I am using the **** Snazzy Trampoline Socks Pattern **** to make them that I wrote back on 25th June this year to make the basic shape and then will add a white furry bit at the top and an i-cord hanging down with a couple of pom poms.

Every year my children make Advent Boxes to put out for the Advent Fairies on December 1st. Each morning of Advent they wake up to a small surprise inside their decorated boxes. Sometimes it is a sweet or some chocolate, and sometimes it might be a small puzzle or other type of thing for them to do that morning. This is a very special tradition that I started when Joseph was tiny and have carried it on right the way through and now it is being passed on to baby Harvey.

So this year they will have stockings to decorate and put their names on. I have assembled a box of craft type items, small pom poms, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, metallic cord, sequins, feathers and some other small bits and pieces that they can use to glue or sew on tothe stockings to personalise them. These will then be kept and added to every year from now on. Everyone is excited about this so I hope I can get all eight of them finished in time for the end of November.

On Christmas Morning the boxes / stockings are usually filled to bursting with fruits, sweets, special little things that they each like. This enables my husband and I to have a lie in past the crack of dawn before the sun is even up on Christmas morning as the children dive into their advent goodies that the fairies have left them and dont go to the presents under the tree until we have woken up. Which makes everything all lovely and nice each year.

who is currently reliving her childhood making spiders, ghosts and other delicious halloween spooky things :)

I love this website, the kids and me have gotten loads of info and ideas from it over the last couple of years.

When I came home and showed Angelica she suggest I knit up a sample in some scrap yarn from the stash then use the real quality designer stuff to make the pair if this works. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Going for a rest now, hospital trips always take a lot out of me, then when I get up will try and knit up my sketch in some acrylic yarn to see how it turns out.

There are pages upon pages of pretty girly shoes for baby girls but hardly anything for boys and nothing loom knitted that I could find. So I feel quite excited about these.

I have googled the plants and they are called "Scindapsus aureus - Also known as Epipremnum aureum - Devil's Ivy - Rhaphidophora aurea"

Pictures to follow later but I am made up with these. I used to water them when he lived next door sometimes when they went on holiday or were away for the weekend visiting family in various parts of the UK.

Now they are huge and really healthy looking, just right for the kitchen, nice and bold. I love them.

Colin said he thought they would look fab when he was standing in their Friday evening and Pat was painting while they were chatting. I wasnt actually expecting him to bring them and give them to me but he has and I am delighted. Now I need to locate two stands for them so they will look pretty hanging down over the edge of them. Might have to put up special platforms for them that can take more weight than the stands allow. Will have to see but for now, they are just fabulous.

**** Click here to read the specs of the Wonder Sock Loom EFG ****

"The Wonder Sock Loom is the perfect choice for loom knitters who want to knit socks for the entire family and do not want to spend a fortune getting each individual round sock loom. One loom to create all the sock sizes from tiny baby size to an adult man."

Isela launched this new loom on the DA Looms Blog today with an entry that can be read **here** in the Loomylicious Tidbits Blog Page

I have to say that Anna makes some of the best looking knitted toys I have ever seen. They are just so unique and so fab, I just love them - so did Ivan which was the plan.

He picked one of the Free patterns available by Anna, The Toilet Roll

**** Free Pattern Available Here ****

""Who doesn’t need a roll of knitted toilet paper? Great as a bathroom gag, an unconventional scarf, or the perfect Halloween costume: a toilet-papered tree!""

Quite right too, so Ivan and me raided my stash to see what we had that could be used for this super project.

He picked some Rowan Tweed in a sort of taupe fleck shade for the tube, some white DK for the paper although a little while ago Angelica produced her large ball of Rowan Tweed in a paler shade than the one Ivan has used for the tube which will probably be idea for the paper. It has tiny black flecks all over it so the paper will have some pattern to it when it is knitted up.

Ivan chose to use the 12 peg Knifty Knitter Flower Loom for his project as it is easy to hold and simple for him to work with.

Knifty Knitter Looms Yahoo Group
I am one of the Moderators of this group where you will find a wealth of information, FREE patterns and ideas.

