okay, okay,
I haven't posted for ages and to be quite honest I waasn't feeling at all guilty until I got 'tagged' and now have to think of 6 wierd things about myself....not a difficult task for me, 6 normal or ordinary things I do would be pushing it a bit but as far as I'm concerned, wierd is good.
The hard part is finding 6 other people whose blogs I read to tag, they've all been done already!
Anyway, the rules are as follows and I now have to narrow down the wierd things into the less embarrassing things:

Here are the rules:THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

Its a nice idea and I don't mind exposing my wierdities but I don't want to dump the chain letter thing onto a stranger?

Continuning on from the post below, a Shoalwater shawl knitted in Helen's Lace from Lornas laces, I can't remember the shade but its purpley blues and lovely to knit.

and a Stashbuster! the yarn is from Elann.com, its a wool/alpaca mix and aran weight so the shawl is really warm and cosy. The pattern is one of their free ones, Victorian Lace Shawl (I think)I had the yarn and pattern lying around for ages and in the end it only took a week to do.

so now I'm off to do some more photos....what shall I do next? socks or gloves or bags or bigger stuff?

Back to a bit of normality now or as close as it gets Chez Catknit so blogging will resume with a bit of shawl showing off.
The deep red shawl is Birch by Sahron Miller in a yummy colour Kid Silk Haze. It was knitted for a friend so I have to part company with it at the weekend but I have plans to but some more of that shade for ME.

The pale pink fluff is my wedding shawl which is shown in progress much earlier in the blog(pattern is The Dove Shawl from Heirloom Knitting) and the minky coloured job is my first Birch, much loved and worn everywhere again in KSH.

Just a quick post to say I'm still alive, not many knitting photos to show right now because my camera has been choked up with other stuff and I couldn't find the lead to empty it on to the puter. Anyhow, a quick wedding pic for those interested, taken by my Dad, l-r DD1, best man Norfy, me 'n' him, DD2 and my new stepdaughter
I suppose this does include some recently finished things cos the girls are all wearing Birch shawls I made and mine is another Sharon Miller design called The Dove Shawl, all made in KSH, mine was pale pink and the girls were Pearl.

We all had a great day and the weather was just perfect, a sunny October day, not too hot, not too cool.

Blogging suspended until life calms down,
too much work, wedding arrangements, hen weekend this weekend (Brussels here we come)
kids stuff, house decorating, more kids stuff, did I mention too much work?
oh and some idiot drove into the back of my car yesterday when I was sat at traffic lights in town so trips to garage for damage assesment and repair and lenghthy phone calls with insurance companies to sort out all the dross.
AAAAAAAAARRRGH.
that feels better
AAAAAAAAAArrggh
hmm a bit calmer now.

Finally Blocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This poor old tablcloth has been a crumply mess in the back of a cupboard for at least 2 years waiting to be blocked but inspired by Viv67's www.vivica.de.blog post on Angel Yarns forum of a picture of her Forest Path Stole, I kicked myself up the backside last night (not easy)and spent 2 hours crawling around the floor pinning this thing out and spraying starch all over the place.

The pattern is the Lilac Time oval dinner cloth design from Marianne Kinzel's Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting which is an absolute treasure for us lace obsessives.

Trouble is, I love knitting the tablecloths I hate blocking them and I also have no inclination to use them (I'm just not a lace tablecloth type of girl) so unless they are earmarked as a gift, they end up in a dark and dusty cupboard until said kick in the rump arrives. Well its done now, its one less thing to guilt over when the stash store calls to me and now I just have to think of someone with an oval table to give it to!

Back to blogging, where has August gone ? Answers on a comment box please.

Never mind, got up this morning to a nice wee package in the post, its my Posh Yarns sock club September installment and the colours are yummy, autumnal and as always lovely sock yarn, I have a feeling ( actually I know full well ) that this is a pair of socks for me, the last one was a bit pastel for me so DDs have claimed that but even tho its not knitted yet I might just have to start on mine as a bit of small stuff to do after the recent shawl frenzy.

It was such a treat to have yarn in the post as the yarn diet continues and this doesn't count since I signed up before the diet started.

