

Now if I show you this:
I have the best husband a yarn-fanatic could wish for - look
It's a ball winder and a swift (Note for Dad - the ball winder is the bit in the background, the swift is the wooden cross in the front. You put the yarn hank on the pegs on the swift and thread it to the ball winder and then you turn the handle on the ballwinder and it all winds up nicely).
I am so pleased with it I had to start finding yarn to wind up right away!
Fortunately my sister came to the rescue with her presents to me:
Well this is Koigu (let me hear you say ooooooh) in fabulous shades of orange. There is a little story behind that colour (apart from it being fabulous!). I will be Zee's bridesmaid this year just as she was mine last year. When she was trying on dresses as my bridesmaid she was very taken with a lovely dress in midnight blue. Well she got the dress but in ruby red instead. I love burnt orange and it suits me so when I was trying on dresses to be her bridesmaid I kept making a plea for burnt orange and picking the orange dresses off the racks. We will look lovely in sky blue come the wedding :)!
Thank you sweet sister you choose very well.
The wool that actually got wound up was the leftovers from these: H's birthday socks, made from Opal of some sort on a 64st round with 2.5mm needles. These are slightly snugger than his other socks but I am informed that the snuggly loose socks meet with approval so I shall probably go back to 68sts for future socks. I am a trixy little wife though! When H unwrapped his parcel he found a ball of yarn (a slightly oddly shaped ball) with a pair of needles with a few rows of garter stitch. I told him he was to learn to knit as his birthday present and he dutifully sat down and started to knit.
After 5 or 6 sts I told him he needed more yarn and so he should throw the ball of yarn across the room to unwind a bit of yarn. As he did the corner of a sock popped out and the penny dropped! I have told him he is the fasted sock knitter ever though - 6 sts and he's done!
We had a veritable flood of birthday cards and good wishes from all our friends and relations - my boss gave me a bottle of wine and my secretaries gave me cards and some beautiful pale pink gerberas which have brought a little summer into our house. I went out to lunch with me team and out to supper with my husband and all in all it was pretty perfect.
I also have a little birthday treat waiting for me to do some winding (I'm trying to be good and do some finishing first!).
Those of you who follow the knit-bloggy world will know what this is as a certain young lady has I think made it the next must-knit. I was entranced by the version just recently completed over at Purlwise and I'm glad I was because this wool is far far prettier in real life than any photo can show you and every colour in the yarn is just perfect for me. I have to finish Aimee and my tired roses scarf before I cast on for this, the next Alphabet Blanket and a few other projects currently up my (capacious) sleeves so for the moment I sit and look at it, and stroke it, and hug it if I feel in need of brightening up!
Now, to conclude the world's longest post, some answers. Korinthe asked where I got the point protectors for my DPNs. The answer is Father Christmas but I believe he may have shopped here. They are genius and I can't believe we ever managed without them!
Marly wanted to know about the sheep dress - it's from Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits book and the Amazon reference is here but you may be able to find it more locally. The alphabet blanket also came from that book and it has some really lovely baby and toddler patterns in it but there are a few errors so it is worth checking the errata on her website.
It is finally the weekend so I have films to watch, knitting to do and kittens to name - have a good weekend
I have a number of projects calling to me from the knitting queue (not least the second baby blanket) but I shall try to finish off Aimee and my tired roses scarf before starting anything major - at least that's the aim!!
Now then, today is Tuesday so it is time for a randon Tuesday knit-blog. Today's random Tuesday blog selected by the Knit Pligg is:
http://yantantethera.blogspot.com/
So go and say hello - her sockpalooza socks are fantastic mosaic stitch knitting that put my pink knee socks quite in the shade!
Not the best photo admittedly but this is the front of Peggy's dress all finished and languishing in a hebe bush at dusk. I would have finished early enough to take a decent photo but I was finishing a book and then we had a barbeque.
The book (the Da Vinci code was a light jaunt for a Sunday) and the barbeque was fabulous - H has serious BBQ skills and accordingly he cooks twice as much in the summer because we eat outside.
I now have a sleeve, the collar and a bit of sewing up to do and the dress is finished - just the shoes and possibly a small fluffy sheep to knit before Peggy's birthday - no stress!
Interestingly for all the knitting I do in public on a daily basis on the train I rather missed out on knit in public day as my parents came to visit and when we went on our impromptu expedition both the camera and the knitting stayed behind. I knit in my garden and the bees and the red and black butterfly that sat on my toes were duly impressed!
Today we went to hear Tony Campolo who is travelling in the area and speaking at a number of churches over the next week. He is a very good speaker; challenging in all the right ways and was well worth hearing - lots of food for thought!
Now after my exhausting afternoon sat knitting in the garden I have to go and darn in some ends!
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Indeed, I went up to London to visit my sister for the day. We had a fantastic time, we went for lunch, we walked along by the Thames in Putney (hence Putney bridge pictures) and most importantly we went to Stash to drool over some imported yarns.
Mmmmmmm pretty things including Lorna's Laces, Koigu and Handmaiden Sea Silk! I of course was very restrained however, I did notice this morning that our plants have started to show some really unusual foliage. Please can any budding botantists tell me why my garden has started to grow Koigu?
I also made it into central London where I encountered this:
This van was blowing bubbles and the driver was singing on a microphone as they went along - truly bizarre but rather fun at the same time!
Of course I can have had only one destination:
In the packet are two ribbon options for Aimee - either the pale pink which H prefers or the spotty one for a bit of fun!!
As as for today, gorgeous sunshine and a lovely barbeque - what more could a girl want except not to have to go to work in the morning!!