There's always knitting

and it's usually lace.  Actually, I haven't knitted any lace for yonks (technical term) and I was starting to get itchy fingers.  Frost, flowers and leaves has been on my list for quite a long time and I've finally begun:

Not a great picture, but this is Thom Christophe's circular start, which is very like this one on Fleegle's blog (except he does a yo after knitting the stitch through the loop).  It's a good start and has the benefit of not requiring a crochet hook, which one (by which I mean "I") can never find when one needs it.

I've finished chart 1 (round 66) and am almost done with the first repeat of chart 2.

There she is in all her un-photogenic, pre-blocking glory.

I took some pics of a few flowers (as best I could):

It really doesn't look much like that but I hope you can get the general idea.

All this new yarn came about, if you remember, because 'im indoors thought he might like new socks. 

Having just finished my toe-up Show-Off Stranded Socks, I just couldn't bear the thought of knitting the same pattern right away.  I did some investigation and came up with a few "manly" patterns.  The one that won the prize was the 2k 2p inside out socks.

I have made a start:

I don't know about starting the ribbing right from the off - it might be better do a more "normal" toe and then set off on the pattern.  It's done now anyway.

The sole is plain:

I just popped onto Ravelry to check something out and right there on the front page was an ad for this cardie/skirt thingie (tt).  Obviously, it's either a cardigan or a skirt (and not both at the same time).  I love things that turn into other things.  I couldn't help myself.  I bought Lopes and cast on immediately.  Pictures next time.

One Thing Leads to Another

If 'im indoors wants a sock, I'll have to have more sock yarn.  (This is what I tell him.  There is, in fact, enough sock yarn in the house to insulate a small igloo.)  I tell him to get over to the Wool Warehouse, where they happen to have a sale, and choose his colour/s.

This is what he chose:

and I decided that he ought to have more socks (which, of course, equals more yarn).  So I chose this for him:

- not too different from his choice - we don't want to frighten the horses.

But, as noted above, one thing really does lead to another:

I just got a few extra things - there was a sale, after all.

All credit to the Wool Warehouse - the bag of swag arrived the day after I ordered it, beautifully packaged.

Apart from his lordship's sock yarn, I also got a few balls of plain sock yarn for me.  I want to make some of the fancy socks from Cookie A's Sock Innovation.  There is a great review of the book on the WEBS blog.  You need to scroll down a bit, past all the waffle.  Sadly, all the socks are top down, so not ideal for me.  However, there is very good section on sock design, including pattern placement, which I think will be a massive help if I want to adapt the patterns to make them toe-up.

Best yarn of all is lace weight yarn - skinny (technical term) yarn, skinny (tt) needles = right up my street.  I couldn't help myself:

I've been wanting to make "Frost, flowers and leaves" from "A Gathering of Lace" for ages and this yarn looks like just the ticket.  The original yarn was Shetland lace weight and required 16 skeins at 205m each, a total of 3,280 metres (which seems like an awful lot).  Anyway, this Drops lace has 800m/100g, so I ordered 5.  I don't want to be running out of yarn with three inches of the border to go. 

Kate being Kate, I started to research the pattern.  I looked at Ravelry, the errata from the original book (which aren't needed because my copy already has the corrections) and various blogs.  One blog I came across has a very detailed description of all you would ever need to know.  Imagine my surprise when she came to talking about attaching the edging:

I wish I could find the blog on which I found UPDATE: Check out this great post from Knit the Knits, which has photos of the edging technique – basically you take your dpns and some waste yarn and work an entire chart repeat, then use that “sample” repeat as a base for starting to attach the edging to the live stitches that make up the body of the shawl.

She actually links to one of my own posts!  I feel like I'm that kid who's holding a book with a picture of herself on the cover, holding a book with a picture of herself on the cover, holding a book... you get the idea.

And yes, I have started "triple F" and the sock for 'im indoors but all that will have to wait until the next post, when there will be actual knitting content.

I leave you with the Saturday back field, on a Saturday for a change:

Is this thing on?

Yes, I know - it's been a while.  There has always been knitting and it's time to blog again because it helps me focus and keep a proper record of what I'm knitting.  Also, living in the rural backwater, as I do, I don't meet many knitters in the flesh (so to speak).  It's nice to feel part of a larger whole.

I'm not going to go into all the knitting I've done - even if I could remember (see above), so I'm just going to start from where I am,
which is always good advice.

I was flittering (technical term) around Ravelry, when I found this pattern for some fancy socks.  I don't really do top down socks - they never seem to fit me properly, so I made these toe-up.

I used the non-shaped round toe from Chrissy Gardiner's book "Toe-Up!".  Cast on 16 stitches using Judy's Magic Cast On:

 

I'm thinking this might be a little bit too pointy and maybe in future I should cast on 10 stitches per needle.

