Monday 25th March

Hello friends, welcome to the day late Sunday Sock. It was such an exciting and tiring weekend for me that yesterday instead of writing I was sleeping and trying to let my poor bones and muscles recover. Why you may ask was I so exhausted? Well, all day Saturday I was with Yvonne at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. We had an amazing time, surrounded by colour, fellow crafters and more beautiful knits than I could shake a stick at.
It all kicked off for me on Friday when hubby and I went to Edinburgh Airport to meet Yvonne

She and I have been online friends for many years but this was our first time meeting IRL and the first time she has been to Scotland. Home we came and she met our fur family. For dinner, we had Cullen Skink, a gorgeous creamy smoked haddock soup, which is a traditional Scottish dish. After lots of chatting and some wine, it was time for bed as we had a big day ahead.

Saturday morning dawned fine, fair and sunny and we headed to get the bus to EYF. I had chosen to take the bus as it would allow Yvonne to see some of the beautiful city that is Edinburgh. We are very lucky as from the next village we could get a bus which took us all the way to the festival. Once there, we put coats in the cloakroom and then it was lift off. I tried so hard to take photos but seriously it was so busy and there was so much to see and so many people to talk to that it was hard to remember which stall was which and who was who. I did get some though and here they are.

This was just a fraction of what was on show. We spent over two hours just wandering about taking in the sights and sounds.
at half past 2, we headed to the Ripplescrafts stand where we met up with some Ravelry friends and then headed out to the marquee for a seat and some refreshments.

Lots of show and tell and coffee and cake happened and then we were off again. Back into the marketplace. But on the way, we bumped into these guys and just had to stop for a photo.

Sarah also had her photo taken

So, what did I buy? The answer is not a lot. I was so overwhelmed by the choices available that I instead collected a lot of business cards so I can peruse at leisure and make more informed choices rather than impulse purchases. I was seduced however at the Jamieson of Shetland stall by this

Six wee balls of Spindrift in the most gorgeous colours. This kit came with a scarf pattern but I think I am going to make a shawl with it.
Then, a last minute purchase just as we were getting ready to leave.

I have two skeins of Wollmeise, one in orange and one in lemon and I thought this gradient set would blend in well to make another Sorrento shawl.

My last gain was a gift from Yvonne. She bought me this beautiful little tin of stitch markers.

 Homeward bound we met some lovely ladies from Sweden with whom we chatted for a while. Once home it was more Scottish food for dinner as we treated Yvonne to stovies and her first taste of haggis. This she declared was delicious.

I came home to a couple of surprise packages which had come whilst I was out. The first was a box containing 4 Gouda kinds of cheese and some Stroopwaffles which Yvonne had posted before she left The Netherlands as a gift for us. The second was this gorgeous Peter Rabbit project bag I had ordered as a special order from Rachael at Sew Ray Me.

I ordered this to house the projects I do with my Beatrix Potter mystery box yarns and was blown away by the finished item.
I can highly recommend these project bags as they are just so beautifully made with love sewn in.

Sunday saw us return to the airport to say goodbye to Yvonne. I do hope that she enjoyed her flying visit as we thoroughly enjoyed having her here and hope we will meet again soon.

That is it for this week, normal posting will resume next Sunday with hopefully some finished objects and some new cast ons.

To all who were visiting EYF from all over the world, haste ye back, to the organisers, volunteers, stallholders, Corn Exchange staff and everyone involved a huge thank you for all your hard work, see you next year.

Happy crafting

Mary

Sunday 17th March

Hello friends, welcome to The Sunday Sock and a happy St Patrick's day to all you Irish out there. It has been a very quiet week here with really not much happening at all except some knitting and clearing out of excess stuff. How on earth just two of us have accumulated so much is a mystery. I have even, shock-horror, put some yarn into the bag for the charity shop.
Preparations, however, are well underway for my expedition with Yvonne to EYF next Saturday. To say that I am excited about this event is an understatement. I missed out last year as hubby and I were holidaying on the beautiful island of Mull, but I have been to every other EYF since the beginning. A meet-up has been planned on Ravelry with some fellow knitters from the Ripples Craft group and we shall be meeting at Helen's stand, E4, at 2.30 pm on Saturday 23rd then heading round to the marquee for coffee, cake and a blether. Anyone is welcome to join us and I will be wearing my Ravelry badge so if you are there and want to say hello, please do.

Now for some knitting.
I have been, very unusually for me, totally monogamous this week as I really want to wear my Sorrento shawl on Saturday. I have finished the body of the shawl and am about 2/3 through the picot bind off.

This has been pure joy to knit and I am already thinking of doing another one in different colours. I made one small modification to the pattern in that on the last section the lace and my yarn were not playing kindly, so about half-way through I switched back to the pattern of section 6. This made me much happier with the result.
I do have some other super secret knitting on the needles but you will have to wait a while before I can share these projects with you.

