I do still knit occasionally...

Actually, I've knitted quite a lot this month, but some of it was Christmas Knitting which will remain secret, and I've very nearly finished a sweater which I started earlier in the month - it's been a while since I turned out a garment in a couple of weeks but it is in chunky. Pics of that when it's finished.

I've liked the Wool Peddler Shawl from Folk Shawls for a while, but didn't fancy knitting it all in one colour of DK. But I had an amalgamation of approximately DK-ish-weight yarns, three of them spun by me.

1 - handspun merino, own kettle-dyed sliver from Wingham Woolwork - approx. aran weight.

2 - handspun merino bought as fibre from limegreenjelly - no name on skein but I think of it as Agincourt.

3 - handspun silk/merino from rainbow blend fibre bought at Wingham Woolwork in March 2005.

4 - silk/merino blend DK from Cherry Tree Hill (in Dusk colourway); not sure it's commercially available in the UK yet as it was a gift from Gill who's their UK distributor.

5 - Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals wool/mohair blend (in Stormy Skies colourway) - gift from Jan a couple of years ago.

6 - Artist's Palette Buttersoft DK - bought at yarn-tasting at Stash last year (no colourway or dye-lots - all her lots are one-offs).

I got quite close to a disaster at the end of this project- that tail is all that's left of one skein of the Buttersoft DK!

I've explained the method used for colour choice/balance in an earlier post so won't rehash that here... Once a colour was gone, it was gone; all three of the handspuns ran out, which was what I was hoping for, as did one skein of the Buttersoft (I do have another one, but it's earmarked for another small project)... I've taught a couple of freeform classes this year where we've used this sort of method with a twist for creating random scrumbles, so thought I'd carry it over into a project using a pattern.

I had the usual audience (and used my normal terribly tidy way of working while making this...)

Spread out on the floor it was a somewhat unusual shape, probably because of the preponderance of purple in the middle section (that yarn was the first I'd spun for a long time and was somewhat thicker and slubbier than the others). I thought the colour balance came out pretty well for something that was genuinely random...

The lace pattern towards the outside is written for stocking-stitch lace, but I like the slightly untidy effect you get with joining garter stitch on the wrong side, and after a few rows it was all looking a lot too tidy, so I ripped it back and worked the lace as garter-stitch as well.

Blocked it comes out at 78" by 36" so a nice big shawl to cuddle up in and unusually just about the same dimensions as suggested on the pattern...

And another quite bad blocking shot, but you can see the contrast between the plain garter-stitch and the lace... It was very serendipitous that I used the Cherry Tree Hill silk/wool blend just before the lace because it was slightly finer and drapier than the other yarns, so you get a nice scalloped effect... I think this shawl's going to get a lot of use if I leave it draped over a chair this winter...

Garden photos this afternoon, with any luck - I've been taking them, but not processing or blogging them! I need to do some actual work this afternoon first, but it'd be good to catch up with myself once in a while.

The beauty of randomness...

My class last week spent a morning being random, based on Freddie Robins' piece How to make a piece of work when you're too tired to make decisions, which involved throwing dice to overcome the fear of starting to create something abstract; or the fear of starting to create anything at all. So I thought I'd try it with something more conventional. I had 6 yarns of roughly the same weight (the purple at the top is nearer an aran/chunky weight, the rest is broadly DK) and the same sort of colour palette.


I'm throwing one (6-sided) die to work out which colour to use next, and another (12-sided) to work out how many rows to work. I'm following the pattern for the Wool Peddler's Shawl (Ravelry link) from Folk Shawls; it's coming out pretty well so far.

I'm actually knitting like a mad thing at the moment - but the other three projects on the needles are presents/stealth-projects... This is so much fun particularly as knitting-while-reading-knitting, or DVD-knitting... Had a bit of a disappointment last night - was really looking forward to a steak, a good red wine, and watching 36 with Auteuil and Dépardieu; and then got 5 minutes into the film and realised it was something I must have got out of the library three or so years ago because I'd definitely seen it before... Gah! I normally have a fairly good memory for these things but I did have a total film binge when I first got the DVD player on my PC...

As promised, the shiny...

So, knitting has been going on... I have two FOs but only one with photos at the moment... (the photo above doesn't embiggen, but the blocking shots do, and it's worth it...)

