Author: bryonyramsden

I have received another fabby package from my wonderful Secret Pal (who I think is teasing me, but more on that later…)! Here are some yummy pics.
First up here is a pic of everything in the package. I have lots of goodies 😀

There is yarn – a lovely handspun 100% wool natural fibre bundle of goodness. The colour is a jadey tealy colour, and I have 420 yards of it! 😀 Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Hope you can see the colour properly, as it is a lovely strong bright one, that doesn’t quite come out on the first pic, so I shifted over to the window sill to get better light.
This is a fabulous set of stitch markers, handmade by my pal, with I for increase and D for decrease on them 😀 What’s more, the hoops to put on the needle are of a decent size, in stark contrast to the ones you can buy here. I’d love to make stuff like this – pal, when you reveal yourself, you need to teach me 😉

She also included some very tasty Japanese sweets (Meiji brand for those in the know 🙂 ), and some Japanese notions – Clover sewing needles with a little case, some ends for converting double pointed needles into single pointed (although I can see it being handy when I’m knitting something in the round that nearly fills the needles and stopping the stitches coming off the end), and last but not least, a fabby ceramic sugar keeper, which will be going straight in the biscuit tin to keep the crackers and Ryvita crunchy 🙂
Thank you secret pal! I love my package, and can’t wait to thank you properly! And you are very cheeky for posting the first one from the US, but this one from Cumbria and Dumfries… Ahhhh! I actually only noticed because my friend has sent me a parcel (which as yet hasn’t turned up 🙁 more than a week after it was posted), and actually thought it was from her when I saw the UK stamps. 🙂 When I find out who you are, you better have some good pics on your blog of your trip, whichever side of the water it was on 😉
Ok, next up, and also secret pal related, here is a pic of my first of many One Skein Wonders 🙂 I was, as you know, going to make full length sleeves, but ended up getting too impatient, and just lengthening them a bit. I’m not sure whether I should have made a size down, but this goes nicely over my heavier t-shirts as well as the skinnier ones. The pic is terrible because of the angle it is taken at, but you get the idea 😀

This was soooo easy to knit up – even the ribbing at the end was quicker than I expected. A week of very sluggish knitting is pretty good for this I think 🙂 I’ve bought some Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora yarn to make another as a gift, because it is the perfect gifty knit! Thanks for getting me the pattern Pal 🙂
I’ve been getting on with the bolero, and have seamed the first sleeve in to check the fit while I’m in the middle of the second sleeve, and now I’m not sure what I think of it. It’s ok, just not that exciting. Admittedly I tried it on with my scruffy too big cords on and the same t-shirt as in the above pic, which is hardly girly bolero wear. And I also know that the edging will add another inch of length. I’ve tried on boleros before and thought they were ok on me, so launched into this project with that in mind, and the fit looks right – a little big like many people have found, but fine in general (a size smaller wouldn’t have worked at all). I might take a pic later to ask everyone on Craftster what they think. Or should I finish the final sleeve and see how it looks before the edging is made? Hmmmm. Not sure… I’m feeling very rotund today, so I probably hate everything on me right now! I’ll do something else for the rest of the day and leave it aside to rethink it later.

Hoorah! I’ve almost done with my first One Skein Wonder (trust me, there will be many). I’ve been making it in the Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran I bought ages ago and almost made Tempting with. I’m planning on doing long sleeves on it because of the impending nasty weather. I can’t believe how coarse it feels next to Cashmerino, but when I bought it it was the softest thing I’d ever felt! Am trying to decide whether to do the sleeves flat or in the round – I hate seaming, but it always seems to take longer in the round, and the garment gets all twisted. If I do it flat I can work out where to seam up to easier, rather than adding to the ready made one and maybe making it look funny in the arm pit. So I’ve just managed to convince myself to stick to flat knitting, carry on with the larger needle, and do normal ribbing at the cuff. 🙂 Woohoo!

