My Bad

After a year of considerable restraint,

I went mad,

Well, it was half price, and I know that I shouldn't have but

PRETTY!

Forgive me all for I have sinned.

Oh, the shame

So, I'm putting together some Christmas Patterns (yes, I know it's only October, but this is for promotion and therefore needs to be early).


I wanted some find some dark green yarn for some holly leaves.

I couldn't find it anywhere. In the end, I got all of my stash and stacked it up on the bed.

I had to leave the room for a moment. I suggested to best beloved that if he wanted to see something horrible, he should look in the bedroom. He gave me a puzzled look, to which I could only reply "my name is Lahlah, and I have an addiction problem".

Here's the proof.

So - this is why I'm NOT going to Ally Pally this year.


I managed to find some dark green. In all of the above, I had two small balls of it - about 15 - 20g each. Unreal!


Still enough to make what I wanted though.










Happy Holidays!

Money earned, money spent

What a week!

Jo from knitting group (I know you're lurking Jo....) passed a job my way. She does a fair bit of knitting for other folks, including some fantastic knitted cakes for a local cafe. She is really busy at the moment with knitting projects, so when the lady from the cafe wanted a teacosy made, she passed the gig my way.


Cheers Jo! Here's the finished object:

So, as I'd earned a little money from my knitting, I decided to spend a lot at (dah dah dah..... Ally Pally!), Yes, it's that time of year again when Les goes to North London and spends all her birthday money.

I found I was calmer this year, as I realised that NOT EVERYTHING WILL BE SOLD BY THE TIME I GET THERE!!

However, by the time I got to the Black Sheep stand, the jumble sale of yarn packs was still there, but there was nothing I wanted!

Oh, how discerning I've become.


I also took a bit more time to look at the displays this year (only a bit, there was still some serious shopping to do) but here are a few things I found impressive.


Giant knitting was a theme this year - here was a display in the palm court entrance.




There was also a chance to buy big needles (seriously tempted, but I've got some 20mm somewhere, so I thought I'd give them a go first).













The hyperbolic crochet reef was also very impressive.....

... as were the exhibits from the student shows.

This was my favourite.

But in the end, I'm a shallow individual, so it was all about the shopping.

Here's the stash, guys!

(Including some Kauni effektgarn - that made me so happy!)

International Jetsetter

Well, not quite, but I am posting this entry from Vancounver airport.

Best Beloved and I have been on holiday to Vancouver/Victoria/Seattle, and are now waiting to come home.

We had to buy another bag - because he bought lots of clothes (being a bloaty boy, the range is much better on the US side of the Atlantic) and I bought lots of YARN!

It was heaven. I didn't get to half of the yarn shops I wanted, as most are outside of the main "downtown" areas, but I did get approx 2 carrier bags full. There are some fab colours in my new stash, and I've gone for mostly natural fibres (I have a long history of using acrylics, when really I shouldn't).

I will post piccies when I'm home, as I've got some sorting and labelling to do for Rav, but I have increased my stash quality considerably. That's it now until Ally Pally, that's what I keep telling myself.

I did some craft work while away - the tapestry crochet bag pattern is a go-er and so I sat in bars and on trains hooking away I received some comments of praise for my work, which was very gratifying.

Another 12 hours, and we should be on British soil. Can't wait.








NB - Edited later to add pictures of yarn

Oops! - smaller draught excluder needed

Oopsie!





The draught excluder that I made for Brenda was a tad big (in diameter), and managed to fall off the ledge by the door. This in itself is not a problem, except it fell against the outside door, and she almost couldn't get back into the house!





Smaller draught excluder to the rescue!

This was a stash buster, as I made a ball of all of the odds and ends, and just knitted away from there!

Double oopsie.

For all my stash busting efforts above, I visited a craft and yarn shop yesterday, and the owner was selling off the yarn cheap, so I helped her to clear her stock. My cupboard now needs wedging closed!

Tired bunny/Closing down LYS

Writing

I did some yesterday! I had an hour to kill in Starbucks in Great Portland St (as you do) so I got out my writing down book, and started writing! Not sure how many words I've done (I finished the scene off on the train home). Although I was glad to be writing, I wasn't necessarily pleased with what I've written. It was so unfunny. :=(

Still, you can only edit what's on the page/screen, so I've got something to work with - and I'm back in the flow a bit!

Life

Knackered.

Knitting

Am I a bad person?
1) For buying yarn - I can barely fit it into my stash cupboard, but it was half price, it seemed rude not to, and who knows, I may even go back.
2) For going to the closing down sale of a shop I've never been to before. I hadn't even realised it was there. It's one of those old-fashioned shops that sells yarn and baby things. The range of yarn is not necessarily the best (mostly acrylic, and rather ordinary, but good store cupboard stuff), but I did manage to get some 100% wool at 60p/50 grams, and the lady even apologised that she had to charge 60p for that, rather than the usual 50p! It's closing down because she's retiring, so my previous lack of custom hasn't put her out of business. And I'm giving her less to tidy up now.

If I keep talking I think I could justify anything!

Lazy sunday afternoon

Knitting

Having now completed Brenda's cardigan, I'm working on her tea cosy. She's decided she wants an old fashioned one in yellow and grey squares. I'd got too shades of yellow at my last trip to a yarn shop, but no worries.

I've been rummaging through my grandmother's old patterns, and found just the thing, but I've had to make it a little bigger, to suit her pot.

I've never made one of these before, and it goes against the grain, as the pleats are formed by dragging the yarn across the back -i.e by doing it wrong!

I'm also going to start to put together all the "stash using up" squares into a blanket. That will be a mission, but I'm in no hurry.

I'm now on ravelry, which is rather exciting, so I must get all my works onto there.

Writing
I completed an assignment for the Writers' Bureau course this morning (I've had it for ages, and have been too busy writing to do any of it!

My guilt is assuaged.

Life.
Tomorrow is the 1st anniversary of my mother's death. Nuff said.

Writer talk, and charity work

Writing.
On Friday, I'm going to a writer's talk by Jane Wenham-Jones. I'm looking forward to that. I must confess I've not read any of her books, but I like her articles in Writing Magazine, so it should be good, and will hopefully help the motivation.

Knitting
I've started one of my charity dog coats (for K9 knitters, see links below). I thought I'd try something different this time, and work it diagonally. It's a bit of at use-up coat, the pink I've had for years, and am now sick of (and then a friend gave me a load of wool, including about 400g in the same colour), and the variegated I got ages ago, and this is what's left of a cardie, so it's nice to feel as though I'm working through the stash.

Have a good weekend.

Messing around with my blog

I've been messing around trying to get an interesting background - this is actually a picture of one section of my "sampler sweater", a garment designed to use up some stash some time ago. Each colour has a different stitch pattern, and as you can see, it was a circular needle, yoke all in one go job. I swore at the time that I would not make another like that - I'm a big girl to make sweaters for, and man that was heavy work!

It is one of my favourites though, being long and cosy for the winter days we've got coming up.

Now, back to the novel - chapter 17 awaits.