Progress

Wow, that was a long silence. Sorry. I had quite a wobbly week, and then I had a worse than usual paroxysm of indecision over knitting, if you can imagine such a thing. It was about baby hats. 

But first of all, let's have a drumroll for the Icarus. 

I used wires to block the long edge and I'm very happy with the result. My shawls are usually quite wavy along the top, if not positively A-shaped and this one isn't at all. The top took three wires. 

Why didn't I use wires for the pointed edges? Well, I forgot. I think I got sidetracked by the pleasures of pinning out pointy bits, which are many. 

I love the way it feels after blocking; it's just a cloud.

 I think it was a mistake to use the variegated yarn for the pattern, but I don't really care: I know it's there. I would be quite happy to knit this again anyway. It wasn't as difficult as I expected, or as I think the final result looks, because each change of pattern sits quite neatly on top of the previous row.

The beads hardly show but I like them like that. This is unusual for me because I don't usually do understated - it has often been said of my earrings that you can see them from the other side of the room, but this time I'm happy with it. In the photos the twinkles in the edging rows of Kidsilk Night show up better than the beads, but the beads show more in reality.

I'm pretty sure that my next project will be in the Kidsilk Night, but as usual I take no responsibility for any decisions which may subsequently be revoked in these pages.

Here's some proper pictures of the baby shawl, unpinned. 

I must do something about my shawl-photographing skills.  

It will look a lot better when it has a baby in it: 

it's a pity you can't feel the yarn, but do click to embiggen and get a flavour of its creamy softness. Again, thanks to Heike for creating such deliciousness. It's half merino from Australia, and half bfl from Northumberland: the baby is an Australian / Northumbrian mix too. 

I posted it today, so we can still reasonably hope that it will arrive before Baby does.

And here's the Newcastle United FC hat and scarf. I just did the scarf in stocking stitch so it's curling like mad, in spite of intensive blocking, but it's not as if Baby is going to wear it for any longer than a photo shoot. I'm not mad about Baby Cashmerino to knit with, but it does make a beautiful fabric,the sort that makes you look like a better knitter.

Yes, Gretchen, a girl baby could wear the Newcastle hat, but I sort of feel that she should be able to make her own choice about that, or at least that her mother can make it meanwhile on her behalf. 

Jetlady726, here's a foto of the hat with the top undone.

 There's a pattern for an umbilical hat in Stitch'n'Bitch, but I made this one up asI went along: I started the decreases as usual and when it looked about right I stopped decreasing and carried on with the same number of stitches for another while; decreased and then continued again; decreased to 5 stitches and knitted i-cord for a while; cut off the yarn and threaded it back through the stitches, pulled it tight and drew it back down through the cord on a blunt needle. I think the only important thing is to make it a bit longer than you think it needs to be.

I then got totally paralysed about what other hat I was going to make to fill up the parcel. I don't have enough of the merino / bfl left for a hat, or I would have done that. In the end, everything seemd too boyish or too girlish, although they probably weren't. I have now settled on sending the parcel off as is, and knitting a further hat or hats when I know whether baby is a Bruce or a Sheila. If I had had some pink Rowan Handknit DK cotton, I would have made a Daisy Hat regardless, but I don't so I haven't. 

Meanwhile of course, I had to keep my hands busy. I was expecting to pick up the Kidsilk Haze, but instead I got sidetracked into another Forest Canopy Shawl. There was a complicated reason for doing this, but it relates to a blog post that has been taken down, so I will save you the long story. The yarn is a sock yarn from The Yarn Yard: I think it might be this one.  I made a scarf from this for a friend, but I still had most of two skeins and some of a matching yarn intended for heel-and-toes. 

The colours are those of a spring window box full of pansies, or a lawn covered with crocuses. The final rows will be the colour of lobelia flowers. The second skein is a bit lighter than the first, but it doesn't matter. As it happens, somebody on Ravelry has done exactly the same shawl, except that she used 5mm needles and I've used 4mm. I've done 19 repeats and I'm on the border. I love this yarn and we know I love this pattern, so I've been a very happy piglet. I've already bought a chambray shirt to go with it and I can't wait to see it blocked. I hope it's huge. 

I resurrected the little pink bolero by unpicking the sleeve / body seam and will have another go at sewing it together before she outgrows it. 

I was going to do a jokey piece about how the osprey chicks set off from the north in the middle of August, but instead of nobly setting off for Africa, they hung about in the south of England for weeks, stuffing themselves with fish on a river in Kent. They did finally head away from the British Isles last week, only for Deshar, the male, to head off too far west where there was no land from him to rest on, and disappear  for ever somewhere over the North Atlantic, after flying for 104 hours non-stop. Poor thing. His sister has been more fortunate and is now in Morocco, southeast of Fez. Wherever that is. 

