The word of the day is Lovely

Today I went to the post office to collect a parcel (postmen of old used to leave parcels with neighbours, but they don’t seem to do this anymore, making you go up to the sorting office for your own parcels).

So a box. From Oregon. How exciting.

I resisted reading the custom label so when I opened it I saw these lovely things from my lovely Secret Pal.

She was proud of herself for not eating the choc, so I copied her self-control by waiting until I got home to photograph it before starting to scoff the Green & Black’s orange, and take it from me it is gorgeous stuff. The purple of the Elann Peruvian Collection yarn isn’t quite true with my poor cheapo camera – it’s a really edible heathery shade of purple. And the candles smell scrummy. So THANK YOU Secret Pal.

Now where’s the pattern book?

Hackers United

Well one thing can now be crossed off my to-do list – I’ve finally finished hacking the whole of the buddleia down. For a shrub it had grown to immense proportions – woody enough to need a saw for the last stems. It’s filled 6 green bags (thank goodness the council collects garden rubbish free) and probably taken as many weeks in total as I cut it into very small pieces. I am trying to reclaim my garden. As I can’t see most of it from the house it generally doesn’t bother me that it looks derelict.

No pictures as that involves going downstairs, but the sample of Rowan big wool has now been knitted into a shoulder bag with big cables. I still need to sew it up so technically it is not yet finished. The only other knitting straps I’ve ever made have been I-cord/French knitted ones which have been felted. Generally I think knitted straps in garter or stocking stitch are not practical as if you put any weight in the bag they will stretch the bag to your knees. But I have made these by doing double knitting, ie knitting a tube on two needles by slip stitching every other stitch purl wise. It still stretches but will hopefully be strong enough.

Pink

I like pink. I know it’s a girly colour and I’m not a girl who cares tuppence about her appearance, but pink just does something for me. So in one of my first experiments with chemical rather than plant dyes I dyed some yarn (Unknown fibres, but definitely some wool in there), with pink and magenta and feared what it would look like knitted up. It looks pink. Thankfully there is only a small amount of colour pooling. The pattern is “You're Putting Me On" Socks by Judy Gibson, knitted toe-up. I now want to try short row shaping so perhaps that will help. Second sock syndrome is upon me as instead of casting on a new sock immediately I’d finished this one; I was sidetracked into doing a cable sample of some Rowan Big wool which I have random amounts of. This was after some of Saturday afternoon was spent cruising the knitting section of Borders for inspiration. There are some fun projects in the books I saw, but not enough to make me want to buy a whole book.

Just done a quiz, which of Henry VIII’s wives are you, and I turned out to be Anne of Cleves – Not afraid to wear ugly shoes on a date.