Knitting in Circles

I realized that the baby who is getting the stripy green Pinwheel Blanket

will also need a Daisy Hat.


Then it occurred to me that her big sister should have a Daisy Hat too, since she has probably outgrown the one I made for her when she was born, so I bought some Handknit Cotton in Delphinium but I haven't cast on yet.

Then I realized that of the two babies due before the end of the year, at least one may be a girl so I had better have a Daisy Hat ready for that baby.


And whatever the one in Australia is, her/his big sister will need a new hat too. I wonder what colour she would like.

The new ball of Rowan Handknit Cotton, the beautiful tender pale pink which I thought might be called Peony, but is called Shell, is noticeably softer than the bits and pieces of Handknit that I already had in my stash. It's softer to the touch, and it wasn't nearly so tough on my pore ole hands. I usually can't knit for very long with 100% cotton, but this was fine.

I blocked the white Swallowtail Shawl and although it's very pretty, it is indubitably also too small to be used as a christening shawl.


I'll have to have a think. Perhaps the mother would like to have it for herself, as a reward. Is white too limiting a colour?

I did three repeats of Lily of the Valley pattern. I think it might be because I used the yarn double that it didn't grow so much when I blocked it. A single strand of cobweb seemed impossible to knit with, but now that I've used it doubled, I can't wait to use a single strand. Watch this space.

I did some swatches for the Aeolian Shawl but none of them really works.

From the top: Rowan Kidsilk Spray in Medici, Kidsilk Night in um, black, and Kona Superwash Fingering in a custom dye. I need to use something lighter. As I've established before, the lace pattern is lost in the splashes of the Kidsilk Spray (the paler blue one). When the Citron Shawl pattern first appeared, I thought, 'That's lovely, but of course I would never knit it,' but as time goes by I see more and more that are lovely and I think I might. This would be a very good yarn for it.

I had an eye test recently and collected my new glasses this week. They were so shockingly expensive that I don't think I'll ever be able to buy yarn again, although a small voice is pointing out to me that if I want to make any say, sweater-sized purchases, it would be a good idea to do it before VAT goes up in January. I think I must be incorrigible, a hopeless recidivist.

I Keep Thinking It's Friday

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.

Spending Continues

Still not much to see in the way of knitting progress, as I am totally absorbed in the string bag / elaborate lace project that I'm doing off-blog.

The blue baby blanket (blue blanket for a baby, not a blanket for a blue baby, fortunately) arrived safely and was enthusiastically received. The baby's name is Isaac. The blanket grew a little when washed and I didn't really block it, just made sure it dried without any waves or coggles. Seven balls of All Seasons Cotton (and a tiny bit more) on 5mm needles made a Pinwheel that was 40 inches across. I've put a jigsaw in the sidebar - scroll way down.

Although there isn't much knitting to see, that doesn't mean I haven't been spending money. Oh no.

Fiona has been de-stashing and I got this heavenly silk.


There's quite a lot of it, enough for two shawls for instance, or something else drapey.

And I bought a nostepinne from Jessie at What Housework? Her husband made it from wood from one of their apple trees, in Vermont. How could I possibly resist?

The groove measures exactly an inch so that you can check your wraps-per-inch at a glance.

If you ever want a really good photograph of a pig for your desktop, try Jessie's blog. She has photographs of Milo the cat too and a lot of other animals, and it's a really good place to follow the seasons.

The first thing I'm going to do with the nostepinne is wind the skein of yarn I bought from Jessie ages ago, and then maybe I'll knit something with it and allow myself to buy another.
I've photoshopped these a bit to let you see the colours, but it's a dull day: they're a rich blend of blues and purples and some greens, but the greens seem to have disappeared when I pressed the button. Do click.

I'm thinking I'll use this for a Just Enough Ruffles; it would really show off the yarn. After all, I need more scarves, don't I?

Now that I have one, I really must find out how to pronounce 'nostepinne' - is it nostapinny? or noast-a-pin? or what?

