You're not the boss of me now

Tsk tsk no blog in two weeks? Naughty...

I got a bit fed up with my knitting and my silly rules about what I must finish before starting anything new. Well those rules just made me not want to knit any of my WIPs. The recent sunny weather made knitting woolly socks, gloves and a scarf unappealing. Also I got this little delivery:

Pretty boxy project bags from Zigzag Stitches on Etsy with a charming owl print, I love them

It would have been rude not to start a new project to put in one of them right? I will not let my WIPs and my notebook on Ravelry be the boss of me and shall knit what I please when I please. Excuse blur though it adds to the "what am I knitting" mystery I suppose!

Also the sunny weather rather gave me an itch for one of my other favourite activities...camping! In all the sun of last week I got our kit out and gave it a good airing ready for our first camping trip of the year in May, I can't wait

Annoyingly the weather has resumed it's usual grey Britishness, how dare it?! I should have known all that sun was too good to be true...I just hope that wasn't our entire summer, I have pretty cotton dresses to wear, BBQs to eat and fields to sleep in.

Monkey's monkeys - FO

Huzzah and joy and excitement abounds, I have a FO to show you. I get terribly excited when I can finally show something finished, particularly when I've had so many WIPs on the go of late.

It was a gloriously sunny weekend in my corner of West Yorkshire and I took my new socks out into the garden for a little photo shoot.

Look at those yummy shades of minty green, blue and turquoise with hints of mossy green and parts that are almost black. I love this yarn. Mr.NM calls them my mint choc chip socks and the colour really is reminiscent of that rather delicious ice-cream flavour, it looks more blue in these pictures but in places it's more minty green.

This was all the yarn I had left when I finished, just a little squishy ball. It made me quite glad I'd made a mistake on the cuff of the sock, I mistake I managed not to notice until I'd knit past the heel flap and started the decreases for the foot. I missed two rows of the chart but only on the leg. I then made the second sock with the same mistake so they do match in their wrongness. I'm fine with it, they're snuggly and squishy and I think had I not made that error I would have run out of yarn.

Anyway, the FO shot, here we go...

I love them and I love the pattern. I'll be knitting more Monkeys, they're addictive, the pattern works up so fast and they look great.

I'm working away on my other WIPs now in the hope of having another FO to show you soon.

New Knitty

It’s not often that I look at an edition of Knitty and go “ooh I ilke that, and that, and that, and that, oh and that too” it’s even less often that I do that with any patterns which are supposedly spring/summer patterns. I’m not really great with spring/summer. I like heavy fabrics and snuggly clothes too much but well…I just looked at the Spring/Summer 2011 Knitty and got a little giddy. There was so much I liked about it, so many patterns that caught my eye. To be honest I don’t need any more patterns to catch my eye, I have quite enough in my queue but still I couldn’t resist the charms of these.

Rivercat socks it's not that often that something grey appeals to me but oh my I love these socks, the stitch pattern looks like so much fun, just enough to be interesting without me going cross-eyed staring at the socks.

Also on the sock front I like Zingiber they're mens socks (though obviously could be done smaller for me) and I'm sure they're a pattern Mr.NM would be willing to wear. I do love twisted stitches on a background of little purl stitches. I'm less keen on the idea of ptbl for the heel flap so perhaps would give that a miss, I can do it but I don't necessarily want to!

I was then drawn in by a lovely shawl and a shawlette Omelete and Forest Ridge I have become rather fond of lace knitting and have some lovely laceweight in my stash that could be turned into one of these. Sadly Omelete is really scratching my "must buy yarn" itch as the thought of yellow lace, lovely. I pretty much never wear yellow but there's something about yellow lace knitting that always draws me in.

I really love the lace at the shoulders and the hemline of Rondeur I'm not sure about knitted t-shirts/short sleeved sweaters so would be thinking about making it long sleeved instead but the pattern is just lovely and that curved hem, I'm liking that very, very much.

Also in the garments I really like Corinne the story about the desiging of it drew me in, I also got married on 21st March and nearly froze to death in a sleeveless gown without a shawl (though I had planned ahead and bought one, I just managed to forget it on the day!) It was the construction of this that got me. It's knit side to side in garter stitch with just a little seaming at the end, I do like seeing knit stitches turned sideways or going in less usual directions and for this I think it really works. I'm not sure I'd go for pale pink but I'm with it as a design, it looks like a very wearable, go with anything, sort of cardigan.

