chronic knitting syndrome

A Pink Post

2009-12-30T23:42:00.010Z

Thank you for all the nice Christmas wishes. I have completed all the answers to the Movie Quiz, if you want to check them and smite your foreheads. Do watch the clip from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes if you need cheering up. Lee and Mary G. came tops.

I have completely lost track of what day it is. We seemed to have three Sundays in a row, and then my visitors who were meant to come on Monday couldn't because of the weather, and they arrived on Tuesday instead.

We got cups of tea and mince pies and then settled down to opening the presents.

Silence fell.

I got a couple of nice knitting books, Erika Knight's Classic Knits and the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book, the Curious Knitter's Guide. I don't know why I didn't get this sooner; I won't wait so long to get the second one.

I also got a pink polka dot measuring tape, which pleases me inordinately.

And I had the piquant pleasure of seeing my pink bougainvillea blooming against a snowfall.

Knittingwise, I haven't as anticipated cast on for a piece of frothy lace, but have lumbered on with the white Pinwheel Blanket and Kaari. I have finished the Pinwheel, bar the blocking. It might be a while before I do a knitted-on border again (can you hear my clenched teeth?) but I'm happy with it.

And I have nearly finished the front of Kaari. I have made better progress this time, by the simple expedient of reading the pattern carefully. Feel free to borrow this handy tip.

I didn't carry on with the Jyri cowl. The pattern was coming out too small and I would rather do it with a heavier yarn. I came across some more white Jet on eBay do that might be good, if another baby doesn't present itself.

I was at the local John Lewis on Tuesday afternoon for the Clearance Sale and won the struggle with temptation, which wasn't easy. They had some very nice blue yarns. I did buy a pattern book, but that was the result of careful planning, not temptation.

It's Kim Hargreaves' Winter Blooms. Follow the link for better pictures than I could take. The Ravelry page is here.

I don't know why the girl on the cover is wearing a short-sleeved sweater and has a huge bunch of flowers on what is fairly clearly a late summer afternoon, in sharp contrast to the title, but there you go. It doesn't do to take pattern books too seriously and the important thing is that there are lots of lovely things in, some of which I could imagine wearing.

Christmas Movie Quotes Quiz

2009-12-21T00:16:00.029Z

I thought we would enjoy another Movie Quotes Quiz. They're all funny ones: the films may not be comedies, but the lines are drawn from their more light-hearted moments.

The pictures are not straightforward clues. They are of the actor who spoke the line, or the actor of whose character it was said. And none of the pics is from the relevant film. (CHANGED: see ADDED 3.) I'm sorry the font keeps changing. It's because I cut and pasted, and I've given up trying to put it right.

1. Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments.

Yes, of course, Lee, said by Cary Grant as Dr David Huxley to Katherine Hepburn as Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby.

2. Nervous?

Yes.
First time?
No, I've been nervous lots of times.

Yes, DougB, very close, although it was Robert Hays as Ted Stryker, the nervous pilot, in Airplane. I've put my My First Mister on my rental list.

3. You must think I was born yesterday.
Well, sometimes there's just no other possible explanation.

Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. What a script, and the campest scene in mainstream cinema.

4. No bucks, no Buck Rogers

And the film I like so much I quoted it twice, The Right Stuff. Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, nearest the camera in the shot above.

5. Bite my ass, Krispy Kreme

Yes, Mary G., Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, to a colleague who criticizes her choice of clothes for the office

6. Do you two know each other?
Yeah, she's my fiancée.
Well, that would certainly explain the hostility.

Yes, Gretchen, it's Cousin Vinny, another of my longtime favourites. Marisa Tomei and Joe Pesci are wonderful together, and who knew Joe was a comic? Marisa is so beautiful and yet chews gum with distinction. Fred Gwynne played the Judge in this excerpt. It's full of great set pieces and if I catch the first five minutes, I'm hooked. More great lines from it here.

7. Every time I see that man’s hands, I’m so glad I don’t have to look at his feet.

This was said by one of the minor characters in White Mischief, of Gilbert Colville, the old Etonian who drove around Nairobi in an open-top Rolls Royce with a couple of Masai herdsmen. You can just see him in this tiny snap with the lovely Greta Scacchi who played Lady Diana Delves-Broughton. They subsequently married - Gilbert and Lady Diana, I mean, not John and Greta, although they might make a fun couple.

This is John Hurt again, as Quentin Crisp in an Englishman in New York, which is due to be shown on ITV next Monday, 28 December. It's a sequel to the divine Naked Civil Servant and covers Crisp's later years in, yes, New York. I am looking forward to it very much, while simultaneously worrying in case it doesn't match up to the first one.

8. Who’s the best pilot you ever saw? You’re lookin’ at him!

Yes, two from the same film.

Dennis Quaid as Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper in The Right Stuff, second from the left in the hinty photo. Fancy not knowing that.

9. I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm just "Crewman Number Six." I'm expendable. I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I've gotta get outta here.

Punkin is right: this is from Galaxy Quest. As Lee guessed, said by the lovely Sam Rockwell in the character of Guy Fleegman.

Sam Rockwell as Charley Ford in the Assassination of Jesses James by etc. etc.

12. You aren't too smart, are you? I like that in a man.

Yes, Lee, Kathleen Turner as Matty Walker to William Hurt as Ned Racine in Body Heat, when she picks him up in the bar.


10.  She's been diagnosed as a paranoid hypochondriac.
Doctors think she may be faking.

Yes, Mary G., it's Steve Martin in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.


11. I don’t know who I am, but I’m sure I have a lawyer.

Yes, Mary G., it's Goldie Hawn as Joanna Stayton in Overboard.
I think Goldie's underrated, probably because she's so cute. She has great comic timing.
Swing Shift is a satisfying film - it also has Christine Lahti,
Ed Harris and Fred Ward as well as Mr Hawn, Kurt Russell, which is good enough for me.

No prizes, just fun and an excuse to spend hours on the Internet.

ADDED: Raveller, I don't think I was expecting you to sneak some help from Google. I don't see any harm in looking up the actors in the photos and checking their films, and I think I was imagining that as the answers started to appear you could look clips up on YouTube and so on. But of course, it's entirely up to you...

ADDED 2: I've moved the photos so that they are now better clues. They appear below the relevant quote.

ADDED 3: I've added some more picture clues, stonking ones this time, from the film in question and showing the actor(s) quoted or described.

ADDED 4: I've posted all the answers. Lee and Mary G. are top girls.

White Christmas

2009-12-24T09:59:00.003Z

I don't seem to have pitched the Movie Quotes Quiz very well. I am obviously spending too much time watching the same obscure films over and over again. I will try to do better next year.

If you want photos of snow, have a look at the latest set from the Big Picture. Breathtaking.

And if you would like to see Scotland's polar bear, Mercedes, enjoying more of the same, look here. There's a movie clip here. If you want to hear the sound of a polar bear moving across deep snow, turn up the volume. It's not a sound you'll hear very often.

