Sorting Out Bones Of Contention!

For quite a few years now there has been a few full scale rows, no wait a minute that's very strong, how about heated discussions??? hhhmmm nope still a little strong, shall we settle on hubby's little bone of contention? Yup I think that would sum it up on my husband's attitude about how my downstairs stash/immediate WIP's/knitting magazine library and knitting bags threaten to overtake the living room. At one time they were small enough to confine to a single cupboard (can you believe at one time my whole stash, pattern collection and needles would fit in this single cupboard and non knitters who caught a glimpse inside would comment on "what was I going to do with all that wool??")

Then it sort of spread to behind one of the settee's, (the larger of the two settee' if I'm owning up and I'm not taking a photo behind there as it's still shameful). Then it started spilling out from behind the settee to a medium sized basket either side, several magazine holders (full) and a project caddy. Still behind the settee in between the overspill were knitting bags, needle bags and rolls, bags of yarn (though 95% of it is now under the bed) and plastic baskets containing more magazines (I have four on monthly subscription, if I had to buy them in a shop I'd never have any as nowhere local well within walking distance seem to sell them with any sort of consistency) that seem to multiply on their own!
Hubby like most people (including myself I hasten to add) has the annoying (I tried to think of a suitable super hero descriptive here but annoying works best) ability to ignore his own crap that he has discarded and abandoned (check out the breakfast bar in the kitchen, any time, day or night, Monday to Sunday he has stuff there in varying degrees of useful! from "been used for a job earlier but I can't be bothered to put it away right now when I can do it in an hour or two", to "might come in handy someday so I'll leave it here where I can find it until then!!!!! So his bone of contention as you can guess wasn't the same as my breakfast bar one, no, his was my knitting collective of stash,magazines and knitty tools that bulged behind and that spilled out the sides of the sofa.
I have to confess that I didn't intend for and I didn't enjoy my knitting stuff stored in this way, it wasn't practical. For a start it was all stored behind the sofa he prefers to sit on when he's chilling out in the evening to watch TV. So picture it....if he was settled and comfy watching for instance Ross Kemp on Gangs or some true crime programme that he enjoys to sit through etc and I suddenly needed a different size pair of needles and I had forgotten (I am very very forgetful) to get out at some earlier part of the evening before he has sat down, maybe putting the boys to bed took longer than anticipated, anyways because or whatever I have to get up to go digging round the back of the sofa (with him still on it) and I'm rustling and cursing cos it's dark behind there and I'm trying to feel for the right needle bag or roll and then cos I'm leaning precariously I'm hoping if I'm going to fall flat into the pile of useful utensils that I fall onto a soft bag of yarn and manage not take my eye out with a 10mm chunky plastic glittery needle that fell sticking pointy end up out the knitting roll I'm looking for. So you get I'm being loud and annoying and disturbing (I apparently do this a lot) and my hubby bless him was not granted with a huge amount of patience so will not stand up and offer to move the sofa so I can indeed take a safer, better look for what I'm looking for (and no I'm not about to ask as I KNOW what the answer would be)!! No don't be daft I'm more likely to get a reel of f's and b's and other expletives at what the hell am I doing and to buzz off as he is trying to watch Ross Kemp and why can he not watch anything HE wants to in peace! I have to confess if it were the other way round I would not be a happy hunny bunny either!
So in the interest of sorting the mess that is behind the sofa and with a lot of good intentions outright blatant lies that somewhere to keep my magazines would be i) a good start to tidy the whole area up, and, ii) an end to above style domestic disputes. After a whole lot of nagging and whinging convincing hubby finally made me this, a bookcase just for me to go at the top of the stairs. Funny that I don't seem to have as many magazines and books when they are all put together.....


Ooops no I forgot they aren't all quite in one place, there's still the stuff in the bedroom bookcase


and Oh I still need to finish sorting out behind and the overspill that is the sofa.

Birthday Booty

This year for my birthday I intended to not have any knitting stuff as presents, I had quite a bit last year from Ravelry Day and again a fair bit for Christmas which I bought back from Harrogate purchased with money various members of the family gave me. I gaily handed over the goodies to the kind present giver on my return and got to open them all over again on last years birthday/Christmas day. So I decided I have plenty of stash just about enough to keep me going for a while, needles coming out of my ears and lots of other knitty bits and bobs stored all over the place.