Another totally brilliant LOLCAT. 

I watched In Bruges some time during all of this; I thought it was very good. It's one of those films that if you're expecting a comedy, it's surprisingly sad, but if you're expecting a drama, it's surprisingly funny. A bit like life really. 

Twinkling

I didn't want the beads on Icarus to be too obtrusive, so I'm now worrying that they'll be totally invisible. I suspect that after blocking, they'll be fine. I wanted them to twinkle and that's what they do. I haven't put them right to the end of the wingtips, just on the tail - did Icarus have a tail?
I splurged and got Swarovski crystal beads, in black and clear and silver. They're impossible to photograph and it's finally dawned on me that the reason the pics of this come out so oddly is because the patches of black and white confuse the flash.

I just have a couple more rows to do in the greys, and then I'll switch to the black, which is called Starry Night. It's just been discontinued but someone was selling four balls on eBay tonight and I made a small killing, so instead of having nearly one ball left over, I'll have nearly four. That sounds like an excuse for a shawl. I hope it arrives soon.

In order to console myself for missing Old Maiden Aunt's appearance at K1 Yarns, I went to her website and got some. I had it in my head that I wanted variegated green yarn to make a pair of Salad Wristers for someone, but I changed my mind and got Espresso. They won't look like salad, but I think they'll have a nice fungussy appearance.

The last two paragraphs mean that I have bought 5 balls of yarn in the last few days, which isn't bad for someone who theoretically isn't buying yarn at the moment. I don't expect it's a record, though.

I came across this photograph at The Criterion Contraption.

It's Sergei Eisenstein and Walt Disney. Once you tear your eyes away from Walt's shoes, you can see Mickey beside them in the hedge.

Dis 'n' Dat

Two of my current non-knitting obsessions were combined on Sunday night in Britain from Above, when Andrew Marr showed the track made by an osprey's GPS signal on its way from Africa to the north of Scotland. It starts at 2:30 into this clip. Do you think he's been reading the blog? I got quite excited as you can imagine, and re-played it several times. Apparently pigeons are known to follow motorways when they're on the last stretch of the journey home - and have been observed to fly around roundabouts. I wonder if they give way to the right or the left?

I have belatedly realized that there were two series of BFA being shown at the same time, one showing current activities and one showing the effects of history. I expect they will be repeated endlessly and I will have plenty of opportunities to catch up on television as well as on the web.

Icarus has reached the stage where I need to choose beads, so there will be a short pause while I swatch and dither.

I've picked up the baby shawl again and am on the edging. I have to decide whether to ask Heike to spin a little more yarn, or take it back one pattern. I know it'll grow a lot in the blocking, but I still think it might be too small if I rip any of it.
You can see here that I've placed a marker earlier; now I can't remember what it marks. Sigh.

I don't know about watching Sleepers online, Knitting Linguist. I don't know much about watching things online legally. It's available on DVD in the USA and Canada, but not in the UK - althugh we can buy the Region 1 version. It's time the dvd business started thinking globally, or they're going to be left behind the like the record companies.

Speaking, or rather writing, of old television series, Takin' Over the Asylum is being repeated on BBC4 just now and has been released on DVD in the UK. This is a superb drama, set in a psychiatric hospital: there are lots of excellent performances, but the outstanding one is by David Tennant - he was 21 and was already clearly something special. He plays a boy with bi-polar disorder and is, well, luminous.
The DVD release has been held up until now because the soundtrack includes some Beatles songs and it was too expensive or complicated to get the rights for the DVD. I have had this on a dodgy DVD made from an ancient videotape, so it will be good to upgrade. Katy Murphy is in it too, whom we don't see often enough.

While I'm swatching and dithering, and deciding whether to rip back the baby shawl, I'll cast on for a hat for the shawl baby.

Gretchen - yes, I have Big Girl Knits and I think it's very good. I haven't actually knitted anything from it, but that doesn't mean anything. I've got the second one on my wishlist.

Empty Nest Syndrome

The osprey chicks are gone, on their way to Africa. Their mum left over a week ago, before they had learnt to fish, but they've been seen with muddy feet so presumably they mastered it without her. Neither of them brought a fish back to the nest but that's maybe because they didn't want a hungry brother or sister to take it from them. You can track them here: you can see that Deshar (the male, who is a few days younger) made a big loop out over the sea while Nethy, his big sister, headed south right away. Maybe he was looking for something to eat.

Icarus is progressing: this was yesterday afternoon. Since then I have finished Chart 3 and am one third of the way through Chart 4.
I've just started the fourth ball of yarn. I'm not too worried about running out because I've almost decided to finish off with two or four rows of plain black -well, maybe not too plain; Kidsilk Night comes in a black with little twinkles in it which I think I like. I've ordered the beads, but it's a holiday weekend in the south so I expect they won't get here for ages.