The stitch pattern is simple and works well with this very busy yarn - I actually started about three different patterns before settling on this:

 

The heel is the hybrid heel, also from "Toe-Up!".  This heel has the benefit of a gusset:

 

and no picking up of stitches - which always looks like a dog's breakfast, at least when I do it.

I decided on Eye of Partridge stitch for the heel flap - just because I could:

 

Cast off was Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off:

 Here we have the finished sock:

The other one is about to come off the needles and it seems there may be more of this pattern in my future:

'Im indoors: "That's nice."
Pause.  "Do you think it would look nice in a man's sock?"

Oh, dear.

Home Again, Home Again

Actually, I've been "home again" for quite a while now but what with the start of "Le Tour", the Olympic Torch coming right past the house and the incessant rain, there hasn't been much time/inclination for blogging.

I've been knitting, though.  Oh, Yes.

I finished the Good Day Sunshine Challenge:

Here, she is reclining in the garden in one of the rare moments that the rain is not tipping down.  Sadly, she remains unblocked.  I really don't know how I'm going to deal with the area around the neck - it just isn't the right shape and that's after I modified the pattern on my second start.  I feel slightly bad that I haven't quite finished this because the challenge was to do it within one month (i.e. by 14th July).  It was finished...

I've been chugging away on the Mona Lisa but there really isn't much to show - and I'm still waiting for the remainder of the yarn.

A while ago Nicky at my LYS gave me this:

delicious Botany Lace from Araucania in my perfect colours, but only with the proviso that I knit something for her from this:

Well, I don't want to give the game away completely (just in case she's reading) but I have made something.

A rather nice something, if you ask me (not that anyone did):

and (because it's not the same without a bit of lace, is it?):

I'm not showing the whole thing because I don't want to give the game away completely.

Babies seem to be springing up all over the place.

These are for the daughter of a friend of mine:

The yarn is  Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball colour Tropical Fish.  I bought this ages ago, so long ago that I can't remember where, and it's been waiting to tell me what it wants to be.  Finally, it spoke and told me it wanted to be Ann Budd's "Better than Bootees Baby Socks"

I followed the pattern on the first sock (which actually isn't shown here - there are going to be four socks in total) but the short-rows for the heel and toe were a right performance (never mind what Priscilla Gibbson-Roberts says).  So on the second and all subsequent socks I have used the plain and simple short rows that are deconstructed here.   I rarely use short rows for heels because they don't fit me (or 'im indoors for that matter), so I hadn't really got down to the (k)nitty gritty on them but the link above really does tell you all you need to know (and possibly more than some people would care to).

The pattern was first published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2005 which brings me on to my big whine of the day.  I have a subscription to IK from Newsstand (no link- I would not encourage anyone to have anything to do with them.)  Instead of sending me IK Spring 2012 they sent me Knitscene.  I remonstrated.  They said there had only been a crochet special.  Not True.  This morning a package dropped through the letter box.  Looks like Interweave?  Yes, but it's not - it's that b****y Knitscene.  Again!  I have sent a stiff email.  I await their response with interest.  In the meantime:  Newsstand.  Bargepole.  You have been warned.

Off to watch the Tour (where our boy, Bradley Wiggins, is poised for success - unless he manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as the Brits so often do.)  I don't really mean that.  I just don't want to put the commentators' curse on it.  Go Bradley!

Is that a Frog?

I'm going to Spain tomorrow (and if Burglar Bill is reading, no, the house won't be empty) to stay in this delightful spot near Malaga, so this will be a very short post, just to keep you in the loop.

Work on the Mona Lisa has been temporarily halted because I discovered I had inadvertently purchased a ball of Double Knitting and a ball of 4-ply.  Doh!

Work has stopped completely on the "I dare you to knit this" pattern.  (Good Day Sunshine from Knitty)  The yarn just wasn't right for the job, and even though I had my doubts from the start, I just kept right on knitting.  Eventually, I bowed to the inevitable and out came:

Yes, it is a frog.

I have treated the green monstrosity as a large swatch (Yes, you heard right) and I have modified the start and the selvedges.

I have begun anew:

This is much more like it and it also has the merit of being yellow (which is a bit of a better fit for sunshine than green).

Close-up:

I don't know what the yarn is.  Wool, probably; a gift from a customer, definitely.

Finally, it's Saturday and for once you get this on the right day:

The sheep have gone (mainly because I found them all wandering round the garden at work the other day).

And I'm going too, because I need to pack.

Like Buses

You know how it is - you're waiting for a bus and then three come along together.

