Inspiration

Yesterday, while I was doing some cleaning and my brain was wandering god-knows-where, it occurred to me that these two sweaters seem to have been going on FOREVER (I know, I know… it probably feels that way to my readers, too).  I really want to get them done, and it feels like a bit of a slog. And I’m sorry if reading about them is a bit of a slog too.

I’d keep myself going with thoughts of what I’m going to knit when I’m free from Christmas gifts, but you know what? I have no idea what I want to knit next. It’s like a big black hole. In fact, it reminds me a little of when I was pregnant with my first child. All my thoughts and fears  about the future were in fact focused on my pregnancy and my labour. How painful was labour going to be, would I cope? (The answer, for those interested, was very well. No drugs but an AWFUL amount of swearing. The midwife thought it very educational, and pretty funny.)

But you know what was missing from my thoughts? The baby. I simply could not get my head around how much life was going to change, so I didn’t even try to imagine it. If I tried to think about having all that responsibility for a small person, I just came up with a big old black hole.

Although clearly in not such a big way, it’s a bit like this now. I’m going to make another sweater for Kira. I’m going to make two pairs of socks (and maybe a scarf if I have time) for Hubbo. Then… who knows? Somewhere between Christmas and the end of February I need to finish the textured sweater for my son that’s been on the needles since about July, and I’m thinking a Swallowtail for my step mother’s birthday. But that’s it.

I need to be inspired.

And that, in turn, got me thinking about where my knitting inspiration comes from. I like looking at links to patterns and doing pattern searches on Ravelry, BUT although I think “oh that’s nice I’ll pop it in my queue”  it doesn’t often set me on fire with desire.

You want to know why I’m not inspired? I think I’ve realised. It’s because since the weather turned I’ve not been sitting in my conservatory any more. In the summer months, when the weather was lovely and I could sit with the door open and look out over my garden, all my yarn and magazines and books were right there, not two metres away from me. I could pull yarn out, feel it and examine the colours, I could flip through a magazine and read the yarn reviews or search for a pattern that suited the hour. Because YARN is actually what inspires me, not patterns. If I’m not looking at my yarn, I’m not motivated to think of things to do with it.

I renamed the conservatory around October. The Wasp Graveyard became The Fridge. I closed the door on it to keep the heat from the kitchen leaching out, and even the addition of a dehumidifier and portable oil heater hasn’t really brought me back. Just recently it’s not been so much cold as wet and windy, and you don’t feel like sitting there, however warm it is, when it sounds like the wind and rain are going to take the roof off. I’d rather be in front of the crackling fire in my living room.  My yarn is a distant thing, closeted away, rather than something I sit looking at from day to day.

The other thing that inspires me is reading other people’s blogs and seeing what yarn they have, rather than what they are specifically making from it. Apart from those ones over there on the right that I check every couple of days, when I’m at work I read my way through particular blogs. Our work computer had to go for repair and when it came back it had mysteriously had it’s DVD driver wiped out, so watching stuff is a past luxury. Instead, now I read. I can happily read for hours, and while books are a little trouble while I’m knitting due to trying to keep the thing open and turning pages, words on a computer screen are perfect. I choose a blog I like the look of and I work my way though it, over days, weeks or even months, from start to finish. So if the blog started in April 2006 I shall start there and work my way through to the present. These are kind of “reserved” blogs that I ONLY read at work. So far I’ve made my way through Stephanie Pearl MacPhee (obviously), Mason Dixon Knitting and Amy Herzog’s blog this way. At the moment I’m working my way up towards Christmas 2006 with Anne Hanson (this requires serious reading as she seems to blog every day without fail, I admire her determination). I enjoy these islands of knittiness, and somehow I find reading other yarn enthusiasts far more inspiring than looking through a book of patterns. Maybe it’s something to do with being very much a process knitter? (I know for sure I am, I wear my socks but I’ve only worn my Shaftesbury sweater twice since finishing it, and scarves and hats are left folorn in the cupboard).

When you use yarn as your inspiration, being on a yarn diet can be hard. I’ve been more than happy on my yarn diet since September because I’ve known for sure what I need to knit and what I’m knitting it from. Now I’m starting to think of new things to knit? I’m starting to think of new yarn. I’d quite like to have another sweater for myself on the go, but I don’t have a sweater’s worth of yarn for myself – only the kids. I’ve allowed for buying the yarn for one sweater for myself while on this diet and although I originally said it would be for Coraline, I’m moving towards Gudrun Johnston’s Moch Cardi instead and making it for the Ravelympics. I’ll get around to making both eventually, but I can only make one before April.

