The Woolly Adventures of a Knitting Kitty

Bag addiction

2012-01-22T16:08:00.003Z

I thought I'd share with you today one of my favourite knitting accessories - the humble project bag. While you're reading this post, I'd like you to keep in mind the fact that I don't own a plethora of handbags. In fact I only have two! So perhaps that allows me the luxury of accumulating a small collection of beautiful, handmade bags to keep all my knitting projects in. My first serious case of 'bag envy' occurred in the summer of 2010, when my dear knitting pal Snoopydog and I were at Knit Nation. We'd taken a class with Anne Hanson, and both of us admired the project bag she had sitting on the desk beside her. Here, take a look. I bet you'd like a bag like that, wouldn't you?!

I asked Anne where the bag came from, and she very kindly gave me the seller's card. And that, dear reader, was the start of it all! The bags are made by Michele and can be found at her Etsy shop, ThreeBagsFull. I bought Snoops a bag for Christmas to start her off the slippery slope of bag acquisition, and since then, I have either bought or been given several of my own. Here they all are.

My first bag was the little Russian doll one, on the left. I bought that at the same time as the one for Snoopydog. We seem to have this thing going - 'one for Snoops, one for me!' Later in the year, Michele made me the large pink sweater bag, and the yellow kitty bag on the right. The floral bag in the centre was a lovely gift from another knitting friend Kat. The bags either side of this one were Christmas bags - the one on the left I 'gave' to myself when I bought Snoops' Christmas gift bag, and she did the same with the owl one!!! Great minds and all that!! Now I betcha want to know what's inside them all, don't you?!

The sweater bag has my Rene sweater in it. I've done some knitting on the first sleeve this week, as you can see from the picture. My goal is to have this sweater done by April, when we are spending a week in the Lake District.

The Russian doll bag contains my 10 stitch blanket. I haven't knit this for ages, but seeing it again has reminded me that I ought to pick it up. It's a very simple pattern and I have loads of odd balls of Silk Garden.

The little floral bag (perhaps my favourite of all the fabrics, but I keep changing my mind!) contains my current sock project - the Roger sock pattern using some Old Maiden Aunt yarn. They're a present for a friend, but I think I'm going to find it hard to part with them, as the yarn is gorgeous!

The Pansy bag in the middle is currently home to the leftover yarn from Mr JK's football hat and scarf. I bought way more yarn than I needed, so am going to use the rest to knit myself a 3 colour linen stitch scarf to wear when I go to football.

My owl bag is home to some gorgeous Sea Pearl yarn. I'm planning on knitting this shawl to wear at a Spring wedding. It goes perfectly with what I am planning to wear, so I hope that I get it done in time.

Finally, my little cat bag contains yarn that I've bought to knit an Almost Ovals scarf as a present for my boss, who is retiring at Easter. If I don't make that deadline, then I've got another bite at the cherry, as she will be 60 in September! The yarn is Fyberspates Scrumptious laceweight, and should do the job beautifully!

Why don't you take a look in Michele's shop and see if there's a bag that catches your eye?! Someone please put me out of my agony and buy this one before I do!!! Have a great week! xxx

Getting back into the swing of things

2012-01-15T14:00:00.001Z

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ...........

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

First and last, and a giveaway too!

2012-01-08T12:24:00.000Z

Hello! Thanks for calling in. It's been a wild-weather type week here in the UK, with some extremely strong winds in different parts of the country. We battened down the hatches and survived unscathed, unlike some poor folk. The Christmas and New Year celebrations all seem rather distant now, and although the days are getting longer, warmer times still feel a l-o-n-g way off. I was listening on the radio to a discussion this week - apparently more than 7% of the UK population suffer from SAD or winter blues. That's a huge number of people. I don't know about you, but I need little things to look forward to - perhaps a nice meal, a squishy parcel in the post, a day out or some of my favourite chocolate to nibble on. Of course knitting is a great mood enhancer too. Just deciding to start a new project, browsing for patterns, rummaging through stash ....... all these things are guaranteed to bring a smile to my face.

I started a new project right at the end of 2011, and it flew off my needles! It's the Fallberry scarf from Knitspot (who else?!) knit using a skein of Natural Dye Studio Angel DK yarn. I made it for a friend who should be receiving it in the post any time now. I know she reads my blog from time to time, so I won't say any more and spoil the surprise!

You have already had a look at the first project that came off the needles this year - my handspun Fartlek hat. I have worn it a couple of times and it has kept my head lovely and toasty warm. It's currently being blocked, but here's another look at it in action last weekend!

This photo shows the decreases on the crown really clearly. I love how the colour changes on the yarn turned out too. That's one of the advantages of Navajo-plying yarn - it keeps the colour changes separate, rather than getting a barber pole striped effect.

I wanted to sort out a couple of projects for my school knitting club. I decided to choose two pretty quick knits this time, although I have a feeling that the kids will want to knit more than one!! We shall be making friendship bracelets and bendy snakes. I've just stocked up on buttons and googly eyes!! So far I have 24 children signed up, some returning knitters and 6 or 7 new ones! So I shall pair up a new knitter with a confident knitter for the first couple of weeks.

I currently have another pair of vanilla socks on the go - they are knitting up very quickly, so I should be able to show you a finished pair next time. I need to make myself NOT knit them at home though, as I am neglecting my meatier knits for the easy 'no-brainer' knitting!

I have done some spinning this year too - I spun up the Twinkle fibre from Picperfic. I had great ideas about being able to spin enough to knit me a pair of socks, but I am still way off that! I am hoping that my LYS is going to run an intermediate spinners class. I need to get to know my wheel better to have more control over the sort of yarn I spin! It's all a bit haphazard still!

It'll make a nice blankie for Flo, no doubt! Talking of Flo, she has found a new place to sleep - on the spare bed! I caught her snoozing last week and she looked up rather guiltily - before carrying on with her nap! She's up there now I think!

I have had a couple of parcels this week. The first was my long-awaited December yarn from the Fall in Full Color club. I really thought that the yarn had got lost somewhere in the Christmas post, so was thrilled when it landed on my doormat. I couldn't keep my nose out of the spoiler thread in the Clubhouse so knew it was some mink and cashmere yarn from Great Northern Yarns, but I was longing to see the colourway for myself. It is called Rhododendron and is just GORGEOUS!!!!! I have managed to secure a second skein by swapping with Kyrie, and would dearly love to get my hands on enough to knit a cardigan. Just how warm and snuggly would that be?!

My second parcel was a belated Christmas gift from my dear knitting pal, Snoopydog. I laughed when I opened the parcel, as it was a cute little owl bag from Three Bags Full. Snoops and I have the uncanny knack of being on the same wavelength when it comes to giving presents. I had bought her a knitting bag from the same shop too!!

The present was delayed because the first bag(s) - I pluralise here as Snoops bought one for herself at the same time (as did I!!! hahaha!) - see what I mean about great minds?! - got damaged in the post. Luckily Michele is such a sweetie that she remade the bags in superquick time and resent them! The owl bead is just perfect!

I don't know about you, but all this cold weather makes me long for hearty puddings - basically any pudding that you can serve with custard is pretty much guaranteed to get my tummy rumbling. Sticky toffee pudding is my absolute favourite, but I love crumbles and pies too. Last weekend Mr JK made a rice pudding, and oh, it was good! I love the skin on the top, don't you?! Here's a photo - all you need is your own spoon!!

I'm celebrating here too - just before the New Year, I noticed that my blog had gained its 100th follower! (I'm now up to 102!) I'm thrilled that there are so many of you lovely folk who want to read about my yarny ramblings. So as a thank you, I'm giving you the chance to win one of two woolly prizes - a skein of sock yarn from one of my favourite dyers, Laughing Yaffle, or three balls of Louisa Harding Kimono yarn. There'll probably be some chocolate thrown in too!!

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already!) and leave me a message by the end of next Saturday (Jan 14th). I'll choose the winners using a random number generator and announce them next Sunday. I'm happy to post the prizes worldwide, so what are you waiting for?! Have a great week and see you soon! xx

A mighty fine way to end the holidays!

2012-01-02T18:04:00.001Z

It was a beautiful, cold, crisp, sunny winter's day here today, so Mr JK and I decided to head down the coast into Suffolk, for a visit to Aldeburgh. It's a lovely town, always busy, and today was no exception. I spent the journey down finishing off a hat that I started yesterday. With 10 minutes to spare, the ends had been woven in and voila! A warm and cosy hat to wear on the beach! The pattern is Fartlek from Anne Hanson (and yes, the name has me sniggering away like a 10 year old boy!) I love this pattern, and am very proud of myself for using some of my most recent handspun yarn. Here's a quick reminder of what the fibre looked like.....

And here I am on Aldeburgh beach today.

The hat needs blocking, but I wanted to wear it straight away! I'll try to get it blocked at the weekend and share some more photos with you then.

We walked along the beach as far as the Benjamin Britten Scallop. There were lots of children there using it as a climbing frame!

Some of the fishermen had just landed their catch. It's the perfect place for buying fresh fish. Mr JK bought some cod fillets - homemade fish and chips to look forward to. Yum!

Of course I couldn't wait for fish and chips! There is nothing nicer that eating piping hot, salty, crisp chips by the sea!

It was a wonderful way to end the Christmas holidays. Term starts for me tomorrow!

I'll be back soon to share the last knits of 2011 and the first knits of 2012! There will also be a celebratory giveaway! What am I celebrating? You'll have to call back in to find out! Bye! xxx

2011 - how was it for me?

2011-12-31T12:23:00.000Z

It's New Year's Eve with the prospect of a brand new year only hours away, so time to take a look back at what I managed to achieve these past 12 months. To begin with, here's a selection of some of the projects I knit, one for each month of the year.

Let's take a look back at my kntting resolutions for 2011 and see how many of them I managed to achieve!

1. To knit from stash - I set myself the target of knitting up 100 balls from my stash, and only managed to knit 50! I've been looking back through my stash photos, and although I have managed to acquire a fair bit of lovely new yarn, much of it has come through swaps with Ravelry friends. Apart from my Knit Nation splurge (which I had allowed for!), pretty much all of the yarn I bought this year was for specific projects and has been knit up already! So I feel pretty good about my yarn purchasing this year. In total I have knit almost 12km of yarn in 2011!

2. To knit some garments for myself - I have managed to knit one cardigan this year - Peasy.

I do love this cardigan, although I did have a few sizing issues with it. Being so tall, knitting jumpers and cardies for myself is no quick (or cheap!) task! I have to lengthen the body and sleeves, and sometimes that results in extra width knitting too. I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to take Anne Hanson's sweater fitness class and learn how to adjust patterns to fit me properly. I have a sweater currently as a WIP that I must crack on with in 2012.

3. To have less projects on the go at any one time - I have definitely had less projects on the go this year, although it hasn't stopped me having some projects hanging around for months! I still need my fix of instant gratification with a pair of socks or a scarf!

4. To try some different techniques - I didn't manage any colourwork (again!) but I have managed to knit with beads on my handspun Ishbel.

I also got to grips with lace for the first time, and completed 4 or 5 different projects. One of my favourite is Long Shadows. This was the first project in the Fall in Full Color Club which I've been a member of this year.

I wouldn't say that lace comes intuituively to me, but I am getting better at recognising whether I need a yarn over, a ssk or k2tog for example.

5. To have a go at designing - Despite taking a sock design class with Cookie at Knit Nation this year, I'm ashamed to say that I have got no further with designing my own pair of socks! I will do it one day, when I have more time to sit around and play. I have 'designed' a couple of very simple items. The first was a hotwater bottle cover and the second was a little knitted Christmas tree for my school knitting club.

6. To improve my spinning - I have been thrilled with the progress I have made with my spinning this year. I went on a spinning weekend way back in February and have been spinning regularly ever since. I even took part in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry and won a prize for my efforts! Here's a photo montage of most of the yarn I have spun in 2011.

So what am I hoping to achieve in the coming 12 months? Actually I think that my knitting aims are going to be pretty similar to those of 2011!

1. To knit from stash as much as possible! (Is the target of 100 balls knit from stash wildly optimistic?!)

2. To continue to learn new knitting skills. (I'm hoping that some colourwork will feature in at least one project in 2012!)

3. To carry on spinning. I would like to experiment with a wider variety of fibres this year (I have plenty in my stash, have no fear!) and to knit up more of my handspun yarn (Flo could be in for a number of blankies!)

4. To have a go at designing. I still think that there's a pair of socks in me somewhere!

So there you are! That's me done and dusted for 2011! Whatever your knitting plans are for 2012, I hope you have a happy, healthy and knitful New Year! See you next year! xxx

Meeting friends

2011-12-30T14:55:00.000Z

Hello again! I had a lovely day yesterday when I met up with Erin. We first got to know each other in 2010 when we were booking up for Knit Nation classes, and have stayed in touch ever since. This time Norwich was our destination, and I met Erin off the train. The weather was decidedly uncooperative so we headed for Norwich Cathedral. It's a really beautiful building, well worth a visit if you are ever passing.

Inside it was richly decorated with holly and ivy wreaths and garlands and looked most festive.

You can see the roof bosses in the distance in this photo - there are about a thousand of them in total in the cathedral. They have a mirror on a trolley so that you don't have to keep craning your head back to see them. You can get a closer look at the bosses around the cloisters.

We spent a long time in the cathedral looking around and chatting over a drink before walking through Elm Hill to get to our final destination - afternoon tea at the Assembly House! We were served an assortment of dainty sandwiches, cakes and the most delicious fruit scones with jam and cream, and of course, endless pots of tea.

Erin brought me a beautiful gift, all the way from her LYS in Canada. She is a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Guild, a very active group. One of the members, Tabi Ferguson, dyes the most wonderful fibre. Her Etsy shop is here, should you wish to take a look! (Always happy to enable!) Just feast your eyes on this gorgeous fibre - 100% Bombyx Silk roving in the shade Cerulean Blue. It feels so luxurious, I'm looking forward to having a go at spinning it.

I shall be back tomorrow to take a look back at 2011, and share some of my knitting ambitions for 2012. See you very soon! xxx

Lazy days

2011-12-28T20:06:00.000Z

So how was your Christmas? Mr JK and I had a very nice time - really quiet, spending time together with a roaring fire, yummy food, knitting (me), fact books (Mr JK) and a new Christmas jigsaw! It seems to have become a bit of a tradition that once Christmas dinner is over and the dining table is cleared, out comes a jigsaw. Here's the one we are doing this year - rather too much red and white for my liking!! It might still be on the table come Easter!! Santa was very generous and brought me a couple of lovely knitting books. One, all about sock knitting, has a DVD with it, whilst the other is all about how older relatives have inspired some of today's well-known knitting designers.

On Boxing Day we went along the coast to Wells-next-the-Sea to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. It was a lovely day, just perfect for a walk along the beach. A lot of other people had the same idea! All those 'ants' you can see in the distance are people who have walked out to the small mound.

The beach huts at Wells always make me smile. They provide a lovely colourful backdrop to the beach back across the sand dunes and pinewoods.

I finished knitting Mr JK's hat and scarf a couple of days ago. He wanted something warm to wear for when he goes to watch Norwich City playing football. I bought some Malabrigo Worsted weight yarn which is an absolute delight to knit with. I'm actually amazed that I managed to finish them at all, since Florence took rather a liking to the yarn. If I left the knitting out anywhere, more often than not, she would find it and squish herself into it! Perhaps she is hinting that she'd like a Malabrigo blankie!!!! A cat of impeccable taste! Apologies for the slightly blurry photo, but Flo was trying to pretend that she hadn't been caught 'red-pawed' kneading away on the hat!

For the hat I used Jared Flood's Turn a Square pattern and it's a perfect fit! For the scarf I knit stocking stitch with a garter stitch edging. All the stripes meant that there was a mini-mountain of ends to be woven in.

All the woven in ends combined with the fact that despite the border, the scarf has a tendency to curl inwards has made me decide to back it with some fleece. I'm still waiting for the fleece to get here, so Mr JK isn't allowed to wear it for the moment! I'm hoping that it will be done by the time we go to the next match in January. I have enough yarn left over to make myself a scarf too - but this time I'm going to avoid the 'ends' issue and knit myself a Three Colour Linen Stitch scarf. Here's Mr JK's matching set.

I also finished another pair of plain vanilla socks for an old friend of mine. She asked me about a year ago if I'd knit her a pair. I'm rather ashamed that it's taken me so long! Better late than never!

I opened my Christmas swap parcel from my partner Valerie on Christmas Day. Valerie had spotted that I'm a fan of the colour purple, so there was a theme to my parcel. As well as some rather delicious chocolate and a packet of stroopwaffels (yummilicious!), there were two balls of yarn and lots of other goodies!

I've managed to do a little spinning too this holiday. I treated myself to some fibre from picperfic's Etsy shop. She does have some of the most glorious fibres and colours that I've come across. I've spun the first half of this braid of fibre - a mix of supersoft merino and nylon, so it has a bit of sparkle. I'd love to say that it's going to become a pair of socks for me, but I don't think that I've spun it anywhere near thin enough to have the yardage. It'll make something nice though, I'm sure!

I'm off to Norwich tomorrow to meet up with a Ravelry friend Erin. She is visiting friends in London and is coming up to Norfolk for the day. I can't believe that it's a year since we last met up and went to Loop! Where does the time go?! See you soon, before the end of 2011 I hope! xxx

Thank you Santa!

2011-12-26T15:08:00.000Z

Dear Santa,
I had a lovely day yesterday. Thank you for my presents.
I had a new table mat - all pink and girly!

...... a bowl for my biscuits,

....... a remote control mouse (I think my Dad likes this more than I do because it's a gadget!!)

...... and a squeaky Santa toy which is actually lots of fun to play with!!

But my bestest present came all the way from California from my Aunt Kim. It's a laser mouse and it is sooooooo much fun!! I just love to chase it around the house.

Thank you Aunt Kim, you're the best!!

Lots of love and purrs,

Your niece Flo xxx

Disaster averted!

2011-12-19T13:39:00.001Z

I shut myself in my craft room with a cup of tea, shut Florence out (much to her annoyance!), and emerged triumphant an hour and half later with two cakes of yarn! Phew! Both skeins were tangled, although the second nowhere near as badly as the one I showed you in the photo yesterday. Lookout wussypillows, here I come!

Getting that Festive Feeling!

2011-12-18T17:59:00.000Z

Only a week left until the Big Day itself! It has been a completely mad week at school, with Christmas performances, carol singing, a church service and class parties! I made myself stay late after school on Friday to take down all the decorations and cards. I hate having to do it on the first day back! My knitting group were busy all Friday morning finishing off the decorations on their little trees. I am so pleased with how they turned out. They felt very proud of themselves.

Fourteen of them managed to complete the project. They found it harder than I'd thought they would when it came to remembering to knit 2 together to make the triangle shape. But with a little gentle persuasion, they all managed to take on a tree-like shape!

Now I need to think of a new project for the spring term. This term they have also knit squares which I have to sew together to make blankies for the local cat sanctuary. That's on my 'to do' list for the holidays.
Mr JK and I were busy in the kitchen today, making a double batch of crumpets for the Christmas holidays. They are really delicious toasted with some of our homemade raspberry jam. We use the Hairy Bikers recipe - it's dead easy to do. Once you've tasted homemade crumpets, you won't want to buy them again!

