My Postman is called Brian

..and we are on first name terms these days! Look at what he brought me this morning...




It's my blogoversary package from Stacey!!! Thank you so much, Stacey! You have sent me some gorgeous gifts. Malabrigo in 2 colours, some stickies and a notepad. Anyone who knits must always have a pretty notepad to keep a track or rows, I am using the sheet Juliet is printed on to keep track of that particular project (nearly finished now..), but now I have a posh pad. It makes me a better and more professional knitter, I am sure.

Close up of the yarn..


What gorgeous colours and the texture, well, you could eat that Malabrigoness.

I am off to have a look on Ravelry now to see what I can knit with it!!

Thank you Stacey! And thank you Brian. (He always gives Flossie a biscuit when he calls! I wish he'd give me one too, a chocolate one.....)

Portia

A day later than promised, here is my other cast on this week. It's Rowan's Portia from the Studio Issue 4.

Although it is featured knitted up in kidsilk haze, I find that yarn really itchy, so decided to do it in Debbie Bliss 100% silk. It's a nightmare to knit with, really slippery, especially as I am on circs, but I am planning to change to straights. The silk is a dream, really soft and...silky!!!!

Here's the colour I am knitting in


Yeah, yeah, I know it's green, but I love green and green loves me!

I have a busy weekend ahead.....a wedding, a 70th birthday and a christening. See you on the other side, enjoy whatever you're doing!

Still Knitting!

Sorry for the absence of any posting over the last couple of weeks. Lily only just went back to school and then it was Rob's birthweek. (week, not day, you understand!) He took a few days off and it was nice to spend some time with him, and we ate out a lot, not that I needed any excuse to do that! Over the weekend, we had a load of Northern people descend and I think there were people sleeping in every room in my house! We had a fantastic time on Saturday night, which all out friends and family came to, at a Turkish meze restaurant. When the belly dancer came out, she gave Rob a jingly scarf to wrap around him and dance with, and he did fantastically!!!!

Can I just point out, he undid his shirt to dance, he doesn't normally wear it like that!!! (Medallion man!!)
It was so funny. He did get a little carried away with a group of elderly people who were on a nearby table, there a video here if you want to check it out, but the lady he wrapped himself around said it had been a long time since she had had such young flesh next to her, and that he had made an old woman very happy!!!! I think she made him happy too, calling him young on his 40th!! A few people in our party looked a little horrified when he was dancing, but he is such a charming person, he can normally get out of sticky situations!!!! (Not that I'm biased!!)

I received my package from Louise at Dreamcatcher last week.

Wow, she sent me some cool stuff.

The yarn is such a beautiful colour and I love the bag, which will be great for travelling sock projects.


And as for the chocolate, well, I'll tell you how nice that was after my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow!!!!

On the knitting front, my Juliet is coming along slowly but surely. In the end, after my dilemma,and thank you for all your advice, I took the whole lot off the needles, rewound and started again. I am doing the same size (s) but in 6.5mm instead of 6mm. It seems to have made the necessary difference. I haven't tried this one on yet. I don't dare. I went to bed at 5am on Saturday night, and I must be getting old, as I cannot keep my eyes open!! So knitting is limited to about 3 rows in an evening, but I am hoping to speed up.



I have bought some Debbie Bliss pure silk too, in lime green, which has been cast on for a jumper/wrap, but more of that tomorrrow.....

My Juliet Dilemna

Hmmmm. I tried this on this afternoon to see where to start the lace. Now...I'm not sure if the front is wide enough to accommodate my boobs, if it will look ok gaping if not, or whether to stop now, and go back and start again with a bigger size. I know there's 5" negative ease in this pattern and I am making the S size because of that, but I'm not sure what to do.

I absolutely love love love the colour. And it is really soft. And surprisingly warm. Maybe I should stop it now as a shrug...

Oh, excuse the rubbishy dark photo, taken in haste by a revising daughter!

My Juliet, 1/3 done

I love this. It knits up like magic. No sewing up, no picking up of stitches, it's definitely my kind of knitting! I like the colour, which isn't green, for a change! and the yarn isn't too bad to knit up either, remember it's partly sssshhhh..acrylic....but it is wrecking my fingers. It doesn't glide on the needle like a natural fibre, I have to keep pushing it on with my index fingers and I am going to have a permanent reminder of this knit, I think!

Lily tried it on for me last night after the sleeves had been finished and we both thought it would be nice as a little shrug without the bottom lace part. You could even make the fronts wider and put in button holes for a variation on a design. Just a thought! Quick to kit too, which is a bonus.

I'm waiting in this afternoon for Rob's birthday present and the shopping to be delivered. The house is tidy, the irning is done, I have nothing else to do but (hopefully) finish my Juliet!

Some Progress...

I didn't realise it has been a week since my last post! What with it being the Easter hols for another week, time sort of stands still and all reality is suspended!

I did, this week, win Stacey's blogoversary competition and the prize is some Malabrigo...can't wait to get that! Then, I had an email from Louise at Dreamcatcher to say I had won a competition over at her place too!!!! How exciting is that! I love getting parcels too!

Knittingwise, I have been swatching for Juliet, trying desperately to be able to knit her in the Cascade 220 that I bought, but I had to admit that it just wasn't going to happen. So I went on a shopping spree for new clothes on Friday as I am now a completely different size to most of my old clothes (yay!) and of course incorporated a small yarn spree as well! Rude not to! I couldn't find anything that would let me knit on 6mm max needles (as anything larger makes me feel like I am knitting with wooden spoons), apart from this yarn. YARN SNOBS LOOK AWAY AT THIS POINT.



It is a nice colour, BUT, it is mainly acrylic. OK, there I said it. ACRYLIC. My name's Liz and I'm knitting in acrylic (with a bit of wool). I'll let you know how I get on and if I get friction burns........

I'm also knitting this


It's this pattern


but I have to say, the yarn I'm using, which is the Drops recommended Eskimo, is really unwieldy, and stiff, and each row is a battle between me, the needles and the yarn, and last night I realised that I had done the second cable row 3 rows too early. GRRRRRRRRRR! And it is NOT the easiest stuff to unpick. It meshes together like a fluffy hairdo and I am expecting trouble. Best not to do it when I'm tired I think!

Whilst on my shopping trip, I suddenly had an urge to knit some more socks, and, seeing as I have never knitted any for myself, I bought some gorgeous socky yarn



so I shall be looking for a nice toe up pattern to get on with. All suggestions gratefully received!

I hope the weather where you are hasn't been as unpredictable as here. We had summertime type weather last week and snow this weekend. Marvellous. As long as it's hot from June onwards, it can do what the hell it likes until then!!

Back later with a Juliet update.