Shopping Spree!

Ok so it's all Nikki's fault. First of all I was at her house for the weekend and on Monday she encouraged me to buy yarn from GetKnitted:



That's three skeins of Tofutsies (the black and white at the front is Nikki's), two skeins of Koigu KPPPM (unfortunately they are also Nikki's) and three skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Tomato for my mum's birthday present (the Shawl Collar from Knitting New Scarves). I also signed up for the Lorna's Laces Sock Club - ooh the excitement!

Then she went into a LYS yesterday and discovered their sock yarn on sale for £1/ball, so I told her to surprise me with some (two 50g skeins blue and two skeins purple):

So, of course, I had to go in and check what else they had on sale today:



Two 50g skeins of Regia Stretch Crazy colour sock yarn, one 100g skein of Woolcraft sock yarn and two 100g skeins of Wendy Beach Baby - all £1/ball. And then I went and bought some non-yarn stuff too. But hey, I'm just spending my first pay check in advance! lol I start my new job on August 18th and I have lots of bus knitting yarn to keep me going now!

I admit defeat ....

... the dolls are not going to be finished for this evening. Due to mistakenly thinking I could do two in a week (as well as you know, working and stuff) I ended up getting two half-done and nothing finished. Luckily I had finished one months ago earlier. Meet my aunt's birthday nurse (she is a nurse herself, honest it's not that weird a gift!):



Note the beetroot, sunburnt look as this was done back in the day when I had no skin tone yarn (now I do - third time lucky lol). Also note the bad embroidery which gives her a wonky eye and a pursed mouth. I think toy knitting isn't my thing ... I should stick with bags and scarves!

So at least one thing will be delivered this afternoon when we arrive in their neck of the woods. And to make up for the mad toy knitting I attempted this week, I'm talking only pretty things for myself to knit on the trip down and whenever I get a chance while there. I have brought the swatch for Mystery Stole 3 and two lots of sock knitting (neither of which is the sock I started in Donegal - bad me!). The knitting one thing at a time mantra has been thrown to the wayside a little. But I will try to get back on track after the weekend. Honest.

Well it's been a while since I've been around here. I'm doing some gift knitting that requires being kept secret for another few weeks, hence the broadcasting silence. But before that began, I trekked off to Donegal with Nikki for the weekend. Her family has a cottage over there and we love it. We knit, we go to the beach, we buy yarn, we light fires (well Nikki does), we knit, we make chicken tikka chips, we knit, we watch DVDs and did I mention we knit?


So on this fateful trip the socks were taken along (yes the VD knitting is complete - more about that another day). These are my second ever pair of socks. I started them the last time we were in Donegal and discovered that it was a pattern where I needed to pay attention, not watch DVDs and talk to friends. So I stopped. This time I picked them up and decided to go with an easy stocking stitch sock, made up entirely on the spur of the moment and so it may be enitrely the wrong size, shape and well, just wrong! But anyway it was begun and it saw a fair bit of Donegal.

The sock does Euros.


The sock does fire (I know it's June but there was a storm and it was cold!).



The sock does face masks, home-made muffins and cider in a Guinness glass .....





The sock does Rambo (Part 2 if anyone is interested).



... and a puppy for contrast (ain't he cute? the puppy ... not Rambo).



The sock visited local landmarks: Myrtle the Turtle (can you see her?)



and on the way home, the shipwreck on the beach.



This was also the site of my driving a car for the very first time. Wow! It lasted for only seconds, but I drove a car. This may be the start of a beautiful friendship ... I see me turning my back on public transport and embracing the love of cars ... I see it ..... in about ten years time!

More knitting news to follow soon :)

A lull

I have hit a pause in knitting progress. The weekend was spent I-cording my brains out (2 handles and an applied I-cord edging) and yet it is still not finished *sigh* And yesterday there was a grand total of no stitches knitted (ridiculous, horrific even, but I was busy!). However I still have pictures from World Wide Knit in Public Day (Northern Ireland style) to show to the world.


Here we see the handle begun and the I-cord looks ok (that bit at the bottom is just stockinette, not I-cord gone bad) but it could be better, in my opinion. We also see here the beautiful sea-side surroundings we were knitting in. Oh how glorious to have a sun-filled day for knitting in public.

Next let me introduce Jolene:


Jolene has been called by the lure of sock knitting, much like we all have of late. But this girl, well she doesn't do things by halves. Not only did she decided to start her first ever sock that day (big step), but she decided to start it on itty bitty cocktail sticks needles (2.25mm). Not only did she decided to start her first ever pair of socks on itty bitty needles, but she decided to introduce beading into her knitting for the first time ever, on these socks. Not only did she decide to do her first ever beading on her first pair of socks on itty bitty needles, but there is some funky twisted rib, cabling going on there too. All I can see is thank goodness they are baby socks! And that mama better appreciate the madness talent of the knitter who created them.



No wonder she's concentrating!

Anyway Nikki is continuing on with Shaq's tank top (although apparently it may be rescued with a bit of frogging and a lot more knitting).


And finally, excuse a very fuzzy picture of stitch markers I made as gifts. I mean come on - I made stitch markers! This needs to be recorded, fuzzily or otherwise!


Now I hope to get some knitting achieved soon and come here with cheery and accomplished posts. Soon, I promise.