Testing, testing...

I'm currently over at TypePad, experimenting with their thirty day free trial and a new blog identity. I don't know that I'll stay there - the jury is still very much out - but we'll try anything once. (Some things we'll try several dozen times...)

Stash IN

Yes, yes, I know, but this comes under rule 2c. I knew I was going to need more yarn to finish Lily, and this is it.

Since the Debbie Bliss Maya in which I've knit the body is discontinued, and would probably be too chunky for the crocheted edging anyway, this was always going to be a fun match; but I think 1 strand Patons Diploma Gold in a very dark, heavy green and one strand of Cygnet Wool Rich 4 ply in a lighter, khaki-er green held together will do. The DK is thicker than the 4-ply, which sort of means they match the balance of colours in the body, and it all seems to work OK together. I was originally planning to ply the two yarns together, but I think I'll see how just holding them works; I'm thinking it will look less regular that way, which I like.

Photos later, as I'm at work now, and though I do have my camera, I'm not photographing yarn (or the completed sleeve that was brought along as colour comparison) in the workplace.

Stash damage:

      Patons diploma gold, dark green:      100 g, 240 m
    Cygnet wool rich 4ply, sagey khaki:    50 g, 205 m

Oh, and Mary?? You can quit feeling guilty about using some of my green Maya; it is indeed the same yarn, but I had plenty to finish with and enough for seaming up, too. And I don't think I'd have had enough to crochet the edging in this stuff even with that smidge - even if I'd wanted to!

ETA: The picture.

Dark, but still a good colour match

Spotted today, in the gym...

...a poster advertising the fitness tests that are free to members. Amongst other virtues, we are assured that the fitness test is

"totally non-evasive"

Love it!

New skirt!

Actually, it's not that new; I finished it in time to wear for our Stitch 'n' Bitch Christmas lunch (which was on December 1), but at the time I didn't think I liked it much. It's been sitting in my wardrobe awaiting a second opinion, so I got J to take a photo or two, and he likes it, and, looking at the photos, I don't think it's that bad, either.

The pattern is Vogue V7607, view C; I originally bought the pattern for the other view(s) with the cascade at the front of the skirt, which I still intend to make, but in this case I had fabric to get rid of, and thought it would suit the other style better.

The fabric is a lightweight cotton jersey, and was originally a very vivid green colour; a bit like lego green, but lighter. Pretty hideous. I overdyed with Dylon machine dye, in a burgundy colour; I was aiming for a warm, chocolatey brown, and I don't think I missed by far!

The reason for the amused grin in the previous photo is that there was someone else wanting in on the action...

Knit what you love; love what you knit

Dawn's birthday post has got me thinking today; or rather it has returned me to a thought that pops up over and over again. I'll bet that anyone who reads knit-blogs at all regularly is very familiar with statements like "this is going slowly; I hate moss stitch", or "not going too well, I do not like basketweave". If you are going to 'knit what you love, love what you knit', are you talking about loving the process or the product? Or do you get ultra-picky and only knit garments you adore in stitches you find fun? Just because you're a knitter, does that mean you have to knit all the sweaters you own? Well, that'd be daft. It might happen that way for some people, but it doesn't *have* to. But where do we draw the line between "You'd have to be mad to knit all that [whatever] stitch at such a tiny gauge" and "But I could knit that for myself"? I know some people who seem to knit stuff purely for the joy of knitting; I know two old ladies who give everything they knit to charity. I'm not suggesting they get nothing out of the product, but the process seems to be the main thing, and the product secondary. I know there is at least one very famous blogger out there who has piles of beautiful, beautiful sweaters she has never worn. Personally, I'm at the other extreme. I am inspired to knit by the article that will spring fully formed (humour me here) from my needles at the end of the work. I think that's why I find it so much easier to knit for myself or very dear loved ones. I like to be able to picture the garment on the intended wearer (me) as I go; see how it suits them (me) and how it is enjoyed by them (me) and admired by others (love admiration). I love the process, too (wouldn't do it if I didn't), but the product is the inspiring jump-off point. Why don't we enjoy some knit-processes anyway? (Apart from considerations like 'this yarn is so rough it rubs blisters on my fingers' or 'working at this gauge is physically painful'). Are we just too impatient? Or too easily bored? Too easily distracted, maybe? (You know who you are...) Mary-Lou suggested in a comment a few weeks ago that moss stitch is so much of a bugbear for some people because it grows s--l--o--w--l--y. And it's true - apart from all the extra time taken swinging the yarn between the needles to switch between knit and purl all the time (and let's face it, you have to do that just as much with 1x rib), a moss stitch swatch will be wider and shorter than a stockinette one made with the same yarn, needles, number of stitches and rows etc. etc.¹ So are we all *progress* knitters, then? We might like the product; we might love the process; but if we don't see the progress we expect we start to fret? Why would that be?? Surely a slow project gives us even better value for money out of all that expensive, luscious yarn? Are we worried that the rest of the stash will run away if we don't finish this now??? Folks who are knitting a project on a deadline clearly have an easy answer to this one, but I think most of us knit most of our projects on an easy-going timeline, not really tied down at all. Why not just buy a sweater that's in a stitch you don't like knitting? Well, I guess by the time you have seen the picture or visualised your FO, the concept is actually too detailed; too complete for you ever to find anything ready-made that matches it. Plus, some stitches (like basketweave and moss stitch, come to think of it) are relatively hard to do on machines, if I remember correctly. How about this idea: for a while, the lust for the finished product tides us through the process. If the process takes too long, the product-lust wears off and we want to start something new. But that sounds horribly as if we don't actually like the process at all! Well, that can't be right. We know we love to knit! ________________________________ ¹ There's a reason for that - the purl side of a stitch is bulkier than the knit side. If all the purl sides are crammed together, like in stockinette, the fabric is pushed 'taller' by all the stacked bumps - that's why it curls. It's the easiest way for both sides of the stitches to be the size they want. In moss stitch, the bumps are very efficiently packed and the fabric can relax down to a shorter height - and not curl. Garter stitch shows this, too.

The Last Big Splurge

How's this for a splurge of colour? Each of those bundles is a group of three skeins of very fine two-ply. As far as I can tell, there are no dye-lots in this yarn, and each skein is a subtly different colour. I spent my whole lunch-hour sorting these bargain £1 skeins into closely-matched groups of three one day at the end of November. The yarn is a very fine two-ply and completely unlabelled, and I think it's supposed to be used for crewelwork or some other kind of embroidery: However, this little lot is going for two trips through the spinning wheel before I do anything with it. First I'm going to tighten the existing ply, then I'm going to run those groups of three back through the wheel to produce a six-ply yarn. Because none of the yarns are quite the same colour, I should end up with some wonderful rich, heathered colours. Afterwards, I plan something stranded and stunning. I'm vaguely hoping to have enough for a sweater, having been very inspired at the time by Bohus designs. Even after futher plying, this will still be a rather fine yarn, so this will be a rather long-term project. But I'm very much looking forwards to it!

2006 retrospective/2007 prospective

Happy New Year everyone! Looking back at last year's roundup post and skimming through the year's archive, I see that in 2006 I have:

• finished three out of four items that were on the needles in January last year
• fulfilled exactly one of my six January goals
• finished 9 knitting projects (compared with 14 in 2005)
• started spinning
• been ill
• travelled to Canada
• done very little sewing

This year, I have finished:

• The Triple Mohair Triangle
• Ice Maiden
• Minnie (though she still needs corrective surgery)
• Lakes for J
• 1 pair Jaywalkers
• Mask
• Asymmetric rib pullover
• Oslo socks (plain stockinette)
• Jude

Still on the needles from last year are:

• lacy socks in Lorna's Laces shepherd sock, Somerset

On the needles from 2006 are:

• 'Lily' - and the good news is that I have enough yarn to finish the main pieces!
• 'Making Waves' socks - and I finally caved and bought replacment needles!

I took up card-making and bought and assembled a new spinning wheel. I have spun enough yarn for two sweaters, two pairs of socks and a funky hat or something. And today, I documented my stash. It is scary. Facts about my stash:

• It weighs more than half of what I do
• Unravelled and laid out, it would stretch 93 km.
• About half of it is stored (very snugly and securely) in the loft
• It's actually not as bad as I feared.

Having signed up to knit only from my stash this year, I will be keeping an eye on the progress of stash reduction. Last year, I aimed to halve my stash during 2006; I didn't come close. In fact, I think the stash probably grew in that time. This year, I am not planning a monthly schedule of projects; instead, I am going to shop in my stash whenever I get near the end of my current project and figure out what inspires me. I almost certainly won't get anywhere near halving it, but I hope it will shrink somewhat noticeably!

Solstice Greetings!

A bit of a revamp to mark the darkest day of the year in this hemisphere! I'm still having a few CSS issues, noticeably the fact that no matter what I do, the content in my right hand pane insists on hiding waaaay down there below all my current posts. I assume that this means the whole pane is actually hiding down there, because the total width of my panes is greater than that of the screen as a whole, but no matter how I tweak the numbers, it remains shy and retiring. Incidentally, it works great on the Blogger preview. Anyone shedding any light on this can take a virtual mince pie and my thanks as a reward. In more fibre-related news, after seeing Mary's recent post, I've decided to sign up for Knit From Your Stash 2007. This really shouldn't pose any difficulties at all - I have more than enough stash to do it - it's purely my resolve that is in question. I too am tweaking the original rules, as follows: 1. My Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run for the whole year. I have no reason to stop partway through, and plenty stash. 2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions: 2.a. Sock yarn does *so* count. It doesn't in the original rules, but it will in mine. I have enough sock yarn to knit for a small army. 2.b. I may buy yarn to knit specific gifts for specific people, as long as that person is not me! 2.b.i. I may purchase yarn to be given as a gift, as long as the recipient is not me! 2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project. 2.d. I get two "Get Out of Jail Free" cards - the original challengers/challengees only have one each - I am running this for a whole year, after all, and would hate to go to Woolfest or any other fibre festival with zero purchasing power. 2.e. It's possible that I will start learning to weave this year. Not very likely, but possible. I can buy yarn for a specific weaving project, as required, immediately before that project is due to start. I will most definitely *not* build a stash of weaving yarn! 3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn. 4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt, but I will try not to increase the size of my stash in this time.

Progress on Lily

It's true - moss stitch projects *do* seem to go on forever.

knit so far

But will the yarn?

yarn remaining

I have only just over two balls left - plus the swatch. I have knit the back and both sleeves. This photo shows how much of the back was knit with one full ball of yarn:

Do you see the symmetrical pattern on the shoulder blades?

Looks like almost exactly half to me. Still down to the wire, but with somewhat more confidence now, I feel. Incidentally, do you see the difference between the fabric of the left sleeve and the other bits I've knit so far?

fraternal

The ball used for this sleeve had areas of much lighter yarn - almost a bright, clear yellow - which show up as those bright nubs in the fabric. I noticed that that skein looked different when I wound them up, so I purposefully used it for the sleeve; I didn't want my two fronts to be noticeably different like that. Oh - my dog likes sofas. And blankets. And blankets and sofas both together.

What a softie!

She didn't get told off for the spindle incident; by the time of discovery, it was way too late for her to understand what she'd done wrong. She's OK, and that's the important thing. Oh, and I used the inserts from the chewed spindle to repair another spindle whose inserts I'd mangled, so I still have the same number to play work with.

Ouch

At first, we thought that this was the one that originally had yarn on it. I am happy to report that the one with several tens of metres of merino singles on it was later discovered under the coffee table, and that Kita is completely fine. The little monster.

Holding my breath

All that moss stitch? Yeah. But why is it worse (or better) to knit than 1x1 rib anyway? And whilst you're pondering that, I'll try and whizz the statistics as determined by my rather inaccurate kitchen scales by you all quick-like, in the hopes that they'll be better that way. Knit so far: back and one sleeve Weight so far: 330 g Weight of yarn remaining: 330g And then, there is the swatch, which is good for another 10 g. Yes, I weighed it.

Next up...

...Debbie Bliss Maya. This is another yarn that I was totally, utterly unable to prevent myself from buying. A bit like the sock yarn, really. It didn't help that Get Knitted acquired lots of the stuff just after it was discontinued, and had it at really fantastic prices. Still do, some of it. I have an embarrassing quantity of the stuff. I think the current tallies run at something like: - 10 balls of dark green/mid green/camel variegated - 10 balls of purple/maroon/fuschia variegated - 5 balls hot pink almost solid - 5 purple almost solid - an unknown number (read: I can't remember and I'm too lazy to look) of 'peach' variegated. It seems that I have this ...problem... with handpainted and variegated yarns. I see it in the ball (or the skein... in fact, particularly in the skein...) and I just droool. Drooling is embarrassing, especially in public, and the only way to stem the flow is to buy the stuff. Obviously. But I don't particularly like the variegation once knitted up. Pooling and flashing drive me nuts, and I don't like horizontal stripes, as a rule. (There are exceptions. You will see...) Cables don't show up in variegated yarn. Short colour runs in the yarn, like the Maya has, are better, but still hint at that stripiness, really. The solution appears to be moss stitch. It breaks up the stripes, pushing the current colour visually up and down between the rows.

The same yarn, swatched in both stockinette and moss stitch

Of course, Debbie Bliss book seven has no adult sweaters in the Maya, in moss stitch. There is a sweater, 'Lily', knit in moss stitch but a different yarn. It's quite cute, though:

Lily, from Debbie Bliss #7

I particularly like the fact that there is waist shaping not at the edges of the back piece, but set in about a quarter of the way from each edge. Of course, the yarn is different, and the gauge is different. This means maths, but, more scarily, a definite uncertainty as to whether or not I have enough yarn. I actually started knitting on this a couple of weeks ago, and have completed the back and probably just over half a sleeve, and I still don't know if I'll have enough yarn. I suspect not, even if I do the trim in a different yarn. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed as I knit. I really don't want to have to rip out that much moss stitch.

Going for chunky: adventures in 2-ply

been spinnin' again

I haven't spun for over a month - since plying up this little lot (about enough for one sock), I have been actively avoiding making enough for another sock. I don't know if it's the fibre prep, or the fact that it's been stored for too long in a too small box - but I found it a bit of a pig to spin; it wouldn't seem to want to draft smoothly. But - being project monogamous - I haven't wanted to start spinning anything else. This seems silly. I like spinning, so I need to spin the top, or spin something else. So I decided to spin it differently. I tried for a heavier weight yarn; I've been playing with some Debbie Bliss Maya, an aran weight single, slightly thick and thin, and I was wondering if I could spin something like that. Turns out I have difficulty spinning thicker. And putting up with variations in thickness of my singles. I didn't manage to make singles *that* thick - or even that consistent - and I was definitely overspinning, so I plied it:

plied

Because plying is done in the opposite twist direction to spinning singles, it removes some of the twist from the singles. I think I'm used to spinning singles for plying, and it's now pretty much balanced. There are thick bits and thin bits; barberpole bits and bits where two sections of the same colour met up. The unevenness of the yarn is pretty obvious, but I really, really like it. Some of the most interesting bits happened when a thin bit of single met a thicker bit. When this happens, the thin bit seems to travel closer to the axis of the plied yarn, and the thicker one spirals around it:

'parallel' strands in the left box; not on the right!

I found I can control - or eliminate - this effect by gripping the thicker strand more tightly than the thinner one. Then, the two strands twist evenly again. I like this. The more tension I put on a single, the closer to the axis of the finished yarn it will lie. That means that I can produce a spiralling yarn from two singles of equal thickness, an even yarn from two differing singles, or, at the extreme, wrap a single or an unspun fibre around a core fibre - to make a corespun yarn. Cool.

It's not a proper weekend unless....

...you end up muddy to the knees.

A sweater in record time

It might not feel quite like real knitting, but 20mm needles make for a really, really quick sweater. Less than 72 hours after starting, I have an FO. Schedule as follows: Wednesday: Knit back Thursday: Knit first sleeve, check remaining yarn (halfway done now, after all), start knitting front. Friday: Finish knitting front; knit second sleeve. Seam shoulders and knit collar. Saturday: Finish seaming and sew in ends. Get boyfriend to photograph result.

Hey, Juuude...

Yarn: Rowan Biggy Print, colour 'Troll' (now discontinued) Pattern: 'Jude', from Rowan's booklet 'bigger picture'. Should have had a longer collar, but I was short by a ball of yarn. I'd love to say I've enjoyed knitting this, but I can't. The needles felt like telegraph poles and I felt like I signalling planes into land, I was waving my arms around so much. J laughed at me. My fellow SnB'ers laughed at me. I refused to have my photo taken whilst knitting it, so that no-one else could be presented with the ludicrousness of the picture. I have some more biggy print to suffer through knit up, and then I will probably sell the darn needles. On the other hand, I really quite like the sweater. It is a wonderful, warm, easy-wear knit that would probably look better on me if I were about 2 stone lighter, so that the two extra stone that the chunky fabric lends to me were cancelled out. But I don't care; it's comfy and warm (oh, boy, is it warm!) and has made a significant reduction in the volume of my stash.

Stash in, stash out...

So, I have a few things up at the Destash site right now. Some yarn, some spinning wheel parts... There's a bunch more stacked in a corner of the sewing room, too. If no-one's interested, they'll go to eBay or be donated to a knitting charity. In a way, it goes totally against my natural grain to be pushing yarn out the door. I paid for this stuff; I wanted it so badly that I got a little dizzy when I placed the order. I'm sure you know how it is. But... I'm sick of having so much stuff I can no longer organise it (a very affluent condition, I know, but denial won't make anything better). Part of me thinks I ought to use this stuff to knit donations for some of the incredibly worthwhile knitting charities out there. But knitting is my hobby, and I enjoy it most when I knit for me. As you will have gathered from the above, I'm not short of a bob or two. I'm not on the bread line (though current circumstances mean that the budget is being watched for once). But I am time-poor. I would rather donate money (or the yarn itself!) to charities, and keep my knitting time for myself. And yet... and yet... Yarn seems also to have flowed the wrong way; from Destash into my home. Tell me it's not beautiful, though:

10 skeins silk garden. I am weak.

I'm not sure this is *really* knitting...

20mm needles are the *wierdest* things to try and handle after knitting with 2.5mm DPNs for a week. The largest needles I have ever used before have been the 8mm ones used for Mask, and I found those uncomfortably large to handle. Knitting with 20mm needles requires completely different movements to 'normal' knitting, at least for me. You can't just use your hands, you have to move your whole arms. There's certainly no such thing as a small movement! But at least it grows quickly. This is one evening's work; mobile phone included for scale:

'Jude' from Rowan's 'Bigger Picture'

Hey! Lookie!

Another otter!

Done!

From cast on to finished in just over a week: a full size pair of socks

they fit, too

Before knitting these, I didn't know how long it took me to knit a pair of socks. Normally, I am project-monogamous, except for socks. Socks don't count. Socks are commuter-knitting, or portable knitting, and they don't get very much continuous attention. As a result, socks drag on and take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to knit. And then - THEN - you have to knit the second one. I thought I didn't like knitting socks. It wasn't that I hated it, but there was definite ambivalence there. Casting on for a pair of socks felt like signing up to some huge, ongoing project that would drag on and on, long after I was fed up of it. This was rapidly becoming an issue, because I cannot resist buying sock yarn. The skeins are so small! And so pretty! And so small! How can that count towards stash? Or even consume storage space? But whaddaya know? With a bit of focus, a pair of socks can be complete in just over a week. Guess that's why I like my monogamy, then.

happy feet

Oooops!

