Sublime

The latest addition to the shop is the Sublime range from Sirdar. It's really lovely yarn, super soft and in the prettiest colours. The range is affordable with Extra fine merino at less than £4 per 50 gm ball. The cashmere/silk aran blend is really gorgeous. It's no real coincidence that I have become very interested in aran type knitting lately. Their pattern support is also extremely good.



The range will be up in the shop tomorrow. I also hope to have some photos of knitting to show you soon. Unfortunately I have chosen lots of long and slow projects lately. But one is almost finished and as it hasn't been shown on the blog it will be a happy surprise for you all!

Chinese Treats

Our daughter Lucy has recently returned from a trip to China. She has spent a month in Beijing studying acupuncture and then had a few days travelling around ending up in Shanghai. Apparently she had a fabulous time and met lots of lovely people and saw lots of interesting sights. She also bought presents.....

Lucy bought this for me to keep my knitting in. It's gorgeous and she got this in a street market in Beijing. Apparently haggled down from 850 Chinese Yen (prices always seem to start at 850 Chinese Yen) to around 250. It's too nice to be kept for knitting and I might use it as posh going out bag, just in case I ever get to go out during the evening. (Unlikely).

She also bought this yarn.

I think it is a cotton boucle, but it could be anything really. Apparently you had to buy four balls for around £3 and they had lots of pastel colours to choose from. Lucy tried to buy one of each of four colours, but the shop assistant got 'very cross and quite rude'. As Lucy does not speak a word of Mandarin, we were interested to hear that she can argue in a foreign language, thousands of miles from home without fear, but she is fairly intrepid. Anyway, I came out the winner as now I have eight balls of yarn. It is very pretty indeed and I can feel some more children's garments coming on ....

More Aran Knitting

Well, once you get the bug that's it, isn't it? I suppose for those of you who enjoy knitting socks, this is the equivalent. This is my latest attempt at aran knitting.


Another Alice Starmore pattern. This time from the Fisherman's Sweaters book, which, by the way, is still available from Amazon.com for around £9 if you are interested. This is not complicated, but I don't think I would be able to do it without the help of the stitch markers. There are 11 patterns across. I am knitting this for my niece for Christmas and it is only size 6 - 7 years. It takes a great deal of time to knit a row and I reckon that at current speed I am knitting 5 to 6 rows an hour! So, I try to spend an hour or so each evening on either the aran for Dad or this. I then spend the rest of the evening on either the horrid chenille or another more interesting project, which is also a Christmas present and must therefore remain secret.

I am not used to spending so long on a project, but am enjoying the challenge. The colour, of this hasn't come out very well in the photo - it is a lovely dark mauve. Will try again when the light is better.

Aran Knitting 2

I thought you might be interested to see the progress on the Aran cardigan I started a week or so ago.

Good, isn't it? I love knitting this garment. The pattern is fairly easy to remember once you have got the hang of it. The yarn is really, truly lovely to work with and it is knitting up quite quickly. Don't think that this is all I've accomplished. I have also finished the stripy sweater from earlier this year, started another Alice Starmore jumper and been working on a jumper that I found in the back of a cupboard, put there from when we moved over 6 years ago and completely forgotten. This is an oversized horrid jumper in truly dreadful cotton chenille. It scratches across the needles and hurts my hands. Photos some other time.

In order to keep us all cheerful, here is another picture of the Aran, close up this time.