I'm supposed to be knitting a sweater. Does this look like a sweater to you? Does it look like something that would fit on the torso of an adult human female? No!
I have these two skeins of Wollmeise Pure that go beautifully together (these two here, in fact, in colour ways Poem and Jewitta über Berlin to be exact)

I wanted a lightweight sweater that could use these two skeins so I decided to make another Elphaba as I know my size uses this quantity of yarn and I love the one I have and wear it a lot. So far I have the shoulder area and have just joined front and back under the arms.

I'm also supposed to be knitting a lace shawl. That would be this one.
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I'm about 420 yards into this one so far. It's going to be huge and beautiful but it doesn't really lend itself to being taken out and about for knitting on-the-go. (That said, I did take it to lunch with knitting friends on Saturday but only managed three rounds in as many hours!)

For the last week I have been resisting the urge to cast on the socks which have been running round my head saying "design us, design us"! Today I could resist no longer. I had the yarn wound already (Valley Huntington, which was wound for a previous project which was never started) so really it would have been rude and disrespectful to the yarn to not just cast on today and start knitting.
I have no doubt that the socks will be completed long before either the sweater or the shawl!!

As of last week, as well as Ravelry and Loveknitting, my patterns are now also available through Patternfish.com. There are nine on there so far and I'm in the process of loading up more. If you click the photo you'll be taken to my patterns, but there are thousands more there to choose from as well.

What are you doing on July 16th? Or July 17th for that matter? If you're in the UK and you like knitting, crochet, spinning or any other fibre craft you ought to be in Birmingham at a new yarn festival, Yarningham!
The two day festival features a marketplace for independent dyers and producers from all over the UK, and four workshops. If you'd like to try your hand at drop spindling, learn to steek, learn how to make socks, or spread your crochet wings with amigurumi, come along to Stirchley baths in Bournville. Workshop tickets are available online from the Stitches and Hos website here.
​Day tickets to Yarningham itself are £5 in advance or £7 on the door and can be booked, again through the Stitches and Hos website here

I'll be there! I'm looking forward to shopping. I'm especially looking forward to checking out the offerings from Fab Funky Fibres, Mothy and the Squid, Hand Dyed by Kate, and Owl About Yarn.
But mostly I'm looking forward to teaching the sock workshop.

Back in March I was contacted by Helen from Stitches and Hos, a group of knitting, crochet and fibre-things enthusiasts from Birmingham, about a new yarn show they were putting together. She asked if I would be interested in teaching a sock workshop at the show. I have to admit I was more than a little surprised. I've knitted more socks than I would care to think about, and I've designed a fair few too (eight pairs published, plus the kid-sized ones on my blog, with another three pairs in the pipeline) but I'd never thought about teaching other people to do it.
It didn't take long for Helen to encourage me to take up her offer (with a bit of cheerleading from my husband as well, who clearly thinks positively about my teaching and knitting skills - to his credit) and I agreed to take the workshop. I had several days after that of waking up thinking "What on earth have I done?!" before that started to turn into "Yay! A sock class! I can do this!" and since then I've become quite excited about the whole experience.

Prep is still going on behind the scenes, but the workshop is taking shape. Attendees (who can already knit but just haven't been brave enough to jump into the wonderful world of socks yet!) will learn about the construction of a sock by making a mini sock over the course of the workshop. They'll be taken through a "proper" sock pattern, just scaled down. All the techniques will be the same as one would use to construct a full-size adult sock, casting on, working the leg, making a heel flap and turning the heel, decreasing through the gusset to the foot, and then shaping and closing the toe, just in miniature. And at the end, they'll have not only their mini sock but also a pattern for an adult sock to take home to practise what they've learned to make socks for themselves.

Looking at the list of exhibitors present, there's going to be plenty of sock yarn on offer to choose from too! I have no doubt some of it is going to be coming home with me. All I have to do after that is design some more socks for it all!

It's only three more days until the start of my first Knit-Along. It's fun to help knitters pick out which yarn they're going to use and I'm really looking forward to seeing all the projects in all the different colours.
I'm also offering a few small prizes for this Knit-Along. The prizewinners will be drawn by random number generator from all the finished projects posted by the end of the KAL on June 18th.

​First prize will be this set of six stitch markers, made by me, with rings to fit knitting needles up to 4.5mm (US 7), and a coupon code for any single self-published pattern from my Ravelry shop.

Second prize will be this set of four stitch markers, also made by me, with rings to fit knitting needles up to 4.5mm (US 7), and a coupon code for any single self-published pattern from my Ravelry shop.

And then there will be three further prizes, each of a coupon code for a single pattern of your choice from the self-published patterns in my Ravelry shop.

All the coupon codes will be valid until the end of 2016 so you can choose one of my current patterns or wait to see if anything catches your eye in the months to follow.

Why not come on over to the KAL and join in?!

To mark the launch of this, my 50th, pattern, I'm running a Knit-Along (or KAL) in my Ravelry group. All Raindrops Reach the Ocean is a half-hexagon lace weight shawlette worked top down. It starts with a fall of rain which works its way down to the waves of the sea, through a border of splashes and on to a scalloped edging. 
The KAL starts on May 14th but the pattern can be bought on pre-sale now for a special introductory price. The info page is available for immediate download and the full pattern will be updated on May 13th, ready to start on the 14th.
In the meantime, choose some yarn, get swatching, and come on over to my Ravelry group KAL thread and join the fun!

I have my first set of business cards! They're from Moo.com and they are their mini cards which I think are really sweet. They're the same width as a standard business card but only half the height. What I really love about them though is that you can pick different images for the photo side of the card. I got a pack of 100 cards and have 2 each of 50 different images but you can have up to 100 different images. I had some fun picking out photos and cropping them to the right shape and size. A letterbox shape isn't the shape I'm thinking of when I'm taking photos for use on patterns or on Ravelry but it was a great way to be creative with my pictures to crop them this way.
Now I can't wait to take them to my first yarn show as a professional instead of a visitor this summer. 

Wait? What? Working at a yarn show? Yes!! That's a story for another post, coming soon, watch this space.....