A belated Valentine's present

Around Valentine's Day I was lusting over something on ebay that looked like it was going to go well over the budget I'd set myself. So I resigned myself to letting it pass by. Until I got an email to say I had bought it - my lovely DH had bid on it, 'adding' his Valentine's budget to what I had intended to spend.

And then I had to wait. It was big and heavy and in the UK. So I had to wait until I was in the UK before I could get it. And that happened this weekend. I finally got to open it this evening.

First there was the package:

Which I opened to reveal this:

I'm told it's Shetland top (plus some lovely mohair boucle and bluefaced Leicester DK). But, believe it or not, that's just the padding. What sort of lovely package gets the honour of such lovely padding? And does all this lovely fibre mean I have to learn to spin now?



Under all the lovely padding lay this:

A wonderfully beautiful antique Cymbal sock knitter.

I was truly spoilt.

However, I now need to learn how to use it!

2010 Round-up

2010 was a good year. There was very little drama, other than the usual family complications. It was a year of new friends, new challenges and wrapped up with some lovely news (which I'm not committing to writing just yet).

Some of the highlights of the year:

* Knit Nation: There are not enough words to describe what a wonderful weekend I had. Firstly, there was the joy of the solo trip. I used to travel a lot by myself before the Little Whirlwind came along, but trips these days are usually a family affair. Equally entertaining, but very different.
Then there was the yarn. Oh, so much beautiful yarn. My half-empty suitcase did not stay that way for long. I was lucky I'd set myself a budget or we'd still be eating beans on toast to compensate. I went to two great classes, but the real highlight was the people I met. Sinead and Laura - Irish knitters I'd 'known' through Ravelry for a while, and new friends Gail (Flibbertygibbet) and Chalyn . Living here, isolated through language and other factors, it was so lovely to sit and knit and get to know people.

* Discovering a local craft fair. There may not have been much yarn, or many people crafting. But it was a craft fair where you could get beer and schnitzel. I shall be returning.

* Twitter. Sinead convinced me that I had to give in and try it when we met at Knit Nation. I've been hooked ever since. I've had virtual knit nights (#twitknit), met some new friends. And finally, during the chaos that was  the European snow storm and my epic fight (and failure) to get home for Christmas, I'd have been lost without it, both for the support and the information.

* And finally, a highlight that snuck in right at the end of the year. With my Christmas holiday shortened, I didn't think I'd managed to fit in any knitting time, when someone suggested an impromtu Twitter/ knitty meet up in Dublin. I packed DH and Little Whirlwind off to the zoo and got myself into town. What a wonderful afternoon, seeing old friends, meeting new ones and finally being able to put faces to names, especially @alifeofherown (who has a standing invitation to really come and have those mince pies) and @undermeoxter (who it was a real joy to finally meet, and who seems to have forgiven me/the Belgian Postal Service for her Secret Santa gift last year arriving so late).

So, farewell 2010, you were pretty good to me really. I wonder what 2011 will bring...

Outgrowing a name

When I started this blog, the title was apt - I was trying to get back into writing, I was knitting regularly, and I was wrestling with the joys of having a new baby.

Now, the only part of nibs, needles and nappies that features regularly in my life are the knitting needles. Little Whirlwind has been out of nappies for months, and I've nearly given up on finding my writing groove again (it seems that, when I'm happy, the need for writing fades. I suppose not writing is a good sign in some ways...).

So, even though I'd love to get back writing again, and (all going to plan) there may be nappies in my future again at some stage... the blog name just feels wrong.

I wonder, do I change, or wait until it hopefully reflects my life again...

A Sunday outing

Today I had a 'day pass'... husband took Little Whirlwind out for the day, and to avoid sitting at home all day and being tempted to do housework, I decided to see where I could go. And I struck gold. The Hobby Salon was on in Mechelen.

