Yarn!

Quite a few months ago I decided that I would like to try some yarns that I have never seen or heard of before for my birthday and Mother's Day this year.  So I sat down with Grace and ordered them as they came on special or when I was ready to get another few needles or whatever.  www.loveknitting.com usually has coupon codes and if you spend $80 you get free shipping so it made sense to do it over a few months as a top up for value.  So here are a heap of pics that I will just dump for those interested to enjoy.  I have just balled up those that need it and as it is 90% sock yarn then I will get busy knitting some more socks for me!

Below are a couple I picked up from Spotlight and my finished Cranberry Crush blend with suri alpaca which I am extremely pleased with and it will become my first shawlette eventually.  660 mtrs over 213gms sock weight (3ply).

There is only a little progress on my stitching and I have managed to finish one convertible mitten but haven't taken pics of those yet.  Maybe next weekend will see the second one finished and a pair of socks started.

FNSI results!

Well hopefully it will post up unlike the report from FNWF lol.  I will have to remember to double check this week lol.

So I decided that I had to make a needle case for all my beautiful knitting needle sets some weeks back and my favourite older needles.  Over the last few weeks when I have had time I have been working on the insides of the storage case making up the pattern as I went along and doing it for each specific set of needles too.   I have finished making 2 double sided inserts for the interchangeable sets and am in the process of making one for the DPN sock sets and when the cover is complete it will have space for my favourite old straight needles and all the crochet hooks and an area for notions like stitch markers, tape measures, scissors, darning needles and anything else I am likely to want to use while knitting or crocheting.  I currently have a box with old needles etc and it is not very portable and all the different cases that came with the sets were driving me a little nuts lol.  I will be keeping them with things I don't want to ditch just yet in that cardboard box.

Last night at 6.30pm I ironed on the backing to my linen for the cover and sat down and drew a wrought iron gate from a pic in Inspirations Magazine and completed it and almost one hollyhock on the side.  I did spend a large chunk of yesterday going through all 85 editions of this magazine for inspiration and decided to pick elements from about 4 different projects that caught my eye and add them to it in a cottage garden style which will reflect our garden.  So around my feet while sitting on the couch are all my boxes of threads.  Madera silks, cottage garden, some other silks, DMC and Madera cottons and some very old semco and anchors as well.  A large collection of colours and textures!  I was gifted nearly all the colours brought out by Madera and I did quite a few years ago fill in the gaps of my collection of DMCs so I have plenty to choose from.

So not a bad start for a few hours really.  We watched an episode of Death in Paradise on DVD and followed it by Miss Fisher on the ABC and then I was too tired for any more stitching.

Some of you will remember when I used to seriously stitch but I ran out of use for such items and decided it was time to concentrate on knitting and it lead to spinning as well.  What I deemed more practical projects because patchwork although I do love it is one of Mum's favourites and with 10 quilts in the house I didn't need any more of those either lol.  Then there is the collection I am going to inherit one day too!  I will need a bigger house.

So there's a start and I might do a little more now and also work on my first ever pair of hand knitted mittens and visit around some other blogs after lunch.  I think I have the day all worked out quite satisfactorily now.  

Finished socks!

Last weekend I finished off these 8ply socks for Lance and have almost finished the back on my mauve cable jacket.

On the needles now are some stripy socks for Lance from the leftovers.  They are going to be a WIP as I also want to get going on some gloves or mittens for myself and some 4ply socks for both Lance and I too that are not just plain knitting but something a bit more special.

After a wonderful Mother's Day spent at my parents house with our DD2, Grace, I also have some spinning to share.  This is a fondant fibre braid that came all the way from England and it is full of sparkle too.  Sadly the photo doesn't do it justice but I decided to spin this up while Mum and I had a fibre filled Mother's Day together while Grace chatted and shared youtube clips and played music for us too.  It will be plyed with some light grey alpaca/silk blend when I get time to spin it up lol.  maybe Saturday.

There is also some finished yarn washed and ready to be listed in the stash for a shawl too.  It is the beautiful crimson mix with merino from Rosemary's store and some gorgeous brown suri silk that was in the stash.  Love the two together and it is soooooo soft!

Well off I go to catch up on some other blogs and things and sign up if it is FNSI tomorrow night.  I have a knitting needle case that I want to do some embroidery on and need to get it prepped tomorrow so I can start it.  Sign ups over at Wendy's http://sugarlane-designs.com/
Hopefully my link works lol and that on Saturday when I do an update it will actually publish on here and not sit in limbo for weeks.

FNWF Results Grrrrr this should have loaded up ages ago and didn't

Well I had a very interesting FNWF and achieved heaps!

