socherryknits

I have to think of more imaginative titles for my posts... OK: 'I heart Yarn, I heart Yarn Magazines, and I heart knitting' will be the title of this post. I had a lovely Stitch n Bitch meet yesterday. One of the members brought in a magazine called "Knit n Style". It contained an article called 'Mindless Knitting' about using knitting as a form of meditation. Now I've long been telling my doctor that knitting is a form of stress-relief for me. Whilst she agrees to an extent, she argues that yoga or meditation would be more effective as knitting is still engaging my mind and hands. Therefore it is not allowing me a total 'relaxation' - which I clearly need as I am 'highly-strung' to say the least! I believe that knitting can induce a meditating effect - once I get into it I can start to drift and become lost in a zen-like state brought about by the repetitive action of knitting. However, I never really thought about the projects I knit. Un...

I received my copy of Yarn Forward this week. The good: Good articles and the best idea for a needle holder that I've seen - sew a strip of rufflette from a curtain to the inside of the fabric and pop the needles in there! Genius! They give 3 yarn substitutes for each pattern "Cheap and Cheerful (under £5 per 100g)", "Mid-range (bet. £5-£10 per 100g)" and "Spoil Yourself (over £10 per 100g)" which is a fantastic idea! Some interesting patterns, although nothing that took my fancy at the moment. I'm having a down-sock time but I think that the sock patterns could appeal later. The down points were a bad choice of typeface and layout which could impact negatively on anyone with visual difficulties and also some image issues. There were many photos of the patterns from all angles, which is exactly what us knitters need! However many of the photos were stretched and looked odd, making it difficult to see the pattern in some cases. The shiny paper cho...

I had a lovely knitty day today! I got the wristwarmers above from K1 Yarns' charity stall at the Miso Funky market . An absolute bargain at £5 - I love them! The proceeds went to Childline. I also made some decent progress on Under the Hoodie (from the Stitch n Bitch book), getting up to the neck shaping and beyond. And I managed to score some Angora yarn from the K1 Yarns stall - 7 skeins for £3.50!! Wooooo! I placed an order with Lilith for one of her fabby hat kits - ice'y/winter blue merino and grey undyed and snowflake charms. I can't wait, and will blog it once it is done. Great day! Am floating on a knitty cloud :)

Just a quick post to say that I will be selling in Hillhead Library, Byres Road, Glasgow tomorrow (Sat 21st Oct) from 10am - 4pm. As well as my iPod cosies, stitch markers and jewellery there will also be Lilith's debut: handspun, hand-dyed hat kits which are utterly divine! On sale at my stall. And also, for knitters; K1 Yarns has a charity stall including mittens and other wintery goodness, knitted by Glasgow knitters for Childline - help a charity and buy lots! There is also a stash swap, during which time I will be abandoning my stall to dive through! See you tomorrow!!

It's been a wee while since I last blogged ... The start of semester really takes it out of me, especially this year due to a temporary promotion to desk supervisor. I'm getting migraines more frequently and falling asleep on the couch at frankly ridiculously early times! I've also been busy seeing a friend from Melbourne (originally Glasgow) and learning Japanese in preparation for next years Japanese yarn/craft fest holiday... Above is Hot Fudge Sundae from Cupcakes Galore - it has ice cream on top and home-made hot fudge sundae sauce dribbling down it - mmm! It was a fairly easy recipe this time [no more stir in bowl over boiling pan of water nonsense!] with an unusual addition of crushed salted peanuts. The boy likes these - I think it would taste better without any nuts. But, unlike with knitting, I fear deviating from the recipe even a tiny bit as I am still very much in novice stages. Below [sticking firmly to the pattern] is my progress on Under the Hoodie from S...

WIPs here, WIPs there. A row here, a row there. Everything's plodding on - nothing's reached a blogworthy stage at the moment. Instead I'm posting about a t-shirt that the brilliant boy has designed - see below - tis fabulous isn't it? He designed it for a site called Threadless which is like a giant t-shirt competition that anyone can submit designs for. People vote and, based on this, some tshirts get printed up by Threadless and sold from the site. So if you would like to see the boy's design being printed by Threadless then please join and vote! It has to get quite a high score in the first 24 hours to remain up for the full seven days, so if you like it spread the word amongst knitters :) [To vote click the box below] I would love for the boy to get the recognition for this excellent design - plus I really want one! I thought about doing it with the iron-on transfer sheet thingys but I'd much prefer a professional printed tee.