I think I’m obsessed with them, hopefully it’s something I’ll work out of my system and then it will be gone….

First there was this one :-

Column of Leaves in Baby Camel DK from www.poshyarns.co.uk

Then there was this one :-

Old Shale pattern in Patons Spirit

…and now, there’s this one as well : -

This is Branching Out from www.knitty.com in Rowan Summer Tweed. I’ve had these two skeins in my stash for about 2 years now since I knit myself a summer top from Rowan 31. I realised last week that a friend’s birthday was fast approaching so went digging in the stash for something suitable for a quick knit present and came across them again.

What could I do with them - suitable colour for the friend, Summer Tweed seemed a sensible yarn to be knitting for a birthday at the beginning of May as the weather warms up….I really wanted to knit this friend a lacy shawl or stole but knew I did not have the time for something in Kid Silk Haze or some other cobweb yarn so could I perhaps knit a lacey stole/scarf in Summer Tweed?

The answer is yes, I could and here it is blocking on my kitchen floor -

I modified the pattern slightly - as I have a thing about symmetry I knit the two sides of the scarf from cast on edge to middle identically and then grafted them together. This means the lace pattern runs in the opposite direction on each side of the scarf which means that when it’s being worn the pattern will look symmetrical on each end of the scarf as it is worn……is it just me that has a problem with one side of your scarf going down and the other going up???

I have to say that the purple is not just in my knitting, here is just a random selection of the colour purple in my home.

my vacuum cleaner -

my bedroom -

my slippers -

Anyway, the birthday is tomorrow so I hope the summer scarf is well received…..I’m off to dig out the purple cobweb mohair I have lying around somewhere…….

technorati tags:knitting, yarn, scarf, knit

First the scarf, and BOY! is it a scarf…. this is the scarf I’ve been knitting for my ISE4 pal - actually I finished it a while back but have been waiting for a day to take some photos, here they are;

It’s a HUGE scarf - 25cm or 10″ wide and 188cm or 74″ long, it’s also very tactile being knit in Patons Spirit a mohair/acrylic blend. This is definitely a scarf for cold weather.

The details -

Yarn: Patons Spirit in shade 4506 “Blackcurrant”

Needles : 6.5mm Addi circular

Pattern : Old Shale stitch pattern over 41 stitches, I’ve put the pattern here

Here’s a close up of the pattern,

Still not 100% certain about sending this for my ISE4 scarf but I’m pretty sure it suits my pal.

PRIZES

Many of you will know that I have been trying to raise £1,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. I have been selling hand-knitted items, holding car-boot sales and I am taking part in the Moonwalk in a few weeks time.

My training for the Moonwalk is going well, mum and I walked 20 miles last Sunday in 5 1/2 hours which is pretty much on target for our hoped for completion time for the full distance of 7 1/2 hours.

But - watch this space for the chance of winning some brilliant yarn prizes. I am organising a raffle or lottery to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, I already have some wonderful prizes donated and am waiting on some more….keep checking back for a chance to win!! It’s going to be well worth it I promise.

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Just in time for the best April weather ever (Sunshine and 70 here in England) I complete a scarf.

This is the Column of Leaves Scarf from the pattern at www.brookenelson.com/leafscarfpattern.html. The yarn is Baby Camel DK from www.poshyarn.co.uk in a lovely lavender (colour doesn’t show very well here)

I posted some piccies a few days ago but this is the finished scarf after blocking - it looks lovely (I think) and is so soft and drapey. Will try to get some pics of the scarf “in use” out in the sunshine.

Here’s a close up 

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Yes, it’s another pair of socks! These are a commission for a friend (if you’re reading this, Emma, you can come pick them up anytime).

Pattern: Fancy Silk Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock colour “Desert Flower”

Knit on 2.5mm dpn Addi Aluminium

Mods: Changed the toe slightly, decreased to 16 sts then used a Kitchener Graft as I think it’s neater than the suggested decrease to 8sts and then draw the yarn through to finish.

These are currently blocking on a towel in front of my patio doors (I don’t have any sock blockers )

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I got a parcel this morning from my Secret Pal in SP10 - I now know that she is in Tamarac, Florida. Looked that up on Google maps and found it is in the North of Miami so I’ll be thinking of my pal next time I watch Horatio in CSI Miami!!!!

Simpson came to help me open it -

First out of the box was this really cute sheep basket and inside that were some gorgeous stitch markers -

…can’t wait to use these…

Next  - chocolate…and it’s dark chocolate!

