Thursday 5 July 2007

Birthday bonanza

Well let's get to the juicy stuff straight off...
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This is the whole haul. Pooch gave me the boye needle master set of interchangables, which so far I've only played around with and stroked a lot.
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Aren't they beautiful? But what I don't understand is how they can bring themselves to put such beautiful needles in such a fugly case.
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What's with that? Plus he got me the pink knitlite needles that have little light bulbs in them for those cinema-dropped-stitch-episodes. Genius!

Pooch also took me out for a lovely sushi dinner, and while I was waiting for it to be time to meet him I just happened to be near Liberty. And I just happened to go into their wool department. Abd I just hapenned to come across some crazy bargains. That's what all that yarn is in the photo. But bearing in mind that I got 38 balls of jaeger for £50 I don't feel so bad about it, and I was due a day from stashalong anyway. So I came out with...
  • 10 balls jaeger aqua in butter yellow
  • 10 balls aqua in bright orange
  • 8 balls jaeger siena in green
  • 6 balls in purpley blue
  • 6 balls in cream
Now I did not just go crazy, because believe me I could have bought at least another three colourways of the siena. Also I have a plan. Kind of. The yellow and orange is for a baby blanket. Am thinking squares and probably crochet. The green/purple/cream combo was inspired by the highly inspirational Nickerjac who was crocheting with those three colours at SkipNorth. She was using james c brett merino, which I still haven't seen any of so let me know if you know of a london pusher, or rather don't. Jan had made Nic a baby blanket that was quite stunning - you actually couldn't see where she'd joined the rounds. Has all prompted me to add the 200 blocks book to my wishlist.

I have been going great guns on the sideways sock adventure, and it ended recently with me wearing this.
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Now I know my eagle eyed readers will have noticed the slight sag towards the toe end. Lets just look at that in more detail shall we?
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That's the end of the toe folded over. This is the downside of a sideways sock. I made it about 2 inches too long and whereas with your conventional one you could just rip back, with this one you're stuck with it. I considered keeping it as a lesson for the future but then there was this as well:
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That's the front of my ankle looking very much norah battyish. I had mitred the heel but not used any shaping there and so with two major design flaws I did the decent thing and frogged it out of existence. The mark 2 version is going along very nicely.

Finally, I've been making flowers for my wedding bouquet - and this one is definitely not going to be thrown to the crowd. I have been doing them on the tube on the way to and from work. These are all the tapestry ones. I do like this yarn although I have a feeling it would pill like crazy with wear. If anyone has any experiences of this let me know.

I did get lots of other presents which were all wonderful but haven't photographed them yet. Thanks to everyone who sent emails and things too. Horrah for birthdays!

9 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Dang, that is quite the birthday haul! Liberty must've been having an amazing sale. happy birthday to you!

Woolly Wormhead said...

Belated birthday wishes! Great haul, well done you.

Have seriously fallen out of the loop lately - missing your birthday, Nic's baby shower. Am gonna go back and check email & dates to see if I can make your hen night (unless of course I've missed that too...)

This is what happens when you go charging around the country for a month!

Anonymous said...

Happy belated birthday! That's an amazing haul from Liberty.

Ooh, I've started some socks from the pattern you emailed me, thank you!

PURLPOWER said...

top birthday action! am v impressed. I hear on the woolvine that all Jaeger yarn is bring discontinued (shame as I love many of the Jaeger yarns) and so keep you eyes out for more bargains.....

blueadt said...

A belated Happy Birthday Lixie.

I've got a few balls of Siena in a darker green if you'd like them let me know....

Nikki said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nikki said...

Nice b-day stuff. I have the interchangeable sticks as well, and I really love them. I got a little too ambitious at first and screwed the needles into the wire too tight. It produced an annoying ragged edge at the screw-in place. Then the yarn frequently caught on the edge. Just thought I'd pass on the advice. I have been successful since I realized what I was doing.

The lit-sticks sound really cool. I am sure they come in handy. (btw: major spelling error on my last comment - that's why I re-commented)

rachel said...

You may hate me, but Readicut are selling the James Brett merino for £2.49 a ball in their sale!

Daisy said...

Happy birthday! What a lovely haul!