Lots of Things

Puss in Boots - Yarn Auditions
I have given Katherine a prod with the business end of my Lantern Moons and the results of the Puss in Boots wrap yarn and stitch auditions have been posted at last.

See Roobeedoo? I have been knitting!

A Tale of the Summer Sales
Just before I went on holiday...I went to the sales. Just at John Lewis. Actually Mel and I were there at 9am on the first day of their sale. I have never done that before.

I was so grown up and reserved - I felt inwardly proud. I have been burnt at the sales before and I have yarn that I may never knit as a result.

So I was strong. I didn't get anything I didn't need - no impulse buys. I put Cathay in my basket, I put it back. I got some yarn for one of my future Puss in Boots knits, picked up some Big Wool, then spent the next hour placing balls of yarn in and out of my basket while it felt (to me) that Mel stacked hers with beautiful things.

I wondered why I hadn't spotted the things that she had found but I congratulated her and agreed that she would do wonderful things with them (and she will too). I admit, I felt the slightest twinge of envy when the pinky-lavender Alpaca-Silk DK went into her basket along with some co-ordinating silk. I ignored it. I was strong. In fact, I only bought the Cathay book on the basis that it had some patterns in it that would be good for my Jaegar DK silk.

We departed John Lewis. Mel excitedly showed off her purchases in the car. I was glad that I was driving. My 14 balls of mauve Big Wool (no idea why I bought that many) were unable to compete with the delicious lustre of some of her yarns.

I went home. I looked at the Cathay book. I had placed enough of it in my basket to do any of the patterns in the book. It had only been £1.60 a ball. I felt that twinge of regret again. Oh well. It knits on small needles, I would never finish anything that knits on anything that small. The DK silk is a big enough journey.

I went to work. Monday...Tuesday...and I could not bear it anymore.

I jumped on a bus to John Lewis in Oxford Street after work. I spent an hour, fussing over the odds and sods left in reasonable colours. The same colours that I had placed in and out of my basket in copious quantities on the previous Saturday - here I was, 3 days or so into the sale and not enough of anything for anything.

I sighed. I bought them anyway (reason had left me).

So in the end, I am thinking that I might have got burnt at the sales again anyway...?

Damn. Please tell me that it is not just me who falls into this trap.

My Sales Haul (my mojo was in the red-blue part of the colour spectrum)
Rowan Big Wool - 14 Balls - more than enough for a single project = a sales triumph?!

DB Cathay - 11 Balls - enough for one of the patterns in the book. Hmm, not sure that I'd either wear or knit it but hey, I got enough for a project - a semi-sales triumph?

DB Cashmerino Superchunky - 9 Balls - think that I have found a pattern that I use this yarn as a substitute in Glamour Knits.

Disaster averted? Yet I need to buy an expensive book.

Not a sales success even if aubergine is one of my favourite colours. No really...I mean one of my favourite colours.

DB Cotton Cashmere - 9 Balls - I had a Knitting Lingerie pattern in mind...hmm...see below.

General Knitting Update
The good news is that I have started to sew up the Baby Ballerina Wrap. I know, at last. It's the one thing that I should be able to do ok, right?!

After all it's knitted. It is lucky that I knitted size 6-9 months but it less good that September is the start month of month 6?

Okay, yes - I am ashamed. I have shown the bits to the gift recipient's mother who said, 'Well, now I have seen it, I am going to start hassling you otherwise she will have grown out of it by the time that you finish it.' My friend has a point.

The slightly less great news is that the Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere is proving too thick to knit the lacy t-shirt from the Knitting Lingerie book.

If I am honest, my tension square suggests that it would be more like wearing armour plating than dainty lingerie. I am struggling to get the correct gauge and the swatch that I have knitted? The only word that comes to mind is 'armadillo'.

It's not a good sign.

It's a shame as I am waiting for yarn my my Puss in Boots wrap and knitters on the Knitting Lingerie Knitalong are declaring that they finished this t-shirt in a week. If that is the case, this project would fit between now and my yarn arrival...?

Oh...do you think that these knitters work on their projects for more than an hour a day?

Hmm - well, even if they do not, that's what I plan to say at the end of week when my armadillo project languishes unfinished on my needles and they are headed out on a Saturday night wearing their finished and beautifully sewn up project!

If this sale yarn project dwindles on my needles because I cannot get the yells of 'armadillo' out of my head, does anyone have any sensible ideas for 800m of Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere?!