New Yarns from Adriafil and Final Blanket Update

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

So ... the second batch of new yarns for spring/summer arrived this week and, as ever, large boxes from Italy always give us a bit of a thrill!  We have two brand new yarns and 3 new colours in the phenomenally popular Knitcol so I'll give you a taste of them first:

Knitcol is a DK superwash pure wool and just sells and sells - if you haven't knitted with it yet then it's another you need to add to the list of "wools I must knit with soon".....

So to the first of our new summer yarns: Carioca:

This is a linen/cotton/polyester mix with a very smooth, soft feel which knits up beautifully:

I really love it and can feel a summer top coming on:

Our second new yarn is Energia:

which, again, is a cotton blend but .... WITH SPARKLES!  Ooh, who can resist a bit of sparkle in their knitting, I know I can't.  Again, knits up beautifully:

and has several patterns.  Tracey has her eye on this one:

and I think this is rather sweet:

Let's just hope that this summer is as hot as last so we have plenty of opportunities to wear our lovely new tops!

And so to the final Ravellenic Games Blanket Update ...... well, I finally managed 97 squares over the course of the games, which equated to 5.7 squares per day.  As you know, I hadn't really set myself a target as I'd never previously timed how long it took to knit a square so I'm pretty pleased.  100 would have been a nice round figure but, hey, the blanket is 97 squares bigger than it was at the beginning!  Photos to follow .......

Finally, I visited my brother a few weeks ago and we did a quick photo shoot (as the light was fading) of my two Scatness Tams.  You may recall that I knitted one for my sister-in-law which was too small (she has masses of hair) so that became mine and I then knitted another one for her (on bigger needles).  She refused to model it so my lovely niece was roped in. 

Just so you know, Grace is 13 .... she is not standing on a box ..... she is in flat shoes ..... I am in 3" heels .... I am not bending my legs (if anything I'm standing as tall as I can) ..... Grace is a very, very good swimmer (and the rowing team are desperate for her too ...!):