Winding down

Had a marvellous time last week at the IKL Christmas party, with much party food, music and wine. I arrived as the party was in full swing, just in time for the secret santa hand-out, and although I shamefully failed to bring a present, I was the lucky recipient of The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I can honestly say I have been wanting to read for some time. Best of all, so many people turned up, including some faces I hadn't seen for a while [hello to Jenni and Ester /wave], and it was great to catch up with every one. I still can't believe how many people managed to fit into that shop.

There has been a lot of other seasonal partying recently, but really for the past month or so, work has been ridiculously busy and stressful [and surprisingly rewarding]. With only one working day left, the IKL party was the start of my winding-down [heh, geddit?], and after everyone had gone, I stayed late, late into the early hours of the morning chatting with Gerard and Craig [sorry boys for keeping you up!].

So much has happened since I last posted; the UK Stitch n Bitch day, Melissa's birthday, Lynsey's career move to LYS sales assistant, Jenni's physical move out of London, a month-long visit from my cat, a fantastic Crowded House in concert and all the other little personal highs and lows............. that I just do not have time to write about. But I can show you some knitting! [Apologies for the photos, lighting has been poor of late.]

First WIP is the Endpaper Mitts in Rowan 4ply Soft. I really love this purple and green combination, but I don't think it works here, as the colours just seem to blend into each other.

I knit the first two thirds of this mitt holding each colour in a different hand, but I didn't like the result; it isn't that clear in the photo, but there is a bit of puckering which I hope will disappear after blocking. I am now using the one hand to switch between each yarn, and although more fiddly, it definitely produces a neater result [although arguably the colours do not "pop out" as much, but that's another story].

Almost an FO: just the grafting to do on a pair of socks in LL Shepherd Sock in the Jungle Stripe colourway. This picture was taken in the glow of a side lamp, so the colours aren't true, the green is actually more grass or pea than olive. I love the thicker stripes on the heel. Wish they were like that all over.

Finally, another WIP, the Flower Basket Shawl in Posh Yarn Eva. I love, love, love this yarn, 50% cashmere, 50% silk, and feels like butter.

The pattern itself is so pretty, but so simple, and I flew through the pattern as specified in three days. However, it is clear from the various beautiful examples on Ravelry, that the specs are for a small shoulder shawl. The photo here shows the shawl with an extra repeat [but without the edging], and even in its unblocked state, is still too small. I have loads of Eva left, so I shall just continue until it feels right.

Again, the colour in the above photo isn't quite right, so here's an earlier picture taken in what passes for daylight these days, and below another showing one skein of the Eva wound up. Yes, I know this isn't a particularly interesting photo, but this was my first attempt at using my new ball winder bought from IKL a few weeks ago, and as such, is an exciting and momentous event which should be recorded appropriately.

The festivities start today with Christmas Eve lunch with friends, then I'm off to the Kentish coast to spend Christmas with the family and cat. To keep me sane, I have packed a couple of UFOs and will hopefully have something to show at the end of it. In the meantime, I wish you a very joyous and peaceful Christmas. Season's greetings to one and all.

See you on Saturday!

Ally Pally and purnkple yarn

I know. It's been a while.

It's not that I haven't been knitting these past couple of months - I have. But I just don't seem to have anything to show for it. With just one short side of the border left to do, the Melon scarf sits in hibernation, while indecision continues to paralyse me. In the meantime I've started a new lace project, the Myrtle Leaf shawl, using Jaggerspun Zephyr in a deep plum, but there isn't much point showing you that either, since I'm switching to a cashmere, so that's effectively just a big swatch then!

Thank you for all the nice comments about the Print o' the Wave. I absolutely love this stole and have worn her a lot in my overly air-conditioned office. In fact, another reason for not blogging has been because I haven't really finished the last post, and won't do so until I've put up the specs and a final picture of the stole in all her unblocked glory. However, this may not happen for a couple of weeks yet, so I've decided to move on for now, and when I finally post a picture, I'll link it for those of you who want to see it.

While I may not have any knitting to show you, I do have plenty of yarn. First, the latest instalment of Sundara's Petals Collection, a skein of merino in Poppy, a rich burgundy, together with a sock pattern and another pretty card.

Then there is some more Zephyr, intended for the Myrtle Leaf, but now consigned to stash.

A few weeks ago, I scoured the internet looking for pink and green sock yarn, and found two that seemed to fit the bill. First, this Bluefaced Leicester from Fyberspates in the

colourway Flower Garden, which is green, purple and pink, even prettier in real life, and is now being knit into a pair of Dublin Bay socks [pdf].

