I had a nice long break from work over Christmas and planned to catch up on all the projects I have yet to blog…and catch up a whole list of other thing!

Instead, I have spent most of my time either in bed or semi conscious on the sofa under a blanket sniveling and coughing, trying to get rid of a horrible cold flu virus. Every time I thought I felt better – it came back worse the next day 🙁 From the sounds of things – everybody seems to have had this cold in the last few weeks – my sympathies to all of you still with red noses and a tickley cough.

But what has been going on with my knitting in all this time?

**thinks back to November **

Well, there were the catnip whales for Kitty and Ziggy – the same pattern I used for the string whales I blogged here –>>Distracted by Cat Toys but in pretty shades of scraps of Rowan Handknit Cotton and stuffed with strips of old T-Shirt (because the girls chew the polyester stuffing and I’m scared it will choke them).

Very “Kickable”, says Kitty

Then there was Lorelle – a lovely sweater from Purl Alpaca – I’ve not pressed and photographed that one yet – another blog post I think… 😉

Oh Yes, after another sweater – I was itching to make crazy socks…. but first I had to fix Ben’s Crazy Hippy Hexasocks ***Warning – Horror picture ahead***

The washing machine was not kind to them 🙁 🙁

Holey Socks, Batman!

This was one of half a dozen hexagons on the first sock I knit where I wasn’t diligent enough when finishing off the center of the Hexagon. I had realized by the second sock that it needed to be stronger but I had a couple of hours reknitting and being creative with a darning needle to fix these. After the second wash they are holding up better 🙂

So what are the new crazy socks I have moved onto? They are from the same book as the Hexasocks,  Knit Outside the Sox.

This book…

This time these are for me, Pink, Purple and Orange Entrelac socks! The are the Lonely Socks Club: Entrelac Sock here on Ravelry –>>Lonely Socks Club: Entrelac sock

This is the pattern piccy..

Wanna see?

This was the start…

Getting started…

Around the heel and onto the foot!

Yum!

Ihaven’t found these too daunting as I have done Entrelac before, A Long Time Ago, in decade far, far away (Yes I’ managed to get to see Star Wars)… It was 1980’s knitting in Mohair!!

I made this beauty in Chocolate brown, pale pink, cream and coffee…

So 80’s it hurts! Look at that hair!

I LOVED this jumper! Thinking about it …  could this be the true origin of my Rowan KidSilk Haze addiction?

Lastly, I need to tell you about my current project, the lovely Travelling Cable Hat from Purl Soho in New York in their Pure Alpaca yarn Here on Ravelry –>> Travelling Cable Hat

This is the pattern piccy…

Pretty!

So how did I  get lovely yarn which is exclusive to a New York yarn shop? Oh! That must be he trip Ben and I took to New York to celebrate his birthday, a week before Christmas! 😀

We went lots of geeky places that Ben wanted to go (it was HIS treat after all!) and did a lot of shameless sightseeing but I did manage to fit in a trip to Lion Brand Studio and to Purl Soho 😀 😀 😀

My “sins”were modest, 2 skeins of Alpaca pure for the Travelling cable hat …this is the progress so far…

about half way…

And 2 skeins of some ridiculously thick yarn called Natural Wool from Lion Brand – it looks fresh off the sheep and is as thick as my index finger…a chunky scarf is planned…

Kitty is also featured (it’s a cat-fave already)

As for the UK sales I was restrained after a splurge in NY – 2 balls of plain regia sock yarn and…I admit it…More Kidsilk Haze – this time it was the sparkly Eclipse in cerise – how could I resist £2 a ball??!!

Squeee!

Ok – That’s caught us up on most things – Just 2 garments yet to blog…I guess I should try and finish some of these projects too!

Happy New year!!