As Mary pointed out, there was no photo with the last post. So without further ado, here it is:

the fastest sock in the south-east

...and, as a bonus, here it is posing next to it's nascent twin - set fair to being identical, you'll note! In fact, there's one more repeat of the colour sequence knit up now, which takes sock #2 just up to the point of starting to knit the heel flap:

sock #2 - and sock #1 - with wine

Do you think I can finish a pair of socks in a week?? ...maybe, but probably not *this* pair.

Personal Best Sock

This might not be the most complex sock, or the most beautiful that I have ever made, but I think it's the quickest to date. Cast on: 03/11/06 Cast off: 07/11/06 It's just a simple, top down sock with a ribbed cuff and standard heel flap construction, worked over 64 stitches on 2.5 mm needles. But it's amazing how fast it's taken shape. Maybe it's the famous motivational effect of those wonderful self-patterning yarns, or maybe it's just the fact that I haven't been knitting anything else in the meantime. The yarn is one of the Regia Jaquard ones; I thought the colourway was 'Helsinki', but looking at Web Of Wool's site, I think it is actually 'Oslo'. I like it. Now to cast on all over again; that's the thing with socks. Even when you're finished, you have to start again. Why don't I feel that way about sweater pieces, then? Even sleeves?

Down to zero

Do you think it's worrying that days - mere days - after returning to work, my Bloglines backlog is down to zero? For those that don't already know, I've been signed off with CFS for the last few months - and when I was at home all the time, I simply couldn't keep up with my blogroll. Now, two hours at work a day (plus about another hour commuting), and it's all taken care of. Oh, and I've made a yarn purchase, too. But it was from Destash, which hardly counts, ne? Gotta watch out for that habitual behaviour creeping in again.

Brittany Bitch

I think these things are supposed to come with a several-year warranty. I know that I am not the only person to have experienced this tragedy recently. And I'm damn sure that these needles are fairly pricey and not supposed to be disposable.

snap

They're certainly not supposed to do this only 2 inches into the second sock ever knit on them. I'm sorry about the focus and exposure issues; I was too peeved to do proper photography. And, for the record, I'm not a 'gripper' or 'squeezer' of needles, even when cabling. And I'm not a tight knitter, either - I almost always get gauge at the suggested needle size.

Meet Skinny Annie

...my tailor's dummy. She's a permanent occupant of my sewing room, and has modelled many odd things in her time. She was particularly helpful when I was selling belly dance hipscarves on eBay, and spent most of a year wearing a long, full, black skirt and a tight black top to better show the colour contrast.

very fetching

She's spent a significant amount of this summer wearing the above outfit, though the hat is a recent addition: a sundress that needs 'altering' into a skirt, and Minnie, who is awaiting fairly radical surgery. I'm not sure how she got the name; it's not like anyone ever speaks it out loud. But it appears to have stuck, in my head, at least. But now, she is wearing my newest sweater, the Asymmetrical Rib Pullover from Loop-d-Loop. This was a fun and satisfying project, and used up the Noro Iro I had lying around from my failed Olympic bid.

The closest she'll ever get to real arms

The sweater pattern is gorgeous - the construction is fascinating and so, so clever. One thing to watch for, though - it's important to get both stitch and row gauge, because part of this is knit on the bias, and if the ratio doesn't work out right, your diagonals won't be at the right angle. I didn't get row gauge - I had 120% of the rows per inch that I should have had - but I fudged it. The shaping sections instruct you to increase/decrease on each end of every right side row - all I did was NOT shape on every 5th right side row - that way, I have the right number of shapings per inch. Make sense? I love the finished garment - and I've had a lot of compliments on it. If I was to change anything about the pattern, I would have moved the armhole on piece 2 higher (i.e. closer to the neck). It's slightly too dropped for my personal preference, so the sleeve is a bit 'dolman' and slightly restricts movement. The Noro Iro, apart from the row gauge issue, was a wonderful match for this project; the unusual construction means that the stripes run up/down or diagonally across the body, pointing in to the waist - all of which is so much more flattering than the horizontal lines you usually see. The resulting fabric is sturdy but not uncomfortably bulky, and on 6.5mm needles, this was a pretty fast knit.

fabric close-up

I still don't think Iro is going to be one of my first choice yarns though; it's hard work. There is little elasticity to it, and along with the bulkiness, it's quite a workout. I did acclimatise after the first two or three training knitting sessions, but it was this quality that made it an unsuitable choice for intensive Olympic knitting, and still counts against it now.

Spinning away

Oh, poot! I can't believe I haven't posted for almost a month.... It's not like I haven't been doing anything; life has been crazy-busy. Hmm, maybe that's the problem.... I have been both knitting and spinning; in my protracted absence I have both started and finished a sweater (the same one!) and finished two socks (but not of the same pair). Photos to follow. I've also been making good friends with my new Ashford, and made a start on the six (SIX!!) monstrous chunks of Lorna's Laces roving that I bought in a fit of avarice at least six months ago. I have two in each of three colourways, and can be seen in their bags right here:

Clockwise from top left: Georgetown, Desert Flower and Lakeview (I think)

So far, I have spun up and plied a skein of roughly sockweight yarn in the 'Desert Flower' colourway. I have to say that I'm not enjoying spinning it nearly as much as my previous project (did I blog that?? Must look up...), which truly drafted effortlessly and was wonderful-squishy-soft to handle. I don't know if it's because this has been stored for a while, in somewhat cramped conditions, but the fibre seems rather... compacted. Not felted - not quite - but it grabs itself more than I'd really like, and drafts in fits and starts. Also, there are little 'neppy' fragments occasionally; these I am sure are my fault, as I think they have been caused by friction on the top at some point. I'm hoping I get used to it - or get a better idea for dealing with it - because spinning six bags of this stuff isn't particularly inspiring right now. That said, I *am* enjoying it; I'm learning, learning, learning all the time (about fibre prep and my new wheel and spinning in general), and I'm producing yarn that I'm mostly pleased with. This skein is Navajo-plied to keep the colours mostly together; I think it would look too 'muddy' if I allowed them to mingle randomly, although I love the 'barber's pole' sections where the colour sections join.

a quick shot of the plied yarn on the bobbin

skeined up; about 140m of sock-weight three ply

The Desert Flower colourway is available in their own Shepherd Sock yarn, too, and looks like this in the skein: I adore the colours, but really don't want to knit socks that looks like this: I'm hoping that because I've been splitting and pre-drafting the roving kinda randomly, that any pooling that does occur will not be as regular. But now, I need to decide what to do with this. I think I would like to knit a pair of socks in the yarn spun from this roving, but this was my first foray with the Ashford, and some of the earlier joins in the singles were very poor indeed. Once plied, they're probably structurally OK (can you feel the confidence??), but it has left ugly 'tufts' on the yarn that I wouldn't want in a sock. So I need to decide whether to do something totally random with this, as a single skein, and to spin up more yarn for socks; or to use this skein and just do one more...? I suppose I could try sampling this yarn to see what a sock would look like, and then spin two more skeins... Any ideas for what to do with 140m of colourfully variegated sock weight yarn?

New Knitty!

...and in my opinion, it's got more to be excited about than the last couple of issues. Not that they were *bad*, but to me, just not *thrilling* Ironically, some of the socks look fascinating - ironically given that the last issue specialised in 'extremities'. The two that catch me particularly hard are SoxOn2Stix (innovative knit-flat technique, adapted from machine knitting) There's a lovely, graphic felted bag - somehow refreshingly different from the ubiquitous felted bags that seem to be a mandatory feature of every issue of every knitting magazine these days - and a wrap that looks intriguingly different... The texture reminds me of those deeply grooved tree barks you sometimes see; I'd love to see this worked up in deep browns with a touch of grey worked in. If this one hits the blogosphere as hard as, say, Clapotis (I don't really have to link that, do I? Oh, OK then...) I think we'll see a similarly amazing variation in the final object as interpreted by each and every knitter out there. I love Lizard Ridge, and might have to adapt the idea to use up all those 'leftover' bits of yarn I can never quite bring myself to throw out. Ivy and Viveka are both really interesting looking sweaters, but I will probably wait to see how they turn out for other knitters before committing myself; I think it's the photography in each case, but I get the feeling that something is just slightly 'off'. No offence to the photographers, of course; it's just not giving me quite all the information I want. Avast is a lovely, basic, bloke's sweater with a hint of detail. I know J is never going to wear an all-over cable unless I force him to don it at gunpoint, and even a single, central cable is probably just 'too seventies' for him - but this might eeease him in gently to the concept... In fact, I might have to make one of these for myself; no law against it, is there? The sleeves on Serrano deserve special mention - lovely split cuffs! And, looking at the rest of the cardigan - oooh, no zipper! I know some people will *leap* at that opportunity... I think this could be a lovely layering piece, just as the designer suggests, but for me, it's launched too late for this year. I want to be wearing it *now*, not thinking about knitting it. Maybe next year... Oh - and a knitted skirt! So very few of them work, but this one is tempting. As for the rest of it - well, I might have a 'why I didn't have it on my faves list' post later (though I will mention now that I still don't think there's any excuse for knit, non-felted bags, unless they're mesh or something) - but for now, no more bitchin'. More knittin'!

Nice yarn, shame about the patterns

It's been a while since my attention was caught so completely by a yarn that I spontaneously catch my breath; I'm not impressed by the new Rowan range, and there seems to be a lot of copy-catting going on amongst the B-list brands. But this did the trick:

The colours! The lustre! The soft, delicious hand! (The price tag!)

OK, you'd have to be doing something wrong to make 100% pure silk yarn not look luscious, especially if it looks like simple singles (I haven't dissected it; I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be corespun for strength), but this hits all the buttons... I liked it so much that I went looking for the accompanying pattern book. Ohh... well. There are a few garments in there that I would consider knitting, but I'm not sure if they're right for the yarn. Admittedly, I'm not sure what *is* right for the yarn - maybe just leaving it in skeins is enough. It doesn't help that there is no hint of lustre in the book's photographs; this is a lustrous yarn, folks; if you don't want to play to it, at least don't hide it! Nothing p!sses people off more than finding they've knit a garment that has been misrepresented in the photographs (believe me: ask about Minnie sometime. She's still awaiting surgery...). In fact, in some of the photographs, the yarn looks really tired and sad:

It's hard to believe that this yarn is from the same line as this, where even the black shines:

To me, this yarn calls for luscious, draping forms, simple stitches that will let the material speak for itself; perhaps a draping, ruffled flounce or two (think Garland from Rowan's Classic Garden, though the quantity of yarn and thus cost of knitting this garment in this yarn would be prohibitive; I only mortgage my house, thanks!) I'm sure Kim Hargreaves, with her understanding of simple form and elegant drape could come up with some fantastic ideas.

These two, I think, are not the way to use this stuff:

Can you imagine cables and bobbles in high-lustre yarn? You'd look like a disco ball...

My two favourites from the book:

though I'm still worried about expecting silk to have the kind of memory that allows ribbing not to sag out horribly after a while... And the neckline on that wrap top is already looking... odd.

An Ashford in the family

Ready... Set... Go!!

I meant to blog more fully about the construction of this wheel, but nothing very interesting happened, and anyway, I was so absorbed I lost track of my camera! I've actually owned this wheel for a couple of months now; it came as a kit in unfinished wood. Now, normally me and delayed gratification are just fine together, but not in this case. Each piece of this beauty (and a few more - see later) had to be sanded and waxed¹. I'm not a woodworker; it interests me, but I'm not 'into' it. Anyway, it's now finally together, and it is so easy to treadle and so quiet compared to my other wheel that I spent about two hours spinning Lorna's Laces top on it last night without noticing any fatigue at all. The wheel, I love; the top, I'm not so sure about. It's probably because it's been stashed for ages, but it feels pretty compacted and refuses to draft. I'm trying to pre-draft, but even that isn't helping all that much; it sticks and jumps and won't draft smoothly. If I want to spin this evenly, I need to find a way to help open it out again. I'd think about carding or combing, but the roving's already space-dyed, and I'm not sure I want to mix it all up. ________________________________________________________________ ¹ OK, I could have just assembled it without finishing - the wood is nice and smooth anyway - but I just *know* that within months it would be looking grubby and sorry for itself, especially around the treadles and those places where one's hands repeatedly touch... So I wanted to seal the wood, so that all muck and rubbish would not soak into the grain and would be easily removed.

by the skin of my teeth

Stu's sweater was finished in time for him to take it away with him when he left my house - just. I'd hoped to finish it in time for his arrival Wednesday afternoon, so ended up weaving in ends in preparation for steaming and seaming at 06:30 Wednesday morning.... (since I also had a collar to knit, I'm sure you can see where this is going). For a start, weaving in the ends on that double-lizard back was no mean feat: But hey: it only took four hours I had the shoulders seamed, the sleeves attached and the collar picked up and about three centimetres worked by the time Stu arrived. It took a car journey and a film (V for Vendetta; still excellent the second time round - watch it!) to finish the collar, which is a tall turtleneck, and I got up early the next morning (again!) to seam the sides and under arms. I failed utterly to take any photos of the finished garment, modelled or otherwise, but I did get snaps of this pair of lizard-heads, which together show the importance of designing your intarsia motif with the direction of all those little 'V's in mind (I reversed the motif for the back of the sweater; the original designer got it right!):

Out of time: send new schedule please

Well, still haven't finished knitting the back of Stu's sweater. I have finished all the intarsia, and have only about ten rows of plain stockinette to go. I usually (read: always) fully wet-block a sweater before seaming and finishing. I did it once; it works; I keep doing it. However, there's not going to be anywhere near enough time to do that before Stu arrives tomorrow at around 3pm. This sweater could really do with a blocking just to even out the slight variations in the intarsia tension; will a steam block do the trick, do you think? This is a pure wool yarn (Rowan Cork) which has been overdyed by me; is steam a bad idea? Hoping to finish the main knitting and get the ends sewn in this evening. Everything except fingers crossed (it interferes with the knitting, you know). UPDATE: The knitting on the back is finished.... There's a lot of ends to weave in, though

Down to the wire

Anyone remember Mask? (No, not the film; the sweater. Scroll down a bit!) This is my oldest knitterly WIP; I started making it for my brother's Christmas last year, and put it on hold as I wasn't going to have time to knit for my other brother, too. Parents got knit gifts last year; everyone else got bought ones. This is now officially a year old, as I started planning early last year! I decided that this would be Stuart's birthday gift instead; his birthday's at the end of July. He's coming to visit on Wednesday, and I'd really like to be able to present him with his pressie when he gets here. The front is now done: And both sleeves: And the back looks like this: So my schedule is as follows:

• Today (Monday): finish back, wash and block
• Tuesday: let it dry; start seaming
• Wednesday: finish seaming, knit neckband.

Because I'm knitting in Cork on 8mm needles, this is a quick knit. Because of the intarsia, it isn't. I *might* make it; I hope so. Further bulletins as events warrant...

First things first - THANKS!!!

I've been a lousy blogger and exchangee recently - more on the reasons for this and general navel-staring another time, but first I need to make a big, public THANKYOU post for the two wonderful gift - partners out there who have been sending me such wonderful packages. Firstly, my Rowanette exchange partner sent me the cutest pair of felted baskets I have ever seen, and a hot water bottle cover from one of the earlier Rowan magazines (I have a copy of it myself, and could go and look up the number - but I'm too lazy.):

Perfect for my spindle and my lucetting supplies, see?

...maybe it's appropriate that I blog this just as the weather seems to be turning...

Then, to my shame, I have TWO Secret Pal parcels to report on! The first has provided many hours of inspiration. See here:

Straight from my Amazon wishlist; I love being pampered!

I adore this book; I have spent so much time trying to work out a dyer's palette that I can grow in my own garden! I have the front garden earmarked for this; it desperately needs a 'plan', and I'm trying to build one. I would love to be able to dye my own spinnings, using natural dyes, native (where possible) to the UK! In my ideal dreamworld, they will also be dye-plants documented for use in the middle ages, but let's not get too excited here. At any rate, I'm unlikely to be using stale human urine as a mordant, or any of the other rather icky or downright toxic practices of the time. I haven't started using the cute notebook and pencils yet, but I shall. Possibly to document the front-garden-dye-plants plan, once it emerges from my head.... And, finally, we have my Secret Pal Reveal Parcel. Now, I warn you, prepare yourselves before viewing the following photographs. I can assure you that I was very glad to be sitting down when I opened this package; I was blown away! First, an overview of most of the package's contents. Snacks galore (little biscuits to have with my coffee; and, ooooh, chocolate!), a postcard-letter, bamboo sock needles, and some really cute beaded stitch markers:

Goodies!

A close up for you - the stitch markers hanging from a couple of the needles. These have been a bear to photograph; they are a really rich berry-red, not the slightly murky brownish red they appear here. The needles feel wonderful; all my sock knitting thus far has been on metal dpns, and these feel so warm and light in the hands! I do worry slightly that I will break them, though...

dpns and stitch markers - how cute!

and - please make sure you are sitting down to read this - the whole was topped, surpassed and overshadowed by *the* most beautiful knitted shawl I have ever held in my own two hands! Knit for me! By my secret pal!!

Mine!!

It is the Yarn Harlot's snowdrop shawl; (I don't have to link that, right??), and I just can't stop staring at all the perfect little flowers:

Just beautiful.

Thankyou, again, to both my Rowanette gifter, and my Secret Pal - who is, of course, no longer secret! In case any of you are so jealous of my wonderful gifts that you want to make offerings to whichever powers you believe in, in the hopes that she will be your secret pal in another round, I can now reveal that I have been spoiled beyond my wildest dreams by Susan, from knit two, purl two - she will now be on my regular blogroll reading, and reading her blog will doubtless help me brush up my very rusty German... Go visit -you don't need to read German to admire her spinning, nor her beautiful socks and shawls!!

Grafham Water

Back from Canada and out for a morning's walk with Kita and J... Grafham Water is a really beautiful reservoir and nature reserve about 40 minutes drive from home. It is a site of special scientific interest, and comprises a fair amount of land as well as the water; there is open grassland and wooded areas, and paths throughout. Dogs have to be kept on leads at all times (although we saw lots of dogs off leads), and aren't supposed to go near or into the water (ditto). There is a lot to do at Grafham, if you happen to get bored just walking around the place; there is sailing, waterskiing, power boating, wind surfing... There is also a lot of cycling; there is even a cycle hire/shop there. We'll definitely be back; there is a lot more to see than we managed today. Kita appreciates the sunshine and all the new smells:

Twenty-one hours in skies

05:30, British Summer Time, Cambridge, England

10:30 BST, London Gatwick Airport, overlooking the runways 19:30 BST/12:30 Eastern Standard Time, overlooking Lake Ontario 22:30 BST/17:30 EST, out the window of my room in Waterloo, Ontario 02:30 BST/21:30 EST, overlooking Wilfred Laurier University's newest building site, Ontario

...a very long day. But with some very fine skies.

Mad, bad or awful?

It's been brought to my attention by a very dear friend that I have not been blogging much (or at all) recently, and she wanted to know if things were 'mad, bad or awful', which I think is a very fine phrase. And it's true. I've been exceedingly lax. I now have so much stuff to blog about that it's almost overwhelming and I don't know where to start, which is only making it worse. How about a quick summary?

