The End is Nigh!!

February Lady Cardigan in progress

Don't worry, not The Rapture again but instead, my February Lady cardigan.  Yes, I have actually cast off the body of this long running saga and made a start on the sleeves so the end is indeed in sight for this project.  I have enjoyed knitting it, once I got into the lace pattern it has gone fairly quickly.  I expect to finish the sleeves over the next couple of weeks but here is a progress picture to be going on with.

I haven't made any more progress on Hampton though because I got caught up in a shawl (more of that later) and a couple of items I needed to knit for a swap I took part in on Ravelry.  I really enjoyed this swap, it's the first one I have ever taken part in and is run by the Outlander fans group on Ravelry.  For the unititiated Outlander is a series of books by Diana Gabaldon about Claire, who after walking into a stone circle in Scotland in 1945, comes out the other side in 1743, her subsequent adventures and relationship with highlander Jamie Fraser.  They are the most compelling and addictive books I have ever read, they just completely suck you into the lives of the characters.  Jamie and Claire have legions of fans who are now anxiously awaiting the completion of book 8 in the series.  Anyhow, this swap as I say, was fun to do, we had to 'stalk' our spoilee (the person we are giving gifts to, hence spoiling) to discover the things they like to wear, eat, knit, other hobbies, favourite colours etc.  The parcel we make up for our spoilee  had to contain certain types of items, a handcrafted gift, some yarn, small things like stitch markers, tape measure etc and any other treats.  For my hand made gifts, I made a cowl and some cotton face cloths.

Nemetona's Cowl

Fraser's Ridge Facecloths

These were both fairly quick and easy to do and I enjoyed choosing the colours that I knew my swappee liked through my Ravelry stalking!

The aforementioned shawl is the other reason I haven't made any progress on poor old Hampton and so, here it is.

Summer Flies Shawl

The pattern is Summer Flies by Donna Griffin of HollyandEllaknits.com.  I knitted it in Sirdar Just Bamboo which is a bamboo tape yarn.  I had my doubts as I was knitting because it seemed to bulky a yarn for a shawl but I have to say that I am delighted with how it turned out.  It is fairly heavy and drapes beautifully, the shape is quite a wide crescent so the fronts of the shawl are fairly long which makes it look lovely from the front as well as the back.  I wore it to go out on Saturday night with a beige/brown patterned dress and got lots of compliments on it so I was thrilled about that.

In other non-knitting news, Patrick and I had another trip down the Real Ale Trail on the train in West Yorkshire a few weeks ago, we have some wine brewing and I have started going running!!  More about that lot in another post I think, so that's about all for now folks.