Pieces of eight, pieces of eight

There are parrots on Hampstead Heath! I told the husband this the other day but I think he thought it was a load of codswollop. And then today I saw them when I had my camera.

Local rumour has it that they escaped from London zoo. All I can say is that they seemed to be having the time of their lives in the next door neighbour's garden. My neighbour says that she has seen up to 10 of them at a go. It made my day.

My next interview is tomorrow. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow morning at 11am!

I am sulking

If Frog Island exists, then I am definately stuck on it. Someone bring me a cocktail and something to read, I think that I may be here for a while.

Today I frogged Ice. It hurt but was necessary. Kind of like the moment when you rip the plaster (band-aid) off. Ouch.

I shall be back soon with an update on Flighty (nearly done) and some other bits when I have finished mourning Ice. I am still undecided whether to put the yarn into hanks and de-kink it in order to cast Ice on again, to start on another project. Or to take up origami.

Knitting exchanges are fantastic!

A while back I signed up to Pinku's flower exchange. I liked the idea of knitting a flower, had never knitted one before and had missed the embellishment exchange organised by the Rowanettes so it seemed like a good idea.

I knitted a gift (admittedly a little later than the original deadline) and then sent it off to it's recipient, Christine in Massachusetts.

Look what I got back.

Isn't it pretty? It is (obviously?) a dainty choker in Kidsilk Haze. Very girly, and it will go nicely with my little black dress - perfect. I, on the other hand, don't look so good but that's what you get when you try to take pictures of yourself...

Thank you so much Christine, you are a star! (PS: the flower pattern is particulary pretty, where did you get it from?)

On a completely different note, I went to Mornington Crescent this morning and saw these lovely doors at the Tube station. I am always picking up books about 'doors of the world' or the like, so I thought I would take one of my own. Also, I didn't realise that tube stations had such lovely decorations.

Vogue Knitting arrived in the post today. I have put it aside for Saturday morning when I intend to camp on the sofa with a large mug of tea and a packet of jaffa cakes. Then again, maybe I'll just take a peek tonight...

Knitting Ups and Downs

I am back! Not that I was ever really away but the past week has been madness itself - family, the husband, job hunting and knitting to a deadline have all slightly got in my way and posting on my blog got somewhat moved to the back burner.

The really BAD news is that Ice is about to be sent to the frog pond. Considering that I had sewed on one of the sleeves and was looking forward to wearing it, this is somewhat upsetting. I tried it on and it's gaping under the arms and makes me look huge. I object to that.

I met with some of the Rowanettes last week and Polly and Sharon had a good look at it. And then Polly, with a sad look in her eye, told me that she reckoned that I would need to rip to below the armholes at least if I wanted to get the sleeve to fit in the arm hole. Seeing as it is also too big in the body, I reckon I may as well frog the lot, after all, what's the point in having a sweater that I won't wear?

I think that I have mentioned before that all of this has come about due to my bad tension. I did knit a tension square, I promise! I still have it and it is perfect. But somehow the sweater has not come out to that gauge. I may have got the needle size wrong, I may have relaxed whilst knitting, I may just be a diptstick. Ah well. I am determined not to give up on knitting - after all what would I do with the stash? - so I am putting this down to that learning curve.

Funnily enough I am currently reading Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti where she suggests that you should check your gauge every couple of inches just to be on the safe side. I think that for the time being I will do just that until I am over the knitting rut that has been plaguing me for the last couple of months.

On the progress front (I am determined not to be put off) remember Flighty that I cast on some time in August? Well I am determined to be able to wear her this summer seeing as I failed to finish her last summer...

So I have just cast the first panel for the back and I am hoping to motor my way to the top very very quickly :)






Having already knitted one of these, I know that it's a fast knit despite the 4ply cotton. I really like the detail of the pattern and I am enjoying knitting it, it's non-thinking knitting but with a little interesting detail which stops me from getting bored.






The only downside of it is the straps. They are fiddly and they roll so I am wondering if I should change the way they are done. On the other hand, the weight of wearing them just might straighten them out.

Arthur it is...

Well, thank you to everyone who kindly sent in a name for 'the bear'. We didn't quite get around to pulling names out of hat or to voting on his name in Libertys the other day. Mostly because I arrived really late and left really early for various reasons and, being somewhat on the talkative side, was too busy nattering with everyone to get around to it.

But... we do have a winner. I decided that he was going to be called Arthur. Mostly because the husband actually went on to my blog and posted a comment, which I thought was quite cool. And then, what with the bear being Welsh and 'Arth' being the Welsh word for bear, it all seemed rather suitable.

Oh and the husband has been referring to the bear as Arthur for the last week so the name is kind of sticking.

What does the husband get? Yarn!

Yes, I now have rather a lot of cotton DK with which to make him a sweater. I promised it a long time ago but Xmas knitting got in the way and so, I now have the yarn and shall be swatching soon.

Admittedly, that meant buying some more yarn. And I did say I wouldn't because I really wanted to destash a little. But it's for a good cause and it's not like I had enough yarn in any given colour to make a sweater for the husband (go figure, the man has a 46" chest...).

Oh, and look what I got in the post today: my welcome kit for Debbie Bliss: the club.

