Loving Cookie(A)'s

ore knitterly excitement.......the first installment of Cookie A's sock club arrived!

Having previously received the patterns (two) and cookie recipes (two, one by the beloved Alice Yu) by email, I was mightily excited waiting for the yarn itself to wing its way to my door. It feels so lush and is beautifully dyed by String Theory, but it's testing my colour boundaries.....isn't that part of the fun of yarn clubs? The colour is one I would have never chosen myself and I'll admit to feeling a bit deflated when I opened it, but a few days on and I'm softening to its charms. In a week or two it might have become my new favourite at this rate, but if not I shall make something for somebody who more in tune with its green hue. Either that or I shall commit the sin over dying with some blue in the microwave!!!

Loving knit Love

inished!

My first Knit Love Socks of the year were finished in a speedy way. The first one had some ripping back and a few changes had to be made, but then the second one flew off the needles over an intense attack session.

I have discovered that I'm more of a following a diagram kind of girl and less keen on reading row upon row of written notes. I kept miss counting which row I was on because I was incapable of remembering whether I had actually moved the row counter on or not. Duh! Someone suggested moving a Post-It note down the rows and that seemed to help, though then I kept forgetting whether I'd moved it or not.... I'm clearly in the grips of middle age brain cell loss!

Ans what do i think of them? Well, I LOVE Alice's yarn, it's immensely soft, but firmly spun, the colour is great and I love the pattern, but it's love with a lover case 'l', not the big all encompassing Love that i have felt for some of her more patterned varieties of socks from last year. However; contented I am and they are well deserving of the flashing drop cap! Thanks Alice

A little birdie

 nother offering from my more recent bird pictures:

Lucky Girl!

oday, I am a lucky girl.

The postie arrived with well taped up box and I opened it to find my prize for the Advent Christmas Challenge:

Gypsy Dancer made this delightful soap bowl and two sets of chunky ceramic buttons for me. What a great surprise, I had forgotten all about it and wasn't sure what would turn up, but it's just so nice to get a hand crafted present; it has really made my day.

The colours are my favourites, so I suspect that these have been selected especially. Check out her Art of Notions shop on Etsy if you like these- she also makes 'yarn bowls' if you are of the knitterly persuasion.

Knit Love, Love, Love!

he first round of this year's Kit Love Sock Club has arrived.

I've been sitting on putting pictures up for a while so that everyone could get theirs. Alice has had her own yarn spun and hand dyed it all. It's called Sokkusu-X, a lovely cashmere mix and it's heavenly; squishy yet firm and soft. Deluxe!

 I'm absolutely in love with the colours. They are a perfect balance of a crushed berry

 purple with a touch of muted gold and a splash of grey....gorgeous! The colour way is 'Corallina' and I have to decide whether I can make it into the allotted sock pattern or save it for something else...I'm not sure I can slip it into a shoe....we'll see.

So, it was off to the swift and ball winder and I am glad to report that it wound like a dream into the most

delightful ball of colour.......I love this club!

Experiments

I've been having a little play around with clay and thought I might share one of the experiments. This is a ceramic tile at around A4 size made out of impressed, glazed and fired clay on which I then experimented with image transfer for the blue pattern and the bird using acrylic matte medium

Swedish Swap

When I came home today the postie had been and amongst the pile of letters was a large parcel filled with a brilliant array of Swedish stamps

and inside a pile of pink packages:

Which turned out to be my swap parcel from the lovely 'Sandykins' in Ravelry's Knit Love group. I have been a very lucky girl and was absolutely over the moon with the contents. They are not all photographed together because moments after the unwrapping was done my daughter was running off with things....it's the last I've seen of the Ysolda bear for sure!

My absolutely favourite, was the skein of Wollmeise (how brilliant?) and the Spina Di Pesce pattern by Yarnissima....WOW!

Lots and lots of singing and dancing round over this swap parcel and a big thanks to Sandykins.