Distractions

Knitting
Thanks for the tip about the salad spinner, Judith. I think I got rid of mine because I used it so seldom and I'm short of space, but I must get another one. It can join the scales as a piece of kitchen equipment more commonly used when knitting.

I haven't done any more on Kaari because I've been totally distracted by the white Jet Jyri. Perhaps it's because it looks so like the snow that's piled outside. I find myself racing along the purl rows so that I can get to the next pattern row, which is sort of sad when you think about it. I wonder if I would be so enthusiastic if it weren't knitted lengthwise: I suspect not. I suspect I would be doing my usual scarf thing of wondering how soon I could stop.


I've kept some markers at the beginning of the row because it forces me to think about what I'm doing, which as we know is an activity to be encouraged round here. Racing blindly ahead is to be discouraged as there is far too much of it.

I've been commissioned to make an iPod cosy for another Touch fan. I usually do cosies in double knitting, which I find a fascinating technique but which causes steam to come out of ears fairly soon, so it's best suited for small projects like this.

I did the usual thing of casting on too many stitches the first time, then too few, and got it right the third time. The yarn is a marvellously intense semi-solid blue, looks sort of Malabrigo-ish and would probably felt beautifully.

I bought some more Jet on eBay, the charcoal grey this time. Should I seek help? I really like the basketweave jacket that's in the same book as the Red Sandstone Cardi, but I don't have quite enough yarn and I think all that basket stitch would harm me irreparably. Some sort of shortish cardi / shruggy thing. I forgot to mention that I got a copy of Tracey Ullman's Knit 2 Together off Amazon Marketplace before Christmas. It's a book I've always liked the look of and I specifically wanted the pattern for the Pimlico Shrug. But there's also a Norah Gaughan pattern, the Posh Cardigan, that's been at on my mental shortlist ever since I first saw it in KnitScene magazine when it came out in 2005. It might be a hard choose.

When I checked out my friends on Ravelry this morning, I dscovered that Smashing Puffin, with her usual impeccable taste, had queued a hat called Mary Jane, which is a bit like last year's Felicity, but done in Kidsilk Haze and looking a lot more girly.

Mary Jane by NeoKnits: pattern available here

I've managed to identify a member of the family who might be persuaded to wear such a thing and I've chosen my colours. I just have one or two other things to finish off first.

Not Knitting
The snow is still lying here. The odd thing about this year's weather in my part of town has been that we didn't have a huge amount of snow, but that the temperature dropped instantly and hasn't risen, so a small amount of snow has become a serious amount of ice. Most of my neighbours seem to be leaving their cars at home so they (the cars) are still white. Someone has walked up the street doing rude drawings on them. I won't take a picture because this is a family blog, but if I did it could be captioned Willies on Windscreens. It's quite funny at the same time as being quite annoying.

One of my friends works in an office which overlooks Leith Docks and he took this photograph on Friday of a tug boat which was breaking up the ice in the Docks. Word has it that this hasn't been necessary since 1960.

Photograph: N. Ferguson

I watched the first in the new series of British Wallander and is it just me, or is it all a bit daft? Nobody at the police station ever seems to do any work, and the dialogue is very weak. When Wallander told a subordinate to check something out, said subordinate lounged back in his chair and said, 'Bit of a long shot, isn't it?' We all know by now that most of the work on a murder investigation seems like long shots and is a matter of checking out mundane facts, but the writer was allowed to get away with that, and the disagreements which were meant to set W. apart from his colleagues were very sketchy. That female boss W. has always seems to contradict him and doesn't have any idea about procedure or protocol, which is unlikely. And Wallander himself is a shambles - a beautifully acted shambles, but really. I wish the BBC had found something better to do with Branagh and with David Warner, two of the best actors we have. What about some Shakespeare? Ibsen? Chekhov? Or a playwright who is alive but doesn't churn out cop dramas?

I liked the crossover from the Swedish series, where the patrolman Swartman appeared here as a criminal. The whole thing could have done with a lot more of that sort of wit.