I have managed a little bit of Christmas gift knitting this weekend. I bought yarn last year to knit my friend Marijke a scarf, and never got round to it in time! This year I've managed to knit a cabled keyhole scarf from Knitspot. I made a few of these as presents last year. The pattern is dead easy and knits up so quickly. I hope she will like it!

I'm impatiently waiting for this month's club yarn to arrive. The pattern was released yesterday, and it's a really lovely keyhole scarf and mits set using the most yummy mink and cashmere yarn from Great Northern Yarns. I hope the yarn gets here tomorrow, or I might just have a big tantrum! Just in case it doesn't show up, I've got another of Anne Hanson's patterns lined up - Wussypillows! I have wanted to knit myself a beret for absolutely ages! I even have the yarn for it - Sea Pearl that I received in a swap from Kim earlier in the year. There's just one problem ..........

........ the skein is hideously tangled up! It wouldn't wind on my ball winder whichever end I started from, so I decided to try and reskein it. Let's just say that the air was blue and I decided to leave it a while. I shall have another try later. I don't understand how a skein that at first glance looked ok could possibly end up in such a mess! If you don't hear from me in the next couple of days, assume that I have become entangled with the yarn!! See you! xx

Birthday Bounty

2011-12-16T06:39:00.002Z

I had some lovely presents for my birthday last weekend! I'm sure you'd like a look, wouldn't you?! My dear knitting pal Snoopydog really spoilt me. She gave me some Wensleydale fibre in shades of blue and purple, and a skein of Eden Cottage Titus 4 ply in the shade Damson. Yum!

She also gave me a truly amazing needle organiser case. I've been lusting after one of these ever since I first spotted them in picperfic's Etsy shop. It will be wonderful to get all my needles organised, as I'm not sure exactly what needles I actually have. I'm sure that I've bought extra pairs when I needn't have! So there'll be no excuses now! I've bought fibre from picperfic in the past, and I have to say, the quality of the work on this needle case is second to none.

There is so much space inside to organise everything - perfect!

I'll show you what it looks like after I've put all my needles away! It's even got a handy little needle sizer on the zipper!

I also received two rather delicious skeins of Woolen Rabbit yarn from another dear knitting friend Kim. She too knows how much I love purple yarn! This yarn has cashmere in it and feels so soft. The colour is Simply Plum and it just glows.

I know just how nice this yarn is to knit with because Kim sent me a skein of it way back in the Spring when we were swap partners in the first Fall in Full Color clubhouse swap. I have just finished knitting a pair of socks, Anne Hanson's Fishbone Gansey socks. Mr JK has taken a liking to them, so they are headed for his sock drawer. He will have very pampered tootsies! The photo doesn't show the pattern off very well - the light wasn't great for taking pictures.

I've already got another pair of socks on the go - another plain vanilla pair for my friend Zena. The yarn is from the Regia Design Line Erika Knight range. I like the colours in the stripes.

I realised that I hadn't shown you my latest spinning efforts all finished. I started spinning the fibre at the end of the summer I think! Anyway, it's plied now, and all ready for knitting.

I can't believe I've only been spinning for just over a year! I've acquired a sizeable fibre stash (no surprises there I guess!), and I do find it very relaxing. I'm looking forward to being able to spin yarn for my first handspun socks next year! This was my first skein of handspun back in October last year!

And this is a closer look at my most recent skein.

Oh to have more hours in the day for yarny activities! Still, the school holidays begin today, so I'm hoping to have some time to play in between all the mince pie munching!! See you soon! xxx

Time flies!

2011-12-11T20:47:00.001Z

Oh my goodness! I can't believe that I have missed a whole week! Last time you popped by, there was only one candle lit on the Advent stand. And take a look at it now! Yes, there are three candles lit! I have been so busy with Christmassy things at school plus singing in a couple of carol concerts, as well as going away, that time just seems to have flown by. I can't believe that in 2 weeks time, it will be Christmas Day! Luckily I was able to take a little breather today when Mr JK and I sat down to enjoy a slice of birthday cake and a cup of tea. Yesterday it was my birthday, and there was some cake leftover from my birthday offerings at school, so I brought it home. And it did taste deeeeelicious! The tea is in a new birthday mug. The light doesn't show it off terribly well, but it's a Le Creuset mug in graduating shades of purple! It is a perfect mug for tea - keeps it piping hot. I can't bare warm tea - ugh!!

Anyway, back to what else I have been up to! Last weekend Mr JK and I went to Liverpool. We went mainly to see a concert at the Philharmonic Hall performed by John Wilson and his orchestra. It was his 'Hooray for Hollywood' film music, and it was just perfection. I think that his Prom concert of the same music is going to be on the TV over Christmas. Do try to see it if you can, it's a real musical treat. We started the day at the Albert Dock, dodging the rather unpredictable rain showers.

We visited the Beatles Story and the Tate gallery. There was an exhibition of sculpture there. Some of the exhibits were quite frankly just plain weird. I really liked a mirrored cube. It had some circular holes cut in some of the faces which you could look through. Inside it was just an infinite number of reflections! I took a photo of myself looking in, just so you can get the idea. Someone else was looking through another of the holes at the same time as me!

We also visited Liverpool Cathedral. The cathedral choir was rehearsing for a Christmas concert that evening, so we sat down and enjoyed some rather beautiful singing. There is a rather lovely window which was being painted by an artist.

It was a lovely way to pass the time on a rather dreary afternoon. Music is a great spirit-raiser!

There is a large Chinese district in Liverpool. The entrance to that part of the city is marked by a very impressive gate. The street names are written both in English and in Chinese.

Yesterday, Mt JK and I were gadding about once again. This time we went to London for the day to go to the John Rutter Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall. We are both huge fans of Rutter's choral music, and especially love his carols. The Albert Hall is a magnificent building, both outside ....

.... and inside.

It was a wonderful concert. The musicians of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra got into the spirit of the event and appeared in the second half sporting Santa hats, reindeer antlers or tinsel! Such fun!

Today I have been playing catch up! Florence was keen to help me unwrap my birthday presents (I didn't get time yesterday!) Actually, she was more interested in the bag that one of the gifts came in!

I did get some lovely gifts, but I haven't yet managed to take photos of them, so I will leave sharing them with you until next time. I have almost finished my second Fishbone Gansey sock in my travels, so will finally have something knitting-related to show you too! See you soon! xxx

Countdown to Christmas

2011-11-27T19:10:00.001Z

Hello there! I can't believe that it's Advent Sunday today. Christmas seems to have crept up on me all of a sudden! There's still presents to buy and wrap, decorations to be brought down from the loft, Christmas food to prepare and of course, all the cards to write! I thought I was being organised when I bought my cards a few weeks ago, but I somehow can't bring myself to write Christmas cards before the beginning of December. It just doesn't feel right!

I have done some knitting this week, mostly on the second Fishbone Gansey sock. The trouble is, I just don't seem to have found time when there was enough decent light to take photos. By the time I get home from work, it's hopeless! I know, Bad Blogger josiekitten! I will try harder for next week! Mr JK and I are off to Liverpool for the weekend, so I may well not blog until Monday. I'm looking forward to the trip - I've only been to Liverpool once, many, many years ago, and I think it's changed a lot since then. I wonder if there are any yarn stores there?! Must do my homework before we go! Have a good week and I'll see you soon! xxx

Popping in briefly

2011-11-20T18:59:00.001Z

Good evening! I have a few things to show you rather quickly today. Firstly Mr JK's Weihnachts socks - done and dusted and it's not even December yet! I'm feeling just a teensy bit smug!! It's my usual 'go-to' pattern from Violet Green for plain vanilla socks and always gives a good fit.

I also finally got round to plying up a single that I spun earlier in the year. It's been sat on my work desk looking at me rather reproachfully. This is what the spun single looked like.

I Navajo-plied it and the skein is still wound on the niddy noddy.

There are some rather pretty colour changes in the yarn. I'm not quite sure about yardage yet, once I've soaked it to set the twist I'll show you some photos of the skein.

I got a squishy parcel this week too - the November yarn from the Fall in Full Color club. It's a deep chocolatey brown with a hint of gold in it. I don't wear a lot of brown generally, but it is so rich that I might just have to give the pattern a go. I have a choice of two cowls to knit. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that the parcel also included two rather yummy chocolates. Sadly they didn't stay around long enough to be photographed!! Here's the yarn for you to drool over instead! Have a good week and I'll see you soon! xxx

At last - some knitting!

2011-11-13T16:56:00.001Z

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. My bodyclock has just about adjusted to the 3 hour time change (coming back from Greece and putting the clocks back an hour on the same day played havoc with my sleeping!) and my fingers haven't been idle over the last couple of weeks either!

I decided to have some easy knitting for the plane, so took some Regia stripy yarn to knit Mr JK a pair of socks for Christmas. I bought this yarn when we were in Cologne this summer - the colours are supposed to mimic the German flag! So far I've knit one whole sock and am working my way down the foot of the second, so they should be finished by next weekend. The other sock I took required a little more concentration - the Fishbone Gansey sock from Knitspot. I'm using the skein of Woolen Rabbit Kashmir yarn that I received from Kim in the first Clubhouse swap. It feels absolutely gorgeous, and my toes (or perhaps Mr JK's!) are going to be utterly pampered in them.

I finished knitting up the October yarn from the Fall in Full Color club. I had decided not to knit the shawlette that had been designed especially; instead I took inspiration from Snoopydog's Miss Doolittle scarf (another Knitspot pattern) and knit myself another scarf!! I managed to get 20 repeats on each half of the scarf, and was careful when I grafted the two halves together not to pull the stitches too tight. I am really, really happy with how it turned out. The colourway is definitely growing on me!

Talking of happy, I finished knitting the last pair of socks for my University friends - the yarn I used was Wendy Happy, a 100% bamboo yarn. It feels very silky, but I'm not sure how well the socks are going to hold their shape.

Last weekend was our annual meet up, so I was able to hand over all the pairs of socks. They were very well received, and I have been asked to knit some more for next year! Always nice when your knitted gifts are appreciated! Here we all are modelling our socks!

I have been a very lucky josiekitten recently. Just before we went to Greece I received a parcel from Kat. We have become good friends through the FIFC clubhouse, and in the autumn I sent her a Knit Nation bag (Kat is a TOTAL bag addict!!) and a skein of Natural Dye Studio yarn. I was thrilled to unwrap not only a skein of Socks that Rock yarn, but also a project bag sewn by Michele over at ThreeBagsFull. The eagle eyed amongst you may already have spotted this bag in use when I was knitting on the beach in Greece! Thank you dear Kat, it was a lovely and generous gift!

I did a skein swap with my friend Julia, in Germany, and ended up with a skein of sparkly Zauberweise yarn. It is gorgeous and the silvery thread really does twinkle. I think I may knit a shawl or a scarf to show it off, it's too pretty to stay hidden in my shoes!

I also received a parcel from Kim. We have become great friends since we first 'met' in the FIFC clubhouse, and this was our third swap. I sent Kim a selection of yarns that I'd bought at Knit Nation along with her very favourite Granny Wobbly fudge (it is just the yumiest, crumbliest, most delicious fudge I have ever tasted, and I have discovered that it's possible to buy it over the Internet - bad news for my waistline!!) Kim chose my yarns during her annual Rhinebeck visit. I had three gorgeous, squishy skeins of yarn - from top to bottom, a monster skein of Miss Babs merino yarn in shades of plum, a deep purple shade of Eidos from The Sanguine Gryphon and very pretty merino and silk laceweight yarn from Fiber Optic Yarns.

Kim also bought me some delicious fibre from Spirit Trail - it's 50% merino and 50% silk and is truly beautiful. Its shimmery lustrousness is so difficult to capture in a photo, you'll just have to take my word for it!

I received a little thank you card from Innocent Smoothies this week too. The little hat on top of the bottle is just amazing. It makes all those that I knit seem very boring!! It's nice that they bother to thank all the knitters individually - and the cards are hand written and peronalised too. A nice touch, I think.

Florence went on a Very Big Adventure today - it was her first time outside, as she'd been microchipped at the vets this week. She thought that it was a very big world outside for pussycats .....

..... and she didn't go far at all. In fact, she decided that it all looked a lot better from inside the door!

I'm sure she'll be a bit braver next time! Have a good week, and I'll see you soon! xxx

Seven Days in Greece - part 4

2011-11-12T14:48:00.001Z

When I am packing our cases for a trip to Greece, I always put in a couple of boxes of cat biscuits. This year, courtesy of Flo, there was also a box of kitten food and some sachets of Whiskas that Flo turned her nose up at! We told her that all the hungry pussycats in Greece would love it, and so they did! We had hardly had time to unpack before we met our resident felines. This family consisted of Mum and 4 kittens. They were our welcoming and farewell committee each time we opened the door to our rooms!

One of the kittens was much smaller than the others, and was often excluded by them. I can't imagine his chances of survival are great, although he certainly got stuck in whenever we fed them.

Most of the cats we saw seemed to survive on scraps, and food from the visitors. The local craft shop also collects money and donations of cat food to help the cats through the winter time. Very few of the cats seem to be actual family pets, only one or two were wearing collars. A lot of the cats are very friendly, like the two that spent some time with us down at the beach. It seemed that they wanted some company, and a bit of a fuss made of them. I spotted this handsome chap walking down a side street.

Many show signs of battles, with torn ears the number one injury! There are lots of tomcats all fighting for domination! The locals were hoping that some volunteer vets would be visiting soon to neuter as many of the cats as possible, in an attempt to keep the numbers down. The harbour is home to a large number of cat families. They live amongst the rocks, snuggling down in beds of dried seaweed. If you stroll down to the harbour in the late afternoon you are certain to find plenty of cats sunning themselves. I don't know how this one stayed balanced right on the edge!

This one was King of the Ropes!

This little cat was such a sweetie - she loved being stroked and having a fuss made of her. I wish it was easier to bring cats back home to the UK - she would have been the perfect little sister for Flo! (Mr JK lost count of the number of times I managed to find the perfect brother or sister for Florence!) But just look at that little face, isn't she gorgeous?!

There was one ginger tom who was obviously the overall boss of the harbour cats. He was ENORMOUS, and the other toms all backed away from him! Here you can see a 'biscuit stand off'! Those biscuits had his name on them, and no one else was getting a look in!

This cat was another of our favourites during the week. He was always around when we rattled our biscuits, and enjoyed nudging against us.

There were several kittens too. This tiny ginger one was quite timid at the start of the week, and retreated to the rocks to watch us. By the end of the week, he was much braver and would come up close to get fed.

Here you can see a few of the kittens we met. I wish that they could all have been found loving homes. When I think of the warm, snuggly places that Flo has to sleep, and all the love that she gets from us, and the regular food, it's awful to think about how hard it is for these little kitties to survive.

I wonder how many of our little furry friends we shall come across next year? Some of them will be around for sure. I'll certainly be there with my camera to take a few photos! Normal blogging will resume tomorrow, when I should be able to show you some knitting!!!!!!!! So I shall leave you now with one of my favourite photos - this one was taken by Mr JK. Bye! xxx

Seven Days in Greece - part 3

2011-11-08T20:55:00.003Z

Mr JK and I decided to spend a day away from the beach and took the bus into Kos town. As soon as you step off the bus, you enter the busy main town square. All around the square are cafes, full of locals drinking coffee. There's an old mosque in the square as well as a market selling fruit, vegetables, honey, herbs and spices. We bought some spices to add to beef to make a stifado, and some seasoning for Greek fried potatoes. Mr JK is cooking a Greek meal this Sunday ........ mmmmmmmmmm!

Next to the square is a beautiful Greek Orthodox church. It was open, so we did go inside for a peep, but felt a little like we were intruding. The walls and ceilings are decorated with the most lovely paintings.

On the walls outside the church are some magnificent mosaics of icons.

We stood by the plane tree under which Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is supposed to have sat teaching his students medicine.

Kos town is a port, and standing at the entrance to the harbour are the remains of an old fortress. The castle of Neratzia was built by the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, who captured the island in 1314. For only three Euros, you can wander around the ruins pretty much at will, and imagine what an imposing and powerful position it must have had all those years ago.

Some of the towers are still standing, and the whole place is littered with bits of broken pillars and columns. We saw archaeologists shifting barrow loads of ancient bits and pieces, presumably for sorting and classifying. It certainly is a massive jigsaw.

It amazes me how you are allowed to clamber over all these ancient ruins. If they were in the UK, they'd all be barricaded off with fences, and 'do not touch' signs everywhere.

We then wandered around the Agora. This ancient market place was only discovered following a severe earthquake in 1933 that destroyed much of Kos town. Again we were free to wander where we liked. We could have walked on the mosaics, but it didn't feel right to us!

Here you can see a close up of part of this mosaic floor. It looks like a little duck to me.

There are some extremely photogenic streets in Kos town. I think that this one is just picture-postcard-worthy, don't you?!

This street led down to the harbour, where we admired all the boats. Some were offering trips to Turkey, less than an hour away, whilst others were going off on round island trips.

On the way back to the bus stop, I spotted this Greek lady sitting in the shade, knitting! Wonderful stuff!

Seven Days in Greece - part 2

2011-11-01T20:36:00.001Z

Mr JK and I both LOVE food, especially Greek food, so we were looking forward to our first lunch. Tomato salad, saganaki (fried cheese) and tuna salad. No matter how many times we make tomato salad at home, (and we do make it a lot in the summer time) it never quite tastes as good as the ones we eat, sat at one of our favourite seaside tavernas. The sunshine and the view just make it one of the most delicious meals you could possibly savour.

Not to mention those kalamata olives. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Mr JK hates olives, but being a Grecophile, feels it's his duty to try one each year, just to see if his tastes have changed. They haven't (yet!), but watching him try is always amusing, as he pulls some wonderful faces! And what to wash lunch down with, but a glass of Mythos beer. The glasses are kept in the freezer, so the beer is ice cold!

Next day, we tried another favourite, a spicy sausage or loukaniki. Oh yes, and another tomato salad. I can't have enough of them!

It wouldn't be right to visit Greece without sampling a Greek salad. The feta cheese is just delicious, crumbly and a little bit salty.

Mr JK enjoyed a plate of fresh sardines one lunchtime too.

I had to have a few sweet things too - I love Greek yoghurt and honey, with or without nuts!

Although I didn't eat any baklava this time, I did try a honeyed pastry one day. This one had a custard filling and was rather yummy indeed!

Amazingly, we found that we'd only put on a couple of pounds while we were away! And I hope you enjoy a little taste of Greek food, all calorie free! See you soon, for more Greek adventures! xxx

Seven days in Greece - part 1

2011-10-30T15:27:00.002Z

Yassou! Mr JK and I returned yesterday from a fabulous week in Greece. Despite being there right at the end of the tourist season, the weather was wonderful, with sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20's almost the entire week. Just look at that blue sky - not bad for the end of October, is it?!