Blue Circles

There's not a lot to see here. I finished the blue striped Pinwheel Blanket with two balls of the navy blue, Dusk. It's a lovely inky navy and it matches the nail polish I'm wearing just now. I always think that's so important, don't you?


I did a picot bind-off and actually managed to run out of yarn a few inches from the end, so I subbed a different duller dark blue which I already had. I tried it with a brightly coloured shade first, but it looked sort of naff, so I ripped it and used this instead.


The baby will never notice. I wanted to get it on its way quickly and I had the chance of being near a post office on Thursday, so I decided not to block it and just leave the edge wavy and I wrapped it up and wrote a note and set off.

Then, one unhelpful taxi-driver later, I was back home still with my parcel, so it looks like the knitting gods mean me to finish it properly. Meanwhile, here are the stripes.


It looks like a slice of cassata, doesn't it?

I've done some more of the secret project and last night I found the answer to a question which has long occupied me, how often can I look at a lace chart and do the wrong thing? Last night, it was twelve times. When I realized what I was doing wrong I put it down for a couple of hours while I fumed, and then picked it up again and took it back to the beginning of the row. It wasn't that bad really, and I'm steaming on now.

Lovely Lindsay lent me her copy of Breeze, which I am in love with.

I told myself I mustn't start another sweater until I've finished Chrissie (do you remember Chrissie? No, I expect not.). I really must dig her out and finish her off.

This is Georgie.

This is Rose.


I love that sideways rib. It's on Ruby as well.


Most of them are made from cotton yarns and my pore old hands aren't going to let me knit an entire adult sweater out of 100% cotton, but Georgie is meant to be made from RYC Pima Cotton DK which turns out to be the same tension as my old favourite Rowan Felted Tweed. Mmmm. That might be something to aim for.

If that doesn't make your heart faster, here's Nick Lowe. I'm going to see him in a couple of months and I hope he sings this.

A Bad Film and a Good Film

I only need one more ball of All Seasons Cotton to finish off the latest Pinwheel Blanket. Is the navy blue back in stock yet, Lindsay?

The two bands of pale blue aren't the same; the first one is Iceberg and the second is Jazz, but the two turquoises are the same colour. The bands aren't getting narrower as fast as I thought they would. My elementary knowledge of geometry has let me down this time.

This mysteriously cast itself on one evening while I was watching telelvision.


It's the most gorgeous rich, complex orange marmalade, almost a semi-solid, the sort with shreds of peel in it, and I think it's 100% mohair. It's about 3 inches wide, and those are 6mm needles. It's for a colourful friend, although I'm terribly tempted to keep it for myself. It would look so good with grey.

Have you seen this story about the knitted village?

Associated Press

It's Mersham, in Kent, and it's been knitted over a long time by the Afternoon Club there and shown in order to raise money for the Village Hall. It's got too big now so next month they're hoping to sell off the houses to the people who live in them. In a way it's a shame that it's being broken up, but it's also nice that the bits will 'go home'.

I hope one of the knitting mags - or perhaps even a non-knitting mag - does a big spread on it before it disappears.

I watched Elegy last night, which I thought wasn't any good. I thought it was a big male fantasy and was very surprised to see that it was directed by a woman, although not at all surprised to see that it was based on a novel by Philip Roth. About half-way through I said, 'This is like a Woody Allen film without the jokes,' but there was less to it than that.

Earlier in the week I watched Still Life, a Chinese film set in the Three Gorges during the work on the dam. Much better, a very good film.


I think I might get the DVD (I'd recorded it from the television) so that I can listen to the commentary and find out a bit more about it: I think some of the supporting roles may have been played by non-actors.


On a more trivial level, I can't stop watching this. Put the sound on.

Shag Noir

Knitting
I finished the latest Shag. There was a lighter flash at the end of the second ball which placed itself very effectively at one end of the scarf.
Every time I walk past it, I think of black and white films. I do find the yarn (Rowan Tapestry) a tiny bit scratchy, but not so much that I can't wear it.

