A little bit more.

STILL plodding on with gift knits… I’m on my 3rd attempt on the stranded knitting as I type, but the section I’m working on should be finished today. The Poms are finished though 🙂

The colourway came out ok in this pattern, yet in the Monkeys I started was all blue one side, pink the other. I’m glad I swapped over now. I’m posting these in the SKA KAL forum on Ravelry, seeing as I managed to just finish them in time for the August KAL. The black thing on the right is Joe cat’s tail. He was pining for something so was being all rubby while I took pics 🙂
Also, Pippa is complete-ish. She is knitted, sewn, felted and dried, but I just have to cut some flower and bag strap pieces, sew them on and I’m done. Hoorah! I’ll start that this afternoon if I can drag myself out of this stupid headache I have. Probably nothing at all to do with the pint of Magners and bottle of raspberry beer I had last night at the pub after work. Or the curry we had on the way home (I should point out I was home for 8pm, so it wasn’t exactly a late night). I only had a bit of okra dry curry, but the combination of spices and alcohol and my rapidly aging body apparently despises me and makes me hurty 🙂 BTW, if you haven’t tried it, fruit beer is gorgeous. There is a beer festival next weekend. 16 kinds of perry and cider alone 😀 Mmm perry.
Speaking of Posh Yarn, I could spend an absolute fortune on the sale this weekend. Best not though – my sock yarn collection won’t fit in the box anymore and is expanding into the bags full of yarn for future gift knitting in order to disguise this worsening issue. It isn’t that I can’t get the yarn knitted, it is that I dare not use the best ones yet in case I pick the wrong pattern, and naturally, my fave sock yarns in the stash are actually most of the stash itself anyway. Things like my Piece of Beauty merino in Robe and Bowl – the fibre content is no longer stocked at the site, so I dare not use it up yet. I’m sure her BFL sock yarn is as gorgeous, but this is just mmmmmmm. And some of my stash was gifted in various swaps and secret pal sessions, which means I’m unlikely to get another one very easily, so the pattern has to be JUST right for that. AND, some of the yarn is from one-off dye sessions and is probably unique and irreplacable. How on earth do you pick the right pattern for that kind of yarn?! So many beautiful yarns, and yet I can’t face knitting it in case it all goes horribly wrong… It would probably help if I bought mass produced yarn, but you know, when it comes to sock yarns, I get snobby. I can’t afford to buy luxury fibres for garments and stuff, so why not splash out on good sock yarn? Don’t get me wrong – the standard sock yarns are in the stash, and in the queue, but I just love getting those little luxury hanks out of the parcel, and smooshing them in my face and imagining how they would feel on my feet and petting them.
I’m also thinking the unthinkable and debating whether to try making that lovely crochet slouchy beret pattern that was on the Craftzine blog. I haven’t saved the link as I printed the pattern out, but trust me, it is very very cute. The onset of Autumn is making me think of things like this, especially as I’ve been wearing my Kim Hargreaves hat again and realised that hats look quite nice with a fringe (even a fringe that is now almost touching my lips).