You've Bought More Yarn?

I didn't get much knitting done on Tuesday night, although I stayed up unconscionably late. I think I couldn't take my eyes off the screen long enough to look at the needles.I watched mostly the BBC, as the CNN coverage required a better knowledge of American geography than I aspire to. The BBC had some good guests; poor Simon Schama was on with the rudest man in the world, who was also in a fury because his side was losing. Being British, I always expect diplomats to be well, diplomatic, but he'd obviously missed the lessons. He reminded me of the Falklands era, when the American Secretary of State said that Lord Carrington was 'a duplicitous b*st*rd', apparently not realizing that that was Lord C's job.

Anyway, all I did was this.
It's the lace border for the lace edged cardigan in Debbie Bliss's Cotton Denim Aran book. I bought an old copy of this off eBay recently and I'm glad I didn't pay the full price for it: it's really badly designed with only one photo of each item and no name on the photo page, or anything that tells you what page the pattern is on. Lovely patterns, though. I immediately went through it with a ballpoint, cross-referencing the pattern and photo pages - nobody at the publisher's could do that? And of course, there are no schematics. I mean, why would you want to know the shape of the piece you're knitting? I know I always complain about DB's books, but it's because I like her designs so much and I Want to Knit Them. I still want to knit this cardi.

Speaking of schematics, I've knitted all the pieces for the little bolero cardi but the sleeves don't fit onto the bodies. I've knitted this twice before with no problems, so it can't be the pattern's fault. I thought of hiding the sleeves I've done and knitting a new one by following the instructions faithfully, but I'm worried that I'll end up with three sleeves that don't fit, sigh. I don't really see what else I can do though.


The reason for the swatch was that I thought I was going to use this border on the Pinwheel, but I've done it a stretch of it and I don't like it.
The lace is completely lost in the colours. So I've ripped it and I'll do something plainer.

This is the Christmas present I'm working on, a Shetland triangle in Orkney Angora.
I've made a substantial booboo already, so I'll have to rip it back to the beginning of the second chart. No, I didn't have a lifeline; I've knitted this before, so I didn't need one, did I? No sniggering at the back, thank you.

Fyberspates is having a sale because she's moving website and home. One of the cool things she's offering is mixed sets of undyed yarn for people who want to play, and there's some lovely lace too.

My copy of Franklin's book of cartoons arrived on Wednesday, when I was trying to come back down to earth. I didn't manage to read it until Thursday, but it's very good: there's a lovely one that has a picture of 'Mr Fassett's sheep'. Make sure you get one in your Christmas stocking. Also, I suppose you've already read it, but just in case not, here's Franklin's priceless account of his opportuning a woman whose baby was wearing a February sweater.

The other thing the postman brought was this.
The colour isn't a plain dark blue, it's dark blue and black, very rich. It's not a for a Forest Canopy, Fishwife, 'cos I didn't buy enough, but I think it might be best knitted up as something quite plain, a 3x3 rib scarf perhaps. If I can just stop rubbing it over my face.

My god-daughter got engaged last week, so I am hoping to be able to indulge in some lace knitting for her. I made her mother's wedding dress (I'll try and dig out a photo) so it would have been lovely if I could make hers, but I'm not really up to it these days and will have to be satisfied with lace. She's allergic to everything under the sun, so it will have to be silk. I don't think she's allergic to that. Perhaps I could make her veil? That would be nice.