Knitting progress

While looking for things to keep me occupied while I was procrastinating other, more urgent and important things (as you do), I experimented a bit more with knitting. I ventured to a couple of about.com and Wikihow articles to see if they could help me figure out pattern reading and a few basics, but just found myself even more confused. So I gave them a miss and had a go at seeing what I could work out for myself.

Trial and error eventually produced various kinds of ribbing, which I then used to make these fingerless mittens:

They're just right for driving and what's more, I can play guitar in them - they cover the main bit of my hand while leaving my fingers unimpeded for fret action. That'll probably come in handy at some point as I anticipate being roped into carol services in the not-too-distant future...

Now I was on a roll, and had a few people requesting that I make things for them out of Lincoln longwool. I contacted the good people at Risby Grange and was offered £7 per 100g for either 3 ply wool from the adult sheep or 2 ply lambswool, which I think is a more-than-fair price. I've tasked my good friend in Louth to pick that up for me from their business up there, and pass it onto me next time he sees me, whereupon I shall be able to get going on more projects just in time for when I've another assignment to procrastinate for :)

I discovered in the meantime this American website called Craftsy, which has not only lots of decent free patterns but also lots of reasonably priced designer ones, as well as video classes you can sign up to - in short, it's very good value IMO, and I intend to work my way through it at my usual glacial pace. I'm determined to have knitted myself a jumper (however crappy and amateurish) by the end of the year!

And now if you please, I'm off to enjoy my 45 food-mile brunch of homemade toast, venison sausages, beans and eggs!

Au fait - j'ai aperçu qu'il y a quelque français qui lisent ce que j'écris ici. Cela me semble un peu étrange, c'est à dire que je n'ai pas anticipé que ceci irait vous intéresser. Peut-être coïncidence? Quelqu'un est arrivé ici par hasard? Mais non, tous les jours on dit "vous avez N lecteurs de la France" et je me demande pourquoi?? Allez-y - envoyez-moi un petit message, je ne mordrai pas :)