• I have very belated public thanks to give to both my Rowanette exchange pal and my Secret Pal (bad. Not the thanks, or the gifts. Just the belatedness.)
• I've decided that I don't like Minnie, which was finished for WoolFest. I'm contemplating surgery (mad, or possibly awful).
• I've finished spinning the second lot of my Day's End roving (good)
• ...and started on some superwash merino which is very different on the hands... (mad)
• I've ordered a new spinning wheel! (great!)
• I'm going to Canada in a few days (mad)
• I'm still not back at work, at all. I went in for a very brief visit last week, and some people hadn't even noticed I'd gone. (hmmm...)
• I've knit a swatch for my Ginko Leaf Tunic, and it's too small. (bad)
• I fell over spectacularly earlier this week, and did a real number on my right knee. In a few weeks, it will match my left. (awful)
• J and I have bought a new car; he's traded in his Civic and we now have an estate that we could camp out in (mad!)
• The new Rowan magazine is out! (a little of all three...)

Regular blogging will, I hope, recommence soon.

Furious

I have chronic fatigue syndrome, brought on by an attack of shingles almost exactly a year ago. It's arrival in my life has played merry hell with a whole bunch of things, from libido to apparent intelligence; from ability to concentrate to ability to sleep. It's seen me on ever-increasing doses of antidepressants, as if that'll help, and I've accumulated a really, really bad attendance record at work. It's led to me gaining weight as I can't exercise, and because all I want in the evening is a beer. That in turn means my self-esteem drops. Moving house brought with it a new GP, who is a total star; she actually diagnosed this as post-viral chronic fatigue, which has been pretty darned obvious to everyone who knows me, and recommended cognitive behavioural therapy as the most successful treatment for this condition. I phoned AXA PPP to pre-authorise treatment; they said yes, fine. I found a therapist; I cleared her with AXA PPP. Yes, that's fine. After a couple of sessions, my therapist recommends that I check with them how many sessions my insurance covers; they say six, and then more, resting on the prognosis and treatment plan written by my therapist. My therapist writes a treatment plan, and faxes it to them; they say they'll reply within 24 hours. This therapy, along with reducing the antidepressants, is really helping me now. 10 days later, we still haven't heard from them. I start to get in contact; they are remarkably evasive. Today, I finally get a reply. My condition and its treatment are not covered. At all. They graciously say that they will pay for the six sessions I've had, as it was their mistake that I was told I could have them. Geee, thanks. I am utterly furious.

Woolfest haul

A somewhat belated Woolfest entry! It was a glorious day - almost too hot, as I'd vowed to wear Minnie for recognisability! As well as the expected knitting, there was a lot of felting at the show - and Mum got quite enthused. I was particularly taken by some hand-dyed silk scarves with applied felt, the texture of which was amazing: and a close- and the felted fairy slippers were just so cute! I was very disciplined; we went round the whole fair without buying anything the first time round, and then stopped for lunch and to plan what to go back for.... I have plenty of yarn right now (including some in 'deep storage' in the loft, so I really mean it!), so I wasn't looking for any new knitting projects, but I did decide I *really* wanted lots of fibre samples to spin. Here is an overview of the Entire Haul: That breaks down as follows: 1) Books! I bought 'Dyeing to knit', 'Yarns to dye for' and 'Weaving without a loom' (because I'm yearning to try weaving, but trying to be good about kit accumulation!) Stu, however, thwarted my Goodness by giving me a belated birthday present of 'Learning to Weave' Mmmmmm!! 2) Historical Stuff... There was a wonderful guy there who mostly does re-enactment shows and things; I bought off him a lucetting kit, a recreation of a Viking drop spindle excavated from the Coppergate dig in York, and a gorgeous hank of wool from a sheep called Minnie; how appropriate! It's been dyed a lovely greeny-yellowy colour, really beautiful. He does a lot of natural dye supplies, but I resisted. Just: 3) Fibre samples - I got packets of natural Gotland wool, alpaca (in five natural colours), baby yak and baby camel: a bag of wool nepps, merino and silk blend, possum fur, mohair : ...and just for the exotic, bamboo fibre and soybean fibre: I also got three kinds of silk - tussah, mulberry and a bag of silk coccoons, to try unravelling my own! 4) A pair of hand carders - nothing special, but they're MINE! :) 5) Weaving stuff - a set of weaving sticks and a butterfly loom. 6) Sock yarn. Because we all know sock yarn doesn't count, right? The crowning glory of the day was getting to play with an Ashford traveller wheel. I'll definitely be getting one of these next; it was very comfortable to work at, ran extremely quietly and is very flexible, with lots of extra accessories available. ...and I wasn't the only one to make a purchase or two! Mum came away with these two gorgeous skeins to make a YO-drop YO scarf (we have her now... Muahahahahahaaaaaa!): Before I tell you what fibre they are, anyone care to hazard a guess? There will be a prize for the first person (if any!) who gets it right! Of course, the scenery never hurts. This is a view of the ruined castle at Barnard Castle, taken from the car as we passed by:

Off to the Woolfest...

I'm staying up at my parents' place for the weekend, and we're going to Woolfest! I don't know what the potential for photographs actually being posted from here will be, but I promise to at least try and remember to take some... Watch this space for a full report... And be assured that I've brought a partly empty suitcase with me - so who knows what might come back! Probably not a whole spinning wheel, though. Probably.

Finishing frenzy!

Minnie is off the needles and blocking:

And J's sweater is completely finished, and being worn: He seems to like it a lot, and it suits him very well. It's worth all the 2x1 rib, really*. Woolfest Is anyone planning to go to the Woolfest in Cockermouth this weekend? I shall be there for the Saturday - hopefully wearing Minnie! _____________________________________ * Except he doesn't much want his face published in Blogland. Hence the somewhat anonymised photo...

The Socks Do Cambridge

The Cambridge Knitters had a punting trip yesterday, organised by the redoutable Mary. My wonderful Secret Pal Socks went along, and saw some of the more recognisable sights of Cambridge. The punting trip was chauffeured, which was very luxurious, and a stark contrast to the student punting trips I have previously endured experienced. Rather than everyone fighting over the punt pole for the first 10 minutes, then everyone trying to avoid it for the rest of the trip, all we had to do was sit back, knit, chat and watch the backs of Cambridge drift by, to the accompaniment of a gentle rocking and lapping of water. Here, the socks can be seen shortly after embarking the punt, relaxing luxuriously near the bare feet of the Pig Wot Knits: The first major landmark is the Mathematical Bridge, connecting the two parts of Queens College across the river: Further on, we have the the back of King's College (I'm assured that, whilst taking this photograph, I became the subject of at least two others): And then very famous Bridge of Sighs: I'd like to point out at this time that the weather was perfect for a punt trip; warm, but not too hot and not too bright (especially for silly otters who had forgotten both their sunglasses and their hat). It was not, in fact, thundery and overcast as some of these photos would suggest. It's a nice, dramatic effect, though, eh? We then passed under the bridge that marks Bridge Street: I'm sure this bridge has an official name, but I don't know it. It's very striking underneath, though, which I'm sure is a fact appreciated by very few people: ....and then we turned round to come back. On the way back, Mary's husband and daughter were waiting on Garrett Hostel Bridge, to take photos of us passing underneath: Garrett Hostel Bridge is also known as 'the bridge you can cycle over' and at least one less mentionable name¹. The whole trip took almost exactly an hour, after which we repaired to the cafe in the grad. soc. building. Another hour's knitting saw me more than halfway through the last sleeve of 'Minnie', well fed, and thoroughly amused by convivial knitters. A fine outing. __________________________ ¹ ...but I'll mention it anyway. It is, as previously mentioned, regularly cycled over, frequently by unfit students on poorly maintained bikes. This results, apparently, in a characteristic sequence of noises that go something like "huff, hurr, huff, hmmm, ugh.. ugh.. mmmph... rrggh... oooh.... rrrrrgh..... MMMMmmmphhh... OOOooohhh ...." and, as the peak is crested" -- aaaaaaahhhhh.....". Hence the Less Mentionable Name of.... Orgasm Bridge.

Spitting distance

I am so close to having two finished objects to show you guys that I can almost taste it. Three, if you include the skirt I've been sewing. Four if you also include the shirt I've altered for myself. But, actually, I don't have anything. Yet. J's sweater has its sleeves attached and only needs seaming up the sides and under-sleeves. Oh, and I'd like to redo the cast-off on about half the neck, because the tension is uneven. I could have finished that this evening, if I'd worked on it at all. I'm more than halfway up the second sleeve of 'Minnie'; then, she just needs blocking, seaming and the edging knitted on. Hmmm, maybe I'm not so close to having that ready... My sari skirt only needs the zip inserted, the waistband finished and the lining hemmed. I could have done that this evening, too, if I'd worked on it. The shirt only needs its unfinished threads finished. There's no excuse for that. But I haven't done any of these this evening; I've spent lots of time on the phone, and a lot of time on the computer. So you'll just have to wait. Nyaaah!!! ;P

Bin diving

Good fabric haul yesterday from the Robert Sayles' remnants bin: That's a metre of hot pink and orange cheesecloth, 100% cotton: A metre of embroidered 100% silk chiffon: and 1.4 metres of a rather eyepopping linen: Hmmm, dining chairs as fabric stands. Must remember that. Then, for various reasons, I went stash-diving at home and found several balls of Matchmaker Merino DK, all different colours that I'd totally forgotten about: Does that suit your swap-requirements, Mary??

Dog days...

We know our Kita-pup was born in June, two years ago. So I've decided her official birthday will be June 21st, the solstice. We've had her just over 6 months, and she's settled beautifully and grown from a skinny, frightened, kennel-weary pup to a cheeky, loving, energetic monster. And we wouldn't have her any other way.

The day she came home It's a tough life...

Grass stains

Happy birthday, Kita-pup, you're now officially 2 years old! And happy Midsummer to those in the northern hemisphere, and Merry Yule to those in the southern.

This 'secret pal' thing is awesome...

I'm really enjoying the Secret Pal 8 exchange; I know that my giftee has received her first parcel, and likes it; and today I received my first parcel!

Ooooohh.... Chocolate footballs!

I've been spoilt in two different and equally delightful ways with this parcel; the first foodie, the second knitterly. On the foodie front, we have the following: In the foreground, the aforementioned chocolate footballs. Do you think that the number of footballs is a prediction of the number of games that England will play in the current World Cup?? Back left, we have some really *delicious* fudgy caramels. Fortunately, J doesn't particularly care for them, so I get the lot! And to the right, a jar of salsa bruschetta - already earmarked for tonight's dinner. As my secret pal aptly says, "some treats for my sweet tooth, and some for my savoury tooth!" She said that on the back of the really sweet card in the middle of that there photo. And on the knitterly, we have the truly fabulous gift of my first pair of handknitted socks! I've knit several pairs of socks, but they have all been gifts, as I said in an earlier blog entry. My brilliant pal spotted that, and has sent me some. I love them! They're in Meilenweit Lana Grossa, which I've never seen before, and the colourway shades through red and plum and orange and.... oooh, lovely!

...a perfect fit...

My pal was concerned that it would be too hot to try them on today, but it's the coolest day we've had for a while; and anyway, there is nothing on earth that would have stopped me trying them on as soon as they left the box! Thankyou so much, Secret Pal, I love this package!!

Holy Blocking Sweater, Batman!

Finally - off the needles, and onto the blocking towels: To the left, we have the two sleeves, lying cuff-to-cuff, designed to be generously long on someone who is 6 ft 4 and has long arms: To the right, the front and back of the sweater, already joined at the shoulders by the three-needle bind-off: The whole damn lot is knit in 2x1 rib, and seems to have taken forever. Now all I have to do is seam it and knit the long, tubular collar. In 2x1 rib. It's a good job I like you, J!

The dog ate my catalogue

My long-awaited, much anticipated samples catalogue from Texere arrived today. Sadly, the only person home to receive the post was Kita. The post is a regular, exciting feature for the pup, and though she's very settled now, she occasionally has Issues if something exciting happens in our absence. Also, she loves the plastic wrappers that some post arrives in; you know, the thin, plastic ones used to wrap magazines, phone books and... catalogues. Most of it is, actually, OK. But a few of the pages will not be the same again. And that bundle of yarn in the middle of that picture is samples that currently dont' have places on pages... Hmmmmm...

Sleeves, sleeves and damned sleeves...

The world seems to be full of sleeves right now. I've done one for Minnie, and one for Lakes, and both of them seem to have taken FOREVER. Rrrrrrgh....... However, I have learned how to set up my knitting machine, and four methods for casting on (one provisional, three permanent). With any luck, my yarn stash should shrink as a result....

Five things I like about me

Taken from Sereknitty's challenge - not a meme as such. Honest. But why not think of five things about yourself that you are really happy about?

1. I am smart. Even when I am ill.
2. I am hugely creative, with a fine imagination and the ability to realise my ideas
3. People trust me; my friends confide in me, and I can often help
4. I am always trying to be an even better 'me'. I don't sit on my laurels.
5. I am a damn good cook.

Hmmm, that felt good! How about you?

Reasons to be Cheerful, Part One

Whoah.

Bobbins! ...again

The second installment of my Twist Fibre Craft order arrived whilst I was at work today; an Ashford double drive bobbin! As the astute will know, I don't have an Ashford wheel yet. Ahem. The idea behind this was to see if Ashford bobbins could work on my wheel. Well, they can, but several steps are necessary: 1) Unpack (with help) 2) Remove excess material 3) Reassemble flyer unit (with ...suitable... packing if necessary)

yes, that's a small roll of sellotape...

4) ...and go!! It would appear that Ashford bobbins are shorter than mine, and that the Ashford wheels have a narrower flyer shaft. As luck would have it, Ashford bobbins are made with a wider bore, stopped down at the end with plastic plugs (which are presumably wonderfully low traction for reduced resistance to spin), and if I pull those plugs out, it's spot on for my wheel. Conclusions from my little experiment? 1) I can buy and use Ashford bobbins for my wheel, if I need more bobbins 2) An Ashford Lazy Kate probably won't do me any good for my current wheel; it's likely too short 3) When If I get an Ashford, I won't be able to maintain a 'shared pool' of bobbins between the two wheels, unless I also get a 'pool' of end plugs that are easier to pop in and out. The ones that came in the bobbin were a very snug fit, and have ...deformed rather on just one outwards journey. UPDATE: Spinning now available without sellotape! The mini-roll of sellotape is not required, you just can't use all the hooks on the flyer arms. It's much quieter that way...

Weird looking sleeve...

Well, Minnie is progressing; I've finished the first sleeve, but it's a really weird shape. A couple of people have mentioned that they think there is a mistake in the sleeve; I see what they mean. The sleeve head is really long, and of course the cuff is really wide, so it looks odd beyond belief.

...it's a sleeve, Jim, but...

I've tried draping/pinning it round my arm, and it seems short-ish. Of course, it needs a good blocking, and cotton 'sags' rather than 'springs', so we'll see. It's a weird beast, though.

Mission failed...

This weekend saw both Strawberry Fair and the Cambridge County Show, on successive days. I've been a big fan, attendee and even vendor at Strawberry Fair in the past, and it holds a very special place in my heart. However, it's not been as friendly or as fun in the last few years, so I persuaded myself that I would forgo it in favour of the county show (sheep! alpaca! food! dogs!). So I packed up a picnic lunch, slapped on the sunscreen (the sun has finally arrived in our corner of England), got the dog fastened into the car, and off we went. Only to spend well over an hour trying to get there, mostly in a queue for the entrance. In the end, we gave up and came away. How *&$%! frustrating. So now half the day is gone, and I've been to neither event. Gah! Kita says:

suckahhhh!

Kita says...

....zzzzoooom!!!

Spinning, all the time

Having finished my first day's end 8oz (the reds), I'm now well into my second (the greens). No photo at the minute though, because I'm at work. I don't know what it is about spinning at the minute; it's simply enthralling me. Actually, it's not all spinning; last night I finished the second front/back of J's sweater. Ye gods, there's a lot of knitting in a man-sweater. I'm more than halfway through my yarn, though, and I bought siginificantly more than I needed, so the end must be in sight. I placed an order with Twist Fibre Craft on Tuesday - and received my goods on Wednesday! What service!! They don't have an online order form (it's a print-and-post-or-fax-or-phone system), but nonetheless, I'd highly recommend them. I'll show the booty later (mostly spinning tools), but I also bought a little book called "The Ashford Book of Weaving for Knitters" (scroll down). Now, I am definitely a knitter, and I definitely have plenty of hobbies, so please don't go thinking I'm about to add another to the mix (ahem...), but I've been reading others' experiences with weaving recently, and I am always very interested in archaic and archaeological textiles. I want to understand more about the mechanics and technology of weaving, and the construction and types of looms that are out there. So I thought this book would be a good introduction to weaving and looms for people who already know knitting. Unfortunately, a better title would be "Weaving scarves using knitting yarns". It's a nice book, but all it is is a collection of patterns. It is suggested as an ideal companion for the "knitter's loom", and apparently, you have to buy the loom in order to get the instructions for the 'special warping method' repeatedly referenced by the author of the book. Grrrr. Oh, and apparently, I'm Katherine Parr: Which of Henry VIII's wives are you? this quiz was made by Lori Fury Sounds about right.

Red and green brocade??

Well, most folks seem to think that I should spin the green to match the red. I now find myself wondering if they would pair well in a project (without making me look like a giant Christmas tree ornament, that is). One thing that comes to mind is Brocade, which I adore, from Rowan 38. Would red and green brocade just be too obnoxious for words?? Or just obnoxious enough to be really, really fun? I had planned to do it in red and purple shetland, which would also be obnoxious, but more richly and subtly so. Or so I keep telling myself, anyway. Of course, I could always go with the festive theme and knit very traditional Christmas stockings. That's kindof tempting...

Plying up a storm!

Spinning I finished spinning my Days' End Red singles at the weekend, and have been Navajo plying it since. I've spun up three skeins, and have two or three more to go. I think I could do this all day; it's incredibly meditative. I actually think my singles have got thinner as this project has progressed, so the final yarn may not match the project I originally had in mind. I'm still very proud of it though.

Real yarn!

That's about 100m of three-ply medium weight wool. British penny included for scale! There are now two more of these...

Kita doesn't look all that impressed....

My dog is not tiny, and the skein is not huge. That's a trick of perspective. I have another 8 ounces of this stuff, but in a 'greens' mix. I don't know whether to:

• attempt to spin it sockweight
• attempt to spin it laceweight
• attempt to spin it aran or chunkier
• attempt to spin it 'from the fold'
• attempt to spin it to match the reds.

Votes/suggestions more than welcome!

Sunday Afternoon At My House

...it might be raining, but we can still have fun...

Serious startitis

Knitting, plus This is very unusual for me, the Project Monogamy Specialist, but I am having real difficulty sticking to any one of my projects, and want to cast on for loads more RIGHT NOW. I currently have on the go:

• my March project - Minnie
• my April project - J's "Lakes" sweater
• an exercise in freeform crochet
• spinning - day's end batts

I've decided that May is the month of finishing, so I can wipe the slate clean and then move on, but I still feel like I'm on the project merry-go-round. I really, really want to get Minnie finished so I can wear her; but it seems to be going on forever. It doesn't help that I had to rip out 20 rows on the sleeve cuff (WIIIIDE sleeves too, remember!) today, because I'd accidentally followed the pattern for the front, not the sleeve, after the border. And at the same time, J wants his sweater, I want to know that my exchanges are at least under control (I don't have to have them finished right now; I just need to know that I can finish them), I really want some funky socks to wear with the summer sandals that started eating my feet, and I've been itching to knit one (or three) of Annie Modesitt's gorgeous hats, which I postponed at the end of summer because it wasn't sunny any more (and of course, it is sunny now, and I could really use a hat). I just wish I had three more pairs of arms. At least.

Little monster...

