My sets of 5 bamboo needles have arrived

If you have been following my blog (or know me) you will be aware of my saga concerning trying to get an order delivered from a yarn site who let us say is less than Angelic! I have waited 4 weeks for a set of 5 Brittany Birch needles which will cost me (if they ever arrive) about £7 with postage. I have got so sick of waiting so my son ordered me this wonderful set of 15 sets of sets of 5 in bamboo from E bay for the princely sum of £14 and that includes postage and more to the point he ordered them on Sunday and they arrived today (Tuesday) Impressive or what? They aren't of course as good a quality as the others would have been but for the money they seem excellent value and feel lovely and smooth. The testing time will be in the knitting.

I can at last test my tension on smaller needles to start another pair of socks. Do these yarn sites realise the frustration of a knitter who is raring to go with a project and has to wait 4 weeks? I wouldn't mind if they had been in constant touch as to the state of play but I have only had 1 e mail over a week ago telling me one set of needles was in stock and on it's way to me and that was only because I had written to ask where my order was. Since then I have had no updates and no delivery. I will have to wait and see if anything shows on my credit card and if it does I will really start to get angry then. Needless to say I won't be using them again for an order. My niece is also waiting for a sock kit she ordered about 6 weeks ago. Similar story. She e mailed and they said out of stock, we will send when we can and since then she has heard nothing.

Today I am off to visit my neighbour who crochets blankets for the dogs at a rescue centre. I have got 2 partly made large crochet granny squares that were in a bag of donated yarn so I will take those with me and endeavour to finish them off into dog blankets whilst I am there.

Short n sweet crochet shrug

My friend Caroline came to collect her advance birthday present of the white crochet Short n sweet shrug (see previous posts for photo) and liked it so much she asked me (she pretty please grovelled actually) to make her one in black as well. I think I will be stuck with making more of these shrugs for a long time to come. It is like a chain reaction. Everyone who sees them falls in love and wants one.

I wanted to finish knitting my green Opal Elemente Jaywalker socks but the second sock has been fraught with problems. I was watching tv last night whilst I was knitting so when I had turned the heel I noticed that my heel was a much lighter shade of green than the rest of the sock and also I had a very dark green half row half way up the leg. The penalties for watching something gripping on the tv whilst knitting. I then found out that quite a few yards of the unworked wool was also very pale green so I must have got a faulty ball. I have decided to overlook the pale heel and the half row that is faulty. I just hope that I can finish the second sock without any more mishaps with the dye. I have kept the pale green part of the ball that I had to ravel off the ball until the colour returned to normal. I do hope I don't have to finish up with a pale green toe.

I have still not received any news from Angel yarns about my Brittany Birch set of 5 double pointed needles size 2.25mm which I ordered over 3 weeks ago. I feel I need to get my tension right with smaller needles for the next pair of socks. Even using the makkin leather knitting belt my tension is still slacker using double pointed needles than it is using a pair. Today I got my son to order me a set containing several different sizes of sets of 5 bamboo double pointed needles from E-bay so I hope they are of knittable quality when they arrive. Size 2.25mm sets seem to be rarer than hen's teeth. I had visited web several sites who only stocked them in metal. I was tempted by the Knit Pics set of 5" metal double pointed as I had seen good write ups of them but decided to try the bamboo for the moment as I like the flexibility and the slightly longer length when I knit.

Crochet short sleeved cardigan in Gedifra

I finally finished the short sleeved cardigan in the bargain Coats Gedifra Linen yarn I bought. I had about three attempts at it before I found the right pattern for the yarn. The first things I started had all the appeal of dishcloths. Seems that the yarn has a mind of it's own. My yarn was riddled with knots and split when I was crocheting it. I would finish a row only to find loose strands on one of the stitches so back it came. I did an awful lot of unripping before I finished.

The pattern I ended up making was from a Hayfield pattern book 7127 called Crochet Variations an old book I have had for some time. I will probably use the same book to crochet the other colour but use a different design.

I am still pleased with the finished effect but am taking a break from Gedifra (I still have one more colour left) and am back to sock knitting and making a knitted bolero with long sleeves for my friend's birthday in October. I am making it from a DOPPS pattern and that has been another trial as it is very loosely translated and their charts are very vague to say the least! I finished up looking closely at the pattern picture with a magnifying glass and making my own version of the pattern stitch!

I collected some yarn yesterday that has been donated for the project the Knitting Noras are involved in (making outfits and blankets for the local Premature baby unit). As yet I haven't started anything but I have sorted through my patterns for suitable ones and will probably share the yarn out at our next meet. The first lot I have picked up is mostly pink which is OK for the girls and very dark colours which I have re-donated to my neighbour who crochets animal blankets for the local animal sanctuary. I have still to pick up the second lot of donated yarn but the lady I spoke to on the phone said there is some white in there so the boys will get a look in!

I have ordered a couple more balls of Opal sock yarn in the Sale from Angel Yarns but as yet they haven't arrived (nor has the ball my niece ordered for me!). I will give it a few more days before I enquire where the order is. I have started the second Jaywalker sock with the ball and needles that did arrive from Angel a couple of weeks ago but as I find I am a looser knitter on 5 needles I am waiting for the smaller set of needles to arrive before I start another pair of socks. My local yarn store only stocks a few sizes of metal needles in sets of 4 which are no good for the US patterns which use 5. I also prefer the "give" I get from bamboo and wood needles.