And I've started yet another repeat project, this time another Pinwheel Blanket. One of my friends is due this week ('I'm due to be sectioned on 9th April,' she said in a text, which is quite a good joke in British English) and it's a boy, so I'm doing this one in shades of blue All Seasons Cotton. I started it with this very clever circular cast on from Theresa's blog which makes a nice neat start.


After wrestling for hours with the beginning of my first Pinwheel, I now start these by knitting backwards and forwards for the first few rows - knitting five stitches on four needles doesn't do anything for my temper - and sew up the hole afterwards.

Theresa also shows how to do Norwegian purl, which allows you to do ribbing or moss stitch without eternally taking the yarn backwards and forwards and is one of the cleverest things I know. I haven't perfected doing it yet, but I practise from time to time and intend one day to do a piece of moss stitch that isn't horribly slack.


Since I snapped this, I've started on the third colour, which is a vivid turquoise.

Something New
I am however in the planning stages of a new project which will use a pattern I haven't done before, and a new-to-me yarn too, so things should brighten up soon. The yarn is on its way from Canada; another essential ingredient will soon be on its way New Jersey; and then swatching can begin. I have a horrible feeing that I'm cruising for a fall and it will all, as my aunt says, 'come a box of eggs', but let's hope not.

Patterns
I bought this gorgeous book last week.


It's called Little Luxury Knits, and isn't to be confused with Knitting Little Luxuries, which came out at the end of 2007. Why do they do that? Don't they know I'm confused enough already? The first one brought out my inner Presbyterian, who can be quite a powerful force - she's the one who didn't want me to buy the iPod Touch before my birthday. She did a lot of harumphing about why would you need a pattern to knit a thing like that? and so on, so I didn't buy it, but this one has brought out my inner butterfly and I've been cooing over it pretty steadily since I got it home. Haven't cast on anything yet.

Lots of pictures here.

I've also fallen very heavily for Kim Hargreaves' new collection, Breeze, but I haven't bought it yet. It appears that having been fairly successful in stopping buying yarn, I am now buying pattern books instead. It reminds me of when my father saw a hypnotherapist to see if he (the hypnotist) could stop him (my father) smoking: after examining him and learning how long he had been smoking and how much, the hypnotist said that he could, but he didn't know what he might start doing instead.

Ospreys
Exciting news from the ospreys' nest: a suitor has arrived. He isn't ringed so they don't know where he's from, and they've called him Odin. Her name is EJ, from her leg ring, but I like to think that it stands for Elizabeth Jane or something - given the Scottish angle, maybe Elspeth Janet. There's still time for another man to show up, but this one has been bringing her fish and generally doing his best to impress her.

Dreaming

I didn't feel particularly well when I woke on Sunday morning, but I did feel relieved when I realized that I wasn't actually married to the man I'd just married in my dream. I don't know who he was, but I don't think it would have worked out. I quite often feel relieved when I waken up, when I realize that I don't have that job or that meeting, and I haven't lost my walking stick in a particularly large railway station - which is probably the same station where I haven't just missed a train.

I'm often disappointed to realize that I don't really have that extra room I just discovered in my flat, the room where I was going to put all the stuff I don't have room for, but mostly it's good news. My mobile phone is working after all, and I haven't lost all my shoes.

The latest Pinwheel Blankie is finished and will soon be on its way to its next owner. I thought I was going to get bogged down in the border, but instead I got seized by the idea of finishing it and getting it in the post, so I did it all day Saturday and blocked it on Sunday. It grew from 32 inches wide to 44 inches: I could have stretched it more, but I didn't think it would improve it.

I like it for its simplicity and tradition, although I'm a bit worried that the mum might just think it's dull. I hope not. To recap, it's the Pinwheel Blanket, with the border from the Lace Edged Cardigan in Debbie Bliss's Cotton Denim Aran book, and it took 7 balls of Drops Karisma Superwash: the shawl took 5 balls and the border took nearly two. Size 4mm needles.


