Sunday 15 January 2012

Getting back into the swing of things

Goodness, is it a week since I last posted? Where has the time gone? I've had quite a productive week, knittingwise. I have been knitting my Rene sweater, and have now finished the back! It's quite a heavyweight knit - you almost feel like you've done a workout after an hour or two's knitting, as it's quite heavy on the needles, and there's lots of changing between knit and purl stitches, not to mention remembering which way the cables are going. But Rene and I are now well and truly reacquainted, and I'm even thinking of casting on both sleeves at the same time, so I can get them both done! I still haven't decided whether I'm going to make the sweater or cardigan version. I shall leave making that decision until the sleeves are done! Here's the back anyway.
Rene WIP (4)
I've also finished another pair of plain vanilla socks, this time for my friend Zena's Mum! I just did a stashdive and came up with some yarn I'd bought on a trip to Bremen. The self patterning yarns are such fun to knit. I like watching the pattern develop.
plain vanilla socks no5 (4)
I've been on the hunt for some fun buttons for my knitting club to use on their friendship bracelets. The Buttonshack had a nice selection, and their service was very good too. Here's a selection of some of the buttons I bought.
Buttons!
I've had two squishy parcels in the post this week. The photo on the left shows a skein of Exmoor Blueface and British Bluefaced Leicester yarn, from the Britsh Wool Club at the Natural Dye Studio. The yarn on the right is the last installment of yarn from the Fall in Full Color club. This is handspun!! I can't even begin to contemplate how long it must have taken to spin all that yarn! Now I'm curious to see the project. Not long to wait, as the pattern will be released on Tuesday.
Winter Blues yarn
Thank you to all of you who left comments on my last post, and became followers. I think I'm now up to 117!! I used a random number generator, and the winning comments were ...........
100 followers random number winners
Number 27 is Denise and number 17 is Jenny. I will message you both on Ravelry, and hopefully we will be able to sort out the yarn!
It's a chilly day here, the fire is lit and there is a casserole bubbling away in the slowcooker! So I can't show you what's for dinner today. But I will share with you last Sunday's extremely yummy meal - mince and dumplings! Mmmmmmmmmmm! It was so, so tasty. The recipe came from the Hairy Bikers Pie book, and the mince tasted just the way my Mum used to make it. Mr JK made it of course. He is such a dab hand in the kitchen! Have a good week and keep warm! xxx
mince and dumplings

12 comments:

faith76 said...

The mince meat and dumplins dish looks delish I can almost smell it from here!

I would love to try self patterned socks - yours look very funky.

Leah x

Denise said...

Yay, I can't believe I'm a winner, what afresh start to my ME knitting year :-) I pm'd you back on Ravelry.
Those dump ins look delish!
Have a lovely cozy Sunday.

Jennyff said...

And I am a winner too, thank you so much. Anything will be fine by me, yarn, cat, dumplings, I am happy. Great knitting as ever JK.

snoopydogknits said...

Love the socks!!! Have a good week. Ros x

Anonymous said...

ooooh - the back of your sweater is looking fantastic!
love the socks too - what fun!!

Northern Monkey said...

Would MrJK like to come and teach MrNM to cook? Alternatively just send food parcels ;-) those dumplings look delicious.

Christine65 said...

I love the sweater - it's so neat. Dinner looks yummy as well - that might be another cookery book to add to those I've already got.

Lynne said...

Rene is looking beautiful, and I bet the colour is even nicer in real life. I also really like the sock yarn.

WildflowerWool said...

You have been a busy knitter. The sweater and socks look great!

Helsie said...

I'm seeing lots of these great meals on blogs today. It must have suddenly got colder over there!!!
The knitting is coming along well as usual.
Cheers

Denise said...

I hope you got mjyravelry message, just realized I sent it from my iPad and last time I did that the person didn't get it?
I was hoping for the sock yarn, but would be happy with either.
Thanks again JK :-)
And congrats to Jenny too!

Stadtwaldvogel said...

The back of Rene looks really nice. I love the color. The handspun yarn is amazing. I wonder how so much handspun yarn could be produced. It's great to see the projects for your knitting class at school. I would have loved to learn knitting at school. Yours, Julia