In the ball the Graphite is very grey but the black and white are more pronounced when it's knitted up. I think the twinkly black will add definition to the edge.

It doesn't look like much at the moment but blocking will work wonders. Honest.

I have been asked to provide a stripy hat and scarf for my youngest relation so I think I might try brooklyn tweed's Turn a Square hat: it will give me an opportunity to practise jogless stripes. The colours will probably be purp and pinkle.

BBC4 has recently repeated Sleepers which I must have missed first time round in 1991: I can't imagine why I missed it because I had a television that year and I like the actors - Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers - and it's a lovely script. It's about two Russian deep cover spies who got forgotten in Britain for 25 years and then go on the run and are chased by MI5, the KGB and the CIA. The comedy arises from the three agencies misinterpreting each others' actions, and the fact that the two spies have absorbed the prejudices of their adopted classes, and it's very gently done. I've watched most of it and am saving the last half-hour as a treat.

Socks, Sweaters and Sunday Roasts

I wasn't well enough to go out on Saturday, so I didn't get to K1Yarns for Old Maiden Aunt's do. I hope the shop still has some left when I do get there to buy the lace needles for Adamas: maybe once the Festival's over. I was going to buy some yarn online as a consolation, but I decided to save my pennies for some beads to put on Icarus. Not in huge numbers, but on the edge and at the beginning of the border, I think: crystal or silver.

I finished the first ball, the Kidsilk Haze, and moved onto the Kidsilk Spray. I ordered a longer Addi bamboo needle but somebody at Royal Mail has eaten it or thrown it away, or possibly sent it to Beijing to be used as the handover in the relay races, and the 60cm needle I was using had got very crowded, so I had a dig around and wrenched the Kauni off its needle (remember that? still waiting for me to decide on the last pattern) and transferred the Icarus.

The rows are getting r-a-t-h-e-r long now. I've started on Chart 2, the feathers, which is very exciting. When I started the third row I realized that I had forgotten about the plain stitches in Row 2 so I unhitched them and reversed them while I was doing Row 3. I'm sure I bought a tiny crochet hook recently which would have been excellent for this purpose, but I couldn't find it. I did, however, find the camera batteries I was looking for last week, so that wasn't completely wasted time. (Which is just as well, because Royal Mail has thrown away the replacement batteries I ordered too.)

I think I will change some of the plain stitches in the pattern in Icarus: I have been peering at Icaruses on Ravelry and quite a few people seem to have done this without disaster striking. I also caught myself referring to it as 'Uterus' instead of Icarus: I shall have to watch out for that.

Mentioning that my mother knitted the cat sweater in my last post set me thinking, plus the fact that it was her birthday on Saturday: she would have been 87. She didn't always knit: she took it up whenever she was trying to give up smoking, which was often. Although she was a woman of immense will-power, she always struggled with that. The needles would replace the cigarette, and 'Just one more row' replaced 'Just one more cigarette,' while a garment grew rapidly beneath her hands: I sometimes think she just started smoking again because she got bored with knitting. Perhaps she should have tried lace - a Forest Canopy Shawl and Kidsilk crack might have taken care of a mere nicotine habit.

The Swallowtail Shawl has arrived safely with its new owner in Canada, on Vancouver Island.













Maureen, aka Nellie, sent me these pictures of its new surroundings. The deer are in her garden: she reckons they don't like yellow plants so she grows quite a lot of them.



I like the look of injured innocence on the one on the right.





This one has given up pretending.

I watched the second Britain from Above tonight and am totally hooked. It was about how human activities have shaped the land and itincluded a bit about how grazing sheep have changed the landscape, which is where I got the title for this post. Andrew Marr said that it was our weakness for 'socks, sweaters and Sunday roasts' which had caused the absence of trees in large parts of the country. So many people on television try to be cool, I find his enthusiasm a welcome change: he's good too at drawing knowledge out of experts, although one of the English Heritage archaeologists was so unforthcoming one wondered why he had agreed to go up in a plane in the first place, but never mind. Maybe he didn't agree: maybe his line manager made him do it.

The film was full of riveting shots which made me shout, 'Yes, but where is it?' as another distraction whizzed by, especially the bit about follies. I suppose I'll have to examine the website more closely. It's got all sorts of riveting things on it. In tonight's show there was a satellite-controlled combine harvester which can work for 24 hours every day. I'll try not to think about that when I'm falling asleep tonight.