Spinning, or I Would Be Spinning, But... We all know that Dogs Steal Yarn, but did you know they chew roving, too? One ounce of carded wool can be spread over quite an area if you are a hound on a mission. It also encourages your resident spinner to convert from a sort-of-worsted spinning style to more-like-woollen.

No, I didn't take a photograph. My first instinct was to straighten the darn stuff out again.

So, where is the otter hiding, anyway?

The otter has post-viral fatigue and is Not Coping Too Well. I'm in negotiations with work to reduce my working hours to see if we can improve things, but in short, I'm having difficulty writing things right now. I'll try and post briefly at least once per day. That way, I might make it at least a few times per week!

Progress report...

A photoless post!! That's because either everything looks just the same, or because secrecy is required, or because I messed up.... or possibly all the above. You decide. Minnie: both fronts and the back are now complete. I've almost finished the edging on one sleeve. Of all the sleeves out there, these ones are definitely not to be underestimated. One cuff has more stitches than one front. I have no idea how I thought I was going to get this done in a month... On the other hand, there are no beads in the sleeves, so that should speed things up a bit. Lakes: Started shaping armholes on one piece. 2x1 rib forever!! And ever... and ever.... and ever... Spinning: There's only about 1 oz. of the red roving left! Aiming for maximum consistency, I've spun it all into singles (apart from the test piece), and will then ply it all. I've even used the same bobbin for spinning all the singles, a practice recommended by The Master Himself, and so will be plying from re-wound singles, which is apparently also good. Socks: Hilary's socks were gifted last Wednesday. I haven't been blogging about these, because they were supposed to be a surprise. OK, she knew they were coming, but at least she hadn't seen pictures all over my blog before she unwrapped them! And she won't now, either; I forgot to take piccies before I wrapped them... I'm thinking 6 ply socks for me, next; they should be quick, and then I will own handknit socks! Woooo! Exchanges: Both SP8 and the Rowanette exchange have kicked off in the last week. Clearly, a certain amount of secrecy is required here, but my planned activities include recipe writing, freeform crochet, soft toy sewing, card making and - maybe - knitting. Because I'm not busy enough already, you know.

I'm going to regret this...

Yes, that's two projects on the go at once. Minnie (my March project), and Lakes (my April project). Yes, it's May. I know. I bought a bunch of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in a dark marled denim-y colour, with a vision of a reverse rib cardigan for J. He wants a regular rib sweater; that's fine by me. I'll make myself a reverse rib cardi some other time. Fortunately, Rowan have a pattern for a ribbed sweater in ASC, called Lakes. Asluck would have it, it's actually supposed to be reverse rib, but how hard is that to change?! In fact, I think I'll pay very careful attention to the finishing, then it can be reversible. Cunning, eh??

Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I've not yet met a yarn I couldn't stand, though I've steered clear of 100% synthetic yarns and 'fun fur' types. I find very chunky yarns tiring for my hands, and tend to steer clear of 6mm needles (or larger). I loved knitting with Rowan Wool Cotton, Rowan Calmer and Noro Kureyon. 2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? One of those CD folders with plastic pockets for the CDs! I use circular needles almost exclusively (except for socks, which I knit on DPNs), and you can coil them up and pop them in the pocket. Needle gauges, crochet hooks and DPNs live in a little pocket in the front. Sometimes the 'uncoiling urge' overcomes the needles and the whole thing explodes when I unzip it. I have an old pasta sauce jar that my straights stand in. 3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I can't remember not being able to knit, though I do remember figuring out how to purl (I was about 10). I went through a brief knitting phase when I was 18, and then let it lapse till just over a year ago. I'd say I'm a strong intermediate knitter, with an adventurous, can-do approach. 4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes; on Amazon. I don't know how to get a reliable link to it, though. 5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) I'm not a very 'scent-y' person. I like light floral/green scents, and spicy scents, but I don't tend to wear them much. I have some shea butter stuff that I love for its 'caramel' scent, and a 'butter pecan' candle in my living room that makes me drool! 6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Yes, but it's not much stronger than my savoury tooth! I love chocolate, from white to very, very dark; I love caramels (particular the almost bitter kinds) and licquorice, but I don't much like the very sugary, colourful 'synthetic foam' sweets like Haribo! 7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? Yes, I spin! I also crochet, sew, silversmith, cook, embroider, make bobbin lace and have recently branched out into card-making. I'm planning to join the SCA soon, and have an interest in historical crafts, especially the ways that people made everyday items. 8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Mostly classical; also Egyptian/Middle Eastern (I do bellydancing). I also like New Age and ancient music. 9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? I usually wear autumnal colours; beige/brown/khakhi/green. I very rarely wear pinks, but I'm trying to break down that phobia (see Minnie, and last year's 'orchid' skirt). I almost never wear yellow, or any blues other than either washed-out pale or actual denim. 10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I live with my partner, James, in a house we recently bought together. I have two chinchillas (Domino and Trinity), and a dog (a female lurcher, called Kita) 11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Not ponchos. I do wear scarves, hats and mitts if the weather gets cold enough - but it didn't really, this last winter. 12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Ohh, impossible to say! 13. What are you knitting right now? A sweater for J in Rowan ASC and 'Minnie' from Rowan 39 for me. 14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Definitely! 15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Circs. Except for sock-knitting, when I use DPNs. I've not used bamboo needles, and don't like the plastics I have used. I'm not fussy about my needles, mostly using 'Pony' brand, which is what my LYS stocks. 16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes, to both. 17. How did you learn to knit? I don't remember! I taught myself all but the very basics from a book, and am still picking things up from the internet. 18. How old is your oldest UFO? If we're talking knitting, about 6 months (a sweater I started for my brother's Christmas); if we're talking crochet, about 16 years!! (a lace curtain that my Mum probably doesn't even want any more) 19. What is your favorite holiday? Any time I don't have to go into work! 20. Is there anything that you collect? No... except yarn. And fabric. And blog subscriptions... 21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I'm subscribed to Rowan International, and Simply Knitting. 22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Not right now... 23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? yes... I have UK size 7 feet. 24. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) March 1st

Bad, bad blogger

Been signed off work for a fortnight; that sounds like a lot of time for blogging, right? Naaah... Abnormal service will resume shortly. Including the results of the competition.... ;)

Swatch-o-rama, baby!

          Minnie is dragging on...

                       ...and on...

                               ...and on...
                                            ...........

I don't particularly like having more than one project on the go at once; whichever one I am working on, I feel guilty for not working on the other, and as often as not, I can't decide which one to pick up, so nothing gets worked on. But Minnie is getting dull; it was my March project, after all, and we're now in May. It doesn't help that its a pure cotton yarn, and it's a bit tiring to knit with for a long time, especially with the beads. Swatches, though, don't count. I almost *always* swatch before starting a project; I'd rather do an unnecessary swatch than rip out part of an actual project. I also don't have 'issues' with what to work on; I can knit a relaxing swatch in one short session, or as a break from beaded knitting in handknit cotton. So recently, I have swatched for:

• a pair of socks in Regia Ringel (yes, really! I swatch for socks!) This yarn is destined to be Jaywalkers for me; the stripes will be about half the depth they appear here when actually made into a sock.
• a reverse-rib All Seasons Cotton cardi for J; he says he prefers the 'usual rib' side of the fabric. And maybe he wants a jumper, anyway (this is my April project... hmmm....)
• 'Lakes' - a fortuitous ribbed sweater pattern from Rowan in All Seasons Cotton. He likes this one*.
• Evaluating my handspun: I loooove this swatch and have been carrying it around with me ever since I made it! I will keep spinning to this weight, and Navajo plying it. I'm envisaging a snug-fitting cardigan in this yarn; possibly a fair isle as I won't have enough of 'just' this yarn to make one. I'd like this to fill a similar space in my wardrobe to the Noro 'York' cardi, which has had a lot of wear, and is starting to show it (due to softly-spun bulky singles yarn not being very good at resisting abrasion. Read: it's pilling. My tighter-spun 3 ply shouldn't have this problem!)

I keep trying to work out if I can stitch all my swatches together and make a throw out of them, but they're in such different weights and yarns that it might end up being "a strange lumpy thing, more like a flat tortoise than a quilt" (name that misquote!). Still, it might work for keeping muddy dog-paws off the car seat... _____________________________ *I know, I know: these two look remarkably similar; they are the same yarn. The first is knit on 4.5mm needles, in a 3 by 1 rib; the second on 5mm needles in a 2 by 1 rib. I prefer the first; the stitches look so much neater, and the definition is so much better. J prefers the second; the fabric feels softer. Fair enough - it's his sweater!

Two out of Five

...ain't bad? Well, for March's project, when we're coming to the end of April, it's pretty poor. One front and the back of Minnie are done: J wants to know when I'll start working on his jumper (my April project). I've swatched, and I'm planning, but the start line's not in sight yet. Kita says:

I'm too fast for you!

How to publish a blogroll

I've had a few questions on how I put a blogroll in my left sidebar; I'm sure there are loads of ways of doing it, but here's how I managed it.

1. I use Bloglines. The rest of the method revolves around this; you use Bloglines to subscribe to the feeds you want to publish.
2. You can sort your subscriptions into folders; you can publish some folders and keep others private.
3. Once you have your subscriptions set up and sorted (if you want to sort), you have to set up your Bloglines profile to allow sharing. To do this, you have to go to the 'Account' section, and then, click the 'Blog Settings' link. Select the 'Yes, share my Blog and/or Blogroll' radio button, and then press the 'Save Changes' button.
4. Next, go to the 'share' tab in the right hand Bloglines frame. Here, you can generate the code to put into your blog template to publish your blogroll.
   • Fill in your Bloglines username
   • Specify a folder name if you want to generate code for publishing just the links in that folder; alternatively, leave it blank to publish all your subscriptions.
   • Specify a target if you want to; leaving this empty will open a link in the same window as the click, i.e. over the top of your blog. If you enter "_blank" (without the quotes), the link will open in a new window. If you want to get fancy, you could play with other targets, but these are the common two.
   • Press the 'Generate HTML' button.
5. Copy the generated code - whichever format you use - straight into your blog template.
6. Save the modified template
7. Republish if you need to.

Ta-daaa!

Learning curve

I decided I wanted to try Navajo plying the red "day's end" singles, which meant I first had to learn Navajo plying. After Googling for instructions, I decided to practise on some of my goatfluff singles; which was the point I found that one of my remaining bobbins binds on the flyer. Binding bobbins make for no take-up by the flyer. Can we say 'overplyed'? I think so. The second attempt was vastly improved, due to finding a bobbin that actually *spins*. Third time round, I tried my red singles. Hey, look, Ma! Yarn!!

Three skeins; first, second and third Navajo plying attempts

It's not very consistent, but it actually looks like yarn, and it's almost -nearly- balanced. I think it's working out at a light aran weight: I'm still having some problems with takeup onto the bobbin; I think my wheel needs a good service. But I'm very, very pleased with my progress! Lousy photos, though. Sorry! On a different note, some puppies have no pride at all!

So talk to me, already! (COMPETITION!)

According to my funky clustrmap, I've had 320 visits in the last 10 or 11 days; 31 yesterday. The map is showing some hits from some very unexpected places, as well as the more expected ones. How many comments have I had in that time?!? Nine. Please talk to me! (Unless you came here by Googling 'nipples', of course. I'm probably not interested in talking to you if you did that.) I know who a fair few of my regular visitors are; but if you've never left a comment, please consider doing so! You don't have to have a Blogger profile to comment; just type in the letters in the anti-spam check. I'd love to know who's visiting; how you came to be here; what interests you most (Knitting? Spinning? Kita? Sewing? Random photos? Pseudo-philosophy?). In the spirit of comment-whoring (and I've seen it work elsewhere!) everyone who comments in the next week will be entered in a prize draw. What the prize *is* will depend on who wins it. There may even be a second and a third prize... Who knows! But you won't win anything if you don't comment! :)

Documenting the obvious, part 1

Spotted on the bottom of a mug: And, well, duh:

Bobbins!

Spinning I need a few new bobbins for my wheel. I think I have a total of five currently; one is so badly warped it won't spin on the flyer, and I discovered last night that another is slightly warped; it binds a bit, and won't spin enough to allow takeup of the yarn*. Since my wheel was made by a carpenter 15 years and a couple of hundred miles away, I doubt I can get any more from him. And in any case, would I really want to? I'm not sure, but I think this problem may be getting worse over time. So, I need to find some bobbins that fit my wheel. There are several possibilities:

1. Get really lucky and find a commercial manufacturer whose bobbins have the same length and internal diameter as my wheel would like. I can hope...
2. Get a new flyer assembly for my wheel that takes commercially available bobbins. Ashford do a 'double drive conversion kit' for their wheels that looks like it should work.
3. Buy a whole 'nother wheel (heh). Actually, this could work well in conjunction with (2), because I think the Ashford Traveller would be my wheel of choice. Then I could have interchangeable flyer sets for both.
4. Find a tame woodworker who does lathe turning.

Wish me luck...

___________________

*A double drive wheel has a band twisted into a figure 8 that passes twice round the wheel, once round the flyer whorl, and once round the end of the bobbin. The flyer whorl is next to the end of the bobbin that takes the band, and is larger than the bobbin, with a V-shaped groove. The larger diameter and the groove shape means that the flyer is pulled harder than the bobbin. The idea is that the flyer is made to spin, but the tension over the bobbin is lower, so it can slip on the flyer shaft. The flyer arms therefore spin round the bobbin faster than the bobbin is spinning, so the yarn is wound on to the bobbin. Confusing? Try adjusting the tension...

My wheel

Midsummer Night's Knitter asked in a recent comment about my wheel. Well, it's a no-name made by a carpenter who used to live near my parents, and whose wife was a spinner. He was fairly elderly when he made my wheel; I have no idea if he's still making them, or even if he's still alive. That was at least 15 years ago; I've had this wheel more than half my life! It's a double-drive Saxony type wheel, and I believe it's made of oak. It has only one treadle, and is designed for only right-footed treadling; I'm trying to learn to treadle it leftie, though. Unlike all the wheels I am currently seeing on the internet, it doesn't have a solid beam connecting the treadle to the wheel; it just has a cord: That means that you can only pull on the wheel, not push; therefore, there is no point being able to heel-treadle. So you can't. I really need more bobbins for this wheel, especially since one of the ones I have 'binds' and will not turn. I don't know if I'll ever manage that, though. I will, in the future, get a second wheel - probably a castle type to allow for ambidextrous use, and ergonomic comfort. I'll always love this one, though.

Stash Addendum the First

Spinning My combed wool top arrived today. It's gorgeous: It's also staying at work until I've done more spinning here at home. But I'm working on it! Here's the evidence: And another one: This is one of my "day's end bumps" from High Prairie Fibers - I bought two of these, one in mossy greens and one in purply reds. This is the purply reds one (duh!), but does have some green in it. It's wonderful to be getting back to some spinning again. But boy, I'm out of shape with this spinning milarky. I did about 40 minutes yesterday, and about 10 minutes today, and my leg hurts! I'll get fit again. I'll try and work both legs, though with this wheel, treadling left footed is somewhat awkward. I suddenly thought today, though: why don't I try painting some of that grey goatfluff?? It's not my most bestest roving ever, but might be a fun excuse to play with dyes... Hmmm...

Stash!

Knitting Something over a week late, I present my stash. It's slightly shameful... So we'll break it down into locations, to make it look less bad. Stash@work Two boxes: ...and one filing cabinet. I've mostly emptied the filing cabinet since just last time I wrote about work stash; it only contains the Biggy Print Troll now: The first box contains discontinued Debbie Bliss Maya. I'm a sucker for a discontinued yarn, especially at a bargain price: The second contains EcoKnit cotton and the pattern for Fiddlestick's Ginko Leaf Tunic, and the Rose Garden country silk: Further excavation revealed four packets of beads that I thought might be suitable for Minnie, but which turned out far too small (iPod included for scale): Stash@home, in deep storage No photos of this lot; it's in the loft and there's no loft ladder. Up here is my sizeable stash of Jamieson's Soft Shetland (two VERY LARGE boxes of it, bought on sale; I think I have a full pack of each of at least 12 colours. 1 full pack is 20 50g skeins, in case you were wondering...) And another box the same size, designated 'yarn box 1'. I have a list of what's in that:

• 10x Rowan Polar, grey
• 10x Rowan Polar, khaki
• 3x lurex shimmer, wine
• 10x biggy print, brown
• 3x grey rowanspun, chunky
• 1x summer tweed, lilac
• 10x summer tweed, coral
• 5+x summer tweed, rush
• 10x summer tweed, lime
• 6x lurex shimmer, pewter
• 4x kureyon, lime/fuschia/brown colourway
• 1x cotton 4ply, fuschia
• 1x kureyon, pinks/purples/turquoise
• 6+x jaeger aqua, fuschia
• 4x alpaca silk, lilac
• 2x linen print, purples
• 3x linen print, orange/pink/red
• 2x cotton chunky chenille, forest green
• 7x cork, wine red

So when I say they're *big* boxes, I'm not joking. The Jamieson's ones are absolutely stuffed to the gills, too. Stash@home, in the fibre room Theoretically, this is the only room in the house with fibre in. Riiiiight. Anyway, welcome to Stash Central: I'm afraid I ran out of energy before pulling the yarn box out of the above stack; I know it contains a lot of Jaeger Chamonix, but apart from that, I'm blanking. Meet Mr. Socky. This lot lives in the sock yarn tub: The contents of the other three yarn tubs on the silver shelves: L to R: Noro whateveritis that's like Silk Garden only chunkier; 12 balls for my abandoned Olympian project; 1 skein point 5 (I made cute falls for a Hallowe'en outfit with a different skein; this is earmarked for something similar. Maybe) and the rest of the yarn for Minnie, a true WIP. Clockwise from top left: Maya, in dark greens; My First Handspun; 2 cones of fine acrylic (1 chocolate, 1 white); assorted cottons; 2 cones green chunky acrylic, one with flecks in the yarn; bag of Jonelle superwash wool, red (damn, no good for felting); 8 skeins jonelle superwash wool (see above) in variegated autumnal colours. Most of this stuff is from eBay, when I was just getting back into the knitting. Again, clockwise from top left: Stu's unfinished Christmas sweater (Mask in Rowan Cork); Fiddlesticks Country Silk in bronze (for Peacock Feathers shawl); Rowan ASC in midnight blue for my April project (ahem) - a cardi for J; various bits of mohairy yarn from Fiddlesticks left over from January's project; and a pattern and one ball of yarn for a project I'm really looking forwards to but haven't yet scheduled; one lonely ball of Polar in off-white from Feb's project. That pattern is the floral shrug from Get Knitted: I think I must envisage myself knocking this out in a few minutes whilst waiting for something else to happen. Crochet's really quick, right?!? Fuzzy stash: Goatfluff and two "day's end" 8 oz bumps. Awaiting the attentions of my wheel. Now might or might not be the time to mention that I've got 6 lumps of combed wool top from Lorna's Laces on its way to me... Hmmmm... What else? Oh, yeah... Stash in the Living Room Theoretically, there is no stash in my living room; only works in progress. Uhuh. KSH 'jelly' for either Kiri or Birch; some novelty yarn for gift scarves. I don't buy novelty yarn; I don't know what came over me. Ahem. More novelty yarn. I swear, this never happens. And finally, three balls of GGH chenille and one of Kaalund expressions in Coral. Happy stashing!

