Summer Staycation Days 11 & 12

Hello, happy Sunday everyone from a very warm and sunny East Lothian.
I'm sorry I missed out on yesterday, life got in the way.

I promised you on Friday that I had a couple of finishes to show you and here they are.

The top one is the Baby Eyelet Cardigan, a free pattern on Ravelry. This was a delightful quick knit which took just about a day for me to complete.
Underneath is DK Entrechat by Lisa Chemery. I cannot recommend this pattern enough if you have any little girls to knit for. Knit all in one piece it took less than a day I have already a 2nd one. nearly finished.

Being Sunday it is time to share sock progress and the new cast on.
First up is last week's sock

This knitted up so quickly and I really have no excuse for not having it's partner also done.

This week's sock will be cast on later this evening.

This is the yarn and pattern which was in my Birthday surprise package. Knowing me I will deviate slightly from the pattern as I will knit it my preferred way of toe-up.

I think this will be my last mini post for a while as holidays are over and I am back to work this coming week. However, I have something special I would like to do to thank you all for putting up with my rambling on.
Earlier this week I received the fabulous Knit Pro Zing needles and I am totally smitten by them, so as I love them so much I would like to give one of you readers the chance to try them yourself.
To be in with a chance of winning 2 sizes of Knit Pro Zing fixed circular needles all you have to do is pop on over to Ravelry, join The Sunday Sock group and tell me in the special thread I will set up what are your favourite sizes of needles to use and what you use them for. The thread will stay open until 12 noon next Sunday, July 1st, and I shall then draw a winner using a random number generator. The winner will be announced on the blog next week and I will contact them through Ravelry.
Good luck everyone.

Have a great week.

Mary

Summer Staycation Days 9 & 10

Hello, sorry I missed yesterday. I was busy going out, yay for me I went outside for the first time in over a week. I did not go far but still, it was a great step.
I also received a package yesterday morning. Some of you may have noticed in my birthday post that I was given some gift vouchers for Wool Warehouse. On Wednesday I decided that after hearing such positive things about them I would treat myself to some Knit Pro Zing needles.

I ordered 6 of the sizes that I use most and they came next day. Such super speedy service. Of course, I had to try them out right away and with the 3.75 mm needle, I cast on the Geology shawl which has been in my library forever. I am using some yarn which has been in my stash for a long time, sitting waiting patiently until the right pattern came along. Why I had not thought to match these two up before now is a mystery.

After just a short use I can safely say I love the Zings and am sure they will become my go-to needles.

That's all for today. I will be back tomorrow with a couple of nearly finished projects to share with you.
Thank you for reading,

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 8

Hello, and Happy Ice Cream Soda Day.

What a horrible 24 hours I have had. Heavy rain last night resulted in no sleep at all as there is a broken downpipe on the outside of our flat right outside our bedroom window. It sounded like a huge waterfall hammering down all night. I reported it this morning so hopefully, it will be fixed before it rains like that again.
Of course, being so tired today made for a very grumpy me and I could not concentrate on my knitting at all. Eventually, I gave up and went back to bed for a long nap and have just now woke up. This will no doubt throw my sleep pattern into a tizzy and I will be up all night.

I do have a wee tip to share with you today though. When I pull my projects out I always like for them to be a treat for the senses and for the smell I use those little wax blocks designed for warmers. Now I don't want the wax to get on the yarn so I pop the cube in a little organza bag like you get for wedding favours. The result is a lovely waft of scent whilst working on your project.

I will have a finish tonight, I have had a touch of second sleeve syndrome with this tiny newborn cardigan but it is on the needle now and will be done soon.

Have a lovely evening, see you tomorrow.

Mary 

Summer Staycation Day 7

Hello, and Happy Garfield the Cat Day. I hope you are well and that you enjoy my ramblings. Yesterday was quite chilly here and last night was so cold that I nearly dug out my fleecy PJ's. It has been quite warm up till now and it was such a shock to the system to feel cold. Mind you cooler weather is so good for knitting and I got the first side of my Fading Point finished. 

As you can see our Frankie seems to like it, he just would not move to let me take the photo. I think he has ideas of becoming a blog star.
I then moved back on to side 2 and just this afternoon finished colour 2.

I have decided that I want to give this wrap to my mum as I was ill when it was her birthday and did not manage to send a present to her.

The only other knitting I did was 2 rows on my mega project. I am trying to do 2 rows a day and when the rows get shorter and the project bigger I will up it to 4 then 6 etc. Hopefully in a month or so I can show you a progress photo.

