United at last.................

So Mosaic socks got finished, February Lady Sweater is still pending completion.

Here is the evidence..........




......and I didn't even need to resort to photoshop. I thought at one stage I was going to have to fake the whole scenario.

It was only a few days ago my sock blockers actually looked like this .....



...... one lonely sock waiting for its mate to become a complete pair.

I really didn't think I was going to make the deadline for this one. I only had a few days left, all my reports, and a lady sweater to finish. Oh and not forgetting two reports to govenors in my various roles at school and a marketing stall for the school fair to put together. Deadlines hey!

But I made it and they look great - well I think so.
I also managed to finish the toes on my second pair of Karenina socks too.



A definate improvement.

Brighton Rocks...................................

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Brighton?

Odd toe sock...............................

OK so a while back I was knitting up some of my oddments and decided to knit another pair of Karenina socks designed by Jane Lithgow. I wanted to prove to myself that I hadn't had to have the yarn coming up through the centre of the sock to knit the pattern. I had some Smooshy from my gloves and a ball of RYC cashsoft that would do the trick. These colours somewhat remind me of Candy floss and icecream.

They have been on hold for a while as I have hit my usual problem. I wasn't sure if I had enough yarn to finish both feet. So in my wisdom I thought I should do a contrasting toe. I was also trying to use up leftovers and stumbled upon some Seawool from the SeaVines vest.



As hard as I tried it just didn't work for me.

At the weekend I saw a lovely pink artesano 4ply alpaca ball of wool for a cool £3.50 and it was up to the till and paid for quicker than you could say Frog that socks toe. So I knitted up sock two at Chessington World of Adventures on Sunday adding the contrasting toe just to make sure it worked.



I have to say I was rather pleased, however it left me with these.



Was I going to be brave enough to unpick the red toe. I have to say the thought of them not matching even if no-one else would ever see the toe was too much for me because I would know.

So I have unpicked and reknitted toe one to match toe two. A match made in yarn. All's well that ends well.

I blocked..................

I blocked, I blocked, yes I really blocked.



Yes I finally had a go at proper blocking. I finished this SeaVines Vest when I was on holiday in Turkey just after Easter but have put off blocking it because I will be totally honest I didn't know what I was doing. I am so in love with it. It has come out so well and I am converted. All I need now is the proper blocking mats, wires, and pins. You may notice that I have used my ironing board and my ever trusty iron is lurking in the background in case it was a total disaster and I had to revert back to my previous method. One iron and a damp towel!





Note: This was a kit from my sister for my birthday bought at Purlescence and is Fleeceartist Sea wool. The colour is Beet.

WWKIPD...............................

Yes it's that time of the year again. This year I was involved in the Iknit Treasure Hunt. I had such a fantastic time. I was one strand of team 4ply.

As usual I had made the required brownies now needed for any knitting event.



They were quite good even if I do say so myself. Actually they couldn't have been too bad because they were all gone by the time our team returned to Knitty HQ.

The day consisted of galavanting around London for 4 hours solving various clues on a knitty theme as we went along. There were a few anagrams of which I was so proud when I was the one who came up with the answer - Electra House.

There were also a good variety of knitty challenges along the way too to keep us interested and on our toes. We had to get several photographs of us knitting with various people and with various landmarks. We also had to knit as we were going along and this is where I certainly made my contribution towards the team effort. I knitted my backside off.

One of my favourite photo challenges was to get a picture knitting with one of our boys in blue - yes I did manage to find London's tallest policeman, and very nice he was too!



I was also photographed with my very own team celebrities Miss Flip Knits. You can download their podcast here.



We also had to pop into the Royal Festival Hall at one point to find clues and answer some questions and this gave us the opportunity to admire the fantastic Hyperbolic Crochet Reef. And if you aren't doing anything this Saturday That Iknit Guy (sorry G but couldn't resist) will be hosting the Crochet Social Jam there along with Amy Lame. Unfortunately I won't be able to go as I am off on a train to Brighton with the Socktopods.
I did take a few photos though and I think it is fantastic.




This one reminds me of something out of Fraggle rock!








The whole day was such a sucess and despite being pipped to the post on the longest scarf, we managed a mamouth 86", A tension seeker managed 90" by using drop stitches, very clever of them we had a fantastic time because WE WON! There was wine, chocolate, Yarnharlot books and tickets to the National Theatre. Wow.

I just want to say a great big thank you to both Gerard and Craig for all their hard work in setting up the whole thing I had a really fantastic day. (Despite the fact they seemed to think we could all get it done in a couple of hours! umm!) Really looking forward to see what you come up with next year.

Also a huge thank you to my other team mates, Justine, Sally and Dee who allowed me to join them and I am really looking forward to claiming our theatre ticket prize and going out very soon.

Oh and to team POP! We haven't forgotten!

Recent naughty purchases and blame shifting........

