Sunday 10th February

Hello friends, here we are it's Sunday again. I hope you have all had a good week. I had a great start with this wonderful box of goodies arriving from Rosie's Moments. This is the second mystery box of the year featuring the characters of Beatrix Potter. This month's box is dedicated to the Tailor of Gloucester.

Upon opening the postal box I was greeted with this gorgeous little suitcase. Inside it was packed with goodies.

A pin badge. a brooch, sewing needles, cards, a collectable 50p and of course the yarn.

This beautiful skein is a butter soft blend of Merino/Bamboo/Silk. There was also a sock pattern included but for me, this deserves to be worn somewhere else and I am thinking that a shawl like Reyna would be just gorgeous.

I have had a real hankering for Salad Cream this week. For those of you who don't know it, it is like mayonnaise but more piquant in taste. I am just wanting it with everything, sandwiches, chips (french fries), fish, just everything. Goodness knows where this hankering is coming from, maybe I am subconsciously longing for summer.

During the week I decided to make a small change to the parameters of my yarn savings which I laid out last week. For every skein or ball finished I will add 1p per yard rather than just £1 per skein. This will help me save a bit more cash. I finished 2 skeins @ 286 yards this week which means I was able to add £5.72.

I have also started my EYF shopping list. After much deliberation, I have decided it is time to shop the stash more so this year I am hoping to concentrate on buying sundries more than yarn. The first item added to my list is Eucalan. I love this for washing my woollies and am hoping to find a large bottle of the Wrapture Jasmine scented one.

My Week in Knitting

Last Sunday I cast on Minecraft Socks for my Dad's birthday. This free pattern is written for top-down but is very easily adapted to knitting toe-up. I completed the toe before it was time for bed.

Monday and Tuesday's knitting was devoted to my EYF sweater. I really want to get this finished this month so powered on with the body. I have now run out of the Maiden Loch blue so from the joining of the body to sleeves and for the yoke I will be winging it with Ripe Rowan Berry, Copper Beech and A Slice of Lime.

On Tuesday morning I went stash diving for the last skein of yarn I need for my sweater. I did not find it but I did find a sock and yarn I had started for Dad's birthday last year so I have decided to finish that pair for him instead of the Minecraft socks. They will be knitted for my Step Son-in-Law instead.

Wednesday found me picking up a second sock for a change of pace. I managed to complete the foot before it was time for bed.

Thursday saw my return to the MineCraft socks. This is such an easy knit with a memorable 12-row repeat.

On Friday I was back to the sweater, this time though it was to consign what was knitted to the frog pond. I was just not happy with the way it was turning out. I ripped out the body and have started over.

Saturday was lost in its entirety to fever. I was in bed all day just sleeping it off. I am sure it was caused by a gum infection as I had a lot of pain and swelling around my lower left wisdom tooth. There is still some pain today but it is manageable and I am upright.

Time to go and feed the kitties and find some lunch for us humans.
Until next Sunday, have a good week.

Mary

Sunday 3rd February

Hello friends, I hope this Sunday finds you all well and warm or cool depending on your part of the globe. I know parts of the world have been suffering extremes of weather and must admit that while it is cold here we have been lucky with just a light dusting of snow so far.

At the end of last month, I made a life-changing decision. I handed in my notice to the job I have been in for nearly 10 years. Whilst I have loved my time there and my job, my recent health issues and the deterioration of my husband's health means that I have had to look long term at my ability to be a functioning and reliable staff member and sadly I know that I can not now be the person they need me to be. The loss of an income means that I will now have to be extra careful with my pennies. Luckily I have an extensive stash collected over the years from which I can personally shop but you know how it is, there is always a shiny new yarn you want to try out of a local yarn festival to visit.

Now that I am not earning I have been looking at new ways to fund my yarn habit, yes I have an addiction, and I think I have found my answer. Whilst perusing Ravelry I stumbled across a post which detailed a type of yarn savings account which you keep yourself. You pay yourself a small amount for finished items and used up yarn from your stash. I have decided on the following amounts.

