Friday 4 June 2010

Still Not Much Further Forward

Knitting
I finshed Dapper and steamed it a bit, but I must admit to feeling completely indifferent towards it. I've tried it on and it's a bit big but nothing terminal. It's still a lovely colour. I think I could throw it away quite happily, but I should probably hang on to it and allow myself to re-discover it in a few months. This is more due to the yarn than the pattern: other people make lovely things with Wool Cotton, but I can't love it.

I swatched the yarn I thought I was going to use for a Queen Anne's Lace christening shawl. It's Colourmart's silk, cashmere and merino laceweight.

It's very nice, but I won't be knitting on four needles with it again. I found myself getting into a rage and could hardly bring myself to exercise enough patience to cast off. I'll be fine using it on long needles, and I've established that it suits the rosewoods very well, so that's something. It's still oiled for industrial knitting so it's not soft and delicious, but it blooms something lovely after washing.

Thanks for the baby cardi suggestion, Mary Lou. I'm not sure that my audience would appreciate it. The socks are lovely, Mette, and I just bought the Accessories book, so they are going on the list.

I've been looking at patterns. I'm very taken with the Fir Cone pattern. I was thinking of just doing a Shetland Triangle, but then I found the lovely Fir Cone Square Shawl. And then of course there's Raveller's lovely Fir Cone diamondways. And Beata has done a beautiful baby blanket. She uses that variation where instead of one big decrease, there's two wee decreases (I hope that isn't too technical for you) which gives two parallel lines of stitches. I think this is it. And now Blue Peninsula has given us this Stony Brook Stole which uses something like it but with subtle variations. I swatched the diamondways way in white Paton's Jet but it's too bulky. Back to the thinking board.


I'm making quite good progress with the latest All Seasons Cotton Pinwheel, but I think it's hideous.


The colour looked sort of sea green (it's Sea Spray, which I don't think was ever released) but beside the cream (Organic) it's turned very green. It looks like the sort of blanket you would be given by an elderly female relation, and I'm not yet ready to be that relation. The baby daddy is Irish-American so I'll wait and see; if it's a boy, I might hand it over, but it's far from a certainty.

I did a swatch tonight.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but I want to make sure I'm not using too small a needle, as I don't want to have to buy extra yarn. It's Rowan Kid Classic, one of my favourites. I'm not going to use that colour, which is called Sandstone but should be called Swede, a horrible turnip colour. Or that sort of melon which tastes like turnip. Sandstone is good for knitting Harry Potter scarves in the Gryffendor colours, but not much else, and it's been discontinued. Watch this space to see what I'm going to make and what colour I'm going to use.

It was Tony Curtis's birthday yesterday. He was 85.



And if you want o see him dressed as a man, this one from Operation Petticoat can't be embedded, but do click and go and see it on the YouTube site: Tony out-Carys Cary. Well, no-one could out-Cary Cary, but he tries.

5 comments:

Bonnie said...

I loved Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot! Must rent that soon.

Thank you for mentioning my new Stony Brook Stole pattern. But I should clarify that it is does not use Fire Cone Lace. The stitch pattern bears some resemblance to it, but is not identical. One main difference is the centered yarnovers in each motif, which Fir Cone does not have.

GrannyPurple said...

Several years ago I made the fir cone shawl in a beautiful cormo fingering yarn dyed by the Fleece Artist. It has become the livingroom "napunder" blanket in our house, and (to my chagrin) such an object of affection for our wee cat that she has chewed a fair bit of the border. I suspect m*th genes somewhere in her background... It was a real pleasure to work on, and someday I'll take the leftover yarn and redo the border.

Anonymous said...

Always love a reprise of Josephine and Daphne.

For your U.S. readers: "swede" in British English = "rutabaga" in American English.
-- Gretchen

Mette said...

Sorry to hear Wool Cotton does no good for you- The combo is perfect for the Danish climate. I made a tee many years ago and it is my favorite nightie.

Raveller said...

There are many stitches that are based on centred yarn overs and the Fir Cone is one of them. I think that it's what you do between them that makes the difference. A subtle change can make a huge difference. They're easy to knit. You can see where you are without looking at the pattern quite quickly.

I am knitting the Candlelight stitch at the moment. Where the Fir Cone has triple decreases one on top of the other, Candlelight has staggered double decreases between the centred y/o motfifs. The triple decreases in Fir Cone are responsible for the raised cone shapes that you see before blocking. The Candlelight lies flat before blocking. A triple decrease above the y/o motif in Candlelight makes the motif pull in at the top and helps it look like the blocked Fir Cone a litt.e Without it, it would look more that Razor Shell - sort of oblong.

Blah, de blah, blah, blah, right? The main thing is that it knits like a song and looks super.

Cheers, Helen

I