In reading Anne’s blog I’ve liked looking at her plain vanilla socks she makes from Trekking yarns, and I feel the urge to buy Germanic self patterning that I can knit on without thinking. Funny, as I said not a month ago that I was now drawn to solids and stitch patterns…. I dunno. For the first time I’m finding this yarn diet quite hard. Hopefully starting a new project from stash will cure it, as I’m determined to stick to my list and I’m sure being able to cast on something like a Swallowtail or Ishbel (which I can do from stash yarn) will cure me. I think what I actually need to do is get some skeins I’ll be using soon, and my ball winder, and wind them up into lovely cakes. If that doesn;t inspire me to use what I have, I don’t know what will…

So why do I keep looking at websites, looking for the perfect yarn I’ve allowed myself for my cardigan?

Hope

In my last post I was really doubtful that I’d make NaKniSweMo. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The next day I actually managed a whole sleeve and had this

…. and yesterday Hubbo was at a meeting a two hour drive away. So, sure I wasn’t going to be interrupted  I laid all the pieces out on my dining table, chuckled away to Answer Me This! for a couple of hours, had several cups of tea (which lead to several trips to the loo) and seamed what I had.

(This was a good thing, as Hubbo is very unpredictable. He often comes home without warning – flexible hours and a 5 minute walk means he can even come grab his iPod if he feels like it.) I’m at work overnight for the next couple of days and it’s due to be very quiet, so as long as I can smuggle the sheer bulk of the thing out of the house unnoticed I will finish by Monday with no problems

The green cables sweater is also looking pretty good (OK that’s an understatement, when it’s done I think it will look wonderful!).  I have finished the first sleeve and will start the second as soon as Noah is complete (or if Hubbo is around). In short, I hope to have two large projects finished by this time next week and while this is not the end of my Christmas knitting, I’ll feel the better for it.

Not quite the end, almost. One more sweater for Kira to go, but she’s small and it’s Aran weight so not so bad. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m blessed with one child born the week before Christmas and the other three weeks after.  I really like to make a sweater for each. The Green Cable sweater is Kira’s birthday sweater and I have her Christmas one still to do, but I have the pattern chosen and the yarn is picked from stash so as soon as I’m done with Noah and Green Cables I can get going. This will be combined with the socks I still have to make for Hubbo. I think I’ll be going on Christmas gifts until pretty much the last minute, but I’m confident I’ll manage.

There is hope in this post, in another form. You know how much I love my visits to Keswick, and some of you may have heard that recently Keswick suffered terrible floods, after 12 inches of rain in 24 hours and further heavy spates. It was their worst flooding in many decades. The part of the town that suffered most was the bottom end of the High Street, and my in-laws live on the higher ground so they were OK. BUT I worried for the lady who owns the knitting shop I go in every time I visit Keswick, which I could see from the pictures was where the worst flooding was. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know her name, but she’s very friendly and always got chatting to me whenever I went in. I’ve been going in there for many years now, as before I learned to knit I’d buy cross stitch supplies from her.

My mother in law phoned yesterday and said that many of the shops at the bottom end of the street are clearing up and slowly starting to re-open. I hope she’s one of them. If I go up there next time and find the shop closed up I shall be very sad. She’s a one woman business and had only relocated to a “better” shop at the other end of town quite recently. I’ve been sending good thoughts her way, and hope you all will too.

In the mean time, the rain continues to pour here in Somerset too. What better excuse to get another cup of tea, listen to the latest Stash & Burn and knit a bit more of Noah while Hubbo’s out for an hour?

Rip it Up and Start Again

NaKniSweMo is an evil, evil business. You start out happy as Larry (whoever he was) and full of vim and vigour, bursting with love for your sweater to be. You get the back done, kaboom! You get halfway up the front, kapow! You check the date and find it’s only November 11th and as you’re away for the weekend you’ll allow yourself a wee break and take socks on your trip. You get back and carry on with the socks. No problem, still heaps of time. You knit a little on your daughter’s sweater because you feel guilty it’s at the bottom of the pile. OK, well, as long as you carry on with NaKniSweMo tomorrow you’ll be OK.

Next thing you know, somehow your daughter’s sweater looks like this, side seams sewn up and first sleeve well under way…

and your NaKniSweMo project is the one that’s crumpled up in a drawer. You check the date and gulp. A fine glow of perspiration creeps across your brow. OK, time to get down to some serious knittun’. You whip up one side of the v-neck opening, kaboom! You’re starting to feel it again, it’s OK you can do this! You rejoin the yarn and start to whizz up the right hand of the v-neck, you’re doing GOOD now baby, you can get this front piece finished by the end of the day!

