Harrogate

Well I have finally managed to get everything photographed and the blog completed so here we have my Harrogate purchases.



The green yarn is Scottish 3 ply chunky that I bought from Jamieson & Smith shetland wool. I bought a kilo of this. The hook is a Tunisian crochet hook. Yvonne taught me the base stitch last night and using my Harmony guide I played around with the knit stitch and purl stitch. I had a play on the train this morning and decided that I'd get a proper hook and take it from there. I did see a stitch library book today but decided that I didn't really need it at this stage - being restrained there!



This is gold/purple stripped braid. I'm intending to use it in conjunction with some black chenille for a top for somebody I know. I'm planning on using it as a contrast around the neckline for an evening-type piece for her. I've yet to find the pattern for her as she is a 52" bust.



This is the next of my purchases. It's a hank of 100% baby alpaca fleece yarn. Its all for me !!!!! I intend to make a simple scarf, not sure whether I'll be doing it in garter or in stocking stitch for speed as its definitely cold! If I had found it earlier I would have bought a larger size tunisian hook and created it that way. (Yvonne what have you started?)



Next up we have this blue/black wool. I intend to make something with it (not allowed to say what as I'll be shot!)



Here we have a collection of buttons I bought. The majority of them are cat. The two large circular buttons on the card in the middle are pawprint buttons and the two at the bottom left hand corner are mice buttons.



I was given this button by somebody who is really nice. I'm not going to combine it with the other buttons on my scarf though but am going to have to wait until I find the right thing before I sew it on.



After Beverley's gift to me last week I also decided to get a ball of green so I got this.



A couple of balls of Patons Symphony that I was given by the ladies on the Patons stand.



And this is a present from the delightful(!) Yvonne. Need I say more about this one?



Knitting For Beginners. I know I am far from being a beginner but Sasha was kind enough to give me a tutorial on Intarsia and as she was kind enough to offer to sign it as well I didn't want to say no!



Here we have two balls of Foxy. I've decided to sucumb to the Alan Dart Xmas Gnomes.

Also pictured is a ball of Jaeger Como. I bought 500g of this in a terracotta colour. The ball on the right is Elizabeth Lavold in a burnt orange. They're both of a similar gauge so I'll be combining them to make myself a jumper. I've yet to look for a pattern so no rush in making it.



I stopped by one of the alpaca stalls and this happened to catch my eye. I am very torn between giving it to a friend for Xmas as she collects bears or to keep it safe and warm and snug on my spare bed - who am I trying to kid!!



And just to prove that cats just wanna have fun!

To buy or not to buy

That was the question at Harrogate!

Harrogate Day 4

Well I am back at Base Fred with all my goodies I've bought. I'll post pictures and full blurb later but just suffice to say for now that I had a nice time and enjoyed myself. I learnt Tunisian crochet for the first time last night and ended up teaching people today!!

Harrogate Day 2 - Oh Dear

Well here I am, back at home after a second full day of helping out at Harrogate. I'm not going to post anything about my experiences until after Sunday (that way Yvonne can't thump me ;-)) but suffice to say that I've come home completely empty-handed in the way of acquisitions!!

oooooooooo pressies

I got into work on Tuesday and walking past the postal pigeon holes happened to notice a parcel addressed to me so quickly nabbed it and walked through to my desk. When I opened it up I firstly found this card after someone has been reading my blog about Christmas cake baking (btw they still need to be marzipaned and am going to need to do tomorrow night as Harrogate beckons).


The other part of the parcel was this:

Obviously someone has been reading my SP questionnaire. It was in fact
Beverley . In exchange for all the delightful (yeah right!) Dune she felt she needed to give me something. I've never knitted socks before and Yvonne was wearing some made from Opal herself today at Harrogate and it feels quite nice to the touch so I will be looking to make them between the cargo jumper (I will post update pictures when I finish front and back) and the chunky jumper.

Well better late than never

I thought I'd better put a post on here as its been two weeks since my last. It just seems that work has been so time-demanding on me that a few things have had to suffer.

I've managed to finish making all my Christmas cakes. I was going to marzipan them this weekend. I got the marzipan for all 7 yesterday. Got them out to do and then realised that I had not bought any apricot jam for the glaze!!

I went and saw Harry Potter & Goblet of Fire yesterday as well. Got there slightly late but fortunately it was still on the trailers and the main movie had not started. Really enjoyed it and found it a lot better than the last one (Prisoner of Azkaban) as I had found that a chore to watch. I knew that there were several things that had been deleted prior to watching it already but as JKR was involved in the film knew that anything left in would likely to be of relevance to the storyline. I will say though that I didn't like the way they had portrayed Fleur.

Cargo Jumper
A couple of people have asked me recently how this is coming on. Unfortunately with work having had such a demand on my time I've not been able to touch it. I have howevere made up for it today. I've got to the point where I had to drop 1/3 of the stitches for the loop effect so at least this time I know the lengths will definitely be even and won't find myself having to frog it yet again.

This has put paid though to my having it ready for Harrogate on Thursday.

I've also decided that when I go to Harrogate I'll be knitting a carpet draught excluder snake. The way I was thinking of doing it was to knit two separate sections and intertwine them at separate sections so as to create a quilted type effect and stuff each of these pockets with stuffing as well as the main tube. I'd planned to do them on double-ended needles and so pass the stitch on one needle through the stitches on the other needle when I got to the change over section. I hope that makes sense to whoever is reading this as I know what I mean!

Secret Pal
Well I do have to say that my SP has been somewhat quiet for the past couple of weeks. I did get an e-mail from her saying that something was on the way the following week but unfortunately I've not heard anything else from her since either by way of an e-mail or a parcel. SP if you are reading these please let me know you are still out there!

Cakes - woohoo!!

Well I've finished all my cakes that I needed to make including the Xmas tree shaped one. I don't know exactly how that has turned out as it is still baking away at the moment and will be until 1.45am. I think I may turn the oven off early and let it bake in its own heat.

On the knitting side. I have restarted the cargo jumper and now the back and front being worked at the same time. It is a bit crowded on the needles at the moment but I need to work 12cm then I can drop 1/3 of the stitches so things will improve. I haven't checked on the pattern but boy do I hope the sleeves call for less stitches.