Monday, October 29, 2007

Sometimes........

I forget I live a stones' throw from here




and here


with a gorgeous young man who is recovering after survival camp. He returned wondering why I had not packed any deodorant . Survival camp? Deodorant? mmm.....






Not much to show on the knitting front. I've finished the back and left front of the caped coat. The shape is looking good and I got a boost from finishing the back - it being the largest piece. I can't say the same for Mirth - the tank top. I've finished the back . Working on 3mm needles it seems to be taking for ever. I hope to have one of them finished by the weekend.

The back piece of the caped coat

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Must moss stitch.......

As a diversion from endless stocking stitch on 3mm needles I thought I would knit myself a quickish winter jacket for the freezing rugby season. The endless stocking stitch belongs to Mirth, my new project.

I did not realise how difficult it would be to choose a jacket. I knew it had to be warm and something that I will feel cosy in and if necessary wrap around me at the same time not making me look like the Michelin man. The possibility that the garment may have to be lined if a chose a wool mix type yarn also had to be factored into the mix. My initial choice was this. But it has yarnovers in the pattern for a lace effect. I swatched and tried to work them out of the pattern but it was out of balance and looked awful. I spent two nights not knitting and pulling books from shelves (that reminds me, I must put them back at some point) to find "the one". it became a crusade. I ended up visiting two shops that had a good stock of knitting books - all to no avail. Then I found this - endless moss stitch!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works out.....



And for something cute and cuddly......


This is Ruby. She is about 12 weeks old. I persuaded my neighbour to rescue Ruby and her brother TC. They are lovely even if I can only love them from a distance!!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Century

My last post featuring Madli's Shawl was my 100th post. To commemorate this, I thought I would convert to the new Blogger and update my blog page. Hope you like it. Please let me know if there are any difficulties. This change has been designed to make life easier..... I hope.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Madli's Shawl









She's done in the nick of time!!

Madli's Shawl

Pattern Source: Interweave knits summer 2004
Started: February 2007
Finished: 13 October 2007
Yarn Used: Jamiesons of Shetland Sprindrift
Needles: 4mm addi turbos

Comments: I was quite daunted by the project initially, and put it up for months. I got it out 2 weeks ago and we just clicked together and off I went. Blocking was a challenge!! There is straight and then there's straight. Kitchener grafting - I defiantly need an idiots tutorial for it. I made the stole without the nupps I used a thicker weight yarn than specified and didn't think they would look good - nothing to do with the fact that I hate bobbles.....


The sun finally came out and I took some marvelous (for me!!) shots of the stole. I downloaded and dutifully filed them.... then lost them. I've taken some more above but as always I could not recapture what i had previously done!!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Waiting...



For Madli's Shawl to dry


..... and for the sun to come out!!!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Final leg

Thanks to Polly's straight forward no nonsense instructions, I have blocked my first shawl! I finally finished the end border for Madli's shawl and in a fashion, grafted it onto the main piece. I say in a fashion, because I referred to 3 books for instructions on how to graft using the Kitchener method and still didn't understand how to sew up and down through the live stitches. I think what I have done works.




I will find out once the shawl is dry and unpinned. I would have taken some photo's of the completed shawl, unblocked but it didn't look terribly inspiring and today we had a very foggy dull morning. I took the opportunity to go for a walk rather than taking the bus and was pleasantly fascinated by what I found. It made sense to walk - the bus timetable would have been up the creek due to the fog and the worst thing you can do on a cold damp morning is wait for a bus for ages and ages. I saw the most amazing spider webs. They were everywhere. Every branch, bough and bush was covered in them. They were exaggerated by the dew and the fog and not a spider was in sight. I was fascinated by the variety of shapes, dimensions and sizes. There is no such thing as a bog standard spider web!!




Don't you just love autumnal colours?

Nearly...

I'm playing catch up at the moment. The last couple of weeks I've been getting back into the swing of term time proper. The weekends have been filled with scouts activities and rugby matches!!


Nearly finished Madli's shawl, nearly finished the Zipped Cardigan for young man and nearly finished Juliet. I have half of the last border to knit and graft on to the main piece of Madli's shawl. Did it sound as though I know what I'm talking about? I have to graft Kitchener style - mmmm. I'll be doing some swatting up before I attempt it. Then I have the blocking to do. I'm hoping something magical is going to happen when it's wet because I can't see how it will meet the measurements!! The Zipped Cardigan is waiting to be sewn up and all the ends sewn in as is Juliet. All of this means I have no finished objects to show at the moment. So I leave you with these:



The first border and the main body of Madli's Shawl




For the squeamish, you caught fish wearing gloves at a recent Cubadoo



Or bare handed for the brave!


I won't tell you how many kind cubs brought me their cooked sardines. It was quite funny really. They were happy to catch them and cook them over a camp fire, but would not eat them!! I hope I've given my brain cells a real boost. they could do with it about now.

Young man last weekend