Life lessons

On the way home from work today, Radio 3 was playing me a very silly song about a duck and a kangaroo; apparently the lyrics are by Lear. The duck was envying the kangaroo's ability to hop and bemoaning its own boring life in the pond. Eventually, the duck overcame the kangaroo's objections to its wet feet (for the knitters: by wearing four pairs of worsted socks that fit its webbed toes) and persuaded it to give it a ride. And they hopped three times round the world. But the song annoyed the hell out of me because all I could think was

YOU HAVE WINGS, YOU SODDING IDIOT!

Better than Frappr!

See the new button at the top of the right hand bar? I predict this will be the next big craze sweeping Knitblog-Land. If anyone with a sizeable reader-base picks up on it, that is. It's a bit like Frappr, but:

• the stats as to how many people have visited and from where are updated daily
• visitors don't have to do anything to get logged.

I don't know if it's enough just to read the site on an aggregator site, though; I think you might actually have to *visit*. Bit of a problem, that.

Nipples!

Well, actually, it's the start of the back of Minnie. But, between the pink and the bobbles.... Well. I spent this afternoon in the pub, knitting and drinking coffee, and in 4 hours, finished the border of the back piece:

Stash Flash Day (belated)

          "There are two times I buy yarn:
                  1) When I am happy
                  2) When I am sad."

I'm sure that it is crass in the extreme to quote onesself, especially online, but that's exactly what I've just done. I'm actually quoting my own comment on Serendipity's post about how yarn-stashes grow.

I had visitors over the weekend, so I didn't get any yarn-photography done. (J's mum is very cool and very into all things fibery, but even she might think I was nuts if I started hauling stuff out of boxes and photographing it. Especially if she saw HOW MUCH stuff I was hauling out of HOW MANY boxes).

The closest I got to stash-flashing was when Kita-pup found a bag of dry dog food left in an unfortunately accessible place. She stashed approximately four day's worth of food for a dog her size, then later flashed it at us. All over the lawn. And the patio. And the hallway rug. And much later, our duvet. And the next day, the patio again. Poor pup. She's OK now, but we were keeping a very close eye on her for a while, because dry food swells and can cause all kinds of digestive problems after a binge like that. I guess we were fortunate that it wasn't the very dry biscuit kind, but more the novelty-eraser-like texture.

I will be stash flashing. Just later.

Kiri or Birch??

Knitting Three Kidsilk Fuzzballs made their way home in my shopping bag the other day, in that fab lime green colour known as 'Jelly' (I know, I know... I have more than enough yarn for the rest of the year, and probably several more to boot, but we've all been there, haven't we?). I've been coveting a Birch or a Kiri for ages, and felt it was just time. I love that fresh, springy green; greens of all types make a regular appearance in my wardrobe, and the zing of jelly is a particular favourite. For the uninitiated (Ha! Who am I kidding?!?), Birch is a pattern from Rowan 34 that uses a traditional fern lace pattern. Eleventy-million stitches are cast on to form the top edge, and the pattern is worked down from the top, decreasing out stitches as you go. Kiri is a version created by the wonderful Polly of All Tangled Up. It is knit by the more familiar method of casting on a few stitches, and increasing at the edges and centre to make a triangle. There are other differences too, I'm sure; but that's the salient one right now. Birch ends up as an all over pattern with the motifs pointing up and down the shawl. Kiri shows the central tram-track eyelet line typical of this method of shawl construction, and the motifs point up and inwards towards the central line. I actually think Kiri has more visual interest, but... Well, part of me wants to knit the pattern as Rowan printed it, not least because I want to prove to myself that I *can* cast on and knit eleventymillion stitches. It's as if some sort of snobbery is pushing me towards the 'original' despite myself - and I can't put my finger on what or why. Silly, I know. Of course, the other option is to do a shawl that actually uses more than one stitch pattern. Suggestions, anyone? P.S. The consensus was that the previous layout was a tad too wide for many people; is the new one any better? P.P.S. I actually had a dream last night where I was trying to explain the difference in construction between Kiri and Birch, and the resulting different appearance, to a non-knitter. Complete with diagrams. Is that worrying?

A little bit of maintenance...

I've finally got a blogroll up in my sidebar! Now anyone who drops by can find out whether I'm stalking them or not... I've also changed the width of the page; let me know if it is too wide for your browser/screen. I'm experimenting. Next up: colour! Woooo!

No tinking with beads...

Knitting Zipping along (hah!) at our regular S'n'B lunch today, I spotted this: See that? A Missing Bead. Scarlet tried to persuade me that I should just stitch one on afterwards; I couldn't bring myself to do it. You can't tink back and fix a mistake when a bead just isn't on the right bit of yarn. So, I had to rip back and reknit. It was a whole pile of fun picking up that stitch pattern, I can tell you. But I now have two fully-beaded rows. Yay!

Minnie is languishing...

Knitting, work But with good reason. All my knitting time for the last week has been co-opted by a very important, very urgent knitting-related task that was totally unforseen. The quest for work-life balance, and a work environment I could buy into, believe in and be passionate about has been a recurring theme of my late-night soliloquies in past years. So, just suppose there was a small start-up company... ...that was looking for software engineers... ...and people with a technical understanding of knitting... ...to help develop their product... ...that produces knitting patterns... ...based on the novice-designer-user's designs... Could you think of a better match for me? To cut a long story short, they're keen for me to work for them; part time/contract at first, and hoping for a full-time job sometime in the new year. Isn't it amazing how life-changing opportunities can whoosh out of nowhere, smack you between the eyes and totally change your perspective in under a week?

Very, very silly

Random

I love the idea of a 'shinyotterometer'. Also protecting Aztecs from harm in battle.

I'd rather not address the 32 bars of soap right now, though.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Shinyotter!

1. Shinyotter is the largest of Saturn's moons.
2. Shinyotter is actually a fruit, not a vegetable!
3. The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed shinyotter would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used her to decorate their battle shields.
4. A shinyotterometer is used to measure shinyotter!
5. Shinyotter has enough fat to produce 32 bars of soap!
6. The state nickname of Iowa is 'The shinyotter state'.
7. Ninety-six percent of all candles sold are purchased by shinyotter!
8. The word 'samba' means 'to rub shinyotter'.
9. Shinyotter will always turn right when leaving a cave.
10. Britain's Millennium Dome is more than double the size of shinyotter.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Country silk colours

Just a quick photo-post to see if I can illustrate the differences in colour I'm seeing between 'online' and 'real life' country silk. First, Rose Garden: Now, Bronze: In both cases, the photo of my yarn is on the right; the one from the website is on the left. Looking at these photos, I prefer the bronze that I have to the one in the photo (though it's probably less wearable); but the rose garden has too much white in for me. Either way, there's quite a lot of difference.

Beading Minnie

Knitting I've had a bit of an internal debate trying to decide whether to bead Minnie or not; I didn't want pink-on-pink, even if I could find pink that matched. I thought I'd found some bronze beads, but they turned out to be too small. In the end, I've bought some chocolate-brown wooden ones as per the pattern, and I love the colour combination. Mmmmmmmm!! Strawberry chocolate: They've arrived just in time; I expect to use the first one today!

Birthday surprise...

I received a package all the way from sunny New Zealand today: a pressie from Jack, Heather and Rebecca. It contained a leaf brooch with the cutest little insect on it - really delicate modelling work. ...and, I think, the most unusual birthday pressie I've ever received: a possum fur. Possums are officially a noxious pest in New Zealand; they're not native, and they destroy rain forest and threaten a lot of native animals' habitats. Just to add insult to injury, they cannot be re-exported to their native Australia (where they are endangered!) from New Zealand, because the NZ population carries TB, and the Aussie one doesn't (I think I've got that right). I don't own any other real fur (other than that which lives in my house!) and I'm currently wearing it round my neck; it's cold here today, but this is lovely and warm. It's got me wondering what to do with it. I could of course 'gussy' the ends up and wear it as a 'fur' in its own right, but that's not really my daily style of dress, and might result in me getting pelted with eggs and rocks in some areas of Cambridge. It is, instead, inspiring thoughts of historic costuming again; I'm thinking an Elizabethan 'loose gown' trimmed with it? Or possibly a doublet trimmed with it... Mmmmmm......

Minnie progress

I've knit my way through one ball of the seventeen required for Minnie, and I'm enjoying every stitch. I've not had much time to knit on Minnie since starting it; I have some gift knitting (currently non-blog-fodder) to do as a matter of urgency. One ball has knit about 5 inches on one front: So, I have 16 balls left to knit on my March project, and 22 days to knit them in. That's slightly under one and a half days per ball, or three quarters of a ball per day. Not allowing for blocking and making up. Hmmm.

Maiden voyage

Knitting Ice maiden was finished just a day or two after the end of February, and was worn to work last Friday. It's a lovely, snuggly jumper to wear, but doesn't half shed white fibres! It's turned out pleasingly long and the sleeves are a great length. I'm glad I added the body shaping, though the Polar knits into such a drapey fabric that I'm not sure it was absolutely necessary. In fact, if anything the fabric might be slightly looser than the optimum. I have more Polar in dark grey and dark green; I'd be interested to see what effect dropping from 8mm to 7mm needles would have on the fabric. It would have the definite bonus that my 8mm circs are (A) plastic, which 'sucks' at the yarn, and (B) have a really, really lousy cable join. My 7mm needles (same brand!) are far nicer.

More on Fiddlesticks Country Silk

Knitting I mentioned a couple of days ago that I'd bought some silk for Minnie from Fiddlesticks, but had decided not to use it. The first and most serious issue is with the yardage; I must have miscalculated, but comparing the yardage on both yarns suggests that there is nowhere near enough in one skein of country silk to make Minnie. The second, also serious, issue is gauge; I don't know what I was smoking when I decided this would be a good substitute, but it ain't. It might have worked, but probably not. Nevermind! But the third issue is colour. It just isn't what I expected................. I bought two colourways of this silk blend - Bronze and Rose Garden - in one order, and in both cases I was ......surprised by the actual colours when the skeins arrived. I know that buying online is always tricky, but the Bronze is more of a yellow, and the Rose Garden has almost no brown in it, but does have a peachy pink and what I can only describe as lime green. Both skeins appear a lot lighter in person than on any of the (carefully adjusted) monitors that I use. That is, a lot, lot lighter. That's a shame, because I had great plans for more knitting with this stuff, but the colours that appeal to me most are the intense, saturated colours like Marrakesh, Earth and Autumn. If they're all significantly paler, then I'm not so hot on them.

It's a Minnie Adventure

Knitting The silk I was planning to use for my March knitting project, Minnie from Rowan 39 arrived recently. It's lovely, but not what I wanted, and I don't think that the gauge, the colour or the yardage are right for this project. I think I will save it for the Lotus Blossom shawl, which is written for this yarn, and for which I already have the pattern. Rather than messing around with yarns any more, I decided to use what the Minnie pattern specifies, which is Rowan handknit cotton. Looking at the colours on the Rowan website, there are a lot of 'baby' colours, which don't really appeal to me, some real 'brights', which I like but I don't think suit this style, and my usual fallbacks: cream, beige, ecru, taupe (amusingly spelled 'tope' by Rowan), khaki and chocolate. I love the creamy colour used in the magazine itself, but would like to break out of my cream/green/brown neutrals rut. I visited all two of our Cambridge yarn stores to look at these colours in person; my suspicions were confirmed. Colours are pastel-nasty or not suited to this lovely style. However, diligent searcing in the second shop, unearthed one single, solitary ball of colour 312, which is a soft, dusty rose colour; 'brick pink' if you will. A lovely store assistant informed me that they almost certainly didn't have any more in stock if there was only one on the shelf, and that ordering the yarn would take a long time as Rowan impose a minimum order on retailers, so they don't order from them very often. I thanked her for her honesty and said I'd probably order direct from Rowan myself, thanks. But I cannot find colour 312 on the website. There is no link to it. I hack the url to find colour 312, and there it is. 'Rosy'. But unlinked. A quick research mission reveals it is discontinued. Thank heavens for eBay. Specifically, Jannette's rare yarns, where I managed to buy two unopened packs of the stuff. UPDATE: Now that's service!! My yarn arrived in record time; it was waiting for me on Thursday night when I got home. I'd highly, highly recommend this seller. Thankyou so much!

Fallen for another hobby

Cardmaking After resisting avoiding card making for years and years, I suddenly got the urge to make cards this week. Must be another example of my repressed 'girliness' coming out - you know, playing with stickers and posh paper and glitter and stuff. I bought an unreasonable amount of supplies - partly because the arts shop was having a sale on cardmaking stuff, I have to admit. There are a lot of materials and techniques I want to try - I'm going to list them here so I don't forget. I haven't *quite* bought all the supplies for these techniques in one go!!

• Tool Embossing
• Blending chalks
• Mulberry paper
• Heat/powder embossing
• Embossing pens
• Stickers!
• Freehand drawing
• 'Glass paint' cards
• Die-cutting/punching
• Stamping (maybe!)

Goatfluff

Spinning I can now happily report that my spinning wheel is working better than it has for years!! Although I am no longer as proficient a spinner as I was aged 15... I was spinning the most amazing fine, even singles back then... I took the thing apart, dusted, polished and oiled it, washed the drive band and re-assembled it this week. It's a double drive wheel, and I was having difficulty getting the uptake rate as swift as I'd like. I think the maintenance has helped enormously! Today, I've spun some singles and plied some of 2 bobbins worth to make about 100 metres of 2 ply yarn: which is currently having a bath to set the twist and will be dried under tension later. I'm very pleased with myself. Fingers included for scale: I've had some interesting problems with overspinning the yarn (see previous comments about yarn uptake by the wheel!) and it's not very consistent. I've also done very little plying in the past. See all the squigglies in the hank straight off the bobbin: I have so much more of this roving it's just scary: I'll have to weigh this skein when it's dry and see how it compares to the rest of the fluff. One of the reasons I've decided to ply what I had on those two bobbins is that my spinning is very different now to what it was then; in addition, the roving has compacted rather and is much harder to draft and spin now than it used to be. I might ply up the rest of this (which should give me enough to make a lacey neckerchief at the least) and then try spinning the rest of it at a different thickness.

Nolympian

I don't want anyone to think I'm against the Olympics, or a spoilsport, but I'm pulling out of the big knitting event. There are several reasons; the main one being that I'm just not enjoying it. Knitting is supposed to be a relaxing hobby for me, and this deadline is, for some reason, not inspiring me. I can't knit with my selected yarn (Noro Iro) for prolonged periods; it makes my hands hurt. I've knit with Kureyon and Silk Garden in the past, and had no problems, but this seems to have no 'give' in it. I've ended up designing my own garment for this yarn, and I'm excited about it, but it's not going to be plain sailing. I might have enough yarn; I might not. I don't want to knit my heart out and my hands off, just to run out of yarn. It's also an unusual construction, and might need a few re-works before it works. I don't want to settle for a sub-par piece just to get it done in time. Additionally, I set my own knitting plans for this year way back in January. They don't have hard deadlines, and they're open to change, and I'm happy with that. So my Olympic project is on hold, I'm going back to my Ice Maiden and I'll pick this one up later. When the muse hits me.

Profisheroles

Picture the scene: you're on a training day at work, and there will be lunch provided. You know the standard drill: sandwiches, mini-quiches, fruit, cakey things; sweet and savoury foods provided all at the same time. There is a plate of choux pastry balls piled up; ooooh, profiteroles!! Except they're stuffed with some sort of smoked fish mixture. I know that our catering people have done some strange things occasionally; until now, I think the weirdness-record was held by couscous sandwiches. But they're usually pretty good at labelling stuff for vegetarians etc; but these, on top of being very, very unexpected were totally unlabelled. I'm just glad they were discovered by a meat eater without a serious fish allergy.

Not feelin' the love

Knitting Today is cast-on day in the knitting olympics. I've been looking forwards to this for so long that it's very frustrating to find that I'm not too happy about it now. I had decided to design my own zip-up hoodie with a cable running round it in a yarn I already had. Sadly, after extensive swatching, I've decided that the yarn does not suit the pattern I had in mind. I've thought about the possible modifications to the design to make it work, and I'm not enamoured of them. And I've failed to find a pattern that I think suits the yarn and is a challenge and uses about the right amount of the selected yarn (because I only have so much). I could pick a different yarn, but I'm quite committed to my Noro, thanks. I wanted to knit something for myself, because a lot of the people I'd knit for read this blog, and I like giving people surprises. I wanted a technical challenge, rather than a "how on earth can I knit so much without neglecting my work/family/friends/home" challenge. Obviously, though, there's no point knitting a highly technical piece that's about 20 cm square. I have so much that I want to knit, I don't want to spend time (even 16 days!) doing something I'm not really fired up about. There's no point getting all wound up about this; knitting is a hobby, after all! But I want to succeed at this challenge!!

New quality inspector

Knitting It's almost impossible to put anything soft and warm on the floor (the laminate in particular, but carpet, too) without Kita wandering over to have a look, sniff and, if possible, sit, lie or stand on it. This applies to Yoga mats, mattresses, fabric being cut out, mohair lace shawls being blocked (eeeek!) and knitting being photographed. Here she can be seen inspecting the two finished sleeves of my Ice Maiden sweater: I love the hourglass shaping of these sleeves. I've added about 10 extra rows to the cuff of each sleeve because I like the 'roll' cuff. I won't be blocking that out! The original pattern has a body with no waist shaping in at all, which seems a shame with such shapely sleeves: This example is actually knitted in Rowanspun Chunky, which doesn't seem to drape as softly as Polar, but the model is sitting down in the Polar photo! I think the body would look 'blocky' in any yarn, though. So I'm going to borrow the shaping from another Polar sweater in the same magazine, 'Ski': I'm not going to keep the crochet edging, either, and will probably allow a roll hem on the lower edge, too. Is this still an Ice Maiden? Or has it been around the block enough times to be an Ice Hussy?

January officially over; roll on February

Knitting My January knitting project is finally complete; I cast off and blocked it yesterday, and fringed it today. I like it a lot more than I did whilst I was knitting it; it's very light and warm, and I think it will get a fair bit of use. A4 pattern included in following pictures for scale; I didn't think I blocked it that much bigger, but it seems to have expanded a lot! Fresh off the needles: Blocked and fringed: So now, on to February. The project here is a Rowan Polar sweater, Ice Maiden. I have a sleeve already finished, and it's a quick knit. Onwards!!

Huge disappointment

Dancing I'm booked in on a 2-day workshop with Hossam and Serena Ramzy this weekend. It's in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, which means it's about an hour's drive from here. It's particularly appropriate that my first big solo driving expedition should be to a dance workshop, since it's dance workshops that inspired me to get back to learning driving again. Serena, and especially Hossam, are both very famous, and supposedly their workshops are great fun and very worthwhile. I haven't danced really at all since the shingles, and I've been looking forwards to it enormously. And I'm ill. Lethargic and achy all over; my feet ache, my knees ache, my thighs ache, my lower back aches, and even my fingers ache. I improve greatly with paracetamol, but the idea of dancing for several hours still isn't that appealing. I feel like I'm going to have a really bad cold or a 'flu, but it hasn't quite landed yet. I don't think I'll be going.

State of the Knitting

Knitting The 12-month knitting plan/schedule that I drew up for myself is already looking threatened! It's already the 1st of February, and I haven't finished my January project. Eeeek! Added to which, I seem to be committed to two projects in February; my scheduled sweater, and my Olympic challenge. The scheduled sweater should at least be quick; it's in Rowan Polar, and pleasingly chunky to work with. I need to write the Olympic pattern, though. My January project (the Triple Mohair shawl) is approaching completion; I'm more than halfway through the edging, and had hoped to get it blocking last night, but it was not to be. I should finish it by or at the weekend. No photos yet - either of the shawl or my haircut! - but there will be soon, I promise.

