Stuff

I have finally decided how I am going to make my yellow lace project, I ordered some lemon yellow Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky from The Black Sheep yesterday, I think 8 balls will be enough if my calculations are correct, if not I will just have to find some more! It was half price which I actually did a little dance about, a real dance with "yippee!!"'s and everything. I had gone into Tricot earlier in the day and asked if they would order it and they would have to charge me for the full ten balls and it would be £45 which in my currently jobless situation I could not afford, so I was super happy when i found this at £2.50 a ball and only £1 for postage! There was some confusion about whether they actually had any, but today I got the confirmation they definitely did so I cheered up after thinking I had lost my perfect yarn.

I have decided though that I wont be casting this on for a while yet, while at Tricot I got some Katia 100% merino which is a much closer match to the pink german yarn I already had for my pink Bella's Scarf and so I frogged the little bit I had done in Sublime and have redone it in the Katia, I am going to get another ball and do the hat in it too but do the other mitten in more Sublime, I am determined that I will finish the pink and the purple sets before starting the yellow lace project as the yellow is really a christmas present to myself, and I wont be using it until I get my bag anyway.

My list of to do is slowly getting bigger, the purple is chugging along nicely, I will definitely need more yarn but I will worry about that next week, mondays are now my Scunthorpe days

so I will be going to the library and the yarn shop then.

Today I haven't done much knitting, but I have been playing with yarn. Last night I was knitting away and getting really frustrated about my ball of yarn rolling away from me, my first solution was this:

While effective and also using up one of the hundreds of bowls my mum has (they come with panna cotta and creme brulee in them from M&S) the ball bounced out a couple of times, so instead I did some searching on the internet and found out how to wind balls of yarn so that they unwound from the middle, and so have been feverishly winding yarn on my thumb for a lot of the afternoon.

I did it quite losely and the yarn is all in much smaller balls now, they will all fit in my bag with some projects in too which is good as that is what it was designed for, it was a little annoying that it didn't all fit anymore. I think I shall definitely be doing it from now on, they are all so neat and tidy too :)

Other then winding yarn I have been busy sewing, I have made the project bag I had said I would from the scraps left after the sailor dress transformation.

I am actually quite surprised with myself with this one. I honestly thought I would leave it a few days then start it then leave it because using the sewing machine does wind me up sometimes, but I'm glad I have done it, I have also made a little notions bag for my now completely finished stitch markers (I glazed them with clear nail polish in the end). Hopefully this will stop me losing them, and help keep my knitting bag tidy, unfortunately I didn't think ahead and make it big enough to also hold my cable needles and tapestry needles, but I have a little make up bag I don't use that I think everything will fit into. If you haven't noticed already, I really don't like things being messy.

The only other interesting thing to report really is that I have found some new favorite books. I have been finding it hard to concentrate on reading lately because my mind would keep wandering to other things and I would not take in the words on the page. I knew I needed something really easy to read, and so I decided to try these:

I first discovered them while working at Waterstone's and considered getting them, but I am now glad I didn't, 30% discount doesn't come anywhere near 3 for £5!! I found them at this bargain price in the bargain bookshop The Works when browsing for a book for my sister's AS Level English Lit course. They are really fun, I finished the first one in two days, which while slow for me is quick for me while I am also knitting and feeding my restaurant city people and chatting and cooking etc.

The series is about a 50-something PR businesswoman who takes early retirement and moves from London to a tiny village in the Cotswolds, murder shortly follows and in a Miss Marple-y way Mrs Raisin (as is her name) solves it! The first one, 'Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death' was nice and light hearted, and I especially like it as I can see the same sort of things in my own village, particularly the bits about incomers, damn those new builds ruining the prettiness of my picturesque home :)