• Small items, hat, baby item etc. - £1
• Pairs, socks or mitts - £2
• Large items, sweater or blanket - £5
• Each ball or skein used up - £1 

I am hoping that by doing this I can save up my pennies for EYF and the smaller St Abbs yarn festivals and my kitty bank is ready to collect my earnings.

Given that I will have a bit more time on my hands I hope to listen to a few more books this year. I have a few under my belt already and this week started listening to a non-fiction epic. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon is 126 hours long so I am listening to a chapter a day. So far this insight into this period of history is fascinating and informative. Alongside this, I will listen to various other books and am currently enjoying The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths.

This week I have mostly been working on my EYF sweater. I have made it through the waist decreases and am heading rapidly to the bust increases.  As I am knitting from stash and using a different yarn from the pattern and I have different quantities of colours available to me I am using the pattern more as a guide to shaping and fit than doing the colourwork in the original.

My ZickZack scarf has moved on a little too with the first mini skein nearing its end. This is such an easy pattern with such stunning results. I have been blown away with some of the finished projects on Ravelry and hope my effort works as I imagine it.

I have a couple of finishes to show you too.

Continuing our journey around Scotland's Burghs we have come to the last big city burgh of Glasgow. The biggest city but not the capital lends its name to a wee pair of ankle socks I finished early in the week.

These were knitted from leftovers from other socks I had knitted and are currently keeping my tootsies warm.

My other finish this week takes us north to the first of the Aberdeenshire burghs. Inverurie, a Royal Burgh, is the name I have given to this stranded hat.

 This free pattern, https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-easy-ombre-slouch-hat is a good introduction to stranded knitting if you have never tried it before. Using only two colours of DK and 4mm needles, it knits up quickly and gives a very pleasing result. I used an unknown yarn cake from my stash and knitted a fixed doubled brim for the lower portion then added Stylecraft Special DK in Boysenberry for the top.

Finally this week I have a new gadget to share with you. I am always on the lookout for any tools which make my crafting easier and lately, I have seen a lot of adverts for neck lamps with LED bulbs. I did a bit of research and finally chose one from Amazon.

The lamp came very quickly and it is a fabulous addition to my tool kit. As it is the season of long nights it is especially useful, allowing me to knit longer without adding eye strain. I can also see it being very useful if you are knitting with very dark colours all year round. I have tried to capture a photo of it in use to give you the idea of how you can train the light on your hands. It weighs very little and after a very short while I forgot I had it around my neck.

I am still getting used to it for knitting but can also see many other uses for around the home and out and about. I have a feeling some of these may turn up in Birthday presents this year.

That's it for now, until next week happy crafting

Mary


Rows - 334

Sunday 27th January

Hello friends, I hope you have all had a great week. Firstly this week I would like to wish a belated Happy Birthday to two ladies who had milestone birthdays this past week. Annie had her day on Friday and Marjory yesterday. I hope you both had a lovely time and were blessed with yarny goodness.
Now the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a shift in the number on the tracker at the top of this post. I have totalled up the number of rows completed in the last 4 weeks and added 2251 rows to the challenge.

This means there has been a little movement along the map. I only managed 390 rows this past week due to being flattened by Sciatica. I can honestly say I have never had such bad pain in my legs before, all I could do was take the painkillers and sleep as they knocked me out.

I did manage to finish one sock this week. This is a gift for the daughter of a friend.

I am knitting a mash-up of patterns for this pair. Toe-up, I have used Rye Light for the foot, a short row garter stitch heel and Molecular Orbitals for the leg, both are free patterns. I will be casting on the second one just as soon as I finish with this post.

Last week you will remember I cast on my Happy Scrappy Blankie with Penelope Penguin keeping track. I am just loving the mindless knitting and have managed about a foot width.

Lisa, who's pattern it is has finished hers and has kindly allowed me to share her photo of the finished blanket with you.

 And in this one, she looks so happy wrapped up in it.

Thank you, Lisa, for letting me share your pictures.

Now it is time for me to go and cast on that sock whilst listening to 1Q84, an epic listen at 40 hours.

