dreamcatcher

Thanks for the birthday wishes folks! It has been a lovely day today, we got up amazingly early for a Sunday, being as it was so warm. I received several knitterly items as presents - Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears", a 30" cord for the Denise needles and the extras set which has more short cords, end pieces etc. I also got the Rowan 37 pattern book. Other prezzies were DVDs - the 4-disc Titanic collectors edition, Subway, Repo Man and Bleak House. Quite a varied wee collection there :-) DH will buy his main present to me while we are on holiday, with luck, a piece of Whitby Jet jewellery.

I might be able to finish Tulip today. Last night I knitted the second front piece, and did a spectacularly idiotic thing while watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on DVD (loved it, Johnny Depp was great as WW). I managed to do the shaping at the top on the wrong side :-D Sooo there I was, unpicking rows with K2togs, P2togs and cast-off stitches. If nothing else I am getting better at correcting mistakes. This afternoon I started on the rest of the back, it seems to be going quite quickly so we will see if I end up taking this on holiday, or finishing it when I return:

The picture came out at a slightly odd angle, hence the left front piece looks bigger than the right (not so in reality). This is taken from the back by the way! The Russian Joins are more visible than I would have liked, lesson learnt with cotton I think. It's so unforgiving I doubt there is any form of join that wouldn't be slightly visible. I was probably better with my original method on this :-) I'd definitely use the RJ on other fibres, especially wool, though.

I've already packed my Simply Knitting bag with a few small projects to take away :-) Hoping to finish Odessa, and also have a go at a bag in Colinette Point 5 to felt.

I've taken some pictures in the garden this weekend, here's one that I've also made into desktop wallpaper in case anyone would like it :-) It's a Mesembryanthemum that we bought in Cornwall a couple of years ago. It spends the winter in the frost-free greenhouse, but this year it has really gone to town in flowering. I hadn't seen the flowers open until yesterday, as they open up in the morning and are closed again by late afternoon: