Back, waaaaay back in time there was once a KTOG 2008.

We (the East Dartmoor Tea Shop Knitters) had another event to celebrate knitting week back in October.


Here's a belated summary of events and thanks to all who made the KTOG afternoon such a success!

Over 120 fibre addicted folk (and that's not including vendor, helpers and children) managed to find the scout hall in Mill Marsh Park in Bovey Tracey.


Here's the hall in the morning as we're setting up...

We had a wonderful display of finished items - Jae did a fine job of showing things off - thanks to members of the East Dartmoor tea shop knitters group AND wyesue and not forgetting Mary Mallett and her handspun goodies. You can see wyesue's daffy shawl on the right hand side.


Here is Kathryn's knitted bunting decorating the entrance.






And this picture is of various WIPs. (the aim is to inspire)




There were stalls by (working my way round the hall in a clockwise direction) Yarnaddict Anni, Claire Crompton, Jane Sowerby, Lesley of Devon Fine Fibres, Joyce of Spin-A-Yarn, John Arbon and daughter from Coldharbour Mill at Uffculme and Mary in the corner by the cafe with several spinning wheels…


















Sara was running a wetfelting session in the centre of the hall.

We also had lots of homemade cake and tea . In the other room (where the workshop signups were hard to find!) was a display of charity knitteds and Gina selling more yarn.

This hatted knitter (from Manaton, but I can't remember her name) is standing with Christine, holding the red shawl - she turned up on the day with a knitted castle and knitted knight and lots of little cakes and sweets - which we just had to show off - here it all is displayed on the table below.
Our stall holders generously donated raffle prizes - lots of goodies!














This is a picture of my mum seated next to one of the first panels from Alison Murray's new project "Undersea, overwaves" - this is going to be a really ambitious community knitting project where you'll be able to walk through a tunnel and see the fishes, mermaids and lighthouses - do join in and raise money for the RNLI by doing so.

I can't believe that my friend Sandra won about FOUR raffle prizes despite us shaking up the tickets vigorously after each drawing ( I think she must have bought loads). She put one win back in the pot, and donated a couple more to the organisers (one for me! - I was given Nancy Bush's "KNitting on the Road" which I've been hankering after for ages, so I was well impressed - thanks Sandra.)

With money from the raffle and cafe, and after expenses, we managed to pay our workshop organisers a small something toward covering their expenses this year (special thanks to Anni, Sara, WyeSue and Mary) - and also gave £66 to Bliss and £20 to the UK knitting and crochet guild charity. WE have kept back £50 to help toward next year’s costs.
We had excellent feedback about the event overall, but also some criticism that the stitch and bitch cafe wasn’t that welcoming. We have taken this on board (and apologise!) and will try and ensure that at least one of our teashop knitters will hang around the cafe and radiated warmth and welcome next year :-)))

Here's Yvonne, who runs the Packhorse Knitter's group in South Brent, chatting with Mary Mallett: Yvonne's group also raised money for Bliss in Knitting Week - altogether we sent off around £80 plus lots of premie knitted items for the local SCBU.



Here's two of our TEA shop knitters who have been otherwise engaged recently - Tina and Ruth have been having babies! Great - new knitters of the future!












There was a bit of doggy excitement this year: My friend Bev came along to the event with her border collie tom and offered to take my lab Syd for a walk in the park. That's Syd sitting at Jill's feet in the hall before people started arriving.
20 mins after Bev had taken the dogs off to Mill Marsh Park she came back to the hall in a right old state, “Come quick - Tom’s bleeding everywhere!”: And he was!
I got a bowl of water and a towel and managed to locate the source of all the blood to his front left paw and did my first aid - apply pressure and elevate - well, as much as is possible with a panicked collie! The newspaper photographer came along with a first aid kit from his car and together we strapped up Tom’s leg firmly. We then phoned for an emergency vet and Bev took a much happier looking Tom off to the surgery in Kingsteignton. He had a two hour op to repair two severed tendons and the cut had been millimetres from an artery - ERK! you’ll be pleased to know that he’s now completely recovered with no limp to show for his experience.Apparently he’d been splashing about in the river and must have sliced his leg on a bit of glass?

Thanks to everyone who made the day such a success (you know who you are) and hopefully we’ll be doing it all again next year… Here's a picture of my son with his grandma. I had to bribe him with a pub lunch, but he was very helpful setting up on the day, putting up bunting (he's very tall) and doing the heavy lifting.

