Cozy is finished!!

Cozy is finally finished. I can honestly say this is the best thing I have ever knitted for myself. I LOVE this pattern.

Here is a (not very good) close up of the stitch detail...


Vital statistics:
Yarn - 100% cashmere in "Fire Marl", a double knit yarn bought on eBay. I used just under 4 balls. Each ball was 200yds
Needles - 5mm Addi Turbos (circs)
Measurements pre blocking - 15" wide, 56" long
Measurements post blocking - 18" wide, 68" long
Time on needles - about 1 month

Things I learned knitting this:
1. Flat knitting on circs is fab. Quite apart from the issue of not having the weight of the garment on your wrists, I never realised until I knit with circs how much I wave my elbows about using straights! I must look like a mad woman!
2. Knitting lace needs concentration, but eventually the pattern "clicks".
3. Even if I make a mistake and don't discover it immediately and have to tink 2 1/2 rows to put it right I CAN DO IT!!
4. I learned so much about what different stitches actually LOOK like - I can now recognise k2togtbl, sl1k2togpsso etc. By the end I could tell at a glance if I had made a mistake on a row.
5. Lifelines are your friend. Even though I didn't have to use it I felt it was a great saftey net to have.

I was a bit concerned when knitting this that I was going to end up with a "granny" type blanket. Somehow I couldn't envisage the final garment. But it is SO not grannyish! It is elegant - not a word that generally springs to mind when thinking about garments I wear! It is just the right width and length. I'm a diddy person and it doesn't swamp me at all. It's JUST BEAUTIFUL!!

Eddie has christened this my nu-nu because I spent so much time cuddling it while I was knitting it. It is unbelievably soft. I have never owned anything in cashmere before, and could never have afforded to buy a luxury item like this. Yay for knitting!!

I'm going to knit another one in the South West Trading Oasis (see photo below).

Next up will be Booga Bag. I am, in fact, just 20 rows off finishing this. It has only taken a couple of days, and apart from the knots (grrr) in the Noro Kureyon it's been a great, mindless knit after Cozy.

Stafford show tomorrow. Eddie has just left with a trailer full of goats. I have to be there at 9 a.m. Wednesday for judging. That means a 5 a.m start tomorrow to get everyone fed and watered before I leave.

Better have an early night tonight!

Meet Socks!

This is Socks. He's 3 weeks old and he's a Dorset / Jacob cross.
Unfortunately Socks's mum doesn't have enough milk to feed both him and
his older (bigger) brother, so Socks was in need of a helping hand.




So, he gets a top up from a bottle four times a day. The lovely thing
is that although he regards us as a"food source" and has become very
tame, he still gets some milk from his mum, so always goes back to her
for cuddles. Cute isn't he?

Serious Yarn Diet required

I've come to the conclusion that I need to go on a serious yarn diet, and that perhaps
the best way to achieve this might be to shame myself and show the world (ok I know nobody's reading this, but who knows one day someone might stumble across it) how much yarn I've added to my already considerable stash in just the last MONTH. So, here goes. First up is Debbie Bliss alpaca silk.



Ok, don't be fooled by this innocent looking pile - there are actually 24 balls in the stash. Some bought from the lovely Sue at Little Knits, and some from the fab eBay seller Janette's Rare Yarns. The colour is actually Sage, although the picture looks a little grey. This is destined to become a C3

Next up comes my haul from Get Knitted: the yarn on the left is kid mohair, and the Oasis is Soy Silk. At the bottom is one beautiful skein of Artisan Merino




Next, one lonely ball of Rowan Kid Silk Haze. Bought to knit a lacy mohair scarf. Haven't decided on a pattern for this yet. The colour is Toffee, and it's not at all shiny, despite how it appears in the
picture.



Here we have two skeins of baby alpaca, hand dyed by nonokitty - isn't it beautiful? It's called "Bejewelled" and this is destined to be a fantastic lacy shawl.



And finally, again from the wonderful Sue at Little Knits, 3 balls of Noro Kureyon, which will be my first Booga Bag and 3 balls of Misti Alpaca, which I plan to dye before knitting up. I'm itching to try out dyeing with Koolaid, so that's what I intend to do with this.




It amazes me that it is often cheaper (even with the cost of international shipping) to buy yarn from the US. Added to which they have such a wonderfully huge range to choose from.

Anyway, I think we can agree that these recent purchases are quite enough to be going on with, and really I don't need to buy any more yarn before the winter, do I? Hmm, I can see myself sticking to that - not!!

Welcome to my blog

Well I finally gave in to temptation and created a blog. I hope I manage to find the time to keep it up to date.

An exciting weekend just gone. We took 6 of our angora goats to the Newark & Notts county show. Of the 4 classes we won 3!! And not only that, we also won Champion Male, Champion Female, Reserve Champion Female AND Supreme Champion Best of Breed! Wow, we were totally gobsmacked. I'm so proud of the goats (who all behaved impeccably). It's great to know that the hard work we've put in over the last few years trying to breed top quality stock looks as though it may be paying off.

Their next outing is at the beginning of June when we take them to the Staffordshire county show. We'll be up against stiffer competition there, I think, so we don't expect to go and sweep the board again! It will be interesting to see how they stack up though.

I don't have any pictures of the champions yet, but here's a couple of next year's hopefuls:




Ok, enough bragging, on to knitting. I finished Branching Out which I gave to my mum:



This was a really challenging pattern for me, requiring 100% concentration. I found I had to tink several times, but I learned a lot in the process. By about two thirds of the way through I felt I'd finally got the hang of the pattern. This was knit in a silk/wool mix yarn I bought on eBay.

Current WIPs include a second version of Branching Out, in Rowan KSH; Cozy in a wonderful cashmere yarn (again from eBay), and a turkish stitch shawl in Wendy Cotton Chenille. I knit this on the train on the way home from work, as the pattern is very easy and I don't have to think about it.

I'm not shawl obsessed, really! It's just that I'm not a very advanced knitter so shawls and scarves are a good way for me to learn different stitch patterns without worrying about shaping the thing as well. I am gradually building up my confidence.

Ok, I think that's enough for now. I need to do some work on this blog to get it looking how I would like - that will involve lots of learning about how to do things, like add buttons (just creating this post was steep learning curve!)