WIP Wednesday & Yarn Along

This, as it turns out, is going to be a massive post.  I'll list the WIP and other crafty stuff first for those who don't want to see the other stuff!  You'll have to forgive the not great photos for the WIPs, I woke up this morning with a blurry eye and it hasn't shifted.

February Lady Sweater is really starting to get me down.  I think it's time for another break from it.  It was going really well, until I watched Paul while working on it, and I messed it up.  And then again when I watched The Green Hornet and worked on it.  I didn't even notice until I was few rows passed the mistakes, both times.  I am getting quite close to the end though, since I've decided I won't be doing sleeves.  

I think I just need a week or two doing something different, so I'm going to try working on Lizard Ridge - for realz this time!  Either that, or actually knit the hat I've been promising Jitterbug for the past 2 years.

Next up, Brownstone!

I am really pleased with the progress now.  Before we left, I managed to get the sleeves attached, and I've since knit about an inch since then.  The rows are quite long now, but another 3 inches and I can start the decreases for the shoulders!

I should get a fair bit done this month, Jitterbug is out a couple of nights, I'll be at Stitch n Bitch, then he is away for a week at the end of the month.  The next major problem I foresee with this is where am I going to block it?!!?

I already shared a crap photo of the embroidery thread I brought home, so here is a good one.

I plan on doing this:

Crafting Shelves by This Tiny Existence caught my attention a while back, and now I just need to get some black cotton in 2 sizes and I can start!  It'll have to wait until next month as I splurged quite a bit this month :S

Some lovely lovely yarns!  The Alpaca is for mittens, the Karisma for hats probably, and the Malabrigo Sock for a scarf.  I do love me some red!  I bought these from The Yarn Cake, in Glasgow.  We went on a Thursday night which is their knit night and they were getting Japanese takeaway just as we went in - smelled delicious!

I bought these from a friend, Kerry, who I 'met' recently (through Google+ games in fact!).  She and her husband run an etsy shop, Dye Spin Knit.  They do some lovely colours and blends, as well as mini-skein bundles and clubs (clubs sold out for this month, but email her and she may add a custom listing for you, and may also do custom dyes and colourgroups!) for the Hexipuffing addicts amongst you!  She really is so lovely, a really nice person; she offered to hold on to these for me until pay day, then held off posting them until I got back from Scotland!  I'll be buying more from them in the future I'm sure.

For more WIP Wednesdays, and more Yarn Alongs

Check out these buttons I got!

I found these in town when we were in Falkirk.  The ones on the bottom left came to £2 in a charity shop, the other came to £2 from a market stall!!  Hundreds of them!!!!  Not many different kinds, but enough to keep me happy  :)

I had a blast in Scotland.  I always do, but the week passed so quickly I barely got any photos!  We didn't do anything huge, just spent time with my family, having fun.  The fun fair came to town last weekend, so we took them on a few rides.

On the baby ferris wheel with my mum

"CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE"

See those scabs?  She fell down stairs!

They had an absolute blast!  Bubba seems to be quite the thrill seeker and went on a couple of adult rides with us too (he just scraped by on the height!).  

The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot Bubba is sporting a new short(er)-do.  

Bubba 3 months ago

I don't remember if I wrote about his last hair-cut he had in Billingshurst, but it left me incredibly angry.  Even thinking about it makes my blood boil.  My mum commented on his hair when we were in Scotland and suggested we take him to her hairdresser, Anthony.  Everyone in my family at some point has had their haircut by Anthony, so I know he can cut hair, and I know that it grows out very nicely too.  I am so happy with the hair cut now.  It's shorter than we'd like, but it was needed and now we can concentrate on getting his hair healthy and grow it back out into a long style.  I won't take him anywhere else now for a haircut, every 4 months when we go to Scotland we can take him to Anthony.  He was also the first hairdresser Bubba didn't play up for, and loved him.  Gremlin will get hers done in December when we are up!

My sister also came through from Glasgow for a couple of days.  I was going to teach her to crochet, but we got distracted by my nails.  She runs a small business, Pinky & Perky, and does manicures and nail art.  My nails are pretty big, so she told me to grow them so she could do a few designs on them.  

I forgot to get photos of another design she did, but I actually found myself enjoying the process.  I love the newspaper print one!  I have such an appreciation for the time that goes into nail art now!  She threaded my eyebrows too, and wow did that hurt but the results were amazing!

UPDATE: Found my sister photo of the missing nails!

I also managed to find a huge sewing box on legs in one of the charity shops there which we brought back down, but I'll save those photos for when I've given it a bit of a clean and a paint job.  I also need to repair my current one so will do them both at the same time.

I've not managed much reading lately, since Gremlin broke my lit Kindle cover.  I am still waiting for the light I ordered for the new cover, they sent the wrong thing initially.  It should be here this week though!  I'm finding very easy teenage fiction great for the late nights right now!  I just finished the House of Night series and it was pretty good!  I'm reading The Alchemyst right now and it is also really good, but I can't pin it down to adult or teenage fiction.  I think adult, based on the cover lol.