The husband has gone off to NY again, leaving me all on my own :( He was already away for 2 and a half weeks before that, came home for a couple of days and is off again. I can't say that I am delighted with this turn of affairs - especially as he is going to have to keep doing it for the foreseeable future. But hey, I have a job, it's got to be done and I did have a big smile on my face the other day when my paycheck came through.
And guess what I am going to do with it? That's right, spend it on yarn! After all, it's not as though I have a house overflowing with stash, right? All of these companies keep on putting out new books and yarns just to tempt me and I admit to being very very weak! I have a whole new understanding of how shopaholics must feel. Not good.
I am going to join the Rebecca 29 wrap-cardi-along that Kristine is organising so that requires some yarn, and then I have yet to get the latest copy of Interweave or any of the RY classic books! So I have some catching up to do. And, who knows, whilst I am in Libertys later today, if there is yarn screaming 'buy me!!' I just may have to give in... (there are so many things in Rowan 37 that I want to make, it's just ridiculous...)
I finally gave in to the trend, admittedly a little late, of Clapotis and have cast it on - for myself I would like to point out - in colour!
Isn't it lovely? It's Art Yarn Supermerino in colour SM115. The colours just sing and although I had bought the yarn for someone else, I suddenly found myself thinking that it would look rather nice with my black winter coat. (The recipient got something far nicer by the way).
Here's another shot of it, just because I am still learning to use my camera and I thought that this one came out rather nicely.
Finally I leave you with a picture of yours truly wearing my Debbie Bliss beret and cravat from the the club welcome gift.
Quite the French resistance fighter, eh? Maman will be proud...
I have had the yarn to make Lara for ages but never quite got around to casting it on - so it was nice to actually sit down and use some alpaca silk (I had before but only swatching). I did slightly change the cravat and made the hole a little smaller. I had tried someone else's on and thought that the hole was a little big. Other than that, it knitted up really fast and it's joined my list of desert island yarns.
Oh - last minute flighty update! I am still sewing in those pesky little ends. It seems that the more I sew in the more there are. I just don't get it.
I went on a yarn dying class last week where I got to meet my inner colour, much to everyone's great amusement. Niki had organised the class at her studio and I went along with Jacinta, Jan, and Sue. And we had a lot of fun.
Those dubious strands are my first attempts with the food dye. Niki got us to do yarn dips, doubling the amount of water in the dye each time so we could get a feel for the way in which the yarn took the colour. It was a whole new experience for me and I threw caution to the wind. Well, as much as I am able to.
Here's me mixing my colours - please note that I did not even attempt beige or grey and only got some navy blue because I forgot to add the water...
By the end of the class, I had some coloured yarn (and jeans due to the general messiness), some cake (thanks to Jan) and hands that smellt rather strongly of vinegar.
I will post a picture of my yarn (there's a bright red in there, ask Jacinta!) but none of my pictures have come out anywhere near decently so far so that'll have to wait. In the mean time, I shall leave you with a picture of Sue's rainbow yarn:
Of Sue's yarn about to blow up in the microwave...
And of some very bright yarn (I think it's Jacinta's but I am not sure)
I had forgotten how tiring this work malarkey was... I can barely stand today! The job is going well though, the team is friendly and I am gradually getting my head around it. I am going to try to keep updating Knitter Natter but please bear with me - I am hardly getting any knitting done at the moment.
I did cast on and swatch for the husband's sweater. I am using the Debbie Bliss cotton dk in navy blue.
So, who knows, he just might have a lovely sweater one of these days. Oh and there is a minor miracle going on - I have changed the way that I hold my yarn and I have got the correct tension on the correct needles. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I have also made a lot of progress on Flighty, which isn't too hard seeing as it is quite a small item even if it is in 4-ply.
But please don't go saying that I don't like colour... Here's a snap of some colours from my stash that I was playing with the other day.
If you have knitted everything that you can think of, how about this for a change? The cake looks good enough to eat.
I think I want to go and live near them :)
...Jacqui!
I met Jacqui about 2 years ago when she came to work for the company where I worked and we pretty much immediately got on like a house on fire. She has been a fantastic friend since the beginning, always there for me, pretty much always up for a glass of wine and she makes me laugh tons.
When she found out about my knitting, she was curious and so came along to Libertys one day and learnt to knit :) Don't you just love it when you convert someone... Around my birthday Jacqui said that was making me something for my birthday, and that she might finish it a little late. I sort of assumed that she was making me a scarf as you would. But I didn't give it too much thought.
And then we agreed to meet last week for a drink. And look what my birthday present turned out to be:
Isn't it stunning? Gorgeous? Beautiful? I was and still am gobsmacked. I really cannot believe that someone would go to that much trouble for me.
In case you don't recognise the sweater, it's a Debbie Bliss design that was published in the Spring 2004 issue - there was even a picture on the front cover and you can download the pattern here.
Jacqui used a different yarn though, she used the Rowan Polar in 'The Blues' . The funny thing is that this is a yarn that I have bought in the past to make Funky but I had some severe problems with the pattern so I frogged it and returned the yarn that I hadn't used. But I really loved it and always intended to use it again some day.
So imagine my delight at the fact that I got such a gorgeous sweater in such a fantastic colour. Here's a closeup of the cable at the front.
Would you believe that Jacqui had never done a cable before?
And I thought she was just being a bit slow making me a scarf. Sorry Jacqui! You rock!
By the way, I got the job and I start tomorrow! I can't decide whether I should be happy or gutted at the idea of going back to work after such a lovely long break :D