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I hadn't realised that my blog is now one year old - Happy Birthday Melody's Blog!

Time to confess my yarn splurge I think:





Rowan Cotton 4 ply in a beautiful shade called Aegean to knit Kitty from Rowan magazine 27 and a couple of balls of bamboo sock yarn from Hartmuth Wools in Germany. I also bought five balls of Sirdar Pure Cotton 4 ply in navy, cream and sand from the clearance sale at Kemps, and I won a pack of Rowan Cotton 4 ply in a bright and perky shade of Cheeky from eBay. Plus I won some Sirdar Luxury cotton 4 ply in raspberry to knit a cotton cardigan with 3/4 sleeves.


Garnstudio 'Paris' pure cotton in a scrummy raspberry colour, two shades of beautifully soft Fabel sock yarn, and the most delicious Alpaca you've ever squidged or sniffed in your entire life. All this little lot from Scandinavian Knitting Design :)

I forgot to mention that Danny's socks are now complete and on his little feet:


How could you not adore those titchy feet and squidgy knees?

Holiday Knitting

It's the time of the year when I start to think about which projects I'd like to take on holiday with me so that I can spend two entire and glorious weeks knitting to my heart's content. Not that it ever happens of course.

I've already started to think about which projects will be packed and taken to North Wales to keep my fingers busy. Maybe I'll start on a Central Park Hoodie? Maybe I'll take the yarn to knit
'Violette' from Louisa Harding's 'Gathering Roses' (shown in the picture, right) collection? Maybe I'll take some yarn for socks? Well yes, socks definitely then.....

Last year I gathered up all my current WIPs and all my yarns, needles and patterns for projects in waiting that I just *might* knit on holiday and ended up taking a fair few of them with me as I couldn't decide which ones to take; I spent some time shoving them into any available space in the Landie. It was only when we got to our destination and unpacked our clothes that I put all my WIPs and knitting supplies into our empty suitcases for storage purposes, only to find that I could fill two suitcases

The words 'over' and 'optimistic' spring to mind....

Destashing

I opened my eBay account in October 2004 with the intention of trying to destash some of my yarns to good homes and hopefully recoup some of the money spent on the yarns in the first place.

Almost three years later I think I can claim that I have rehomed a huge amount of yarn in that I have probably destashed half of what I originally had, although I've probably managed to spend most of the proceeds on more yarn :)

I have four large cardboard boxes and around four large sacks of yarn to rehome, and then that's it - all gone.

I might have to rummage through my stash to find more yarn to rehome when this last lot has gone though *wink*

Hello Sunshine :(

I was supervising the games stall at the school summer fete on Saturday and really enjoyed myself - so much so that I didn't notice how strong the sun actually was and have ended up with searing sunburn on my arms, shoulders and the back of my neck. Ouch! I lay on the sofa on Saturday night with two paracetomol and a cold drink :( I felt fairly sick yesterday, but I shouldn't complain as it's totally self-inflicted! The boys had suncream applied liberally to their ams, legs, faces and any part of them that was exposed. But in my hurry to get out of the house and down to school, I ....errr....... forgot the sunblock for myself *rolls eyes* Silly Melody.


Anyway - knitterly stuff! After my bout of frogging I decided that I had just enough space in the cupboard for another WIP and so I cast on for this ribbed chunky cardigan in Sirdar Denim Tweed Chunky that I just happened upon in my stash last weekend. I probably won't be wearing the hat with the jacket though..... not my style!

A quick, clockwise round-up of current WIPs reveals a 2x2 ribbed cardigan in black, scrummily soft James Brett merino DK, Danny's socks in 4x2 rib, the start of the second sleeve of Vanessa from the RYC book Classic Art which has a deep 2x2 rib on the body, a 2x2 ribbed cardigan for the warmer months in an gorgeously soft, bright turquoise Sirdar pure cotton wot I fished from stash, and at the top of the piccie pink Kim socks with a lacey pattern up the sides. And of course the new 2x2 ribbed chunky jacket in the previous piccie.

Spot the common denominator anyone?

Another Bout of Frogging

When you start to frog it just goes on doesn’t it? I frogged the red mohair lacey thing yesterday and boy did it feel good. Hmmm, what to frog next?

Oh yeah, I was on hand yesterday to help out with First Aid on a baby who needed emergency medical aid in Asda. He went blue and couldn’t breathe. I didn’t do much to be honest, a midwife had got there seconds before me and had the situation under control, but she looked relieved when I said I’d hang on for the ambulance in case the babe needed CPR. He didn’t, thank goodness, and was whisked away in the ambulance as I trotted round the supermarket with my trolley. It’s a skill I don’t have to use it very often, but being a Paediatric First Aider does have its uses occasionally.

3rd of June already. Where does the time fly to? I’ll be thinking about knitting winter sweaters soon.