Knitting like a mad thing.....

.......that's what I've been doing, since 21st January when I cast on a cardigan. I'd had nine balls of lovely alpaca yarn sitting in my stash for three years and had never found just the right pattern for it - until 21st January when I happened upon Deco, written by Kate Davies who is a fabulous designer.

I want to knit all of her designs and have even treated myself to her new book Colours of Shetland, which is a beautifully written book with lovely evocative background pieces written about the inspiration behind each design and beautiful photos taken in Shetland.

There's lots of great colourwork knitting in the book and sweaters involving steeks - and I'm actually contemplating knitting such a scary thing before too long.

So, back to Deco (which isn't in the book but is a Ravelry download). I cast on just under three weeks ago and have knit and knit and knit in every possible spare moment and today, finally, I got out to buy buttons (purely decorative) and press studs  (to do it up with) and wide velvet ribbon (to line the buttonbands) and two hours later they were sewn on and now I'm wearing it and I'm never taking it off!

There's a bit of story behind the yarn. I bought 4 balls of it in a yarn shop three years ago, then found another 5 in a different shop six months later. Last week when I panicked and thought I might run out I looked online - it's a discontinued yarn - and found a shop with 7 balls left, so I bought all of them....just in case. So that's three different bundles of yarn, three different shops, over three years....and they are all exactly the same dye lot!! I know!!

Of course, I finished the cardigan with 5g left of the original 9 balls of yarn, and didn't use any of the 7 new ones....cough cough....

There's been little by way of craftual activity other than Deco - a little spinning, a little playing with the sewing machine, a little sock knitting but nothing that I was excited enough to blog about.

My Minx has been continuing her Weekend Pudding project - there's been a very chocolatey cheesecake, a totally gorgeous chocolate marble cake, and a white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. This girl of mine knows no fear - no recipe looks too complicated or too full of ingredients as far as she's concerned.

Today she's made choux pastry and has presented us with this - Mary Berry's 'Paris Brest':

I might just have to allow myself a tiny slice :o)

Keep warm, keep dry and happy knitting!

Moogs xx