Birmingham Part 2.5

Do you think this is enough to go away to a knitting show with??

Birmingham Part 2

Well today has been somewhat of a disastrous day.

Due to the lack of sleep I had Wednesday night I slept in later than I had intended to this morning. It wasn't too major just meant I was going to get to Birmingham for 11am. I get to train station and reach the barriers just as the doors on my train were closing so had an hour to wait for the next train. I did finally manage to arrive there though all in one piece. I did feel more productive in the work I did today though and showed several people how to do the crochet stitch I am using on the blanket and also finger knitting.

On the purchasing side I stopped off at Undy Yarns. I did make a joke to Yvonne when she posted it on UKHK about is that where you buy yarn for woolly bloomers! I think their website if you want to look is www.undyarns.com/co.uk. The result of my purchasing was this small bag of merino. It contains a smattering of several colours and will be put to good use when the wheel arrives.



With Yvonne's help I made some progress on the shawl this afternoon. For some reason it is the starting off that has caused the problems. The pattern says:

1. Crochet chain five stitches.
2. Pick up three stitches with knitting needle on the back of the loop of the crochet chains.
3. Knit these garter st for 6 rows. Pick up three stitches from the edge of the rows you've worked. Unpick the crochet chain and pick up the three stitches so you end up with 9 stitches on your needle.

For some reason it just did not seem to play ball for me until Yvonne showed me where I was going wrong. About 30 minutes later and I had reached to this point:



Now I wonder what my chances are for getting it finished before Sunday.....

Seriously though I am hoping that I will be able to finish it all completely in time to show off at the Bingley Show in August. I know this is still some way off but work always causes things to take a lot longer than they should do hence why I finally finished 11pm Wednesday night as opposed to 5pm!!

Birmingham Pt 1

Well after a 5.15am awakening I finally managed to get down to Birmingham all in one piece. Today passed really quickly as well!

I didn't get much knitting done at all. Someone who shall remain nameless but whose link I will post when I get home pressganged me into stall minding for Ziggy of lucet fame. He gave me a quick lesson and left me to it whilst he went and did his presentation in one of the forums. Within two minutes of his leaving I made a sale and was well pleased with myself. Unfortunately it was the only sale I made for him :(

I have made a few purchases today. I put some of the large lockable clover stitch markers from Taj Crafts. These are the kind people who sent BlueADT a spangly crochet hook for me. Also on the purchases for today was some Sirdar Domino DK in a navy blue with a royal blue fleck on it.



They did also have some pinkish tinged but I didn't like that so got the blue.

More posts to come!!

On the spinning wheel front Nickerjac has told me that I have won an Ashford Traditional. It is missing a piece but apparently it should be relatively easy enough to pick up. I am not too worried about this as I did only have to pay £36 for it!! I've got Monday off work as well to recuperate from this weekend so I feel a visit to Texere may well be in the offing.....

Stash Reduction

Well I'm gradually getting there. With being away last weekend at Olympia and this week being at Birmingham from Thursday - Sunday is taking longer than normal.

I am finding though that I am getting the problem of "oh I could just use this yarn for that project" but nevertheless I am being disciplined.

I have set myself two rules.

1. Do I have a project in mind for it. If it is a yes then it goes back in my stash containers. If it is a no then it goes to the rule two pile.

2. Was it a present from a friend (including secret pal). If it is a yes then it goes straight back into the stash containers as well.

If it fails to answer yes to either of the above rules then it goes straight in the pile to get rid.

Now you may think that I am being really good by such a mass clearout but I do have a confession here now. I won myself a spinning wheel on e-bay so I have got to make the room :0D

Thank You Knitting Fairies

I've been remiss of posting thank yous for the various packages that have landed on my doormat, including the latest of my SP. I am grateful for everything that has arrived but work has been so hectic (soon to change for the better) of late that I've not been in the mood for anything at all.

Wicked Stash Demolishment Plans

I recently joined up to take part in Stashalong. My initial thoughts were that I was going to take part for all three months as it wouldn't be too hard in spite of being at Birmingham until 2 April so I could take two of my three days in one go or just start two days later than everyone else.

However, I have come up with a more cunning plan. I've decided that all of my named yarn I'll list on e-bay as well as some of the unlisted yarn. If I don't have a specific project in mind, it's getting listed. If I have a project, it is going in a bag with a label and a deadline of when I'll be getting it done.

If anyone reading has a yearning for baby yarn then this is something I have in plenty so drop me a line and we'll settle off e-bay as will take me a while to get it all listed.

Hmmmmm an idea has spun

Well I was on the bus yesterday on my way to Coldspring (and came back empty handed I hasten to add). Looking out of the window I saw all the nice sheep, as you do. I then got thinking about the discussions on UKHK previously about farmers not being able to sell the fleece. As I was considering the other week about taking up spinning perhaps I could even go one step further. If I purchase the fleece locally I can then do whatever I need to do (with no idea of what I need to do) and then spin it, dye it and then can knit it. Well how better than that can you get!

Note To Self - Part 2

Make sure I remind myself not to buy stitch markers after receiving a free set with Simply Knitting last month!!

Stitch Markers

Note to self - I need to get some!

Secret Pal -Package 2

Rather late in posting this as my second parcel turned up on the Monday after SkipNorth but here we go:


This was the inside of the parcel.



First of all there was this hand drawn card of teapots.



Next were these dainty sauce dishes:



Then there were these nice leaf shape dishes:



Then to go with the above there were these two pairs of very nice chopsticks.



Although I must say we never seem to use chopsticks these days. I think more because I'm at work so much of an evening that we've tended to rely on convenience food which will be changing in the not too distant future so don't get disheartened over this SP!



My SP also included in the package this nicely decorated box. I'm intending to use it to store all of my crochet hooks in as it is just the right size!



Finally my SP put this yarn in. I'm not quite sure what it is - SP can you let me know? It is definitely nice for the touchy feely aspect so I may make a bear with it so I can take it to bed with me every night.

Thanks SP for a second great parcel. I reckon we should have to be committed to sending our SP a thank you present as well as all the ones they send us.

The Next Project

While I was the Knitting & Crochet Guild as part of SkipNorth weekend I picked up this pattern:




I'm intending on making it for my MIL. I do have to say that I am being rather brave as this will be my first lacework but I do not have a deadline to get it done for. However, while at my knitting group last night I was discussing it with the ladies there and decided that if I can finish it in time I will enter it in the art/crafts competition in the Bingley show in August. I'm working on the principle that:

a) It gives me five months
b) It is only a 178 row pattern (please note I'm not counting the fact it will be a huge number of stitches by the time I get to the final row or the border).
c) It uses less than 4oz/100g of yarn so is another reason that it will be a quick knit.

It is going to be done in blue as MIL likes blue. I have cheated and asked Yvonne to have a nosey around when she is at Glasgow for me. I wonder if I should have tried to make it during the Olympics.

Info for my SP

I tried the fishy stringy pieces with Lara and she munched away quite happily. Tried them with Cairo and he just turned his nose up in disgust. That's nothing new with him though as he will not touch anything resenbling meat and even with cat treats he is rather particular.

Mango/guava.
Again had another mixed reaction. Dobby and Winky both turned up their noses at the dried fruit but Titch was on them in a flash.