Angel Pearls progress

The Angel Pearls scarf is coming along - when I have time to sit down with a chart and an audio-book, it's knitting along at a little more than a repeat per hour, so should be finished well in time for Christmas! The pinning-out on this is appalling and doesn't do justice to it...

Icarus is tantalisingly only 10 rows from the end, too; but I've been working on a sketchbook for Fibrefusion this evening instead...

Anyone in the UK who can get BBC7 on the radio - there's a one-hour Linda Smith Gala at 11pm on Friday night...

And just when...

... I thought they couldn't get any more photogenic, I came back in earlier and found this:

This is Amelia Peabody Jarrahkatt, gradually dragging a sock towards herself by the joint powers of Cuteness and Huge Padding Claws. I wrested it from her grasp shortly after this photo was taken. Note the complete lack of interest in the completed sock, which is presumably Out of Play.

Spot the Difference

Photo one: cats at 8:15 am


Photo two: cats at 12:15 pm

They did move, briefly but at some speed, when biscuits were poured into their bowls at about 9.

Tilda is sitting in a washing-up bowl containing random skeins of yarn waiting to be put away. Amelia is lying on the bag containing Icarus and his yarn...

Did a library shift this morning - nice children signing up online for Children in Need information packs, polite and friendly teenagers placing holds, smiling people paying fines without a quibble - it was all rather St Mary Mead (apart, of course, for St. M. M.'s liberal scattering of cadavers).

Beware...

... Show Secretaries bearing gifts.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this for the next year. Having entered stuff for the village show, I won prizes (first for knit and crochet, second for embroidery; which was a moment of some chagrin, as the piece in question had won actual money in national competition, but was headed off in the village by a very beautifully-executed cross-stitch of the Grand Canal (and may be the reason my embroidery adult ed. class in the village didn't happen this year)) and it turned out I got the Most Points in Craft Classes.

Anyway; Sandra came round, somewhat apologetically, with the Engraved Thing (AKA the Transcore Transformers Shield) this evening. All I need to do is put it somewhere I can find it for the first weekend in September next year...

Just worked out...

... why this colour is called Vintage.

Duh.

Thankfully I'd removed the wine before this happened...

Norwegians [the Forest Cats, not actual Norwegian people] seem to sit with their feet stretched out like this a lot. Thankfully she'd slid them daintily under the needle on Icarus (while I wandered off to post the first half of this) without disturbing any actual stitches - I'm halfway through Chart 3 with nearly 500 stitches on the needles...

Alchemy...

... seems to have been this weekend's theme. Or at least, transformation...

Before any of the crafty stuff, John Humphreys did a magical thing with words in this Saturday's Today programme, in his essay on the 40th anniversary of Aberfan. Reading the transcript isn't enough; you need to hear him delivering it in the audio clip.

Meanwhile, I dyed - mainly for a project I can't blog about - but did, on the side and last weekend, turn this:

into this...

by the judicious application of purple... (There should be more purple in the world).

I cooked (which used to happen a lot more often than it does these days...). But a pan of lasagne, although delicious, isn't that photogenic if you only remember to take a picture when it's been partly eaten and the rest has been stashed in the freezer.

And I cleaned. It's amazing what a walk through an Apple Day festival on a cathedral green will inspire; in this case a whacking great bunch of inexpensive sunflowers, the perfect background of the piece of felt I made at Wingham three years ago, and no space at all on the table. So here it is, as cleared-up as the house gets (note large quantity of yarn lurking in corners).

I've just realised how many craft-attempts there are in this picture, from the slightly wobbly vase I made in pottery several years ago which still pleases me, to the slightly wobbly felted vessel made with tapestry wool earlier this year... The completely non-wobbly basket on the table behind the vessel, made by Stewart and a Christmas present the year before last, was full of tags and labels when I took the picture, but a neighbour came round with some pears this evening. I think they look like little green seals or something... it definitely feels as if some sort of conversation's going on...

The cats are, obviously, displeased with the expanse of table. They like this sort of arrangement;

preferably with the option of kicking small fragile objects off the edge. I have a very exciting flame-like pattern on one corner of my (really quite new) mobile's screen thanks to a leap-with-flying-flail from Tilda on Friday morning...

Don't you just hate it...

... when this happens?

Sivia Harding Hanging Garden Shawl, nearly two repeats in; mysteriously partly removed from the needles...

Discovered this when I went in to nab the row-counter from this project (which is lovely, but I'm going to pick it up again once the Christmas knitting and at least one of the Arans are finished need something more mindless...
Having said that, the row-counter is for this

... the Angel Pearls Scarf. The knitalong started yesterday, and it only takes 230m of yarn, so I'm hoping it's going to be a relatively quick and delicate knit for my SIL...

Blog birthday

This blog was a year old yesterday! So, in anticipation, I bought it some presents at AP... (Hey, a genuine annual excuse...) Unlike the stash from the NEC, I managed to stay off reds and turquoises this time...


Exhibit A: on the left, 1 skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Watercolour, from Get Knitted. I love this colour - have a couple of skeins of the DK Swirl in this colour too. This is for another pair of variegated Mamlukes, but subtle ones - teaming it with some heathery green from the stash; or a light air-force blue if I can find the right one... on the right, two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Glitter Alpaca, from Woolly Workshop, in shade Martha's Vineyard; this will be a shoulder-shawl of some kind as there's 400m of it. The glitter is very subtle, and sort of coppery.


