Got your sunglasses....

you'll need them ;o)

I completed them on Saturday, just in time for tomorrow, not sure if I can lay my hands on any Christmas paper to wrap them though as despite knitting Christmas gifts, I'm not really geared towards Christmas yet!!!

The Swallowtail is growing and once I've updated my blog, had a nosey round the internet while I finish my cup of tea I'm off to knit some more on it. I still haven't decided if to do more repeats of the budding lace pattern... I worked out if you want the maths to work with the following patterns then you need to repeat the budding lace pattern in multiples of 5, so instead of doing 14 repeats I'll need to do 19 and I'm not entirely sure if I will have sufficient yarn. I have 48g and the last Swallowtail took 36g.... Mmmm not sure what to do, but have 2 pattern repeats to work on it yet!!!!

I still haven't done anymore on the VLT border, from tomorrow I'm going to aim to do at least 5 repeats per day and it should be finished well in time for Christmas....

On the SIL front I think I'm going to go for the Honeybee stole, I like Wings o' the Moth but I think SIL is definitely more of a rectangular stole than a triangle shawl person, plus I've already bought the pattern for it.....

Steamers in Ultramarine III

Sounds a very grand title, but is in fact my latest completed pair of socks......

I had a bit of a nightmare with these... as you can see I like my socks to match and halfway down the leg of the 2nd sock (and these are size 10/12) just were it starts going blue/red the yarn didn't!!! It wasn't joined the pattern just went from a little bit or red/blue and then straight into white/red/black a good inch and half further down the pattern.....

I ended up winding off the yarn and going to the next pattern repeat and then as you can imagine I was paranoid all the way through the rest of the knitting the same thing might happen again and/or I ran out of yarn.... as you can see I made it with virtually a full pattern repeat left and the bit I cut off in the middle.... I have never been so glad to finish a pair of socks especially as they are a gift and I am being paid to knit them.....

On other knitting front Scarf with No 20 border is no more..... the Swallowtail is progressing and I have done wait for it 5 repeats on the VLT Sampler shawl... photos will follow I promise... I do feel loads better now I have ripped back the scarf and started on the border....

I am still pondering over SIL's stole, I think she would prefer a rectangular to a triangle otherwise I may consider Fleegles suggestion of Wing-of-the-Moth-shawl by Knitspot, so at the moment I am still leaning towards Knitspot's Honeybee stole....

Update...

I know I haven't blogged for awhile, there's been nothing to say really....

I haven't started the border of the VLT shawl, both sets of socks are well on with the 2nd of each pair being nearly completed hopefully by the end of the weekend they will both be finished.... the orange ones especially as they will be given on Monday and off to Spain on Thursday!!!

That brings me to the VLT Scarf with Border No 20 as for it's progress see the photograph below..... I just can't bring myself to knit it so it's going to be ripped back and something more intersting knit instead..... lets face it when you start doing the ironing, the cleaning, sorting cupboards out rather than knit something, it's time to face up to the fact you're not really enjoying knitting it and at the end of the day whats the point of using your free time to knit something and not enjoy it????

So I'm pondering what to knit instead (this is for SIL for Christmas), has anyone any suggestions, I do have plenty of different weights of yarn in my stash. So far I'm toying with Leda's Dream by PLT, River Stole by Evelyn Clarke Honeybee Stole by Knitspot (Mmmmm I'd forgotten I'd purchased that pattern). Any other suggestions will be gratefully considered... I think I'm after a bit of a challenge but not too much that I get stressed by getting it finished in time for Christmas as there are some other knitting & crafty things I need to do for Christmas....

I have actually started a 3rd Swallowtail, which needs to be finished for the 5th of October as a birthday present for my Godmother, which it should be I've done about 9 repeats of the budding lace.... this pattern always amazes me how it can be so different depening upon the yarn used... I'm using some Patons (UK) 100% wool baby 2ply (sadly being discontinued along with it's 3ply sister) that I kettled dyed myself.....

and that's as they say all I really have to say for myself today, hopefully I will be back in a couple of days with some photographs and my mind made up about what to do for SIL.....

Progress of sorts....

I haven't really done much of anything recently, I just feel weary and it seems to have taken all my time to get through everyday stuff... on the lace front I still haven't tackled the border on the VLT stole and this is as far as I have got with the Scarf with No 20 edging from VLT which is supposedly for SIL's birthday on the 8th October.... it may become her Christmas present yet!!!!

It's Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in colourway Tide Pool Heather and I am working on 3.75mm needles still a little big in my estimation so you can imagine what I thought when I tried it on 4.5mm first!!! I've seen other people work with a smilar weight yarn on 4.5mm needles and it looks fine, mine just looked awful and I've a pretty even knitter on straights......

On the non-lace knitting front my first socks are progressing well and should be finished reasonably soon, I hope.... the first is Opal's Hunderwasser "Steamers in Ultramarine III" and is a size 10 for a friend's daughter....

The 2nd pair is Opal Prisme for a Christmas gift which have to be finished for the beginning of October as she's off to Spain for Christmas, but at least it's only a sixe 4!!!!

Despite not being a popular pattern in the UK and a very unpopular colour, everyone who's seen me knit these thinks they're wonderful!!!!

Swallowtail 2

Here as promised is the finished photos of my 2nd Swallowtail.....


Blocking

A couple of close up of the detail



Post-Blocking
The yarn is from Yarn Treehouse and is the Lace Merino Print, colour C03. To give the correct guage for the pattern I used two strands held together on 3.5mm Addi Lace circular. If I had just knit this on it's own I think I would have had it done in a week so I find it a quick knit. I did however this time make silly mistakes on the body of the shawl, but found the two Lily of the Valley borders easier and the Nupps didn't seem a problem. The only thing I can put the Nupps being easier down to is that this time I had my Lace Addi's.....

On the non-lace knitting front, namely socks.... I have completed my Uncle Harry's christmas present - Opal Elemente , colour 1077 (now no longer available)

Sunday Morning

I know I haven't posted for over a week but I haven't really had much to say, as I've said before I seem to be an "all or nothing" when it comes to blogging.... I really haven't done much knitting until the end of this week not even over the BH weekend I think I was just too tired I just couldn't even be bothered to pick up the needles....


Anyway I have now finished the 2nd Swallowtail which is just as well as it is required for next Sunday (9th)... I shall block it later today.... It's used just 38g of yarn!!! The subtle colours show up better now....

The only thing I did do over the BH weekend was sample my Colourmart Cashmere I bought in readiness for the Princess shawl... I opted for 2mm needles and just worked a small sample based on 35 sts and 40 rows (OK it was the sample swatch for the PLT Mystery stole) Before I blocked it, it was more or less 4" square.... I washed it in hot water, OK I threw some boiling water in too along with the Fairy Liquid. It has shrunk length ways but it's still OK width ways (lesson learnt very hot water is fine but not boiling water unless you don't mind the shrinkage).

I'm pleased with the resulting swatch and you can see from the yarn tails how the yarn has 'bloomed' and the knit areas do look a little fuller... I'm more pleased that I actually knit with the yarn and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be so far this is my finest yarn I have knit with (it's approx 20 metres per gram)