The project bags were cut out and the designs traced and adhered when I began and now they are completely finished!  With a bit of a boo boo lol.  I haven't touched these for weeks after completing the first one and was up to the construction stage and popped the zips in and proceeded to top stitch everything.  There is my mistake lol.  I should have done that without the liner in the way because now I have a zigzaged finished edge inside my bags instead of it being hidden in the liner like the first one.  Oh well I was not going to unpick all that stitching and as they are only for me I don't care that much as I really needed them.  The embroidery designs on these are partly inspired by others I have seen on the knitting podcasts I have been watching.  Dani from Little Bobbins was the first one I ever watched and she inspired me with the lovely ones she makes and also sells on her Etsy shop.  In her latest podcast she has mentioned that someone was either gifted or bought one of her bag designs and then found it for sale on Etsy in that persons shop!  That has left her with not a very nice feeling to know that her bag which is completely different to mine has been unpicked and the pattern design pinched!  So Dani I do hope that my poor attempt doesn't cause you any angst love.

I finally had my Karbonz needles arrive so I could resume work on the mauve/pink alpaca cable knit. So these were transferred over to the new needles and a couple of rows knitted.  The wool I am using is very slippy on the needles so changing over to Karbonz have made it so much better to knit on and no more stitches flying off the needles lol.  

I also had two heels to turn on Lance's 8ply blue socks and have started the patterning up the leg on both pairs.  These will now sit until I am hanging around in waiting rooms on Wednesday.  Need something to occupy my time lol.  These have photographed very different as they are more of a blue grey colour.  Never mind it is overcast here today and if it gives us some rain I wont care about the crummy photos too much.  I have made up my own pattern of 2 rows K1,P1 and 2 of knit to create a little bit of interest.  I was going to do cables originally but decided they would look so much better in a thinner 4ply yarn.  Once again I have completed the fish lips heel.  These seem to fit Lance quite nicely but I do like the old way of gussets etc too so will do them for my socks later on.  

The red socks from a previous post were knitted from the same yarn which is a wool/nylon blend and they wore and washed up very well with the exception that I couldn't believe how much dye came out!  Will see if it does it again next time as it could be quite problematic if I decided to use the leftovers in some colour work socks.

Well I had better get off here and go back to some more sewing for a while and I will pop back tomorrow to see what everyone else has had fun with.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  wondered why I didn't get any comments after posting this because I have just found it sitting in the preview folder!!!!!!!!!!!  Darn blogger!

Yay! FNWF tonight!

tonight is FNWF so I will be doing some sewing and some knitting on another pair of socks for hubby while enjoying  Midsommer Murders on the ABC!  I will share what I get up to tomorrow night.  SIgnups still open over at http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com.au/

Red socks

Well another very quick finish off the needles was a pair of red tweeded socks for Lance in 8ply.
Another pair with the Fish Lips heel and I can now do it without having to look at each individual photo of the twinned stitches pages lol.  Can even do it with the tv on lol.  It is a great heel for toe up socks but I still love the traditional one with gusset etc.

Started on the 18th and finished on the 24th!  It is 8ply cleckheaton country naturals 85% Australian wool, 10% acrylic and 5% viscose.  It was lovingly made by the people at the Wangaratta Woollen Mills then later states it is made in China lol.  Was lovely to knit with though.

First photo is a little bright and the second is a little dark so please just imagine something in between lol.

I also started to spin some brown suri alpaca last night while I had the house to myself and as Lance is working and Grace is still at her friends I will be continuing on it while watching dvds today.  Have never spun suri before but am loving the softness and silkiness of it.  So hopefully after lunch I will start plying up the last couple of unfinished objects in my spinning box!  Then to get back to work on spinning up my jumper lots.

Hope everyone else is having a productive week too.

FNSI Results

Well Friday Night Stitch In was a day long affair for me with some boring mending completed that needed doing and also finished off and started another childs hat from my handspun that I spun up a couple of years ago.  It is such a pleasure to knit with and I really love it.  I also fitted in some spinning too.  Plus there is a pic of some lovely stitch markers which arrived that I ordered some time ago from Teggle Tots on facebook.  The lady is a member of the fibre group that I joined on there.  They are beautiful.  One set is heading off to Mum for Mother's Day but she doesn't read my blog so all is good lol.

Attached are some pics of what I got up to that I loaded up at the end of the night so that I could have it ready to share before I headed off for the day.  I decided I would schedule the post because it is disappointing when you sit down to visit with everyone else that sign up and most of their recent posts are from like weeks ago lol and the fact that I know I will be very busy on Saturday too.  That's why I like to visit on Sundays now to allow for those from OS to join in too.