This is Elle Wool Boutique Merino Variegated - can't find it anywhere on the Web at the moment, but it's 100% wool - possibly for felting, or maybe for a scarf of some kind.

This, however, is definitely one for a scarf. Yarn snobs look away now...

100% polyester, from The Handspinner Having Fun. About 200m/just over 200g and shiny as shiny can be... I'm thinking big lace pattern, big needles, big fringes...

Also found out that Cottenham Summer School have invited me to teach again next year - yay! It was such fun this year... Will have to get a proposal and brochure entry together at the weekend...

Ally Pally...

Well; I had this post, which wasn't just about Ally Pally; and I saved it, and uploaded photos, and then Blogger ate it; presumably my carefully-prepared words were regarded as some sort of offering which would be consumed in exchange for the gracious posting of the photos... arrggh.

So, this was the scene at 7:33 on Saturday morning as I set off for Ally Pally. Yes, it's that time of the year where the Fens are particularly attractive, if you like fog. [That would be between November and March, with odd October mornings like this in thoughtful preparation for the SAD season...]


By Kings Cross I'd revived somewhat, and bumped into Ruth, aka Woolly Wormhead, heading for the same train; so I got a sneak preview of some of her wonderful hats. People tried them on too:



The pic below is not a reaction to the wearing of the above hat, which I think is rather fetching; but the subsequent one... I was too busy looking at Ruth to photograph Jan...

Here's a random shot of some people at the Relax and Knit stand, organised by Yvonne; and one to shove at people who persist in thinking you have to look like Miss Marple if you're a knitter...

Other things from the show; met Kerrie and bought a copy of Yarn Forward which is potentially the most exciting UK knitting magazine I've seen so far; also caught up with Wye Sue, Fred, Sue from Stitch 'n Dye, caught a glimpse of Lixie as she flitted by in a very nice crocheted thing, saw Nic briefly, and met Sue from Knittiotherapy. Her video of the hats is worth watching... Also Gill from Woolly Workshop. While volunteering, got to meet a 12-year-old American crocheter who picked up knitting in about 3 minutes flat, and then taught her little sister...

I had stash; and it was relatively modest; but Blogger hates that too. So maybe tomorrow...

Tibet

Since I saw the Regia Tibet yarn on Colin's blog in April, I've coveted it; last week I saw some at a reasonable price on eBay and it arrived on Thursday. Cast this on tonight, and then couldn't stop knitting it...

Isn't it pretty?

Dyeing tonight

Another weekend of partial-clearing-up and procrastination... I'm now exactly halfway up the first sleeve of St Brigid, and at the point where one-and-a-half rows of Icarus = one journey to/from Tesco... [They had Billy Madison for £2.84 at Tesco today, and as it has Bradley Whitford content I bought it - I gather this is the nadir of his 'yuppie scum' period though...]


Yarn. I did some dyeing for a project today. And also a skein as part of the Sivia Harding Hanging Garden KAL prize draw, which is what you get here... The recipient, Kim, likes blues and purples and is OK with brights, which is lovely as they're my favourite combination too. It's all likely to be darker than this, Kim; this photo was taken with flash, on wet yarn; but it's currently looking nice hanging over the towel-dryer in the bathroom...

St Brigid's Revenge

Well, it's been a weekend of two halves. Yesterday I went to Stash with Jan and met Sue again (met her briefly at last year's Ally Pally) and also Dawn; Michelle and Nic, and later Nathalie, were there doing the actual yarn-shop-minding thing... Knitted some on Icarus; but he's a gift, so I'm not blogging him until after Christmas... Bought some Trekking XXL and some ribbon yarn to add to some matt black ribbon in the stash... and also acquired some very nice wool/cotton blend sock yarn which Jan hates...

Today I was trying to do my FLYLady thing (which I don't follow with any degree of fervour, but I do think gives some good ideas which work for me) by timing things and trying to clear up the chaos... while attempting to make some cards for the Harrogate show next weekend to go with our exhibition there.

My compensatory knitting was St B - trying to avoid the sweater equivalent of Second Sock Syndrome by casting on the next bit as soon as the previous bit is finished. And she completely gave me a good kicking. This could be cold-related fuzziness but I'd swear I'd read, and re-read, the instructions several times and was convinced that I needed to do one pattern repeat before I started the sleeve increases. Despite the schematic, which shows a steady increase from the wrist. So, I did a repeat, and then re-read yet again; and then thought 'that's an awful lot of increases before the saddle shoulder...' so I calculated, and worked out that the AT THE SAME TIME notation, which I was positive came after the first repeat, actually applied from the beginning of the sleeve...


This is St-Brigid-viewed-through-whiskers (this from the cat which attempted to bring in a half-dead mouse on Thursday night in a rainstorm, was chased back out again, and then spat out half a mouse-head onto the kitchen floor on Friday morning while I was still deciding whether I was too fragile to go into work; now she's being friendly)... and here's an update from later today.

I think the sleeve's under there somewhere. Amelia Peabody Jarrahkatt on patrol... Another shirt ruined.