…this has to be the most beautiful coloured yarn I’ve seen in ages

…it’s Superwash Merino Wool from http://fearlessfibers.etsy.com in Rainbow-Dyed Colorway: Midnight Passion …. I want to start knitting right away…but I have so many things I want to use it for…..the colour is much deeper than it shows on the picture, I’ve been struggling to take a picture that shows it properly this one is a bit better

Finally, two books that are on my wishlist. I very nearly bough Sensational Knitted Socks for myself a week ago. I got as far as putting it in my basket on Amazon and then stopped…don’t know why…very spooky!

Thanks to my wonderful SP in Florida!!!

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It’s been a week of winning and losing, of ups and downs. On the upside, on Thursday evening we won our local pub quiz! J and I do the quiz pretty much every other Thursday with a couple of our friends. We usually come nowhere, a while back we got joint first to be told the policy was not to pay out on a tie but to “roll-over” the prize.

This week we arrived to find the quiz had been totally revised, it’s organised by the pub themselves whereas before it was someone who came in to do it. You no longer have to pay (it was £1 per person entry before with the money going into the pot for the prize). And the quiz questions themselves are much better - an encyclopaedic knowledge of soap operas, football and the Sun newspaper stories for the week is no longer necessary!!!

So, we thought we’d done pretty well and when the scores were announced - we’d come joint first again…..oh great we thought….but wait, there was to be a tie break. One person from each team was nominated to answer the tie break, my team nominated me (thanks team, no pressure!!). The question was What year was the MCC founded - with the nearest to the correct year winning. First off the girl from the other team asked what MCC stands for - well, I know nothing about cricket but I have at least heard of the MCC…(it’s the Marylebone Cricket Club whose ground is Lords and who oversee the rules of the game). OK, so I had no idea of the date but through a little bit of logic came up with the date 1820……the answer is actually 1787 but I was nearest so we won….I have no idea what the other girl put…

We got 2 bottles of Jacob’s Creek white wine to take home with us…very nice.

Yesterday my winning streak continued. Saturday was the running of the Grand National - for anyone not familiar with the Grand National it is, apparantly, the world’s most famous steeplechase. A horse race over fences staged annually at Aintree racecourse, the field is around 40 horses, the fences are enormous, the course is two circuits totalling 4 and a half miles, and usually only a handful of horses finish with the rest unseating their riders or refusing at the fences.

In England, the Grand National is an institution and even people who never bet on horse-racing put a few pounds on their favourite horse. The best thing about the National is that with amateur riders competing with professionals and so many horses not completing the course anything can happen and so it’s a lottery with no knowledge of horse racing form being of much help in picking the winner.

In our office we had a sweepstake which we picked out on Friday, as there aren’t many people in our office we each drew two horses. I got Liberthine and Silver Birch - neither of them were very far up in the tipsters lists but Liberthine was tipped as a good outside bet so I put £5 on as well as the sweepstake.

So, guess what, the other horse, Silver Birch won! So I lost my bet at the bookies but I did win the office sweepstake - £40 for a £2 stake can’t be bad can it!

My winning streak has just ended however. I mentioned in previous posts that I was taking part in Sock Madness -well not any more. The pattern for this round was issued yesterday at 2.30pm BST but as I was at my parents and we took them out for dinner we didn’t get back home until gone 7 yesterday evening. I cast on as soon as we got in and sat knitting almost continuously until 2.30 in the morning when I decided I had to get some sleep….others obviously don’t bother.

This was where I’d got to when I went to bed -

The yarn is from Posh Yarn and is Lucia 4ply sock yarn (30% cashmere, 70% merino) and the colour is called “Pop” but reminds me of Refreshers (sweets). The colours are a bit washed out in this photo - this one is probably closer to reality -

Up until I went to bed I had been checking the flickr group regularly to see if my opponent in this round had posted a progress picture to get an idea of how I was doing - nothing. When I got up this morning at 8am to start knitting again there was a picture posted 10.34pm but I am assuming that was US time and I don’t know what time zone but say that was 4am UK time…it showed a single sock complete to a few rows past the gusset. I was at the same point on my sock and knowing it was now the middle of the night in the US I began knitting furiously….until 1pm when my opponent posted a picture of two completed socks.

She knit these in less than 24 hours so I’m assuming she didn’t sleep…..her progress picture was actually taken at 10.42pm PDT on Sat 14th but wasn’t posted until 12.17am Sunday 15th …if she’d posted it when it was taken I wouldn’t have bothered staying up till 2am but would have thrown in the towel and realised I was not going to catch her. Her completed socks were photographed 6 hours later at 4.20 am so I wonder if her progress pic wasn’t actually of her second sock….

