Festival!

This weekend I visited the Isle of Wight Festival



A lovely time was had by all!



My musical highlights were Lissie, Chase and Status, Maverick Sabre, Hurts and of course the mighty Foo Fighters



The weather left a bit to be desired, it was sunny but windy on Friday and Saturday and very, very, very wet on Sunday. It could have been a lot worse but it was COLD at night. And I was woefully underprepared for the cold. Next year I will be taking blankets, thick socks, jumpers, scarfs and gloves - and if I do remember to take all this you can bet it will be hot and sunny....

We stayed in a PodPad, a kind of garden shed type thingy with bunk beds, it was cozy and convenient and I don't think I could go back to normal camping now, especially because it comes with access to a hot shower and I saw the queue for the normal campsite toilets on Sunday morning.....



On Sunday I escaped the rain for a few hours and went to visit Joy, the Knitting Goddess. We made woolly plans (all will be revealed shortly) and ate cake, in the warm, watching the rain and the wind and the sea, it was lovely!

Thanks to my sister for taking me and Joy and Bobbie for the the lovely cake and lunch!

There was knitting, it was Worldwide Knit in Public day on Saturday, I knit in public all the time but it's the intent that counts! I shall show you the knitting tomorrow...

Mystery Solved!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the May Mystery Sock KAL- so far we have raised over £120 for Macmillan!

The pattern is still available and all the money will continue to be donated to Macmillan, there is no time limit on that.

Everyone who finishes a pair by the end of June will be entered in a draw to win these goodies...



It's 2 x 50g skeins of The Knitting Goddess sock yarn, 5 coordinating stitch markers and a sachet of Soak

There are lots of lovely finished pairs already, these are just some of them....









Thank you to Barbi, Scully, Mandy, Julie, Maddy and Tiggerbee for letting me share their photos, I love seeing finished socks, it really makes my day!

Trucking along....

I haven't blogged for a while, I couldn't access my blog for a bit last week when there were a few issues with Blogger, that has made me a bit wary and I'm thinking about moving my blog somewhere a bit more stable, even if I have to pay - I'm getting some business cards made soon so I need to make a decision.....

The Bella's Truck Socks pattern (rav link) is now available

You can buy the pattern here -

Or on Ravelry. These are unisex cuff down socks, the Bella's Truck yarn is available from The Knitting Goddess, along with the yarn for the other patterns which have been released so far. The sign ups for the last 3 months of the When Vampires Knit Socks club (seriously, where have the last 9 months gone?!?) will be available on Friday.

I've got deadlines looming and lots of exciting things coming up AND I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO SPIN! I'll tell you about that another day...

Best Intentions....

I have been thinking a lot about knitting garments lately, like actual jumpers and cardigans (and dresses - but even I'm not delusional enough to think I'll finish a knitted dress anytime soon!) and not just socks, hats and mittens. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE knitting socks and I'm really busy designing them at the moment which I'm really happy about but I see the lovely things that Saz and Mooncalf produce and there's a small part of me which keeps internally nagging me to knit big scary garments

What I should do is finish one of the 3 garments I've already started. I should, but I'm not going to. I have considered this carefully but one of them is an Aidez, which is in chunky wool, not ideal for the impending summer months. One is a Hey Teach, this is finished except for the seaming but......... I don't like it. And I won't wear it. I love the yarn, it's Rowan Summer Tweed in a lovely rusty brown colour, but I just don't like the combination of this yarn and pattern, so I'm going to rip it out and use the yarn for a Hawthorne Wrap. The last one is a Jada Shrug, I haven't got a good excuse for ignoring this one, it's in a lovely linen yarn and I will definitely wear it, but I want to start something new, don't tell the knitting police........

This is what I'm going to make...

It's The Jan Sweater from A Stitch in Time 2, the book isn't out yet but I got the pattern with my copy of The Knitter this week and I LOVE it, I can't stop thinking about it. In my stash I found 6 balls of Rowan Pure Wool 4ply which were the subscriber gift a few years ago, the colour is Eau de Nil, its a slightly greeny blue.

I'm casting on tonight, this time I will finish a garment..........probably

Mabelle

This is the Mabelle Beret, it's a light, lace beret - perfect for spring and summer. Thank you to the lovely Emily for modelling it for the photos!

The multicoloured one is a size large, knit with Three Irish Girls Westerly Sea Sock in Aurora which was a club colour from a while ago, the colours are gorgeous, greeny blue (or is it bluey green?) pinks, purples and flashes of yellow. It's a lovely yarn to knit with, soft with a little shine from the seacell.

The blue hat is a size small and I used The Knitting Goddess 4ply silk & wool in semi solid blue, I love this yarn, it's so soft and silky (that'll be the silk in it...)

You can buy the pattern on Ravelry or here:

I've got another one on the needles and I'll show you soon...

Mixing it up

There are lots of lovely Mixalot Socks in progress on Ravelry, seeing them all is making me plan many more pairs for myself! These are the ones which have finished photos (of at least one sock!) All of these lovely knitters used The Knitting Goddess Take 5 yarn



These are DottyLadybird's in Mellow Yellow colourway, the colours are lovely and very spring like!



This one belongs to Crochet-y-Knitter, it's in Deck Chair, I'm a sucker for anything green and greeny-blue in these socks is gorgeous, the grey heels and cuffs make them very sophisticated, I love them!



Last but not least, these lovely Daffodil ones are KnittyWench's, greens and yellows, zigs and zags and a nifty little heel flap modification - what more could you ask for??

There is nothing more lovely than seeing finished items made from your patterns, it makes me really really really happy!

It's a mystery....

There is mystery in the air... I have designed a mystery sock for the Knitting Goddesses and Gods group on Ravelry, all the proceeds from the pattern sales are going to Macmillan, I know from personal experience how important the work Macmillan do is and I'm proud to be supporting them.



The pattern is designed with self striping yarn in mind but the pattern will look great in pretty much any yarn, there are some pictures of the first clue in the group, come and have a look! If you buy the pattern you will get the first clue and the next 3 clues will be set out as updates on the 8th, 15th and 22nd of May - I love a mystery KAL! You can buy the pattern here.

In the absence of photos I have decorated this post with my favourite detectives.....