The Horse Story

I wasn't going to tell The Horse Story, because this is a blog about knitting, right? But there have been so many comments and questions that I feel I have no option but to reveal The Horse Story (and the even more startling follow-up.)

Last Sunday afternoon, sitting on the sofa in my own house in the rural backwater and minding my own business, the back door suddenly burst open and #1 daughter erupted into the house. She was weeping, she was wailing, she was unable to speak and, strangely, she was shoeless. All sorts of horror flashed through my mind but when I finally managed to calm the child down sufficiently, she told me that she had been coming home, through the now famous "back field", and that one of the horses had rushed at her and scared her. She ran away so fast that the new red shoes came off in the general melee and were now lying in the back field. "No problem, don't worry, darling. Mummy will get the shoes back," said this brave woman, in cavalier fashion.

Out I went, over the back fence with #1 daughter in the background, pointing out the shoes. The horse was there. The horse came up to me.

Here's the horse in a quieter moment (just in case you've forgotten what a horse looks like):



I held out my hand in greeting and the bugger bit me on the inside of the forearm.

This is what it looks like now, almost a week later (and slightly blurry from the contortionist's tricks I had to go through to get this picture):



That was bad enough, but on Wednesday evening I was alerted to flashing blue lights in the pub's car park. Thinking that my workplace had gone on fire once again, I shot out of the house to find out what was happening. Only to meet a fireman, in full regalia, walking up the road, shining a torch and "looking for a hydrant" (I would have thought there should be a list of where they all are, but that's just me and my quirky outlook on life.) "So what's the problem?" I ask and he replies, "Oh, nothing much, it's just a fire in some stables at the bottom of the pub car park."

Oh, Dear God.

I've been expecting the "four o'clock knock" ever since. "Excuse me, Madam, but we have reason to believe that you have a grudge against this horse. Would you mind accompanying us to the station to assist with our enquiries?"

Of course, I have nothing to fear. I was at home all the time, with 'im indoors. The only problem being that when I said that to him, he said, "Were you?"

So far, I'm still at liberty but who knows how long that state of affairs will apply?

For the record, even though I'm not the biggest fan of our equine friend, I really wouldn't wish being burned to a crisp on him and as it turned out he wasn't even singed - no horses were harmed in the telling of this story.

There's been a bit of knitting:



That's the "Audrey" bag, not quite finished yet. The handle is meant to be a silver chain with yarn woven through it. I'm not sure I'm so keen on that idea and #1 daughter says I should make a little handle like "Tilly's legs" (that would be the I-cord, then.) Maybe, maybe not.

Follow-up to the Noni bag saga - many thanks to all for their comments re dyeing, not dyeing, what colour to dye and so on. I was most cheered by several people who have said that having one odd flower is "interesting", "quirky", "fun" and all what not. (I might be starting to come round to that way of thinking.)

The best thing of all?

I had an email from Lisa at First4Yarns, where I bought the Cascade, that turned into the bag, that turned a different colour, that ended up being part of the house that Kate knitted.

I can't do better than just tell you what she wrote:

Hi Kate,

Just been browsing online and came to your Blog, I can't believe how the bag has turned out ! That is the first time I have seen that the yarn changes colour when felted, what happened?

If you would like to have another try I am quite willing to send you some more free of charge as I feel this shouldn't have happened.

I will let Cascade know x

Lisa :()

Talk about customer service above and beyond the call of duty! I haven't replied to Lisa yet because I'm not quite sure of the etiquette of how to go on in this situation. Any advice? (Take the yarn and run has already sprung to mind...)

Oh, and, in case you were wondering the red shoes were retrieved from over the rainbow and all is now well (apart from the bruise, more yellow by the minute.)

Disappointment

I think just about the last thing I wrote was about how green the Noni bag turned out to be. I may have mentioned something about the uncertainty of the felting process, especially since I have a front-loading washing machine. Never a truer word spoken.

This is the bright lime green bag after felting:



It has turned what can only be described as a "mucky brown" (technical term). On the plus side, it is a more suitable size for a bag. I'm trying to think what to do with it because I certainly don't want it to be that colour. Dye it black? Remove the colour and dye it back to the lime green it started off as? Dye it with what? Throw it behind the sofa and forget about it for a while? Everything is possible.

Not content with the bag itself turning into a nightmare, the flowers are not far behind. There are five flowers. I had already felted one because I couldn't wait to see how it would turn out. I made the others and felted them. I'm sure you will spot the problem:



Guess which one I did first? That's something else with a whole lot of questions attached.