Anyway, I’m out.

So - other knitting….have a few Secret Pal knits ongoing so can’t post any pics I’m afraid. Also nearly finished the Fancy Silk Sock in Lorna’s Lace - will post some pics later

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First a finished object, this is the Column of Leaves scarf I started knitting in Cornwall with the DK Baby Camel yarn from poshyarn. It was going to be my scarf for my ISE4 partner, but shortly after starting to knit I realised it just wasn’t right for my partner so it will now be a gift for a family member.
The pattern is the Column of Leaves from http://brookenelson.com/leafscarfpattern.html

I really love this pattern and will probably knit it again, as for the yarn - it is absolutely gorgeous, probably the softest yarn I have ever knit with. It was a joy to knit and I wil DEFINITELY buy Camel yarn again.

Here’s a close up of the pattern

It needs blocking and the ends weaving in, once that’s done I will post a final picture for you.

Now for the WIP -

I know…it’s not knitting but it’s what we spent all weekend doing! So, the walls,ceiling and skirting boards have a lovely fresh coat of paint, the horrid yellow paint on the windowsill has been removed to reveal the lovely quarry tiles and the light switches and plug sockets have been replaced.

So from this -

to this -

and from this -

to this -

Now we need to get new carpet and we’re done. We even had time to paint the smaller room as well -

Now we just have a pile of junk to get rid of that was filling these rooms!

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Regular readers may remember I mentioned a while ago that I had signed up to an online sock knitting competition “Sock Madness“. This is a timed competition to knit a pair of socks to a specified pattern. You are paired up with another knitter in your division, the pattern is sent out at a specified time then it’s needles up and race to knit the socks quicker than the competition. First to finish and post a picture on the flickr group wins and goes through to the next round.

So far I’m doing well and made it through to Round 3 which started on Wednesday afternoon UK time - I have great problems knowing about the time difference between here and each of my competitors so far who have all been in the US. I go to bed knowing they are still awake and knitting - I think I’m going to wake in the morning and find they’ve finished!

Anway, here’s the socks I’ve knit so far:

Round 1 - Mad Cows by Jennifer Booker Young

Yarn = Opal petticoat shade 1295 and Opal Uni in a sky blue.

Needles - Addi Bamboo 2.5mm dpn’s

Time taken - cast on 11.45am Saturday 10th March, second toe grafted 1.15pm Sunday 11th March (all times GMT)

The pattern is available on the Sock Madness blog here.

This sock is lovely - the pattern was really easy, just repeating stripes of solid and variegated with a short row heel and a flat toe with a kitchener graft. Very comfy to wear.

Round 3 - Madtini by Karin Bole

Yarn - hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester sock weight from the Natural Dye Studio colour “Blossom”. The photo on the left is much truer to the colours - the finished photo was taken under electric light at

Needles - Brittany Birch 3mm dpn’s

Time taken - the pattern for this arrived sometime on the evening of Thursday 22nd March but as this was my birthday I was out having dinner with my DH. I was off work the following day however and so managed to cast on about 9am Friday 23rd March and then finished sock no 2 at about 1.50 am Saturday 24th March (yes I stayed up until nearly 2 in the morning to finish - and this was actually 2.50 British Summer Time as the clocks went forward an hour at 1.00am, so I lost an hour!!!

I think these are my favourite Madness socks so far. The twisted rib on the cuff is really interesting and the simple spirals of looped stitches works brilliantly with the hand-dyed yarn. The heel is eye of partridge and this is the first time I’ve knit this.. but definitely won’t be the last, and the toe is again a flat toe with a kitchener graft.

Round 3 - Painted Madness by Tricia Weatherston

Yarn - Opal Handpainted “Herbstmelodie” colour 1980, this is a limited edition hand-painted yarn which is 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamide (and so machine washable - hooray!). It’s very much an autum leaves colour which makes it odd to be knitting in Spring - but I love autumn colours.

Needles - brand new Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpn’s sent to me by my Sockret Pal, Roo.

Time Taken - pattern arrived about 3pm Wednesday 4th April but I was at work, well technically I was at home but I was working from home which made it worse as I knew my yarn and needles were in the next room calling to me but I had to carry on working! I hadn’t actually decided on a yarn before the pattern arrived, had several to choose from. Finished work at 5pm but didn’t then cast on till about 5.30pm as I had to make a final decision on the yarn and then wind it. Finished 1.50am Saturday 7th April BST - another late night!

