in! I thought he might prefer this instead. It's made to fit my dad's tablet, as they have the same model, so I'm pretty sure it'll be the right size. The yarn is Countess Ablaze Grand Merino in the colourway Nemesis.
As part of my big 2017 WIP-down, I've been digging out some old projects that have been sadly neglected for a while. This one is part of a selection of basic ribbed hats that I make for charity. This one in particular is to be donated to The Archer Project before the weather starts to turn cold again. The pattern for this is Northmoor Watchcap by Luise O'Niell, and the yarn is Loweth Wools Windermere, in the colourway 606.
These are socks that I made for dad. A couple of his health conditions tend to cause oedema in his ankles, and he hates how by the end of the day normal socks dig in. So I thought I'd make him some that fit perfectly, and don't do that. Again I've used the ribbing and heel-flap construction, and simply modified it to suit dads foot measurements. Dad prefers dark, muted colours, but I already had this yarn in my stash that was perfect for him, it's Stylecraft Aviemore in the colourway 1618.
Just because I've definitely been in love with the spinning this year, here's another braid of fibre that I bought from Sue at the Travelling Spinners, spun up into yarn on my Hebridean wheel. This is 218 yards of roughly sport-weight, chain-plied Jacob Humbug, in the colourway Sunburnt Zebra.
After dad made me a proper Lazy Kate, I thought I'd take advantage of being able to create a true 2-ply yarn. So this 196 yards of 2-ply, DK, spun on my Hebridean Wheel, from a custom blend of Shetland, milk, and Yak, by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway Shetland Dream.
After all that functional knitting, I really fancied making something just because it's pretty. This is a 2 skein version of one of my favourite patterns; TGV (High Speed Knitting), by Susan Ashcroft. I used an entire skein of Ring-a-Rosie's Stargazer, in a variegated purple colourway to make the garter stitch section, then an entire skein of Ring-a-Rosie's Flooty, in a semi-solid teal colourway to make the ribbed section.
WIPs
As I said, I've been on holiday! Stephen and I went to Cornwall with his parents, as we usually do in May. As my health has been steadily declining for the last few years, not only have I had to hang up the running shoes, but I've had to acquire a pair of crutches and wrist braces. I don't use them all the time, I worry that I'll lose what strength I have if I do, but if ever I'm feeling particularly unsteady, or in pain, or likely to be walking more than a very short distance, then I take the crutches. I quickly discovered that shoulder bags and crutches don't go well together! So I found myself a little backpack to carry my bits and bobs in, but even though it's small for a backpack, it's still much bigger than my shoulder bag was! So I've taken to carrying a little crochet project around with me. I'm always crocheting squares, either from beautiful souvenir wool for my enormous Memory Blanket, or from brightly coloured cotton or acrylic for yarn bombing projects. As you can tell from the especially offensively bright yellow, this one is a yarn bombing square. The yarn is Loweth Wools Crafty Knit DK, in the colourway 410.
More squares that I was also working on last time. Random knitted squares to be sewn together to form a small blanket that will be donated to charity. I use any random DK acrylic that I have no other purpose for to make my charity knits for children or animals. Acrylic washes easily, which is essential around both children and pets!
As you will know if you read my last post, dad has been making a lot of useful items for me, but he's developed a particular affinity for drop spindles. It really hasn't taken him very long at all to get very good at making them! But then he has been obsessively watching me, and watching youtube videos of people spinning, or making spindles, and reading a book about spindle spinning that Sue from the Travelling Spinners loaned to me. He made this one from the tip of a broken fishing rod, because he wondered how a spindle made from carbon fibre would spin. I've been testing it with a fairly large sample of custom blend fibre by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway Bribes and Promises. I've no particular plan for this single yet, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Perhaps I'll find a plain grey to ply it with, I think that would look good.
