GreenPea

A Murmuration

2011-12-19T23:37:00.000Z

Thanks to MysticVixen I came across this extraordinary piece of film. For the first few seconds I couldn't see what all the commentators were raving about, and then... well, have a look for yourselves. Extraordinary. I wish I'd been there.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

On an Acoustic Whim

2011-06-03T22:46:00.000+01:00

Today I went off in the wonderful sunshine to see the Acoustic Guitarist of the Year Finals 2011 at the South Bank. It seemed a good way to spend a lunchtime and for the bargain price of only £3. This is the guitarist who won, with the song that quite rightly earned him the title. He was excellent.

Heard in the check-out queue

2011-01-22T09:18:00.001Z

The woman in front of me at the check out said to the cashier, 'This is a replacement broccoli', and brandished a large head of broccoli florets. The cashier nodded knowingly.

Whatever could have happened to that first broccoli batch to bring about the need of a free replacement?

I will never know, but this link on the cancer-protecting benefits of broccoli seemed quite interesting. I borrowed the picture from here so I'll make a donation to the excellent Macmillan Cancer Support in lieu of picture fees and hope that's OK with the website.

Setting the tone for the New Year ahead - much more fun!

2011-01-10T12:18:00.005Z

This should definitely be a feature on the London Underground. We'd arrive at our destinations in such a good mood. Roll on 2011 and much, much more fun than 2010.

Many thanks to the Going Underground blog for leading me to this. It made me laugh.

Nice jumper...

2010-03-12T22:20:00.004Z

These are here for the knitting. Of course.

Seen giant size on the tube, on the southbound Piccadilly Line platform at Leicester Square.

Yes, I admit it. I laughed. A lot.

There was some other beef in the advert but it detracted from the knitting.

Broccoli?? Brussels Sprouts??

2010-02-18T23:42:00.002Z

Something tells me this has been written by a non-knitter, or, rather, by someone just a little bit biased.

'A sewing up needle'?? Well, I suppose it does what it says it will do.

Best Blues

2010-01-31T18:14:00.008Z

Best blue yarn 1: I had a request for colourful bedsocks for Christmas so cracked open my sole skein of the legendary Wollmeise yarn. Knitting with something that has grabbed the attention of knitters worldwide is always an experience to be anticipated. In truth, however, I get even more excited about lesser known dyers and always wish them eventual global success, but only after I've managed to buy some skeins from them first. Much as I applaud universal popularity such as that achieved by Wollmeise and Sundara, I am left a little sad that the yarns often then rise beyond my price range, especially with the extortionate Customs charges we are forced to pay on parcels from outside the EU.

For a truly wonderful exposition of a Wollmeise experience, look here. I admit to great envy at being faced with such a difficult choice.

Simple Skyp Socks
by Adrienne Ku (ravelry link)

Yarn: Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash; 316.3 yards (289.2m), approximately 0.55 of the skein
Colourway: Am Kalten Polar
Needles: 3.00 mm

Best blue yarns 2 & 3: Two dyers whose blues have caught my eye and imagination are both talented, gaining in well-deserved popularity and, I'm sure, about to go global. Just let me acquire as much as I can from them first...

Skein Queen:

DK Desire in 'Indigo Dream', 100% wool.

Sparkleduck:

'Midnight Purple', a laceweight in ultrafine merino with silk

2010-01-24T18:54:00.000Z

Another Competition and Best Snow-ness

Best snow: Lapland snow pictures by SusiVilla. Scroll down to the last photograph in particular. We thought we'd had good snow here but this is the real thing.

Best snow outfit: Also by SusiVilla. As she says, a skirt in -30 degrees Celsius? Still, one can see why. What a skirt, and it only took 3 skeins of Noro Sock.

The White Ribbon Competition

Seeing as how my first ever competition proved a bit obscure I'll see if a variation on a theme is any easier. The first competition is still open, by the way. No one has correctly claimed a prize so far.

So, Competition Part 2:

Where is the knitting in White Ribbon (AKA 'Das Weisse Band')?
The film has just won the Palme d'Or and is fairly extraordinary. It is not a touchy-feely, cuddly film but it does have knitting in it.

Clue: only one person is actually knitting.

All correct answers will receive a prize.

Remember to EMAIL ME YOUR ANSWERS rather than post them here (otherwise it will be first past the post which may be short lived). Not all prizes will be knitting related, just in case there are non-knitting people out there.

How Not to Make a Pompom

2010-01-17T17:24:00.006Z

This is how not to make a pompom. It was supposed to be the finishing touch for my new snow hat, based on the Sockhead Hat by bohoknits who very generously publishes the pattern for free. Ravelry link here.

One advantage of having snow and ice coat London for longer than usual was the opportunity to examine surreptitiously the enormous array of hats, mittens and scarves that appeared on people struggling to and from work, or even merely trying to stay upright on the sheets of ice that once used to be pavements. The more I looked at other people's heads, the more I wanted a new hat for the snow, and the more I couldn't see one that I thought would suit me. This new one may well not suit me at all but I think I may wear it frequently. It's very warm, versatile, and I like it, which of course helps no end.

I used three-quarters of a skein of sock yarn, held with a ball of Kidsilk Spray to add some extra softness and bloom. I omitted the Kidsilk at various random points to allow the colours of the merino sock yarn to shine through.

A few random rows with the Kidsilk Spray omitted to allow the brightness of the sock yarn to shine through.

More photos will appear when I've finished the pompom, or perhaps when I've decided against the pompom. Until then, here is the back of my head.

Sockhead Hat

Yarn 1: Sunshine Yarns Twist Sock Yarn in Costa Rica (I used about 297 yards/271 metres)
Yarn 2: Rowan Kidsilk Spray (shade 569 Clay), 1 ball
Needles: 3mm (I used magic loop method)

Modifications:
a) adding in the Kidsilk Spray
b) I worked 6 inches of stocking stitch for the body rather than the 9 inches suggested
c) there may be a pompom if I can remember how to make one properly

Friday's Bests

2010-01-16T00:00:00.004Z

Best thing I listened to today: Jenny Agutter's choice of Lise Meitner for "Great Lives", Radio 4. Listen again here, if you so wish. Late-night BBC reminiscing about a great physicist who later eschewed public recognition for her work in nuclear science, having first been disregarded herself because of being a woman. Picture borrowed from a site entirely dedicated to pictures of famous physicists. Who'd have thought it?

Best mittens of the day: these Antler Mittens by Alexa Ludeman.

Bests

2010-01-12T06:37:00.004Z

Best colours of the day: these ones, put together. Drawback: now I need to replicate them throughout and that's easier said than done with Noro.

Best sound of the day: the laughter of an orangutan being tickled. Seriously. Radio 4, midnight, last night/this morning.

Best sensation of the day: a single, melting Italian 'gianduiotto' on the tongue

Best smell of the day: fresh laundry

Best decision of the day: to leave work on time and go home

Is it just me...

