YOTD: Patons Mirage DK

So yesterday's post went down well, so I am going to continue YOTD and hopefully you will find it useful!!

Today's yarn is Patons Mirage DK. (No, I'm not sponsored by Patons either, just remembered that yesterdays was a Patons yarn too- tomorrows will be different I promise!) Mirage is a 50% Cotton 50% Bamboo Viscose yarn, and knits to DK. You get 120m/131yrds on your 50g ball, and a 50g ball is around £3.90 a ball. I bought this ball in John Lewis at Bluewater, and fortunately found it in the odd ball bin, and found 4 at the end of a dye lot. I paid £1.75 a ball.

Patons Mirage DK comes in 10 different colourways, and each one is a mix of colours. The colourway I have is called Bright Blue Mix (shade 00082) and in the colourway is red, dark blue, light sky blue, white and green. As you knit through the ball more and more colours arise. This is great if you are knitting a one piece item, but for me, I just cannot have sleeves that don't match so I had to roll some off a ball to get the right pattern on the sleeves. Luckily I had spares. You can see the colours best in the cardigan I knit below. It is the Puerperium Cardigan which can be found on Ravelry. 

The yarn could be described as splitty, as it is quite a soft yarn, but it is nice and knits up well, the stitch definition is good. It is machine washable and again dry flat. I still recommend this for all knits, dry them flat, and lay them out, they will thank you and always keep in good shape. I was happy with this yarn, and I was surprised with the number of colours as you go through the ball, and if you have a one ball knit, then this is a great yarn. Due to my inability to have unmatching fronts or sleeves on a cardy or item, the striping was too irregular for my liking. Love the yarn, not sure I'd buy it again.

There are 9 other colours available in this particular yarn, some are very light and delicate colours and some are much more bright. Alongside my blue mix above, there are three other bright mixes. Jamaica (86) is purple, black and yellow and Exotic (80) is blue, pink, yellow and orange. Sea Mix (89) is another of the brighter shades and features many shades of blue, from a navy to a light sky blue. The rest are lighter mixes, much more muted colours. Soft Blue Mix (85) is pretty much as it says on the tin, various shades of light blues and yellows. Soft Pink Mix (83) is light shades of pink, yellow and grey. Purple Mix (84) is light shades of purple, green and blue. Lemon Mix (90) is pink and yellow and again a very light shade. Natural Mix (91) is made up of shades of light browns and greys, and lastly Violet Mix (88) is a mix of light purple, blues and greens. (Again Deramores is a great place to see the swatches for these colours, maybe if I mention them enough they might send me yarn- is that wishful thinking?!?!?!!)

I was very lucky to get to go to John Lewis yesterday too and found more bargains in their odd ball bin. As you probably know, I tend to only knit one or two ball knits, because I get a bit bored!!! This makes an odd ball bin a wonder to me. I will be sharing lots more as I knit them up.

I hope to get a YOTD every day, but because I want to knit them up first to give you all the best idea of how they knit up, the stitch definition and all the colours I own in that particular yarn it might take me more than a day.

Please please let me know if they are useful, or if there are any other things you want me to add to my reviews that would be useful to you

YOTD: Patons Trentino

So I am totally a beauty blog stalker. I love nail polishes and lip colour and everything that goes with it. I rarely buy any beauty product without checking out swatches and reviews before hand. So I figured why can't a knitter do the same thing with yarn. We do not all have the wonder that is our local Yarn store (LYS) that we can visit and feel all those beautiful yarns, so it is much better if we can see those yarns before we buy.

So this is my first Yarn Of The Day. I was so lucky to buy three of the colours of this yarn in the sales this January, so I have plenty of swatches to share.

Patons Trentino DK is a 90% Acrylic/10% Wool Blend yarn and comes in massive 200g balls, which is 660m/722yrds. It is enough to make a sleeveless top, and the pattern for that top comes on the ball band. Personally, I have been using it for baby knits, and from each ball I have made 2 garments so far and have nearly half the ball of each left so it is going really far. Each ball costs around £8.50, which is pretty good because of the amount of yarn you are getting, that would make it around £2.13 per 50g.

The yarn comes in 6 different colours. These are Mexico (a blue, pink, red mix), Brasil (brown, blue, grey), Ocean (green and blues), Melody (pinks and red), Orion (greens and blue) and Passion (purples). I have three here to swatch, Melody, Brasil and Orion. I have knit them on 4mm needles in each of the swatches. You can see and of course buy the yarn at Deramores (they dont sponser me btw, although if they feel like it they can!!!! I just know you can see it best here and of course buy.) Before you buy at deramores however, look for the discount codes, there are lots for knitters.

First up is Melody. It is a pink mix with all sorts of other colours and really does knit up in a very pretty pattern. It is primarily pink in colour. There is no pooling (which means in some varigated yarns you can get big pools of one particular colour which can look funny on a pattern or a garment) and you get a nice all round colour. It is pretty soft and creates a nice knitted fabric.

Orion is a blue, yellow and green yarn, this doesnt really have a primary colour- it is definately a mix of them all. This pools a little, but because of the varigated part of this yarn it doesn't really show too badly. Again such a soft yarn and a lovely knitted fabric.Its quite a boy colour, but it could be used as a great accessory yarn for anyone.

Brasil is a sky blue, brown and grey mix, and creates a lovely colour. It again is a boy colour, but it is not dark at all. It has created some great little baby jackets and I am pleased with the colour.

Trentino is washable on gentle or delicate in the washing machine and then dry flat. I pretty much always dry my knits flat anyway, it helps them to keep in shape.

So let me know if there are any yarns you would like to see swatched in future or what you think of the swatches, are they useful?

