Whirling Round and Round

I feel as though I am whirling round and round and it's only the force of gravity that is stopping me whirling off into deep space. This is partly the reason for my lack of posts recently. I have not, however, been resting on my laurels. I had a "sorting out" - this is the yarn that was scattered around my living room:



This is not "stash", you understand - this is just stuff that was lying round. Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Jaeger, Regia, Luisa Harding, Blackberry Ridge - all were represented.

I found WIPs I'd almost forgotten about (which brings us back to the age old question of when does a WIP turn into a UFO?)



That pink cotton is the "Backyard Leaves" scarf from "Scarf Style". That's a good book - I didn't really think I needed a scarf book (A scarf is a scarf is a scarf.) but I've made several things from it. There you can see the soy silk that Kiki sent me - I'm doing a swatch (a what??) of some lace from Myrna Stahman's book. In the "Sheep" bag in the box? that would be "Fulmar" (here's Wendy wearing hers - she's knit it twice, which is why she is an uberKnitter and I am just a knitter) the jumper that dare not speak its name. She's about 18 months old at the moment and I really do not know when she will be finished. I also found the plastic bag bag. I'm slicing green plastic bags into "yarn" and knitting a bag. (You can imagine the reaction of 'im indoors - "Wasn't it a bag to start with?")

I frogged some stuff, which I think I told you about last time - most liberating.

I have even done some knitting:



Here is a sock for 'im indoors. Yes, it is a strange shape - that is because his foot is a strange shape. The joy of toe-up socks is that you can alter them for a custom fit with very little fuss. This one is a bit more pointy than the last pair and I cannot for the life of me think why but I'm sure it will be fine.

I have made a little progress on the Mystery2:



It's quite an interesting construction. First, you knit a smallish triangle from the point up. Then you pick up stitches along both long edges and work a deep border, increasing four times every public side row - once at the beginning and end of the row, once on either side of the central stitch. Then you knit a border side-on, taking up live stitches as you go.

Here's a close-up of the border, which is patterned on both sides, so requires a little bit more concentration:



Matilda has also had new clothes. I used a little bit of wool & silk that I had lying around to make her a wrap around cardigan:



She really needs something to clothe her nether regions - I must get on to that.

Still waiting for the Garden Shawl pattern to arrive, still dithering over the exact colour of yarn I want, still thinking about making this hat:



I've already made the scarf, of course.

Oh, and another coup - Mr Briggs, our new barman, has expressed an interest in learning to knit. I have started him off with some double knitting yarn and 4mm needles. I have taught him the knit stitch and he seems to have got the hang of that. He's having a bit of trouble with the length of the needles, so I'm going to take him some shorter straights and some circs, which he will use as straights, obviously. He is quite determined. I will keep you posted.