My So-Called Scarf, Pesky Fines and Pet Acquisition

If I hadn't devoted so much time to that blooming addictive Ravelry tonight, My So-Called Scarf would've been finished and I'd have been able to wear it tomorrow. Well, here's a preview:



I love everything about this project - the yarn, the stitches, the unevenness of the edges and especially the wearability. It will be finished this week. I came across this YouTube clip tonight, which shows an alternative way to stitch the knit rows (which I didn't use, but may be useful to someone.)

Knitting has been an expensive business for me this week - and I don't mean the buying of yarn and books. Firstly, after enjoying a lovely Knit Night with the outcasts in Reading, I came back to find an impertinent parking ticket stuck to my windscreen - my own stupid fault. Then, having ordered two skeins of yarn from The Sweet Sheep in Canada, I got slapped with a customs charge of nearly £12! The blow was softened by the beauteousness of the yarn:
This is a merino/silk by Sunshine Yarns in Field of Flowers colourway. I'd ogled this yarn ever since I saw it on Kerrie's blog in the summer and finally, it's mine!

And also this Colinette Jitterbug:
I also splashed out on three knitting books:

Traditional Fair Isle Knitting by Sheila McGregor - as recommended by knithappens. I'm desperate to get back to some fair isle or intarsia work - just haven't found the right pattern yet. I'm thinking maybe the Ivy League Vest from Interweave Knits.

Favorite Socks by Ann Budd and Anne Merrow - bit of a long story about this one. Suffice to say, there's a good few patterns in here I want to knit.

The Rowan Story Book of Little Knits - my quest to find the exact pattern to make Skein Princess the perfect cardigan has failed, but she like the look of a lacy cardigan in here with crocheted flowers, so I used my John Lewis vouchers from work to order the yarn for this online (new for them to sell yarn online and free delivery!)

If you happen to be a pattern designer, I'm sure there's a market out there for pretty cardigans for girls older than 4-5! Just a simple v-neck, maybe with a picot edging and lacy or fair-isle pattern at the bottom edge. It's not much to ask!

And now to Pet Acquisition. We have two cats and a fish. I should say, we had two cats and a fish. As of today, we have two cats and three fish. We somehow managed to acquire the former pets of a friend's teenage son who had them festering in his room (apparently - not my words) and boy, these are two ugly fish. This from a woman who freaks out in the shop that sells pet fish - ok, I have a bit of a fish phobia - if I see too many, I start gagging! I know, it's mortifying and stems from a school trip where the class got stuck on an island when the tide came in unexpectedly quick - me, Linda Patterson and the nun in charge decided to head back to the mainland across a sewage pipe to get help and as the water was getting deeper and deeper, a fish swam between my legs and I wasn't keen on that at all! I'll never forget the holes in Sister Moira's stockings and a flash of her pantaloons! (Bridget Jones's Big Pants had nothing on these.)

And we are on the look-out for a kitten (the height of madness with all this yarn in the house - I know I'll rue the day when I succumbed to the puppy-dog eyes of the littlest Skeins and said "OK, you can have a kitten.") They're kind of hard to find at this time of year - do you think they'll forget in time?!!!

Finally, there will be shop update this week which will include more Aran silk and more of the guest yarn from a couple of weeks ago as well as cashmere/silk in Lavish and Wisp plus much more.