Things that keep me humble

I am so absolutely determined to get good at lace. I have now embarqued on a challenging lace shawl project. I am doing a pi shawl as per Elizabeth Zimmermann intructions. I was just going to make it plain in between increases but as my friend said..."it's not that hard you know" so I took that as a challenge and here goes. I hope to finish it this year so that when my eldest daughter Emily decides to start a family she will have a shawl for the baby and it can stay in the family as an heirloom.

I am knitting it in a natural thinner than 2 ply wool. Am not really into natural colours but I might be able to dye it later.

I will have to keep blogging aboot it so that people don't think I've forgotten about it.

Aran style hat

I knitted some winter hats for the kids but Sofia's was a little too snug. I was trying to finish it quickly but somehow when I try to do that it just makes me slower. So here it is. It's an aran style with asymmetrical cables, knitted in the round and I managed to do the decreases in a really smooth way. I reused some wool that had been a cardie for her. I decided that it just wasn't pretty enough for me to keep for the grandchildren so I unravelled and here it is. I just love the colour. It really brings out the colour of her eyes.

I'm really pleased also with the fact that now I just knit things without the need for a pattern. I have a better idea of my personal and the children's taste and also I am more willing to take risks. I designed it to go with her mittens.

The old hat is now keeping her cuddly tiger warm.

Hope your are all keeping warm out there.

Blue house yarns

I've been allowed to put a display of our products at the local library. I think it's turned out nice, don't you think? You can view our complete range at http://www.bluehouseyarns.co.nz/. Hope you like it.

The idea was also to display lots of knitting books. I took the opportunity to display not just the modern American books but also a couple of good Margaret Stove books and also some on traditional Scandinavian, fair isle and Aran knitting. I hope it generates a bit of interest in the business but also that it inspires people to knit something for the winter. It would be great to see more people - adults and children - knitting at the library, the bus stop, the school gate.