Loom Knitting with Anne Bipes
A fantastic blog with very clear, large photographs with instructions on the basics and how to get started with different stitches

Decor Accents Inc
Looms for sale, video tutorials including how to do cables on the knitting looms, instructions and patterns, well worth a look

Loom Knitters Classrom Yahoo Group
Different projects actually taught every week or two weeks. Absolutely brilliant for beginners and experienced loomers to knit the same projects at the same time. A wealth of information, most patterns are free too which makes it a lot easier to get started without financial outlay if you just want to try something.

Knitting Without Needles by Denise Layman
Another brilliant blog packed with ideas, patterns, information, tutorials and more. Absolutely well worth a look.

There are hundreds of sites available now online for loom knitters but these are the ones which keep updating regularly and have taught me the most so I thought I would share them tonight as pastorbear has asked me about what looms to use etc. Hope this helps.

My order is for nine looms and Cindy put in a couple of freebies too, the mini loom and project book, that is so kind. Plus she took off a further 10% off the total bill despite the prices being so reasonable in the first place.

My order is for :
Combo 4 pc Adult Small to Medium set 40, 30, 20, 10 pegs 3/4 inch gauge
Adult Large hat 42 peg 3/4 inch gauge
Youth hat 34 peg 3/4 inch gauge
Adult Hat 59 peg half inch gauge
Adult Large 66 pegs half inch gauge
Youth Large, Round 55 pegs half inch gauge

I am very excited about this. Been feeling so useless lately inside. Each time I have tried to do something creative besides cooking I have felt so horrible because my hands go all stiff, I feel like my head is pounding and as a result of feeling so weak by the time I do get to sit down to do anything like my knitting crafts, my eyes start playing me up as well and I cant see to do the fine gauge looms any more. It has been very difficult for me to even manage the simplest things on the looms these past three weeks and it is getting very upsetting now. When my hubby suggested buying some more in a different gauge slightly closer together pegs than the knifty knitter looms but a larger gauge than the fine gauge looms I couldnt believe it. He is so kind and supportive. Yesterday after he paid for the looms he looked at me and said "you look really excited" even though I didnt say anything at all except to thank him. I was nervous about this order because he asked me what I wanted and in between painting and fixing up the new kitchen in preparation of delivery for the new units and cooker, he sat down during the night with the list of looms I was interested in, changed it about a bit to make sure that there was no doubles and then showed it to me. I then changed a couple, took one out and added the combo set. Then he contacted the lady again and did the deal. I am still in complete shock about all of this, not used to having any money just spent on me just like that in the middle of the week. It all seems so out of the ordinary and out of the blue but feels kind of happiness inducing at the same time, which is just lovely.

Last night I contacted the lady who sells me all the designer yarns at extremely reasonable prices and asked her advice about yarn suggestions for Pat's special beanie hat that I can now make when the looms arrive. I explained that I hadnt been able to make a hat for him yet in one piece as using two strands of yarn as one was making the hat a little too thick for him to enjoy wearing especially in the car whilst driving. I want something a bit slinky so it drapes well but soft enough for his bald head so it doesnt get scratchy underneath the top. I showed her some photographs of the pinwheel clothes I have been making for the kitchen from Isela Phelps's pattern and told her that design will probably be the top of the hat so it sits nicely on the head rather than having to be pulled down too much. Diane, the yarn lady, said that she had some Adriafil - a good quality Italian yarn - the name of this particular wool is Regina Classic in a lovely dark charcoal almost black shade. I have no idea what it looks like but when she suggested I send her £5 for 400g of it, I jumped at the chance. She has put it in with my parcel to send today and I have her card and envelope all ready to go when my husband finally retreats from the shower this morning. I think that was an amazing bargain as I looked up the yarn and it sells for around £5-6 each ball.

Being such a productive, busy person in the past and normally, I am finding it extremely difficult to cope with not being able to use my hands much in the way I am used to doing, my eyes hurt a lot of the time and I feel all stiff and in a tremendous amount of pain across and around the sides of my abdomen area. I am flatly refusing to let this beat me though and even though I need another operation to put things right I am forcing myself to do things. Even simple dishcloths are proving a challenge right now but last night I got through half of one on the green knifty knitter so I felt quite proud. I even taught myself how to do the cable cast on using just my fingers as I cant hold the crochet hook properly at the moment. I was very happy with my efforts last night and hope that I can do more of the same today if my body will allow me to. It feels like a constant argument between myself and my body. I feel like I have been invaded and taken over by something that I dont like very much and am having a hard time of it at the moment. I am sure things will get better after the operation but waiting for that to happen is destroying me day by day.

