dolly dimple knits

Choices ??

I have the urge to cast me on something new. "Another project ? Surely not !" I hear you cry.

Well, yeah, actually. So sue me. I've had a tough day.

But I'm stuck. HELP !!

I have me a load of Louisa Harding Grace (Wool & Silk) in the deep red which was going to be Turbulence (check out the entries for May 5th & 10th if you're some sort of horrible sadist who enjoys the pain of others .....) but I'd prefer you didn't mention that.

I also have me a load of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in Sapphire .

The problem is at the moment I have 2 front-runners for patterns - both of which I have adored for years. The very gorgeous Alice Starmore "Elizabeth 1st" from Tudor Roses

and the equally well-favoured Marcel's Sweater by Veronik Avery from IK Winter 2003

Being that I am a bear of very little brain when I've had the kind of day I've had, I simply don't have the energy to make another decision - though admittedly the plus side is that this decision would be all about pleasure and wouldn't rack up my budget by another £30K ...

Anyway, views please !

Pattern ? Colour ? Sanity ?

"A life on the ocean wave ...."

Well we're back - and we had the most fabulous time ;0) I LOVE SAILING .

Most of the photos are on Al's camera so I'm afraid it's edited highlights but that's probably quite a relief as I'm sure you're fed up looking at other folks holidays snaps by now ...

Please excuse the squinting above but as you can tell from the scarlet nature of my face we actually had quite a lot of good weather on Loch Ness. And even more sunshine when we got to Skye but all of those pictures are definitely not on my camera.

Skye was particularly wonderful though and especially on the knitting front. Like Ali we hit Shilasdair and I bought a kit in beautiful shades of raspberry and oatmeal .... oh and some silk yarn that she'd bought in from Thailand ..... and maybe a wee bit of handspun cashmere too .... but, hey I was on holiday okay ?!

Not content with that, I also made a yarn pig of myself at The Handspinner Having Fun where any rumours that I bought a vast amount of black/grey alpaca merino mix, some hand-dyed handspun kid silk mohair, yet more handpsun cashmere and some silver celtic buttons are entirely true :0)))

I've actually reached the stage where I think Al may have a point and I really need to knit some of this stuff up before I buy any more yarn. Gasp. Never thought I'd hear myself say that ..

Amazingly enough for me, I do actually have plans for all of the Skye yarn. I spent quite a lot of time on Skye doodling up some designs of my own and that is what it's all destined for - except for maybe the Shilasdair kit. When I get time I'll tidy up some of my drawings and you can tell me what you think. Honest comments please about whether they'll work or not !

Time is a bit of an issue as a certain new arrival is keeping us a bit busy at the moment

This is Smokey Jo - and she's the 10 week old star birthday present that my littlest one Rowan (on the boat with me above) got for her 5th birthday. She was as thrilled as it is possible for only a 5 year old girl to be :0))

Next time, once I get the camera organised there will be pictures of yarn and even some actual knitting content as I did do a bit on holiday but for now I'm off to play with a kitten ....

A Small - but Respectable - Haul

Yesterday was not about knitting. Yesterday was not even about yarn buying. Really.

Yesterday was about chatting.

I chatted my way through 6 hours of wandering about. I chatted my way through many many wonderful photo opportunities because I am a terrible blogger. I chatted my way entirely through the opportunity to meet a whole gang of Rowanettes ........ because I was too busy chatting to another dear friend.

In fact, I chatted SO much that I'm amazed I actually managed to achieve what I set out to achieve.

This year, I was much more mature. Either that or my stash is so much more mature that I didn't feel the need to hyperventilate and indiscriminately buy whatever pretty thing took my eye.

Of course, I did buy some pretty things ...

I went with the intention of buying a ball winder and a pile of hemp from here to knit this.

They're at the back. The hemp is black so disappears into the dark background but it's there, trust me !

The other pretty things from left to right are -

2 skeins of cherry coloured silk DK from The Natural Dye Studio - they're not actually the same colour. One is lighter than the other but they will be used together in the same scarf I think.

1 skein of blue alpaca sock yarn from The Yarn Yard - I nearly bought more simply because of the very funny and very charming salesman but other things had caught my eye too ...

2 skeins of silky sock yarn from Fyberspates - really beautiful yarn and another lovely salesperson (it must be something about people selling wool I reckon !) And last but not least -

gorgeous pink and green buttons from one of my favourite standby suppliers Twist Fibre Craft - I've ordered some magazines too from them but they don't count in this haul as I didn't bring them home on the day ;0)

And all only £20 over my planned budget. Not bad all things considered.

This is probably my last post for a while as I have a horribly busy few days ahead of me sorting out things at work before disappearing off to here and here. So see you when I get back !