The Five Month Stashalong

First off, a piccie of some bargain Rowan 4 ply Soft that I bought from Get Knitted and which arrived on Thursday, along with the new Louisa Harding books and the books in the Sublime range:






and two lots of Patons 100% Cotton DK which arrived this morning, complete with piccies of what I hope to knit with the yarns. I want to knit this cover-up in the black cotton DK, from the new Jaeger booklet and the ribbed collar cardigan from Debbie Bliss' "Simple Living"





I can't wait to get started on some of those glorious designs! Although it was a bit daft of me to buy scrumptious new pattern books and then announce that I was starting a five month long Stashalong exercise.

Yep, you heard right. Or you heard correctly, as we'd say in the UK. I've announced it elsewhere on a knitting forum that I belong to, and I'm officially announcing it here too.

From Sunday 1st October 2006 I'm Stashalonging until the end of February 2007.

There, I've said it here too.

No more yarn purchases for me until 28th February 2007. That's five months in total.
"But why Deb?" I hear you all shout. Well, let me tell ya....

I was wearing my Tickled Pink T shirt yesterday that I bought recently in aid of the charity Breast Cancer Awareness, and I said in a fit of madness that I would join Stashalong until the end of February and ‘sponsor' myself a tenner per month if I didn't buy yarn. So every month that I don't buy yarn, I put a tenner in the kitty. More if I've been good and haven't bought myself any clothes either that month (wow, this is gonna be TOUGH!!) At the end of February I should have at least fifty quid (which converts to around $100 for friends across the Pond) to donate to Breast Cancer Awareness - a very worthwhile charity.

My own rules for this are that I can still buy needles, books and patterns, but absolutely No Yarn Whatsoever unless it is purchased on a day off from Stashalonging, which I plan to have once per calendar month. I don't have to buy yarn on the day off though, it's not compulsory. No bargains, no reductions, no sale items on any other day except days off.

Of course, I'll still be reducing my yarn stash through other sources too, and knitting up what I have to aid the Stashalong cause.

If you'd like to sponsor me, then the more the merrier! I manged to raise £40 by selling off some of my unwanted knitting books earlier this year and I donated the cash to the NSPCC, so I know that it can be done. I'll be posting my success (but hopefully no failures!) on my blog at regular intervals, so you can keep a track on what I've been doing too. I promise that I won't cheat! *hand on heart*

Off now to buy some yarn for a couple of projects before midnight on Saturday..... *wink* I'll show you piccies of yarn as it arrives next week Chez Melody. Put it this way, you won't be seeing any new arrivals for a while.....

A Visit to Town

I have to go into Loughborough this morning to pick up a book voucher as a birthday present for one of my son's friends. It's her birthday today and he wants to get her a voucher for a book as she loves reading. I HATE shopping with a passion, so I've been trying to put it off for as long as possible. But it's her party this evening after school, so I can't wait much longer.

My idea of shopping is to whizz into a shop, buy what I need and whizz out again - I dislike the browsing and deciding business so much that I'll plan what I need before I go shopping and visit only the shops I need to. A trip to town purely for shopping purposes is absolute torture for me. Unless we're talking yarn shops of course - that's entirely different *wink*

I had planned to clean some of the house today, and get on with some machine knitting on the 4 ply merino cardigan that I'm knitting for my mother this afternoon. But as I have to go into town today, I may be pushed to do both of those things before 3pm. Maybe if I shoot into town really quickly and run to the bookshop and run back, and avoid browsing in Quorn Country Crafts at all costs, could I do it?

edited to add: the shopping trip went well and I got back home in one piece. Not only did I buy the book voucher that I wanted, I also found some plain socks for the boys in school colours in their sizes (a miracle in itself!) and also bought some extra plastic mailing bags for my eBay shop. I was on such a roll that I popped into the British Heart Foundation charity shop thinking that I could be lucky and bag myself either a knitting book or knitting yarn bargain, but to no avail. I'll just have to be content with the boys' socks.

Sublime!
I'm completely in love with the new Sublime yarn and pattern books from just seeing them on the Get Knitted website see here.....click

Some glorious colours and some luxury fibre combos which will give Debbie Bliss yarns a run for their money I shouldn't wonder.

Luvverly!

I want to order some more Patons 100% Cotton DK, this time in the gorgeous Orchard Green colour, from one of my favourite eBay sellers this week so that I can knit myself the Debbie Bliss cardigan from Simple Living. Then I'm saving my pocket money like mad to buy a Kim Hargreaves kit, probably Charlotte or Tender. I love so many of the Kim Hargreaves collection kits that I've made a list of the ones I'd like to buy. I'd have to rob the bank in the village to be able to afford them all though *sigh*

A Morning of Chat and Boxes of Yarn

This morning my old friend Wendy came over for a coffee. I haven't seen her for some time, but we carried on chatting like I'd seen her yesterday (well, okay - I did see her yesterday too, but you know what I mean......). Wendy is one of a kind and never changes, she tells it how it is and you always know where you are with her. That's what I love about Wendy. That and the fact that she saved my life several years ago by getting me to hospital in the nick of time, but that's another story altogether. We got out a boxful of yarn and knitting patterns and went through them over a coffee or several. A jolly good morning's chat and coffee all told. Plus Wendy went home with a sackful of rehomed yarn and patterns, so more stash reduction for me *wink*

While she was at our house, the postie arrived and brought two packages for me from Hector:



Hector sent me a ball of absolutely gorgeous mohair mix yarn in a stunning red and and orange shade that is just so me it's unbelievable, and not one but TWO sock blocker key rings! The piccie only shows one of them ‘cos I wanted to show everything including the hilarious card, and blogger has been working at a snail's pace this afternoon and evening :-) I was overwhelmed by the pressies that arrived, and am totally knocked out by them. Thank you so much Hector!

Wendy did help me to open the packages though - I had to let her really, you just can't stop her when she gets going....

Sports Clubs and Homework
It seems like an age since I last blogged about anything...... I’ve been very busy back at work and getting Danny off to school in the mornings, and then back home for lunch and back to school in the afternoons - it’s been all systems go in the Melody household this week. Plus my oldest son Matthew who is now in Year Three has an increased amount of homework and lots of after school clubs that he wants to attend now that he is in Key Stage 2. He has joined the football club and the cross country club this week - he excelled in cross country, coming second in a race where all the Key Stage 2 children were running, and he is the youngest KS2 student in the school. Well Done Mattie!

