It finally looks like a hooded jacket. Whoot!

Still some sewing and knitting of button bands to do. That’s not going to happen unitl exams are over though.

I won’t have the focus or brainpower until afterwards.

At the moment, I need chug-along knitting. So I’ve cast on the Rico Designs yarn to begin the vintage vest.

It’s the bright green beside my stagnating projects which include:

Justin’s Waistcoat

Gerry’s Scarf

My log cabin throw

My Sedgemoor cardigan

Little Daisy Cardigan

They *will* become finished over the next couple of months.

It’s…..well….it’s fabric and has a shape(ish).

It’ll be amazing the difference that a needle and yarn will make to this…….piece of fabric.

It doesn’t look like a hooded jacket…although apparently it qualifies as a cat toy.

One of the many things I enjoy about knitting is how the sundry pieces of knitted fabric will eventually become a jacket.

Although that stage shall not be reached tonight I’m afraid.

There’s only so much knitting I can do after a written exam.

The grainy picture quality is due to using my ipod in lieu of my ‘proper’ camera.

Since I took this photo, a few hours ago, I’ve cast on and knit both sleeves and they’re both 9.5 centimeters long. They’ll need to be 17 cm long before I start raglan shaping.

I’ve knit my fill for today and my arms now deserve a rest. I’m not sure that following a written exam that left my hand feeling like it was going to fall off with more manual work was a good idea. It pleased the achievement centres of my brain though.

Now it’s time to partake of some dreaming.

Goodnight folks.

The back is done and I’ve worked past the ribbing section on the right and left fronts of the jacket.

Baby knits are wonderfully speedy

The best thing about being home (okay, one of the best things besides fresh clothing, greetings from the Teen and whatnot) is a MUG of tea.

While on the subject of tea, let me tell you about a lovely place in Downtown Portlaoise (yes, it has a down town) called The Old Bank Tea Rooms. It’s just what it says it is. Tea rooms located in what used to be an AIB bank.

When you step inside time just slows right on down. It was a lovely oasis of calm and cosy after travelling on the bustling train from Limerick. It’s chock full of lovely features. Even going to the toilet is a treat what with the antique radiators, local artwork and attention to comfort therein.

The fire made for a lovely cosy feeling while not overheating the room.

Look at the tea set! It had no sooner been set down in from of me than I thought of Hazel and how she’d adore it. I had to send her a picture of them and sure enough she loved the set. Maybe our SnB group can abscond to Portlaoise and have high tea at some point

I found my way to The Old Bank Tea Rooms thanks to it being recommended as a lovely place for coffee by the proprietor of “The Wool Shop”. As it turned out, “Knit & Sew” is the ‘old’ yarn store that ceased trading some time ago. Now the only yarn store in Portlaoise is “The Wool Shop”.

It’s accessed via a lane way into Tara Court. As I was heading down there I realised that there is no way that I would have noticed that there was a collection of store down the lane if I hadn’t been intent on finding the LYS.

Taa-Daa!! I found it!

*happy dance*

It’s a fairly small retail space and jam packed with yarn from laceweight to chunky. I came away with 3 skeins after some browsing. Yarn browsing was not made easy by the size of my backpack.Thankfully, no stock or patrons were sent flying by my ginormous backpack while during my pursuit of yarny goodness.

Wondersoft Pearl dk by Stylecraft in ‘Biscuit’ 1360 Dyelot 65664

Creative Micro by Rico Designs Partie 6 Farbe 006

The above yarns are already destined to become garments for newborns. They’ll be added to the Hope Chest when they’re done to await gifting.

“Beautiful Baby Knits” was a free supplement with Knitting magazine – Issue 53 August 2008. I had the supplement with me in Portlaoise when I was humming and hawwing over different yarns. I figure, if I’m going to add to my stash, then I want the additions to be bought with specific projects in mind.

Little Daisy Cardigan is already on the needles and is a stash busting project using Tivolli Blizzard.

Wondersoft Pearl sk by Stylecraft is destined to be a Tiny Tots Jacket. I cast the back of this garment on this morning before leaving the Bloomfield Hotel. By the time I reached Limerick I had half the back knit.

The green creative micro dk yarn is earmarked to become a Utility Vest.

After the travelling and training over the weekend my brain is now mush & I require some zone out time in front of the goggle box before doing some final revision for my first exam tomorrow.

Happy crafting folks!

I’ll be back to regular blogging once the ‘zams’ are over & I have treated myself to a new little camera that plays nicely with my laptop.

Tomorrow, I’ll be travelling to Mullingar via Portlaoise. Since I’ve never spent anytime in Portlaoise, I’ve decided to get there a tad early & have a wander about. The internet tells me that there’s a yarn store in the town called “Knit & Sew”. True to form this store doesn’t have any information about itself online (that I have found).

I only know it exists thanks to this. So I’ll be endeavouring to find “Knit & Sew” on Coliseum lane tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

It’s a great pity that Irish craft stores (and Irish business in general) have side-lined themselves by not having a web presence. This Is Knit being a wonderful exception.

Business Computing is what I’m studying & “This is Knit” provided a lovely Irish example of a ‘Click & Mortar’ business for one of my course projects. They’ve been shortlisted in the “Best Blog of a Business” category of the Bord Gais Social Media Awards. Fair dues to them.

I’ll have a modest amount of money to spend in Portlaoise tomorrow. I want to spend some of it in an LYS. If it weren’t for the portlaoiseontheweb DOT com site I wouldn’t know about “Knit & Sew” and most likely would have continued onto Mullingar without taking the time to find it. As it is, I don’t know what kind of yarn they stock & if I’ll find anything to my liking (a gamble that I’m willing to take) or if they’re even still in business! I have their number noted just in case & it’ll be nice to be able to say that I’ve actually been to Portlaoise and not just passed through there.

When I travel I enjoy supporting the Local Yarn Store, both as a knitter and as someone who would like to work within the yarn industry. It’s lovely to see how different owners layout their stores and see the differences in colour palettes and yarn types stocked.

What does it say about the amount of craft tourism lost to smaller Irish towns if a motivated crafter like myself finds it difficult to get online information on LYS?

I’d say it’s as bad as the tourism lost to Limerick City due to the lack of a backpackers hostel. Sure, we are over-accommodated with hotel rooms but back-packers don’t look for hotel rooms for a variety of reasons. I’m more likely to stay in a place if I can get a hostel room. Partly due to the fact that I’d rather spend my money on yarn purchases, travelling to local amenities and trying the local cafes than spend it on a hotel room. Hotels are great for privacy and comfort but there’s a lot to be said for a friendly, well-run hostel with communal areas where you can strike up a conversation with a fellow visitor. I’d love to see a proper hostel open in Limerick city. It would boost the city centre no end.

Anyway, that’s my kvetcing over with for today.

Back to the Business Information System Development study.

it’s busy being a cat bed.

Meanwhile, in the hallway….

Feline upcycling of broken furniture.

In a knitters world that equation makes total sense

Also, a circular needle deciding to come apart at one of its joins makes for utter stress when it occurs mid row on a log cabin blanket.

This is Knit to the rescue with a prompt delivery of replacement cables. Huzzah!

Ordered them on Thursday and the postie shot them through my mailbox just as I was about to head out the door *happy dance*

Following the theme of de-stressing, a friend of mine suggested that I buy these now rather than after my exams. That way I’ll have them to hand. A rather brilliant plan methinks.

So I’m set.

Erm…..apart from the actual studying.

It’s back to the aul slog again.