Scarf progress :)

I'm off to a good start with the scarf. The Elenya yarn is delightful to use and the pattern is easy to remember. I'm working alternate stripes of each colour and they're blending very nicely.

Three Irish Girls Elenya

My Three Irish Girls Stash of Elenya 50%Alpaca/50%Merino. When I saw the Multi-colourway was called Fiona I just had to have it :)

I also ordered a matching cerise and pumpkin orange.

My plan was to use it for a felted project... but it's absolutely perfect for the Feather & Fan scarf I'm trying out from the Beautiful Knits for Heads, Hands & Toes book... my December book review.

So now I've 3 projects on the go... Haggis the highland cow, Finn's Christmas stocking & the Feather & Fan scarf. The scarf is knitted... which is something I've not done in years!

I've always been an extremely slow knitter so it will be interesting to see if I'm any faster these days. I'll post my review at the end of the month with photos of how far I've got... as somehow I don't think it will be finished in 3 wks :)

Felted stocking

Felted stocking

Originally uploaded by fiona-kelly

Eek! Slightly more of a colour run when it felted than I expected. The red isn't so Christmassy and the cream... well it's now more of a definite pink... even the snowman is the same shade (i'm not even going to bother photographing that). On the plus side the fringing felted extremely well and if this was done in a single colour it could work. But this wasn't exactly the overall look I was going for so I think this time it'll have to be a non felted pattern.

Stocking snowman

This is the snowman so far for our F's stocking. It's also in the machine and I'll add the rest of his details when I sew him into place.

F's stocking almost finished!

Just a bit more to do. I re-did the toe section and I'm now doing some fringing around the top plus a little snowman decoration next before felting..

F's Christmas Stocking progress...

 I'm making fast progress with F's Christmas Stocking now... Just a bit more to do height wise, then the fringed top and I think the toe section is a bit short so I need to re-do that part. 

I just have to untangle my ball of cream merino DK that he got hold of before I realized.... it's amazing how a toddler can turn a simple doughnut of yarn into a tangled heap in minutes. I should have guessed as soon as he got very quiet! Anyway I've not long to go at all & I might even have it in the machine to felt by Wednesday. Looks like F is into Snowmen at the moment so that's what I'm going to decorate it with... more updates to come :)

Melody

Ripping back so many rows has made a pretty looking ball..

We're on holiday :)

We managed to make it up to Edinburgh in one go on Thursday after all as F was loving being in the big hire car! The journey up took us about 9 1/2 hours... including quite a few long breaks & wasn't too bad at all. We're loving being back in Scotland again & even though we moved down south in 2004 it still feels like home to us. Although both me & Paul had forgotten how the north easterly wind makes it feel colder than expected and proved we've definitely acclimatised to the warmer southern climes.

Our first trip out on Friday am was to the local doctor as Paul's back had gone into spasm loading the car Thursday am & got worse on the journey up. When we woke up on Friday am he could hardly bend to get dressed let alone walk... The doctor says it's muscular and will take a few days at least to ease off & prescribed some codine/paracetamol & ibuprofen tablets for the pain. So we've taken it easy and just pottered about visiting a few old haunts, catching up with friends & doing a bit of shopping.

Of course no holiday would be complete without me hunting out new yarn shops... and I was keen to pop into k1YARNS that I discovered on Ysolda Teague's blog a while ago. When I lived in Edinburgh this shop didn't exist and I knew from their website that they stocked the Artesano alpaca 4ply I fancied trying...

I was quite restrained and only bought one type of yarn I hadn't planned... the Noro. I bought one Noro ball as it is a 70% wool/30% Nylon mix and I'm not sure if it will felt. It's quite loose spun & the label says 30 degree wash so I'm hopeful. The Artesano alpaca feels wonderfully soft and the multi colour twist effect will be stunning when felted. I'll have a go at felting them when I get home let you know what happens.

Haggis the highland cow has come on holiday too & his shaggy hair is coming along nicely.... but that's for the next post.

We're off to Loch Lomond Tuesday for the next leg of our trip... keep your fingers crossed the weather holds :)

The lion prototype is felted!

The washing machine is fixed and I just couldn't wait to show you how the lion prototype turned out. I used up some of my stashed 4ply/fingering yarns just to work the pattern out hence the multicolour!

I'm busy typing up the pattern.. so I'm now setting a closing date for the competition to name him/her... so this is your last chance to have a go if you haven't already. All entries must be submitted by posting your suggestion on site by 11am (GMT) Tuesday 20th May. I will announce the 2 winners (1 boy name & 1 girl name) Wednesday 21st May & email them their prize of the Lion PDF pattern :)

Only one more question.... I'm wondering whether I should have done the shaggy mane all over the back of the head too? It is a proper mane as it is & making the back of the head shaggy would use more yarn... is it worth doing? I can easily amend the pattern if you think it's worth doing...

Fi

x

Scrummy new yarn to play with...

I only ordered this yarn yesterday lunch time. When I got back from taking F to his Jump & jiggle session this morning at 10.45am.... the parcel had been delivered!

I couldn't wait to get the box open and have a sneaky peek before putting F down for his morning nap.... so after a quick look I had to put it out of his reach. After F had his mid morning drink of milk & bit of banana he happily went of to the land of nod. Which means now I get to play :)

First for yarns even packed in a wee surprise... a scrummy Cadbury's Eclair sweet (lasted all of 30secs). I can see myself buying lots more from them.... so much choice and a speedy service too.