Dyeing to show you!!!

So I bit the bullet and I dyed my own yarn!!!!! Yay!!!! Beware, dyeing is highly addictive and should only be done by responsible adults. I am so excited to show you my first two skeins of hand dyed yarn, and I use Procion Dyes and 100% wool skeins from Debbie at DT Craft.

Now to name these two, and then to decide what to do with them! Any suggestions are very welcome

Dyeing to be better!!

Ok, Blogging hasnt exactly been at the forefront, I think we can all tell that!! But I'm back and I have so many excuses reasons why I haven't been around.
Firstly it was my birthday. I am old for a second year in a row, and it does take me a little longer to get to the computer using the new zimmer. Im working on it. At least it could be that, could be the excessive number of nail varnishes I bought at the beauty bar at Stratford, and balls of wool blocking my path.
I was a very lucky bunny for my birthday, a new shiny ipod (my new love, sorry Blattman-you are still up there though), my kindle (not sure there is anything better than a free book) and a fabulous dyeing kit and some lovely yarn to dye too. Procion dyes in fact, a fab kit from Debbie at DT Craft. In my yarn kit dearest Ma put together for me was a little beauty involving Merino and Glitter- My mummy knows me so well. So watch this space everyone, dyeing will occur!! Oh and also I got one of these! my most favourite of all smells from Yankee. Lucky Girl! I also got my living room redecorated, pics to follow. My step-brother and the Blattman got on with that and got it all done in a day. Bliss!!

So I must have used all my luck up in February, because I am now recovering from a kidney infection which also meant I had to go and sample the hospitality at Maidstone General Hospital. Probably not a highlight, and to be honest, when they say Ice Cream, they lie. However, on the upside it was my mum and Dave's ladies night in Eastbourne last weekend so I got to party the weekend away, win on the horses (was there ever any doubt?) and spend lots of time with both my family and the Blattfamily too. And, even if I do say so myself, I dont scrub up too bad, even with a hint of infection about me!

Anyway all, Im back, and I promise to be better at blogging and sharing with you all. Ive got lots of knits to share with you all, and some new yarn- yay!! Oh and Ill get dyeing- hopefully not on my new rug!!

In Stash we Bust

I can safely say...Yes! Lots of it for that matter!! This week has most definately been a productive one, especially where my stash is coming from because I had an organising week. I sorted it all out into its new homes (a laundry bin for the DK and a box covered in airplanes for the rest of it) and now I have a great list of all of it, weights and amounts. Fabulous.

Now what I am going to do with it? Well I was originally knitting a lot of baby bits and pieces, being inspired by my baby nephew (who is over the 8 pound mark now-yay) and our first cuddle two weeks ago. But this has been put on hold for stash busting, and later this week, shawl and veil knitting. 

I used this pattern yesterday to knit a hat for the Blattman, and he wore it all night so Im guessing he likes it. This is a ravelry pattern so you have to sign up to see it, and frankly you need to. If you are a knitter and not on ravelry, you have problems!! The picture below is from the pattern itself and not mine, mine is knit in Life Aran in Parchment.

Hats are great for stash busting, you can get one or two from a skein and normally three from 2 skeins and they are quick knits and you feel really productive which is always a winner.

This week for our Lent Prayer shawl KAL/CAL I am intending on knitting the half lace chapel veil in black for our trip to Rome hopefully this year, so I can cover in the presence of the Pope. Its going to be a nightmare I think but Im going full Lace, and hopefully the prayers in it won't just be for me to finish the row without a mistake!

Also on my mind this week... The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir and new Revlon Scented Nail Varnish in Watermelon Fizz

Love is like a dove..or a big fuzzy glove

Happy St Valentines Day all!! Hope we are feeling the love today, and if not, know that I love you followers dearly!!! Also 10 points for people who can tell me what tv shows I have quoted at some point in this post. So today is merely a post to share what my hubby bought me for Valentines Day- and this is not only a bragging post everyone, but also a bit of a review, and the item is under £6!! (in fact if you buy on Amazon its under £4) What more could you want on Valentines Day?

So here is the lovely book I got

I absolutely LOVE it, its just so cute. The patterns have been made famous by the Knit and Purl Greetings Cards and they are just the cutest things. Including Toad-ally in love with you, Hot Stuff chilli peppers and Ha-pea Valentines, they are such fun knits and would make great gifts for any love related event, or just to give someone a little love. There are also patterns for gingerbread bride and groom, swans, chicks, matches (that actually fit in a match box) and many more- 20 patterns in fact. Only one issue is that part of the Chilli Pattern is missing, and when I find a link to the change I will post it for those of you who own the book and need a hand.

I also got some bullets from the Somme from a friend of mine, and maps of the trenches, but  thats a whole other story.

Now you lot clear up whilst I go dismantle Love Land

Happy Birthday Dan!!

Today is my husband's Birthday, he has reached the grand old age of 26 (a whole 3 weeks before me, making him my sugar daddy!!) So today we went out for the day to celebrate. We normally go to a museum or attraction for our birthdays, but today was much more off the cuff because we didnt know if I had a day off until yesterday!! Today we went to Greenwich, and visited the observatory (you can thank Professor Brian Cox for that- and Dara O'Brein isnt getting off lightly either) and the National Maritime Museum

This is the Royal Observatory and the Meridian Line from the bottom of the hill

This is the view from the top of the hill, you can see Docklands from here, including Canary Wharf, and the Royal Navy College in the foreground. Bit of snow left but it actually wasnt that chilly.

The O2 from the top of the hill

So Happy Birthday to my Gorgeous Husband, and heres to many more!!