socherryknits

I'm having a yarn-gasm ! Due to the fact that there is no daylight anymore in Glasgow for the rest of the autumn & winter the photos just can't illustrate the extreme softness and beauty of this yarn. The girls at my knitty meetup had a good feel though, and they can back up my claims of yarny heaven, I'm sure! The pattern is Leaf Lace scarf , by Ann Budd. Rav says it was from Interweave Knits Spring 2000, but I got it in a later Interweave scarf pullout booklet. It's a great knit because the lace is simple enough to do while watching the tv, it goes fast, and you can't get further than a few stitches without being made aware of any mistakes that have been made, so there's no need for lifelines really. I also got a hot tip at last week's knitting meetup to folksy.com - the UK etsy. I went straight on and bought exactly the same item, because it's just too cool. A project bag from Plain Jane Textiles - so well made, and with a lovely personal touch....

Despite the fact that it has rained for 40 days and 40 nights, we decided to go to Lochwinnoch today. M&S had a deal on roast chicken, tatties and apple pie so we felt the best way to appreciate a yummy Sunday roast was to precede it with a bracing walk in some sleety rain. It rained worse yesterday so as you can see above, the last part of the trail was abruptly shortened by a wee flood... One of the resident Herons looked quite content with the weather though. This is me outside one of the hides. You can see that it's standing in water, where usually it's standing on land ... It was a rare 5 seconds when it stopped raining and the sun came out - I didn't have time to take down my hood before it darkened and the rains began once more. More flooding - I had a great plan to take some 'action' shots of Garter Stitch Mitts IV, but it was so cold that there was no way my hands were coming out of the thick fleeced-lined (and shop bought!) mittens. All the shots are...

Not much going on in the world of knitting for me as I'm a wee bitty addicted to Civilization IV right now. I've still been shopping for yarn though, and found this utterly droolsome (what? it's a word!) shop o' joy: Twisted Fibre Art , whose colourway make me actually hungry for yarn. However, I just stopped by to pass on this hilarious cake wrecks blogs - it's so funny! Also - I pressed a button on Blogger, and accidently updated something, and now I've lost my Clustermaps. Clustermaps (which I pay for) fills me with much joy as I see all the places in the world that view my blog - now I'm lost. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Well, we made it; we were on TV tonight ( UK readers click here to watch - about 4 mins in ) *gulp* I can't believe how cool it looks - everyone looks great! I'm so embarrassed, but so excited too, that we were featured. In other knitty news, Rogue is going well. I'm so stunned that I made this cable - I'm knitting blind really, as I'm not experienced enough in the cable chart to know what's happening. It's a bit like one of those magic paintings that you paint with plain water, and all different colours appear as if by magic. Wonderful cables are appearing; twisting and turning over each other. I've also been knitting more of my Ker-azy, madcap Kool - Aid - dyed hot water bottle cosy. It fits a treat, and it's fun to knit something in this fizzy neon. In the spirit of kitchy bright fun, I also got a pressie from the boy - this fabulous Kawaii charm bracelet, with Gloomy Bear *, Hello Kitty, a little deer and all kinds of plastic joy. He got it fro...

I thought I would make a new post to respond to a comment left in my last post. I had posted this: " I'm Scottish, but due to moving around a lot when I was young I have an English accent. I don't like my accent at all - this is not to say that I think there is anything wrong with being English, but I'm Scottish, and it bugs me that I always sound like a visitor to my own country. " I dithered about posting this in the first place, because I was anxious that it would come off in a bad light. Kirsty's comment reads as follows - and I would like to say a thank you to her for posting. I would rather someone posted their opinion and gave me the opportunity to clarify something I've posted, than they walk away thinking I'm narrow-minded. "I would just like to point out that lots of people without Scottish accents actually like to consider themselves to live here, and not just visitors, but ingrained attitudes like that certainly make us feel less than ...

STV filmed my knitting group last night for the Five Thirty Show . I managed to get a shot of the cameraman filming 'The Force Scarf' that I knitted for the boy's Christmas. I couldn't use the flash as it would disrupt the film (and he was having a hard enough time trying to get the heavy camera at the right angle to see the shadow knitting!) so it's a bit blurry. It was interesting seeing how it filming this type of thing worked, and the host Vicky was great fun - very enthusiastic and said it was the best feature that she'd filmed - go knitters! She wanted to interview me about the scarf *gulp* I hadn't considered that I'd actually talk. I'm Scottish, but due to moving around a lot when I was young I have an English accent. I don't like my accent at all - this is not to say that I think there is anything wrong with being English, but I'm Scottish, and it bugs me that I always sound like a visitor to my own country. So anyway, I didn't...

In the last fortnight I've gone a bit mitten mad. I've made Ysolda's garter stitch mitts with some Orkney Angora that I bought at K1 Yarns - it's so utterly soft. I love LOVE this pattern! It's perfect for work because the mittens don't cover too much of my hands. At a glance it might look like I've got longer sleeves. They also keep my hands nice and toasty, but free for knitting. And they're quick, quick, quick! Which is good because I want to make them in every colour and fibre. Then I made some giant cable mittens - this is the first pattern I've designed from scratch. I've just got to get a wee bit more Paton's Jet so I can finish the other one. Then I might see if I can get some test knitters to try other sizes and maybe get a pattern on Ravelry!! I'm in the middle of making gloves with a sockweight yarn using Anna Tillman's glove pattern . The yarn is Fyberspates merino/tencel sock weight that I bought at Woolfest. The col...

The boy and I are just back from a lovely weekend in Elgin. We stopped on the way, just past Carrbridge for some FO shots of the Honeycomb vest. I finished it the day after the Olympics, but had to block it. I'm quite pleased, but I picked up too many stitches around the arms, so it's sagging a bit - I think I'll try weaving some elastic into it and reblocking, before taking the drastic action of reknitting. It was quite a hard pattern to follow - there's an expectation of a knitting level I feel. Luckily I managed to grasp the pattern, and how to adapt it when waist shaping leaves the stitches out of sync with chart pattern. I modified it to knit in the round ( notes here ) We also popped up North to Brora to see some relatives. My granny mentioned that she had aquired some Hunters of Brora yarn and I've been desperate to get my hands on this for some time. Sadly, this yarn was found in bags out the back of Hunters after it closed. They threw out bags and bags of...

So close ... I only had 11 rows to go. I'm so tired that I have no words - I've been knitting frantically all weekend and am a bit disappointed that I failed this Olympics too. Ah well, there's always Vancouver

Don't have time to blog!

Day 8; Things are going well - finished the waist decreases, and the increases. I made a mistake below - One of the cable crosses went the wrong way. But as I discovered this about 3 inches later on, I can live with it! I had a lovely day today - we went through to Edinburgh to see Lilith's Trunk Show at K1 Yarns. SHe had made a seriously large bundle of sumptiously yummy yarn! I spent enough to get a pretty emergency yarn keyring. Here's Lilith's legs spinning away - she didn't want her photo taken but Ysolda didn't mind. The Edinburgh shop is really nice, and has lots of comfy chairs to sit and knit. There's even tea and cake! Here's some shots of Old Maiden Aunt Baby Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere blend laceweight - it's so beautiful! And some Noro Silk Garden Lite, and Orkney Angora for gloves and hats. I know I shouldn't have spent so much, but having to stay faithful to one project made my eyes wander onto yummy yarns!