…… until you realise you’ve completed almost 4 inches without doing a single decrease along the side of the neck, and Hubbo is going to look decidedly asymmetrical.

This sweater has made me cross. I want to give it time out, but as you’ll notice from the date at the top of this entry, I can’t. So I’ve hit a compromise with it, I’ve put the live stitches of one side of the v-neck on a stitch holder and I’m starting a sleeve instead. Hopefully, this will refresh me. Thank God that using my Denise interchangeables makes this so simple to do.

Like my Girl of Green Cables sweater, I think there is a little too much patterning in Noah. Don’t get me wrong, I love the front and back and think them perfectly fine and manly, but personally I think doing the sleeves in patterning all the way up as well is A Bit Much for a Bloke. So I’ll do ribbing and one diamond cable repeat as an elongated “cuff” then stocking stitch for the rest. So hopefully not much can go wrong as long as I remember to do some increases and decreases this time.

Something lovely arrived in the post today, thanks to Robynn of Purlescence

My sister Sara declared her love for her Damson once again in London, and told me that a couple of her friends at work had advised her to get a shawl pin to set it off. Naturally I decided that such a fine accessory would make the perfect Christmas present to accompany her birthday shawl, and I think she’ll LOVE this pewter pin from Annie Adams. I confess I was tempted to keep it for myself it’s so beautiful, but no. A Christmas gift it shall be. I don’t have enough money to spend on such frivolities for myself right now.

And while I was on the Purlescence website I also found the perfect shawl pin to set off my Mum’s Damson, which I must pop in the post to Spain soon….

Mum has always loved owls. She’s poorly and very low at the moment, she had an operation to help the blood flow to her legs this year but it hasn’t helped and she’s confined to a wheel chair. Hopefully having something hand made will cheer her a little.

…. and finally, before I get a start on that sleeve….

 

…. an update on my vow to read or dispose of 15 books before I get a Kindle. As you can see, although I haven’t been blogging about my reading I’m doing quite well. This is the pile of ones I’m going to donate to the library, plus I’ve read 2 not pictured that are for keeps. Almost, therefore, at my original goal. BUT I shall be extending the challenge for two reasons. Firstly, I have a lot more unread books on my shelf than I initially thought, I could quite easily stretch my challenge from 15 to 20 books, or maybe even 25 if I count non-fiction. Secondly, I have spent the equivalent of the cost of a Kindle on gig tickets for next year, so currently don’t have the money for a Kindle anyway. I’m now thinking maybe it’s more in line as a new year gift to myself, or  a” 25 book” deal.

Now I can’t possibly put off that sleeve any longer….

Fancy Stitch Fever

You know sometimes you start a new project, work on it for about a week and then put it down forever? Well, not exactly forever but I tend to get antsy if I’ve not worked on any given project for more than about 2 weeks, it’s just the way I am. That was how I was feeling about the green cable sweater for my daughter’s 7 birthday, on December 15th. It stayed like this for a loooong time and I was starting to wonder if I’d pick it up again.

The cables were simple enough in themselves, don’t get me wrong. But they took concentration and stitch markers which I just didn’t have (literally in the latter case, if you look closely you’ll see some of those are paperclips).

So I went away for the weekend without a thought of this sweater in my mind, except for one, tiny, nagging one. “You know the back and the front are the same, right? When you finish this side, you have to do it all over again.”

And the replying tiny thought was “Screw That. Knitting is spoze to be fun.”

So when I got home from my weekend in London (more of which in a moment) I forced myself to finish the one side, telling myself I was only about 40 minutes from casting off that piece so I might as well. I managed, but the thought of an identical piece was still sapping at me.

Then I cast on the second piece, started the fancy stitch border… and just carried on with it. So now I have this.

Actually slightly more than that, I’m about ten rows from starting the arm hole shaping as I type. It’s wonderful and mindless and I honestly, truly think that this sweater would look slightly weird if it was identical on both sides. Really, I think I prefer it this way and my 7 year old will easily be able to tell which way round it goes, which is a win / win situation. Fancy stitch is nice, it looks tidier than moss stitch in my opinion but it doesn’t pull in like ribbing. You simply purl the rs row and p1 k1 right across the ws row. Piece o’ cake, and one hellalot quicker than doing cables on both sides.

But I feel a bit bad now as Ravelry had asked to use my photos as it’s only example of this sweater, and I’ve changed so much I really should tell them the resemblance is minimal. I cut out the bobbles because I hate bobbles and see no purpose to them. I made the 14 – 16 year old size in a single strand of yarn rather than Kira’s size with a double strand. The back is completely different…. the list goes on, who do I contact regarding such issues?