For anyone interested, the wedding shawl mentioned previously has been finished but needs blocking and I have finished one of the mini Birches for DD2. DD1's has been cast on and a couple of pattern repeats finished but I decided I needed something a bit thicker and less fluffy than KSH for a bit so I started my Victorian Lace shawl in Elanns Uros aran, I'm down to the last 2 balls of yarn so I should finish this weekend and will post piccies when mass shawl blocking session is done.

I'm finding it very hard to motivate myself to work today and using any excuse not to actually open a file and do something so even without photos I thought I'd do a bit of a rambling blog.
The house is still a tip, bathroom is almost finished although I still have to paint it once the tiler, carpenter and plumber have done their finishing bits. DD2's bedroom is painted but still needs a loft hatch fitted in the ceiling and a light sorted out, curtains, carpet refitting and all the furniture put back in (before Sunday). The dining room is ready for painting but with all the other bits I have to do I've told DP I want someone else to do this for me and then we get to start ripping the kitchen apart (aaaaargh)
I need a holiday badly but won't get away until the honeymoon (early October) by which time I'll be a frazzled wreck.
It's a good job I have knitting to keep me sane. I joined the Bertie-a-long on the AY forum a while ago and made it last weekend, it turned out quite well and its going to be a Christmas present for someone but I haven't decided who yet. My wedding shawl is into the third ball of KSH and although the pattern called for 4, I think its almost big enough now, I don't want it too long or it will hide the detailing on the back of the dress.
My Ogee sweater from Nature knits by Norah Gaughan now has one completed sleeve and I'm 1/3 of the way up the front, I've decided the back will be v boring to knit plain in 4 ply so I think the cable design will be on the back too.(Imust be insane, this is complicated cabling but has to be better than plain st st for a whole 4 ply back)
Apart from those two things the only other thing OTN is MILs lace tablecloth which was originally to be for her birthday present but I got side tracked and now it will have to be completed for Christmas.
The planned projects list just keeps getting longer though, and yarn is already sitting at home to make a Rogue hoody, another sweater from nature knits, several (well call it about 15) pairs of socks, 2 Birch shawls (mini versions for dds to wear at wedding) Aran shawl for me, alpaca for a lace jacket, and soo much more it makes my head hurt to think about it. I've been very good on the stashalong so far and once I got over the initial 'NO DON'T BUY IT' stage, it hasn't been too bad. I would like to reduce the stash down to just two or three planned projects since this interwebbly net shopping mularkey means you're only ever two or three days away from starting a project and I feel guilty about having all this stuff around that is still 'to do', it feels like I'm as far behind with the knitting as I am with everything else and although my yarn is very forgiving and doesn't mind being left around for a while, I'm starting to worry about the compulsiveness of this yarn buying - it's not the money value but more the storage space!! we had to have extra cupboards build in the bathroom to put the towells etc in because the 'linen' cupboard is full of yarn and stuff which falls out on you when you open the door!!
Anyway, must go and do some work, three lots of company year end stuff to do and it won't go away by itself.....

Many thanks again to Mouldydc for my SSS present.

Its ages since I made DK socks but couldn't resist starting my alpaca/silk socks straight away and sock 1 is finished.

Its sooooo soft and snuggly but obviously too warm to wear at the moment!

The yarn was an absolute dream to work with and because its DK instead of my usual sock weight, it whizzed off the needles in no time.


I basically made the pattern up because I needed to work toe up since I wasn't sure how far the yarn would go and took the number of sts from the Regia pattern for DK (48sts for size 5 feet). Did a prvisional cast on of 24 sts and worked around the toe cap, then up to the heel and a short row shaping followed by st st for a bit of leg then k2p2 rib until I ran out of the first skein of yarn with just a bit left to cast off.

I think the rib looks better doubled over and since its a winter sock, it will be more snuggly around the ankle.

My Angel Yarns Summer Secret Santa parcel arrived yesterday but I had problems getting Blogger to upload the pictures so here they are.
Everything was slightly disorganised yesterday because of builders in the house so my office was in the garden and I took the pictures out there.
The first is of my still wrapped parcels and the card containing the clue.







Parcel one has undyed sock yarn and some jelly crystals and food colouring. My spoiler had been doing some homework(stalking) and read that I was very eager to try dyeing with jelly after the Koolaid adventures.
also in the package was a pattern for mini sock bookmarks- so dinky and ideal for stocking filler presents and using up the left over bits of sockyarn lying around!






