Teacher's Travelling Scarf.............

Yes something else I have joined recently is the European Teacher's Travelling Scarf group on Ravelry. It is a very simple idea. A number of people get together around the country, Europe or even the world. Each starts a section of a scarf that they then pass on to the next person in the line. This goes on until everyone in the group has added a section to the scarf and it returns home to its original owner.
My scarf should arrive back with me sometime towards the end of March having travelled the length and breadth of the country with a quick pop over to the European continent on the way.


This is the first section of my scarf all ready to go!


Here is the package ready to be sent of to PrincessPurling the first recipient to add to my scarf.

As my scarf travels around and the sections are added I am keen to know the yarns and the patterns that have been used so have included a little travelling note book to add notes about yarn and a sample. I have also included a little gift for each person who adds to my scarf.





I made these stitch markers so that each person who knits for the scarf may take one along the way.



I am as usual a little late at getting things onto my blog so I have already added sections to these two scarves that have already passed through my location.



This knitter requested neutral tones and block patterns.



This knitter wants an only pink scarf.

SoSeSaSW....................

AKA the Socktopus Secret Santa Sock Swap.



Well I may not have posted much in the last couple of weeks but I can assure you that I have been busy on the knitting, spinning and dyeing front over the last few weeks.
A couple of months ago towards the end of the summer and as autumn was just starting to draw in I signed up to the Socktopus Secret Santa Swap. There were too choices of swap, either to produce a sock kit for someone with pattern, yarn and goodies or to knit a pair of socks and then send them with some goodies to your partner. I chose the second option as it meant I would recieve my first ever pair of handknit socks from someone.
If you care to scan back through my posts somewhere along the line you will find the questionnaire I had to complete about my likes, dislikes etc to provide information about me to my partner. We were then assigned the recipient of our package and it was time to start doing some serious stalking and snooping. So it was off to read the blog and the stalk the ravelry projects page to see what they would really like.
So what did I find out about the person I was goign to be knitting for:
Well obvious things first like sock size and then preferred colours and yarns. I then found out about their interests. They were a Harry Potter and a Miffy fan and also love the Lake district.

Once I had enough info it was time to start hatching my plan of action. The colours requested were purple with a new found interest in teal. This made me decide that the best thing to do would be to custom dye some yarn for this lady, she was also a big fan of Merino so I aquired two skeins of Merino Tencel ready for dyeing.

Here is what she got:







I reskeined to get a feel for how the colours would then mix.



With the yarn dyed, dried, reskeined and wound into a yarn cake it was time to decide on the pattern. I decided to knit Saucy (by cidermoon) which was a pattern in my partners queue on Ravelry.







Once the socks were finished it was time to put a few things together to complete the package. It was easy to do as my partner had some very clear interests.



Also when I included another skein of the yarn that I had dyed especially for her as well as a laminated copy of the pattern I had knit. There were also the other usual essentials for the sock knitter, foot treatments, chocolate, sticky notes and of course a little christmas angel decoration.

Rooknits I really hope that you enjoy your package and I will be looking out on your blog for your post. It was great fun putting this together for you.

A little handspun......................................

Remember me showing you this........



Well now it looks like this...........





....that's 205grms of BFL spun on a drop spindle. That is quite a big skein and I have a very special plan for it. Can't say anymore at the moment but watch this space.

I have also been spinning up this ........



Which has got as far as this..........



....in fact a little further on it is now sitting in two singles balls around 70grms each waiting to be plied. This is lovely British Merino that was dyed by Jeni of Fyberspates.

Say it with flowers..............................

At the end of last week I was presented with these........



I know the saying is " Say it with flowers" but I did wonder with these if they were saying "The wooden box is arriving with the next delivery"

To be fair they were a table decoration but they do look a bit like they should be on the top of a wooden box about to be put 6 feet under! We did have a little joke about it. They do look very beautiful and I do appreciate them I just thought others may appreciate a little of the humour too.





Oh and the flowers!

I'm a Socktoshopaholic...............

And who would blame me once you have stepped into Alice's lovely new little shop stocked full of all those lovely Socktopus goodies from her website.
Emilie and I had a fantastic afternoon last Sunday, when we went to the opening party, yes I know we are late in posting.











I had popped around on the Friday afternoon to see if there was anything I could do to help but what a transformation by Sunday the whole place was looking fantastic. It was also great to meet up again with so many fellow Socktopods and not to mention finally meet Marianne after all this time (known as Perfecpic on Ravelry). She had been doing one of Diane's spinning courses in the morning in the conference room. There were so many familiar faces and it is hard to belive that it was only a year and a few weeks since Alice originally launched the website. It feels like Socktopus has been around for ever.










Of course there was a big rush for the Malabrigio - in particular the yarn young Indieknits had been dying especially for the shop opening. There was one particular skein we all had our eye on.









And here is Laura with some of the other lovely yarn she has dyed....



.....that is pretty much all that was left by the end of the afternoon and I swear that slot behind had been almost full!

Oh and did I mention that there was cake?







And this is why the trays and stand have gaps in, Ling decided to whisk some cupcakes away in cups!

If you haven't been already please, please go and visit the Bittersweet website, the cakes are just fantastic. I am plotting a pumpkin one. Of course I did my usual bit of baking aswell as I do for all events knitty but I gave the brownies a miss this time and opted for a chocolate beetroot cake, one for the repetoire.



Oh and what did I buy .........well actually I was quite restrained (I think it had something to do with Carl turning up), just a pair of needles, some circulars for socks and some lucious YarnYard fibre that Yoshimi had been using as a scarf earlier. Different colours to the ones she was caught wearing on camera.





And Emilie of course made a new friend. Duece the knitting pug dog!



And did a little bit of knitting.....



Yep more fibre wrapped around necks.

Oh and caught Easy Knitter John stashing away some Hazelknits yarns - but John aren't those colours vaguely familiar? Oh and don't forget those lovely silk hankies too.



There were many more photos taken but too many to post. Can't wait to get myself round to either Tuesday spinning, Thursday knit night or Sunday afternoon knit and cakes. Whoooooo hooooooo!

Where do you knit yours?.........................

Well although I haven't made speedy progress on my hopscotch socks I am making some progress. I took them with me at half term on our trip into London and a quick spin on the wheel.


Here I am knitting away in my pod, getting a few strange looks from those who were trapped with me for the next 30 mins!





























I have nearly finished this first sock now.


Where do you knit your socks?