Books In My Ears

This month accompanying me as I knit I have been listening to A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor, narrated by Zara Ramm. This is the third book in the most enjoyable and at times hilarious time travelling historians series, The Chronicles of St Mary's. The scrapes the contemporary characters get themselves into whilst travelling back in time, in this instance to Troy, lends itself to some very entertaining listening. I would recommend starting this series with the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, as I did, and continue chronologically as there are references to the earlier books and it helps the story to flow.

So that's it. a very short post this week. I am hoping to get lots of photos and maybe even a wee bit of video next week. 

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Happy crafting

Mary

M.I.A.

Well look who is here? Yes it's me. I finally have time to draw breath and get back to you. This work for a living malarky does not half get in the way of knitting, reading and blogging.
As many of you will know I am essentially carer to my beloved hubby who has severe mobility issues. Between the months of April and October I am also to be found hovering around the likes of Concorde, the Vulcan and other iconic aircraft at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian, doing my very best to help visitors rather than confuse them. Parts of the museum have just undergone a massive £3.6 million redevelopment and the opening of this is what has kept me from keeping up my blog.

The last time I wrote I was having a bit of a moment to myself and kidding myself on that I could knit a top in around 48 hours. Well it did not happen. I did manage to knit about 3/4 of it but I was not at all happy with how it was turning out. It was duly sent off to the frog pond and I had a glorious day out with my mum at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.
This year two things happened which conspired to deny me photos of the festival. 1st I forgot the camera and 2nd I was pushing mum in a wheelchair which would have made for very difficult snap taking. I did however come away with very happy memories and a little stash enhancement.

Clockwise from top left, Date with Ada pattern, Soak wash, Plaua gradient by Bilum, Wee Rainbow on a Vespa by La Bien Aimee and the gradient and Indigo sock yarn are both Blue Moon from The Border Tart

I was a very good girl and stuck to both my budget and with the exception of the pack of mini-skeins, my shopping list. I seem to have had a bit of a blue theme going on this year and I am delighted with my purchases.

Back to knitting.
The top I was kidding myself I could knit was Elfe by Astrid Schamm. I saw a finished one whizz by on the Ravelry radar and I fell in love. As I said before I was not loving how my first attempt was turning out, so after the festival I started it again with different yarn and I am about half way through the new version.

I will leave you with that for this post but will be back very soon with details of a very gorgeous pattern which I also have on the needles.

When Madness Ensues

What happens when you are just over 48 hours away from a local yarn festival and you spy a wonderful pattern which would be ideal to wear to said festival? Why you cast on of course!
Watch this space........

Gripped

Sometimes I can be browsing patterns on Ravelry and along comes one which takes my breath away. This happened in the early hours of this morning when I could not sleep.
I had been feeling that my knitting mojo had gone for a wee holiday when suddenly I saw the beautiful Muirs shawl pattern. It was love at first sight. I just had to purchase it.
The shawl is essentially knit in two parts, first the edging is done then stitches are picked up along this edging and the body is knitted from the bottom up.
I grabbed the first yarn I had to hand, which was Ripples Crafts merino/silk, (now sadly discontinued), in the gloriously soft Violet Whispers colour and cast on.

7 edging repeats done 

I am finding rhythm in the knitting of the edging and it is progressing at a good pace for me. I hope that I can get this done quickly as I would dearly love to wear this shawl to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival to show off this beautiful pattern.

It Has Been a While

Gosh, how time flies.I am having difficulty believing that I last posted in January.
However I am still here knitting away and dreaming up new challenges for myself to keep life interesting.
One of the things I have challenged myself to I have been thinking about for a number of years and now I have finally figured out how to take it forward and continue with my main passion. Way back in 2003 the BBC commissioned a year long survey to find the nation's favourite books, full list of the top 200 can be found here, I have often thought about trying to read as many as I can but was foiled by the fact you cannot turn pages or read words and read patterns and knit at the same time. The bingo! a solution came to me. I have an Audible subscription, why not have the books read to me whilst I relax with my sticks and string thus combining two of my favourite things.
I took the plunge and started at No 1. The Lord of the Rings. I have now finished the first of the 6 books and am a way through the second. You may find it hard to believe, especially with all the hype there has been in the last few years, but this is a book I have never read nor have I seen any of the films. I will admit that at times I am struggling to stay focused with the story but I will persevere and I am sure I shall enjoy it.
Another challenge to myself is to knit 24 pairs of socks this year. To many folk that will sound a lot but in my mind it is 2 pairs a month, not so bad. So far I have 7 pairs completed so am bang on schedule.

