'KNIT NATION' 2010......HERE WE COME!

Well hello! All happy and relaxed today as school has finally wound up for the year. HOORAY! Five and a half weeks of relaxation; now that sounds really good, even though I know it will quickly fly by. I don't have too much planned for the summer, except for a family holiday in Yorkshire during August and lots of pottering around at home and catching up with friends. My ideal holiday!

Oh..... but there is one more little exciting outing planned too. My great friend Josiekitten and I are off to 'Knit Nation' in London. We are leaving early on Friday morning and returning late on Saturday evening. I love train journeys! It's being held at Imperial College, in South Kensington, an area of London we already know well from our Promming expeditions. It's so exciting! Knitters and spinners from  far flung corners of the world are attending. We have booked into two courses; one on finishing techniques with Ann Hanson and the second on advanced sock techniques, with Marjan Hammink.

Needless to say, I had paid very little attention to what had to be prepared prior to attending the classes, so came in for quite a shock on Friday evening. For the sock class, participants have to be used to knitting using the Magic Loop method. I've never used it!!!! So, armed with an 80cm 2.5mm circular, a simple 'Magic Loop Socks' pattern , a ball of Trkking XXL from my stash and a 'You Tube' tutorial, I sat down to make sense of what seemed like like a pretty senseless way of sock knitting.

 I LOVE using my DPNs! However, after knitting about a centimetre of the first sock, I had the hang of it and it is pretty simple. The  cable gets in the way a little and it's quite hard to avoid ladders, but so far so good. I really like the yarn patterning. I'm going to continue with the loop to complete this pair and will probably be taking them with me to work on whilst in London.

For the finishing class we have to make quite a few squares (I still have these to do) and take a garment, ready for finishing. I've decided to start a very simple baby cardi for Sophie, that hopefully won't take too long to knit up. Again, I'm using some Trekking XXL from stash. Yes, I'm now feeling very smug..... two balls used up from stash in one week! There'll be some remnants for my 'Sock Yarn Blankie' too and some for Josiekitten.

Again, the patterning is really pretty. I do love using these 4ply self-patterning yarns for plain socks and baby clothes.Hopefully, all will be completed in time and we'll enjoy a fab knitty weekend. I'll show you what we got up to next Sunday.

I'll just leave you with a photo of the boys, Oscar and Scott, taken last week whilst our daughter-in-law was staying for a few days.

'My hero! Do you love me Scott?' I think he does!

Have a great week!