Enough is enough?

Last week I was hunting though my stash for one particular ball of yarn.  Now, my stash is in 3 locations - living room which is rather small, under the stairs which is a packed tub of sock yarn and upstairs where the majority resides.

Given that I hadn't seen the yarn kicking about the living room I reckoned it was upstairs but in which of the 4 tubs and numerous bags would it be in?

Taking a deep breath I got started. I tripped the first tub out....it's not there but ohhh look! I've been looking for that ball for ages!

Tub 2 was the same as was 3. By tub 4 I had a small pile of yarn beside me and still no sign of the pink merino I was after.

Now tub 4 is different from the others. This tub has a few project bags with yarn in them.

Heavenly weekend

I'll admit now that I completely forgot about the blog last week but I'm making up for it now.

I had a very happy knitting weekend. After a fun filled morning at the Mourne Archery Centre, the hubby and I took a dander round Newcastle. It was a lovely sunny day unlike this week

When in Newcastle I usually visit Margaret in her Wool Shop. I used to be in Newcastle on a monthly basis for the Archery but it's been over a year since we were last there. In that time Margaret has moved to bigger premises and it's like a TARDIS! The place is wall to wall yarn

On Sunday the knitters met up in a cafe in the city centre and we knitted and chatted all afternoon. I even managed to finish my 42nd ball for the year so I've decided to aim for 150.

The most astounding part of the weekend came late on Sunday afternoon after half the girls had left. I cast on a shawl. While this may not sound like an amazing thing, I have resisted the lure for many years.

I finally caved and cast on Pendulum with some Botany Lace in a nice strong blue. 3 days later it's still the same size as I've not worked on it at all!!

Finally, the knitting group is 9 years old this week so tomorrow we are have a swap...I'll take lots of pictures!

Grand day out

The hubby and I are currently relaxing in County Donegal.  To say it's been a traumatic few days would be an understatement.

We arrived on Saturday in torrential rain and flicked on the boiler only to be greeted by billowing smoke and a rumble only a sleeping giant would make.

Choosing to ignore that, I lit the fire - it took a good half hour before it would catch. But finally it did and, with tea in hand and the gentle rumbling in the background,  I put the TV on....only for a loud pop and the smell of smoke to issue from it. The TV died.

We decided a dvd free weekend was now on the cards...so yesterday we went on a wee drive around the coast.

And that's where the nice day ended.  We ended up with a flat tyre on the way back to the house and had to get a man out to change it for us...after all that stress I decided not to leave the house again  and just sat and knitted all night. 

I cheated

Last week I brought a pile of projects to knitting that needed their ends woven in.

Conveniently for me Helen had forgotten to lift her knitting so volunteered to do the ends. And so, we finally have finished things:

Just a note

I was going to blog last night as usual but I was in the middle of finishing the big blanket, and I decided that was a priority.

So while I'm off work tomorrow for St Patricks day I'll get the ends sorted and take some photos.

And finally....

Supersoft Aran

A while ago my (for all intents and purposes) sister in law asked me to knit a jumper for my nephew. They're a very knit-worthy bunch (they love their socks and hats) so without further ado, I rooted round my ravelry library and decided that Flax would be the perfect pattern. It was simple but with enough in it to keep me entertained.         Once the pattern was located, it was time for the yarn. Despite having loads of yarn, Aran/worsted weight is not something that I have in abundance. I was able to come up with one yarn option, Sirdar Supersoft Aran.

Nice stitches

Despite what the yarn says, its not that soft never mind supersoft. Its 100% acrylic so what did I expect. It does have a nice stitch definition though so its got that going for it.  So anyway, I cast on age 2-4 and knitted merrily and contently.

ta da!

The sleeves took longer than they should have -  I seem to have an irrational fear of knitting sleeves in the round, particularly on something thats relatively tiny. I eventually got there with some moral support and, in a flash, the jumper was done.

The next step was to wrestle it on the nephew to see how it fitted. After a lot of struggling (have you every tried to put a jumper on a sick toddler) it was decided that it needed two things - a stretchier cast off and to be an inch longer.

Poor little flax

Poor little Flax, this is the "before picture", before I took scissors to the bottom of it and cut off the cast off. The ribbed was unravelled and that I knitted that into the body to lengthen it. Then the rib was redone.

Finally (again) little Flax was done and, following a spin in the washing machine, it was ready to be given to its new owner.

happy new owner

Remember earlier I said that the yarn was far from soft, well the trip in the machine did wonders for it. It didn't become "supersoft" but it certainly did soften up. Its a jumper thats ready for some rough play with an adventurous toddler and it'll hopefully do him for a year or so.

The jumper seems to fit the nephew well and so, in true auntie fashion, I've started another one for him in Cascade 220 in a nice teal/blue. Hopefully the sleeves won't be an issue for me this time.

Bleugh