Love love affair continues...

The love affair with the self-striping yarn continues. I finished these gorgeous (and comfy) Regia Kaffe Fassett socks using the pattern in my head (60 stitches over 3 dpns, short row heel, traditional toe). Unfortunately for me these will be gifted i think.

And then i went and bought some Zauerball Crazy in Pumpkin. Can you see the orange theme emerging here? I'm not sure why, i just like it. Maybe it's a longing for sunshine thing.

Striping Love

I have been known, in the past, to be somewhat slow on the uptake. I'm definitely not what marketers would call an early adopter, the person who has to have the latest gadget and gizmo. Foolishly, i like to feel as though i can rise above trends, be my own person and know my own mind. In other words, i don't want to be that person who is easily swayed by hype.



In the end i always realise that i am wrong. That the iPhone is popular because it truly is awesome. That Gladiator was on so long at the cinema and had so many people talking about it because it really is epic. And i realised that i was also so very wrong about two other things. Self-striping yarn and DPNs.



I gave DPNs (double pointed needles) my first go at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show where i bought a set of six Knitpro wooden DPNs on a whim. I seriously don't think that i can now knit socks any other way. It seems so much quicker, no fiddling about with cables and trying to gently ease my tight stitches over the knuckles of circulars anymore. It seems so much smoother and faster. An uninterupted circle of knitting bliss.

And the other thing: Self-striping yarn. You may have seen Alison's socks in my previous post, knitted with some gorgeous Regia World College Colour 6-ply. Well, i seem to be starting an unhealthy obsession for self-striping socks and have now splashed out on some Regia Kaffe Fassett and Zauerball Crazy. I'm out of control, I can't help myself.

My pledge to knit what's in my stash has gone all wrong. I might as well admit it.

So next time i read about the latest knitting trend on a blog or newsletter, I'll learn not to ignore it. To think all this time I've shunned DPNs and stripey yarn in favour of magic loop and plain patterned socks and there was such fun to be had.

The Gift of Giving

Every now and again i try to do something that proves I'm not a bad person. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm not a bad person anyway but everyone has doubts don't they? Dreams about letting out an angry, shouty tirade at your boss, making a comment about the receptionists new haircut, silently judging your friend for the latest guy she brought to the pub... These are not my own personal failings, of course, merely examples. Everyone does things like this and if you don't then you're the exception to the rule. There's a reason the phrase "you're only human" exists. As beings, we're flawed.



However, at the weekend i performed an act of knitting sainthood.

I recently knitted a good old pair of socks. These socks were dear to me. I bought the yarn at the Christmas Market in Ulm (Bavaria, Germany) in December and the yarn was so lovely it sent shivers down my spine. It was "only" Regia from their 6-ply World College Color series, so you could argue that it really wasn't anything that special, but it was soft, squishy and felt wonderful to knit plain socks with. I even loved the way the two socks matched perfectly. I tried them on, they were too big. I frogged back the toe and an inch of the length and re-knit. No way. They were too wide and too thick to wear with any of my shoes. Even after a hot wash in the washing machine, the superwash yarn thwarted me and refused to shrink. They were demoted to house socks.

I took them to a party at the weekend, expecting that if the host's house was a little chilly, they'd look better than getting my slippers out.

Said host tried them on and fell in love. On a whim, to be a better person i gave them away.

Alison's feet, in what are now Alison's socks. I'll graciously accept my medal now.

Lean Year

I have started the year as I mean to go on. When I buy yarn this year, I intend to knit it up straight away. There'll be none of this languishing in a plastic bag in the wardrobe, waiting for me to spend some time with it. It's going to be put to work, and so it should be. This year is the year of scrimping and saving for a house deposit. For those of you not in the know, it's hard to buy a house these days without 10% deposit. That's a lot of money that i can't spend on yarn. This year i need to buy my yarn and use it.

But this throws up the chicken and egg situation that always messes things up. Do you buy the yarn first and then find a suitable pattern? Or do you spot the pattern and buy the yarn? In general i'd say the second approach is more sensible, but if we knitters were sensible there would never be such a thing as a stash would there?

Last week i was very good. I spotted Riding to Avalon on Ravelry and i couldn't get it out of my head, especially after looking at some of the other modded projects that created a more fitted jumper. So there was my mind made up, that was what i was going to knit. I bought the yarn from colourmart.com in a gorgeous olive browny green Merino/Cashmere mix with slubs of burnt orange viscose to give a tweed effect. The delivery came within two days.

