Posts Tagged ‘lornaslaces’

The one in which I’m sponsored by Kleenex..

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Have managed to get myself well and truly lurgified. HusBeast has been unwell over the last couple of days and spiked a huge fever on Sunday night. I thought rather smugly, that I’d escaped. Woke up this morning feeling like I’d been punched repeatedly between the eyes as I slept. Still managed to crawl out of bed and over to the station in time to catch the train, but left town early and am now ensconced on the sofa, complete with hot drink and blanket, and several projects are surrounding me and begging for attention.

The accidently teeny hat is still sitting on the same bread plate that it was last week. It’s really pretty, but unless I’m planning on shrinking to the size of a five year old, it’s gonna need frogging.

accidently-teeny-hat

The yarn and pattern are both great though, and work really well together. I just had a slight fail on the needles is all.

The main reason that it hasn’t been blocked is because of this beautiful creature, which is currently nestled asserting dominance over my knitting basket.

blackberry-clap

It’s the infamous Clapotis, in Mmmmmmalabrigo silky merino, which is amazingly like the yarn I used for my first clap in all aspects bar the price. Even with the silly shipping rates, this stuff is still pretty damn affordable. (BTW, if you Dubs haven’t been into This Is Knit to fondle their Malabrigo yet, I suggest you do it quickly!) These skeins were a prezzie from the lovely Lesley (who came to visit…more below!) and unfortunately I’ve run out just as I get into the last section. Seems that getting this done on 3 skeins was just a tad on the over ambitious side.  Being the epic person that she is, Lesley messaged me as soon as she got home to say she’d secured another skein in the yarn shop that she works in (Fibre Space in D.C.)

Seeing as there was a visiting knitter in the house, Friday was mostly spent trawling through the many yarn shops in Dublin, which go from the awesome to the “3 skeins of baby acrylic on a shelf” variety.

I’ve been resisting buying yarn for months now, partly because I’ve got a lot and partly because I can’t justify buying even more yarn when I’ve got *coughovercoughthirtymilescough* of the stuff already. I got a gift voucher for my birthday in October and picked up some lambs pride to make a Sylvi out of. On Wednesday I technically broke my no-yarn-since-October kick when I had to pick up two more skeins of the same stuff that I’d ordered in October. Friday saw me fall off the wagon rather dramatically, as I found myself returning home with this

rowan-splurge

It’s Rowan pure wool aran in a fab charcoal colour. I’d been lusting after it for a while to make myself a Vivian and when I saw it on sale, I crumpled like a cheap suit. In an amazing turn of events, I even started a swatch at SnB this morning. I may die of seed stitch, but it should look awe-fricking-some.

The sock of the moment is still on the go, and even went to Kilkenny castle with us at the weekend.

well-travelled-sock

It’s not a colourway that I’d have chosen for myself as I’m the least pink person out there, but it came as part of the Lorna’s Laces sock club. I love their sock yarn, and I love knitted socks, so who am I to deny myself? They may be resigned to being boot socks though.

Being at a tourist spot, with a tourist, it was time for a cheesy photo op as well

say-cheese

Classy birds, us!

I’ve got yet another project on the go now as well. Gabriel’s wings is the pattern, and it’s using a fabulously coloured skein of Noro sock yarn that I got for my 29th but didn’t want to turn into socks. The two are working rather well together.

gabriels-wings

It’s early days yet, but I’m liking it so far. Should be pretty cool when it’s all blocked and stuff.

In other news, I’ve done an etsy store update - or the start of one at least. Sock is up, lace and DK will be going up tonight, unless I’m forced back to bed by my irate tonsils. As usual, all colourways are repeatable in all bases, so if you see something you might like feel free to drop me a line.

This is one of Lesley’s knits that she brought with her..it’s Ysolda’s Ishbel, and it’s knitted in my organic merino DK.

lesleys-ishbel-1

lesleys-ishbel-2

It’s always really nice to see my yarn knitted up into much-loved garments. It’s just the confidence booster a girl needs on a dull and sneezy Wednesday afternoon.

Time for more of that ginger, lemon and honey concoction, methinks.

Ding dong!

Friday, February 13th, 2009

The doorbell rang at the ungodly hour of 7.20am this morning. It actually rang several times before I worked out that it wasn’t actually part of my dream. This may or may not have been prompted by HusBeast running downstairs like a madman in the hope that he’d catch the postman at the door and not have to chase them down the street in tracksuit bottoms and no shoes.

It was all worth it though (yes, worth his getting out of bed for my gratification. Shhh!)

Lorna\'s Laces delivery

I haven’t even de-bagged it/them yet. Frankly, I’m shocked - in a good way - at how fast they arrived from the States!

The goodies are 6 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd sock yarn. 2 each in Franklin’s Panopticon, South Shore and Ashburn. I’m delighted with them. Beautifully presented and even came with a handwritten notecard! I’m a sucker for handwritten letters and cards. I even have various writing papers, inks and pens in my bedside table drawer, should the need ever arise…

…but I digress. The shinies of fabulousness came from the equally fabulous Sonny And Shear.

I heartily endorse the site. Easy to navigate, plenty of screenlicking-worthy moments, and great customer service.

I’m being a model of self-restraint though. For today at least. The new arrivals are still in their beribboned baggie, and stashed away in the yarn chest (the chest where I keep my yarn. Not to be confused with moments of weakness where I stuff particularly delicious fibres down my..chest).

Urchin progresses well. I got less done on it than I’d like today, due to having a moment of “just can’t take this any more” and tidying up the living room. Yes, my back hurts like crazy now. Yes, I know I deserve it. No, it’s not going to stop me whinging about it. I’m just finished my fourth segment, so I have four more to go. Or five, for that extra slouchy thing. Depends on if I’ve been distracted by some more shiny at that stage or not.

Heading down to see the Parental Units at the weekend, so should get a bit of sockwork done on Saturday evening. Depends on the volume of wine ingested, however. We had a bit of bad news during the week. Dad has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. More blood tests to follow and the like, but it doesn’t appear to be the life-threatening kind at least. Or at least once he starts taking care of himself. He has been eating pretty much all around him since learning to eat again, and has become very happy with the 2-desserts-plus-snacks-a-day thing. He’s also about 4 stone/56 pounds/25kgs overweight, which is a large part of the problem. We’ve been pleading him to lay off the cookies for a while now, but nothing has gotten through to him til this. Considering that heart disease is the biggest killer in Ireland, the diabetes may be a blessing in disguise yet. Provided he can stick with things and not go around sneaking chocolate when no one is looking.

Fingers crossed.

Celebrations..sort of.

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

So, I handed over the scarf to the birthday girl, and there were grins all around. It’s taller than her, but who am I to argue with the taste of a 17 year old. I’m obviously not “cool” anymore.

To celebrate, I bought some yarn.
It wasn’t intentional, but I logged into ebay for a quick look, and 15 minutes later I was the proud owner of some fab Lornas Laces.

lorna's laces swirl chunky in river colourway

Isn’t it pretty? It’s in their River colourway, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I may have to temporarily hide it in my drawer at work. My darling other half doesn’t quite know how big my stash has gotten of late, and I’d rather not have 2 large boxes filled entirely with yarn when we move at the end of the month. Maybe I should get one of those storage baggies that you hook up to the hoover and it squishes duvets down to the size of a stamp. I could use the “see? it’s mostly just air” line then.

Think it would work?