Blue, Blue, More Blue and a Little Green

The Habu lesson on Monday was very good. I'm glad I went. I got a little ball of Kasuri Bamboo Tape which I think I will be able to use with the Shosenshi paper, and I am fired to have another go at the Kusha Kusha scarf before I give it up. The workshop gave the necessary clues to deciphering a Japanese pattern, so I should have a better chance of understanding the Setsuko Torii book I bought at the beginning of the year.

I also, quite unintentionally, bought a skein of Old Maiden Aunt's merino sock yarn. It's called Pine, but the greenness reminds me of something else that I can't put my finger on. Terrible photograph.

I didn't mean to buy it, just as I don't intend to knit any more Xmas presents this year, but this just has somebody's name all over it. There's a smidgeon of navy blue on it which made me think of dark blue beads and a little Forest Canopy Shawl, but since then I've been thinking of fingerless gloves rather a lot. Or a cowl? A Forest Canopy Cowl with beads?

The Pinwheel is finished and has been despatched to my friend, the baby's great-aunt. I blocked it with very slight points at the YOs, just enough to give it a bit of movement.
It turns out that this baby isn't Australian as I thought: it's English and is due in December, and is having an Australian cousin in January.
So I may be knitting another Pinwheel for the cousin. It won't be Lorna's Laces Worsted, because the price of anything brought from the US has gone up by 50% since I bought the Hawaii. I have been looking for another superwash 100% wool in the right weight and it isn't easy, but I've found a couple and await a choice being made.

I've been wearing a lot of black this week - no special reason, just feeling dramatic - so I haven't done any fluffy white angora knitting.

I bought a cone of Colourmart cashmere from one of my favourite eBay sellers, cossetter, and swatched a little bit.I've photographed it so close up that it looks like Aran weight, but it's very fine, 4 ply (2/13). I'm not sure what it's for but it's nice to have it.

I also got some laceweight merino from her in the palest pale blue. It's even finer, 2/28,and it's like knitting with a spider's web.
It's not at all a babyish or sweet blue; it's very cool and icy. She has more of it here, and in white too here and here. I'm not sure why I'm telling you this as I want to buy some of the white myself.

The swatches are both Forest Canopy: I wouldn't use such a fine yarn as these for that but I can swatch it now without getting off the sofa and looking for the pattern so that's what I did.

Raveller found this link on the Scottish Screen site to a clip of a Shetland woman blocking a shawl. I can't embed it, but do follow the link. She runs a strand of yarn around the points with a curved needle and then stretches it over wooden pegs in the ground which look as if they are fixtures, outdoors with snow on the ground and a strong wind blowing. The shawl would have been wet and cold too. Her poor cold red hands. I'll think of her next time I'm pinning out a shawl in my heated bedroom.

Some blue sheep have been created for St Andrew's Day.

It's a pity they aren't Blue Faced Leicesters.




For those of you who are already feeling jaded by the downside of Christmas, and fans of the Number 11 Bus, here's a seasonal roundup of Edinburgh scenes.