By contrast, I was very disappointed by the Socks That Rock's Socktopus colourway. At the top of this picture, you can see quite a lot of brown [taupe?], not to my liking. Having said that, looking again at BMFA's website, their colours in the image are completely true. Mea culpa, it was clearly wishful thinking that led me to hope the brown was more salmon pink. Still, it's STR, right? Gotta be grateful to get my hands on the stuff.

I'm late in blogging about this year's Ally Pally, but clearly some mention must be made! First up, my purchases:

Naturally, I had to visit the Fyberspates stand, and of course, I picked up another skein of pink and green. This is in fact a different colourway; there are just the two colours and they are both richer than the first skein. I really do think Jenny has an eye for colour; there was a skein of cashmere [I think?] in a beautiful, deep wine colour, and I am simply kicking myself for not buying it.

From Get Knitted some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Jungle Stripe. I've been after this colourway for some time, but it's always been out of stock on the GK website, so naturally I pounced on it as soon as I saw it.

[Ok, that's enough of the green and pirnkple yarn. Mission accomplished, I think.]

Other purchases were the Knit Picks Options set [hee] also from GK, a shade card from Jamiesons's, DB's Baby Cashmerino 2 and a charming baby jumper pattern from Laughing Hens.

We also visited some new stands - or new to me at least. Blogless Lynsey was particularly taken by the qiviut [click and scroll down for the fantastic story of the arctic musk ox], but couldn't decide on a project for it. She did buy some laceweight from the House of Hemp and a gorgeous wine coloured skein from the Natural Dye Studio [I have to say, NDS was a real find, I absolutely loved all her colours so it's wonderful that they are soon to be made available at I Knit London].

Lynsey and I hit the show around lunchtime, walked up and down all the aisles, visited many stalls (some of them three times), saw some of the Knit a River project and signed our support to end water poverty, made happy purchases and collected even more cards and leaflets. Luckily, I'm interested in a number of different crafts, so the question of whether there was more or less yarn this year than previously doesn't really bother me, and I found much at Ally Pally to inspire me to pick up old-forgotten crafts or try new ones. There were also many beautiful pieces in the exhibition and elsewhere for sale. We finally ended up in the Palm Court, drinking pink champage and watching Breakfast at Tiffany's [love that orange cat] and Roman Holiday [bizarrely, Lynsey was wearing Audrey Hepburn socks. Seriously.] until Gerard joined us. After more champagne, we met up with Craig in Vauxhall, and had dinner at Pico's, a lively and clearly popular Portuguese restaurant. It was a thoroughly fantastic day spent with lovely people.

Finally, in case you were wondering what the pretty case at the very top was: I have a weakness for small boxes and containers and the like, and simply couldn't resist this totally unecessary and utterly charming Cath Kidson sewing kit.

OK, that's enough for now, this post is wordy enough. If you've made it to the end, thank you. Next time I post, I'll hopefully have some knitting to show!

Print o' the Wave

Don't you just love bank holiday weekends? It's been a week of late nights for me, and much as I enjoy going out, it's been glorious to spend three days relaxing at home.

Sorry for not pinning the shawl out for these photos, but the light was a bit hit-and-miss today, and I had to grab the opportunity as soon as it presented itself!

So this is where I am with the melon shawl from VLT. After several days ignoring it, hoping it would miraculously grow in width and length, I took my head out of the sand, made some basic yardage calculations, added a few more repeats to the centre panel, and then - gulp - cut the yarn and started on the border.

But the combination of garter stitch and sea silk was too clumsy, so after only a few repeats I ripped the border out, and replaced it with the smaller Vandyke edging. This border is used in quite a few of the patterns in VLT, knits up quickly, looks pretty and so far I am very, very pleased with it.

The Vandyke is a 12-row repeat, rather than the original 8-row border, so some adjustment had to be made on the corner. It does actually look better when pinned out, so I'm trusting in the miracle of blocking. What I don't like, in fact what I really, really DISlike is the final repeat which doesn't get tied by the melon stitch. I don't understand why the pattern specifies this, but I think it looks kinda ugly.

Also raining on my parade is the fact that with a smaller border, I'm going to have quite a lot of yarn left. So, I'm in half a mind to undo the edging and add another column of faggoting to make the shawl wider. But then, I'm not sure it wouldn't spoil the pattern. Oh, what to do, what to do?

It was another fab I Knit London meet this week, this time at the Albert public house in Victoria. I was surprised by how many turned up despite the incessant rain. There was also a strong US contingent, and there was a lot of laughing at the end of the evening with some healthy debate on the different merits of UK and US telly. [As an aside, I've just finished season 3 of the Gilmore Girls on DVD, and am SO unhappy about Jess and Rory splitting up *sob*, I actually don't want to watch season 4!] A few days before, I'd cast on Tahoe in DB's Cathay, as an antidote to all this lace, and the mindless stocking stitch makes it the perfect project for pub knitting.