Mr JK and I are very much creatures of habit, and always go back to the same place in Greece. It's a small fishing village on the north coast of the island of Kos, called Mastihari. It's a traditional fishing village, and life for the villagers continues as normal around the visitors. There are no night clubs, British style pubs or all night drinking bars. Instead, the tavernas and bars are frequented by the locals. We have been going there for so long, we are welcomed back as friends. It's a lovely feeling! Despite the obvious difficulties with the Greek economy, Kos hasn't been affected particularly by strikes. Prices are higher and wages lower, but the local people carry on resiliently. I really hope that the situation improves for them soon.

As soon as we had unpacked, we headed down to the harbour. Some of the fishing boats were in, which inevitably meant the harbour cats were hanging around, hopeful of a bit of fish!

The fishermen take their boats out every day, so fresh fish is readily available at the local tavernas. Mr JK had sardines one day which he said were delicious. I took his word for it. I am a complete baby when it comes to eating fish, as I HATE bones!!

Red mullet and swordfish are other regulars on the menu, as well as kalamari. If you like fish, you're definitely spoilt for choice! But I didn't exactly starve either, as you'll see later this week!

We experienced our first sunset of the holiday that evening - just perfect!

The next day, it was time to revisit some of our favourite spots. The church is typically Greek with its blue and white decoration. The priest always greets us with a wave!

This is the walk we take down to the beach - I just love it when I get the first glimpse of the sea. In the distance you can see the neighbouring island of Kalymnos.

We stopped off at a new beach bar for a drink - and drank in the spectacular views too!

The beach is a lovely long stretch of golden sand. It never gets crowded, even in the height of the summer. There can be quite a strong wind blowing at times, and occasionally seaweed gets washed in by the tides, but it is fabulous! Most of the sunloungers had already been packed away for the winter!

You can get a better idea of just how big the beach is from the next photo - it really is a huge bay, most of it completely undeveloped.

The hibiscus was still in full bloom, stunning bright red flowers in evidence all around the village.

As well as the hibiscus, the bougainvillea was flowering madly. I just love this plant, it really reminds me of Greece. We have one at home, but it doesn't flower like this!

This pretty flower is lantana. Its pink and yellow flowers remind me of rhubarb and custard sweets! I used to love those when I was little!

The trees in the olive groves were laden with their bounty. The olive harvest starts around the end of October. It's all hands on deck, as it's a very labour intensive activity. A large sheet is spread under the trees, and the branches are beaten with a heavy stick to make the olives drop off. No wonder olive oil is so expensive!

Poseidon looks out over the harbour to make sure that all is well.

We spent some of our time down at the beach, just chilling out! We weren't alone either. This little ginger cat kept us company one day.....

.... and her friend came to say 'kalimera' every day. She wanted to snuggle down on the sunbed with me! So she did!

Days on the beach were spent knitting, reading and playing Scrabble! Our set is well travelled! Mr JK got the competition going by getting a scrabble (all 7 letters used in one go) on two consecutive turns!! We are pretty evenly matched, and spent many hours playing.

I'll share more of my holiday knitting with you another time. For the moment I'll say goodbye and leave you with a photo of some kittens. This little pair were some of the many cats living among the rocks down at the harbour. I'll introduce you to some more of the family another time! See you soon! xxxx

ETA Thanks to Northern Monkey who spotted my mix up between the Roman and Greek gods. Duh! Too much ouzo!!

A week of knitting WIPs

2011-10-16T14:12:00.003+01:00

The knitting needles have been working overtime this week (or at least that's how it feels!) and I have a plethora of projects to show you, sadly none yet finished! I seem to have slipped back into my old ways and the number of WIPs is mounting. I was doing so well too, being loyal to just one or two projects! Where to begin? Well, let's start off with a look at the Rene sweater. I've just cast off for the armholes on the back, so am hoping that as the rows get shorter, I'll be able to finish this. Then in theory, the sleeves shouldn't take long, nor the fronts (I think that I'm pretty much decided on a cardigan rather than a jumper now) so I might actually be able to get it finished this side of Christmas!

It's knitted in Cascade220 yarn and is knitting up nice and dense. It should be a super-snug, cosy sweater once it's all done.

I finally made a start on the September clubhouse yarn. I have to say that the colours don't especially grab me, but having seen Snoopydog's Miss Doolittle, I decided to be a copycat, and knit one for myself. I do love scarves, so I'm sure it won't go to waste. Infact, the children were drawing little pictures of me to go onto a school teatowel the other week, and I was wearing a scarf in most of their drawings! So far, I've knit the first half, and am ready to start the second. I'm knitting the narrower version, but am going for extra length. I'm pleased that I've finally cast the yarn on, as I was feeling a bit of a clubhouse failure for not knitting it!

I currently have two pairs of socks on the go. The first is my final plain vanilla pair for one of my Uni friends. I'm knitting it with Wendy Happy yarn, which is 100% bamboo. I've not used it before, but had to find a sock yarn with no wool in it whatsoever! I hope that it's going to hold its shape ok. I'm knitting a ribbed sock to try to help with the elasticity. I have until the first weekend in November to get it finished, as that's when we are getting together.

My second sock is from Knitspot - it's the Fishbone Gansey sock. I'm using a skein of Woolen Rabbit yarn that Kim sent to me. I dithered about deciding what to knit - first it was a shawl, then a scarf, but I finally settled on socks. The gansey pattern isn't popping out quite as much as I had hoped for, but the yarn feels just delicious. These are going to be 'stay at home and curl up in front of the fire' kind of socks! Very pampered tootsies!

I've also been doing some spinning. I've been working on some BFL fibre from Alchemy Fibre Arts for the last couple of weeks now. The single is sat waiting to be plied, but I haven't had a chance yet to do any more. I'm going to Navajo-ply it to keep the longer colour runs I think.

Yesterday I went down to London for Alice Yu's book launch at Loop. I test knit one of the designs way back. The shop was buzzing with knitters who had come to see Alice and say goodbye to her (she is off to Hong Kong today!), buy the book and some yarn to knit the socks with, and catch up with friends (and eat cake too, of course!)

There was a mini-get together of clubhouse knitters, all sporting their September/October projects too! Here are Gina and Janet showing off their Hazeline and Longshadows.

All the socks from the book were on display, along with far too many tempting skeins of Alice's Sokkusu sock yarn.

I do quite like these plastic feet - excellent for sock modelling! I wonder what on earth you need to google in order to track one down?!

There were so many lovely colourways, it was very hard to choose.

I had a good rummage amongst the skeins of yarn, and tried to show some restraint! I eventually chose one skein of yarn, along with a copy of Alice's book, which she was kind enough to sign for me.

I did buy some more yarn, some Malabrigo Worsted weight, to knit Mr JK a Norwich City hat and scarf. All the merchandise from the Supporters' shop is acrylic and guaranteed to give you an electric shock on contact! I'm planning on knitting Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat. In case you don't know the colours that the Canaries play in, here's the yarn. The green isn't quite bright enough, but it will be fine for this project.

It's almost time for the next project in the Fall in Full Color club. My yarn arrived this week, an autumnal worsted weight package. I'm looking forward to the pattern release tomorrow. I wonder what it will be?!

So with the next pattern imminent, I'd better love you and leave you, and go and get knitting! Mr JK and I are off to Greece next weekend, as it's half term, so there's all the holiday knitting to consider too! Busy, busy! See you! xxx

Autumn Days

2011-10-09T18:37:00.000+01:00

This was the view out of the window this morning.

Wet and gloomy! Luckily it did brighten up after lunch, so Mr JK and I went to visit one of our favourite local gardens, the Old Vicarage at East Ruston. We bought season tickets this year, so we have visited several times. It's a massive garden, so there's always something new to see. This time, autumn was definitely in evidence.

There's a lovely tearoom there too, with far too many delicious cakes to choose from. I am very boring and had my usual - a slice of carrot and walnut cake. Mmmmmmmmmm.

I have been busy knitting this week, but the weather was too dull when we got home to take any photos, so I shall endeavour to take some in the week. Mr JK is busy in the kitchen making a beef stew. It smells just mouthwatering, so I shall say goodbye for now and go peep round the kitchen door and drool! See you soon. xxx

Come on baby light my fire!

2011-10-08T16:04:00.003+01:00

What a difference a week makes! Last week it was ice cream at the seaside. This week it's socks on and fire lit! Florence was most curious.

It was the first time the fire had been lit since she came to live with us.

She gradually moved closer ......

and closer.......

until it got too hot for pussycats, and she had to retreat, but just a little.....

until evenutally she decided it was better too keep an eye on it from the relative coolness of her basket!

I think she believes it's all just for her!!

Longshadows

2011-10-06T19:48:00.004+01:00

A quick post this evening to share with you a few more photos of my finished Longshadows scarf. This was the first project from Anne Hanson's Fall in Full Color Club. The yarn was a delight to work with, and I just love the deep bluey-purple shades. I took it down to the beach last weekend, but it really was too hot to wear it. I tried draping it over a fishing boat first.

It was such a bright, sunny day that a lot of the detail in the scarf was lost. You can see the leaf pattern much more clearly in this photo......

..... and this one shows it off even better. I think that I need more practise in blocking. I threaded the blocking wires through all the little pointy bits at the edges, which took ages. I don't think I quite blocked it out straight, but I'm sure it won't show when it's worn!

I received a rather lovely squishy parcel too - the first installment of fibre from Hedgehog Fibres fibre club. I treated myself to a 3 month 'back to school' present! This month's fibre is Wensleydale, and the colours are just stunning!

I'm busy spinning some BFL from Alchemy Fibre Arts at the moment, and with any luck it'll be plied all ready to show you at the weekend.

I did get another parcel this week that I feel compelled to share with you. It's only 80 days until Christmas (scary thought!) and I've been trying to get ahead, buying cards. As soon as I saw these, I knew I had to buy a couple of packs for my knitty friends!

If you'd like some too, you can find them here! Will you be able to resist?! See you very soon! xxx

Indian Summer

2011-10-02T15:10:00.003+01:00

Hello there! Hope you have had a good week. We have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather here in England over the last few days - the hottest September and October days since records began!! Mr JK and I decided to make the most of it and headed off down to the coast of Suffolk, to visit Aldeburgh. It's one of our favourite beachy places to visit, although we don't go there very often as it takes over 2 hours from our little spot on the North Norfolk coast. Once we'd arrived, we made our way to the beach. People were already setting up for the day, claiming their territory. Blue sky and sunshine - perfect beach weather!

There are always fishing boats on the beach, and today's catch is on sale from numerous little shacks along the promenade.

We wished that we'd remembered to take down a coolbag and some icepacks. Maybe next time!

There was a constant stream of people buying fresh fish and shellfish. The lobsters were selling quickly!

Before lunch there was just time for a few shots of my Longshadows scarf - I'll show some some more in the week. It really is gorgeous, but it was far too hot to be wearing it today!

This was the queue at the fish and chip shop - and it hadn't even opened! It's really popular and is one of the best around!

We always buy fish and chips for our lunch and then take them down to eat on the beach, whatever the weather! They are actually even more delicious on a cold February day with an icy wind blowing in off the sea!

Do you want a look inside? Crispy battered cod and piping hot chips, with plenty of salt and vinegar!

Oh the taste of those delicious, crispy, salty hot chips almost has me drooling here!

The seagulls were keeping their beady eyes on us, but we weren't sharing our chips with anyone!!

We did that most British of things and made ourselves chip butties!! It may not be Michelin-starred food, but it is yummy!

After lunch we decided to make our way back up the coast, stopping off at Southwold. We passed a few fields with some beautiful purply blue flowers in them. It almost looked like the house had a lake in front of it. I think I've managed to identify the flower - Phacelia, grown either to encourage bees or as a green manure.

It seemed that many other people had had the same idea as us, and we were lucky to find a parking space. Southwold is famous for its beach huts, and people will happily pay £50,000 to own one!

They look lovely on the whole, although some are definitely in need of a lick of paint. We found it quite amusing that they seemed to be supported by bricks at each corner! The thing that didn't appeal to us was the fact that they are right on the promenade, so people are constantly walking past and there's little privacy. Beach hut decor is obviously taken terribly seriously, and I rather naughtily snapped this as we were walking past. Well, I knew you'd want to take a look inside!! I think this one was being done up, as you can see lots of DIY equipment in the foreground.

The beach was packed with everyone making the most of the gorgeous weather. Plenty of people were swimming too - imagine that, swimming in the sea in England in October!!

We walked down the length of the pier, stopping to admire the water clock.

It really is a bit of fun, 'performing' on the hour and half hour. The couple in the bath spurt water at each other from their mouths, the tulips spring up from the garden and the two boys drop their shorts and have a wee!!

Of course, no trip to the seaside would be complete without an ice cream would it? I knew you'd be disappointed if you didn't see one, so I felt it my duty to force this one down!! It was a struggle, but I battled on bravely to the end!!

We walked back along the prom, admiring the view towards the pier. Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside, don't you?! Have a great week and I'll see you soon. xxx

Dear Mum

2011-09-25T18:05:00.001+01:00

Dear Mum,
I know that I do have lots of comfortable, snuggly warm places to sleep. But...................... what I'd like more than anything else in the whole wide world is my very own Rene blankie. In the meantime, I'll just use your Rene sweater back.

Lots of love and purrs,

Flo xxx

PS I think pink is very 'me', don't you?

Cambridge blues

2011-09-18T15:26:00.000+01:00

Goodness, the last week has gone by quickly! I hope you've had a good one! Mine has been busy, busy, busy, with not enough knitting time! I'm still working on my Longshadows scarf. I have made some headway with the second half, thanks to some train travelling yesterday (more of that later), but I still have almost 5 repeats left to knit, plus the grafting and blocking. It WILL be done by next weekend! My Rene jumper is also progressing. I'm almost at the armholes now. I love the cosy, dense fabric that's being created. But it doesn't look tremendously different to the last photo, so I'll save it for another blog post.

I have done some spinning over the last couple of weeks. I spun up the Cormo fibre that I received from Briar Rose Fibers. It was a delight to spin - really soft and very easy to draw the fibres. I decided to spin it as a single since I only had 1.5 ounces, and I have ended up with just over 300 metres. I'm thinking some sort of neck warmer at the moment. The colours are so deep and atmospheric, I love them.

I also received the second installment of the Fall in Full Color club. It's a wonderful springy yarn from Shalimar Yarns- a blend of sw merino, cashmere and silk. When I first saw the colourway, I wasn't bowled over by it - it's a mix of sage green and greeny yellow, called Hazel Leaf. Whilst I would probably never have picked it up in a yarn shop, it has grown on me, and I like the way it looks in the pattern - a pretty shawlette with a leaf motif. I think it's quite a good idea to try new yarns and colourways that might be out of my comfort zone, so I am looking forward to casting on, once Longshadows is finished. (I need the needles for this project too, haha!)

Anyway, here's the yarn. How do you like it?

Mr JK and I decided to take a trip to Cambridge yesterday. It's less than 3 hours away by train; much easier than driving to let the train take the strain! So before long I was all set up for the journey - knitting, tea and stroopwaffels!! I was delighted to spot these at the station!

We spent a most enjoyable day in Cambridge, doing lots of touristy things. First on the list was King's College.

It really is breathtaking when you step inside the chapel and look up. The roof is so, so high and has the largest fan vault ceiling in the world. It almost makes you dizzy just looking!

The chapel was started in the 15th century when Henry VI laid the first stone. The wooden screen which houses the organ was given by Henry VIII while he was married to Anne Boleyn, and their intials can be seen covering it.

I think the letters look more like an H and an R, but it must be the way the Tudors wrote their A's!! It's incredible to think that this screen has survived through so much history. I bet it has a good few tales it could tell!

If you listen to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve each year, you will know that it comes from King's College Chapel. I'd love to be there one year. People start queueing from very early on Christmas Eve. If you get in the queue much after 9am, you're unlikely to get a seat apparently! And it doesn't start until 3pm! That's a lot of waiting around on Christmas Eve when you could be peeling potatoes, stuffing the turkey and wrapping last minute presents!!

We got caught in a shower when we left the College, and sheltered under a tree by a bridge overlooking the River Cam. Some brave people were having a punt on the river! The rain was pouring down at this point, and we did feel sorry for the poor souls in the punt. They can't have seen much!!

Luckily the rain didn't last for very long, and the sun was soon shining once more. This was the courtyard of Gonville and Caius College. There was a huge wisteria in one corner that must look stunning in bloom.

The Colleges are all extremely well maintained with beautiful gardens and perfect lawns. The reason for that is that no-one is allowed to walk on the grass. And just in case tourists aren't sure, the message is loud and clear in a choice of languages!!

We also looked into the courtyard of Trinity College. There is a race held annually around the courtyard where competitors try to run the 341 metres around the courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12 o'clock. It inspired the film Chariots of Fire.

We also stuck our noses into the courtyard of Sidney Sussex College, so I could show Mr JK where I almost ended up! I had an interview for a place to study Natural Sciences many moons ago, but eventually took a place at Bath University instead. I think it would have been a great place to study (although Bath was a lovely city to be a student too!)

In between all our College visiting, we wandered around a couple of markets and visited a food festival on Parker's Piece. It was a great day out, and we both agreed that we'd have to do it again. Next time, Ely perhaps? It's another city close by that I've never been to.

Florence is fine, really settled. She doesn't seem to be missing Elsie too much, so we are not looking for another cat at the moment. She has become my office assistant! She is completely fascinated by the printer and as soon as it clicks into life, she is up on the desk with her snout right inside it!! I have no idea what could be so interesting for a little cat!

A minute or so before these photos were taken, she was fast asleep! And I mean fast asleep in pussycat dreamland, with little paws twitching. The printer started and wham! There she was up on the desk, a little bleary eyed to begin with, but desperate to lend a paw! She really is a funny cat!

The garden is still providing us with lots of lovely vegetables and fruit. Mr JK picked this little lot last weekend. On the menu this week is potato, courgette and cheddar soup, with soda bread. It sounds delicious. I'll report back next weekend.

It's certainly getting to that time of year when I need to have warming, hearty and wholesome food. There's a definite nip in the air, and it won't be long before I'm back in socks! The leaves on our copper beech tree are starting to turn too. Autumn is definitely here! I'll love you and leave you with a photo of one of our recent food discoveries - Greek lamb with orzo. It is completely yummilicious! We found the orzo pasta in our local supermarket. Go on, try it! We're going to make it with beef next time. Mmmmmmmmmm! XXX

It's Smoothie time again!

2011-09-11T09:30:00.001+01:00

A quick post today to show you this year's collection of little hats. This is the 4th year now that I've taken part in The Big Knit to raise money to help keep old people in the UK warm each winter. I started knitting these hats way back last October, with the aim of knitting one hat each week. (Thanks for the great idea Lynne!) Whilst not actually knitting one per week, rather knitting them in little bursts, I have managed to knit 52 hats. These little hats will be going on top of Innocent Smoothie bottles in Sainsbury's and Boots from November 23rd, and each behatted bottle sold raises 25p for a great cause. The forecasters are already predicting another cold winter, so the more hats that are knitted, the better! The deadline for posting hats is Friday 14th October, so there's still time to knit a few using up oddments in your stash. There are free patterns to download. I'm really impressed with some people's creativity - there are some pretty amazing hats over on Ravelry! Belinda and Betty kindly agreed to model this year's collection, so without further ado, I proudly present the 2011 Innocent Smoothie Hat Collection! Ta dah!! Which one is your favourite?!

