Whooooooooooooooosh (part 1)...

Ok....so that's the sound of a quarter of the year passing by since my last post. I have been busy with work and other things and just plain kept forgetting to log onto here and post pics of my finishes. There have been a few, so I won't bore you with a lot of chat about them just the pics and details of what they are if that's ok with you! 

I'll start with the socks....since April there have been 12 pairs of socks knitted. 

In order from Left to Right.

1. Guinevere Socks by Margrete Dolff published in Issue 15 of Yarn Forward knitted in The Knitting Goddess 'Diana Goddess'.
2. Heelless Sleeping Socks by Nacy Bush published in Knitting Favorite Socks, knitted in Three Irish Girls Kells Sport merino in Alchemy.
3. I Love Gansey by Janine Le Cras published in Sock Club; Join the Knitting Adventure knitted in The Knitting Goddess 4ply Luxury Sockyarn in semi solid slate.
4. Joy (a genius with dye) by Rachel Coopey published in Coop Knits knitted in The Knitting Goddess self striping sock yarn in Patriot.

1. Kai-Mei by Cookie A published in Sock Innovation, knitted in The Knitting Goddess Merino/Bamboo in Agate.
2. Labyrinth by Wendy D Johnson published in Socks From the Toe-Up, knitted in Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino in Madigan. 
3. Manly Aran Socks by Wendy D Johnson published in Toe-Up Socks for Everybody, knitted in The Knitting Goddess BFL Superwash in Semi Solid Charcoal.
4. Nine to Five Socks by Nicole Hindes published in All Buttoned Up, knitted in The Knitting Goddess Merino/Bamboo in Ruby.

1. On Hold Socks by Wendy D Johnson published in Socks From the Toe-Up, knitted in The Knitting Goddess BFL Superwash in semi solid Turquoise.
2. Pulsations Socks by Amy King, published in Spunky Eclectic, knitted in Ba T'at Yarns Sock Yarn in Daffodil.
3. Quickie Socks by Susan Lawrence published in the Joy of Sox, knitted in Woolcraft Aran Knitting colour 811.
4. Rib Fantastic Socks by Barb Brown, published in Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, knitted in The Knitting Goddess merino superwash sock yarn in Indian Summer. 

I hope you can excuse the lack of links for all the details but it would have taken for-ev-er! I've provided as much info as I can. Some of the yarns are now discontinued and I've had them since 2008! 

Part two to follow where it will be all about shawls....

Til then, take care and feel free to Rabbit On.....

Escape to the Country...
We have come away to our favourite place....the Lake District. We couldn't have chosen better weather if we'd tried (not that you can chose it but you know what I mean).
Yesterday we went to visit my most favourite spot up there and indeed anywhere....the gorgeous Moss Eccles Tarn which is where I scattered Bunny. Previously owned by Beatrix Potter and now owned by the National Trust, I thought is an apt place for her to be.
The first photo is taken with my sunglasses over the lens for dramatic effect!

This is taken from the spot we always visit and dip a hand into the tarn to say hello to Bunny! Isn't is a gorgeous place?

This is taken to the left of the above shot, looking out towards the path up to Wise Een tarn. This part of Lakeland is so pretty...not many mountains around but pretty nonetheless. 

We are staying in the Langdale Hotel, in Elterwater in one of the Romantic Gothic rooms which is just my kind of colouring! We've stayed before and it is very nice and there is a great pub round the corner that sells you baskets of chips which are just what you need after a day fellwalking. 

Speaking of fells....one of the main reasons we visit the Lake District is to walk the Wainwrights. There are 214 of them and we are over halfway. One of the fells I've wanted to walk up for a long time is Crinkle Crags, but a broken foot, foot operation and bad weather have stalled us on this...so imagine my joy when today, in beautiful April sunshine, we managed to get up there. 

You can see Crinkle Crags in this picture taken from the valley below. 

