Karenina - I've finished

I have finished finally after 31 days since I started. So here is the evidence. The story in pictures from start to finish.




I have really loved making these socks and follow along the progress of the other knitters in the group. You can see what we have all achieved by clicking here.

It's just a wind up...............................

I am now the very proud owner of a lovely Umbrellas swift. I was so excited when the Iknit newsletter hit my inbox this week as the boys declared that there were swifts in the shop. I have been wanting one of these for a while. In fact I had originally hoped to pick one up at Ally Pally but to no avail. I had a ball winder last week for my birthday but was expecting to have to ask ORK if I could borrow her swift to be able to test it out. Well I managed to contain myself until I could pop up on the train to Vauxhall on Thursday to go and pick one up, I did double check that there were enough. Anyway I spent yesterday having a go. Ummm. I still need a bit of practice. I have already learned a few important lessons.
Anyway here it is.....



Of course I had to adorn it with my beautiful skein of Camelspin, but only after I had practiced on some other yarn first.
Here is the whole caboodle set up for action............



......the coffee table is perfect for fixing the two up. I just pull up a chair and start winding. Well that is the theory and before I managed to get these lovely little yarn cakes there was definately some yarn cake masacre.



They really do look good enough to eat. Going clockwise starting on the left we have Handmaiden Camelspin, Hipknits silk at the back and then Fyberspates laceweight 100% silk. (The laceweight silk is for a secret project - more details next month on that one.)
So what have I learned about skein winding?
1) Get the children out of the way while you are learning
2) Don't let the little lever on the ball winder drop
3) Don't take your eye off the ballwinder (despite doing this I still got tangled up several times and had to remove the bobbin
4) Don't let the skein get too low on the swift otherwise it catches on the string holding the arms together
5) Don't pull the skein too tight
I also decided to look at the instructions for the ball winder after I had finished and discovered I should have pulled the little lever out - that would have stopped it hitting the bobbin.
So there is still much to learn about ball winding.
My next task is to make a bag to store my swift in. I am thinking about some lovely Cath Kidston Fabric I have stashed away in the loft. I will show any progress at a later date. This may be much later as the Yoga mat bag (holdall) is still waiting to be sewn together. It took me 8 months to brave cutting out the fabric.

Moustachio Freedom Fighters............

I will from hence forth be known as Boobie Bubbletush. Please follow the link below to find out both how and why. Emma explains it so much better than me. Also I haven't stopped laughing long enough yet to actually type anything vaugely coherent.
Quelle Erqsome
In support of elective moustached women everywhere and ones right to wear a moustache if they want to.

Follow up to Headshots..................................

Ok to understand this you may need to go and read a couple of other blogposts by Quelle Erqsome but could I find them when I looked, no I damn well couldn't. OK you will just have to take my summary as an accurate one and hope maybe you stumble across them yourself or that Erquesome herself will read and post a link.Some while ago I met E through the Socktopus Launch party and then through ravelry.

I first knew her as this


And then as this


Apparently it's OK because that's what you do on a Friday.Get a moustache.I love it.
Anyway imagine my confusion today when on her blog I saw this........


To go to Quelle Erqsome's blog click here.
There was only one course of action to follow here to put my mind at rest and be able to fully recognise my friend.

I would have to add the moustache myself. And it wasn't even a Friday!

Happy Knitty Birthday........................................

Yesterday was my birthday and it had a bit of a knitty theme. I recieved the outstanding items from my Knitpicks collection. I was unable to pre-order the individual harmony interchangeables before christmas so now I have 9.00mm, 10.00mm and 12.00mm ends aswell. Purchased last weekend on the visit to Get Knitted. I also had the pack of DPN sock needles along with some of the 40cm circulars as the interchangeables shortest total length is 60cm. How many more knitting needles could a knitter want? (Well only to update her straights into lovely Lantern moon Ebonys of course!That will have to be done on a project by project basis though, oh and whenever Robynn has a sale!)Those who know me well understand how I have to have things matching and the complete set.
I am also now the proud owner of a Ball winder, still got to get the swift to go with it. This is becoming far more urgent since I have aquired several more skeins to wind since both Christmas and Birthday (no complaints on that front at all).I am also very set on getting an Umbrella swift which means import from the US.

