The frogging blues...

I frogged an entire shrug today. I don’t want to talk about it but I’m feeling a bit blue, there is something about a freshly rolled ball of wool with that crimped “I almost was something" texture that just brings tears to my eyes. My knitting just doesn’t seem to be going that well at the moment. The lace is going very slowly.

To get myself out of this knitting slump I decided to make a knitting spreadsheet of all my stash and all the projects I want to make (following Dreamcatcher‘s good example). Happily there is a large overlap between the yarn and the projects so hopefully there will be some more interesting knitting news coming up.

At least today is Clever Monkey’s birthday and that makes me very cheerful. Here is a picture of the cake I just made. Plus I’m making his favourite homemade lamb and coriander burgers tonight. Then we will be watching X-Men 2. Tonight is truly an evening of high culture!

By the way any ideas of what to do with a rather fuzzy, crumpled looking ball of Rowan Polar would be appreciated. :-(

A long week...

It has been a long week. The Government Department which I work in has had an almost complete change of ministerial team in Tony Blair’s latest reshuffle and that has meant all of us civil servants running around like headless chickens trying to bring the new team up to date. So I’m afraid that I haven’t had the energy to post this week. But I have been reading everyone else’s posts to get my knitting fix - parasite that I am!

Anyway, I thought I would update you on my first Print of the Waves stole (pattern by Eunny Jang ). I have managed 8 repeats this week. Not much I know but I have also almost finished a shrug in Polar. I’m knitting the stole with cobweb weight yarn and 2mm needles. It is like knitting dental floss with toothpicks! But I also have to say that this is a very enjoyable knit, it feels like a real challenge after some of the easier patterns I’ve been doing lately. I included the needles from my shrugs in the picture above just to show how truly tiny the 2mms are!

The blue threads that are running across are the lace knitting equivalent of safety nets. After every repeat I thread a piece of sewing cotton through all the stitches on the needle. This means that if I make any mistakes or drop any stitches I never have to undo more than one repeat. It makes it easier because with all the yarnovers you use in lace it is incredible hard to pick up a row if you start to undo it. By the way, if you decide to try this too, make sure you thread the cotton through the stitches using the eye-end of the sewing needle first, that way you are more likely to go straight through the centre of the stitch rather than the wool. It also makes it easier to count the number of repeats you’ve done.

Weight Watchers for wool? Wool Watchers...?

I’m so ashamed of myself. Yarn greed got the better of me…


My cashmere/silk cobweb weight yarn arrived from Posh Yarn. Soon to be two of Eunny's Print o'the wave stoles. (Very quick service from Posh Yarns and beautifully packaged by the way). The colours are raspberry and ivory. Although I would describe it more as strawberry than raspberry now that I’ve seen it in the flesh.


The other day I happened to be reading Ysolda'sand she had just been shopping at the Cucumberpatch. Nice, I thought but carried on reading, then I saw her photo and she had bought Rowan Polar. How could I resist? I’d been wanting some for ages.

When I checked out the Cucumerpatch website they had LOADS of really great Rowan wool in their sale. So I bought some Rowanspun chunky too! The polar is going to be turned into
two shrugs and the polar is going to be a comfy stay at home jumper for me in the autumn.

Cucumberpatch were also very quick at delivering, plus they gave me a free sew-on Rowan label! I’ve seen a few of these for sale on various sites now. What do you think of the idea? My husband wants me to sew it on his jumper I made him because he keeps wearing it back to front…

I know this is a terrible photo but I haven’t managed to get a better one yet but I will by the end of the weekend. This is my Debbie Bliss Pure Silk top . I’ll tell you more about how it was to knit when I have some better photos.

I joined the lace KAL

This means I'm definitely going to be knitting the Print o'the wave stole next. I just wish my wool wasn't currently sitting in the local post office waiting for me...

Print O'The Wave

I’m feeling very happy at the moment, yesterday I found out that one of my best friends is getting married (she was one of my bridesmaids if you’ve looked at my wedding photos). I’m so happy for her and her fiance! He is really lovely and they make such a great couple. Apparently he jetted her off to Italy on a surprise holiday and gave her with a beautiful pear-shaped diamond ring. How romantic is that?
Anyway, I’ve decided that I want to make her an engagement present and my plan is to make Eunny’s Print O'the Wave stole. I’ve ordered some ivory cobweb weight yarn from Posh Yarns(I’ve also ordered some in raspberry because if I enjoy making it I’m going to make my Gran one too).
Anyway, this does mean that I am going to take a brief break from my sweater/top challenge of one a month but never mind - how long can a couple of stoles take :-)
I’m thinking of joining the Amazing Lace KAL, has anyone else joined up?
I really want to post some pictures of my finished April and May projects but blogger won't let me. I hope that it will be behaving itself by tomorrow.