And here is your correspondent enjoying the snow, more than a few years ago.

Happy Christmas!!!

Kaari V3.0

2009-12-09T21:27:00.013Z

I've knitted about 6 inches of Kaari V3.0 and it seems to be about the right size. Oh joy oh bliss. I've got Stocking Stitch Shoulder again, but it's worth it.

I was at the dentist today for a check-up and I don't need anything done. I'm not particularly nervous about dentists, but I still get a Got Out of Jail Free feeling about that. I always want to celebrate.

Lynne's blog tour for Reversible Knitting has already begun and you can check the posts at these links.

8 December Go Knit in Your Hat

9 December Grumperina and Purlbee

10 December Knit and Tonic

11 December Moi

12 December Sheep in the City

14 December Alicia Kachmar

15 December BoogaJ

16 December Knitting Today

17 December Ilga Leja

18 December The Hook and I

21 December Melanie Falick Books

22 December Needled

January House on Hill Road

January The Panopticon

I'm in some impressive blogging company and am beginning to feel somewhat unprepared.

There's also a competition you can enter, the prize being a copy of - yes, Reversible Knitting! Sadly, the competition is only open to those in the 50 United States and Washington, D.C. so many of my readers will have to resort to acquiring it in the usual methods of begging, borrowing or stealing. Or buying it, like I did. If you are eligible, you can enter the competition here on Melanie's blog.

LATER: Edited to add some dates to the tour.

Progress

2009-12-20T23:23:00.006Z

After that pause for reflection, I stormed on a little bit.

I chose a border for the Pinwheel Shawl. It's not as fancy as the last one I did, a little more modest.

It's the border from the Karen Shawl by Amy Swenson. I kept doing it back-to-front at first, but I got there in the end.

And I cast on for a Jyri cowl. I'm stiil not sure whether this is a swatch or the real thing: I'll decide when I've finished a repeat. I'm using markers just now but I expect the pattern will become readable shortly (I mean the pattern on the row below, not the pattern as printed on paper) and I will cast them aside.

The yarn is finer than it looked on the hank so I think it might be suited to a lacier style and the mountain peaks pattern may work better in something heavier, but I won't decide until I can see it properly. The Malabrigo Silky Merino is, of course, heaven.

I can't cast on for the front of Kaari until I find my 4.5mm Addi Turbo again. I had it when I cast on for the back, so it can't have gone very far. Can it? I feel I should point out that all my frogging and re-knitting with Kaari has been entirely my own fault. The pattern is simple, at least so far, and it's clearly written. It's just that I tend to speed-read, which is not a good technique for amything that's concisely written, and sometimes I jump to conclusions. I remember once as a very superior teenager being reduced to helpless laughter by a Wayside Pulpit that read 'Jumping to Conclusions is a Poor Sort of Exercise' so perhaps this is a judgment on me, being condemned endlessly to rip and re-do my knitting.

Christmas Movie Quotes Quiz tomorrow.

I Must Write Out 500 Times...

2009-12-17T13:58:00.003Z

There has been rather slow progress here. I finished the plain bit of the Pinwheel and have done a few rows of garter stitch to flatten it out while I think about a border. I've gone through Victorian Lace Today, which is always a pleasure, but I want something simpler. I have a short list of two. I'll try one out and then I'll show you a bit.

Kaari, well, there has been some more ripping, and I have written out 500 times, I must read the pattern properly, I must read the pattern properly... I galloped ahead with some decreases and then realized I had done entirely the wrong thing again, so I put it aside for two days while I worked up the courage to check the pattern. Then I ripped it and did it again, and I'm now about to start the decreases for the armholes (on the back). I am reading the pattern very carefully now.

I fell over just a little bit on the yarn-buying front, but I think you'll forgive me when you see it.

Malabrigo Silky Merino in Teal Feather. Two skeins.

Bliss. It's not really teal; it's very green, but it's not the sort of green that makes me look as if I've recently been dug up. Oh, did I not say it was for me? Well, it is.

I was thinking of a scarf, and then I thought of a cowl. I used to wear a fleece cowl and my then boss used to ask me why I had a legwarmer round my neck. Happy days. Most scarves would need more yarn than I've got (it's only about 300 yards) and most cowls would use a lot less, but I'm now thinking about Jyri, Norah Gaughan's scarf pattern. This isn't because I'm slavishly copying everything Fiona does, honestly; I just like Norah G's patterns a lot. And Fiona has very good taste.

I'm going to answer Lynne's question about films soon, and I'm working on a Movie Quotes Quiz for Christmas. While you're waiting, I'm updating the list of dates on Lynne's blog tour so it's worth following that. Today's is a very interesting long interview with knitting designer Ilga Leja.

Lynne Barr Q and A

2009-12-10T13:26:00.007Z

Lynne Barr stopped off in Edinburgh during her blog tour for Reversible Knitting and answered some questions about knitting and one about her favourite films.

1. Can you think about your designs when you're away from your knitting? Or do you have to have the needles in your hands?

I actually prefer to design without needles and yarn in hand. I like to get an image in my head, think about how it might be created, and then pick up yarn and needles to see if I can knit the vision into a reality. While working on Reversible Knitting, I got pretty good at knitting in my mind, and could even lie back with my eyes closed and work. I’m sure my husband thought I was being lazy and napping, but I was working hard.

2. On a single design, how much time do you spend frogging? Or do you start afresh?

It depends on the design. In the scarf book, some of the easier, straight-forward designs weren’t frogged at all, and my first attempts with working yarn, which was mostly gray Peace Fleece, ended up being the scarves used in the book.

More frogging was required for Reversible Knitting, and there would have been much more if I couldn’t knit in my mind. My working yarn for this book was Rowan Felted Tweed, because it can handle a lot of knitting and ripping and reworking without showing much wear or breaking – it has 25% viscose in it. I used the Felted Tweed for both vests too, and because it’s such a sturdy little workhorse of a yarn, after I finished the book, I frogged both first drafts of the vests and reworked the yarn into socks.

3. What sort of things do you knit when you're not working on a book? Do you knit garments for your family?

Just recently, as preparation for a Brioche workshop, I knit three brioche headbands based on Nancy Marchant’s pattern in Reversible Knitting.

After the workshop, family members claimed two, and the third was given to my son’s girlfriend. Otherwise, for the past four years, all of my knitting has been book related, except for the socks from the frogged Felted Tweed vests.

4. I often write about films on the blog, so I'd really like to know - what is your favourite film (or favourite five)?

I really enjoy your film reviews. Do you think much can be learned about a person, knowing their favorite movies?

Some movies I really like: No Country For Old Men; The Girl in the Café (I know you didn’t care for it); Kitchen Stories; The Lives of Others; Three Iron; Reign Over Me; Chungking Express; The Reader.

‘Easy listening’ movies – ones I’ve seen and know well, with a great soundtrack or lines, that can play in the background while I knit: Gattaca; Love Actually; Parenthood; The Thomas Crown Affair (Pierce Brosnan version); Unconditional Love; Stranger Than Fiction; Defending Your Life.