First off on the knitterly stuff I managed to finish and sew together my bolero which I knitted in James Brett’s Marble DK. It knitted up to be a lovely soft cover-up and reasonably priced too! It’s obviously not a Noro creation, but I can wear this at work when the weather gets chillier:



















I also managed to finish off the raspberry mohair cardigan which is a total modification of an All Seasons Cotton pattern, but that has yet to be stitched together.

My Patons Cotton DK arrived from Kemps woolshop yesterday - well worth the wait too as it’s a gorgeous colour which is calledFoxglove. Unfortunately the light was poor when I took this photo and it's a touch wobblesome, but you'll get the general idea:















And I also received two books that I ordered from Amazon - Nancy Bush’s "Knitting Vintage Socks" book, and the other Ann Budd book, "The Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" that deals with sweaters only. John the Brit had several David Baldacci books in the package too, but I’ve no idea what the titles are or what they’re about. Heh heh.


I like the Nancy Bush book - not as much as Sensational Knitted Socks that I bought from Kai - but it’s a lovely resource book to have. The Ann Budd book? Hmmm. I’ve heard so many rave reviews about this book that I was desperate to get hold of it, but at first glance I’m disappointed in it and I’m sure that the Ann Budd book that Denver Jon sent to me for my birthday will have much more use than this one. The example sweaters in the book appear to be very dated to me I’m afraid, and look quite ill-fitting. ‘1000 Sweaters’ by Amanda Griffiths is a book based on the same principle where there are modular bodies, sleeves, pockets, etc but the designs have a bit more pzzazz; they’re more classic designs than in the Ann Budd book albeit that the sweaters are in DK yarn only and in a smaller range of sizes.
Just my opinion of course, but I think I’d rather stick to my little electronic knitting-shaping gadget rather than use the Ann Budd book, so I don’t think that this particular book will be used much if at all. I’ve already decided to knit Danny a pair of mittens for the winter months from the other Ann Budd book :)

Maybe this weekend I’ll be able to have a few hours worth of knitting or sewing, or maybe both. The past few weekends have been filled with children’s birthday parties, either hosting them or being invited to them, and we’ve already started inviting friends to play after school this early on in the school year. Why is it that all Matt’s and Danny’s friends want to come and play at Melody House?

E Kemps Woolshop
A big thumbs up to E Kemps Woolshop today; the lady there was lovely on the phone when I rang to enquire about some Patons Cotton DK that I ordered from them a few weeks ago. She was friendly and efficient on the phone, and was able to tell me the progress of my order immediately. See E Kemp Woolshop on my sidebar or click here.... E Kemp Woolshop which brings me nicely to...

Stashalonging
I'm coming to the end of my three months Stashalong stint and I have 24 days of my pledged three months left. I did really well for the first two months, but things have gone drastically wrong these past few weeks unfortunately, and not only have I bought yarn from an internet shop, I've won auctions for yarn on eBay too - and it wasn't on one of my days off!

Stashalonging has been an excellent plan for me though, and I'm very pleased that I joined in. I've been destashing with a vengeance and have managed to redeploy plenty of unwanted yarn from my stash. I know how much yarn I've destashed in monetary terms, but unfortunately not in weight or meterage terms (although I'm sure I could work it out if necessary!!) The cumulative purchases have come nowhere near to matching the weight and height of the destashed pile though, so I can confess my purchases with a clear conscience. I will certainly continue my destashing process as there are more yarns wanting/needing a new home in my rather large stash mountain LOL!

I found it so hard to continue on Stashalong with all the new pattern and design books being released for the Autumn and Winter months, and slipped quickly and easily off the wagon so that I could buy yarn to knit some of the new designs. It's certainly patterns and designs that make me want to buy yarn, and not the yarn itself that tempts me. Maybe I should start Stashalonging again until February next year when the next set of design books is released.

Summer is Over

The baby cardigan was well received by my friend; so much so that when I saw her the afternoon after giving the cardi to her, I saw her at school with the baby wearing his cardigan. She said it was perfect and it fitted him now (although it was a 3-6 months size) as he has a long body. I'd already handwashed it before wrapping it up for her, so the babe could wear it straight away.
I was dead chuffed. Even more so since other mums have commented to me on how lovely his cardi is :)



I had some surprise packages in the mail today - the wonderful "The Knitters Handy book of Patterns" by Ann Budd from Denver Jon, and some hand made stitch markers in a funky little knitted box and a Burt's Bees hand care kit from Jacquie. Thank you so much guys! What wonderful birthday presents!

We took Matthew for his belated birthday bash yesterday - a trip to the cinema to see ‘Over the Hedge' and then on to McDonald's for burgers, fries and nuggets all round. The children were so well behaved they were a real pleasure to be around, and there were nine of them altogether so it could have been mayhem. The cinema and McDonalds were excellent in their children's party hosting, a big thumbs up to McD's especially as they only knew yesterday morning that we were all turning up at lunchtime; the cinema were given advance warning of the impending assault, and gave the children excellent value for our money. Brilliant day.

It was back to work for me today - we had a meeting on Friday to discuss the term's topic which is "Myself". I had a few extra bits of paperwork to do over the weekend, but apart from that it was back to work as normal today at 9.15am. It was like the staff and children had never been away. Uncanny.

First Day of School

My littlest son Danny had his first official day at school today. I say ‘day' but a half day is more like it. When he knew that he had to come home for lunch he was very dischuffed

"Well I'll go back in the afternoon then" he said. Little pippin.

He ran straight to the dressing up rail in his new classroom and looked for an outfit to wear. He's so pleased that there are more dressing up costumes at school than we have at home :) He had a good morning, enjoyed his first day at school and was awarded a sticker for his hard work. Well Done Dan!


I spent all yesterday afternoon stitching in goodness knows how many name labels into school wear, and putting kits of one kind or another together for school today; I had sewers cramp at the end of my stitching marathon! I did however get the baby cardigan sewn up to pop in a parcel for my friend's baby, and here it is along with a baby rattle/soft toy.

I've been working away on a new project seeing as some old WIPs are completed or near completion. In the quietness which was this morning I've drafted a block for the back and fronts of a neat little cardigan that I'm intending to whizz up in 4 ply merino for my Mum, and I cast on for the back rib this afternoon. Not much to show though, just a line of cast on stitches so far!

