This Week...

This week I will be mostly doing this:


And I will be doing it here:


It's a night shot, but you get the idea. Yes, I'm in sunny Florida. We arrived yesterday after a very long day of travelling on Saturday, followed by another longish drive to Savannah where we spent a really nice day in a lovely lovely town. Steeped in history! More pics on that when I get home.
Yesterday we drove 5 hrs to get here, with a quick stop in St. Augustine to get me two fabulous leather handbags for next to nothing.

When we arrived in the house I was greeted by a great sight:


My Liberty Bell blanket on proud display over the sofa in the living room. Warmed my cockles, I must say.

So, it's really hot, I'm going shopping to Michaels tomorrow and yarn shops the day after, and my Knit Picks order is on it's way. Does life get any better??

Good knitting!

I'm a scrubber

It's official. I'm a scrubber. Well, I must be, I've made so many dishcloths now! ;)

I've one more cloth to go and that's the dishcloth section of my charity knitting done.



I finished the set of 3 circle cloths on Friday night:







I'm really pleased with this pattern, I think they look lovely and they're nice and scrubby thanks to the raised area of stitches.


Pattern: Circle Cloth by Hakucho (Ravlink)
Yarn: Lily Sugar n Cream in Rosewood and Cream colourways. I got the 3 cloths out of just under 1 ball of each colour.
Needles: 4.5mm straights

My next cloth for the sets:


This is the Waffle Knit Dishcloth by Homespun Living Blog. (RavLink)
I'm using Lily Sugar n Cream again (love this yarn) in the landscape colourway. I'm getting a cloth out of approx 1/3 of a ball. This stuff is great value!
I've only 1 more of these to make then I'm done with dishcloths!

I'd love to make some nice tags to put on the items, y'know, saying what it's made of, who made it, washing instructions etc. Alas, I'm not very graphically minded. But it'd be a good idea, no?
I think everyone who makes something for this craft fair deserves some credit, and what better way than putting their name on the tag, with maybe their blog address or something?
What do you guys think?

So it's 6 days till I head off on my long awaited holiday to the US. I'm so excited!

There has been a slight change of trip plans though. Blame Google street view. We looked at New Orleans, and to be honest, I didn't like the look of it. We had booked a hotel at the top of Bourbon Street, thinking it'd be safer to be in the centre of the city. Hmm. All I saw were strip joints, some of them with fairly graphic pictures in the window and creative names such as "Larry Flynt's Barely Legal", not the kind of place I want my daughter seeing. There were lots of bars too, which is ok, but a lot of the buildings looked very run down too.

So after much discussion, we decided to leave New Orleans until she's older and hopefully the city recovers a bit more. Thank goodness for hotels that allow cancellations!
What we've done now is to head in the other direction, and we're going to hit Savannah, GA instead. We'll spend at least one night there, more if it's really lovely and then mosey our way down to Orlando.
So I now need to check out the weather forecasts in Atlanta and Savannah and Orlando and decide what kinds of clothes to pack! Hopefully they're all pretty close in temperature, otherwise my cases will be half full before I hit the shops over there!
Speaking of shops, I went onto the Knit Picks site last night for a preliminary round of basket filling. I managed to put about $100 worth into my cart in around 10 mins! Oops. I shall have to go back and cull it a bit before placing my order. :)

Hubby had the baking bug this morning. I got up at 9, and these were already well on their way to being made:



Mmm. Who can resist muffins for breakfast? I made my Christmas puddings this weekend (I know, I'm super organised) and hubby decided to make Christmas Muffins with the left over ingredients. Absolutely scrummy. I can't wait for lunch to have another one!
Basically, they're muffins with cinnamon, spices, fruit and mixed peel in them. With orange flavoured frosting on top. NOM. Trust me, these are seriously NOM.

