I couldn’t, of course, resist indulging in a little bit for my stash…

Little bundles of soft, squishy delight! Some Shetland, some Manx, some Merino and BFL I think. And charged by the gram.

The colours are soft, muted greys, blues & greens with some ‘bright pastels’ thrown in to give it its own unique twist. Quite yummy!

I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. For now fondling and petting it is sufficing

Jayne also makes amazing Papier Mache works of art which she sells locally occasionally as well as running workshops (I’m very tempted!) I don’t think she has an active web site at the moment but if that changes I’ll let you all know.

I think one of these days I will get around to a full blown Icelandic fair isle yoke ‘Lopi’ sweater but not yet… In the meantime I have sated my appetite with a very very quick knit that is almost ready to cast off just 4 days after casting on – and it’s a full size, long sleeved sweater for me!

The pattern is Agnes by Melissa LaBarre for Quince & Co. and is a loose fitting ‘sweatshirt’ shape with cheeky little pockets that I’ll knit in a contrasting colour (can’t quite decide between pale grey and dark brown at the moment…)

The yarn is Icelandic Lopi in Golden Heather…

I’ve just the second sleeve to knit and the pocket dilemma to resolve and I’m there! Just in time for this sudden cold snap we’re having… just how on earth did we survive last Winter when this weekend felt bitterly cold and was our first frost since November!!

So, I mentally scouted around the various family members who we’d need to come up with interesting/innovative/exciting gifts for and decided that the only one I could reasonably be expected to knit for was baby M, my super-cute niece.

I just happened to have a skein or two of Old Maiden Aunt’s amazing Organic Corriedale 4ply stashed away that I picked up at Knit Nation back in the summer so I grabbed a rather lovely shade of blue – called ‘Moody’ – and cast on…

I am so pleased with the result! The pattern was a vintage one from an old magazine – a fabulous internet find – and ‘non-baby’ pure wool with a bot of ‘oomph’ really complimented the structured shape. It was a lovely little knit that came together very quickly – even with the ‘old fashioned’ seaming, rather than my preferred seamless, top-down, in the round construction method. A quick scout around ebay found some perfect buttons that were in fact vintage 1940′s still on the original card!

Feeling fairly pleased with myself I downed knitting pins and picked up a different sort of needle to make a cute little pair of slippers to complete the gift…

They’re Kimono Baby shoes from the Homespun Threads web site. A pattern I’d highly recommend and a free download to boot. I used two different Amy Butler fat quarters that I happened to have in my stash of quilting-cotton-that-I-had-to-have-but-will-never-use-’cos-I’m-a-knitter-not-a-sewer. With that in mind, while the pattern is simple, there was much swearing during the creation of these simple little shoes. Of course, I’d left the task until the last moment (the evening prior to seeing my sister’s family…) and I have just this to say, my sewing machine is inhabited by gremlins, demons and quite possibly the devil himself. And guess what, my sister absolutely loved them (and the cardi of course) and guess what else… they’re a bit too narrow for the darling little chubster’s feet… and I’ve promised to make some more…

[cardigan ravelled here]

Who knows where the time has gone since I last visited here? The usual run up to the festive season saw us unpacking, picking, packing, dispatching, unpacking again etc. etc. and there were certainly some very happy knitters on Christmas morning if the parcels we dispatched were anything to go by. The larger-than-usual number of male customers and orders with little notes attached to the tune of ‘I have no idea if this order makes sense/can you please try to make sure the packaging doesn’t advertise the origin of the parcel’ and variations thereon always gives the game away!

My festive haul was almost wool-free (the theme was kitchenalia this year for some reason!) but not quite… bemoaning chilly feet and a lack of time to knit a toasty pair of slippers Chris suggested I indulge my feet in a pair of my favourite ‘house shoes’ just in time for the lounging season…

They are Haflinger clogs (from this lovely UK stockist) and they are gorgeous felted wool with comfy cork footbed and a non-slip sole so they can be indoor/outdoor shoes too. Perfect for my little trips to and from the Meadow yarn shed studio at the bottom of the garden! The quirky fraternal apple applique appealed to my sense of humour as well

I’ve also just noticed, while checking that my links were all good, that there is also a wonderful pair of indoor slippers with a cat chasing a ball of wool appliqued onto the front! Perfect slippers for knitters!

There has been a surprising amount of knitting both cast-off and cast-on over the last few weeks… and as soon as the grey gloom lifts enough to take some half decent photos you’ll be the first to see what’s been going on ‘on the needles’…

I don’t know about you but the arrival of a new year always gets my fingers itching to start new projects.