I'll see you soon with an update on my Longshadows scarf. I might also have received the yarn for the next Fall in Full Color project, so I really need to get a wiggle on with this one! Crikey! Have a good week! xxx

Home Alone!

2011-09-06T18:28:00.001+01:00

Today was my first day back at work, so Florence was home alone for the day. This was what met me when I opened the front door.

A couple of steps further and more was revealed........

Where was Florence, I wondered? She was on her chair, somewhat tied up. At the weekend, we'd put a collar on her for the first time, and she wasn't impressed with it one little bit. Indeed, she gave Mr JK and I a 'look' that all cat owners will recognise - hurt indignation! Despite us telling her that the collar is her key to the outside world, as it will hold the magnet to get in and out of the cat flap, she shook herself, scratched at it and licked at it to try to remove it. Sometime today Flo had managed to get one of her front paws through the collar and was now stuck! She tried to blame it all on her little mouse. He tried to steal her bell, she said. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

But where was the soil from? It wasn't too long before I found out!

There was a pot of Aloe vera cuttings rooting on the landing window sill. I think Flo got herself in a tangle up there and knocked the pot off in the process! She couldn't have made a better mess if she'd tried! I set to with the Dyson and cleared it all up, with Flo shut in another room.

Sorry Mum!

Farewell to summer

2011-09-05T15:12:00.002+01:00

Hello! I'm making the most of the last day of my summer holiday. Officially schools in Norfolk went back today, with training days today and tomorrow. We worked today's hours one Sunday in July. How I moaned about having to go into school at a weekend then! But how I'm enjoying that final 'extra' day of holiday now!! It feels like an unexpected treat!

I have lots to share with you today, so I'll get cracking. When I returned from Germany at the start of August, I'd completed one each of two different pairs of socks. Well both socks now have partners! The first is a plain vanilla pair for one of my University friends, who requested a blue/green colourway. I think this Trekking yarn fits the bill perfectly, don't you?

The second finished pair is Roger by Anne Hanson. The yarn is Bugga!, quite simply, pure joy to knit with. Mr JK asked me who they were for once I'd finished them, pointing out that they were knit in 'his' colours!!! 'Paws off, Mr JK, these are mine, all mine!' It is a lovely pattern to knit, so I expect I'll knit him a pair too!

My Fall in Full Color project is coming along. I finished the first half of the Longshadows scarf a while ago, and need to cast on the 2nd half pretty urgently as before too long, the next project will be arriving! The photo isn't great, but I'd just rescued the scarf from Flo, who thought it ought to be her new blankie, and was kneading it with great urgency and a glazed expression!

I've been working on another test knit for Anne Hanson. It's a lovely cabled winter warmer of a knit - it could end up being a jumper or a cardigan. At the moment, I'm leaning towards a cardigan, but there's still time to change my mind! I'm using some Cascade 220 that I bought from Loop last Christmas. I'm about half way up the back now. This is what the pattern looks like.

I did some more dyeing over the weekend - two more skeins of superwash merino and nylon. The first colourway I've called Autumn Crackles. It's a lovely mix of autumnal shades.

The second skein I've called Midnight Sky. This could be the perfect yarn for a pair of Roger socks for Mr JK!

I've enjoyed my first real venture into yarn dyeing. It would be lovely to be able to dye some yarn to sell. One day, maybe!! Here are all four skeins that I've dyed so far - from the top we have Lagoon, Autumn Crackles, Midnight Sky and Chocolate Cherries.

I don't think I told you that I won a prize for my spinning in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry!! I was part of Team Superfleece, and I won a prize for the most yardage spun by a new spinner! My prize was a $30 gift certificate at Briar Rose Fibers. I chose two fibres that I've not had the chance to spin yet, some Wensleydale and some Cormo. The Wensleydale has quite a crimp to it, and feels quite wiry at the moment.

The Cormo fibre is very, very soft. I just love the dark, intense colours that Chris has used.

In fact, I've already started spinning up the Cormo, and the colours look fab! As there's only 1.5 ounces, I'm going to spin it up as a single and see what I can make with it. Maybe a neck warmer.

With school looming, I've been giving some thought to this term's Knitting Club projects. For the first half of term, we're going to knit squares to make into blankets to take to the cats' home. When we rehomed Florence and Elsie, they both came with their own hand-knit/crocheted blankies as a little bit of security. Elsie loved hers and would snuggle into it. I reckon that we ought to be able to knit a couple of blankies between us.

For after half term, I wanted a project that would be perfect for selling at the school Christmas Fair. So I've come up with a little Christmas tree, decorated with buttons, sequins and beads. I know, thinking about Christmas in September!!! But you have to plan ahead! It's a simple pattern (details on my Ravelry project page) but one that I think the children will enjoy.

Well, I think that I might go and make myself a mug of tea. Let me share with you last Monday's tea. Homemade crumpets, one day-old homemade raspberry jam and a pot of tea! Enjoy!! xxx

Dyeing to spin - part 2

2011-09-04T11:20:00.003+01:00

I left you with a braid of fibre to admire, didn't I?! Here's a quick reminder of how it looked, BFL fibre dyed with four flavours of Kool-Aid.

Split the fibre in half and then spin each half up as a single. I like to pre-draft the fibre a little bit to make it a little easier to spin. The cherry red colour seems particularly bright!!!

Ply the two singles together to make a 2-ply yarn. It's got quite a tweedy effect.

Wind the yarn into a skein using a niddy noddy. Tie yarn around the skein in four places to secure it. Then soak the yarn in warm water for at least 30 minutes until it's completely soaked through. Squeeze out the water gently by wrapping the skein in a towel. Be careful not to twist the fibres - you don't want to felt them.

Hang the skein up to dry. Give it a good tug to straighten it out. If the twist is very tight, you might need to weight it slightly. When it's dry, twist the skein up.

And there you have it, a beautiful skein of squishy yarn, all ready to knit!

Changes ........

2011-08-30T13:09:00.003+01:00

There have been more changes here in the josiekitten household, for the worse. We started off the summer holiday with 2 members, then went up to 4, and sadly now we are 3. Poor little Elsie had to be put to sleep today. We noticed at the weekend that she had been dribbling some blood, so made an appointment at the vets to get her checked out. It took both Mr JK and I to get her into her basket and she was completely stressed out. The vets did a blood test for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, and needed to sedate her in order to get the blood sample. That proved negative, which is good news for Florence, as it means it won't have been transmitted to her. However, when they looked inside her mouth it was in a terrible state, with lesions, gum inflammation, pus and blood clots. The vets agreed that there must be some other underlying condition to have caused this to develop so suddenly, and given that Elsie was so stressed out by any sort of handling, they advised us to have her put to sleep rather than to face a lifetime of treatment and trips to the vet. It's no wonder that she was so anti-social, she must have been feeling really rotten with her poor mouth. She was a sweetie though, and we did manage to have some lovely cuddles together. Sleep well Elsie. xxx

Purls by the Sea

2011-08-28T17:13:00.004+01:00

It isn't very often that you have a knitting exhibition right on your doorstep! So this week I paid a visit to The Belfry Arts Centre in Overstrand, on the North Norfolk coast. In the flier it says ....

'Often defined by the materials used to create it, yarn used in knitting is small and warm and soft and lacks the glamour and scale of other media. There is however excitement in the idea that complex three dimensional forms can be created from a single length of yarn and anything can be used for knitting as long as it has length and flexibility.'

Elizabeth Gaston (Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Design, University of Leeds)

I'd heard mixed reviews of the exhibition from members of my knitting group - some loved it and others hated it! So I was interested to see what was on offer. Knitting still has a very 'grannified' image in this country, so it was lovely to see such creativity on show. The exhibition is meant to be part of a celebration challenging the idea of knitting as a traditional domestic craft.

The centrepiece was a display of miniature fishermen's ganseys. Each of the one hundred represents locations key to the fishing industry along the coastline.

All the ganseys started out the same, and were decorated in a variety of ways. This was recorded on a label attached to each individual gansey, as you can see below.

There were some stunning fish, knit from wire. They were incredibly tactile, and looked fantastic hanging in a shoal.

There were a number of intricate 'pictures' on the walls that drew you in to examine them more closely.

There was a wall hanging that had been produced using contributions from both local and national knitters, as well as from workshops held during the exhibition. It was very bright and cheery! It's going to go on permanent display at the centre.

This little chap made me smile - I wonder where he is going to end up on the wall hanging?!

An awful lot of work has gone into putting on this exhibition, and I enjoyed looking around. I wonder if it has managed to change people's perceptions of knitting at all?!!

Dyeing to spin - part 1

2011-08-25T15:48:00.002+01:00

I've been having fun in the kitchen this week, playing around with dyes. There's nothing complicated about these dyes though, they are Kool-Aid dyes, made using the powdered fruit drink from America. I was sent loads of sachets of different flavours in a Ravelry swap, and decided to try dyeing some fibre. So if you'd like to try dyeing either some yarn or fibre, using Kool-Aid, here's how to do it!

First, get your fibre. I used Blue Faced Leicester fibre and weighed out about 100g.

Soak the fibre for at least 30 minutes in warm water. Add a squirt of washing up liquid.

While it's soaking, choose the colours of Kool-Aid you want to use. You can buy Kool-Aid here. And if you look here, you can see what colours you get from the different flavours. I chose pink grapefruit, cherry, grape and tropical punch. Mix the powders up with a little warm water. You can make the colours more or less intense by changing the amount of water you add. Mine was a bit trial and error!!

Lay out the wet 'sausage' of fibre on a table or worktop, on top of cling film. This cling film will wrap around the fibre once it's been dyed. The Kool-Aid will stain so wipe up any spills straight away!

Apply the dyes to the fibre. I used a separate syringe for each colour. Make sure that the dye penetrates right through the fibre so that there is no undyed fibre left. You might find it useful to wear some rubber gloves for this. Where two colours meet, blend them together.

Roll the cling film up around the fibre and place it in a microwaveable container. Make sure that the steam can escape from your container. I made some holes in the lid of mine. Microwave on medium power for about 5 minutes. Make sure that your yarn doesn't dry out.

When it's dyed, the residual liquid in the container should be pretty clear. If you need to, microwave for a further 5 minutes. Allow to cool and then rinse in warm water. If you use water that's too cold, you might end up felting your fibre! Hang up and allow to dry.

When it's dry, make it into a braid.

Coil up your braid so that you can admire it in all its beauty! It is now ready to be spun!

Come back soon and I'll show you how it looks when it's spun! Byeeeeee! xxx

Spinning a yarn

2011-08-22T15:40:00.003+01:00

Me again! I wanted to show you the yarn I've been busy spinning. I was browsing on Etsy one day when I came across Hedgehog Fibres. The colours in the fibre were just beautiful, so I decided to buy three braids with the intention of spinning up enough yarn to knit something other than a scarf! I chose Corriedale, as it was a fibre that I'd not spun before. I spun up the first braid during the Tour de Fleece, and then spun the remaining two after returning from holiday. I Navajo-plied them this week, and have ended up with about 600 metres of sport weight yarn. Sadly, I don't think that I've got enough yarn to knit this, so I'm on the lookout for another pattern. Any suggestions? Please let me know if you have seen the perfect pattern! See you soon! xxx

Dabbling with dyes

2011-08-21T17:18:00.003+01:00

Hello there! A quick post to share with you my first efforts at dyeing. When I was at Knit Nation, I watched Helen Deighan demonstrating how to dye yarn using the microwave. It looked so straightforward, that snoopydog and I both decided we'd buy some dyes and give it a go. The first difficult decision came in choosing what colours to go for. Helen had helpfully made up a huge swatch to show the effect of mixing two colours together. Basically, if you take a swatch from the top (or bottom) and one from the side, where they meet shows the colours you'll get.

I chose plum, stone, autumn sky, sage and turmeric. It really was very easy to do, and no mess either, which can't be bad. I'd actually put on my scruffiest clothes that day and was dreading someone coming to the door!! I dyed one skein using autumn sky and sage, and the second using plum and stone. Here are the results! Ta-dah!!!!!!!

The bluey-green one I've called Lagoon and the plum and brown one is Chocolate Cherries. I think they look quite nice, of course the proof of the pudding will be the eating, or in this case, the knitting. They might pool terribly! We shall see! I have some other dyes that I'll have a little play around with this week. I'll be back tomorrow to show you some spinning! Bye! xxx

Delicious squishiness ... by post!

2011-08-19T14:32:00.002+01:00

Good afternoon! I can't believe that this is the fourth week of the school holidays! The days are just whooshing by. I'm trying to put of the moment when I have to think about school again, by filling my days with yarn-related things. Today I'd like to share with you the contents of two squishy parcels that I've received recently.

The first is from Melissa. She was my swap partner in a recent Ravelry swap. We decided that we'd like to do an additional swap between ourselves. I was very excited when the postman delivered this little lot on Wednesday!

There were three different yarns - a skein of Bugga! in beautiful, vibrant greens, a skein of merino and cashmere yarn from the Plucky Knitter in more muted greens. I haven't come across this yarn before - it feels gorgeous! There were also two skeins of Shepherd's Wool in royal blue. As well as the yarn, there were lots of extra goodies packed in! These gift labels made me laugh - I wonder who will be the recipient of one?!!

I love these yarny earrings too - each one is made from a mini-skein of Bugga! yarn. They could be my 'emergency yarn' earrings!

There were lots of other wonderful gifts - teas, lip balm, soap, needle holders, sweets and a magnetic pattern marker. It really was a lovely parcel, thank you very much Melissa. I hope you like your parcel too!

The second parcel actually arrived just over a week ago, but I have held back from showing you until now. The reason is that it was the first parcel from the Fall in Full Color club run by Knitspot, and US parcels were only posted this week. Everyone ought to have received theirs by now though, and the pattern was released on Monday, so I think I'm safe to share!! There was a project bag (which you've already seen!) along with a skein of Nona yarn from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. The yarn is 50% merino, 25% cashmere and 25% Bombyx silk, in a beautiful bluey-purple colourway called Autumn Aurora.

The pattern was released on Monday. I kept logging into my account throughout the day, and finally in the evening, the link to the pattern came up. It's a beautiful lacy scarf with a leaf motif. It's knit in two halves and then grafted together. So far I have done almost five repeats. It's a lovely rhythmical pattern, and the yarn is a sheer delight to knit with - it is so soft and buttery! I'm afraid that I am turning into rather a yarn snob!! Here's how it looked after three repeats.

Isn't it gorgeous?! Here's a close up of the leaf motif.

The pattern was included as part of a 26 page download all about the design, the yarn, and how the project came into being. It was rather like an extension of the Knitspot blog, which is one of my favourites. If this is the first month's treat, I can't wait to see what's in store for us over the coming months! I shall leave you for today, as I have a VERY needy cat sat right by me. Florence is very demanding of human attention when she's awake, wanting you to play with her and stroke her. Elsie, on the other hand, is still keeping her distance! I'll be back very soon with some dyeing and spinning adventures to share! Bye for now. xxx

Just chilling

2011-08-14T15:45:00.005+01:00

Well, since we last chatted, the cats have pretty much dominated the goings on in the josiekitten household. Florence is such a friendly little cat. One of her favourite occupations at the moment is looking out of the window 'chattering' to the birds. I think she is looking forward to the day when she is allowed to set paw outside. She and Elsie get on really well most of the time, spending a lot of their day curled up together. Elsie is getting braver each day, and will allow me to stroke her. But she hasn't initiated the contact herself yet. I can't wait for the day when she comes to me for a snuggle. As Elsie has become more confident, they have begun playing together too, and Elsie is certainly able to give as good as she gets!! Just take a look at this photo - double trouble!!

I've had two squishy parcels in the post this week. One is the first shipment of yarn from the Fall in Full Color club run by Knitspot. The pattern gets released tomorrow, and I've wound my yarn into a nice fat cake. I just managed to avoid a near yarn disaster when my yarn got tangled round the teeth of the winder. Luckily I was almost at the end of the yarn so was able to pull it all through to sort out the tangle. Phew! Imagine having to cut it!! The yarn is absolutely beautiful, I can't wait to show you. But I am going to wait until later in the week, when all the yarn has been shipped out, just in case I spoil anyone's surprise. I will just show you the lovely 'extra' that was included in this month's parcel - a pretty project bag. Here it is, all ready to rock and roll, with the yarn snuggled inside. No peeking in now!!

My second squishy parcel came from my Ravelry friend Cathy. We have been swapping the last couple of years, and it's always fun sorting out some goodies for her. Just look at what I unwrapped!

Some beautiful fibre from SweetGeorgia Yarns. It's a mixture of merino, bamboo and nylon in a rich red colourway, Pomegranate. I'm going to try and spin enough for a pair of socks. There were also 4 mini-skeins of yarn from the Unique Sheep. It's a gradiance set, with the colours changing from fresh green to soft blue. I'm not sure if they will become socks or a shawlette at the moment. This photo shows off the colour changes perfectly.

Cathy then really spoilt me with a beautiful project bag, embroidered with little sheep. It's really cute, and will have a project in it before very long! Take a closer look at one of those sheep.

I have knit a few more Innocent Smoothie hats this week. I think I have another 9 to go before reaching my target of 52, one for each week of the year. Betty is modelling most of the hats this week, as she'd complained that Belinda had done more that her! Honestly!! Fussy or what?!

I have managed to finish spinning some Corriedale fibre this week. I spun the first braid during the Tour de Fleece, and have spun the other two braids since returning from Germany. This is how the fibre looked.............

.... and here's how it looks spun up as singles.

It's from Hedgehog fibres, and I just love the colourways. I'm planning to Navajo-ply the yarn, to try and get some reasonably long colour runs, and if I have enough yarn, then the plan is to make this! If you look through the projects on Ravelry, you'll see some gorgeous hand-spun versions.

I've been busy knitting the two remaining socks currently on the needles, so fingers crossed I will be able to show you two completed pairs next time. I have also been right through my stash and checked that it is all ziplocked away safely. There's an awful lot of it, but at least it's insulating the house! Hahaha, that's what I shall be telling Mr JK anyway!! See you soon! xxx

And there was some knitting too!

2011-08-09T17:18:00.004+01:00

I had a profitable knitting time in Germany. We did a lot of autobahn driving to get from Hook van Holland and back via Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Delft. So I knew that I would need plenty of knitting to keep my mind off the speed that we were travelling. German autobahns generally have no speed limit, so it can be seriously scary. Mr JK was happy to drive, with me (and TomTom) acting as navigator. So I got a lot done! The faster he drove, the faster I knit!! Or at least that was how it seemed to me!

I finished a pair of Tesserae socks, knitted in sparkly purple yarn that I received from a dear Ravelry friend, Julia. The yarn is very, very pretty. Almost too pretty to be hidden away inside shoes. But luckily I have a little bit spare for my sock yarn blankie.

You can see the sparkly wool a little better in this photo. I've called them my Twinkletoes Tesserae socks!

I finished the second pair of socks for my University friends. We meet up once a year, and last year they all put in a request for a pair of socks! This pair is made using a Regia Design Line yarn. I have gone for easy care socks, as I'm not sure that they would be willing to handwash them!! But the yarn looks and feels great!

I have until early November to make two more pairs. But I've actually made a start on pair number three, this time using a Trekking yarn. The pattern is my favourite plain sock pattern using the Violet Green sock generator. I've knit the first sock and am almost at the heel of the second.