It is quite a long walk through the valley before you start to climb, and climb, and climb! My poor legs didn't know what had hit them and my inhaler was handily store in my walking bag but was thankfully only used the once! 

After the first Crinkle, you descent to the bottom of the second Crinkle and one of the routes up is up and over the 'Bad Step'. There is an alternative route for those who don't want to scramble or can't quite make it up there. The photo doesn't really show how big the thing is, although if you look closely you can see two people at the top for scale. 

The way up is to the right of the fallen chock stones which block the gully, it's the part on the photo that looks like a vertical slab of rock....because that's essentially what it is, 10 foot tall. Compare to the daring rocks that seasoned climbers scale, this is nothing, but for the humble walker, it's a bit of a challenge!

We then moved over the Crinkles (five in total) and up onto Bowfell which is one that Hubby has wanted to do for a while and a name he seems to quote when looking at almost any fell in the area...at least now he knows where it is!

It was a please walk down back into the valley and as usual, our favourite sheep adorned the fields. Herwick sheep should be outlawed for being too cute...don't you agree?

This lovely 'mama' and her lamb posed well for us and seemed to be enjoying the sunshine, unlike these two who wanted the shade....bless....

And if you think the real thing is cute, just check out Herdy to see even cuter things. We'll be popping in tomorrow before returning home. 

So after a hard day's walking, I had a lovely bowl of homemade Leek and potato soup and a basket of chips, and then treated my self to a 20 minute manicure at the hotel spa....the first manicure I've had in my 37yrs! 

I hope you've enjoyed the pics...as ever, please feel free to Rabbit On....

G is for Guinevere...


I have managed to knit my 7th pair of socks this year. I've had this pattern for a while now and new I wanted to knit them as soon as I bought the magazine. (Yarn Forward # 15) I also knew that when the Goddess Diana yarn arrived through my letterbox in January 2010, that it was destined to be turned into a pair of these socks. 
Fast forward to April 2011 and I am mightily pleased with the yarn/pattern combo!

What do you think? And yes, those are my rather pale legs on show for once....I don't know what came over me....Here's a more pleasing shot....

The unusual construction of the sock made for a new challenge but they fit really well on the foot and I do like the i-cord cuff.

I am off out to Baa Ram Ewe tomorrow to learn how to become a hooker! I am soooooooooo excited...I am rubbish when it comes to crochet and as I have a lot of yarn, and as crochet uses a lot of it and can be quicker than knitting, then I thought I'd give it a go. I'll report back on how I've got on....

Till then...have a good weekend and feel free to Rabbit On....

Spring is in the Air....
I love this time of year, in the run up to Easter....everything starts to look pretty again and the sunshine isn't too hot, although the last few days have been the exception!
I love how the shops start trimming up for Easter which brings out a lot of lovely colourful window displays in lilacs, pale greens, pinks, blues and lemons, and bunnies, lambs, eggs and chicks appear in the shape of chocolate, ornaments and cuddly toys.
April is also the time to start titivating your garden before all the plants regrow, so I've had a busy weekend re-staining the arbour that we have at the end of the garden. All in all in took me 6½ hours over two days to get it done.
So, as I opened up my living room curtains this morning and looked out into my garden, it was lovely to see the sunshine and how the various plants and trees are starting to grow again. I thought I'd capture it in a photo, and then I thought beyond that and have decided to take a picture of it every month to see how it changes over the year.
This is what my garden looks like now....

The pots on the decking have some red onions in and have just started to poke through the soil. It will be the first time I've grown onions and I am interested to see how they turn out. 

We were very lucky to inherit this garden when we bought the house four years ago...we'd never have gotten it as nice as this if it had been left up to us! To be honest it was one of the things that made us by the house. 

The only addition we've made is to add a conservatory which is to the right of the picture and that houses our dining room, leaving me the old dining room as a second reception room. As it has French doors which open onto the decking it feels more like a sun room than a living room and is everyone's favourite room in the whole house. 

