Meandering Malabrigo

I finished Meandering Wedges a couple of days ago and haven't really done anything since. I think I might have a slight touch of Januaryitis. I can't get on with Mavis until I've taken it back a row or two, and that needs a decent light and no distractions. I'm the distraction queen, so I haven't managed it yet. Definitely this weekend.It's 80 inches long, almost two skeins. I've got it wrapped round twice in this photo. I lost concentration a couple of times, so the wiggles don't entirely match the waggles, but that doesn't show in wear. It was a great knit, and I really like the finished item too, my reward for all the Xmas scarves I knitted for other people.

I think another reason for the Januaryitis is that I'm a bit uninterested in knitting with anything other than Malabrigo, especially pearly grey Malabrigo. I still have two balls left so they are playing on my mind a bit, emitting siren calls from the Beatrix Potter tote bag that they're sheltering in.
I suppose I could make a matching hat, but I don't think this is a matching hat sort of scarf. I think this is a scarf for wearing with classic black and no clutter.

I watched the French thriller Tell No One last night. Michael Caine recommended it on Jonathan's round-up on Film 2007. I read the book a while ago but had managed to forget the entire plot so I had plenty of surprises. It's good, stunning to look at and very tense. We were waiting for a curry to be delivered while we watched it and after about the first fifteen minutes I said to my friend, 'You know, when the doorbell rings, I think I'm going to have a heart attack.' I had a similar experience watching the last episode of The Sopranos: a friend came round with pizza (themed food, you see) but I was so tense throughout the episode that I don't think I chewed once. I don't eat take-away all the time, by the way, it just sounds like it here.

I did something stupid the other day (at least, I think it was my fault and not the software's) and deleted my blog feed list. I have tried to reconstruct the list but I still find myself thinking, 'So-and-so hasn't posted for a while,' and then I remember and check and discover that they've disappeared. I have the awful feeling that I've forgotten quite a few. I dare say there's a backup stored somewhere on my pc, but I thought that looking for that would probably take longer than reconstructing the list. The really annoying thing is that it happened a couple of days after I had had a clear-out, deleting people who hadn't posted for ages, or who had finished knitting the thing I was interested in, and I could have saved myself the trouble if I'd known I was going to delete them all by mistake. Maybe it was a judgment on me for doing that.

Meandering Wedges

Well, how long did you think I would hold out? I cast on for another scarf from Knitting New Scarves on Thursday.
I got to the end of the lacy bit in Mavis and then did something daft. And when I say 'daft', I mean really daft. I sat there knitting and thinking, 'I don't see how the tension can be the same on the chevron stitch and the stocking stitch,' but did I check the pattern? No. Thus, I missed the bit telling me about the decreases. So I put it to one side while I reconciled myself to ripping back a couple of rows, and I cast on with the Malabrigo in Polar Morn. I seem to have stumbled on a combination of Meandering Stripes and Stacked Wedges, because I have 21 stitches but three alternating blocks of right and left. Perhaps Meandering Wedges, since it isn't striped?

The pink cotton is to remind me at any given moment which is the 'top' side, as I tend to storm off in the wrong direction from time to time. I love knitting short rows because they make me feel as if I'm knitting faster and faster, and then I slow back down to a meander for a few rows and then speed up again.

Franklin said today that wearing a hat knitted from Malabrigo is like wearing a kitten on your head, and who am I to argue with Franklin? I'm looking forward to wrapping this kitten round my neck. I haven't decided how long I'm going to make it.

Corinna, Corinna was on this afternoon while I was knitting this. I don't usually do heartwarming, but it's a nice film. Great soundtrack and I love the cars. It maybe isn't understated, but it isn't overstated like some Hollywood films. The little girl is very good, and she's engaging rather than unbearably cute (didn't you just wish the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park would eat that little girl who keeps whining? I can't be the only one) and in fact all the kids are good, even the sons of the widow who has her eye on Ray. And the kid who makes the pretend phone calls, 'Ring, ring.'

It's been a bit colder lately, and we had a tiny amount of snow. I tried very hard to take some photographs of my bougainvillea flowering in the snow but of course I couldn't because it was impossible to get the flowers and the snow in focus at the same time. The bougainvillea are inside the widow and the snow is outside, but still, it's impressive.

For those of you who really like grey, I've put a jigsaw of a wedge on the Knitalong.

Dithering about Meandering

Yesterday I showed you the ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed that I'd bought. I was thinking of doing another scarf from Knitting New Scarves, maybe Meandering Stripes.

I cast on and started Meandering - the sharp-eyed amongst you will see that it doesn't have stripes.

It's coming along nicely, but I'm not sure that I'm going to keep going. I can't see how this is going to look on a human being, and I think the yarn may not be soft enough for the style. The two already completed on the Knitalong are softer (they're actually Stacked Wedges, not Meandering Stripes, but the principle is the same).

Maybe I should make another Tilted Blocks: I know that looks good in a tweedy yarn. Or maybe I should make yet another Shag: it really does seem to be a pattern which brings out the best in any yarn. Now seems to be a suitable time to confess that I have already started another Shag, in Noro Silk Garden 236, shades of blue and purple.

On another subject entirely, I always thought that one of my favourite shades of Lorna's Laces, Bittersweet, was so called because the colours are hot, sweet pinks and reds with a dash of sour, sharp peach, but I discovered today while looking at one of my favourite photoblogs that Bittersweet is a kind of berry-bearing vine and berries are red, pink and peach. I expect a lot of you knew that already but I feel I have to share my discovery - the photo is worth seeing, anyway. If you want to see the colours in the yarn, look at the jigsaws in the sidebar.

Oh and I'm watching The Girl from Missouri, made in 1934. Starring Jean Harlow, written by Anita Loos and her husband, with gowns by Adrian. Who could ask for anything more?