~ Socks Ahoy ~

Ok so for those of you who know me and have been at knitting gatherings with me, you know that I am not a sock lover. I do not knit socks!! Yet I now believe that my mistake was that I always made toe up socks. Today I sat down while procrastinating (with coffee, cake and NCIS) and above is the result. I was trying out some different sizes, I'm a small but I'm wearing a medium size in the pic. I was trying out a pattern for gauntlets and socks and above is the result of my mathematical skills at work (or play its a fine line with me). 

The cuff is ribbing which flows into my fake cable which then flows down the side of the sock, it has just enough going on to avoid the "boring sock syndrome" while the 4 row repeat pattern (which looks more complicated than it is) gives it a little bit of juice!! Its possible to knit these while watching tv which in my book is a plus :) I tried to grab some pictures but I know they arnt the best I will be knocking on johns door sometime soon with socks and gauntlets to be pictured. If anyone is interested in test knitting these can you send me a mail please?  to the side is a picture of the cuff and  below is a picture of the main pattern section. I think I am slowly being won over by sock knitting and I am starting to have dreams of  symphonie double points. This is also my" try and win Diane over" socks...... so my question is "will these make your needles leap into action"?

~ New Blog and Cruise Visitors ~

Well as you all can see the construction of my new blog is well underway , just my blog title and my bunny to go. I hope you all like it. The pages will go live in conjunction with the patterns going live in September here. Let me know what you all think and if there are any issues (loading times etc.) I can change things around.

As I posted yesterday, I had a little visit to Rosemary (to squish some yarn and to drop off some patterns) this coincided with afternoon tea and coffee (with baked goods :D) and a rather large visit from a number of knitting cruise members!!!!! Now the first thing that went into my head was "knitting cruise - Whats a knitting cruise?" Well a knitting cruise is apparently what it says on the tin, just like a bridge cruise etc except knitting is encouraged on board the luxury liner and these lucky ladies got to sale from port to port visiting new and exciting yarn shops at every destination. Some of these ladies had quiet the stash already but here in Dublin they visited This is Knit, The Jameson Distillery and finally for some refreshment and more yarn squishing The Constant Knitter. I didnt manage to grab that many photos between the laughter, baked goods and FO's the ladies had brought along, but here are a few:

Clapotis in Angora!!!!!!

Afternoon tea

Wool and Tea (Better than the boat I heard!!!)

Yarn and Whiskey!!!!!!!

I was also lucky enough to meet two lovely ladies Kim and Karen from Maryland, USA who loved my Vine Shrug so much they bought yarn to make their own!!!! So they made me a very happy bunny :)

~Construction and Morning Coffee~

Hi all, I am just sitting down with my morning coffee and I apologise for the mess that is my blog at the moment. It will be changing until I get it right. Though you will be glad to hear that my patterns will be going live very soon so stay tuned, but if any of ye would like a quick glimpse at an advanced copy, then you will have to visit Rosemary and she might let you take a peek. I'm off to Rosemary for a visit and a chat later today and I might just post what I find later on. You never know what is going to happen when you visit last time I got addicted to angora and made my first cowl which I will post later on.

~ Times are a Changing ~

Well there has never been a more apt saying to describe where I am right now. A lot of things over the last few weeks have driven me crazy or lead me to believe that for me there is definitely no way back to chemistry for me :) Im not too sad about this however but I shall none the less strive to find something to fill that void.

And so in looking for something too fill that void, I turned to knitting and fiber related things. Now recently I found Flick's (from Ravelry) blog and I have decided I was naive about my blog and its time for a proper change in a good way so if I stop posting its for all our benefits believe me.

My second realisation came when I got some what drawn to the picture above, now angora tweed hmmmmmm not that inspiring by itself and the projects on ravelry made me even more glum. But that picture stayed with me for a while, I love the mix of angora and viscose and I have decided that this week it is my mission to make this even more beautiful and I shall post my efforts when im done :) I have some musings on what I can do here and Im just a little excited :)

I think I am going to keep my projects a little under wraps for a while so no postings and no wip's for a while if i see you at the FFF meetings or any of the DKC gatherings you may get a sneek peek into what im doing but you will have to be very very good :)

My Visit to the Constant Knitter

Although the constant knitter is mainly an online yarn shop, Rosemary does offer the chance to call up and visit her collection (often with some wonderful tea on offer too!!!!) so having nothing better to do on a rainy Saturday,I visited the constant knitter and I was surprised by how much stock rosemary has. I tried to do it justice in the following pics and  I also tried to curl up in a few of those containers alas im too big sob Not to mention those shiny, shiny stitch markers by “MweaG” which are just stunning!!!! well done you !!!! (I tried to do them justice)

I was mostly surprised by the tweed and viscose mixtures looking so well together and how soft the tweed actually was, I’m used to scratchy tweed but this is beautiful.

Another yarn set I managed to spy is the vivaldi mohair mix. Now I think Rosemary is holding out and keeping all the good stuff at the back but I managed to grab this while she was making me tea…….

For those lace knitters among you I snapped these pics of the manos lace and kid silk bins and this is just a taste of the colours available. ( i also squeezed some drops dk weight in here too)

I couldnt even try and mention the craftspun, alpaca and countless other yarns in the ceiling to floor display.

Not to ramble on too much, I’m just going to post the rest of the pics I stole today, I hope they do it justice and at the end I just had to take a special pic of the dark purple nepal yarn because its just heavenly!!!!! Thanks for letting me visit for so long rosemary, I came away inspired!!!!!!!!! If your in the area I recommend seeing if you can call and visit!!!!!!!!!

~ Haze Shrug - Take Two ~

Yes I decided to adapt my Haze Shrug as I put up earlier and I made this one from sock yarn. I will be posting the pattern soon but here are some rough pics to wet your apatite. I love how this feels and I love how it changes colour depending on the light I tried to show that here..Enjoy.