KNITTING UPDATE

Last year, DB and I went on holiday camping, in Brittany, France. Whilst we was there, I came across a yarn store, accidentally of course ;-) I thought I'd like to buy some yarn and make something to keep as souvenir of the holiday, It was a lovely tiny craft shop, which was full of Bergere De France Yarn. The shop itself, was very busy and being so tiny, it was difficult to browse properly, and as they were all speaking french, it was difficult to enquire about anything too, but the lady, who owned the shop did speak a little English, well let's say her English was much better than my French. So when it came to my turn, I decided it would be easier just to purchase one ball of sock yarn, so after a lot of pointing and waving my feet about, the lady nodded and pointed to a small basket of odd balls of sock yarn, to be honest there was not a lot of choice so I quickly selected a ball and purchased it, and as I was going out the door I thought I heard the lady say, that's lovely (something) Bergere De France yarn. Then the other day I was speaking to a Knitter friend, and when I showed her my completed socks, she said, I have some of that yarn in my stash, it is Opal Petticoat, I was a bit startled at first, here's me thinking I have got some unique French yarn, to find out I could have probably purchased it in the UK. now me being a 'complete gonk', a couple of months ago whilst clearing the bottom of my knitting bag, had thrown away a number of knitting bands and alas, I think this was one of them, so now I think I'm going to have to change their name to stripped socks, not very original I know,but I can't think of anything any better at the moment, so here we have Stripped Socks.

and the yarn used will remain a mystery, not that it matters, as I did enjoy making them.

The cropped cardigan, has got off to a very sticky start, The pattern is full of errors, not just one either, each piece is wrong and to top it all, the picture in the pattern is a mirror image, so everything in the pattern is reversed! Yikes, Luckily I had not got very far, before Roxy very kindly pointed them out to me, there has been nothing posted on the Yarn Forward website as yet, in fact it says no errors have been found so far with issue 1 and although I understand very basic principles of decreasing at armholes etc.. how many stitches and when is not something I find easy to digest, I always rely on the pattern to do that, even DB tried to help, but him being an engineer, managed to make it sound more technical. I was disappointed to say the least, as this was something I had set my heart on making. I have tried sending an e-mail a couple of times, to the editor but I am still waiting for a reply. Then Roxy, yet again, has come to my rescue, as she knew another Rowanette, who has made this cardigan and has made and written her own amendments so Roxy has very kindly e-mailed them to me, so all is not lost after all and I will be able to make the cardigan. Thanks ever so much Roxy for sharing this with me, and also thank you to the lady, who made the amendments and has shared them.

In the meantime, I was a bit undecided what to make next, so I decided on this

Its Chamomile from the Rowan Summer Tweed book, I have been wanting to make this for a while and I had purchased the yarn in the shade Denim, last autumn. I have visualised wearing this whilst taking Tess for walks at weekends, and so I don't think the leather thongs would be practical. so I'm doing the neckline the same but without the ties and if it starts to flap open too much, I can always add a hook and eye closure, just to hold in place. I have made good progress so far, and about half way with the front. It's the first time I have knitted with Summer Tweed, and although I like it, I do hope it softens a bit when washed, because at the moment it feels a bit dry and full of twig like sharp bits.

After a bit of searching DB has decided he liked the Techguy Sock pattern from Mag knits the best, but wants them plain, and also chosen black, which is probably one of the worst colours to knit with, so what I think I shall do, is to take these to work with me and perhaps if I just do a few rows at lunchtime etc, it won't be so bad and after all I did promise and he did buy me a place in the STR Club. Talking of which I have ordered a couple of extra STR skeins;-) as they have now sorted the payment system out and I was able to purchase these myself, I can't wait for them to arrive, I am not sure how long the postal system takes, but I am looking forward to it, and I also believe the new Rowan magazine is out this week too, So there's lots of thing to look forward too...

See you next time!

TIME FLYS

Well, I can't believe it is two weeks, since I last posted, where has the time gone, we are already in the middle of January, being back at work is a bit of a drag, especially as the mornings are still very dark.

The New Year Resolutions are sort of going well, I have managed to keep to the healthier eating style and as this is the plan for life and not a diet as such, it should be easy to maintain, In the Christmas sales we bought a bread machine, so all our bread is now made with good natural ingredients and not a chemical insight, DB is an excellent cook, so he has being making some lovely meals and at least we have a bit more understanding of what we are actually eating and where possible making our own, so we can cut out the hidden fats, sugar and salt etc, I have cut down also on the amount of Chocolate and Cake and sugary foods I was eating and think this has actually helped to stabilise blood sugar levels, so I know longer feel so sluggish and lethargic.

The knitting unfortunately has being going a little slower than I liked, I do have my first finished project for 2007 though, the spindle socks, I have really enjoyed making these.




Thank you Anna for the pattern, these were for a birthday present, but as I finished them a little bit too late, I decided to buy something instead, and actually keep these for myself ;)


The Bergere De France second sock is coming on very slowly, as I keep being interrupted by a you know who!!!





with calls of 'Mum lets play a game instead' Talking of socks though, I mentioned in a previous post, that I had wanted to join the Socks That Rock Club, but when I did try to join, it was full up, so I was put in reserve, well it turned out later, that there was still places left, Thanks Roxy for spotting this, You are a star!!! So I tried and entered my pre-registration ID and was taken to the Shopping Cart, I can't tell you the excitement and joy I felt... to then discover the shopping cart had been removed as they had a technical fault, So I sent Blue Moon an e-mail to find out what other method of payment could be used and was told, that everything should be sorted by the weekend, it then transpired, that the girls at Blue Moon had been let down by their bank, as the bank thought that knitting socks couldn't possibly have that amount of interest and assumed with that amount of monies being paid into a sock club, it must be a kind of scam, and returned every ones payment to them. The upset this must have caused them at Blue Moon Fibers is unimaginable, Fancy a bank taking it upon themselves to return your customers money! But the girls have worked very quickly to resolve the problem and have been very good at responding quickly to e-mails, they deserve a medal! After a few attempts I have managed to make payment, although for some reason they wouldn't except my card, so on DB suggestion, I used his, and the payment went through, to his horror though! After seeing Roxy's socks, I was going to order a couple of extra skeins, to keep me going til the first package of the sock club arrives, the colour choices are truly amazing and it is so difficult to choose, but I think I shall wait until the methods of payments are sorted a bit better, I feel a bit greedy keep asking to use DB's Card, as also, that way he can see how much I am buying. He has asked me though in return for using his card to make him a pair of socks, I can't really say no can? but I shall not be using the Socks That Rock yarn, luckily the colours really are not his style, phew!!!. Does anyone know where I can get a man's sock pattern from, preferably fairly chunky to use with boots and one that uses slightly larger needles so its quick???

Now I have finished the Spindle Socks, I am ready to start a new project, this has taken my fancy



this is the cropped cardigan by Laura Long from the magazine, Yarn Forward, this is from the first issue and is really different from all the other magazines you see on the shelves.




I have some Rowan All Season Cotton in my stash in the colour Dusky, a kind of dark blue denim I bought it at a bargain from eBay a few months ago, so is ideal for this, I don't think I shall embroider the flowers though, I am not really a flowery type of girl and I hate sewing, so I am not putting myself under that kind of pressure and would probably make a hash of it anyway.

Well that's all from me for now, I'm off to do a bit more on the sock, whilst playing throw and catch the ball with Tess of course. Have a good week!!!