2009-10-19T23:23:00.004+01:00

... or does anyone else thinks this looks very weird?

Flying objects

2009-10-19T07:11:00.002+01:00

There was a moment this evening when the seconds stood still. I'd put away some very slow-going, very important knitting that I've been doing for several months, folding it carefully into a neat pile while I had my supper.

Since I am in decadent holiday-week mode, supper was a piece of (rather crispy) pizza balanced on a plate on my lap on the sofa. Just as I tried to cut into the crust the whole thing skidded off the plate and flew across the room ... straight into the tall paper carrier bag where I'd put the knitting.

It was a few moments before I could bear to look inside.

The relief: it had landed face up and the knitting was safe. Phew.

Prize time...

2009-10-04T11:28:00.007+01:00

I saw my first conker of the year on the ground this week. Autumn is setting in again, with a wonderful deep heat and low light. This signals that I have passed one year of having a blog. That must mean I have a bloggiversary. Does that mean I am a 'real' blogger? Who knows...

I feel that now that I might be edging towards being a person-with-a(n occasional)-blog it is time for a competition. Yesterday I went to see Julie & Julia. It had mixed reviews but I don't really care about them as it provided escapism, diversion and self-indulgence, and lots of pictures of food. It also included some knitting.

So, the competition:

Where is the knitting in Julie & Julia?

All correct answers will receive a prize.

Email me or leave a comment here. Not all prizes will be knitting related, just in case there are non-knitting people out there.

Swirls

2009-09-08T11:45:00.004+01:00

It's quite lucky that I do not live near Windsor Button in Boston. Their collection of silk organza ribbons takes up an enormous rack. Such beautiful colours. Such temptation.

Buttons from Boston

2009-09-06T10:43:00.009+01:00

There are very few advantages to finding myself in A&E and then in bed ill for a fortnight when I was instead supposed to be on a fortnight's holiday from work. One good thing was the opportunity to play with treasures found during my New England visit. Buttons galore.

Confessing

2009-08-04T07:14:00.008+01:00

There comes a moment in conversations when I 'confess' to my big secret.

In the last few days I have found myself revealing to two separate people that I knit.

Conversation 1:

Man 1: 'You knit?....' [man physically recoils in his seat, and scrunches up his face]...'Do you have cats?'

Me: 'No... why?'

Man 1: 'Well, it goes with the image, doesn't it?'
[if it's possible for anyone to recoil right out of the room, at this point he would have done.]

Conversation 2:

Man 2: 'That ball of wool... do you knit, or is it a plaything for a mischievous cat?'

Me: 'It's mine... I like knitting.'

Man 2: 'Really? ... Mm. I can imagine you reclining on a chaise longue, with wool running through your toes...'

Now that's more like it.

All the fun of the Fair

2009-07-20T06:46:00.011+01:00

A couple of weekends ago, unfortunately on a rather grey day, one of my favourite annual events took place: Barnes Fair. The village green is filled with hundreds of stalls and displays from local craftspeople, charities, schools, artists, businesses and restaurants. It's possible to find anything from fairy cakes made by the Brownies to beautifully glazed pottery, hand-crafted sweaters, bric-a-brac galore and pots of herbs.

The trick is to cast aside lengthy deliberations and guilt at treating oneself: the things seen there tend not to be seen again so are worth grabbing immediately. I once found an early Heal's oak table and four matching chairs just as I was about to move into a new home with no furniture. However, I am still kicking myself for not buying a 1950 three-tiered red cake stand with white polka dots I saw one year. I know, I know, it's a strange thing to hanker after but afternoon tea with treats on a cake stand... one of the best things ever.

There are certain traditions to be upheld, such as watching the procession of decorated school children pass by on floats and assorted animals (always a diversion in the middle of a city) and eating Thai noodles. This year I was particularly taken with the intricately carved vegetables next to the Thai noodle stall. I suddenly wanted to take a class in how to transform a turnip into translucent white lace. There may be a class, the woman told me, but not quite yet. I will be first in the queue. It looks like a very peaceful way to pass a few hours.

Thai vegetable carving. The lacey turnip is top centre, between the carrots and in front of the melons.

The sounds of the fair are always augmented by peculiarly actorly tannoy announcements which usually contain a gem or two. My favourite this year:

"For all those of you who are concerned about Ben, the shire horse that collapsed during the procession, don't worry - it seems there was a horse whisperer in the crowd. He whispered to Ben who was able to get up and is now fine."

Intriguing. Exactly how many random horse whisperers are there in London?

Coming soon... American Adventure

2009-07-04T18:04:00.010+01:00

So, I went to America, to knit, to talk, to wander, to squidge wool, and to watch a whale. The full account is germinating, while pesky work deadlines pile up.

In the meantime, a glimpse of Squam Lake, and the view from my cabin.

Public Transport

2009-06-01T08:06:00.003+01:00

Cheering. Or slightly spooky. Or both.

Saturday Sunshine

2009-05-30T12:17:00.009+01:00

Sometimes it's rather wonderful to do very little. Sitting in a shaft of sunshine with a new ball of wool is one of those moments that seem insignificant but which are in fact rather rare.

The wool is Skein Queen's Entice 2-ply laceweight, in Crimson Passion. It came from Emma, who is always an inspiration.

Casting on in Chelsea

2009-05-18T19:00:00.007+01:00

I decided recently that it was time to admit that my stubbornness in trying to learn new techniques was not working for cast-on strategies, and off I went for my first knitting class ever.

What a great afternoon I had. Alice of Socktopus was unfailingly patient with my apparent inability to tell my right from my left, or my working yarn from the yarn tail, and soon had me producing loop cast on, long tail, variations to both, Channel Island, crochet provision, tubular (both 2 strand [German] and provisional cast on method), and star cast on (my favourite). Hoping Alice doesn't mind, I've copied here the exact names from the Socktopus site as I'm still playing with my edges and studying my notes, which have slightly less orthodox instructions, including the intriguing annotation 'pick up Australian cousins here'.

My finished edges resemble wobbly worms; Alice's smooth green edge variations are the real thing. I aspire to such neatness.

Adding to the pleasure of the afternoon was of course a fair amount of yarn squidging, especially in the ongoing quest for a particular acidic shade of green. Alice had several suggestions, and also showed me her new Kilcarra Donegal Tweed shade cards. I cannot get the beautiful pinks, greys, blues and greens out of my head. While waiting for the Donegal Tweed shades to hit London, instead I succumbed to some colours from Wales.

Flimstone Bay by Cariad Yarns in Enchanted (above) and Electra (below).
Mmm.

Indigo Ideas?

2009-05-02T17:43:00.010+01:00

I have nearly finished something else, but very sadly I think I'm going to have to undo it and start again. I love the wool and the stitch but the pattern just doesn't sit right on me. This is not exactly surprising as yet again I was trying to adapt an existing pattern and this time it hasn't worked.

