Tour de France Time Again

Here we are more than half way through the Tour de France and I haven't up dated you on what I'm doing!  How lax of me.

Last year, I joined in with the Tour de France group on Ravelry and did some stash-busting.  I managed to complete 11 items and used up 768g of very old stash.  This year, although I was tempted to just work on one major project for the three week duration of the Tour (the Yellow Jersey), I decided that my stash-busting mission is still very much ongoing, so I should repeat last year's endeavours, sprint for the line and go for the Points Jersey (the Green Jersey).

So far I have made three pigeons!

Two Coasters using my Eveline's Motif Pattern.

A pair of very red socks.

A colourful meditation mandala.  I made this up as I went along - great fun.

Some pretty bunting using my Daisy Chain Bunting Pattern.

Three coat hangers, incorporating my Floral Embellishment Pattern.

I'm currently working on a shawl.  It has an applied lacy border and I'm just over a quarter of the way along the edge.

I've also recently cast on some mittens and I'm hoping to fit in a few more small items and another shawl!  I've only got until 24th July, so time is of the essence.

Last month, I finished two more pairs of socks whilst watching the European Championships (congrats to Portugal).  Usually I only knit one pair of socks from each of the 100g of sock yarn I have, but because I prefer to knit ankle socks, I find that I have about 45g leftover.  So, these two pairs of socks are knitted with the same yarn, but for the second pair, I have knitted contrast toes, heels and cuffs.  This used but virtually the whole of the 100g, so I was pleased with this.  For both these pairs of socks, I again used the Sockmatician's Toe Up recipe, which is now firmly confirmed as one of my favourite recipes.

I entered my four pairs of socks that I knitted up during the Euros into The Sockmaticians Toe Up KAL and whilst watching his latest podcast I was very excited to hear my name mentioned and find out that I had won a skein of fingering weight yarn - Thank you so much Nathan.

This weekend, besides the Tour de France, we will also be watching the first cricket test match between England and Pakistan, the Open Golf from Troon and there's also some darts on.  It's hard work being a sports fan!  At least I should make excellent progress with the shawl.

Until next time, happy crafting to you all.

The Tour de France and my July Socks

At the moment I'm alternating between watching the Ashes cricket and the Tour de France.  Why is it that all the good sport seems to come all at once or not at all?  Anyway, as I always say, sport on television is ideal for getting in plenty of knitting time.

This year I have joined in with the Tour de France KAL on Ravelry.  Different challenges are allocated to the different colour jerseys.  I've chosen to join in with the green jersey (the points jersey) challenge which is to use up as much stash as possible during the three weeks of the Tour.  

My socks for July were made using some double knitting yarn leftover from a jumper I knitted Grace a few years ago, so in terms of stash, it definitely needed busting.  

So this is my first project to count towards my green jersey challenge.  

I started the socks on Saturday, first day of the Tour.  The pattern is Blueberry Waffle socks but it's difficult to see much of the texture in these photos.

A lovely easy (free) pattern to knit, perfect for speed knitting, keeping in time with the cyclists!  You can see full details of this project over on Ravelry, here.  

Now I'm moving on to my scrumptious pink shawl, also started on Saturday.  This will take a bit longer to knit up, but plenty of race watching time over the next two weeks should see me through.  

All this sport is keeping me in shape, or it would do if it wasn't for the chocolate bar I've just chomped my way through!  Oops!

Bye for now.

And It's Over in the Blink of an Eye

The three weeks of the Tour de France just flew by.  I've spent the time, whilst watching the cycling, concentrating on my stash busting and I'm pleased to say that it's been an enjoyable three weeks.

In my previous blog post, I showed you the first six projects I had completed.  I'm pleased to say that I managed to complete another six projects by the end of the Tour.  That's one better that last year.

I blitzed the Schmancy Shawl that I had started knitting.  It blocked up beautifully.  For this project I was using up some frogged Rowan 4 ply.  You can see full details of this project on Ravelry, here.

The edging blocked out beautifully and I love the drape of the shawl.

The next project completed was a crocheted basket.  I had two balls of rather rough cotton which I used doubled and it created the perfect fabric for the basket.

Next, some mittens.  I used some beige 4 ply for the cuff lining and the main body of each mitten was knitted using some unidentified yarn that I had picked up in the charity shop very cheaply.  These should be lovely and snug when it gets colder.

Some leftover angora yarn made a colourful and fluffy yarn bag.

And some leftover lace weight wool & silk yarn became a mini shawl and a doily.

In total I used 603g.  This was less than last year but in my defence, I was using much finer yarns than last year, so I reckon the yardage used this year was higher than last year.

So all in all, I'd say that Chris Froome and I have had a very successful 2016 Tour de France.