Helen… can you pare your list down to your favorite five (or eight)?

Thanks very much, Lynne. I am more impressed than I can say by the answer to the first question: I had an awful suspicion that you might be able to knit in your head, but it's still stunning to have it confirmed.

I would be reluctant to come to conclusions on the basis of someone's favourite films or books, but I suppose they can be a bit of a rough guide. If their Top Five were all Godzilla films, for instance, I might jump to a conclusion there. I do find it a good way to get recommendations though, and I have added some of yours to my waiting list. I’ll write a fuller answer over the weekend.

If you live in the U.S., you can enter a competition based on the alternative designs for the book cover by clicking here.

Not Much Knitting

2009-12-08T23:01:00.010Z

I expect there will be some rolling of eyes at this, but I am going to rip the second Kaari after all. I made a bit of progress with it and it was still awfully wide, so I sat down last night with measuring tape, pencil, paper, slide rule and calculator. It would appear that I'm getting four stitches to the inch, not four and a half. I don't want to go down a needle size because I think the fabic will be too stiff and I've noticed that I'm slower knitting Jet on 5mms than the 5.5mms that I'm using for the Pinwheel, so I shall go down a pattern size - or is it up? The next smaller one anyway. While I was rummaging, I came across an Addi Turbo circ in the right size so I'll use that instead of the rosewood Suzanne and that might speed me up a bit.

I haven't done any more on the Pinwheel because I've been so busy muttering over Kaari.

I watched Frozen River last night. I thought it was good, but I'm slightly surprised that it's up for a couple of Oscars. It's described on the DVD box as a thriller but I'd say there's more to it than that; I never felt particularly on tenterhooks but it has much more human interest than the average thriller. I always felt I was watching it; I didn't get drawn in, but perhaps that's because I watched it at home instead of in the cinema. I kept being distracted by the fact that although it was deep winter and very snowy (the river was frozen, after all) nobody was wearing a hat, even at night. I finally said this and my companion said, You know, I was thinking exactly the same thing. They didn't even fasten their quilted jackets and the times that we saw Melissa Leo getting dressed, I thought she should be putting on some warm underwear but she didn't. It sounds daft, but it was distracting. Charlie McDermott, the actor who played her teenage son, was very good - they all were, but he's young and deserves encouragement.

I've watched Moon twice now and I love it. I've still to watch all the extras and listen to all the commentaries but I think I'm going to become a Moon geek. Like all the best science fiction, it's not really about science at all but about human beings. It's difficult to say anything about it without giving away too much, so I won't, but it's not a secret that Sam Rockwell plays two roles in it. The first time I saw it I was very aware of this and thought about how they did it and so on, but the second time I forgot completely and just got absorbed in what was going on. Sam should be up for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

It got Best British Independent Film at the BIFA awards this week, and Duncan Jones got Best Debut Director.

Lynne Barr of Knitting New Scarves and Reversible Knitting will be making a guest appearance on this blog on Friday as part of a blog tour she's doing - isn't that exciting? If you've got any questions of burning importance that you would like to ask her, please leave a comment here before Thursday eveningish (evening UK time) and we'll try to fit it in.

Mary Lou, I'm so excited to know that my website is dangerous (see Comments in previous post). You're right, it must be the jigsaws. I mean, it can get a bit tense around here sometimes, what with the ripping of Kaari and the mistakes in the lace, but I've never felt anyone was actually in danger.

Defintely Sunday

2009-12-06T15:19:00.011Z

I don't think I will rip Kaari and do the next size down; I'm going to stick with it for a while longer. The thought of having a Kaari that's too small is worse than the thought of having one that's too big.

The Pinwheel in white Jet is racing on. I'm on the fourth ball.

In order to give my brain some activity after all these miles of stocking stitch, I spent some time with Reversible Knitting today.

Can you tell what it is yet?

It's pattern 45, in some grey All Seasons Cotton Mélange.

I think I need to make one of my knotted row counters so that I don't knit any more elongated circles. My excuse is that like most of Lynne Barr's work, this is one of these patterns that makes you want to race on breathlessly to see what happens next. It's great fun.

The BBC is starting a dramatisation of Andrea Levy's Small Island tonight. I'm in two minds about whether I'll watch it: I liked the book so much that I'm not sure another version of it could live up to my expectations... but I might miss something good. More dithering.

I friend of mine in New York has started a fabulous blog, Idiosyncratic Fashionistas: it makes me feel so dull.

I Must Read the Pattern, I Must Read the Pattern

2009-12-02T12:45:00.014Z

I finished the Red Sandstone Jacket and I still like it. It is cast off along the right front and I didn't want the usual cast-off edge, which I felt would be too inflexible, and too visible, so I did Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off. I remember using this once before on something and thinking, I really must remember this and use it more often, but of course I had forgotten until I went looking.

I had bought an extra ball of yarn just in case, but I needed to buy a further one and used almost all of it. I don't understand this, and it doesn't seem to have been a problem for other people who've knitted it. I got a sore shoulder while I was working on this, either due to excessive mousing or excessive stocking stitch, or perhaps a combination of the two.

When I came to the seaming everything fitted together like a dream. It's a well-shaped garment and the shoulders fit more neatly than I expected. This is a good thing. I will try to find some red sandstone to photograph it against for you.

I swatched for the retro tank top but I haven't been given any further instructions about what size is needed, or what colours are wanted, so I can't do much else. I wish I could find a tank pattern that would knit up in Felted Tweed Aran, as my shallow and impatient nature makes me reluctant to knit with Felted Tweed itself, which is double knitting weight.

I wanted to carry on knitting with the Jet but I couldn't decide between Kaari and the latest Pinwheel so I made the pocket band for Kaari while I thought about it. I then cast on for Kaari but after a couple of days mysteriously found myself casting on the blanket as well. Perhaps the YOs on the blanket will stop me getting Stocking Stitch Shoulder this time.

Sorry the photo is so dark; my copy of Photoshop Elements is on the fritz and I can't brighten it up. You know what it looks like anyway.

After I had done about four inches of the back of Kaari, I thought it looked a bit wide, even for something that's meant to go over my hips, and when I checked I discovered that I had a) cast on too many stitches, and b) failed to notice a rather significant row of decreases. Sigh. I've ripped and cast on again.

There have been various signs of winter here. First of all, it's been bl**dy cold. Then on Sunday, the heating broke down which never happens in the spring. I rang the engineer on Monday morning and then, as I put the phone down I touched a radiator and lo, the heating had come back on. So I waited a few hours to make sure it wasn't a fluke and then rang again and arranged for the boiler to be serviced. Alan Ayckbourn maintains that central heating systems have a symbiotic relationship with th major religious festivals, and I don't want to tempt fate at this time of year.

