I am not knitting this week...

...I am reading books on my commute. I made this deal with myself.

Something new (the silk scarf), something old (unfinished WIP). Silly really as it is 15 mins before I need to leave for the last acceptable train that I can catch into work and I am feeling the pinch. Nothing to knit and 'not allowed' to start anything new.

The books that I am reading are not that great either - The Tenderness of Wolves - by this, I really just mean that it is not good enough to replace my knitting between home and Waterloo.

I finished it last night, so Bill Bryson is coming into work with me today. If you notice someone grinding their teeth throughout their commute today - it may be me.

Opps, 9 minutes - better go!

My Very Precious Weekend...

...started with a Friday evening date with the Fella at Skylon on the South Bank (as recommended by Robynn for cocktails). The Fella opted wisely for a Kir Royale while I had something called an Adriatic River. Hmm, surely this counts as one of my 5 a day?!



I am pleased to report that I was turned out neatly and that my outfit had the desired effect - the Fella's mouth did actually drop open a little when I exited Reception to greet him on the steps outside my office. Hurray!

I did not take any images of the Thames river view that we had in front of us. However, here is an image of an exhibition that is on at the Haywood Gallery that I would love to go see. Are there any takers for a brief immersion in art, followed by a knit and sip of wine somewhere one week day evening in June?!

Saturday was absorbed wholly by a team match. It was a glorious, sunny day, the Fella had to struggle manfully with borrowed kit, our team won and the event was followed by a quintessentially British afternoon tea of delicate sandwiches (including cucumber), scones with clotted cream and jam, plus a choice of other cakes in a late 1800s wooden clubhouse - just perfect.

Sunday witnessed scenes of diligent domesticity, including caravan washing in blazing sunshine. We were working on getting ourselves organised for a big competition in July - it may sound odd but it was lovely to work on getting everything ready together, rather than having to do it all on my own. So tired, sunburned and feeling very pleased with ourselves we trailed quietly home on Sunday evening to shower, apply suncream and chill.

We arrived home rather later than we expected, so although I am clean and doused with after-Ssun in these pictures, you will need to forgive me if the light is not the very best. Not to mention the fact that I found it dificult to remain serious and artistically composed with the fella on hand! Here is a photo to show its scarf-to-human scale:

This is me trying to stand still, so that the fella can capture a picture of the ends of the scarf:

This is the close up of the main stitch, the amethyst beads and the 'frilly bit' on the edge, as my mother put it in the comments to my last post!

I have no idea whether anyone would be interested in making this scarf for themselves. I will write up the pattern (such as it is) and give it to my mother to offer as a project idea, alongside her hand dyed yarns. I don't know how to set up pdf downloads on Blogger (is it even possible?). If anyone knows how to do it, happy to post it here too.

Semi-Precious Scarf

Here is the scarf that I created with my Artisan Yarns, plant dyed silk:

I was curious about the yarn and I wanted to see what I could do with it. It took a bit of swatching to see what would work before the penny dropped and I fixed on an idea that I thought I could live with.

It is odd, it doesn't look as interesting in these photos as it does in person. I ended up working the yarn together with something else, plus some beads but my camera battery died before I managed to get any decent photos of my beading. So I can post some more photos later if anyone is interested.

So far, feedback from both knitters and non knitters has been positive. So I am thinking that this might be a good way to knit up those skeins of strange yarn that you fall for at knitting shows but have absolutely no idea what to do with later?

Hmm, who knows?!

MeMe Alert!

Ok, ok, ok - I was resisting but I give in as I have been tagged twice!

Here is my contribution to the latest MeMe doing the rounds:

What was I doing ten years ago?
It was all very romantic, you know. Ten years ago, the bank and I bought a house together. From a dead person who, very sadly, had lain undiscovered for about two weeks with both gas fires on. Yes, it was the smell that alerted my neighbours to his expired state. For the record, I did not know this before I bought my house; my neighbours all fell over themselves to tell me afterwards. No I do not know which room he died in and no, I do not ever want to know – after all, I was the person who sanded all my floors.

The romance does not end there. Around May-June, my first ever house was completely uninhabitable and I was living in a caravan. I was trying to come and go from my house (to do and inspect work in progress) without being spotted by my neighbours.

Well, they were not really speaking to me. On one side, my neighbour was obliged to cut down a favourite tree because its roots were attacking my drains and house foundations (it took me over two years to battle its dead roots out of the ground). On the other side? Well, my builders set fire to their house - on April 1st, no less. This had something to do with highly flammable damp proofing chemicals, holes drilled accidentally all the way through a wall and a fully functioning, floor mounted gas boiler on the other side.

