Retail therapy

I went shopping today. I went to get fabric for a Top Secret Project. I have been commissioned to make Something Special for a Special Day. But as it’s Top Secret I can’t tell you yet what it is. I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures along the way (hopefully) so I can show you when all has been revealed.

In some respects my shopping trip wasn’t great. I forgot to take some very important things with me, and without those things I couldn’t but all of the fabric I need. But I did still manage to bring home a fair amount of other stuff!

I came across a HUGE basket of remnants in Dunelm. I can’t show you pictures of these as they’re currently whizzing through the washing machine. I’ll try to remember to take some piccies as I iron them tomorrow. Anyway, after rummaging through the basket, I found some lovely dotty Clarke & Clarke fabrics in sage green and red. I also snatched up some white cotton fabric (because you can never have too much) before making my way to the section I actually needed – the knitting needles.

I have rediscovered my love of knitting this week. Since my love affair with crochet began at Christmas I’ve really had no time for knitting. Crochet makes much quicker progress (great for the times I’m not feeling very patient) and was generally just new and exciting. But since having a knitting lesson with the girls earlier this week I’ve fallen in love with it again. A little while ago I saw this shawl over at Cozy Things. I completely loved it, but couldn’t be bothered with knitting. But yesterday I rummaged through my needles, found the biggest balls of wool that I could (this grey is left over from the slippers that didn’t work, and came from a humongous 800g ball) and got started.

Now, the pattern says to use circular needles, but I didn’t have any so made a start on straight needles. I’m now halfway through the pattern and realising why circular needles are necessary – the stitches are already starting to get fairly squished on the needles and there will be a great many more stitches by the time I reach the end of the pattern.

So here are my new circular needles…

How exciting! There will now be space for all my stitches – hurrah! The downside is that I can’t stick this needle under my arm as I usually do, so progress will be a lot slower from now on, but I’ll get there in the end.

My other purchases included a few more pin boards. The 2 bigger ones are the same size as I’ve previously decorated, and I thought the little ones were just cute! I’ll decorate them ready to sell.

I also found these fabulous, bargainous cards…

I like to make my own cards, but I like to have a few just in case I need one at the last minute. And these owl ones are just so cute (I especially like the stitchy detail and bunting) I couldn’t resist 🙂

And finally, some inspiration…

Just before I go, thanks for your thoughts and comments about the blog background. I’ve changed it to blue for now (which I do rather like) just to see what you think. I’m still pondering really, so expect a few changes over the next few days while I make up my mind!

Now, I’m off to have a cup of tea and a look at my new mag.