On Monday I got my first Christmas card, from my Buddhist cousin. She always sends a card around this time of year but it's usually a plain one, not a Christmas card. This year it has robins and holly and snow, and reads 'Season's Greetings' so I think it has to fall into the category of Christmas Card. She just signed it with her name, no 'Love', or 'Best wishes for 2010', or even a 'from'. As I have explained to people from time to time, she's a rather Presbyterian Buddhist.

The best sign of Winter is that my bougainvillea has come into blossom, pouring out bright pink flowers on the 26th of November and ever since. I don't know why it does this, why a tropical plant should bloom in an Edinburgh winter, but all the ones I've had have done it. You're meant to give them a tropical night and put them somewhere dark at 6 p.m. every night but I never do and they sit in the glow of all my lights, and televisions of increasing size and then burst into flower when the frosts loom.

ADDED: The Red Sandstone Jacket is from Paton's pattern book 1250, Jet, and is knitted from Paton's Jet in Lolly Orange. The pattern is listed on Ravelry here, and my version is here.

I Keep Thinking It's Friday

2009-12-03T16:21:00.005Z

I cast on for the back of Kaari again and after a few inches it's still too wide - not as much as last time, but still too much. I don't want to go down a needle size because it'll make the fabric too stiff, so I think I'll just follow the pattern for one size smaller. Third time lucky.

So I'm rattling round the Pinwheel instead, which on checking Ravelry I have realized is my fourth, not my third. I've just reached the stage where I need to add markers. Part of the idea behind all this Jet knitting at the moment is that I will treat myself to something lacy over Christmas. I would like to do another Queen Anne's Lace and I have a stash of Kidsilk Spray in Medici, but I'm worried that the lace pattern will get lost in the splashes of pale, as they did in my Icarus.

Not only do I keep thinking it's Friday, but I keep thinking tomorrow's Saturday, which is making life complicated.

While I dither, and while I cast on Kaari for the third time, here are some shots from 100 Days in Glacier Park in Montana. Breathtaking.

One Step Back, But Some Steps Forwards Too

2009-11-24T01:45:00.016Z

I ripped Navy Ribs.
I feel better now.

The Red Sandstone Cardi marches on. I wish, wish, wish the pattern had a schematic so that I could be sure I'm doing the right thing. I have been peering a lot at ambermoggie's photos for reassurance. I think it should be illegal to publish patterns without schematics, just as it should be illegal to sell dvds without subtitles. So there.
It looks too wide under the arms but I've checked the instructions repeatedly and when I try it on, it's about right. I think I'll need to buy a little more yarn. It is sadly no longer available at the astonishing price it was when I bought this, so a couple of extra balls will cost as much as six did then, so I'll wait until I'm quite sure.

Yes, the rosewood circs are fab, Mary Lou. They're a German brand, Suzanne's. I have a few pairs of the circs and one set of dpns as well as set of their ebony dpns. I found the ebony slightly too resistant for sock knitting, but I expect they would be perfect for some yarn or another. They're made from left overs from musical-instrument making, which is about as close as I'm ever likely to get to playing one.

These are the navy fingerless mitts I mentioned in my last post. It's the Toasty pattern, rendered in navy Jet with flashes of Noro Silk Garden.
Not a good choice for anyone who is inclined to fiddle with things, as I didn't fasten off the green bits very securely, but they'll last a winter.
The Jet is a bit thicker than the recommended yarn, but I cast on the same number of stitches so they fit my huge hands. They're really a swatch for Kaari, because I'm using 5.5mms for the pink jacket and I needed to check what I get on 5mms: I seem to be bang on target.

After I mentioned how nice Jet would be for a Pinwheel baby blanket, I checked out eBay and someone was selling a pack of it in white - serendipity strikes again.
It's not as bright a white as it looks here. It's a nice soft baby white, with a subtle alpaca sheen. If I find out in time whether it is a girl cold or a boy cold*, I might put in a band of colour towards the edge, and I'll do a lace border like I did here, although I think I'll do a different border this time, just for the sake of the change.

I've received a knitting commission, as a birthday present. A retro tank top is required, like this one from the Boden catalogue.

I was surprised how long it took me to track down a pattern: I thought there would be lots, but they mostly have some shaping or cabling or something else which would interfere with the idea. I think this is promising though, and it's in the same gauge as fabulous Felted Tweed. I hope to take the flowers from Ruth Sorenson's (she of the Kauni cardigans) Spring pattern, as seen on the right. I've had my eye on those daisies for a while.

Felted Tweed comes in a good dark sea green and a navy which I think would look fab, but I am awaiting final instructions. I might swatch a flower when I run out of red sandstone Jet, as I have plenty of Felted Tweed lying around, providing temptation to the better class of moth.

Fyberspates will be at K1 Yarns with her yarns on Sunday (at the Glasgow shop on Saturday) and I might go. I haven't knitted up any of the yarn I bought from her at Woolfest, but I have knitted the golden silk I commissioned ... do you think I dare go?

*My wife has a cold but in about a month will be over it. I hope it is a boy cold, but will love whatever the gods send. Oscar Wilde, in a letter to a friend

Old and New

2009-11-16T12:00:00.010Z

I've finished the latest Forest Canopy shawl, but it isn't blocked yet so it's really not worth taking another snap.

Having grumbled about the rib on the Wrap Top, I picked up the Red Sandstone Jacket again and almost emitted little squeaks of joy while I galloped along the rows with the lovely rosewood needles.

I've done both sleeves and am tearing across the left front now. I discovered that I had done the wrong stitch on the cuffs - I thought double moss stitch was two stitches by two rows, but it's one stitch by two rows. It would have been too much trouble to read the pattern I suppose. I'm doing the right stitch now and I don't suppose it'll make any difference. I used to be a perfectionist, but nowadays, not so much. The Jet is lovely (30% alpaca, mmmm) and I'm surprised by how much I continue to enjoy the colours. I'm not a pink girl, but I love this.

I also knitted a pair of fingerless mitts which I sort of made up and am not entirely sure about, but I left them in my weekend bag in the boot of my niece's car, so you can't see them and give me an opinion until next weekend. I also left most of my make-up in the same place so I'm going to be pale and blobby this week.

I think I've pretty well decided to rip the Wrap Top and re-dedicate the yarn. I'm not enjoying knitting it and on examination I don't think I'll wear it much so there's really no point.

I'll make a simple relaxed sweater, maybe even just knit Navigator again, which was the basis for my Distressed Sweater with the rips in it, which I still love and wear quite a lot. I could knit bigger rips this time. I don't have quite enough yarn but I can probably get more, or add in a few stripes. God knows I have plenty of All Seasons Cotton in different shades.

A couple of babies have just appeared on the horizon, in that way that they do. One is due around February and the other is a bit vague because my source of information is a male (not the father) who seems uncertain about the whole process. So I think that will mean some more Pinwheel Shawls. Jet would make a lovely baby shawl, come to think of it, if the mothers know not to put wool in a hot wash.