The second parcel contained some dreamy soft 80% alpaca 20% silk DK from the Natural Dye Studio, some 3.5mm DPNs, a beautiful butterfly and some dinky heart shaped buttons in the small voile bag.


Boy was I well and truly spoiled, From the clue in the card, I worked out my spoiler was Mouldydc
and a huge thank you to her.

The alpaca/silk is already nearly a sock and will have a photo on here later...

Kool aid dyed socks update.

1 done, 1 almost to the heel.

I really wasn't sure about how the colours in these would turn out and since the kids chose the colours (see earlier posts) I didn't have much control over it.

The green and purple have worked themselves into alternate row stripes and the pink although it looks like a wider section is actually a spiral running through the other colours. DD1 has now claimed them as hers and since she did a few rows herself, I think she deserves them. She now wants to dye some all by herself and I have to teach her to knit the next pair.

DD2 wants to do somemore dyeing but not so keen on learning how to do socks yet, she wants to knit and felt a handbag first.

and last but not least from the bottom of the box is a pile of purply bluey bits, some of it is Noro Hanna Silk, the variagated is Noro papery stuff, theres some hemp laceweight and assorted bits and bobs, the plan is to turn it into a multitextured wrap of some sort but I might have to add somemore to it .

The other pic is the dregs at the bottom, its a pile of odds and ends usually used for practice squares and that kind of thing.

Phew I feel better now that it's all tidied and photos are done, but do I have the guts to do upstairs? Not likely this weekend, I'm off to knit.....

On the left, leftovers of Kid silk haze becoming crochet squares for something.
And below Debbie Bliss pure silk-the remainders of a pack bought because I fell in love with it, part of it turned into a sleeveless top on a previous post and I'm not sure about the rest, I think some might become a beaded scarf or maybe not.



Good old Clapotis. The yarn was bought in the Anny Blatt shop in Perpignan last year whilst I was there to watch the rugby. Its beautifully soft, has my favourite winter colours in it, and theres just not enough to finish the clap. Its also a nightmare to undo so frogging is not an option. I need to be in a clever mood to sort it out and that just doesn't happen very often but it will happen sometime....

And a pile of Jaeger merino aran and some Rowan Yorkshire tweed. You know when you go into a yarn shop and they have a sale on, everything suddenly has a 'buy me' face on and you know it'll grow into something eventually? well this little lot isn't going to grow at all, its going to shrink...probably into a felted bag or slippers.

next up is bundle of sockie bits. I had a practise with my ball winder when it arrived and thought I'd be mega organised and wind everything and pack it in nice tidy bags but the sock yarn was as far as it got.

Blanket box contents part two.

This huge cone of yarn was part of a box load which was donated to me for my knitting club at school, it's very fine and laceweight and therefore not good for teaching small people to knit. I swapped all of my bits of DK yarn which was hanging around in the cupboard for this and it may eventually become a shawl or something but will most likely just languish for a while. Poor thing , I think it needs to go upstairs to the cupboard where it won't get disturbed so often.





This fair old pile is Classic Elite Yarns Mackenzie
it was bought for a planned Rogue sweater and is 70% wool, 30% silk but its a bit too textured to show off the cables on Rogue so may also have to go in the cupboard for a while until a project idea comes along for it.

This package is Uros aran from Elann.com the shawl pattern is really nice to do, I already made it once in Jaeger Trinity in Cream but had a bit of a curry accident on the first wearing so it was dyed to a sandy colour instead.
Anyhoo, the Uros Aran is the next planned shawl
I fancy something a bit thicker for the autumn and this yarn is really soft being 50% wool 50% Llama.

wow, 2 posts in one day!
I must be feeling really guilty or is it just that I have the house to myself for a couple of hours (and boy is that precious time) so I thought I would get ahead of my stash photo session and organise everything (yeh right), anyway, I looked in my cupboard and looked in my blanket box and pulled a few things about a bit then panicked and poured a glass of wine, then I ate a pork pie (sophisticated or what?) then I decided to do downstairs first, so blanket box it is..... not in any particular order, this contains hidden WIPS, files of patterns, stuff that gets bunged in when I need to tidy up in a hurry, and a suprising amount of yarn (well not so much suprising as embarrasing)

This baby is the Ogee sweater from Nature Knits by Norah Gaughan, well its most of a sleeve anyway knitted in Angel Yarns 4 ply sock yarn. It happened one night last week when I was fed up with the shawl knitting and fancied something straightforward for a change.