This last weekend I was in London again, which I didn’t really talk much about as it wasn’t knitting related. My favourite band, Muse, were playing an arena tour and I went to see them at the O2 arena in East London on Friday night. A lot of my internet forum buddies were there (including Abbey) and a lot of drinking was done (seriously I don’t think I’ve ever spent 5 hours straight in a pub before, I’ve lead a very sheltered life). I had an amazing time at the concert and took no photos whatsoever as I was way to busy moshing.

The next day I met my sister Sara, who lives in London, and we got blown to Greenwich, which is very beautiful and full of really gorgeous old buildings like this

and this

…. and has views like these

(the big round tenty thing in the second picture is the O2 arena, where I’d moshed with 20 000 other people the night before…)

My sister and I walked up the big hill to the observatory and the Greenwich meridian. This was very VERY brave of us, as the wind was gusting to 60mph and the rain was tearing over London at that point, it rained for pretty much the next 3 or 4 hours.

I paid my dues and joined the queue of international tourists waiting to take each other’s photos on the Meridian Line (GMT – Greenwich Mean Time – from which all time zones are calculated starts here)

(no I don’t have a weird body shape, that’s the 60mph winds blowing my waterproof, I swear. And just don’t mention my hair. At all.)

We dropped by the Maritime Museum on the way back down, then I took my (non knitting) sister along to the iKnit shop by Waterloo station which I’d been meaning to visit for a while. It was smaller than I thought it was going to be but very nice, lots of lovely books and yarn and books about yarn and a nice lady who let me show my sister how to wear her Damson shawl on the mannequin (I don’t think I came up with many wildly exciting options but it’s the thought that counts).

We went out for an Italian meal in the evening but to be honest I’d only had about 3 hours sleep the night before and was very tired. I had quite an early night and slept like a log.

The next morning we had tea and bacon sandwiches in our pyjamas then headed out for a walk in Battersea park. What a weather contrast to the day before! Beautiful!

We saw squirrels! Plural squirrels!

We saw children getting wet!

We walked up to the Peace Pagoda and looked out over the river at the beautiful old mansion blocks on the opposite bank

Then we went to The Imperial War Museum, which is quite probably the best museum I’ve ever been in and had me in tears within about 20 minutes of going in there (the Children’s War exhibition, it’s impossible as a parent not to imagine it’s your own….)  I didn’t spend nearly enough time there even to see a quarter of it, sadly, as I had to go get my train home, but it’s at the top of my list for next time I go to London.

My sum total of knitting for the entire weekend was this:

One half of one cuff of a BFF sock. I just… I didn’t feel like knitting. I know. I’m sorry, I should have warned you all to sit down before the shock of that statement but I figured you probably were anyway.

Now I have some time at home, no more trips before Christmas and work is quiet so I can knuckle down to the rest of my Christmas knitting and Hubbo’s NaKniSweMo sweater.

But to be honest, I kinda liked moshing.

A Photo Essay

This week I have been doing lots of this

as the children are back at school, and peace and (relative) sanity has been restored. I’ve been really enjoying this book, I’ve read almost all of it in about 3 days flat and have about 40 pages left to go out of 500+.  It’s a novel about the mutiny on The Bounty which gives a very sympathetic view of Captain Bligh and portrays Fletcher Christian as shallow and vain. It’s all written from the point of view of a 14 year old boy who’s the captain’s personal servant and it’s very involving, I highly recommend it. It’s the first John Boyne book I’ve read but I’ll certainly be hunting out some more.   I’ve also started The Children’s Book by AS Byatt, which I’ve read about 80 pages of and I like a lot so far.

I’ve also done a fair amount of this

while watching this, which I hadn’t seen since it was first on TV.

As I’ve forgotten almost everything about it and it hasn’t dated very much (apart from some of the women’s fashions) it’s great to see it again. I remember the broad plot but not the details, so it’s lots of fun. And I never noticed this as a non knitter but Audrey Horne has the CUTEST collection of sweaters ever seen in one place. In fact, there’s a serious amount of knitwear in this show, most of it dated  but in Miss Horne’s case very 1950s inspired and classic.

As for the rest of my knitting, it’s the same as when I last posted. Even the Leyburn socks which still look like this

They’ll probably be the second pair I knit for Hubbo, as I’m in London for the weekend and I want to take something I’m not so cross with. BFF socks to the rescue?

