Knit along with Deramores and Rowan

Have I mentioned before how much I love Mollie Makes magazine? Well they have a fab blog too and the other day they pulled my attention to a great idea from the award winning website deramores.com. They have joined forces with Rowan Yarns and, utilising the modern wonder that it social networking, have organised a 'Knit along' by giving away a free knitting pattern for a cosy snood (just perfect for the cold snap we are weathering at the moment!) and encouraging their facebook 'likers' and Twitter followers to join in and post about their progress!

Well, as part of my New Year's Promise (as opposed to 'Resolution', but more about that another time) to myself I felt I just had to take part...

I confess I cheated slightly and used yarn from my stash - a double knit baby yarn (Sirdar Snuggly) that I bought ages ago with the intention of making my baby something cosy- rather than purchase the Rowan Alpaca Cotton yarn the pattern specifies*. Obviously it's finer than the aran weight yarn but I figure it will be all the lighter and 'lacier' for it.

Wanna see the project so far?

I love the simplicity of the pattern and the short rows mean it is easy to pick up and put down without risking losing your way or dropping stitches. I'm not the worlds fastest knitter - my mum could probably whip this up over a couple of evenings - but it's growing quick enough for me not to lose interest and pack it away with all the other 'unfinished' projects...

If you want to have a go too, head over to Deramores for the free pattern. They also have 10% off the gorgeous Rowan Alpaca Cotton yarn until 9th Feb as a further incentive if you want to do it properly.

You can post your work in progress pictures on the Deramores facebook page or tweet them using the tag #KAL and mentioning @Deramores and @RowanYarns so they can see what you've created too!

If you blog your knit along project then be sure to let me know and leave a link with your comment.

Good luck! x


*If money was no object I would have gone for the gorgeous muted Lichen (green) or Raindrop (grey-blue). Or maybe made one in each colour...

#SilentSunday 29/01/12

For more fab Silent Sunday pics search #silentsunday on twitter.com

#SilentSunday 15/01/12

Bring back the Peace and Harmony...

In my last actual blog post I mentioned that I would be easing off on the blogging for a while to concentrate on my health, family, the Other Half's business and Christmas. I had planned to continue posting Silent Sunday photos and write a post or two when the mood took me but, once again the Universe just had to step in and make sure I took a proper break.

By blowing up my netbook.

Four days before Christmas.

The cable to the webcam shorted and burned a nice black hole in my screen. The screen itself is simple enough to replace. The cable, however is a whole other kettle of fish. Apparently it's only available from three sources - Acer direct, a supplier in Japan and another in the US - and with a delivery time of 21 working days wherever it came from. Factor in the Xmas/New Year holidays, the inevitable backlog of orders due to aforementioned holidays and the shitty weather that is bound to come in after the holidays and delay everything further still. Then add a dash of my extraordinary (bad) luck when it comes to anything technical. What you end up with is no netbook for best part of a month!

And it is driving me nuts!!

Yes, we have a PC but it's situated in the corner of the room so you have to sit with your back to everyone - not ideal when you have a little one running riot with felt tip pens. Besides which Little Man gets jealous when I have PC on anything other than Cbeebies, Nick Jr or the newly discovered Sesame Street website. 

That was the beauty of the netbook. It was perfectly proportioned for stealth blogging. And stealth tweeting...*

In the evening the PC is reserved exclusively for the Other Half to tweak his website, list stuff on Ebay, read crash.net and play cards. Which is why, of course, I got the netbook in the first place. It allows me to write, edit photographs, build my own website and tweet to my hearts content from the comfort of my sofa. It saves us getting into fisticuffs over keyboard rights and having shouty conversations that begin with "wait until I win a game of Spider Solitaire..."  Not for nothing did I name it 'The Bringer of Peace and Harmony'.

Even if I could get on the PC it can be so slow that I can bath the Little Man and get him to bed in the time it takes to delete that last sentence, and there are so many pictures of bike spares (Ebay fodder) stored on it that the photo editing suite takes about 15 years to load...

So I have been reduced to drafting this post ON PAPER. WITH A PEN.  The idea is that it will only take 15 minutes to transcribe it to Blogger and publish it. I surely should be able to grab 15 minutes at some point during the day. It probably won't be that simple. It never is.**

I wonder if it would be easier to just scan the sheet of A4 and then post as a picture but I fear you may not be able to read the coffee-ring decorated, handwritten scrawl.

And, besides, the scanner doesn't work either...

*Yes, Twitter I have missed you terribly, in case you were wondering.

** It was, actually, surprisingly simple. Apart from the Little Man constantly saying "Are you nearly done yet? Can I go on Cbeebies now?"

#SilentSunday 18/12/11

#SilentSunday 11/12/11

#SilentSunday 04/12/11