.............and confessions of a knitaholic.
Umm where to start. Yes there have been a few knitting related purchases that I haven't owned up to recently and it's not just yarn.
Books - now I can blame Emma (quelle erqsome) for this purchase in its intirety.



Emma brought along her Vogue stitionaries to a recent meet up and I thought they were just fantastic. I ended up in Iknit on the way home and ended up buying the new Erica Knight Lace and Eyelet stitch book after much deliberation on the pros and cons of her series versus the Vogue ones. Cost came into it and miraculously I actually only left the shop with one book. Well as usual the whole thing of sets over took me on the way home and I couldn't help myself. I walked in the door fired up the computer and before I knew it the three other books in the set had found themselves launched into my amazon shopping basket along with......



Yep I'm fancying myself as a bit of a designer next. I am very pleased with them though and have already planned a design for my next pair of socks which I am going to knit in this.



Can you see those little tiny flickers that look like silver? Well they are? Antibacterial properties of something similar I believe. This yarn also comes in a red and a lovely lucious cream. Of course there was only one colour for me. Pink.

So there have also been other naughty purchases, yarn purchases and I can blame other people for those too.



Emma gets the blame for the above. I saw her beautiful Swallowtail shawl knitted in this and decided as I had been going Virral I would have to knit one too. She recommended the Fiddlesticks - of course I had to have two.



The next person I am going to lay the blame on for this is Justine. You know why! But I already have a plan for this yarn, more of those lady gloves with the buttons and then some socks with KMM cuff and toes. Good job smooshy goes soooooo far.



Who to blame for these? Well there are two candidates, probably Jane and Alice. The main culprit being the Karenina socks from part I of the Socktopus sock club which has had me for the very first time in my life attracted to a skein of yellow yarn. (Side effect of virral!)

I also bought one of these and this is down to Robynn the temptress offering 10% discounts for her cheerleaders. It is a beautiful, hand turned, oak nostepinne. Well I can hardly take my ballwinder and swift on holiday so if I make any significant purchases while I am away I can still make lovely little yarn cakes.

It must be Virral..........................................

And today I'm not just talking about the knitting although that was the original thought for this post when I looked at my current WIP's that have been cast on.
I have been suffering from the current sickness bug going around and have found myself next to useless over the past few days which eventually led to great intamacy with objects in the bathroom and sharing my stomach contents with the toilet.

Moving swiftly on to more pleasant things I have also been having a bad case of Startitis. I discovered this when reviewing my current WIPs on Ravelry and realising there were things on the needles that I haven't even confessed to yet. There had also been big gaps in yarn stash confessions too but that is maybe for another day.

So first of all the Virral knitting, in the last couple of weeks I have started two virral knits.

The first one being the Storm Water Shawl. I first fancied knitting this when I saw the kits that Robynn had in January and since seeing the beautiful outcome on the Storm Water Scarf that ORK has knitted it was the solution to my skein of Camelspin in Novascotia. I did have to buy a second skein to make it though but the colours are perfect. I am actually knitting with both balls at the same time as I bought them 5 months apart. This way I can keep the colour continuity.

I am loving the pattern and also the fact I had some stitch markers that my mum bought me back from Seattle a couple of years ago that just match these colours perfectly.

Here is the progress so far:







I'm actually using a free pattern which is called 'Enchanting Scarf' which is exactly the same stitch pattern and repeats as the storm water except I needed 97 stitches to make a shawl. (6 repeats of a 16 stitch pattern + 1 stitch to get the movement)

The other virral knit I have given into is Jaywalkers by Grumperina. Why has it taken me so long to get around to doing this? I have to say the confidence I have gained from the Socktopus sockclub has helped me. But why oh why didn't I do these earlier. They are so quick and easy and so effective. I have knitted these up in my skein of Casbah in Rainbow which is just the perfect colouring to get the full effect of the Jaywalker pattern. The colours are so rich and stunning.











I am past the heal and the decreases on the second sock so I just need to knit down the foot. I am hoping to get them finished today.

Also on the needles but not virral is a cardigan I started back before Easter in some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. It took me a while to find the right pattern as I want to adapt it a little and change the sleeves as I have some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk I want to use for those in a lacey pattern. I want to get all the main part knitted up so that I can concentrate on the changes that I want to make on the sleeves.



This is the Collinette pattern I am basing my cardigan on and then I will have lace sleeves from the transition point. That is the plan anyway.

Easy Tiger.............................................

One Friday afternoon a couple of months ago just after our Ofsted we were sitting in the staffroom after school having a couple of drinks when one of our younger govenors joined us. He was slightly amused by the socks that I was knitting while everyone was chatting but after a little while plucked up the courage and asked me if I would knit him a pair. I said I would be delighted. Then he was asking what colour will you knit. I didn't have to think too hard I knew I had just the right yarn hiding in my stash.









Enjoy Ian!