Anyway I think my family must have misheard me cos guess what I ended up with........

Buttons (just a few)

yarn (there is actually 10 balls in this colour)yarn (another 10 balls)A few pattern books
and more yarn (just in case I didn't have enough)!! Even hubby the week before my birthday (admittedly trying desperately to get out of doing a car boot sale I was insisting we needed to do for cash flow reasons) talked me into going yarn shopping rather than him going to the local retail park on his own where he would end up buying me more clothes that he always gets in the wrong size or just totally something that I wouldn't wear but he "thought" I would like!! He even offered me a drive out to find some of the yarn shops that I moon over advertised in just a few of the magazines I possess. To be honest I think I was very shocked just a little overwhelmed at his offer. Also knowing hubby's loathing of driving, especially to places he doesn't know so the stress factor multiples by a million I sort of lost the plot a little and bottled it!!

After a short venture out we ended up firstly in Foxhill Fabrics and Yarns which is located in Mitchells Craft Center, Weeford Road which is located in Sutton Coldfield. That is where the Noro book in the picture came from. The lady in the shop was lovely and friendly and very helpful. The shop had lovely stuff in it too and loads of brands I can't get nearer home. After a mooch which wasn't as pleasant as it could have been (mainly because hubby and the boys tummy's rumbling was loud enough to start an avalanche of yarn to start cascading down from the shelves) we left and went for lunch and also for me to ponder why I hadn't gone mad and bought some of the yarn I've been lusting after for a while. I realised my problem, I'm a tight skint flint.

A few days before Liz and I had been in the Solihull branch of House Of Fraser where they have not only had a sale but also a Rowan rep visit the store and offering Rowan All Seasons Cotton for the bargain price £5 for 500grms in 3 different colours. Well what is a girl to do in those circumstances I ask you, I know what I did, I had already informed my older children of my impending shopping trip and tentatively broached the subject of picking up my own pressies if they were happy for me to do that!! Yup, they were more than happy for that. So I had all 3 colours in the cotton and then the agonising of which colour to pick for the Bamboo Soft, there were at least half a dozen colours all beautiful.

Over lunch I suggested to hubby we double back to Solihull and see what was left. The darling man agreed so we went and got me the rest of the pattern books in the photo and 3 other colours of the Rowan Bamboo Soft which is sooooo soooffftt and smoochy I cannot wait to use it. The bed is also filling up very nicely!

Aren't I a lucky girl, I also had other non knitty pressies too but I don't think you want to bother about my everyday comfy cotton underwear amongst other things do you?????

A New Home For My Stash

OK so I am still not showing any FO's but this is big news.

I have a new home for my stash, and I love it....... for a number of reasons but the top one is that all of my stash is now together in one place. It is no longer spread around in separate hidey holes (sssshhhhh some secret, some not), there is enough room (just about) for it all to be together so when I need something in particular I no longer have to rummage round upstairs desperately hoping a certain person doesn't walk in on me when I'm trying not to give away a secret stash of guilty hoard of illicit buying.

The second reason is the form that it comes in.... hubby and I are now walking straight after a couple of months (!!! for hubby it has been years of moaning) from being doubled up in pain from a bad back.

We have a new bed, we have a new bed with rather a lot of storage space underneath, in fact we have a new bed with the biggest baddest storage we could find!!!!! WHOOP WHOOP

I have managed to get most of my stash into see through packaging so I can mostly see what is where, I have also tried to group some of it together and the yarn I'm more likely to use or have projects in mind for near the bottom and more accessible.

In fact it isn't just a new bed, we have also gained a very tidy bedroom. I got my wardrobe space back from all the stash I had got crammed in there and I am now able to put my clothes away instead of piling them up on the worktop outside the wardrobe because there was no way they would fit in there before!!! This worktop 6 weeks ago had piles of jeans, jumpers etc all lined up. For the last few weeks it has stayed like this. Wonderful.