I do also like Amiga though I'd be looking to substitute for a different 4ply/fingering weight yarn as that used in the pattern doesn't appear to be available in the UK and I'm not entirely keen on knitting in 100% cotton yarn anyway. I do like the shape though and again a seamless construction though you do have to pick up stitches for the button band and collar, not a problem though.

So yes, I was quite overwhelmed by just how much of the new Knitty I liked as there hasn't been much that has appealed in the last few. Again doubly shocked that I'm liking spring/summer designs when I consider myself such an autumn/winter person with my fashion preferences. Perhaps I'm changing. Sorry for a pictureless post BUT I will have pictures soon as I finally have an FO to share, an FO of a socky nature (and a past Knitty design actually)

My Knitting Time - 2KCBWDAY7

I'm a bit late with my day 7 post and a bit disappointed that this was the case. I had hoped to keep up with the week and post to the schedule. Unfortuantely the traffic on the A55 had other ideas. We spent the weekend with Mr NM's mum and his Nana in Llangefni, Anglesey and whilst our journey there was uneventful our journey back took 4 hours with a lot of that spent sitting going nowhere. As a result by the time I got home I was so tired I couldn't be bothered to even switch my laptop on, never mind construct a blog post. I didn't even knit!

Speaking of knitting, my knitting time and any rituals or routines relating to it I did have a good think about this. I read through the suggestions of what I might do but it didn't really fit. I don't listen to specific music or do anything particular in preparation for my knitting time, I just knit. I will knit just about anywhere, on the bus, on trains, in the doctor or dentists waiting room, at home, at my mum's home, at my in-laws home. I'm not fussy. I don't need silence to knit, there are some tricky patterns which much be followed carefully in which case I don't do anything at the same time as knitting but background noise doesn’t disturb me. Sadly I do pretty much all of the driving so knitting in the car is not an option, perhaps in future should Mr NM become a more confident driver.

Most of my knitting takes place whilst watching TV. Mr NM and I watch A LOT of TV and A LOT of films. There are rules though so I suppose there is some routine. I'm "allowed" to knit when watching lighthearted comedies and certain dramas but knitting during serious TV that requires undivided attention is NOT ALLOWED. If I dare to knit when watching a TV series such as Boardwalk Empire or a big film such as Inception I get the glare of death from Mr NM. I suppose I could still knit but I am happy with the rules and I couldn't possibly knit when watching True Blood because I might miss a moment of Alexander Skarsgård's screen time and that just wouldn't do.

Thank you Eskimimi for organising this again, I only read last year but this year it has been a lot of fun to take part and also to read some blogs I hadn't read before and to think differently about my own blogging. It has been great fun.

Something to aspire to- 2KCBWDAY6

I had a think about all the beautiful patterns I've seen, all the beautiful projects I would like to knit. I do want to knit them but I wouldn't say I aspire to them, I just have them in my queue and do intend at some point to give them a go.

For Christmas 2009 my mum bought me this book (excuse the rubbish photo, it's grey and dreary in Leeds this morning and I couldn't get good light anywhere)

I had been knitting for a year and hadn't tried anything particularly adventurous. I had a flick through but that was it as it all seemed way beyond me.

I'm feeling more confident as a knitter now and what I'd like to have a go at more than anything else is writing up my own pattern. I don't want to sell patterns or anything I just want to design some things for myself and I am determined to give it a go. That's what I aspire to.

Also a clarification for yesterday's post, I don't have more pairs of shoes than balls of yarn, I just have more storage boxes containing shoes than storage boxes containing yarn. This is probably still a problem.

And now for something completely different - 2KCBWDAY5

A little story not related to knitting...

A couple of months ago I saw some boots, I loved them. I saw the price tag and my heart sank, they were beyond me.

Yesterday I went shopping, saw a sale sign in the same shop and couldn't help but take a peek. There were the shoes, the shoes of awesome, reduced by £25! I asked for my size. It was the last pair and one had been on display for some time, it was more worn and very slightly faded. I made puppy dog eyes at the sales lady and got an extra 10% off the price. Bargain.

Now for a confession. This knitter has more boxes of shoes than boxes of yarn, seriously.