Things I have learnt this week...

1) That I should wear my glasses when cutting my toe nails.

2) That I should not ignore the pain in my foot for over a week.

3) That knitting a shawl doesn't have to be a huge complicated knitting project.

Shawl knitting always seemed quite daunting.  Using some drops fabel that I'd won from A Playful Day Podcast I cast on this pattern.  My very first knitted shawl.  Easy knitting to do whilst resting my foot!

Wise socks

These socks are very wise.
Firstly, we are forecast snow this weekend, so warm hand knitted socks are a very wise choice. Secondly, because the pattern comes from Wise Hilda Knits.
Wise Hilda is very wise indeed, as she knows how to avoid holes when picking up gusset stitches after turning the heel. A very handy tip. The pattern is quite easy (K3, P1), so a great knit for when watching TV or when travelling about. The yarn is Drops Fabel, that I won from a give-away from A Playful day podcast. All this wise knitting makes me wonder if my guinea pigs would like a jumper? Somehow I suspect that it would not be very wise at all!

Gingerbread men in the post...

I was woken up this morning by the sound of a package falling onto the doormat. That noise is enough for me to scurry quickly out of bed, far quicker than I ever would if it was a workday! Delivered this morning was my prize from the asking for trouble blog giveaway. Kawaii notebooks, badges, gingerbread men & an uber cute bread slice charm. Thank you!
Back to my crafting, my opt art blanket is finished and in the post, will share photos soon. In the meantime I have cast on some Wise Hilda socks for me, using some beautiful variegated drops yarn that I won from a playful day podcast giveaway.
The pattern is suitably simple, so that I can knit away whilst daydreaming or watching tv. And, I'd forgotten just how much I like using a variegated yarn, I find myself calling out the colours as I knit along "oooh, purple", "oooh, green!" :)

Knitting & Stitching & Prizes!

An overnight coach at the weekend took me to my folks house. From there yet another coach along with my mum and nan to the Knitting and Stitching show.
With a huge array of things to see and buy, I was relatively restrained with my purchases. A pair of extreme knitting needles (24mm x 700mm) from Rachel John. I'm not quite sure I'm up to 1000 strand knitting yet though!

I also brought a let's felt instruction guide from Piiku. Hopefully this will encourage me to find the time to get felting again. My mum and nan got some rather fancy yarn, from the aptly named Fancy Yarn specialists. Back on the coach again, and homeward bound. To my delight when I arrived home, there was a package from the lovely A Playful Day podcast, as I'd won the donation giveaway - whoo hoo!
Four balls of drops fabel, in beautiful blues.
Plus five shell bead stitch markers from A Little Bit Sheepish. These are very luxurious, they are very smooth to the touch, and one even is a lobster clasp for marking crochet.
Plus, some uber cute sheep stitch markers from The Lollipop Stop. Once again, I am truly spoilt. And I think my old stitch markers (plain plastic rings) will have to go into retirement!

The sensu-wool world!

On Monday morning I had a very pleasant surprise, I discovered that I'd won a giveaway from A Playful Day - a skein of Super Knits Bessie in Kate Bush.
The Playful Day podcast has been going for a few months, and I have become an regular listener. It has a great mix of yarn reviews, knitting news, greentrianglegirl's knitting progress, food & drink and general playful fun! Super Knits is a lovely yarn company based in the West Midlands. When it was first mentioned on A Playful Day I spent some time drooling over the website and admiring the colour names - she studied sculpture anyone? So I was super happy to win a skein of sock yarn. Gemma from Super Knits kindly got in touch to ask if I wanted it sent as a skein or wound in to a ball, and for all I love the look of a skein, I do get a bit tangled, so I asked for it as a ball. It arrived this morning & it is very pretty. 425 meters of 75% superwash blue faced Leicester & 25% nylon. And most importantly I can confirm it is super squishy!
Close up yarn porn picture next....
Now to get a few projects finished, so I can settle down and make myself some socks for when I go running up that hill!
I spent ages thinking of the Kate Bush pun that is the title of this post. If you can think of anything better please let me know...