Introducing Trousseau

Well, the Secret Project is finally finished and off to its destination. I'll be sure to let you know when it's available for viewing. Hopefully soon.

Lots of progress to be seen on the Howth Vest. It is delightful to knit and is growing pretty well, despite the fine-ish needles.

Of course with a mere 3 WIPS on the needles (or is it more?) I had the itch for something new.

Introducing Trousseau by Carol Feller. I'm in need of something very special to knit for a friend and this just took my breath away.




Some big decisions were to be made tho'.

Starting with which yarn? You won't be shocked to hear that I already have rather a wide choice of yarn to consider, but having seen this lovely Storm Cloud* in Drops Delight a while back, this was an easy decision to make.



Next question(s): Big Shawl? Little Shawl? Single stranded? Double stranded? Poached or fried? (OK, so the last one has more to do with the fish than the knitting, but the decision had to be made all the same.)

Swatching** quickly brought me to the perfect choice.

*Ravelry link, but you can still view the pattern without a login

**more on swatching in another post. I have things to say.

Revealing Interior

Recently Little Monkey took part in a Clay Modelling Class. One of the projects she enjoyed most was creating and decorating a clay room, with a base and three walls.

The variety and complexity of the rooms created by the class were truely a wonder and it was amazing what could be fashioned on such a small scale.

(The room shown here is approx 5 inches square.)

I was really tickled with the flat screen plasma TV and the bright yellow cushions. But what tickled me most of all was the remote control on the arm of the sofa.

Oh, that child has great ambitions for her comfort and leisure.









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Oops

I completely forgot to say that the NicKnit family were going here in July.

Apart from the crushing disappointment of very very very poor weather (cold, windy, cloudy, showery ARGHHH!) we had a wonderful time. Little Mouse learnt to cycle without stabilisers and thereafter was seen bombing about the cycleways like a little pink speedy gonzales on, er, speed.

The island is so pretty, and on the three days of sunshine that we did have, it totally repaid our cycling and picnicking efforts. We spent a lot of time in a local small town Rivedoux-Plage and a nearby beach.

The town is filled with a series of monumental sculptures by artist Casimir Ferrer some on a maritime theme and others showing musical instruments. They were really lovely. There were 18 of them in all and we had a great time spotting them while out and about on our trusty bicycles.



If you're interested, there's more info here.

Anyhow, there was quite a lot of Howth Vest knitting and good progress on that mystery project I keep banging on about.

More on that this-year-next-year-sometime-never later.

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TIK 5th Yarniversary party

I was very excited indeed to be able to attend the 5th Yarniversary event in Dublin last week. The lineup was stellar, including The Famous Ms Bliss, crochet diva Aoibhe Ni, the super-talented and prolific knit designer Carol Feller and Mr KnitLab himself, Kieran Foley.

Ms Bliss won't mind I'm sure when I say that it was meeting the Irish designers that was the highlight of the event for me.

And that's not to mention the...oh, I dunno...100+ enthusiastic yarnistas from all over the country. With all the catchup up and knit chatter and the oohh-ing and ahh-ing over the knit samples the buzz was something else. It was very entertaining to put faces to Rav names, great to meet new people and lovely to meet old ones again...if you know what I mean.

There were refreshments, cake and champagne.

There were irreverent comments, giggles and laughter.

There were wonderful and inspiring words from the speakers (a big 'well done' to them.)

There were FABULOUS samples of all sorts in crochet, knitting, tweed, lace and cables.

There was a selection of delightful baby bumps in the back row all kicking up a storm.

There was a gate crasher with a baby buggy who wandered in and helped herself to some biscuits. We briefly considered arm wrestling her to the floor and confiscating the kid, but then she fed the biscuits to the child thereby removing the evidence and destroying our forensic trail. If she had waded into the champagne then that would have been a more serious matter. We would have brought her down. Or at least waved our needles at her.

And there was a funny moment when Ms Bliss took my arm and asked if I had a measuring tape. I gestured at the audience and her microphone and said there was likely one 'out there'. Of course when she asked the audience the same question, 50% of the arms went up. Knitters come prepared, is all.

I sat beside Knit Inc while knitting her design Howth Vest. I'm sure there's a term for that. Or if there isn't there should be. Designer Adjacent Knitting perhaps.

It was all so exciting that I managed to leave a knitting bag behind containing my precious tube of dpns, stitchmarkers, weaving-in needles and most irreplaceable of all my miniature swiss army knife with built in scissors. Fortunately, it was well looked after in my absence and thanks to the good offices of a friend, I had it back in my grasp within 2 days.

Many many congratulations to everyone at TIK and thanks for a great evening. And thanks to Kneehigh too. You really made me laugh. And hunted down my knitting bag besides.

And the double-whammy-bonus? I was able to drop into my LYS knit evening on the way home and catch up with my local designer stars and knitting friends too.

Sigh. Perfect.


PS: for pictures go here (thanks Carol!)

Howth Vest Progress

Ah. It's so nice to be able to show some knitting progress.




My intention was to knit this just as far as the rib and then put it aside for another project with a tighter deadline.

As you can see, this intention was completely in vain. In fact it is already several inches longer than this photo, taken 2 days ago.

The yarn is delightful, the chart is addictive and the knitting is compulsive so it is growing nicely. This project came out-and-about with me to some knitting events recently and has been much admired.

I do loves me a pattern that makes me look good.

Thanks Knit Inc!

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Dum & Mad

On a recent car journey, the young-ones-in-the-back spent a lot of time reversing and transposing the letters of words that took their fancy. Mostly the words for parts of their bodies, especially those parts that make noises.

Much hilarity ensued and the Giggle-O-Meter levels rose steadily. It went right off the scale however when the elder daughter renamed her parents. 'Dum' and 'Mad'.

Now, I just wonder. Which one am I?

(Knitting content following shortly. Promise.)
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Nellie The Elephant

"Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus
off she went with a trumpety
trump trump trump trump!"




Free chart from me to you over on Ravelry. Just for fun.

Good luck Nellie!

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