What a week it's been! I'm pleased it's the end of the working week for this household.

Monday started of great, knit group at The Woolpack which is just a skip up the road for me and not even a stumble back. It's always a lovely morning but was made all that much more with some good new from one of the ladies and we had chocolate to celebrate. Can't be bad. I had a fuzzy head but put it down to, well I wasn't too sure what really, in short I ended up with a migraine and for the next 2days I saw the world in shades of green with a few splashes of strobe lighting for the full effect. I've not had a migraine for years so it took me by surprise. It's the day after I find dodgy, so I'm back to normal, knitting resumed normally yesterday.  Thank goodness it's Friday

I've been thinking about my knitting, my strict rule of being a manogamus knitter is all but a distant memory. How after years of that have I comes to this with half knitted projects in each room. I set about going through my WIPS, frogging the ones that weren't getting any love and thought what a waste. Each of these works had been cast on with a feeling of excitement picking the yarn, the needles etc and then when something better comes along it was discarded to the corner of the room. I thought if I was a child and I'd done this with a toy I'd have been labelled spoilt, and that's exactly the way I felt. I suddenly felt uncomfortable with the level of ease I could just frog something out and put the yarn away without a 2nd glance.

[caption id="attachment_150" align="alignleft" width="300"] The pile of shame[/caption]

I've always been very strict with my yarn budget, from an early age I've saved money for wool, as a teenager when I got my pocket money I'd go and get a ball of my wool from Mrs Hayes wool shop in Bedlington Station where I went to High School. There was a strict notice that all layaway wool would go back on the shelf after 3weeks. This didn't apply to me as her daughter was friends with my sister.I don't know about others but to me casting on from a new skein is always much more exciting than casting on from a one that's been used.

Getting back to the beginning of this sudden outpouring of guilt,I've decided to get back on track and not cast on anymore until I've finished what's on the needles.  SOCKS are exempt from this  I run a sock yarn shop so I've got to test knit yarn and needles but I only knit one sock, that's why when orders are placed with a yarn I've knit the sample with I usually include my left over yarn in the parcel.

Knitting this weekend will include :-

Hill Top Shawl by Helen Stewart.

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignright" width="300"] Hilltop shawl by Helen Stewart[/caption]

Hill Top Shawl is a lovely crescent shape design from Helen Stewart. Each attendee at The Curious handmade retreat in Cumbria was gifted this pattern along with 2 skeins of  Cumbria yarn  from The Fibre Company that wasn't even available in the shops and a lovely project bag made by Mette our other host of the retreatt. This is a fabulous project, the yarn is a joy to knit with and I'm keeping this one, it will be attending the retreat in October also.

 

Angelus Novus by Renee Callaghan.

My Angelus Novus  a design by Renee Callaghan has been in timeout. I've had a problem with the sleeves, it doesn't matter how many times I've picked up those sleeve stitches and knit them they looked dreadful. In the end I decided to forget about the number I needed and pick up as the 2 sts every 3rows and my st count whilst much more than in pattern knit up looks so much tidier and I'm really happy with it.  Im using a Baa Ram Ewe  yarn, It's the first time I've used Dovestone and already I'm planning using it again, I've got 2 skeins left that I'm exchanging for a different shade . Only 1.5 sleeves to go.

 

 

Foxglove by Kate Davies.

 

[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignright" width="300"] Foxglove by Kate Davies.[/caption]

Foxglove by Kate Davies. I love her designs and I usually always have one on the needles, this time round I decided to knit the sleeves first as  my intense dislike of sleeves has never wained  over the years. What is it about sleeves rally they're just long socks and I love knitting them but sleeves have me coming up in hives. I'm knitting this design in Excelana 4ply in a deep charcoal grey and it's fabulous.

 

 

Suffolk Socks Yarn - SSY

The last thing on my needles is my new SSY Suffolk Socks Yarn. It's from my new hand dyed line 'You shall go to he ball' I'm using, beautiful dress shame about the face. The colours represent Cinderella's gowns at each of the ball and the one I'm using is inspired by the ugly sisters.

 

 

 

 

Experimentation

I'm trying out some 9" circs we're stocking and I'm really  enjoying them. I'm quite slow knitting with them but I quite like  it. I'm speedy using dpn and Magic loop but like the tortoise and the hare I'll get there eventually. It rather pleasant going at a slower pace and after the week I've had and on reflection some times I get to Friday with an emergency stop having gone at 90mph.

 

 

 

Off the needles

My cast off this week is a shawl. It's  my own design that was  made it up as I knit along. I've used a SW Merino/Nylon 4 ply, 4mm needles. The yarn is hand dyed here at Suffolk Socks and it's part of a kit named Welcome, the shade is blush. It's cream with the lightest shades of pink, peach,lemon and yellow.

Knitting is my therapy, it's a place I can go without reaching for the rescue remedy, it's my meditation where I feel the utmost calm its slows me down when life gets abit fast for me, it gets me out the house to knit groups,  this  chatty confident person I  appear to be is always thinking I want to be at home. I've always been like this,  I could happily stay in my house and not venture out for days but I like that. Knitting is both a sociable and  an unsociable  activity for me.

One things for sure I love it and it ain't going anywhere.