I picked up some treats for hubby and I when I went shopping this weekend......Hubby said 'I like these kinds of ornaments' as I've placed these pretties on the mantlepiece....wonder how long they will last...

It's an old jar that I had saved from a couple of Christmases ago when my friend bought me some pear drops and I had a little piece of ribbon in my odds and sods box that I thought went well with the colours of the eggs! Nom, Nom, Nom....

I hope you've all had a great weekend...until next time, please feel free to Rabbit On...

F is for Fair Isle....
I have finished my Fair Isle Socks...they took a little bit longer than I thought they would but I think some of that was down to the fact that I was busy at work during the two week period that the 'F' socks encompassed.

Do you like them? Aren't the colours just wonderful? The main colour is Knitting Goddess merino/bamboo in the March Birthstone Club colourway of Aquamarine and it it such a pretty colour...one I wouldn't have bought myself truth be told. That's the wonderful thing about sock yarn clubs, you get colours that are out of your comfort zone!
The contrast colour is Colinette Jitterbug in the Kingfisher colourway. Again, the colours are really pretty in real life. I loved this when I saw it in the skein at the i-knit weekender in London last year. The good thing is I have enough of this yarn left to make a pair of fingerless mitts so I'll get more lovely, prettiness out of it!


The pattern is Fair Isle Socks in the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits.
Such pretty colours would be perfect for Spring....but these socks are very thick! The sole feels padded almost, so they will be saved for very cold days when my tootsies need to be kept extra warm.


I have now cast on my G socks....they are called Guinevere and are a rather unusual design so I will keep you updated with those if I manage to finish them on time...this Saturday!


A quick update this time...more knitting to share soon, until then take care and feel free to Rabbit On...

Goodbye Winter....Hello Spring....

It's that wonderful time of year where we say goodbye to the last throes of Winter and start to welcome in Spring. I am particularly fond of this time of year as there are still cold days about, but they are sunshine filled and very good for the soul.....gone is the dreariness of dark, damp and dull evenings....

I love Winter Sun, much more than Summer sun. I prefer the blue skies of Winter to the blue skies of Summer and I prefer the cooler temperature....I'm afraid I wilt in the heat of the Summer.

This weekend the Hubby and I were owed a couple of days off from work so we took the chance to spend them together, which is quite a rarity these days due to our ridiculous working hours pattern....but I digress.

We decided to go out walking and made a short break out of our plans. 

We drove up to Runswick Bay, a place neither of us had been to before. We stayed in a hotel recommended by a colleague, Cliff Mount and we had a lovely view of the bay. 

We set off on our walk which took us along the Cleveland Way, on the coastal path, up to Staithes. We sat and had our lunch at Staithes harbour....not a lot there due to the time of year, but gorgeous never-the-less as you can see below.

We then left Staithes, whilst chomping on the first ice-cream of the year...a delectable combo of vanilla and ginger with black cherry....hmmmmmmmmmm

In total, we only did five miles, but they were a lovely five miles. Back to the hotel for a cup of mocha and a bit of knitting looking out over the bay.

Isn't it a lovely view? The food was gorgeous and all in all we had a great stay. 

We left Runswick the next morning and drove down the coast road to Fylingdales Moor where we embarked on another walk. There had been a lot of deforestation since the walk was written, so we did go a bit wrong and ended up walking 9½ miles instead of 7½ mile, but when you are surrounded by wonderful countryside, it doesn't really matter does it?!

On that day our coffee spot was at a the seat of a very old monument, the Lilla Cross. 

Lilla Cross at Fylingdales Moor, North Yorkshire.

We then took the road home via the North Yorkshire Moors and topped off a pleasant weekend's outing by popping into a McDonald's and revelling in the bliss that is McLatte! I'm lovin' it! 

