New Stuff!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Just before I disappeared off to bonnie Scotland last week we had some new colours of various yarns arrive and FB had time to photograph them whilst I was away.  They're a fairly random collection but, anyway, here they are:

Firstly, 2 new colours in Debbie Bliss's Baby Cashmerino.  Despite Baby Cash (as we always refer to it) being its own weight and neither a 4ply or DK it is, consistently, Debbie's best selling yarn.  If you haven't tried it yet - you need to!  2 new colours (shades 33 and 54):

Secondly, 2 new colours in King Cole's Galaxy.  This - I have been told - was King Cole's best selling yarn last year and, frankly, I'm not surprised - who can resist some sequins in their knitting?  2 new colours (lilac and pink):

Thirdly, 3 new colours in King Cole's sock yarn Zig Zag.  Finally we have plain black (for all those boring men out there who won't wear colours [oh, yes - they do exist!]) plus 2 new multis - Jubilee and Surprise.  From left to right: Jubilee (red, white and blue), black and Surprise:
















Fourthly, no less than 4 new colours in King Cole's Riot Chunky, from left to right Cool, Potash, Lava and Wicked

And - finally - Fifthly, 2 new colours in Riot DK, from left to right, Crush and Fab.

There are some patterns to follow but - as ever, all the DK's are standard, as is the 4ply and Chunky.  Patterns may be here tomorrow - I'll see how I go!

I'm Back!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I actually haven't been away for the past 2 weeks (just the past 4 days) but Easter passed in a haze of visitors (always very welcome but also exhausting) and then FB's birthday (which was supposed to be "quiet" but ended up with a barbecue for 30 - HOW does that happen?) and the next day a quick trip to Bristol for our first 21st birthday party for many a year: you know how it goes - series of weddings (some preceded by engagement parties), then the christenings, possibly a couple of divorces and then, before you know it, the 21st birthday parties of children whose christenings you only celebrated last week.

I need a scientist to explain how the children have lived for 21 years but the adults have only lived for the blink of an eye - for the second time of asking, how does that happen?  This particular 21 year old looked like a model (seriously) and we were honoured to be some of the adults who were allowed to be invited (always a tricky one with "the young").  We were very good and didn't dance - mainly because we'd quite like to be invited to her brother's 21st in a couple of years and, let's face it, your parents' friends' dancing is never cool.

Less than 48 hours after that T and I were heading to bonnie Scotland for a visit to St Andrew's University.  We had a good time and T has fallen in love with both St Andrew's and the University which is good as it gives him a very good incentive to work very hard over the next 12 months!  Rather pathetically we took no photos as we were so concentrated on our mission and I was disheartened to see no wool shop in St Andrew's.  I find this slightly bizarre as you'd have thought there'd be plenty of scope for students' knitting groups and, beyond the student life, there must be plenty of golf widows.  I also managed a pathetically small amount of knitting.  I'd debated knitting on the plane but thought that was just too cruel - travelling with your Mother is bad enough for a 17 year old, travelling with a mother reading a book is just about acceptable (so long as she never speaks), travelling with a knitting mother would be excruciating and - whilst I wholeheartedly prescribe to the "the only point of having children is to embarrass them as much as your parents embarrassed you" theory of teenage rearing - even I let him off the knitting mother scenario.

Tomorrow I have a cardigan to finish in the peace and quiet of my own home, whilst trying to spot my friend Caroline running the London Marathon in aid of the Royal British Legion.  Go Caroline!

A Very Good Good Friday

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I need a certain amount of routine in my life in order to get everything done and Friday is paperwork day. Last Friday I broke all of my rules as the weather was gorgeous and, more importantly, the forecast for Bank Holiday Monday was atrocious so Monday could easily morph into paperwork day.

FB and I did the only decent thing, which was to go for a lovely, long walk. There was a bit of a breeze but the sun was out and spring was definitely in the air. We walked straight from our front door (one of the reasons we live where we do) and crossed Madron Carn:


















before several miles of lane walking where we only saw one car all day but lots and lots of lovely spring flowers:




























































































































The aim was to do a big circle and end up back at the mineshaft you can see on the top of the very far hill, which is just about a mile above our house:


















All was going swimmingly until FB made a drastic and, dare I say it, rudimentary schoolboy navigational error (he had the map out by 90 degrees). Instead of trundling along a lovely footpath (albeit not well signed) we ended up in this:


















and it went on for really quite a long way:














See the farm in the middle distance here (in the middle of green fields)? Well - we started from there and got to where the picture was taken in a straight line.














Interspersed with elephant grass was gorse and FB was wearing shorts!:


















Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining and we ended up at West Lanyon Quoit, which we'd never seen before:














It's quite big:














and is, obviously, very, very old indeed!

En route home we passed the better known Lanyon Quoit:














and then the always fantastic view over the bay as we dropped down to our house for a welcome hot bath (a good aid to thorn removal from legs) and a well-earned G&T.:














We chose our day well as T deteriorated over the weekend with post-French tonsillitis and it duly poured with rain and hail all day yesterday.