I'm putting the pictures here to show how lovely the yarn is. Unfortunately no amount of playing around with different brooches is going to save this item on me.

Any ideas as to what else might suit it? It is DK weight Skein Queen Desire in Indigo Dream, and I have 1350 metres/1700 yards. All suggestions very welcome.

Spring Vest

2009-04-30T20:53:00.010+01:00

Well, I'm not sure what happened to most of April. It just flew by in a whirl of daffodils, bluebells, the first of the muscat grapes appearing in the shops, work, knitting, and of course the wonderful return of light evenings.

I have actually finished something. It's a vest, adapted from a sweater pattern with a deep scoop neck. I've had to modify the neckline with some flexible twisted ribbing or deep and scoop would have taken on a new meaning entirely.

Spring Vest
Adapted from Emily by Kim Hargreaves; published in Heartfelt: The Dark House Collection

Body Yarn: Rowanspun DK in Goblin (shade 736) x 3 skeins (654 yards/598 metres)
Neck Yarn: Rowanspun DK in Eau de Nil (shade 735) & Cloud (shade 734) x small amounts
Needles: 4mm
Modifications:
a) er, no sleeves
b) twisted rib rather than lace pattern at hem
c) twisted rib neckline using stitches picked up from neckline rather than attached ribbing

Adaptability Saturday

2009-04-04T18:17:00.005+01:00

Glorious sunshine outdoors, a sunny kitchen indoors and no work. Almost perfection. A day for adapting things.

First there was a cake recipe that ended up as Chocolate and Crystallised Ginger Cake, followed by a sweater pattern adapted to experiment with some Rowanspun DK in Goblin, shade 736. I fear I may not have enough wool to make the hoped-for item so I won't jinx it by naming the garment just yet. What a shame this yarn was discontinued. Maybe I'll stumble across some more as if by magic. It has been known.

A jockey wearing green won the Grand National this afternoon so my knitting adaptation is at least topical.

Farmer Breeds Tartan Sheep

2009-04-01T19:20:00.007+01:00

If only...

This is my favourite April Fool, as seen in The Times.

In a similar article, a farmer is quoted as saying, “I’ve been telling all the kids that come to the farm that I have connections with the Clan McHaver and I’ve managed to get a few of these rare sheep sent down from the Highlands. I tell them the lambs are actually born a light shade of blue and don’t become fully tartan until they are around one year old.”

Wouldn't the wool be wonderful? No pooling.

Women in Science BlogDay

2009-03-24T23:44:00.013Z

Apparently, according to that bastion of the free press, the Metro, it is today that bloggers are writing about famous women scientists. Now that I have done a meme and am on the way to being a bloggette, I thought I too would do my bit for women scientists. I have even found one who knitted.

I hope that Mr John Beaver of Lake Afton Public Observatory won't mind me taking inspiration from his piece on Carolyn Herschel (1750-1848), German Comet Discoverer Extraordinaire and singer, where he mentions that she knitted 'two years worth of stockings' so as to be free to come to England in the wake of her brother, composer and conductor:

"Meanwhile, her favorite brother William, who had moved to Bath, England, quickly established himself as a composer and conductor. But in his success he had not forgotten his unhappy sister left behind in Germany, and he proposed to have Carolyn come to England to train as a soprano. The mother and eldest brother had grown used to Carolyn's housework, and they would not, at first, let her go. ". . . and I was left in the harrassing uncertainty whether I was to go or not!" In order to cover both possibilities she knitted two years worth of stockings, while at every opportunity "when all were from home" she practiced voice "with a gag between my teeth."

So the first woman in history to discover a comet began her career as a singer. And she achieved no little success; she performed regularly with her brother's orchestra and even began to receive invitations to perform with other orchestras in other cities."

So, thanks to Mr Beaver for the stockings, but another author describes the scientific successes of Carolyn H, and quotes her various medals and honours from across Europe.

Either way, she sounds a suitably feisty character who today would no doubt be promoting knitting with all the vigour it deserves.

Hug a Plant Day

2009-03-20T17:53:00.002Z

Sometimes it's very important to embrace the things one really likes.

A Harmless Snark?

2009-03-14T23:04:00.004Z

I saw this on MetaBlog and couldn't resist showing it here too. It made me laugh, but in fact it is also a good representation of so many things about knitting. I'd like to wear it for the journey to work. It might be very useful for long meetings, too. I could pretend I was invisible.

With thanks to hackedgadgets.com.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

2009-03-02T22:53:00.007Z

Ah, Oskar Werner... (and not forgetting Julie Christie of course)

My first meme: 6 quirky but boring things about me. Thanks to Quelle Erqsome for the tag. I feel like a real blog person now. I have also been tagged elsewhere in a 25 Random Things listing by Katinkaknits and by the person formerly known as The Pie Man so thanks to them too. I'm going to combine the two tags and split the difference, mainly because I couldn't choose 6 things, and because what is random, quirky and boring is subjective so I'll let everyone else choose if these fit the bill.

• I am very fond of raw rhubarb. No doubt I would still be eating it straight out of the rhubarb patch if the grown-ups hadn't found me there one day when I was little, munching on a dark pink stem or two and risking oxalic acid and anthraquinone poisoning. Now I stick to the cooked version - it's less toxic that way.

• I speak three languages and have a smattering of another. Maybe one day I'll learn another.

• I can't pronounce anemone first go. Or spell it. Anenome. Anemone. Anenome.

• One of my favourite films is "Fahrenheit 451". Nothing to do with "Fahrenheit 911".

• When I was three years old, I packed my little red cardboard case with some precious belongings and left home. I think it might have had something to do with the arrival of my younger sister. I walked up the long road but eventually turned round and came back again. Two years after that another sister arrived, but I don't think I left home that time.

• I remember things visually, by re-running the image in my head like a still photo, the shape of text on a page, or as if in a video clip. I assume everyone else does it this way. Maybe they do.

• I am a huge Tintin fan. I was once standing in the check-out queue in an Italian supermarket when a man's hand reached round me from behind and grabbed my wrist to look at my Tintin watch. I'm not sure why asking me who was on the watch face wasn't an option. Maybe he just felt like holding my wrist. Italian supermarkets can be very different from British ones. As can Italian men.

• I am a stationery-a-holic. I dream of stumbling on an untouched stationery store suspended in time filled with slightly dusty but otherwise entirely preserved stocks of beautiful papers, tissue-lined envelopes, watermarked linen-weave or laid sheets, engraved emblems and onion-skin airmail sets.

• I am also a yarn-a-holic, but you probably guessed that already.

• When I was five I wanted to be a postman. John, our local postman, took me on his rounds with him and let me post the letters through everyone's front doors, before delivering me back home. The poor man probably had a lot of time to make up on those mornings.