I am really enjoying these mini-posts and hope you are too. If I get some feedback I think I will continue with them daily after my holiday is over, just omitting the days I am at work. Please let me know.
Time for my book now, still listening to It by Stephen King in the afternoon and now hubs and I are listening to Skinner's Ordeal by Quintin Jardine in the evening. Avoiding football is so easy this way.

Have a great evening and see you tomorrow.

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 6

Hello and happy International Picnic Day. I would have loved to go out for a picnic today but alas was once again pinned to my safe place.
I did have one highlight today though, the last part of my birthday pressie from hubby arrived in the post.

Would you believe that this is my first ever proper knitting project bag? Until now I have just used whatever I had to hand, tote bags, carrier bags, anything. This beautiful bag is by Sew Ray Me on Etsy and was part of the Flower Power Fund offerings which are raising money for the Marie Curie Cancer Centres. This may be my first bag but it will certainly not be my last, Rachael has some beauties in her shop and I am sure I will be back for another when I can.
Now for the knitting.
I have been surprisingly monogamous with my knitting over the last 24 hours working on Fading Point as I really want to see the first side finished. I only have a few rows to go so will have a photo of that tomorrow.

A nice short post for today, you will be glad of that I'm sure, have a great time crafting and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 5

Happy Sunday and Happy Fathers Day to all dads and mums who are dads as well as mums.
Today has not been a great day for me. I had hoped to get out and about but my brain had other ideas and the agoraphobia kicked in big time with shaking and feeling sick at the thought of going anywhere. So I retreated into my bubble and picked up my Fading Point. I have been knitting my socks off all day and have got to adding in the 5th colour on side 1. I am truly loving this pattern and just know I will knit it again.

Talking of knitting my socks off, today being Sunday means it is sock cast on day.

I have decided that I need some shortie socks for the summer so I am using the free Milkshake pattern by Fiona D Tulloch and such a summery colour of Fabel to knit some happy summer shorties. Why don't you come along and join me in The Sunday Sock group on Ravelry and share your sock knits? I will start a thread over there as I would love you all to share your favourite patterns and sock yarns with me. I am always looking to try out something new and would love some inspiration.

That's it for today, see you tomorrow when I hope to have made it out of doors.

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 4

So yesterday I woke up with a horrendous headache which refused to shift all day. It called for an easy day of knitting with nothing too much to tax the brain. So I dug out a project that I am trialling just for myself and added a few rows. Then the postman came to the door and OMG!! He delivered the second part of my birthday pressie from my wonderful hubby.

All these wonderful goodies came in the June Accessories mystery box from Rosie's Moments on Etsy. There is a skein of amazing sport weight yarn with a sock pattern to knit, a progress keeper, two floral ribbons, six stitch markers with a wee caddy to put them in, a 500ml water bottle, a gift label and the dinkiest tiny floral peg. I must say I was overjoyed to receive this and almost forgot my headache for a while.

As I said I was knitting on a very simple project and here is a photo which really does not do it justice or give an idea of what it is but suffice to say it is very soothing and simple mindless knitting to do whilst watching podcasts or the TV or listening to books.

That's it for today I am off to watch the Grocery Girls again, happy knitting.
See you tomorrow

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 3

Well, I survived storm Hector mostly by staying indoors. It looked wild outside with the wind howling and various things flying past the window and if it wasn't for the sun it could have been November from my cosy vantage point on the sofa.

I spent the day watching those master enablers, The Grocery Girls, podcast number 11. I have only recently discovered the joy of knitting podcasts and have loads to catch up on. I am trying to watch one per day and I just love these ladies and their enthusiasm for all things yarn. I am so glad that I have very little income though, as I would be bankrupt in a very short time as I want to buy almost everything I see. I also listened to two books, It by Stephen King and Skinner's Round by Quintin Jardine whilst watching the wonderful antics of the latest litters of kittens on Tiny Kittens.

And of course, there was knitting and crochet done.
I started the day with round 60 of my afghan.

I then moved on to getting hubby's latest socks blocked

These are Blueberry Waffles in Ripples Crafts Reliable Sock in the colour Assynt Botanics, knit toe-up on a 2.5mm long circular using magic loop.

Finally, I spent some time on Fading Point.

This shows side 1 with the first 3 colours and on another needle I have 2 colours of side 2 done.