I was incredibly lucky when we went bed shopping although it didn't feel like it at first. I was totally disappointed with the complete lack of choice for the first few shops we went to..... but we hit jackpot at our 3rd shop and once I'd seen the space in this beauty it was all over. The fact that hubby's eyed had already glazed over and rolled into the back of head was the clincher. He had enough before we even left the house and just wanted to get home so was ready to agree to whatever I wanted ;0) and he didn't even baulk too much at the price. Although it wasn't as expensive as some of the beds we looked at it was a smidgen over what we had said we would pay, then again we hadn't taken into account how much the cost of beds had gone up over the years and nearly every bed we looked at was over what we had expected to pay.

We had some bad news financially the next day but decided to weather the storm, the theory being the bed would last a lot longer than the storm and going for a cheaper option would be false economy. We seem OK so far fingers crossed!

The only downside I can think of is that I obviously won't be able to go in there whilst hubby is in bed, but I usually have enough bits downstairs to keep me occupied so I don't anticipate that being a huge problem.

After the bed was ordered, we had 3 weeks to wait before delivery, so there was a LOT of time to

i) spruce up the bedroom with retouching the paintwork etc and putting down a new carpet,

ii) argue over who gets how much storage with hubby demanding a 50/50 split......

I leave you to guess who won

Yarn Porn (Yarn From Ravelry Day )

I know I promised to give label info etc for my Ravelry day purchases, my alpologies but I haven't had time. Rather than tag them on the end of the last post I though I may as well start a new one. Trying to juggle loads of pics on here is always a pain and getting it to look how I want is near impossible but hey ho here goes.

Firstly the softest of the bunch and my favourite! This is Dragonfly Lace from www.kraftykoala.co.uk it is a blend of alpaca,cashmere and silk and oh yes it is as soft and as smoochy as it sounds. The actual colour is a tad brighter than the pic and it is also a semi solid which is also lost in the pic. The colourway on the tag says Black Forest. My apologies, apart from a very grey day outside my photographic skills are zero but the camera is also a basic one!

These two are from http://www.coldharbourmill.org.uk/ they are both 100% merino and again very soft and scrummy. The purple is 100grms of 4ply and the cream is lace weight which weighs 50grms.

I think this purple one also came from Coldharbour Mill, but the only info on the label is fibre content which is 90% alpaca and 10% nylon. It looks lace weight/2 ply again and is also very smooshie

This is 100% Shetland Wool and came from Jamieson & Smith, I have just tried to copy and paste the link from Ravelry but it appears to be broken!! It is a lovely deep olive/mossy green colour which I adore, it is just a shame that it is traditional wool and quite hard and scratchy. I do have in mind a felting project but will try and knit and wash a tension square first to see if it softens up in the wash.

Last but least this is 100% British wool from the Sheepfold??? It is a very pretty pale green colour but also like the dark green Shetland above quite scratchy. It is 4ply and as it only has the weight on the label 317grms I have no idea of yardage either. I am also guilty of forgetting the info on this...I do remember it was the first thing I bought and it was out of a bargain bin.

The buttons which I haven't rephotographed (sorry) are from www.knitting4fun.com or www.textilegarden.com Not sure which ones came from where now but if you like them enough I'm sure you will enjoy browsing the websites looking for them.

I apologise for my awful memory, I have problems remembering what I had for dinner yesterday never mind what I brought 6 weeks when I was on sensory overload. Senile dementia runs in the family but I doubt with me anyone will notice any difference as to whether I develop it or not!!!! ;0)

Ravelry Day Haul

Oh well this post is a lot later than I anticipated, just under 2 weeks later actually to be almost exact but better late than never (is a fitting motto for me and something that I suspect my family will have etched somewhere in remembrance of me after my clogs have popped and I have headed off the the big skein of yarn in the sky).

This year saw the birth of a new "festival/celebration" for us Knitters in the form of Ravelry Day. It happened in the Coventry Central Hall, Coventry which is in the West Midlands in the UK (which is just up the road from where I live) on Saturday 6th June. As well as the fortuous coincidence that the whole thing was dreamt up by a lady called Jo who happens to live less than 15 miles from my front door. I also had the added bonus that the whole thing happened a week or so before my birthday, so although our bank account was in a very battered and bruised state from the whole run of family birthday's that happen in May and June it didn't really matter because as it turned out a lot of the family were more than prepared to give me spending money in order to buy my own birthday present. Even the downside of having to hand over my precious purchases on my arrival home for a weeks hibernation in wrapping paper before being handed back to me did not spoil it a bit. In fact not even the torrential rain that persisted for the whole day could not mar the occasion for me, I didn't even mind the couple of times whilst standing at the back of a crowd gathered around a market stall the rain running off the plastic sheeting covering the stall and straight down the back of my neck. I loved the whole day.