Thank you for the compliments about the Golden Gail shawl. Yes, I think it's Portuguese on the blog, Shandy. The pattern is just called Gail, and is available here on Ravelry. It's available in English and Dutch. It is well worth checking Ravelry as a lot of Ravellers have given very useful tips about the charts: I think I would have given up (again; I did give up once) without them. I made a mistake and did the whole chart for each repeat instead of the rows you're meant to do, but it worked out fine. That's why my last repeat is different from the others, because I did it properly to fit in with the edge chart. But none of you noticed, did you? Or maybe you were too polite to say.

And thanks very much for the suggestion about Gaia, Mary Lou. At first I thought I wasn't keen, but when I looked at the others I began to see the atttraction. Maybe when the excitement of tearing along with Jet on 5.5mm needles is wearing off, I'll have a go at that.

Let Me Count the Ways

2009-11-06T23:17:00.022Z

Well, the wedding went swimmingly well. Everything ran very smoothly so far as this guest could tell, and there has seldom if ever been a happier couple. I'm waiting to see the formal photographs but I'll share this one with you meanwhile.

The kilted chap is English and has a Scottish mother, and the chap in the red dress is Scottish. That's not what you thought, is it?

The Puzzle Stole had a bit of an accident. Can you see?

I think it happened on the way back from London, either in the packing or the unpacking so it's entirely my own fault, like so many things, but I think I've patched it up fairly successfully. Thank the Knitting Gods for Kidsilk Haze, which doesn't unravel but stays happily tangled together while you fetch the crochet hook and the repair needle.

I finished the Golden Gail while I was away but I only got it blocked this week.

I could have got another repeat out of the yarn but I didn't want it to be too huge: the bride isn't a tall girl and I want it to be more of a shoulder shawl. I'm going to give it to her as a birthday present as soon as I get it wrapped up.

This is a lovely pattern and very easy to knit once you get past the difficulties presented by the charts. I made a bodge of the edge chart at the centre point- because I was talking and didn't pay attention to my inner voice - but it's fine. I think I'll probably knit it again. The yarn is 100% silk, custom dyed by Fyberspates.

The title of this post refers to the Navy Ribs which is driving me a bit insane. It's in an irregular rib. I like my fancy knitting to be fancy and my plain knitting to be plain, and this falls between the two. It's decidedly plain but I can hardly take my eyes off it for a moment - 3, 3, 3, 1; 3, 3, 3, 1; 3, 3, 1, er, wait a minute. I'm having serious thoughts about whether I actually want such a garment but I've got myself the 32 cms up to where something happens and I've cast off the 9 stitches at each end, so I allowed myself a break while I pick up and finish the Kidsilk Forest Canopy for my osteopath which has been neglected for a while .

It's a lovely bark-coloured blob of nothingness and I should finish it tonight or tomorrow.

At which point I will have to decide what to cast on next. I will try to keep the Navy Ribs going in the background, and I will pick up the Red Sandstone Cardi again, but I need something else, something um, fancy.

These have been on my conscience since I bought them at Woolfest. They are from the Yarn Yard, Fyberspates, and Ripple Crafts. I have two skeins of the one in the middle.

They're all sort of sock weight and about 400 yards. I'm thinking fingerless gloves, or little shawls or maybe even scarves, or something but in spite of spending inordinate amounts of time on Ravelry, I haven't settled on anything. I think the outer two wouldn't show to their best advantage in garter stitch so I can't do Baktuses and my current Karius is still lurking somewhere so there's no point in casting on another one. The Delft Blue one is strongly tipped to become a Shetland Triangle, but I'm still open to suggestions. I'm very tempted by the smallest version of the Aeolian Shawl but I think it maybe needs a plainer yarn.

I like all of them enough to want to keep them for myself but am realistic enough to be prepared to give the final results away as Christmas presents if I have to. (I'm not quite sure what I mean by 'have to' here, but I expect you know what I mean.)

Here's the ivory and gold dress.

You see what I mean about a happy couple?

Post Blocking Puzzle

2009-10-22T00:08:00.009+01:00

Helen Raveller had a good idea and suggested that I post a photo of the Puzzle Wrap hanging on the same hanger as before, to show you the post-blocked state. It's crinkled a bit across its width now, instead of fitting exactly, because it's got a bit wider.
Folded, with the crystals still resolutely refusing to twinkle. The crystals I put in Icarus twinkle quite happily, so I don't know what's wrong with these ones.

I've also done one that shows you how it might look when artfully draped.

But I have narrow shoulders and artful draping doesn't always work. We'll see. To recap, this is Sharon Miller's Pink Puzzle Wrap, done in an alternative way with every second row purled so that the pattern turns out much larger and the knitter, if easily confused, doesn't get in such a muddle. It's done in the prescribed yarn, Rowan Kidsilk Haze, in the shade Trance. I had to Photoshop all of these photos because the originals were all too blue, but they're quite close now. I probably shouldn't have made it so long, but I like it and it's better than too short.

I'm going to take the All Seasons Cotton Wrap Top with me, so that I can keep inching up the back. I'm also taking the Golden Gail which isn't finished yet. I wonder if I dare block it at my temporary residence if I finish it in time. I might take something else, maybe Karius, although it isn't much more mentally stimulating than the Wrap Top.

Thanks very much Janet, for the recommendation about The Red Violin. I shall track it down. I caught glimpses of a Chinese version of Hamlet called The Banquet while I was trying to pack, and I want to watch it when I get back. It looked absolutely terrifying. While I was going in and out of the room, I kept hearing the heart-stopping sound of a sword being drawn from its scabbard, and then a dull thud.

That sound has been engraved on my brain ever since I saw La Reine Margot, where it featured rather a lot.

On that cheerful note, I leave you. I'll be back in about a week, although I can't promise when I'll post.

Floaty Finished and Blocked

2009-10-17T12:27:00.010+01:00

Knitting
I blocked the Unfeasibly Floaty Puzzle Wrap last night. This is it folded in half and blocking in a double layer. I thought this might be difficult but in fact the doubleness helped me keep it even.

I will try to get some better lit and more picturesque studies later, perhaps even an action shot when I wear it at the wedding next weekend. It's still much the same length, which is insanely long but will be good when I wear it as a scarf and want to put it in a Fulham Loop - that's a way of tying a pashmina and I can't find a photo to show you what I mean, but here is Paul Bettany wearing a movie star's version.

He must have had a stylist tie that for him, mustn't he?

When I started knitting this, I could only find two of the three balls of Kidsilk Haze in Trance that I thought I had, and I bought another, and then another. Last week, when I was trying to clear a space in the sitting room - not a task to be undertaken lightly - I found the missing ball, which had been ravaged by some extremely luxurious moths. Some balls of 100% wool which were next to it had been ignored so these must have been very extravagant moths indeed, used only to most the sybaritic standard of living. I wonder how they found their way to my flat.