I think that will do for today I don't want to bore you.
Have a great Friday and I will see you all tomorrow.
Thanks for reading

Mary

Summer Staycation Day 2

Hello again. So yesterday was the first day of my nearly 2 weeks off work this summer and I decided that I would try to do a short daily post of what I get up to. Of course, it will be very yarn orientated but I may surprise you now and again with photos from around East Lothian.
In the last 24 hours, I have done some crochet on Rings of Change I am aiming for 1 round a day now that they are so long, but mostly I have been knitting.

A couple of weeks ago I kept seeing on the Ravelry forum radar, pictures of the amazing Fading Point  wrap by Joji Locatelli. I decided that I really had to knit it so off to the stash I trotted and pulled out these 5 beauties.

From the left we have

1. Hand painted 100% merino from Chandlers in North Berwick in colour Merlyn
2. Ripples Crafts Suilven, a merino/ silk/ yak yarn in colour Sea Stack
3. Eden Cottage Yarns Titus, merino/silk in colour Hektor
4. Suilven in Bay of Stoer
5. Suilven in Mountains of Assynt.

I will give you a progress photo tomorrow but suffice to say for now I am in love with Joji's patterns and already have my eye on the next one I want to knit.

I leave you today with a wee snapshot of the estate I live in to give an idea of life here in this wee corner of Scotland.

Time for me now to get back to the needles and my latest audiobook, It by Stephen King.

Until tomorrow happy crafting

Mary

Happy Day

Hello, here we are again. Today I am taking another step further into my 50's, still have not managed to figure out how I have got this far. I have been a very lucky lady today as this picture shows,

with two lovely skeins of Wollmeise from my Mum and Dad, a gift voucher from my Stepdaughter and family and a socker's rule from hubby with the promise from him of more goodies to come.

This week I have picked up my huge crochet afghan Rings of Change which I started on June 30th last year and I have been making progress.

I had put it into hibernation as the crocodile stitches were taking forever but finally, I pulled my hook out of my proverbial and got them done.

This project is one giant learning curve for me as I only taught myself to crochet at the beginning of last year and being me I just have to go big. I am learning so much and really enjoying it.

Last time I showed you the huge socks I knitted for my colleague and friend and he very kindly sent a photo of him wearing them as soon as he got home from work.

I am so happy that he loved them.

I will put links to the patterns in the Ravelry group The Sunday Sock where I hope you will come and join me for a cuppa and a blether.

Speak to you soon

Mary

Getting Back In The Groove

Hello there folks. It's been a while. My health has not been at it's best over the last few weeks and I have just been living quietly and of course knitting. I have also toyed with the idea of turning this blog into a podcast but in truth, I have a face for radio and a voice for the silent film so let us stay with the written word.

Now to the knitting.
I have six finishes to share with you.

First up are my Burntisland socks. These were knitted in Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in the Queen Anne colourway which was gifted to me in a swap package a few years ago. This is a paid for pattern on Ravelry by my lovely friend Fiona and it was an absolute pleasure to knit.

Next my Blueberry Waffles. These socks are knitted in Drops Fabel colour 655 Wooden Rose. This yarn is my go to commercial sock yarn as it has a wonderful price point, is very easy to work with and has good strength for wear and tear. This pattern is free on Ravelry and although written for top-down and a thicker yarn it is very easily adaptable to my favoured toe-up style.

On to Vanilla Latte. Oh, boy were these fun, not! Not for any reason with the pattern or yarn, simply because they are the biggest socks I have ever knitted. They are for one of my lovely colleagues, we shall call him J, and he has UK size 12 feet. The yarn I used is Ripples Crafts reliable sock in the colour Crisis in Malawi which was a specially dyed yarn to raise money for Mary's Meals charity. The pattern is again a free one on Ravelry which is so easy to knit and given a smaller foot length will knit up very rapidly.

Now moving away from socks, I have finished the Nougat cowl. Again I used Drops Fabel, this time in colour 604, Ocean View.

Also in the same yarn as the cowl, I recently finished a test knit for Knit By Bit Designs. The pattern is now live and I can share the pattern with you.

Flipping your Fins shawl is a nice crescent shaped shawl for the advanced beginner or intermediate knitter.

Finally for FO's I have my Nuuk.

This fabulously easy to knit top-down sweater was featured n the first edition of Laine magazine and is now available as an individual pattern on Ravelry. This was such a fast and enjoyable knit and I am so looking forward to wearing it when it gets a bit cooler. The yarn I used was, the now discontinued, Wendy Zena which had been maturing in my stash for at least 10 years.


I think that is enough to be getting on with and I hope to be back with you soon with some WIP's and stash enhancements.
Links to all patterns mentioned are in the Ravelry Group, come and join me.

Happy Crafting
Mary