I spent so long waiting for my pattern from the Calling all Knitters group and I found myself in the yarn shop and I'd been thinking about the Mona Lisa and, well, I must confess, I bought yarn.  So I started to knit it:

I know it doesn't look much at the moment but it will, trust me - I'm a knitter.

A close-up:

(still not much to see).  It's actually a bit brighter in real life

Then the pattern came through from the "I dare you to knit this" department and I had to root through the stash to find just the right yarn for the job.  (Though the day before, when I was in aforementioned LYS, Nicky told me that if I needed yarn urgently I should just give her a call and she would open the cavern shop, just for me.)

.
As it turned out, there were several candidates for the job:

 Some Arucania Botany Lace in pink.

Same again in brown/green.

Some sock yarn (perhaps best left for socks).

Some sparkly stuff (tt) from Wingham Wool Works at the last SkipNorth.

Eventually, I decided on this anonymous green stuff (tt) - it weighs 60gr but I have no idea of the yardage, so let's hope I don't run out on the last row.

 I don't usually like variegated yarn for lace but I don't think this is too busy.

The start is quite closely woven, which I don't know if I like:

but the idea of the sun and the rays coming out of it needs a dense beginning so I'm happy to go along with it for now.   I'm not looking forward to the knit 7 together (shades of the "nupp", which we now know rhymes with "soup" and not with "cup" as I had always thought.  I had that from Nancy Bush's own mouth and, being the queen of Estonian Lace, she should know.)

That sparkly (tt) stuff that came to light might just have to turn into something with ice, or icicles, or snow, or snowflakes, or something along those lines.  I was thinking this Frozen Leaves but am open to any suggestions.

Somewhat Stalled

I answered an advertisement in the local paper for "Knitters Required" and I met L, who keeps Jacob sheep and wants to start processing the fleeces and producing items from the yarn.  I made a lacy scarf for her:

I think Jacob yarn is a bit scratchy (tt) for a garment to be worn next to the skin but under a coat collar it would be fine.  She's pleased with it anyway.  She'll be having a stall at the Leamington Peace Festival this weekend, so if you are nearby you could go and say hello.

I've also been battling on with the Olympic figures for Nicky.  I volunteered to sew some up (sew??  What was I thinking???).

Here's Henrietta, getting ready to compete in the dressage event:

and from the back:

There's a hurdler (complete with hurdle) to go and then I am done.

There's been the obligatory sock (for 'im indoors):

Sorry about the fearful dark picture - the weather here has been so bad that we have had the light on by 3.30 in the afternoon.  This picture was actually taken outside just after nine this morning and it's still dark.  The saving grace?  It's not actually raining (yet).

Here's a close-up of the basket weave pattern on the leg:

I think I'm going to run out of yarn, so I used another yarn (from the huge sock yarn blanket bag) to finish the cuff on sock #1.  I don't think it's too noticeable:

All this fiddly (tt) stuff has meant that I haven't really be able to do any "proper" knitting - by which I suppose I mean something that I have chosen to do.  Now I'm like a rabbit in the headlights and can't think of what I want to make.  Help may be at hand, however.  I found a group on Ravelry called "Calling All Knitters". 

This is what the blurb says:

 Ok, so here is the game. Sign-up in the current sign-up thread and you will receive a message with a link for a knit project that I dare you to do. You must complete the challenge within a month maximum. So, do you think you’re up for the challenge?

 As soon as I see the word "dare" and mentally hear the sound of the gauntlet being thwocked (tt) down, I'm in.  I signed up for the first wave and should be receiving my challenge some time today.  It will probably be late on, since the moderators are in Colorado and Georgia, so between five and seven hours behind me.  I hope they are early birds because I can't wait to get going.  It's not a KAL (good, because I'm not a big "joiner") - everybody gets their own project based on their experience and if you don't like the project you can ask for another one.  You just need to complete your given project within one month and post a picture of it when it's done.  Genius.

The secret will be revealed tomorrow.  Watch this space.

Shipston Wool Fair

The weather was beautiful (unlike last year, when it rained without cease).  These are Portlands and they certainly looked cooler after the shearing:

I think this is a Herdwick: (but I could be wrong  - don't quote me)

I was seriously tempted to bring home one of these:

because I saw this:

It was only when #1 son reminded me that we were travelling on the bus that I thought better of it.   More info about Wensleydales here.

There was a fair amount of knitting:

Here I am knitting with skinny (tt) yarn on skinny needles.

Then I saw Nicky's knitting:

Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous:

We modelled the "Shipston Hat" - made from sheep to head in one day last year:

I took the opportunity to photograph the lace bolero I made for Nicky's shop, Shipston Needlecraft:

It really was a lovely day.

News of yarn purchases (yes, really!), knitting and Jacob Sheep will have to wait.