More stash. Oops.

Yes, having a real B. Spears moment here. But before I begin, allow me to qualify - it wasn't my fault. At all. Actually, I didn't even have a choice. Not really.

These sparkly pretties were dropped off to This Is Knit this morning:

as it turns out that all those nice silvery/black/grey ones I dropped off last week looked a little dull and morose in their container, all on their lonesome. Colour was needed to jazz things up a little, and fast.

For the more sophisticated knitter (or those with magpie tendencies), the new stock includes a limited number of these babies:

Trust me, this is not the best picture (actually, it's total crap), they're WAY nicer in person, without a camera flash blaring in their little faces. You're welcome.

Anyway, new stitch markers means new store credit, so the following acquisitions were, well, acquired:

Some Debbie Bliss Paloma, the colour of which I couldn't resist (if it's turquoise or purple, it's mine), and which will probably be turned into some sort of a cowl at some point. Hopefully before next winter.

Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk (fabulous sheen, fabulous colour - hello, purple!), which will become another pair of Miss Potters (the yarn I got last time to make new Miss Potters doesn't go with my other coat. Well okay, it kinda does, but I like my mittens to be coat-specific. And a girl can NEVER have too many pairs of these!).

And finally...

Rialto Lace. Yay! I've been eyeing up this yarn for a long long time (at least it seems like a long time), and today, it is finally mine! All mine! I will give it a wonderful home, and love it for all eternity. And someday, I might even knit something out of it. :o)

(Again, please excuse the crappy-ass photography. The sun went behind a cloud as I clicked, and I didn't cop it until I'd uploaded the pics here. By which time I'd put the yarn away. Feck it anyway, you get the jist).

So not a bad day of 'acquiring', huh? Obviously, the next several posts are going to be all about the physical knitting of these items, instead of being about, urm, getting new items. Honest. I promise. I'll do my bestest. Though given my track record, maybe I should hold back on the promises... ;o)

Progress report? Urm...

So a lot of people have been asking me over the last few weeks how this whole 'stashdown 2012' target of mine is coming along.

I have decided to give you as vague an overview as possible, as opposed to going into any real detail, as real detail would only serve to show my plan for the disaster that it is.

There has been knitting. Some of it has indeed been stuff that was on my queue in January, and some of that has even been from wool I already owned in January. However, some of it has been as a result of new additions, to both queue and stash. No, I do not have any willpower. At all. And I never said I did. So if anyone out there is feeling particularly let down at the overall spectacularness of my inactivity to date, two things - (a) I never made any promises, and (b) thanks for reading and all, but you should probably go get out more! ;o)

Ah no, come back, you know I didn't mean that! Seriously though, I have found myself wondering, what the hell was I thinking? I know how fast I knit, and I know I need to knit a hell of a lot faster to cover even half of what I've lined up. Oh, and I need to stop doing everything else, too, that's proving a distraction (e.g. sleeping, eating, working).

In the interim though, there have been a couple of things done, and I do think it important to acknowledge the acheivements, instead of just focusing on what's not getting done! First up, a lovely purpley Schoppelwolle Holden. Yes, I've done this before. Yes, it's on my queue and linked to another (already-in-my-stash) yarn. Yes, I bought this new yarn intending to make socks out of it. Right now, I'm not caring about any of that, because this is pretty pretty loveliness...

I loves the colours, and the yarn itself is lovely to knit with, nice and 'rounded'...

(Any wrinkles in the background are not the fault of the knitting or the knitter, more because the knitter couldn't be arsed quite making the bed completely smoothly and properly before she took these pictures earlier).

Oh, and, finally finally finally, I made me some stitchmarkers...

I have a significant bunch of these babies done (70 in total), and it is my intention to have them into This Is Knit at some stage tomorrow. Original intention had been to get them in today, but I'm not at all well, so I'm having a bonding session with my duvet. And this yarn...

...which is, I think, shortly to become this pattern. I think. Maybe! Fun so far, though it was only twenty rows in that I realised... dark fluffy fluffy mohair? White white duvet cover? Not AT ALL a good mix (otherwise known as 'what the HELL was I thinking?!?').

Anyhoo, I've probably been upright for a bit longer than intended now, but sure feck it, aren't ye worth it! I'm off back to bed now (and not to knit night >sniffle!<), my Kidsilk awaits... this could be interesting...
:oD

Yes, it's been a while...

Man, it's been ages! So much for my 'must post regularly to blog' ethos!

In my defence, it has been a strange strange year, one that has kept me muchly occupied (though still allowing for precious knitting and reading opportunities). In brief - really really sick, then a little bit better, then really REALLY sick, then major surgery, followed by many long weeks of recouperation. Oh, and I also moved house. Which brings us pretty much up to date, won't bore you with the details!

Fun lined up for this week (which I will do my best to comment on as I go) - tomorrow there's a lecture in the library in the Ilac Centre, entitled "Science and Culture in Victorian Dublin", sounds fascinating and will be doing my bestest to attend (details here). May also drop in to This Is Knit, god knows it's been a while, particularly ages since a decent stash of my stitchmarkers has been delivered!


I've made a lot. 59 to be exact. No, not 60, as I ran out of hoops. Perhaps if I hadn't spent the bulk of my afternoon beforehand making earrings and stuff I'd have gotten more done, (and had more hoops!) but what the hey! And no, my presentation isn't great, but I'm rushing here to get other stuff done, plus my camera skills are non-existent. But you get the jist!

Thursday sees the relaunch of This Is Knit and their fab new premises in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. Lots of yarns, lots of peoples I haven't seen in ages, so really looking forward to this one. After that, I think Friday will be a quiet night in for me and my knitting!

Knitting-wise, I started on a variation of a half-Pi shawl a couple of days ago. Nice pattern, FABULOUS yarn, this will definitely be my 'go-to' yarn for all future shawl-knitting projects! (Thank you, Constant Knitter!). Was going great, til I discovered this morning that my stitch count is off. And I have no idea how or why. So I'm thinking some improvisation is called for, cuz there's no way in HELL I'm unpicking 311 stitches and many many rows!

Will keep you posted as to how it turns out... maybe...