Fighting with dpns

I started the French Market bag last night & anybody watching would have been laughing. I've only ever used dpns before for the i-cord (on my first felted bag - see 'Secret Project et al' in May 2005 archives) bind-off & handles. I was working with the black Jamiesons Chunky shetland - 8 stitches over 4 dpns.

Well what a farce - the needles kept falling out, I couldn't work out how to divide the stitches etc. But I got there in the end & here's my progress tonight:


base of French Market bag

I am now up to 20 stitches per needle - the
pattern calls to move to circulars once you've got 50 on each needle - I
don't think I'll be able to cope with that many so will move sooner. It's lovely to knit with & so quick compared with the awful cardigan.

nearly there....

The awful cardigan is finally being blocked. I have never had this much trouble with a pattern before & hated knitting it. I've had to frog it loads of times & am ready to throw it out of the window but as I'm a stubborn witch with a lot of projects planned I was determined to finish it.

The pattern calls for the button band & collar to be picked up & knitted BEFORE sewing together & then blocking. So I've blocked it tonight, then will sew it together before finally picking up & knitting the button bands & collar. It's far too fiddly & curled due to the stocking stitch to do it any other way. After I started knitting this cardigan a few knitting friends suggested a better way to avoid curling edges so I'll slip the first stitch from now in.

Anyway I'm moving away from the awful cardigan (at least until it's blocked) & am about to start my French Market bag from Knitty - Yay!!!

Knitty Christmas in June!

I had fun on Friday morning as I recieved a parcel from my Secret Pal!!!

The contents were beautifully wrapped in silver & lilac paper & looked so inviting. I couldn't decide where to start so I chose the card


Card from Secret Pal

From which I think I can safely summise that my SP is a cat lover too!

Then I opened a little package containing


blue beads

and some


red beads

Next up was this wonderful arrangement


sock yarn & pattern

Which means that I have to start knitting socks soon - however daunting!

Next I opened this


sock book

which really reinforces the previous sentiment - I must start socks soon!!

Finally I opened this little package:


citrus soaps

Which I'm about to use in the bath tonight!

Thank you so much Secret Pal - it was so exciting to open exclusively knitty presents & not know what the parcel contained.

DD has already got her eyes on the beads to use with her Scoobies but has been told no way! Or at least let me learn how to make stitch markers first

Thank you Secret Pal

My Secret Pal sent me a fantastic parcel today - thank you.

But we're about to go away for the weekend & DH hasn't got time to take photos so I'll post some when we come home. Just to keep you hanging on everything is fantastic & it was like Knitty Christmas in my house this morning!

Getting ready...

I've been preparing for my next project once this stupid cardigan is finished. I ordered another skein of this in black as I plan to make the French Market bag from Knitty

I bought a ball winder a few months ago from ebay but as the yarn I've been using was all in balls hadn't used it until tonight.

The yarn from Moondance Wools started out like this


Jamieson's chunky from Moondance

After a bit of playing (me as the skein holder with out stretched hands & DH turning the handle) it now looks like this


Jamieson's chunky from Moondance in balls

Obviously just to complicate matters one of the purple skeins had a knot half way through so I decided to make it into two smaller balls rather than one large one (that sounds rude doesn't it!!).

But as I'm not touching it yet (mantra: not yet, not yet, not yet, is repeating in my mind) it's now being housed in this


Jamieson's chunky from Moondance in bag

until I've finished the awful cardigan.

Look here for a close up of the label on the bag - it's really cute. It was chucking it down as I left Margie's shop & the evidence is still there.

Secret Pal

My SP has been in touch & has a parcel ready to send me!!!! The downside is that we're hoping to go away tomorrow for the weekend (weather permitting) & I'd be gutted if I missed it & it sat in the postoffice until next weekend.

Maybe it'll arrive tomorrow morning....

Sunday

I've spent the WHOLE day cleaning, washing, ironing (big gasp) & even bigger gasp - put it ALL away. Normally clean washing sits in a basket for at least 2 days just for the fun of it & for DH to trip over on his way to bed.

Now I'm sitting on my butt & am about to tackle the awful cardigan that I'm knitting - I've had enough of the pattern - it's full of mistakes & is so frustrating. I should have finished it weeks ago but have spent too long ripping it out & redoing it again & again. I will finish it before I start something new as otherwise the intended recipicant will be a grandfather before he receives it.