A lazy afternoon at my dad's house typically looks something like this. I leave my camp bed up in the front room and sprawl on it with my knitting, watching dad through the patio doors as he sits in the summer house working on his lathe. In this photo I'm working on a shawl that I first started over a year and a half ago in order to help a friend who was knitting her own version for her wedding day. She's a very talented lady, and a quick study, so once I'd guided her through the parts she had trouble with, I put my version down to languish, abandoned. In my efforts at reducing my number of WIPs, it's come out to play again. The pattern for this is Alberta Shawl, by Anne-Lise Maigaard, and the yarn is Fyberspates Gleem Lace, in the colourway Peacock.
This doesn't all fit on the little table to show it off properly, because it's a sweater for me. A sweater that I first cast on in August 2014. Another of the old WIPs that I'm aiming to finish before the year is out. However, I will confess that the recent heat-wave has not made knitting this pleasant! The last thing I want is a big woolly sweater in my lap when it's 30°C in the shade! The pattern I'm using is Tubey, by Cassie Rovitti, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, in the colourways Burgundy, and Maroon.
Stash Acquisition
I think I ordered this back in March, which seems like both a million years ago, and last week at the same time! Yorkshire Dales Yarns is a mother-daughter team, and the daughter, Katie, is a knitting friend of mine from Sheffield. It's such a joy to have such talented friends! Sock blanks are something that they've only started doing relatively recently, and I snaffled up one of the first. 100% merino, 4-ply, in the colourway Blueberry.
Go looking for undercrackers for dad, come out with yarn for me. That's totally how shopping trips should work, right? Just silly, inexpensive yarn for yarn bombing and charity knits. You may recognise the Offensive Yellow, shown here with it's friend; ASBO Pink, both Loweth Wools Crafty Knit DK, colourways 410, and 409. The grey is Woolcraft Luxury soft chunky with alpaca, in the colourway 940.
I didn't buy this one! This one was a prize in the raffle during the April Travelling Spinners meet. I'm so pleased with this, because I never win anything! It's Koigu Painters Palette Premium Merino, and the colourway is P866.
I'm putting these both together, although they were bought on separate trips to Ring-a-Rosie's. Barbara is the owner of this gorgeous little shop, and she dyes her own yarn. She had a similarly tough time over Christmas to me, and since then she's really thrown herself into her work to help herself get through. If I happen to be up in Newcastle when she announces on Instagram that she's dyed up another batch of beauties, then I like to try and pop in and maybe claim a couple for myself. Good for her, good for me, right? Yarn therapy, it's the way forward! You've already seen the purple Stargazer (merino with sparkle), and the teal Flooty (silk and mohair) knitted up into a beautiful shawl. The other 4 skeins are all high twist merino sock yarn. Not all of the colourways have names, because these are all new inventions from recent months.
This is my Yarn Shop Day haul! I finally managed to make it down to Knit Nottingham for Yarn Shop Day! I had tea and cake from Ila's little tea shop next door, I got to chat with Eleanor, and Rachel, and loads of other lovely people, I sat in a corner surrounded by yarn, and knitted, with lots of other people all delighted to be surrounded by yarn, knitting and crocheting, and I pulled a ticket out of the celebratory lucky dip tin that gave me 10% off anything I bought, then I didn't crash the car on the drive home! Generally, I had a good day.
The most exciting thing of course is that Eleanor has started dying her own yarn too! So I bought my first ever skein of Knit Nottingham hand painted yarn, a 4-ply merino and bamboo, in the colourway "Toddler". That's the first skein on the left, obviously! Also in the photo, left to right, are: Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, in the colourway "Cherry", Coop Knits Socks Yeah! DK, in the colourways "Aeacus", and "Dionysus", Opal 3-ply, in the colourway "Windhauch", and just disappearing off the bottom of the photo there is a tiny Opal Mini too. Not to mention the 2 new project bags made by Bertie and Poppet!
Finally, yesterday Yasmin needed to go to Hobbycraft to buy some baby yarn because one of her friends little one couldn't wait until the appointed time, and decided to show up a few weeks early. I thought I'd pick up a few more balls for charity and yarn bombing purposes. So this is Hobbycraft's own Knit Craft Baby Prints DK, in the colourway HBP5, and 2 balls of Lily's Sugar 'n' Cream cotton, in the colourways Moondance, and Batik.
