Pride comes before a fall...

... and I fell with a Big Bump. The Honey Bee has been frogged, and is awaiting a time when I am worthy to complete it. I took last Friday off, to block out my Hanami stoles that I have made for presents, as well as my Icelandic Shawl. (The latter remains unblocked, as Hanami took a loooong while to dry due to the unusually seasonal weather!). The other point of taking the time off was to relax and knit on with the Honey Bee. I developed a slight headache while pinning out the stoles, and stupidly continued knitting afterwards, noticing a dropped stitch later on. I managed to resuce it with a crochet hook, and it passed the Lady Godiva test, but I still decided Honey Bee needed a rest, so I put it away, and started on my Mr Greenjeans cardigan in my now favourite Posh Yarns Helena yarn. That has come on a treat, and all I need to do on it now is seam the arms (I decided not to invest in 5mm dpns, just for sleeves, so knitted back and forth), and, when my beautiful Czech glass button arrives from Pavi Yarns, knit on the edgings, and sew on the button.
I fetched Honey Bee out of the bag yesterday morning, after having a week's rest, and found lots and lots of dropped stitches. In my arrogance, I had not used life lines, so the whole lot has been frogged until I deserve to have another go. I need to take a wee break from it, so that I don't curse it when I return to it (if I think I'm going to be careless, I will be, and so I prove my own doubts). Instead, I started on a Felted Ruffle bag for a Christmas present, using Noro Kureyon. So simple, and so pretty. Number 1 awaits the washing machine, which I will do when I have Number 2 finished. It was good motivational knitting for me - instant gratification (I knitted it yesterday evening), very pretty, and another item off the to do list for Christmas.
Also yesterday, we went to Alnwick for the day. Now, I last visited Alnwick twenty-ahem years ago, when Larkholme Junior School's 4th year trip took us up here for a week. I have meant to go back (it's only 30 miles up the road from where I live now), but have never made it. I think recently, the whole Harry Potter as Tourism thing has put me off - I love the books and the films, and also love the way the series has made reading cool - and yes, I queued at Midnight for the Deathly Hallows, and yes, I did cry at one or more points in the book - but it is always a little disappointing to see a film location in the flesh for me, and realise that it perhaps isn't in the same reality I inhabit. But anyway. Alnwick was lovely. I spent way too long in Barter Books, and way too much at the Wool Shop on the market place. The Wool Shop is lovely. It has a really good range of the staples, at good prices. I picked up some Twilley's Freedom Spirit that had plenty of stock (at £2.79 a ball, pretty good value for something I don't see in most shops). And a limited, but lovely range of Noro - I bought 2 skeins of Blossom, which are currently being worked into a Diagonal Scarf. The sock yarns were also very nice to see - Opal and Trekking, in a wide variety of colours. I'll be going back, as good LYS are like hens' teeth, and the prices in there were equivalent to standard Internet prices, but without shipping, and with the instant gratification of being able to handle the wool the minute I was out of the shop! Thank you to the North East Knitting Fiends on Ravelry for the tip as well.
The Freedom Spirit is going to be a felted bag from the Freedom Spirit pattern book, btw. And, to get me back into Lace without tears, I'm going to have a go at Brooklyn Tweed's Hemlock Ring, sooner rather than later. Big needles, chunky wool!
And, I'm going to take part in my first swap. I'm a member of Cup A Tea on Ravelry, which is a group for those of us knitters who enjoy a nice cup of tea - so I shall have to find some tea, some yarn, and some other little bits, and send them off to my assigned tea drinker. I'm looking forward to it, as it will give me a chance to see what's out there for someone else's likes, and may put me onto something I may like!
So, as I depart for a nice cup of PG, I need to thunk about what's going to go over the Atlanic...