Knitting through the games.

I have been enjoying the games immensely.  I sat watching in awe as the opening ceremony unfolded before my eyes,  trying to predict what was going to happen next.  I screamed Team GB along in almost every event they entered. At the start of the games, I thought I would only be interested in the track events (I used to be a track and cross country runner when I was 17) but surprised myself by watching the rowing, boxing, volleyball, hand ball, beach volleyball and the list goes on.  I shed tears as Team GB took to the podium, and I showed empathy when athletes who didn't quite make it, showed their look of dejection and irritation at their performance. Not once did I judge any athlete throughout the competition but instead sat with a look of admiration on my face, each one a hero in my eyes.  And throughout my screaming and jumping up and down I knitted. I dropped stitches during Andy Murray's final game at Wimbledon as my eyes stayed glued to the screen.  Lost count of my stitches while watching Mo Farah race home for gold and blinked and missed Bolts impressive sprint in the 100m, boy was he fast.
I will be watching the closing ceremony of the games though in my eyes they are not finished we still have the Paralympic  Games to go, and I think it is very offensive that the flame is being handed over before they have been completed.  I will be watching the Paralympics and screaming Team GB along and by my side will be my knitting.

There will be another two new knits from the Paralympics, but these are the first two weeks worth of knitting so far.

Miette by Andi Satterlund knit in Rico Creative Cotton, colour wave Cardinal.

My sister modelling Miette

Second up is:
The Sweetheart Cardigan by Grace Akhrem knit in Rowan Calmer shade 495

 I decided on a black floral button for this knit as wish to wear this with a black dress and feel it gives a romantic and vintage look to the cardigan.

 My sister fell in love with both cardigans but I think the Sweetheart one stole her heart,  I thought she wasn't going to give it back to me.

New for summer!

What have I been up to this week?

Well, I've been busy in my craft area making tonnes and tonnes of new bags to sell in my Folksy and  Etsy shop.  There is a cord turquoise pyramid bag (my favourite), a strawberry and two new floral ones.

 Beautiful Meadow

Strawberry Fields

Daisy Chain

Plus squillions of pattern keepers in lovely new designs and one new needle case too.  Haven't I been busy?

Puss in Boots (magnetic) pattern keeper

Little Bird (magnetic) pattern keeper

Geisha (magnetic) pattern keeper

 

Flower (magnetic) pattern keeper

I've also started my Sweetheart cardigan, and   I have to say it's looking pretty good, pretty good.

 Neck detail (back)

I'm enjoying the way that it's knitting up in the yarn I've chosen (Rowan Calmer shade 495), although the yarn is now discontinued, cue,  a bit of a panic at the beginning of the week when I realised I was running out of yarn.  I was able to find some on sale at Cucumberpatch although not in the same dye lot, so I took a bit of a gamble and to be honest when it arrived I couldn't tell the difference,  it looks the same. 

Shoulder Stitches (join)

Look,  the coolest part is the sleeve seams.  I keep stopping to look at them as they are so neat and pretty.

Border Stitches

I think I'm going to enjoy wearing this cardi, and if it looks as good on me as it is on the needles I can see me making a second and maybe a third one. Yip, it's that good.


 Knitting Update
This is extremely difficult for me to confess, some of you may remember back in April I wrote a post with the title I'm an idiot about a large piece of knitting I had found stashed away and how I couldn't for the life of me remember what pattern it was from.  Well..... I was sitting the other night on Facebook, as you do,  and I saw a feed for Knitty, and I thought "Oooh www! They've got a new set of patterns, think I'll go take a look".  Half an hour into my browsing session I decided "wonder if they have anything good in their previous additions".  You all know what's coming next.  I'm sitting browse, browse, browse and then I stop dead and just stare at the screen, there staring back at me is the b*&^$y pattern I was using for the piece.  It was as though someone had switched a light bulb on in my head. "Oh yeah, I remember what pattern I was using now".   The pattern was Adeline by Heather Hoefle. The agony doesn't end there though,  oh no! Cause just three days earlier, I frogged the piece of knitting to start something new.  I could've head butted the image I was so gutted.  So now when I knit something new, I bag the knitting with the pattern, so I won't end up in this sorry mess again.

I'm an idiot

Hi everyone hope you are all well and enjoying the changeable but okay-ish weather we are experiencing you know sweltering summer type weather, then pouring with rain, then freezing, then summer again. Cardigan off, cardigan on. "Shall I wear sandals? No, it's too cold!", "Shall I wear boots? No! God, I'm sweltering".

So what have I been up to? Well.....I was stressed with college, and I decided to tidy up all my knitting WIP's (work in progress) only to find a nearly finished back to a cardigan, huh! How did that happen?

 It's terrifically plain and  beautifully knitted only thing is I can't for the life of me remember what pattern it's from, I normally keep the magazine or book next to the knitting- "PAUL, have you been touching my stuff again?" This isn't the first time this has happened to me, and I'm dead sure it won't be the last, normally when I find these knits I have to frog them.  Very sad I know but if I can't even remember what I was knitting, what's the point of keeping it and trying to make it match a pattern it doesn't belong to *sigh*.  I could really kick myself, very hard. Is anyone else out there in knitting land as stupid as me and do you have any remedies to stop this heartbreaking scenario from happening again?

Update: so well I decided to trawl Ravelry in the hope that I would find the pattern that matched my piece of knitting.  After two days of searching, I'm no further forward and to make me more miserable I think the pattern may have come from a magazine I chucked out with a hoard of others. Whaaaa!! Sob, sob.

Jayellesea's version of Sweetheart Cardigan by Grace Akhrem

Anyway while ogling all those patterns on "R" I found something to heal my sorrow in the form of another cardigan called Sweetheart.  This little cardi is similar to the finished back piece I have. Now, I know I can't keep the original piece, and,  I know I'll have to frog it but hey-ho I have a new beautiful cardi to make *squee*.

HP dv2000

Can you believe my beautiful laptop died on me for the 3rd time in a year?  It was extremely distressing, and I'm embarrassed to say I just sat and cried.  I suppose I can't complain it was a Christmas present from my O/H way back in 2006.  So, now it's at PC World having another overhaul, poor wee soul.  On the bright side,  I was lucky in the sense that I had printed off my essay and my assessment exam work before it died, someone in heaven must have been looking down on me.
So after discussing and pleading my case to Paul, he agreed I should treat myself to a new laptop, how kind of him to agree to me spending my own money eh?  Lol!

So I'm now the proud owner of the HP DV6 it's not as sophisticated as the HP dv2000 (which was the top of the range when I received it) but hey it has a fantastic sound, it kind of looks okay,  and it works.  I'm just hoping my dv2000  doesn't develop a complex when it comes home tomorrow, and it sees it's new replacement.  Awkward or what?

What else have I been up to?  Well... I'm reading this at the moment. I love this author and her amateur sleuth character Kelly Flynn.  I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but believe me, after reading about Cognitive, Linguistic, Social Development and Theorists for eight months my brain seriously needs a breather, before the mayhem begins i.e. my final exams.

The Walking Dead

I've also just finished watching: The Walking Dead based on an on-going series of comic books of the same name, written by Robert Kirkman.  It's about a group of survivors in a world overrun by zombies.  Mmmm! Goriness. To say I have withdrawal symptoms is an understatement,  I keep asking Paul when's the next series on.  Oh! And I can't believe they killed off Dale and Shane, although I would've certainly slapped the latter,  he seriously got on my nerves lol.