The silky Forest Canopy grows slowly. It looks like a rag at this stage.

I'm very tempted by an idea I found on Knitting in the Shadows's blog. She says it's not original but I found it on hers so I'm giving her the credit. There's a Ravelry group or groups too. The idea is that you make your own Sock Club by selecting skeins and patterns and parcelling them up in separate bags, which you then open at monthly intervals. When I first read about it, I thought, 'Well, thank goodness I've just given away my sock yarn so I won't be tempted to do something as silly as that,' but then I started thinking about all the lace yarn I have which just sits in my head as a bundle of Could Do This, Could Do That ideas which never get resolved because I have to decide which to do first, before I decide anything else. This way, I could match the yarns to the patterns and then let chance decide which I was going to do first. I have got as far as printing out the patterns I want to use, and although I still feel pretty silly, I think I'm going to look for some bags soon. I might accidentally arrange which one to open first: do you think that would be terribly wrong?

I got this from the Yarn Yard the other week: the colours are a pale, smudgy version of crocuses peeping through grass. It goes by the romantic name of 612 and it's very pretty.


I meant to post this sooner. He must have a cat at home. Or several cats.

Knits in Wear

I've got some more interesting shots of recent FOs, being worn by the people for whom they were made.

This is Micah, wearing his new blanket while he has a nap in the supermarket queue.

Photo by Pops.

And this is Calum in his Felicity hat.

And in profile.
You can really see the colours here, and the halo from the possum (New Zealand possum, not American). It's Cherry Tree Hill merino and possum, which they don't do any more, in the shade River Run. The small pink person beside him wouldn't put on the hat and scarf that I made for her with Felted Tweed and Kidsilk Haze because, allegedly, it is scratchy. Hmmm.

I ran out of yarn on the edging for the Pinwheel blankie and started meanwhile on a shawl. It's the trial shawl for my goddaughter to decide if she wants a wedding shawl and before I could splurge on some silk yarn, I remembered that I had this Hand Maiden Sea Silk.

I think the colour is Ocean.
The pattern is, of course, the Forest Canopy, which I chose partly because well, because, but also because it doesn't use so much yarn as some shawl patterns and I only have one skein.

The music which alarmed some visitors to my previous post was coming from the Playlist in the sidebar above the jigsaws. I've changed the settings now so that it doesn't come on automatically: you have to click on Play.

I went to the optician today for a routine eye test and discovered that I don't need new glasses. I think this is the first time since I was about 10 years old that my sight has stayed the same for two years, hurrah. I haven't worn them out by knitting and watching films at the same time.

Broadcast News was on television the other night. I hadn't seen it since it came out and I still felt the same way about the characters, which surprised me because I usually find if I see a film twenty years later that as well as feeling different about the film, I often relate to the characters differently too. I still think the Albert Brooks character is too much of a dork although he has a lot of good lines (and now he makes me think of George Costanza too, which he couldn't in 1987), I still identify a bit with the Holly Hunter character while not sharing her presence of mind, and although my critical faculties tend to abandon me when I'm faced with a tall strawberry blond, I still think William Hurt plays the shallow-but-he-knows-it anchorman with depth and subtlety. I don't think the characters would be so honest with one another nowadays, but maybe that's just me. I'd forgotten that Jack Nicholson was in it, playing one of his demonic roles with the specially sharpened eyebrows and it was good to see him. It has a lot of good lines, very sharp script.

New Patterns

The Woolworth's round the corner from me is closed now. It's the same branch that I used to shuffle round after school in my school uniform (why do teenage girls think it's cool to shuffle?), while my friend stole bars of chocolate. We used to look at the records, as CDs were called then, and the sweets. Guess what she does now? That's right, she's a lawyer.

I went out last week thinking I would probably buy Knitting Goes Large, along with the new Rowan mag, but I came home with the mag and Amber instead. Amber is a collection of Kim Hargreaves patterns. As always, she has some real stunners.

