The (almost) pictureless post!

Reasons to feel bad:
1: Although I finished knitting the little hat that goes with the baby set I was doing, I haven't actually made the pompom for it yet(i got distracted, see below!), so haven't photographed it :(
2: I started a new project from a pattern in the Chevy collection, but for the love of god can i find a single picture of it that i can put here? I can't even find the pattern for sale!

If anyone wants to hunt it down it's pattern 1295, and it contains a pattern for a christening shawl and a cot blanket. I've admired this shawl pattern for a while now, I found it whilst going through some old patterns i was kindly given. It's knit in plain dk yarn, but the yarn-overs and decreases give it a lovely lacey feel, and although I'm actually using pure acryllic it's actually turning out very soft and light too. The shawl itself is knit in 16 triangles (pictured left) with a border knitted seperately, which means there are a very manageable number of stitches on the needles at any one time. I'm really quite proud of myself for even attempting this shawl as a lot of people have commented on how difficult it looks, and I'm half way through my 2nd triangle already! The triangles fit together to make 4 squares, and the petal shape at the bottom forms a little flower in the middle. Can't wait to get this done! Before I get asked, no it's not for me! My best friend's sister is having a baby which is due early march of 2009, so it won't be an impossible task of finishing before then, but i get an awful feeling I'll be swearing at the monotony of the last few triangles!

I'm still searching for a nice summery top to knit out of about 500g of Sirdar Denim Tweed DK that I have under my bed. I bought this as a discontinued pack at an online discount yarn shop that I really like, with the intention of making long fingerless gloves/arm warmers out of them, and then maybe making something else with the remainder of the yarn. I sort of had a disagreement with my double-pointed needles, and the project suddenly was a no-go. I'm half tempted to knit something of my own design after spending an infinity searching ravelry for any free jumper patterns, and searching books and leaflets to no avail. One of the problems with this is that i don't even get past the swatching stage: I cast on, knit half a row, get bored and knit more of my shawl! I think it's probably a project I need my full attention for as I'll need to do some serious maths and design work!

As promised I found the dates and address of the open day I'll be going to at the end of the month. As far as I'm aware, the day is hosted by http://www.bluefaced.com with guests including The Natural Dye Studio and FiberSpates. (Please don't hold me responsible if you spend an entire day perusing their websites, unable to tear your eyes away from their AMAZING yarns!) The dates are the 27th and 28th of September 2008, the venue. near Chester, is:
The Croft Stables
Station Lane
Great Barrow
CH3 7JN

I also wanted to spend a minute telling you about the online discount yarn shop i use, http://www.knitone.co.uk/ AKA Diane's Knitting Yarns. I wanted to give them a mention because so far, I've only ever bought online yarn from them and I've never regretted it! I have usually received my yarn about 2-3 days after placing my order, which is usually about half the price of what i would pay anywhere else. The other nice thing is that they often have yarn oddments of discontinued yarns, which is great if you've run out of a certain type of yarn, or you only need one or two balls of something. They do cheap needles and buttons and other bits and peices and get new stock regularly, so it's worth keeping an eye on. I really suggest checking them out, afterall, the cheaper the yarn, the more you can buy, right?