Wednesday 28 May 2014

ADRIAFIL YARN SALE!!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk


Yes - it's true!  For one week (and one week only) we are offering 20% off ALL Adriafil yarns in stock.  Our sale started this morning and ends at 5pm next Wednesday, 4th June.

From the glorious pure alpaca, 4ply Sierra Andina:
to the incredibly popular pure wool, self-patterning, DK, Knitcol:


 and its Aran weight partner, Stella Jacq:
to the gorgeous Margarita:
pure cotton, DK, Memphis:

and totally, gorgeous, crazy yarns like Dakota:
and Furetto:
they are ALL (plus others not shown here) 20% off.

Grab these bargains whilst you can - one they're gone, they're gone!










Thursday 22 May 2014

Curly Wurly Jester Scarf

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

OK - so I lied slightly when I said I wasn't knitting anything else other than Tom's blanket - in fact somehow I managed to rattle up this quick Curly Wurly Scarf:

 Jester is the crazy yarn with pompoms which everyone is bemused by and then loves and then can't decide what to knit with it!  We've knitted a baby blanket so far:
and now the scarf - which, at just 2 balls at £2.95 per ball is jolly good value in anyone's book.

Lots of lovely colours to choose from too:








Perfect for little girls' Christmas/birthday presents!



Saturday 17 May 2014

I Have Been Knitting ..... Tom's Blanket

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

There is precious little knitting news at the moment as I am concentrating on one project and one project along - Tom's University Blanket. 

Whilst we were away we heard that he'd been offered a place at his first choice University - St Andrew's, in Scotland.  We are, obviously, delighted - for both our boys to get into their first choice University and, for Tom, under particularly difficult circumstances to make it into his first choice is wonderful news.

However ... Scotland will be cold compared to the relative balm of south-west Cornwall ... so the blanket is even more urgent than before!  On top of which, he starts in early September so I've got just over 3 months to go!  (In an ideal world I'd like to knit him a lovely, warm sweater before he goes as well but that might have to be for Christmas!).

So, I am Domino Knitting like a wild thing and the blanket, which looked like this before the Olympics:





now looks like this:



with Eric-the-three-legged-cat kindly posing to give an idea of scale.

I reckon that's doubled in size and I'm about two-thirds of the way there (with a massive i-cord edge to factor in as well {the edge stitches are currently being held on waste yarn so the edge is NOT an optional addition}).

The good news is that I've still got plenty of stash yarn so I'm definitely NOT going to run out of wool!

The bad news?  I only have 3 months!

Onward .... onward .... and onward ....................




Wednesday 7 May 2014

... And So To Oman ....

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

After a frantic night in Dubai packing all our gear, for a week +, into two 4x4's we set off to the beautiful country of Oman.  It's an extraordinary thing but as soon as you cross the border the scenery changes completely, the houses change (the Omanis generally build their houses in enclosed compounds) and the whole "feel" is completely different - added to which the Omanis are quite possibly the friendliest people in the world (not saying that the Emirate's aren't (!)) but the Omanis are just delightful and incredibly helpful.

On our first day we drove up to Jebel Shams - the self-styled Grand Canyon of the Middle East and highest mountain in Oman:


We camped near the edge of the crater (although not too close!):

As ever in these kind of places, people appeared to we were able to buy wood for a bonfire (we were about 2,000m up so it was chilly!):

The next day we descended right down to the coast and crossed over to the island of Masirah - famous for its turtle laying beaches.  We had to reverse onto the ferry, which was fun (I was driving and all the men were looking on critically - I'm glad to say I did it perfectly!):

We arrived in the dark (which is never to be recommended) so camped "blind" and in the morning found that we were here:

I love the way that Mel's bright orange sun shade marks the spot!  Around the corner was a perfect little bay with, to our great joy, turtle tracks on the sand - at least one mother had come and laid her eggs that night:


Did you know that, for every 1,000 turtle eggs laid, only 1 hatchling will survive.  Many don't even make it to the water - picked off by crabs and birds.

It was so hot we strung up a tarpaulin between the cars:

 As well as turtles there were also camels on Masirah:

and after a couple of relaxing (but hot) nights we moved back to the mainland.  Back on the ferry a kindly dhow passed close by for photographers (!):

and, back on the mainland, we headed across another bleak desert (The Wahiba Sands) - I love the warning signs for Sand Dunes - just in case you hadn't noticed:

and camels:

and (no signs) but extraordinary Bedouin villages (complete with satellite dishes!):

That night we treated ourselves to a hotel on the turtle beach (showers - yay!) but, obviously, we couldn't take any photos of the turtle laying her eggs.

Next day we headed up the famous Wadi Shab:

which was incredibly beautiful but there's swimming involved if you want to get to the very top so we'd left our camera behind.  Fortunately our friends' son had brought his waterproof one!  At the very top of the Wadi you can swim through a tiny opening into the top pool fed by a waterfall.  Depending on the height of the water depends on whether you have to swim underwater or not.  Fortunately, a kindly Frenchman told me that I could sneak through without having to go right under so off I went - here I am coming through the other side - still not quite sure where I'm going!:

You can see the tiny gap that I'd just come through!  On the way out, the sunlight turned the water the most incredibly iridescent blue.

That night we camped on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean:

and planned to spend half the day there - but, once the sun was up so were the flies so we had to beat a hasty retreat (although not before we'd had a morning dip in the warm sea).  From there we headed seriously off road:

Here we are the top of a monumental series of switchbacks - that beach by my right elbow is where we spent the night.  For those of you who are interested, my pink top if a Rip curl SPF50 top.  I have recently been treated for a number of minor skin cancers so was taking no risks - the top worked - I can thoroughly recommend them:

At the top of the massive climb we then traversed the plateau:

Even here there are people - who, presumably, traverse that road on a regular basis.  This is the village school:

and this is what children still do when they don't have phones, ipads and televisions to entertain them - they build miniature mud houses:

The plan had been to traverse the wadi at the top and then go back down the next road along.  However, when we got to the wadi we discovered that it was only traversible if "you don't mind getting your car bashed a bit"!!!:

Yeah - that's the "road".  As ours was a hire car and Sev and Mel's was their own, neither of us was in the mood for "getting our cars bashed a bit" so, sadly, we turned round and went down the way we'd come up:

 ... and headed for Muscat via Bibi Miriam's Tomb (which was closed for renovation but we walked up and photographed it and no-one seemed to mind):

and the extraordinary Bimmah sink hole (which the children swam in):

And so to Muscat - a delightful city, with a fantastic souk (yes, we went shopping!) and the Sultan had kindly left his yacht in the harbour for us to see:

The Corniche was beautiful:


as were the forts:


and the Sultan's Palace:

We were sad to leave Oman - a beautiful country with everything from glorious mountains to turtle beaches, endless deserts, extraordinary wadis and lovely, friendly people.  We plan to go back!

Tom is now finishing his gap year in Jordan, Guy is back at Uni and we ..... well, we're back at work!!!