Scarf progress :)

I’m off to a good start with the scarf. The Elenya yarn is delightful to use and the pattern is easy to remember. I’m working alternate stripes of each colour and they’re blending very nicely.

Three Irish Girls Elenya

My Three Irish Girls Stash of Elenya 50%Alpaca/50%Merino. When I saw the Multi-colourway was called Fiona I just had to have it

I also ordered a matching cerise and pumpkin orange.

My plan was to use it for a felted project… but it’s absolutely perfect for the Feather & Fan scarf I’m trying out from the Beautiful Knits for Heads, Hands & Toes book… my December book review.

So now I’ve 3 projects on the go… Haggis the highland cow, Finn’s Christmas stocking & the Feather & Fan scarf. The scarf is knitted… which is something I’ve not done in years!

I’ve always been an extremely slow knitter so it will be interesting to see if I’m any faster these days. I’ll post my review at the end of the month with photos of how far I’ve got… as somehow I don’t think it will be finished in 3 wks

We’re on holiday :)

We managed to make it up to Edinburgh in one go on Thursday after all as Finn was loving being in the big hire car! The journey up took us about 9 1/2 hours… including quite a few long breaks & wasn’t too bad at all. We’re loving being back in Scotland again & even though we moved down south in 2004 it still feels like home to us. Although both me & Paul had forgotten how the north easterly wind makes it feel colder than expected and proved we’ve definitely acclimatised to the warmer southern climes.

Our first trip out on Friday am was to the local doctor as Paul’s back had gone into spasm loading the car Thursday am & got worse on the journey up. When we woke up on Friday am he could hardly bend to get dressed let alone walk… The doctor says it’s muscular and will take a few days at least to ease off & prescribed some codine/paracetamol & ibuprofen tablets for the pain. So we’ve taken it easy and just pottered about visiting a few old haunts, catching up with friends & doing a bit of shopping.

Of course no holiday would be complete without me hunting out new yarn shops… and I was keen to pop into k1YARNS that I discovered on Ysolda Teague’s blog a while ago. When I lived in Edinburgh this shop didn’t exist and I knew from their website that they stocked the Artesano alpaca 4ply I fancied trying…

I was quite restrained and only bought one type of yarn I hadn’t planned… the Noro. I bought one Noro ball as it is a 70% wool/30% Nylon mix and I’m not sure if it will felt. It’s quite loose spun & the label says 30 degree wash so I’m hopeful. The Artesano alpaca feels wonderfully soft and the multi colour twist effect will be stunning when felted. I’ll have a go at felting them when I get home let you know what happens.

Haggis the highland cow has come on holiday too & his shaggy hair is coming along nicely…. but that’s for the next post & don’t forget you have two chances of winning the finished pdf pattern on my competition page…

We’re off to Loch Lomond Tuesday for the next leg of our trip… keep your fingers crossed the weather holds