Shoes for School

We went shopping for school shoes for the boys yesterday afternoon, and they had their feet measured in Clarks. Matthew’s feet hadn’t grown at all, so he didn’t need new school shoes, but he did need a new pair of trainers as he has to take trainers to school for PE this year rather than plimmies. He’s taking his old pair of trainers for running up and down a muddy footie pitch and keeping his new ones for ‘home’ wear.

Danny’s feet on the other hand (or other foot!) Have grown one and a half sizes since his shoes were fit checked eight weeks ago..... ONE AND A HALF SIZES!!! I was stunned to say the least. So he’s had new school shoes and new trainers, and new plimmies for school too. The whole lot cost me £91. And that’s a lot of school shoes.

My knitting is cranking itself out very well at the moment, and I completed the first sleeve of my mohair cardi over the weekend. Only one more sleeve and the bands and it’s done - hurrah! I seem to have got over the feeling of complete exhaustion and unwellness from my two bouts of strep throat that I’ve had recently, and the glands in my neck are finally down and staying down, so I’m feeling like getting some knitting done. (In the week the GP thought I could have Post Viral Syndrome, but I very much doubt that :-?) I don’t know how anyone else fairs with their knitting time, but I fit mine in around the family, work, house, husband and children, and sometimes knitting doesn’t feature very high on the agenda.

I’m thinking of finishing the back of the Tide cardigan though, and then putting the project on hold for a few months. I don’t think we’re going to have an Indian Summer judging by the cooler weather we’ve been having recently, and I’d like to get some cosier cardis and jackets knitted for the Winter months. Something with longer sleeves might be good and I already have some ideas floating around in my mind :)

Glossary of Terms

Just for Denver Jon I give you a glossary of terms from the previous posting:

Lairy - overly confident, arrogant, cheeky, loud; especially applied to youngster or adolescents

Rucksack - Could also be called a 'backpack' but a large bag wot you sling onto your back when walking in the wilds to hold all your essentials such as flask, knitting books, knitting, waterproofs, snacks, etc. But mainly for knitting purchases at large knitting exhibitions and trips to Chester, etc :)
Others are designed to carry a baby or small child, see here:

baby carriers

*NB - No longer required in the Melody household*

Fell walking - walking on the fells. Self explanatory :)

Knitterly Stuff
I had to frog 7cm worth of knitting on my Tide cardi as I could see a distinct mark where the knitting had been sitting idle for a few weeks on the needles. I thought it better to frog a few cms now than have it plagueing me for ever more. I think it was Maggie Righetti who said that mistakes in knitting are not like vintage wines - they don't get better with age.

Arguing over the Argos Catalogue

You can tell that it's getting towards the end of the school holidays - the boys are getting bored with each others' company and are finding it difficult to get along together without arguing or needling each other, even to the extent of arguing whose turn it is to look through the Argos catalogue. I ask you.

We have things to do over the next few days, such as visits to the dentist, collect school uniform, sewing name labels into articles of school clothing and finish off bits of work before we go back to our respective schools, so that should keep us busy and out of mischief.

Danny has his first half day at school on Wednesday next week, and I'm actually looking forward to it although I didn't think I would; it means that at last this holiday I may just have a couple of hours of peace and quiet. Bliss.

Nah then - knitting related thingos.....

A cyberfriend of mine, Jackie - I do hope I spelled her version of Jackie correctly, there are so many ways to spell it, and I always forget who has which version - bagged herself a scrummy knitting machine from a charity shop last week, and she has set it up and knitted some plain knitting already. She got the main bed, ribber, knitting shaping device, table and a lace carriage and cost just twenty quid! Twenty quid I tell you!! What a superb bargain!! Spurred on by her amazing find I decided to unearth my standard gauge knitting machine from the depths of the cupboard. We have a huge walk in cupboard that is accessed via the ‘guest' room and all sorts of stuff is stored there including all my knitting machines, so I had to move rucksacks, rucksacks that you can stuff a baby into the back of and carry around when you're fell walking, boxes of the children's paintings and school work, sleeping bags, spare duvets, packets of real life photographs taken before we had the digicam and other assorted stuff. I had a great time last night looking through all the old photos of our oldest son taken when he was born up until he was around eighteen months old; he was always smiling and so happy and full of life, now he's a lairy seven year old . Happy memories.

I'll have to give the knitting machine a good overhaul before I can use it properly again, as it looks quite oily and yuck, even though it's been stored well since the lid was last put on it. I have plans to revitalise my wardrobe of woollies with some new ones, and the machine will come in very handy for that. Some fusion knitting is on the horizon methinks. I already have a fusion knitting project in mind for this machine I just need to get the yarn out of the stash and knit a tension swatch.





One last thing, I bought these amazing precious jade stitch markers from Claire at The Claire Knit Project and they arrived the other day. Aren't they just beautiful?

WIPs Wipeout

This is what I managed to produce on Saturday afternoon whilst my oldest son was obsessed with his new birthday PS2. I started out with two lots of ribbing and ended up with two complete sleeves for my cerise half ‘n' half jacket:







I've also completed the baby cardigan for my friend's new baby boy (saw him this afternoon - he's gorgeous!) so now I just need to sew the cardi up, and the front ribbing on the bolero is half done, so that will be finished this week too. It's great when you have several projects on the go as they all seem to be finished at once.
Prolific knitting or what?

The last piccies from the Holiday in Wales...

I give you:

Knitting on the tram going down the Great Orme in Llandudno, and knitting at the bottom of the Great Orme in the tram, just by the ticket office. Did you know John the Brit used to live in Llandudno? Bet you didn't. He and Helen from Stash had a chat about how they both grew up there when I popped into Stash in Chester to buy books *shakes head*








Ah yes... knitting outside Dolbadarn Castle. I sat and knitted in front of the castle while the boys climbed to the top:



Knitting on the miniature steam train at Betws-y-Coed:




Knitting on the Highland Railway from Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu, then back again to Caernarfon




Don't suppose you've spotted the train connection yet, then?

You know I mentioned a little while ago that I was really, really bad at remembering birthdays? Melody strikes again as I forgot to post my Uncle's card off to him yesterday. It was a funny one too. He'll just have to have giggle on Monday morning instead.

Dongled At Last

I would have updated my blog earlier than today, but I've been waiting for John the Brit to dongle over holiday photos from his laptop. He finally got round to doing it last night *rolls eyes*.