• I grew up playing in the shade of a giant mulberry tree. It grew (and still grows) sideways, having been struck by lightning into a 90-degree angle when my mother was herself little and lived in the house with the tree. Every summer we would become covered from top to barefoot toe in blood-red mulberry juice as we scavenged amongst the branches for the fruit.

• I have a serious book habit. My bookshelves are stacked two deep, but disguised.

• I lived for a year in a 17th-century Italian palazzo, with its original interiors more or less intact. In my bedroom hung a Venetian chandelier made of glass daffodils.

• I would like to have more sleep.

• One day I will have a garden, and it will be full of flowers. I will also have an orchard, a giant swing hanging from an old oak tree, and a treehouse. Not that I daydream or anything.

• I have twice been serenaded by an anonymous lutenist wearing full medieval costume, on entirely separate occasions, in different places, several years apart. One lute player would have been strange enough, but two?

Ah, Caravaggio...

Post-prandial Doubt

2009-02-22T23:46:00.008Z

So there I was at the cinema this afternoon. I should have been soaking up the Pulitzer Prize history and the Academy Award Nominations oozing out of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in 'Doubt'.

Instead, right in the middle of the key speeches, I had this going on in my head:

'Hm, nice moss stitch shawls... I wonder what that yarn is...

Rowan Kid Classic? Hm... no, I think it looks thicker than that; maybe it's on small needles, but then it would look different...

[Meryl Streep gives performance with gusto; there are tears, accusations, dramatic denouments galore]

... Maybe it's Noro Cash Iroha... no, I don't think they make it in solid black...

It looks like... well, ... hm...

[High drama, more tears, priests, nuns, and The Bronx crash past on the screen...]

... it looks as if it could be Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, perhaps in aran or chunky weight, but then with the chunky the stitches might look bulkier... I wonder what needle size they were making it in...'

Note to self: do not attempt to go to a matinee at the cinema after eating a generous helping of stir-fried ho fun in Soho the day after Unraveled.

One word...

2009-02-22T23:35:00.004Z

Your Word is "Think"

You see life as an amazing mix of possibilities, ideas, and fascinations.

And sometimes you feel like you don't have enough time to take it all in.

You love learning. Whether you're in school or not, you're probably immersed in several subjects right now.

When you're not learning, you're busy reflecting. You think a lot about the people you know and the things you've experienced.

What's Your Word?

Love is in the hair

2009-02-14T16:44:00.007Z

I went to get my hair cut this morning (a very rare event for me). As I was leaving, my hairdresser went into a side room and emerged with daffodils and a large box of coloured sewing thread, and said they were for me*. What a lucky person I am.

The poor man had recently been fished out of the Thames after falling off a walkway and becoming trapped between a boat and the Thames wall. He broke a rib, bashed his ankle and briefly knocked himself out. Scary stuff. I am very glad he has fully recovered, not least because he is clearly a man of generous spirit but also because for a few hours only I look as I have grown-up hair. Tomorrow will be another story, but then I will have daffodils to admire and threads to gaze upon.

* Well, OK, the threads are actually for my sister, but I can pretend, can't I?

All sensible and completely non-sensible offers considered...

2009-02-14T10:31:00.002Z

Primavera Mitts: performance update

2009-02-07T20:15:00.004Z

I am very impressed with Sundara's sock yarn. My sister came to visit today, wearing her Christmas present Primavera mitts. I pounced on the mittens as soon as she came through the door to see how they'd been doing since December. Not a bobble or pile or over-stretch or merest sign of wear and tear. They've been well tested: worn nearly every day since Christmas, and in particular during our recent wonderful snow days. They were even lent to a large-handed but absent-minded boyfriend who went to Amsterdam in the freezing cold without any winter clothes.

Conversations on a Train: Part 1

2009-02-06T06:51:00.007Z

I was knitting on the train the other evening on my way home from work. Three women in their seventies or so sat in the adjoining seats and conversation soon turned to the rarity of seeing someone knitting these days. We got chatting. They had all been prolific knitters before the advent of machine knits and, for one, osteoarthritis in her hand. They told me stories of wartime knitting, which was part of the primary school curriculum with compulsory homework in the evenings. They made sweaters and long socks for soldiers, the wool laden with oil that left their hands rather rough. Each evening they had to complete a required length of knitting for inspection at school the following day. The soldiers, never previously known to the children, would write to say thank you, sending notes about the sweaters and socks from the battle zones and postings. They also talked of soldiers going through recovery and rehabilitation who were taught to knit (though this may predate WWII, from the look of the photo I found).

This had been utilitarian knitting at its utmost, and there I was, with my ball of fairly high-end wool and a half-formed sock, knitting for no other reason than pure luxury. I don't need any more socks, and already have far more than is sensible. Knitting with yarn imported from Japan is hardly a frugal option; for the price of one ball of wool I could probably buy five pairs of mass-produced socks from a chain store. I could not think of a single reason other than luxury, creativity, relaxation and entertainment for what I was doing. A sign of the times.

A London so rarely seen

2009-02-02T12:08:00.004Z

We have snow, proper snow, not a sprinkling, not a dash, but proper drifts. It's the first time in my life I have not been able to get to work or travel because of the snow. For anyone for whom snow is not unusual it may be difficult to convey just how exciting it is to have heavy snow in London. Indulge me - there are a few pictures of the snow.

A road normally busy with cars, shut to traffic this morning

My sister just looked out of her window in another part of London and saw this:

Unbowed despite the rain

2009-01-27T07:08:00.009Z

I no longer have 'flu, thank goodness. I've been dashing around again as usual. There has been activity, but the likelihood of good-quality daylight + camera + me all converging in the same place at the same time this winter remains small. So, here's something someone else prepared earlier to brighten things up.

Your rainbow is shaded red.

What is says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate energetic people. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

A strange-looking rainbow, if you ask me, but bizarrely accurate in certain ways. Except the boredom bit. On the one hand, life might be easier if I did get bored more quickly. On the other hand, if I anthropomorphised balls of wool it would explain my severe case of knitting Startitis.

Influenza

2009-01-12T13:47:00.006Z

Two types of painkiller. One type of antibiotic. Lots of soothing tissues. Many glasses of water.

Don't even think about picking up a knitting needle until Day 8. You won't remember what it's for until then.

Primavera mitts

2009-01-04T17:46:00.008Z

Just before Christmas, while thinking about Secret Christmas knitting, I went to the Rothko: The Late Series exhibition at the Tate Modern. I had not been expecting to think of wool when in the third room, filled with large canvases from the Seagram murals. However, all the paintings were composed of shades so similar to the yarn I was using at home that it made me wonder if Sundara derives some of her inspiration from Rothko's art.