So here are a few of the lovely pressies that I was lucky enough to receive this year.

More lovely Knitpicks - of the sock needle variety.

From my sister - Fleece Artist Sea Vines Vest in Beet. You can order these kits from Robynn at Purlescence now.


This skein was from Carl. The secret skein that I didn't know which colour and yarn type I was getting (out of the three I brought up on screen and left him to choose one - well a little direction is needed when purchasing beautiful yarn).


He also bought me lovely flowers too, not knitty but too lovely not to include.


And then of course was the home pedicure set....................
I guess a little background is required to understand the full story behind this lovely gift and its presentation. Ever since I have been blogging I have been jealous of the way that ORK (Gabrielle) posts her photographs in such creative ways on her blog. I had a chat and she gave me a little instruction on how to use my camera more effectively - that is showing me the Macro button. So since then I have been trying hard with varying levels of sucess or not (your opinions may differ from mine). Anyway fairly recently I knitted a little set of Yoga sockettes (see the post of January 1st - Yogi feet). I was to be congratulated by ORK on the lovely clear, close up shots I had taken of this new knitted garment. However there was a but, a rather large but with OMG look at those toes. They so, so need a pedicure! I was told at that point that with an impending birthhday if the present hadn't already been bought that a pedicure gift would be purchased. I breathed a sigh of relief and trundled off home to perform a virtual pedicure via Flickr.
So on Thursday evening after my whinging the previous Saturday about not really having any suprises to open G pops around to the house on her way home with a beautifully wrapped package. Now I have to say at this point with her being a friend and fellow knitter I was of course expecting a soft and yarny package. In my hand was a small, hard, box shaped item with a label reading........

Ok, good start so far followed by...........

Ahh! I now had my suspicions. I said thank you and it didn't take long for my mind to start guessing. A home pedicure kit it must be. I waved goodbye to G and carefully put my present on the side to open up in the morning.
The next day came and I opened up gifts from the family, mostly ones I already knew in advance because apparently I am difficult to buy for! What me! There are only two things they need to know to buy for me;
1) quality yarn
2) Pink
Now to be fair pink is not always needed as you can see from above the Camelspin is just lovley and not a hint of pink in that case.
So then one of the children passed my the beautifully wrapped gift from G containing the pedicure kit........................
Or was it?


Beautiful yarn and pink, thank you so much even if you did have great fun winding me up. I had a great birthday with fabulous presents. Did I mention I have now got a ballwinder?

Hands off they're mine.......................

Finished, complete with perfect little buttons (thanks for your help Emma)and ready in time to wear for my birthday tomorrow.
These were knitted with one skein of Dream in Colour Smooshy, shade Petal from Socktopus and I have around 47grms of a 100grm skein left. That yarn goes a long way. It is also incredibly lovely to knit with and very soft.



The pattern was from Not Just More Socks by Sandi Rosner.

Baby boom........................

Ok there is definately something in the water or someone needs to remove that chair from the staff room as wee little sprogs are popping out left right and centre. Plus there are also family members also about to drop. Having been there, done that, got the t-shirt and had it vomitted on I feel I have some experience to offer, but not today you will be relieved to here. This has put a certain slant on recent knitting projects and knitting purchases. Therefore I have photos to show like this:





and this

I do like to make sure I am organised and have all eventualities covered.

However I did manage to squeeze in this on Saturday at Getknitted.....


.....be it a look a like combination of the above. Maybe it's just baby envy!

I also managed to get one of these...



They are definately not for anything baby at all and are purely selfish and indulgent purchases. I just couldn't resist the softness and the colours of the Fyberspates. Now all I have to do is decide what to knit them into.

A little Army of Knitters.............................

