What a day!

if you don't like non knitting content go where the stars start. I woke up all excited this morning looking forward to the barn dance next weekend, (wedding celebration no1) and then thought to myself, hang on! if the barn dance is next weekend then I am getting married the week after, then I went into shock mode, you may be thinking oh my god doesn't the woman even know when her wedding is, but I never think in dates, or days it's just a spacial picture of things and the wedding has stayed in the same space for about 12 weeks, anyway suffice to say I was a little shaken. Adding to this was my extreme excitment that I get my first real paycheck today, so I walked into work checked the payslip, ran around my office for about thirty seconds until anth texted me to tell me that the price of the wedding is £500 more than we bugeted, bye bye money.

However, my saving grace is that I brought a beautiful dress in the sales for £15 it's a pale yellow 1950's style dress and its lovely, and it's for the barndance.

Ok life rant overwith and back to knitting ********** So something strange has happened, I have nearly finished the back of the v neck jumper I am knitting in my rowan summer tweed, speedy knitter or what? only 2days! I think I am getting the hang of this lark. It will be the 4th top for my honeymoon. (thought i'd slip that in, I am determined not to become obsessed with my wedding, but I can feel it coming).

The weekend approaches which equals spinning ands dyeing on sunday. 'Who hooooooo', I think thats how you write it

OooH Finally In october is the Knitting and Stitching show in London, I'm going with Marie I can't wait! Something to keep me going after the wedding. :-)

A Button.

I decided I needed a button, so I am having one made my moon arts I just adore the designs, I would love to have a whole site designed but perhaps when I start my business..... Ok, started knitting with my rowan summer tweed, and I am making a small v neck jumper, the yarn is really quite odd to work with; a little stiff, but I know it will soften up in the wash.



My freind who is staying with us at the moment has decided to learn to knit. So last night she learnt cast on and knit, and is doing really really well, I'll post a picture tomorrow if she has done some more.

Proof.

I have had a very strange cold for the last two weeks, it's just dragging on and on, and I can't stop sleeping. Today I only woke up because there was a helipcopter flying out side. Anyway, knitting is slow, but here is proof:

Not long now till blocking.

Another birthday and another seven things!

Firstly happy Birthday Vera I hope you have a lovely day, and I can't wait to see whats in that bag!

Secondly: three words SECTRET PAL 2!!!! Yeah!

Thirdly, knittings a bit thin on the ground, getting big withdrawal symptoms especially from spinning.

Fourthly, I have the loveliest family in the world, we had a suprise birthday party for my dad, and it was great! Here he is at his party, notice the fabulous tie!

Fifth, My brother regularly reads my site apparently, and loves it!, and my aunties did have a little look but I think a blog can be a bit confusing.

Sixth, wedding celebrations start the weekend after next, I'm getting bit nervous now. PS thanks for the suggestion about a juliet cap, It's great but I don't think it'll go with my hairstyle.

Seventh: Knitting will be my haven to centre me in all the cuffufle.

Eight: Oooh! Marie, you will like this: Sock kits here I'm so having one!

Managed to keep plugging the batteries back in.

Knitting is slow, because I have been so busy, however I am continuing with the sleeve of the lacey top, and its's going well, so hopefully it won't be too long, although I wish I'd made it in pink instead.

Here is a picture of my Rowan sale wool from Coourway, the toffee apple is a lovely colour and the yarn is so soft, I was also pleasantly suprised by the lilac summer tweed, I can't wait to get started on a lovely simple sweater:

The only picture of the knitting I have done for the bag I made with the linen and viscose handspun is this one:



It's one side before it was blocked. The lace pattern just happened by accident, and I'm rather pleased with it.

Final dress fitting today, and I am picking it up this afternoon, i'll try and take a picture this evening!

PS Hit the 2000 stats mark this morning! yeah!!

Too excited to leave the house! AND A SPECIAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Firstly and most importantly I would like to wish my DAD a very happy 60th birthday! (No dad this is not the same as putting a banner over the Sainsbury's roundabout!) My dad is to be frank, the best dad in the whole world. He is so supportive of my fiber exploits and will listen for hours on the phone while I explain all my plans for a wool shop etc. And when ever he see the things I have made, there is nothing other than praise and he always has the most brilliant suggestions! I don't think we have ever argued with each other ever, we get on so well, and I love him to bits, so Dad: have a lovely day and don't forget there are a couple of major suprises coming! Love you loads and loads and loads, jen ;-).

OK back to nearly knitting content:

So I have the beautiful little car, which I struggled to leave this morning, I haven't got anywhere to go in it until this evening, so I just kept moving it from the other side of the street, and then back again until eventually its out side the house. I'm so sad I know!

So the poncho: the shoulders are still not right, so I've made a decision, I'm going to sew and cut, drastic I know, but I don't think it will unravel very well. I have made things on my knitting machine like that, so I'm not too worried, but my plan is to get it right and then knit another one and shape the shoulders accordingly, I will put the pattern here, because to be honest it is really really georgous, the colours are beautiful! Thanks for the comments by the way.