I also got an opportunity to meet fellow Fekker Sash2, another regular member of a knitting forum that I eerrrmm visit on the odd occasion (hubby would argue that it is all day every day but I'm sure the girls will back me up and say they hardly ever "see" me). It was thanks to Sash that I actually eventually got to go Ravelry Day, she had bought a ticket for her mum who wasn't able to come as she is quite elderly and the transport links were going to be a big obstacle for her. I however hadn't bought a ticket, with the boys party/Leigh-Ann's birthday I wasn't sure whether I would have the fundage in the beginning and was planning to just chance it and go on the day, I had asked hubby whether he fancied it as a day out with the boys.... he just looked at me like I had gone stark raving mad and said "No thanks, Knitting I don't think so". So when Sash posted a message on the forum that she had a ticket going spare it was the 3rd and final bit of good luck (location, timing and now a valid excuse that my friend had a ticket spare and surely hubby and the boys would be fine without me for a mere 8 hours or so!!!!!) that smiled on me.

It was great to have a fellow knitter to drool over beautiful hand painted yarn, unusual and quirky buttons and even to want to pet the Alpacas that were next to the Toft Alpaca stall, but they were very smelly soaking wet in the rain. The amount of stash enhancing opportunities were fantastic, so many of the independent spinners and dyers were there and it was fantastic to be able to touch, feel and caress all the lovely fibres that I had only been able to see on a pc screen before now. The Knitting Goddess was there, so were Fyberspates, Kathleen Alice from Green Eyed Monsters (who I have conversed with on the original Lets Knit forum),Naked Sheep, Old Maiden Aunt Yarns, The Natural Dye Studio, and Knitting4fun were just some of them. The temptation to run amok was high, very high. It took an awful lot of willpower to not spend all my cash in the first 10 mins, but I had promised hubby that I would buy things other than yarn and I also had been hankering after a ball winder for a while, (skeins and I just do not get on very well, I always get into a complete mess and it has taken my over 24 hours before now to untangle a single 50grm skein of tangled mess into a ball).

Whilst the actual event was supposed to be in the Central Hall, from the forum posts on Ravelry I have read it grew from an idea from one very inspired lady and got such a huge response from fellow Ravelry members that eventually it had to spill out of what is quite a big hall that was booked for the event and many of the vendors on the day had to be accommodated in the markets stalls that are outside, hence the temptation for Sash and I as we approached and couldn't bear to walk past all that lovely yarn porn to go and look at all the demonstrations and exhibits until much later. We probably did it the wrong way round of course, we should have gone inside and looked at what was happening inside when we weren't carrying bags laden down with purchases but the fear for me at least that someone would come along and buy it all up before we had a chance to was far to great. There were classes and talks held by some of the greats in the knitting world like Meg Swansen, Debbie Bliss, Jared Flood to name but a few, which neither of us had bought tickets for. There was also a knitted fashion show, which we did have a peek at. There were some spinning demos, something I would really love to try one day when all the kids are grown up, moved out and I can have a room devoted to it. The prices of the roving are a big enough incentive o their own! I loved the extreme knitting stall, where you can knit a rug in less than a day using their huge needles and crochet hooks.

The whole event was sponsored by the The Knitter magazine and the people who publish that and also Simply Knitting magazine were offering a 3 issues for £1 deal for new subscribers as well as an extra free copy on the day. Of course I subscribed to both!! it would have been extremely rude not to.

