Feeling Good

By Sarah Hatton is just one project recently off my needles. It was my holiday knit (well one of three taken with me but only this one actually got started). It was started in the car on the way down to Cornwall and despite my best efforts of knitting whenever I got a chance

I only managed to complete the back whilst away and about a third of that was in the 7 hour journey on the way home!! I did manage to start the the front as well but only around 2 inches or so.

The photo was taken at Bude Harbour. A good afternoon for us all the boys loved these giant fireplace alcoves we were sat in for the picture. They overlook the harbour and looked pretty old to me. I don't know anything official about them I'm afraid

The rest of Feeling Good took another week or so to complete after I got home.

These pictures were ironically taken back home in the sunshine.... we had one glorious day of sunshine in Cornwall and the rest of the week was all rainy at some point!! To be fair it was raining mainly early mornings which would then dry up mid morning leaving the rest of the day to be a little overcast and a tad on the blowy side but not cold and so we were able to go out and about. We even managed the beach everyday except one!

I'm really happy with it so far and have worn it a few times. I say so far because I have only washed it for the first time this morning and I am desperately hoping it hasn't grown even though I've followed ball band instructions to the letter etc. Bamboo however.....

OK details are... the pattern is Feeling Good by Sarah Hatton taken from Simply Knitting magazine issue no 70 August 2010. Yarn is from my birthday booty post Rowan Bamboo Soft in the soft Aubergine/purple. I don't know what the official colour way is except it's very pretty It took almost exactly 9 balls (I had a few meters left and believe me I was sweating whilst doing the button bands in case I run out!).

No close up of the buttons, my apologies especially since they were bought in Bude. I managed to find a little bead shop in a shopping precinct just as you go into the town. The precinct is hard to spot as although on the main road into Bude it is a little away from the main shopping area. There was a shop selling biker t-shirts on the front of the precinct and it was just down an alley way at the side of it. As well as beads the lady also sold some very pretty buttons and a little acrylic yarn. She was also very friendly and chatty. I was very sorry I had a mini gang of males (hubby and the youngest two boys) behind me and who were not as interested and enthralled as I. I suppose 10 mins was very patient of them but I could have easily spent much longer and a lot more than my humble couple of pounds that I paid for some scrummy buttons including a perfect match for my work in progress.

I must also mention The Remnant Shop just further down from the precinct, a TARDIS and Aladdin's cave full of fabric of all sorts of descriptions and delights. I left hubby and the boys in the pub round the corner and explored this heaven on my own. My sewing skills are hopeless even though I have a couple of machines, some beautiful patterns and very good intentions of practising to improve. I loved this shop and again could have spent a lot longer to browse than I had the opportunity to. It just kept going on and on (hence the TARDIS label) there were so many little rooms just stuffed with rolls of fabric, big truggs and baskets of remnants, I didn't think I was ever going to get to the back of the shop. There was so much choice and I know I didn't see a fraction of what they stocked. It's a good job we've already booked up to go back next year, so I can hopefully be a little more keyed up on what I need and actually buy some next year.

For The Newest Member Of The Family...George

Just a quickie post I have lots of other FO's in fact at least 4 which ='s another 2 blog posts but I'm tired so this will do for now.

This is for my cousin's baby George the newest arrival to our family. It took me 2 days to knit, nearly 3 weeks to post it to the proud parents and then another few weeks to blog it!! I need my backside booted into touch I think!!

Pattern details. The pattern is from Sublime and is called albatross when featured in Lets Knit magazine no31 which is the June 2010 issue. Yarn is a Jarol baby yarn bought locally and the colourway is a baby mint green. I knitted it in an easy care acrylic as I do not know my cousins wife well at all (they live a fair trek away in another county) so have no idea whether she would hand wash or not or even put a hand knit on her baby! So I played it safe with my time ( a quick knit) and my pocket (hubby's job has been in question over the last few months, at the moment it is looking fairly secure so we are slowly exhaling after holding our breath since well before Christmas). It took just over half a 100 grm ball.

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?????

The Missing Link!

This is the link for the pattern from my previous post, which for some reason it would let me copy and paste the link.... looks like I need another lesson in blogging skills Knitted DROPS bolero in lace pattern with short raglan sleeve in ”Muskat”. Size XS/S to XXXL ~ DROPS Design

Out of Sync

Well hello there! A little longer between the posts than I intended but it is the same month so I'm doing well ;0) This is a very recent FO that was indeed finished 2 weeks ago, it is also my most recent FO in fact.

Hubby and I at my mum's cousins wedding a few weeks ago!! I made the bolero specially for the occasion. I wish I could say that my hubby is pulling a funny face but alas this is his normal expression XOD I think you will agree the bolero is the best thing about the whole picture......cheeky,!!

Well it is a design from Drops Design at GarnStudio www.scandinavianknittingdesign.co.uk and is design 119-27 shrug pattern. I was very pleased to discover the same design was pictured in this months Knitting Magazine (June 2010 issue 77), I'm a subscriber and my early copy dropped onto my doormat the morning after I finished it. The pattern itself wasn't featured, just a picture of it and a suggestion as a wedding season knit. I was chuffed to discover I was right on trend for probably the first time in my life!!!

It is knitted in Lang's 100% merino which is lovely and soft and lush. I bought it in Harrogate at the knitting show, I'm not 100% which stall it was from but Woolfish rings a bell. I do remember rummaging in a suitcase for as many balls as possible with the same dye lot. I think the lady was asking for £2 a ball but I think I did a deal for buying multiple balls, I think I got 7 balls for £10 in the end, 5 balls in this colour and 2 in a dark green.

The button which you cannot see clearly on the picture came from my Fekkers Christmas swap present from the lovely Leigh. She sent me a lovely bauble filled with georgous buttons, all pretty, some shiny or just beautiful in their own right. She totally pandered to my button fetish, but I was under orders that these were a stress buster pressie to sit sort and soothe my worries, but as this was a knit for myself, and a special one at that then I was sure she wouldn't mind.

I am very pleased with this knit, it's easy to wear and very comfortable. The colour will also go with a lot of my wardrobe. I also had the very dubious compliment of "oh you made it, but it looks like you would buy it in a shop" !!!!

She's Growing Fast

Just so I don't lose the blogging bug again this is a quickie post for a few recent FO's. I have some other posts lined up but the photos are still on the camera so this will do in the 15 mins or so I have available.

These are two knits for Isabel my friend Liz's daughter. She is now almost 11 months old (where did that go).

This first one is taken from the Let's Knit magazine issue 26 (Jan 2010) and is called Sindy, I used Regia 4-fach colourway 4258. It took 2 balls with a little left over.
I have to say I enjoyed knitting this and would definitely knit it again. It is an all in one construction knitted sideways across. Ravelry page is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sindy The cuffs for the sleeves were a little tricky and probably easier to sew by hand but I hate sewing up so much I persevered. I loved how it came out too, so did Liz, the only problem was less than 2 weeks after I finished it she had outgrown it.

So to make amends for being so daft at knitting such a silly size I knitted this instead. I think you'll agree that it fits fine.

Easily recognisable as a Sirdar pattern alas I'm afraid at this point I do not have the leaflet details as I knitted from a pullout from Knitting Magazine Issue No 63 May 2009. It is the Bolero from the girls cardi, beret and shoes collection. I used Patons Washed Haze in Lilac (if it helps to track down the pattern it was originally knitted in Sirdar Snuggly) ready for the summer.

Isabel is indeed growing very fast and is a very bright, mobile (already taken her first steps) not for too much longer baby.

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