Lindsay, the wise and wonderful Rowan lady in John Lewis, was wearing Bella. Hers is in Vert, I think, and this looks like Blue Velvet. Really cool, and I have it on good authority that can be knitted in four nights.
There's a very nice cardi called Charm.
I was also seized with enthusiasm for Whisper, which is in my beloved Kid Classic. The largest size is just a little bit small for me, so I'm tempted to try a few more stitches or slightly bigger needles - what could possibly go wrong?


As for Rowan 45, I'm not usually mad about the Spring issues of knitting mags, because I don't really do pastels or short sleeves - I'm very allergic to ultraviolet light so I've always tended to cover up - but I'm rather taken with this one. I won't put up a lot of pix because you can find better ones elsewhere, but I like this top, Sandsend, in the amazing shrinking fading Rowan Denim yarn. I made one of these sweaters a long time ago, one from Great Big Knits, and I liked it very much - the yarn has fabulous drape - but I have strongly held beliefs which prevent me knitting something large with the intention of ending up with something small (this is what stops me felting) and I haven't made any more. But this tempts me.


Don't you love this photo? It's everything I like about Rowan styling, and it's why their patterns don't date like others do, because they aren't ineradicably linked in your mind's eye with this year's accessories. Do you think she's just wearing very high platform shoes, or is she actually standing on a stool? Either way, kudos to her for keeping a straight face.

I'm getting on with the border on the White Pinwheel.

At first I was picking up a stitch for each row of the border, but that looked a bit skimpy and I did't think it was going to lie flat, so I ripped it - eeek - and am now picking up a stitch on every second row. I may need to buy another ball of yarn, especially if I'm going to make a hat too.


Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Carol O'Connell, Joan: I've started my first one. One of the reasons I have big hands is that most of the women in my father's family are six feet tall: one of my aunts calls me the The Wee One because I'm only five feet six. My growth must have been stunted at some point, most likely by staying up late. If you see a six-foot redhead in Belfast, she's probably a relation of mine, although I didn't get the red hair, alas.

Those of you who have been paying attention will know that one of my Top Five Films is The Right Stuff. You can understand my delight then, when I discovered that on top of Obama's outstanding political qualities, he's also a movie buff.



I came across this on John Naughton's blog; I wish someone was working on an upgrade of the UK software too.

Dear World:

We, the United States of America, a top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and a decision was taken in early November to completely replace the software responsible. The new software became fully functional on January 20, 2009. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are again operating correctly. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to continue improvements in the years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Huge Post

I've got lots to catch up on. I'll leave the knitting till last.

What have I been doing during the silence? Well one thing that took up an undue amount of time was playing with Tiltshift. Tiltshift is a program that changes a photograph of something so that it looks like a photograph of a model of the same thing. Why would you want to do that? I'm not sure, but once you start, it gets very addictive. Most of my photographs are of people or knitting, neither of which are very responsive to this, but here's an example that works better than most.

This is a photograph I took last year at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.

Here it is after Tiltshifting.
Go on, try one.

I also got a bit sidetracked by Ada Lovelace Day, and plan to do a post on 24 March. You can too. Ada Lovelace was Byron's legitimate, non-incestuous daughter which would almost be interesting enough in itself given what tragic souls his other daughters were, but she was also an oustanding scientist and is often described as the first computer programmer.

Still on the technical front, when I bought that big Hewlett Packard desktop last year, it came with a keyboard that I've never liked: the keys are wide and flat so that every time I hit the A KEY I TURN THE CAPS LOCK ON, and the space bar is so soggy that I have to keep goingbacktoputspacesbetweenthewords.

So I bought one of these and I love it to pieces (sorry for blurry pic, but I am unable to overcome the problems presented by photographing something illuminated in the dark).


I can now see to type in the dark, which at this time of year is during most of the day as well as at night. The mouse keeps changing colour too, woohoo. This is what it looks like in a (slightly) better photo.

