Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner..............another SLYMI winner.

Hello, did you all have a good weekend? I'm popping in today to let you know, we have another winner for the Swatch Like You Mean It Class. After I let Mel know that I had picked the winner last week, I unexpectedly got an email back telling me to pick one more place. I still had all the names in my teacup, so over the weekend I pulled out another lucky person, who was Denise. I want to say a big thank you to the very generous, kind hearted Mel for donating these prizes to my blog. There are just a few places left, so if you are interested in learning how to make swatching more fun plus two get exclusive patterns, you can find the details, here.

On Saturday, the weather was kind to us and we went to Stratford Upon Avon for the day, the beautiful, historical town, where William Shakespeare was born and laid to rest. It's a 40 minute drive from where we live so I took some knitting to pass the time, I don't like to miss a chance to knit, whenever I can!!!!!

When we arrived, we parked near the river and the first thing I saw was this enormous tree, that had been Yarn Bombed. My jaw dropped when I saw it, I've seen lots of yarn bombing over the last couple of years but not on this scale, it was amazing and look at the gorgeous blue skies, it was a beautiful winter's day.

It's called The Remembering Tree, a place to remember, reflect and celebrate all the colours of life, each square was made by women in South Africa to supplement their income. When it's taken down, it's going to be washed and recycled for blankets for homeless charities in the local area and also Sierra Leone. It was awe inspiring to see and I'm so glad I got the chance.

My friend Gilly, recommended I visit Sew Me Something, next time I was in Stratford, it's a gorgeous little fabric shop but they also sell a small selection of yarn.They have MillaMia in stock, which I have wanted to try for ages, I had some Christmas money left so I bought a couple of balls to use for the SLYMI class.

I also spotted this book in Waterstones, which is a selection of stories written by writers who knit and how knitting has inspired them. I spent the last of my money on this book and I can't wait to start reading it, it also has 5 original patterns by Helen Bingham.

After a lovely day spent wandering around the town and a spot of lunch, we headed back to the car, just as the sun was setting over the river.

One last thing, I would like to share with you. My sister bought me this book for Christmas, it's Topsy-Turvy, Inside-Out by Susan B. Anderson, do you remember the fabric dolls that you turn inside out and it turned into something else. I had Little Red Riding Hood that turned into the Big Bad Wolf, well this book is to knit these toys. There are some really cute projects, one of my favourites, is the dinosaur that pops out of an egg, if anyone is interested, it is only £2.16 for the Kindle Edition, I've also bought this, as I've always have my phone with me which has the Kindle App so if I forget my book, I've always got it on my phone. It's also on offer in the U.S. when I looked this afternoon, it does change day to day though so just check.

Thanks for stopping by and congratulations to the two winners of the SLYMI class.

xxxxDebxxxx

Swatch Like You Mean It Giveaway.......

Do you swatch before starting a new project? As you saw on my previous post, this was my very first swatch, which was included in the pattern of Mel's Halele'a Cardigan. I've never felt the need or wanted to swatch before even after I've had to frog hours of work because the size was wrong, I never learnt my lesson. Does this sound familiar?

Not only did I get to check my gauge on this swatch, I got to practise new stitches, picking up stitches, making buttonholes and getting the feel for the yarn. I can also take my swatch out with me when I go button shopping and get the perfect buttons for my cardigan.

If only I'd spent a couple of hours of swatching, soaking and blocking my other projects, I would have saved hours of time on knitting and ripping out. Thanks to my wonderful friend Mel, I've discovered I love the process of knitting not just the end product and swatching is part of that knitting process.

Now for the exciting part of this post, Mel the Guru of Swatching is doing a 7 week online course called............

Swatch Like You Mean It.

you will get weekly audio/video of key techniques, informative PDF's to download, two patterns, exclusively designed for class. Also there will be support, encouragement and interaction with other knitters plus other little surprises along the way. 

Mel has kindly offered me one free spot to give away to one of my lovely readers, so if you would like to be part of this fantastic course, just leave me a comment, telling me why you would like a place. I will close the comments on the 8th January and pick one winner using the Random Number Generator, don't forget to tell me why you would like a spot.

Don't worry if you don't win but would really like a place, registration is open until the 24th January, you can register here. Also, check out the PDF with all the Swatch Like You Mean It information.

Since learning the joys of swatching, I've been putting it into practise. I've wanted to cast on the Aureus cardigan for some time, I just needed the yarn. I  purchased some Rowan Felted Tweed and Rowan Pure Wool in the John Lewis Christmas sale, both were suitable, I just couldn't decide which one to use.

This is how I decided, I swatched both of them in the cable and lace pattern, to see which I preferred once knitted. I was originally drawn to the mustard colour but once I'd swatched, even though the stitch definition was better using the Pure Wool DK , I loved how the purple, Felted Tweed was so tactile. It just seemed to suit the cardigan, very soft and pretty with a nice drape and a gorgeous vintage look, so that's the one I went with. So, as well as making my decision, I killed two birds with one stone and got gauge and practised tubular cast on for the first time. As you can probably tell, Mel has converted me and I have just signed up to Swatch Like You Mean It to learn even more. I can't wait for it to start on the 1st February, anything Mel does, she makes it so much fun!!!!!!!!!! I hope to see you there, too.

Good luck to everyone who enters!!!!!!

xxxxDebxxxx