Sundara Love

So a friend was having a look through my stash recently and nearly laughed me out of the room when she saw the amount of Sundara yarn that I have. Especially when you consider that I haven't really knitted with much of it. Juju's wedding shawl being the exception.

It's all Jacqueline's fault by the way. I don't think that I had ever even heard of Sundara until Jacqueline talked about her and bought me a skein of her laceweight silk (which is just yumm) and now I am closed to obsessed with her yarns. There's something about the way in which she mixes colours which I think is just amazing. I don't think that I have seen a single one of her yarns that I don't like and wouldn't want to knit with. OK, maybe one or two but so, so few.

I have a bit of a thing for solid and semi solid yarns (her solids aren't quite solid, nearly but not quite). And there is something about this particular one which I just love.

It's called 'Lenten Rose' and was part of the Petals Collection sock club that Sundara ran last year. It arrived, like all of the packages from the club with a lovely pattern and beautiful packaging.

I found myself looking at it and kept thinking that I couldn't bear to knit with it as that would mean that I wouldn't have it any more.

Then it dawned on me that buying yarn to keep it in a box/basket/bag was really rather pointless and I would always be able to find something nearly as nice that I would like that I could buy to replace it.

So I am knitting with it. These are Sundara's Lenten Socks - the pattern came with the yarn and is a very pretty lacy pattern. There was some silk ribbon that came with the socks to tie at the top in a pretty little bow but I have managed to lose that. Luckily there is a VV Rouleaux shop about 10 minutes away from where I work so I shall be getting some more.

I have done the leg of the second sock and am about to turn the heel. With any luck, I'll be done by the end of the week. Yay!

Time to catch up

There's been a lot going on behind the scenes here despite the ongoing silence. I keep promising myself that I am going to get back to blogging regularly but for some reason I just can't seem to discipline myself. However, just in case you were wondering, it is absolutely not a reflection of the amount of knitting that I have been doing, more, I suspect, that I am spending all of my time at work in front of a computer and I am rather loathe to do so at home too.

There's also the fact that nothing looks more like an existing 10 repeats of a lace stole than another 10 repeats. It really does not make for very interesting blogging after the first post and there's still a lot to be done.

I have now done 21 of the required 30 repeats for the Large rectangle in leaf and trellis from Victorian Lace Today and haven't lost the will to live yet so I think I am doing really well.

There are two rows where you decrease 3 stitches into 1 and I see those as my 'goal' rows, trying to make sure that I always get to that one before I put my knitting down. I live in the belief that it makes me knit a few more rows than I intended too.

I have to say that I have seen pictures of a friend's beautiful finished Large rectangle in leaf and trellis has given me the motivation I needed to ensure that I don't put this down and get distracted by something else.

I have some other bits and pieces to share but shall try to keep them for later this week as I would like to blog twice this week. Yes, twice.

Other finished bits

We've been away a fair bit recently and so I haven't been knitting much and I haven't been taking many pics either (tut, tut, I know). So it's time to pull out the pictures that have been sat on my computer for a while waiting for a good blogging opportunity.

Like this one. A long long time ago Polly bought a sweater in a charity shop and unravelled it to make hats for BISS (who have since renamed themselves as the Sailor's Society). And she kindly sent me some of the yarn. Which I duly knitted up.

It was a quick knit and the hat was very cozy. I even thought of keeping it for myself, it was so comfy. Although it was admittedly a bit big for me.

But instead I sent it to the Sailor's Society who sent me a lovely thank you letter. My grandfather was in the Royal Navy during the war and in the merchant navy afterwards so I love helping a sailor!