Nicky Epstein... Snail Mail brought at last !

It's finally arrived(ordered 19th April so took 2 weeks, not too bad)... This book is just beautiful from cover to cover with just stunning photography and designs including snipets of information about what inspired Nicky to design a particular piece. A wonderful coffee table book that I keep picking up and flicking thru again and again. There are too many projects that I really just want to make, but realistically very few that I will ever get completed but will probably attempt, along with my own adaptions, making them easier and less time consuming.
This is my first Nicky Epstein book but I'm looking to add to the collection.

Entrelac...Nicky Epstein

Yesterday I couldn't help myself and just had to buy 'On Top of the World' by Nicky Epstein from Amazon... a real bargain for £9.99 and free p&p. It'll take a good couple of weeks to get to me but I'm so looking forward to it.

I just love the projects and can't wait to get on with something a little different again from what I used to make. One of them is an entrelac number. I've mastered the entrelac skill when I made a little set for a baby about a year ago. This was in my previous life of a reborn and baby knitter, which I still do but not for profit due to the constrictions of being out here. I think I'm just about ready to endeavour on a new project involving entrelac as I found it pretty time consuming (tidying the ends up at the end of the item is a real pain !). Any way here's Nicky's and then mine:Might take a little longer than my set did.
If you're new to entrelac I'd suggest a small, simple project. Here's a link to a pretty comprehensive guide to entrelac by the blogger 'KnittyOtter'. I apologise for not using my pics but I didn't bring them all out with me ie., store on another computer in the UK !Here's the link:"http://knittyotter.typepad.com/otterknits/2007/03/entrelac_scarf_.html"
Here's another link to a basic handout on entrelac by Carol Wyche: "http://www.io.com/~cjwyche/Entrelac/Entrelac.html"

This one's just another I'm itching to get on with... saw it in a magazine ('Knitting') and been after it ever since.

Just found this designer... My Little City Girl

WEBSITE: http://mylittlecitygirl.com/
'About Me' page on ebay: http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=my_little_citygirl

I just love this one and have got to make it ... doesn't look like there's a current pattern available but hopefully it will do before I try to make my own version up which will not be the same. I've done this before with one of my pineapple halters, I was very pleased with it but it wasn't quite what I had envisaged making so I'd just love to cut out the hard work and buy this pattern.

Now I'm definitely inspired again to start those halter tops for my dear daughter.

The blog is full of interesting articles and also has some fun free patterns available for downloading.
This one's a must for next years winter in Saudi (well its probably only needed for a week or so but it'll be a wonderful accessory made in a thread crochet cotton.

Garnstudio ... Got to Make

Not been doing much knitting as been trawling the net seeing as we've had it up and running since last night... oh the excitement... oh how sad is life nowadays that we don't feel happy unless we have the internet... anyway I digress...

I love Garnstudio for their patterns and yarns. I've only bought once before from Ally Pally when I last went but am going to get me some of that Fabel for this divine jacket and also to make another pair of socks !
http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=111&d_id=1&lang=en

Scamp's Favourite...

... another basic rib by Kate Atherley from her Wise Hilda Knits blog.



Have finally finished this pair of basic rib socks but this time I didn't follow the rib pattern all the way thru and stopped at the cuff. I also made them on a larger needle as I am a very tight knitter and found that they were a better fit for me.

I am wearing the socks non-stop to see how they wear... made from 100G OF KING COLE ZIG ZAG SOCK YARN IN RHAPSODY

Update: 31 March... well I've worn them everyday and washed them (obviously several times) and the verdict is... perfect hardwearing with no sagging or shrinking. Will definitely buy this yarn again.



I just love this pattern and will keep coming back to it !

Knitting for Charity

Ok, this is my New Year's Resolution... a bit late but I didn't bother making any this year as couldn't think of anything that I would possibly stick to.. the old 'go on a diet', 'go to the gym more' etc.. just doesn't work for me but I think I've found something that I would very much like to stick to. As I said before, I've recently moved to Saudi and my old hobby has been replaced by sock knitting which I'm sure will continue for some time and being in a privilaged situation where I'm neither likely to suffer from extreme cold or excessive heat (air con is great !) then I've decided to put my new found hobby to good use. Also I can move into the mittens and hats area too so no need to get bored I'm sure. I can also afford to make the small items in quality yarns like alpaca etc., to make sure they are really suitable for their intended purposes.

I've found a couple of charitable organsations that I'd like to contribute to, one which I found on the Ravelry site, the other is Afghans for Afghans.

http://www.afghansforAfghans.org

Latest Addition

Just love this pattern from 'Wise Hilda Knits' ... perfect everytime. These ones were knitted in Wendy Happy 4 ply Bamboo yarn in Gemini, which is beautifully soft and looking forward to finding out how they wear.

I thought I'd try to incorporate a bit of the stunning scenery out here in Saudi but it was a bit difficult so I took this pic at the compound swimming pool during my husband's diving lessons. Wanted to catch the palm trees in the background but it was just too sunny and I couldn't quite see what I was snapping. Will try again tomorrow at the beach in my abaya !

Onto the next pair which are going to be an alpaca mix... I found the 100% alpaca not really hardwearing enough and a hole appeared pretty quickly... The mix should be about right this time.

Toe Up Knitted Socks

Well I said I want to make a pair of toe up socks and have been trawling the web for different instrucions and found this rather interesting one from the Knitty site called 'The Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula'

Link here: http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTuniversalsock.html

Its probably a little advanced for me right now but I'll certainly come back to it as it gives a lot of scope for designing your own pair of socks and learning how to write up a pattern for them... oh how I'd love to be that advanced !

If anyone has managed it after only making a few pairs do let me know how you got on.

In the meantime I'll look for a basic toe up pattern from my favs and on the net !

TO DO LIST

Knit the 'Feet First' socks by Debbie Tomkies from the 'Simply Knitting' Pattern obtained from the magazine's own website: www.simplyknitting.co.uk

Knit the 'Lacy lovelies' from 'Knit to day' Issue 29, page 40

Knit another pair of socks from the fabulous patterns by Hilda from her blog,
Wise Hilda Knits: WISEHILDA.blogspot.com
Just finished one sock from her 'Basic Ribbed Sock' pattern

Knit a pair of 'toe up' socks

Knit socks on 5 dpn's (mastered the 4 dpn's but not on the toe up version yet !)

Knit 'Falling Leaves' socks by Jeanie Townsend