bad blogger!

I’m so ashamed about my lack of blogging – my excuses are pretty poor too – new job with long hours and a commute (good for knitting time!) and Christmas pressies which required me to knit not write about it. However I am resolved to doing a bit more blogging not least because I joined uk swap and my upstream may want to read my blog. I am amazed that anyone reads it actually, sometimes I think it is just me talking to myself for extended periods but then I think how many blogs I read and hope that there might be one person reading!

I knit many things for the holidays and then very very stupidly forgot to take any pictures before I gave them away as gifts for Christmas.

Tuscany (from no sheep for you) was finished – looked lovely and grandma was really pleased.

Thrummed mitts (Interweave – can't remember which edition) – really lovely aran weight alpaca in walnut colour with pink and purple thrums – I WANT a pair for me! I already have requests for two more sets so I’ll try to take pics of them.

Fingerless mitts (original pattern in Yarnforward but I changed a few things) these were for my friend Leo – she’s a very talented interior designer so I was worried about the colour being perfect – finally went for a Rowan tapestry yarn in blues/seagreens.

Koolhaas hat (Jared Flood in Interweave gifts 07- I love this guys knitting, knitting men - there is something uber cool about that) in a really lush green (reminded me of Christmas trees) Rowan 100% merino aran weight for a Finnish friend Olof (this was a birthday gift really but his birthday is just before Christmas)

My new job have given me a great phone with a 5 mega pixel camera so it should be easy to take pics of projects – I really don’t like the digital camera, arsing about with linking it up to the PC just seems so much work.

Note to self – having spent 2 hours trying to link the laptop and phone together using Bluetooth or infrared – never trust the technology to be simple EVER.

I do now have a couple of pics

Mmmmmm yarn!

The yarn in the left basket at the front is some more aran weight alpaca for some more thrummed mitts - it is soo soft and yummy - the light blue tops for the thrums is behind, the yarn was from the knit1 sale - I had not bought much there previously but am really pleased by the speedy service and the great sale. The cake of laceweight blue is from my LYS - Sue helped me spend some of my first paycheck from my new job, this is just some of my bounty - cherry tree hill in moody blues, not sure what to make with it yet!

The right hand basket is mostly posh stash with a bit of the cashmere from Loop at the front. This bit of my stash looks quite organised - my grandma and I spent a while sorting it all out over Christmas (the sheep skin rug in the front was a Christmas pressie from her too) she laughed so much at all my yarn and we had a fun afternoon stroking and sniffing it all - she went home with a large bag full too.

On the right you can see a little of my project bag from Heather (I love this bag it is so unique and beautiful) and it's current contents. Better picture of the contents - the back to school u neck vest from Fitted Knits this is a fantastic book with some great patterns, however I am grumpy about this project. I was making it for a friend who is a teacher (back to school and all that) I had nearly finished it but realised that halfway through the neck/shoulder shaping I had a senior moment and changed the stitch pattern - what was I thinking! or perhaps the problem was I wasn't thinking. I had already bound off before I noticed and now I hate the thought of ripping it out - I think I would mind much less if I didn't have to un-bindoff. I am so cross with myself that I can hardly stand to look at it - hence the picture was taken to try and force me to do something about it. The yarn is a very pleasing Cascade 220 'quatro' - it doesn't show to well here but it was a joy to knit with and I love the four ply in the four different colours it makes the over-all shade really interesting, plus it was not expensive (£4.99 for 100g) - maybe I'll make one for me - it is small enough for train knitting - it would be good if the full range of colours was available here - there are some great ones, I really like 9437 or 5014 - unsurprisingly the blue and the pink - maybe I should be bolder in my colour choices? I had my colours done last year and now I feel guilty if I choose something that is not supposed to suit me according to the colour lady - feels a bit facist though "you must never wear black again"

Must go to bed now (new wifi allows me to work in bed - I'll never get away from the computer now - it's almost hardwired into my brain!)