With all this successful stash busting, I'm joining in with Linda's Stash Buster Party once again.  I must admit, it has been a great incentive to me over the last few months and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel (or even the craft room).  Next month it will be six months since I had my stash weigh in and I'm planning on getting the scales out again to see how I am progressing.  At the moment I reckon I have busted over 6kg of stash, which is one third of my starting total.  I have a few works in progress that I'm hoping to get off the needles in the next few weeks and reduce the total even further.

In other news, we had a lovely weekend down in London visiting Eve.  We went down on Friday and came home yesterday.  The weather was hot and sticky but we manged to get out and about with Eve every day.  We had a great trip to Greenwich on Saturday - so much to see and great views across the river to Canary Wharf.

It was lovely to see Eve again and to be able to explore more of London.  There's still so much more we'd like to visit, so plenty more trips down to London  are definitely on the cards.

Well the Tour de France may be over, but we have the Olympics to look forward to very shortly.  I haven't decided if I'm going to do a themed knitting and crocheting challenge for this, but whatever I decide, I'll be glued to the television for the duration!

Have a good week.  See you soon.

Campside Shawl

Hi everyone,  I hope you're having a great weekend.  I'm just back from a relaxing holiday in Shropshire.

We stayed in Church Stretton, as last year, and enjoyed some lovely walks in the mountains and around the town.

And the Sun shone eventually.

I must admit we didn't do as much walking as last year because, the first cricket test match and the Tour de France were on television.  So whilst the amount of walking was reduced, the knitting time was significantly increased.

I've already shown you the socks I knitted last week.  I wore them on one of our treks into the mountains and they were a great fit.  During the holiday, I also knitted up a shawl.

The pattern is Campside by Alicia Plummer, a free download on Ravelry.

I've been trying to find a pattern for this yarn, which I bought quite some years ago.  It's very pink, which doesn't bother me, I'm a pink girl, but every time I started knitting something, it just didn't feel right so I ripped it out.  Finally, I thought I would try this pattern.  Grace is knitting it and hers looked great.  I must say, this shawl is just perfect for the yarn, it's a merino mix, lovely and soft and great definition for the eyelets pattern.

This isn't the true colour.  The first two pics are more accurate.

I haven't blocked it yet, I was too impatient to get photos, so I'm hoping that the kite shape will become more triangular.  Full details of my project and yarn used can be seen on my Ravelry pattern page, here.

It's such a relief to get this yarn out of the stash pile, it's been haunting me for a while.  This project counts as one of my stash busting projects for the Tour de France KAL.  I'm so busy stash busting for this KAL that my other KALs and CALs are falling behind.  Next up it's some fingerless mittens with some leftover sock yarn.  I hoping to see a significant reduction in the stash by the end of the Tour.  An excellent opportunity to then go out and buy some more yarn!

Far Too Busy

I've no time for housework, the cleaning will have to wait.  Washing and ironing activities have been suspended.  I may just about have time to whip up a quick meal later.

I've no time for any of these things, because I'm far too busy.  Today the second test match between England and Australia started.  Also today, the Open Golf Tourament from St Andrews is underway.  And on top of that, we're only half way through the Tour de France.  I can't possibly fit everything in, but I'll do the best I can.  Heaven only knows how I'll manage at the weekend when the Darts World Matchplay Championship starts.

One thing is for certain, I will be watching one sport or another on the television non-stop for the next few days.  And we all know what that means - plenty of knitting time!

I'm continuing with my stash busting KAL for the duration of the Tour de France.  Here are the latest projects completed, this little lot made with the leftovers from my Wood pigeon Socks.  

First up are these snug mittens.

I made another of my Handy Dandy Sock Yarn Bags, they're so useful.

And with the tiny amount of yarn left (I can't bear to throw any away) I made a mini sweater.

Next up, a warm hat with some tweedy Aran that's been kicking around for a while.  Despite the fact that I've suspended work on all my other projects, I'm really enjoying this stash busting KAL.  I should do this on a regular basis.  Anyway, I need to go now and concentrate on the golf, or should I switch back to the golf or cycling!!!  I don't want to miss any of it.

Tour de France - Stage 2

Yes, we were there.  The second stage of the 2014 Tour de France went from York to Sheffield yesterday, so we took ourselves over to Sheffield to stay with Grace and to join in the celebrations.

The city centre was buzzing with activity.  There were many dance and musical performances at various spots.    

The Peace Gardens had a giant screen showing the race.

And we managed to find a good view of the race itself, just by the 10 km to go banner.

There was a parade of cars prior to the arrival of the cyclists.  Some were giving away freebies.

Look what I got!

As expected, the cyclists went past as such a speed it that was difficult to spot our favourite riders, let alone photograph them.

But it was a fun occasion and I'm glad we were there.

We'll be watching all the remaining stages on the television at home, which will definitely provide a better view but will probably be lacking in atmosphere - bring out the yellow bunting!