I've also been knitting another Anne Hanson sock, this time Roger using the skein of Bugga! yarn sent to me by another dear friend Kim. It really is one of the most gorgeous, luxurious yarns I've knit with. My feet are really going to be pampered when I wear them! The colour way is called Fairy Wren, and is very soft.

Finally, I finished the test knit I was doing for Anne Hanson - the Almost Ovals scarf. I used a skein of laceweight yarn from Fibre-Isle, Kami Bison. Unfortunately I don't think the company is still in business which is a real shame as the yarn was a delight to knit with. I did 16 repeats of the pattern (I knit until I was almost out of yarn!) and after blocking, it measured 60" long and 10" wide. It is feather-light, and is going to provide a lovely warm layer for chilly autumn days.

I think that this pattern would look great in a chunkier weight yarn as well. I might have to make myself another version for winter. A girl can never have too many scarves!!

So, that pretty much brings you up to date with my knitting. I have a squishy parcel to share with you, but I'll keep that for another time! A quick cat update for you. Elsie is getting braver by the day. She let me stroke her while she was sat on the chair today. Up 'til now, she's seen me approaching and hidden!! She and Florence have spent lots of time today cuddled up together. So sweet! See you soon! xxx

Cat news

2011-08-07T18:07:00.002+01:00

We have some progress! I took this photo today! Elsie has emerged from underneath her chair and has taken up residence on top. She is still extremely wary of us, but she has stayed on the chair as we have come in and out of the room.

She has also played with us a little bit, grabbing at a fleecy string. (This was Henrycat's favourite toy, and Elsie and Flo seem to have taken a shine to it too!) The next breakthrough will be when she actually comes to us for a fuss.

Florence on the other hand is one extremely chilled out little cat! She has settled down so well, and is very relaxed around us already.

I'll be back very soon with an update on all my holiday knitting so far. There has been plenty, but the new arrivals seem to have taken precedence over yarny news. I'm on 'postie-stalking' duty too, as the first parcel from the Fall in Full Color club is due any day now. What excitement! See you very soon! xxx

And now we are four!

2011-08-04T12:44:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone! My name's Florence and I've come to tell you how Elsie and I are settling in with Mummy and Daddy Josiekitten. Everything was a bit strange and scary to start with, but I was very brave and before long, I began exploring my new home. There are lots of comfortable places for me to sleep, as well as my own basket. I like this chair in particular.

I've also been taking a look out at the garden - that looks like an exciting place to be too! I managed to fit on the window sill quite nicely, and only knocked off one ornament!!!

The stairs are quite a comfy place to flop down after I've been playing. I like running up and down them very fast!

We've got lots of toys to play with too. I haven't quite decided which is my favourite yet. I gave my Mum a fright when I disappeared up the chimney, but I did come back down again. I've looked in almost every corner of the house, and found lots of cobwebs. I think my Mum needs to do some cleaning!!!

Elsie is being more of a scaredy-cat than me, and she prefers to stay hidden away. She doesn't know what she's missing!

She is getting a little bit braver, because today she came out of our bedroom all by herself. Then she hid behind a chair!

I do hope it won't be long before we are able to play together. I've got lots of exciting things to show her in our new home. I just know we're going to love it here!

Before I go, there's something that's puzzling me. I wonder if you might be able to help? My Mum spends lots of time sitting with little pointy sticks and a big ball of what looks like string to me. I think it's some wonderful cat toy that she's making for us both. What fun we shall have!! Miaow for now! Florence. xxxx

Two have fun in Germany!

2011-08-02T11:16:00.004+01:00

Cooey! I'm back! Did you miss me?! Mr JK and I returned home yesterday after a week spent travelling round Germany. We had a great time, catching up with friends and family. We started off the week near Frankfurt, in the small town of Nidda, staying with our dear friends Andrea and Wolfgang. There was plenty of time to relax and have fun together, as well as take in some of the local sights. We visited the town of Weilburg, where there is the largest (only?) display of terracotta warriors outside of China. These are copies of the original statues, but nonetheless, the display of 320 warriors was very impressive.

The original terracotta army are all individual and no face is like any other. Here, however, we were able to spot twins, triplets and even quads!!

We then visited the schloss at Weilburg, perched at the top of the town. The gardens in particular were just beautiful; borders were crammed full of brightly coloured plants and flowers.

There were several gardens on different levels, containing flowers, fruits and vegetables. I loved the vibrancy of the planting, and it really brightened up a somewhat dreary day.

The main square was typical of many that we saw during the week - beautiful, ornate facades overlooking the central marketplace.

We then drove to the town of Bad Nauheim where Elvis Presley was stationed between 1958 and 1960.

There was a lovely park nearby where we had a stroll around. The park was full of people spending time together. Shops are shut on Sundays in Germany, giving family time instead. There was an area of wild flower meadow which was just stunning.

The next day we caught the train into Frankurt. It's the financial centre of Germany and the skyline reflects this, with many impressive highrise buildings. We went up to the top of the Main Tower. At 200 metres tall, it's the 4th highest skyscraper in Frankfurt. The lift had a little screen to show your progress up and down the 59 floors!

The views from the top were spectacular. You can see the old part of Franfurt in this photo......

..... and in the other direction, the business part of the city.

We said our farewells to Andrea and Wolfgang, and set off for southern Germany, to the city of Munich. We were staying with Alexa, who was married to Mr JK's cousin. She was very keen for us to see some of the beautiful scenery to the south of Munich, so we went down to Chiemsee, a lake in southern Bavaria. We took a boat trip to visit two of the islands on the lake. The weather was just perfect! Sun, blue sky, fluffy clouds and the mountains in the distance. Bliss!

First stop was Herreninsel, where we visited a castle built by Konig Ludwig II. The palace and gardens were built in the style of the palace of Versailles, and there was a really fun fountain there.

There were a variety of animals all spurting water! I liked the frogs in particular.

A short boat trip took us to the Fraueninsel, where there is a Benedictine Nunnery. We ate lunch there and wandered around the island, visiting the local artisans.

The following day we went to the Botanical gardens. It's a beautiful place, a haven of peace in the middle of a busy city.

I especially enjoyed the lily house, although it was extremely hot inside! The lilies were just amazing!

Driving through the city, we went past the Olympic stadium, still very much in use 40 years on. I wonder if the same will happen with the London 2012 development?! We went to a biergarten in the Englischer garten for lunch. Mr JK had roast pork and fried potatoes while I sampled the sausage goulash, again with fried potatoes. Yum yum! And of course, I found time to sample some of the delicious German cakes and pastries - here we have poppyseed cake, plum streusel and butterkuchen. Mine, all mine!!!

We left Munich and headed northwest to the city of Cologne. The Dom certainly does dominate the city, and the square around it was always packed with visitors.

It really was huge, and we visited it twice, just to try and take it all in. I especially liked one of the stained glass windows. It reminded me of Elmer the patchwork elephant!

There was time to try out the local beer, Kolsch, too! It was rather refreshing. The beer didn't really have a pink froth on the top! That's just the reflection from the sun umbrella over our table!

I know you're wondering, and yes! I did manage to find a yarn shop! Maschenkunst was a small but packed shop near the Dom. I was very restrained, and bought some Regia sock yarn in red, black and yellow to make Mr JK another pair of stripy German socks! I liked the knitted cake in the window.

We visited a museum of chocolate in Cologne (tough job I know, but someone has to do it!!) As well as information about the history of chocolate, there was also a working factory taking you through the process of making chocolate bars and truffles. There was an impressive chocolate fountain, fenced off fortunately or else I might have had to be forcibly restrained by Mr JK! Just look at all this delicious, sweet chocolate. It reminds me of the Vicar of Dibley sketch where Geraldine sticks her head inside the chocolate fountain! How unladylike! Of course I wasn't tempted to do that!! Hahaha!

I refreshed myself in the 4711 fountain at the Eau de Cologne shop. I can remember my Mum having a small bottle when I was a child.

Oh, and then there was time for more cake! This time with hot chocolate! Nom nom nom. This one had rhubarb (so at least I was getting some fruit!!!)

We left Cologne and drove back towards Hoek van Holland where we would catch the ferry back to the UK. We decided to stop off in Delft, a town we had wanted to visit during one of our many weekends in Amsterdam. What a lovely place it was. The centre is typically Dutch with its canals and we took a short boat trip around to get a feel for the place.

Delft is famous for its blue and white pottery, and you could find small pieces of Delftware amongst the paving stones.

We visited a museum about the painter Vermeer which was very interesting. He used light in his work to great effect. Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of his more famous works of art. A visit to the Netherlands wouldn't be complete without sampling a Dutch pancake and Dutch apple pie. Oh dear, my poor waistline!!

Plenty of knitting was done too during the week, but I'll tell you all about that in another post. I needed to do something while Mr JK was driving on the German autobahns to take my mind of the fact that there's no speed limit!! Scary!!

And now, we're back home in Norfolk, but the difference is, before we went away there were only two of us, and now, there's four!! Apologies for the rather dark photo, but Elsie and Florence have arrived!! I'll be back very soon to tell you how they're settling in! Bye! xxx

Knit Nation 2011

2011-07-21T06:23:00.005+01:00

I know, I know, I promised a blog post after Knit Nation, and it's taken me ages to do it! Sorry! Work has got in the way, plus the fact that I have a million and one things to do before we set off for our holiday after work tomorrow.

Where to begin? Well, I set off last Friday after school to meet up with my dear friend snoopydog and we travelled down to London on the train. There was much chatting and knitting, and before we knew it, we were passing the Olympic stadium in Stratford and we'd arrived! Everything went smoothly, and before long, we'd arrived at our room in Imperial college (student accommodation has certainly improved since I was at university!) We headed to the student bar for a bite to eat, bumping into Minniemoll en route. Pizza was the order of the day, and after food, we headed back for an earlyish night. We knew we'd need all our energy for the marketplace the next day!!

And how right we were!! We headed straight to the registration desk before breakfast, where I had a quick chat with Alice, picked up our student passes and Knit Nation bags,

and fortified ourselves with breakfast! I usually have a bowl of porridge at home, but managed to polish off a plate of sausage, bacon, scrambled egg, beans and mushrooms, as well as a bowl of fruit!! Oink Oink! We kept spotting familiar faces from Ravelry ravatars which was a lot of fun! The canteen was full of knitters, all sporting their 'best' handknits. We had decided against it, remembering the heat of the marketplace last year!
A crowd was gathering around the entrance to the marketplace just before 10 o'clock, so we went to join them. I spotted Lily and her Mum, Amanda, so went to say a quick hello. Then the doors opened and the shopping began!!

Although many of the traders were the same as last year, both Snoops and I had a different focus to our yarn buying. Last year, bright multi-colours were in, whereas this year, we were both looking for semi-solids!! Isn't it strange how your tastes change? I went for shades of purple while Snoops went for shades of blue. Wanna see what I bought?!

Yarn from Old Maiden Aunt, Nimu Yarns, The Natural Dye Studio, Madeline Tosh and Socktopus! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!! (It's not all for me, some is for swaps!!) Mostly fingering weight, with a couple of skeins of laceweight thrown in for good measure!

Fibre from Juno Fibre Arts. Two braids of alpaca and merino, one braid of angora and tussah in the colourway 'kitten' (so, so soft!) and two braids of silk.

Stitch markers, highlighter tape and dyes! I have some skeins of undyed yarn in the depths of my stash, and have been wanting to have a dabble with dyeing for ages!

The market place was busy and trading was brisk! There were so many lovely yarns that I could have bought, but I had to (try to) be sensible! You may think that I failed abysmally, looking at my purchases! We broke up the shopping with a lunch break in the knit tea salon, where Ysolda had her photo booth. You could also try on various of her designs from Little Red in the City. Everywhere you looked, there were people knitting! I thought that there were more young people there this year, which was great to see. Anything to rid knitting of its 'granny' image. Here's a little taster of the marketplace. There are loads more photos on my Flickr page here!

On Saturday evening, we met up with the Norfolk contingent of the Fall in Full Color club run by Anne Hanson. It was great to put faces to our Ravelry friends Janet and Gina, and we were delighted when Anne Hanson herself asked if she could join us for the evening!

The event was all in aid of Refuge, and there were some amazing yarny prizes. The vendors, designers and Ravellers had all been exceedlingly generous. Sadly none of the prizes came our way, but it was lovely to see Lily winning a shawl handknit by Anne. Here they are together.

The next day, Snoops and I were up at the crack of dawn to get packed and ready for an all day sock design class with Cookie A. She went through the basics of top down sock design, giving us lots of things to think about as we chose our stitch patterns. I had a seed of an idea in my head, but couldn't find the exact pattern I was looking for. Mia had a stich-a-day calendar, and found this pattern for me.

It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I used it as a starting point. It hadn't been charted, and as Cookie is a great advocate of charts, we had to chart out the design first. I showed my complete ineptitude with charts by forgetting that I'd be knitting it in the round, so my chart had alternate knit and purl rows! Duh! But I did a little swatch of the pattern.

The speed that some people knitted at was amazing. Mia knit continental, and it was like watching a machine. She had the cuff done in no time at all! At the end of the class, Cookie talked about each sock, and problems we were likely to face when dividing for the heel.

I shall play around with my pattern once the school holidays start, and then show you how it's coming along! It was such a fantastic weekend. We came home exhausted but happy! There isn't going to be a Knit Nation in 2012 because of the London Olympics, but fingers crossed it will be back in 2013. At least it'll give me a couple of years to knit up this year's (and last year's) purchases!!!!

I am off on my holidays after work tomorrow. Mr JK and I shall be spending just over a week travelling around Germany (I have plenty of plain socks to knit!), and on our return, we'll be fetching Elsie and Florence! I can't wait!! See you in a week! Have a good one! xxx

Tour de Fleece - week 1

2011-07-10T07:57:00.003+01:00

A very quick post this morning, because, would you believe it, I have to go into school for an all day planning meeting!! (I feel decidedly grumpy about it now, but won't when I have the holidays free!)

I've been busy spinning this week as I've joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry. I'm in Team Superfleece, and am having a lot of fun. It's a laid back group, so there's no presssure on the spinning.

I started the week with some BFL fibre from Abstract Fiber. It was part of my amazing swap parcel from Kim. The colourway is ink, and it's a beautiful mix of deep purples. I ended up with about 300 metres of fingering weight yarn, so enough to knit a small shawl. I'm thinking about a beaded Les Abeilles.

Then I moved onto some fibre from SpinningAwesomeGood, a mix of BFL and Tussah silk. It really was incredibly soft and a delight to spin with. I was excited to see how it would come out when plied, it's always rather a magical moment to see what colour combinations emerge during the plying. I spun it into another fingering weight yarn, this time 310 metres. Not too sure quite what I'll knit with it - probably a scarf or shawl!

The last fibre I've been spinning is 100% alpaca from Colourful Designs. It was quite hairy to spin. I split the fibre in half, and spun one half as it was. The second half I split into smaller lengths to increase the number of colour changes. You can see what I mean from this photo.

It's plied now, and I've got about 280 metres of fingering-ish yarn! I love the different colour combinations from the plying, don't you?

I'm going to be working on three braids of Corriedale fibre this week, and I'm going to see if I can add a little more twist. I'll show you later in the week how it's going!

Finally, a couple more photos of the 'girls'. We went to see Florence and Elsie again yesterday. When we arrived, they were both snuggled up together.

Florence was an extremely purry, affectionate little cat this time, and I don't think she is going to have any problems settling down when she comes to live with us.

Elsie was more relaxed with us this time, although still quite timid, but we did manage to get a teensy purr from her by the time we left.

Mr JK is on cat visiting duties next weekend whilst I'm at Knit Nation with Snoopydog! You can expect a full report on all knitterly proceedings when we return! See you! xxx

A nice cup of tea

2011-07-09T11:23:00.005+01:00

The British love their tea. It is the solution to any crisis. I'm a huge fan of the humble cuppa. I would probably say that it is my favourite drink. We have a large selection of mugs here in the josiekitten household, lots of them cat-related! Some bigger, some smaller, some chunky, some more delicate. But each is just perfect for a mug of tea. I like Yorkshire tea, (milk, no sugar!) and drink it piping hot. I usually use teabags straight in the mug, but we do sometime brew up a pot, in which case, a tea cosy is required to keep the teapot nice and snug.

This tea cosy belonged to my parents, and was used everyday as far back as I can remember. It's a bit felted, and tea-stained, but I love it! It's full of memories of tea time, when we all sat round the kitchen table and had a proper tea every day of sandwiches and cake.

If all this talk of tea has you reaching out for the kettle, why not go one step further? Marie Curie Cancer Care are asking people to hold Blooming Great Tea Parties to raise money for Marie Curie nurses. They do a fantastic job providing free care for people with terminal cancer and other illnesses. What could be better than drinking tea and eating cake with friends and raising money at the same time? It's a win-win situation!

Simply Knitting magazine have got together with Marie Curie Cancer Care and come up with a competition to knit a tea cosy for their Blooming Great Tea Party teapot. It's a large, flat cardboard prop that is travelling around the country, visiting various tea parties. There is a great prize for the winning tea cosy too. So why not gather together your knitting friends and drink tea, eat cake and knit, all for a great cause. I'm going to see whether my knitting group are interested - it should be loads of fun, and we already drink tea and eat cake each time we meet, so we're almost there!!!

Here come the girls!

2011-07-03T14:47:00.002+01:00

Lots to show and tell you about today, great excitement in the josiekitten household! We went to visit our 'girls' again today. In a month's time, when we get back from our holiday, they'll be coming to live with us. They were both rather timid to begin with, but by the time we left, Florence, who is 10 months old, was much more relaxed, and almost on the point of purring!

Elsie, who is 6 months old, was less sure of us, and was still all big-eyed and wary when we left her. Hopefully, she'll remember us when we go back next weekend. We can't wait until they're properly ours!

I followed Minniemoll's suggestion for using the Noro sock yarn and knit another sample sock for my LYS, this time knitting from both ends of the ball, knitting 2 rows from one end and then 2 from the other end. If I got a colour combination that I didn't like, I simply wound that section of yarn out! I also used a larger needle to see how the knitted fabric felt. It was much softer and less dense than on the other sock.

I also finished my Ishbel shawl. To say I am pleased with it is somewhat of an understatement! I am so chuffed with myself, it's quite ridiculous!! It's knit using some yarn that I spun from The Thylacine - a blend of 70% Blue Faced Leicester and 30% silk, and I just love how it turned out! I added beads using the crochet hook method for the last two sections of the chart, and they just finish it off perfectly. I've made it as a gift for Alexa - we shall be staying with her when we are in Munich in a couple of weeks time. It's going to be hard to say good bye to it, but I know it's going to a good home!

I had a tiny amount left over - enough for an Innocent smoothie hat and maybe a sock yarn blankie square. Belinda insisted on modelling this one, and was most put out that I hadn't added any beads to it!

The Tour de Fleece began yesterday, so I've been busy spinning. I've spun up the fibre that Kim sent me recently - it's a beautiful deep inky purple colour. I've still got to skein it, so you'll have to make do with a photo of one of the singles. I'll show you how the finished skein looks later this week.

