I won a prize!

You'll never guess what?  My tea cosie full of flowers and biscuits was picked as a runner-up! That's SOOOOOOOO exciting!!!!
I never actually expected to win anything, so I'm very happy with runner-up.
The prize will consist of "yarn goodies" I'm told and I'm a firm believer in never having too much yarn! Which is lucky because I bought this yesterday -

17 shades of Stylecraft Special DK, as chosen by Lucy of Attic24. It's her original colour pack which she's currently revisiting with her Colour Harmony Blanket. (Apologies for the lack of links today.)

I'm going to use it to make my Tooty Stripey Blanket again but in a large size. I've never used some of these colours before and others are shades I wouldn't have chosen at all but I will trust Lucy's colour sense - although I might go and look at her original project and see if she lists the order she used the colours - that could help prevent some frogging!

I've nearly finished the p*a*t*t*e*r*n for my blanket - just the border to write up.
(Please excuse all the ***. I've noticed every time I use the P word I suddenly get hundreds of views from Russia. Can't imagine why. ..)

Before I start this new blanket though, I need to finish my waistcoat.
It very nearly got frogged at the weekend. It had become clear that my 2 skeins of hand dyed yarn were not exactly the same.

 Can you see the colour change just over half way down? I agonised over whether to unpick the lot and start again, and alternate which skein I used every 2 rows but I knew there was a risk it would never be finished if I did. Luckily the first skein just finished the top part of the bodice and I started the second skein for the lace panel. Had the first skein run out sooner it would have been more obvious but as it is I think I'll get away with it.
That's the beauty - and the risk - of using hand dyed yarn I suppose. You can't expect multiple skeins to be identical.

So I've worked the edgings and neckline - even unpicking the tension square to use it for the armholes, as you can see above.

It's now washed and undergoing blocking. And how much dye came out during washing?  None. Absolutely none. That's better than commercial yarn!

I'm really looking forward to wearing it too - just as soon as the weather cools down! It was 30 degrees in the shade on the patio again this morning!

My next project will be knitting for a change as I'm going to make a shawl from the beautiful hand dyed yarn I bought from Barbara of Ring a Rosie in Whitley Bay. And I now know that it might be wise to use both skeins at once!

More of that next time though! Enjoy the unexpected return of the summer heat!  T xx