Swapping rocks!

Good evening to you! Have you had a good week? I've been a bit under the weather with a sore throat and a cough - one of the perils of teaching, as the children are so generous with their germs! The weekend couldn't come soon enough! I've had a very lazy couple of days relaxing at home with Mr JK and Henrycat. Henrycat is still a bit of a poorly pussy cat - his check up at the vet's on Friday showed he'd lost more weight, and he is still being sick, so has some new medication to try and stop this. I feel that he's on his 9th life now, and probably won't be with us for much longer. He is still enjoying cuddles from his Mum ........

and surveying his world out in the garden too.

Thank you to all of you who left a message following my last post. I used a random number generator to choose the 3 winners. Drum roll please......

The winners are Gail, Northern Monkey and Squirrel - many congratulations to you. Please get in touch with me via Ravelry or email me at josiekitten at hotmail dot com, and I'll get a little something off in the post to you!

I've managed to do a bit of knitting and spinning this week. Remember my Berry handspun from last week? Well, I decided to have a go at knitting it up. Oh, the excitement of making a yarn cake from my own handspun using my swift and ball winder!!

I calculated that I had about 120 metres of yarn, so decided to make another Cabled Keyhole scarf from Knitspot. It's a quick, fun knit - be warned, they're extremely addictive! I bet you can't just make one! (This is my 4th!) I had to go up a needle size to take into account the individuality of my yarn!! But the result is a gorgeous (though I say so myself!) snuggly warm neck cosy.

Seeing this knit up inspired me to sit down at the spinning wheel again this weekend. This time I used some more subtle fibre from The Thylacine, with the hope of producing something knittable for Mr JK. I've spun around 140 metres, and have been searching for hat patterns on Ravelry. Not quite sure yet which pattern I shall choose. It's 100% BFL - the colours remind me of the beach in winter. See what you think.

My Peasy is now back on track, and I've just started the first sleeve. I hope that it's going to be big enough this time! I've also made progress on Charlotte's birthday socks. The first one is finished, and the second started. I need to have it finished by next Sunday, so shall be concentrating on that for the start of the week. It's such a great pattern - although it looks complicated, it's dead simple!

I've also begun crocheting some granny squares for the Crochet a Rainbow project. I'm aiming to make 20 over the next couple of weeks. I hope my colour combinations aren't too bright!!

I have a couple of Innocent Smoothie Hats of the week to show you too - both knitted using leftover handspun. I had some singles left over after plying, and managed to fight the twisting to knit this little pair.

Regular readers will probably remember that I've done a number of swaps with a Canadian knitter, Cathy. We started chatting on Ravelry about eighteen months ago, and decided to swap some yarn. We've just done our 4th swap, and my parcel from Cathy arrived yesterday. Prepare to feast your eyes on some yarny goodness! Cathy recently visited Vogue Knitting Live in New York, and bought my swap goodies there! First I pulled out a skein of Blue Moon Fibre Arts Socks that Rock yarn, in the colourway My Blue Heaven. I have lusted after this yarn ever since I started knitting again, and it is really beautiful. The different shades of blue are just stunning!

Second, also from Blue Moon, was a silk hanky. I had just been reading about how to knit with these on the Yarn Harlot's blog, and voila! I have my very own silk hankie! This is in the same shades of blue. You can knit directly from the hankie or else spin it. I'm not sure quite what I'm going to do with it yet, apart from stroke it!!

Thirdly, some extremely luscious cashmere fibre. It is incredibly soft, and I shall be keeping it in my stash until my spinning can do it justice! Thank you so, so much Cathy for such wonderful gifts.

I had to smile when I looked at my handspun compared with the Socks that Rock yarn - twins? Not quite, but it gives me something to aim for!

Well, I must love you and leave you now - supper is calling. Mr JK has been busy in the kitchen, and beef stew and dumplings awaits! (There's also a rumour that apple crumble and custard might be on the menu too, but don't tell anyone I said!) Thanks for stopping by and have a good week! xxx