Endings and Beginnings

Knitting
I finished the Feather Duster. I did one extra repeat.


At the left of the photo you can see the Christmas cards that I bought and put on the floor beside the sofa in the hope that they will write themselves. I blocked the Duster but I didn't do a very good job so I'm going to do it again. You'll just have to wait. Part of the problem is that it's cold in the bedroom and I was reluctant to hang about, shifting pins.

When the weather cooled down, I got Kaari out. When I first put it on, I thought I would unpick the sewing on the collar and make it a bit deeper, but after I'd worn it a bit, I remembered that I find it ever so slightly itchy-making on my neck, so I decided not to. I wear it on top of a long-sleeved tee- shirt. But it is really needing de-pilling: I don't think this is going to be a cotinuing problem; I'm pretty sure it's just an initial shedding of surface fluff. I've had a couple of those little sweater shaver gadgets, but I never found them very satisfactory. They either fill up instantly, or they don't do anything at all, and the batteries go flat very quickly. Do those Sweater Stones work?

If you were listening for the sound of me falling off the yarn wagon, you would have heard a loud thud on Saturday.


This is one of Colourmart's merino laceweight packs, complete with free cones. I have had this in my eBay watch list for a while and a couple of days ago I got tired of the sound of me arguing with myself and I ordered it. It's about 8,000 metres of yarn, God help me, but I'm not planning to knit it single-stranded - inasmuch as I can be said to be planning at all. I do have a plan for it but I am not prepared to give a hostage to fortune by telling you what it is, so we shall have to wait and see.

I began a pink rabbit in September, which I was planning to give to someone who was starting university, because I thought she might like to have a companion. I took so long to finish it that the moment was past: she probably has lots of friends by now and doesn't need a rabbit, however charming.

So I gave it to her little sister instead.

She doesn't always have such perfectly co-ordinated nail polish: it was for a special day at school. The rabbit's sweater is made of two strands of Kidsilk Haze, which probably isn't very practical but it's gorgeous - as Mary Lou said in the comments to my previous post, KH improves everything and is the bacon of yarn. Brilliant.

I persuaded a friend that she would like a knitted Venus, and she requested one in proper earthy pottery colours. I exhumed this ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran which doesn't have a label but could reasonably be called Lentil Soup. Or Cow Pat. I call her the Venus de Mud and she's going to be quite a bit bigger than her alabaster sister.

The same friend cycles around Edinburgh in all weathers and I've been thnking for a while about maing her a cosy cowl. I reconstituted the two skeins of Mirasol Sulka which I made into a scarf and have never worn or given away, and started a plain 1 x 1 rib cowl but when I reached the top I decided to keep going and turn it into a balaclava. It's delicious, like knitting with whipped cream.

I've reached the stage where I need to switch to dpns, and I don't seem to have any in 6mm, so I've ordered some. I don't like faffing around with two circulars or whatever. I'm a bit worried about running out of yarn but am refusing to obssess.

Other knitters
Ravelry has reached their one millionth member. This makes the number of friends I have look even more pathetic, but they are a carefully chosen and highly regarded few.

Most of you probably remember Ruth Sorensens's wonderful Kauni cardigan. Ruth has been missing from her blog for a while owing to injury, but she is back now, in the company of a new pattern for a shawl, the Daisy Shawl. The motif is the daisy from her Flower Hat, which I bought the pattern for but haven't knitted yet. I loved her stuff before, but the Daisy Shawl is shown in Noro Sock yarn which takes it to new heights of fabulousness. It requires nine skeins, which is a bit of an investment, but Noro has the advantage that it can be bought a ball at a time as dye lots don't matter, so you could pay as you go. I don't suppose I'll ever knit the whole shawl, but I hope to utilise the idea on something smaller.

Another recent return to blogging is My Fashionable Life, who designs lovely stuff and writes a charming blog.