And this is the lonely glove knitted last year on the way to Ally Pally, destined to loneliness until the autumn I fear. The pattern is from a Rowan magazine but can't remember the number at the mo.



This is Elann Sierra aran with accompanying planned pattern for a lace cardigan worked from the top down. Its been there a while now and I really should start it once I finish the Ogee sweater.











And this is karaoke bought to make an order up to the free postage mark and will find itself being a felted bag at some point. The colours don't look so good in this photo, they are a fair bit brighter especially the greeny/blue, which I believe was called mermaid.


Sorry for the interruption folks but I just got invited to the pub... more later if I'm still sober, more tomorrow if I'm not. I'm feeling slightly more virtuous now I've made a start on this so I think I deserve a swift drinky

oh poor neglegted blog, I've been too busy knitting and going out to say hello. I have to stay in tomorrow while the nice man from BT comes to fix my phone line (finally! fault reported on tuesday at 8:40 am and the are coming to repair on saturday) so I should have a nice time knitting, photo-ing and then blogging. Everyone else will be out and I will have peace for a few hours. I plan to dig out all of the stash and have a good sort through and if I'm feeling really virtuous, I'll finally get around to sending Nadia that yarn for her charity knitting, if I leave that until after sorting out the stash, there will probably be more for her to keep her orphans warm with!

DD2 is in Wales for a week with my camera, therefore no photos to post, therefore very boring blog.
Normalish blogging will resume at the end of the week

Not much new knitting happening this week, it has been the week from hell as far as work goes and the kids are silly busy this time of year so loads of ferrying around etc to be done, but I did tidy out my blanket box which hides part of the stash and found a knitted and felted bag which was waiting to be put together.
I made it a while ago from leftovers of Jaeger 4ply merino and Kid Silk Haze, held together.
The KSH helped to felt the finer wool and mutes the colours. I bought a bag shaper insert from SWTC a while ago and used that aswell. The bag has now been in use since Thursday and is a nice little summery number which goes with at least two pairs of flip-flops and a pair of sandals, so no excuse to buy new shoes to go with it (huh).


I then decided to do a bit of indulgent knitting so I made a sock with some of the yummy Angora blend I splurged on at the AY weekend, the pattern is from Interweave Winter 2005 and is the Embossed leaves socks designed by Mona Schmidt.
Angora is definately a yarn to knit outside since the bits kept getting up my nose indoors and its lightweight enough to knit on the hottest of days (like today). The finished sock is so light (15 grammes) and fluffy and soft I even cast on the second one straight away. The lightness of the sock means I'll get another out of the 50g ball and probably a pair of shorty socks too or I might make a pair of matching fingerless gloves or wristwarmers. and since I have another whole ball too, a scarf would be the obvious follow on but I do still have several other things to finish aswell
so I might just have to save the Angora for garden knitting over the summer.....

Off now to do some more of the sleeves for MIL's cardi since she needs it finished by next Friday for her hols.

Not a lot of knitting action this weekend as I was busy being an unpaid taxi driver, and also had to do the school fete and a BBQ on Saturday. Sunday was a bit of a clear up day and hit the ironing pile with avengance. Went to a friends house to watch the footie in the afternoon and didn't get home until 8:30.
Did finished the red socks tho but not worth putting a piccie up since the second one looks the same as the first (yup, they're a pair)
I've decided to photograph my planned projects this evening so there may be piccies tomorrow, but not many FO's for a while since I've agreed to help future MIL with a jacket for her hols by knitting the sleeves for her and I need to make a caterpillar outfit for DD1 by Friday!
Happy days!!

Ok so its the finished Shell top. Personally I think it looks better on the hanger than on me, or it could be that the skirt is making the front bit crumple a bit. anyway, lengthwise it worked okay for hiding the lumpy bits and its really soft and slinky. As for the previous thought of putting sleeves on, thats abandoned as a too much thinking involved plan and I reckon a shrug with the cable pattern running down the sleeves would be far easier and less likely to end up in 'yarn divorce court'.