Now normally I would be putting in loads of links and giving you in depth detail of what I bought and from where, but I'm writing this on the weekend and family life keeps rudely interrupting. Off and on I have been at this now since around 4.00pm but having to stop and feed the hungry hordes (both older two are out clubbing so I made sure they were well fed and stomaches lined before they went out, stopping to watch Zakk rock at Guitar Hero (he is wiping the floor with both hubby and I at the age 6, embarassing or what!!) and give Max some attention too I really need to finish up. It is now 8pm and the boys are running round the garden when they really should be and normally are in bed. Hopefully it is something I will come back to and do in the next day or so. I did know that this would be a major blog post but not how big!!!!!!

There was so much on offer and I'm really gutted that my chances of attending next years show are slim to none as it will be held during August far away in Stirling, Scotland. It is only fair of course that Knitters north of the border will also get a chance to have a fantastic day as well but I hope it's success continues and it eventually winds it way back down to the Midlands. All that yarn porn is such a rare opportunity for this knitter... well until November that is when I am off to Harrogate. I already have my ticket.....

Buttons Make Me Happy

What was I saying about sporadic bulk buying of buttons? This is another eBay win, I won this lot for £1.99 + p&p. There are some more very pretty ones in here and I am very pleased with them.

I think I am going to have a major sort out especially as I have some more on the way from another win! Oh the anticipation of sorting them into catergories and group etc. I really think I need to leave the house more often LOL.

Shiny Pretty Things

Well, it is virtually impossible to have a yarn fetish with out developing a fetish for something else too. I'm talking buttons here, they are pretty, shiny, beautiful and (as an afterthought) practical to boot. Now compared to my yarn stash my button collection is a little woeful, but it is one that was started from scratch and the only time I ever think to add to it is when I don't have a button to hand that I need, so it tends to have sporadic bulk additions once in a blue moon which is strange because I do love playing with them and sorting through them etc. I envy those of you out there that inherited button jars etc from grandma's and moms and aunties etc. You are so lucky honestly. Anything retro or vintage in my collection has come from eBay or charity shops and that doesn't sound as nice as a heirloom!

Anyway after investigating my button tubs for a button to go on Frosted Blossom (previous post) and then my local LYS and the House of Fraser in Birmingham city center (never thought to try the rag market, need to make a trip up there soon but they sell yarn too and that makes me very nervous for obvious reasons) I sort of stumbled across these whilst resorting to internet hunting.

So these are just a few bargains that arrived this morning.
These were all bought from eBay, the first pic shows some brand new buttons, two lots of mother of pearl, one white and one blue. Very reasonable I thought at 10 for 50p of each. the ivory heart buttons and car buttons are also quite sweet and they were both 10 for 99p. They came from eBay seller The Kraft Box http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Kraft-Box . The postage was very good value too, I hate sellers who overcharge for postage and frequently decide to choose another seller with more reasonable rates if possible. delivery was quite quick and it was well packaged with good communication. Buying more than one purchase you need to ask for revised p&p as each additional item costs just an extra 1p but it isn't automatic at checkout. My revised invoice was very quick though so not a problem. My total was £3.77 including p&p.
Second photo shows a job lot from a private seller, all second hand but some lovely ones there all the same. This whole lot I won for 40p plus p&p, so not a bad haul for £1.39 in all. It is amazing how cheap it is to make me happy!! The pics I'm afraid are not doing them justice, there are some very pretty ones in there.
The last photo shows my favourites and I have a feeling I'm going to be going through my Ravelry queue fairly soon to see which designs only need single buttons so I have an excuse to use them ;0)

A Whole Load of Stash Enhancement Going On..:-)

OK so I may not have been doing much knitting (well OK I am now but this lot is from I wasn't) but I couldn't stop myself from being a very very very naughty girl. If anyone knows where I can get lessons in willpower, restraint or resistance then please let know, heavens I certainly need it.

This is little lot is from a week of madness two weeks ago now, it has been hibernating since purchased whilst I come to terms with my guilt. It started with the King Cole Smooth, in my local LYS. I also bought a pattern book to go with it but have only remembered that as I typed this up so it isn't in the pics, It's the new Juicy DK pattern book from Sirdar and there are some very pretty patterns in there, it was the cover pattern I wanted the t-shirt with leaf yoke detail. I'll try and get round to adding a piccie later.