Following an unfortunate incident on our splendid public transport [ha], the Hedera socks have bitten the dust - just as I had memorised the pattern too! I'd only got as far as the end of the first cuff, so there is still the majority of the skein left for some other project, but for now, it goes into stash. Which leaves time for a new sock project. Oh wait, I ALREADY HAVE two on the needles. [I could have done with a sock at the cinema the other night - the new Bourne film, the beautiful locations, action scenes, the car chases, visually it's all fabulous, but even for the standards of the genre, there was no story at all. Really. At all. ]

Talking of IKL, the boys are throwing a party next Sunday at the Vauxhall Griffin to celebrate the shop's first anniversary and it sounds like fun, hope to see you there.

Last weekend I went to the Innocent Village Fête in Regent's Park. It was an absolutely scorching day, beautiful blue skies, not a cloud in sight, the first fine weekend after three months of rain. There was an impressive array of food, not the usual dodgy hot dog stands, but delicious foods from all over the world, with a strong emphasis on ethical and eco-friendly sources. There was music, maypole dancing and craft stalls. I love people-watching and it was wonderful to see everyone happy, relaxed and friendly (so not what I'm used to in London), never better demonstrated than at the 21st centrury barn dance, where complete strangers - young and old - danced with each other for hours. I was itching to take part myself, but um, perhaps next year. A very pleasant day was rounded off with tapas and sangria at Jamon Jamon.

I have tried to attend a group once a week. In the past month, I've been to Angelknits twice [albeit the first time I had no knitting with me!]. I haven't been to the group for many, many months and it was nice to catch up with the regulars. During the summer, the New Rose Inn is a great place to knit, since the windows are large and there is lots of natural light till late. And of course, this week saw another great I Knit London meet at the Bricklayers' Arms.

On the knitting front, well, there's been some good and some bad. At my last visit to Angelknits, I made another mistake on the Forest Canopy Shawl. At home, in exasperation and with two glasses of wine behind me, I ripped it off the the needles, pinned it and my earlier attempt, took photos of both these wretched pieces with my phone [sorry], and since then they have both been lying on the floor. I'm not sure whether I'm going to attempt the FCP again; in any event, I still have almost three skeins of the beautiful Sophia cashmere to knit a shawl for a friend.

Speaking of Posh Yarns, last weekend, one of their pink packages arrived containing two skeins of Eva in Dryad. *sigh* This picture doesn't come close to reflecting the colour of this gorgeous yarn, but it is Just. Beautiful. Ideally, I would have used this for the melon pattern shawl.

Ah, the melon shawl, well, I've finished the centre panel which, with a few extra repeats, measures about 48" long. This has taken one skein of the sea silk, and on this basis, the second skein should easily cover a few more repeats and the border. But I'm at a standstill, agonising over whether I should increase the length or the width.

With no FCP to take on the road, I've reverted to socks for on-the-go knitting. I've been using Sundara's Blue Grape Hyacinth to knit Hedera. It's taken a while for me to get into this pattern, and to be honest, there have been many times I thought it might go the same way as the FCP, but this week I really looked at the pattern, and the yarnovers et al in relation to the centre stitch and something clicked, and now I'm just speeding along. Pictures to follow at some point.

It's been a dreadful week both at work and at home. 1) Some lunatic abused me in the street, and then called the police when I confronted him! 2) Since July, I've taken up running again, and this week I really noticed some benefits, so imagine my dismay to learn that I AM PUTTING ON WEIGHT [and yes, I understand about building muscle, but according to the various means of measurement, I am obese, you'd think I would lose a pound or two first]. 3) More importantly, I have managed to fall out with a number of people close to my heart; my companion, my best friend, my sister and my parents, each one on different issues. It's been a lonely week.

Melon pattern shawl

This is the melon pattern shawl from Victorian Lace Today after 28 repeats, almost halfway through the centre panel. It's been an easy ride so far; the stitch pattern is deceptively simple to learn and uniform enough so that any mistake is discovered and easily remedied in the next row.

For a laceweight the sea silk seems to be on the thick side, and finding the right gauge proved a little tricky. The piece shown in my last post was knit on 4mm needles and was too loose, so I ripped it. This attempt is made using 3.5mm, and I'm much happier with how it looks now.

The problem of course, is that even in this fledgling state, the shawl seems too narrow [about 12" across - eek]. I really ought to increase the stitch count to make up for the adjustment in size, but I have absolutely no idea how far my two skeins will go, and if I've learned anything from the PotW [yep, still unblocked], it's that the border takes far more yarn than you'd imagine, and then some. So I'm playing it safe for now and following the instructions as specified.

