Floaty Puzzle Finished

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.

K1 Yarns, Jenner's and Mavis

Monday's visit to K1 Yarns was good. It turned out to be a bit of a dry run, because one of us wasn't feeling very well, and another was saving herself for Skip North, but it was a satisfactory start and I'm sure we will do better next time. Jean liked it so much that she went back the next day and bought more wool. I got a pair of the Addi lace needles which I have been keen to try out, not just for lace but because I find the regular Addi needles a bit too rounded and blunt. I haven't tried them yet but I'll let you know when I do - in excruciating detail, no doubt. I might be going to Bristol in the next few months, Gretchen, and that will give me an excuse to go to Get Knitted and acquire some KnitPicks Harmony needles.

One of the things I like about the K1 in Glasgow and this one is that they don't stock any of the stuff you can get easily elsewhere - I like Rowan yarns a lot but it's sort of liberating to go somewhere which doesn't have any at all. Everything they have is a treat - Jamieson's, Artesano, Fyberspates and 100% angora lace-weight. I didn't get any yarn because of the awful queue of plumbers, electricians and a dentist who are standing with their hands out in expectation - it's one of those spells where I feel I might as well stand on the street corner with my wallet open, you know? But K1 had some aran weight alpaca which I can't get out of my mind - in a soft orangey red. I'm pretty sure it was Artesano Alpaca, but their website doesn't mention an aran. When I'm solvent again, I can go back and check. (I couldn't wait and I've checked online, it's that shade at the far left called Sunset.)I went into Jenner's on the way home, to check out the new yarn department and it has to be one of the most dispiriting places in town. If you were selling yarn (just Rowan and Patons, one either side) in a supermarket, this is what it would look like. They do have exhaustive colour ranges of the yarns they stock which I must remember for the future, but it's not somewhere I would go for a browse. In fact the whole store, which used to be an independent and was taken over in 2005 by a chain, is already beginning to have that terrible homogenized look. Given how much money stores must spend on re-vamping and decorating their branches, it amazes me how often they end up being barn-like and depressing. Except for the new styling for Marks and Spencer food halls, which is claustrophobic and depressing.

Anyway, back to knitting. I've been keepin' on with the Victorian Lace Today scarf. I've finished the first skein, which wasn't complete, and I'm at 40 inches. The colours are so beautiful; I've decided that is because they remind me of crocuses that I find the colours spring-like. I've wound another skein and the colours aren't quite so sharp, but part of the joy of scarves is that it won't be noticeable.

I cast on for the toning border at one end, far from convinced that it would work, but actually I think it looks good - that's a Boye needle you can see there, in a carefully matched shade of silvery green, of course.

And Mavis has begun blocking; she's pinned out on the bed, without her arms. And yes, as soon as I saw this photo I went back through to the bedroom and moved the pins; I hadn't noticed how crooked the hem was. I don't know if it's because I have prisms in my lenses, but I can never see if things are crooked; I once stuck posters up in my office and everyone who came into the room burst out laughing because they were all at different angles. Oh well. I didn't have too much trouble getting her pinned out to the required dimensions and if she needs to grow a bit further I think that will be do-able. As soon as she's dry, I'll get on with the sleeves.