One of my new year resolutions will be to see how long i can keep up a daily blog. I think I'll make it a competition (as did a certain Badger) with prizes for fibreholics - at least one book, yarn and a pair of Peace needles which I will send out to the person who guesses nearest the date when (if) I finally give up the daily entry after January 1st.
Start guessing when you like!

Long outstanding duty needing rectifying as soon as...



Back in OMG was it as long ago as July (!), I was awarded this by Maylin:



Shamefully, I haven't blogged much since. Awards seem to have this effect on me! Isn't she lovely though? too much time spent on Ravelry. enough excuses.
Thanks Maylin, I'm touched (and was back then too).




Rules in English:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.




How to choose from all those creative, wonderful, knitterly blogs out there? With difficulty.
but hold my nose in I go, eeeny meeny miny mo...



For sheer devotion to blogging and the knitting world the number one spot has to go to WyeSue.
Sue is generous, creative, a knitterly genius and, as fellow director of the UKKCG, a tireless supporter of fibrey excellence and knitted underwear... Wye Sue? Wye Sue indeed.



Next, for intelligent discussion, wonderful fairisle knitting and dyeing and technique: The Feral Knitter, truly untamed and wild - Janine Bajus.



For exciting, original patterns and enviable talent (have you visited the twist collective yet?), panache, youthful knitterly energy, and from the UK to boot, Ysolda...



A local lass with a wonderful knitterly talent and who caught on to spinning so quickly I was jealous, a great blog and lots of courage in the face of chronic disability: Denise at Pixie's Paraphernalia



Lastly, another local lass and knitter and fellow nurse AND especially someone who is such a brilliant photographer I really think she could be the next Jane Brocket... Asti over at Lilys house
I could drool over some of those pics all day.



I read a lot of other blogs I could have added to this list with equal enthusiasm - Anni, Helen, Jane, Rosie, Yvonne, Anne, Kate, Christina, Natalie, Kath, Angie and on and on and on. What a talented lot.

Poor old blog been sadly neglected whilst I've been doing lots of knitterly stuff.

Sue, over at eco-tricot has prompted me to get blogging again by tagging me.



oh. OK then.


To participate you
Link to the person who tagged you.
List seven facts about yourself.
Post the rules on your blog.
Tag seven more people to do the same and link to them.
Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry has been posted.

So the seven facts about myself are


1)I am now a director on the UK Knitting and Crochet Guild - next meeting December 6th in London.

2)I really don't like bubblegum pink and orange, especially together. So how come I just finished knitting 'Bettna' in baby poo colours with orange and maybe pink thrown in there? See:
Probably something to do with getting Noro cheap at the last SkipNorth. Lor, I'll knit anything.


3)I'm a member of the Labour Party, although I nearly threw the towel in when the government joined in the Iraq debacle. I mention this only because I'm supposed to be leading a discussion on the NHS tonight... Ho hum.


4)I love reading and belong to the "Never Finish a Bookclub" - a dozen good women and true, who meet up at each other's houses and drink wine and eat cake. The current read is "The Dead" by James Joyce and the last book we read was a "Widow for One Year" by John Irving. My favourite book this year - which wasn't a bookclub choice - was "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb. Go read it... AND he's got a new book out this month. MMMmm.


5)I love traditional knitting. One of the first things I ever knit was a yoked fairisle cardigan from Sarah Don's book on FairIsle (look at that: republished as a paperbook!) in Shetland 2 ply, which my Nan thought I'd bought. (I guess I've got a fairly even tension)( I wonder what happened to it?). I'm supposed to be running a workshop at the next SkipNorth on FairIsle knitting. I'm looking forward to this, but I want a projector so I can do a powerpoint display. I do. I've just joined the yahoo group on Traditional Knitting owned by Liz Lovick. I bow down to her superior knowledge...


6)I was born in Plymouth - in the Royal Alexandra Nursing Home, Devonport. That makes me a native Devonian. The Royal Alexandra Nursing Home' records dept was destroyed in a fire some time in the 1960's, so I've no idea what time I was born, and my mother has given me a different answer every time I've asked her. From the linky I've posted it looks like it was transformed into a mental health unit. So was the maternity unit my sister was born at. hmm, coincidence?


