Bristol

I headed up with the girls to Bristol, to visit my brother, his partner and my nephew (only 4 months old).
Everytime we visit i am always impressed with how much walking the girls do, without complaining, because there is so much for them to see and be absorbed in.
This holiday was no exception. All around the city they have large statues of Shaun the Sheep, and we walked around searching for them.

My favourite was the wool, crochet and knitted sheep; especially after I had just brought some Regia sock yarn from sew and sew around the corner.

Knitting

I immediately cast on the blue regia for DD#1 60 stitch cast on cuff down, 2.5mm Addi circulars. UPDATE; for sock #2 I changed to my 2.5mm Karbonz

But I also frogged the Zigzagular socks so that I can cast on a follow as the pattern states, cuff down rather than toe up.

Axx

Portsmouth

My hometown and what a busy place to be in this last week.
We were taken over by the America's Cup, a sailing competition, over the weekend.
The weather was not particularly good for the whole weekend, but we enjoyed sitting on a rather quiet section of the beach on Saturday to watch the race. The girls enjoyed the beach time and built sandcastles.

Then in the evening, amazingly, I was invited to the evening concert with McBUsted, Wet,Wet,Wet and Spandau Ballet performing. I loved Wet,Wet,Wet, or I could rephrase that...i knew all the words to their songs (hehehe)!!

Axx

Dorset Holiday

We went on a very relaxing holiday to Dorset. We headed to a glamping site called Bloomfield Camping. We found it on the coolcamping website.
What a wonderful surprise! With only 4 tents set up each with their own kitchen shed, fire pit , table and chairs. Fantastic views all around of Hambledon Hill.

We had a very relaxing week away. i got time to knit, read , walk and take in some beautiful views. It was a place for quality family time.

Knitting

As I said I had time to knit.

I cast on casual cardigan from Knit, Wear, Love by Amy Herzog

I'm working on size 34 in DROPS Lima in a rust colour on 4.5mm straight knitpro Symphonies

While I was away I finished:

Ocean Bubble  in DROPS baby silk alpaca in grey and red. Wow, such a soft and smooshie yarn.

Axx

Video podcasts

So, as I had said I would add a list to the video podcasts I watch.
To be honest I do watch these when I am at the gym, on the bike! or I watch them while I have a quiet moment and can knit too.
I like the way you feel as though someone is there talking with you while you are either peddling on a bike or knitting away, kind of comforting.

Here's my list (so far...)
In no particular order, I'm just typing up my subscribe to list, all these can be found on youtube, I have tried to link to websites too.

Geeky girls knit

Yarmgasm podcast

junkyarn

The Canadian Knitter Podcast

A Homespun house

Minerva Turkey Knits

YarnderWoman

thestashbuckler

Knitting Expat Podcast

little bobbins knits

Teahouseknits Podcast

Dianne Brown

Manda rine's

a wee bit knitty...

Fairy Little

Elizabeth Green Musselman

in a sKnit

Stitched in Sweden

Sara Wright

Fuzzy Love Knots

Peggy May

SusanBAnderson

fatsquirrelfibres

and to help me with fiddly knitting techniques..  VeryPink Knits,iknitwithcatfur

And I must mention all this started with knitmoregirls podcast, which i love and got me into watching the podcasts. I listen to Yasmin and GiGi in the car, I now need a longer car journey.

Here is also a list of vendors at iKnitFandango

Happy watching, and let me know of any other great podcasts I can start watching or listening to.

Alice xx

IKnitFandango

At the station, Ready for a two hour journey, knitting in my bag!

Thank you for my free bag, Gerard, it made my day.

Look at all my goodies, I could have brought more, thankfully I had a budget.

Last minute, I went up to London to iKnitFandango. I procrastinated for a while before hand, and I had mentioned it to mummy, but there were kid activities going on so I thought I shouldn't go. Thankfully, my mummy sent me a text on Friday asking if I wanted to go, and I am so glad I did.

After a successful trip to London for my mum with a chance meeting with Stephen West of westknits, she wanted to meet with other knitting gurus. I'm rather jealous as she has tickets to hear Kaffe Fasset speak on Thursday too. I suppose it is one of those things we can look forward to when we get to give up the day job.

So, back to iKnit. It was organised by the owner of iKnit London. And he had chosen a beautiful venue, the royal horticultural halls, they were beautiful light and airy. The WI were there running the cafe, it was lovely to have fresh sandwiches and delicious cake, encouraging us to stay a little longer.

In the hall were lots of different yarn related stalls. I was so busy chatting with stall holders and my mum, that I completely forgot to take photos! So I will try to create links to etsy, websites, or other links with the stalls I looked at. 

My main aim was to get to spincityUK, Voolenvine talks about her drop spindles and I knew I had to get one. With my birthday just around the corner, my mummy kindly brought it for me. I just hope there are some special fibres to work with wrapped for later. There were a few fibre stalls, but I was just a bit over whelmed by it all, so next yarn show I think I'll be on it.

To be honest, the best part was looking at all the indie dyers, what amazing colours, in the wonderful natural light. I came away with amazing colours, and so did my mum! So some more projects to come...

The best part of the day, 2 train journeys of two hours each way knitting time! 

I've completed the wurm.

And put a dent into my Sweden spring shawl too. I think I need to get some more stitch markers to be able to see my progress.

All these ideas I'm getting from a variety of podcasts, I will add a list to all the different ones I'm enjoying at the moment.

Thank you to all the podcasts and instagramknitters that I follow. As I would not have known about iKnit and had such a lovely day with my mummy (and my daddy came too, he enjoyed looking at the different finished projects).

Thank you iKnit for organising such an event. 

Now, I need to join a local yarn group, just got to find the energy after work and the courage to just go for it!

Alice xx

update to add: I will create a new entry to give a list of video podcasts and links.

Blogging in the evening

 I thought I would try and add some pictures of the knitting I'm attempting

The yarn here I brought from Hobbycraft, I was desperate to cast on a shawl and chose stitched in Sweden 's Sweden Spring Shawl and I hope to include it in her KAL.

I love the idea of the knitting online community, but I struggle with been consistent and regular with even just watching podcasts let alone commenting on ravelry group chats.

Here is a wurm hat, another ravelry pattern. This was been worked on at my gym after I had taken the littlest swimming. She wore me out, especially as I had already run a rounders session for school sport!

Now I would love to add an inspirational quote.... Maybe I will add his later

Axx

Wicked Wooly Washing again but with the ending

I know that washing isn't really exciting but, I remembered the kids foam squares and had to try it out. This post is a little shakes because I am using my iPad rather than the laptop and I can't see what I am writing. The iPad does however let me post pictures. I'm not sure which is better?

I have added the blogger app to my iPad, Here's hoping to better blogging. I am clearly a newb here and it will hopefully continue even when the summer term begins!

Edited to add.

' The hours absorbed in beauty are the only hours we live' Richard Jeffries