I think I've finished the main body of the Golden Gail, and just need to do the border now. I say 'just', but I shall wait until I have daylight and a clear head. I hope to have it finished and blocked before I set off on Thursday. I will be away for almost a week, and have two longish train journeys, so I have to decide what knitting I should take. The back of the inky blue Wrap Top from All Seasons at the Mill would be practical and it needs a good spell of time put into it, or I could cast on for Kaari with some navy blue Jet I have, or I could pick up the red sandstone cardi again. Or hey, I could cast on an elaborate lace project and have to pack a bag full of charts and magnetic boards and coloured pens. I wonder what it will be.

Fotos
You must have a look at World Animal Day on the Big Picture.

A zookeeper feeds milk to a newborn baby giraffe at the zoo of Duisburg October 16, 2009. The male giraffe was born on October 3, 2009. (REUTERS/ Ina Fassbender)

Milk farmers squirt milk on riot police during a demonstration outside the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on October 5, 2009. Milk producers from all over Europe protested against lower selling prices of milk outside a meeting of European Union agriculture ministers trying to tackle a crisis in the dairy sector. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

Floaty Puzzle Finished

2009-10-15T00:10:00.003+01:00

I've finished the Puzzle Wrap for the second time. It's four repeats longer and has a couple of hundred crystals in it, which are resolutely refusing to twinkle in this photograph.

It's 92 inches long at the monent, which is, em, quite long, but I'm hoping to make it wider in the blocking so it might not grow too much. I think I'll have to block it folded in half: cross your fingers for me.

There's a new adaptation of Emma on BBC just now. I can be very unforgiving about telly Austen but Emma isn't one of my favourites so I'm less impatient about it. And the lead actress is at least trying to look as if she isn't wearing any make-up. Jonny Lee Miller is Mr Knightley and once one gets past his boyish looks, I think it's an interesting interpretation. He is nearly 40, after all. But Mr Elton is too good-looking; I think I would have swapped him with the actor who's playing Frank Churchill. I wouldn't swap Michael Gambon with anyone.

The point of interest here, though, is that there's some nice knitting, although I can't find any photographs of it. Michael Gambon as Mr Woodhouse has a wide grey scarf knitted in alternating bands of garter stitch and seed stitch. I can't work out how it is straight at the sides and doesn't go in and out when the stitch changes. Perhaps it's some very floppily spun wool of great authenticity. Someone else had a rust-coloured scarf knitted in rib, which was rather nice too. I'll look out for photos.

I met another knitblogging Helen last week when she came to Edinburgh for the day. As well as having the same forename and following the same profession, Helen and I both have an Aunt M_______ who lives in the County of N___________ . We managed to talk without interruption from 1.00 till about 5.30, so we must have a lot of other things in common too. There was a brief lull while we investigated K1 Yarns, which had some new things since my last visit, including Reggae Ombre sock yarn with very slow stripes in it and their own K1 Laceweight Linen in absolutely beautiful shades. If I hadn't already bought some fine hemp yarn at Woolfest which remains unknitted, I probably would have got some of that.

I've posted before about the Big Picture site that the Boston Globe maintains, and they've got a series just now about Autumn.

Caitlin Snow, 2, walks through a Gladiator Pumpkins on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 on Connors Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. Connors Farm owner Robert Connors had to ship the pumpkins in from Michigan because of his low yield this year. Heavy summer rains encouraged black rot (Didymella) and Phytophthora Blight among his crops. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

They're the usual mix of the expected (but brilliantly executed) and the staggering but I thought this one was particularly relevant to a woolly blog.

A shepherd leads his herd to grazing grounds down from the mountains along a tunnel in Zakinskaya hollow, about 70 km (44 miles) south of Vladikavkaz, Russia on October 5, 2009. (REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev)

I think one of those sheep is a sheep dog - click through to see it more clearly. And do go to the site to see the whole series - definitely worth taking a moment.

At Last, Reversible Knitting

2009-10-05T17:07:00.010+01:00

Knitting
I finished unravelling the end of the Puzzle Wrap (I only resorted to scissors once although I resorted to bad language more often) and I've started adding the beads. I'm not doing a huge number and I'm not doing them in a very thorough way, more a bit of twinkle. I can't get a decent photograph. They're very small Swarovski crystals, no colour but an aurora borealis coating so that they sparkle amazingly. The bride's mother is convinced that it will rain steadily all day, so sparkly dew drops could be an appropriate look.

The trouble is, Reversible Knitting arrived at the same time as the beads and I am almost unable to put that down - I don't know which way to turn. There isn't much point in my reproducing any of the photos that are available on Grumperina's thorough review, but here is an item that isn't.

Reversible lice - how clever is that?

And a reversible hat. I haven't done any swatching yet because I Must Finish the Puzzle Wrap and if at all possible the ivory and gold Gail as well, but I haven't been able to resist quite lot of peeking.

The book is beautifully put together, of course - clear instructions and clear photographs and something I noticed on my third or fourth run-through - the different types of stitches are shown on different colours of background. Picked Up against avocado, Openwork against orange and so on. The colours of the book are really juicy, and follow through into the colours of the garments in the pattern section: the whole book is designed around the same colours, very harmonious. I don't think I've seen that done before.

This Faux Wrap was designed by Lily Chin. The cables are reversible so that the cuffs can be worn down and long, or folded and three-quarter length, and the collar can be worn high and buttoned, or open.

I am just boggled by how Lynne Barr's mind must work. I'm very poor at visualization and find it extremely difficult to think in three dimensions: she must have an extra ration of whatever it is that I'm lacking. I wonder how far she can model these designs in her head before she picks up the needles.

Gail photos
I thought that language might be Portuguese, Mary Lou, but I didn't want to risk getting it wrong. I used to have a Brazilian friend whom I could have asked, but I went on holiday with her once and we haven't spoken since.

Drama
I was wakened this morning by someone delivering a parcel (no, it wasn't wool; it was one of my other weaknesses) and while I was signing the thingie, he said, 'Have you had a fire in the stair*?' I said no, and he remarked that there was a strong smell of burning. I muttered something about checking and he said something sensible about always best to be on the safe side, so after he'd gone I couldn't quite sneak back to bed as I had planned. It was mostly the smell of burnt food but with a plasticky element. I put some clothes on because I hate talking to the fire brigade in my dressing gown, and I texted one of my neighbours. I didn't get a reply from her so I started trooping up and down stairs sniffing at letterboxes. I don't know if you've ever done that, but it's not something you want to be caught doing.

I was fairly sure it was one of the ground-floor flats and I hammered and knocked for a while to no answer, which wasn't very encouraging. I hadn't heard from the neighbour I'd texted so I started to visualize her unconscious in a haze of smoke but her letterbox was pristine. I can vouch for it.

So I rang 999 and there was all the clanging and nee-nawing and so on, and they knocked on the ground-floor door and this time, she answered. It turned out she had burned her supper at about three in the morning: she must have burned the handle of the pan too, given the plasticky element. My other neighbour appeared and said she'd been in the shower when I texted. She also said that the supper-burning neighbour never answers the door, so that's useful to know.