The garden is getting into full swing now. We have eaten almost all the broad beans, and are currently enjoying peas, mangetout and cucumbers. Mr JK picked the first tomato today, so it won't be long before I'm taking handfuls to school in my lunch box. Yum! He also picked the blackcurrants yesterday, and is making blackcurrant wine out of them! They just look like little jewels, don't they?

We are enjoying a little tub of flowers in the garden. A few years ago, on a trip to Ireland, we bought a packet of Irish wild flower seeds. Mr JK found the packet kicking around the shed, and sowed them, just to see what would happen. There has been a delightful mix of pretty flowers for the past week. Poppies, cornflowers, plus many more that I recognise but am ashamed to say I don't know their names.

I'll leave you for now with a photo of a visitor to the garden - a hedgehog! We're not sure if he is residing chez josiekitten, or was just passing through. We'll keep an eye open for him this week and I'll let you know if there are any more sightings! Have a good week, and I'll see you soon! xxx

The wheel's still turning.....

2011-06-29T15:15:00.003+01:00

A quick mid-week post on a spinning theme. Last week I took my class to Kentwell Hall in Long Melford, Suffolk, to take part in a Tudor recreation. We all had to dress up as Tudors (Mr JK called me his wench!!) and we spent almost five hours meeting different Tudor characters who told us what life was like in 1553. It was a fascinating day. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it, completely immersed in history. Such a fantastic way to learn through living history.

One of my favourite parts was seeing the wool workers! Back in Tudor times, Norfolk and Suffolk were both wealthy counties because of their wool trade. One lady was spinning on a very simple spinning wheel. She was spinning rolags and was drafting the wool out over an amazing length as you can see in this photo. Her other hand was turning the wheel - there was no foot treadle. Her spun yarn was really fine too. Obviously a real expert.

Another Tudor lady was spinning using a drop spindle. I was surprised how small the spindles were compared with the ones we use today.

The children were fascinated by the colours that could be achieved using natural dyes. The two balls of yarn in this picture were both dyed with ivy berries picked at different times of the year.

As well as ivy, other plants were used - woad for blue, madder for red and weld for yellow. The colours were really beautiful.

I liked the sentiment of the spinners' banner - 'toujours tournant' or always turning.

From this coming Saturday, I hope that my spinning wheel is going to be always turning, as the Tour de Fleece gets underway. I've joined Team Superfleece on Ravelry. It seems like a nice relaxed group. I've set myself a couple of spinning targets for the TDF. Firstly, I have 375g of Corriedale fibre from Hedgehog fibres. The colourway is just beautiful, and I'd like to spin enough yardage to actually make something bigger than a scarf!

If all goes well, I have some more fibre ready for spinning. Pop back at the weekend to see how I'm getting on! xxx

More knitting time at last!

2011-06-26T16:35:00.002+01:00

Good afternoon! I'm celebrating the fact that I've finished writing my school reports! Unless you're a teacher, you won't appreciate the huge weight that has suddenly gone from my shoulders! So I've had a completely chilled-out weekend, indulging myself with plenty of knitting time. This weekend I was supposed to be going to Woolfest, but decided not to, partly because of the distance, and also with Knit Nation looming, I need to save my pennies!!

I have been rather lax in keeping up to date with my Innocent Smoothie hats. So I have ten to share with you now! Ooops! At least the campaign has been confirmed again for this year now, and I don't have to sneak into Sainsbury's and start yarn bombing the smoothie bottles!

I finished knitting the sock sample for my LYS. I knit rpm from Knitty, and I think it shows off the wonderful colour changes in the Noro yarn really well. I couldn't decide what size needles to use, so looked on Ravelry and went with the most popular choice - 2.5mm. That is thinner than the recommended needle size for the yarn, and the fabric has come out quite thick and dense. I think I might knit another plain sock on a larger size needle to see how different it feels.

I have been doing some test-knitting for Anne Hanson this week too. She's currently working on a lacy scarf, and I've loved the pattern ever since she first starting blogging about it. Until I received a copy of the pattern, I assumed that it was all cabled, but the pattern is done simply by decreasing. Anne is a genius! Here's how it's looking so far with three pattern repeats.

Can you see why I made the mistake of thinking it was cabled? It is such a pretty design. I'm using a skein of Fibre-Isle Kami Bison that I receieved in a swap from Cathy in Canada.

I've started working on my handspun Ishbel again today, and can't believe how simple I am finding it! It just shows how far my lace knitting skills have moved on in the last few weeks. I even had it as car knitting today. I'm whizzing through the charts, so should have a finished shawl to show you next week.

I received the most wonderful parcel this week from my dear friend Kim. We were swap partners for the first official swap in the Fall in Full Color Clubhouse, and hit it off straight away. We decided to do our own unofficial swap, and Kim's parcel arrived on Monday. Oh. My. Goodness. Where to begin?! Kim totally spoilt me with some absolutely beautiful yarns - Bugga, Briar Rose Sea Pearl, Spirit Trail, Periwinkle sheep, plus some BFL fibre to spin. As well as the yarn, there was plenty of chocolate, a pot of Woolen Rabbit handcream, some artisan soaps and some incredibly useful highlighter tape. In fact, I don't know how I've surived without it until now!!!! Just take a look at this little lot and drool!! Thank you so much Kim, you have been so generous.

Kim received my parcel on Friday, and she loved what I sent her too - some sparkly Posh yarn, a skein of Sokkusu merino and cashmere, and some yarn from Juno Fibre arts. Plus soaps, ceramic buttons and assorted chocolate and an introduction to Granny Wobbly's fudge!!

We have decided to do another swap later in the year, so I shall be on the lookout for some delicious yarns when I'm at Knit Nation. The second swap is now underway in the Clubhouse, and I've got my parcel all sorted out for my partner Melissa. I'll share it with you later.

It's less than a week now until the Tour de Fleece starts. I'm going to sort out some fibre in the next couple of days to set myself some sort of (hopefully achievable) spinning target. I'll pop back in the week and show you what I'm planning! See you soon! xxx

At long last - some knitting!

2011-06-19T12:49:00.003+01:00

Hello there! It seems like ages since I actually talked yarny-stuff with you! But the knitting needles in the josiekitten household haven't been laying idle - far from it! I have some finished knits for your delectation and delight!

Firstly, my Spriteling shawl. I can't say that hand on heart, I really enjoyed knitting this. I am still such a novice lace knitter that nothing came intuitively to me as I was knitting. If I made a mistake (and believe me, I made plenty!), I didn't spot it until my stitch count was out a couple of rows later! So there was much frogging and reknitting, frogging and reknitting .......... until eventually, it was finished! I do absolutely love the finished shawl though, and the experience hasn't put me off knitting more lace!

It's got a really pretty crocheted edge, which is unusual. Here's another photo to give you a better idea of the overall shape and pattern of the shawl.

The yarn is Alice's own Sokkusu lightweight, and was wonderful to knit with. You can get a better idea of the subtle colour variations in this photo.

I've also finished my Monkey Bread infinity scarf. After test knitting the narrow version earlier in the year, I knew that I wanted a wider, even snugglier version in purple for next winter. It'll be the perfect thing for cold playground duties! I used the mink and cashmere yarn from Great Northern Yarns, and it is just scrummy!

The yarn is just so, so soft, and already has the cosiest bloom on it. I'm almost looking forward to colder weather, just so that I can wear it!!

I finished a pair of plain vanilla socks for one of my university friends. We meet up once a year in the autumn, and they all asked me to knit them a pair of socks! So one pair down, three pairs to go! It's nice, easy car knitting, so I should be able to get them finished while we are driving round Germany this summer.

I've finished the first of my Tesserae socks, using the sparkly purple yarn I got in a swap from Julia. It's another lovely pattern from Anne Hanson. I find myself being drawn more and more to her designs these days, and not looking elsewhere.

I'm currently knitting a sample sock for my LYS using some Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. I've chosen the pattern rpm from Knitty to try and show off the wonderful colour changes in the yarn. It feels quite thick and felted at the moment, but will hopefully soften up after a soak. I'll show you a picture next time. I've also got a couple of bits of test knitting in the pipeline, so once I get started, and am certain that I can share with you, I'll fill you in!

I've decided to join in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry this summer. I was originally going to join the Rookies team for newish spinners, but have jumped ship to spin along with Team Superfleece. They sound like a pretty relaxed group, so it should be a lot of fun. I'm not too sure what spinning goals I'm going to set for myself yet. I'd like to be able to spin 100g of fibre to give me decent yardage - maybe enough for a pair of handspun socks! Perfect! I've been doing a little spinning over the last two weeks. The fibre was 75% British Alpaca and 25% merino. It's a 2-ply yarn, hopefully enought for a little something!!

I'm waiting for a parcel to arrive from the USA. My swap partner Kim and I decided to send each other another yarn-filled parcel. We should be getting them any day now!! I do love swaps! And the 2nd swap is now underway in the Fall in Full Color clubhouse, so I'm looking forward to getting to know my partner Melissa.

I have some even more exciting news to tell you too! Today we visited a cat sanctuary and picked out two young cats to come and live with us! They are both under a year old and will be coming to live chez josiekitten as soon as we are back from our holiday at the beginning of August! I can't wait to have little furry beings in the house again! Have a lovely week whatever you're doing, and I'll see you soon! xxx

And the winner is ..........

2011-06-18T12:16:00.002+01:00

..... commenter number 24!

Congratulations to Jen! Please get in touch with me on Ravelry, and I'll post your skein of yarn to you. Thank you all for your comments and yarn recommendations - I do hope that I'll be able to find a few of them at Knit Nation (only 27 days to wait now!!) I'll be back tomorrow with some knitting to show you! Fancy that! Knitted items on a knitting blog! Whatever next!!! xxx

Knit Nation extra! Read all about it!

2011-06-11T12:02:00.005+01:00

I'm sure that many of you, like me, are counting down the days (currently 34!) until this year's Knit Nation. I still remember the feeling of heady excitement upon entering the Marketplace, the vividness of the Wollmeise stand, the discovery of new yarns and the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest knitting teachers in the world! Here's a little reminder for you!

The organisers of this knitting extravaganza are Alice Yu (aka Socktopus) and Cookie A. I am thrilled that Alice agreed to do a blog interview for me. So if you're interested in finding out what makes Alice tick, read on!

How did the idea for Knit Nation first come about?

I found it frustrating that the opportunity to learn from the cutting edge teachers whose books are must haves in our libraries was so limited in the UK! Cookie and I thought it would be wonderful to create an event with an equally strong emphasis on furthering knitting and spinning skills as on a carefully curated marketplace showcasing independent businesses; our goal was to nurture, stimulate and inspire through education and in providing an intimate and friendly environment in which to network and socialise.

You must have been delighted by the success of Knit Nation last summer to organise another event this year. How do you envisage Knit Nation developing in the future?

We are taking it year by year, learning as we go. We're holding our second Knit Nation this year and we've been overwhelmed by the response. It's wonderful! We aren't holding one in 2012 due to the Olympics, so we'll see how things go for 2013.

You've got some fantastic teachers coming over for classes. Is there anybody else that you'd love to come over and teach at a future Knit Nation?

Oh the list is long. There are so many people out there who are innovative in their field, who are wonderful teachers and who have a great following!

If you had the time to take one of the Knit Nation classes this year, whose class would you sign up for and why?

I'd probably go for Elise Duvekot's Meandering Mittens class using her Knit One Below technique since the fabric looks perfect for winter mittens - lovely and warm and works so well with variegated yarns. Either that or Lene Alve's Rovaniemi Mittens class - I've been dying to learn that technique too.

How do you go about finding vendors - do people approach you, or do you actively seek out new indie dyers?

A little bit of both. There are people that I think would be perfect for the marketplace, and then people I haven't come across before but whose products are beautiful and must be in the marketplace.

As well as organising Knit Nation, you've been incredibly busy preparing for the publication of your book of sock patterns. How do you manage to fit so much in?

LOL by working 14 hours a day 7 days a week. The first five months of this year have been so crazy hectic; I haven't been that busy in years, not even when I worked in a law firm in the City! I also launched my new sock yarn Sokkusu Original at the same time (like they say, it never rains but pours) which is being carried by Loopy Ewe in the US, Stitch Perfect in Birmingham, L'Oisivethe in Paris and Holland Road Yarn Co in New Zealand. With the book out of the way there is a little more breathing room. I am really looking forward to having my weekends back.

How do you approach designing a pair of socks? Do you have a seed of an idea in your head and knit a swatch, do you chart it out first or do you just play around with needles and yarn until something emerges?

I start with the general structure (i.e. toe up, cuff down etc.), then swatch a few stitch patterns to see what I like, then I plan the cuff and heels. Then I get charting to make sure things work.

Where do you get your inspiration from when dyeing your yarn? What happens to your dye-pot disasters?!

It's random- sometimes I know exactly the effect I want, and I have to experiment to get to it, like 2 November 1983 which I wanted to capture an image from a tv show - a yellow eyed demon burning down the main characters' childhood home in the middle of the night. It took a few tries to get exactly what I wanted. Lorelai on the other hand, I wanted to use a specific series of colours and I just love the outcome.

If I really dislike something I overdye it. If it is simply not to my taste but is still pretty, it goes to the 'tickle my fancy' pile which are one offs and sold as such.

Other than your own yarn (of course!), what are your favourite yarns to knit with? What do you have stashed away at home?

I love Handmaiden, Fleece Artist, Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, Socks that Rock, Old Maiden Aunt, Pagewood Farm ...... but I have to say that my hands down favourite yarn is Sokkusu Original. If I have to knit something, I find myself reaching for Sokkusu over and above everything else. It is tightly spun but has a fine merino count giving it a lovely soft hand. It is great for socks, but equally lovely for lace (blocks beautifully.) I guess I am totally biased, but since I created it as my ultimate sock yarn, it makes sense it would be my favourite!

Is there one project that you really want to knit, but you've not got round to it yet?

I'm working on my Wild Apples Bohus. I'd really like to finish that this year, but alas I am queen of WIPs. Work knitting takes precedence over personal knitting so lots of my personal projects get put on hold.

When did you first discover knitting? Who were you knitting inspirations?

First came across knitting in university, but didn't get very far. Then about seven years ago I just had a yen to learn to knit. Taught myself to knit continental then English from Montse Stanley's Knitters' Handbook and then discovered socks. I haven't looked back since! My knitting inspirations? Those who can and do. Elizabeth Zimmerman and all those who channel her 'can do will do' attitude - the curious, the innovative and the adventurous.

What essentials do you always carry in your knitting bag?

LOL I have stopped carrying around tools. I can pretty much graft with just my knitting needles, though it is definitely much easier using a tapestry needle! Just the WIP of the moment, the rest I leave at home.

If you could take one knitting project to a desert island, what would it be?

Just one?!?! A really, really, really, really big one so when I got bored I could frog it and use the yarn for other things! I am no good with one WIP. Being a total knitting hedon I have to knit what my mojo tells me to, which changes from day to day (hence the many WIPs!)

Do you have lots of projects on the go at any one time, or are you a monogamous knitter?!

Haha - see answer above. WIP tart, totally!

You've become well known for your fantastic sock designs - but which of these do you prefer?

DPNs or Magic Loop? Magic Loop all the way. I drop and lose DPNs. Too clumsy!

Heel flap or short row heel? Heel flap.

Top down or toe up? I used to be toe up, but them for years and years top down. I really prefer top down because I find a cast-on edge is much better, cleaner and more even than my sewn cast off edge (I dislike the look of regular cast off edges so only use a sewn bind off for socks).

How do you see knitting developing in the UK over the next few years?

We are heavily influenced by the US scene, due to a strong Internet community and the fact that the US has the much larger demographic. But we have a strong and healthy community in the UK which more and more is moving online. I think it's great - getting online gives a greater sense of community and cohesion to the UK scene as there is a place we can all get together - despite scattered geographical locations.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading the interview and found it as fascinating as I did. Huge thanks to Alice for being so generous with her time. By way of a thank you, and to make a little space in my stash for a few (ahem!!) Knit Nation purchases, I've decided to have a little giveaway in celebration of Alice and Knit Nation. I've rummaged deep in my stash, and pulled out a skein of Laughing Yaffle sock yarn in the colourway Seaside Town.

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already) and tell me what your all time favourite yarn is. You have until midday next Saturday (June 18th) to leave your comment and I'll randomly select a winner after that date. I'm happy to post anywhere, so please do enter! Good luck and see you soon! xxx

Summer in a vase ......... and on a plate!

2011-06-07T07:38:00.002+01:00

Just had to share these photos with you! Both of them scream 'it's summer!!!!' to me. Mr JK picked these sweet peas yesterday evening - such beautiful colours and a scent to die for! They have to be one of my favourite flowers.

Also, this little lot was waiting for us when we got back from Cornwall at the weekend. We ate the strawberries with some Cornish ice cream (mmmmmmmmmmm!), and the veggies with our supper! It's such fun waiting for Mr JK to come in each evening with the day's harvest! I wonder what's on the menu tonight?! Byeeeee! xxx

I do like to be beside the seaside!

2011-06-05T16:42:00.005+01:00

Well good afternoon! It feels like I've been away for ages - time always stands still when you go on holiday, I think! Mr JK and I have had a wonderful time in Cornwall. You might remember we went there last May too! Infact, we stayed in the very same cottage - it felt a little like coming home!

We packed loads into our week - the weather was pretty good, and certainly didn't ever stop us from getting out and about. We started off the week with a visit to Tintagel, supposed to be the birthplace of King Arthur. It was a little misty when we got there, which added to the atmosphere - you half-expected to bump into Merlin at any moment!

The coastline here is so dramatic, with waves pounding the rocks. There's no real evidence to link Arthur with the castle, but I really hope that it's true!

You need to have a head for heights to visit Tintagel, and not mind climbing lots of steps, some of them incredibly steep. I felt like I'd done a work-out at the gym afterwards!

We visited the fishing village of Polperro - very picturesque! The smell of freshly baked pasties was too much for us, and we ate our first (but not our last!) pasties in the village. Deeeeelish!

We visited three houses during the week - Lanhydrock and Trerice are both National Trust properties, whilst Pencarrow is privately owned. We only went round the gardens at Lanhydrock, but they were very impressive.

We had Pencarrow almost to ourselves (and I dreamed of what a wonderful place it would be to hold a knitting retreat!!) The woodlands were magical.

The Elizabethan manor, Trerice, was my favourite - not too big to be overwhelming, but packed with loads of interesting things to see and do. The staff there seemed particularly knowledgeable, and were doing their best to get children involved with numerous activities.

We saw many, many beautiful flowers at these gardens - here's a snapshot of some of my favourites.

We called in at a cider farm where Mr JK bought some cider and scrumpy, before heading on to Truro to watch a performance of Calendar Girls. It was brilliant - so cleverly staged, and very moving too.

We headed down to Watergate Bay near Newquay for lunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen. Our table was perfect, overlooking the 2 mile long beach. We were able to watch the surfers while we ate.

The food was delicious - we both had the most intensely tomatoey soup we'd ever tasted to start with, and then Mr JK ate fish, while I had potato gnocchi and braised oxtail. I had rhubarb and cinnamon cake with real custard for dessert, and Mr JK (who doesn't like sweet things much) had cheese.