I’ve basically spent a lot of time in the last 5 days or so sitting on my arse, and not doing much at all out here

because the weather’s been quite cool and damp and uninspiring. I only go up to the vegetable patch to scatter more slug pellets, but my cabbages and brocolli seem to be going well. All the inactivity compared to the summer, however, is doing my backside and thighs no good. So this was lunch today

I lost almost 70lbs 18 months ago and it’s starting to creep back on. How depressing. Must stoppit.

In the mean time I’ve arranged to see my sister in London this weekend which will be great, we’ve not caught up in a while. I’ve invited her for Christmas (her being a “spinster” aunt an’ all, ha ha) and she’s going to come to stay for a few days between Christmas and new year. As I gave her the Jaywalkers and the first Damson for her birthday I’m not planning any hand knit Christmas gifts for her, but she sent me a lovely card saying thank you for them so I know she’ll be deserving of hand knit gifts another time.

I’m still confident that hand made Christmas gifts for others will be ready in time with a little application, as long as I concentrate on gifts and nothing much else (thus Elsewhere may have to wait… well, elsewhere for a while). I don’t do masses of stuff but I like to shower the immediate family with hand knitted love. I like having all this knitting to do, it gives me a legitimate excuse to sit on my arse and watch TV… as long as I give up the biscuits with my cups of tea.

 

Stamina and Resolve

You can prepare for Nakniswemo in many ways. You can choose your pattern…

You can take care over your yarn, find the perfect fibre combination and colour….

You can join a group, limber up with finger exercises… heck, whatever you want. But nothing… nothing in the world, could have prepared me for the sense of tedium I feel after working on this…

… for six hours straight, four days in a row. You know I said I was bored of socks? Working on a sweater with a 46 inch chest has cured me. I thought by choosing a pattern with a little cable interest I’d be spared after the “Lucky” experience, but because it’s the only thing I’m working on…. well, I don’t think I’m cut out for monogamy. But I shall just plug on, with a sentimental re-watching of Twin Peaks and my audiobook to distract me from The Dull. (Twin Peaks holds up very well after all these years I think, I expected it to be more dated after all this time but it still seems quite modern apart from Lara Flynn Boyle’s clothes). Still, I’ve started the front section and am just past the first diamond section, so I guess in terms of progress NaKniSweMo is going well for me. Photo updates on Monday.

I haven’t started on the Leyburn-a-likes again yet but I think I shall soon, if only because I’m in London for a gig again next weekend and I don’t want to take a sweater as train knitting. I like to travel light and I aim to only take a small back pack with one change of clothes and a toothbrush in it (sadly, a hair brush will not be missed as my hair always looks this bad).  I’ll be seeing my pal Abbey-of-the-blue-hair again and we’ve mooted the idea of making a pilgrimage going to iKnit on Saturday, as neither of us have ever been to the shop and we hear rumours that there’s a bar, a real bar there that sells beer and everything. In a knitting shop, can you imagine?  I bet you can’t, which is why I consider it my DUTY to go there and report back, for my readers everywhere.

The other thing about going to a big swanky knit shop that sells Malabrigo and Cherry Tree Hill etc is, of course, that I may be tempted from Cold Sheeping. We all know how much I have come to love The Way of the Sock, and the initiation into The Eternal Brotherhood of the Lace Shawl is short only of an Ishbel, which all members are required to make. Socks, shawls? Just that one skein, that one skein in a gorgeous colourway you fear you might never see again, is enough to make them. And to break your vows.

I shall allow myself to buy something at iKnit, of course. I’ll get to go there maybe twice a year at most, so it’s an event for me (oh you lucky Londoners! Treasure your yarn stores! Remember your rural sisters stuck in a land of 1970s wool shops stuffed with Wendy acrylic!). BUT I’ll try not to buy yarn. I know they sell the two Barbara Walker Treasuries I don’t yet own. I know they sell blocking wires and T-pins. I know they probably sell all kinds of lovely stitch markers and books and whatjamacallits that aren’t yarn. So yes, I think I can manage. And having Abbey there, who’s a poor penniless student, will help me on the path to moderation. Abbey also reads this blog, so Abbey don’t let me buy yarn, K?

In the mean time, I shall procrastinate over my sweater knitting even more. I’ve already had a massive clear out of kid’s toys (seriously, why keep a Power Ranger that’s missing a leg?), I’ve done a quiz which told me I’m warm and fuzzy and resemble mohair, I’ve started a new book even though I’ve not finished the ones in the margin over there on the right yet (a new feature, just below the knitmeter button, like it?) Now I’ll probably go and clean the bath or something, because right now even that seems more pleasurable than doing another couple of inches of sweater. I love the pattern, I stand by the colour and I’m still looking forward to seeing Hubbo wear it at Christmas. I just don’t wanna knit it right now.

