Malabrigos sock yarn in Ravalry red

Two skeins for me- Candeliaand one skein for Gilly poo- Damson

Well in my absence from bloggers land they have gone and changed how to publish. Sorry folks I can't be bothered to suss it out now, enjoy the pictures!

Tempest

I've never been very keen on knitting cotton cardigans so I thought I would try to make a lightweight one out of wool more suited to British climes than Italy. I liked this pattern but after ordering the rather expensive wool online felt quite guilty. No need, the company phoned me up to say they were out of stock. Guilt was replaced by frustration until I realised the yardage was the same as common or garden sock wool. And I have plenty of that. Just three balls of cheap but soft Mondial sock wool was all it took. Knitted on larger needles than is usual the result is featherlight and just what I was looking for. Think I'll make another one.

Happy Easter

Well not the weather we had in mind for our Easter Sunday picnic. Not only my daughter's first drive in the mountains but her first adventure driving a car in the snow. I was not a relaxed passenger and had to put aside the knitting.

But she did wonderfully

Not a soul in sight.........

We got in one circuit of the lake and then the clouds rolled over once again accompanied by thunder and hail.

And what else could I do closed in the house on an Easter evening but knit a sock, or rather two. Aptly called Skew they are knitted on the diagonal, and tuned to my current yellow period, the wool was generously sent me a while back by Tavish/Paola, one of the most immagintaive creatives around check out her blog -http://confessionsofacrochetpatternslut.blogspot.com/

Congratulations

I had been waiting for someone to get married so I could make them these cute egg cosies. And Maria, (my Rav friend Strilla from Finland) was the lucky bride. I think I got her dreadlocks Ok with the help of a bit of chenille but the rest doesnt do her justice. Being a true knitter she knitted a grey wedding shawl and a pair of lace thigh high socks. She proudly told me they were made of real sheep's wool i.e. a bit itchy and smelly- Must have made for a romantic honeymoon! As for hubby, I have yet to meet him I hope he isnt offended by his cosy!

Spring has sprung

Got probably one of the last glimpses of snow this year as I walked up to the castle. Monte Cusna. 2,121 metres, affectionatly called 'The Sleeping Man'

I just have to knit YELLOW in the spring. Was captivated by the pattern on the back of this one. (Dahlia by Heather Zoppetti). Unfortunatley I hadnt realised that the front was so boring. I diligently ploughed my way through knitting the given waterfall fronts but was not at all happy with results. Unpicked and reknitted as a standard cardi. Still boring. Perhaps I should wear it back to front?

This one's backed by an embaressing tale. It was a kit, the wool was knitted in a dipdyed knitted sushi roll, as you knitted the shawl the pattern unravelled from the roll. I loved the idea but had so many problems ordering it and then when it came, part of a large order, my roll was badly stained. In the end the company were correct, gave me a full refund. I forgot about it for a year but curious to experiment got it out again. The final row should have been bright orange but was dirty and there wasnt enough. I had to improvise.and the quality of the wool wasnt specail, not for a shawl, but it doesn't look bad in the end !

Frogged and recycled

I am much happier with the Noro cardi than the skirt mentioned in last post.

Never-ending Noro

Well I have been imprisoned in the village by polar tempertaures ice and snow for three weeks, no chance to get out and buy wool or for postie to fight his way through to me. So I had a look to see what I could find in my stash,.

Noro.

I have a love hate thing about this Japanese yarn, once started the colour changes and the thick thin texture is hypnotic. Totally relaxing. But I'm not always over keen on results. I dont really like blends only pure wool and sometimes the colour combinations seem to clash. The skirt is an example. Always wanted to knit a skirt. It came out as promised but I dont really feel its me. Already frogged it. Fortunately unpicking can be as therapeutic as creating at times and it is already being recycled into a jacket. The second project was much more promising

Volna shawl in two skeins of Noro sekku lace weight.

Malabrigo Rasta

I rarely buy chunky wool as I can get more 'knitting' from thin yarn so I was very pleased to get this fantastic malabrigo rasta from a knitting pal sometime ago. It makes the cutest colourful cowl and mittens, I'm sure you agree. !

The snow's back agian

and it's that time of year when us knitters are in our element!

Parcel from Twist Collective.

Winter isn't complele without making a cosy cream aran cable sweater and this is my offering for winter 2011 2012.

Knitting update

The lead up to Christmas was spent knitting furiously for long suffering friends but I finally got them all together to parade their pressies.

Thanks to all for a lovely evening

I normally avoid chunky wools, also because the finished article took just three days to make and, at 15 euros a ball, that's not a lot of knitting for your money. But mum had made a splendid example of this and, with Rowan finally available in Italy, she bought me the neccesities for this jacket when she visited before Christmas. Look finished off with a secret santa swap cowl from Paula in The States and a shawl pin from Mum.

Quick dash to Cesenatico with Lin

One happy girl at the seaside.
Lin and I had a longing to visit our Cesenatico and a rather complicated trip of two trains and a bus wasn't going to put us off.
We only went for one night but I found a cheap very warm hotel room. Much appreciated considering the bitter weather.

Just look at what the holidaymakers who flood there every summer miss out on.
By night, fishing boats setting out to sea











The local harbour with the famous old boats decked out with nativity scenes. What a sight looking out from the pizzeria.

And we caught the boats returning the following morning. Appearing out of the fog, drawn by the fog horn blaring out from the end of the harbour.



And this time we were tucked up in a superb cafe with the legendary local donuts for breakfast and strozzpreti (strgangled priest!) pasta for lunch.

Boxing Day walk

This Christmas I was more thankful than ever for tradition. One doesn't have to make any plans for the festive period just do what you've always done. In my case a Boxing Day walk. I set off past the cat town... they all looked very happy and stuffed for a pack of strays. Counted at least twenty.

Stiff walk uphill to the castle. Look at that sky!Temperature barely above zero and some dicy icy patches.


Instead of going in the restaurant for my usual coffee I sat in the field and had my festive turkey, stuffing and bread sauce sandwich.

Next made my way down the hill (I usually go in the other direction) The nature reserve covers a mass of red volcanic stone. There are rare plants and birds and the remains of a quarry which was worked for minerals until the 1960's.

From the bottom looking up. Then into Cerrezzola village where the locals had set up nativity scenes in their gardens, old stone barns and buildings.
























Which brought me to the river, and I shall pick up the rest in the next blog.