I apologised to the firemen - I know it's not necessary but one feels such a fool - and they left after they'd checked up and down the stair (I didn't catch them sniffing letterboxes but they have little meters that tell them what sort of smoke it is).

So that was an exciting start to the week. I hope the rest of it is less dramatic and that I don't have to get dressed in a hurry again.

'Stair' is the Scottish term for all the flats on a single staircase, sort of equivalent to 'block'.

Two Steps Forwards, One Step Back

2009-09-27T21:50:00.005+01:00

Puzzle Wrap
I decided just to finish off the Puzzle Wrap with the yarn I had, and did my four little cast-offs, one for each point. I wove in all of my loose ends. Then the next day I decided that after all I do want it to be very long (it's 72 inches just now, pre-blocking) and actually I do want to put beads on it.

I got another ball of yarn almost instantly from AllSewYarns on eBay, who always posts things at the speed of light, but I'm now drumming my fingers waiting for the beads and trying not to think about the postal strike. I am passing my time by unweaving my loose ends and undoing the four cast-offs and picking up all the k2togs and ssks so it's probably a good thing that I'm not in a rush. I haven't photographed it because it's a mess of loose ends and dropped stitches, and it's not a pretty sight.

Just Another Raveller asked me if I would knit it again, or if I'm glad to be done with it. Usually when I'm knitting something I like, I think constantly of other yarns I would like to see it in, or alterations I might make 'next time' I knit it. I didn't do that with this pattern, but no, I'm not glad to be done with it. I like the yarn and I'm looking forward to the occasion when I shall wear it (hurry up, beads) so I'm feeling fondly towards it. I'm pretty sure I could stand to knit it again.

Golden Gail
I'm getting on quite well with the golden Gail. Now that I've got past the unconventional nature of the chart, it's a straightforward and gratifying knit.

The designer has posted a description of how to block this shawl. I don't understand the language it's written in, but it has such fabulous fotos that it doesn't matter.

Reversible Knitting
I pre-ordered Lyyne Barr's Reversible Knitting a while ago, to the extent of actually paying for it, and got an email from Amazon on Friday telling me that it is on its way: according to their tracking information it is presently in Droitwich.

Then today I heard from Judith that her copy has already arrived - on a Sunday, no less - and it is unbearably exciting. She directed me to this very detailed review here by Grumperina, which includes lots of illustrations and also pointed out that it is available at a better price at W.H. Smith's. I am now in a frenzy of impatience.

Less Puzzling Now

2009-09-20T11:12:00.014+01:00

I've been inching forwards on the Puzzle Wrap. I should explain, it's called a Puzzle because it starts with a provisional cast-on and when you've knitted to the first end and cat off, you then pick up again where you started and knit in the opposite direction. This means that when you finish you have no discernible cast-on.

I'd always thought that this sort of thing left me with a big chance of ending up with a disaster. I've done it on the toe of toe-up socks but there wasn't very much at stake there. I was a bit more trepidacious this time.

Here we are at the first end.

And after finishing all the little cast-offs.

And here we are removing the waste yarn after the successful pick up.

Un morçeau de gâteau.

If it weren't for the Different Dye Lot Disaster, it would be invisible - to me, at any rate.

Actually, the DDLD is much more visible in the photographs than it is in reality. And, because of the construction of the stole, the lighter shade is in the middle and the ends are both dark, so I don't think it'll be screamingly obvious.

I won't embarrass myself by telling you how long it took for me to get into the swing of this pattern: there were times when the real puzzle was how I managed to have a different number of stitches on every row.

But I'm rattling through it now. I've just finished a repeat and am trying to decide whether I have enough yarn to do one more repeat before the final cast-off. And whether, after all, to put a few beads at this end. Since one end contains far fewer mistakes than the other, it would be nice to be able to find it easily. Just a few crystals, shimmering like dew drops...

Too Poorly to Post

2009-09-09T14:37:00.013+01:00

Thanks very much for all the nice compliments about the Queen Anne's Lace veil. Really, the pattern did all the work.

Sorry about the silence. I've been too poorly to post, and last week I was too poorly to attend Annie Modesitt's Combination Knitting class. Very tiresome. I understand everyone else had a whale of a time.

I have been knitting. It's taken me an embarrasingly high number of repeats to feel that I'm getting into the swing of the Puzzle Stole: this pattern looks as if it should be obvious to the point of tedium, but I still find myself having to check what row I'm on and which way my decreases should be pointing. For some reason, it's hard to read the row below. I love it, though; the yarn makes me smile every time I pick it up - if ever a yarn were agressively fluffy, or robustly floaty, this is it.

Yes, I have got a new pair of Crocs; silver ones which make me look as if I have Cyberman's feet.

It's Kidsilk Haze, in Trance, and it's darker than it looks here. I was thinking of putting some beads at the ends (the advantage of starting a stole in the middle is that you can put off decisions about the beginning) because my top has sequins on it, but then I realized that my bag will probably have sequins on it too (understated, moi?) so I don't think I will.

The ivory and gold bride's shawl - you know, the one I'm not knitting - is going more smoothly, precisely because the row below is very easily 'read' and I can spot an error immediately.

It's Gail, aka Nightsongs. I found it very hard to get started with this pattern and gave up the first time with mutters of, 'This is supposed to be enjoyable, for goodness' sake.' (Let's just pretend I said 'goodness'.) I started on the lovely Feather Duster instead but I forced myself to admit that it cries out for a fluffy yarn and so had another go at this. I added a centre stitch and things fell into place the second time; I think the yarn and the pattern suit each other very well.

I've also cast on the navy blue garment that I meant to do before Anhinga swept me off my feet, which is the Wrap Top from All Seasons at the Mill in that lovely inky navy, Dusk. This is dark enough that it can only be knitted in daylight.

It's an irregular rib so I've used stitch markers; pathetic, I know but better pathetic than having to rip. I knitted a Mistake Rib Scarf once and it nearly drove me insane, all the thinking and the counting and the checking.

I'm starting with the back which has a long boring bit, so I hope that'll help me get into the rhythm.

The colour here is totally wrong: it's much darker. And inkier.

I came across this on John Naughton's blog: they're bollards with a twist at the University Library in Cambridge (the original one, not the one in Massachusetts). It gets even better at about one minute in, so hang in there.

Me, I'm going back to the couch.

Anhinga At Last

2009-08-27T23:51:00.013+01:00

You'll be relieved to hear that I've finished Anhinga. I unpicked the seam and re-did it, and I'm fairly happy with it. I have modelled it, Janet, but you'll have to go the Ravelry for that treat. I think in the end that I wasn't sufficiently experienced with the Rowan Bamboo Tape and I made mistakes with that, especially in the seaming, which have let the pattern down. Thanks for the suggestion about sewing it with a different yarn, Sea, but the principle of seaming with the same yarn is deeply ingrained in me. I want to knit it again in wool, maybe even in a semi-solid or slightly variegated yarn, and probably in the next size up. I would like to knit something else in the Tape too before too long.