Then onto today, when, as I was closing the back garden gate after the window cleaner had been....and no that isn't the beginning of a plot line for some novel about a torrid affair with a window cleaner....I noticed some lady birds on the newel post of our decking.

Then as I started to wander around with the camera, I noticed that we had a few more on one of our shrubs...

And then I saw some more on another of those shrubs at the other side of the path...

Aren't they wonderful creatures? I think they are so pretty. In total we had over 30 ladybirds in our garden today...due to have a lot more judging by the behaviour of some of them...Spring most definately is here.

I'm now sat in the garden, enjoying the last few hours of the sun, watching the rather large butterflies flitting about looking for somewhere to land and soak up the sun. I hope everyone else has their little piece of Springy sunshine to sit out in.....

Sending ♥ to everyone....please feel free to Rabbit On.....

E is for Escher....
I have finished my E socks, the fifth part of the UK Sock Knitters A-Z-a-long on Ravelry. When I started this challenge, I thought that I might knit a few pairs of the socks along the way...I didn't think that I'd manage to do the whole challenge of 26 pairs in the year.
So...I am rather pleased with my self and my little 2.25mm Knit Pro Symphonie circular needles for 'turning out' 5 pairs of socks by 13th March!


Without further ado, I present Escher Socks.

The pattern comes from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn and it is one of my favourite sock books. I think it is a really interesting read and I love the section where it explains how yarns pool and how you can change the way they do in fact pool. 

I already had the book when I purchased the yarn. It was a sock club yarn, a cashmere/merino/nylon mix by the Knitting Goddess in the colourway Speckled Egg. 

The socks only took 62g of yarn and they were a quite simple knit, however, I do have to admit that I began to suffer from a bit of boredom on the foot of the second sock. It seemed to take forever!

I've also been busy this month with knitting my 3rd shawl for the knit 11 shawls in 2011 challenge.

The yarn is yet another Knitting Goddess sock club yarn, this time merino/nylon in the Goddess Ops colourway. 

Ops is a fertility goddess and is very much linked to all things 'earthy' so I wanted that to reflect in the choice of  pattern. I therefore used a lace pattern from a shawl called Wheatsheaf Shawl from Issue 28 of the knitting magazine called Yarn Forward. It is a KAL media publication, but has recently changed it's name to Knit. 

This shawl unfortunately, is not staying with me. It is being gifted to my mum's cousin's wife as a present from my mum. I told her that I had yarn to use up and wanted to knit some shawls but that as I also had over 10 of my own, maybe I could do with knitting some up to give away. It's somewhat typical then, that the one I knit first, I actually want to keep! lol

I love the colours and am happy with how this worked out. 

My next installment of the mystery blanket has arrived so from the 15th onwards I'll be knitting on the next 5 squares. I'm still plugging away at a cushion cover for my mum for mother's day and I am really enjoying it. I am­ ¾ of the way up the front.

 I've also just cast on my 'F' socks, so once again this rabbit's needles are going to be smoking.

I hope all is well out there in blogland and send out my thoughts and wishes to anyone who has been affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan....

Until next time, take care and please feel free to Rabbit On.....

D is for Diamonds and Cables....
My D socks are done and at last I have some purple socks!!!! I adore purple and have lots of purpley things but not some handknitted socks....until now.

These are Diamonds and Cables by Wendy D Johnson and are from the rather lovely Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits.
This book has a number of patterns in it that I want to knit and although this pattern didn't immediately scream out at me, when I got the yarn, I knew they were meant for each other.
The yarn in my Knitting Goddess Birthstone sockclub yarn in the colourway Amethyst in the merino/bamboo mix.
I am really pleased that I am keeping up with this knit-a-long as I didn't think I'd be able to...26 pairs of socks in a year is a big challenge!
I have now cast on my E socks in a lovely cashmere mix yarn and will post my HD when they are done, hopefully in another week or so.
I have also cast on a shawl for my mum's cousin's wife...it is a mixture of two shawls and again I'll update when I finish it which will be in a few days if all goes to plan.