The good news was that my neighbour was in. So the alarm was raised immediately, they got their pets out and my builders managed to switch off the gas at the mains before the fire got out of control and razed the entire terrace to the ground. The Fire Brigade said that the fire, fuelled by their gas supplier, would have taken no more than 5 minutes to reach that sort of ferocity. By the time that I got there (yes, I did think it was an April Fools prank until I heard the sirens in the background), the neighbour was handing out mugs of tea and biscuits to firemen with hands that were visibly shaking. Her husband was frothing at the mouth, with hamster cheeks (courtesy of a root canal procedure earlier that day), and literally hopping with rage on their front doorstep. I had never seen anyone actually hop with rage before.

The bad news, which may have been a very small part of his ire, was that the fire happened the day after my neighbours had put their freshly painted house on the market and it was just at the start of the Easter school holiday - so a family of 5, plus three small dogs found themselves out on the pavement, sitting on suitcases packed with smoky clothing.

So, neighbourly relations were a little strained? Ten years on (once that family had moved), I am delighted to say that I am on good speaking terms with my neighbours and in fact, I count myself very lucky to have such decent people living in at least three houses, in both directions.

What 5 non work things am I doing today?
Speak to the Fella who is up in Liverpool on business (he is here again this week), try not to eat too much food (too late), try not to drink any alcohol, do some match administration and weave in some ends on a project.

What snacks do I enjoy?
I am not really allowed snacks. Let me rephrase that, after my very strict diet last year I try my best not to let myself down and snack. Try being the operative word - my weaknesses are:

• a big mug of black coffee made with Monmouth Street Coffee Company coffee
• a very cold glass of chardonnay (or three)
• a Rye Finn crisp bread (or 10)
• a matchbox size piece of cheese (or 2)
• a Haribo Star Mix jelly sweet stolen from a packet left open on a colleague’s desk.

What things would I do if I was a billionaire?
Give it all away to achieve world peace and happiness? Sadly, I do not think that a mere billion would be enough to make that happen, otherwise I would consider it.

I cannot fib and say that my life would remain the same. It is likely that I would resign from my job, pay off my mortgage and then leave things a while to settle. After that, I would retrain to do something I truly enjoyed. I would travel a little to see the things I have always wanted to see but never thought I would be able to afford to visit. I would take care of my family and I would employ someone qualified to help with financial management. As part of this, I would expect to identify ventures to invest in, or causes to donate money to, where I feel that my contribution will make a direct positive difference.

Yes, it’s low key but I just don't have a body that would look good in a bikini, sprawled across the deck of an oversized boat - I'd look like a cooked lobster. Mind you, I might not entirely rule out the purchase of an decent apartment in a ski resort. Or possibly - just the purchase of a house where a body was not scraped off the floor before I bought it?!

What places have I lived in?
London, Wales, Scotland and Italy.

What jobs have I had?
I have answered this before – my career history is very dull, so I’ll pass!

Which people do I tag?
The majority of you have already done this. However if you have not and you read this, consider yourself tagged! Let me know whether you are taking part and I'll pop over to read what you have written!

Keep it, Gift it, Thrift it...or Swap it?!

I have started a group on Ravelry (opps)!

I have yet to finish something for myself that I like, suits me and/or fits well. It is disappointing as I think very carefully about the projects that I work on for myself.

Yet, nonetheless, there is always something not quite right about the yarn, or the colour or the fit - I live in hope of the day when something I make resembles a knit even half as effortlessly lovely and stylish as a Brooklyn Tweed knit!

Most of my projects fall by the wayside before they are finished. The remainder get put in a cupboard, some might be worn once and are then abandoned, chalked up to experience.

I know that I am not alone - so I have set up the group for those of us who have knits that we are not certain about, that we have knitted and do not meet our expectations one way or another...

...but somehow cannot bear to frog.

So if you have something that you have made, you would prefer not to frog it but instead:

• would like input n whether to keep it, gift it or thrift it (donate to charity);
  
• bite the bullet and frog it (and seek suggestions for things to make with the yarn that might give you a better result); or
  
• offer your Finished Object for swap / trade with someone who would love and wear it

then come along and join us at the Keep it, Gift it, Thrift it...or Swap it group!

Who knows - someone might just love a Finished Object that you would be grateful to see the back of in return for a different FO, yarn or tools?

I have been a bit coy...

...about the knitting related things that I bought back from Wonderwool.

I am not sure why. What I am sure about is that I destashed some yarn a little while ago and I went to Wonderwool determined not to bring home any impulse buys. I was absolutely clear that I should resist the temptation of all yarn that I would have no idea what to do with later.

I think that my recent Storm Water Scarf disappointment was a good prompt to focus on yarn with specific projects (or people) in mind?