I'm on training 3 days next week in work to learn all about taxation. Can you sense my palpable excitement? Bad timing I say, coz I'll just be daydreaming about my holidays. Yarn, yarn, yarn, sun, pool, Disney, scenery, yarn, yarn, yarn.
I still have no sock pattern picked out for the travelling. Oh, and I didn't knit a stitch on Alice's cardigan. I knew I wouldn't!

Free Needles

Huzzah! I have finished the second Baby Fern sock.
You remember last week I finished the first one after God knows how long it lay idle. I wanted to free up my needles for my holiday sock project. I had debated leaving the second one until after the hols, but I decided if I did that, I'd never go back to it. And I like these socks too much to leave it lonely and searching for a mate.
So, I give you my completed soul mate pair!



They never look as good on my crappy too small sock blockers.
Here's a much nicer picture:



Love!
Pattern: Baby Fern Socks by Charlene Schurch from More Sensational Knitted Socks (Ravlink)
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin, colour Pfefferminz Prinz
Needles: 2.5mm KnitPicks Harmony dpns

I heart this yarn. It's so soft & squishy, they feel like velvet on. I just hope they wear well!
I feel like I let this pattern down, taking so long to actually make them. But, they're done now, and I'll wear them tomorrow.

So, my needles are free! Yipee! Now I need to find the perfect pattern for my holidays. (Less than 2 weeks to go, woo!) I need a sock pattern that's not too hard, but not so easy I'll get bored. I need to be able to pick it up & put it down easily enough, when we're driving etc.
The search is on!

In other news, today is a special day. Not only is it 10/10/10, it's also my Mam's birthday today.
82 years young!
Alice made her a card yesterday:



We went around to her this morning and gave her a lovely bunch of flowers too. She loved it.

Also, my friend had her baby last Monday. She was due on Sept 24, so the baby hung around a bit longer than expected! Still, everything went well and they are both doing great. She had a gorgeous little girl, and named her Anna.
So, we had to make a card for her too:



I love this card. I think it's really effective, and isn't it great to have Anna's name on it? Makes it extra special.
So at least I don't have to change the buttons on the cardigan I knit! Remember I made a white cardi and put pink butterfly buttons on it? I was afraid if it was a boy I'd have to change them. But, the Hemlock Ring blanket is blue. Ah well, you can't win 'em all!
It's all parcelled up and ready to post tomorrow.

So, a sock pattern to choose and back to the charity knitting. Or maybe Alice's cardi. Hmm. D'you think I could make a cardi in 2 weeks? Oh God, what am I doing???

Good knitting!

Cloth Crazy

I know, I know. My blog post titles are not very good these days. Sometimes you just run out of inspiration, y'know?

Anyway, here's my next entry for the Hospice Charity knit:


Pattern: Circle Cloth (Ravlink) by Hakucho
Needles: 4.5mm straights
Yarn: Sugar & Cream

I love this cloth pattern. it's a lovely honeycomb effect that's really easy to do. And the raised pattern means it'll be a really scrubby cloth. I've one done, so two more to go.

In exciting news, LOOK! I've finally finished the first Baby Fern Sock:



I only cast on for this on July 18. Sheesh. My sock mojo has really deserted me.

Now I have a dilemma. I'm going on my holidays in 3 weeks, and of course, I'm bringing sock knitting with me for the plane & car journeys. So, do I cast on the second one of these with the proviso that I must finish it before I go. This would mean I'd have to postpone the charity knitting.
Or, do I leave it to finish when I get home, continue with the charity knitting now& have the needles free to bring on holidays.
I'm leaning towards the first choice, as I think if I leave the sock I'll probably never come back to it.

Also, I need to choose really carefully what sock pattern to do on holidays. My sock mojo is very unwell at the moment, and I need a super dooper pattern to kick start it again. A sock defibrillator, if you will.

I must put on my thinking cap.

Oh, I was transferred out of IT in work last week. I start in the budget area tomorrow, so wish me luck! I've never done this kind of work before, and I'm really nervous. Kinda like your first day at school all over again. Eep!

Good knitting!