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I had a wonderful time over the past two days. Meeting new friends and seeing old ones again. I bought plenty of stash enhancements and here there all are being inspected by Cairo and Lara.

Because of living locally I didn't bother staying at the youth hostel but rather walked over the yorkshire moors and met everybody at Coldspring Mill. I got a couple of things here but can't mention them as they are Secret Pal related 8-X. After everybody deprived Coldspring of a fair chunk of yarn we moved on to The Skep. There was yarn galore here and I got all of these at 1p a gramme:



I bought some green/brown mohair type yarn, the red/blue sock yarn and 400g green alpaca. The alpaca almost caused a needle fight at 20 paces between me and Nic as she is also a green fan.

I also bought 2 material panels showing a hunting scene with 3 labradors but I have put them away and can't remember where. However, I have yet to decide exactly what to do with them to show them off at their best so no great loss at the moment.

We then stopped off at ye olde public house for a quick medicinal beverage before moving on to Bombay Stores. I didn't get anything here but did remember too late that I could have got some fisherman trousers but as I am local I can pop back at a later stage. Then we moved on to the Knitting & Crochet Guild where we got to see some of the marvellous pieces of knitting/crochet work they have in their "archives". This of course was after demolishing the yarn mountain they have. I got all the following goodies:


Approx 600g of Patons Symphony in green. I've found this in my local Hobbycraft but not in green so pounced on it straight away. I also got 4 balls of Jaeger merino and 50g baby merino, 50g rowan cork and 2 twists of what I've been assured is Rowan (1 pink/cream mixed and 1 green/brown mixed).

I also picked up a knitting pattern for a nice shawl that I'll be making for my MIL once I've managed to get the right blue lace weight yarn to make it in. After this shopping experience everybody went back to base for dinner, knitting and general social entertainment.

Sunday morning saw me at the hostel nice and bright and early. We all drove off to Wingham Wools. As I'm not a spinner I was a bit limited in what I could purchase but I did somehow manage to acquire these goodies:

500g of green and 100g of cream which will make something!

A hank of green, khaki and cream yarn. A hank of blue/green yarn. It was only after I made these purchases that some nice lady (well has to be a lady as I was the only feller!) made the comment about having to wind the hanks into balls what I had got on my hands. For some inescapable reason it had completely elluded me!

And I got this for MM so MM didn't feel left out despite having been invited to join on the jaunt:



I want to say a special thank you to Lixie and Nic for making the entire weekend possible and to everyone else who also came for making it enjoyable.

Giving Up - Part 2

Don't worry I'm not serious about giving up. It was just a venting of frustration with the outcome of following the pattern and my getting it wrong.

Giving Up

I think I'm going to give up knitting. I've been trying to do the baby jumper with the simple cable featured earlier in my blog and I keep making silly mistakes. Think perhaps I need to stick to scarfs :(

Secret Pal Goodies

Well I had a really nice time at Brighton. Met lots of new people and taught several to crochet and I think one Tunisian crochet. The down side of it is that the hotel I was staying at was opposite a pub who had their bottle banks emptied at 6am - so much for layins!

Anyway on the upside I got home Sunday night to find this waiting for me:

MY FIRST SECRET PAL SEVEN PARCEL!!!

You can't make out the postal mark but it has come all the way from China. My SP emailed me saying that there had been a big holiday weekend and that explains why because it was the Chinese New Year.



Here is the parcel opened and being duly inspected by Lara. Anybody would think there was something in there for her.



And there was. Some cat treats for Lara and Cairo and an envelope.



There were also these mango pieces for Dobby and Winky.



Some guava pieces - also for Dobby and Winky.

A pot of Little Kitty nibbly things. I've yet to open them but am assuming these are for me and some milk tea.



Now these are definitely munchies for me. I think the curly sticks are like fortune cookies (and I love those!) and Little Kitty choccies - hmmmmmm chocolate.



Here we have my hand being kept nice and warm by a friendly little lucky dragon.



My SP also popped in this hand-made card containg a nice note. I am not sure but I think the flower is a violet - am I right SP??



And then the icing on the cake. Olive(y) green alpaca. I think I'm going to use it alongside the black I bought last November at Harrogate and add a contrast stripe. I am not sure yet whether I'll work that vertically or horizontally. Would I suit a curly-whirly is the other question? Either way when it is finished I'll be sewing on my cat button that I was discussing at the weekend.

Is It Just Me?

Sorry folks no SP pressie updates at the moment. Blogger is refusing to allow me to upload pics :(

Work is also rather hectic and I feel like I'm juggling the balls from one of those bouncy castles which are filled with plastic balls so all in all having a naff time after a great weekened.

Secret Pal Goodies & Brighton - Part 1

I've only just landed back home agian from Brighton where I was helping out at the Knit and Natter stand. I did buy some goodies there but only toys no wool!!

I got home and found myself with a box of goodies from my Secret Pal. I've taken pictures and I'll be posting properly on both things tomorrow. But have to say thanks SP :)

Sunday Post - UPDATED

Well this is my latest project. I'm using Sirdar Snuggly to make it with in a peach colouring. The one thing that I really must be careful of is to remember that as it is for a baby I need to measure the work more often rather than work double the length and then realise I need to frog.

This is going to be rather short and jumbled post but rather that than nothing at all. I'll correct myself tomorrow when I got my brain untired again:

Well the recipient of the cargo jumper loves it. I'm taking it with me to Brighton to show off and then formally handing it over to her on the Monday so will take pictures of her wearing it and posting it then.

Finally finished a tension square with sirdar baby wool so chocks away baby clothes here we come.

Off to Brighton on Thursday evening and not back until Sunday. Am chatting to people in the vicinity and think I'll try and knit a pair of thermal undies in between times.

Am off to local group on Tuesday night so this week is very knitting oriented.

Last night went out for a dinner with some of the secretaries from work. Went to a Lebanese restaurant and is rather similar to Greek.

Am considering getting some storage space at one of these storage warehouses to deal with the blocked in feeling I've got at the moment. One thing that will not be sent off is the yarn. The idea is that as I wade through stuff then I'll gradually empty the storage spacce although I think may be better to just wade through everything then bring some more in that way at least I can see it decreasing even though it gets depressing when it fills up again. Least I can say that I am better than some people!