U is for... Unable

Due to my M.E, I'm unable to get out and about as much as I'd like. This afternoon though, I felt well enough to go out for a couple of hours. So, my very lovely Mother took my sister and I to Launceston, a nice little town in Cornwall. It took 20 minutes to get there, and as we were driving into Launceston I swear I saw a young man knitting as he was walking down the road!! It looked like he was knitting something green on circular needles, possibly a sock...

After parking the car, we wandered down the street on the hunt for a Cornish Pasty. As we headed down the street my Mum suddenly pulled me towards a shop. 'We're here', she said to me. I looked up to find a small, beautiful, yarn filled shop. My face lit up with excitement as I made my way in.

©DoveGreyReader

The shop was, is, beautiful. This wool emporium is something to behold. From the moment you walk in all you see is yarn, yarn and more yarn. And when I say yarn, I'm not talking about 100% acrylic, £1, rubbish. I'm talking about gorgeous, 100% wool, silk blends, alpaca blends, cotton blends and all that jazz. Some are hand-dyed, in gorgeous colourways. Unfortunately they are a little out of my price range at £10-15 a skein, but a few months ago when I was quite poorly my Mum bought me a skein of Colinette Jitterbug - Florentina as a present. 

©DoveGreyReader

The shop feels so cozy and comfortable. Despite being a small shop, you could easily spend a few hours in there looking around. I spent about 15 minutes in there, but I would have easily spent longer if I was on my own. 

Rebecca, the owner of the shop, is very lovely indeed. I managed to have a chat with her while I was there, we talked about knitting in the round (she was knitting a beautiful cowl while I was there), lace, crochet and everything else. She talked about the different workshops they hold at the shop, so in November I am going to the Beginners Crochet workshop, which I am very excited about. 

It took me forever to choose, but I finally got myself two skeins of Albero, a Louisa Harding yarn. I am going to make Summer Flies by Donna Griffin, I'm going to need another two skeins though to make it. So that is going on my shopping list for next time I visit, as well as a pair of beautiful wooden circular needles.

So, as you can see I had a fabulous time! After the yarn shop we walked around town, I managed to get myself a dress for the wedding this Friday, some nail varnish, sweeties and a Spicy Chicken Pasty. 

As we walked around town I did notice a bit of yarn bombing!

So now it's time for you to add your links! What does your U stand for?

The Bad Beginning

You know how I am with starting new projects, I just can't help myself. So when I found out about One a Day, I knew I had to join in on the fun.

Simply put One a Day (which was started by GingerbreadGirl) is "A CAL/KAL for anyone who wants to tackle a bigger project by doing one element a day!" 

I had a two parcels of yarn arrive last Wednesday (more about that on Saturday!), and inside one of those squishy parcels was two LARGE skeins of Aran. I'd seen these 400g beauties in my Local Yarn Shop many of times, but never had the courage to take a couple of skeins up to the cash register. Fortunately though, my Nan is completely like me when it comes to knitting and she popped two skeins (don't think you can really call them skeins, they're about the size of small child) of Robin Aran with Wool in the Cappuccino colourway in my box of woolly goodies. 

The moment I got back home I cuddled up on the sofa, switched on the TV and watched 'The Day After Tomorrow' (is it just me, or does the film make you feel freezing?!) as I cast on for my new project.

As my Mum is a big garter stitch fan, and we have a very cold few months ahead of us, I decided to knit a Garter Stitch blanket. I'm not knitting from a pattern, simply wingin' it. Using 5mm 80cm circular needles I cast on 160 stitches. I'm not sure how large it'll actually turn out, but when the stitches suddenly flew off the needles it was just a bit bigger than the width of my single bed. So it'll be very interesting to see how large it'll actually turn out.

Now whenever I sit and watch TV Mother's Favourite comes with me. It's great to be able to watch something without the worry of looking down to check for mistakes. As of now, I have knitted 70 rows. Which isn't bad!!

That just about wraps it up for this week, next week I'll be introducing a new project (proving the needles for it have arrived...) and giving you an update on Mother's Favourite. For now, head on over to GingerbreadGirl's for more One a Day posts, or visit the group on Ravelry!