New Yarn and a FO!

We just had a great weekend in Wales. I was lucky enough to visit Blueberry Angoras. It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beautiful countryside. The woman was very friendly, and told us all about her Angora goats. We were lucky, as we visited the day before they were due for their shearing. She called them over (they all have names!) and we got to pat them. It was really fun.

I had a hard time deciding what to buy, but finally bought 6 skeins of Russet Red Aran, 80% Angora, 20% wool. I didn't take a photo, but I will for the next post. But here is a picture of the goats.


I also finished my socks last Tuesday, but haven't got around to taking a photo of them either! I wore them to work on Wednesday, and they were great, so comfy and warm!

Up, up and away

My second sock is pretty close - I've done the heel shaping, heel flap, and am just finishing the gusset shaping. I did have a minor set back where I was tired, so I got mixed up on whether I was on an increase row or not, so decided to frog back a few rows, couldn't work out where I was, so frogged back more, right back to where you pick up the stitches for the gusset. When will I learn that I should put down the needles when I'm tired? Anyway, it actually turned out for the best, as I was able to fix up the little error I made on my first sock.

See this huge hole between the gusset and the instep? And how the stitches are kinda loose around there? It was the only thing I wasn't really happy about on my first sock. But for the 2nd sock I used Nancy Bush's advice from Knitting on the Road (a great book with lots of cool socks from all over the world). She suggests picking up an extra stitch on each side when picking up the stitches on the heel flap, then on the first row decrease those stitches. See the difference?


Yesterday was really nice, I went to my Zoo induction training. I'v been volunteering at the zoo for the last month or so, it's so much fun. I am doing it every second Sunday, and get to facepaint kids, look after the volunteer animals (mostly insects and reptiles) and will eventually be able to give talks to the public about animals, and do presentations with the volunteer animals, where kids can touch them! So far I've held a taruntula as big as my hand, a giant african land snail, once again as big as my hand, and petted rats.

After the zoo, we went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, along with everyone else in South West England. There were so many people! The roads were crazy, we caught a bus there that just crawled all the way, so we walked home (took about two hours!). The funniest thing was the night glow, where apparently the balloons, which were landed, would fire up in time to music. It didn't really work, but was pretty spectacular anyway. The funny thing about it was the music choice - absolutely bizarre, with no real theme or coordination. I thought they would use classical music, but no, it was Gypsy Kings, Kylie Minougue, Barry White, the Lambada song, Funky Town by Lips Inc, Gypsy King's again, singing My Way in Spanish(?), followed by the Frank Sinatra version. It was hysterical! It finished with some fireworks. I have to say, I love how many public displays of fireworks there are in the UK. In Australia, well at least in NSW, fireworks are illegal, and we really only have public dispays for New Years Eve and Australia Day.

What should I do about Tempting?

This looks like so much fun! Yes, I know, I am still yet to finish a pair of socks, but I am really close. And I really will knit tonight. Recently, I haven't been knitting on week nights, I think this is because of a few reasons. I got used to not doing it when the whole eye-strain thing was happening, the long, hot summer nights are not really conducive to knitting, and I have hardly any WIPs. But I'm going to try and get back into the habit.

I've been think of my goals in knitting(or not even goals, thoughts about knitting, I don't like to put pressure on myself, this is a hobby!).

1. Strawberry hat for my up-coming step-neice, who should be born any day now.
2. Something for her big brother, the golden child, who will now be neglected!
3. I REALLY want to knit Rosedale from Knitty. I just have to force myself to buy that much Kureyon. And decide on a colour. I saw a gorgeous colour at last week's SnB, but the girl got it from the states, doesn't look like it is available here in the UK. It is hard to find the brighter colours which I love.
4. Frog Tempting and knit some other short sleeved cute top. Any suggestions? It's a really nice pattern, and I've seen some great ones, but I've just gone off it(I did start it over 18 months ago), and I don't think the wide neck will suit me anyway.
5. When I finish these socks, try to knit some Jaywalkers out of the Lana Grosso yan I got, before Sock Wars starts.

Well, I'm going to stop blogging now and start knitting!

Who is my Cheap Ass SP?

I got TWO packages from my SP - one was filled with patterns of cute toys (I particularly loved the elephant), felted bags and some nice felted flowers. The second package was quite possbly the heaviest package I've ever receieved in any SP round! It has so many great things in it.


More freebie patterns, freebie notepaper, kitchen utensils like melon ballers and scone/biscuit cutters, lots of wool yarn, a cute chook candle, crochet hooks, real Canadian maple syrup, a flying sheep, lovely stitch markers, and this egg masher that matches eggsactly (hee hee) the Christmas egg Whisk I got from The Boy's parents for Chrissie.

Here's a close up of the stitch markers. Thanks so much, they are the first I've ever got!

I've been really spoilt by my Cheap Ass Secret Pal, and I have no idea who they are. I'm pretty sure they are Canadian, despite the tricky first package that came from Oz. other clues (I think) are that they are married, lived in the UK previously, and maybe have cats (I'm pretty sure there were a few stray cat hairs in this last package!).

The Mystery of the Dropped Stitch

I'm at home, on a Tuesday morning. It is 9am and I've already embarrassed myself. The Boy has ordered a new monitor (yay!) and we thought it might come this morning. That's not why I'm at home, but it would be lucky if it did. I'd planned my day - breakfast and a bit of the Knitty Coffeeshop, run out to the bead shop and to the library, be back for the most likely delivery time of 11am-1pm, and do some research on car hire and accommodation for our upcoming trip, go to the gym, then spend the afternoon reading, knitting and making stitch markers.

So the doorbell goes at a quarter to nine, all I am wearing is a gaping skimpy dressing gown. I buzz him in, put on some trackky pants and run down stairs, thinking he'll have left it at the door. No, he is waiting for me to sign. And it is Tony, the delivery guy at work, who I chat to every day. I had to hold my dressing gown closed as I signed. Even HE was embarrassed, he just said, "fancy seeing you", got me to sign and ran off! Then I turn around, pick up the package, and see our landlord, who I haven't seen since we moved here in November. He said hi and introduced himself, even though I knew exactly who he was. When we moved in, we were unemployed and had to get a guarantor, I hope he doesn't think I still sit at home all day!

I've made stitch markers! I've been wanting to do it for ages, but been putting it off for no good reason. Any way, a couple of weekends ago, I went to the bead shop, bought some beads, and worked out how to do it. It's really fun trying out different combinations, and is really quick, so a great craft.

I love the ones in the middle, cos the kanji is the same as the kanji Fukuoka, where we lived in Japan! It also apparently means happiness, which is why it is used on beads. These are just some of the stitch markers I made, but the others are more simple, but still pretty.

In knitting news, I was happily knitting my 2nd sock, getting close to starting the heel, when I noticed a dropped stitch. I've never ever not noticed a dropped stitch fairly soon after I dropped, and always manage to pick it up easily. But this one was halfway down, about 25 rows, I have no idea how I missed it. I tried to pick it up through all the rows, but I was making a real mess as the yarn kept slipping, so I ended up frogging it. How depressing. Made up the time though, because I went to London on the weekend to meet a friend, with a 3 hour coach trip each way.