I've even swatched.

So how long can this behaviour last? I mean, this is not normal. It's the knitting equivelant of the cabbage soup diet, surely. Well if it is, i have to admit, this is some tasty cabbage soup.

Raspberry Rip-ple.

Last night I had an accident with my Raspberry Dreams Stole (rav link).

I don’t know how it happened, I really don’t. I am completely stunned. I had to rip back all of this gorgeous panel (and more considering it's 3 repeats wide and i was at least another inch higher above that lifeline you can see)…right to the very beginning.

I made the fatal mistake of not moving my lifeline up with me and when tinking a s2kp went badly wrong and left me with unravelled stitches, I ripped back to the lifeline, only to find that I could not make head nor tail of where I was in the pattern, no matter how hard I tried. I had the feeling this was not going to be rectified even if I left it overnight to give me some thinking space….that pattern is just too bloody complex. If you lose it, you lose it. There are many people remarking in this months KAL, that they are not finding this stole relaxing and it is a difficult knit, probably due to the chart not being easily memorised with lots of little niggly bits such as K7togs.

So. I am back to the start again.

My Christmas knitting is now officially killing me dead inside.

Nanna's cardigan has been an ordeal as well. But it is almost finished and there are pictures of that to come.

I have decided that i shall recover by knitting handwarmers, oh yes I shall.

Christmas Knits

It's that funny time of year when i get a little bit introspective and slow. I find it hard to get up in the mornings, especially because the winter duvet we have switched to is so snuggly and it's dark outside at 6a.m.

It also becomes harder to take pictures for the blog at any time other than weekends, so for the lack of posts i must apologise, but for what i have planned i need pictures. Maybe i just need to plan better!

Christmas is looming like a big scary monster, threatening to eat me alive if i don't get knitting. The list of knitted presents is long and i feel as though i've not made a dent yet. At least there are still 10 and a half weeks left to really get motoring.

Here's my list (Ravelry links to the patterns):

Mammy: Raspberry Dreams Stole - in progress
Mammy-in-Law: French Press Slippers
Nanna: Basic Cardigan - in progress
Step-Daddy-in-Law: Sexy Hoes (Toirneach Kilt Hose) - done!
Sis: Heart Scarf and Hat
Sis-in-Law: Spiral Cowl or Thermis (i haven't decided which yet)
Boss: Owlets

and if i have the time i might try and squeeze in a manly hat and scarf for my dear beloved hubby and a pair of cosy socks/mittens for our friends' little boy, patterns to be decided upon.

When i put it all down like this, it somehow seems less overwhelming, especially when i have some on the go already. Make a list, tick them off, feel better.

What are your plans for Christmas knits?

Why You Should Use Stitch Markers

The humble stitch marker.

At least this is my very simplified take on the stitch marker. There are many glorious types of marker, from DIY ones like mine above to the beautifully hand crafted ones you can find on artisan shopping sites like etsy. There will be more on how to DIY your own stitch markers in my next post, along with some of my top picks for stitch markers you can buy on teh internets.

The point of this post is to show you how to use these in ways that may possibly spare you from going slightly mental and committing Hara Kiri with a knitting needle.

Why might you need to use stitch markers?

• To mark the beginning of a round when knitting in the round
• To mark the position of pattern decreases/increases (e.g. in raglan shaping)
• Counting stitches in long cast ons
• Counting stitches in large increase rows (e.g. PI shawls)
• Mark the right side of a piece with no obvious wrong side or right side
• Mark out pattern repeats, especially in lace

I think we've covered previously that i love to knit lace, but if you're new around these parts, Hi, my name's Liz and i'm addicted to lace.

This knitting of lace is one of the things that forces me to use a lot of markers. I mean a lot of markers. There are 36 markers in this piece of lace. I sat and knotted 36 pieces of embroidery floss. Good times.

In the above PI shawl (Camping by the very wonderful Mwaa Knit) i have 576 stitches on the needle and keeping track of that many 16 stitch repeats can be tricky and result in the knitting needle stabbage we've already mentioned when you make a mistake and have to tink all those stitches, or worse still, you have to frog the beautiful and delicate laceweight yarn and risk breakage.

I've used a stitch marker between each 16 stitch pattern repeat to show where the repeat starts and ends, forcing me to focus simply on 16 stitches at a time, helping me not to get lost. I can easily check whether i have 16 stitches between each marker after i've knit a repeat, allowing me to see where i might have missed a yarn over or added one by mistake.

