Liberty

Last night I made my very first trip to Liberty haberdashery. Everyone always raves about it and my roommate from Uni recommended it. Somehow though I'd never made it there. I started knitting not long before we moved to the wilds of the Fens and since we moved north of Cambridge London seems so far away and our frequent trips just died off. Liberty called me down but I felt that I could not justify a trip. All I can say now if why, oh why did I not go sooner. What a wonderful department it is. So much yarn in such a small space (JL should definitely take note), all so neatly arranged and such gorgeous colours.
Unfortunately having done my Christmas shopping this month there was no spare knitting money to treat myself with. But I did finally manage to find a 10mm crochet hook. Pampas requires this for finishing (not that I'm anyway near that point) but I couldn't find one for love nor money. Mum had even offered to scour Scotland for one for me as it was looking so desperate. I should have known Liberty wouldn't let me down.
I also got another couple of goodies. Every year we each get a new bauble for the Christmas tree, a tradition started by my family, and Liberty's Christmas shop gave us plenty of choice. Our Christmas tree started off very gold from the cheap baubles we got when we first got our own tree but after 5 years it looking much more multicoloured and cheery. I also bought a Advent calendar card for my mum as she always sends us a calendar each so we thought she should have one of her own. And hubbie treated to me a lavender sachet in Liberty fabric as a special wee treat.

On the knitting front I have been doing some but not nearly enough. My sister's scarf is over half done on the knitting front and I think I've mastered how to crochet (well I hope so). This weekend will be spent finishing that and hopefully finishing the 2nd glove for my old roommate's Christmas pressie. Then perhaps I can start on my Kim Hargreaves kit as well as getting my mum's hot water cover going again.

Rush hour traffic vs knitting - the ultimate battle!

Last weekend I had great fun ordering more knitting stuff. It's not like I don't have enough on the go at the moment (and even more just started, or ripped, or about to be started projects under the bed) but I decided to knit the Rooster flower scarf for my sister for Christmas and hey, if I was paying for postage for one item I might as well buy everything I wanted at once. So a reasonable sized order was placed. I had also been drooling over several Kim Hargreaves kits and as I didn't get to go to Ally Pally and see all the exciting things and pretty yarn my lovely hubbie decided to treat me to one. Another order was placed. And the waiting began. I am a VERY impatient person and don't do waiting so I was so excited when I received an email from Kathleen Hargreaves on Monday saying my kit had been sent: Sunday ordered, Monday in the post, Tuesday here, Wednesday collect from depot- perfect for an impatient person. Then I received an email from Get Knitted, my parcel was in the post - yippee, 2 parcels to collect!

But no, one minor flaw - I forgot that I live in Cambridgeshire and work in Hertfordshire and have the joy of getting around Cambridge at rush hour to get to the Royal Mail depot to collect my package. Well I reasoned with myself it's 30 miles and I had 1hr 15mins between finishing work and the depot closing, of course I could make it. Ha, the universe thought, it's not going to be that easy (my family are jinxed but more of that another time). On Wednesday I ran out of work, made hubbie jump in the car as I zoomed passed the park and ride and headed northwards. The parcels were in my reach. And then the M11 came to a complete standstill. No, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The only option was to cut through Cambridge and hope that there would be no traffic in town (yeah right, Eilidh). At this point I lost all hope and despite a whole lot of false-hoping and rushing I only arrived home, 5 miles from the depot, after it had closed.
Finally today I managed to collect my parcels and here they are.

The Kim Hargreaves kit to make Ruby. I really like this cardi. It reminds me of one I had in my late teens that made me feel all grown up. I chose the Rosso red yarn. I really wanted it in the discontinued Spanish Red and from all the swatch pictures Rosso looked far more pinky coloured. Thanks to the Rowanettes who help me out and reassured me that it was a nice scarlet red and not a "scary colour" as I had feared. Now I have received it I'm really happy with my choice.

And my other parcel. It contained the Rooster scarf kit. It's a gorgeous scarf and my sister will love it but there's just one problem. I've not crocheted in ~15yrs. I have no recollection of how to and I'm a bit worried I won't be able to learn again in time. I remember at Guides it was much easier than knitting so surely if I've relearnt to knit, crocheting won't beat me.

Also in the package was Louisa Harding Winter Muse Classics book (the jumper on the front in my current favourite colour, cerise, sold it to me), a glove kit so I can make subtley stripey gloves for hubbie, some Knit Klips that I hope will help sewing up the currently abandoned Pampas, and my first 2 pairs of Addi Turbo circular needles (ready and waiting for when I have time to make Grumperina's Picovoli.