I finished and blocked the off-blog project.

Susan wins a coconut because she correctly identified the Queen Anne's Lace Shawl. This was intended as a wedding veil but I've decided it's a christening shawl. No, the bride isn't pregnant :) It's just that I don't think she's keen and I'm backing off: brides have quite enough people contributing bright ideas about what they should wear / sing / say / do on their wedding days and I don't want to add to the clamour.

So I'll put it away for a year or two and I can produce it with a flourish when the time comes. I made her christening robe when she was a baby and I dare say it's been stashed away somewhere, so they'll make a good set.

I made it from Henry's Attic 20/2 Spun Silk: I bought 1000 yards and I've got 27 grams left - seriously, I used about three quarters of it. I used a 3mm Addi Lace circ. I bought special hand-made silver ring stitch markers from Spindle Cat Studio and they worked very well, didn't make holes at the pattern-joins and didn't catch on anything. It blocked to 35 inches wide.

The pattern is easy to follow and the massive task is chopped into very manageable chunks. The only thing I found confusing was that the charts omit plain rows, but I got round this by marking them in large red letters before I started. I couldn't actually see what I was doing, i.e. read the row below, until the last section, so I was quite relieved that a pattern emerged when it was blocked. When I'm making a triangular shawl I never start a row unless I'm sure I'll have time to finish it, but because of the spiral nature of this, I could pick it up and do a couple of segments any time, although in practice I usually did a few rows at a time because I was enjoying it so much.

I absolutely loved knitting this; I never regarded it as a chore. I abandoned things I should have been doing; I took my glassses off and ignored the television so that I could peer at it more intently; and I made the larger version so that I could work on it longer. I would knit it again tomorrow.

I have another navy blue project in mind, which I was about to start when I got swept off my feet by Anhinga, and I may cast that on soon, but meanwhile I got sidetracked by a skein of Kidsilk Haze. Oooooh, fluffy.

This is Sharon Miller's Pink Puzzle Wrap pattern, which Jean very generously gave me some time ago. I cast it on at the time, and then quietly put it away - the pattern is written as knitted lace and my poor brain shut down on the return rows. However, since then I have noticed that Sharon says you can do it with purl return rows and that's what I'm doing. It makes the diamond shapes much larger and I like the rhythm of Thinking and Not Thinking which it requires. It's Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Trance which is impossible to photograph but is a bluey green. Or perhaps it's a greeny blue. It depends.

I'm making the narrower version and it's 23 inches wide now. I expect it will block wider. It is quite insanely fluffy and floaty and it's for me.

I see there's a new version of Wuthering Heights coming up on ITV. I'm not a Bronte fan at the best of times, and I see Cathy Earnshaw has injected lips and carefully tended eyebrows

so I think I shall save my blood pressure and watch something else. He has to be the wettest Heathcliff I've seen for some time.

I shall stick to watching the episodes of Wallander from Swedish television which are being shown on BBC4 just now. In the episode Fotografen, Krister Henriksson turned in possibly the best bit of drunk acting I've ever seen (and the victim's husband was played by the chap from Poldark, which was distracting for those of us with an eye for trivia) and all of them are spellbinding. Perhaps the best thing on British television at the moment is Swedish televison. Or is that mean?

I'm so glad you liked Cinema Paradiso, Mary G. and even more that you left a comment. I sometimes pore over my Google stats and wonder just who those dots represent, so it's nice to put a name to a dot.

Speaking of Google, that thing they do of tracking what you're looking at and then posting ads that match is driving me nuts. Certain items that I've looked at online are now cropping up in endless permutations on other sites. I'm looking for an item of furniture just now - I won't name it here because that'll only make things worse - so I looked at examples on a certain website - ditto - and now, every time I go to IMDB or whatever, ads for those products start revolving around the periphery of the page - the items that I decided not to buy because they were the wrong size, or the wrong colour or because I didn't like them, are pursuing me in perpetuity. Aaargh. How do I make it stop?

A Break from Knitting

2009-08-25T13:16:00.006+01:00

A friend of mine came up with this celebration of the present relations between Scotland and the U.S.A., as represented by some of the media.

The Royal Air Force has been bumped from doing the nightly flypast at the Edinburgh Military tattoo and the USAF has stepped in.

Hope it's not true. Normal knitting service will be resumed shortly.

Solution

2009-08-19T13:57:00.005+01:00

If you can't stand to read another post about Anhinga, talk amongst yourselves.

I think I've worked out what the problem is. I wore the sweater yesterday afternoon and evening and it grew quite a lot, which revealed that the seam between the flap and the left side showed up as quite short. The 'seam' between the flap and right side is false - it's created by picking up stutches on the other side - but the one on the left creates some of the tension that makes the construction work. This wouldn't be a good pattern to do in the round, except maybe for the sleeves, because it relies on the construction to make it do its thing.

That was the first seam I did and had quite a lot of trouble with because sewing with Rowan Bamboo Tape was a new skill (can you hear my clenched teeth?); I probably made it too tight. I’ve wet the jumper again but when it’s dry I’ll unpick that seam and sew it up again more loosely. That will stretch that edge a little which in turn will pull up the lower edge. She’s a clever girl, that Norah Gaughan.

Not Quite There Yet, and Lace

2009-08-18T14:19:00.006+01:00

You'll have noticed that there hasn't been a rapturous post about Anhinga. Well, first of all it took ages to dry. I had been too cautious when I spun it and it was pretty wet, plus the continuing high humidity here means that nothing's drying very well. I suppose the bamboo was just soaking up the moisture again from the air as fast as it was drying.

Anyway, I finally tried it on last night and the flap at the front has gone funny: it's all long and well, flappy. This can't be the pattern's fault because none of the others on Ravelry have done it, and it can't be the yarn's fault because Smashing Puffin's didn't do it; so I suppose it must be my fault. It might be the way I dried it. I'm going to wet it again, and this time I'll give it a fast spin and it should dry faster: I think the sheer weight of it while sopping may have stretched it. I suppose I could use the tumble-drier but I usually only use that in cases of national emergency.

But I do love it and I'm going to do a woollen one for the winter: I think I'll make it the next size up. I have some Jaeger Matchmaker Aran in Flannel grey and I'm trying to decide between how it works on 4mm needles and on 4.5mm.

I'm casting off the off-blog project. Click to see all those tiny, tiny stitches.

It's been re-purposed, and I think the person that I thought might be reading my blog isn't, so I'll let you see it when it's been blocked and tell you more about it.

And look what I got.

It's a custom order I placed with Fyberspates, pure silk in ivory, honey and gold. It arrived with perfect timing, as I was casting off the above lace. This has been re-purposed a couple of times since I had the original idea, but it's probably going to be a Nightsongs shawl, and not for me.

Jeni's business is taking off in a big way so she isn't doing any more custom orders; I feel so lucky to have scraped in with this one.