Next came a bit of info from a forum I use called Free and Easy Knitters (Hi Girls) where someone (who shall remain nameless) supplied the info that some Rowan as well as other bits on there had been reduced on http://www.kempswoolshop.co.uk/ and I'm afraid the yarn demons sort of took over, all I can say is I woke up on the bed in a daze a few days later...... well at least I wish I could say that but I am as usual guilty as charged you honor .




The last three pics are some stuff bought from House Of Fraser in Birmingham city center. As well as having a two day sale which included the haberdashery dept I also had a whisper from the Brum Knit Night forum on Ravelry (to which I do manage to attend occasionally although never get there as often as I would like) that not only that but they also had a basket full of stuff for 50p a ball from which the labels had been lost. Some of these I have a fair idea of what they are but others I need to do a little sleuthing to know their true identity.

I also got these three balls of Rowan Calmer for half price because they were a little untidy!!


The RYC cashsoft was also 50p a ball, looks like it was a straggler that didn't sell in the sale.

Hello, my name is Nicky and I am a........

Yarn addict. It's true, for the first time today I have photographed all of my stash sort of together, well in sets, I had to get it out in turn, photograph it and put it back away before the next lot came out (there is no way it would all fit in one picture, well not unless I lay it all outside and its far too wet ,cold and muddy. I'm an addict not a lunatic for crying out loud, there is a difference or at least I'm desperately hoping that there is.
Now this is something I am sharing with you in confidence, Mr Knitternicky knows that I have a fair amount of yarn, he isn't stupid (as much as I would like him to be on occasion, mainly stash enhancing occasions) but he hasn't saw it all in it's glory??????? in fact like I said I hadn't until an hour or so ago. I do have one fail safe however, hubby is techno illiterate, he is one of those unusual beings who has very little interest in the worldwide web and even less knowledge of how access it, so hopefully unless someone he knows stumbles across this, puts two and two together that it's me his very good lady wife, prints off pics or drags him in front of a pc screen I should be safe. A girl has to have a little mystery from her man........
Now I know my not too little stash pales into comparison with some others I have seen in magazines and on the web but when I have gotten over the sick and shamefull feeling in the pit of my gut I'm sure (hopefully) I will have a little pride in what I have managed to accumulate but being faced with it all I suppose I really ought to stop buying, the only problem I have is that in my LYS the other day they finally had in the Sirdar Tweedie and the organic wool that I have been reading about, and I promised I would be back for some soon, I think I'd better learn to hold two sets of needles in one hand
Now if this blog publishes it the way I'm hoping it will ( this is why I dont blog very often I'm useless with technology and my knowledge although a lot more than hubby's is still dismally poor!) the top pic is my under bed stash (in the big underbed storage bags obviously) and my oldest stuff, a lot of it coming before I learnt the hard lessons of Ebay and impulse bidding etc (ok so I never really learnt them as such).
Most of the second pic of the full bags of yarn (mostly) is my first hard lesson learned of online wool shopping and inability to resist bargain online wool stores, this lots was from http://www.kempswoolshop.co.uk/ ,there were a few other lots in there that have been knitted up but the whole lot was a bargain at around £60. Some of it was paid for by christmas present money though.
The third piture is a lot of bits and bobs, but a fair bit came from an instore splurge in John Lewis last summer. It was the end of their sale and a lot of it 75%off, with an absolute bargain of Rowan summer tweed in lilac for 50p a hank. It had been labelled wrong shade wise hence the price, I nearly fell over when I picked it up and saw the price... I was prepared to kick the counter very hard if they wouldn't honor the price.

Fourth pic is some bits and bobs, most likely from ebay where I'm still not learning lessons!!!!

Fifth picture is what is kept in my sons overbed cupboard, in my defense it is all intended to be used for the boys and will end up back in there once knitted!
Sixth picture is what I have bought so far this year, the fo's included so proof that I do actually knit the with stuff I buy!! HONEST GUV!!
It isn't as bad as it looks, honestly, no really at least four balls of that was bought to knit for my neices birthday and some of it was bought with vouchers that I had for Christmas to go shopping in the sales. OK OK OK hands up isn't include the 22 or so balls I'm waiting to be delivered from Rowan that I bought in the online John Lewis sale........ now if they turn up when hubby is home that is going to a blog post on its own GULP
a>