Sweater Round Up Pt 1

I’m feeling a bit socked out. Three pairs in a month was fun, but now I’m done with socks for a while (well, at least ones I’m making for leisure rather than Christmas gifts. I don’t have the mental energy to discuss the Leyburn-a-likes that I had to rip out after 2 inches yesterday).  But this proves categorically that I would be pretty useless at the 52 Pair Plunge. Or at least, pretty bored.

I am, however, looking like a promising NaKniSweMo-er. Noah is almost up to the under arm decreases and has been worked upon through several hours of BBC iPlayer watching (it’s been peeing down with rain for the last two days, as good an excuse as any to stay inside and knit).

(the above picture is from yesterday, I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be showing a completed back and can start on one of the arms.)

The green cabled sweater is also growing, but very slowly.  I confess, by the time Kira has gone to bed at night and I’m sure she’s not going to pounce on me with a “I needed the toilet” excuse (which basically means “I want to see what the grown ups are watching on telly”) I’m pretty tired, and in no mood for 5 different cables in 12 inches’ width.  I expect progress to be made once Kira returns to school after her half term break tomorrow. Being able to work on it in the day will make a world of difference. I’m happy with the way it’s going, though, and I love the colour. I’ll post another pic when I’ve finished the back piece.

So far, so bottom up and 4 pieces. I was planning on making some more socks, as you recall, for my project I can work on whenever the hell I like. But then I decided that I was a bit bored of Cookie lace patterns for just now so the Baudelaires would have to wait. I flirted with Mamluke socks as colourwork was tempting and I have some charity shop yarn that would work. But in the end I decided upon… another sweater, one for me. So yesterday I cast on Amy Swenson’s Elsewhere with my mohair supply doubled up.

I have mohair from the charity shop in two different shades, the pale pink one was unlabelled and who-knows-what-provenance, the darker one was labelled an’ all. Paton’s Mohair DK. There are 8 skeins of each which I just piled together as Paton’s on my Rav stash page for ease.

Knitted as two strands together, I just about get gauge for the aran weight Elsewhere requires, though it’s a tiny weeny bit on the thick side. On the plus side, the two make a very nice tweeded effect.

This cardigan will be seriously thick, and seriously soft. Providing I have enough yarn, which I’m a little concerned about because although I know the meterage of the Paton’s, the meterage on the paler colour is clearly shorter and anybody’s guess. Call me a knitting daredevil if you must. I’m knitting by the seat of my pants and hoping I have enough yarn to cover the “seat” aforementioned. I don’t like things that don’t cover my bum.

The astute and incisive reader will also notice that the photo above looks awfully like a collar. That’s because this is my first venture into top down seamless construction. I didn’t intend it that way, I just looked at the cardigan and decided I like it. The pattern itself gives no brief description of the construction that I could see so I just plunged in. I think this is a good way to go, for me. I’m still a little timid in my knitting though I’ve learned a lot in the last year – if I’d known it was top down and seamless I may well have hesitated. But because it never occurred to me and I just got on with it, it was fine and I can now easily see where the pattern instructions are going.

For the next six weeks or so, Hubbo and I will be spending 5 nights of the week apart from eachother. One of us will be on sleepovers at work in case one of our guests has an emergency in the night(Have I mentioned we work at the same place?).  I don’t mind this. I’ll spread out, take up all the space in the bed I want and enjoy the lack of snoring. I’ll also enjoy being freely able to work on his Christmas sweater and socks without fear of him walking in. I’m sure NaKniSweMo is well within my reach, and on the two nights we’ll be together I can work on Elsewhere or Kira’s sweater.  The Great Christmas Gift Juggle has commenced, but so far it doesn’t feel so bad.

Hedera

My October of socks has ended in style.

Hedera by Cookie A

Knitted in Elle sock yarn, colour 101, “grape”

This was my first little bit of “lacy” lace and I really enjoyed it, plus it was satisfying to use some yarn I’d had in a bag since I started knitting.

I’m glad I took part on Socktoberfest this year, what’s not to love about socks? They’re small and easy to sneak into work or on a train, they’re a good way of trying out more complex patterns on a small scale, you can use colours that would make you look ill next to your face… I like socks so much I even need to make 3 more pairs before Christmas. I intend to use two of the three balls of yarn my mother in law got me making Leyburn and BFF socks for Hubbo for Christmas. The third ball I have earmarked for some Baudelaires for myself in dark red.