I had a humungous migraine headache this afternoon, probably something to do with the red wine last night. As I don't usually drink because alcohol and I just don't get on together these days, I was amazed that I didn't have a dodgy headache this morning - so I paid the price this afternoon instead. Strange. I feel like my body is falling to bits at the moment, my birthday is on the horizon and I think I must be preparing myself for feeling the age that I'll be in two weeks time or thereabouts. It's on the 31st August if anyone wants to send me Ann Budd's Knit-Any-Sweater-You-Want book for a surprise pressie. No? Well, no harm is asking... *wink*

Okay, here are some knitting piccies from hols - you won't want to see the other holiday type photos, they're too boring for words!!

Knitting on the Llanberis Lake Railway - exactly what it says on the tin. Knitting a sock on the little train that runs round the Lake at Llanberis....



Matthew and I venture into Stash in Chester. This would have been a better photo except Matthew decided to dash into the piccie uninvited at the last minute, and I'm looking particularly chubby with a bright green bag for holding all my knitting projects slung over my shoulder. I have no clue who the lady is looking in Stash's window as the photo is being taken, but that little lad with the back of his head to the camera and in a bright blue top is The Dink himself. Here it is anyway:



And the final piccie of holiday knitting shots today - I sit and knit the holiday sock by Gellert's grave at Bedgellert. I wondered aloud whether if we were to move the stone, would we find the remains of Gellert the noble and brave dog underneath it. John the Brit dragged me away before I could hop over the railings to find out..... spoilsport.




More pics 2moz maybe.

On to more home based stuff.....

I went to Dunelm Mill again this morning on the way back from an appointment for our youngest The Dinkster with both the lads in tow; I bought six cushion innards to make some scatter cushions for our living room along with 2 metres of tasty, ‘non-gender specific' (the NVQ3 rears its ugly head again) fabric to make a few more story sacks for reception class at the boys' primary school, so I must get the sewing machine out.

So, What Did You Get Up to on Your Holiday, Melody?
Holidays didn't start very well...... my strep throat started to reappear on the second evening of our holiday, about 36 hours after I took my last penicillin tablet, and although I tried to ignore it, a high temperature, a vicious sore throat and swollen glands, and an inability to swallow yet again threatened to ruin the holiday before it had begun. I realised I was plummeting downwards when I could hardly swallow a bacon sarnie at Pete's Eats so a swift trip to the local medical centre in Llanberis on Tuesday afternoon and a prescription for yet more penicillin sorted the nasty little strep bacterium beasties out and I was as right as rain after that.

And talking of rain...... this is what we woke up to on our first day of holidays:

The weather did perk up a bit eventually though and I managed to get a bit of colour on my shoulders whilst I knitted at Dolbadarn Castle. There's a piccie of me knitting with Dolbadarn Castle in the background, but it's on John the Brit's laptop at the mo and I have to dongle piccies across from the laptop, so piccies later on of that.

I Visited Stash!

I continued my Stashalonging in exceptional style, only buying a few balls of sock yarn when I visited Stash in Chester. We travelled to Chester so that I could buy Rowan magazine 40, and I phoned them beforehand to check that it had arrived in stock.

Steve at Stash explained on the phone that the shop could be closed at some point as they were expecting a huge delivery of Rowan yarns which had to be put in its respective places in the shop, but added that if the shop was closed I could knock on the door and explain who I was and what I wanted, and they would open the shop so that I could buy the mag. Top marks to Stash for offering brilliant customer service to a holiday maker/tourist to North Wales and Chester!! They've been added to my linky bit at the side there for special endeavours with respect to holidaying knitters in Cheshire... *big thumbs up*

Not only did I buy Rowan 40, but I also bought these luvverly books and needles from Stash - the first photo shows what I bought on the first visit, the second photo what I bought on the ....um... second visit to Stash the following week:







We only went back to Chester a second time so that the boys could visit the Dewa centre in the city centre, honest.... a ‘hands on' archeology/ Roman museum which the boys and I thoroughly enjoyed. *big grin*

A line-up of the sock yarns that I bought at Stash. I bought the grey/blue one second from the left to knit Dad another pair of socks but as it's cotton/wool mixture I think I'll need more than one ball. Hmph!

I also managed to track down a copy of Debbie Bliss' "Easy Knits" book (which I've been looking out for for months)in WHSmith in Chester, so I had a good shopping trip all told. Trouble is that now I'm too tempted by all the new patterns in all the new books I bought to contemplate even looking at my' old' list of things I wanted to knit before I bought the books, if you follow my drift.....

Vacation Knitting Progress

On the evening before our departure, I still couldn't decide which new projects to take with me and in the end took a load of half finished projects that I thought I could give my full attention during the fortnight. In the two weeks in Llanberis, I all but finished the bolero knitted in James Brett's Marble DK with just one part of the front band to pick up and knit, finished Dad's first Opal Magic sock with just the second one to complete, and knitted a good part of the double moss stitch yoke on the back of the half-and-half jacket that I'm fusion knitting.

My knitting had a rather eventful time in Wales, as I challenged myself to knit in as many touist-y places as I possibly could. I think I did quite well under the circumstances, and managed to knit on the Tram going up and down the Great Orme in Llandudno, on the Llanberis Lake Railway, on the Welsh Highland Train from Caernarfon to Rhydd Ddu, by the grave of that very brave Medieval dog Gellert *ahem*, and under the watchful eye of Dolbardan Castle. My knitting and I had fun. Enjoy the piccies as I stick ‘em on the blog over the next few days....

We're Off!
Singalong now!!
"Oh this year we're off to Sunny Wales
Y Viva Espana!"

We'll be leaving as soon as we've packed the stuff into the car - this could take some time.....

I'll see you when we return..... be good!

Two Large, Blue Packages Arrive
Early yesterday morning the Parcel Force chappy drew up outside our house to deliver these two humungous parcels of yarn:

















Don't worry, I didn't break Stashalong! I have a virtual yarn shop on eBay and this was the delivery of yarns I needed to restock my baby yarns. NONE of this yarn is for me, I promise. I have my work cut out for me in updating all my listings today though, but by early tomorrow afternoon today they should be done.

Knitterly Stuff
I'm desperate to throw out all of my tatty fleece jumpers and cheapo knitteds that I bought and wore for work last year and the previous year, and want to knit myself some quick, easy and reasonable knitteds to go to preschool in. I daren't wear luxury yarns at work, much as I'd like to, in case they get covered in unmentionable children's stuff like...... oooh can't mention them sorry..... and paint and glue.

