More Knitting - and Crochet

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Today has been one of those manic days trying to catch up on all the paperwork for the one week we've been away - where does it all come from?!

Just before we left Tracey rattled off a very pretty bolero in Debbie Bliss's Bella, which is an amazing cotton, silk and cashmere blend so it looks like cotton but slightly silky and softer. It's a standard DK but there's also a book of patterns to go with it. Tracey knitted this:














but in red and without the flower!

Today I was having a bad hair/no make-up day so FB photographed me in it and then chopped off my head (at my request):













It is lovely and, some 7 hours later, I'm still wearing it!

I also thought you'd like a quick crochet bedspread update and an indication of the size of this project:


















Here's the detail:














and here's the full thing with Deidre walking across it to give you an idea of scale:


















I'm still loving it and managing a colour a night - I reckon I'm about a quarter of the way there - and one thing's for sure - it's going to make a dent in the stash!

Short Break Part 2

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Sorrento is, by all accounts, "lush"!!

Back in Wales, I managed to knit a pair of socks (for my brother - don't tell him) - this is the quickest pair of socks I've ever knitted - 6 days from start to finish - so I'm very happy. In addition, he'll actually get his birthday present on time (unlike his wife whose socks were 3 months late). Here they are (slightly too big for my feet but you get the idea):

















They are King Cole, Zig Zag (Blue Danube) which, instead of zigging and zagging, striped (slightly unexpectedly) - but I like them nonetheless!

We also managed to eat rather a lot (strict diet at the moment to recover) and found some fantastic shops, including a wonderful bakery (the source of much of our downfall). They did an amazing bread which I liked so much I took a photo - it's 50% wholemeal and 50% white and, for the record, both ends tasted equally delicious:














On our final day we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch. Long time readers will know that our favourite pub down here is The Gurnard's Head at Zennor, which is a convenient 4.5 mile walk from here over the moors:













Bizarrely, we had bumped into the owner of The Gurnard's in Crickhowell and he urged us to go to their sister pub for lunch - which we were planning to do anyway - and did:



















The Felin Fach Griffin is just outside Brecon and is a joy. We had a superb lunch and are already planning our return (they do some amazing dinner, bed and breakfast deals) - well worth a visit:














(me looking rather self conscious in a rather lovely sweater knitted in old Jaeger Aqua cotton to a Bergere de France pattern).

Short Break

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Ten days ago G&T left us for 3 weeks Inter-railing around Europe - to date they have covered Plymouth - Roscoff - Paris - Marseilles - Nice - Venice - Bari - Corfu (4 days) and they are currently camping in Sorrento. We've had a series of hilarious (and occasionally informative) texts including:

"on boat - first beer going down" (we were rather impressed that they'd waited until they were on the boat for the first beer);

"in Nice - holy f*****g s***t it's hot" !!

"sitting by canal in Venice eating pizza and it's 30 degrees" (very jealous of that one), and a cracker from T:

"I need advice from Mum - I've washed my clothes and they weren't quite dry and they now smell like dead animals" (v pleased to hear he'd been washing his clothes, he not v pleased to hear he had to re-wash them).

So - in the absence of teenagers and to ward off the danger of rattling around at home and missing them, FB and I took ourselves off for a wee break away too - not as far or as glamorous as the boys but we headed up to the Black Mountains in Wales. It's an area we know well but haven't been to for 13 years and it was as beautiful as ever - in fact, we parked the car up on the Friday and didn't move it for the whole week. We stayed in a lovely little cottage in Crickhowell and walked (a lot), ate (too much), drank (one of us more than the other), knitted (only one of us) and slept a lot. The walking was (and is) fantastic here. We broke ourselves in with a gentle canal side walk:














then tackled Sugar Loaf:














































































which was a good 9.5 miles. Then another gentle canal side walk, during which we found this amazing tree (think of the stories it could tell):


















and then, on Wednesday, we tackled a mega huge 22 mile circuit in dubious weather and (on the top 60mph gusting winds). We started by climbing Table Mountain (which is a bit of a scramble at the top):




























then carried on along the ridge:




























It was fantastic but hard work with the wind pushing us this way and that throughout but we did it! - and treated ourselves to a Chinese takeaway when we got back (and the restaurant didn't object to our muddy walking boots either!).

Tomorrow - knitting update and more!

Adriafil

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

We've had a small delivery in from Adriafil today so there will be 3 lovely new yarns on the site soon and, in the meantime, updated stocks of the gorgeous 4ply pure alpaca Sierra Andina:











the Giada in Duck Egg (which I knitted the shawl pattern in) is back in stock (pattern is free when you buy the yarn - less than £20 for this shawl!):



















Knit Col is back in stock (with more new lovely colours to come):














and we have updated stocks of white and cream in our gorgeous pure Egyptian cotton, Memphis:










There's still time to knit yourself a pretty little summer top!

Hot off the Needles

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

These are a very, very, very late birthday present for my sister-in-law (her birthday was in May):













They are Rico Superba Bamboo (50% merino, 25% bamboo, 25% polyamide) - shade 4 - and when I started knitting them we had 10 balls in stock but, having had them lounging around the shop whilst on the needles I notice we're now down to 1 ball! Grab it now, if you've fallen in love with the colour and check out the other colours anyway - they're all lovely.

I've now cast on my brothers and his birthday is in 21 days so I need to get a wiggle on .........