Not crunchy, not gooey, just right

Cooking A personal milestone: Yesterday, I managed to cook egg fried rice that was neither mushy nor undercooked, using Basmati rice. I have never, ever acheived this before! Brown rice and easy-cook rice are easy; they have more structural integrity and don't 'mush' as easily. As far as I know, egg fried rice should really be a way of using leftover boiled rice, so the rice is already cooked when you start to fry it (unlike risotto, when you fry the rice dry and then add the liquid), but I cooked rice especially for this dish. Normally, I wash white rice thoroughly (but gently*) before cooking, and use slightly less than twice as much water as rice for the cooking. The water is added cold, then heated to boiling and turned down to a simmer until it is all absorbed. I did three things differently last night:

1. I didn't bother washing the rice before cooking
2. I poured boiling, not cold, water on the rice to cook it
3. I rinsed the rice in more boiling water when it was cooked

I also spread the rice out on a chopping board to 'dry' and cool before frying it. I don't know which of the above made the difference, or even if it was a bit of all of them, but each grain of rice was cooked through, and there was no gloopy mess in the pan. I'll definitely do things this way again.

_________________

* Rice is washed to remove excess starch on the outside of the grains, which makes things sticky. However, if you wash it roughly, the grains will break and release more starch - and more stickiness...

Olympic plans

Knitting OK, I'm planning to knit a hooded cardigan from Noro Iro in a dark colourway involving blue, purples, pinks and browns on a black ground. design involved a cabled border that goes round each cuff, and round the hem, centre fronts and hood edge. Also, set in sleeves. The cable is a simple 3-strand plait: I'm wondering, mind you, if it would look better with raglan sleeves, hence the asymmetry. So, I've knit a swatch or two - one in stockinette, and one to prove the concept of this cable turning a 90 degree corner. In that, I've been successful: But, can you see the cable? No? Me neither. Well, maybe just. But I'm wondering if this yarn is just not going to show the cable well enough to justify it. I still want to knit one of these for me, but maybe not in this yarn. So, maybe the border should be in garter stitch for this yarn? I don't have time to swatch another yarn for this design, so it's either this yarn, this design, or this yarn, modified design. Votes in the comments, please.

Haircut!

Me, me, me I've had the most drastic haircut for several years today. (Not the most drastic ever; that involved shaving off my long, albeit thin, hair to a #4 grade). I've 'lost' about 5 inches, at the hairdresser's recommendation, and it's been ironed straight. It's just past shoulder-length and looks very sophisticated. It will spring back into its normal wave and curl as soon as I wash it, of course. But it's fun whilst it lasts. :)

Tagged!

I've been tagged for two memes; the first (several days ago) by Mary deB, the second by the Knitorious Vicki. So, without further ado:

Four Jobs You Have Had In Your Life:
1. Saturday receptionist for a vet
2. PhD student (does that count??) and teaching biochemistry to first year med students
3. Editor for Pearsons Publishing (the small one!)
4. Software engineer

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean (costumes!!)
2. Gosford Park (costumes!!)
3. The Village
4. Lost In Translation

Four Places You Have Lived (all these are in the UK):
1. Middlesbrough
2. Christ's College, Cambridge
3. Arbury, Cambridge (alledgedly very rough - as if!)
4. Willingham, Cambridgeshire

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch:
1. CSI (Miami or Vegas; NY hasn't grown on me yet)
2. Lost
3. Time Team
4. ... hard to say!

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation:
1. Gozo (one of the Maltese islands)
2. New Zealand (various bits - too many to list)
3. Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
4. Lots of France, as my Mum's a Francophile, but unusually, La Touche, (my boyfriend's parents live there and own a gite)


4 Websites You Visit Daily:
1. mail.yahoo.com
2. http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs
3. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/member/uk/login.htm
4. http://www.knitrowan.com/

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. avocadoes
2. asparagus
3. spinach
4. malty beers
5. pesto
6. pasta
7. tiramisu (preferably made by me)
8. seafood, especially mussels, fresh tuna and scallops
9. oh, sorry... you said four??

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Winning the lottery
2. At the Pipasha
3. Travelling to visit friends
4. Actually, here at home is pretty darn good.

One Blogger You Are Tagging:
Ruth!  Let's see your answers.  :)

The next meme is a little more convoluted; here goes!! Instructions: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot. Emy's blah blah blah blog Purls Beyond Price, KimberliNY Unraveling Knitorious VeryOtterly

Select 5 people to tag. I agree that, "...these things are akin to chain letters and they take some time, but there's nothing like direct questions to learn more about folks."

So, here are my tags. I know not everyone likes doing this sort of thing - feel free to refuse!

Mary deB (serves you right!!) TutleyMutley (if you want to!) Jack Heather Dragon

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was an undergraduate student at Cambridge University, reading Natural Sciences (finally settling on biochemistry), which I loved. I went on to start a PhD, at which I lasted two years. It was one of the most miserable experiences of my life, and quitting was incredibly difficult, but I don't regret it for a second. I was probably knitting; a chenille cotton jumper that I never finished, but I recycled the yarn for my clapotis when I re-started knitting last year.

What were you doing 1 year ago? I was yet to restart my knitting, and was having a miserable time at work. I was living in a 2 bedroom flat with J, which I finally sold last week. I had passed my driving test a few months previously, but did not yet own a car. I was shortly about to be diagnosed with depression, and put on medication which I am still taking. I am now coping with work, but cannot truly say I am happy with it.

What were you doing 1 hour ago? Knitting my TTM shawl

List five creative things you want to achieve this year: 1. Decorate my new craft room 2. Re-start doing craft fairs (not with knitting, though) 3. Get a silversmithing bench set up 4. Knit and sew regularly 5. Learn to use my knitting machine

List five snacks you enjoy: I try not to snack other than on fruit and veg; bananas, pears, raw carrot, clementines are faves. I'm not saying I *don't* eat other snacks, but it's hard to say what I regularly snack on!

List five things you would do if money were no object: 1. Give up the day job 2. Run a self-sustaining but non-profit business with J providing ecologically friendly housing at realistic prices 3. Get a studio for my crafts ...and another one for dance/fitness pursuits. 4. Support animal rescue and rehoming more intensively 5. Give my brothers and friends that need it a 'leg up'.

List five bad habits: 1. Always overcommitted 2. Reading blogs at work (this appears to be fairly widespread...). 3. I drink way too much coffee 4. I buy yarn online when bored/stressed at work. I have about enough to last me five years. 5. Wine. Beer.

List five things you like doing: 1. Knitting. 2. Sewing 3. Cooking 4. Dancing 5. Making music (i.e. playing instruments! Mind! Gutter! Out!!!).

List five favorite gadgets: 1. My laptop (tho it's a little temperamental). 2. My camera. 3. My iPod shuffle. 4. My yarn winder. 5. Do my drums count? Or my flute??

Name one thing you like about yourself My enthusiasm. It's pretty much irrepressible

Morning frost

Beauty One of my favourite things to look at in the world is the transformation wrought by frost - particularly hoar frost, which coats objects above ground level with a forest of spiky needles. Ivy leaves delicately outlined are a favourite, but we don't have any of those (at least, not photogenic ones) in our back garden. What we do have, however, is a leylandii hedge and a clump of pampas grass. Today's frost showed that the hedge is covered, from about four feet above the ground, in cobwebs: And the pampas grass shows a hoarfrost mohican, with Kita in the background: Love having a garden.

...succumbed.

So much for sane monthly targets; I've succumbed to the Yarn Harlot's 16-day insane knitting challenge. The idea is that you complete a knit - from cast-on to blocking - during the span of the Winter Olympics. You're supposed to pick a knit that will be challenging for yourself. You can swatch etc. beforehand (that counts as training!), but no stitches for the actual garment must be cast on or knit before 2pm (your time) that the olympics start. After an agonising 24 hours, I've given in and signed up. As a seeming non-sequitur, I knit a very cute hooded cardigan for Baby Mumford; I loved the design and I've been intending to knit a large version for myself. There is a cable all round the hem, up the front and round the hood, and also round the cuffs. I'm not going to make it in double knitting, though; I have 12 skeins of Noro Iro labelled for it. I'll be swatching soon, and writing the pattern (as much as I can) in advance. 16 days for a cardigan... I calculate that's three days each for the front, back, each sleeve and the hood, and a day for seaming/blocking etc. Sound reasonable??

Tempted...

Knitting Having made myself a lovely, achievable knitting schedule for the year, I am suddenly confronted with this. Oh, great. A challenge. The trouble is, I have a very clear idea of the challenge I could set myself. Arrrgh!

Ane Ryght Royalle Mess

Knitting The Somerset Lace sock is progressing swiftly (guest feature of Kita's tail): Looking good, no? No. See that? Somehow, somewhere, I managed to mess up the lace pattern after turning the heel. I seem to remember thinking that something had gone wrong somewhere, but it all seemed to sort out, so I kept going. Still, I have been wondering if, actually, I prefer the stockinette under the foot: Of course, if the whole sock is worked in stockinette, the neat, delicate striping will probably disappear and be replaced with blobby zagging and pooling. So, since this sock needs to be ripped back to at least the ankle, I think I might start the other ball in stockinette and see how it looks. Who knows, I might even take a vote. Kita says, "Can I get back on the sofa now?"

Yarn swap!

I finally made it along to a meeting of the Cambridge knitters 'k tog' group yesterday. I've been meaning to go for ages, and was finally given the final impetus by yesterday's scheduled stash swap! I took along two large bags of yarn, and some fabric, and brought back only one large bag of yarn. Star amongst my lost items was a truly hideous individual peplum jacket with enormous shoulder pads in a dazzling lame fabric with opalescent purple/pink/silver lizard skin dots on it. I'd originally intended to use the fabric to make the bodice of a tutu (sugarplum fairy), but since that was well over 10 years ago and I still haven't done it, I thought I'd better get rid of it. I was rather dubious about taking it at all, as I couldn't imagine who'd want it, or why they'd think I got it. Au contraire. It was very nearly the first item gleefully snatched up, by my personal star of the meet: Mary's son Arthur. I have never met such a fantastic young lad; he was knitting a scarf when I arrived, and informed me that his personal scarf-knitting record was 2 days! I was able to donate a ball of Rowan's Big Wool Tuft to the current scarf, and the aforementioned jacket. We tried to get a photo of him wearing it (which he did, continuously, from then on), but he was leaping around with delight, and you can see the clearest photo here. I met some fantastic people, including a friend I haven't seen for ages (I didn't even know she knits!) and a new arrival to Cambridge, the Pig Wot Flies. Nice to see another animal moniker. ;) And I was very, very restrained. Here is my haul: One ball of yarn and two books. I'm very impressed. Neither of the books have enough great patterns in them for me to buy them, but I'm very happy to receive them in a swap! Here are my favourites from the Filatura di Crossa book: And here is, easily, my least favourite: What were they thinking??

Project planning (12 month version)

Knitting Knitting is slow. I can buy yarn far faster than I can knit it. I can also end up finishing projects at (or after) the season in which I want to wear them. In an attempt to prevent this, and also to prevent me from forgetting about exciting projects, I'm going to attempt to plan ahead for the year, at the rate of one project per month. I averaged more than this last year, after I actually restarted knitting, so it should allow for sudden flights of fancy, new must-have items and other hobbies to be pursued as well. We're halfway through January already, and I'm very excited about some of the projects in the new Rowan mag (39), which is not due to be released until next month, and I've also bought yarn for (ahem) at least four projects in about as many weeks. Ideally, I'll be moving into each season with new clothes to wear. However, I don't want to find myself knitting swathes of heavy wool in hot weather, or spending so much time thinking about the upcoming weather that I don't enjoy what we have now. So: January: Already half over; may as well pick a half-finished project, then! That'll be my Triple Mohair Triangle, which needs cracking on with, and which should provide some protection against the chill weather still to come. February: Still likely to be v. cold, in my experience. It's probably worth finishing my Ice Maiden jumper (started as a prelude to Andy's Christmas present, and abandoned in favour of it. Andy's present was abandoned as impractical; I didn't have time to knit it, and he doesn't have time to cool handwash Rowan Polar.) One sleeve is already done, and this is a quick knit, which is just as well as the new Rowan is due out at the beginning of February! March: My birthday month! By this time I'll be straining to start somethign from the Rowan mag. I think it will be 'Minnie'. I think this is hands-down my favourite design that I've seen so far (in a sneaky, sneaky sneak preview). It's written for handknit DK, but I'm thinking it might knit up in some particularly indulgent silk I've ordered. Isn't it a gorgeous design? April: Probably about time I knit something for J. I've got some Rowan ASC in a very, very dark blue, and was planning to knit a rib cardi. I had in mind 4x1 rib, used on the 'wrong' side. Very similar to this month's free Rowan members' pattern. May: Starting to head towards summer now! I don't think I'll be able to resist the lure of the Ginko leaf top from Fiddlesticks that I have on order. It's in organic cotton, and will provide plenty of feminine summeriness without being too skimpy for wear in cooler weather and air conditioning. June: Another Rowan 39! This one is 'Frances', and reminds me of the designs from Anthropologie. July: Summer tank time! Maybe. I'm not sure what I want to knit in July. Maybe I'll finish my filet crochet curtain. Or a reprise of the silk lace corset that didn't fit from last year. But I'll make it fit, this time. August: A design that's mostly in my head at the moment. I'm thinking of a feminine cricket jumper; form fitting, white, cabled, v-neck, coloured bands at neck and waist. September: Jude, from Bigger Picture, in chocolate brown. Great autumn/winter wear with jeans. October: Cabled jumper. Design/yarn TBA - I have plenty of choices. Yarn will definitely be from stash, though. November: Another cabled jumper. What the hey. As I said, plenty of choices... December: Gina, again from Bigger Picture, but adapted to a tunic version. Wow. That was easy. That's scary. I have too many projects to do! Socks will be squeezed in round the edges, along with other small projects, sewing and other hobbies.

Trouble on four legs

Sewing, dogs I've spent the last half hour trying to work on a long-stalled sewing project - a tiered skirt made out of a sari scarf that I bought at a second hand stall around 7 months ago. I found the project bag (a challenge in itself, in the midst of so much fabric and yarn, and after a house move), sorted out the pieces, trimmed a couple and started pinning.

Then I get a call from J - can I come downstairs, please? The reason?

Apparently, she's been working herself into a frenzy because I was in the room with the chinchillas, and she wasn't. She's not allowed in the chinchilla room because she's too likely to jump up at the cage, and the cage is not stable enough to stand it. We're going to build a new cage.

Now I'm downstairs, of course, she's ignoring me completely. It's not my company she wants, it's chinchilla-privileges.

The skirt? In pieces:

...and not likely to make any more progress this evening, either. It's pretty fabric, though:

Close-ups of the paisley design and the deep border:

Happy accident socks

Knitting Socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colourway 'Somerset'. The lace pattern is from this scarf; I'm using 8 repeats of the pattern, so the sock is 64 stitches around. I made a mistake on the gusset decreases for this sock; instead of decreasing every other round, I decreased every round. Still, I have skinny ankles, and I think they fit rather well: ...so I'll remember this for next time. I'm planning to make these 'thumb socks' to wear with my toe-post sandals. I'll be making that part up as I go along...

Triple mohair triangle

Knitting This is currently my 'at work' project. So far, I'm somewhat disappointed with it, from a colour perspective. I started this shawl shortly before Christmas as an 'easy, mindless' distraction from socks and other gifts. The pattern is from Fiddlesticks, available here.

The lace pattern is indeed simple (to the point of dull, at this stage), but is teaching me how a triangular shawl is created by starting in the centre of the long edge. The rows are now getting really quite long, and I think the project needs to go home with me. It might make good TV knitting, though you have to pay attention to the stitches to make sure you pick up all three strands!

The shawl is knitted by holding three strands of mohair together - the suggested combination is two closely toning colours and a third contrast colour. I picked two reds (a very dark, purplish berry red and a brighter, almost pinkish red) and a wheat-gold colour:

The resultant fabric is.... orange. I don't know why I'm surprised at this - after all, red + yellow = orange, right? But I don't think I'd expected the yellow to be such a clear influence. The individual colours are clear and jewel-bright, and I expected rich, clear reds with an occasional warming flash of gold. Guess that wasn't to be. Not with mohair. I think the halo 'blurs' the colours together:

I'm keeping on keeping on, though. Everyone who has seen it has been surprised that I'm not feelin' the love. Maybe I'll love it more when it's done. It does seem to go well with both brown and green - both 'me' colours. And I'm definitely keen on having a snuggly-soft, warm mohair shawl that will actually keep me warm.

Knitter's roundup for 2005

Knitting This time last year, my most recent foray into knitting was over 10 years ago. I'd knit a fair amount in the past, but done more crochet (one major project still outstanding!). I owned, but did not live with, a spinning wheel, acquired during my teenage years. Since then, I've averaged about 2 finished projects per month, and bought a house with J, giving me room to bring the spinning wheel down from Middlesbrough and to have a room to my craft pursuits all to myself.

So - here is 2005's fibre retrospective, and a few hints of the way forwards! Finished projects:

• Clapotis
• Amber
• Waves
• Silk Corset
• Noro York cardi
• Elspeth
• Rebecca 27 cardi
• 3 pairs of socks (Dad's Christmas pressie)
• Noro McKee (Mum's Christmas pressie)
• Natalya gauntlets
• 7ft single-sided curly wurly scarf (crochet)
• 5ft double-sided curly wurly scarf (crochet)

On the needles:

• Ice Maiden
• Lacy thumbsocks
• Triple triangle mohair shawl
• Mask (originally for Stu's Christmas, but postponed)

Goals:

• Document stash (feel the fear and do it anyway!)
• Reduce stash by 50% (this could be challenging...)
• Document upcoming projects/plans
• Document project progress more fully
• No more than 3 projects ongoing at any one time
• Find a zip for York

Blogsolidation

I've decided to consolidate my three 'personal' blogs into one; this one. Sewing, knitting and everyday stuff will now all be recorded here. I've done this for several reasons; firstly, I don't update regularly enough to justify having three separate blogs! Secondly, I actually have a fourth blog (http://gardenandhouse.blogspot.com) that is a joint venture with J - documenting our adventures with the new house, including the garden and the dog. :)

Possibly most of all, though, I enjoy reading blogs that are updated regularly and which include the writer's daily life as well as their hobby (or hobbies). I think the best aspiration I can make here (above and beyond keeping a purely technical journal for reference) is to write the sort of blog that I'd want to read. To that end, I'm going to try and post to this blog every day on whatever subject takes my fancy. Until Blogger offers tags or topics, I'll try and head the post with a quick keyword (so if you're not interested in knitting, feel free to skip it...) This will only be a feature from now on; moving the posts over was arduous enough without inserting that sort of info, too.

All the posts from otterlysewing and otterlyfibres are over here now, though sadly stripped of all their lovely comments. I'll be posting notices in the other blogs to say they have been deprecated; in the fulness of time (i.e. when I'm sure I've transferred everything over correctly), I'll delete them. Do let me know if you find any problems!

New Blog!

...over at http://gardenandhouse.blogspot.com/ - the a joint blog for J and I to document our new house and garden. :)

New house: first post!

We're in! And we have Internet! I have a sewing room, J has an office, the kitchen is good, the garden is gorgeous. And I've locked my keys in my car, which is outside the old place, with all the things in it we were so careful to pack because we really wanted to remember them in the boot. Including the wine. Grrrrrr. UPDATE: The spare car key has been found. This is good.