BUT the big thing around these parts at the moment is NaKniSweMo and I have ridiculously itchy fingers. At this rate I’d be casting on right after midnight if the object of my efforts weren’t in bed with me (Hubbo, not George Clooney this year in case you were wondering…). This pattern looks just enough to fly through, but just enough to keep me interested, the yarn I’ve chosen I’m happy will make a nice tweeded blue that will compliment Hubbo’s eyes, I can’t wait to make it and, come Christmas, I can’t wait to see him wearing it.

All this depends, of course, on how much knitting I’m physically able to get done. If I had no other people in my house I could knit all day to my heart’s content. Work is entering its quietest phase of the year and I can easily take projects in and get stuff done there too. The main problem is that now, the Project Juggling officially commences. I can’t knit the green cable sweater in front of the kids because it’s for Kira. Neither can I knit Noah in front of them for Hubbo, because a sweater is a big thing, they’ll comment on it and I’m worried that they may accidentally mention it to him. Socks however, I think I can get away with as they see me kntting socks all the time and it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

SO… keep up, here…

I can knit the green cable sweater with Hubbo around, after the kids have gone to bed or when they’re at school. Once I’ve finished that I have the boys’ textured pullover to finish and a cardigan to do. Each would take about a week of fairly solid knitting, a challenge but I’m pretty sure I can get them done!

I can knit Leyburn and BFF socks with the kids around but not with Hubbo around

I can knit Noah only when I’m all alone, either at home or at work

I can knit my Baudelaires with anyone around, anywhere I damn well like… even in the bath if someone invents a waterproof pouch for yarn

I already have a fair bit of knitting done for the festive season. I only knit for close family but I have an added problem as both the children’s birthdays are within 3 weeks of Christmas, so I have birthday knitting to do as well. A sweater for each of them, each for birthday and Christmas means 4 sweaters. Thank goodness they’re still small, once they reach about 12 I think I’ll be dropping the Christmas ones (assuming they still want anything hand knit by that age, which they probably won’t). My sister had her Damson so I’ll give her a shop bought gift. I have Damson the Second complete for my Mum (it never made it to The Lakes with me by the way, I jilted it and left it in the gift box under the bed). Hubbo takes care of the gifts for the in laws (in the same way I sort out gifts for my parents… it just seems to have become Our Way of Doing Things). My dad and stepmother had knitted gifts last year and I’m not sure whether to make something for them or not. I have some cotton I could make wash cloths for them from, and maybe give them those with some really nice soap? Or maybe just a shop gift for them too, I’ll see how much time I have left, it’s not a priority.

You might well have noticed that with all this knitting going on, my poor spinning wheel hasn’t had any regular excercise. Gift knitting has been a priority. I’ve really been getting itchy spinning fingers too, this last week, and I’m hoping that at least some of the time when I can’t be working on my secret projects I shall be doing a lot more spinning. I need to get my box of fibre out, see what excites me, dust the old lady off and get back in the groove. I’ve discovered a couple more podcasts this week that I’ve enjoyed and I can think of few things more relaxing than listening to a podcast or an audiobook while spinning… in fact, I might well go and do some right now

NaKniSweMo

I’ve been and gone and done it. I’ve joined the Ravelry group and I’ve checked the pattern and I’ve swatched my yarn. God only knows if I’ll manage it, but as this sweater needs to be done for Christmas I might as well try.

It sounds quite hard – partly because Hubbo sweaters are BIG and partly because, of course, it needs to be knitted only in secret, while he’s not here or when I’m at work and he’s here. The logistics of hiding it and carrying it around are pretty interesting in themselves, let alone the knitting of the thing.  Still, I might as well give it a shot. If I don’t manage what can they do, call the knitting police and confiscate my stash?

In other news, today I discovered something interesting on my lawn while I was hanging out the laundry. To be honest, it made me feel guilty I hadn’t noticed before and made me think I’ve been rather neglecting things for a while.

I think I’d been assuming these were leaves, but of course I was mistaken from a distance

This either makes me the worst gardener in the world and the garden police need to roll up my lawn and take it away, OR I’m the best kind of gardener, completely in tune with my surroundings and aiming to balance my planted borders with the naturally occurring species of the area. Think I’ll go with the latter.

Oh, and you’ll notice I said I was hanging up my laundry?

This blogger would like to reassure her concerned readers that the above mushrooms did NOT grow between her toes. My personal hygiene is above reproach and today my clown pukes smell pleasantly of lavender wool wash.