Again no pictures because of the damned batteries, I realised that my anal fiance unplugs everything, if he sees anything plugged in and we are not in the room, he unplugs it, which means the batteries never get charged!

We have a new short term lodger called Jasmine and she is inspired to start knitting, so I'm going to get her on the case. Oh and I am wearing the stripey cotton top I made ages ago for the first time, and I've already had a few comments, so it can't be bad!

Finally I have recieved my White Lies Design pattern for that lovely cardigan on the front page, I just need to find some approriate yarn now! I may have to pay a visit to the LYS. :-)

Batteries.

The batteries on my camera just ran out again, weird, I've only used it twice. So there is no picture of my little lacey bag I designed and made, with the linen and viscose mix, Sorry!

Poncho is still blocking and should have something done to it tonight, well maybe because we are having our regular french night; french food, wine, and a film, and hard core knitters may be asking why are you mentioning this on a knitting weblog, well, actually!; I am going to learn to ask the directions for the wool shops in french so I can find them on my honey moon, now if thats not knitting dedication, I don't know what is!

And here is some news with a tenuous knitting link, no really! Car is due to be picked up this afternoon Horray! Colinette here we come, well, probably not till after the wedding. Oh talking of weddings does anyone have any ideas about something small I can knit and wear on my wedding day, I made a bet with my collegues that I will have something knitted on my wedding day, any ideas? (oh, but not a garter or underwear). I'll post a picture of the 'wool go getter' later. Hmm everything in my life really does revolve around my obsession doens't it!

The poncho

I've finished knitting the two sides for the poncho, and when pinned together look great apart from the bits that hang on the arms, I was going to rip it out and reshape, however Anth suggested I block it first and then see, if its really bad, i'll rip it, although I don't think it'll be that easy now it's blocked. The picture is a bit dark.

Oh oh oh!!

If you spin or dye, take a look a this website (thanks Hello Yarn), Its great!

A hot wet day??

Its like the amazon rainforest here, its really warm, but also it's really wet, it's so weird. Apparently folklore says that if yesterday (which was St Swithen's day), if it rained then it would rain for the next 40 days, that would be my luck to have rain on my wedding day in the middle of august. (actually I pretend to moan, but I actually love it like this, I never go out in the sun when it's really hot because it makes me really sick, so at least when it's like this I go outside, and this is a bit English but you can have lovely big cups of tea and cake and watch the rain, and knit; Ooooh!

Anyway, here is a picture of my poncho which I frogged to get rid of the inconsistencies and started again, I really like it!

And here is a better picture of the yarn I am using that I dyed on Saturday. Hmm very pleased with it!



And today no experiments, so I decided fridays are a good day to do some reading, and the chosen topic today is Attitudinal Ambivalence, sounds interesting huh? Well its eased down with: Wait for it: Pots of tea and cake!!

I can see a theme forming here :-) And just to prove it, here my dearly loved office teapot with a delicious gluten free cake, (I can't eat wheat, but just got a delivery of Gluten free cakes, so I'm making the most of it!)



Shutting up now, he he!

When I said the clouds were breaking.....

I was lying! Well not quite, cardiff is covered in a mist of rain, I think it would be good to knit things which were water proof. Water proof yarns yeah!!

Ok Back to being serious, I noticed on the rowan website that 4ply soft is a good substitute for botany, well, there are about four patterns I would like to make from my Vintage knits book, which requires botany, so I am going to make a couple of them with my sale yarn from Colourway, when it arrives. Poncho still growing although a bit of frogging may happen, I started knitting with a bit I dyed which just happens to be much thicker than everything else, and it looks too different, I guess they must have stuck it it by mistake, however it's enough to make a nice hat, so i'm thinking of frogging and starting again.

I'm also knitting a lacey bag with the handspun linen, I can't remember if I've already mentioned that, but it's about half way through.

Its graduation today for psychology students, so I may pop down for a little free wine later, so I guess there might not be any knitting 2nite. Anth volunteered to sit on stage and so he has to wear a gown and a suit, he looks lovely! you can watch graduation online from 1.45pm Gm time.

Oh well, back to my experiments. Signing off. jen.

The clouds are breaking and .....

I'm making a superwarm middle of winter poncho with my hand painted yarn because it's so thick. I haven't got a pattern, I'm just increasing at the sides of every knit row and see how it grows, then when its the desired width I am going to cast off enough stitches to put my head through then i'll cast them on again and i'll start decreasing. Thats the plan anyway.... watch this space. Actually I think it will be my Big Brother Poncho, (because I knit it whilst I am watching Big Brother) Note here, (I watch it purely for the psychological aspects of course, not because I'm addicted) anyway if it works I'll publish a proper pattern here, because you could easily substitute collinette point 5.

I'm also knitting a little lace bag from the linen and viscose mix, I spun at the weekend.

Oh yes, and finally I have learnt how to spell 'haven't' how strange that it took me until I was 26 to remember the letter order.

Another cloudy day.

The weather here is so odd for july, we haven't had any sun for ages, I'm sure the damage we are doing to our planet is starting to manifest.