So I've also cast on yet another project and am knitting the ribbing of a cardigan jacket that's plain stocking stitch on the bottom half with moss stitch yoke. I'm knitting it in Sirdar Country Style DK in a lovely crushed strawberry colour called Cerise, and want to knit another in Sand.

Piccies tomorrow!

I'm glad to see that my blogging cyberknitter palsy-walsy Denver Jon of Colorado Knits fame has updated his blog and is telling us things that happen in his life that he considers to be boring and mundane, but which we consider to be a good read. And he gives me good make-up tips too *wink* Probably one of the bestest buddies I have.

Monday, Monday
Well the penicillin is indeed working and I can swallow again now without folding up in pain. I still can't blow my nose or cough without my throat hurting tho'. In fact, I feel better than I have done for weeks, so I'm wondering if this bacterial infection has been lurking round for a while, ready to jump in when my immune system was feeling a bit urgh.

So what else has been happening in the Melody household?? Erm.... not much really! We're off to North Wales on holiday on Saturday morning - I'd like to say ‘bright and early' but in reality I'll still be faffing around getting stuff into the car on Saturday morning just before we leave. Last year I was ironing all our clothes to take on holiday at 10am and I still hadn't packed.....okay, so I'm not good at packing and leaving on time *grin* but we all have our weaknesses don't we?

Glan-Y-Bala

We're off to Llanberis, the village at the bottom of Snowdon, where we've been for the last - ooh let me see - five or six years except the year that Danny was born; we'll be staying in the Coach House if you click on the link above.

It's the type of holiday that changes every time we go with the boys as they are one year older each time we go, and their interests change in what they want to do on their holiday. This year I think we'll be swimming, walking, travelling on a few steam trains, making sandcastles on the beaches and going to the cinema lots. Oh, and knitting, reading and playing with our Superhero figures. I'll leave you to figure out who'll be doing what....

My Purchases from My Day Off Stashalonging
On my day off Stashalonging I bought this beautiful shade of Patons 100% Cotton double knitting yarn from yarnsmith It's shade Azalea, and it's just the colour I wanted to knit the Ribbed Collar Jacket from the Debbie Bliss book ‘Simple Living'



As I'm going to use 4mm needles for the body of the jacket rather than 3.75mm that the pattern calls for, I decided to order myself a pair of 3.5mm Brittany Birches for the ribbing as the pattern uses 3.25mm so I've gone up a needle size throughout. Oh, and I also ordered Brittany cable needles too.....



I'm doing quite well with Stashalonging this time round and have only bought the yarn above for a specific project on my Day Off. It's probably something to do with the fact that I'm not now on the computer almost all evening knocking out college stuff and I can't wander off into websites selling yarn and feel tempted to buy :)
What a virtuous Melody! *wink*

Other News
I've not been too well of late, spending most of Friday evening, all of Saturday and Sunday morning in bed with bacterial pharyngitis. I felt so ill that I didn't even knit in bed, and I haven't eaten for three days and have been on cold water rations as it was all I could swallow. A second trip to the walk-in centre on Saturday morning and the doctor diagnosed strep throat, and gave me penicillin. Amazing stuff! My glands under my chin started to go down yesterday afternoon but it's taken until Sunday afternoon to swallow half properly. So I've just eaten two bags of Walkers Steak and Onion crisps, with fizzy water and Peach and Grape cordial.
Just what the doctor ordered.

Have I Been a Bad, Naughty Melody?
This evening I was sitting waiting to be seen at the NHS walk-in centre with an extremely sore throat and I took my knitting with me (I was thinking that I had a strep throat it was so difficult to swallow, the glands in my neck were as big as tennis balls and I had yellowy white flecks on the very back of my tongue, but that bit is really inconsequential to the story....)

Anyway, I was knitting away on Tide after having completed the armhole shaping last night and an elderly lady wandered over to me and struck up a conversation. She stroked my knitting and complimented me on it, and proceeded to ask all about the pattern, yarn, etc and I showed the pattern to her and we talked about how I was knitting it.

I had a photocopy in my knitting bag as I copy patterns so that I don’t wreck my actual copies or books, or indeed lose them. So we discussed sizes, yarns, patterns, an all things relating to knitting and she told me the reason why she was at the medical centre with her husband. The lady was not from the local area and was on a weekend away at a steam rally. We chatted about knitting for around ten minutes until my name was called.

"Do you like the pattern?" I asked the lady as I got up from my seat
"Oh yes, it’s beautiful!" she replied
"It’s yours" I said, handing over the copy to her.

She looked stunned, thanked me profusely and offered me money for the photocopying (I declined as we have a photocopier at home and it cost next to nothing to copy, and I had intended the pattern copy to be for my own use)

So was I a naughty Melody to give the lady a copy of my pattern? Or was that my good deed for the day?

Piccies of Progress
I was norty yesterday evening and stood chatting to our next door neighbour over the fence instead of taking photos of my progress on both Tide and the garter stitch baby cardigan and when I eventually came inside it was too dark to take decent piccies. So if you clicked onto my blogette and were disappointed that you didn't see piccies I'm very sorry.... I'll give myself smacked wrists *ouch! that hurt!*

Here they are:

Up to my armholes in Tide:



Garter stitch cardigan; boring but just the sleeves to do now:




I will get the baby cardi done this week.... okay, by the weekend....... but I don't think I'll be finishing Tide in time to take and wear and my holiday as a finished item unless I sit and knit and do very little else, and that ain't happenin'.
Poo.
I don't think the baby will care very much whether Aunty Melody has finished the sleeves on the cardi for his/her arrival to be honest, and the babe may well be late in arriving anywhoo. But I can finish it off in a couple of evenings, especially as I'm picking the sleeves up round the armhole depth and knitting them down to the wrist, so very little sewing up required.

Other News....
Flip flops are all the thing again this year and I don't like that thongy bit that fits between your toes... yuck... so I've been deprived of trendy footwear of late. I did buy some sparkly flip flop type sandals from Asda in a vague attempt to be trendy, and they're quite comfortable to wear in the house as opposed to wearing fluffy slippers in this heat. They have a strap across the foot rather than a toe thong though, which is more comfortable for moi.