We woke, after a hyperactive, excitable birthday-party-filled-Saturday (6, he’s 6 can you believe!)  to find glorious sunshine. After the last week of grim, grey, damp days the urge to ‘just get out there’ was too strong to resist so we turned our backs on the domestic disarray and piled into the jalopy to head off to the beach. Randomly selected, the beach of the day was Walberswick. A true treasure of the Suffolk Heritage coast but one we avoid ‘in season’ being as we are, spoilt for choice!

The tide was way up high and a few days of windy weather had left the beach strewn with seaweed. Perfect treasure hunting conditions!

Into our bucket went all manner of ‘treasure’ – we certainly have a varied definition between us – Cuttle fish, Bladderwrack, crab shells, an old kite string handle, a piece of rope… Seaweed was lifted and some lovely ‘mermaid’s purses’ were discovered…

Until an excited shout from Chris…

it’s amber! Washed up in amongst the seaweed it is Baltic Amber. Our coast is renowned for it but in the 11 years we’ve been beach combing here it’s the first piece we’ve found – and it was followed very shortly after by another! Autumn and Winter are prime amber hunting times, as the colder sea makes it relatively more ‘salty’ and so more buoyant. The pieces of amber get scooped up off the sea bed by strong currents and then caught in seaweed ready to be dumped on our beaches in high seas!

Amber is light as plastic so easily distinguished from pebbles and glass. It’s also ‘warm’ to the touch. There’s an amber museum in Southwold so I think we’ll be taking a trip later this week to find out more about our very special finds.

We took our treasure home… Some of it to be surreptitiously recycled (I’m not sure we really need an old kite handle), some assimilated into the already huge pebble/glass/crab shell collection and some to be truly treasured…

We settled on the sofa for a family DVD before roasting a Chicken for dinner and watching the sun dip below the trees… I even managed a few rounds of my own woolly version of ‘amber’ that happens to be on the knitting needles at the moment…

All in all, a day full of treasure and a day to be treasured.

First thing in the morning while I’m drinking tea and ‘coming to’… Last thing at night after the boys are (hopefully!) asleep…

Almost mirroring the disjointed knitting time and the fizzy, full-up brain my projects have been stalling, unravelling and generally misbehaving!

These two beauties were all set to become a ‘Different Lines’ shawl. I’ve had them cosy together waiting for a free slot since Knit Nation back in July – where I purchased the rather lovely Shetland 2 ply from Well Manor Farm to pair up with the gorgeous Babylonglegs Semi Precious that I treated myself to earlier in the year… All that time they’d been nestled cosily in my project bag, looking lovely… the slightly rustic tweedy Shetland complimenting the warm silky glow of the silk blend. As I was winding the skeins into cakes I did have a fleeting moment of doubt but I cast on and set off regardless. Several ‘stripes’ down the line I had to accept the truth. The colors just don’t work together. The flat grey/brown of the Shetland sucked all the light out of the gold which became a dark ‘sludgy’ brass. Even here, side by side, they still look fine but knit in garter stitch the combination just didn’t work. So, off the needles it came. Back to the drawing board. I still have in mind to mix the silk with something tweedy and ‘rougher’. I want that contrast… but I think I need something lighter, brighter and I might just go for this;

It’s Rowan Fine Tweed, their new offering for this season and it comes in the cutest little 25g balls, designed especially for colourwork. I think it might do the trick!

If you’re drooling over the Babylonglegs yarn (and if not, why not?) then watch the shop… This bag of beauties arrived yesterday and are waiting to be photographed later today

When the photos are done you’ll find them here

The finale is an auction of knitted fish! Seeing as the host of our local ‘Stitch & Sip’ group is the collection point for the fish we couldn’t help but join in the knitting fun! Members have been busy creating  amazing woolly sea creatures from flat fish to crustaceans and even an amazing octopus! My humble contribution is a rather flamboyant looking Herring…

A make-it-up-as-I-went-along pattern and lots of embellishment after I spotted a rather nice bag of pearls and beads in a local antique shop for a few pence!

Some left over Natural Dye Studio sock yarn lurking in my stash seemed appropriate!

The auction raises money for the Marine Conservation Trust. Let’s hope my little fella helps the cause! I just have to stop the children entering a bidding frenzy after they all took a shine to him!!

