Cool Crochet

How sweet are these? No, don't get excited, my crochet skills are still granny square level. I bought them in a shop..they were sooo cheap. I just adore them. I wish they would grow in my garden like this!



Click on the image to enlarge and appreciate them some more.





Silver Belle is still coming along slowly but surely. Cashmere scarf is coming along extremely slowly and I am itching to cast on some other stuff I have come across, but shall wait, sensibly, until after christmas.

Why, oh, why, did I think it would be a good idea to knit presents for people for christmas? Could I not have learned from the yarn harlot, who I see is having a similar panic. You'd think she'd have learned her lesson by now!!!!!

Ravelry Thanksgiving

Ravelry has got to be one of the best inventions of the year, and if you are on Ravelry, and want to show some appreciation to Casey, Jess and Bob, visit here.

In the meantime, I hope all you peoples across the water had a great Thanksgiving.Enjoy the holiday and get lots of knitting done!

Sale on at Pink Lily

Just to let you all know that I am having a pre-christmas sale over at my Etsy shop. All of the stitch markers have been reduced in price, some over 35%! I'll even giftwrap them for you!

So, if you're stuck for gifts for knitterly friends, look no further....just click on pinklilydesign on the righthand side bar and you'll go straight there.

It's like time travel. But better. Actually, if I could travel like that, I'd be in the Maldives right now, or the Cook Islands. Anywhere but here today, in drizzly ol' England :(

Look at what's arrived!

Tada! I have the grey one on today and it's very comfortable!

Silver Belle update: Tada here as well! I have started the second sleeve thinking that whatever went wrong on the first one is old news and if I go right with the second one it'll spur me on. Still a bit scared to start the peplum. Casting on 480 stitches fills me with dread and terror. And the 80cm circ that it says to use doesn't look as if it'll hold that many stitches even!

The sun is out here today, makes a change from the incessant rain we have been having, and I am off to watch my daughter in a school riding competition this afternoon. Have a good day whatever you're doing!

Punky fingerless gloves

I like the idea of fingerless gloves, and I can see their relevance in a modern world. But let's face it, there are some, let's say, unusual ones around in the knitting world.

I wanted to make some for my niece for Christmas, who is going through an Emo (I say Emu) phase. I have searched Ravelry, twice and this morning, decided to do a Google search. And look what I found.


They are perfect. And if she doesn't like them, I'll have them!

The pattern is printing off at this very moment and I have the leftover aran yarn from the silver belle (don't talk about it) colour swatching.

My filling is repaired and I am back speaking like my former self. I daren't eat on that side yet though. Is that normal, or am I a real dentalphobe???????????

Current Time User Uppers

These are what I've been doing this weekend. The quilt is coming along now, just needing the quilting bit done...so my fingers will resemble pincushions by the end of the week. I'm hopeless with a thimble, so straight through the skin is how it has to be for me. I'll go through the pain in the name of friendship. *Sniff*..just call me a matyr, the rest of my family does.

Secondly, the men's cashmere scarf. This has worked out differently to how I thought, my cashmere is thinner ply than the pattern, and I'm using 4mm Addi Turbos instead of 8mm straights. The pattern is a bit different, but I think it looks ok. A little more subtle than the one in LMKG. I think Rob will like it more. I got loads done while they were at the O2 Arena last night watching the Foos.

Here's a close up of the pattern.



Right, off to the dentist so he can sort out a crumbling filling. Gulp. I will try to be brave, but he and me both know I'm a jelly in the chair. Lots of novocaine is what I need. And quick. Back later when I am looking like a lady who's had a stroke.

Contest Alert

No, not me! Gnat at BarknKnit is having a contest. As it's Thanksgiving over the pond soon, and her 100th post, she is asking for comments on "who are you thankful to".

Go on over there and tell her who you'd give your last rolo to.

And tell her who sent you. There's a great prize on offer.......

A little extreme, but I like it!

Check that out!!!
It's in the Erika Knight New Knits book I bought today. It's so awful, I love it! It could be my knitted knitting chair!
I'm very tempted to make it, I can tell you. Maybe in pink though.
I went over to Maggie's today. I bought some gorgeous quilting cotton, in my favourite colour, pink. I'd never wear it as I think I'd feel like a giant marshmallow, but I love it anyway. Here's my most artistic attempt...

and she was having a book sale. How could I resist????

That should keep me going for a bit.
Before I go off to make sausage and mash for dinner, yea, admit it, you're jealous of the glamorous life I lead, let me show you a couple of things I'm putting on my to do before Christmas list..

How clever is that? The bar code dog coat has a pattern so you can put your telephone number on it in case your dog gets lost and loses its collar on the same day!