A lovely ecard came my way today 🙂 Thanks pal 😀 I’ve had a rotten day, and it really perked me up 🙂

Blue has tagged me for the meme, and I have quite a few, so I’ll try and list them 🙂
1) Like Wendy at Knit and Tonic, I can’t stand to have the wardrobe doors open when I go to bed. The same with the chest of drawers. Or any cupboard/drawer etc. Someone at work has a habit of leaving a cupboard open in the staff room when they make their morning cuppa. They leave it open when they leave the staff room. That just kills me.
2) I spend a great deal of time and make a lot of fuss normally too about cleaning up other people’s mess in the house, but I make more myself almost immediately. And don’t clean it later on… E.g. Clearing away computer stuff and wires, but leaving knitting around the lounge on every available surface.
3) I have a habit of buying two of something I really like, so that I can keep one pristine, but use the other one till it falls apart. I do this mostly with Hello Kitty and Miffy stuff, but I have also done it with clothes. If someone buys me a CD that I already have, I’ll keep the doubled up copy in case something (and don’t ask me what!) happens to the older copy…
4) I love looking at the garden, at plants, and appreciating nature and all that, but I really really really can’t be bothered to put the plants IN the garden, pull up weeds, and do anything that makes it look nice to look at or encourages nature. I am almost ashamed of certain areas of the garden. My excuse is that I have too many other things to do. That is only partly true. I currently have a hydranger in a pot that needs planting up (it is happy in the pot, but would be happier in the ground) – I dug a hole last week. The hole wouldn’t drain water straight away. It is still an empty hole, and the hydranger is still potted.
5) I have a tendancy to make plans, but just not bothering to execute them. Either that or getting over excited, and then just suddenly not bothered enough to do anything. I made loads of plans for this summer, but have only really done knitting and read Harry Potter, out of about 5 or 6 things I wanted to do. That isn’t because I couldn’t. It is just me not doing them, even though I want to, and think about doing them before I get home from work. See also above with the hydranger…
Jax – you are allowed to crochet 🙂 I have dabbled a little with it, but never finished anything as yet (no surprises there!). Make sure you post what you buy from Coldspring – I love looking at people’s purchases 😀 Plus, if you meet the gorgeous chocolate coloured dog, give it a pat from me 🙂
Time for breakfast, and some cleaning up/closing of cupboards etc, before getting my knitting out and making more mess again. Ahhhh, the reliability of a Sunday.

Here is the tale of some lovely yarn, and a lovely pattern book, and what happened when they met me. Once upon a time, I decided to visit the Fabulous (with the capital F) Coldspring Mill (Jax – it is ALWAYS that cheap – I’d hate to think what would happen if they had a sale 😀 I know I’d just faint at the thought of it! You MUST go – it is your duty if you aren’t far from it… Our journey took about 45 mins there, and you can enjoy the lovely tearoom, scenery, biscuit and wool fat soap while you are there if you can resist visiting the wool section). I had a very nice Debbie Bliss pattern book – Cashmere Collection delivered, and it arrived the very day of my first trip to the Mill, and thinking that I may not get to visit again soon, I made a list of all the things I wanted to make from it, with the aim of getting the yarn at the fab prices. I saw the pattern as displayed below, and thought it would be a good option for work when the air conditioning is too high, as well as the nasty Yorkshire winters which chill you up no end. It just looks so cushy!

See? The model is happy. She is all warm and cosy in her lovely cashmere mix cardi. Mmmmm – she’s all snuggled into it. She’s hugging herself. She’s that happy in it.
I got the yarn for a bargain price. I started knitting. I knit and knit and knit till it was done. Then I seamed. I seamed and I seamed and I seamed. I wanted the seam to look almost invisible as it is in the pic in the book. That model just wouldn’t be happy if she had ugly side seams. Then I spent some time sewing the buttons on. Much quicker than seaming. MUCH quicker. It took 6 hours to seam up, and 20 mins to put buttons on. One button hole was slightly too big, which can’t be helped as it is made using yarn overs. It can be fixed with a little tweaking. No probs.
Then I tried it on. It is the demon cardi. Spawn of all evil, it is not a happiness inducing cardi. Why? The yarn is luscious. Super soft, super cosy, super warm. It is a dream to knit with, and a dream to wear. In fact, here I am, looking like a more rotund version of the happy model, in a slightly dusty mirror.

See how cushy the collar is. Mmmm cosy in the rubbish rainy weather. Cosy yum yum. See – you can’t see the seams, but trust me, they are perfect. Best seaming I’ve done. So what is wrong with this cardi?

