Yummy Colours

I think that I am addicted to yarn. In fact I KNOW I am addicted to yarn. When Kemps send me e mails saying that they have more bargains I can't resist having a peek. If you are in the UK and like nice yarns at Sale prices then they do have some fabulous offers so click on the link. They don't just have the acrylics which I have bought they have bargains in branded wools, merinos and fancy yarns too.

I don't have shares in the company but maybe I should as over the last couple of years I have ordered so much from them. I think that I am addicted to parcels arriving and opening them. I am sure it comes from the excitement I used to feel when new stock arrived when I used to have the wool shops. Even though I had ordered it and knew what was in the bags there was nothing to beat the high of tipping the contents of the bags out especially if it was a brand new yarn that I had only seen samples of. You can keep your recreational drugs and alcohol I get high on a bag of yarn.

More bright colours for use in blankets although I think that I will use the blue and the peach for my baby garments,  At £1.09p for 100 grams they are such a bargain.

 More colours. The lilac fleck and the lemon are for baby garments. The rest is for blankets.

More for the babies. These are 4ply bargains. A pale fleck and some lemon.

I have taken a closer photo but it's still difficult to see the tiny flecks of lemon and green in the ball of yarn. The flecks are very delicate. Lovely for a newborn and neutral for the 'don't know the sex until it's born' babies.

More buttons for my collection also from Kemps  When I have to pay ££'s for buttons in a shop some of these cost as little as 3p each so they are such a bargain. I like them as they are a bit different from the normal 'fisheye' or 'star' buttons which are usually the cheapest way of buying buttons. When I am making things to hopefully sell later these trimmings can add up to ££'s on top of the yarn price. Some buttons can cost almost a £ each so that doubles the cost price of making something small.

I have almost finished a cream crocheted baby set. I just have to add the trimmings. I have several items now all awaiting the details. I must put some effort into the final finishing and then I can show what I have made so far. I will crochet all day long (if I can) and then leave all the finishing off until later. I think I enjoy the crocheting far more than the finished article. I do prefer to sew things up in the daylight on the dining room table. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Time for a shower and get dressed. I knew that my parcel was arriving so I left my shower until after breakfast. I can't get down the stairs fast enough if the doorbell rings when I am upstairs. The parcel delivery men are quite used to the sight of my dressing gown. They usually deliver to me early morning as they know that I am usually up and around. I prefer it that way. Royal Mail, however, deliver any time of the day so it's difficult to judge when to shower or go shopping.

Lovely sunny day here so I am going to make the most of it by sitting in the back garden. I do have to collect my prescription but that is not until this afternoon.

Hat Orders

My son called around on Thursday and picked up the hats for the babies. A little while later I got a phone call. Could I make two of the doubled Peruvian styled helmets but adult sized. One in the same colour way plus embroidery and the other in a man's colour on one side but wacky on the other. I started one side of the man's hat last night and decided to make it fair isle patterned. However on looking at it in daylight I decided it was a little too feminine looking and also that I rather liked it as well. I will put it on one side for now and finish it off at a later date for myself.

I went up to Bury market to get some more of the gorgeous chunky wool I had used for one side of the babies helmets and found out unfortunately it had been a job lot and they had no more. I really liked that colour as well and would have liked a hat myself. I think I have enough to make the ordered helmet but bought some more balls in 3 different colourways as I know they won't have any left next time I go to Bury. I did wonder why it was such a great bargain. I just hope they get something equally as nice in case I get more orders. I am not sure if any of the colours could be classed as wacky (as ordered) so am toying with the idea of brightly coloured stripes for one side. I just can't pay a lot for the wool as people are not prepared to pay too much for hats even though it is 2 hats in one as it is completely reversible. You could never get paid per hour for knitting. it truly is a labour of love.

I am on the second sleeve of Kath's ribbed black sweater. My only fear is that the raglans won't match up rib wise when I come to stitch it together. Had I thought about this beforehand I could have changed the decreases and put them inside a K2 border so they would have matched up better. This would make a noticeable raglan but better than if the ribs won't match up as that will drive me mad. I tried to magnify the pattern to see if they had managed to match the ribs but I couldn't see. Wish me luck when I stitch. I may knit the polo on 5 needles and so eliminate the seaming as I think it looks so ugly when a neckband is not stitched very neatly.

