as promised a photo of the long suffering boyfriend complete with broad street mittens (or his torso anyway) he seems quite pleased with them and is actually looking forward to autumn so he can wear them. the silk socks are fresh off the needles too now thankfully, i just finished stitching the toes five minutes ago. and now with no small projects on the go it's time to concentrate on knitting one of my friends a birthday present, which i've decided is going to be a love heart cushion from domiknitrix's book, with web site embroided on the front. i should explain at this point that for those readers who haven't opened a pack of love heart sweets for a while they aren't what they used to be. at one time the hearts had lovely sweet messages like "be mine" and "i love you" on them, nowadays for some unknown reason this seems to have gone out of the window to be replaced by supposedly more up to date slogans like "text me" "fax me" and most bizarrely "web site" i fail to understand just what could be the romantic message held within the phrase web site. my friend doesn't understand either but finds these particular sweets rather amusing so when i saw the pattern i just knew she'd love a cushion with it on. of course this means a trip over to holmfirth sometime over the next week, which probably also means plenty of other lovely things added to my stash.

the broad street mittens are done, finally! after much head scratching in parts over them they were finally completed last night, picture to follow as soon as i can get the mittens, the long suffering boyfriend and a camera in the same room at the same time and of course convince him that his face won't end up splashed all over the internet. so with no mitts to knit today i finally sat down and forced myself to get on with the silk socks and i'm happy to report progress is being made, i won't post a picture because how interesting can 3x3 rib be in navy blue silk, on a man size sock? not very i hear you cry. and readers you'd be right, and it's even less interesting to knit, a true labour of love i feel. anyway, yes progress is being made i've managed to get the heel and gusset done and am floating somewhere around 3 inches or so from the heel, luckily i've just been told that i may have a very long game of crown green bowls to sit through tomorrow night so the socks are coming along in the hope that i might be somewhere closer to the toe and by definition freedom from boring knitting. after two portable projects in shades of blue i long for some real colour, varigated yarn, pinks, reds, orange anything vibrant and interesting. blues and navy blue just get monotonous and boring after so long.

As promised a picture of my alpaca (courtesy of mayfieldalpacas.co.uk) his name's marco and i think he's gorgeous. He's also a suri alpaca so i don't know how practical his dreadlock like coat would be for yarn but i've fallen in love with him anyway. Sadly not that much knitting's gone on lately, the journeys to and from work have mostly been taken up by bouts of revision wherever possible. The ward i work on has been far too busy lately to sit down and do anything besides grab a very quick cup of tea as and when you can hence the lack of updates here (they never tell you just how hard this business of working for a living is, especially on a student nurse wage. But i won't get into the dire financial situation the majority of trainee nurses find themselves in.) All my projects are coming along just currently very slowly, i'm sat right now in fact with the alpacs wrap on my knee which is somewhere between half and three quarters finished, the second silk sock is about an inch off the heel and the second broad street mitten is awaiting a couple more fingers and a shell and that's done. I'm hoping once tuesday's exam is over and done with my rate of knitting might reach its usual levels again. I was quite amused by the latest shreddies advert which shows the breakfast cereal being knitted with love by a group of knitting grandmas (doesn't do much to smash stereotypes, but what the hey) and leeds is having some sort of knitting festival so the local knitters apparently have all manner of odd knitted objects on needles right now including vegetables (if any of that's incorrect i'm sure one of my fellow knitting tykes will correct me)

very quick update as i'm currently up to my eyeballs in university work and revision, the silk sock did fit in the end and quite comfortably in fact. i started on the dreaded second sock and am pleased to say i haven't as yet developed second sock syndrome though with all the other things keeping me occupied there hasn't really been time. as well as the silk socks i've started on a pair of mitten come gloves (the broad street mittens from knitty.com for those interested) in a lovely shade of almost denim blue rowan designer double knit and as i speak am currently casting on for a wrap from the debbie bliss home book in a dusky lavender alpaca silk which arrived earlier today from an ebay seller which i got for an absolute bargain, so not only am i a happy knitter i also plan to be a very busy one over the next few weeks.

the first silk sock is finally finished, and after sewing up the toe last night i looked triumphantly down at my work and was amazed at just how enormous the thing looks, i'm just hoping it will actually fit. in fact i'm pretty sure it will i'm just not quite used to knitting something so large and keep thinking that surely nobody has feet this big. anyway if it doesn't fit i just intend to go and sit in a corner and cry somewhere, the constant revision and studying has zapped me of any strength i may have had and if i have to read through my nursing code of conduct one more time i really will lose my mind.mif i go quiet for a week or so it's only because my exams start next week and sadly that doesn't leave too much time for knitting or even writing about it.

stash, stash, mountains of stash

i hit up country today, and boy oh boy did i hit it hard. went in for the wool to make another maya scarf and came out with the wool for three, oops! still at least it'll keep me busy for a while. also managed to make a start on the silk socks i've been promising boyfriend for the past week or so, and seen as i finished fawne off yesterday i felt a new portable project was needed. especially seen as i have to spend a large number of hours per week on public transport and after a while a copy of the metro just doesn't cut it as in flight entertainment.