Then yesterday I popped into the chemist in the next village to where we live and found these on sale:



I was so pleased that I bought them immediately. I had several pairs of Scholl sandals when I was a nipper, and they design hasn't changed in about thirty years *grin*. I spent all yesterday admiring my new Scholls and clumping round the house in them. (I'm a very sad person at times) In fact that's how the conversation started with our neighbour - she was in the garden watering her plants and I was walking along the path in our garden admiring my new Scholls and she called out that I looked pensive..... I didn't have the guts to admit was admiring my new sandals as I was walking along.....

It's A Dog's Life
Max the Dog has had the right idea the past few days - to lie in the shade of our garden and do nothing except potter in and out for food and water. He managed to raise his head for the photo though!



I'm not doing as much knitting as I'd planned on my days off from work; I've managed to get to the armhole shaping of the back of Tide, and the back and one front is done on the garter stitch baby cardigan, and I'm almost to the neck shaping of the second front of that. I thought I'd better get a move on with the baby cardi as my friend's due date is this Friday. Not that the baby will want a woolly pully in this heat so it's a good thing I decided to knit a size 18" chest size cardi. At least it should be cooler in October when the cardi will fit *big grin*

Piccies of knitting progress tomorrow....

Goodness only knows how I actually managed to do it - but look, the links are there to the left. If you're not there yet please don't think I've overlooked you, I tried adding four links out as a trial run and was astounded when the technical stuff actually worked!! I'll be adding more as and when I have the courage to try it out again.

The Start of the Summer Hols
Yes!! It's here! The start of the summer holidays!!
Great! I thought, I don't have to get up and go to work for seven weeks! A lie-in!
Not so.
John the Brit went out at 4am this morning to do a safety audit at a site, and as he left the house Danny the youngest woke up, ran from his bedroom and hopped into bed with a half-comatose Mummy. He spent the next three hours wriggling around and asking for breakfast. Some lie-in that turned out to be *rolls eyes*



Destashing Baby Yarns
I've decided that as my youngest son is nearly four and a half years old and due to start school in September, I really should destash some of my ‘baby' yarns. I've added two packs of Sirdar Snugly Aran yarns to eBay this evening in the vague hope that someone will offer me some hard cash for them. I started off by offering them on the Angel Yarns forum today, but no-one was tempted unfortunately, so I put them onto eBay instead as I don't have long before we're off on our hols and I don't want any outstanding auctions running for fear of being left negative feedback!





I'm feeling a bit sad that I'll never knit baby stuff for the boys again :(
Maybe I'll knit socks for the pair of them instead!




Crochet
I did try to crochet over ten years ago, in fact I went to Crochet classes at my then LYS. Sadly this yarn shop closed down as the owner retired, but it was a lovely shop just to visit. I'm sure the owner thought I was a bit bonkers though as I was on a major stash enhancement programme at the time! Ah well.... I digress......

I did try to crochet. Once. Crochet and I didn't get along all that well. Maybe because I'm left-handed, maybe because I felt awkward, maybe because of the feel of that damned METAL crochet hook in my hand........ I dunno.

Then yesterday morning as I was knitting away on Tide using my Brittany Birch straights, I realised that possibly crochet wouldn't feel so awkward if I used these babies:
Brittany crochet hooks
I may try crochet out again when I've bought myself a couple of Brittany hooks to work with. Who knows, I may get to like it this time round :)

PS - this Blogger business is all tricks isn't it? For the past 2-3 weeks I've been trying my best through trial and error to get things in the right places and suddenly I accidentally press 'compose' and voila! it all appears before my eyes exactly how I want it

Stashalong Swapsies
I received my swap package from Hectorshouse this afternoon, and I was delighted with the yarn that I'd swapped for my Wisteria Breeze DK. This is the yarn that received in return:



It's a lovely pinky terracotta colour, which I rather like at the moment, and I have ten 50g balls. That's enough to knit a short sleeved little jacket with a moss stitch yoke to wear over strappy camisole sun tops in the late Summer and Autumn months when it's still warm. Hectorshouse also very kindly and unexpectedly sent another little gift - a lovely mini make-up case by Clinique with a tube of skin care cream tucked inside. All my make-up bags are either too large or too tatty, and this is perfect for taking a lipstick, eye pencil and contact lens case out and about with me, especially on holiday. I'm not one for shopping for myself, and so these two little gifts were truly a luxury and such a generous gesture - thank you so much HH.

Debbie Bliss's Jacket with Ribbed Collar
On the Angel Yarns forum I recently mentioned that I would like to knit the Jacket with Ribbed Collar on page 9 of the Debbie Bliss book "Simple Living", and another member, Slow As a Snail, said that she had just bought the yarn to knit the exact same cardigan and suggested that we should have our very own knitalong.

I've never taken part in a knitalong before, let alone actually been party to starting one off, mainly because I haven't had enough spare knitting time to join in with one over recent years, or the pattern hasn't been one that I've particularly liked and wanted to knit. At the moment it's not a Knitalong as such, just two people knitting the same cardigan at roughly the same time, although a few other members of the AY forum have expressed an interest in joining in as well



The pattern for this cardigan is stocking stitch with ribbed sleeves and a ribbed band at the front, so it's perfect for me as although I would consider myself to be an experienced knitter, I don't particularly like fussy knits and prefer plain and simple, classic styles. And I want something that I can pick up and put down on holiday, and knit in the car when we're travelling.

Now I do already have some Patons Cotton DK in my yarn stash in a rather striking Rose colour which has long been discontinued (and I even have the correct amount of yarn which is a minor miracle!), and I could knit the cardigan in that; you can see the Cotton DK from my yarn stash in the photo along with the jacket pattern, and it's rather bright isn't it?? It reminds me of the ‘Cheeky' colour on the current shadecard....

But as today is the 15th of the month, it's my Day Off from Stashalong and I feel that I really should buy some yarn today as I won't have the chance for another thirty one days. I want to buy some Patons 100% Cotton DK to knit the cardigan in instead of the recommended DB Cotton Cashmere; I'm knitting Tide in this same cotton yarn but in the Indigo shade, and it is truly wonderful to knit with. The Brittany Birch needles and the cotton yarn are producing a marvellous even fabric that just glides off the needles. I'll have to buy another pair of 4mm Brittanies though..... *big grin* Now call me a cheapskate, but I'll only need 7 x 100g balls of the Patons Cotton, at £3.10 per ball from Yarnsmith, compared to 14 x 50g balls of DB Cotton Cashmere at £3.95 per ball..... I'll leave you to do the maths on that one.....

