It is such a beautiful day here, warm enough to sit outside, and that is just what I have been doing. I have finished the monkey socks , all except the grafting , so goodness only knows when that will be done. I have almost finished the extra surprise for my monkey swap pal , and then I can send everything off over the pond . I am just missing one more monkey item , I wonder whether to go to Monkey World and abduct a chimpanzee , maybe not a good idea ?.


The swallow tail shawl that I am knitting for the International Scarf Exchange is almost finished , I am just awaiting the arrival of my knit picks options which have arrived at Dee's house and then I can transfer the shawl onto them for the last few rows . Knit Picks don't mail to UK and so they were sent to my friend Dee's house and she is then going to mail them over to me , Dee ( Yarn4kalei ) is such a good friend and I bless the day that she was chosen as my secret pal in the favorite color swap 1 .

I have just cast on for the top down aran sweater in Interweave knits Spring 07 , I have knit a few rows and I think that I am going to be very happy with it , I find that top down patterns are easier to adjust to ' strange shapes '

I now know who my International Scarf Swap partner is, I have finally decided to knit the swallowtail shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 , I knitted this for myself in November , I used a 50% cashmere 50% silk which gave the shawl a lovely heavy drape , I am knitting the scarf swap in pale blue cashmere fingering weight , I hope that she likes it.

My wee tiny sock swap arrived today , it was knitted by Dotty at yarn floozies.blog.spot.com , it is so beautiful , it makes me laugh every time I look at it .

The monkey sock swap is going along great, I have just turned the heel on the second sock, but I am going to lay that aside for a day and start on the shawl , just for a rest from the size 2mm needles that I am using. I have ordered a Knit Picks Options set , I can't wait to try them , once the shawl gets bigger I will transfer it onto them , I have been using Denise circulars but find that the stitches don't move too easily along the cables , I am hoping that the Options will be better.
One day I will find out how to load photos onto the blog . . . . . .

It is a truth , universally acknowleged that on Mother's Day , said mother should lie on a chaise all day , eating peeled grapes and maybe doing a little gentle knitting. NOT in this house however. Significant other disappears into study , visiting daughter clamps onto lap top after depositing card and flowers en route. What is daughter studying for the next 6 hours , is she discovering a way to end Global Warming, is she writing a thesis on the importance of being nice to mother on her special day ? NO , this educated graduate ( and I should know , it cost us a fortune to get it ) , is trawling E- Bay , she leaves this edificating experience just long enough to down an enormous lunch , before collapsing back onto the sofa , complaining that she has eaten too much , and resuming her illuminating investigations. To be fair , she did offer to help with the washing up , I said not to bother , so she didn't . So that is it for another year , business as usual . . . . . . but I love the girl to pieces.

On the knitting front , I received details of my secret monkey sock swap pal , after a look through her blog I have come up with the perfect ( I think ) yarn , I ordered it on Friday afternoon, and was thrilled to get it on Saturday , so have been able to get one sock done . If I have to knit on straights , I prefer to use 4 only , and this pattern didn't really lend itself to that , so I have adapted it to circs , only the heel and toe needed changing , so that was fine . I have come up with an idea that I think she may like , we will just have to wait and see .

I joined the monkey sock swap yesterday , all of a sudden I am becoming a 'joiner' . I haven't knitted this pattern and so I am interested to see how it turns out. The pattern is from Knitty and is a top down one. I prefer toe up , I hate ,loathe , just can't do grafting . After all of these years, I have managed to come up with some really sneaky ways round grafting , but still avoid it if possible .

Today we have had the most glorious sunshine, I dragged some garden furniture out, filled it with cushions and knitted in the sunshine for an hour or so, such total decadence in the middle of the day !!!! It is bound to rain, or worse tomorrow ........

Dentists and dyeing

My husband had to go to the dentists for a filling, not unusual , BUT , he told me that he hadn't had an injection, apparently if Gordon Brown could do it , then my husband could do it in spades !!!! Oh Yeah ????
I have dyed several hanks of cashmere a pretty pink this afternoon, I love cashmere and buy it from Colourmart , it is usually as cheap as merino wool, but so much more luxurious . I have knitted so many shawls , I just need the rocking chairs to go with them .............

My wee tiny sock is winging it's way across the pond . It really is tiny , just about big enough to fit a size 0 anorexic model. Size is a big issue(laugh) in this house at the moment, my husband lovingly told me that there is now a lot more of me than there used to be !!!!!!!!!! . Not quite sure whether to diet or completely pig out mmmmmmm? .

My Favorite Color Swap 2 Package arrived.

Genevieve of princessgenevieve.blog is my secret pal . She spoilt me with her carefully thought out choices , and , needless to say I love everything. The Knit Picks Memories sock wool is just so beautiful , exactly the colours that I love. The on-line Linie 3 sock wool is wonderful and I am casting on this evening , a girl can NEVER have enough socks . I also received stich markers , Knit Picks and bamboo sock needles -- lovely. The chocolate is fabulous ,I haven't tried the choccy drinks yet but I am sure they are lovely. Thank you so much Genevieve , I have really enjoyed this swap .

My Supermarket hates me !!!!! , I live in a small community, we are well provided for in the usual manner , okay, if I want to buy Lark's Tongues in aspic , or Vintage Beluga Caviar , we have to travel 30 miles to the real biggies of Supermarkets but usually , day to day proviisions are easy to come by . I digress, to get back to today, I only needed a handful of things for the weekend and so I drove down , car park , as usual , almost empty. This is the bit that still makes my cheeks burn , I reached up to get something from a top shelf, the chain from my bracelet got caught in the shelf fitment, I was holding a basket with two glass bottles in it ( olive oil and red wine ) , I couldn't reach up to free my bracelet , I couldn't drop the basket in case the bottles broke, I WAS STUCK with my arm trapped in the air ------ I just had to stand there until some Saturday Boy eventually came around the corner, it felt like 2 hours, I suppose it was about minutes, but oh ! my gosh, I felt like a complete wussy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dare I go back ? Will the Saturday Boy be permanently scarred by what I said after he asked if I was okay ?

The Wee Tiny Sock Swap

I have just found this swap, the object of it is to introduce people to new sock yarn. The Beauty of this swap is that you can use leftover sock yarn , so you don't need to rush out and buy grammes and grammes of new yarn ( damn !! ) . I am looking forwards to knitting miniature socks ( and using up a bit of the stash ).

Having decided not to buy any new yarn until I had made a sizeable inroad into my stash , I forgot today ! Yes , completely forgot, but I HAVE AN EXCUSE, surely baby wool doesn't count ? I have a new grand daughter and found the prettiest variegated pink and blue, I had whipped my debit card out before you could say 'stash' , pin number was entered, wool wrapped and I was out on the pavement before I remembered my resolution . I really would like ( no need ) to reduce my stash, some of it I don't even LIKE . I found an excellent way to get new yarn without cheating , I joined the favourite colour swap ! brilliant. I bought yarn for my swap partner (this didn't count as it was for somebody other than me ) and in return I get yarn sent to me ...............yarn that I didn't buy, and just for me , it was all going so well until this afternoon when I came across this variegated pink and blue . . . . . . .

My First Blog.

I have just joined the International Scarf Exchange , my good friend Dee, of Yarn4kalei dangled this in front of me like a bone and I couldn't resist, and , so , I have started my blog. Oh ! my , I am feeling very daring at the moment, and I am quite sure that this will not work, I know when I press the button everything will disappear from the screen. I feel that I am a bit old to start something new, but then , you never know do you ? and who said that you are never too old for something new ? ( certainly not my husband , but that is another story)