Obsessive Compulsive Ravelry Disorder

I can be a tad OCD at times. For example my Ravelry projects page... I have been knitting for short enough time to remember all my knits and what I made them with, sadly some of them were given away before Ravelry existed to people I no longer speak to and therefore I can't get a photo of the FO. This ruins my project page. I can't have a blank space where a photo should be! Thankfully this has actually only happened once. The other thing I don't have a photo of is a cushion cover which resides in my mom's kitchen. Her task if she chooses to accept is to take a photo of said cushion cover in a way that best shows off my handy work. My task is to re-knit the hat I gave away in the same yarn and colour just so I can put it on my Rav page. I can be a tad OCD at times... the yarn is bought, the hat will be knit, world order will be restored once more.

On a less crazy note something great has happened on this miserable Friday evening. A new pattern has been let loose on the world. I only discovered it a couple of days ago and I was totally enamoured by it. I can't believe I can have it. The best news is that it's free. This amazing pattern is free. What is it I hear you ask. O W L S by Kate Davies. It's just beautiful. And even better I have yarn for it. Three choices of yarn in fact.



Rowan Chunky



Rowan Chunky



Rowan Rowanspun Chunky

Not entirely which one to choose. The last one is actually a Big Sack Sweater at the moment but it doesn't fit my properly (too short in the body) and I'm ready to re-use it.

Any ideas?

Oh and I bought a knitting magazine. Oops. Oh and I never did get a swift. Ended up thrifting one from a charity shop for £10! Now I just need to get hold of a better ball winder as mine explodes balls...

I resolve to learn to crochet - check

Disaster struck. My ballband dishcloth is no more. I frogged it. I screwed up a stitch. I couldn't even be bothered to photograph it. I also wasn't happy with the right hand edge. It was messy. Everytime I changed colour and picked up the different yarn it just looked messy. I think it was more me doing it wrong then it meant to be looking that way. Anyway I had only a few more rows to go and couldnt bare it any longer. So I frogged and frogged and frogged. I am not one of these knitters who can leave a barely noticeable to a knitter mistake. It will bug me forever. This is why I hardly produced any FO's last year. I did so much frogging! So I'll be casting on for it again this evening.

In other news I've signed up to a couple of courses at Wibbling Wools in Bury St Edmunds.

Crochet for beginners part 1 With Jackie Carreira. This is aimed at the absolute beginner or those in need of refreshing! Starting with the basics such as Foundation chains, Double Crochet & Treble Crochet and tips on holding the hook and yarn. 10am – 1pm including light lunch & refreshments.

Using circular needles and easy Fair Isle With Gillian Fulton. Learn how to keep tension correct and stranding yarns across the back of your work and the benefits of knitting on circular needles with this technique. Suitable for knitters who can follow a pattern. 10am-1pm including light lunch & refreshments.

I'm looking forward to them both. It will be nice to learn to crochet from a real person rather then a book like I did with my knitting. I've picked up some bad habits with my knitting which I am going to try and correct before I do the fairisle course. I'm desperate to learn fairisle, again I could learn from a book but I want to get it right and learn all the tips and tricks the books don't necessarily show you.

The other thing I've gone and done is hopefully sorted out learning to spin. I've found a fellow knitter to come with me (it'd be my first Rav meet up) and we can hopefully go to Knit & Yarn in Bungay where the kind owner Gilly has said we can set something up.

So as you can see I'm keeping myself busy. I haven't been doing to well recently. I'm having new year blues and I don't like it. I just feel like I've wasted the year and not really accomplished much. I suppose I really need to re-evaluate what I feel is an achievement. I've actually 'done' quite a lot of stuff including chainsaw courses, moving house, finding a man who I love dearly, getting a new car and had my first dyeing experience! Need to focus on the positive and stop dwelling on the negative.

On a different note I do believe Rowan Magazine 45 is due out soon. I've had a look and these are the ones I have taken a liking for, some I may even knit up one day. In order: Salvia, Cassis and Ansouis. Not much really is it!