Mother's Day Gifts, Hat Kits and Relaxing

I am trying to think of something interesting to tell you, but nothing much has happened around here. I am still ploughing on with Lucy's shawl. I confess I did buy a hat kit from Alice Starmore at Virtual Yarns, and it arrived yesterday. Have a look at this -

The kit contains all the yarn to make three hats. I can't wait to start, but for once I am going to exercise some self-control and willpower. These are qualities that usually I sadly lack, but this time I will have to wait otherwise the shawl won't be ready on time.

Joe was home for the Easter holidays and he arrived home (well, we went to collect him) with gifts for Mother's Day as he wasn't able to be with me on the day. I couldn't believe it as he bought me lots of things and presented them in a silver gift bag. He bought: the Fratelli's lastest album (which is good), the new Debbie Bliss knitting magazine - chosen and purchased by him without the aid of his girlfriend or any other female. Can you believe that? He also bought this charming piggy bank which he tells me is for me to put my yarn money in. He said it was particularly suitable because of the Union Jack theme. I haven't liked to tell him that it would need to be much, much,much bigger, but I figured he meant I should change my stash money into £50 notes and then use it.


I was very touched that he was such a thoughtful son. Ian and Lucy thought he was a bit over the top and when he bought me flowers to say thanks for helping him find a new house for next year, they both became very sour. They could learn a lot from him I feel.....
You may feel that the photo of the pig is a bit blurred. It is. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I took the photo and I am not good at these things. The second is that I treated myself to a new mobile. About time too. My last, which was purchased at least 6 years ago didn't even have a camera. Welcome to the 21st century! Anyway, I have been enjoying taking photos of everything, but particularly my favourite subject - Rex. So, here is one of Rex and Ian watching TV and relaxing in the evening.

You wouldn't believe it.....

Well, we had a fabulous weekend with Lucy in Glasgow. As I have mentioned, we live in a small fishing town where shops are few and far between, so it was very exciting to look out of Lucy's bedroom window and see a Marks and Spencers Simply Food shop! It reminded me of many years ago when we lived in Central London. So what did we do, we shopped in the local area, shopped in the main Glasgow shopping centre and didn't really buy a thing - Ian was delighted. Lucy also took us to Edinburgh for the day and I thought this was a really lovely place. We went up to the Castle, but didn't go in because it was Easter Saturday and the queues were miles long. We bought a guitar strap for Joe from a market stall, which was beautifully made in leather. We visited the Elephant House where JK Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter, which was very exciting. A visit to a Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant (I wouldn't swear to its authenticity, but it was very good) was also one of Lucy's treats. We also had a night in playing Risk with her friends, and a walk around Glasgow's Botanic Gardens. Fantastic. A photo of Ian standing in front of a statue at Edinburgh Castle is below.

Now to the important things. Lucy tried on her ballgown and she look fantastic. I retrieved the shawls from my bag. (I had to knit lots of rows and then cast off loosely so that I could take them on the plane without any needles. The story of getting them back on the needles is for another time.) Guess what? There is a chocolate brown ribbon on the dress which Lucy hadn't really mentioned. So, the brown shawl is perfect after all......... Anyone want a pink one?

Shawls, A Visit to Scotland, Fabric and Happy Easter!

I can't believe I haven't written a post since 15th March. My apologies to those of you who read this from time to time. I know it's really annoying to keep looking at the same page. Still I am back and hope to write more frequently.

You may be interested to know that I went with the pink yarn for Lucy's shawl. Why? Well, I put both types under a strong light and looked long and hard. The problem with the gold colour was that it had some lighter colours in it and they didn't really work well with the pink. The pink yarn has some pale lemon and lilac in it and I think it might work better. I have again found this painfully slow and have unpicked it quite a few times. I hope to have a photo for you next week though.

Tomorrow we are off to visit Lucy in Glasgow. This is the first time we have been able to visit her and I am very much looking forward to it. I also hope to get a bit of yarn shop visiting in.... I am going to take the two shawls and hold them against her dress just in case the pink doesn't go either. I'll let you know how it goes.



Now, the reason I haven't been posting is that I've been very busy giving the shop a major overhaul. It isn't finished yet as there are new patterns and yarns to go on, but I have been able to get all my new fabrics up. I hope you will like them as well. In the past I have found that during the really hot months - no, I can't be specific about which ones these might be - I enjoy needlework or sewing more than knitting. So, I have managed to persuade Ian to sell fabrics as well. Any comments, as usual, gratefully received. The photo above is probably one of my favourite new fabrics.