Until next Sunday
Happy crafting

Mary

Sunday 20th January

Hello friends, I do hope you have had a good week. I have been very productive this week finishing 2 pairs of commissioned socks which will go off in the post on Monday to their new owners who will hopefully have cosy feet for the rest of the winter. This also means I have two more Scottish burghs to share with you and that I have completed 6% of my 2019 Ravelry challenge.
The first of the socks is Dundee, this pair was a really fun knit as I made up the pattern as I went along. I chose to use a garter rib stitch for the main sock and used my new favourite garter stitch short row heel. These socks just flew off the needles.

The yarn used is Stylecraft Head over Heels in Sugar Loaf and I used 2.5mm needles.

The second pair, Edinburgh, my home city and also that of the recipient, was another very quick knit. This time I used the Vanilla Latte pattern for the main sock and again the garter stitch short row heel.

These were knitted with the same needles and yarn, this time the colour is Eiger. 

Thursday saw the sock and I out and about, my good friend Sheena and I took our sock knitting to a garden centre cafe and had a lovely time catching up and knitting. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge my phone before we went and only got a photo of the delicious cherry scone and latte I had.

 I did notice we got some curious glances from other patrons but sadly no-one came over to ask us about our knitting. Sheena also presented me with a bag full of sock yarn for me to make a start on socks for Operation Christmas Stocking 2019. 

Now on to a WIP. My EYF sweater has moved on a bit with both sleeves now complete and progress made on the body.

No sleeve island this time

I love knitting sweaters in the round as one of my pet hates in life is seaming. I just never seem to make them neat.

Body is coming on

I have two new projects cast on this week.
First, is a scarf. I cannot remember when I last knitted a scarf, it must be quite a few years ago. You may remember that my wonderful hubby gave me this beautiful set of mini skeins for Christmas,

Tranquillity

I had been looking for a suitable pattern to do them justice when on the Ravelry radar I spotted the ZickZack Scarf. This free pattern is just a joy to knit being essentially just one row, but the options to create something beautiful are endless. Just take a look at some of the finished items.

I haven't gotten too far yet but am loving the pattern and yarn together. I have modified slightly as I am knitting 4 rows of colour 1 followed by 2 rows of colour 2 to allow me to add in my progression of colours as I move through the minis. This pattern has been knitted many times using leftovers with spectacular results and that segments beautifully into my final cast on this week.

Penelope Penguin has a very long term project to keep her beady eyes on. This little corner is the start of my Happy Scrappy Blankie. This free blanket pattern is the perfect way to use up all those leftover sock scraps, mini skeins and magic knot balls. My Facebook friend Lisa Woodruff takes all the credit for coming up with this idea and has almost finished her blanket which is looking stunning and which made up my mind to cast on one for myself. Lisa is an inspiration having been very ill last year and still recovering yet, she is still so enthusiastic about her knitting and her recovery. I am proud to call her a friend albeit in the virtual world of the internet. She also has an Etsy shop where she sells magic knot balls and mini-skein bundles if you need some to start out on your scrappy project. After I get the Edinburgh Yarn Festival out of the way I will save up and buy some mini skeins from her to add to my blanket.

I think that is all for this week other than to say I managed 639 rows for my round the world challenge. Next Sunday I will update the map and see how far along the journey I have gotten.

Happy crafting

Mary 

The Sunday Sock: Sunday 13th January

The Sunday Sock: Sunday 13th January: Hello friends, here we are already nearly halfway through January. I hope all your new year's resolutions and crafting is going to plan....

Sunday 13th January

Hello friends, here we are already nearly halfway through January. I hope all your new year's resolutions and crafting is going to plan. I have had a mixed week with a visit to the Doctor and yet more antibiotics, this time for a skin abscess which slowed my knitting somewhat as my arm movements caused a great deal of pain. Despite that, I have a finish to share with you.

My last pair of socks for Operation Christmas Stocking is done and these will be added to the parcel and posted off tomorrow. These are Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings, a free pattern on Ravelry and I chose to do all chart A for this pair. The yarn is Ripples Crafts Reliable Sock in Early Morning with the cuffs and toes in Drops Fabel in Mustard. The pattern is written for top-down but was very easily adaptable to toe-up.
This is my first completed project of 2019 and has been named Aberdeen, a Royal Burgh, in my Ravelry notebook. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page about Aberdeen.
It is also my first contribution to the Sock Knitters group KAL of 2019. Each year we try to collectively knit 5500 pairs of socks. Last year we didn't quite make it amassing only 5202 pairs. If you are a sock knitter please join this friendly group and help us hit the magic number this year.

