Progress Report

At the start of the year, back in this post, I set myself five goals.

Now at half way though the year I've managed to meet one of these goals! Yay! Ticking off goal number two on the list is my first ever fair isle project. Admittedly it was a pretty easy one, but I'm still quite happy with it. Presenting Tam C of the Three Tams fame.


The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in Beige (102) for the background and Noro Silk Garden in no. 239 for the pattern work. I ran out of the Cashmerino at just the right point in the pattern and finished up with the Noro. There's one mistake in my fair isle (can you see it?) but I was on the home stretch and couldn't make myself go back to fix it. I absolutely love working with Noro yarns. Love, love, love it! I love the way the colours seem to change organically, blending from one to the next. I even love those unexpected colours that seem to have no business being there. Can you see the almost fluorescent yellow that has popped up on my beret amongst all the muted browns and blues. Love it! I know Noro yarns are not the most buttery smooth of yarns and this is where the Cashmerino comes to it's rescue. It's a great combination. I have plans to make more of these, so hands up, who wants one?

As for the rest of my goals, well I think I will have to get a wriggle on. Still no socks and no lace. I'm completely failing number five, with my project based obsession continuing. I guess there are some things in your nature that you just can't fight.

Something else that just flew off the needles were two Brea Bags. Unfortunately, after they flew off the needles they then sat around waiting to be seamed and lined. I have finally finished one of the bags. Here it is in all it's fully lined, handle attached, button on glory....


I like the way that the lining peeks through, although I can see why other people have decided to add a zip closure to this bag. I'm not sure how secure the items it is holding will be in its current state. Does anyone have any suggestions to rectify this (that don't involve lots of unpicking of lining to sew in a zip)? Here's a closeup.....


The yarn is four balls of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Hollyberry held double on 5.50mm needles. One of these days I'll around to lining the second one. One day....

I have a few things on the in the WIP pile at the moment, but I'll leave those for next time. So until then, here's a photo of me sporting the my beret in 38oC heat!

P.S.....

I have noticed that my weather pixie has changed into her bikini. Poor thing, I don't think she will get to wear clothes now for quite a while!

What happened?

It's been six weeks since my last post and people have started to wonder what's going on! I even had a concerned comment from the lovely Yasmin worried that something might have happened to me. I thought that was really sweet, so thank you Yasmin, you have given me the motivation to write this post.

I don't really know what was going on, but I was having a bit of a "downer" about my blog. It started with the blocking of Ravelry. For those who are not living in the Arab world, our internet service here passes through a Government run proxy which can block access to particular websites if they feel they are "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates". I've been using Ravelry for less than a year and when they blocked it it was like a close friend has passed away! I was devastated. Chi Wai, my darling husband was on to it straight away, and filed a request to have the site unblocked. Here was the response we got just yesterday....

Dear Etisalat Customer,

Thank you for contacting us, we are extremely sorry for the fact that the site you have requested ( www.ravelry.com ) can not be unblocked.

Reason: Dating and Relationships.

Can you believe it? It's a knitting site people! What really irks me is that Facebook, the most perverted "Dating and Relationships" site there is, has not been subjected to the same fate. Grrr! Facebook was previously blocked but has for some time been accessable. I will have to live in hope that they will see reason for Ravelry also.

So you would think that the loss of Ravely would have spurred me on to madly write more blog posts, being the only outlet to share my knitting stories, but it didn't. It probably had something to do with the other major component of my life over here, work!

I have never talked about work on my blog before, and don't worry, I'm not about to start now, but let's just say, things have been really hotting up! For those of you who don't know, I'm here managing a project to build a factory. I'm not going to say any more than that because I know it's soooo boring for anyone who is not involved. We are now just a few months away (hopefully, fingers crossed, things keep coming up to delay us!) from commissioning the factory and it is consuming all of my brain power! When I come home from work, it's like I'm in some kind of vegetative state. The three of us, Chi Wai (hubby) and Brian (housemate) are working on the project too, just sit there and stare at the TV barely moving until it's time for bed. So sad really.

But fear not readers! This does not mean that I have not been knitting! Of course I have been knitting, I just haven't been writing about it. Phew! I can hear the collective sigh of relief from here! I even have a few FO's to discuss, but I will leave that for another post. I promise I won't leave it so long this time.

Thanks again to Yasmin and Zena (bf) for giving me the nudge that I needed.