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.

Having finally figured out how to put photos onto this, I think my first post should be a big thank you to all the other members at www.angelyarns.co.uk forum for guilting me into showing some of the things I make. And also a huge thank you to Julie at www.theknittin.co.uk for having the best local yarn store a fanatic like me could wish for.
So here goes with the photos latest ones first (well I never do things in the right order)
My purchases at the Angel yarns open day yesterday.

Yogue Knitting Holiday 2004-missing from my collection and has some lovely ideas.
Knit 1 summer 2006-the latest issue
Knitscene fall/winter 2005-haven't seen this one before but there are a few interesting ideas in it.
Angel Yarns Angora-the two little balls on the right, Can't decide if they will grow into socks or a scarf but they are destined for ME
Rowan Calmer-the pale blue for a sweater in Nature Knitting by Norah Gaughan-my current favourite pattern book
4ply cotton-pale green for the Corset style top in Interweave Summer 2006 Mag
The Coral colour is loads of Angelyarns sock yarn also destined to become a sweater from the Nature knitting book
2 balls of Wendy fusion in purples/lilacs for DD2 and 2 in bluey shades for DD1 -they haven't decided what they want to make with it yet.
Pony Rosewood needles for a current WIP-The shawl for my wedding outfit in KSH-I was knitting this on Brittany Birch needles but find KSH a lot easier on rosewood.
Please ignore the glass of wine in the background, it was a long drive home!