On and off the needles

It has recently been mentioned (and quite rightly too) that there hasn’t been much of my knitting on the blog lately – so there was I making excuses about not having done much, being busy with other things etc etc but when I actually stopped and thought about it, it isn’t really the case.

I think subconsciously, because they have all been small and simple makes that I have mainly popped away to be packed and posted to their respective charities, I didn’t expect anyone to be interested, maybe I am wrong (or maybe not) but anyway here is a round up of the latest knits off the needle.


At the top are two hats that I made up as I went along (and intend to write up the ‘recipe’ at some point). Moving round there are 3 squares for KAS (that black Wendy Party was some funny stuff to knit with!) there is a ‘Fish and Chip baby’ sweater and the little thing in the middle is an Angel Clare bodywarmer .


And finally my March square for the Bakers Dozen, lace leaf stitch in keeping with my theme (linked to me living in The Garden of England).



Then I thought I’d have a look at what was on the needles, I'm ignoring the mitred blanket languishing in the corner and the Babette crocheted blanket hiding under the desk which are more UFOs than WIPs – but to my surprise I still found 4 things though since I am working on all of them quite why it took me by surprise I have no idea.


Top left there is my simple charity sweater using the Fish and Chip baby sweater idea but with quite a few amendments, which again I will write up if it works, top right a shawl from the lovely Aysen that Rhonda sent me, bottom right is Mayflower’s lazy weekend cardigan from Loving Hands and bottom left is the Cable and Lace phone sock that I cast on at the weekend (well I bought a new phone on Friday so what else was I to do)


And then having put them all away in their relevant places (bedside cabinet, workroom, downstairs and handbag) I suddenly remembered my Hitchhiker – how could I forget it because hopefully as you will see from the heart shape it arranged itself when I tipped it out of the bag…


I love it!

A small act of kindness....

The other day a colleague and I were joking about how having new stationary is still fun and makes us cheerful even at our age and, reminiscing about new pencil cases etc for school, she showed me the pack of pens that she had just bought which I said were great and just the shape (and bright colours) pens should be.

The next day we were both in a meeting, which became a bit contentious and I quite clearly didn't hide my emotions as well as I thought I had, because afterwards she came to offer any help she could with the problem - and to give me one of her new pens "to cheer me up as she didn't like to see me upset"
Now I know it is only a pen, don't get me wrong, but at the risk of sounding rather sentimental, it's far more than that - every time I write with it, it reminds me that someone cares and has made me think how small acts of kindness can mean such a lot.

All that yarn

.. and I didn't buy a single skein!

Last weekend I went to Unravel - a bit of a hike round the M25 for me, but I'd never been before and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and besides there were some interesting workshops on offer. The journey was quite easy until the end when foolishly instead of listening to my satnav, I tried to follow the Unravel signs and took a couple of trips round Farnham's one way system before acknowledging that they were taking me in ever decreasing circles and back out again where as, on this occasion the satnav actually did know better.

Anyway, I had a very enjoyable day wandering round the stands that were in umpteen different rooms and squishing yarn,
I saw some real sheep

and a knitted one


Met up with Noo, Jessica, Franney and Wildpurl from CTnY which was so nice after having chatted on the forum for so long, went to help at the UK Handknitting stand, though my services weren't required as it was so quiet, so I had an extra browse, but even then I only came away with some Knitpicks interchangeables - I think there was so much lovely yarn I became 'wool blind'.

The workshop I had chosen was called "Entrelac + Beyond" with Alison Ellen, I've often looked at entrelac with interest, I once did the first row of blocks but that's as far as it went, and I now realise that the instructions I used were not clear. Anyway, I've 'got' it now, and have a little sample to prove it

Though I'm not sure I will be in a hurry to do anymore, at least I now know how!