To walk off Jamie's lunch, the next day we walked from Wadebridge to Padstow along the Camel Trail. It follows an old railway line alongside the Camel Estuary. There were plenty of cyclists using the route, but we were happy to walk.

I've never seen so many different bikes before - 'normal' bikes, tandems for adults, tandems for adults and children, tricycles, wheelchair bikes, baby buggy bikes. There were no restrictions at all on who could enjoy this wonderful route.

Halfway to Padstow, we were pleased to come across Treats on Trikes where we enjoyed a cup of tea and some homemade boiled fruit cake (my Mum's recipe, made by me!) before continuing our journey.

Finally, we arrived in Padstow, where we rewarded ourselves with fish and chips from the local chip shop, Chip Ahoy. And they were yummy!

We walked a little further down the Camel Estuary where you could look across the water at the village of Rock. It's my favourite part of Cornwall.

Friday saw us heading down to the south of Cornwall to revisit the gardens at Heligan - they were as lovely as we remembered. I am in complete awe of the enormous vegetable garden. It makes ours seem like a postage stamp!

We finished the day by calling in at Mevagissey - another pretty fishing village.

Even though the tide was out, the harbour still provided the perfect back drop for our first (and last!) cream tea.

Here I am now, back home in Norfolk. I've so enjoyed sharing my week with you. And you're in luck, because I'm sharing my very last piece of Granny Wobbly's maple walnut fudge with you. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fudge - it is the nicest fudge I have ever eaten, and I may have visited the shop on three separate occasions, just to try out the different flavours you understand! Enjoy! I'll be back soon to share the knitting that got done in Cornwall. xxx

Purple spaghetti

2011-05-22T17:41:00.003+01:00

I've been persevering with my Spriteling this week, and have knit clues 2 and 3 without any major mishaps! I think that I've been spurred on by seeing all the beautiful finished shawls over on Ravelry, and I'm determined that it's not going to get the better of me! I'm not especially keen on the large looped edging, so may well make it slightly less loopy when I get to the crochet cast off. At the moment, my knitting looks rather like a plate of purple spaghetti, but I'm reassured by looking at the finished photos of others that blocking will 'sort it'!

My other knitting projects have grown during the week too. I finished test-knitting the sock for Alice, but won't post a photo, as it's for a not-yet-published book of socks. I will hopefully have some more impressive photos of other projects to show you soon!

I did receive the most wonderful swap parcel from Kim, in the USA. We have had such a lot of fun getting to know each other over the past fortnight, and have discovered that we share a love of fine yarns, chocolate and music, amongst other things. She is waiting (not that patiently!) for my parcel to arrive in sunny California! I was thrilled to receive my very first skein of Woolen Rabbit Kashmir yarn - it is beautifully soft, and I can't wait to start knitting it. I've lined up Anne Hanson's Budding Apple shawl pattern. Also in the package was a mint truffle bar, which only just lasted a few minutes longer than the photo took to take, a bar of milk chocolate almond toffee, also delicious, and a box of Choco Pods! It truly is a lovely parcel, and is a great start to what I know is going to be a Wonderful Time in the Knitspot Fall in Full Color Club!

The garden has been quite productive this week, despite our lack of any significant rainfall. We ate our first broad beans yesterday, with the promise of more to come! This is one of my favourite ways to eat them!

We also have flowers on our courgettes!

and on our cucumbers too!

We are off on holiday to Cornwall this Friday for a week, so I may not manage to blog until my return in a fortnight. Whatever you are up to, I hope you have fun too! See you! xxx

Dear Mom

2011-05-21T14:56:00.006+01:00

Dear Mom,
I hope that you're well. I wanted to write to let you know that I am fine.

When you first picked me out of your stash, I was very excited. I thought that I was going to become a new shawl or scarf, especially for you. But when I got shut in a dark box, I was very sad. I thought that I must have done something wrong because you didn't want me any more. Did I accidentally felt a little bit, or pill? Was I too splitty? On my long journey I worried and worried about what I could have done to upset you so much. When I slept, I had nightmares about being surrounded by a mass of nasty neon acrylic and fun fur yarn!

But as soon as I arrived at my destination, I realised why you had chosen me. It was because you loved me so much, that you wanted other knitters to be able to love me too! My new Mom strokes me and cuddles me, just like you did, and tells me just how gorgeous I am!

I soon made lots of new friends. They were feeling a bit lonely too - one of their friends had disappeared rather suddenly it seems, so they welcomed me with open arms. They talk a bit weird, but I can understand them fine, most of the time!

I found a familiar bag that I'm going to make my special cosy place too!

And Mom, do you know what the best thing is? I've met someone that I really, really like! She's from Germany, so we're having a little bit of trouble communicating. But love conquers all!

Don't you just think that we're a match made in heaven?! We might go off and knit some stitches together! Just think what beautiful yarn babies we could make!

Don't worry about me Mom. I am just fine!
I love you,

Your loving 'son', The Woollen Rabbit xxx

Sweet anticipation

2011-05-15T14:37:00.002+01:00

I've been a bit of a busy bee this week. Not a huge amount of knitting to share with you .... it's still a melange of purple. Extra this week is a sock I'm test knitting for Alice Yu (Socktopus). I'm on quite a tight time schedule for that, and I'm having to knit it from a chart as well!! I'm at the heel, so should be able to complete it in time. Everything else has grown, but not significantly enough to warrant separate photos.

I met up with a bloggy friend this week. Minniemoll was on holiday in my neck of the woods, so we met up for tea and cake after school one day, and then she joined me at knitting group. It was lovely to meet her and we are planning to get together at Woolfest in June.

So if it's not knitting that's kept you busy, what is it then? I hear you ask! Well, remember I told you that Mr JK had treated me to membership of the Knitspot yarn club? The first shipment of yarn isn't until August, and there'd been so much activity in the clubhouse on Ravelry, that it seemed a shame to let it drop off. So I got in touch with Kim and Kat, two of the group's moderators, with the suggestion of a 'yarn and chocolate' swap, and a KAL using a Knitspot pattern, between now and August. Let me tell you, these two ladies don't sit still! Before you could say 'stocking stitch', swap sign ups had opened! Sixty five members signed up, and I had the job of matching up partners. Since then, I've had lots of fun getting to know my partner, Kim, and have sent her some of my favourite yarn and chocolate. I can't wait to see what she's sent me too, and then choose a pattern to knit! I can tell that this is going to be such a fun club to belong to!

The garden is doing well, despite the lack of rain in our corner of the world. This morning I spotted this ........

and this ..........

so it won't be too long before we are able to pick enough broad beans for supper, and have fresh strawberries on my porridge in the mornings! I shall say goodbye now, as I really must get on with that sock for Alice. Hopefully, by next weekend, I'll have received my parcel from Kim, and will be able to share its contents with you. What yarn would you send someone as a gift, and what would you like to receive? Please do tell me! xxx

Entering a purple period......

2011-05-08T19:41:00.004+01:00

I seem to have become a tad obsessed with the colour purple. This weekend I've cast on three new projects (just to make Snoopydog feel better about her mountain of WIPs of course!), and they all seem to be purple! Look!

Exhibit 1 - Infinity version of Monkey Bread scarf using Great Northern Yarns mink and cashmere yarn in radiant purple (it accidentally slipped into my stash, honest!) I'd forgotten quite how delicious this yarn is to knit with - a sheer delight. I know that we're coming into warmer weather, but I'm going to be all prepared for the cold winds next winter! I've done one repeat so far, but am already in love with it - it's going to be my best friend come December!

Exhibit 2 - sparkly purple socks, using the yarn I received from Julia in our recent swap, knitting another Anne Hanson pattern, Tesserae. The pattern is amazingly simple, but looks great. You can't see too much yet, as I've only done one pattern repeat. Having sparkly socks seems a little decadent, and I like that!!

Exhibit 3 - stripy purple and pink plain vanilla socks using the Violet Green sock generator pattern. My Uni friends all admired my handknit socks last year when we met up, so I have promised them each a pair. Diane asked for a purple/pink colourway, and I think this yarn fits the bill nicely. It's a Regia Design Line Erica Knight Jazz colourway. I rather like it, and have enough yarn to knit a pair for me too!

Add to the mix my Spriteling shawl, and I'm guilty as charged, m'lord! I took advantage of the quiet yesterday to get back on speaking terms with Spriteling. Mr JK went into Norwich to watch Norwich City playing their last match of the season (Premiership next season!!) and I managed to finish clue 1 and make a start on clue 2. So far, so good. Here's clue 1, done and dusted!

I haven't done any more on my Aegean Ishbel, as I'm thinking of adding some beads. We are going back to Cornwall for a week at the end of May, and I remember visiting a rather nice bead shop, so I shall probably hold fire until then.

Also on the knitting front, I have two rather lovely things to look forward to. The first is Knit Nation, in July. Snoopydog and I shall be spending the weekend at Imperial College, London, immersing ourselves in yarny goodness! We're going to be taking a sock design class with Cookie A, which is rather exciting. The second thing is that Mr JK has given me membership of the Knitspot Fall in Full Color Club. Starting in August, there will be 6 monthly packages of exclusive luxury yarn, plus an exclusive pattern, and other goodies! I can hardly wait! Anne Hanson has such great taste when it comes to choosing yarns, and I'm a huge fan of her designs. It's going to be like getting a birthday present every month! Luckily we are on good terms with our postman. When he rings on the door to deliver a squishy parcel, he hands it over with a smile, and a comment - 'more wool?'!

Mr JK has been busy in the garden, making the most of the lovely warm spring weather we've had here today. I'll show you how the garden's looking another time, but I must just share with you this photo mosaic - clockwise from the top we have grapes on the vine, flowers on the tomato plants, great bunches of blackcurrants and strawberries. What great promise of delicious fruits to come.

One more thing before I love you and leave you - also rather exciting. Today Mr JK and I visited a local cat sanctuary to make ourselves known and just to see what cats they had available. We're not going to rehome any until we get back from our week in Germany, at the start of August, but we've been approved as 'cat' people, so we just need to find the right cat(s) or let them choose us. We saw a gorgeous black and white female - so, so friendly and desperate for a home. I think we would have brought her back with us today if it was possible! It will be lovely to have little furry beings back in the house again. I'll catch up with you again soon. Have a good week! xxx

Now is the month of Maying .....

2011-05-05T19:54:00.003+01:00

Blimey! Where is the year going to? It's May already. Before you know it, there will be Christmas cards in the shops and you'll be wishing you'd started your present knitting earlier!

I thought that I'd pop in to tell you about our weekend in Bremen. We had a lovely time, and the weather was wonderful - warm sunshine the whole time. We didn't manage to escape the wedding however - it was being shown on 6 channels on German TV, and Mr JK's auntie really wanted us to watch it with her. So I sat with my sock, and knitted away, whilst laughing at the hats (especially Beatrice's monstrosity!) and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the right moments. I did enjoy the music that they'd chosen - I can remember singing Parry's 'Blest Pair of Sirens' when I was at school, and it's always been one of my favourite choral pieces. And the wedding anthem by John Rutter was truly beautiful. Over the course of the weekend, I managed to finish the 2nd of my Cinder Block socks. I do like the pattern, and think I might knit another pair in a solid colourway.

We went up to Bremerhaven on Saturday, and spent a good chunk of the day exploring the Klimahaus. It's a fascinating exploration of life for various people living in different countries of the world, but all on the 8th degree of longitude. We visited Germany, Alaska, Sardinia and Samoa, amongst other places. I found the lives of the Tuareg nomads especially interesting and thought provoking. It makes you start to think about all the things in your life that you take for granted, and how much more simply you could live and still be happy.

Sunday was May Day in Germany, so we visited Fischerhude. It's a very picturesque village near Bremen, with lovely old buildings.

Fortunately for Mr JK, the yarn shop there was closed (as are pretty much all shops in Germany on Sundays). We wandered through the village, enjoying the spring sunshine. We walked by the river for part of the time - it was as lovely as it looks!

Of course, no visit to Germany would be complete without sampling a cake or two! I love streusel kuchen, and this one was made with cherries. Yummy!

I'll leave you for now with a photo of my Ishbel shawl - I didn't take Spriteling with me, as I knew we'd fall out big time! So I managed to knit all the stocking stitch part of Ishbel, and am ready to start the lace section. I'm feeling especially pleased with myself because it's knitted with my handspun yarn. I think the colours look lovely! See you soon. xx

Pansies

2011-04-27T18:48:00.002+01:00

A quick mid-week post this evening, as I shall be unable to blog on Sunday. Mr JK and I are escaping the wedding frenzy and heading off to Germany after work tomorrow, to stay with Mr JK's uncle and aunt. I quite like these 3 day weeks!

I've done a little more spinning over Easter. I spun up some superwash sparkly BFL from FeltStudioUK. It was lovely to spin. I haven't got enough yardage for socks, but hopefully some fingerless mittens! We shall see.

The colours are so pretty - they remind me of pansies. Our winter hanging baskets are still full of blooms, as you can see.

I'd love to be able to tell you that my Spriteling shawl is coming along nicely, but alas, all is not well! I was two rows from completing clue 1 when I discovered an extra stitch. So I frogged it back to row 50. I managed to make the same mistake a second time (I've checked for errata and there aren't any for this row, so it must be me!), and frogged back to row 40! So I'm making very s l o w progress. Clue 3 comes out tomorrow, but I'm not going to really be able to get stuck into it until half term. I've found that I need complete silence to knit lace. I talk to myself, chanting the stitch patterns out loud, and must look completely mad to onlookers!! To cheer myself up, I've cast on for another Ishbel using my own handspun yarn. The colour changes look lovely, and I should be able to knit the stocking stitch part at the very least without major mishaps! Photos on my return. So, I must leave you now, and get my bags packed for my getaway. Fingers crossed the cases arrive safely this time! See you next week! xxx

Easy Peasy!

2011-04-24T11:51:00.007+01:00

Happy Easter to you! Hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend. We've had some unseasonably warm spring weather, and have been making the most of it, getting out and about. It was 25 degrees yesterday, although it's cooler today, and a sea mist keeps drifting in off the North Sea. It was lovely outside first thing - we could hear the local Salvation Army band playing in the distance. They always hold outdoor services once the holidaymakers start arriving. We don't make a huge thing about Easter in the josiekitten household. But I took the opportunity of being home for Easter to dig out our decorations, bought mostly in Germany and Poland. Our family in Germany always put up decorations, and as you walk around, you see lots of houses with painted wooden eggs hanging from the branches of trees. It's very pretty!

I love these wooden eggs - they came from one of our trips to Lodz in Poland, where Mr JK's family lived for many years. Egg decorating or pysanky is an Eastern European tradition, still very much in evidence today. We saw some amazingly intricate patterns created using hot wax and dyes. You can read more about how it's done here, if you're interested.

I finally finished my Peasy cardigan yesterday, and blocked it today. I do love it - so simple but beautiful too! I know that I'm going to get lots of wear out of it. I found some shell buttons from the Natural Dye Studio that go well with it, I think. I had to steam the bottom edge quite hard to stop it from curling, so I hope that isn't going to be a problem. Time will tell. I ended up making full length sleeves, as I had enough yarn, and am glad that I did.

Remember my spinning disaster that I blogged about recently? The single very nearly ended up in the bin after I'd over-spun it so spectacularly! There was so much twist in it, I don't quite know what went wrong! I ended up with pinky/purple fingers too!

Anyhow, common sense prevailed, and I wound the single into a skein (with many breakages en route!) and soaked it for a couple of hours, before hanging it up to dry with a heavy weight on it. I then wound that single into a yarn cake, and plied it from both ends, to create a 2-ply yarn. All things considered, it's turned out pretty well. The colours are very soft and delicate, reminiscent of lavender fields on a summer's day. It's about 18 wpi, so I think that's about a 2-ply laceweight, and I have approximately 250 metres to play around with.

I'm planning on spending time this afternoon working on Spriteling. I'd like to try and finish clue 1 today, if at all possible. So I shall love you and leave you, with one more picture of Easter in my little bloggy corner. My Easter Day breakfast - hot cross buns and English strawberries - deeeeeeelish! See you soon! xxx

My little haven

2011-04-21T20:06:00.003+01:00

Hello there, hope you have been enjoying the sunshine where you are. It's been a gorgeous day here on the Norfolk coast. Mr JK and I spent most of it outside. I cleaned the decking (quite a big job as you can see from the photo) - luckily we have a power washer which certainly makes it easier, and then cleaned all the garden furniture. The umbrella was brought out from its winter hibernation in the shed, and hey presto, we're all ready for summer here in the josiekitten household!

Mr JK was busy working away in his vegetable plot. So far, the broad beans, mangetout and potatoes are in, and there's loads more ready - hopefully the onions, shallots and cabbages will go out tomorrow. He's bought a cage with butterfly netting this year, so with a bit of luck the wretched cabbage whites will be kept out!

We sat on the bench drinking a cuppa, watching the local birdlife. There's Mr Blackbird, who has a bad foot. He's very friendly, and comes quite close now. There's also a robin who's a frequent visitor. We have a bird feeder in the garden, and it's always busy. We ended the day with our first barbeque of 2011. Baked potatoes, freshly picked salad leaves from the garden and this little lot - yummy!

I think that it has been third time lucky with my Spriteling (knitting needles crossed, although that's probably a bad move!) I am working my way through clue 1, and have got to row 30, my best yet! Here's how it's looking - I hope that I have all of the right holes in all of the right places!

I'll be back soon to report on its progress! See you! xx

Sworn enemies

2011-04-19T14:25:00.002+01:00

Today I have decided that I am not a natural lace knitter. Lace and I are not best friends, not in the slightest! I finally cast on for the Spriteling pre-Knit Nation KAL yesterday. I did a crochet provisional cast on (something new-ish for me, but I was determined to be able to do it so that the stitches unzipped themselves this time instead of stubbornly refusing to co-operate), completed the cast on and set up sections, and all was going marvellously (or so I thought!) I learned how to do a standard lace cast off, put in a lifeline at row 10, and got to row 15 of clue 1, when on stretching out my knitting, thought that it didn't look 'quite right'. I went to the Spriteling project page on Ravelry so that I could compare my knitting with other projects. Closer inspection confirmed my worst fears - I'd gone wrong back at the start! Oh well, I thought. It could have been worse. At least I hadn't knitted too much. I pulled the knitting off the needles, rewound the yarn, and started again. This time the setting up was perfect, and I could see where I'd gone wrong before. Easy popsy! I worked my way through clue 1, stopping after row 25 for some lunch. 'Let's just take a look to see how it's looking,' I thought to myself. 'Hang on a minute - that doesn't look quite right!' I'd done a ssk in the wrong place, and in doing so, had a wobble in the border that was not acceptable to me. And of course, the error was between row 10 (where the first lifeline had been) and row 20 (where the new lifeline now resided!) I shall leave ALL lifelines in next time, just in case! I wish that I wasn't such a perfectionist, but if I spot a mistake, I have to correct it, otherwise I always know that it's there! So I'm back to square one again - yarn rewound and ready for try number 3! Let's hope it's 3rd time lucky. If not, I think that it might just get put in the naughty corner for a while. I will not be beaten! Now excuse me while I go and seek out some chocolate! xx

Hat update

2011-04-17T17:44:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post this evening to bring you an update on my Innocent Smoothie hats. I was a bit behind with my 'hat a week' knitting, so had a blitz this week. Since Royal wedding fever is rampant across the UK, I thought that I'd show a bit of patriotism with a red, white and blue collection. So here are the hats of the week for weeks 21-26. I bet we won't see any of these at Westminster Abbey!