Power Surge

I haven't had a power surge myself; quite the reverse in fact. I usually have a relapse around this time of year: I try to be positive and think that maybe this year it won't happen, but then I get sideswiped again and spend a couple of weeks picking myself up off the floor. That's how it's been lately. The actual power surge was on a new television series which started on Sunday, Britain from Above. I watched it; don't know if I'll watch the rest. It reminded me a bit of a schools programme but it was quite hypnotic. Aerial views are always quite compelling somehow. Anyway, the reason I mention it is that there was a bit with a man who manages the national grid or part of it, and he was bracing himself to meet the surge in demand that follows the end of East Enders. I've already forgotten the staggering number of electric kettles that are switched on within six minutes of the end, but what caught my attention was Andrew Marr's assertion that we're the only country in the world that does this, switches on huge numbers of kettles all at once. Bill Bryson says somewhere that it's one of the things he likes about the British, their ability to get excited at the prospect of a hot beverage. I wonder if there's a surge when people open the fridge door to get a cool beer?

I started the Adamas shawl but then I decided that it wasn't a start, it was a swatch. I like my lace holey but this is so open that you can't really see the sweet little intersecting squares that make up the pattern. Plus, I had made a mistake. I'm going to start again with 3.5mm needles, which I don't have in the Addi lace at the moment. I can get them at K1 Yarns on Saturday, if I get there.
The yarn is delicious.



I blocked the Forest Canopy from 40 inches by 20 to 50 inches by 25. So it's not huge, but it's very nice. My friend was very pleased with it. I had thought that blocking would quieten the Kidsilk Haze down a bit but it was still as mad and fluffy and airy as ever, quite difficult to wrap up in tissue.




We read a lotabout SABLE, Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, but not so much about another besetting sin, Pattern Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. I've been buying some old VKBs off eBay, not respectably ancient ones like Jean buys, but 1980s ones. One of them, Holiday 1986, I must have owned at the time because I have the sweater to prove it. I got my mother to knit it because I was too busy: of course, I can't squeeze into it now but I would never part with it.

I loved this one with the bow too: I still think I might use the chart someday. I know it's not fashionable to say this, but I really like '80s knitting. It was a very exuberant period, with a real joy in what could be done with yarns and colour and I think there are just as many hostages to fortune in the latest pattern books are there are in these.

Speaking of the latest pattern books, I am totally in love with the latest Rowan book, number 44. As I type this, I am horribly aware of all the things I was in love with in last autumn's Rowan book that I never got round to knitting, but we won't dwell on that. Rather than my taking a lot of bad photographs, or stealing them from another site, here is a link to to Colourway's site which has some of the highlights - Rowan themselves are 'moving to a new website' so they have nuttin'. Click on the thumbnails for embiggening and yardage.

One of the best things for somebody as unimaginative as myself is that they have shown some of the styles twice, in different yarns or with and without embroidery, or with and without stripes. I'm not really into embroidering my knitting; I sort of disapprove of it in a way which I can't possibly justify, but it is a lovely look. The 'stories' are Nostalgia, which has already had Vivienne running for her costume book but doesn't pretend to be historically accurate fortunately, Renaissance (likewise, I suspect) and Elegance.

The mag also has a piece about a book by Sharon Brant, Knitting Goes Large, which is due out in theUK next month. She contributed to Martin Storey's Classic Knits for Real Women, which I found very disappointing, but this looks promising. I found the Storey designs included a lot of the things that I avoided after I gained weight, like shirt collars and styles that button right up to the neck, not to mention dull colours and general fussiness. One of the items on the cover is a sleeveless polo-neck, of all things. Rowan has increased the size range in its patterns at about the same rate as I have needed them to, which is handy, but this might be a useful extra.

When I was collecting the mag I had the opportunity to touch, and sniff, some of the new British Sheep Breeds yarns which are just wonderful. They're not for the faint-hearted or those who prefer their yarn suitably distanced from proceedings which produce it, but if you like to bury your face in a sweater and go wibber wibber wibber, you will probably love them.

I feel I should confess that I have been lurking on Ravelry for a little while. As long as images had to be uploaded to Flickr I knew there was no way I could join in wholeheartedly, but Blogger has obligingly uploaded all my blog images to Picasa and Ravelry has obligingly arranged to upload images from there, so I no longer have an excuse. I am chronicknitting, and at the time of writing I have 214 Faves and 3 Friends. Ooops. Obviously I should get out more.

So what did I do when I realized I had a couple of weeks to fill in before I could start knitting Adamas on smaller needles? I cast on for Icarus, of course. I have three balls of Kidsilk Spray in the grey / black / white colourway, Graphite, and the pattern is notorious for eating yarn so I started with a spare ball of plain grey Kidsilk Haze. I'm nearly at the end of it here. I'm not finding this part of it dull; I'm just enjoying the yarn and looking forward to doing the feathers.

Thank you for the Music Box recommendation, Judith. I didn't record it but I've added it to my LoveFilm list. Amazon transferred its dvd rental business to LoveFilm and I don't like them nearly as much so, irrationally, I'm not watching the dvds I've got. I must have a blitz and then I can get some new ones.