Aeolian Priestess Shawl

Yarn: hand-dyed by Wibbo (Christmas present); base yarn Patons 2-ply merino laceweight, dyed in colour High Priestess, 100 grammes (used 96 grammes)

Needles: 3.5mm

Beads: size 6 irridescent purple blend, about 1200 (85 grammes)

Finished size: 64" across the top by 28" deep

Started April 10, 2009; finished April 29, 2009...

Pretty, isn't it? The yarn was lovely to knit with and blocked out very well; I was glad I'd used the larger beads because it gave real weight... I even didn't mind the nupps too much once I'd started...!

Let's have a slightly better look at those nupps... Mmm. Shiny.

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 FO from a while ago...

From June, in fact. The Peacock Feathers Shawl from Fiddlesticks - now living with Sue.

I used KnitPicks Shimmer laceweight in Turquoise Splendour, but realised quite early on that the skeins I had were way too variegated to do the pattern justice (I've seen this knitted in the same yarn on Ravelry, and it looks as if it might vary quite a bit between dye-lots). So I skeined the yarn up again, and dumped the entire project, needles and all, into a dyebath of turquoise/teal. I'd use the yarn again like a shot, but for something with a much simpler lace. It was really nice to do... (And for future reference, Addi cords dye beautifully - I have a lovely teal 3mm cord now...)

I think I probably have several other finished and unblogged FOs - more tomorrow, maybe.

Meanwhile I'm nearly 2 charts (out of 16) down for the Mystic Meadows Olympic shawl, and 4 repeats (out of 17/18) down for Hypoteneuse. I'll be taking both along to the KTog tomorrow night but probably won't be able to concentrate on the Mystic Meadows! I have high hopes for finishing Hypoteneuse, but am not quite as sure about the Mystic Meadows - it's high-concentration stuff and I'm doing fairly high-intensity stuff at work this month...

Back again...

Long time, no blog; once I got back to work after Easter it was full steam ahead there for the last couple of weeks before recess, and I was spending evenings getting ready for a long weekend away at my folks' - for my nephew's baptism and to visit my lovely cousins in Hexham. Here's a pic of my brother, sister-in-law and Baby A in the church - the shawl was much admired by the ladies of the parish. Baby A himself was so unimpressed by the whole business that he slept straight through his baptism, but woke up to observe a huge buffet and a beautiful cake... [At the precise moment this picture was taken though, he'd discovered the pocket in his trousers, which was obviously much more interesting than the cake his Auntie Catherine had decorated so well...]

Not a lot of knitting was done last month - but I did get one very long-term present finished. Over the last couple of years I've completely lost the urge to stitch, but I started this for my cousin Kevin's wedding to Kate which, as the observant will note, happened just over two years ago...

So long ago was it, in fact, that they've been way more productive than me, and now have this little chap, Baby O... in a hat knitted by his mum (who's on the waiting list for Ravelry...)

We had a lovely couple of days mooching around Hexham (despite having to shelter in the bandstand because of hail!), and a very nice lunch at Bouchon - Baby O got breadsticks and pieces of pepper while we ate duck gizzards, sea bream and Toulouse sausages...

All the knitting I'm making progress on is for other people, and secret - or in the post to its destination... Except this:

Embossed Leaves sock by Mona Schmidt, from Favorite Socks, in the current Rocking Sock Club yarn (STR mediumweight, in "Lucky") - I've been looking for the right yarn for this pattern for a while... For the first time ever, I may have SSS with this pair - my brain and hands find the cast-on extraordinarily difficult, although the result is very good. I'm going to have to take it on my daily commute - if it's the only thing I have to knit, I'll get on with it...

I haven't been completely hermit-like after work though - the lighter nights have perked me up somewhat, as usual, so my colleague B and I have been over to IKnit a couple of times - last Thursday night's was so busy that Gerard borrowed my camera to document the sheer number of knitters ...

including a couple of familiar faces...

It was great. Am hoping to be there again on Wednesday, at Ely on Thursday and in Hove on Friday - have yarn, will travel...

Knitting Olympics

It's insane, but I've signed up for this, despite it starting a week before Textiles in Focus which swallows up the week around it, and being at SkipNorth for the second weekend. I'm going to do the Triangles within Triangles shawlette in this:



Cloud 9 from Heritage Yarns. It almost looks too pretty in the ball to knit.