Thanks for all the nice comments about the tank. Right now, I'm sitting at work wearing the tank and the Balmoral cardigan I finished the other week. They do go very nicely together.
The tank was made from an amalgam of patterns. It started off being a short sleeve sweater from Vogue Spring/Summer 1998 isuue (a Joan Vass pattern). I decided not to do the ribbing at the botton and just go straight into the cable pattern. I've knitted this top previously and didn't want it to look the same. I only had 300g of the yarn (I could have sworn I had bought 4 cones but I could only find 3 in the cupboard) so when the first cone ran out I realised that the sleeves would have to go. The armhole decreases I swipe from Alison's Rosebud pattern from the Knitty. I did a couple of more decreases on the armhole that is in Alison's pattern as I was planning to do a deep rib edging around the armholes. Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn so the armholes are unfinished but they look fine unfinished. I'm going to be using Alison's armhole shaping in all my tanks from now on. The yarn used was Texere's Vision ribbon which is 100% viscose and very slippery. The shade is Dusky Lilac. I'm thinking about knitting a shrug to go with this tank maybe after I've finished Tricot.
The Tricot knitalong is starting on Saturday and I'm being very good and will not start swatching until then. Meanwhile, last night I started a pair of socks. I have only knitted 2.5 pairs of socks before - one pair top down and 1.5 pairs of mousetrap socks. I'm using Regia Crazy Color - Nordic and am just following the pattern that came with the yarn. I'm an extremely awkward knitter when it comes to double pointed needles.

Hot off the needles:

do you like the two-tone arm? Guess who forgot the sun lotion on Sunday - and yes it's still sore to touch, ouch...

I seem to have deleted my template by mistake last night. I'm going to have to start from scratch again :-(

Here's what I took out of the European GSRP box:

That's 400g of red guernsey wool, 50g of moss green Jamieson 4ply (all put in by Gill) and two 50g balls of sock yarn (put in by Emma).

I didn't take a photo of what I put in as I think it'll spoil the surprise of what's in there. But I'll list what I put in: 500g cone of Texere autumn cotton (I used just under 500g to knit Grace), 3 hanks of Rowan 4ply botany, 2 balls of Patons Linen Look and a ball of Wendy'd Como ribbon yarn. I'm looking forward to round 2.

On the knitting front I am very close to finishing a tank. Just the neckband and the armhole edging to go.

I've been in a really uncommunicative mood this week. All due to a heavy workload for the past 3 weeks and all projects had a tight deadline. So I was feeling stressed.
The European GSRP box is being sent this a.m. It's next destination is Space Craft in Wales.

I always look forward to the end of the working day when I can leave the office. Today, I have an extra incentive to leave on time. This morning I picked up from the Post Office the European GSRP box. It's sitting out in the car and if you listen very carefully you can hear it calling me.

Well spotted Becky, it is whip stitch around the edging. I used Colinette Wigwam cotton tape in a dark purple colourway. Kerrie very kindly sent me some samples of colinette yarn awhile back to try out so the wigwam yarn has now been put to some good use. I know I should really be putting some links in but after the day I've had I can't be bothered with the hassle. It was whiteout conditions at 2,000ft today and I now know what it feels like to be sandblasted in the face for 2 hours by driving snow and hail - are you sure this is April?

It feels like forever since I lasted finished something. Tonight, I finished Balmoral:


The colour is quite close considering I'm wearing a jade green vest bet you thought that was lilac as well!!
Balmoral is taken from Dale Book 115 and has been knitted in Texere Misty Cotton ribbon in lavender.

I've decided to go with the contrast detail on the edging:

Here's a question I've been pondering for a while:

"Why is Rowan yarns raved about yet Jaeger yarns aren't?".

Same company, same mill and probably the same source material.

I'm very close to finishing the Balmoral cardigan. All I have left to do is the edging along the front which is only 3 rows deep but probably involves picking up a bazillion stitches and then the braid for the waist. I've also got to decide on what colour to do the edging and the braid in - I either leave it as self-coloured or use a contrasting ribbon. I guess I could try both ways and see what I prefer.

Look at this week's stash enhancement:

On the left is some Regia Crazy Color in the Nordic colourway and on the right is the Paton Washed Haze which looks an ideal substitute for All Season's Cotton.
Is anyone intersted in doing a Tricot-A-Long? I know there's alot of knit-alongs out there in blogland so how about a 1st of May start?



If you're interested let me know Eitehr leave a comment or email me at:
lindaDOTmckie@zoomDOTcoDOTuk

Yeah, got my computer back yesterday. By the time I got it all set up it was too dark to take a photo of the completed back of the tank that I'm knitting. It was going to be a short-sleeved top but it's using up more yarn than I expected so the sleeves have gone. Let's hope I still have enough to do a high-ribbed neck.
Ain't got much to say today so I'll leave you with a listing of the contents of the parcel I got from Amazon this morning (Mr Postie was hammering on the door before 7am this morning to deliver it!!):

OS Landranger Map 044 - I can spend hours studying maps and working out possible routes
Black Narcissus - Rumer Godden
The Eyre Affair - Jason Fforde
Chocolat (DVD)
Papillon (DVD) - one of my all time favourite movies
Il Veuve De Saint-Pierre (DVD)

All the DVDs had a good discount on them (I refuse to spend more than £10 on a DVD) so it wasn't as expensive a shop as it looks.

I never realised how much I use the computer at the weekend until the modem frazzled on Saturday morning and I had to take it in to be repaired. I'm also taking the opportunity to get a CD-RW drive installed so at least some good will come out of it needing to be repaired. Until I get my pc back I'll be posting from work so that means no photos for a little while.
Let's hope work isn't too busy today and I can catch up on my surfing, write the emails that I had planned to do over the weekend and then there's the shopping to catch up on - specifically the yarn shopping. I had decided on Friday evening that the next project I'll start is Tricot from MagKnits. I'm not a big fan of All Seasons Cotton - it's lovely to knit with but I find quite alot of dye comes out on the first couple of washes especially if you are using one of the darker colours. Instead I'm going to try Patons Washed Haze which is newly launched this year and is 60% cotton, 40% acrylic and should knit to the same gauge as the pattern. The colours I'm choosing are Reef for the main colour and Misty Blue for the contrast colour under the arms.

So many patterns, so little time

The latest Knitty is the best so far. Now I've got another 4 patterns to add to my pile. If I'd known that a new issue was being published today I wouldn't have started a new short-sleeved top last night:

This makes 3 active projects so I can't really add to the pile. I think I'll wait another week and then look through the patterns again and see if I have anything in my stash that'll knit any of them. Rosebud is my favourite - I love the neckline. Doesn't Alison look all feminine and romantic? Catch her sporty look in MagKnits - that's another pattern I've got to knit