Ahhhh. This is why there was only one pic, and from the side view at that. How many times have I read that you should not trust patterns where the pic is not fully displaying the garment, or is posed strangely? Why have I not learnt? The lesson here is that this cardi has no shaping. None. I may not be a svelt lady, but I do have a waist. And hips. The cardi is not stretched at all to fit. The ribbing at the base makes the st st section bulge out over the top to make me look several pounds heavier than I am. It doesn’t look too good. And it is bigger than I expected. I knit to gauge, but the ribbing stretches a bit too easily, and I even used 3 balls less than the pattern asked for. 3!!!! How is that, when I knit to gauge and to measurements? Didn’t they pattern test this sack of a cardi? It must be drowning that poor, model, with a gun to her head, with the photographer struggling to make the garment look good shouting ‘SMILE!!! Smile, damn you!’
It looks a bit better with the collar open. And it doesn’t look wrong as such, just bad. Poorly designed, but correctly knitted. Having said all this, I will wear it, but only at home, with the lights out and curtains drawn. And I’ll ask DB to take his contact lenses out, although he may just notice a large grey blur sat next to him instead of his girlfriend…
Anyway, in other words I’ve finished something! I’ve also finished a secret project that I don’t think I should post about yet. I’ve been pattern testing for someone, and I have pics, but it still needs some tweaking. Lovely pattern 😀 You’ll know when it is ready… I also received an email yesterday from Vogue Knitting about my bolero pattern query! How long did that take?!! Blimey…
I’ve also been thinking about what to knit next. Currently on the needles are:
The VK lace trim bolero (next to be finished I hope – only the sleeves and trim to make)
the Lace Leaf Pullover
two shrugs – one based on the one in Scarf Style, and I just cast on for the One Skein Wonder assuming it would be a quick knit
two scarves – the same that I’ve had going for months 😀
4 rows of Ash from Rowan 36 which will probably be frogged as it doesn’t appeal right now.
I need to get rid of some of these first I think 😀 Then I want to make a tank top to practice intarsia, using the fab bunny and crossbones chart by Chibbiwaki on Deviant Art and the Ann Budd pattern book.
Which reminds me… The new Rowan mag arrived… 😀 Yay! It is all gooood. There are also some silly things, but also some lovely ones, which is pretty much the same as normal! The Foggy Panda is still lovely looking, but I’ve worked out the cost of the yarn. It isn’t cheap. Nooooooooo siree. I’ll be holding back on it for some time. But I will be making it I think, one way or another, as a top or otherwise! But I’m definitely still enamoured with it. Time away will make me think about it more clearly. I quite fancy making some gloves and scarves from the mag too, but they all seem a bit too costly too – who can justify 7 balls of Kidsilk Spray for a scarf when they cost 7 quid each?! Plus more yarn to make stripes with on top of that? Only someone who gets yarn free from Rowan and is paid to design for them. And rich people, but how many really rich people knit? Apart from film stars, that is? And apart from the cost, I need to continue with some serious stash reduction, so can’t justify buying anymore yarn at the mo at all.
After all this meandering, it just means that I’ve got lots to finish still before I can make something else, or buy anymore stuff. And the finished object isn’t that lovely, but it will do the job. And leaves enough yarn left for a One Skein Wonder with long sleeves, if I can get gauge with it – mmmmmmmmmmm cashmerino shrug. mmmmmmm.
Anyway, I’ve written enough and it is time for dinner. Then I’ll try and get a bolero sleeve finished by the end of tonight.
PS – Lost is very good indeed. Just started showing it this side of the water. And the guy who plays the doctor? Woof woof! I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating biscuits 😀 Yay! Ok, that’s definitely enough now.

Many apologies to SP and Leah – I just managed to make your comments spam instead of approved :/ The stupid labelling on the screen was wrong (and not me, nooooo sireeeee. The excitement of patterns didn’t get the better of me at all and didn’t make me all hyper or anything and not read things properly. Noooooo not at all…). Poo. But SP – you may already know that I got the email 😀 and Leah – I still have no magazine 🙁 But rest assured, I’ll be jumping on that pattern, and encouraging you to do the same just as soon as it arrives 😀 heheheheheh!