Ok once again these pics are a little late in being posted. This was the first Sunday in January and the first meet up of 2008 of the Amida knitters.
Welcome to Stephanie who joined us for the first time and also to our visitor Heather (Army of Knitters) who was back over from the pond to renew her visa and as she had an appointment in town on the Monday morning was also able to come along too! Hurray for Heather.
It was a bit dark but you can get the general idea and feel for the place. Can you spot the swimmer in distance behind us. It is a gym and we do excercise there sometimes.



Heather also gave me a run down on the magic loop method for sock knitting so I will be trying that when I cast on my next pair of socks.

She has also written detailed instructions in her book, Not Your Mamas Knitting.

Thanks to Robynn who brought along a preview of her lovely new yarn stocks. We got to touch and squeeze and admire before it all went live on her website on the 11th January. Go on, take a look you know you want to. The colours are gorgeous and the textures are so, so soft. I know what is on my wish list.




What I want is the colour of the Great Big Sea in the Camel spin. Now that is just gorgeous yarn.
The next meeting for interested knitters is on Sunday 20th January at 7.30pm.

Go get knitted..........................................

Well that's what I did on Saturday with a group of other Ravelers. Four of us travelled down by car to Bristol, Robynn, Emma and myself driven by Gabrielle arriving at Get knitted at around 11am where we met up with other Ravelers from around the London and south west area. Some travelled by train and some were lucky enough to have this wonderful Aladins cave as their local yarn shop and hopped on a local bus or even walked around the corner.
On first arriving it was clear that seating may be a bit of an issue. Two sofas were already full and as we arrived so were many others. Ok so we managed to bags the only remaining sofa around the corner from the others. It was later discovered when rummaging at the magazines underneath that we had pitched up at the blokes spot. It is worth pointing out at the furthest point away from this sofa at the other end of the shop was the children's play area! Need I say anymore.
It was great to put so many faces to what up until this point were only Ravelry IDs, these people actually had real names too.

This picture was taken a little later in the afternoon after our lovely lunch but certainly gives a good feel of the day.

So ORK and N0nnah gave Erquesome a little help with colour choice and earned their yarn enablers badges, well done girls.
While this was going on I was raiding the Knitpicks so that I could complete the harmony set that I got for Christmas with some sock needles and some 40cm circulars. These have now been confiscated until my birthday later this week.

Discussions over suitable yarn for something that the Yarnharlot has done were made and colours debated over. This is how some of the yarn ended up here for a decent rummage. I had to confess to not knowing about either this particular yarn or about the pattern - oh well.

And then of course there was lunch.

We trundled off to a lovely little cafe on the same shopping parade called the Dutch pot and I had my first taste of real Carribeann food. We managed to collect Tussahsilk (Jaqui) and Nonnah (Shannon) with us too. Unfortunately the photo I have taken isn't a great one as I didn't quite get everyone in but I did have better luck with Jaqui's camera after I had put half the decorative plant in my mouth so it didn't get in the way! I have to say I hadn't relalised quite how spicy it could be and I was reminded of this on the journey on the way home.
After lunch (quite late I might add) we returned to the shop to munch our way through more of the cake goodies that were on the tables. I can't imagine why I haven't mentioned these before only ever coming second to Yarn! The apple and ginger cake was delicious - thankyou to the baker.
Following a feast of cake Gabirelle indulged in some more enabling where she persuaded Emma to try on one of the knitted samples on display in the store. She then insisted that it be drapped appropriately and although you probably can't quite see her in the picture she is there holding up the pattern book for effective and accurate drapping.

This was an action shot of the drapping, hence the required movements and the small element of blurr.
In addition to my Knitpicks I did make a few further additional purchases which I have not yet had time to photograph. They included some baby yarn that was on sale, blues, pinks and whites depending on what shade the babies turn out. I also picked up two skeins of sock weight yarn aswell as some lovely buttons for my almost finished gloves. Thankyou Emma for your fantastic choice.
All in all it was a fab day and I just want to say thank you again to Gabrielle for driving us all the way there and back, it was greatly appreciated.