I’m at that point where I feel like I need to get a couple of projects on the go – or at least in the wings – for the next few weeks of (hopefully omg) resting and being very pregnant.

With that in mind I treated myself to a copy of Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne’s second book ‘Mason-Dixon Knitting, Outside the Lines‘.

I would have bought it anyways, given how much I love their first book, but I bought it early from amazon marketplace, rather than wait for the UK edition to come out (early next year, according to Amazon).

I’m impatient like that sometimes. 🙂

I’m still gobbling it up, but it’s superb. It’s funny, and clever and thoughtful, and it’s full of projects I want to make, or that inspire me to go off and riff my own version.

The Cardi-Cozy for example – ( and there are more photos on Ravelry, here) – takes two balls of kidsilk haze, and I just know it’s going to be very warm and yet also very light. And while I’m a tiny bit worried about the lack of curves, maybe being so light and sheer, that doesn’t matter? and anyways, given that it’s knit from the top down, I can modify as I go if necessary.

Plus two balls of kidsilk haze is about my limit. Any more and I want to tear my hair out. BUT I will admit it comes one of the best colour ranges I know, and a cardigan for £15, that I can see myself layering on for much of the winter, in hard to beat.

Thus I’m going to make my trip to the Bluestockings this evening stretch a little further and see if I can pick up the yarn from Port Meadow on the way.

This is superb, and might end up being a good use of all my half or lone balls of dk.

I think that I have the perfect yarn in my stash (as a jumper that I never wear, and which I intend to frog), for this jumper. It might mean I stop stealing W’s when the weather turns cold. (I love the almost-slash neck line and the cabled raglan increases.)

And – again with the stash busting – I love these trees, (along with the fact if I *want* to knit 24 and make an advent calendar, I don’t have to knit them all this year, given that Bump will be about 2 1/2 months and christmas will pass him/her by as a mass of cuddles from more distant and less mobile relatives, and little more. Half a dozen or so will still make a cute decoration for the sideboard. 🙂

All in all? Well it’s just as good as I was hoping it would be. They make me laugh out loud. 🙂

As of last Sunday I’m at 37 weeks, which means that the baby could come anytime in the next five weeks.

With this in mind, and given how much I seem to be capable of getting done at the moment (ie. less and less), I’m going to temporarily close the shop from the end of this friday, (19th September).

I’m sorry this is short notice, but I’m just concerned that things are going to get really messy if the baby comes early, and people are still able to put orders in. I would rather the shop wasn’t open, than someone put in an order and – in a worst case scenario – got radio silence from this end for a number of days.

I know – if I was that customer – I wouldn’t be happy about it.

I’m hoping to get the shop open again with new stock, before the end of November, but again, it depends when the baby arrives and what’s going on here. But I’ll make sure to keep everyone informed.

I really appreciate all your support over the last year or so in particular. I’m looking forward to getting things up and running again.

As you know, our first baby is due at the beginning of October, and so there are going to be various short-term changes at Oxford Kitchen Yarns while that happens.

Firstly I’m going to put the custom orders on hold from the end of this week (Friday 5th September). I’ll take (and sort out) enquiries about custom orders until friday evening, and try to honour as many as I can.

I have a load of sock yarn back in stock, and hope to get alot of dyeing done in the next couple of weeks or so, to re-stock the shop. (And yes, there will be a load more Marmalade sock yarn. 🙂

The shop itself will probably close towards the end of the month for four or five weeks, while we get our head around being parents, but I’m planning to open it back up again as soon as I can, and i’ll try to keep blogging and not totally fall off the radar while the shop is shut.

Once the shop is open again, I’ll return to selling the existing stock, and start getting together a new dyeing routine.

It’s also worth pointing out that I’m committed to maintaining my high level of customer care, and quick delivery of orders, and W is willing and able to help me achieve that, even with a small baby in the house. If for some reason there is going to be a slight delay, I’ll always keep you – the customer – informed.

I  want to stress how important Oxford Kitchen Yarns is to me. It will still exist, and I’m looking forward to dyeing more yarn later this year, and in greater volume next year.

In fact this seems like a good time to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Oxford Kitchen Yarns in it’s first year. I’ve had a great time so far, and I’m very excited about dyeing and selling more yarn in the future.