Bling Bling

I have finished the third edge of the border of Rosy Fingered Dawn. I have turned the corner and am on the home straight. I am starting to worry that I am knitting a shawl for the Statue of Liberty. Anne over at White Star Sams is also knitting RFD. She says she's starting to worry about the size of said shawl. Her problem is the exact opposite- she's knitting a shawl for Barbie. What is all that about?

Predictably, because I am on the home straight, my attention has started to wander. I finally managed to make it to my LYS, after an absence of about three weeks, due to press of work, life etc. Only to find - a gift voucher from Ann to say "Thank You" for her One Skein Wonder AND the whole shop over-run with new yarns from Louisa Harding. Talk about a kid in a candy shop.



Look at this delightful stuff. Sari Ribbon. 90% nylon, 10% metallic. Of which I purchased four:



To make this:



A Lace Scarf from the "Accessories Collection". (Don't suppose I'll look like her when I'm wearing it.) I must give old Louisa a pat on the back for this pattern book. The items are photographed several time: there's the usual arty shot where you can't really see what the thing looks like but then there is usually a close-up (the knitter's picture) and often another picture elsewhere. So it's the best of all possible worlds. Thank you, Louisa.

Progress has been swift. I have knitted up two of the four skeins and here is the half-scarf reclining on a red bush in the garden:



I'm using my Addi Turbo 9mm needles. She suggests 10mm needles, but you know me - the loose woman. No swatch, of course. It's only 34 stitches - that is a swatch, isn't it? It's just about bang on, size-wise and anyway - it's a scarf. It doesn't have to fit!

I also got various other things but all that will have to wait. There will be pictures; there will be candy; there will probably be a finished scarf; there may be a finished Rosy Fingered Dawn (but don't hold your breath for that last one.)

Bored-er

Yes, I'm bored with the border. It's such slow going. I know that if I don't do it, it won't get done. (As so often in life.) There are nine repeats of 24 rows on each side. I have completed one side and if Blogger would let me, I would show you a picture.

I have also "gone round the bend" - the corner is achieved by short rows and is extremely neat and ingenious and if Blogger would let me, I would show you a picture.

The Morning Star features in the centre of the border, birds at the bottom of the border and the very poetically named "Zig-zag border" is, well, it's a zig-zag border and if Blogger would let me, I would show you a picture.

No pictures here, though.

I'm starting to think about the next big project. The Wedding Ring Shawl will, I think, have to wait. It is obviously a project that requires natural light and plenty of it. As we are entering the "it's so dark we have to have the light on all day long" period of the year (which I hate), so not enough light to see a hand in front of your face. "River" from Rowan 38? A very nice Sharon Miller pattern but maybe just a teeny-tiny bit boring? Some sort of a garment? Maybe "Pandora" also from Rowan 38. (But without the fearful pink bow.) Shock, horror! Something that has to fit? Does this mean I have to do a swatch?

Something from Hanne Falkenburg? Maybe Mermaid? Tari's knitting this at the moment and it's stunning. The trouble is: I think I should use some stash. There is just so much of it. I don't know what I fancy. Help!!

Blogger has relented. There is one picture:



I don't know which is more bored-er, me or it.

I am reduced to this.

It's time to start the border of Rosy Fingered Dawn. I have changed to Dark Cloud. It was wound with minimal fuss (although there was a knot in one of the plys, again!). I have the right number of stitches between the corner stitches, I did not even have to "use the next two rnds to adjust the number". I read the detailed instructions carefully. Then I read them again. Then I walked around the room a bit. I took up the work. "Do not break yarn" Hah! After I had tried and failed to "cast on 16 sts invisibly, over a spare piece of yarn on to the right-hand point of the circular needle" at least five times the yarn broke of its own accord.

That's when I started with the heavy guns - wine and chocolate. Both together, at the same time. I tossed the instructions aside, used my own native wit and low cunning, cast on the sixteen stitches on to the left point of the needle and I think it's perfect.



This is half of the first corner mitre, done using short rows. At this stage I was ready to start "eating up" the live stitches of the main body of the shawl. There are 162 stitches on each side between the corner stitches, so there is quite a lot of "eating" still to do. We also need to be sure the stitches don't fall off the other end of the needle. We had to be ingenious, as we have no point protectors. This was my solution:



I think it was originally used on a backpack to fasten the string through the top. It has now got a new life - it is a "Stitch thingy".



There it is - doing its job perfectly. I do not think the stitches would dare to throw themselves off the needle now. I will finish this edging, I will finish this edging, I will finish this edging and preferably before I die of old age.

The Yarn Bites Back

Having beaten Rosy Fingered Dawn into submission by a combination of stern words and the "Paddington Bear Stare" all appears to be plain sailing. That's all it was - an appearance. It came time to change to "Blue Cloud", except "Blue Cloud" was still in the skein. I like to wind as I go. It gives me something else to do besides knit. It leaves the yarn relaxed until it's time to be wound up. It gives me a right headache. The skein went on the swift in a very docile manner. That didn't last long. It tangled, it pulled, it twisted, it stuck to itself. It was coaxed, cajoled, cursed; it was taken off the swift, it was put back on the swift; it was spoken to (in two languages) very sternly indeed; it was stared at with a basilisk glance. Talk about psychological warfare - I am exhausted but I have bent the yarn to my will. It was eventually wound into two balls. Two? Yes, because, to add insult to injury, there was a knot in it. Only in one of the two plys but there was a knot, nevertheless. Why do they do that? Don't get me started.

All I have to do now is knit Chart 6. Couldn't be simpler:



This is "Boreas, the North Wind: Horseshoe and Horse's Mane". You can see the horseshoe appearing between the stitch markers.

The whole nine yards:



Nine yards seems to just about cover it.

We are quite near the end now (only four more rounds of this chart and then we are on to the border - bet there'll be a lot of fun and games there) so it's about time I started on displacement activities. I saw this so I made this:



This is the back of the fox. Yarn is Colinette Silky Chic and Patons Eskimo, left over from Knitty's Vegan Fox.

Here's the front:



I didn't happen to have any white eyelash yarn, so have used something I did happen to have. I can't remember what it is and I'm too lazy to root out the ball band - it's some furry stuff, it's white-ish, what more do you want?

If I could find the bag of stuffing that I know is present in this house, the fox would be finished by now, but I can't, so it's not.

How many more little bits of trivia will I start before Rosy Fingered Dawn is finished? The book is open. (You can do a spread bet, if you want.)