Finished Monkeys and Rhubarb Scarf obsession

We had a very quiet, relaxing Easter in the SQ household - made a change from being on the canal boat this time last year - now that was stressful, especially when we couldn't master the steering and ended up sideways in the canal with boats coming at us from either side! That was the same evening that I was at the bow of the boat while Skein King and Granda Gerry at the stern were steering us directly into an £80,000 boat as the owners were enjoying a nice glass of wine and me coming almost nose-to-nose with them with a mortified look on my face as I said "Evening... sorry..." What I should've done is raise my glass and "cheers"ed them. From the looks on their faces, I don't think it've gone down too well.

So, with a little time to catch up with knitting, I finished my Monkeys:

And I started the Sparrow cardigan from Rowan Story Book of Little Knits for Skein Princess. I let her choose - shouldn't really have done that as it's not a pattern I'd have chosen myself - but hopefully I'll finish it and she'll love it. It's very bohemian and flowery.
Skein Prince finished another couple of Super Mario Shrooms:

I completed some more crocheted coral for the Hyperbolic (or Hyper-bollock as my non-knittery, non-understanding mates call it) Crochet Reef - no pics yet - not until it's all finished - not that there's loads of it or anything!

And I have become completely obsessed, as have most people who've seen it, by this Rhubarb Scarf by Moonstitches. There is no pattern. I've tracked down the yarn and got it heavily discounted by a shop in Oregon as it was the last they had. I have a book with a similar stitch in it, but can I work out how to crochet that stitch?! Frustrating - but I WILL crack it. It's called a Catherine Wheel stitch or Starburst stitch.

Finally, mini shop update of bamboo/merino Bali yarn type includes:

Little Shack

Shanghai Tea House


Inky Periwinkle

Big weekend planned with dinner dance tomorrow night (oh, I say, gone all hoi polloi!) and another trip to London on Saturday.

Knitting in French (Le Tricotage - apparently)

This week I have been mostly knitting in French - ooo la la! My dear French friend, Sylvie, sent over a gift for the Skein Princess. Imagine my delight when I saw it was a knitting kit to create a cute little kid mohair grey and black cat, comme ca:
Of course, she wanted to get started right away, so we opened up Le dou-dou chat and you guessed it - the pattern is in French! The last time I visited Sylvie in Nantes she threatened to leave me in a chocolate shop with my "Rusty French" so this was going to be a challenge.

I have learnt that m = st; rg = row; rg endroit = knit; rg envers = purl; augm = increase; ts = every; ch = each; monter = cast on; rab = cast off

Free Blue Peter badge for anyone who knows what bourrage; raye; froncer and coudre mean. It took a while to figure these out and along the way I learnt that queue means tail but is also a word for the male appendage, so that was childish of me to even point that out!

So, I knitted away and Skein Princess did the tricky job of keeping track of the rows using the free plastic counter thingy from this month's Simply Knitting magazine, and this is how far we've got:Can you not tell its the front paws, head and surely you can see where the ears will be?!

Meanwhile, Skein Prince took it upon himself to knit some Super Mario mushrooms which include knitting on DPNs which he's got the hang of, stranded work and knitting whilst the object is already stuffed. He's doing well and has got a bit further than this - he's now started on the red top with the white spots today:

I spent a lovely day on Friday with fellow Etsy-addict, Rachel and we talked so much about craft for four hours, we forgot to talk about dieting or interior design. Rachel is so, so close (NOT!) to setting up her Etsy shop and she would agree that she's a bit of a craft tart and is good at them all (with the sorry exception of knitting) and especially good at silversmithing. So her shop is likely to be an eclectic mix of tiaras, jewellery, felted objects and many, many other crafty bits. She came bearing gifts for me:This completely gorgeous felt bowl she made

This fab frame which contains shrinkies of vintage woolcraft posters such as this one:
This is going to be perfect for my new dyeing workshop which is in the process of being designed and developed

And this cute little lavender heart which says "Fleur d'Ecosse" which she got from Scottish-based Etsy seller, Fire Horse Textiles - oops, just went to add in the link and in popped another one to my shopping cart - how did that happen?

Speaking of purchases, I bought a couple of skeins from my witty Ravelry friend who happened to be selling off some of her stash - when I say witty, I mean hilarious. We have conversations about people knitting menstrual pads and breast pads out of fun fur - I am often letting out a little bit of wee when I read her PMs.Here is a sample of just one of them - some Lorna's Laces in silk/merino. Mmmm, yummy. She also included some Posh handspun, some Green and Black's, some sheep stickers and sweeties. How kind is she!

And, as another Ravelrer, CrafyYarnGirl, was starting up a new stall at Wokingham market, I felt it would be rude not to support her, so me and the Skein Prince had a nice dander round town and I bought this Artesano Hummingbird and a pattern to go with it:
The watermelon socks I started last August are finally off the needles:

The yarn is from Freshisle Fibers

And I've finished one Monkey:

And I must just mention the Hyperbolic Coral Reef crochet workshop I'm attending in mid-March. A lovely Northern Irish person I met via blogging called Inga of rockpoolcandy fame is involved in this and I'm looking forward to meeting her there. I'm not 100% sure what I'm letting myself in for, but she did promise wine and it does look fascinating. It's open to the public, but you need to book a place so that they know numbers.