Sahar: proof positive of knitting life...

I have been knitting; honestly. I'm just aware I haven't blogged any for ages. Some of this has been that delay you get where you knit a present, or do a test knit, and then can't present it for ages. Some of it has just been indolence. Most of it, frankly, has just been that all my blogging time (and honestly, most of my energy) over the summer and since has been sucked into the whole KnitCamp experience, and the earlier and later fiascos. Even from the point of view of a student and observer, it's been completely knackering. I hope to catch up at some point. And some of the things I've made have been really lovely even if I say so as shouldn't.

However, just about a month ago, Franklin put up a pattern on Ravelry for download which somehow just screamed "KNIT ME!!" in a way very few things have recently, despite the huge wealth of patterns out there, particularly as I knew exactly which yarn I was going to use. So despite having 114 things in the Ravelry queue ahead of this, and a lot of yarn at home, I found myself in John Lewis buying Rowan Felted Tweed a couple of days later, and casting on in the pub (yes, I had brought appropriate needles and the waste yarn with me. I was a Brownie and a Guide. On occasions, I am Prepared).

That evening I had this

and was sort of entranced. There's a switch every 6 rows in the first pattern which stops you falling into complacency, but it's a switch like the end of a long seam in sewing, or (for those of us just old enough to remember) the ding of the bell of the typewriter at the end of a row; not too jarring, just a little reminder that something needs to be done.

There's not too much of any part of the pattern to be boring (Summer into Fall and Wibbo's as-yet-unpublished Gallimaufry compare with it for sheer enjoyment) but the DK weight yarn also makes it a comparatively fast knit. There's a provisional cast-on at each end, grafting/Kitchener stitch in the middle, and then picking up and knitting around the edge to make a border (which isn't a huge border, but still takes up about a quarter of the yarn). The picking up and knitting is dead easy if you just follow the instructions. I found a tiny error on one square of the final row of the border; which is, of course, fixed now.

A little over a fortnight after casting on I had this:

and then a few days later managed to get a photo of the actual colour of the thing.

Pictures are clickable to embiggen (despite the Firefox upgrade which means I'm having to go back to IE to link to Flickr...)

Bravo, Franklin, and thanks for the pattern. It's been a while since I was this single-minded about a piece of knitting; I think this stole will be lounging negligently around on the sofa this winter, on the rare occasions when it's not wrapped around my neck.

BEST things about a lazy Sunday morning...

A nice pot of Hattiali, from Palais des Thés (thanks, Wibbo!), with my favourite crockery, while listening to Broadcasting House, The Archers and Test Match Special...

A new lace project (stealth, so just visible on the right)...

And a new pair of mittens, the last finished object of last year... These are the Eleanor Roosevelt mittens from this time's Knitty, which accompany Franklin's fascinating interview - the yarn is the lovely James Brett merino I bought on Christmas Eve at Boyes in Chester-le-Street...

Heaven. I have to do all sorts of things this afternoon, but every now and then a couple of hours of total laziness is called for...

Bluebird

Some knitting in today's post - this is my mam's Christmas present, Rosemary Hill's Bluebird. I can show you this because she doesn't read this blog, and my Dad is far too nice a man to reveal the secret...

This is the first end - I'm ploughing down the long stretch of very simple, easy-to-memorise lace in the middle, to the accompaniment of a lot of podcasts (finally starting to catch up after a stretch of audio-book-listening!) Either another 6 or another 14 repeats to go, depending on how much yarn is left... I think it might be the longer version, though. And then another end. There's a little bit of beading on the ends.

The yarn is a quite wonderful Knitwitches blend - 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere - which isn't on their website - and the colour is slightly greener than it is here - heading slightly towards the teal end of turquoise.

At least it's not a sleeve

This weekend, the knitting in prospect consisted of two purple (second) sleeves. I have been making fairly remarkable progress on St Brigid since I learned cabling without a cable needle from Gwen at the Weird Knitting Class - I didn't think it would make that much difference - but it does!