7)And finally (see what happens when you get me talking about me? I go on and on and on and...), I have just given up smoking AGAIN! (three days ago, so the physical side effects of nicotine are over with and the rest of it is in my head). I started smoking when I was 13yrs old (bad girl!) and have given up for years at a time several times since. I forget just how bad it is for you in between times and only remember that it felt good. It smells, it's ridiculously expensive and it's bad for your health. It is also very difficult to knit at the same time as smoking. So there.

And now my seven tags and some of my favourite peepl are
Sue at WyeSueKnits
Denise at PixiesParaphernalia
Heather at HeatherKnits
Rain at FroginKnots
Anni at ConfessionsofaYarnAddict
Fred at CatsCableRatsRib
and finally Beverley who was always at TwoFishKnitting but is now at BeingBeverley

I must I must expand my bust update my blog and stop spending so much time over at Ravelry. I've been to a dyeing workshop, Iknit London. Ally Pally, our very own KTog2 and have so much to show you knitting wise. It'll keep.

Ravelympics

(There's no way of making a title on this template?! I'm such an ignoramus when it comes to html)

I wasn't going to participate in the Ravelympics at all - not the least because of the Chinese political stance against Tibet overshadowing the real Olympic Games. And I had the job interview slap bang in the middle of the games. And last time (in the Yarn Harlot's knitting Olympics) I missed out on a medal by one measly day - finished a longstanding WIP so it was an excellent shove up the backside, but still.

But after the job interview was over, I couldn't resist. What a weed I am: where are my principles? I can only say (sheepishly) that I didn't watch any of the games themselves - not having a telly does help.
And I had that 3ply handspun needing the plying completing and needing knitting. So I signed up for the cowl jump. Bit of a comedown from the Mimbres vest I originally wanted to knit, but a challenge nevertheless: I've never knitted a moebius before.

And I completed it in plenty of time. I crossed the finish line on Friday. I put up the details and awaited my summons to the Ravelry podium by Bobicus and the Bobettes. Nothing. Not a sausage.
I posted a query - but no reply - the arena was littered with the mmm chocolate wrappers and old confetti and the place was eerily silent - everyone had shut up shop after the games had finished and gone home :-(
So I went on a search and the truth was revealed. I had been transturtleified. I had been magically transformed from a tutley MUTT into turtle mutley. From dog to turtle.
I claimed my medal retrospectively and I give you turtlemutley!

You just got to love it.I also spent last Saturday cooped up in a stuffy room in Birmingham library at my first Knitting and Crochet Guild Board of Directors' meeting. When I could have been walking Tor to Tor on Dartmoor with Louise (happy birthday Louise!). It had its upside: I finished a longstanding WIP (see that little 100% in the side bar for Cabin Fever Swing Jacket?) - and also became very excited about the future of the Guild. I also stayed with WyeSue who is such an enabler when it comes to stash enhancement. Beware, all who tread near! Wicked, wicked woman.

I hope to see many blogworld friends at IKNit LOndon bash next Saturday: now where exactly did I put that blasted ticket????

I didn't get the job :-(

But, I acquitted myself well at the interview, apparently, and my presentation was perfectly presentable. There was a lot of competition for the post and the person who got the job had already done something similar at Band 7, so had more experience than me. There's a certain amount of relief as well as disappointment. Thanks for all your well wishes -

Never mind: at least I can get back to my knitting now!

I've learned how to do a moebius cast on (as made famous by Cat Bordhi) for Prickle this morning for the Ravelympics COWL JUMP - I'm knitting the cowl in my handspun 3ply. Now this I CAN do:
And I've started the second toe up sock in Yarn Yard sock wool - it's working out really well... Just look at those lovely stripes on the sole. Do you think I'll have enough of the solid colour yarn to finish the second sock? And finally - just look at this gorgeous silk/merino mix roving from Yarn Yard (do I detect a theme here?) - I've divided the fibre into short lengths of mostly green and then mostly blue to spin - I've spun and plyed up one little skein and I'm well into my second. But then I spotted this - (I learn sooo much fr0m hanging around on Ravelry) - and so can't wait to have a go at Navajo plying 'on the fly' for the remainder.

JOB INTERVIEW - urk.

I'm going for a new job - if I get it, 't will be a promotion and a job-share - "Infant Feeding specialist midwife" - so just ignore me, till its all over, one way or t'other, thursday 14th. I feel sick: it's the first interview I've had in 15 years and I b****xed the last one and there's rather a lot of competition for this one.

Takes deep breaths - it'll be fine, just fine.

thanks for the award, Maylin! I'll deal with it after thursday!