I really needed something else to cast on :)

Manos/Maya groovy scarf

I was in Libertys a month or so ago and Sharon was knitting this fantastic scarf, there were a number of us there and we pretty much all sat there oohing and ahhing over her knitting. Now, we are all fairly seasoned knitters and oh and ah over knitting a lot. But this was different, it was stunning. She was using a pattern she had found online and the Debbie Bliss maya yarn in shade 07. And I cannot begin to tell you how lovely it was. We all begged to get a copy of the pattern and Sharon duly told us how to get it.

So of course, as we left Liberty that day, I rushed over the road (dragging my sister who doesn't knit and was getting a little 'yarned out' by then) to John Lewis and snatched some Maya off the shelf. I have to admit that I used the same colour as Sharon but I think that this varigated yarn is likely to show the stitch of the scarf best.

Here is my beautiful scarf. On me with brand new hair cut - very short and low maintenance :)

It was my Christmas knitting and I have to say that I really really enjoyed it. It's not a hard knit and it attracts so many comments. If you want to get people to come and talk to you about your knitting, have a knit on this and watch the people walk up to you, stroke your scarf, ask where you bought it and then eventually beg you to make them one.

It really is that nice. The detail of the stitch is truly beautiful and I think that it shows off the different colours of the yarn beautifully.

The only down side to it is that it isn't, in my opinon, television knitting. Which I like my scarves to be. You can get the pattern here if you too would like to get to wear one of the coolest and prettiest scarves going.

A mascot for Knitter Natter

Look what I got for christmas:

Isn't it lovely? It is a scarf for those that are wondering, I think I folded it a little too well for the sake of the picture which means that it's a bit hard to tell what it is. It was knitted by the lovely and ever-so-kind Jacinta and it's beautiful. The colour is clearly very me, it's closer to the colour in the picture below than, i.e. it's a light grey and not a bluey grey.



She used a 'gassed mercerised cotton', I am not entirely sure what that means but the yarn has a lovely sheen to it. The pattern is the Wavy scarf pattern from the Winter 2004 edition of Knitty. http://www.knitty.com. Here's the tag from the ball of yarn it was made from. I love the name 'Gong'. Fantastic.



There was another knitted gift but the pictures were blurred due to my inability to quite get to grips with my new camera so please bear with me :)

I was at Liberty's last night with the usual crowd and a lot of nice people I hadn't met before. Yvonne came along and brought with her a finished version (with a few modifications) of the Fringe Hat which is the free pattern for January on the Rowan site. The hat was the winning contender in a competition that Rowan organised, where anyone could submit a design.

In the picture, bottom row (all left to right): Jill, Yvonne (with hat) and Jan. Middle row: Polly (appearing out of Yvonne's shoulder) and Jacinta (looking most cool). Back row: Sue and Vivien.

I have to admit that the hat is not quite to my taste but then again, as I have the most classical tastes in the world, I wouldn't listen to a word I say. Yvonne did a fine job of it, and, having tried it on, I have to say that it was a fine fitting hat.

Speaking of Yvonne, I was in the US when she kindly organised the secret Santa for the Liberty's group. But ever one to share, Polly kindly put in and took out for me and here's what I got:

Isn't my new bear sweet? He or she hails from Wales, from the designen studio of Gillian Osband knitware.

And I now need a name for this bear (Paddington springs to mind but I won't go there). I am going to make this bear the mascot for Knitter Natter so he/she definately needs a good name but I can't seem to come up with anything decent.

So please leave me your suggestions in the comments and I will put the best ideas up for a vote or draw it out of a hat at the next Libertys. Oh, and I will send you a little something :)

Happy new year

Happpy New Year to you all! I hope that it proves to be a happy and peaceful year for all of you. With plenty of knitting but I guess that goes without saying...

I have had a lovely break with both my family and my inlaw family and came back feeling really bouncy and ready to get on with all kinds of things that I have been putting off for ages.

Wales was lovely. Sadly the weather wasn't quite what one might have hoped for. I have been really unlucky, in 6 years of going to Wales at least once a year, often twice a year, I have only once had really sunny weather. But then, looking back at these pictures, I somehow think that the dramatic skies are probably part of what makes Wales so beautiful. Sadly the husband is not here so I don't have the names of the various mountains below but they were all taken at the bottom of Snowdon.

This is taken from the top of a mountain pass. Looking back on to the valley.

This is Caernarfon Castle which is by the river in the middle of Caernarfon. It's a really big castle, with a lot of history to it and it is quite beautiful. The small statue on the left hand side is of Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister (1916-1922) who lived in the area (that's my cultural moment done).

The Christmas knitting appears to have gone down very well. I did manage to finish the scarf for my mother in law on time (just on time, admittedly) and here it is finished.





Someone asked me what the stitch looks like close up so here's a picture of the stitch.





I have to say that I think that I should have gone up a needle size or two more. For once this is not because I knit tight (I automatically take that in to account) but because the yarn is quite thick. Although the scarf is lovely, it doesn't quite have the drape that I would ideally have liked. Note to self, rely on your instinct when after 40 rows you think that it looks a bit stiff, and don't think 'Ah, it'll be fine once I have done the whole thing'. This is quite simply not going to happen and frogging is the only way forward.