Well, I am so loving my secret pal right now 😀 As if it wasn’t enough to send gorgeous yummy scrummy yarn and almost edible candle in my parcel, she has bought me the lovely wonderful and (as she says – you can tell she’s been watching me :D) much lust after One Skein Wonder pattern 😀 Yay! Now I can make shrugs till they fill the house, come out of my ears and I dream about them, and stash bust at the same time!
Thank you secret pal! For my first time at this, you are really making me ready to sign up for more! Pressie buying is v cool indeed, but getting something back is doubly cool 🙂
And she says I’m getting another parcel when it is ready. Yay! Your timing is impecable Pal – you know how to cheer a gal up/get rid of the PMT/get rid of guilt pangs for scoffing choccy because of said PMT…

This is Foggy Panda from the new Rowan magazine. I haven’t received the magazine yet, but I HEART the pic on this tank top 😀 It is the kind of pic that I’d buy on a t-shirt, and I can tell that this is one of those projects that I will dream of because of how much I want it. BUT, is it really just like one of those tops your mum knits for you when you are 12? The one that she makes you wear and your friends take the mickey out of you? The Ron Weasley sweater effect? Am I blinded by the cuteness of the pic and not being practically minded? Let’s face it, I am not allowed to buy the yarn until I’ve got rid of some stash, but I sooooooo love this pic…
On the other hand, the Debbie Bliss rib detail cardi is progressing nicely, with the back and left front finished, and one sleeve with only about 8 inches left on it. That leaves the right front, other sleeve and the collar to make up, so I’m hoping that, with me getting a day off today and next Monday too, that I might have it finished in a week or so. I reckon I could have both sleeves done during the day, with some good films on the DVD player. And I should really try and keep up with the pattern testing I’m doing at the mo. I’ll post a pic when I’m done with that one too, as long as the pattern works ok and all that – I’m sure the designer will appreciate some promotion… 😉
Just for my brain, and my own use, I’m adding a plan for my knitting projects, seeing as September and studying is looming yet again. In order of need to finish:
1) Rib detail cardi, for when it is cold in work like last week
2) The pattern testing project, which for now will be secret 😀 Everyone else has secret projects, so I don’t see why I can’t too…
3) VK lace edge bolero, because it has been left hanging around for far too long, and I do still like it when I look at it.
4) Lace Leaf pullover, although looking at the stuff I’ve done so far with hindsight, I’ve suddenly got a bit less fond of the yarn 🙁 I’ll see how it goes with the top half but not make it too major a project.
5) Scarves, which by the time I’ve got to this stage, will need making in time for the Yorkshire autumn weather. Poo.
What then? I have loads of cardis to make, loads of yarn to use up, lots of ideas for my own patterns (mostly using the Ann Budd pattern books, but still, it will teach me a little), and lots of inspiration from patterns in books and magazines. Why is there so much to knit, but so little time?

Weeeeelllll. I may have taken my mum to Haworth on Friday. And I may have taken her to Coldspring to get her some lovely things there. And while I was given some money by a friend to get her stuff, and needed to get a gift for my secret pal, I may have also tripped up and kicked some stuff into my shopping basket, and then bought it. I had to get some more cashmerino aran for a pattern I am testing for someone on Craftster, so that was essential, but I also accidentally got me some Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL in green. This stuff is yummy. It looks itchy, but feels soft. It has that kind of fibrous look to it, where it doesn’t have ply as such, but you can see the curve of the spinning. There were a couple of loose balls, which felt softer than the stuff in the packet, so I reckon that even tho it is quite nice now, it will soften more with handling (a bit like Kureyon does on blocking). If you want a nosey at it, try here.
My Debbbie Bliss club member gift turned up yesterday too. I hate the pattern, but love the yarn, so I’m going to have to have a think about what to make with it. I’m thinking along the lines of a One Skein Wonder kind of thing, but as I can’t buy the pattern (no credit card to make purchases in other countries 🙁 ), I’ll have to do the old ‘knit a strip till the yarn runs out and seam it up for sleeves’ trick. This yarn definitely demands being next to the skin though. Mmmmmm.
In other news, the stash is now crawling back a little. I’ve nearly finished the back of this, but also have rather a lot of yarn to go before I have finished it. Not an exciting pattern, but the yarn is so cushy that I still enjoy knitting it. I’m still working on the last front piece of the VK bolero, and cast on for the top of the lace leaf pullover, but haven’t really moved very much with it. I’ve also cast on for the pattern testing I mentioned, because that really should take priority so that it can be published, which means yet again I’m delaying finishing any projects, by adding to them. But at least I’m working on the pile in the corner… 🙂

