Instagram Get Your Yarn Wishes Granted

Whilst my social media presence has declined to practically none existent over the last few years (I really should attempt a blog post of mental illness) I find that Instagram is by far the easiest to keep up with.   My feed is generally knitting and yarn related and it's much easier to snap a photo of a new skein of yarn or a WIP with my iPhone than worry about posting yet another miserable Facebook status.   

The Instagram #getyouryarnwishes hash tag was endearing to watch last year as knitters granted wishes of skeins, patterns or notions to, quite often, complete strangers.  This year I decided I'd participate and sent out several skeins, needles and Ravelry patterns from Wish Lists.  It was completely heart warming and uplifting - one of those truly warm, fuzzy moments!  As well as granting wishes I was also extremely lucky as I had several wishes granted myself.  

First up I received this fabulous speckled skein of sock yarn "Monsters Ball"  from the lovely Tracy at Norah George.  It's beautifully soft and I'm already browsing for the perfect project as well as lusting over lots of her yarn!

Secondly was my request for grey fingering/sock weight yarn - I realised whilst stash diving for yarn for a hat that I really don't have much grey in my stash despite it being a colour I am really drawn to at the moment, especially for accessories.  I most certainly didn't expect to receive such a luscious skein of DyeForYarn Merino/Silk in a perfect shade "Dolphin in my Bath Tub"

Next up (yes, I am a lucky, lucky girl!) is a skein that flew insanely quickly over from Canada!  I sadly miss out on many none UK indie dyers as I get charged customs on all parcels (the joy of once running a WAHM business that imported goods from the US!) so I was extra excited to get a skein of stunning Satchel from Mrs Crosby in Scarlet Ibis.

Last but by no means least, I was gifted the skein of custom self striping I had on order with British Bea Knits.  Even more perfect that it's called Nyree Dawn hehe!  Sparkle Sock in a self striping black - hot pink - black - lime green!  What's not to completely LOVE!

Procrastination and Castonitis!

The last couple of months have flown by in such a blur of noise and...well noise!  Despite not actually doing much of note I also don't seem to have achieved much and I think this year has very much been my year of procrastination! 

Procrastination and castonitis - I just can't help myself - I have SO many planned projects and SO much gorgeous yarn that I keep casting on new things :-/

As it's definitely become hat weather again, I whipped up a new beanie for Vaughan.  I've had this VERY bright SMC Merino in the stash just for him (with some equally colourful orange for Oliver) and at his request added some black stripes.

I have a matching pair of fingerless gloves on the needles for him too - the first just needs the thumb reworking (too small) and then I need to remember what I've knitted to make the second! 

In a moment of weakness I cast on the Aisling Shawl I'd planned in a gorgeous Truly Hooked OMFG Sparkle Blank and a skein of Five Moons Artemis 4Ply in Anthra.  I haven't got far but it's a fabulous combination.

I was lucky enough to test knit a gorgeous design hat last month which was promptly stolen by Rachael - currently no further news on the release but it's a fabulous cable pattern knit in Baby Alpaca DK.

Last month also marked another MKAL hosted by the fabulous Woolly Wormhead.  This time the pattern was revealed as Skelter and it was a hugely enjoyable, quick knit.  I chose a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in the Frank Ochre colourway and was really pleased that I didn't lose too much stitch definition using a singles yarn.

I've already cast on another Woolly Wormhead hat - this time the newly released and insanely gorgeous Rosalind which I'm making with Wollmeise Pure in Wasabi.

Other than hats I have knitted a couple more of the doomed Raspberry mitts!  Considering they were originally planned for the Fun Club (Home Ed group) sale last November and I still have 3 of the 10 gloves to knit...gloves which only take me a day each...I think we can safely say it's a project I'm putting off!  Rather like the huge green blanket which sits at the side of the sofa by my WIP basket, mocking me LOL! 

Of course, I have even more new projects planned - namely The Doodler by the awesome Stephen West!  All the WIP and FO pictures have changed my opinion on speckle/sprinkle dyed yarns and I have increasingly found myself drooling over skeins I would never have considered before.  I have a couple of skeins of neon Madelinetosh which I'm debating teaming with either a solid black or a speckle skein with lots of black and neon...I just haven't found the perfect skein yet but I definitely need no encouragement when it comes to spending far too much time window shopping for yarn instead of knitting. 

On that note...I'm off back to my needles!

An Update Post

Since I'm being forced to sit through the Merseyside Derby with the Husbeast I figured I'd do some virtual housekeeping and update my WIP's and the like since things are getting more settled here.

We finally handed back the keys to our old house a few weeks ago.  The move was hard work - not least because we did it all ourselves, slowly ferrying things over to the new house, filling the garage then taking everything upstairs.  As we have a Ford Galaxy it was quite easy to fit *most* things in with all the seats removed.  We did hire a man with a van company for our few really large things which was a complete farce but at least we got everything here in one piece.  Unfortunately we then found out that we couldn't fit our super king size divan upstairs so we have been sleeping on just the  mattress on the floor for a month - which Oliver (who still co-sleeps) found wonderful - me and Lee, not so much! 