To keep things interesting I am trying to use a different pattern for every pair. My Ravelry queue has expanded madly as I have added nearly 500 of the free sock patterns available. In my mind this equates to roughly 20 years of socks. Hey, we can but dream.
I am not just knitting socks though, I have a few other projects on the go and one of my Ravelry groups has a basket challenge about to begin. This involves filling a basket, real or imaginary with yarn, or wip's and trying to do as much as you can from that basket within a set period of time. It is a great way to stay focused and work your way through the stash.
Speaking of stash, mine has taken a bit of a giant leap in the wrong direction twice already this year. Firstly when a dear friend was de-stashing and I got some gorgeous yarn and a very good discount and secondly when I took myself along to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. What a wonderful day out that was. Over a hundred stalls packed with yarnie goodies of all descriptions. It was heavenly. However being me I was like a deer caught in the headlights and there was simply way too much to choose from. I ended up just buying yarn from my favourite hand dyer and a beautiful basket for my basket challenges.

The dates for next year's festival have just been announced and I have already made a promise to myself that I will branch out and try some new yarn.
Other than that I have no major planned yarn purchases this year so it is time to climb back on the sheep and work my stash down. I will however have one skein of yarn arriving each month as my wonderful hubby gave me the most amazing gift this past Christmas. He has signed me up for the Yarn Notes from Assynt yarn club which includes a skein of hand dyed sock yarn, a beautiful picture card and some very well researched and written information about the area around the picture. The first 4 months of this club have been a joy to receive and I look forward to each and every parcel arriving.
That is all I can think of for now.

Stay safe and happy crafting
Mary

Who's a Lucky Girl Then?

Me, that's who!
Last year I was delighted to attend the first ever Edinburgh Yarn Festival. It was a lot of fun and proved to be such a success that the organisers have started preparations for an even bigger and better event to be held in March 2015. As part of these preparations they ran a prize draw on Ravelry, Facebook and Twitter to win a shawl pattern, yarn and project bag. I was the lucky winner of the Ravelry contest and early this morning the postie brought my prize.

The yarn is so soft, a 50-50 silk and merino mix, and the shawl pattern looks like it will be such fun to knit. The pattern is Gilver by designer Jo Kelly.
So as I say I am a very lucky girl.

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary

Something Good

Sometimes in life something happens that is so good that you are still grinning about it days later. That happened to me on Saturday. For a few months now I have been looking forward to the inaugural Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I was so excited to hear that 3 local ladies had taken the plunge and were going to organise this. As always this excitement was tempered with apprehension about whether I would be able to cope in a strange place filled with strangers.
I decided early on that nothing would get in the way of me going along and enjoying myself, agoraphobia be damned, and when my wonderful hubby said he would come with me to help me cope I was delighted. Also my lovely Mum decided it would be worth a trip up from the SouthWest tip of Scotland to see what all the fuss was about. I was so pleased also when my good friend Gill said she was off work that day and would meet us too.

Saturday March 16th dawned with typical Edinburgh weather. Grey, cold and lashing with rain. Oh no!! Would people turn up? I really felt for the organisers and hoped the weather would not put people off. After meeting with mum the three of us made the trip into the city and were astounded to find a parking space very close to the venue. We unloaded DH's walker and made our way along Dalmeny Street. Upon turning into the hall the sight that greeted us made my jaw drop in wonder. The place was packed. A huge grin spread over my face and has remained there ever since. I had taken along my camera to take some pictures but it was impossible. The only photo I got all day was one of the cow which had been sheepified for the day.

Drill Hall shcow!!

We made our way slowly through the throng and by some sort of miracle managed to find Gill who had come from the other side of the city.

We managed to find a seat and order some coffee's and bagels to have a bite to eat all the while admiring the myriad of hand knits and crocheted on view. We then decided to tackle the crowds and have a look around. It was slow going and I know we did not see everything by a long stretch but what we did see was a whet to the appetite of this avid knitter. 

I did not escape without a purchase though. I treated myself to some lovely RippplesCrafts yarn and a beautiful hand made wooden yarn pal which my DH is very impressed with. He also bought a single stitch marker for himself of a purple skeleton head which he promptly attached to a chain and is now wearing proudly round his neck while telling anyone who will listen where he got it.

My haul

After a while it all started getting a bit much for us all and we made the decision to head home. Had I had more pennies with me I am sure my bag would have been bulging with lots more wonderful goodies.

I can only hope and pray that this event becomes regular on the yarnie social calender and that I can get myself well enough to attend each and every one.

I must add to this a huge thank you to everyone who took the risk to hold the event, the volunteers and the stallholders who came. I can only hope that everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did and like me are still grinning at the memory 4 days later.

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary

Talamh

Those of you with keen eyesight may just have seen my ticker of skeins jump alarmingly by 7 this morning. There is a very good reason for this, I decided as a treat to myself to join in an impromptu KAL of Talamh, a delightful cardigan pattern available to purchase from Ravelry.
What is special about this for me is that the yarn has been dyed especially for this project in my chosen colour and is just delightful.

The colour is Crushed Blackberries and is from my favourite dyer, the wonderful Helen at Ripplescrafts.

My plan is that this yarn will not linger in my stash, but that I will knit at least 1 skein a week to finish the cardigan and I will wear it to the inaugural Edinburgh Yarn Festival on March 16th. 

Wish me luck and I will keep you all informed of my progress.

Stay safe and happy crafting

Mary