Thank Goodness !!!

I've finished :-)

Bad photo, but past caring ....


This is what happens when you put a jumper on the floor to photo it...
but it does show the shadows well.


And this is the proper colour of shadows.











Right, got to pack for Skipnorth. Got all wool things and food ready but not any clothes yet, shows what I think is important !!
Going to see The Osmonds Monday night in Liverpool, back Tuesday - take care out there :-) Hope rest of Team GB pass the line in one piece :-)

On the downhill

Just a quickie - just cast off the front and back Yippee !!! Now got 118sts and a sleeve to knit, and I decrease every 6 or 8 rows so not long to go....
not thinking of the sewing up or the neck band at the moment, they can wait another day.
And now I really must go to bed....

If ever anyone says 'feel like a challenge?' to me again, please remind me that I can say *NO*

Cheltenham and thin knitting...

On Friday I went here - Craft show at Cheltenham. There were a lot of paper crafts there - not very interesting .... the usual embroidered kits.







I did buy these from the button company - think I got a bit carried away, but you can never find the right button when you need it... and that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it !!







I did meet the lovely Tess and Les from Silkwood. On the Friday night Tess was told off (in a nice way) about the set up of her stand, she has the most wonderful wools and fluffy bunnies but was not showing them off at their best.


So I went home and made this - only stuck with bondaweb at the moment and the back is a mass of safety pins...

Also pinned some of the soft and fluffy angora gloves and hats on the side of the stand so they could be seen.
Unfortunately there were the wrong type of people there yesterday, thought it all looked lovely but even if it was half the price they would have thought it was expensive..
The patchwork lady nearby was asked how many dogs there were printed on half a metre of material - answer half as many as on a metre !!
So I will make some usable banners for Silkwood and hopefully the right type of people will turn up to their next show.
If anyone reading this does see them at a show do go and say hello, they are lovely people and a joy to talk to :-)




While I was at the show I did some (not very much) Olympic knitting.
It reminded me why I dont work in IT support anymore - the amount of stupid questions I was being asked... ranged from the thickness of my needles & wool, people picking up knitting (pure 100%, last of Colinette 4ply hand dyed) and saying that it wasn't very soft (think most of them were acrylic junkies who only spend £1 a 100g ball)...
Did try and explain the concept of Olympic knitting but that was too much for some of them, one even asked if I meant this Olympics, couldn't answer that one ;-)

Well I'm over half way, got a shoulder (316 sts x 80 rows) and a sleeve to knit. Oh - and the neckband and then sew together... not much really ..but have also got OU assignment due this week and I cant send a note saying 'please excuse Sue, she was busy knitting' my tutor really wouldn't understand !!

Progress of sorts...

Shadows are growing, but not easy to take photo - nearly finished front of neck, but desperate to knit something else...

Just baby sat nextdoor's grand daughter, she is just 10 and is completely obsessed with babies. I allow her to play on the internet (very supervised) and she compares baby equipment and asks which I think looks best - now if it was wool I would be able to answer !! I dont think this is totally normal, she treats her dolls like proper babies, even has nappies for them... She was worried today if her boyfriend loved her. In the past she has asked if I would adopt a baby so she could play with it.... Very worrying behaviour, need to talk to her parents....

Shaddows are growing...

I did not sit in front of the telly all day yesterday - just most of it !
Got 40 rows left of sleeve and then I get to increase for the body and treble the number of stitches :-(
Shaddow knitting is clever, right side rows are knitting and with Addi circulars I dont have to watch what I'm doing, even managed to carry on knitting whilst watching rugby... Wrong side rows are a mixture of knit and purl- dark is k32 & p32, colours are k30 & p34 so I have to concentrate a bit....



My neighbour has some free range chickens, here they are in my front garden.
See I didn't spend all day knititng, took photos of a couple of birds as well :-)

Bad Hair & Olympic knitting

I didn't realise I was having such a bad hair day yesterday. Went to find a hairdresser, went into a salon and asked to speak to someone about what to do - receptionist said do you want to talk about colour & cut !! I know my natural highlights are getting worse but.... so made appointment to talk to someone about colour and then have to go back for the work to be done....



This is my Olympic knitting as of midnight last night. 50 rows of sleeve.
It has grown this morning and I'm up to row 90.... Think I've just about learnt the colour changes and when to purl/knit on the reverse.

Team GB now has it's own blog, view everyones progress here

And now for some more knitting, hoping to finish the sleeve today and then cast on for the body when I will have 316 stitches - progress will slow then ;-)

Happy Knitting

gorgeous is growing - 'just' got to do four joining bits and 8 inches on each sleeve. Then lots of ends to sew in....


This is domino rug/throw made from Colinette mohair, boucle, skye, prism (and maybe some others... cant remember what I had...)




Just come back from a walk and met these along the banks of the River Wye.



And to show where I live, my house is one of the ones at the top if the ridge, River Wye in the foreground and the sheep were hiding behind me....



I'm nearly ready for the Olympics starting tomorrow night, never had to wait so long before starting to knit something.... I have to try and see if I can knit whilst watching the rugby (didn't manage it last week !!)

Things I should have done and didn't

This week I should have cleaned my house, sorted out pattern details for Olympic jumper and more importantly got ahead on OU course work ready for tutorial this week and essay in a fortnight....







But this is what I ended up doing....
Yarn bought on Tuesday, back nearly finished - There is Skye dark green, Greeny/pink Wigwam and pinky/green Giotto, all from Colinette bargain hanks...








Now I'm going to leave the jumper in it's bag and hope it stops calling to me while I do...

Chaos Theory

Open a yarn warehouse one morning a month and see what happens.....
Went to Get Knitted this morning, and by the look of it most of the knitters from around Bristol were there as well :-)
Got a several Addi circulars in small sizes 2mm - 3.5mm, Rowan 39 and some sock wool jumped at me and wanted to come home...

So now I'm ready for my Olympic challenge, got my pattern, wool and needles all at the ready, cant remember when last knitted jumper all in one from sleeve to sleeve, or just concentrated on one thing...
Looking at Olympics page there are more knitters than competitors in the proper games - the power of knitting !!

One of the Best Places in the World....

Funeral all went ok, but it is bad when the funeral director remembers you...

Went on a slight detour on the way back, but I just *had* to.....








Colinette... I was relatively good, only spent an hour there (had non knitting friend with me who didn't understand...) Raided bargain corner, and got some wool for a jumper similar to the jacket above, was planning to try and finish it before the Olympics but don't think that is going to happen...
Also signed up for a day course at end of Feb, some things just work out - it will be on the way to Skipnorth


If all goes to plan, off on another adventure tomorrow to here, they have a monthly open day and I *need* some more needles....

Got half way up the trees on my shawl, but put on hold for a while....