It’s not often I pick up the needles intent on creating a large garment for someone else (at least I’m honest!) but after finishing The Big One earlier this summer the prospect of a cardi for an 8 year old wasn’t too desperate

I think he’s quite pleased with it

It was a nice easy knit, with chunky yarn, using this pattern by Diane Soucy. The original pattern didn’t have a hood but I found someone on Ravelry who had added one and kindly made notes (such a fabulous community!)

The yarn I used was from our clearance sale – Sublime Chunky Merino Tweed – and while it is lovely and soft and nice to knit with it’s not got much body so the hood is a bit flippy-floppy if I’m honest. He doesn’t seem to mind though…

My stitch gauge was a little off so I knit the largest size knowing it would likely come up small and it’s a good job I did as it’s a perfect fit on my rather tall, skinny boy!

It’s all Ravelled here and what’s left in our clearance sale (still some nice bargains to be had!) is here. The original pattern can be found here

The only problem I have now? The other two boys want to know when theirs will be done… and with Christmas looking (I know, I know!!!) the next couple of months might not be quite so selfish!

If you’ve never participated in a KAL before I can highly recommend it! The beauty of Ravelry (well one of the many beauties!) is that it’s easy to form a quick mini-community to provide cameraderie and support for project of this nature.

I have to admit that after keeping track with the first 3 clues (emailed each Friday through August) I fell behind for the last – I think my gold wedding stole ended up taking priority! – but a couple of weeks after the KAL was officially over I wove in my ends and declared my ‘Earth & Sky’ shawl a success!

I knit the medium size, perfect for a slightly Autumnal trip to a local beach… my colour choice coordinating perfectly with the nuclear reactor in the background! Yes, that’s Sizewell B, one of our local ‘landmarks’. We don’t visit the beach nearby very often – too spoilt for ‘unspoilt’ choice with Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich and Aldeburgh also nearby – but we do occasionally take a stroll here and partake of a toasty and a pot of tea and the little beach cafe. It’s a strange other-worldy type place with the power station perched behind and the recent news that it will be added to is cause for debate for sure…

Pattern: West Knits ‘Earth & Sky’

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay ‘Serena’ in Azure, Emporer & Tezpi

All Ravelled here

Several years ago, I think while pregnant with # 2, I had plans to create a beautiful ripple blanket so I purchased Jan Eaton’s excellent ’200 Ripple Stitch Patterns’ book, armed myself with a hook and some spare yarn and set sail… well, limped out of the harbour, half mast and promptly sank without a trace actually!

I decided that crochet was the devil’s work, a dark art indeed! I’m a reasonably intelligent person, my very first knit project was a pair of socks and I’m able to follow a complex fair isle chart. But a crochet pattern? A single hook, with just one stitch on it at any point? Forget it… I was hopeless. I couldn’t ‘read’ my work and every time I put it down I lost my place and became hopelessly confused. My ripples were decidedly choppy, no gentle waves of colour here…

Life was busy, Meadow Yarn was in the making, babes were small (and increasing in number!) so I simply decided that crochet wasn’t for me and moved on.

Until this summer!

The safe arrival of a very very precious new niece, who is special in so many ways and we are so lucky to have, prompted me to face my crochet demons head-on and a summer of crochet ensued!

Inspired by Lucy from Attic 24 (one of my top blog reads!) and Rosa P, both of whom have created beautiful examples, I set my heart on making a hexagon blanket for baby Meg…

I grabbed some scraps and a hook and set sail once more…

My first test! A little wonky, not perfect by any means but definitely my most successful crochet to date…

So I chose colours:

(later adding a pale pink and a putty grey to make a total of 7 shades). It’s Debbie Bliss Cotton DK with a rogue Rowan Wool Cotton to get the perfect cherry red…

My bag of hexagons grew and as I followed Lucy’s advice to join them as I went, so too did the blanket. Let me tell you, crochet is indeed very satisfying in its speed and ease of transportation!

It went everywhere with me. Until finally there were just a *lot* of ends to weave in…

Next time I will work out how to catch the ends in as I go… but it felt like I needed at least one extra hand to accomplish it when I set out on this venture!

So, just 2 months after Meg arrived we had our ‘ta-da’ moment!

Big enough for a wee one to lay on, cosy as a pram blanket and snuggly in the cot…

My sister says it’s her most prized possession (possibly discounting her two beautiful children I guess!) which makes me smile. She’s had a hard year and having her and Meg around – both happy and healthy -  to receive this very small token of our love for them all is something we’re very grateful for…