I was almost successful - what helped, in addition to the lack of time, was that a little bit of me felt a bit awkward about fawning over other yarn on other stands when my mother had tables loaded with interesting stuff, like this:

Plant dyed, Artisan Yarns silk. No, I promise that this is not a yarn advert for my mother. However, as I spent a lot of time at her stand, it was difficult not to be tempted by the things that she had on offer!

Also, of all things, I did a Ravelry trade with my mother for 14 balls of pinky-mauve Big Wool at Wonderwool. I traded for this skein, one of her skeins of sock yarn , two books and a hat pattern.

The reason that I chose this yarn is that while I noticed a lot of people fondling this and the banana silk yarns on my mother's stand, not many appeared to sell - so while people were drawn to the colours and textures - just from the comments that I overheard, they were not sure quite what they would do with it?

I wasn't sure either, otherwise I would have made suggestions - so I traded for this yarn, just to see what I can make with it. This goes utterly against my earlier ethos but I was careful to ask the fella which skein colour suited me the best and this was his choice.

So we shall see...!

The other yarn that formed part of my Ravelry trade with my mother is this skein of plant dyed, blue faced Leicester sock yarn:

I have not been able to photograph this yarn in a way that captures its true colours. In fact, it is a deep cherry red and burgundy. It is contrasty but not this contrasty - is contrasty even a word?!

These were the two books and the hat pattern that I also traded for. The hat pattern is the one that the Fella modelled in the sheep walk - how could I resist that?!

Yup, a sock book, an accessories book plus a hat pattern. This may seem like an odd choice for someone who isn't good with dpns and isn't keen on knitting socks. However, South West Trains seem to be decomissioning all of the First Class carriages on my train route into Waterloo. So space to knit with 14" straights is becoming a real battle - I am facing the sad reality that I need to diversify into smaller, shorter needle knits, in order to be able to continue knitting (while burping other newspaper reading commuters on my knee).

One of the highlights of Wonderwool for me, was the opportunity to meet Posh Yarns Dee and Tony - I returned again and again to their stand trying to select the yarn that I wanted to bring home with me. It was very tough and I was very hard on myself, keeping my yarn+known project acquisition objective firmly in mind.

After my prickly Koigu sock yarn experience, I knew that I wanted to invest in some Sophia cashmere sock yarn. Just a combination of the above train situation and preparing against for the possibility that I might get the urge to spend another 2 months knitting a pair of socks for myself. After much deliberation, this was my final selection:

Also, I decided that I needed another skein of sock weight yarn, of a different sort, for a specific project that I have in mind, later on this year. As I had heard a lot about Emily, I picked this:

And seriously, that was it. My purchases, in their totality - two days surrounded by yarn but I headed home with supplies for only 4 projects. I was practically in awe of my self restraint.

However, there was one skein of yarn at Posh Yarns that kept catching my eye but I kept making myself put it back. I picked it up, I put it back. I went away, I came back, it was still there, I picked it up, I put it back. I picked it up, I put it back.

Which skein was it? Well, it was this skein of Laura that featured on top of my earlier posh yarn table photo:

You see, I had already made my one sensible purchase of cashmere sock yarn for me.

I knit so slowly that I could not justify it as another sock purchase for myself and I liked the colourway too much to bear the thought of knitting it up as a present for anyone else.

So-I-walked-away-one last last time and put-it-out-of-my-mind. That's where it should end, right? Me feeling a twinge of regret and wondering which lucky knitter now has that lovely skein of yarn?

Well it seems that Dee happens to know us knitters even better than we know ourselves (at least she has me exactly pegged). On Sunday - I got back from a stroll around the food section with the Fella to find that Dee had popped by with this:

Inside that bag? Wrapped in pink tissue paper?

I am sitting here, with this yarn sitting in front of me and I am still smiling - thank you Dee!

Isn't that just beautiful? I do not know what this will be yet but I do not mind. I am quite happy to sit here and pet it and love it - I might even call it George!

Castle Cat Couture Hat

Now this on the other hand, I absolutely love - just because it is so silly and I am sort of proud of it, as the pattern is my very first ever one:

Yep, this folks is my final version of the Puss in Boots, Castle Cat Couture hat sported with yet another UFO scarf that I need to finish from last year. I have adjusted the proportions a bit and added the optional hat band.

Pattern is all written up and will be emailed over to Robynn by the end of this weekend. Honest. Honest. Honest.

I will cross post this over at my Katherine Laarzen blog by the end of this weekend.

Storm Water Scarf - Blocked!

Here it is, worn as both a wrap:

Here it is, worn as a scarf:




I am not sure about wearing it as a scarf - all those 4608 ssk, yos and yo, k2togs look a bit lost?