Another way stitches come in handy is for counting. Counting long cast-ons can be an arse, same with counting intensive increase rows (e.g. k1,yo to end). Place a marker every 10, 20 or even 50 stitches if you can get away with it. Breaking the row up this way spares you the horrible sinking feeling of losing count. The "oh man, was that 64 or 66?" or "Did I skip straight to 50 from 46?" Just count between the markers and then forget about it. Count your sections at the end and you know it's all good.

I hope this post shows that markers are a useful addition to your knitty arsenal. They don't have to cost a fortune, you can make some on the fly using embroidery thread or some scrap yarn in a contrasting colour to and the same weight as the yarn you're knitting with.

So now i'm off to knit a bit of lace. Unfortunately all the markers in the world can't get me away from the fact that 576 stitches equals roughly 1 hour per round. Hari Kiri? Where are those knitting needles....

Distraction

I love Knit Alongs (or for the Acronym-philes out there, KALs). I love them with my whole heart. I especially love the Knit Alongs in the beginning lace knitters group on Ravelry. No matter how many WIPs i have on the go, i seem to manage to get sucked into the current KAL, buying more yarn and casting on yet another project. I even bought new needles and a new book for this one. Very naughty.

I got dragged into this KAL with good reason. This year in the 100th anniversary of the birth of our knitting herione, Elizabeth Zimmerman and the KAL pattern is a commemorative shawl (tablecloth for me) based on the PI shawl technique from the Knitters Almanac called "Camping".

The construction is wonderful and the pattern beautiful. It's my first venture into knitting with laceweight and all is going well so far. I'm using the gorgrous Knit Picks Gloss Lace i got from Great British Yarns.

Most people in the KAL have opted to knit the half-circle version, but i had visions of this bright turquoise table cloth brightening up my living room and i fell for the full circle like i was sucker punched.

I'm now up to the 576 stitch round and the pattern is coming along slow but steady. The next section might just take until the end of September if i consider how slow the progress was on the slanting twigs section. The good news is that i reckon i'll have at least one skein of this gorgeous turquoise yarn left over. Enough to make a delightful little treat for myself.

I can't wait to finish this but i already feel like i'm cheating on my other WIPs. Jim's Kilt Hose are in the corner, looking at me with sorrowful eyes, and i never was one to resist some scottish charm. Looks like it's back to boring 5 x 1 rib tonight. Yay.

Christmas Knits Part 1: Kilt Hose

I’ve had an extra long weekend off work this week, first day back today. The problem with long weekends is that I want to procrastinate, even if there are 50 new emails in my inbox highlighted in red, demanding attention.

So, to prolong the procrastination I want to talk about Christmas knitting.

Yes, the time has come. There’s no use fighting it. In fact I saw a few threads on Ravelry about Christmas in July…I steered clear.

I started my Christmas knitting when I got back from holiday in August with these little beauties:

A pair of Kilt Hose for my Scottish Step-Dad-In-Law Jim. He’s a proud Scotsman and I have to admit to sometimes not understanding a word he says. I find that nodding and giggling at him usually does the job. He’s probably funny, I never met a Scot who wasn’t (something about living in the rainy cold gives you a nice dry sense of humour).

In the summer, as I was knitting my first pair of socks (a disaster) he happened to mention that the kilt hose he buys are rubbish these days and they’re not like his mum used to make. He also mentioned that his short legs were the bane of a Scotsman’s existence when it comes to Kilt Hose. They’re just all too long! Foolishly led into it, I reckoned I could make some for his Christmas present and if they were good enough he could wear them for his daughter’s wedding in May.

So in the search for Kilt Hose on Ravelry I came across a few traditional type hose (all with comments exclaiming how complicated they were) and then I came across Toirneach from Knitty. I had a brief look through the pattern and it looked ok. Unfortunately I didn’t like the Amphora lace cuff. It wasn’t for Jim, it seemed too feminine. So true to type, I decided to do what I always do on these important projects. I decided to try something completely new to me. Cables. Also true to type I didn’t just start of with a simple 2 x 2 cable. I started with a nine stranded plait. It was too small and not stretchy enough, so after about five started and frogged cuffs, I ended up with the simple plaited cable repeating pattern which is nice and stretchy because it’s kind of like a large scale rib and I used the leg pattern from Toirneach with a short row heel rather than a heel flap.