Jacob Beanie Free Pattern

Materials: 50mg main colour (MC) DK (Actually used about 40g)

50mg contrast colour (CC) DK (used about 30g)

To fit head circumference 23" Gauge 12st x 14 rows = 2" over pattern

3mm round needle/set of dpns (for magic loop, or 2 circs, or small circ and set of dpns – whatever takes your fancy!)

3¾ mm round needle/set of dpns

1 stitch marker 1 large blunt darning needle

Destructions:-

With 3mm needle cast on 120st with MC.

Round one: being careful not to twist, join ends and *K1MC, K1CC, rpt from * to end of round.

Place stitch marker.

Round 2: Bring both yarns to front of work, P1MC, put yarn just worked down to the left of work and bring CC over, P1CC, continue thus to end of round.

Round 3: Keep both yarns at front of work, P1MC, put yarn just worked to the right and bring CC under it, P1CC. continue to P1MC and P 1CC to end of round as set.

Round 4: replacing yarn at back of work, K all stitches in MC.

Rounds 5 – 9 inclusive: *K1CC, P1MC, rpt from * to end.

Round 10, K 1 round in CC.

Round 11: change to 3¾ needle and work from line 11 of chart, setting pattern as follows:

*K2CC, K4MC, (K1CC, K1MC)x4, K1CC, K4MC, K3CC, K4MC, (K1CC, K1MC)x4, K1CC, K4MC, K1CC.

Rpt from * twice more to end of round.

Continue working from chart as set until 41 rows completed. Start decreasing.

First decrease, round 42:

*K1CC, SSK MC, K3MC, K3CC, K1MC, K1CC, K1MC, K3CC, K3MC, K2tog; Rpt from * x5 more to end of round.

Round 43 – no decreasing, work as per chart.

Rounds 44-49: decrease every round as per chart.

Round 50 no decreasing: *K1CC, K5MC Rpt from * 5 more times to end of round.

Round 51, decrease again. Round 51, *K1CC, Slip 1, K2tog, PSSO rpt from * to end of round

Knit 1 more round on remaining 12 stitches without shaping.

Now thread large blunt darning needle with end of yarn and pass through all remaining stitches twice to cast off. Sew in ends on wrong side and block to finish.

Phew, that wasn't easy - especially fiddling around with cheapie picture editing software to make the chart. Would anyone like to test knit this for me? I'm off now to walk the dogs - but I'm going to try and make it into a PDF later. Pics are of Jacob mark 3 with the pattern in the negative, solid main colour and handpainted contrast colour (dyed by the Old Piggery) - modelled by Seth's friend James (thanks James!).

Well - tiz done, for better or worse - I've managed to make the PDF AND get it in my sidebar. I know this is probably easy peasy to some (looks at Pixie's website with envy) but it took some learning for this technophobe - thanks for all the advice.

A Reversible lace pattern suitable for scarves amongst other things...

It's been brought to my attention by a fellow Ravelryite that the reversible scarf pattern I showed in the post of June 25th has disappeared off the web! This was a free pattern (the lace pattern taken from a stitch pattern directory) so I think it no breach of copyright to put the pattern repeat on here but if anyone knows differently then please let me know and I'll remove it.

OK>

The Stitch pattern is a repeat of 12 stitches and 9 rows.
There was a border of 2 rows of garter stitch at both ends and a selvedge of 2 knit stitches at the beginning and end of each row to prevent the edges rolling.

Using 4mm ( or American size #6 ) needles, cast on 52 st. (the original pattern was wrong here and said 54st!)
Knit 2 rows.
Begin pattern:
Row 1: K2, *yo, K2tog, rep from * to last 2 st, end with K2st.
Rows 2 and 4: K2, P to last 2 st and K2.
Row 3: KNit all st.
Row 5 and 8: K2, *sl1, K2tog, PSSO; K4, yo, K1, yo, K4, rpt from * to last 2 st and K2.
Rows 6, 7 and 9: K2, *P3tog.,P4, yo, P1, yo, P4 rpt from * to last 2 st - K2.
Rpt these 9 rows until the scarf is the desired length,
Knit the last 2 rows and then cast off (or bind off if you insist on wanting US terms)

Hope this works for you.

I cast on 40 st (but any repeat of 12 + 4 will do) and my scarf was 36" before blocking, 48" afterwards.

Spinning 3 ply...

I've also been spinning a little, though not so much of late...