So, I hope you all have a Happy Easter.

Don't Talk Whilst Walking is my new advice

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. I am making excellent progress with the shawl for Lucy. Thanks to Caithairinmyknitting and her fabulous suggestions I am now only unpicking stitches every three or four rows. Usually because I stopped to pat the dog (or move him slightly - he sits very, very close to me whilst knitting and if I don't move him from time to time then I get a frozen shoulder).
Anyway... Lucy rang yesterday morning, whilst we were out walking on Dartmoor. Apparently she was going to go shopping for a ball gown. She didn't have time to make one (not something to discuss at the moment) and thought she'd just buy one. Without any thought I opened my mouth and said 'Oh, I saw a lovely one in the paper the other day - it was just like a fifties ballerina dress and it would really suit you'. 'By the way it was in a shop called something like Ocean'. Well, once we had sorted out the shop was actually called Coast (Brixham is a small fishing town without virtually any shops unless you are looking for ceramic gifts 'from Brixham'). She said she would investigate.
Much later another call, we are still on our walk... 'It's a bit Disney Princess,' she said, 'what do you think?' Being a strong believer in that everyone should look like a Disney Princess once in their lifetime (I haven't, yet) I told her she should buy it. 'Great,' she said, 'I'll go back and get it now'. The phone call ended. I meandered along. I thought for a bit, and then realised that the lovely shawl will probably not go with the dress, which is a baby pink. The effect would probably be more chocolate box than sophisticated young woman. So, my question is

which would give a bit of a gold effect, or

which is a little pinker than the photo?

Progress of sorts

Well, as you can see there has been some progress with the lacy knitting. I have spent many happy hours knitting and unpicking, usually knit one row and then unpick three or four rows trying to find out where I was. The length of this knitting in no way reflects the amount of time spent on it.
I have, however, received some really useful advice from Caithairinmyknitting and hope to put this into action this evening. Hopefully I will then be able to make faster progress.
Here is another photo of a close up of the shawl.

The colour is much richer and nicer than the photo, but it was very difficult to get the shot right. Still, perhaps by next week I'll have a lot more to show you. Or perhaps I could tell you about the lovely yarn I've just bought to make an Alice Starmore cardigan.......

Lace - It's more difficult than you'd think.....

if you are unable to count accurately and tend to be clumsy. As I am both, I am finding it very difficult to knit this shawl/wrap/extremely short scarf for Lucy's graduation ball. I was very pleased to have some comments on the blog. Please comment, I would love to hear from you. Anyway, the advice I received was very helpful. Both noblinknits and cathairinmyknitting made very sensible suggestions regarding patterns and yarns and I intended to take on board their comments. First of all, I tried using the Knitwitches Forest 3 ply cashmere and found that although it is truly lovely, it was a bit thin for a novice. Next up I tried a new laceweight from the Old Piggery. I used Sandstone which is lovely mixture of greys and rusty browns. Gorgeous. I got a bit further but felt I needed something more substantial. It is really fabulous though and I have put a photo in of one of the lovely colourways we have in the shop.

Now Lucy must enter the mix. She phoned and said that what she really, really wanted was the Victorian Lace shawl in Kidsilk Haze Jacob. So, I thought I would give that a go - after all I was not getting anywhere. I find the Kidsilk much easier to knit with, but much more difficult to rip - exactly as my advisers said. I now have about 6 weeks to get this finished as Lucy will want to take it back with her after the Easter holiday. So, Lucy, would you like a lace hanky to go with your dress?

A bit of a surprise

As promised, here is a photo of a little lemon cardigan I have made for a friend's baby. it's sweet isn't it. Not much to add about it, knitted in garter stitch, size 0-3 months, yarn, Sirdar 100% cotton (old from stash). Hope the baby likes it. Actually, this is not a good photo - it is much more lemon than this.

Now, this is the surprise. Regular readers will know that I have, in the past, had terrible experiences of knitting socks. So much so, that I thought my sock making career was over, pretty much before it began. However, a friend of mine had an accident and was in hospital for a while. I thought of all the things I could send (not many apparently, no flowers, no eats, no cards) and thought that perhaps some socks might be a nice idea. So, from one of the marvellous Charlene Schurch books, I produced these! One sock is slightly longer than the other,this I am sure is to do with me and not the pattern. I must learn to count accurately. The yarn is a new handdyed yarn which may appear in the shop one day. Anyway, I enjoyed making these socks much more than the others, so this may become a regular habit.