It's most definitely a very different property to what we're used to!  We've been living detached with large gardens for the last 8+ years so moving to a three story town house in the city centre is VERY strange!  It's remarkably quiet though (no idea if our neighbours feel that way any more hehe) and we've fitted most of our essential things in (although I much preferred it when it was minimalist).  Thankfully we have been able to use a fabulous friends garage to store the rest as we no longer have the luxury of quite so much space and several out buildings we used to - I do very much miss the summer house although the garden here is very lovely and usable.

I still have my knitting though and I've even managed to finish a couple of things lately!  Excuse the iPhone only photos though as I have yet to dig out the DSLR.

First off are my elbow length fingerless gloves made with the gorgeous Fab Funky Fibres self striping yarn.  These were slower than usual as I was concocting the pattern as I went and then had to replicate it for the second glove from my half-arsed notes!

Not only are they very gorgeous, they only used 60g of the 108g skein I had so there should be enough for a shorter pair of gloves (or another long pair with solid coloured ribbing/thumbs). 

As the weather is on the turn with a definite autumnal nip in the air I decided to cast on a hat as a quick WIP. I have had a gorgeous skein of Babylonglegs Stellar DK in Wasabi (lime green, merino, silk, sparkle - what's not to love!) stashed for a Woolly Wormhead Castiel for ages and it seemed the perfect time to cast on.  

Otherwise, I am still working on my Avalanche sweater, which is slowly growing and gazing adoringly at my bag of new yarn from Yarndale which is all whispering at me to cast on more yumminess!

Yarndale 2015

After a rather knackering month of moving, this weekend was a very much needed break!  I'd booked on a coach trip to Yarndale with the fabulous Knit Nottingham and as it meant a very early start - single digits in the time and everything -  myself and Carla decided to make a weekend of it and stayed over in Nottingham the night before.  It's the first time I've been away since having Oliver (in fact it's only the second time I've been away since having kids other than when I was in hospital!) so it felt rather liberating!  After a cheeky Nando's where we were a good decade older than everyone else and an early night, we were out at 7 am to get breakfast (Starbucks for me and the beginning of my excess coffee consumption for the day) and catch the coach up to Yorkshire. 

A few hours later and we arrived.  It was all extremely exciting and I took a grand total of one photo!

The atmosphere was amazing and the five hours we were there were a whirlwind of fabulous people, yarn and fibre.  It was fantastic to meet the faces behind some of the brands and shops I have been using for years and to discover new dyers and yarns.  We bumped into a few old friends as well and it was just a fabulous experience all round!

Whilst I have no photos from the day I do have lots of my haul (albeit very badly lit as it's considerably overcast here at the moment!)  I went with only one specific skein in mind  - a dark grey sparkle sock - but came home with quite a few more.

Of course, I picked up the obligatory bag and pin but think I was quite restrained considered  I came home with half of my money still!

I wanted to pick up some fibre as I have none whatsoever in my stash at the moment.  There's 200g of the gorgeous Blue Spruce Merino/Zwartbles from the lovely John Arbon Textiles as well as 200g of Grass Green Merino (which perfectly matched my dress!), 100g of natural grey merino from Adelaide Walker and a gorgeous "Aspen Glade" Gradient Pack from Hilltop Cloud.

My yarn haul was considerably less restrained!

The gorgeous sock blank was actually a prize won at the Knit Nottingham 5th Birthday Bash dyed by the talented Truly Hooked.

Next on the bottom are two bloody AMAZING skeins from WooSheeps - I can see a huge amount of my yarn funds winging their way in the future!  The left is "Tom" in "Tequila" which is a huge 150g/600m skein of sparkle sock and the right is "Barry" in "Bubblegum" which again is a huge 150g/600m skein of SW Merino.  they just look sooooo good together!

I picked up a skein of Deeply Wicked from the ever lovely Jon at EasyKnits - "Pinky" matches my hair perfectly so it had to be done!  (Although I could not get an accurate colour representation photo at all!)  I adore solid coloured skeins so could easily have blown the budget!

Last but by no means least are a skein of Artemis 4Ply in "Anthra" from Five Moons - this was my must have skein of grey sparkle sock!  Again, I could have spent all day choosing solid coloured skeins especially the smaller 50g skeins (next year maybe hehe)

And my last purchase of the day was a "Stormy Rainbow" Sparkle Sock from Cuddlebums.

I seem to have a "thing" for sparkle sock, grey, pink and green!  If yarn storage wasn't such an issue at the moment (as in too much yarn rather than not enough storage) I would have indulged much more!  There are a few stalls I wish I'd gone back to - I really wanted some Eden Cottage Yarns and I also wanted some self striping sock but didn't find the perfect colour anywhere!  I have to say that after 5 hours I was really ready to go though - I'd had 7 shots of espresso to keep me going but I was very much exhausted!

 Yarndale 2016 is already scribbled in my diary!