Tomorrow I am picking up the knitted squares and yarn I am getting from Freecycle so that will be more stitching for me to do. Not my favourite part. I will knit and crochet but feel that sometimes my stitching up leaves a lot to be desired.

I hope that the weather will improve soon. I am getting really fed up of wet muddy dog walks. Roll on Spring! Let's see a bit of sunshine to cheer us all up.

Crochet yarns at a bargain price

I went into Dunelm to buy a new lasagne dish and came out with bargains galore but no dish! I was distracted by a whole pile of yarn marked down to 99p per 50gram ball. I could not, of course, being a true crocheter pass anything by that is a bargain. I snatched up 13 balls each of Coats Gedifra (50% linen) marked down from £3.95 in 2 shades of dusky pink and 16 balls of Jaeger Roma (15% angora) marked down from £4.95. They had a glittering aray of fancy yarns with lurex and furry bits but I refrained as my retired life style of dog walking and chores doesn't usually run to lurex garments. I already have far too many fancy garments unworn in my wardrobe so decided to stick with the practical yarns although on scrutinising the labels I find they recommend hand wash (bummer) for all of the yarn I purchased.

I started crocheting Gedifra to a DK pattern I already had but decided it had all the attraction of a dish cloth so I am going to browse my stitch pattern book and choose a more attractive denser stitch. I liked the chevron edging of the sweater I have chosen so I will leave the beginning and just change the main body stitch. I will post a pic when I decide on the chosen stitch. It will probably have to turn into something short sleeved instead of a regular sweater shape as the yarn does not seem to have a very good yardage. One ball did about 6" on a mostly treble (UK term) with filet spaces so a closer stitch will be maybe more like 4 - 5". I will work a sleeve next and see if half the yarn will be enough for that. I am getting quite an expert at unripping ( or frogging as the US bloggers call it)

My sock knitting leather belt arrived today from Jamiesons Shetland Wool site and I am really impressed with it. I had a trial run this morning and my speed has really picked up. For years I have never knitted anything using 4 or 5 needles as I have to knit with one needle firmly wedged under my right arm which as you can appreciate is not possible with short sock needles. I remembered my father telling me that when he was stationed in the Shetland Isles during the 2nd world war that ladies used to walk along the road knitting away with a Makkin ( a leather belt with a horsehair pad) with one needle firmly wedged in it. I found this amazing site http://www.shetland-wool-brokers.zetnet.co.uk/accs.htm and found out that the ladies of the Shetland Isles still use these belts on a regular basis for their wonderful fair isle knitted yokes and fisherman seamless jumpers. I ordered one and am now happily knitting away. Sock knitting rocks! Thanks to all the amazing free patterns on Knitty.com (and those lovely ladies with sock knitting blogs in the US - Sockapalooza sites etc) I will be wearing lovely lace patterned socks this winter. I never thought anything would tempt me away from my crochet but this has. It's so addictive!

Thanks to Freecycle I am now the proud owner of a lovely filing cabinet in beige and brown and once I find a web site that does cheap hanging files I will organise all my crochet and knit patterns into one space. No more hunting about the house for that certain pattern I crocheted in 1968! I organised the loft space last month. Retirement is turning me into an organised person instead of the hobo gypsy I usually resemble. They always say creative people are the messiest so that is my usual excuse for my crochet and knit corner in the living room that looks like an explosion when I am in one of my more frantic moods. I now have stacking wicker boxes so it is getting a little tidier when I am not working on anything. The filing cabinet will now house the spare needles etc once I drag out the sewing machine and make some rolls to organise my knit pins and crochet hooks. There are some marvelous ones on the Flikr site that make me think that with a little imagination and perhaps one of my unworn skirts or dresses I could make similar rolls for my needles to keep them together in pairs. One for metal. One for bamboo. One for sets of sock needles and one for crochet hooks. Gosh that's a lot of sewing, perhaps I had better buy a couple of metres of fabric from the market!