Dadsocks

Two more socks have been completed in the Dad-sock saga. They don't match either. That's because they're made of different yarns.

The first one is in Opal, in a red, white and black colourway. It's supposed to be Middlesbrough colours, but reminds me rather of the time Mum washed my brother's red dungarees with Dad's white underwear: pink, but in a faded red way, not a Barbie way. Heh heh heh... He's still getting them, of course:

This sock was knitted on x stitches around, short row heel and toe, top down. It has no partner yet... The second sock is Regia Ringel, red and white - again Middlesbrough themed. (My Dad is a big football fan.) I thought this one deserved more texture than plain stockinette would provide, so I used the stranding pattern from Knitty's Crusoe pattern. It gives a very pleasant texture, a dense, warm feel to the fabric, and provides just a little bit of visual interest to break up the broad stripes:

Short row toe and heel again, but knit from the toe up. As I have two balls of this yarn, that mean I could keep knitting until the yarn ran out. It's nice and long:

Mystery solved?? ...and: advantages of houses

Over at the Harlot's place today, I spotted a post about smelly goats. Between giggling and wiping coffee off my keyboard, I realised that the pictures of the roving look remarkably like my mystery roving:

Here's a slightly blurry closeup of the same stuff. You can see the softer texture of the pale, soft fibre, and the darker guard hairs:

Don't you think that looks like the Harlot's goat? As far as I remember, it doesn't smell, though. Ain't I lucky?

So. Mystery roving. Is that a hint I've been holding out on you? Hmm. Well, I guess I should introduce you to a friend that's been with me for more than half my life:

Being a weird child, I asked for this for, I think, my 13th birthday. And Christmas. And possibly 12th birthday, too. I bought a spindle when I was about 11:

But, sadly, this friend of mine has not played much of a part in my life since I went to University. I haven't been able to take her with me. I haven't even hbeen able to let her stay with me in my flat. But, on Monday, J and I move to a new house. It has twice as many bedrooms as this place (as well as a downstairs loo, and a garden and lots more), and she will be able to live with me again. I know almost nothing about the technical aspects of spinning, as I have come to realise in the last 9 months or so, but I do learn fast. :) I can't wait.

Finally, three bobbins. From left to right:

Gleaned wool singles spun in the grease; empty; possibly-goat singles.

WOOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

We have exchanged contracts on our house purchase! We complete next Monday. That is exactly 4 calendar monnths since we offered on the property; twice the average. Yeesh. But, we've made it! Yayyyy!

To infinity and beyond...!

New skirt: winter version of the neverending (tiered) skirt. Chocolate brown corduroy, with lacing detail at the front, and elasticated back waistband.

I'm not sure why, but this pattern always ends up a little generous at the waist. It's supposed to be a drop waist, but not a drop-off waist. Fortunately, it shrank slightly on washing. Very wearable.

Cooool!

Three cheers for the Internet!

Thanks to Frappr, I met another Cambridge knitblogger this week, Mary from Knitting on the Cam! She very bravely met a group of entire strangers (partly Stitch and Bitch, partly office-mates) in a pub at lunchtime on Wednesday, and it was great! I have been knitting - loads - but don't currently have much in the way of visual proof. For ages, my camera charger was packed ready to move (no, we still haven't moved), so my camera went flat and I took no photos. Now, I've rescued my charger, but my laptop refuses to acknowledge the camera's memory stick until I take it out of the laptop again. At which point it tries to explore the files on it, and gets very confused that it isn't there any more. I'll try again this evening. I have, in fact, completed my Mum's Christmas present (sweater dress in Noro Silk Garden), the finished the front of Mask and started on one sleeve (Stu's Christmas present), knit almost two more Dadsocks (but in different yarns. Hmmm.) and started Ice Queen from Rowan 30 for myself (in the discountinues Polar, shade Arctic). I've also bought *more* Polar, for Andy's Christmas jumper - and another one for me, too. Also complete is a piece of gift knitting - and it has now been received by the giftee, so I can post pics of that. It's been finished for about two months now. I am Bad Gifter, now that the post office five minutes from work has closed. I finish things on time, but it takes forever for me to get them in the post.

Good lunch!

Mmmm, I've just finished a big bowl of homemade carrot, parsnip and ginger soup with a chunk of malthouse bread. I made it from NOrma's recipe, which really like; despite the fact that carrots are on my 'not very fond of' list, and parsnip actually makes it on to my list of about 3 foods that I actively dislike. (Though I always feel I should like them. They're so autumny and earthy and home-croppish). But with loads of ginger, and a healthy addition of black pepper and possibly a dollop of yoghurt, it really works. Actually, what it*really* wants is a dollop of harissa and a dollop of sour cream.

That Map Fad...

I'm sure you know what to do

The current fad...

...is Frappr! I've made a map here, because this otter is really a sheep. Go stick a pin in my map!

Trust, and how to lose it

Events yesterday royally *sucked* - remember that J and I are selling my flat and buying a house together. The transaction has been ongoing for over 3 months, as the guy who is buying my place has re-organised his mortgage twice! Yesterday, we were supposed to exchange contracts up and down the whole chain - and the wretched guy turned round and said he didn't have the money available till 16th December! (Last week, he said it was all ready to go) Oh - and could we exchange and complete all on the 16th, please?? Uhh, no.** So we've given him until COP Friday to come up with the money and exchange contracts, or the deal's off. In the meantime, we are applying for a second mortgage ourselves, so we would simultaneously own my flat and the house. The payments would be seriously large, but we could cope for a while. It's also the only way we can see that we can keep the purchase alive - we both really, really want this house. After a first viewing, we walked out, looked at each other and said "I want that one!". Wish us luck! Alison ** Notes for people not familiar with the wonderful British property system: When you want to buy a house in the UK, you make an offer. If it is accepted, both parties instruct solicitors to start making arrangements. Nothing is legally binding at this point. You apply for mortgages (which you may have to pay to do), start paying solicitors, and get a valuation and/or survey (expensive, but required by the mortgage companies) carried out on your intended property. Nothing is legally binding at this point. Then, solicitors do all kinds of 'searches' at the Land Registry office on your behalf. This takes weeks (their database is clearly crap) and costs money. Nothing is legally binding at this point. Just expensive. Other stuff happens. If you are selling a property too, your buyer has to do all this as well. It's not legally binding on him, either. You also have to fill out an enormous form stating what is included in the sale, and, in the case of a leasehold property (like my flat), you have to provide all kinds of documentation about service charges, ground rent etc. You also have to demonstrate typical charges for water, electricity etc. However, you simply have to *believe* that your buyer actually has a mortgage and the money to make the transaction. Eventually, after everything is signed, you are ready to 'exchange contracts'. This is where the sale becomes legally binding, and where you can sue if someone pulls out. You have to put your deposit on the house you are buying forwards at this point. You also agree a 'completion date' - the date on which the money and property deeds will actually exchange hands. It's worth noting that if you are both buying and selling (aka 'in a chain'), you technically have to sell your property before you buy your new one - because you need the money out of your property to send to the current owners of your new property. Which means that you have to have all your posessions out of your place before you have anywhere to put them. This is where removals companies become really, really useful (but expensive). To summarise: By asking us to exchange and complete on the same day, in a month's time, our buyer was not only asking us to wait yet again, he was asking us to hire removals people to take all our stuff out of the house BEFORE the contract was actually in place, BEFORE anything was legally binding, and in a situation where he could do EXACTLY THE SAME to us again, except worse. I don't think so. He has now clearly lied to us, and he doesn't get that trust back. Certainly not where the risk is so large. Hmmph.

Otter warm-paws

Natalya gauntlets (high key), in Calmer. These feel great to wear, but I didn't enjoy knitting them much. They were a little on the tedious side, and cabling with the cotton (even such lovely, squishy cotton) made my arms a little sore.

I made a few modifications to the pattern - the gauge of Calmer is finer than called for in the pattern, so I added a pattern repeat at the cuff end, which I decreased out a couple of inches before starting the gusset. I like the effect as viewed from the decrease/gusset side:

but it causes the other cables to spiral round the arm at the underarm (the cables lie straight along the back of my arm:

In addition to the 15 thumb stitches, I picked up another three where the thumb meets the palm. This accounts for the gauge difference, and seems to have eliminated the small hole otherwise expected in that location:

I also added 4 rows of ribbing to the top of the thumb, after only 3 rows of stockinette. This snugs them in to my slightly odd-shaped thumb, and matches the top of the mitt.

These will be lovely in the office, where the air conditioning manages to freeze my hands whilst simultaneously making it too warm to wear a sweater. Again, many thanks to Cari for pointing out that they can be made with a single ball of Calmer!

Started: a week or so ago Finished: this morning

• The first project I've cabled entirely without a cable needle
• I learnt both the backward-loop increase and the lifted increase in the course of knitting them. The gusset on the second one is noticeably more even than the first.

Sock socks

I finally finished the first pair of Christmas socks for my Dad! I'm very pleased with them - just howevermany more to go. They don't match. That's OK.

Thumb socks

I have two pairs of sandals that I bought this year that started out *incredibly* comfortable, and which have slowly, over time, started chewing holes in my feet, and, last week, left blisters. (Odd- it's usually the other way round...) Anyway, the sandals are cute, and I have no intention of throwing them out yet. This seems like an excuse to display hand-knit socks (which I haven't actually made any of for me, yet), to me. Only catch is, these sandals are *toe-post* sandals. Tricky to wear with socks.

So clearly, I need socks with a separate thumb compartment. I've just completed one Natalya gauntlet, where I learned how to make a thumb on a glove. I was thinking of adapting the technique to socks. (Thanks go, by the way, to Dogs Steal Yarn for informing me that you can get 2 gauntlets out of 1 ball of Calmer. Thankyou. I am happy.)

Next, I have to thank Purly Whites for posting a very topical entry about making fingers for gloves. An i-cord method? That might work. Or a Turkish cast-on and knit in the round... Hmmmm...

I see experiments in my future.

Eye magnet

I've just been for a walk into town, an eye test, a quick jaunt round the market and a walk back. Throughout, I have been consistently stared at by all and sundry (mostly those with a Y chromosome).

So either I'm either exceptionally cute today, or everyone else thinks it's sweater weather. Me, I'm wearing a knee-length skirt* and a sleeveless top.

*_{Yes, I did check it wasn't tucked up into my knickers. Why do you ask?}

Sweeeet!!

See what was waiting for me today when I came home: And inside: With the cutest 'thankyou' card: It's a skein of sockyarn from The Sweetshop, enough for a pair of socks for MEEEE!! The colourway is SweetGeorgia's 'willow' - a luscious mixture of wonderful greens, with occasional browns scattered throughout. The colours are wonderfully subtle and complex, and though I haven't unwould it or balled it up yet, I get the feeling that the colour changes will be subtle enough to take some texture or lace. Yummmmmmmm!! I'm thinking about these socks by Amelia. They seem to fit the green and leafy bill quite well. And I'm knitting again. Not so much, or so fast, but I am knitting. Yayyy me!

Anti-inflammatories

I went to the doctor about the pain in my arms/hands yesterday. I've been prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs that I've never heard of (because I can't take Ibuprofen regularly - it upsets my stomach) and have hopefully been referred to my existing osteopath - which means I can claim her fees back. I'm happy to pay for the treatment, but I don't see why I should if the insurance will cover it.

And I even knitted yesterday! A couple of hours after taking the first tablet, I knit about an inch on the second sock of Dad's first Christmas pair (which is now at the decreasing gusset stitches stage). I had no pain or fatigue, and I've had no subsequent problems. I'm taking it very easy, but boy was it good to knit for a while!

Knitting painful. Poo.

Well, the hands still hurt. The ostepath says that there were several issues at work - firstly, that I'd seized up in the neck and shoulders; secondly that the lunate joint in one wrist had become stuck, and, horror of horrors, RSI in both forearms. I gave knitting a complete break until Saturday, when I managed all of 4 stockinette rows on a sleeve before realising that it was causing fatigue and pain.

I am unbelievably annoyed by this. I have so much I want to knit, so many presents in progress. Wish me luck and hope I recover soon.

Sulking

Now, sulking is not like me. But today, I am stompy, grumpy, pouty and definitely sulky. My hands and arms hurt, and have done for 2 weeks. I've put the knitting away, very grudgingly. But the hurting is not stopping - it seems to be getting worse. And knitting makes it worse still (I know this because I attempted a whole 4 rows on a sleeve on Saturday. I put the knitting away again.)

I'm still knackered from being ill. This *sucks*. I'm definitely improving, but today I have had a major case of brain-fog, despite sleeping for 11 hours last night, and 12 the night before. I haven't been to the gym in months, and having painful wrists doesn't encourage me to cycle to work, either. Or lift weights.

And the house-buying has just *stalled*. Two and a half weeks ago, our buyer needed (understandably) to re-arrange his mortgage. I don't blame him; it sounds like he had a very good reason for doing so, but I wish he'd decided to do it more than two days before we were planning to exchange. He still hasn't had the new formal offer through. And he doesn't seem to be able to talk to anyone at the building society (who shall remain nameless, as I wish to avoid litigation) who can tell him what the status of his application actually is. I have a horrible, heavy dread in my stomach that they've lost it. But nevertheless, it seems they have enough record of it to have charged him for it (you have to pay to apply for buy-to-let mortgages), and to render his previous agreement null and void. So we are exactly where we were two and a half weeks ago, with increasing paranoia that the house we want to buy is going to be put back on the market.

So yeah, sulky. I don't like writing posts like this, but I thought I'd better at least write a post about why I'm not posting. It will, I am sure, improve.

Takin' a break...

There have been no updates here for a while, firstly because I've been mad busy, and secondly because I have started having vicious pains in my neck, shoulders, arms, wrists and hands. It's probably too much PSP playing, or starting to cycle again, or possibly (but don't even dare think about it!) too much knitting.

Anyway, to avoid aggravating things any further, I've locked all my knitting in a cupboard for the week. I'm going to go and see an osteopath tomorrow, who will hopefully tell me it's just trapped nerves.

One day, I will write some real news

However, until then, here's another meme, snagged from Ms Raitte. Google "[your name] needs" and list the best. Alison needs... 1) Alison needs older men for her art 2) Alison needs to stay away from stress 3) Alison's needs can be easily met in "our 1/2 day Kindergarten program". 4) Uncle Alison needs YOU 5) Alison needs a friend right now Otters need: 1) Otters need plenty of space 2) Sea Otters Need to Do It Again 3) Otters need a friend to help them cope 4) Otters need to be enjoyed not managed 5) Sea otters need to eat 20 to 25 percent of their body weight each day. That’s a lot of abalone! Arf!

Definitely otterly...

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

and

Your Inner Child Is Sad

You're a very sensitive soul. You haven't grown that thick skin that most adults have. Easily hurt, you tend to retreat to your comfort zone. You don't let many people in - unless you've trusted them for a long time.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Otterly?

You are 'programming in QBASIC'. This programming
language (of which the acronym stands for
'Quick Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code'), which is so primitive that
it cannot easily be used for any purpose
involving the Internet nor even sound, was
current more than a decade ago. You are independent, in a good way. When something
which you need cannot be found, you make it
yourself. In writing and in talking with
people, you value clarity and precision; your
friends may not realize how important that is.
When necessary, you are prepared to be a
mediator in conflicts between your friends.
You are very rational, and you think of things
in terms of logic and common sense.
Unfortunately, your emotionally unstable
friends may be put off by your devotion to
logic; they may even accuse you of pedantry and
insensitivity. Your problem is that
programming in QBASIC has been obsolete for a
long time.

What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Caution: Knitter at Work

Sweet Georgia says you have a problem when you start making makeshift drop spindles so you can spin at work. She didn't specify what *kind* of problem, and some very innovative ones have been suggested in the comments.

Since my last 10 days worth of knitting have been heavily biased towards a Seekrit Project that I can't show anyone (yet), I got thinking about my work situation. Now, lots can be said about same, but given that this is The Knitting Bit, I thought I'd present a catalogue of the yarn that is temporarily stashed in and around my desk. Given that almost all of this yarn was bought with specific projects in mind, I'm noting those, too, lest I forget.

Brace yourselves:

• 10 balls Rowan 'Polar', in white - The wonderful Polar is now discontinued, and this is intended to become a baggy, snuggly jumper, probably Ice Maiden from Rowan 30. I bought it thinking I could dye it (evenly or unevenly - undecided), but I might also like a big, white jumper. Until I spill coffee on it, anyway. Maybe I'll make it white, and dye the whole garment when it inevitably gets stained.
• 8 balls of Debbie Bliss Maya in wonderful, dark green colourway. - I'm sure I had a project in mind when I bought this - at the very least, I checked that this is enough to make something wearable and useful. I can't remember what, though. Maybe a chunky cabled thing, but there might not be enough for that. I'm sure it felts beautifully, but I think that might be sacrelige
• 12 balls Rowan Biggy Print, kind of a chocolate colour - Hmm. This was definitely intended to be Roxie, from Big Just Got Bigger. Unfortunately, that calls for *Chunky* Print. Pants. So now I'm thinking Jude, from Bigger Picture. Very wearable with jeans in the winter
• 2 balls Rowan Chunky Print, in a sludgy grey-brown - heaven only knows. Special offer.
• 1 ball of Rowan Big Wool, in Arctic - ditto
• 9 balls Rowan Plaid in very dark grey - not enough to make Gust, from the Plaid collection - and I've gone off Thunder (it looks like a poncho with sleeves). I'm thinking maybe Atmosphere, but sized down slightly. It's crying out for cables, anyway. I have a design of my own that may fit the bill...
• 4 balls Rowan Cotton Tape, in raspberry - part of the Strawberry Stripe set
• 10 balls of Rowan Biggy Print in Troll - a mix of apple, acid and sludge greens. I love it, and it's a discontinued colour (I think). Destined for Gina, from the aforementioned Bigger Picture
• 12 hanks Noro Iro, very dark colours including navy, browns and purples - I swear i had a specific project in mind for this, but I can't find it now. Alternatives include Sherbie from Naturally Noro, Larstorp, from the second Cornelia Tuttle-Hamilton book, or again, maybe my own design with the cables that I hinted about above.
• 2 hanks of Lorna's Laces in Somerset - an actual project, supposed to be my first socks (but of course incorporating lace - why make anything simple?), but I've since completed a totally different sock (see below). I'm trying to cultivate a sock-knitting habit at work, where I often get short bursts of downtime (2 or 3 minutes at once) - but the lace pattern requires too much thought for such short spells
• 2 hanks Regia 4-ply, in Helsinki - one of these is already a sock, and the other is in progress (at the heel flap stage). These are part of my Dad's Christmas present, and have been much more successful work knitting.
• Three more hanks of sock yarn - also destined to go to my Dad at Christmas, hopefully by then in sock form.
• Wendy Peter Pan yarn, three balls, variegated blue - also a nylon/acrylic blend, but machine washable and not all that bad really. It's the secret project, and is almost all knitted. Honest.

So, what do you look like as a knitter at work?

What a little cutie!

This wee fella was sitting calmly just past the fence by the path as Jack and I walked back to the office after lunch yesterday. It's easily the closest I have ever been to a wild squirrel for any length of time; he was quite unconcerned by us and sat, eating conkers and swimming through the long grass to find more, for about five minutes.

He's *tiny*, and I'd say very young - this year's baby, I'd guess. The grass was too long for me to get many good shots (and none at all of his tail, which was fluffy and luxuriant, seemed about twice as long as he was, and showed only when he jumped), but at this point I though he was going to hop closer to say hi!

He almost looks as if he was about to run, but he was just interested, I think:

Does this sound otterly to you?