I’m rather happy and perhaps most worried by the fact that Jim’s leg measurements are almost spot-on the same as mine. I mean, he told me he has short legs, but really?

FO: Nutkin Socks

Pattern: Nutkin by Beth LaPensee
Yarn: Violet Green Socrates Supersock
Colourway: Kingfisher
Made for: Me

I finished these weeks ago, after we got home from holiday. The second sock was knitted on the long car journeys to and from Alton Towers theme park. The yarn is fantastic to work with and the colours are to die for, but unfortunately the variegated yarn just does not show the pattern. Consider it a lesson learned, variegated yarns are now for ribbed and plain sockies.

The pattern featured some firsts for me. It was my first turned cuff and my first proper short row toe that had to be grafted shut. It was also my first time knitting at a gauge that didn't leave the socks as stiff and (probably as bulletproof) as sheet steel.

As an aside here, i would like to share a word about my foot modeling. I have cankles and also my feet viewed from the sides are like weird wedges. From the top they are almost perfectly rectangular. I hate them. I imagine that this is what the witches feet from the Roald Dahl books look like. Except mine have toes. Really long finger-toes. I am also flat-footed. You might be getting the message that i really hate my ankles and feet. So don't get used to seeing my socks modelled in this way. Kay? Kay.

About the pattern. I really loved it knitting it, but the left leaning bias is really screwing with my love for the socks. The saving grace is that the pattern is obscured a bit by the variegated yarn, I am in like with the socks, not in love but let's face it, anything that covers these monstrous tootsies is well worth the effort.

Beginning with Lace

When i first got back into knitting, you might be surprised to know that it wasn't because i wasn't seduced by fantastic socks, or scrumptious hats or even the thought of having my very own handknit collection of cardigans.

No. I hankered after lace. Ever the unconventional one, the very first thing i knit when i started again was the checkerboard lace scarf by Whitney Van Nes over at Purl Bee. It's not hugely complicated but it's not what i'd call a beginner pattern either. I jumped straight in, giving no real thought to difficulty and trudged through it.

I'll be honest, i didn't learn much from it. I didn't understand about left and right leaning decreases. All i understood was that a yarn over created a hole.

Since then i joined the Beginning Lace Knitters group over on Ravelry and started understanding the relevance of the stitches i knitted and how they looked in patterns.

Last week i cast on for my first KAL (knit along) with the group and finished Summer Flies on Monday night. Last night i gave it a gentle wash in the machine and it's now wet blocking in the back bedroom.

I'm so pleased with it. I didn't strictly stick to the pattern (but then i rarely do, like i said, unconventional). I didn't do the ruffle edge or the picot bind-off and i intend to add fringe. Afterall, what is a neckerchief without fringe?

So there's my guilty lace secret, laid out on the table. What was it that seduced you into the dark needle arts?

The Test Knitting Army

After my failure to inspire any test knitting interest through my blog and Twitter I decided to just bite the bullet and list my pattern on Ravelry, appealing for test knitters in the notes section of the pattern.

Well, i had interest from 12 or so people and more comments besides, complimenting the pattern itself.

I'm so pleased and flattered that the pattern is already in 17 queues and favourited by more than 50 people! Such an honour!



There are a couple or errors to be ironed out so I'm really glad i went down the route of test knitting and also so pleased that the people knitting have noticed the errors and have pointed them out.



What i'd really like to do is perhaps get some small gift for my testers but not sure what i could do... might have to give that one some thought.

There are no words.

These socks.

These socks in the yarn that i hate. I got so close to finishing them. I was down to kitchenering the toe closed on the last sock. But that yarn. THAT YARN. The kitchener wasn't working out well because the yarn stuck to itself and wouldn't pull through. Then the stitches came off the needles which is bad news with THAT YARN because stitches are not only difficult to see but they are almost impossible to pick up. I have given up. I have ripped back hours of work. Hours of mentally and physically painful work that i am not willing to re-live. I have half-frogged the sock and i am putting it away somewhere where i won't have to look at it for a very long time.

I am starting something new tomorrow, something that i will enjoy knitting in lovely yarn. Something tells me that now is not the time to start winding a skein into a ball. One knot and i might just have a nervous breakdown.

I actually feel sick.

What's on the needles this week... (and a Drops Delight yarn review)

I started another pair of socks this week. This time i am knitting hedgerow socks, simply because i liked the look of the rib and i wanted to try:

a) a different method of sock - this time cuff down rather than toe up
b) a different method of heel - let's get crazy with the heel flap
c) a new toe. A round toe. Oh my.

