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.

Forest the Fifth

I thought this would be a little bit bigger. Still, I'm happy with it and I'm still taking little peeks at the colours because I like them so much. 

You're right, Knitting Linguist, it's the colours of irises, the yellow ones and the purpley blue ones. 

I used the wires again and this time I remembered to use them for the points, but in the end I took them out of the points and did those by hand. I find it easier to stretch and re-stretch the individual points one at a time.

After blocking, it's 68 inches wide by 34.

I've cast this on. It's the Flutter Scarf by Mim Felton, who also designed Icarus. I've had my eye on it for a while: I particularly like the bell shape at the ends. It has a provisional cast on and then you knit out to each end. 

I cast on late last night and then spent an hour trying to knit an unfamiliar chart with fine black yarn in a bad light. Not very clever, but I seem to have got away with it. I'm not sure that this is the best time of year  to start knitting with fine black yarn. I really must do something about getting a better light by my seat.

It's Kidsilk Night of course, in Starry Night, the sootiest black. It's already 14 inches wide.

Joan, I've reserved My Life Without Me, and Judith, I've got The Music Box and I'm going to watch it tomorrow.

If you haven't had enough above, here's some more.

I couldn't do it and just clicked on Auto Solve, but perhaps you have more patience than I do.

Can't Put it Down

I blocked the faggotted scarf from Victorian Lace Today. It started out at 62" x 10" and ended up as 84" x 13". I could have stretched it more but I didn't particularly think it would gain from it, and it's not a good idea for me to spend too much time hunched over a lot of pins, so I let it go at that.I don't feel hugely pleased with this: I had higher hopes of it. But I think for what I had in mind I should have used a different yarn, and as it is I think the yarn is the best thing about it, so in the end I'm not complaining. It's sock yarn from the Yarn Yard, in crocus colours. I think my friend will like the scarf, which is actually more important. I will parcel it and the Scaruffle up and send them off. Again, the really vivid violet is missing from these photos.
I have cast on twice for the Drifting Pleats scarf, but haven't been paying sufficient attention either time. I have now copied out the instructions in large print and with lots of gaps so that I can focus better on what I'm trying to do. That should help.
And I see what everybody means about the Forest Canopy Shawl - it's very moreish, isn't it? I've had to rip it back a couple of times, because I've insisted on knitting it in a bad light and when watching something very interesting on the television, but I can't put it down. I should knit the All Seasons Cotton sweater when I'm doing that, but I haven't. I'm using Fyberspates' lovely Blue Faced Leicester sock in Lagoon, but I think I'm going to run out.

Automatic Knitting

It's funny, isn't it, how you sometimes sit down to knit something and you find yourself knitting something quite different. Like automatic writing, we might call this 'automatic knitting'. The haunted among us might say we are carrying out the knitting of those long gone; Freudians that we are doing the knitting that our subconscious wishes to do; or students of creativity that we are releasing our unconscious knitter. Jared says this sort of knitting is 'really refreshing'. It does tend to be free of the stresses that can accompany long-planned or cherished projects.

I had intended to return to the Kauni snails, but the pattern for that lacks the rhythm of real Fair Isle knitting, and I was feeling restless. Another friend has requested a knitted birthday present, and she, like me is a scarf aficionado. Where other woman have cupboards full of shoes, we have drawers full of scarves; where other women talk of Blahnik and Choo, we gasp over Liberty and Pucci. You have no idea of the work I had to put in to avoid becoming a Vera junkie when I discovered eBay - the trick is not to buy the first one. I know that she will like the idea of a Victorian pattern, so I thumbed through Victorian Lace Today. I knitted the Scarf on page 80 last year, and found the central pattern nearly drove me insane so I knew I couldn't do that again but I spotted the bordered scarf on page 16.

The yarn is from the Yarn Yard; it was a Sock Club yarn in 2006, I think. Jean gave it to me after she'd knitted this Little Boy Sweater. In a lace stitch it looks very springlike, and since the lace is just simple faggotting and not anything that the eye needs to follow, I think the variegated yarn works with it. It will look totally different after blocking, fortunately. At the moment it definitely fits into the category of boiled ass (TM, Rabbitch, 2006) The needles are Addi circs, size 6.5mm. I would prefer them to be a little bit pointier but I expect you're sick of hearing me wittering on about knitting needles, so I shall say no more. I don't think I'll do a border all the way round, but I might do the ends from the Page 80 Scarf - I thought I might do them with the toes-and-heels yarn that accompanied the yarn; or do you think that would look wrong?

This friend told me something yesterday which she had been afraid to confess, but which I found very flattering: a couple of years ago I knitted her one of those corkscrew scarves that were so compulsive and she lost it in the changing room of a well-known chain store. The flattering bit is that although she realized and went back 20 minutes later, someone had already stolen it.

The pattern is quite eye-intensive, I find - not suitable for watching subtitled films, or indeed any films that you actually want to watch properly, but perfect for watching the Oscars or old episodes of Law and Order. Although it is very simple, I think it would be quite impossible to rip it back and pick it up again correctly, so here's hoping I don't have to. Speaking of the Oscars, did you see Tilda Swinton? She wasn't wearing any make-up - she must have been the only woman within a 100-mile radius of the auditorium of whom that could be said - and she still looked stunning. Actually, I think the Best Supporting Actress should have gone to Amy Ryan, who was nominated for Gone Baby Gone, but never mind. Tilda was pretty good too.

On the subject of watching subtitles, I've just got the DVD of the first episodes of The Wire. It's been shown in the UK, but only on channels that don't have subtitles, so although I found it enthralling I was fairly mystified about what was actually going on a lot of the time. (There isn't anything wrong with my hearing, it's just that everyone mutters these days, honestly. And anyway, how much Baltimore street talk can you understand?) So I am going to watch it with the subtitles on and see if light dawns, or if I will continue to be mystified. Amy Ryan was in that too.

I'm meeting up with Jean and Spinning Fishwife tomorrow, for a spot of retail indulgence at the new branch of K1 Yarns. I think Spinning Fishwife and I, who haven't met before, may have had a mutual friend in the past, so there may be a fourth, absent, friend at the gathering. But I really mustn't buy any yarn.