And continuing on from the sock yarn dyeing efforts, DD1 was in a winding mood after school today so she wound the skein into a ball ready for a sock knitting lesson. More news when this happens.

Just a quick post to say I finished the Shell Tank last night but no photo as yet, there is a gang of carpenters and plasterers in the house at the moment so i'm not going to parade around taking photos of myself!
So for now, piccie from last week.
This is DD1 playing with my yarn swift and ball winder.
I'd been after a swift for ages and kept bidding on ebay and looking at sites for a reasonably priced one, just when I was about to give up(I even had a go at making 0ne myself), I won an ebay auction and this one arrived from Sweden just as I was leaving the house to go to the Angel Yarns weekend. Of course it got bunged straight in the boot of the car and I hastily grabbed my winder and some skeins of yarn to practise with.
It works like a dream, I set it up in my hotel room and wound all the bits I had with me into lovely doughnuts of yarn. Anyway, as soon as I got home and explained to DD1 what it was, she was as keen as me and went through her entire knitting bag winding everything that wasn't attached to needles. Great fun bit of Mummy/Daughter time but she looks so serious!!!!

No new pics today, the shell tank is nearly done, just the two side seams left to do later today, I did not enjoy joining the other bits together and thought I deserved a bit of mindless clicking last night so I started a bit of a stashbusting exercise. In order to make the bulk of the yarn in the cupboard look less, I started with all the bits of super chunky/big wool/point 5 left over from other things and I'm working on a mitred square bag which will be felted and hopefully turn out the right size for a knitting bag. So far two big squares done and two big balls of yarn used. If I get rid of the bulky stuff, in theory it will look to the untrained eye like theres a lot less yarn in the stash than there actually is! (the untrained eye being DP) after all, one carrier bag stuffed with sock or laceweight yarn contains a lot more knitting time than the same bag stuffed with Big Wool.
Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!!

Oh and I finished the first red sock last night and did the rib for the second.

Well last night was the England/Sweden match and DP went to a friend house to watch it so I got to watch the match without someone shouting abuse at the screen. So nice peaceful sock knitting. I'd already turned the heel on Saturday night after my get together with Joy and Nadia at the Angelyarns weekend so worked the foot last night but couldn't be bothered to go upstairs and get another sock to measure the foot against but I guessed well on the length of the foot and its just the right length!

The two socks at the top of the picture are from previous pairs knitted for DP and the red one is the current WIP- up to the toe shaping now so soon to become 1/2 of a finished pair, I will try to resist other knitting until I've done its partner but may be side tracked by finishing the Shell top on the previuos post since I finished the main knitting bits last night too and just have the seams and edgings to do (dreading it)

And this baby is the badly behaved Shell tank from Nature Knitting by Norah Gaughan. The pattern is ok as such but has obviously been written in a large size and reduced down. Not usually a problem but on the left side panel, the armhole shaping takes you down to 2 sts which have to be worked for 5 inches. This means that you have to sew this teeny strip to the cable panel and pick up around the armhole for the border. This put me off finishing the thing and its been in the naughty corner for about a week now. I only have a few rows left to do on the Right front then of course the sewing up and the borders which I'm not looking forward to!
Anyway, I am working it in Debbie Bliss Pure Silk which I adore but I bought too much (originally bought for another project) and if I'm feeling brave enough I may try to put some sleeves onto it with the cable panel going one way on one sleeve and the other direction on the other. Oh and I made mine longer than the pattern(don't like anything above the waist band)

So this morning, more photos of works in progress, the first one is the shawl for my wedding outfit in pale pink Kid Silk Haze, the pattern is by Sharon Miller at Heirloom Knitting called the Dove Shawl, its really quite easy and after the first repeat I didn't need to look at the pattern so I may get bored! I transferred it onto my new rosewood needles last night and it is fair flying now since the needles are just that bit smoother than the Brittany Birches it was started on.

So blog part deux.
During the recent half term holiday me and the girlies had a go at dying sock yarn with KoolAid
Heres the pics starting with painting on the dye-3 colours used-Grape, pink lemonade and Changin' Cherry (green)



So then the mouldy lookin Sausage was clingfilmed up ..... and cooked in the microwave....








Then rested and cooled down before rinsing



and hanging on the fridge door to dry(it was raining)












And heres the finished 'ice cream colour' sock wool, ready to go on the swift for winding.