Primavera Mitts
inspired by the beautiful Primavera Socks by S(t)ockinette
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn, burgundy over apricot (half a skein)
Needles: 2.75 mm
I borrowed the thumb gusset pattern from Javajem's Merletto Fingerless Mitts.

Does anyone want the pattern? If so, let me know and I'll write it up.

Shafts of light

2009-01-02T00:12:00.002Z

Wow - what a sky.

If only I could speak or read Norwegian then I'd know where it was.

It seems an apt picture for the first day of the new year.

Out with the old, in with the new...

2008-12-31T19:08:00.009Z

I'm looking forward to 2009. I'm hoping for many eccentric, funny and improbable moments. Parts of this year have been unexpectedly and discombobulatingly grim, thanks to the hand that fate deals sometimes. I'm determined that the new year will be lighter, more frivolous and without too many sideswiping events directed by chance and the inevitable vagaries of life and death.

People here have been invaluable in providing a gentle cushion during the grimmer moments, but it's been those who are far, far away who have touched and moved me with their consistent good humour, optimism, conversation and friendship. They have provided a greatly appreciated counterpoint, probably without knowing just how much they have helped.

I have various existential resolutions but they are works in progress. It is for the moment far easier to consider some knitting resolutions:

to learn how to do a provisional cast on
to stop being stubborn about avoiding charts (I can use them, I just remain fixed in my preference for letters and numbers over squiggles)
to practise kitchener stitch from the right side (though doing it inside out is working for me at the moment)
to reduce my stash (or find a way to make it invisible and to take up a third of its volume)

Overall, I could do with being less impatient with my knitting, and less patient in non-knitting matters. Patience is not always a virtue. Here's to frivolity, excitement, novelty and adventure, whether in knitting or other matters.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Resolutions little by little

2008-12-31T08:50:00.002Z

Today I'm sure various resolutions for the New Year will occur to me. I may drip feed them as they occur.

I woke up thinking of some, and then I read the latest entry from the incomparable Nothing to See Here. Now that is a blog I wish I had thought of doing, and indeed wish I had the time to follow in person instead of in the ether.

In 2009 I will resolve to visit Postman's Park. I used to work nearby and didn't know it was there. I am kicking myself for not knowing, but only slightly for I can go anyway, and pay it justice instead of a snatched few minutes in a lunchbreak.

Mystery Outing

2008-12-31T00:09:00.012Z

I was taken on a mystery outing this evening, a late extra birthday present from my mother and sisters. First there was supper cooked by my sisters, then off we went past the Christmas lights in the trees along the streets of Camden, Islington, Farringdon, Blackfriars and Waterloo to the surprise destination. I love surprises (well, nice ones), and this was a good one.

They kept me guessing until we turned on to the South Bank. Somehow my sister had bought tickets to the sell-out production at the Lyttelton Theatre of August: Osage County. I had tried to buy tickets earlier this month but they are sold out for the entire run of the play. My sister remains enigmatic on how she acquired the seats. My mother had even brought chocolate ginger and Christmas cake for the (two) intervals. I wore my new Hourglass sweater, which I finished yesterday (and which I am loathe to take off).

Photograph: Karen Robinson (borrowed from The Guardian)

I should, I realise, say something learned and wittily critical about the play, but I tend to think that people far better at reviewing have already said much on the topic. It's won myriad awards, as have the cast members, and deservedly so.

... and Happy Boxing Day!

2008-12-27T00:39:00.007Z

The temperature is dropping fast here. Boxing Day brought a trip to Richmond Park to walk briskly in the cutting wind at sunset, then home for tea. We have a Christmas Day birthday in the family so there was belated cutting of the cake with its combination of candles, tiny snowman and Christmas tree. One year we may take pity on the birthday person and ask if she'd prefer a Victoria sponge rather than fruitcake.

Richmond Park at sunset, Boxing Day 2008

Sun setting over the pond in Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park

The cutting of the Birthday-Christmas cake

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-25T23:05:00.007Z

Dashing

2008-12-23T16:07:00.006Z

I am no longer languishing. Indeed, the languishing soon had to turn into dashing, to make up for lost time. There is secret festive knitting taking place. If I don't speed up enormously, the dashing is going to turn into hopping, when the recipient of the secret ends up with only one sock.

I am inventing a sock, which is quite fun, a bit like painting. I was on the train, trying to put every spare minute to the present which risks being only half a present. The sock leg seemed to be a bit loose so I scrabbled around and came up with a little stitch marker, and cables appeared. These locking stitch markers are perfect as cabling needles (or does everyone know this except me?). The leg tube is now just the right elasticity.

The yarn is Plushness in Peacock by Skein Queen, November's instalment of the Autumn Sock Club. The angora and cashmere give the cables a bloom, producing a water-like quality, that changes dramatically when stretched out.

Languishing

2008-11-26T07:27:00.010Z

I wonder why having laryngitis and losing one's voice also produces pains in the legs. Maybe it's an alliteration thing: larynx, legs, losing, lost...

I am reduced to an unintelligible croaking, so languishing (another L) under the covers at home seems the sensible option.

If I lived in this hermetically sealed Cold War house, designed for the Ideal Home Exhibition of 1956, I might avoid catching anything. On the other hand, I would have to wear knitted nylon outfits like these designed by Teddy Tinling

and I might wake up with marvellously coiled hair.

This House of the Future is featured in the Cold War Modern exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition is excellent. You really feel you are getting your money's worth, as the spaces get larger and larger with ever more intricate and bizarre pieces and displays in each room. Spying and paranoia start to mingle with (then) ultra-modern design. Teddy Tinling's designs form part of my favourite room, which also holds space-rocket inspired sculptures flashing light sparks off moving parts, maquettes of strange mountain-top buildings in Eastern Europe, and attempts to achieve a utopian ideal.

Gritted teeth

2008-11-22T19:35:00.004Z

I'm not sure whether to declare that I hate a knitting project or that I should be more patient. Perhaps both. I really like the finished article but am almost ready to throw in the towel, and I've only done 3 rows. The instructions are exquisitely detailed but spread over 6 sheets of paper for each row. Using circular needles with cords the same colour as the yarn is probably not helping, but both yarn and Addi lace needles are behaving well. It's just me that isn't. I suspect my refusal to learn to use charts and my determination to stick to the long-hand written instructions might have something to do with this kerfuffle.

Thank goodness for giant Post-It notes.

Wrapped

2008-11-21T23:42:00.003Z

Snow is coming. I am ready.

Are we sensing a theme...?

2008-11-16T23:30:00.005Z

Alternatively there is this:

Available from Zazzle. If only the stupid customs duty didn't kick in at such a low limit.

Brain Bags

2008-11-16T23:11:00.008Z

Now that I'm officially weird, according to the exceptionally scientific candy corn ruling (see below), I will say that I think these brain bags by Jun Takahashi are wonderful.

I really, really want one one of these bags for work.

Does that make me officially weird, or just brainy?

