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Cheering. Or slightly spooky. Or both.

Saturday Sunshine

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

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?

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

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

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

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.