And the Winner is.....

....My super-talented knitty-friend, the one and only..... Miss CityMinx!
T'was she who came up with the mind-numbingly simple yet fabulously creative way to solve the yarn shortage drama of the last nail-biting episode...
Thanks a gazillion! - you win a prize, but give me a moment to think about what suitable gift you will receive. (I already owe you pizza!!!)
Here lies the FO is all it's glory:




I really like the way it turned out - sometimes you have to make mistakes to create a thing of beauty - hehe!
Now if I can get my act together and get this thing wrapped up and off to it's recipient in the old country before she outgrows it, that would be super!




Here's a bonus sweater which I just need to add ties to:


The colours aren't very "me". Hopefully the next baby girl who joins my circle will like it.



I've been hiding myself away for the last couple of weeks.
I decided to say goodbye to the job I had enjoyed for the last five years and live a little.

My home has been a converted barn in the Hudson Valley - Only 1 1/2 hrs away from the sprawling metropolis, yet a million light years away in terms of peace and quiet!
I've been breathing the fresh country air and eating my weight in ice-cream from the many roadside stands.
Here I am with my partner-in-crime near the edge of a cliff in Minnewaska State Park.



I love it up here but I can't earn a living, so I plan on returning to the city at the end of June and doing long weekends here. Sounds good, right?!



All those tasty country treats haven't done much for my waistline so I jumped on my bike to explore my new neighbourhood when disaster struck!
I wasn't even at the top of the second hill when there was a load crunching sound and was forced to come to an abrupt halt.
This was the damage:




A broken derailleur hanger... I have to wait for a replacement to arrive, then find a friendly bike-shop to fix it!


But I won't be barn-bound for long as I just received my very first US number plates:




Yes!!!! I will be picking up my new, splendid vehicle on Wednesday - I'm so excited!!!
There will be photos and news of the road trip I'm planning to take in it in the next post!

If any of you are wondering what I used to obliterate the digits of my new plates with - it's a long stipey sock, of course! What else would I have at hand to fit into that space?!!!
More stash busting. This time using KnitPicks Palette and my own Pirate Socks pattern, (changing the colours and stripe sequence, though).



Here's a shot of the first sock - being modeled by the stumpy legs of yours truly!
















The parting shot for today is of Annabel being a rock star!







She had her hands in the right position and her tongue sticking out but my camera wasn't fast enough to capture it - sigh.

To boldly go...

...on knitting when you know you will not have enough yarn to finish a project is a disorder I suffer from on a regular basis.
You see, although my stash is humongously large, it is almost exclusively made up of single balls of a yarn or colour. This makes it very hard to stick to my yarn diet. To get around this a lot of my designs are stripey. I like stripes. I like tonal stripes, I like clashing stripes and I like textural stripes.
Here's a little stripey number which is so close to being finished except that - you guessed it - I ran out of yarn!!
Who knows when I'll get around to picking up the yarn needed to finish this baby?
Want to know the stats?
Pattern = Judy's Grandmother's Baby Sweater
Book = Greetings from Knit Cafe - (the one with our beautiful and talented knitting friend, Nicole, on the cover - I was inspired to knit this after I saw Nicole working on it about a year ago!)
Yarn = Cascade 220 Superwash - ( a favorite "baby yarn" of mine as it comes in billions of colours, is relatively cheap and is washable. I want my pieces to be worn - what's the point of knitting for babies and children in yarns that can't be washed?? Yes, they look gorgeous and feel amazingly soft but that's no use to anyone if they are suck in the cupboard for fear of being puked on!!)
It's a fun and easy project - worked in one piece, (except for the sleeves which are picked up and knit from around the armholes.) I subbed a crochet bind off on the shoulders and sleeves as it took less yarn than the method the pattern recommended!

As I have a couple more colours left in this yarn, I may try the same striping technique to my next project, the Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting - Keep your fingers crossed that I'll have enough yarn - I am!!