Taking it Steady

That's what I've been doing and it seems to be working. I have done very little but sit and knit and watch TV. Many thanks for all your good wishes - Lixie asked if there was anything I needed, a little bit of cashmere, some angora, a bit of Helen's lace? It's always worth a try.

Highland Triangle is finished. I didn't block too fiercely, I washed, I spun in the machine, I stretched out on the line.




Please ignore the wonderful crop of nettles. I'm thinking about making nettle beer, like the stuff we used to drink when I was a kid on holiday in Heysham, where my Grandma lived. You can still buy it there now.

As I said, I've ordered Rosy Fingered Dawn and can hardly wait for it to arrive. I've ordered from Blackberry Ridge before, but simply cannot remember how long the stuff took to arrive. I want it now! I am trying not to start anything new before this shawl, so I've been attacking some WIPs.

Speaking of WIPs, when does a WIP become a UFO? When it moves out of the knitting basket on the piano into its own bag? When you whip the needles out of it to use them for something else? When it goes up into the large open basket in the bedroom? I don't know, but I do know that when it gets into the Ali Baba basket with the lid, it is, without doubt, a UFO.



The WIP in question is Alice Starmore's "Fulmar", which is in the book "Aran Knitting". See that, there? "Buy used: $197.51" (that's £111.74 in "real money"). Don't be ridiculous. Somebody must be paying that price, but it's not me. I bought my copy from Interweave Press in a half-price web sale in 2003. It cost me $19.98 (£11.30). I had been looking for it for a few months and was more than pleased with my bargain. It's just a question of keeping your ear to the ground and being a little bit persistent.

It's a nice book (but not $197.51 nice). The section at the beginning on the history of Aran Knitting is fascinating and there is a very good section on designing. It is typical of me that the pattern that appealed more than any other was Fulmar. Ms Starmore uses 2.5 and 3mm needles, Ms Kate is using 2.5mm needles for the main body and even smaller, teenier, tinier needles for the welts. I am basically knitting an Aran jumper on sock needles. I am as mad as a hatter.

The front is done. The back is in progress:




Note the red cotton stitch markers - I really didn't know I had so much of the stuff.

I'm using 5-ply Guernsey wool from Frangipani in the Clover colour. It is very slow going but I am determined that it will be finished before the weather gets cold enough for me to wear it.

Ms Starmore uses the usual blurry pictures:



I've already made my feelings known about this style of photograph but now it seems to be exercising the minds of the "Knitlist". I was typing that and I wrote "Knitlost", I think I prefer that.

Another row of Fulmar - pass the magnifying glass.