Saturday afternoon in the Sun

It has been another beautiful day here! Sophia and I enjoyed breakfast on the beach this morning at Caswell bay before returning for an afternoon of pottering in the garden. I fingered through magazines whilst basking in glorious sunshine - 'The Knitter' issue 6 and 'Crochet Today'!

Completed Seaside Dishcloth

The Seaside Dishcloth is finished and is sitting proudly on my draining board! I still intend to make a series of 'Nautical' dishcloths inspired by more good weather and my love of the colour blue!

Seaside Dishcloth

Moving on from the 'Flintoff Dishcloth' above is the 'Seaside Dishcloth'. I picked up this mini-project again today after a brief hiatus, inspired by the good weather and sea views from my house. The waves have been mesmerising today - the shades of blue have changed as the day has gone on, beautiful in the sunlight. This ball band dishcloth is knitted in Peaches and Creme Ombres shade 195 - powder puff. The blue and white yarn made me think of the sea hence the 'Seaside Dishcloth'. On reflection shade 201 may have been a more inspirational shade - it's called seamist! Oh well, I may start a seaside themed group of dishcloths....

Together at last!

The 'Colette' socks are finished and the pair is complete! I absolutely adored every minute of knitting these socks! The wool was purchased at 'Wonderwool' last month - two balls of AdriafilKnitcol in shade 046. At the time I had no idea what I would use the wool for - I just liked the colours. After a visit to my visit to my sister-in-law Colette, in Leeds, I took up the DPNs and made her this pair. The wool, although not strictly a sock yarn, knitted into perfect stripes using 3.5mm DPNs and the ever fabulous Regia 6-ply pattern. Needless to say I am thrilled with the results - and I hope my sister-in-law will be too!

Heartfelt Jacket

I've finally gone back to a project I started just under a year ago! It's a jacket called Elizabeth from Kim Hargreaves book Heartfelt. I'm not really enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. Shaping the two front pieces was very confusing and I just hope that they look the same when the jacket is on! Just the sleeves to go, at least I can follow the pattern without too much blood, sweat and tears for those!!! I'm not that keen on the summer tweed either, it's a bit like knitting with string!

Colette socks...seeking a partner.

As you can see I've been knitting more socks...again!! These were started over the weekend while I was hibernating with a hideous sore throat. This sock is sadly a lonely one as it is yet to aquire a partner!! I had hoped this would have progressed this afternoon during 'Knit and Natter'. It was, however, more a case of nattering today!! Hopefully the pair will be complete by the end of the week!

Katerina Shawl

I seem to be in the habit of posting photos of just started items resting on their patterns! This picture is very like the one of my 'Willow' tank top posted last week! I assure you that it is a different garment completely!!! With the hope of good weather in the air I decided I needed a fantastic lacy shawl to wrap up on those cool summer nights! Just the thing for Proms in the Park and Shakespeare in the castle! I came across the pattern in the fab new magazine The Knitter and am busy knitting it using Malabrigo Silky Merino DK, colourway Bobby Blue. It is going very well - till last night when during an absorbing episode of Law & Order I ended up with a few too many stitches...

More Wonderwool

Here is Family H (H for Haden, our surname!) at Wonderwool. This pic of Andy and Sophia was taken by Diana from First4yarns. The backdrop for the photo is in fact the stall itself! You can just about see me crouching down fingering the Opal sock yarn! Most of my purchases were made at here and I hope to post pics of my Peaches & Creme and Colinette projects over the next week or so!!

In progress ...

'Willow' tank top is still in progress and I think will be for a while! I am finding the handknit cotton an absolute nightmare to work with!! I have used Rowan handknit cotton on several projects in the past and always loved it so I'm surprised that I am not enjoying this project at all. I'm not sure if it's the pattern or the yarn but my poor finger joints are aching so much that 10-15 rows per day is the absolute maximum!! It may just be age though...everyone warned me it was downhill after 30...they may not have been lying. Expect slow progress.

New projects.

Rhian and I really enjoyed Wonderwool. There was a fabulous array of wool and accessories to purchase. I was very restrained, but did buy a few things for a couple of new projects. I couldn't leave without some Peaches and Creme cotton to make dishcloths. My daughters have a ball each too, and are both slowly creating a dishcloth with some interesting features like holes, twisted stitches and loops! I managed to finish this one in two evenings, which is good going for me!

I also bought a felted slipper kit and some wool for a felted bag, even though I already have wool for a felted bag, sigh, I just couldn't resist it. Oh well, it's been stashed in the drawer with all the rest, but hopefully not for too long.

My current project is a pair of Regia socks. Very enjoyable and addictive, so much so, I've already ordered more wool to make another pair! Once I have finished these I'm going to start on the broomstick lace jacket. I have recently joined Ravelry, and there is loads of info and pictures of the jacket which I'm sure is going to help when I get stuck!!! The pattern is from Stich Diva and they have also posted YouTube videos about broomstick lace and how to increase and decrease - very helpful. I'm not very good at crochet, let's hope I can pull it off!