I Knit London's meet this week at the Freemason's Arms was another busy affair, again with lots of new faces amongst the usual suspects. It was a fun evening, and even the pub's manager was keen for the group to come again. Having abandoned the Forest Canopy Shawl I've been knitting - and endlessly ripping - since May, I cast on again with fresh yarn, and carried on working on it the next evening at IKL's film night [Little Miss Sunshine - so, so nice]. I don't know why I have struggled so much with the FCP, the lace is the easiest I've come across and the cashmere is a dream to work with, but somehow I was making mistake after mistake after sodding mistake. This time round, I've moreorless managed to get to the same stage as before without too much trauma. Since it's for a friend, I just hope the good karma continues.

After the film and when everyone else had left, the boys and I sat on their fabulous Chesterfield, stuffed ourselves with cookies and crisps, and played around on Ravelry, and chatted about the first official UK Stitch 'n Bitch Day. It sounds like it's going to be huge fun, so if you're interested, keep checking the IKL blog for details.

IKL and stash enhancement

It was a particularly excellent evening at the BFI on Wednesday night. I had imagined we would be knitting in the cafe on the riverside, but in fact we were located in a rather classy bar area in the new annex between the NT and the BFI. We sat on the most fabulous sofas and armchairs, and it really was the perfect setting for knitting and chatting, except when they dimmed the lights, and then it was only perfect for chatting. Heh.

It's always good to catch up with the I Knit London boys and the usual suspects, plus this week there were a lot of new faces or recent additions to the group, all of them really friendly and I do hope they all come again. Gerard was knitting a sock with some yarn dyed by long-time IKLer Jon [check out his site to see more of his dyeing projects]. I myself had yet another disastrous night of ripping [a subject for a future post], but despite this frustration, the evening was an absolute blast, the only sour note was that I had left my purse at work, and had to rely completely on Gerard to refill my glass. For shame.

It's been a good week for the stash. First, on Tuesday, I received the first instalment of Sundara's 2007 Petals Collection, which I've been longing to see, and it did not disappoint. The package contained a 350 yard skein of soft, soft merino sock yarn in blue grape hyacinth, a pretty picture of said grape hyacinth and a sock pattern. My rubbish camera has spectactularly failed to capture the colourway, the skein is predominantly blue, but it has more purpley tints than is evident here. It's a lovely package, the only thing is that I don't really wear blue, so I guess I'll be knitting these socks for someone else!






Then, on Thursday a package from k1 yarnsarrived, this time containing two skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk. I've been wanting to get my hands on this yarn for the longest time, and I am so glad I did. It is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, although I admit, I'm not that keen on the moss colour. As soon you can see, I didn't wait for better light, and as soon as I'd finished photographing the skein, I wound it into a ball and cast on.

Gosh, I was in a bad mood this evening when I got home, so I grabbed a book and took myself out for dinner. A glass of wine later, and I was giggling away.

[Yes, I do realise I am the last person on the planet to read this book.]

Then, walking back home, I ran into my favourite neighbour. I don't know his name, but ginger and I are on very friendly terms, and he is always partial to a stroke and a fuss. [He did actually sit and pose photogenically for the camera, but I was too slow.]

A book and some cat-love, there really is no better remedy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERARD!
If you've been reading the I Knit London blog, you'll know that both Gerard and Craig have been insanely busy over the past couple of months, so I hope today was celebrated appropriately! I've not been to an IKL group for weeks, so am really looking forward to the meet on Wednesday. It's a particularly interesting venue this week, the British Film Institute on the South Bank, in case you're in town and fancy it.

Thank you SO much for the good wishes about my impending auntydom, I was very touched, and for the baby pattern suggestions. They all look like excellent recommendations, and I know mum-to-be will love them.

So I've not blogged for a while, it's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. On the few nights I have actually been at home, I've been too tired to do anything other than watch telly and catch up on the latest goings-on in blogland. Oh, and Ravelry.


I am completely hooked on Ravelry. Not because it makes organising and showcasing your WIPs and FOs easy [which it does], not because it provides the opportunity to be inspired by craftmanship and talent from all over the worldwide web [which it does], but because it is the BEST resource library. As one who likes to research the web for examples of a particular yarn or pattern, Ravelry is a complete godsend. Just today, I was thinking of a shawl I'm considering for a gift later in the year, I just typed it in to Ravelry, and page after page of WIPs and FOs were loaded for my review. Then I tapped in the yarn I wanted to use, again, pages of instances of the yarn in projects or in stash were there for me to see [it was a huge thrill for me to find my PotW in the pattern and Zephyr searches]. And that's just the tip of the iceberg - there is so much to see and do, it's a fabulous site, so if you're still waiting for your invitation [as of this weekend, there are 9,802 on the waiting list] be patient, it's worth it.