Oh really?

2008-11-16T13:39:00.002Z

What Your Love of Candy Corn Says About You

You are a very strange character. Much stranger than people realize at first.

Like candy corn, the more people think about you - the weirder you seem.

While you are quite quirky, that's what is lovable about you.

You are bright, bold, and simply happy. What could be better?

What Does Your Favorite Candy Say About You?

Getting the Franklin habit

2008-11-14T22:30:00.007Z

I went to hear The Panopticon - AKA Franklin Habit - speak at IKnit last night. He read from his book and was very, very funny. Such excellent deadpan humour.

Sadly I had no opportunity to ask my burning question of what happened to The Panopticon's knitting student, Willibald. I've always wondered whether there is a man in Chicago clad entirely in grey purled garter stitch garments, and whether he's having fun yet.

I was sorry to see that the evening was a missed sales opportunity for Franklin H as there were hardly any spare copies of the book available. Never mind. I did get to talk to someone who was taught to knit by an elderly woman in Italy who believed circular needles were a form of garotte, and to someone whose brains I could pick about simultaneously knitting two socks on one circular needle. A cure for my Second Sock Syndrome, perhaps?

Oxfordshire Buttons

2008-11-09T17:56:00.005Z

There are worse things to pick up as souvenirs. These are from Kidlington, near Oxford, which was yesterday's trip.

They are tiny. The round buttons are a little like fancy Victorian boot buttons with pearlised centres.

Paris Nights (well, by proxy)

2008-11-09T15:45:00.005Z

There is some knitting taking place.

It's growing, and growing...

My first Malabrigo Worsted experience, in Paris Nights colourway. Suitably squishy, with more of a bloom developing than I'd expected. This will be perfect for the cold weather.

More on Haven later, when it's finished.

Overheard at the cinema box office:

2008-11-07T18:12:00.006Z

Very refined elderly lady to box office assistant: "One senior citizen for easy virtue, please."

Ha. I laughed. Discreetly.

I believe this might have had something to do with it.

Red Rib Vest

2008-11-01T20:09:00.010Z

This afternoon was a First Birthday Party. There were guests of five different nationalities, three generations of the same family, three different types of cake, five different sorts of home-produced honey, one pot of home-made quince jam, and one birthday boy.

Front view

Back view

My present was a red rib vest, in contrasting crimson and scarlet stripes. The recipient was crawling too fast through wrapping paper to pose for a photo, but I came away with commissions for one child-size vest and one in an adult size. Soozs' pattern is great for carefree knitting, no overly strict instructions and enough give in the ribbing for the sizing to last through a few months of toddler growth.

Every slice of the cake I made (centre cake, above) was eaten, so a good result all round. It was an undrenched version of Tamasin Day-Lewis' Drenched Ginger and Lemon Cake. Soft and fluffy. Mm.

A jar of home-produced honey, for which the bees feed on mulberry blossom, and a solitary honey-almond macaroon took centre stage for a moment. In the background are other honeys, harvested at different months. The variations in colour and flavour are influenced by the blossom available in each season.

Red Rib Vest

Pattern: Rib Vest with Placket Neck Opening and Almost Collar by Suzie Fry

Size: 15-18 months
Needles: 4.5mm
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran; 2 skeins in Red
Stripes: Rooster Almerino Aran; half a skein in Rooster
Modifications: the stripes are of course a design feature and nothing at all to do with running out of Cashmerino. Oh no. Definitely nothing to do with that.

Ginger and Lemon Cake
Recipe: Drenched Ginger and Lemon Cake by Tamasin Day-Lewis
Published in: Good-Tempered Food
Modifications: not drenched in syrup, but instead iced with lemon and ginger glace icing, made with icing sugar, lemon juice and a little syrup from a jar of crystallised ginger pieces

Maya So-Called Scarf

2008-10-31T18:55:00.010Z

It is at last properly cold. It's not that I like only cold weather, but, as a knitter, it's important to have the proper weather for woolly wear. Bright, sunny days of swirling leaves and brisk wind are excellent for wandering around the city in a big scarf.

This is My So-Called Scarf, now in its second season. It's wearing quite well, developing a bit of a bloom, but then I rather like it like that. I realise that the rough cast-on/cast-off edges would not appeal to a perfectionist knitter but I rather like those as well. The important thing about this scarf, apart from the subtle variations in colour in the Debbie Bliss Maya yarn, is that it is BIG, big enough to mean that I escape that sliver of cold neck between coat collar and scarf that is so often the bane of skinny scarves.

In progress last year...

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf by Allison Isaacs on Imagiknit
[Ravelry link]
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Maya; 3 skeins (I think)

Needles: 7.0 mm
Modifications: not finishing the hems properly...

Swamp Thing Socks

2008-10-29T10:48:00.007Z

I love these socks. Everything about them is happy. From easyknitter's yarn stall at IKnit 2007 with free gingerbread men giveaways to the great colourway name and the way in which the pattern provides lots of toe wiggling room, every aspect was straightforward, generous, and did what it said on the tin.

I have only very recently come to sock knitting. One of these socks was the first sock I ever made. I like being a swamp thing while wearing them. They are perfect for stubbed-toe recuperation.

Pattern: A Pair of Socks (ravelry link) by Ann Budd
Yarn: Easy Knits Blue-Faced Leicester; 1 skein, 100g, 330.0 yards (301.8m)
Colourway: Swamp Thing

Needles: 3.25 mm

Ouch!

2008-10-28T10:42:00.002Z

I did buy the toilet seat yesterday, after all.

I have just tripped over it in its box. I may have broken my toe.

That'll teach me to rush around all excited about vintage 2-ply botany wool, Kidsilk Haze and fairy crochet hooks.

Treasure Trove

2008-10-28T09:03:00.026Z

I was once working on a photography shoot with Axel Russmeyer, a German jewellery designer who used minute beads to create beautiful larger beads. I coveted with all my heart just one bead but couldn't afford one then, and certainly couldn't afford one now. This necklace was recently on sale for $3,995. I hope he won't mind me mentioning that he told me a treasure trove tale that has stayed with me, in the hope that one day I too might stumble upon a similar find.

Axel was researching the art of Venetian glass bead production, and visited a very old, traditional glass factory in the Venice region. At the very back of the most neglected part of the factory he came across a box, covered in thick dust. Upon opening it he found that it contained hundreds of minuscule antique beads, each one the size of a large pin head and of a type no longer manufactured. It was a design using some of these beads that I covet still.

I have several treasure-trove wishes, including finding a portfolio - or even just a single one - of an original Tintin drawing by Herge, or a stash of pure linen sheets in their original 1930s paper and ribbon wrappings, or perhaps a pile of beautiful vintage knitting patterns from the 1950s back. The ultimate trove would be a house or shop sealed and left untouched for several years full of the original contents. I suppose that is why this news piece grabbed my attention recently.

