New beginnings

Ah yes, I did have a blog before, but neglected it in favour of knitting, jewellery making and partying. Now that I'm actually designing knitting patterns (more on that later), I decided that it was about time that I start afresh and start blogging again.

What have I been up to? Well, lots of knitting, a bit of dating, some jewellery making (I totally cocked up my first efforts with precious metal clay, but I will try again!) and going to gigs. I threw a knitted sheep at Adrian Edmonson.



She is called Flossy, bless her :) I can only hope that she is travelling with Adrian's band (The Bad Shepherds) as I type.

I'm currently working on a couple of things. I have a potential commission for a charm bracelet in the offing. I have plans to move my shop from etsy to folksy but I need to sort through what I have to put up and then get everything rephotographed; I'd like to say I'm being thorough, but if I'm honest, I'm procrastinating.

I am yarn dieting, because my stash is immense. For some reason I am excluding fibre from my diet (because it's not yarn yet!!), so have a kilo of undyed merino sat next to me, plus the goodies that I have from Babylonglegs to spin up into the yarn for a shrug. In my attempts at destashing, I have got a pair of socks on the needle (I always have a pair of socks on the go to be honest!), a shrug that's 70% done and won't take long to complete and a pair of gloves that I'm designing.

I never had myself down as a pattern designer, but I've always fancied the idea and after knitting myself some gloves, I decided to have a go myself. I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Even the stage where I've been trying to work out what looks good; knitting and reknitting the cable, deciding where to put bobbles, deciding on how many stitches round the gloves should be, trying out different yarns, etc. It's been a good challenge for me.

I'll have the pattern up as soon as I can. I want to make sure that the pattern comes out the way I intend it to, then I have to make sure that it makes sense to someone other than just me. Just to tease you, here's a sneak preview!



It's in dark yarn, so maybe not the best for photographing, plus it was taken on an iPhone camera but you get the idea. I should say that the yarn I chose (Rowan Purelife DK in Tannin) is lovely, but the dye is coming off on my fingers. Think I will knit a pair in a paler colour too.

I will sign off now so that I can continue to test knit (I have yet to reach the thumb gusset and am undecided on how to best approach it).

But yay! I'm back :)