Clickety-click

Oh, how I wish my needles sounded so. I am a very s-l-o-w knitter. As soon as I begin to feel confident enough to tear my eyes away from the stitches that are forming, perhaps to catch a glimpse of the television, I somehow manage to knit underneath the stitch, increase the stitch or entirely drop the darn stitch - lots of unpicking instead of knitting. Goodness only knows how my mother manages to watch television and/or read a book at the same time! Apparently it's because she started knitting at the age of 8 which means I'm already 22 years behind. Super.

I had a rather wonderful woolly weekend (for the 2nd week running - hoorah!) -

• I went to IKnit on Saturday to meet mum and Erika for the book signing of her new book 'Men's Knits'. Mum and I met at Waterloo and went for a cup of coffee and a pastry at Caffe Vergnano on the Southbank. Fast forward to IKnit which had been set up for Erika. Such a great shop. They've changed the layout and it feels much more cosy than before. Gerard and Craig who run the place are lovely and so passionate about their knitting. Check out their blog - I was astonished at how quickly Gerard has knitted up a couple of the projects from Erika's book. Obviously, there is an element of bias because of mum's involvement with the book - but it really is good. For starters, normal people have been used as models. Secondly, I could imagine Mr M wearing nearly all of the garments - with the exception of the cardigan. He's not really the cardigan type. In fact, if he were to walk in right now and be wearing a cardigan I would most likely laugh rather loudly. Perhaps with a snort thrown in. I digress. The patterns seemed simple enough for even me to understand. Anyhoo - a jolly time was had by all. I ogled at some lovely wool but was really very good and bought none. They are even licensed to sell booze - marvellous.
  

• With the rain maintaining a constant drizzle on Sunday, I finally settled down to my project and cast on 130 stitches - piccies to come once it's finished and has been popped in the post to the lucky recipient.

• The pile of swatches grew ever taller much like the piles of leaves in the garden thanks to the Lime and Plane trees. I can't wait to add to them and then sew them up.

As promised here is a wee collage of the first few swatches...

Clockwise from the top left - caterpillar stitch horizontal, double andalusian stitch, waffle stitch, harris tweed stitch.

Right, time to pick up the needles and crack on with my little project. Have a wonderful week! I shall spend mine trying to ignore the financial meltdown. How will you spend yours?