I have my Christmas list that I am working my way through as well. Nearly finished one set of items so that makes me feel quite proud too as it was a struggle to even start them.

Not to be deterred though, I got out a white King Cole Premier Value DK and will use that and the two balls of cotton, so three strands together on the red round knifty knitter to make my tea towel.

I have a waffle type stitch worked out in my mind to give some texture to the finished piece and just want to knit something as I promised myself that I would do some this weekend as I havent picked up my knitting all week.

Sixties Style by Judith Miller

This new book arrived this morning and glancing through it this evening I was reminded that I didnt find any tea towels for the new kitchen yet. So I have decided to knit them myself with cotton yarn in bright shades of the sixties era: yellow gold, bright orange, purple, pink, red, turquoise and chocolate. I couldnt wait until I had a chance to source some cotton yarn as I have never bought any before.

I have found some Rowan 4ply Cotton in yellow, orange and lilac that I want to buy tomorrow. I think these will look great if I can get them, maybe make a flower power towel or something. Lots of inspiration in the book though so I wont be short of ideas once I get through all the photographs.

I really want this book and would you believe it, they have it on Amazon UK as well much to my surprise :)

You must read Stephanie's blog entry about this book, I was moved by it.

Yarn Harlot's Blog entry "September 15, 2008
It's all the scary part"

Free-range knitter: The yarn harlot writes again by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Product Description
". . . a sort of David Sedaris-like take on knitting--laugh-out-loud funny most of the time and poignantly reflective when it's not cracking you up." --Library Journal on Yarn Harlot
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee returns to pen another hilarious and poignant collection of essays surrounding her favorite topics: knitting, knitters, and what happens when you get those two things anywhere near ordinary people.

For the 60 million knitters in America, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot) shares stories of knitting horrors and triumphs, knitting successes and defeats, but, mostly, stories about the human condition that ring true for everyone--especially if you happen to have a rather large amount of yarn in your house.

Pearl-McPhee maintains a popular blog at www.yarnharlot.ca. Divided into sections relating to each essay's content, such as women, politics, family, and overcoming boredom, Free-Range Knitter will entertain yarnsmiths who enjoy sharing in the collective experiences of the woolen and silky skein.

*** What A Kool Way To Dye (link will only work for Ravelry members) ***

Looks really good so thought some of you might like to check it out and incase you were wondering why I was searching online instead of soaking the wool for the children ? Well silly me, I have the Kool-Aid, the natural undyed wool, gloves, black plastic bin bags and newspaper but I forgot the cling film for the microwave part. So I thought we would get that today and soak the wool later to do either tonight or tomorrow. Ho hum.

100% Alpaca handspun in Bolivia

500g Milk Chocolate Brown
500g Dark Chocolate Brown
630g Creamy Ivory

cassandramalfoy

BFL wool in the US

Let me know what you think.

The company I use if you want to take a look is here :

Bluefaced UK

I am also very keen on organic merino fibre so might be worth having a look at this as well because you mentioned alpaca to me the other day and I have seen some on their website today :

So, there are two options:
I can finish knitting the other flouncey triangle piece which is knitted from teh neck cuff down and then try and work out some sort of different shaped back, or I can unravel and start again knitting in a different stitch combination to that of what I am currently using.

I have used garter stitch for the edging and neck then the Z stitch for the main bulk of the shape. The resulting fabric is closely woven together around the enter edge of the long triangle with a ruffled flouncy middle section. The piece is attached to half the neck piece and the other half of the neck piece is still on the loom. It looks pretty as a shape and would be great as the front of a small cardigan. I would need twice the amount of yarn if I were to turn this into a cardigan but I didnt want to spend that amount of money on it. The Noro Silk Mountain yarn was a real bargain in the first place so I dont want to turn this into something ridiculously expensive now.