Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Heart Broken

Not only did I miss the sales at Liberty and John Lewis, I've just learned that many of the much loved Jaeger lines have been discontinued! As a pure cotton lover (obviously more by necessity) it pains me to discover there will be no more Aqua, Pure Cotton or my absolute favorite, Siena. The colours available in Siena were stunning and so alive. I'm not sure if this also means the end of the whole of the Jaeger line, as I seem to remember that the Extra Fine Merino range went on sale early this year (missed out then as well!! ) I think it is such a shame. Jaeger has always signified classic style and quality. I recently discovered that the yarn types and colours were made to complement the Jaeger clothes line in the same season - how fantastic is that?


Very fortunately for me a recent visit to Liberty yielded one pack of Aqua (in a deep red colour, its simply sumptuous) that someone else did not want. I suppose there's always Rowan Cotton Glace.....




Nature and Nurture
As the school holidays get under way we have been busy outdoors......


picking, digging and of course eating. We normally help my dad at this time of year with the harvesting of the produce at the allotment which is close to where he lives.

We've enjoyed it over the years, so much so that we have acquired our own piece of paradise close to where we live - well it will be when it's cleared.


The plot after day 1 of clearing - stupidly I forgot to take a photo before we started work.

The plot after our third visit minus anthills and too much junk to mention here!!

The plot has not been used for over 15 years - so we are at war with brambles at the moment. And yes, those are trees you see on the plot - there is a plus side though, we have an inexhaustible supply of blackberries!!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

In the pink....



I think I'm back on track. Everything I see I want to knit - I take that to be a good sign. And I'm knitting on multiple projects. I found it really difficult to focus on one project at a time for college - had to because the work had to be processive to the point of being prescriptive -and ignore 'my' usual knitting. It's taken me a little while to get to know them again. For some of the projects, just leaving them for a month has caused absolute chaos. My lack of order put me in so much trouble trying to identify where I was up to, or rather, how I had gotten to a particular point because there were no notes - well none that made any sense and I nearly always deviate from a pattern So in reality the college course has taught me a few things about hand knitting:

  1. Make notes
  2. Make concise notes that can be used as a reference

  3. Use a pen that does not bleed so badly into the next page, you can't read the text.

  4. Don't put your note book/journal next to the cooker when frying chicken so that the splatter makes your samples sticky!!

The frantic pace of life has also slowed down due to the start of the summer holidays - so more knitting time as son goes off to explore his world:


Fortunately he came home minus the snake.


Finished object
I finally finished the cable cardigan and have pictures to show.






Ribbed Cardigan

Pattern Source: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK book
Started: May 2007
Completed: July 2007
Yarn used: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in Teal blue
Comments:
This is second time around for me. I love the pattern. This time I used the stated yarn. It knits very quickly. The yarn has a tendency to fuzz a little bit, but it is incredibly soft and cuddly. an enjoyable knit with good attention to pattern detail.


I'm working on this at the moment. Something that has been lurking in the back of a wardrobe for some time.

Oh, and baby clothes for a special little lady, soon to be delivered.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Congratulations!!!

To the Shah family, especially their new edition born the wee hours of Saturday morning. Mother and daughter came home yesterday and are doing well. I know Karin will want to post so I will leave the details to her.

She is soooo cute!!
Suffice to say I'm broody... again!!

I have been an exceptionally bad host of this blog and promise next to normal business will resume soon. I've been doing a little knitting and lots of felting......



My version of Shibori knitting/felting


My second attempt to make a felted bag. First attempt ended in disaster when I tried to felt yarn that was not pure wool (obviously unknown to me!!).

Pinned to the bag is a swatch of the unfelted knitted fabric. I'm pleased with it. this is a proto type for something else I have in mind. However, I'm off to recover now. Should have known better than to go anywhere near pure wool....
We have a lack of sunlight.... have you noticed?