I have made a couple of attempts to find The Knitter, the new British knitting mag, but without success. The place I tried had the latest issues of four other British knitting titles, but not that one. Somebody must reckon there's a lot of money to be made from selling advertising space about knitting.

While I was trying to find a copy of The Knitter, I actually laid hands on a copy of Knitting Goes Large, and although I think I'll get it eventually it didn't really make my heart beat faster.

It has different covers in the UK and the US.

The photos are odd: there is a little introduction saying that the models are size 16-18 (that's US sizes 14-16) which is barely Plus, but the garments seem to be too big for them. The patterns go up to a 48" bust. I wonder if the garments were knitted in real Plus sizes and then they chickened out about using models who fitted them? Or if they photographed them first on size 24 models and lost their nerve when they saw the photos? We have our eye so trained by magazine photography that they maybe thought nobody would buy the book if the models resembled the buyers. I'm really getting tired of the way they write these books, and the way they're reviewed, as if being a size 22 were an embarrassing topic, rivalled only by female incontinence or bad breath.

It's very difficult to find pix from this book online, as if everyone found them too boring to reproduce, or maybe they were embarrassed by photos of fat girls, but until I buy a copy and can take some snaps myself, you'll have to take my word for it that one of the photos, a whole-page shot of a jacket, shows the back of the collar sitting at a very bad angle; so bad that I immediately decided not to knit it. You have to wonder if there was a knitter present when the photography was done.

Having said all that, the patterns aren't all bad and the supporting text is good, and as I say I will probably buy it some time, but I think this was much better done by Big Girl Knits and its successor, and by Dawn French a long time ago: you can still get Big Knits and Great Big Knits for peanuts off eBay or Amazon marketplace, and I knitted sweaters from those when I was a size 12. And they look as if they're having fun in the photos, not apologizing for themselves.

So, to the knitting. This is the secret knitting I was doing before Christmas.
It's the Ruffle and Rib Fingerless Glove pattern, but I added a ruffle at the finger ends as well.

The recipient has much smaller hands than I do (I have huge stranglers' paws) so they will look daintier on her. The yarn is the Old Maiden Aunt sock that I bought when I went to the Japanese pattern class, and at some point I will make a frothy scarf with the leftovers.


I made two more Felicity hats in Mirasol Miski, one in a terracotta shade and another in navy, like the first one. These are for two of my younger relations and I hope they pass the cool test.



I also made one for myself, in the Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere that I bought to make a Drifting Pleats scarf. The colour is softer than the photo, the sweetest duck egg blue, which is my favouritest colour in the whole world.

I wore it when I went out last week looking for The Knitter, during the day. Anyone who knows me will realize how extraordinary this is because I only wear a hat when two conditions are fulfilled: 1) it has to be dark, and 2) everyone present has to sign a confidentiality agreement. I was perfectly happy in it and am looking forward to wearing it again, even amongst strangers.

I plan to knit a black Felicity for someone who won't countenance any other colour, and then another, possibly purple, but meanwhile I am ploughing round and round on another Pinwheel blanket, for the cousin of the baby who got the last one. Cousins do often go in pairs, don't they? I'm a week older than one of my cousins. I wonder if anyone has done research on that.

This Pinwheel is plain natural, in Drops Karisma Superwash. The exchange rate being what it is, this baby couldn't have Lorna's Laces, but this is nice and I found a British supplier, Scandinavian Knitting Design. I'm now on the fourth ball, of six. I'm going to do the sawtooth design which didn't work on the variegated yarn, which should look good in this. The baby has arrived and is a girl, so that should all be all right.

I must say after all these Felicities and Pinwheels, I am yearning to knit something in gossamer yarn with lots of YOs and counting. I might do a sample silk shawl for my god-daughter, who is going to be an October bride, just to give her some ideas and to give me a treat. A Forest Canopy in some hand-dyed 100% silk (she's allergic to everything else), perhaps - what a wonderful excuse to buy some yarn.