Speaking of the PotW, with the help of the Gilmore Girls season 1 I finished knitting the border last weekend, and today I got around to grafting the ends. There are still some ends to weave in, but I'll see to those after blocking, which I hope to do sometime this week. There, I've said it out loud, publicly committed myself to blocking the stole. See the projects in the sidebar? In addition to the PotW, four of them are finished, as in there is NO KNITTING left to be done, but they have all been sitting around for months waiting to be blocked. But today, I made ready two huge towels and the (as yet unused) dressing wires from Heirloom Knitting. No excuses left.

With the PotW finished, I was at a real loss today for something to knit. I had my next main project picked out some time ago, but am still undecided about the yarn. So today I worked on a sock, but it was all rather unsatisfying; I do like to have a big project to work on at home, particularly now to accompany me on Gilmore Girls season 2!

Dear me, this is a tedious post, isn't it? I'll stop now, just wanted to say hello and thanks again for the nice words. Knitters are the BEST people.

Cool Aunt Phoebe

This week I've been looking at baby patterns for some charity knitting, and wishing someone close to me would have a baby, just so I could knit them something lovely. Wishful thinking of course, seeing as my generation of friends and family either already have children or are unlikely now to have any.

And then last night, I was having dinner with S, and she told me she was pregnant. Absolutely extraordinary timing, and so completely unexpected.

Congratulations S and A! I'm going to be an aunty!* Baby is due in the new year, so it's early days, and I'm the only one in the family who knows for now, but I CANNOT wait till this marvellous news is out, it will impact the family in ways I cannot even attempt to describe here.

And of course, the knitting opportunities! Mum-to-be has told me to knit away and I've already been scouring the web for the best baby pattern books!

* You know that scene in Friends, where pregnant Phoebe is having the mood swings, and the girls tell her that she gets to be cool Aunt Phoebe! That will be me, cool Aunty Elly.

Ravelry

Just as I had given up waiting, tonight I received my invitation to Ravelry. Hoorah! I headed straight over to have a look, but you can't stop at just one look! It's such fun, but guess who can't come out to play till the weekend? Work to do, friends to see, shawl to finish. Pah.

My head hurts

A lot.

But first, thank you SO MUCH for your lovely comments on the PotW. Each one made me ridiculously happy, and it's always nice to hear from friends, old and new.

I've had loads of knitting time since the last post, and quite frankly, the stole should have been finished a long time ago, but there's a project at work that is hanging over me like a heavy, dark cloud and knitting, reading, any activity that doesn't bring me closer to the end of the project just fills me with dreadful guilt. Absurd, I know. [What's even more absurd, is that I've procrastinated so much on this project, that there's not much progress there either, so lose/lose all round really.]

Anyway, I've turned three corners and am about halfway down the last side. No pictures, since it doesn't look much different from the last time, but there have been many PotWs finished in blogland in recent weeks, and since a number of knitelly's visitors come via a PotW search, I'd like to point you to these beautiful examples at Tangled Creations, PoMo Golightly, Omly Crafts, Posh Yarn [scroll down to June 7th] and DropOne, who's already started another one!

Clearly, at some point, I managed to suppress the guilt long enough to give the old blog a bit of a clean and a slap of paint. I've wanting to update it since Tarilyn added her daisies and made it look so easy. There's still some html tinkering to do, but I think it looks less oppressive now.

As if not being able to knit with a clear conscience isn't bad enough, I've also missed a few I Knit London meets. I went a couple of weeks ago to the meet at the Crown and Two Chairman, where not a lot of knitting went on, but it was nice to chat and catch up on the news. And last night I made it to Men Who Knit night at the shop. Some of us then went to the pub, where I drank an obscene amount of wine. With only nuts for dinner (but they were goooood nuts). Boys, I'm so sorry if I was loud and awful last night, but I did really have a good time. Which brings me to my hurty head, and if it ever stops raining, I might take the Yarn Harlot and my sorry backside out for a gentle walk.

Print o' the Wave update

This is the current state of PotW play: the border of one short side and half of one long side complete. Surprisingly, attaching the border turned out to be as simple as everyone had claimed, but it's taken a long time to get here. Long and unhappy and involving ripping.

First of all, in an attempt to increase the width of the shawl, I increased the stitch count of the border, inserting two lines of double faggotting separated by a column of stocking stitch (this [cough] expertise courtesy of much pouring over the back pages of Victorian Lace Today). After a few pattern repeats, I was satisfied that I had achieved my aim, and congratulated myself on my ability to adopt new techniques so successfully.

But with each repeat, I disliked the result more and more. The additional columns did indeed increase the width, and were perfectly nice to look at, but the hard lines broke up the soft flow of the pattern, and the wave border was too far removed from the centre panel. Time and time again, I looked at the border, tried to imagine it round the entire shawl, and fought the desire to rip.

