Happy News and Some Knitting News Too

 A couple of weeks ago my daughter and her boyfriend announced their engagement.  I am so happy as they make a wonderful couple.  So we've been busy organising the engagement party and discussing wedding plans.  

And amidst all this going on she flew off today to the US for her work for seven days.   But yesterday we went wedding dress shopping for Amy and also her friend Katie.  My mum came too and another friend of Amy and Katie's met us there.  Katie is getting married October this year.  Sadly her mum is very ill so she could not be there with Katie.  It was great as both Amy and Katie ended up choosing a design they liked and look absolutely beautiful in. It was a very happy and emotional time for everyone.  I can't believe that the time has come for my daughter to get married.   Where has the time gone I do not know?

And for some knitting  my Rosemarkie  is coming along  although I did make an error and had to frog the ribbing and start again. I've done one repeat of the pattern so far I will post a picture of that another time.  It's been a long time since I've knitted Fair Isle and I've forgotten how much I enjoy it.    I did do a swatch  I've been doing swatches lately because I figured one day I will make a throw out of them all.  Just as well I did a swatch as my gauge was out and I had to go up a needle size

I have also finished the little Provence cardigan for Indigo and I will give it to Jane at Amy's engagement party.  

It's autumn  here in Victoria and we've been having some beautiful sunny days.  And autumn also means figs and in our garden we the most beautiful little fig tree that is full with figs.  So today before we went to my parents for lunch I picked some for them as Mum loves figs. 
The figs are a really a nice size this year and very tasty.  I can't believe the shops are selling them for $20 a kg.  I wish I knew how to dry them as I love them dry more then fresh.  But the fresh ones look great in a bowl and I couldn't help but think how wonderful the colours of a fig would look in a skein of wool.

And of course some lovely yarn goodness I bought these two lovely skeins from The Frearless Knitter to make the Sockstravanza sock by Kristen Kapur that I fell in love with from a book called Brave New Knits that I recently purchased .  I love the colour combo so I decided to knit it in exactly the same colourway. 

And that is it from me for this post. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and got lots of knitting done!

Parcels

I had a very busy weekend for a change I had friends and my brother and his wife for dinner on Saturday night.  It was just a last minute thing I planned and it worked out really well we all had a wonderful time.  I made rib eye roast as that is one of my most favourite things and I can only have roast when I have visitors as I can't just make roast for myself.  Roast to me is a meal that needs to be shared  plus you can't just make a small amount.  We had pumpkin, potato, broccoli and carrots and for sweets we had Connoisseurs Vanilla ice cream with blueberries,strawberries and raspberries marinated in Cointreau a very simple but very tasty meal. 

Then today (Sunday) I had my parents and my daughter and her partner for lunch we had chicken schnitzel with rise and pickled cucumber and ice cream and berries for desert.  We take turns having Sunday lunch between my daughter and my mum.  I love having family Sunday lunches because it reminds me of the  Sunday lunches we had at my paternal Grandparent's place when I was a little girl with my cousins and aunties and uncles and how much I use to enjoy them. 

The kitten is growing nicely he is so cute. But Bengals I find are not as cuddly or as affectionate as other cats or dogs.  Here is a picture of him semi sitting on my son's lap and Bing all sitting on the couch.

Our poor old Siamese boy is not very happy to have a new kitten in the house mostly because the kitten wants  to play with him so continually chases and pounces on the old boy.  And as for our dog well he doesn't mind having the kitten around as long as he gets as much attention as the cats he doesn't care and of course we try to give them all equal amounts of attention.... I just wish they would allow me to sleep in occasionally....she SIGHS...                      

 A couple of parcels arrived for me last week.  One was the long awaited Victorian writers club from Woolgirl  the Sherlock Holmes theme

Woolgirl Victorian Writers Club

details as per below:
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Dyer: Zen Yarn Garden
Designer: Anne Hanson
Project: Socks
Very gorgeous colour sock yarn very tempted to get more and knit a jumper but I am going to be good.  

The other is yarn I bought from Virtual Yarns for the Rosemarkie KAL I will be doing with the Mara Class Yahoo group and boy I will need all the help I can get as I've never  done any steeking before.  And I thought while I was getting yarn for Rosemarkie I may as well get the yarn for Eala Bhan the colour is Wild Orchid which is a gorgeous purple but it has speckles of other colour in it, very pretty.   

Rosemarkie yarn on the left and Eala Bhan on the right

That's it from for for this week.  Stay safe and well and happy knitting to all !!!!!

A hot day!

Unfotrunately as it's been hot over the past couple of days not much knitting has been done.
As you can see on the photo even our kitten is feeling the heat.
Nor have I've really been in the mood to knit which is most unlike me.  I hope I haven't lost my knitting mojo.  I have always enjoyed knitting and it has always helped me relax and so it's definitely something that I don't want to loose if I can help it. 

I did receive some lovely Wollmeise yarns that I bought on the 14th January. And apart from some lace weight that's to come I am on a strict yarn diet until I use up a lot of my stash as I feel that it has gone out of control. 
I signed up for a yarn club last year which will be the only new yarns that I will be getting.
So what arrived last Friday is twin in Spice Market medium.  Not sure what this one will be it's not enough for a cardigan so it will need to be a shawl.

And Im Jafhr de Ratt this one is for my Austin Hoodie the colour looks more blue then gray in this photo but it is more grey and brown then blue.

And that's it for today.


My holidays are over and I am back at work tomorrow.


Happy Knitting Everyone!!!

A New Addition

 Meet Zeus the Bengal kitten I bougt for my DS for Christmas.  And my oh my it's been a very long time since we've had a kitten and I have forgotten how naughty they can be and I think that perhaps this breed is naughtier then most.  But he is very adorable and my DS loves him even though it chewed up not one and not two but three of his XBox head sets and one normal set of headphones.  He is a very clever little thing too because he seems to know that he blongs to my son because he sleeps with him and his is the only lap Zeus sits on.  Our Siamese boy has adjusted very well to the new addition and so has our dog.

 And now to knitting matters I have decided to join a KAL on Ravelry for the 3/4 Hap shawl by Veera and chose to use Kaalund 2ply using two strands together to make fingering weight which is what this pattern calls for.  Hopefully it will work out well.  It was really difficult to decide on which yarn and colour to choose and hopefully the green has enough of the yellow/orange in it so that the two colours compliment each other.

My other project I want to knit is Shawl Collared Cowl by Never Not Knitting and using the above yarn by DIC the only problem I have is I can't find the right buttons for it so I plan to go to a special button shop we have in East Malvern and see if they have any but I must not forget to take the yarn with me so that I can match it up properly.  I always, always forget to take the yarn!!!

I have also decided to participate in a Test Knit which I've never done before so I am quiet excited about that.  The only thing I can say about it at the momement is that I am using Malabrigo worsted yarn.  Of course the weather is warming up over the next couple of days so I don't think I will be working in it for a few days.  Which is not a bad thing as Laar is still on the needles and I haven't worked on it for a couple of days and so is the Shale Baby Blanket by Jared Flood and I am close to finishing the blanket so it's good as it's been a while since I've had a finished project.  Sloan and Sack Boy were the two I FO's in December 
Well that's it from me after such a long dry spell of not blogging please excuse me if there are errors but it's very late here and I am extremely tired.

I am really going to try very hard to blog on a regular basis.

Happy Knitting Everyone!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!