My Computer HATES blogger.....

..Which is why I haven't managed to get another blog on until now, I was even whinging to Kath last night and she suggested it might be busy but it's still not loading the start-up page on my machine so I've had to raid himself's ( on which blogger appears to behave impeccably, go figure!) usual stuff's been tried, so now himself is on the case as I type.....

Anyhoo, onto more knitterly and other matters, joined up to the britknitters ( once i can work out how to upload the code) and I thought I'd add another photo of my Prom walk form last week. This amorphous blob picked out on the pavement is actually a cloud ( and presumably the dashes are rain- how appropriate!). Personally, it looks like some sort of blobby man at an angle but most of this stuf was designed by kids so i'm not criticising artistic tempraments. Still, I thought it was worth sharing.

Now onto true knitterly things and also a lesson in how not to photograph something a-la Lily Chin's Urban Knitter. The offending article is a sleveless, lace pattern top in Patons Splash, knitted up in no time and was proudly displayed last Tuesday at knitting Group (although it will look nicer in the spring with a little vest underneath and bare arms). The reason for my photo was hubby walking the pooches so I had no one to take it on me (at the time I thought I'd be doing a quick blog so hence quick photos). Anyway, It's quite pretty on and it's the first sleveless thing so I guess it's an achievement.

As promised, my so far picture of Cheesylove, the back's been knitted and I've just got to sort out the top front. As it looks mostly like a black blob,the pink hearts at least give some relief. I've used two strands of a 4ply pure Bluefaced Leicester yarn giving a perfect Aran weight.

The pink mohair gave me a bit of a problem, I used a gorgeous variegated Filatura de Crosa yarn on its own but the hearts looked scrappy as it was more of a dk weight. So, a little frogging later, I added a strand of 80% kid mohair, also DK weight in a baby pink and it filled out nicely. I'm still working out the kinks on my Fair isle stranding technique so it's a little uneven at points but it'll probably even out in the wash ( and who's going to notice from a distance?)

So, the reason I'm not further on with Cheesylove? I was SEDUCED by the dark side, namely my new Alpaca sock yarn from Fyberspates. Despite being the most simple pattern on the planet, I have now frogged part of the twisted part 3 times now. Basicall,y it's so simple, you ofrget to count, or forget the k2tog or the yo ( which you can't see) or drop a stitch at the beginning of a row and end up with a giant hole and one too few stitches so it's not been as easy a knit as I thought BUT the yarn is so smooth and slippery through your fingers, it's still seductive to work with.

By the by, after i took this photo, I frogged it yet again last night so in some sort of reverse knit scenario, it's actually shorter this morning, despite a couple of hours knitting. I will have to relegate this one to the travelling and bedtime knitting pile and catch up with some of my mounting UFO's. And yes, this includes my red sock in the pic below but it's not actually a UFO at the mo as Ifrogged it completely!

Anyway, it occurred to me that as yet, I haven't shown you any of my spinning pics. Spin Friday passed me by as I was sorting out and winding a mound of pure cashmere and silk yarn from Colourmart. It was a big bag of 900g of underweight cones, failed winding experiments and just plain tat so it's now all orderly, there's a bag of shreddable for spinning in, and a bag of wound up yarn with little oddments balls. Maybe I'll post before and after shots next time.

So, it just so happened we had an afternoon spinning class at guild- the only spinning workshop this year, but that's another story! We made light airy tiny fat finger-like rolags- Anne, those old carders are just the right sort- then spun them using long draw- or attempted to should be more accurate. Comittee stuff menat I didn't get a whole lot of time to practice but there's a little to see on the bobbin. maybe I'll make time to spin this week and try some more.

Anyway, I got to guild bright and early, before anyone else and got started on this, it'll hopefully be something like sockweight and maybe I'll navajo ply it 'cos I'm lazy and don't want to fill 2 bobbins... There's a mix of wool tops, merino and silk, angelina and trilobal nylon so watch this space as to how it turns out.

And finally, the handspun I created last Friday after a great spinning session at Kaths. Lesson number two, don't take photos in THAT room at night or this might happen! It's actually a really pretty blend of pinks, greens, blues with thick slubs and thin spots, plied with a fine strand of oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester and a variegated strand of silk but it kinda looks like a bit of a mess on the pic- did I mention I was rushing to put another blog on last night?

I'm all tied up with AGM stuff I should have done weeks ago this coming week so projects likely to be a bit thin on the ground but at least you've got some pretty ( and not so) pretty pics in the meanwhile.