Well, yesterday I was cheered up no end 🙂 The trip to Coldspring was just… Amazing. Their stock is wonderful, but I really wish I could have visited when they had originally bought the Debbie Bliss stuff. It is one of those places where you feel so excited about it you want to tell someone, but dare not in case the luxury of picking things out yourself is spoilt by someone else buying it first, and worse, someone you know! The trip was made a little more frantic by the news that the Debbie Bliss stuff is limited, because much of it was bought when the mills had to change the coating on the yarn to make it more fire resistant. It is still ok to use, but just less than the current stuff you can buy. Once thats gone, they’ll still get the yarns in at a discount, but not to such a fantastic amount as I saved yesterday. The rest of the stock is still lush, with all kinds of non-named brands around the place. I spent more than I planned to, but my mate gave me a tenner towards it as I’d got her some stuff from the Beatties sale, so I only went a tenner over what I planned to spend.
Ok, so here is the first pic of excitement

This pic has some 100% wool black super chunky stuff, which I plan to make a big throw out of (I bought two packs to make sure I have enough, and I’ll swatch to work out the gauge, cast on as many as I need to make the width I want, then just keep going till I run out). The cone is a kilo and a half of DB Cashmerino Super Chunky. There was a HUGE discount on this. To get this much, you’d have to pay about £120 quid full price. I paid 1p a gram, which made it £14.90. Woohoo! I’ll use it to make Simply Marilyn from the Interweave website. I’ve had the pattern on my mind for ages, so this is the only chance I’ll get to make it in the real stuff. Just need to think about what size to make – I want to make a slimmer fit because I’ve heard people have had problems with the sizing, but I feel a bit tentative about making a smaller size. Too big and I’ll look like I’m wearing a sack. The yarn may have been cheap but I won’t get the chance again, so I really want to make it good enough to wear in public in winter…
Bundles of joy number two.

These babies are goodies too. The light green is DB Baby Cashmerino. I got enough of this to make the ballet wrap top for myself in the Cashmere Collection pattern book, with some left over to play with – the yarn is so soft it could make a lovely lacy scarf or some super soft gloves or something. The balls of grey are Cashmerino Aran (DB again). I got two packs for 20 quid, so that makes a saving on that of about £60. They’ll go towards the ribby cardi in the same pattern book, with a bit left over again. The pack of brown I think might be Cathay. It feels a lot like it, but the colour doesn’t match the colour cards on the web, so I don’t know. It is definitely still DB though, and I think it will knit up to the same tension as Cathay to make that bolero from the Cathay pattern book (I got the pattern on its own free from a magazine). If not, then I’ll make a shrug up myself or make a bolero based on the VK pattern. Finally, there is a big ball of variegated yarn that took me about 3 hours to wind from the hank. You can’t see the colours in the pic, but it is full of muted tones of blues, reds, yellows and greens and a bit of orange in there too. It reminds me of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in Blueberry Hill, but with some orange thrown in it. Probably sounds vile, but I think it will make a very nice piece of footwear 🙂
Altogether I spent 70 quid, but I saved at least 200 pounds on the retail price, and that’s just based on the ones I mentioned above where I knew the full price. I love Coldspring.
Unfortunately, my stash is now way too big. It may not be as bad as some people have, but when it lives in the lounge, and won’t fit into the lovely stash box, that ain’t good. Let me put it another way – if we have a fire, we better be insured (at the full retail value naturally ;)), and we might not get out the front door because the yarn lives in front of it… I never thought I’d be the kind of knitter who has too much yarn. But I think I can justify yesterday’s purchases because it all has a purpose. I just have to get round to making it up! If I knit the throw first, then that will be a lot of room freed up. Just have to finish some projects first before I start it… Oops!