Thursday, June 21, 2007

First Target reached!

I have met the first target on my self-imposed stash diet!

Way back in March I decided to not buy any more yarn until I lost two stone. Very quickly I re-assessed that target to one stone, to make it a bit more achievable. Which is just as well as it's taken me THREE MONTHS to lose my first stone. This last week I have had a bit of help as I enrolled in a trial programme at my local pharmacy, which involves going each week for five weeks, then fortnightly for the next ten. Lots of healthy eating advice and NO DIETS. I had my weigh-in this morning and had lost 3 kilograms which takes me nicely to my target.

So pass the credit card till I get me some yarn.......not quite. I have decided to wait till after my weigh-in next week to see that I have maintained the loss before allowing myself to make any purchases. It'll give me time to have a browse through my patterns and decided what i want to make next.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Knitting Lace Course

I went along last weekend to a Knitting Lace course at Twist Fibre Craft Studio, Newburgh, Fife.

I've never been to a knitting course or lesson before, I learned the basics from my Mum and Gran when I was wee and have picked up other techniques myself through books and the Internet. So I was feeling a bit apprehensive before going along - what if I was doing it all wrong?

There were only 3 of us doing the course which meant we were all able to get a good look at what our tutor was demonstrating. We knitted 3 different lace patterns over the two hours, changing yarn each time. There wasn't huge amounts of chat but when you're knitting lace you really have to concentrate.

The most important thing I got out of the course was that all this time I actually was doing it properly. Although I've not attempted any huge pieces of complicated lace, I've knitted lace in lots of patterns over the years, it's just that I didn't think of them as lace. The prospect of tackling a large shawl or stole doesn't faze me now!

I would highly recommend this workshop and it's worth going to Newburgh just to have a look in the Twist Fibre Shop. It's not the biggest but it is crammed full of loads of desirable yarn - Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Noro, Opal were the ones that jumped out at me but I'm sure they stock others too.

Two of the books I looked at during the workshop are definitely wish list items - Heirloom Knitting and Victorian Lace Today. Both very detailed with gorgeous patterns.

Secret Santa Parcel

Here's what I got from yunaleska
Yarn - 2 balls of Sirdar Click, 2 balls of Sirdar Luxury Soft 4 ply, 2 balls of Patons Sorbet.
Goodies - Mint chocloate, lip salve and notebooks.

Lovely!

Monday, June 11, 2007

It's the middle of summer so - Time for scarves!

Still using up my stash so no better way then knitting scarves! When I got in the car today the temperature indicator said 35 degrees but it had been sitting in the sun. As we moved off it dropped down to 23 degrees but that's still very hot for here. So I feel a bit daft knitting scarves but hey, I'll get ahead of myself for Christmas!

This is knitted in cheapo eyelash yarn, which I picked up for £1 a ball in a bookshop last year. I cast on 24 stitches and garter stitched until I ran out of yarn (it took 2 balls).

This is the Lace Leaf Scarf from Knit Simple magazine holiday 2006 issue. It's still to be blocked so the lace pattern isn't too clear in the picture. It's knit in 3 balls of Wendy Fusion.


This is a wee bag I made for my friends daughters 5th birthday. It is from issue 10 of Knit Today magazine, though the pattern has an ice cream cone motif sewn on the front. I knitted the flowers from the free Nicky Epstein flower booklet that came with issue 9.

I also have pics somewhere of my most recent Secret Santa Swap parcel however have not quite worked out how to get them on here. I use Photobucket usually but for the swap we had to post them to flickr and haven't had a proper nose around it yet to work out how to get my pics on here.