I don't know whether to choose one of the darker pinks or mid green from the shadecard though: Foxglove, Azalea or Orchard? I'm drawn towards Azalea, but Foxglove and Orchard both look rather tempting. I only want to buy one lot of yarn on my Day Off from Stashalong though, as this was my downfall in my last Stashalong attempt...... :)

As the time is 10.45pm, I only have just over an hour to decide on a colour and press the BUY button before the clock strikes twelve. BONG!!

The End of an Era.
It's my youngest son Danny's last ever day at preschool tomorrow morning and I'm really sad about it. He starts ‘big' school at the end of August so tomorrow is the last day he'll be coming into work with me - forever. I'll feel like I've lost part of me when he leaves and moves up into Reception class.

I was browsing through some of my ‘baby' and young boy's patterns that go up to a size 24" chest this afternoon, and the largest size will just about fit Danny at the moment. I'll have to knit him some little sweaters and vests pronto so that he can wear them at the weekeends and on school holidays; our local school has a uniform that must be worn, so he'll be wearing his little school sweatshirt from September onwards.

*sigh* It certainly is The End of an Era

Same Garment, Different Yarns
Do you ever knit a garment and then want to recreate it in many different guises in different yarns? I do.

I recently knitted myself a cropped ribby cardigan from an older Wendy aran pattern - it's the cardigan you see me wearing at the top of my blog page - and I've worn it so often over the past few weeks that I want to knit it again and again in many different yarns. It's so easy to wear, and it fits like a dream because it's ribby. I keep thinking
"Oooh! I could knit it in this! Oooh I could knit it in that!"
I've already got the yarn out of stash and stored it in the guest-room-cupboard-box to knit another version in a denim blue, cotton blend yarn.


It's Patons Holiday Aran that I bought from an eBay auction a little while ago, and it wasn't exactly expensive at £9.01 for six 100g balls. Maybe this could be a holiday project? It's very quick and very easy, as long as I don't knit the back of the cardigan in one size and the left front in another size - now that would be a silly Melody thing to do, wouldn't it??


Other News
It's my Mum's birthday today and she is 72. Happy Birthday Mum!!


The family went to visit yesterday and whilst I was there I finished sewing up the cotton blend summer cardigan that I knitted for her birthday. Mum loves short sleeved cardigans and will wear them in the cooler months too, so this will be an all round winner. She said today that the cardigan fits beautifully, and said that ‘all donations are gratefully received' when I asked her if she's like another one but in a different colour!

Please excuse the blurry, dark photos of the finished cardigan for Mum - John the Brit took photos with his phone yesterday as I'd forgotten to take the digital camera to my parents' house to take photos of the finished project. I'm quickly realising that Blogging requires some organisational skills, which I evidently don't have ;-)

Counting my Stash
I've spent a lovely hour or so this morning (whilst I was eating my breakfast toast and butter, and drinking my morning cup of tea) updating my Stash Spreadsheet to reflect what I've recently bought, sold or swapped. I have to keep my Stash on an Inventory Spreadsheet or I would lose track of everything that I had in it. I've kept a Stash Inventory on an Excel spreadsheet for around eight years because at one time my stash was enormous....... okay, it still is enormous, but it's getting a bit more under control now. I have all the yarns I want to keep and knit projects with on one sheet and all the stuff I want to get rid of on another, categorised by spinner, quality, quantity and colour. I have the cost of the yarns too, which is quite a scary number of £££s when it's all added together. I have a grand total of 529 ‘lots' of yarn for projects on my "I want to keep this yarn and knit it someday" sheet, which is rather a lot to say the least. I said in a moment of madness to John the Brit that I'd like to whittle down my existing stash so that it could all be stored in one of the drawers under the bed, two large Ikea storage tubs which are currently in the boys' playroom, and a large box in the wardrobe of the guest room (sounds posh that doesn't it??
Here is a piccie of my stash sort out in January 2006 ----



Some of these ‘lots' of yarn are one ball in some instances, a bag of yarn for multiple projects in others, or maybe a cone of 4 ply for whizzing up on the knitting machine, so it's hard to quantify exactly how many actual projects I have stored away for a rainy day. And this, dear readers, is exactly why I decided to join the Summer Stashalong until September 30th. I rather liked Cheryl's idea for a Stash Giveaway that I read about on her blog, and I have recently given a couple of large sacksful of yarn away to other people who knit for charity of some description. Around two years ago, Jon of Colorado Knits gave me a much needed kick up the proverbial bum to sell some of stash on eBay, and I've managed to swap stash for cash this way ever since.

I've recently sold some of my yarns on the Angel Yarns forum, which I mentioned in an earlier posting, and the idea was to sell some yarns and then use the money that I generated to buy a Kim Hargreaves knitting kit for myself. Although I converted enough stash into cash to be able to buy a kit, I haven't bought one as yet...... trouble is that once I start destashing, I find it difficult to spend that money again on yarns!!

My sock yarn stash hasn't ever been inventoried though - is that a word?? - I just keep it in three large boxes in the guest wardrobe and in the boys' playroom:







I just know that I have a fair old bit of sock yarn going on in those boxes.....

An edited note: I've been struggling with blogger today as it wouldn't let me add any pictures at all to this posting; but I managed to find a sneaky way of doing it and eventually beat Blogger into submission with a bit of lateral thinking *wink*

BBQ Rained Off
It was my oldest son's school social BBQ this evening, but it rained so hard this afternoon, and has done for the past few days, that the PFA, who had organised the event, cancelled it. And I can't blame them. Unfortunately for us, I had absolutely no food whatsoever to give to the family as I

a) hadn't taken any food out of the freezer, or
b) shopped for any

and then my oldest son's friend says
"Matthew says I can come round to your house tonight! Can I?"

So what do you do in situations like this? Easy. You invite your oldest son's friend to play after school as organised by aforementioned son, and invite friend's sister round to play as well as she looks sad and she wants to play with youngest son, and then take the four children mob handed to McDonald's when they get hungry. And MickeyD's have those ‘The Dog' toys as the Happy Meal giveaway toy. Resounding Result.

The News I'd Been Waiting For
arrived yesterday afternoon via text message. The message was from my assessor saying that I had passed my NVQ level 3 in Early Years Care and Education after £700 worth of course fees and two years worth of hard work. Relief is a wonderful feeling.