Is it going well? So glad you asked. From a pattern point of view it's a simple, lovely pattern that has been going smoothly and fairly quickly. I'm not a super fast knitter i have to admit. I started them on the 2nd and it's now the 8th. Having said that i haven't knitted every evening, although sunday was almost a full day. I could probably finish my first one tonight but i don't feel like knitting (GASP).

What's the problem?

The frickin yarn. Oh god it's horrid stuff. Garn Studios Drops Delight. There are some pros, but the cons far outweigh them.

The pros:

Seriously, the colourways for this stuff looked unbelievably gorgeous on the website (i know, i know, get what you ask for when you can't pick up and squish the balls). I am loving on the blue at the moment, big time.

It was cheap as chips, about £2.25 a ball.

It's superwash so i can stick the finished article in the washing machine allegedly (the jury is out on this one pending proof that they won't felt - see below)

The cons:

This yarn is seriously hairy and therefore sticky, meaning that tinking is an exercise in patience and frogging would be nigh on impossible. I have no confidence that it will not felt because of this hairy stickiness. If it's sticking to itself without the aid of hot water and soap, God help me.

The green colourway i purchased is running all thick and slubby for long runs followed by tiny skinny over twisted sections that threaten to snap if you look at them wrong. The blue isn't as bad, but still variable.

The stitch definition is RRRRUUUUUBBBISH. Seriously, don't even think about using this yarn if you have a pretty pattern. You won't see it.

It has no give, therefore hurty on the fingers.

It's not the softest which is ok for my socks, i don't mind a scratchy pair of socks at all. I wouldn't use it for a scarf though. No no no.

I've heard this yarn proclaimed as a cheap Noro (i have no experience of Noro, nor do i want to if it's more expensive than this and behaves similarly). So if you like Noro Kureyon, give it a try, it might well be worth the investment of £2.50 just to try it.

(I messed about with the colours in photoshop so my socks actually look like the yarn they're knitted from, yay!)

Diamond Lace Anklet Socks - Hurrah!

Today i finally finished my first ever pair of "serious" socks. By that i mean socks that i actually want to try and wear. I used Charisa's Lifestyle Toe up Sock Formula which i found on good old Rav.

I have included some of the instructions (these are loose instructions based on my foot measurements) on my project page over at ravelry which can be found here. I'm fairly proud but there are already changes i would make. The diamond pattern still stretches a bit too much over the top of my foot despite the mini gusset increases i did. I really dislike the ribbed cuff. I wish i'd done a garter cuff or a k1p1 cuff. The yarn is too boring. Boring cream. I don't like the square toe. I just feel a bit blah about them. It's nothing to do with the pattern, Charisa's pattern is great but i think i just need to try something a bit more exciting with some more exciting yarn.

Knitters withdrawal has already set in. I'm already looking around for my next project. I can't decide what it should be. Something summery, for me. The wishlist of knitted gifts for family and friends is already growing!

The sock.

So after the debacle that was the first attempt of this pattern (more like a recipe than a strict "you-must-follow-me-to-the-letter pattern) that i mentioned in my last post, resulting in a frogged mess, i bring you:

The first sock

Nail biting stuff i know. I can't help but be excited though, i know i'll be forgiven by the sock knitters out there. Someone on one of the Ravelry forums described socks as "like tiny custom knit sweaters for your feet" and attributed that to the marvellous wonder of knitting them.

For me, i am in love with toastie tootsies. Always have been. I am the most punk rock, hard core bedsock wearer of them all.

Carnage carnage everywhere.

I've been shockingly rubbish with photographs recently. There's no excuse i know, but i just can't seem to get motivated to dig out the camera's usb lead and take the lens cap off. This lack of photography is especially disappointing because of all kinds of small tragedies that have happened recently.

I am setting myself a weekly challenge to bring you at least one disasterous event that has happened in my household that week. I shall call this Doom Thursday. Thursday seems like a good day for doom. It could be knitting related, it could be cooking related, it may just be that i've dropped a pot of teeeny tiiiiiny beads all over my carpet and had to spend 2 hours picking them all up so the cats don't eat them. It could be that Michael spilled a full glass of the stickiest squash known to man (Vimto) all over the carpet and i thought it would be a good idea to pour bicarb of soda all over it because i saw someone pour salt all over spilt liquid once and it soaked it all up and could be brushed/vacuumed away (for your info, using bicarb in this situation does NOT give the same result as salt). It could be any of these things.

