Been away . . . again

Well I am back from another exciting and thrilling work at the archaeological coalface. Okay, I was standing around watching a big yellow jcb dig a slot trench in Gloucester which amounts to the same thing. It's dull work: we uncovered a Victorian cellar, a cobbled surface and a 1930s drain but (as everyone is saying at the moment in this weird economic climate) IT IS WORK!

Anyway this has meant that I have not been able to blog and really I haven't had as much time to knit as I would have liked. But I did manage some knitting so hurrah for that at least. I started a sock last Saturday and have now finished it. It was my first attempt at doing the heel flap last and it looked very odd but it worked and I now just have to get the other one done.

I didn't really have much time for looking around Gloucester but did manage to find the market and they have 2 yarn stalls in there. Granted much of the yarn is acrylics and others oddities but there are some interesting bits too. I bought a couple of skeins of unknown green, pure wool that was quite scratchy and which had the lanolin smell but also that greasy smell that comes from coned yarn.

It's a bit of an experiment and at 69 shiny new pence it was a bargain even if I use it only for making felted bowls or something like that. It looks like a 4 ply so I thought might bloom to a double knit but after knitting a swatch on 3.75mm needles and then soaking it before washing it it has blossomed to a rather lovely, but slightly thinner than normal, aran weight.

It's still a bit scratchy but I am going to knit another swatch and drop a little bit of washing up liquid into the bowl and let it soak a while, then add some conditioner in the final rinse to see if the itchy factor can be reduced.