It's a good thing really, ‘cos I completely cleared the dining room table on Monday afternoon which has been my work station since Christmas :-) All I have to do now is collect my folders from college and that is, sadly, that; I'll certainly miss going into college every week and seeing the people on my course.

Knitterly Stuff
I suppose I'd better make a start on the little cardigan I want to knit for one of my school playground friends whose baby is due in about two and a half weeks time.
I have a little garter stitch cardigan pattern in mind that I knitted up a few months ago for a friend at playgroup, so hopefully it won't take long to knit up. I have another little present for the baby too, so if things don't go quite according to timescale, I have a contingency plan up my sleeve. I'm planning on using some cream Sirdar Baby Care DK yarn from my stash for stashbusting purposes.

Oh, and this arrived today from Get Knitted - I've had a quick look through this afternoon and I already want to knit the ribbed jacket shown in the second picture:


I've been mentally trawling through my stash to find acceptable substitutes!! I love both the colour and the style - definitely a Melody knit for the future that one.

"Tuesday's Blogging" for Want of a Better Title
I've had both boys off from school with Slapped Cheek Syndrome these past few days, so not a lot has been done in the Melody Yarns household - I've been able to attack a bit of the ironing pile this morning but it took over an hour to iron the boys' tops, and I've done loads more washing to boot :-( There's always a full basket of washing to be done, but I really don't know why or where it comes from as there are only two adults and two children living in the house.
I should add that Danny is fully recovered and Matthew over the worst part of the illness, so I should be back at work on Thursday. Thanks to everyone for their good wishes for their recovery.

Stashalong Confessions
I've been amazingly restrained on Stashalong this time - okay, so it's only four days in - but four days is four days right? I've been motivated to decrease my stash this time rather than increase it, so I've sold some more yarns to members of the Angel Yarns forum, and stuff that hasn't been sold has already gone on to an eBay auction . I have swapped some Sirdar Breeze in a lovely lilac pastel colour for some Hayfield Cotton Rich DK in a more neutral biscuity colour, so at least I have swapped my pastels that I wouldn't knit for a colour of Cotton Rich that I will knit up. I swapped with Hectorshouse - a very lovely lady! Depending on the shade of biscuit it will be either for me or Mum I guess.

Swapping yarns during Stashalong is a good idea I think - like stash enhancement but without the outlay, and you get rid of stash that you wouldn't maybe use even though it's perfectly good quality yarn. I've also managed to sell some of my excess Sirdar Town and Country sock yarn that I bought to knit socks for my Dad, so the sock yarn stash is decreasing too. Again, any that hasn't been sold through the Angel Yarns forum will have been listed on eBay by now ;-)

I had a knitting parcel delivered this morning though - my Brittany Birch straights and the ball of Ladybird Opal sock yarn that I'd been craving for weeks and weeks. I bought it on Saturday morning after all, I'll just extend my Stashalong until midday on 30th September if necessary to compensate for buying it on the first morning of the new Summer Stashalong...... *wink* My Debbie Bliss book is unfortunately out of stock at Get Knitted at the moment, but they've promised to send it along as soon as it's back in stock.




Works in Progress
I cast on the stitches for the back of ‘Tide' from the Louisa Harding Beachcomber book, but couldn't decide whether to knit the small size or the medium size; the small size was a bit too small, the medium size too large. I'd done a tension square on 4.5mm needles, but only achieved 21sts with my 100% Cotton DK and the pattern wanted 20sts per 10cm.Of course I'm not using the yarn stipulated in the pattern book - it would cost about £70 to knit a cover-up that is made from nearly 100% nylon, and I didn't want that.

Instead of using 4.5mm needles that I intended to use, I decided to use 4mm needles instead. I'm knitting the medium size as my tension will be 22sts instead of the 20sts per 10cm, so by knitting a larger size than I need with a corresponding tighter tension, the cover-up will be a better size for me when it's finished. I've also decided to knit the longer version of the cardi, but with the short sleeves. So mods all round with this project. I might need an extra ball of cotton though, so I'll ring the yarn shop today to see if they can put a ball of yarn aside for me, just in case.

Anyway, here's what I've done so far - the lacy scalloped pattern at the bottom of the cardi is really, really easy to knit and a doddle to remember:




Cheers to Denver Jon for rightly reminding me about my lovely bag kit that he bought for me last birthday; I haven't started it yet as I've kept to more simple things during my enforced rationing away from the needles, but it will be an excellent project to take to Wales with me as something that I can pick up and put down easily. I bought some bamboo bag handles from Get Knitted ages ago for this bag project, as I thought that I would prefer a bag with grab handles as opposed to a long strap, and I hunted down some lovely black silky fabric for a lining for it too, so you see I am all ready and raring to go with it, I just haven't started it as yet.

And as it's the 4th July today - a very Happy Holiday to Denver Jon and everyone on the other side of the Pond!!

Strike While the Iron's Hot
Since I've been working away furiously with college assignments, not much has been done around the Melody household with regards to housework.

I give you, the ironing pile:





I took this piccie last night as a reminder of what the ironing pile looked like before I tackled it this afternoon. Unfortunately it was too hot to iron upstairs, so I did some laundry and hung it outside to dry on the clothes line and sat in the garden knitting away on my ‘Grace' jacket. I've therefore added to the already monster pile of ironing before I've begun. It's a bit like my Stashalong efforts really LOL!! :-)

Ah yes... Stashalong. I did so darn badly with Stashalong between April 1st and June 30th that I thought I should have a go at the Summer Stashalong organised by the members of the Angel Yarns forum. In the days leading up to the start - which is today by the way - I haven't been tempted to buy anything, which for me is a minor miracle in itself. But I have been trying to find a ball of the elusive ‘Ladybird' colourway of the Opal Rainforest sock yarn collection for the past few weeks to no avail, and thought it was all sold never to be seen again.

I clicked onto the Get Knitted website this morning to buy the Debbie Bliss "Cashmerino book 2" and a pair of 5mm Brittany Birch straight needles (it's not yarn you see, so it doesn't count in Stashalong)..... and I saw this:

Opal Ladybird

if you scroll down a couple of items you'll see why I was a very unhappy Melody this morning Just my luck that I see the Ladybird colourway after the official start of Stashalong, isn't it?? There must be a conspiracy going on....