Other Stuff
Just because I'm not sure where else to put them, but I've got a couple of photos that I'd like to show you:
You may have noticed that there was no souvenir yarn from my holidays this time. I didn't come back empty handed though. I found this beauty at Lanhydrock. 1950s styles suit my shape, although this book might have adapted vintage patterns to modern yarns and sizes, it still restricts itself to the smaller end of the scale. However, because now half the work has been done for me, it should be relatively easy to scale up the patterns for my fuller figure.
Something I used to do occasionally during my belly-dancing days was henna decoration. I hadn't done it for years, but a friend of mine who is due to give birth soon was hoping somebody could henna paint her bump before the bump becomes a baby. Kelly suggested that I might be able to do it. So I've been practicing this very rusty skill on every available patch of skin. My arms and legs look like doodle pads, and a few people have had slightly wobbly mandalas inscribed on their backs. I'm quite enjoying rediscovering an old hobby though.
Penguins
I need to be up early, so I really should go to bed now, but I'm reliably informed that this is the most popular section of my blog, so I guess I'd better show you the penguins!
So it's now July, and yet I'm only just now telling you about something that I received as a Christmas present. This was a gift from the very lovely Heather and Nigel, who I haven't seen nearly enough this year. He's supposed to be called "Pinot Penguin", but I call him "Prosecco Penguin".
You probably won't remember that far back, but last time I updated my penguin collection, I commented that I'd seen a knitted penguin, and I'd wanted to buy him, but he was beyond my budget. This is that penguin! Stephen read my blog and decided that he would surprise me with a gift, just to see me smile :) I love him! He's like a clanger mated with a penguin!
My friend Kate got me this, allegedly as a "Christmas present". However, while at Whitby last November, just before everything went to Hell in a handbasket, Kate also paid for my share of a group outing to a fancy restaurant, and she told me not to be guilty, because that was her Christmas present to me. Since then she's presented me with at least 3 further items, all of which have been called "Christmas presents". I know that she earns a ludicrous sum of money in comparison to me, but I still can't help but feel guilty that I can't return her generosity. Still, you can't deny that this chap is terribly cute, even with my lamentable painting skills!
Birdie buttons, and penguin stitch markers! These were a gift off Yasmin, because she saw them when she was looking for some stitch markers for herself and because she's brilliant!
More penguin stitch markers! I think I must have ordered these at about the same time as Yaz bought me the others, although even if I'd known, I still would have bought them, because penguins that are related to knitting!!! These are from Homespun Wonders, which is the online store run by Katie and her mum, also of Yorkshire Dales Yarns. Katie knows me well enough that she tagged me as soon as these went online!
What's better than a bag-for-life? A bag for life that has penguins on it, and also folds up into a penguin! He now lives in my handbag at all times. Except when he's full of groceries.
If ever you're having a miserable day, and you find yourself in the supermarket, and they have both food, and a blankey that are shaped like your favourite animal, you're basically doomed. Although upon closer inspection, I think this blanket is supposed to be an owl, but he looks enough like a penguin that I don't care.
Look at that funny face! And look at the penguin too! Stephen spotted this hand puppet when we were on our way back from Cornwall. Because he's totally lovely, he bought him for me, then entertained me with his puppety antics.
Sometimes my neck and head get crazy sore because my ligaments are too feeble to support the vast and enormous mass of my own head. Travel cushions are one way of helping to relieve that, without going as far as neck braces. A travel cushion that looks like a penguin is basically penguinophile EDSer win.
Stephen's mum got in on the penguin action when she found this Christmas light, but of course we all know that penguins are not just for Christmas!
Nope, penguins are also for picnics! Especially when they are little penguin thermos flasks!
How to take a photo in a darkened room, without getting the shadow of your phone in the frame? Maybe one day I'll manage it, but today is not that day. Anyway, this is my last penguin for this post. Lovely, delicate, silver filigree. Plus, he glows in the dark!
Definitely bed time now my dears. I'll be back soon with some of my adventures with new fibre related skills! Night Night all.
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