I decided to get back to something where I know what I'm doing:



This is clue 2 of the Spring Shawl Surprise and it's still looking good. The difficulty has stepped up a bit in this part - the Bird's Eye pattern at the top centre there doesn't have that plain private side row but is patterned on both sides. It's not impossible but you do need to keep your wits about you.

Here's a shot of the side border:



It's the usual lace-in-progress story - it looks like a crumpled handkerchief until the blocking, so you will just have to use your imagination.

After the setback with the Noni bag, I thought I'd have a go at a little bag in the latest "Let's Knit" magazine. It's called "Audrey" and consists of two moss stitch squares, two cabled squares and a garter stitch gusset. The handle is meant to be a chain with yarn wrapped around it but I might do something different there. The recommended yarn is RYC Cashsoft Aran and only one ball is required. Of course, I'm not using that yarn because there is so much yarn already in the house. I'm using Debbie Bliss wool/cotton doubled and size 4.5mm needles. Strangely, there is no gauge given for the pattern, though we do have finished dimensions. It's a small bag but I think it's meant to be dinky (technical term).

Here's the cabled square, which I did without the aid of a cable needle (oh, the joy! the liberation!):




Here are the rest of the ingredients, looking slightly wonky (tt):



And, finally, just because you haven't seen it for a while, I give you a soggy back field:



No sign of the horses, one of which bit me the other day (don't ask).

Bag, socks and some lace.

Ages ago I got some Cascade 220 and a Noni Bag pattern from First4Yarns in Wales. I made a flower and felted it but then laid the project aside. Having spent two days this week waiting in the Orthodontist's surgery(don't ask), I decided it was time to get on with the bag because it's nice, mindless knitting. (Incidentally, there was another woman waiting who was also knitting - proof, it it were needed, that I am not that salmon swimming the wrong way down the one-way street.)

I finished knitting the bag and it looks big enough to be used in the sack race - let's hope the felting shrivels (technical term) it to a more suitable size.

It's also very green, more green than I remember:



The flowers are even pinker than they were:



Felting the flower hasn't really toned it down much:



What was I thinking?

My original reading of the pattern had me making nine flowers, on closer inspection I discovered that I had to make "5 9-petal flowers", so that was a stroke of luck. All the knitting is now done and I'm doing some deep breathing exercises to prepare me for the felting. I have a front-loading washing machine (as most Brits do, I think) so earnest advice to "check the item every five minutes or so" is completely useless. I have to run it through the hottest wash and hope I don't end up with a bag for Barbie. It's a very stressful time.

I think I'm turning into a clever clogs. Or, to be more accurate, a clever socks.

Remember I made the Monkey socks? Well, I bought some beautiful Araucania sock yarn in autumn colours the other day and wanted a pattern to reflect the colourway. When I saw the travelling vine pattern in James Norbury's "Traditional Knitting Patterns" I realised it was just the thing. The drawback was that the pattern isn't charted and it's written for knitting flat. I had to chart the pattern and adapt it for knitting in the round. By this time, I was quite exhausted and the idea of designing a sock from scratch was a little daunting, so I didn't do it. The pattern repeat is eight stitches and it just so happens that the pattern used in the Monkey sock is a sixteen stitch repeat. I cheated. I just plugged the travelling vine pattern into the Monkey shape.

So far, I think they are looking good.



My next area of concern is that I might have made the leg too long and will find myself running out of yarn before I'm finished. Next time, I need to adapt the pattern for toe-up knitting, though I'm sure someone has already done it.

There has also been lace. I have started the Spring Shawl Surprice (sic). I'm not giving a link to the Yahoo group because I believe membership is now closed (so, too late, you missed the boat). I don't usually like mystery KALs - why would I want to invest time, effort and funds into knitting something that may well turn out to be nothing more than a glorified dish rag? (or not, of course - we could have the next Herbert Niebling lurking in our midst.) Anyway, I sometimes sign up for mystery KALs and wait until all the clues have been published and I've seen some pictures of WIPs before I commit myself. This one was different. As soon as I saw the first clue I just knew it was going to be a beautiful design. So far I have almost completed clue one:



I'm using some Patons 2-ply baby yarn, 100% wool in white. I'm probably going to dye the thing later, though I'm not quite sure what colour yet. Maybe a green. (Possibly not such a loud green as the Noni bag...)