Other updates on the yarn front -

my Peasy was finished, but since I have a spare ball of yarn (I bought an extra ball a couple of weeks ago because I was worried about running out) I'm unpicking the sleeve cast offs and making the sleeves longer! So it's not finished, but hopefully will be in the next couple of days!

I still haven't cast on my Spriteling, but will do so this evening, or else I can see myself getting so far behind that it won't get done!

I've almost finished the first of my Cinder Block socks. A couple more pattern repeats before the toe should just about do it!

I spun some fibre really badly this afternoon. There is sooooooooooo much twist in it it looks like super noodles!! I'm going to skein up and soak the single, and weight it while it dries to see if there is anything I can do to salvage it!

Hope you manage some knitting time this week! See you soon. xxx

A Thursday Tah-Dah!!

2011-04-14T13:23:00.002+01:00

Hello there, me again! I don't often get the chance to chat to you in the week, so I'm making the most of my Easter holiday 'free' time! I've just finished knitting the sweetest little cardigan. It's from Never Not Knitting. I wanted a pattern to use up my handspun, and a Ravelry search lead me to this pretty cardigan. My yarn was slightly thinner than the recommended yarn, but I swatched, and decided to stick with the original needle size, as the knitted fabric, although a little looser than it should have been, draped really nicely. Having read what other Ravelers said, I decided to knit a 3 stitch garter border at either end of the cardigan, to stop the edges from curling in. I also knit more stripes to make it longer. I teamed my handspun with some dark bluey-purple Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, to alternate with the stripes of handspun. I really like the rainbow effect of the stripes, don't you?

It's knitted all in one, from the top, and the sleeves are put onto spare yarn to carry on knitting down the body, so there's no seaming, and very little finishing off! Perfect! It's fastened with two buttons and loops. Snoopydog and I had a good rummage through my button tin on Tuesday and picked out a few possibles. Eventually I settled on one green and one yellow to pick out the colours of the stripes at the top.

The back is pretty too, with its frilled edge. I can see me knitting this again, it's such a lovely design.

I'm going to go and dig out the pattern for the Spriteling KAL now. I've changed my mind about the yarn I'm using, and haven't even started clue 1 yet. Clue 2 is released tomorrow, so I've got some serious catching up to do! Bye for now! xx

A new spinner is born!

2011-04-12T19:57:00.002+01:00

Hello again. Thanks for calling in. I've had a lovely day today with my great knitting pal, Snoopydog. We caught up with each other's news, admired our somewhat impressive collection of knitting bags from Three Bags Full (I blame Anne Hanson for that!!!), swapped mini skeins of sock yarn for our sock yarn blankies, drank tea, ate Danish pastries, planned our summer visit to KnitNation and, oh yes .......... Snoopydog learned the basics of spinning! I'd laid out a timeline of my handspun, starting off with the very first yarn I spun, all underspun, overspun, thick and thin, and ending up with my most recent yarn. It's amazing to see the progress I've made. Anyway, I showed Snoops how to draft the fibre, gave her some BFL, and off she went!

Fairly quickly, she'd produced two bobbins of yarn ....

....that she then plied together to produce her first ever skein of handspun yarn! Tah dah!!

I can see a new, addictive hobby developing here! Another stash for Snoops to acquire! It was great fun and I look forward to days spent spinning together!

I received another squishy parcel too - this time from Rosie's Moments. The parcel arrived beautifully wrapped, it was just like opening a present!

As well as the collection of mini skeins for my sock yarn blankie, I bought two braids of BFL, dyed with natural dyes. I loved the colour combinations she used, and want to spin it up to knit myself a Citron shawl. Don't you just love these colours?

Rosie included a lovely sheep button in the parcel, what a nice touch!

I shall definitely be popping back to her Etsy shop again!

Before I go, I must just tell you about a wonderful giveaway on my Ravelry friend, Melissa's blog. If you make a donation to help fight cancer, you'll be entered into a draw to win not one, not two, but three skeins of Malabrigo yarn! How fantastic is that? Not only are you doing something worthwhile, but you might win some yarn too! See you soon! xxx

Woolly distractions

2011-04-11T15:38:00.002+01:00

I've got lots of yarny goodness to share with you this afternoon, so I do hope you're sitting comfortably. Good - then I'll begin!

I've been busy spinning over the past two weeks, trying to do a little each day. It's very relaxing after a day at school! The first fibre I spun up was a Falkland fibre that I received in a swap with CathyA in Canada. The colourway is called Grape Crush, and it comes from Waterloo Wools. Because the fibre was painted randomly, I decided to spin it as one long single and then Navajo-ply it, to try to keep the colour changes together. I used this video to help me - she certainly makes it look effortlessly simple! I just love how the colours have worked out, and am really pleased with the finished yarn. I've got about 200 metres of dk yarn to play with!

The second lot of fibre I've just finished spinning is from The Thylacine. I love the colours Megan uses. This fibre is a mix of 70% BFL and 30% silk, and feels quite luxurious. I split the yarn lenghtways down the middle, and spun each half separately. I then plied them together to get 275 metres of fingering weight yarn. I think this is destined to become an Ishbel for a relative of Mr JK's, when we stay with her in Munich this summer.

The first of my Cinder Block socks is well underway. I knit a good chunk of it on the train last Saturday. I'm using a yarn from Laughing Yaffle called Winter Berries. I thought it was going to be more solid than it's turning out to be - I like how it looks on the heel, but am not so keen on the stripes, but I might pass them onto Mr JK if I really don't fancy them when they're done.

My Peasy is so close to completion! I really should have finished it today, but I got distracted! I have cast off, and all that's left to do now is the bands up the fronts and round the neck. I've been putting it off all day, as picking up stitches is not my most favourite part of knitting! Perhaps I'll get myself in gear this evening. The knitting that distracted me is this!

I'm knitting this short sleeved summer cardigan for a colleague's daughter, using some Debbie Bliss cashmerino DK and my own handspun!! It's knitted all in one, so the stripes on the body follow round onto the sleeves too. My yarn isn't quite the same thickness as the recommended yarn, but I've swatched and hope that all will turn out right in the end! It's quite exciting knitting up yarn that you've actually spun yourself!

It's confession time now. I know that I'm on a (self-imposed) yarn diet, but a squishy parcel arrived this morning!! I bought two skeins of yarn from Socktopus. Last Sunday, Alice had some yarn for sale in her shop. Mr JK and I were out, and I didn't think for one minute that there'd be any yarn left later in the day. So when I popped in to check, I was delighted to find several skeins of yarn just calling out to me. It was meant to be, I think! I ended up with a skein of Sokkusu-L in the shade Grapegeuse. It's a gorgeous deep purple colour, and I'm going to use it for my Spriteling. (Which reminds me, I need to get a move on and knit clue 1, as clue 2 will be released on Friday!)

I also bought a skein of Sokkusu-X in the shade Robin's Egg Blue. This yarn is a mix of merino, cashmere and nylon, and I think it will become a pair of cosy socks for next winter. I just love the colour!

I also received some fibre last week, from FeltStudioUK. I wanted a batt of yarn to use for some corespinning, and chose this one. The colours are so pretty, and it has sparkly bits in it too!

Along with that, there were a couple of braids of fibre, but I'll show you those once they're spun. Mr JK asked me how these purchases fitted into a yarn diet, so I pointed out that yarn is different from fibre!! Talking of fibre, Mr JK and I are heading up to the Lake District in June for Woolfest. It sounds wonderful, and was recommended to me by Vikki when I was on my spinning weekend. Mr JK is going to do 'man things' while I'm at Woolfest on the Saturday, and then we'll meander our way back to Norfolk on the Sunday. So, Woolfest and KnitNation within a month of each other! I'd better start saving up my pennies!

Right, that's me done for now. Snoopydog is coming up tomorrow, so there will be much drinking of tea, eating cake, chatting, knitting, yarn fondling and maybe even some spinning going on! Call back soon to see what we got up to! Bye for now. xx

A grand day out

2011-04-10T09:59:00.003+01:00

Good morning! It's a lovely sunny day here in North Norfolk, so I thought I'd pop in to tell you about our trip to London yesterday before I busy myself with 'jobs'! We had an early start, leaving home just before 7am, but were soon settled on the train. I had my Cinder Block socks to keep me company, along with a hot bacon roll. Yum yum!

Once in London, we took the Underground a couple of stops, before getting off at St Paul's to walk in the spring sunshine. The dome of St Paul's looked magnificent against the fresh green leaves.

I could hear the sound of a piano being played - you can imagine my surprise when behind a London bus appeared a pianist on a bicycle! Taking street entertaining literally! You certainly see it all in London!

We walked across the Millennium Bridge to go and visit the Tate Modern. Luckily the dangerous swaying problems are long gone, and plenty of people were crossing.

Neither Mr JK nor I had been to this gallery before. Modern art isn't especially my 'thing', but it's somewhere that I've wanted to visit for a long time. I do find it odd what's considered to be 'art' - an octagon of white paper glued to the wall, a throwaway battery still in its packaging! Oh well, it takes all sorts! I did manage to sniff out some knitting-related art by the Italian sculptor Marisa Merz. She often includes crafts traditionally associated with women in her work.

We admired, from above, the sunflowers seeds created by the Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei. It's incredible to think that each one of the millions of porcelain sunflower seeds has been hand-crafted. Visitors used to be able to walk over them, until it was discovered that they had been decorated with paint containing lead, and that walking on them might cause the release of tiny particles of lead dust into the air. But just looking at them was quite amazing!

We headed to Borough market for lunch, and enjoyed traditional British food - fish, chips and mushy peas at Fish! What could be better? The beer batter was so light, it was delicious!

After lunch we wandered around Borough market - it's a busy, vibrant place, packed with stalls selling food from around the world. Mr JK was delighted to find a German deli selling Teewurst, and an artisan bread stall selling authentic German bread. Guess what he ate for breakfast this morning?! We left the bustle of the market to walk along the side of the river, past Shakeseare's Globe theatre ......

and back to the Tate Modern, where I admired the beautiful walkway of trees. They seemed rather magical to me.

What a great way to start the holidays! I'll see you again soon with some yarn-related stuff! I have lots to show you! Enjoy your day! xxx

What a hoot!

2011-04-08T18:36:00.005+01:00

Hello there! A quick post to celebrate the end of term and the start of the school Easter holidays! It's been a long old term, and I've felt extremely tired for the past couple of weeks. Stretching ahead of me are two weeks of relaxation. I can't wait. I have several knitting and spinning projects planned, but am just looking forward to some totally self-indulgent 'me' time! We aren't going away, but have the odd day out planned. Tomorrow Mr JK and I are taking the train down to London. Fingers crossed that the weather stays as gorgeous as it is now - blue skies and plenty of sunshine!

My knitting club at school held the last session of the term today, and I'm pleased to say that the last of the little owls was finished, and all are ready to fly off to their new homes. The project took longer than I'd planned, partly because of the number of children (21) and only me there to help them, and also the shortness of our lunch time. We only have 45 minutes, so the children have to eat lunch in that time as well as knit! But all of them stuck at it, and the final wing was sewn on today. So with a great ta-dah, here they are in all their glory!!

I feel quite proud of the children that they have all managed to achieve something, and I hope that I may have inspired some of them to become our next generation of knitters! I still have the first thing I knitted many years ago - a little yellow and green scarf for my teddy. I wonder how many of these little owls will be around in 30 to 40 years time?! Do you still have something you knitted when you were little? I'd love to know what it is! Bye for now! xx

Bloggy friends

2011-04-04T17:23:00.002+01:00

The blogging world is a strange one. You share details of your life with your bloggy friends, yet you would walk past them on the street without knowing them! So it was a real delight when one of my Ravelry and blogging friends, Julia, got in touch to see if I was interested in doing a swap with her. I've enjoyed taking part in several swaps on Ravelry - it's fun getting to know your partner a little better, to pick out gifts you think they'll like. We decided to swap some yarn, some fibre and a small knitted item, and so the hunt for swap goodies began!

I found the perfect skein of yarn in my LYS - a skein from the Natural Dye Studio in soft greens and purples. Fibre was quite easy too - I ended up choosing some batts from Juno Fibre Arts - a mix of BFL and tussah silk in purple, blue and brown. Julia likes spinning batts, and I thought these colours were very pretty. I wanted to knit my current favourite 'gift' knitting pattern - the Cabled Keyhole scarf from Anne Hanson. It's a really simple scarf that keeps your neck nice and warm, but without the bulk of a larger scarf. I used another yarn from the Natural Dye Studio - Dazzle DK yarn in shades of pink. I knitted myself the same pattern in the same yarn earlier this year, and it's had lots of wear! The symbol on Julia's blog is an owl, and she's used owl buttons on some of her knits in the past, so I wanted to send her something owl related. A quick search on Etsy found a wonderful fabric shop in the USA, and some owl fabric arrived very quickly! I made a knitting project drawstring bag, complete with 'handmade by josiekitten' label! My Mum wasn't a sewer, so I'm self-taught, and am really still at the early stages. But it was fun to practise on the gift and I was pleased with how it turned out! A couple of chocolate Aero sheep and a local handmade soap completed the parcel.

We posted our parcels on the same day, and four days later, Julia's parcel arrived here in the UK. A week later, my package made it to Germany! We had agreed that we would open them at the same time, so I had to sit looking at this most enticing parcel, teasing me! I had given it a shake and a squeeze, but it didn't give anything away! So on Saturday lunchtime, me in Norfolk, and Julia in Munich, we opened our parcels!

Where to begin?! The first thing I unwrapped was a beautiful, handspun, handknit shawlette in very pretty spring flower shades. It's already been worn! Some oh so soft BFL fibre from Zauberwiese, along with some sparkly purple yarn dyed especially for me! I feel so important!! Some chocolate sheep and some Gummy Bears sweets (Mr JK loves these!), some Euclan for soaking my handspun yarn, some heart charms to sew onto my knitting, a little candle and some plant labels for the garden - all of these were packed into this fabulous parcel! Take a look!

Thank you so, so much Julia for your wonderful gifts. I loved doing the swap with you, and hope it will be the first of many. (And be warned - Mr JK and I shall be in Munich in July this year, so we may come and see you!!!!) Here's to bloggy friendships all around the world - I wouldn't be without them! See you soon! xxx

Your knitting and crochet time - 2KCBWDAY7

2011-04-03T08:18:00.003+01:00

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft - alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette's baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly 'no crumbs near my yarn!' kind of knitter?

I always carry knitting around with me. I'd hate to get caught out and miss an opportunity to knit! My handbag has my latest sock project in it, or if it's a more complicated sock, I usually have a 'plain vanilla' pair on the go too for someone else. I will knit anywhere, and ignore any 'looks' that might get thrown my way! Generally, when Mr JK and I are out and about, he does the driving, so knitting always accompanies me on car journeys. I've even pinched the clip-on light from Mr JK's music stand, so that I can knit in the dark whilst in the car!! There's dedication for you! If it's a pattern that I need to concentrate on, I prefer it to be quiet. Otherwise the radio is generally on (or occasionally the TV, though neither of us is a great TV watcher), or when I'm spinning, it's Classic FM. It's soothing and rhythmical, perfect for treadling! A mug of steaming hot Yorkshire tea is also there, a mini bar of Green and Black's chocolate (butterscotch and ginger are my favourites!) and until recently, a furry being snuggled up close (sometimes too close!). I'm missing that big time.

When I'm at knitting group, I tend to knit something more straightforward, so I can chat, drink tea and eat cake! I don't normally knit before work, unless I've got loads of spare time (pretty unusual!) or I've got a stressy day ahead and need to relax. But it is almost unheard of for a whole day to pass with no knitting time at all, even if I only manage a couple of rows. I can't imagine not knitting. What did I do with my time, back in the days when I didn't knit, I wonder?

This is my last post in the 2nd annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, so normal posting will resume after today. It's been great fun, thinking about specifics to do with knitting, and also visiting a whole load of new blogs. Big thanks to Eskimi for organising the whole thing.

Something to aspire to - 2KCBWDAY6

2011-04-02T11:29:00.002+01:00

Is there a pattern or skill that you don't yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don't even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.

I haven't knitted a lot of lace since I started knitting again. Two reasons, I think. The first is that I'm not a great shawl wearer - I don't quite know what to do with them or how to wear them!! The second reason is CHARTS! I look at them and I'm baffled! It's like some secret knitting language that I've somehow missed out on learning. How can there be 'no stitch' on a row? It doesn't make sense to me. I like my patterns written out row by row. However, I have set myself a challenge - to become more comfortable knitting from charts. I've signed up for a pre KnitNation KAL to make a shawl. The first clue was released yesterday, and I've printed it out! Even though the pattern is written as well as charted, I'm determined to use the charts as much as I can. I used the chart for the swatch without too much cursing! I'm going to buy myself a magnetic board so that I can keep track of which row I'm on, and wait until the school holidays start before casting on! Wish me luck!

How about you? Do you prefer knitting from charts or a written pattern? And how do you wear your shawl? All fashion tips gratefully received!

And now for something completely different - 2KCBWDAY5

2011-04-01T20:07:00.006+01:00

This is an experimental blogging day to try to push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create. There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

The Ballad of old Knitwear

(To be sung to the tune of 'When I'm Sixty-Four', with apologies to The Beatles!)

When I get older, losing my shape

Many years from now

Will you still be wearing me the way that you do

Pilled and felted, wearing thin too?

Will all the love that you put into me

Still be in your heart

Will you still need me, will you still love me

Though I'm falling apart?

When all the new things you knit are so cool

Will I be cast aside?

Will you still wear me, love me and care for me

Or will I have to hide?

Where are they now? 2KCBWDAY4

2011-03-31T19:03:00.003+01:00

Whatever happened to your ...................?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

Back in 2009 I joined a small knitting group. We met each week in a local pub, The Pigs. This pub, not surprisingly, is packed with all sorts of piggy memorabilia, and so I decided that what they needed was a pair of woolly porkers to add to their already substantial collection. I searched Ravelry for the perfect pattern, and found this. A quick rummage through my stash gave me an odd ball of Noro Kureyon yarn, and before too long, the Ickle Piggies were born!

I have to say that I really, really liked them, and found it very hard to hand them over to the pub at my next knitting group. But I bid them farewell, taking comfort from the fact that they were sitting by the 'Pigs in Knits' sign, waiting for my return each week. They proved popular with the regulars, and people were even reputed to have offered money to buy them! Every Thursday Knitnight, I'd say a little hello to them as they watched down on us knitting with their black buttony eyes. The knitting group took a break for the summer, and so, it seems, did the Ickle Piggies. When I next returned to the pub, there was no sign of them!! No one at the pub claimed to have any knowledge of what had happened to them! Did someone steal them in a drunken moment? Were they bartered for? Wherever they've ended up, I hope that someone loves them and is giving them a good home together! They'd hate to be separated! Oink oink Ickle Piggies!