I have so very little knitting to show at the moment. I've been busy digging up the allotment and things are just hectic at the moment!! As usual I'm late as with most things. Apparently I should have been digging over in the autumn and planting out now - Spring time. So I'm digging and planting - a no no in the planting world, I'm supposed to leave the soil to settle or something like that.....

My squares are coming along on both Picnic and the Mystery Blankets. I have one more to complete for my April squares on the Mystery Blanket - just in time. The other reason I have so little to show is because I made an agreement with myself not to start another sweater/cardigan until I finish St. Brigid and she is here still unfinished!!

But baby garments don't count. Again, most of my projects are non mobile so I need something to tag along with me!!

Colour 'n dye

I'm going to try not to gush, but we had a brilliant day at Sue's over the weekend. Good food, great company (Sue P, Adrienne, young man and B) and loads of colour, not to mention the four seasons within 20 minutes. We had snow, hail, rain, sunshine and gale force winds. It all added to the day in some way though.

My and young man's efforts of the day

I think the colours are very me! The maroon/aubergine ball is lace weight yarn the rest is sock weight. Top left is young man's. He very pleased with the result and wants his socks by tomorrow please. Feeling a little guilty that I've ignored Capri and St. Brigid these past few days - but it was worth it.

Capri

I wanted something that would knit up quickly and this is doing very nicely!




I had this yarn in stash thanks to Amelia who kindly swapped with me. I got the Calmer in return for some Cotton Glace - both by Rowan. I'm hoping to finish Capri by next week. However, I'm not sure when I will get to wear her, there is no sign of Spring around here.

I've started knitting the front of St Brigid, and will post progress next week. No progress yet on Picnic, but I hope to rectify that this weekend.

Cable and lace wrap cardigan

We have a finished project:

It's the Cable and lace wrap cardigan by Lois Daykin. I'm just so pleased that I have at least 3 babies to knit for at the moment!!

Pattern details:

Pattern: Cable and lace wrap cardigan

By: Lois Daykin - Baby Knits

Yarn: Jeager Match maker DK

Needles: 3.25 & 4mm

Started: 11/2/2008

Finished: 8/3/2008

Comments: It was a great advantage to knit the body in one piece. No side seams to sew. I only had to sew the sleeves in. The pattern is well written and well constructed. The last line of the pattern differs from the version modelled in the book. The picture shows eyelets on the last row, but this is omitted in the pattern!! I didn't use the stated yarn, but I'm very pleased with the results. The whole thing needed good blocking.

Other knitting news

St. Brigid. I've lost my mojo. There, I've said it. When I realised I wouldn't finish her for the end of February, she lost her glow. I'm not hibernating her (thanks Ravelry). I will work on her in the back ground. I think she has lost her glow because, nearly all of my projects are in the stay-at-home-and-concentrate-stage. I have nothing that I can pick up and go with (socks don't count - I have to be in the mood) and there are only so many baby things I can knit with the excuse of them being 'in between' work!! Also, Spring is coming (please?) and of course all the new Spring/Summer projects are screaming at me. I think that if I'm working on something I really want to knit, it will give me the energy to finish St B and not look at her night after night willing myself to pick her up and feeling guilty when I don't.

Time

The past week has flown by in a flurry of half term activity - and hardly any knitting. We spent a good while on public transport. This was not as helpful as it could have been - most of the projects I'm working on are not portable.

St Brigid has a second sleeve

I managed to finish socks for the young man

And one side of the jitterbug socks!!

I'm not sure I'm on target to finish St. B before the end of February, but I'll give it a try!!

Beloved

Fitting for St. Valentimes day.

I have much to feel happy about. My beloved Ecru denim finally arrived. Thank you Rowan!! Karin's gift of a years subscription to Interweave Knits arrived on my door step yesterday. Thank you Karin, and I went to a new knitting circle. A good time was had by all . Lots of knitting, talking laughing and drinking.... coffee and tea of course!!

St Brigid is resting for a couple of days whilst I play catch up on the Picnic squares. I have not really set myself a monthly quota for knitting the squares - on either blanket (Picnic and the Mystery Blanket aka In The Country) but it's been sitting for a good couple of weeks without any TLC, so I'm going to zoom along on it until the weekend.

St Brigid's back

I finished St Brigid's back!!

Completed back

Completed back and sleeve

Beginning of second sleeve

I've started the second sleeve. It feels managable. I'm slightly worrying about the sleeve length - it looks too short. I didn't realise how much I was carrying whilst knitting up the back. I understand why it felt so slow and arduous towards the end. I want to finish her by the end of February. I have 12 balls of yarn left so I'm quietly confident that I have enough yarn to complete her.

Oh, and I've discovered the close up button on the camera. I've been dispairing about how bad some of my photo's are, especially the ones I try to take up close - they always come out blurry. I feel liberated!! A small improvement along the way on my journey towards taking moderately decent photos of my knitting projects.

P.S I seem to have lost the spell check facility - apologies if I have missed any wrong spellings!!

Onwards

I'm plodding on with St. Brigid. mmmm plodding on...... She's lovely. She's a beautiful colour. She's full of charts. They are no longer challenging, just charts. She's waning. I think this is partly becuase I'm still reliant on the charts and although I'm familiar with the intracate cables, there is no challenge. So I'm plodding.

I'm 2/3 of the way up the back

I'm still waiting for the Ecru to arrive for the Picnic Blanket so no progress there. I've conveniently left Nevis at my parents. The second sleeve is almost done. I'm trying to stay faithful to a maximum of 4 projects. Now is the time I would start a new one. I'm not going to. Just in the nick of time (i.e 5 minutes ago) my next package arrived for the Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket KAL. I have 5 new squares to knit - YES!!!!!