Oh, and my latest acquisition?



A Brother knitting machine, courtesy of one of our customers, who ran the Christmas Bazaar and had this left at the end. She even delivered it to me at work. I was so excited I wanted to run straight home and get on with it. Everything is there: the table, the garter carriage, the lace carriage, the colour thingie (technical term), another bit of kit for drafting out your own patterns, a ball winder (almost the best bit since mine went down a black hole years ago and has yet to re-appear - bet it does next week, though.) The instruction book is somewhat cryptic and the learning curve is steep. I've managed to knit a few swatches but no actual items yet. I'm thinking about trying to find a class and taking a few lessons. We shall see.

I'd better get on - I'm so glad I've got some lace back on the needles - I thought my motivation would never come back.

MIA

I have been, haven't I? I don't know what happened really - Christmas; the Black Dog; feeling as though I'm living under a stone, such is the quality of light (or lack of it) at this time of the year.

Anyway, the pies have been minced; the tree trimmed; the tree detrimmed; the Black Dog seen off (at least for now) and it finally looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel - even though it may yet turn out to be an on-coming train.

There has been some knitting. Only small-ish pieces as I think I'm still in shock after the WRS debacle.

I have been trawling through the Yarn Stash Wonders Book and it's a treasure trove of delights. I made some hand warmer/fingerless mittens for Ann-at-work. Her hands get cold when she's driving and since I happened to have some yarn which is exactly the same colour as her SmartCar and since she's going to be driving me to the far north in March (more about that later), I decided these were just the thing for her:



I also made the Kureyon scarf from that same book. All the projects take just one skein and this one would have too if I hadn't misread the pattern. I made the first half of the scarf too long, so then it was decision time. Should I buy another ball (what? Me? Buy yarn??), or should I try and think of another way to finish the scarf? My MIL suggested making a hole in the scarf (isn't there a Buttonhole Scarf pattern somewhere?). This I did and if you tie it in some sort of elaborate fashion that I did once and can now no longer replicate, it looks like this:



I don't usually knit gifts for Christmas (too much pressure and they won't appreciate it anyway) but that book did inspire me. I knitted a collar thingie (technical term) for myself from Rowan Polar, a yarn which is now, sadly, discontinued:



I made another similar for Aunty Pat in a teal chenille. She likes it very much. If she was getting a neck warmer, Mammy would need one too. The bulky collar is a great pattern - easy and quick but I'd already knitted it twice (which is once more than I usually knit patterns), so I needed something else. The same but not the same. One Tree Hill to the rescue with the delightful Fidget. I used some Sirdar fluffy stuff (technical term) for this, in a beige colour. These two projects needed five buttons between them. Now, I've got a huge button tin. I buy buttons that take my fancy in the boutique. I cut buttons off old clothes before they turn into cleaning rags. As I said, I've got a huge button tin. Were there any suitable buttons in that tin? Of course not. It's another one of those eternal mysteries (like what really does happen to all those odd socks, how do wire coat hangers breed and why is there always one teaspoon left at the bottom of the washing-up bowl?) I had to buy buttons.

Even though I've professed not to enjoy knitting socks, the nether regions have received quite a bit of attention lately. Another pair of the delightful Saartje's bootees:



from left-over Regia 6-ply sock yarn, for Francesca's not-yet-here baby. I know some people have converted this pattern to knit in the round but, though I am not fond of sewing, they are so quick to make and finish that it's really not necessary. The thing that takes the longest length of time is the sewing on of the buttons (and going to the shop to buy them because, of course, there aren't any suitable ones in the vast tin.)

Some Pomatomus socks for me, from left-over Gedifra fashion trend sportivo, purchased from Webs to make the Scrawl:



Finally, I bought some Tofutsies sock yarn from Crafty Cottage in Warwick:



and I have used it to make some Monkey Socks:



(these are socks for me, not socks for a monkey). They are now finished and fit very nicely. The toe on the Pomatomus socks (also by Cookie A) were a bit too pointy (technical term) for my not very pointy toes, these are much better.

That's us about up-to-date (apart from a lacy alpaca hat - no picture yet) and for me to tell you where Ann-at-work will be driving me to.

We are going to SkipNorth in Haworth (home of the Bronte sisters and their drunken brother Bramwell) next March. It's just after my birthday and being that it's a big, round birthday, this is my treat to myself. I can't wait.