Anyway, I did a little spinning at the weekend, a linen and viscose mix, and here is the result, its vey natural and its so soft:

And here is a picture of my dyeing exploits, I dyed the large slub yarn I got from texere yarns. the colours have come out really really well. Not that you can really tell from the dreadful picture.

Nostalgic Morning.

We haven’t had any sun in days in the UK, so I decided I might get away with wearing a jumper, so I delved into my jumper drawer and found my first own designed jumper which is made from Colinette point 5 (I think, I always get the names mixed up). It was my first experience of being overwhelmed by yarn. I was in a little wool shop in a little town in the Cotswolds, and I was browsing a small craft shop and my eyes met with the Colinette, I'd never seen anything like it, I was so excited my mum had to tell me to calm down. As a consequence I brought some. I got home, designed a jumper and knit it over a weekend in the garden in the middle of a heat wave, the only reason I don't wear it is because I haven’t found a button or pin appropriate, I will post a picture as soon as I get some batteries for my camera!

Finally I gave in and wrote my post in word and spell checked it, there were loads of mistakes I couldn't see, it was Anth's suggestion, and I hate to admit he is right.

yarn sale!

Colourway are holding a summer yarn sale, so I have purchased some lilac summer tweed, and some soft 4ply in toffee apple. I havn't decided what to do with this yet, but I am planning to browse through my rowan mags tonight to decide. While I'm waiting for it to be delivered I will finish off my lacey top, also dye some yarn for a pink flower power poncho, I hate the green one, never mind. Oh, and I didn't realise that I can get Lana grossa from germany, (although I think marie may have already told me this) I found the web page yesterday and i'm going to order some India, however i can't find a pattern to see roughly how many balls to buy, if any one has any ideas i'd really appreciate some help!

Ah, take a look at this beautiful scarf! and this They are fabulous, made out of lana Grossa India, need I say more?

A picture finally!

Ok, here is a picture of the nearly finished poncho, I think it'll look better when its got things hanging from it.

The PIS stitch in the centre of the flowers are not too good but they are better than last time and they should get better on the next attempt. Unfortunately you can't really make out the flowers because the petals are three dimensional, still, I may ditch it and start again.

Finally I just realised what is missing from my life, i've totally forgotton about knitting socks; (a previous obsession) I was just readng vera's blog, which has some good sock links on and was inspired by her lovely clover rib sock. Thats it the hole has been filled!

Poncho progress

Nearly finished the poncho, althouth to be honest it is a little bizarre, I'm not sure yet whether I love it or hate it. I have however decided to make myself a pink one because I wear loads of pink and it would be perfect to go with pink and white summer dresses, and some scrumptious pink linen trousers I have seen in coast.

Job is going really well, i'm really enjoying it, and having a couple of research ideas, which means I finally understand the topic, the psychology of attitiudes and prejadice can be a bit confusing, but i'm getting there. If my ideas get used and they work, I get a publication out of it, which is my next big research goal.

Anyway I have ordered a scrumptious pattern from this website: White lies designs its the cardigan on the front page, I loved it so much when I was browsing I had to get one. So hopefully I can start that when it comes. No knitting progress really, or dying or spinning, mainly because the wedding is taking over any free time. but I really need a project to ground me. I might pop into my LYS and get something from rowan to tie me over.

Got false nails on saturday when I was having trial wedding hair done, and I can still knit and crochet with them on, I just can't wipe my ass. LOL (sorry)

3D Poncho!

Well, I got so excited about my first day at work, and wedding things that as a result I got a migraine, and I think what put the cap on it was the fact that I was determined to start a flowery poncho, not very easy with one's eyes closed but anyway, I managed the first three rows using a very large hook, I think about 10mm, and some karabella yarn which is like a tape, its's much closer to the guage, however it is slightly three dimensional, although I love it! It shouldn't take much time to finish it, especially now that I have my eyes back again; thanks to neurofen!

Then to finish the lacey top which I am looking forward to again, and spin and dye some more wool for the orange tank.

My first day in my new job.

Well, it's my first day today, (the office I used to be in is now all mine, MINE!!!!!!! So I have thrown loads of other people junk away, and brought loads of plants, flowers and all I need now is a nice big bowl of fruit, to finish it off.

I might even post a picture! I realised this morning that I actually do not have a knitting project! AHHHHHH Shock horror! No wonder it's felt weird in the last couple of days.

So here I am in my new job which I love and it's for the next three years, and over that time I am going to use my improved pace of life and money situation to begin aquiring recources for a small buissness. This will run along side my day job, I can never just do one thing! I really feel like I need to direct my love of fibre in a positive direction, It might not work but then again who knows? Anyway I recieved my book from the Welsh development agency about starting your own buissness, and its really really good, I'm about half way through already. As for recources I am feeling that the next important aquisition is an ashford country spinner. It's especially built for rather large yarns, which is perfect for me because I want to have a go at some rather different novelty yarns.

So because I don't have a project I am destined to finish my lacey top, its the only unfinished thing I have, so here goes, oh and today is the first official day of the flowery poncho crochet along, I just need to dye my yarns ready, but I'm still a bit stuck on procion dyes, however I might just have a search around and try some other yarns I have instead.