For the past 4 days i have been working on my first ever sock. I picked a toe-up pattern. I don't know why. I was just being whimsical and different and rebellious against all those people who think dpns are a Good Thing. So i got to the heel. Knitted my first attempt at short rows, all was good using the no muss, no fuss short row heel method (except for the holes where i had made a hash of picking up stitches). I decided to keep the sock as an anklet mainly because i was bored of knitting stocking st in the round and bound it off in the only way i know how. It wasn't a stretchy bind off...

I couldn't get the sock over my heel.

I didn't cry. I frogged my binding and then found out that frogged 4 ply is almost impossible to get back onto needles. I still didn't cry. I went to put in an afterthought lifeline....where's my tapestry needle? Can't find it. Oh NOES!

I frogged the sock. Right back to the sodding start. By this time it was 10.30pm. I was tired and emotional. I shed a tear for the sock that never was and went to bed.

The end.

I wish i had a picture.

Knitting Fail :(

Two posts in less than 24 hours? What did you all do to deserve this? Well you can thank my new squishies. I'm feeling the need to vent.

I was so excited yesterday. I had new squishies that i was lovingly patting at my desk all day and dreaming about knitterly things (i have things delivered to work, partly so that the postman doesn't take them back to the sorting office and also because it's an excitable addition to a day otherwise filled with powerpoint presentations and spreadsheets).

When i got home, i was tired, but not too tired to start a knitty project, so i got out my lovely new wool in the beautiful green colourway and started trying to learn to knit in the round using magic loop. Uh Oh. The yarn was all uneven, running thick and thin, worse still it wasn't plyed and was barely twisted in places so was all splitty. Anything i knitted wouldn't rip out because it all stuck to itself. And it wouldn't go over the knuckles of my circular needle. Oh woe was me. This is the last time i'll buy yarn off the internet without checking the comments page on Ravelry for that particular yarn.

I must admit though, it probably wasn't entirely the yarn's fault. My circs aren't great and the cables are too stiff and short for magic loop so i decided to buy some new ones from getknitted.....and ahem boughtsomenewyarn. At least i checked Rav this time though! That makes it ok, right?

Squish squish

Quick question, how much does it annoy you when your page freezes as you're using your mouse-scroller thingy and then catches up really quickly, so you click on the page to stop it scrolling out of control but end up unwittingly clicking a link instead? A Lot? Me too, glad we cleared that up.

New stuff! Over the past few weeks i feel like i've achieved a lot. I finished some projects at home (including kicking Dead Space's ass into next week) and am ready to move onto something else knitty. I bought new squishies:

And the new squishies are ear-marked to create a lovely shawl (read neckerchief) from the Brandywine pattern sold on Ravelry for Help for Haiti and a lovely hat. Bit weird for summer, i agree but i'm working on the logic that me knitting cold weather items will bring about a sod's law summer of non-stop sunshine and barbeques. My logic cannot be questioned.

The return to norm, whoever he is.

Well hello! It’s been a while, but the craziness of weddings and the aftermath is over and life is back to normal again (whatever normal is anyway).

I picked up the needles again (the knitting ones that is) for the first time last weekend and it feels gooooooood. I’m making a baby blanket as a nice and easy start (rectangular knitted shapes are easy yay!) for a girl at college and I am using this pattern, which is nice and repeaty and not really demanding. The mind can wander and I can chat or watch TV without having to ignore my immediate environment/stare mutely whilst fiercely counting at whoever asks me a question.
“Do you want a cup of tea?”
No answer (nodding but dearest husb is in the kitchen, not looking)
“answer me then”
Still no answer, still nodding, still not looking
“are you going to answer me or not?”
“I’M F*!%ng counting. SHHHH!”
Many a domestic has ensued.

I’m a big fan of knitting and crocheting with a point in mind, i.e. someone to give the finished result to/something I can sell/wear and no one has given me a better reason for picking up the sticks recently than my favourite blogger of craftland lollychops. Seems lollychops has a friend in need and as lollychops is a friend indeed (see what I did there) she has started a card drive for her poorly friend and colleague.
Now. As I am not all that awesome at card making and papercrafts although I will be turning my hand to it a bit more seriously in the future (more on that in future posts) I have decided to do something a bit different. It’s a secret for now and I hope it works out well otherwise I might cry. I shall show results in due course.

Short week this week, hope everyone's Easter plans are going well!