Patience and a Crochet Hook

Sorry about the long silence. I have, as usual at this time of year, been very relapsey and pathetic. I always hope it won't happen but it unfailingly does. Galloping insomnia does help with the knitting though, albeit largely of the simpler kind. Billie is still progressing steadily and I'm doing the shaping for the first front armhole.

I finished the two baby hats, forgot to photograph them, and posted them along with the green stripy Pinwheel. Maybe I'll get a photo of them in situ.

The possible owner of the third arrived last night and is a girl, so she will be the actual owner. She's called Cora, which is rather lovely. Here is her hat. I've photographed it in a pot of lavender on the windowsill because I can't find a tidy place in the flat.

I've also started a denimy blanket for her, a Pinwheel in All Seasons Cotton Print. I'll do another couple of balls of the blue, and then finish off with a frilly edge in the pink.

You may have noticed a suspicious silence about the Blue Swallowtail. This wasn't because I had thrown it in a corner and forgotten about it, but because I kept on frogging it. I changed the lily of the valley pattern to a 12-stitch repeat as planned, so that it flowed from the 6-stitch earlier pattern. That all worked and I'm happy with that bit.

I had intended to alter the next pattern too. I put in a lifeline and then knitted it and ripped it three times. I kept on ending up too many sitches, and not in a good way. In the end, I just did the pattern as written, on a 10-stitch repeat. I finished that satisfactorily, removed the lifeline and started on the border. I didn't need to put in a lifeline before the border, did I? I mean, I've knitted that border plenty of times. Sigh. After about eight rows I finally listened to the voices, which were saying, 'This doesn't look right.' I tried inserting a lifeline after the fact, but that proved more difficult and likely to lead to insanity than just ripping it and picking up the stitches, which is where patience and the crochet hook came in.

Since I took this photo, I've finished the border and I'm now casting off. It's going to be a bit small, but that's fine. Fabulous yarn though; after all of this handling it is still smooth, unfrayed, bouncy and cheerful. Ella Rae Merino Lace, in the Seven Seas colourway. If I had to knit with one colourway for the rest of my life, this would be my choice. I cannot tire of the water and pebbles in it.

Oh and I finished the third pink Looped Bracelet and have sent them off to the set of girls they are for. The owner of the smallest one started school yesterday and was rather disappointed that she didn't learn to read during the three hours she was there.


Less knitting and more movies in the next post. Oh and some accidental yarn purchases. eBay is absolutely lethal at the moment.