The next pair I have on the needles are for a good friend's daughter. I decided to make up the pattern as I went along and I am pleased with the result so far. I am on the cuff of the first sock and it will be finished this afternoon.

The yarn is Stylecraft Head over Heels in Sugarloaf. I am loving the colours of this yarn and am really enjoying knitting it up. As I said I am making it up as I go along and hopefully you can see the garter rib waffle pattern in this picture

Now for some incomings.
A while ago I mentioned my new found love of Bath and Bodyworks hand cream and how it cannot be easily gotten in the UK. My lovely ex-colleague Elly, who lives and works in Doha, kindly sent me some as a gift when she came home for Christmas. Thank you, Elly.

A new year means new exciting things and yesterday was full of these when two mystery boxes from Rosie's Moments arrived.
First is the monthly sock box which this year features world landmarks. January's landmark is the beautiful and majestic Matterhorn.

The box is filled with goodies of a Swiss theme with chocolate, hot chocolate, a bath bomb, goats milk soap, a cheese-themed note card, a measuring pen, a little Swiss cottage progress keeper and beautiful sock yarn with a pattern to knit. It was like Christmas all over again opening this up.

The second box from Rosie was just as magical, this time the theme for the year is Beatrix Potter and January's box just had to be Peter Rabbit,

It is packed with Peter Rabbit goodies, yarn and a pattern, carrot-shaped sweeties, a napkin, a collectors 50p, little tin, labels and progress keepers. it also contained a gorgeous Peter Rabbit pin badge which is now firmly fixed to my sock project bag.

This coming week I will be out and about with my sock on Thursday morning at Merryhatton Garden Centre for coffee and cake with my friend Sheena. We are meeting at 10.30am. If you want to join us feel free to pop along and say hello and bring your knitting.

Until next Sunday, take care and happy crafting

Mary

Rows knitted 445

Welcome 2019

Hello friends, a very happy new year to you all. I hope this year brings you health, happiness and most of all wonderful yarn.
Last week I was looking at what I want to do this year and this week I want to add my personal challenge. In 2018 I completed my challenge of 45 knits, one for every town or village in East Lothian, this year I am aiming for 50. When completing a project in my Ravelry notebook I like to name it and over the next couple of years, I have decided to name my projects after Burghs in Scotland. There are quite a few of them, many more than I had imagined, as I found out when I stumbled upon a list on Wikipedia. I want to share with you the wonderful country that is Scotland so for each finished project I will link the Wikipedia page about that place.

In other news, I found out on Thursday that my Ravelry and FB friend, Yvonne, is coming from The Netherlands for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March. I am so excited to meet her for the first time and am sure there will be much chat, coffee, and cake consumed.

Now we get to some knitting, not as much to show you as I had hoped as I kept being sidetracked by other things. There is no new sock to share this week, there is however a rather strange little surprise. This little pocket is something I am planning on knitting quite a few of for my Salvation Army box.

Now, if you don't know what it is you may be quite puzzled but believe me it is something very useful. This is just the first of a pair,

TA-DAH

Isn't that just magic, it's a slipper. So easy to knit yet so useful.

I also started my EYF sweater using some yarn I bought there in 2015. I am knitting a version of Miss Rachel's Yoke by Kate Davies.
I have loved this sweater since I saw it on the Hawthorn Cottage Crafts podcast. Now I am not a grey person so I decided to go with a beautiful blue as my main colour.

You may wonder why I have started with the sleeves. I am terrible for knitting just one sleeve and then getting bored and the second sleeve never gets done. I decided to mitigate this by doing the sleeves first this time.

That's all I have for you this week other than to say I knitted 777 rows this last week. I will add up my rows at the end of the month and add them to the ticker and map then, on the first Sunday of the new month I will highlight my progress

Happy crafting

Mary

Links

Slippers
Miss Rachel's Yoke
Hawthorn Cottage Craft