I've only ever andean plied yarn from my spindle spun singles, to date - but I wanted a thicker yarn to knit 'Prickle'. So I decided to spin up what is now my default thickness of single - and three ply it, making a lazy kate from a shoe box. This was a first - but I was pleased with the result - despite its obvious overspun ENERGY! It's spun from hand dyed merino/tencel (I think - I bought it from Maylin at Wonderwool and I can't remember). I haven't washed it to set the ply yet.

Some knitting (for a change) and a wedding...

Have been concentrating on knitting a pair of toe up socks in some sock yarn from The Yarn Yard (as well as knitting the final version of the Jacob: nearly finished it, will put it up with the pattern next week). This yarn was a present from Stash and has been sitting in mine for at least a year... The pattern is Wendy D Johnson's double eyelet rib sock and it really suits the yarn. I've turned the heel on the first sock, but this picture was taken earlier in the week. It's so portable - which is just as well because I went to a wedding last Friday and it was really easy to take this along in my bag and whip it out when the opportunity presented itself. Me, obsessed? nah, mate. Doesn't the bride look lovely? The wedding was held at Haldon Belvedere - you can see this building for miles around - in fact it's up such a high hill that we were worried the bride wouldn't make it - she was fabulously late (an hour!) - as she was being driven in an ancient Austin by our neighbour (who bought the car off of Ebay!). If you climb up to the top of the tower you can see in full circle - the sea, the moors, home! The event went on into the wee hours - good party. And in the evening she's a singer in the band - (Oh bladee, oh bladah, la la la la life goes on!) That's the bride on the mike (she sang three songs) and the groom on the keyboards - and they played the fastest version of 'Superstition' I've ever heard, amongst other things.

Jacob mark 2

Here is Jacob mark 2 - slightly smaller than the original handspun:

I like the single corrugated rib, and the Fiesta Ballet alpaca/tencel yarn is so soft and shiny, it's beautiful to feel. I also think the braided edging looks snake like. But I think the hat would be better with the main colour as a solid and only the contrast as handpainted. Will have to do ANOTHER one. Thanks for all the pointers for making a PDF. Very helpful.

Ginny's PHOTO MOSAIC MEME -

Must be the day for Flickr toys: while I was perusing Ginny's blog, I noticed she'd combined a meme with a montage, so if you'd like to have a little fun too then simply

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? Terri
2. What is your favorite food? Pasta
3. What high school did you go to? Whitland Grammar School
- which didn't work, so I tried WG School - that did!
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Couldn't think of anyone off the top of my head (how boring am I?) so I chose Harrison Ford who I liked in Witness and who is supposed to look like DH
6. Favorite drink? Pint of Real Ale
7. Dream vacation? White Water Kayaking
8. Favorite dessert? Cheese cake
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? assertive
10. What do you love most in life? my family
11. One word to describe you. artyfarty.
12. Your Flickr name. Tutleymutley

And my result?
1. The Dark Path, 2. night @siem reap* 06, 3. 1958 Bramdean school, Exeter, 4. From above..., 5. Harrison Ford Portrait (Blade Runner), 6. Pulling a pint of real ale at the Punch and Judy, 7. Untitled, 8. chocolate-coffee cupcake with mocha ganache and mascarpone cream, 9. Friday Night. Walkies., 10. brazilian children's day, 11. Untitled, 12. IMG_0318

STEVE - warholised! Just popped over to Maylin's blog and noticed she'd put together a beautiful montage of all the coloured yarns and fibres she loves using flickr toys. (We have the same taste methinks). Had to go check these toys out myself and created this! My DH in the silly hat I knit him... mmm. What a great gadget. Would make great cards.

Helsbelz - you got an email I can contact you on?

The response.

Sheila replied really quickly AND the woman is on vacation - howzat for service.

She said

Hi Terri,

You needn't mention my hat...as far as I'm concerned everything I've ever designed as been heavily inspired by something I've seen, but thanks for asking.

I'm on vacation and have limited computer time, so I've gotta go but please feel free to do whatever you like with any part of the hat... it really is just based on traditional Norwegian hat shaping.

So there you go! How levelheaded is that? Some people are just so sensible. Anybody want the pattern? And just how do you make a PDF file?

A Tale of Two Cities Hats or
When does a modified design become an original?

Thanks for all your kind comments on my FOs - How do I find time to do my knitting/spinning? Easy - I try to avoid housework!