I had a rather lovely day out in Ilkley on Monday. I took a Knit up your Stash course at the rather wonderful Create This is one of my favourite yarn shops. The staff are soooooooooo nice and helpful and very friendly, it's just such as shame that it's a 90 mile round trip for me or I would be in there more often!
The course was run by the equally fab Debbie Abrahams. To be honest, I didn't really need to go....despite having a rather large stash, it isn't made up of odd balls of yarn, it is made up of garment quantities or of sock yarns. However, I love attending Debbie's classes and I did have left overs from my mystery blanket from last year and wanted to use them for a cushion cover. I could have done this at home without any help, but by going to the course it made me start it and because I keep feeling a bit run down lately, it was just great to have an easy day out spent knitting with a group of nice people in a lovely setting....'nuff said.
I have booked to go on another course in July, one that involves knitting a little beaded project, again something I don't need as I can use beads in knitting quite easily, but it will be another great day out for me and as it's in Ilkley, I can visit the shop at Betty's again!

I bought some lovely Sublime Soya cotton yarn in some neutral colours and will knit mum a cushion cover for Mother's Day, so I had a little s.e.x too.....bonus.....

I've just come back from an hour's walk in the late evening Winter sun....it is quite cool out there but I love walking in weather like that as you get that wonderful 'rosy cheeks' glow....

I hope everyone had a great weekend and managed some knitting/stitching or both, take care and feel free to Rabbit On....

C is for Cable Rib Socks...
Well I can hardly believe it, but I have managed to finish my third pair of socks this year. I am keeping up with the Alphabetalong on Ravely and I am really enjoying it. Not only have I managed to used up three skeins of yarn, but I've also got three rather natty pairs of socks!

They are called Cable Rib Socks and are by Erica Alexander and can be found in either 

Interweave KnitsSpring 2005  or indeed from where I got them pattern, Favorite Socks, which is also published by Interweave Knits.

The yarn is Solemate by Violet Green in the colourway, Blueberry and Lime. I knew this yarn would need a fairly simple pattern and I think it has turned out well with the simple rib and cables. I really like them even though they are a bit 'funky' looking. 

I knit most of them whilst I was on holiday in the Lake District last week...amazing how much time I had since I didn't have a mobile phone signal, nor broadband!

I also managed to start the shawl I mentioned in a previous post, but then realised I had gone wrong so had to start again. It is however, a very quick knit (if you don't get confused by the i-cord edging like I did) and once I'd realised my mistake, I steamed ahead with it and it is now being blocked. I'll post a pic when it's finished blocking.

This will be my second shawl of the year...and another skein of yarn used...which makes up room for the five I just bought! Naughty, Naughty...

I've now cracking on with my February Squares for my mystery blanket and my D socks...more info on both when I finish them...

Until then feel free to Rabbit On....

B is for Bacchus...
I have finished my socks for the letter B in the Alphabet-a-long. They are a pattern called Bacchus by Alice Bell and were published in the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Knits
They are the main reason that I bought that issue. They should have bobbles all down the foot but as I don't wear open shoes a lot, I couldn't see the point in knitting bobbles only to cover them up and squash them.
The yarn is blue faced leicester from The Knitting Goddess in the colour plum. I knew when I bought this yarn that it was meant for a pair of Bacchus socks!

I love the ribbing on these socks...they make for a nice, snug fit on the foot.

I can now set about winding my yarn for my 'C' socks which will be a very bright contrast to the ones above!.

I am also going to wind of the yarn for my next shawl It is called Katika  (Ravelry link I'm afraid as the designer does not have a website) and the yarn I am going to use is a silk/merino blend called Log Fire and was my November 2010 sock club yarn from the Knitting Goddess. It is blues, green and yellows like the colours in the tip of a flame on a fire. 

So...I am off a-winding....feel free to Rabbit On...