This time around I really didn’t think I had any chance, what with being at work on Thursday and then having a Moonwalk training walk that evening. Friday was a public holiday here in the UK (Good Friday) but we are indulging in the traditional British Easter weekend activity of DIY so I spent all day yesterday stripping wallpaper off walls, filling holes with plaster and scraping paint off windowsills - we are trying to get our spare room re-decorated so we can transform it into a child’s bedroom in preparation for our adopting a child/children.

However, my opponent this round, Neecie, emailed me on Thursday afternoon to say she was having to pull out injured….I’m really sorry for her but it did mean I’ve gone through to Round 4. Managed to knit Wednesday evening until I was about halfway down the foot. Completed sock 1 when I got home on Thursday before I went walking. Then cast on sock 2 and knit the cuff. Knit a bit of ribbing when I got up on Friday then the rest of the sock on Friday night after we stopped the DIY.

Not sure about these socks - love the colours and love the points on the cuff, however for me I would like the cuff a little less deep and to knit a little bit of leg between the ribbing and the heel because this would make it fit better with the sort of shoes I tend to wear. The heel is a flap heel which is fine but the toe is a “round toe” which I don’t find very comfortable to wear. Not sure if this is because I have very narrow long toes but to me the round toe looks like the sock has just been grabbed and drawn up like a drawstring bag - it doesn’t follow the shape of my foot like a flat toe or even a star toe…I may well unpick the toes and put a different one on now the competition is done. The photo below illustrates this  I think -

So, more DIY today, here’s the progress we made yesterday, forgot to take a before photo but if you look at the photo on the right - yes that wall is painted in camouflage! Imagine all four walls painted like that! The other walls were covered in wood-chip wallpaper painted in camouflage so we spent yesterday stripping that off.

The white spots everywhere are where we had to take out screws and rawl plugs and then fill the holes in the plaster…yes there really were that many screw holes in the walls! Today we have to sand the walls to get them smooth where we’ve filled and hope to paint the ceiling and put a base coat on the walls. My dad was helping yesterday and my brother is coming over today…. and the weather is lovely outside of course, if I’d planned on gardening it would be raining non-stop.

Enjoy whatever you’re doing this weekend.

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I seem to be going through something of a “Purple Patch”, I was uploading photos to flickr and when I looked at them all on the screen it was just a sea of purple! And then this morning I got this -

- my final “reveal” package from my Sockret Pal who turned out to be Ruth, and it’s an extravaganza of purple/blue/pink! Ruth was also my spoiler in another blog and that plus an accidental email she sent me a little while ago had tipped me off that she was probably my Sockret Pal, but that’s ok, I still got a surprise with what she was sending me and she’s really spoilt me this time by sending all this stuff

First, my handknit socks which are just perfect.

Child’s First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush in Lorna’s Lace “Iris Garden”- anyone who reads my blog regularly will know Ive knit this pattern a couple of times but always for other people, now I have a pair for me and they are so comfy and soft

Next out of the box was this -

Ruth tells me these are from The Yarn Yard, yet another UK online yarn seller she has pointed me at (you’re doing nothing for my bank balance you know !!) They are both 4ply 75% wool 25% polyamide and don’t they look perfect together? Have to find something special to knit with these.

The third package was -

a pencil case - to use to keep my dpn’s, and crochet hooks (Ruth knows I’ve been learning to crochet) and inside a really useful notebook, some Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpns and (the best of all) some sew in labels that say “Handmade by Wendy”.

I’ve been wanting some of these for ever and actually saw some on Ruth’s blog and asked here where they came from!!! - she wouldn’t tell me

My gifted items are going to look so professional from now on.

The next packet out of the box was more (yes more!!) yarn

A ball of Tofutsies which I have been seeing cropping up on blogs and been intrigued by, can’t wait to try. The other ball is the remainder of the Lorna’s from the socks “in case of alterations” as Ruth put it - no alterations needed however…so this could become some more squares in my “memories” afghan I’m planning

The last package was ….

…this beautiful book. Ruth and I were in an afghan square swap a little while ago and I have been talking with her about crochet squares as I’ve been trying to learn so this will be great for practise and inspiration.

Aren’t I just the luckiest Swapper anywhere?

