Moon

Did anyone see the moon last night?? It was really orange and BEWTIFULL! We always called it a harvest moon at home - don't know if that's a proper term or one we cobbled from the colour and time of year, but it's certainly here now! Couldn't get a photo 'cos it was behind some trees and a building, and too small to capture anyway I think, but look out for it 'cos it's a stunner!!!!

The aforementioned sock

Isn't is lovely! It's proper thick - made in Trendsetter Stripe on 4.5mm DPN's (This colour is harvest). I changed the pattern a bit, 'coz it was silly! and made short row heels and a normal easy toe. The heel isn't great as the chunky yarn makes it look like there are holes on the short rows that there aren't! But the pattern went for a "Dec 1 at beg of each row (x times), the pick up 1 at beg of each row (x times)" and that was much worse for the whole hole scenario.

BTW if anyone is wondering - you can get a pair out of just one ball. I have half the foot to do on the second but there'll be plenty, so you don't need 2 like the pattern says (which at £10.50 /ball is a blessing!)

Autumn here I come

OK so when I said I was only doing Christmas Knitting . . . . . . I Lied!!!!!!

This is my current project....... (sorry about the flash but it's dark already!)

Here is my first attempt at the body, which I think is going to be undone!! The reason being that I decided in my wisdom to knit it all in one piece, left front/back/right front, so that I wouldn't have to seam the sides (lazy....... Me?? ..... never!!) BUT, I think the stripes are coming out too narrow and losing their subtlety (not that there is much subtle about these colours!), but as you can see from the narrower sleeve knitted below the colours do blend into each other a little more gently in wider blocks.

What do you think (again apologies for the flash!)

I also have one and a half boot socks done - photos probably tomorrow! And have weeded a flower bed, walked the dog loads, cut my grass, and generally got into the swing of things again. I am now waiting for a chicken leg to roast, whilst putting bread on to be ready in the morning, and catching up on some blogging which my dear sister has pointed out has been neglected! - That's because the temperature down here has finally dropped low enough to want to do stuff!!!!!! and do stuff I will!!!

I've been naughty

I've had SEX at Angel Yarns today (SEX - for you non-knitters is stash enhancement excursions)

Look what I did!!!!

The Noro Iro is for a cardigan (potentially with a zip - or maybe just never quite finished as I have a zip phobia! - sure this will spur me on though!) The stripey ball in the front is for boot socks (it's thick and soft and lovely) The green on the right is Bergere de France Berlaine, which is machine washable 100% wool (yes really!) However, it is knit on 3.5mm needles which is tiny and for which I would have no patience at all (it'd take months to knit!) so I have just got one ball to have a play with and try some tension squares with two strands to see if I can do something with it that way!. . . . . And all this is for ME!!!!!!

Family Tree and Christmas Knitting

Anyone wanting "in progress" knitting pics is going to go a bit short now, as I have started the dreaded Christmas presents, and as some - if not all - recipients read my blog, I can't post any photies! - ahhhh!! I dare say I will be knitting stuff for me in between, so there will be the odd picture here and there, but other than that you will have to make do with gratuitous pictures of my pooch!!!!

Other than knitting I have been updating the family tree again! For those of you that are not members of my family, (that would actually be most of you I think!) I am the Keeper of the Young Family Tree. When I say "Young" that isn't the eighth of it!!!! LOL I go back four generations and off in all directions from both Mum and Dad's side, so it's a pretty busy tree. I am also in regular contact with Mum and Dad's cousins (and their children and grandchildren!) from all sides as well as obviously my own cousins - so it is HUGE! (Around 450 individuals!), so when I get around to updating it, it takes a while!!! I have found that the newest version of Family Tree Maker is linked in with the site Ancestry.co.uk which has searches available for 1841 through 1901 censuses, plus indexes of births marriages and deaths from 1837 pretty much up to date, as well as a few other parish records etc. So when you load your family tree in, it automatically searches for any appropriate records. How easy is that?! Obviously you have to pay to have access to the records if you want to actually look at the scans of census images and stuff, but just to know it's there is great and has started me on even longer sessions of generation finding!