So, I packed my knitting in my bag (EZ February Baby sweater), grabbed my dictionary and headed for the train. And it turned into one of those days where life in Belgium is pretty great. First of all, there was a deal - train ticket, plus shuttle bus to the venue, plus entry, a grand total of 14.50 euro. Considering entry alone was 10 euro, and parking would have been 4 euro - taking the train was an incredible bargain.

And then,  the fair itself. It's the sort of place that the Knitting and Stitching show in Dublin could take lessons from. Every stand seemed to be craft related. None of the usual stain remover/kitchen knives/magic something-or-other, no-one shouting from the stands - all good quality craft materials or craft-related things. There wasn't much yarn, it seemed to be focused more on quilting and scrapbooking, but there was enough to keep me occupied, and I spend quite a long time staring at the beautiful quilts on display wondering if I could take up yet another craft. I never got elbowed out of the way, never had to fight to get to a stand even though the place was very busy. Most importantly, I was actually able to walk around the hall without getting overheated and claustrophobic.

The layout of the hall was great - all around the sides were different food options - coffee and cakes in one part, sandwich bar in another, full meals in another. And then, on one side of the hall a "beer hall". Schnitzel and beer. Bliss. Not cheap, but not too expensive, and the portion could have fed four people.

What, did you think I was going to finish without showing you my haul...?

First up, beautiful shetland yarn in lovely heathery purples from Klazien's Kreatie.

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And then I came across the Tucana's Dream stand. 

 If the yarn knits up as well as I think it might, I think I'll be a regular customer. I got this lovely brown-gold sock yarn.

The colours are beautiful, and the skeins of sock yarn look generous too, so I got another one, in my favourite colour - teal.

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Finally, a lovely red yarn caught my eye. So a skein of merino-cashmere made it into the bag too.

And, to finish the lovely day, Little Whirlwind is sitting at the table happily getting herself covered in (washable!) ink using a set of farmyard stamps that I just couldn't resist from one of the scrapbooking stands, and Himself is happily tapping away on his computer.

Sundays rarely get much better than this.

Sitting on my hands

I'm avoiding emailing, calling or otherwise contacting my family right now. I think someone has been spectacularly selfish, and I'm afraid I'll just explode if I talk to anyone about it.

And the stress is playing havoc with my knitting tension...

A pause to prepare

This week has been strange. I'm waiting for the Ravelympics to start, and my knitting fingers are going nuts... I've found so many lovely patterns that I want to cast on.

But I can't. Because I know anything I cast on now will either be abandoned for the duration of the Ravelympics and possibly completely forgotten (my short term memory is bad like that), or will take over so completely that the projects I've been studiously avoiding casting on for, saving them for the Ravelympics, will never get started.

So I've been swatching, endlessly swatching. The past two evenings it has been Wendy Happy. On DPNs (that's a whole other blog post). Tomorrow will probably be the decider for what pattern I do - I'm thinking Jaywalkers right now.

Then it will be the Manos for the Lava Flow Cowl. And possibly a little bit of pre-swatching for the Fiddlehead mittens (if my paypal ever gets sorted out).

I'm not sure I've ever done so much swatching. I can barely see the couch for all the yarn and needles that have been dug out this week for various swatching attempts.

Roll on Friday when I can finally get my teeth into a real project!

I need a swift...

... or a lot more patience.

Little Whirlwind was being put to bed, so I had a child-free and husband-free half hour. And decided it was time to get ready to knit the lovely Lava Flow (it's meant to be a Ravelympics project, but I'm not sure I'll hold out that long). I'd decided on a lovely skein of Manos silk blend which has been languishing in my stash for about two years now.

All of which meant I had the time and need to finally use my ball winder.

It was working so well for a while. And then, suddenly, it all just started to go wrong.

And I was left with this:

and this:

2 hours later, having cut the yarn twice (thank goodness for spit splicing), I finally got to this:

I would have been quicker winding it into a ball by hand. Oh well.