I also revisited the library of tips I'd accumulated in my research, and of course found a post from the PotW KAL, that perfectly explained why I had more stitches in the eyelet rounds than specified in the pattern. I shoulda just read Eunny's instructions as written. Anyway, it inself, it wasn't too much of a problem, it just required some fudging, but as I got to the first corner, the required fudging on top of the ugliness of the border, well, you can probably see where I'm going with this. I ripped.

Initially, I wanted to rip right back to the centre panel, and pick up 768 border stitches again, as it was SUCH FUN the first time round. But the prospect of losing stitches at the two live ends made me too nervous, so I ripped only the border, counted the stitches on each of the sides and corners, put them on a crude diagram on a spreadsheet and calculated where adjustments were to be made. I then felt comfortable enough to restart the border.

I still wanted to increase the width, but contented myself with one column of double faggotting and an additional two stitches of of stocking stitch at the side of the wave pattern......... and I am really pleased with the result.

Now, did you all notice the large holes at the corner in the first picture? I don't know what the hell went wrong there, but I only noticed them today when I removed some scrap yarn used as a marker. I'm hoping that after blocking and draped around my shoulders, they aren't going to be that visible, otherwise, I foresee some fudging ahead...

It's a bank holiday weekend, and it has rained non-stop. Seriously. Non. Stop. But I don't care, I have the rest of the week off, yipee! That makes nine stress-free days away from the office. On Friday night, I actually fell asleep smiling.

No more exams, EVAH

For reasons that I won't bore you with, tonight was the first evening in several weeks that I left work without having to continue the day's toil later at home, or dreading the next day. It was such an odd feeling, this light-heartedness, it reminded me of school or university, that feeling on the last day of exams, the knowledge THAT I DIDN'T HAVE TO REVISE EVER AGAIN EVAH,............. or at least until the next semester. Ok, maybe it wasn't quite like that, but really, I was so unexpectedly light-hearted, I didn't quite know what to do with myself, and at such short notice, had no-one to play with. How sad.

Even though I still left a good couple of hours later than the norm, it was a fine evening and I was in a Good Mood. I didn't want to waste it at home. I toyed with the idea of going to I Knit London's group meet, but bizarrely felt a little inadequate with only a sock-in-progress with me. In the end, I treated myself to a couple of glasses of expensive wine al fresco, worked on a geeky personal project on the laptop and knitted on said sock.

Back at home, I had the choice of working on the PotW or winding a skein of the PY Sophia to prepare for swatching. I turned on the telly, and Notting Hill was just about to start. Ok, ok, not the best film in the world, but still one that makes me laugh and makes me cry - in short, the perfect film for me tonight. I reached for the Sophia et voilà, one ball ready for knitting.

Which brings me to the Actual Point of this post: which is that I forgot to say last time how amazing this yarn is. So, so soft; so utterly, gorgeously beautiful to touch. I love this yarn.

I often wonder what my neighbours think of the constant steam of mostly squishy packages laid at my door. On Friday, one such package in bright, pink plastic was delivered. In fact B found it when he went up to leave some shopping, while I waited in the car, on our way for a quick drink. This time, postie had left it under the doormat, which does little to conceal it from would-be burglars, but presumably allowed one to see beyond the glare of the package! Anyway, B stepped out waving this neon pink package; clearly he has come to understand the importance of uniting me with my yarn as quickly as possible.

Inside the pink plastic was the same colour tissue paper. I refused to expose the yarn to too much pubness, but all this pink made it difficult to see the colour of the yarn, which surrounded by the packaging, seemed apricot, not what I was after at all. Thankfully, the colour is closer to red and is very, very pretty.

Red is a notoriously difficult colour to photograph, and combined with this weekend's poor light, these pictures don't reflect the colour at all well, although this one taken with a flash gives a slight indication of the different hues.

The yarn is Posh Yarn's Sophia, a pure cashmere laceweight, in Red Admiral. For some time, I've been on the look-out for bright red laceweight for a friend's shawl; a few weeks ago, PY had the perfect pillar-box red, but of course it was snapped up by the time I remembered. The Red Admiral is probably not as bright as my friend would like, but I'm still confident that she'll love it.

Another recent delivery was from ColourMart, whose cashmere yarns and service receives only the hightest praise in blogland, forums and lists. This is their sample pack, isn't it good? Enough of each yarn in their range for a decent swatch, against the labels describing them, plus 250 yards of DK cashmere. Once I've got my head around the washing instructions (the yarns are oiled) I definitely hope to be using some of the laceweight in the future.

