Happy Valentine's Day

DH and I realised on Friday that we had worn the same socks that day (sort of). Are we telepathic or what? Yes, I know: cheesy.

Gentle Rose is blocking, along with the Dream in Colour Shrug that I made a year ago and never got round to blocking. I'm now on to another comissioned hat and will soon be working on a blanket for a friend's sister (at her request). Any good baby blanket suggestions welcome please. So far I've got the Big Bad Baby Blanket, a Log Cabin, Brooklyn Tweed's Tweed Blanket and the Honeycomb one I've made before.

Greenwich Market & Pressie in the Post

On Sunday Julia and Jo, two University friends of mine, and I went to Greenwich for lunch and a good look around Greenwich Market.

Here we are at one of the stalls. Jo and Julia are wearing scarves they had just bought, knitted in Scottish lambswool (of course).

We proceeded to buy up most of the rest of the market too. Here we are (minus me - taking the photo) at a stall with a girl who makes beautiful hand-sewn skirts and jackets. Yes, we bought those. They were really inspiring, and I'm really looking forward to the dress-making course I'm starting in April now.

If you haven't been to Greenwich market before I'd really recommend it. I'm ashamed to say that I had never even been to East London before, and was pleasantly surprised. We're going to make a point of having a proper walk next time, maybe flying a kite at Blackheath, and visiting the Observatory and the Maritime Museum. The market itself is a foodie and crafter's heaven, with everything from hand-crafted leather makeup purses, to handpainted lampshades, and tiffin bites and mulled wine.

Over the border, and high up into the Highlands, my Mum has got hens. Isn't this the sweetest photo of her? She's so happy with her new brood. The one in her arms is Biddie.

While not looking after her new feathered friends, she found time to knock up this beauty and spirit it down in the post to me:

This is one of her own creations, a scarf knitted in Colinette Point 5 (major thick-and-thin fun) and my favourite colour combination so far. This one is a rib, though she also does stockinette and moss (all work really well). If you look closely you'll notice that she held two yarns together. To pump up the colour, there is a beautiful purple Debbie Bliss tweed running through this, with litle flecks of red and green.

Tonight's our Spinning Night at Hammersmith Stitch N' Bitch, so I'll report back soon with photos. Can't wait!

Josh's Hat

Remember this? Josh's Mum Sara texted me a photo of him in his hat this week. Looks like he's one happy boy. What a handsome little guy. Gotta love that Malabrigo.

Gentle Rose is going well, and it's very fast. I'm up to the armholes in just a week. Planning on finishing the back and two fronts by the end of the weekend, then it's on to the sleeves.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I have knitted all three parts together. And yes, those of you who know me will realise immediately that this is to avoid seaming! My reasons are two-fold: A, with a little modification and calculation, it's easier and quicker; and B, there are no visible or feel-able seams whatsoever, so it looks and feels better. It's a winner all-round!

There's a nice moss stitch border at the bottom (love a good moss edge; it flattens, doesn't curl and the texture is always great), plus a lovely cable edging at the front. I haven't done cables for ages, and have really loved getting back into them. They're so much easier than you think they're going to be, so if you're in any doubt, take it from me, and try it.

Winter roses from when Julia came over the other night. I love roses with a tinge of pink or red at the edge...

Aeolian is Blocking

It's finished, and I'm happy with it:

When it's dry I'll take some better photo's. If I hadn't had some other projects to finish (which I can't show you yet), it would have been finished weeks ago, but here it is now.

It was difficult to block. The points of the "flowers"at the edge are not as pointy as they would have been had I used lace-weight yarn. I had decided to use DK for warmth and weight and knew the finished result would not look the same. I made the smallest version so it's more wearable and found Adriana's blocking photo's very helpful, though my points are nowhere near as good as hers. Don't look too closely at the blocking as it's not perfect!

And yes, it's blocking on the faithful Barbie blocking towel: don't ask why I own a towel like that; it has something to do with DH's Stag do (Bachelor party).

Take a look at the beauitiful cardigan, below. It's Gentle Rose from last month's Simply Knitting. I already have the yarn for it (Patons Pompero in Ruby 32) and will be starting it over Christmas when I have lots of free time when we go to my parents in Scotland for 10 days). I like the puffed sleeves and colour, and love an open cardigan.

We're also going to get some skiing in as there's enough snow and the slopes are open at Cairngorm.

I also quite like Ginger, below, but it's quite impractical. The jury's out on this one.

Meanwhile, having been scared by some threads on Ravelry about moths desecrating entire stashes, I have invested in some vacuum bags to prevent that problem. You can see yarn, FO's and toys sucked up in this one:

Christmas is in the air, and I'm loving it.