Meteorology and Evolution

I don’t know about where YOU are, but this week is pretty weird (yes, I’m British and I’m about to discuss the weather. Get over it.).

It’s winter now, officially. The clocks went back at the weekend, it’s dark by the time dinner is over, and almost as dark in the morning when I wake up and go to work. I’m soon to be plugging away at Christmas knitting. I can no longer have “just” a cup of tea, it needs to be accompanied by at least 3 biscuits per mug (Rich Tea, of course, are best for dunking).  Custard and porridge have made a return to the household menu. And yet….

It’s so freaking warm this week. I happily walked home from work at 11pm last night in a t-shirt and light cardigan. I wore much the same down to the shops today, and yesterday when I did a few little jobs in the garden I even stripped off the cardi and worked for a while in just a cheese cloth top, damnit! What’s happening? It was all so chill and… autumny. Before. I’m confused. Even the vegetables in the garden are confused, my cabbages are twice the size they were last week…

I like winter because it’s the perfect excuse to be a complete slob, stay inside and curl up on the sofa. With the aforementioned tea and biscuits, some knitting and some decent internet telly I could quite happily pass a whole winter if only work and having a family didn’t get in the way. Today I did just that, found some interesting stuff on BBC4 on the BBC iPlayer, drank endless cups of tea and banished the kids to the garden to play on their bikes.

I made a start on my second Hedera and hopefully when I get back from work tonight I may even finish the cuff ready for a heel turn tomorrow

I also read a bit more of Wolf Hall, but I’m not entirely sure it’s grabbing me. The narrative jumps around a fair bit and even major pieces of action are written in a very stylized way which hinders the immediacy you should feel, imho.  I’m still reading though, I feel I need to give it a bit more of as chance as the basics of the story itself are enjoyable.

It occurred to me that I meant to talk a little about Creation which I saw last week.

I actually thought it was pretty good. I found it absorbing and the performances of the three main characters (by Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly and newcomer Martha West who-I-have-only-just-this-minute-realised-is-Dominic-West’s-daughter-OMFG!) were excellent. The supporting cast… well, more of that in a minute.

 

Although I enjoyed the film, I also found it wanting in many aspects. Both Hubbo and I came out of the cinema feeling like this year was a chance to make a really BIG film about the whole voyage of the Beagle and all it’s implications and how it was the catalyst for a change in attitude towards religion for so many people… it’s just this wasn’t It. They’d chosen to go the other way and make a film that focussed on a particular aspect of Darwin’s life, the death of his daughter and the difficulties that the couple’s grief and his atheism brought to his marriage. It was good, but for this story it didn’t need to be about Darwin in particular, it could have been about any Victorian family who’d lost a child.

It sounds like a strange problem to have with a film, but I also had issues with the supporting cast. They just weren’t used enough.  I was quite excited at the roll call of distinguished Brit talent… Jeremy Northam, Bill Paterson, the always-brilliant Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch, who I think is so good it’s only a matter of time before the Americans steal him and stick him in something on HBO (if they can get over his name).

BUT… were they used in proportion to their talents?  Were they heck   Northam and Cumberbatch had a few scenes each scattered through the film and were probably the most visible, Paterson showed up for about three scenes when Darwin takes Anna to Malvern, and Toby Jones? He summed up everything the film could have been in one scene and was never seen again (“You have killed God sir, that’s what you’ve done!”). I got the impression somehow that a lot of the supporting performances were left on the cutting room floor, and it made me sad.

Seeing Toby Jones and Ben Cumberbatch in a film together again made me recall Amazing Grace which had similarities to Creation, though I liked Amazing Grace a lot more. Like Creation, it takes an enormous subject with lots of implications (the British parliament abolishing the slave trade) and looks at it through a particular aspect – in this case, the relationship between William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) and his wife (Romola Garai), and also the strong friendship between Wilberforce and Prime Minister William Pitt (Ben Cumberbatch). Like Creation, this film also has an incredibly strong supporting cast – Toby Jones, Albery Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell…. seriously, I could go on and on… in quite small roles. From what director Michael Apted has said, I get the impression that he was only allowed to make the film with 3 relatively unknown leads (in the days before Ioan attacked Hollywood) if he lured in big names for other parts, as an audience draw. Anyway, Amazing Grace is a terrific film and I can recommend it.

Oh, and one more thing, before I go…

Now, I wouldn’t want you to think that this is the third day running that I’ve been wearing these socks. Oh no. I’m MUCH more meticulous  about my personal hygiene than to wear socks for three days running, and no matter HOW comfortable the socks they are put into the laundry basket at the end of the day. Oh Yes.

Truly.