Finally, on a tenuous knitting-related theme, I took my shiny new iPod, the Nike + attachment (what a fantastic gadget) and Lime and Violet for a brisk walk this week. Back in the day, when I used to run regularly, I would listen to music, but now that I'm so unfit and lacking the motivation and routine, Miss Lime and Miss Violet are the perfect companions, and the thirty minutes not only raced by, but I had so much fun too. This week, I shall be starting a walk/run programme, and with 35 plus back episodes of L&V to catch-up on, am thoroughly looking forward to it!

Cliff walking

This weekend was a bank holiday weekend, which means, for those of you not familiar with the term, that Monday is a public holiday, a long weekend. On Saturday I drove down to the Kentish coast to visit my father, who left the big smoke a couple of years ago for the wide open spaces and fresh sea air.

Cliff-walking

We had such a fun day. We started with a pot of tea at the National Trust centre on the white cliffs, where I whipped out a sock (appropriately enough, a new pair I'm making for mon père) and knitted quite happily watching the ferries come and go. Then we walked along the cliffs; the sea was quite grey, but as you can see from the photos, everywhere else was beautifully green, and there were pretty wild flowers growing in the chalk, something you definitely don’t see in the city.

Overlooking the docks

We drove westwards along the coast, stopping to eat fish and chips on the beach and feel the calming influence of the sea. Then, in the evening, I accompanied my father to his bowls club for their annual prize-giving ceremony followed by a dinner and dance. I am extraordinarily proud of him, not only for receiving a medal in something he has only picked up in the past year or so, but for assimilating into and making new friends in the local community.

During the day I had felt quite sleepy, but we had put it down to the sea air. However, in the evening, I started to have brief giddy moments, and when I drove back to London later, I got lost coming off the motorway, a trip I have made countless times, but my normally reliable sense of direction failed me completely, and I took several wrong turnings and for a while drove further away from London, before I finally got back on track. Turns out I wasn’t feeling too well, and I spent the rest of the weekend in bed. On Tuesday, I called in to say I would work from home that day, but as it turned out, I slept until mid-afternoon! Anyway, all this rambling is to explain why, despite a luxurious four-day weekend, I have no knitting to show you, because a) my camera batteries are dead and b) it's remarkable how sleeping for three days and nights can ruin your productivity.

For the record, I have picked up all 768 stitches of PotW and completed the eyelet rounds, in so doing, increasing the stitch count. This does not appear to accord with Eunny’s instructions, but I have read and re-read them till my head hurts and I still don't see how you can NOT increase the number, so I shall forge ahead and start the border. Hmm, I see much fudging ahead. [This dreadful picture was taken with my phone, and the colour is way, way off the deep ruby red in real life.]

Finally, when I opened the door this evening for some pizza delivery [!], I found a package from Amazon containing the iPod I'd ordered on Friday. It was a wonderful, marvellous surprise, and I'm very excited and now looking forward to going back to work tomorrow to start downloading (since it will take forever and a day on my home dial-up).

Actually, I'm writing as though it's Tuesday night, it is in fact Wednesday morning, and I need to be up in three or four hours, so I'll sign off for now, and hopefully return soon with some actual knitting content!

Suck it up

The Americans have a phrase ...... suck it up. I'm not even going to pretend to know where it comes from, but it very neatly describes my PotW knitting activity today.

Having heeded the advice of others and convinced myself to keep to the pattern's specs, I read mid-week Little.Yellow.Different.Better's post, and was inspired to add another eight repeats to the PotW, making a total of 42 repeats. Then I did the math [another fabulous phrase from across the pond] for picking up the additional stitches and marked the long rows into eights to make the whole exercise easier. Today, I sucked it up, and picked up the stitches for the border. I am embarrassed to admit that the calculation and picking up took far, far longer than the couple of hours I had anticipated, and thank goodness it was a good telly day! (double Grey's Anatomy, CSIs New York, Miami and Vegas - just some of what accompanied me on this journey), and yet it still isn't finished, since the last part involves knitting from the original, provisional cast on, and I am too nervous to do this in poor light (it now being close to midnight). I have an absolute horror of removing the waste yarn, the anchor of the entire project, and watching all the stitches unravelling.

So, no pictures today because it's too dark now, and besides, it doesn't look that pretty right now anyway.

For one reason or another, it's been an extemely stressful week at work, and I wouldn't have survived if not for some levity in the evenings. On Monday, I joined Gerard, Craig, and Esther to take part in the record-breaking largest coconut orchestra performance in Trafalgar Square. A completely ridiculous endeavour, and yet huge fun, followed by the most sublime Thai dinner.

On Thursday, I made it to film night at I Knit London to see A Chorus Line. Ah, there were tears, some singing, some wine.......... some sewing up of those ruddy blue squares for Knit a River. I even managed to bring a couple of bags of squares home with me to sew up.

