Green

I finally finished my green jumper. I bought this yarn at WoolFest from Dyed in the Wool. It's 100% wool and was labelled as DK, but knitted up more like aran weight. I've been wondering what to do with it for a while and decided to make a jumper for myself. I wanted to have a go at knitting a short row shaping bust, because I often find it difficult to increase enough for the bust without making everything look weird and out of shape. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I made up the pattern myself. It's perhaps not the most flattering colourway I could have used. Stripes are hardly slimming. As a first attempt at making up my own jumper pattern I don't think it's bad.

A couple of weeks ago I also knitted this shrug from ribbon twist that I bought in the John Lewis sale. I really like the colour and wish there had been enough to knit a whol jumper. Not being a particularly fashionable person I'm still not comfortable with the idea of wearing some sleeves. Maybe I'll get there eventually.

Finally, here is my contribution to the glittyknittyknitty knitablog, which has been around the world and ended up back in the toon.

Hatters Block

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last week. I don't really have any explanation for it, other than the general lack of interest I've been showing in most things this month. Personally I'll be really glad when January is over. It's been a month of laziness and apathy for me. I just can't be bothered to do anything including uni or housework. I'm even finding it hard to motivate myself to get dressed in the mornings and leave the house. This is not like me at all.

The only positive thing I can say about this week is that I did manage to go to the gym on Monday for the first time in about 6 months. I will try and go again tonight (otherwise Mondays visit won't mean anything).

Fortunately this malaise hasn't affected my knitting at all. I've managed to knit a couple of things of my own design, which I shall show you once I have taken some photos.

It's turned cold here and this has made me want more hats. I've tried knitting a few different hats this winter and I've been finding it much more difficult than I expected. I always end up frogging what I've knitted before I get much higher up than the ears. I can't really figure out why that is. Surely it's no different from knitting anything else??? My only explanation is that I don't care enough about hats to put the effort in. I've never worn hats that much myself. Perhaps I just can't see myself wearing it and so I can't see myself knitting it either. There must be some sort of therapy I can employ to get me through this???

The Pledge

I have decided that it is time that I took the pledge. I have enough yarn to keep me in projects for several months. Since Graeme and I are planning to move some time in the next few months I should be decreasing, not increasing my stash. My only reason for not doing so before Christmas was that I still needed to buy yarn to make particular presents. Now this has passed I feel that I really should do something. So here we go.

The Pre-Woolfest Pledge

I do solemnly swear that I Hannah Scoffield, will not purchase any yarn for myself from this day until Woolfest 2007 (or until everything is used up).

Visitations

Well it's Monday morning again and the weekend just seems like a blurr. We drove down to Leicester on Friday night in the howling gales (fortunatly the Southbound side of the A1 stayed open). It was my first trip back since moving properly to Newcastle in September. It felt like I'd never been away. My friends Ade and Sarah put us up (thank you very much) and we managed to fit in a curry at the Nila (yum!), visits to the Milans (mmm... pizza), the Yeomans (mmm.. red wine) and the Wrights (ahhh.. baby) and coffee with Lisa (ooo... gossip). As always when visiting Leicester, our livers have taken a bit of a battering. It was really good to see them all after 4 months of being away. Hopefully it won't be so long before we get to see them all again.

In my excitement at seeing everyone again I completely forgot to take any pictures. I didn't think about it till I was heading home. To make up for this here is a picture of the gloves I knitted my future sister-in-law, Michelle for her birthday last week.

And a picture of my ring for people who were asking. The stone is amber. It may or may not be replaced by something flashier at some point. We'll see....

Spool

I'd just like to draw your attention to the EP which has recently been released by my very good and talented friend Christophe's band Spool. You can listen to some of there music here on My Space. It's relaxing stuff. Chris is the one playing the fiddle.

I have known Chris for many years. We went to sixth form college together and he shared a house in Newcastle with Snaterkat and I for several months. He's since been galavanting all over Europe doing all sorts of exciting musical stuff that the rest of us can only dream of.

Book Review

In the excitement over getting married I ordered this book from AmazonWedding Knits by Suss Cousins, thinking that I would like to knit some items for my wedding. Maybe a shawl or some lacy items.

This book promised to have patterns for everything a bride might want including a beautiful wedding dress. I can safely say that I was totally dissapointed. There are only two or three patterns in the whole book that use something more complicated than simple stocking stitch. Even the garter is knitted in stocking stitch with lace sewn on. The dress is entirely stocking stitch and even makes the skinny model in the book look fat. Goodness knows what it would do to me. I was expecting lacy patterns or at least something more interesting to knit.

Another thing that irritates me about this book is there are several photographs of each item, one of which will be blurred. This book is written for people who can't knit, or maybe as Lucy suggested, for people who can't knit to give to people who can knit because it looks nice. Just to give you an idea of the sort of things in the book here are a couple of examples. These 'lovely' arm warmers.

Or this 'gorgeous' dress:

At the end of the day I'd rather poke myself in the eye with my needles than spend the next 6 months knitting items in stocking stitch and there's not much in the book I couldn't knit without the pattern (if I would knit it at all). So I've printed off the returns label and this thing is going straight back to Amazon this afternoon. Shame on you Suss Cousins for this blantant money-making lazy-arsed excuse for a knitting book. Rant over.

Feeling Very January

I'm feeling very January this week. That is to say that I feel rather glum. The holidays are over, everyone is going back to work and it's still a bit gloomy and dark. I also have a stupid assignment to write for uni and am having trouble getting over the feeling that it is just a total waste of my time.

I have been doing some knitting but it's a bit secret, so you'll have to wait a while to hear about it.

Next week I'm back in uni and I get to meet the teachers who'll be mentoring me through my next teaching practice. It'll be nice to actually know more about where I'll be and what I'll be doing. I'm also planning a visit to Leicester next weekend. I haven't been back since I moved up North, so I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends and having a good curry.

Thanks to everyone who's sent engagement cards and given us presents. It is much appreciated. I'm off to do some concentrated knitting on the secret items and then to meet my fab knitting homies at the Centurion.