Charlie's Aran Cardigan is Finished

I have finished Charlie's aran cardigan. I weighed the rest of the ball and I think there is just about enough to make another jacket or a sweater if I chose a less dense pattern stitch. The yarn is Woolcraft Aran 400 gram ball and 100% Courtelle. I appear to have used just a fraction over half of the ball on this jacket so I hope that I have enough for a second garment. The colour is slightly darker than it appears on my photos and is more of a light navy blue.

The Naked Knitting calendar continues to be well supported on Ravelry forums for which we are very grateful and Deb has chatted to the lady who owns Stash yarn shop and she wants 50 copies to sell in her shop and online for us. She has agreed to give us the full amount of each calendar price which is brilliant considering that banking charges would occur if anyone pays by credit card or Paypal as both of these charge a fee for their services. Bev and her husband have been a terrific team selling loads of copies so well done to them also. If sales continue in this way then we will be ordering a reprint soon! Stash don't as yet have any copies for you to buy so at the moment they are only available through our web site and listed shops in the Horwich area with one London outlet. Click on the blog title to keep up with the latest news about the Knitting Noras.

I am going up to Bolton tomorrow for our regular monthly Sunday Knit Out at the Costa Coffee. I missed the last one as I was away on the mystery weekend for my neighbour Julie's 40th birthday. Remember the mystery was ending up in battle scarred Hull? When I come back home Buster is arriving for a week. So next week I will be able to say that I am sleeping with a boxer! Don't all get too excited. I haven't found a Prince Charming. Buster is a boxer cross who is the family dog. Sometimes he lives with me but mostly with my son and daughter in law and their other dog these days as since my back and knee operations I haven't been able to care for him walk wise. I don't think it's fair to keep an animal and not exercise it regularly.

My knitting has been going wonderfully well since I changed from the energy saving bulbs to normal light bulbs. I have got an angle poise desk lamp but I find that the halogen bulb gets extremely hot and the light is so bright that it hurts my eyes as well as burning my hands if the lamp is angled over them.I have joked that I will buy a miner's helmet with a light on it especially for when I go to the Kings Arms Knit Club as the light is rather dim in the snug and I can only knit or crochet very light colours in there.

I am off to delve once more into my pattern stash to find another pattern for Charlie to use up the rest of the navy wool. I will start something for Fynnlay James after that but he does have plenty clothes at the moment so there is no rush for him. I have some pale blue Hayfield chunky that I might make another blanket with for him.