Also coming home with me were the latest Vogue Knitting and Rowan 41. Having looked at VK properly this weekend, I'm none too impressed; the patterns are dowdy and the models and styling belong to the eighties. As for Rowan 41, the styling is beautiful, and I love lots of the designs, but realistically there's only one which I want to add to my to do list: Maris in Rowan Calmer, a lovely spring/summer cardigan. Trouble is, I am not a big fan of knitting with cotton, although I've seen lots of knitbloggers wax lyrical about Calmer. Anyway, looking at all the spring designs and with PotW's end in sight, I'm also inclined to start Debbie Bliss's ribbon-edged cardigan again (still love, love that pattern).

Well I missed film night at I Knit London, but I did make it to Wednesday night's meet at the Crown and Two Chairmen, where I cast on Miss Lambert's shawl from VLT, using my new lace Addis and parcel string for waste yarn. Alas, the combination of dark yarn, chatting and alcohol meant for an unsuccessful start, and I spent most of the evening casting on again and again and again..... until I gave up and worked on my Lucia socks instead, which incidentally are no longer going to be Hedera, since the yarn is too variegated for the lacy pattern. Anyway, an excellent evening was enjoyed by all, with sausage, egg and rhubarb (!) and as ever, Craig has written up an entertaining account of it here.

This weekend, I have been working on PotW, and to my surprise, have completed the centre panel's 34 repeats. In the photo, it is at 33 repeats and measures 12" across and approximately 44" long. I have since added the final repeat and have put it aside to think about what to do next. I'm really tempted to make it longer, but then I remind myself that it will never be wide enough for a wrap, so is it worth the effort? Didn't I say before that I was going to keep to the pattern's specifications, so that I could use it as a yardstick [or should that be yarnstick?]. To be honest, I'm a bit nervous about attaching the border, so I'll probably end up keeping to the specs this time to get a feel for how it works, and save the additional rows and stitches and calculations for PotW no 2.

[The light was not very good today, that sheet is actually white, not grey.]

Addi Lace

Ooo, ooh, look what I came home to last night. Addi Turbo Lace needles, FOUR sets of them.


[Ok, so it's not exactly a crock of gold, but it was late when I got home, and I was tired and depressed and sad, and none of these feelings were related, so I was all kinds of down and it was a welcome little bit of cheer. Package at door, yay! New needles, yay! Addi Turbo Lace, yay! Ya gotta find the happy where you can.]

Of course, I opened a set to examine the needles and cable, but didn't test them, so can't comment on them yet. I don't think I'll swap the straights on PotW mid-project, but I will probably use the Addis on my next lace project, which by the way, I'm going to have to start pretty soon. Remember I wanted to knit a shawl for a friend of mine last year? Well, her wedding came, no shawl. A milestone birthday came, um.... no shawl. Today, she resigned from her job for a change of direction. Seriously, I have to knit that shawl!

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Edited to add: Oops, forgot to say that I ordered the needles from Colorsong Yarn in the US, and received them in just over a week. Fantastic service and no shipping costs.

Everybody cut footloose!

For a few weeks now, I Knit London have been running a film night, and this week I finally managed to make it. Well, I made it to the shop, but unfortunately with only twenty minutes of the film to go. Next week's showing will be Footloose, which I went to see in the summer of 1984, celebrating the end of A' levels. It's not a film that ranks in my list of favourites, but of course, if I come across it on the telly, invariably I find myself singing along and tapping my foot, watching to the very end, remembering a [my own] more innocent time.

Anyway, as I said, I didn't get to see much of the film, but afterwards, it was nice to catch up with Gerard and Craig, who I hadn't seen since an IKL meet in Alibi last month. I also had a long look around the shop. The stock has really grown since I was last there. Gerard showed me some lovely cashmere just in, I forget the name, but remember it was from Devon. Anyway, if you haven't been there for a while, or at all (!), go pay the boys a visit, take your knitting and sit on the Chesterfield. It is a real knitters' haven.

Whilst there, I bought some DPNs. I've been using 2.75mm Pony circulars for my current on-the-go sock, and although the experience hasn't been as bad as with the lace, it still makes for uncomfortable knitting, but now with my DPNs, at least I have managed to get as far as finishing the rib.

I also bought some more Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Tropical Storm, this time for me, I think. Sorry for the useless picture; my laptop which I use to store my images, has died on me, and I'm using my work laptop, which, given that I work in the glamourous world of accountancy, unsurprisingly does not have sophisticated photo imaging software on it.

In other news, I have turned the heel on each of the stripy socks, and am shaping the gusset on one, and working the foot of the other. As for the Print o' the Wave, I initially thought I would work one 12-row repeat every night, the reality is that I tend to leave it to the long, bright weekend hours. I am now up to 20 out of 34 repeats in the centre panel. No pictures to show on either of these projects, since they just look longer than the last time.

Everybody cut footloose!