Adding to my purple day is my second try at a scarf for ISE4, the first just doesn’t seem right for my pal….can’t say exactly why but it’s just “not her”. So yesterday on our way home from Cornwall when we stopped at Trago Mills in Newton Abbot for decorating supplies (don’t ask me to explain Trago Mills, it’s a West Country thing!) I had a quick look in their arts & crafts department and found some Patons Spirit mohair blend in a purple self-striping colourway -

I took it along to my Knitting Group when we got back to Marlow last night and cast on with 6.5mm needles and just used a basic “old shale” stitch pattern so it isn’t just straight striped. I’m much happier with this. It’s coming out pretty big - 41 stitches and 6.5mm needles means it’s about 11″ wide and so far with a little bit of the first ball to go it’s about 18″ long. I have 4 balls in total so that would give a completed length of at least 72″. My partner says she likes long scarfs so hopefully that would be long enough!

Despite being wide and long, the mohair and the stitch pattern mean it’s very light and very soft - should be a lovely warm scarf I think.

I was asked about the Old Shale knitting stitch, it is in a really old book of traditional knitting stitches which I have and in that book is used in a shwal. Here’s the pattern for my scarf (such as it is!) knit in any yarn you like using the appropriate sized needles and casting on as many stitches as needed to get the width you want. I’ve given the directions for what I did using Patons Spirit which is a mohair/acrylic blend with a ball band tension of 13sts/17rows to 4″ on 6.5mm/UK 3/US 10.5 needles.

Cast on 40 sts (or any multiple of 6 plus 4 edge stitches).
Row 1: knit
Row 2: k2, p to last 2 sts, k2
Row 3: k2, (k2 tog) 3 times, *(yo k1) 6 times, (k2 tog) 6 times* repeat from * to * to the last 8 sts, (k2 tog) 3 times, k2
Row 4: knit (this gives a garter st ridge which just added a little bit of texture, if you prefer the alternative is to repeat Row 2 and keep the whole thing in st st)

These 4 rows form the pattern and are repeated until (1) the scarf is long enough (2) you run out of yarn or (3) you get bored - whichever comes first!

Finally this post, I promised pictures of the gifts I was given visiting our friends in Cornwall on Saturday. So here they are -

Lucy painted me a beautiful Springtime picture with chicks and eggs, as you can see it has pride of place on our kitchen notice board

She also made me a sequinned Easter Egg which is so pretty and is now hanging on my tealight tree

Lucy is not feeling very well at the moment as she developed Chicken Pox on Monday - right at the start of school holidays for Easter - Get Well Soon Lucy xxx

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Having a lovely weekend in Cornwall - yesterday we went down to my f-i-l’s boat. He is about to put the sails back after the winter and needed someone to go up the mast and re-attach some of the halyards. As I was the lightest amongst the assembled party, I was the one volunteered.

Here I am getting into the bosun’s chair -

and here I am going up the mast -

after I reattached the halyard and came back down, my f-i-l said “I should have got you to take a cloth up and clean that antenna” - see that round thing at the top of the mast? That’s the antenna and it’s covered in green. So, after a cup of tea and some negotiation on price up I went again.

My m-i-l suggested that I should ask for payment in skeins of wool - what a great idea, I told f-i-l I’m sending my next Paypal invoice for online yarn purchase to his email address!!!

The evening was spent visiting our good friends Tracey (Gwelva Kernewek) & Graham and their daughters….I do think of them as good friends, despite the fact this was actually only the second time we’ve ever met. We met Tracey online and have been communicating for a long time and we then discovered she lived just a few miles from J’s parents here in Cornwall.

We had a lovely evening, J impressed the girls with his prowess on Grand Turismo on the PS, we shared Pizza and exchanged presents.

I was given a lovely picture and a handdecorated egg - I’ll post some pictures when I get home. Thanks for having us gang we had a brilliant time….arriving back in the early hours this morning.

Thought I’d share some pics of the other members of the family, the Newfoundland Dogs ;

Bosun-

and Otto -

here I am with the two of them, to give you some idea of their size…yes they really are that big and weigh more than twice as much as me

This lunchtime we went to the Ferry Inn at Bodinnick for a pub meal. I tried out J’s new camera phone to take a panoramic picture of the view across the estuary to Fowey

this is J having a pint of cider in front of the pub

When we got back J and I walked down from the house to the beach at Talland, about a mile and a half straight down.

To our surprise the beach cafe was open and so we had an ice cream

and a mug of tea

it was lovely sitting in the sunshine looking at the sea, just the recharge we both need away from every day life. And, ok so it’s not knitting content on a blog that is supposedly about knitting but it is sort of knittin related - On the walk back up to the house we saw these little guys -

aren’t they the cutest? Of course I’m looking at them thinking “Hmmm, wonder what that would spin up into…?”

Here’s a picture of Talland Bay to finish with - enjoy!

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