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?

Yarn Bombing, Chocolate & My Man-Size Booties

I managed to hunt down some baby wool for my first project using a pattern - Baby Booties. The pattern is from the book Knitty Gritty: Knitting for the Absolute Beginner. After reading through the pattern five times, I thought it was time to get started. So I removed my new 5mm Bamboo needles from the packaging, took out my wool and got started.

After casting on and knitting two or three rows, I paused to look at my progress and realised how big my work was actually getting. In the pattern it said to cast on 38 stitches, clearly these are meant for babies and not small adults? But, after consulting with my book I carried on relentless of their size. An hour and a half later I was on step 7 and my man-size booties were coming along well. With a mixture of cockiness, chocolate munching and M.E brain fog though, I neglected to look at step 8 and found myself knitting the entire row without decreasing - DOH! After realising what I had done I undid the row of knitting and tried to put the stitches back on my needles. What a stupid thing to do without a crochet hook (Which I forgot to buy while at the craft shop that morning, despite having a list AND the book with me). I ended up dropping all my stitches and having to undo another row of knitting. This process continued until I found myself with nothing but two bare bamboo needles and a pile of pink yarn.

An hour later I decided I liked knitting again and started Man-Size Booties II. This is where I am at thus far:

Pathetic I know. After I've completed my blog for today though I'll knuckle down and get some work done.

While trawling through several knitting blogs today, I found this.

All I can say is, "Where can I find the pattern for my car?"