It is about 18914 stitches in total (including cast on and off). Trust me, I felt every stitch.

If I look at the elapsed time it took to knit this and think when and where I worked on it. I come up with about 32 hours of work, which sort of feels right. However, this means that I only managed to worked at the rate of 588 stitches an hour (9.8 stitches a minute)? This means that (on average), I worked about 270 stitches during each commute - just over 5 rows a journey.

However, that is not right. Generally, I was managing 10-12 rows per journey. This is about 1176 stitches an hour, which means that it should only be about 16 hours of work? Either way, it still felt like a-very-long-time.

It is also known as the Midwest Moonlight scarf and for those with stitch library books, I think that it the Crazy Patchwork stitch?

I am not sure whether this will stay under my roof or head off somewhere else.

You see, I do not love it and I am not convinced that it suits me. I think that I picked this colour because I know it is one that my mother likes and it was the nicest colour available in the shop at the time I was there.

So I did not buy it because I felt a huge, personal draw to the colour - I bought it because I had heard a lot about Seasilk and wanted to see for myself what it was like to work with. However, as the scarf took so long to make, I am loathe to give it away immediately. It's just disappointing to have something that I do not utterly love at the end of such a long process.

So mum, if you like this, is there anything that you would like to trade me for it?! What's the retail value of a handknit Seasilk scarf, patiently worked on Lantern Moon Ebony needles? If I decide that I work at UK minimum wage, this scarf is worth somewhere between £106.32 - £194.64?! I don't know, maybe I should just put it away for a while, wait to see how I feel about it later?

I have to ask, is there a syndrome for the pathological dislike of things that you make for yourself? Do I need therapy? I suffered with the same thing after I made the shaped lace tee (ugly lumpy thing) and it's the reason that I have not ripped back the Ribbed Shrug to redo the ribbing yet.

I know that I am not alone in suffering from this affliction though - I do know others who are constantly unpicking the things that they make for themselves. Maybe I should start a Ravelry support group: 'Knit it, hate it, gift or thrift it. Ho hum, move on'.

Yogicknitter is now planning to knit this - the big shawl version. It will not take her very long to whip it up and she is going to make it in Monarch, Handmaiden Camelspin yarn that she picked up from Purlescence - a very lovely colour and yarn. So watch that space to see something that is likely to be rather more lovely than my own modest effort!

Ha! My peonies have ants too...

...I do not mind wildlife too much as long as it stays firmly outdoors and does not intrude into my home. If it decides to invite itself in - well, that is an entirely different matter.

From time to time, I might zap the odd infestation of insects (if they are overpowering my plants and causing a lot of damage) but I do try to let nature take care of itself. Mainly because a lot of birds have made their homes in neighbouring gardens and feed (or dust bath) in mine (sparrows, robins, blue tits, blackbirds, starlings) and I do not want to harm them.

Don't you just hate it when...

...your plants make it through the winter...

...they push up shoots in Spring...

...they slowly, slowly, slowly develop leaves and buds...

...which gradually fatten promisingly...

...reaching their stems ever upwards up towards the sky...

...ready to deliver the most glorious early summer blooms, when...

...some unkind passerby rips their heads off. Like so:

When I left home this morning, the above stem looked rather more like this:

Why, just why do people do this? What is that destructive thing in people's heads that makes them casually spoil the things that they hapen to set eye on as they pass other people's homes?

This minor, thoughtless damage has made me realise how much I enjoy my peonies and how I wait for them to flower each year. I feel very protective of them. So here is a very quiet appeal to the General Public in my part of London:

Please leave my peonies alone to flower. I appreciate that my front door could do with a new lick of paint but it doesn't mean that I do not care about either my house or my flowers.

I know that you will say that if I cared for these plants, that I would not have planted them in the front of my house. The sad truth is that they spent the best part of 5 years, not flowering in my back garden, so I transplanted them (in desparation) to the front of my house where it is sunnier. Okay, so it took another couple of years but they have now got the idea of how to flower, so I like to think that they are much happier (if it wasn't for the fact that you persistently damage them).

I appreciate that it's very difficult to resist the temptation to lop off most of their heads as you walk past (as you have done without fail for the past 2 - 3 years) but trust me, if you were just to leave them alone, let them do their thing - not only they will reward you with the most gorgeous, deep pink blooms (brightening each and every time you walk past my home for the next few weeks), they will wave me off to work and still be there to greet me at the end of each long work day.

It's the small things in life that make a difference to one's day, y'know?

For anyone else who does not live anywhere near me - this may be the most intact that you will ever see my 'front of house' peonies:

I just hope that this many buds will still be there tomorrow morning...sigh.