Alison's Existing Situation

Active, outgoing, and restless. Feels frustrated by the slowness with which events develop along the desired lines. This leads to irritability, changeability, and lack of persistence when pursuing a given objective.

Alison's Stress Sources

Delights in the tasteful, the gracious, and the sensitive, but maintains her attitude of critical appraisal and refuses to be swept off her feet unless genuineness and integrity can be absolutely vouched for. Therefore keeps a strict and watchful control on her emotional relationships as she must know exactly where she stands. Demands complete sincerity as a protection against her own tendency to be too trusting.

Alison's Restrained Characteristics

Feels that she cannot do much about her existing problems and difficulties and that she must make the best of things as they are. Able to achieve satisfaction from sexual activity.

Feels that things stand in her way, that circumstances are forcing her to compromise and forgo some pleasures for the time being.

Alison's Desired Objective

Needs release from stress. Longs for peace, tranquillity, and contentment.

Alison's Actual Problem

Needs to protect herself against her tendency to be too trusting, as she finds it is liable to be misunderstood or exploited by others. Is therefore seeking a relationship providing peaceful and understanding intimacy, and in which each knows exactly where the other stands.

Take the ColorQuiz yourself right now!

Bobbins!

Well, Mask is progressing nicely, but rather than just showing another progress shot: and the obligatory nightmare of yarn behind the knitting: I thought I'd let you know about my 'bobbins'. Maybe this is a technique that many others have already pre-invented and is in common use, but I think it's useful. I'm winding mini-yarnballs and securing them with small hairbands - the terry towelling type with no metal join or edge to 'catch' on the yarn: The resulting bobbins are light, easy to unwind and easy to manage. I managed to get a whole bag of (really ugly) hairbands from the local chemists for £1: Sorted.

Slow progress

But I'm enjoying every minute of it! I'm now 18 rows into the 'Mask' motif. It's much more of a recognisable motif than it was at three rows in; but there's still a long way to go:

Heh. Did I mention that I am yearning to make Brocade from the latest Rowan mag?? Now, *that's* a lot of intarsia.

In other projects, York is seamed:

Only a zip required, and then it's All Done. I've enjoyed knitting this one; and I'm looking forwards to wearing it even more.

I've had several projects on the go at once recently (though not as many as some seem to!), but I can't say I like it much. I have the Mask jumper, and another Christmas project that is plain, easy knitting for when the intarsia gets too much. The easy knitting one is another Noro, McKee, in Silk Garden. McKee is also very portable, which multiple intarsia bobbins aren't. At work, I have the Second Sock (yet more Christmas knitting). And until recently, I've had York on the go, too. In fact, since the zip needs buying and inserting, I'm still 'on the go' with it. And though I like having a couple of options (e.g. socks at work, portable non-intarsia, challenging project for enhancing skills and vocabulary), I find it hard to work on any one project without feeling guilty that I'm *not* working on the others. Which has the irritating side effect that I occasionally end up working on Nothing. Which is frustrating and unproductive.

I guess I'm more of a 'one project' person than most.

4 out of 63

Started the intarsia pattern on the front of one of my Christmas projects today; I'm doing the Martin Storey 'Mask' jumper from Rowan 31, but in the discontinued Cork (custom dyed) rather than the intended Handknit DK cotton. The gauge is obviously massively different, which will result in oversize motifs, similar in scale to what you'd see on the child's version of the original sweater. (What do you mean, 'making life difficult'??!?).

Anyway, I've done 4 out of the 63 rows on the front mask motif this evening. It's taken me about 2 hours, and though it's only two colours, it's intarsia. Wanna see the back??

Yikes. Wanna see what that mess has acheived on the front?

Hmmmm.

Big badda-boom

Serious storm here; heavy rain, hail and high winds, with near-continuous thunder and lightning. A couple of hailstones on my hand: A hailstone drift, showing some of the flooding, and the leaves that have been bashed off the trees:

Shop sign of the week

First sock complete!

Regia 6-ply 'Helsinki', 56 stitch cast on, 2x2 rib cuff. Eye of partridge heel flap, and a 1x1 rib section on top of the instep for extra fit. I used the 'generic sock' recipe from here as my guidance, but modified the toe shaping. My Dad's feet (for whom this pair of socks is destined) are shaped similarly to mine:

We have a pronounced toe-slope, with the big toe being easily the longest and the little toe easily the shortest, with a pretty smooth slope between. This being the case, I didn't want to have a symmetrically shaped toe with a point in the middle. Therefore, instead of decreasing at both sides on every other row, I decreased only once per row, every row, but did 2 decreases at the 'little toe' side for every one decrease at the 'big toe' side. I'm pleased with the result:

The observant will notice that this means I now have a definite 'right foot' sock, and therefore need to remember that the next must be a 'left foot' sock. I bet I forget.

The sock fits me well in shape, but is a smidgen on the big side. Which is appropriate, as Dad's feet are slightly larger than mine:

I'm inordinately proud.

Bye-bye sock #1

Well, I got to the point of dividing for the heel and tried it on again; suspiciously baggy. I know it's for a bloke, and that I have slimmish ankles, but it's 11" round. That seems excessive.

Cast on fewer stitches, that's what I say. I'll try reducing from 68 to 56 (which should give a 9 inch circumference).

Yorkist

York is whizzing along merrily, considering all the other minor distractions I've had in my life recently (like buying a house...). I finished the second sleeve last night, which means I'm now at the seaming stage. I'm trying to decide whether to block this one before seaming or not; the all-over rib makes me uncertain.

Then the collar is picked up and knitted on, and then the zip sewn in. Zip. Must find a zip. With metal teeth. And an interesting pull.

Both fronts, the back and both sleeves, all looking remarkably long and skinny (that'll be the ribbing). I'm utterly embracing the Noro Randomness, and actually aimed for totally mismatched fronts. The sleeves kindof match till about halfway up - I'm OK with that. ;)

Socking along!

The start of my first ever sock, after several hours work. Regia 6-ply, 'Helsinki' colourway. 68 stitches cast on, 2 inches 2x2 ribbing, and the rest just round'n'round knitting. It's actually a couple of inches longer now, as I took it to work and have been knitting on it intermittently (whilst waiting for those odd 2-minute computer tasks to complete, I hasten to add).

Hmmm. Must do something about hard, dry skin on soles of feet.

Let the Christmas knitting begin!

This is 11 skeins of Rowan Cork, which started out as 8 skeins of a yellowish beige, and 3 skeins of a greyish beige. I dyed it yesterday with 1 tin of Dylon multipurpose dye, in shade 'Havana' (mid-dark brown) and ended up with 11 variable and rather variegated skeins of something that is remarkably alpaca-coloured. (NB this is at least twice as much fibre as should have been used for that much dye; I wanted it to be slightly lighter than the tub colour). This is going to be the first of my Christmas projects, but I'm not saying much more about it than that here (the intended recipient is unlikely to read this blog, but hey, chances are chances...). It's goin to be combined with some more Cork that I dyed from a mid-lego blue to a warm navy blue. My first intarsia project.

I'm aiming for one Christmas project a month; should see me about right!

Bouncy bouncy otter

Boing, boing. Feeling really great about things today; J and I can't wait for the house to be bought and ours so we can move in and start doing things with it. The garden is currently the main focus for inspiration; personally, I'm really looking forwards to having a sewing room, but the garden is more... to be worked on, I suppose, rather than worked in. It's a decent size garden, so we should be able to fit a nice decking area in (where the evening sun hits), as well as a vegetable garden (yayyy!), a herb garden (yayyyy!) and various other areas of interest. So we went to Scotsdales yesterday, and today we're going to Anglesey Abbey, and possibly Cambridge University Botanic Gardens tomorrow. Just to gather inspiration.

By the way, if you're in the area, 23rd October is the 9th annual apple day at the gardens. Sounds good to me.

I think another reason for feeling so good about things is that I'm definitely getting better; a couple of weeks ago I was obsessively making sure that there was coffee left in the pot at night, so I could grab a cup with minimal effort when I got up the next morning. Today, I emptied the dishwasher, made sandwiches, sliced quiche, packed picnic and tidied the kitchen (and made coffee) before my first cup. Gotta be good. :)

Life, as Jack would say, is good.

Buy less, knit more

OK, the stash is getting out of control - I seem to be suffering from the knitter's equivalent of my 'eyes being bigger than my belly'. OK, my yarn only takes up 2 plastic tubs (compared with about 8 for my fabric), but the following points should be borne in mind:

• I can use swathes of fabric very quickly, in a single project
• Those two tubs don't include the yarn that's at work
• Or the ones on top of the wardrobe
• Or the yarn I ordered today.

Therefore, I'm imposing a restriction on myself: I can only buy yarn for a new project when I finish a project first. And the two projects have to be at least comparable in size; there's no finishing a pair of bootees and buying enough for a full length coat in Kaffe Fassett intarsia. There are two exceptions for this rule:

• Yarn for gifts. In the knitting world, Christmas is fast approaching.
• Yarn for the Strawberry Stripe jumper (Rowan 37). This jumper is made in linen print and cotton tape, and only a few balls of each. I'm picking the yarn up as and when on eBay, and I'm about halfway there.

So. You heard it here: No More Stash Growth.

Noro delights

I'm ploughing on through York from 'Noro Knits'. I'm using a rather exciting purple/pink/green/turquoise colourway, and loving it. I've got the back and both fronts done now, and sitting on stitch holders. Just the sleeves and collar to go! And a zip to find. Hmmm... Photos to follow.

One step closer...

I found out today we have our mortgage agreement in principle (which shouldn't have been a worry, but it always is until you hear officially). So all is set up for the valuation/homebuyer's survey, the solicitors are poised and ready for flight, and we just have to sit tight and hope nothing weird happens. Wheeeeee!

Progress report...

The house is progressing really well; our buyer is anxious for things to get moving, and our sellers have had an offer accepted on a new-build house (so yet again, chain free). Apparently, new-build house sellers (ie the builders) tend to want to exchange contracts within 28 days(!), so that's good news, too. We got a glossy brochure for the house we're buying from the estate agents yesterday, with pictures and everything, so I'll scan it and post it soon. I need to fill in all kinds of forms about the flat and send them back; will do that in 5 or 15 minute bursts this afternoon, at home. So excited. Healthwise, I'm still very much on the mend. I'm working 3 hour days at the moment, which seems to be about all I can cope with. I cycled to/from work on Monday, and was really wiped out yesterday. I'm having some blood tests done, and going to the doctor to discuss them on Friday; I should be doing better than this by now.

Charmed

I feel like I'm living a charmed life this week. We offered on our most-wanted property this morning - and the offer's been accepted!!

I'm truly, truly delighted. We're going to go and talk to the sellers again this afternoon; more details to follow.

Showcase: Alex's quilt

Alex's quilt is the second quilt I ever started, and the first one I ever finished. (My first-started one still exists, and just needs the quilting finishing, and the binding attached. Must get around to that sometime.)

Alex's quilt was intended to be a 30th birthday present, but I didn't finish on time (typical!) and it was given to her shortly after her 31st birthday party.

The theme of the quilt is 'chillies', as the lass loves her hot food. She's also mentioned numerous times in the past that she has always liked triangles, and, as a child, designed many things with triangular motifs. I wanted to incorporate that into the design, too. Anyway, here's the whole quilt spread on our (superkingsize) bed: The block is a basic 'Flying Geese' block, chasing round the quilt in a simple knot-type design. I selected only fabrics with a black ground (or a solid print), and used black cotton as the base fabric, as I really wanted the hot colours to 'pop'. I was careful to incorporate enough green into the design to provide a contrast; too much red, yellow and orange would have looked 'flat' and uninteresting. I was particularly pleased to find the 'flame' fabric, as it carried the 'hot' theme wonderfully, whilst at the same time being very contemporary and having a hint of 'punk rebel grrrrl', too. The 'pepper slice' fabric was another lovely find, providing a definite variation in shape that was still consistent with the overall theme. Here's a couple of photos showing most of the fabrics used in the quilt:

I quilted it using 'chilli' designs of my own:

plus a 'flame' logo that I also designed, and which proved to be a little too complicated to work very well:

The back of the quilt uses irregular blocks of the design fabrics: And, as I said, it was supposed to be a 30th birthday quilt. Errrr, yes:

Spread on Alex and Martyn's couch: I think Alex likes it!

Second viewing: more luck

I really don't believe this. Yesterday, I was amazed to see this as I arrived home:

Want a closer look?

Today, we have accepted an offer on my flat. For the full asking price. Simply incredible.

On Monday, I was expecting to start house hunting early in the New Year. This Friday, I am poised to make an offer on a new house tomorrow. As I said: Carpe Diem.

As a total non-sequitur, here's a Dramatic King's College shot. Very Cambridge.

A whole project has slipped by

Hmm. Since I last posted, I have knitted all the major pieces of the Rebecca cardi. Wow. Not sure how that happened. It needs blocking, seaming, edging and the ties knitting. I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn to complete the ties; may have to resort to ribbon or something. We'll see. Or maybe a contrasting edge?

The Rowan 37 cardi is probably a bit big, but is wearable. Not gonna rip it. Might see if I can persuade it a little smaller when I next wash it. Still feels loooovely on the skin.

The corset, on the other hand, is probably not too small. I need to put buttons on it before I decide for good, but the cotton seems to have relaxed somewhat since washing. I think, really, that I am between sizes for this garment; I'll probably make another one, in a size larger, to see how it goes.

In other news, I've officially decided that no more summer projects will be cast on this season. I probably won't have time to finish/wear them this year, so it's autumn/winter stuff from now on. Time to make a proper 'to do' list, methinks.

First viewing: no luck

As we thought, the people who viewed the flat last night didn't like it enough to make an offer. They want some outdoor space, which our place doesn't have, and also commented that it was 'too nice' inside. They want somewhere that they can do up a bit themselves, which I remember wanting when I was first buying, too.

Can't win, can you?

On the other hand, we have another viewing this evening (an investment buyer), and yet another on Saturday (a first time buyer). We are going to do a second viewing of the first property we viewed on Saturday, and also view another property on the same estate.

And apparently the 'for sale' sign has just gone up. It's all go, I'm telling you.

Wow, neglected blog.

Sorry about that, folks; life has been a strange mixture of nothing-much and very-hectic. I'm still not over the evil illness; I've been back at work this week, but left early Monday and Tuesday, and didn't make it in at all on Wednesday. I've booked tomorrow off as holiday, and will be painting the hallway at home (more on that later) - I feel very, very tired, mentally, and rather feeble physically.

Housepainting. It's suddenly become very urgent. We've been planning to move for a while now, but were intending to finish decorating and put the house on the market in January. However, we made the mistake of looking at currently available properties, and fell in love with one in Willingham. Oh, my. Four bedrooms, a good sized garden, and a garage. It would be such a change from my two-bedroom, gardenless, garageless flat. I love my flat, but it's just too small for two people, especially when one works from home and the other has hobbies that result in a lot of stuff.

So, we spotted the house on Tuesday, on the Interweb. We viewed it Tuesday evening, made mortgage enquiries as soon as we got home, had my flat valued yesterday morning, and had a viewing arranged before the details were even taken. The viewing was yesterday evening, and was a strange, nervewracking experience. I don't think the people liked it; I think the lack of garden was a major factor. Still, it's not like we expected to sell the flat in under a day.

This month's theme: Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Live for the best (but make plans for the worst). Live every day like it might be your last. Very little in life is going to be handed to you on a plate; if you want something, start working towards it.

Fingers crossed.

Disgruntled

Well, I just don't seem to be doing too well; Elspeth is now finished for the second time, and I think is just too big. I debated whether to make the small or the medium (I'm a 35" chest, which falls neatly between the two sizes), and since I'd just finished the too-snug corset, I went with the larger size. And now I think it's too big. This is the first raglan-seamed garment I've made, and the tops of the sleeves seem very long to me. It only looks halfway decent on Skinny Annie (my tailor's dummy) if the neckline is set very wide. In fact, the neckline seems HUGE overall; the ties seem to fall very low:

This contrasts rather with the picture on the pattern, which I am now suspecting of being posed (I have to wonder if magic involving pins or at least surreptitious folding is going on back there):

I had to re-do the edging, as it caused bagginess the first time round; it's still not great, but a quick pressing sorted it somewhat. I'm planning to wear it tonight, and I'll see if it seems to be workable, or destined for the frogpond. I do love the design; if it is just too big, I'll remake it a size smaller.

I think, in the future, I might mock up unusually-shaped garments in fabric before deciding on the size and launching in on the knitting.

I'll leave you with a picture of the fabricious mess next to the sofa, including the new Rowan. My word, there's some lovely stuff in there:

I better go tidy it up, I guess.

New skirt!

Very simple pattern; circular skirt on a formed waistband (from McCall's 3637, now out of print). The thing that gives it impact is that the fabric is striped, and I've arranged the stripes so they run vertically at the centre front and back, and horizontally at the side seams:

I can't take credit for this idea; it was inspired by a skirt from Anthropologie (which seems not to be produced any more). Christened the 'orchid skirt', as the colours remind me of an orchid I bought two weeks ago. I'm pleased with it, despite the fact that I usually don't wear knee-length skirts. Or pink. Or stripes.

One back, two fronts, two sleeves

Elspeth is all done with the knitting! I completed the sleeves in just over a day; it was lovely to be back to plain ol' stocking stitch after all that pattern. The pieces are rolling like mad, though.

This has been an annoying knit in some ways; I think I've knitted every last bit of it twice, almost. If I got the lace right, I messed up the shaping. If I got the shaping right, I dropped a stitch right through a lace motif and couldn't work out how to put it all back together. I got a lot better at that, though, and have definitely learned a lot. It would probably have been easier if I wasn't of work sick and dozy.

Tonight: the blocking, and casting on for the Rebecca cardi I think. Then the seaming (of which I am no longer afraid) and the crochet (which never held any fears for me in the first place.

Elspeth is motoring along...

...partly because I'm still off work ill. Mind you, if I was in better health, I might not have had to knit most of it twice. It's a '2 skein' pattern, meaning that it requires a bit of thought and attention. It does. The lacey pattern has to be maintained whilst still paying attention to the shaping, which is different on each side of each front pieces. I think I had to start the darn thing four times. It's also hard to rip back - well, it's easy to rip, but hard to get back on the needles. The combination of yarnovers and k2togs (or p2togs, either occasionally tbl) and the squishy, springy yarn is particularly tricky to get needles through without missing bits or having stitches unravel horribly. Still, here's the back:

And a closeup of the pattern:

One of the fronts is newly off the needles, too.

Oh, and see those innocent little yarnballs sneaking their way into the frame? Have a closer look:

The lime yellow is destined to be the cardi from Rebecca 27 (it's not fuzzy, but knits to gauge and I think will be very wearable. Love the colour, too. And it was half price!) The magenta might be a hat. If there's enough of it. Oh, I need to knit faster...

Corsets are supposed to be tight, right?

...unfortunately, I think this one is not a good fit. I'll try stitching it along the front and see if it's wearable, but I don't think it will be. Poo.

If it isn't, then I'll definitely make a new one, a size or two larger. It's a fun, quick knit, and I definitely want to be able to wear it.

I did start Elspeth over the weekend. Four times. I've not been well (shingles) and it seems to be stopping me thinking properly. The combination of this, a lace pattern that includes eyelets on right and wrong sides, and Rowan Calmer, which is lovely to knit with, but horrible to rip back, at least if you want to be able to pick up the stitches again, means that it's taken me most of the weekend's knitting to get the first 13 rows of the back done. I think I've got my head round it though, mind you.