A couple of treasure-trove experiences have come my way over time. When I was 10 my best friend showed me a warren of tunnels beneath her family's house. This had been used as an air raid shelter during the war and had been left virtually untouched ever since. There were toys, books and furniture left scattered around from the last time people had taken refuge down there. Last year my elderly neighbour, an elegantly dressed woman in her 90s, had a fall and alerted me by banging hard on the floor until I heard her. After she came out of hospital I went up to visit and for the first time saw inside her flat. It was a time capsule of 1930s decor, furniture and Clarice Cliff pottery, unchanged at her own request since she had first moved in. The kitchen was fitted with the original mass of tiny larder cupboards, a wooden draining board and large butler's-style sink. The only nod to modern living was a 1960s cooker and slightly younger fridge.

Last summer in Oxfordshire I was led through a half-concealed wooden door into an abandoned walled orchard. The tree branches were full of apples, no longer picked, and the grass and wildflowers reached halfway up the tree trunks. We shouldn't really have been there, but I went exploring all the same. It was too much of a secret garden not to.

Yesterday I came across a mini-trove. I was browsing in a charity shop and spotted a squashed assortment of yarny things in a tatty plastic bag. It turned out that there was another bag down in the store room, and I made an offer for both. The woman in the shop wanted to know if the wool would be going to a good home. I assured her it was.

Inside, along with some rather strange acrylicky things which will go back to charity, was a miniature treasure trove:

2 balls of Kidsilk Haze, in Candy Girl and Jelly

3 balls of Jaeger Matchmaker DK in Teal

some more Jaeger Matchmaker DK in shades of green and blue that someone has started to knit together and then abandoned. I could have told the poor person that there are easier ways to create a variegated effect, so if he or she ever sees this and would like their wool back to make something else, do get in touch.

1 ball of Jaeger pure alpaca 4 ply in Ice

2 balls pure cotton 4 ply from Slovakia

2 balls Wendy Cotton Aran

However, if this wasn't enough, there was what seems to be a vintage element to the trove:

Altogether there are 235 grams of this 2 ply. I've tried researching Rivermist and the Waterfall Spinning Company but can find no sign of it currently in production.

As well as the two shades of cream 2 ply, there was also this:

Lots of smaller skeins in beautiful shades. Or so I thought. It turns out there's a slight drawback:

The coloured 2 ply has been cut into short lengths. Any ideas what to do with this, apart from very fiddly fair isle, or embroidery (which is not really my thing)?

There was one last item in the tangle of yarn. Tucked deep inside was a tiny tool, a bit like a fairy's crochet hook, with a normal-size handle.

I am ignorant about many needlework and hooked crafts so any clues as to what this might be used for are very welcome. Crochet for people who really like a challenge? Tatting?

If anyone would like the miniature hook, or indeed any of the bright yellow silky mohair also in the package but which I haven't shown here, or some of the short lengths of coloured 2 ply botany, do let me know. Unusual swaps or ordinary ones considered. The hook, well, that can just go to a good home.

I should mention that I wasn't meant to buy any wool yesterday. I had actually gone out to buy a toilet seat, but, hey, this haul is a lot nicer to stroke (unless you are very, very weird).

How many??

2008-10-27T20:42:00.009Z

2500 entries... and I suspect that was a fraction of the people who might have entered had they not been working, distracted, knitting, travelling, sleeping, stroking yarn, and anything else that readers of Knitting Daily do. The winning entry did make me laugh, though.

Franklin Habit is coming to London very soon. Unfortunately it sounds as if he won't be bringing his 1000 Knitters photography project, which has to stay in Chicago.

It seems that the one-thousand-different-gauges-scarf has now grown to enormous proportions and would take up most of his luggage allowance. I guess it comes down to a choice of giant scarf or clothes. He could always wear just the scarf.

Galway Souvenirs

2008-10-26T10:50:00.009Z

Galway was a brisk mixture of alternating sunshine, rainbows, scudding clouds, rain - and hardly any people. I so wanted to go on the boat trip around Loch Corrib, stopping at the village of Cong and some islands, but I failed to persuade the captain that I could clone myself into the minimum twelve people required for a sailing. Instead I leant almost perpendicular into the whirling wind at the end of the pier before walking back into Oughterard and along the country lanes.

In Galway City I sheltered from the rain in a haberdasher's, and found some buttons. Now all I need to do is make the cardigans to go with the buttons.

Secret Garden Harris Tweed Socks

2008-10-21T11:41:00.007+01:00

Pattern: Harris Tweed Socks by Put A Sock In It
Needles: 3 mm
Yarn: Skein Queen Plushness
Colourway: Secret Garden; 1 skein
Composition:80% lambswool, 10% angora, 10% cashmere
Weight: DK Light - sock weight; 100g, c 300 yards

I've mentioned this yarn and the heel of this sock before. Both socks are now ready for public viewing. I used the pattern as written, apart from the toe. Instead of the suggested wedge-shaped toe, I substituted the Star Toe of Three Points from Knitting Vintage Socks.

Bonanza

2008-10-18T17:07:00.011+01:00

I couldn't resist these. They are just so pretty, and so nostalgic of a time when sweet shops had jars. These are hand-made Chocolate Satins, from the excellent A Quarter Of... , where nearly all childhood dreams held by adults can still come true (and there's a great page for requesting long-missed favourites).

Rather strangely, ever since I saw them being given as a present during an episode of The Secret Life of Us, I have had giant jelly beans on the brain. This summer I found some, even more strangely located in the Forestry Commission Shop at Queen's View in the Highlands of Scotland. How apt that the Queen herself is helping me give an idea of just how gigantesque these beans really are.

Queen's View, near Pitlochry, Scotland, on a misty, rainy day; unlikely location of giant jelly beans

Moneypenny Socks

2008-10-18T16:18:00.009+01:00

Socks on a Saturday.

Pattern: Charade
Yarn: Skein Queen, Moneypenny (custom dyed); 1 skein
The name, well, it's a long story. Skein Queen and I know how it came about. Daniel Craig, hold on to your hat...

Brown jewels

2008-10-18T16:05:00.004+01:00

I was pondering today why some foods have so much more attention paid to their packaging than others. It is well known, amongst those who know me, that I have a particular penchant for sweet chestnuts. Look at the treats I have been brought, from France (left), Italy (centre), and Japan (right). Such beautiful packaging for them all. I wonder if the chestnut is particularly venerated in Japan, or if all foods come so beautifully presented. This little metal tub of chestnut puree comes with two types of cardboard container, a tin, and even its own tiny spoon.

Going, going,...

2008-10-18T15:03:00.005+01:00

Sometimes it's important to buy something because soon it will be gone, and there will be no more.

Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Double Knitting
Shades (from back, left to right): Biscuit, Golden, Coal Dust
Sadly this has been discontinued, but it knits up beautifully. Sometimes wool companies make strange decisions.

