I have finished honestly!

I've gone and done it again, when will I ever learn? Yes I've lovingly worked on my latest Ishbel and completed it in time for my friend's birthday last weekend. Did I photograph it, doh slaps forehead, no foolish woman you didn't! There's something strange about the excitement of completing a present that blinds me to the flippin' obvious ie what about some nice photos for the blog and Ravelry? Ah well I will try and take some photos if I ever see her wearing it. As a knitter who has given a fibrey gift I do feel a tiny bit stalkerish looking out for those projects!

The Birthday Ishbel was knitted in Posh Yarn Sylvia in the Cotillion colourway and as I've said before this yarn was a complete dream to use. My first foray into merino/silk and certainly not the last. Although I sadly don't have any completed pictures and the shawl has moved on to its new lovely owner, here are a couple of pictures of that gorgeous yarn and colour:

I'm off to cast on for a test knit for the lovely Faye at Buttons and Beeswax now so I wish you all a wonderful day! For lots of other fibrey goodness please pop on over to Linda's place and Tami's place.

Progressing slowly....

It's been an interesting week, busy, slightly stressful but ultimately turning out well. Fiona has taken her last two A level exams and has now finished school! We've all suffered with her through this last couple of weeks of revising and trying to keep well and I'm so relieved we've come out in one piece. She can now officially start her summer which is so well deserved after all her hard work. It's an exciting prospect for her with the year 13 prom (a party on a boat on the river Thames no less!), leavers supper, founders day at school and her theoretically' adult' first holiday abroad with the girls. Oh be still my panicking heart I shall have to organise an awful lot of things to do that week to keep myself from thinking too much. How exciting for her to be on the threshold of all those possibilities I'm thrilled for my girl....

Knitting wise I've been progressing slowly with the Ruby Tuesday cardigan and its lovely. Mostly stocking stitch which is a little mind numbing and does make me realise how much of a process knitter I am rather than a product knitter!

Thoroughly enjoying the Drops alpaca and I do seem to be suffering less problems with the escaping fibres drifting up my poor nose! The only thing I can't seem to capture accurately here is the colour. It is a lot more green, a real dark petrol colour. Even the picture of the ball seems more blue.

There's lots of great sport for me to watch whilst knitting, so even though the French Open has finished (congratulations Rafa, what a massive star you are) there is now the tennis at Queen's club and the Euro 2012 football to savour - yes I am an avid sport watcher. So just bring on Wimbledon and the Olympics and I'll be in absolute heaven.

Book wise Madame Bovary is moving on very slowly, but that is not the fault of the book particularly, more I've had so much going on in my life. Alongside Madame Bovary I'll be starting our next book group choice this week which is 'Painter of Silence' by Georgina Harding. Having seen the synopsis and read reviews I'm really looking forward to it. Has anyone read it yet?

Well off I go, much housework, gardening, lifts to give and food shopping to do, I must remember to fit in some knitting time later when I finally sit down. Hope you have a very happy day.

As always for lots of other fantastic projects on the go and books being read please pop on over to Tamis place and Ginny's place. Also I've found this other lovely blog with a link for Keep calm and craft on what a lovely thought!

Tickly 'Tuesday' french style!

Not Tuesday as in the sense of what day it is of course, rather the name of the cardigan I cast on over the weekend is the Ruby Tuesday a really straightforward top down seamless cardi with a yoke increasing in size with rows of eyelets. 

It's an interesting construction and actually the first top down seamless adult garment that I've made. I'm using Drops Alpaca which creates a gorgeous light, fuzzy, warm fabric, but I have to say it keeps getting up my nose, literally! I've used alpaca blends before and not had any issues, but I'm having to stop every five minutes or so for a furious nose rub. I don't think I'm allergic to the alpaca I just think its the loose fibres floating up my nozzle - I know, not a nice image sorry!

I'm thoroughly enjoying the knitting though and as the French Open is on at Roland Garros at the moment and I'm a mad keen tennis fan I've managed to get quite a lot done. Not ideal when you're watching Andy Murray as nerves and frustration can cause all sorts of unpicking to be done. Easy peasy when Rafa's on, as it tends to be more smooth sailing watching him, bless his little tough, feisty, hard working heart :)

If you read last week's post you'll know I was reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. All finished now, even though I tried very hard to prolong it and I enjoyed it very much. Ernest Hemingway is a person I knew very little about and seeing his early years as a writer through his wife Hadley's eyes was fascinating and very interesting. I'll not give anything away, but I really felt for her.......

Having just read a book on my Kindle and once again enjoyed the process enormously (think it's great with my dodgy eyesight) I decided to return to an absolute favourite of mine 'Madame Bovary' by Gustave Flaubert. It's a book I haven't read for some years so it will be interesting to see my view on it as a considerably older woman.

Can you see the totally unintentional French theme, peculiar, but there you are, sometimes you must just go where the mood takes you. 

Happy Wednesday to you all and I hope you have a good book and a lovely project on the go.

For lots of other great WIPs and books being read please pop on over to Tami's place and Ginny's place.