So it begins…

Summer is long over and quite frankly totally forgotten about. It was a fleeting thing that we all loved for the few weeks, alas memories are fading along with the dropping temperatures. Today it was really cold, 8c outside, which is so far away from the other month when we had 32c. The weather forcasters say that this winter will be the worst in 30 years, which will be interesting as near 10 years ago it was -17c at night and a few feet of snow, so god help us. The joys of living so far north.

Anyway, less of the weather and more of this…

So it begins; knitting

Now the weather has turned my knitting is out and off we go again. I am doing a circular blanket which will be in three colours, cream, brown and grey. Cream being the major colour and grey will be mostly edging.

I love knitting in the round/circular knitting. My mum, who has been knitting longer than I have been on the planet thinks knitting in the round is some sort of witchcraft. I have tried to show her that it is just standard knitting with 5 needles until the circular can be used, but she just does not get it. Although I did freak her out with 9 needles just to prove it does not matter if it is one needle or nine, it works just the same.

The pattern I am using is Stephen West’s “A Bit of Iceland”. The yarn I am using is the Womens Institute Aran (Cream) and Hayfield Aran (Grey & Brown), all knitted on 5.5mm needles. This is the third “Iceland” blanket I have knitted. The first is on the headboard of our bed and is in the original Iceland colours. The second is in Ireland as I made it for M’s mum, and done in creams and greens with the edgework in a sage green hank of merino that was rediculously expensive, but was lovely when finished. This new one will be used in the bedroom too. When we decorated the bedroom I did it in suble greys and browns, so this should look really nice when finished.

I have an idea for a hat I want to make for winter after seeing it on a film. I have checked and it is not a commercially available pattern or hat, and was made just for this film and sold at auction for £240. Once I have worked the pattern out and got to making it I will share it with you all. Just have to work it all out as it is not just a standard hat.

Not So Great Afghan…

The Elusive Great American Aran Afghan…

Well, this is becoming more and more interesting as I search for this book or needle in a haystack as it is becoming. So far I am not doing very well, usually shipping is about $45 to $60. One lady on Ravelry had it for sale then when I messaged her she had “given it to a friend”, so that is a closed door on that.

I read on Knitting Paradise that a lady bought it from WHSmiths here in the UK for only £6, I thought WOW, that is a hot lead, but alas on WHSmith site, it does not exist, and she only bought it last year, WTF!.  I have called Waterstones and the lady just could not find it because I did not have an ISBN number, god forbid a boolean search on the site.

In the town, there is a second-hand bookshop that holds vast stocks of old books and magazines, but even he could not get it.

I still have hope, and will keep looking as I am not one to give up easily, and K at NothingBitKnit has been keeping me on my toes with loads help.

Competition Winner

I decided to enter a competition on LoveKnitting.com entitled #HappyKnitter.  Not expecting to win as there are so many talented people out there, I promptly forgot about it.  I was checking my email as I tend to leave it sitting there with only a cursory glance over to see if there is something important, and on the weekend flying through it getting rid of crap and scan reading the things I want to.

Cast forward a few weeks and an email is sitting in my email box, being ignored as it was not the weekend, from LoveKnitting.com asking if I had received the first email as they did not want me to lose out on the competition and that I had won.  Talk about bowled away.  I quickly messaged back and the next day was presented with my prize, £100 voucher for yarn from their site. The only snag was I could only use the code once and if I did not use the full total of the voucher then I would lose out. Pressure then crept into what I was going to purchase.  After an agonising week, I finally decided on what I wanted, coming to a grand total of £130.

Some of the yarn had to come from the USA, but withing about 7 to 10 days all of my yarn arrived, and I was astounded by the quantity I now added to my stash, so much so, I had to go out and purchase two more huge plastic boxes to store it.

This is the blanket that I had made and entered into the competition.  It is called “A Bit of Ireland”, and is based on Stephen West’s “A Bit of Iceland”, which I have also made too.

I have not got round to starting any or my project with the new yarn but will do quite soon, well, as soon as I finish the baby stuff for my brother and make my partner his socks.

New Project

I love to knit large project, and if complicated then all the better.  So my latest project, although not really complicated, it will be large.  My Mum had given me tonnes of her yarn stash, stuff she decided she would not need or use.  Among the stash was lots of packs of yarn of the same type, so with a pack of 8 balls of Robin Chunky, I decided a blanket was in order.

This is my version of Jared Flood’s Hemlock Ring Blanket.

I love to work in the round, and the first time I did this was back in late 2012 with Stephen West’s Old Forge which is truly beautiful creation.  I have also completed his “Bit of Iceland”, and made a green version I called “A Bit of Ireland”.  The growth of anything like this so quick to start, then after about 50 rounds it seems to slow right down, and in anything other than this I would get fed up with it and shove it in a bag and leave it, as I have with an oblong blanket I started (also Stephen West design).  But there is something about circular knitting I find truly addictive.

For this some of my friends think I need psychological testing….