It was a very good Good Friday (even if I am still picking thorns out of my legs!).

This Weather Might Be My Fault

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

I feel I need to apologise for the weather we're currently having .... you see, when the weather was hot and sunny and gorgeous I had some nice, slightly sunny Debbie Bliss garments in the window - specifically this:



















and this:



















so last week when I did the window I - optimistically - put this:



















in the window and now it's started to snow (FB has just rung to say it's even sleeting at our house).

So - I apologise - I am now going to change the window again and I'm going to put this:



















and this:



















and this:



















on display, in the hope that they will force the sun out. And - oh yes - I'm currently wearing this:



















and after work I'm going home to knit pure wool!

Conversations Over Knitting

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Back in the autumn you may remember that I had a blissful weekend at the Exeter Stitches show, knitting, talking about knitting, teaching knitting and - on a personal note - spending a very quiet night away in a hotel with me, my knitting and a good book - as the only woman in a house full of men, it was heaven.

Well the two amazingly wonderful and seriously bonkers ladies I was with (Ruth and Belinda) {bonkers in the nicest possible way, of course} have asked me to enlist your help in their "Conversations Over Knitting" project.

The essence of this is that you knit a square in cream (it must be cream) and then attach a little tag to your knitting with your thoughts as you are knitting.

So - it got me thinking about what I think about as I'm knitting. At the moment I'm knitting lace so I'm pretty much caught up in yrn overs and pssovers (and even a P2togtbl at one point {which is a pesky little blighter if ever there was one}). At other times I might write shopping lists in my head or - more often - remember all the things I've forgotten to do that day.

However - some of you may have more interesting thoughts than me so why don't you become part of the project? Knit a little square:
















download a little tag from here, get your thoughts down and send them to Ruth and Belinda and become a living part of this project.

At the recent ICHF show at Birmingham NEC the wall looked like this:
















The blocks will be touring as an exhibition with all our comments on them as a testimony to hand knitting and hand knitters.

You can link to Ruth and Belinda's website here - and here are the ladies themselves in front of their wall of knitted squares:










As summer now appears to be over, what have you got to lose?!

More New Patterns

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

In the excitement of my finished t-shirt yesterday, I forgot to mention the NEW PATTERNS on the site! These are all from James Brett and there are 2 lots - 6 new patterns in Rustic Aran and 6 in Twinkle.

The Rustic Aran are - as the name suggests - Aran patterns with traditional cables but with a twist. I particularly like this:



















and this:



















and I'm very tempted by this (I've never knitted a dress before):



















Sparkle is very much "on trend" and there are 7 new patterns in Twinkle, including 4 hat, glove and scarf sets, and this cardigan:



















this wrap cardigan:



















and - as an example - this hat, scarf and glove combo:



















I started knitting the Jenny Watson Merino last night and it is GORGEOUS! It's so light and springy and has really fantastic stitch definition - definitely a winner.

T left for France this morning .... he missed the College bus as getting up on time, sorting his books for the day, finishing packing and getting dressed with one arm was too much to manage - despite the fact that he swore blind he was "ready" last night!

His parting comment to me was, "look on the bright side Mum - you've got a whole week without me"!!

I just feel sorry for the poor French family who are eagerly awaiting his arrival tomorrow!!

On the plus side -by the time he returns, the house will be tidy!

I've had a weekend!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Given that my weekend is only one day - I've had quite a weekend!

After work on Saturday FB and I went over to St Just and saw a really excellent band called "Flats and Sharps". They're only young (18 and 19) and they play bluegrass, which I didn't really think was my "thing" - but they were brilliant! Just a pity the event wasn't better attended but - hey - those of us who were there had a good time!

At 1am (2am "new" time) the boys came home from an evening with mates - 3 of their mates came too and they were all fine except for T who came into our room to announce that he thought he'd better go to Casualty in the morning as his hand was sore and swollen (he'd been playing rugby in the afternoon - say no more). We looked at it and agreed that, indeed, it was swollen and bruised and sent him to bed.

At about 3am I remembered that he was/is going to France tomorrow (Tuesday) to work as a teaching assistant for a week.

We were in Casualty by about 10.30 and - lo - he has broken a bone in his hand, not once but twice. He is now going to France in a plaster cast and the moment he returns from France he's off to the Fracture Clinic to see if they need to operate.

He will be in a cast for about 6 weeks, during which time we are going on a University visit to Scotland and - in exactly 6 weeks - he's doing the 55 mile Ten Tors event.

Great!

In better news - I finished another knitting project - I told you this one was quicker. It's in the eternally popular Bamboo Cotton from King Cole and is done in one of the new "Prints" colours:



















I wasn't sure I liked the way the colours "pooled" but now it's done I really like it. The reverse stocking stitch on the yoke just add a bit of detail - as do the sleeves:






































We photographed this in the garden this morning (hasn't this weekend's weather been glorious) and Deidre came to help - by climbing into the gardening sack:

















he loves boxes and bags - if the boys leave a gym bag or a book bag open he'll be in there in a flash - must make him feel secure.

I've now got the lace bug because tonight I start this:



















in blue.