Misbehaving and Karma

So, I have been a bad knitter. In my defense I do have a good reason! Last Friday I cast on this beauty:

It is of course the lovely Damson I mentioned in my last post.

Remember the allergic reaction on my hands? The one that made it difficult to knit my Hermione Socks? Well I decided to see if knitting with larger needles wouldn't hurt so much and I put down my Socks and cast on the Damson because the Malabrigo sock was just sitting there all pretty.

I had done rather a lot of it since Friday, I had just finished the garter section, when disaster struck. I had made a mistake, I started to tink back and I couldn't find where I had gone wrong but I didn't have the right number of stitches, and I didn't even have the right number for it to be a couple of extra or missed rows.

This I believe was karma coming to get me for breaking a promise to myself, despite the excuses. So, being the cut throat knitter that I am I attached the other end of the ball of yarn to my winder (so glad I have that now!) and unravelled the whole lot into a new ball, and started again. I am taking my time with this one since I suspect it may have been doing the knitting in the car and around Nottingham University open day that caused me to make a mistake, so this is a strictly sitting at home project for now!

This is the first shawl I have knit and I have to say how cool the construction of these things is, starting with 3 stitches and it growing and growing is great and I am glad I have stocked up on patterns so that I can knit more, though hopefully without making the same mistakes!

Other news, I have officially signed up for my very own Etsy Shop! There is nothing in there at the moment, but these beauties are awaiting buttons, which are all waiting to be printed and covered, a job for the weekend I think. Below are the Sock/Shawl size, the standard small and the standard medium sizes. I am contemplating doing a larger version of the sock/shawl size for larger shawls too (this bag has a much wider opening than the others and is longer, perfect for resting the bulk of your shawl in while knitting on circulars!)

I am really proud of how these little bags have come together, it has been a lot of hard work from thinking about the shape and the designs to things like branding the items to create the right image (do you like the red topstitching? I think it looks rather snazzy!). I actually can't wait to actually start selling some and shall update when they are available. I shall be shouting from the rooftops! I have also learnt that there is a reason that sweat shops are called sweat shops, sewing is hot work! Good job I have some Blyton Ice Cream to cool me down, in my new favourite, Banana!