Vintage scarf

2008-10-13T22:55:00.010+01:00

Being blocked...

I know this has already appeared on ravelry, but it is one of those projects that became addictive and which lingered in the mind as it raced off the needles.

A 70th birthday present for someone I've known most of my life, it was a gamble in case purple was not a favourite colour and lace a disliked texture. However, it went down well, which is not so surprising as the yarn is a fantastic mixture of silk and cashmere.

I chose an original pattern from, I think, the 1930s. I have a large collection of vintage patterns, waiting to be used and adapted for modern life. This one required no adaptation, just blocking and wondering if it might have been published the year its recipient was born. That would have been a neat coincidence indeed.

The yarn came as a transatlantic gift of great generosity, delivered one rainy Sunday afternoon to me, a complete stranger except for some emails. We should have been out looking at pelicans in St James's Park but instead talked about knitting and New England over a cup of English tea.

Yarn: Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk 2-ply, vintage rose colourway (perhaps); 1 skein

Needles: 3.0 mm
Adapted from ‘Two-Colour Scarf’ in vintage "2 oz Woollie Book", cost 1 shilling, Weldon’s leaflet no. 364, probably 1930s.

If you aren't on ravelry and would like the pattern instructions, do let me know. I'm sure copyright has now lapsed.

Toe Techniquery

2008-10-11T21:59:00.008+01:00

Thanks to the patient teaching skills of Purlescence and Erqsome, and the equally helpful advice from KatinkaKnits, I now have one kitchenered sock toe. I'm sure it shouldn't take three people to teach me something everyone else seems to know from birth, or at least much earlier on in their knitting careers, but I'm very pleased to have it at the end of my foot at last.

In case I'm being heelist, here's an alternative view.

Here's another heel, just to balance things out. This is the heel for a Harris Tweed sock in Skein Queen Plushness, mentioned earlier. Not quite tweed as we know it, but pink is de rigueur at the moment.

Nostalgia

2008-10-09T07:24:00.006+01:00

I have bought myself a treat. There is an exhibition too.

The book is still pristine, still shrinkwrapped. It's for next week when time slows down a bit. Maybe some of the shops still exist.

What would you do...?

2008-10-08T07:44:00.008+01:00

So, rather unexpectedly I have some free time. More than a few days. Good days.

What would you do with such a windfall?

All ideas and suggestions on the back of a postcard, please.

No bungee jumping.

Maybe no one will notice...

2008-10-04T17:36:00.019+01:00

So, this project was going well, with the cables proving easier than they first appeared and things flying along quite nicely. The wool was wonderful, buttery soft and thick, and there I was knitting away like a wild thing to produce two thick aran socks of wintry warmth. Hoorah!

Anyone guess what really happened? Um...

No, the heels were fine, I didn't mess those up, or wear them out in my sleep as before... It was something else...

Yes, I ran out of wool.

I quite like the oddness. I could start a trend.

Pattern: Log Cabin Socks from 'Handknit Holidays' by Anne Woodbury
Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Cedar (with a touch of Juniper*)
Needles: 4.0 mm

3 skeins = 285.0 yards (260.6m)

(*well, at least I kept it arboreal)

Making amends

2008-10-02T18:20:00.011+01:00

There have been entirely justified complaints about the parlous nature of the frequency of new entries here.

However, I have been very busy deciding what knitted garment I should make next. I have decided on this:

but first I may have to grow my hair. Modesty, you know.

('nuff said about the quality of the pics. Technical problems abounded)

The Glue That Sticks

2008-09-28T18:05:00.014+01:00

If, unavoidably, this is what Sunday afternoon holds, in spite of the wonderful Indian Summer sunshine outdoors,

and you would much rather be making something with this

(Fleece Artist DK Organic Wool in Sugar Plum)

or with this

(Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock yarn in Ruby Red)

then I strongly recommend listening to The South African Gospel Singers and the sounds of Pinise Saul, Lucky Ranku and colleagues. They provide just the right mixture of enthusiasm, poignancy and addictive rhythm to glue me to the desk when I'd rather be dabbling with wool.

The wool is from yesterday's Open House Knitting Tea Party held most graciously by Purlescence. There were cakes and wool and buttons.

Autumn Sock Club - First Arrival

2008-09-28T11:19:00.004+01:00

What an excellent thing to come home to one evening, courtesy of the postman and the Skein Queen.

This is the first instalment of the SQ Autumn Sock Club. Such soft sock yarn, this is Plushness in a summery, anti-autumn colourway. Very clever. Paradoxical yarn naming.

Yarn: Skein Queen Plushness
Colourway: Secret Garden
Composition:80% lambswool, 10% angora, 10% cashmere
Weight: DK Light - sock weight; 100g, c 300 yards

Now to decide what to make with it.

When bad things happen to good socks

2008-09-24T19:59:00.002+01:00

hole, Charade! , originally uploaded by GreenPea6.

My favourite Charade socks in Skein Queen Cashmerino - whole no more. Hole instead.

Since it's turned a bit chilly at night here and what with one thing and another sleep could do with a bit of a helping hand (foot) at the moment, I wore these socks to bed. I have no idea what I was doing in the night - dreaming of kick boxing? running an imaginary sock-footed marathon? - but I woke up to find the bed dotted with bits of coloured wool and a large hole and a cold heel.

Some serious darning will be needed. If I can find the tiny bit of the SQ Cashmerino I had left over. If not, inventiveness will be required.

All done bar the Kitchener

2008-09-21T18:35:00.005+01:00

Fascine Braid sock in progress, originally uploaded by GreenPea6.

Please can someone teach me to do Kitchener stitch?

This Fascine Braid sock is all finished apart from grafting the toe. I've tried following every video and every book diagram and still I end up with a lumpy, entirely visible join. It has occurred to me that I may have diagram-lexia. Perhaps I will simply invent a new method entirely for finishing toes. Alternatively I may start a fashion for open-toed socks.

Yarn: 100% merino wool Laine Claude, "Penelope" colourway, by Tricoquelicot; 1 skein (100g = c 430 yards)
Needles: 3.00 mm (I use magic loop so circular, but Tiennie's pattern is for DPNs)

This yarn from Japan is wonderfully squishy (such a good technical term).

Autumn is creeping in

2008-09-21T17:28:00.006+01:00

lazy Sunday, originally uploaded by GreenPea6.

The first conkers are falling and my love of Rowanspun is not abating. More of this yarn is needed. I have heard of a secret stash of it that might be for sale and am remaining patient in the hope of finding some of the colours I am still searching for, the brighter shades of green, blue, red.

Sundays

2008-09-21T12:35:00.003+01:00

A day of doing quite a lot while feeling I'm not doing much at all. Perfect.

Today: a sweet potato stew, and a blueberry crumble.