This is despite having to be quite obsessive about keeping my place in the increases while reading 3 cable charts...

And this is purple sleeve #2, from Primrose Path. This is great train and bus knitting - there's a bit of pattern at the bottom of the sleeve and then just 3x2 ribbing for the rest...

So anyway; it was all sleeves, all purple, all the time; so I thought I'd like another project on the go, and I haven't knitted much lace since Christmas - one shoulder-shawl, to be precise. And I love the Aeolian shawl from this time's Knitty (despite it containing my personal nemesis, the nupp). So I dug out the yarn I thought I'd use, and some beads I'd toddled up to Covent Garden to get; and took them out in the garden to photograph; and only at that point did I realise what colour I was intending to use.

Yeah.

(The yarn, by the way, is 2-ply laceweight dyed by Wibbo in a colour she called High Priestess, and was a Christmas present...)

So I stared thoughtfully at my shoes, wondering whether knitting three purple objects simultaneously was insane...

I guess that's my answer then. I'll be casting on later. So I'll be knitting a purple Primrose Path, a Purple St B in a colour called Pagan, and a purple Priestess shawl... the alliteration just kills me.

Oh dear; it's curtains for me...

This is realistic and sound advice from the Yarn Harlot; it really is.

Unfortunately, it comes too late for some of us... I don't thankfully have a wall of windows in my living room; but I do have this one

(and you do not want to hear the noises I made when I realised I could now take a picture of the inside and the outside where you could see both! Thankyou, Mr Nikon and your aperture-prioritisation setting!!)

I also have these:

One large cone charity-shop cotton (thankyou, Peterborough Oxfam); two Kinsels and two Walker treasuries. There must be a suitable lace pattern in there somewhere...

Bug is, unsurprisingly, unimpressed. And moulting. And, at the time the picture was taken, sans breakfast.

Outside...

Handmade presents on Christ's Pieces, yesterday...

Jan has taken much better photos than this of this present, but this is the scarf against the really pretty silver birch tree near the Wesley sheltered housing in the centre of Cambridge...

and a closer photo...

And the pretty, pretty crocheted gloves from E-J; here doing jazz-hands on the gateway which, oddly enough, leads to the Sew Creative yarn shop....

Thanks! It's so lovely to receive presents as well as to make them.

There was also this: Tiny has a friend in crochet - I had a card for the maker but am hoping Wibbo will be able to help me with the details... Edited to add, the maker is NiftyKnits and she has a shop over on Folksy...

Tomorrow - the South Bank and another gift. I have been very lucky this year.

Agadoo...

... is what I keep trying not to think of while knitting this particular piece of black lace... This is a Christmas-present request from someone who doesn't really read this... It's going to be Cleite when it grows up... Eventually there will be beads but I'm keeping those for the last couple of repeats...

A reveal...

This year's first Unbloggable Project has found its home - the baby it's intended for isn't due for a month or so, but Kevin and Kate's baby's shawl has been delivered, opened and oohed and ahed over.... The Cork and Bottle isn't perhaps the most traditional venue for a mini baby-shower (and certainly not a great place for taking photos while people are having a quiet pre-dinner drink)... But here are some in-progress photos - in Big Bag of Washing mode:

The details: the Summer into Fall shawl from Goddess Knits (scroll down this page); knitted centre-out in KnitPicks Bare laceweight (about 150 grammes) using a 4mm/US 6 Addi Turbo (I didn't have my lace needle then).

The finished size was about 52" square after blocking. The second time I've run lifelines in a project, and I'll be doing that again, because I needed to pull back 4 rows at the beginning of the 5th chart, and having to tink them would have been soul-destroying. Apologies for the quality of these pictures - it always helps if there's just a little sun around, and these were being taken about a month ago, when sun was in extremely short supply....

The Christmas-present blocking wires from my parents really came into their own here - no idea how long it would have taken with the old crochet-cotton and pins method, but it was very pleasant to do with the wires...

So, all the very best to Kate for her maternity leave which started yesterday, and to both of them for her house-move which happens today!