And this, a knitted wire basket.

Apparently, wire is really easy to knit with, according to Erika Knight. We'll see. If I end up with hands ripped to shreds by wire, maybe my injuries will still be too severe in December to cook Christmas dinner!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Just lurking down here and whispering to you that this is what I am casting on for today. It's the Men's cashmere scarf from LMKG. My second Christmas present. I'm using the gorgeous green handspun cashmere that I bought at the Ally Pally show, and I rang the nice lady in the Isle of Skye to order some more.

I'll have some pictures of it soon. Good job Rob doesn't come round here often.

Okay, stand up straight again and back as you were.

I have been a bit busy!

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your fantastic suggestions on how to get back my knitting mojo.

They really did work. Look..

The Argosy scarf is finished and drying on my guest bed! I do love it and it is my first finished Christmas present. My friend doesn't read here, so I'm safe! I shall sew some sequins on the ends when it's dry as she's a sparkly sort of person.
Here's a close up. I loved how it looked a bit like lace (having never knitted lace) without bring a fiddly pattern.


I have also been making this quilt for my friend who is ill.

I'm hoping to finish it by the weekend. My famile are off to the Foo Fighters on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to a day doing knitterly and sewerly things.

I was so blown away by your good ideas to get my mojo back. Such fantastic things to inspire anybody in a lull. It's funny, I was thinking that I don't know any of you guys personally, but it's almost as though you know me and I know you from just ramblings on a blog meant for knitting. Lots of my real life friends know nothing of my blog, and I like that. My virtual friends are a different part of my knitting life and I would share with you different ideas and thoughts. I mean, you might not be interested in what yarn I'm considering for a knit, but I'd think you were! But in my other life, I don't think anyone would know anything about dilemas I have like that, and other stuff. And I like it like that.

Just wanted you to know I appreciate you all and love the comments you leave, and love reading your amazing blogs. Feel the love, people!

Anyway the winner of my contest was............(drumroll)

Queen of the Froggers
Ta da. She sent me a link to the most amazing piece of knitting

which Winnie at guavaseeds designed.
I love it. This is mine so far

I'm thinking the holes will look more like the picture when it's blocked. I think it'll take a while to finish, but I don't care. I just love it.

Silver belle news. None. I made a mistake and I can't bear to pick it up again. One day soon I'll pluck up the courage and hopefully not chuck it in the bin. I just need to be in the mood.

So that's it. My update. Sorry I've been off the radar a bit recently. I have been visiting you all, just quietly. But now I'm back.

Obviously when I have a moment from being addicted to watching I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here. How did Janice Dickinson EVER get to be a model????????????

Help!!! AKA Mini Giveaway

I seem to have lost my knitting mojo a little recently. Now, then I had a thought. Yesterday, the thing on my side bar showed that 51 people visited my little abode here in blogland. So I had an idea.

If you visit here, could you leave me a teency weency little comment telling me any idea you have to try and get my mojo back? It could be a joke, a good pattern, a great picture, anything really. I mean, you're here anyway, aren't you?

I'll be so grateful that I'll reward one of the commentors with a little gift from my stash of many beautiful things.

I'll be waiting up until Sunday at midnight.

Thank you, my blogland friends.

Contest at Cass' Place

Hey, go on over to Cass' blog! She's having a competition to celebrate her 333rd post. Lots of lovely prizes to be won. All you have to do is tell her your 3 favourite knitterly things.

PS Don't forget to tell her who sent you and I get another entry. Thank you!

Blankets for Africa

Seems an age since I posted, nearly a week. I have been reading, but my MIL has been staying. She went home yesterday and it was hard to do anything I normally do while she was here. Anyway, I'm back.

I had some awful news last week, too. Not so awful for me, but for one of my best and oldest friends. We went through chemo close together some 17 years ago, and last week, she found out, thanks to the treatment the first time around, she has breast cancer. I know without the treatment we wouldn't be here, but it's a bit of a sick joke, if you ask me. And ironic that it was pink month. Oh well, she is a real fighter and I'm sure in my heart all will be fine with her in the end. It's just a real fuck that she has to go through it all again. I just hope the anti sickness drugs are better these days, as that was the worst thing about chemo. Losing your hair is a breeze compared to that.

On a more cheerful note, she sent me a picture of what the 78 balls from my loft turned into!!!

Check out the ladies' work!


Not much to report on the knitting front. Both my silver belle and my argosy scarf hit a mistake and I just am not in the right zone mentally to pick them up and work out what's gone wrong. I am hoping to get some sort of knitting mojo back today maybe.

I'll post some pictures of them when I've sorted them out!

Right, back to humdrum.......