Artisanne asked if Inga was my design - NO! It's a lovely free pattern by Sheila Macdonald of EWEnique fibers - However it inspired me to knit another. There were many comments on Ravelry where folk thought that Inga was too long. Personally I like the longer length - I like to wear it flopped over and I thought it begged a tassel. But I could see where they were coming from. I also liked the diamond form of the design which became part of the decreases, but I wanted a hat which had six decreases instead of three to make less of a mitred effect. So I got out my graph paper and roughly drew in much smaller diamonds - then doodled a design to try and ensure that there were no more than 5 stitches to strand the yarn across. I kept the braid/herringbone edge because I like it - the first time I used it was on Karen Neale's KAL gloves for handpainted yarn (which I still haven't finished - they only need two fingers and thumb to complete!). So the only thing I kept from the original was the number of stitches cast on and the braid edge. I added a corrugated rib to stop the brim from rolling.

This is INGA: and this is my Jacob (so called because I knit it in my handspun Jacob fleece) :

Mine is much more of a beanie. So with so little of the original remaining - is this my design or not? Interesting question, ay? I asked the question at the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM last weekend (will write a more detailed update on that fascinating event at a later date!) - and the consensus seemed to be that if you'd changed 20% it was yours. Where did this figure come from?

I'm in the process of knitting it again - this time with a single corrugated rib and in handpainted Ballet yarn (from woolly workshop - lovely stuff - alpaca/tencel and so soft) - and I'm really excited at how the colours are making a fairisle effect without the effort of changing colours frequently - and the randomness adds to the interest.

I've emailed Sheila Macdonald to ask her opinion on my publishing the modified pattern for free use on here. I'll be interested to read what she says.

"Time for bed", said Zebedee...

SEVERAL FOs:Reversible Lace Scarf

As I mentioned in the last post, I finished spinning the Strawberry coloured merino/tencel blend that I got from the Yarn Yard fibreclub and knitted it into a reversible lace patterned scarf. Just as well, as Natalie is posting the next parcel this morning.
This is how the scarf looked preblocked. I only had 206 yards/75g at the end and knitted up what looked like a very short scarf at 36inches. I blocked it to buggery (technical term a la Kate) and am really pleased with the result. Blocking took it to 48inches! Because it was looking so short I added a hole to pass one end through - which looked rather unsightly, so I added a pink tinged pearly button. Our neighbour Sara invited us to celebrate her 40th last night - how timely! Reckon this scarf will make an excellent presi.


Next: The completed Gotland Fibre Challenge. I knitted a sideways Woolly Wormhead pattern called CandyPi. I didn't have enough gotland yarn to make it, so I added some of maylin's purple angora goat yarn. The end result was soft but looked like a radioactive warning device! Needed someone young and hot to wear it so it went to Leah for her 21st birthday present.


Here's the finished Swallowtail Shawl - really my first lace project of any size. I did knit a cardigan years ago in 4 ply silk to wear at my wedding , which was my own design and part lace, part cable (and a very similar colour to the scarf above coincidentally). However that's so long ago (25yrs!) I can hardly remember it. And I knew nothing of blocking then. It was knitted in mini handmaiden and I love the way the colours have pooled in its tail.
Can't remember whether I posted a pic of these alpaca socks... They'll probably wear out quick as they've no nylon reinforcing the heels and toes. I used the alpaca wool mix sent me by my secret pal ages ago - from Vermont- to knit Cat Bordhi's philosopher's socks. However I realised I'd run out of the purple colour way before the end, so I decided to add some 100% cream alpaca as a 'design feature'. I was on the last stripe when I ran out of the purple - I only needed two rows worth of purple to finish the darned things (agh!). T'was then I thought of Maylin's purple dyed goat fibre - very similar colour, n'est pas? so I spun up a teeny amount for that last couple of rows. Can you tell the difference? I'm keeping these.
To finish off the list of Finished Objects for this posting: The Inga Hat. I was knitting along with Astrid - a norwegian cardigan. But it wasn't turning out for the best as I mentioned in yesterday's post. (Call them roses???) So the yarn will have to be used for other things. The first of which will be this Inga Hat. I'll keep this one too.

The last picture is of the felted flower I made in the kid's craft tent at the Contemporary Show. I stuck two size 14 needles in the middle as a couple of 'stamens' . That's my goldring spindle sitting beside it in the pot my son made at school. It was great fun and I'd like to do some more felting.