Ester is Finished

I finished Ester. Here she is in the garden:



I think it's turned out rather well. It's just the job for this time of the year when it's neither hot nor cold but you just need something on your shoulders. It did use up quite a lot of yarn - no bad thing with that green stuff.

Here she is from the side:



Although the blurb says you can wear this either way up, it feels more comfortable for me to wear it this way, so I have added a button to join the front. I didn't bother with a button hole but just sewed the thing together and attached the button over the top. It does mean I can't wear the shrug open and I do need to put it on over my head but this is not really a problem.

This was a quick, easy knit - gave me plenty of practice in making cables without recourse to a cable needle and used up oodles (tt) of the bright green tape, so all in all, a good thing. I'm thinking it might be nice in a slightly fuzzy (tt) yarn. Not so fuzzy that the cables are obliterated but just fuzzy enough to give a slight halo (this is a real technical term) - something like Rowan Kid Classic (if it hasn't been discontinued, something that Rowan is constantly doing. Don't get me started.) I'd probably have to use the yarn doubled to get the gauge, although the pattern is so straightforward, it wouldn't be difficult to adjust for any yarn.

For those who are interested the Sock Blanket is at 287 squares and looking good - I work on it while watching TV that I can't take my eyes off - a great deal of work is going on during the snooker.

The weather at the weekend was lovely, which makes quite a change. I spent some time visiting the Domestic Fowl Trust at Honeybourne (because I'm thinking of getting some chickens) and driving there made me realise how lovely England is.

Even the back field looks nice bathed in sunshine:



I'd better get on with a few more nupps.

Frustration

The latest pattern in the Estonian Potpourri has almost driven me to throw the whole thing against the wall. The words don't match the chart. She says the nupps should be made on the private ("wrong") side of the fabric but yet the chart shows them on the public ("right") side. Even though I read the words, I took it upon myself to ignore them and made the nupps on the public side. The nupps weren't great, so I ripped it out and started again. Incredibly, I still ignored the "nupps on the private side" advice and, throwing caution to the winds, I made the nupps on the public side once again. While the nupps looked OK, they looked even better on the private side. That's when I read the instructions for the umpteenth time and came to my senses. Eventually, I produces this:



which I don't think looks too bad at all, considering it's unblocked. However, by this stage, the nupps were starting to get on my nerves, so the Estonian Potpourri has been laid aside for a short while.

In the meantime, I have booked my place at Skipnorth 2009. Ann-at-work and I had such a good time last year that we determined to go again. It was booked up within 48 hours (I blame that Ravelry) and it was only Lixie saving us a place that meant we scraped in by the skin of our teeth. Last year was my first year, so I wasn't involved in the "Have you used up any/all of the stash you bought last year?" but this year I'm sure to get grilled about the fate of the nine (9) kilos of yarn I bought - mostly at the instigation of Sue. Some is already in use - the green cashmerino for the Star "tablecloth":



the fuchsia stuff (technical term) for the Estonian Potpourri above and I'm thinking about Herbert Neibling's Lyra in some red skinny (tt) stuff.

There is an awful lot of yarn in nine kilos. I've got a pile of this:



Love the colour but I don't know why I keep on buying variegated yarn when I know that most of the time I don't like the look of it knitted up.

Close-up:



it doesn't look much better.

I started casting about for something to knit with it. I'm thinking a cardigan, I'm thinking knitted in one piece (or as few pieces as possible), I'm thinking a free pattern.

You'd think, wouldn't you, with all the free patterns available at Knitting Pattern Central, or Garn Studio, or Berroco, or on Ravelry, that there would be a pattern that would jump out and yell, "Knit me, Knit me!" I think the problem is just too much choice. If it were a case of "this or that", I probably wouldn't have a problem. As it is, I'm paralysed, like the rabbit in the headlights.

There are a few I quite like but I think Cinxia from Knitty ticks all the boxes. I've done a swatch (yes, I know, that was a pig flying past the window) and I can get the gauge required using 4mm needles. (The fact that the pattern calls for 4.5mm needles worries me not one whit - I am the original loose woman, after all.) Strangely, I don't have a 4mm circular needle (or at least not one that's available for cast on purposes) and, even worse, neither does my LYS. I shall have to wait.

Hence the frustration of the title. I had to do something. In my search for a suitable pattern for the variegated yarn, I came across Ester, also from Knitty. I have got to knit something and this is as good as anything. Ideally, I'd like to knit it without having to buy more yarn. This is the solution:



It's a cone of some slinky (tt) stuff, bought years ago in Italy. What possessed me? I have no idea.

It's a tape:



and "it's very green" - that from both 'im indoors and #1 son.

I started (without a swatch) on 6.5mm needles and pulled it right out after two rows because it was too big. There seem to be some sizing issues with the pattern - lots of people say it comes out really small, but I don't think it needed to be as big as all that. I started again with 5.5mm needles (and please note - I "wasted" no more time than knitting a swatch would have cost me) and I am off:



25 rows of 2x1 rib followed by the first cable cross:



Progress has been swift:



Here, I've just cast on the extra stitches at each side.

The weather is so vile, there is nothing to do but sit and knit and that's exactly what I'm going to do now.

I got a ribbon!

I was stunned to get this:




the "I love your blog award" from Knit Yoga. As many of you know (if you are attending) I never win anything - apart from a book about crochet hats, which ended up being about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Strings are attached, of course:

1. post this award on your blog;
2. add a link to the person who sent you the award;
3. nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well; and
4. leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they know they got an award.

Nominate four other bloggers! It's a big ask (as the Australians say) because I read so many blogs but I have racked my brain and I have whittled them down.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Lacefreak - her lace work is just stunning. Sometimes I just go there and look at the pictures.

Marie Fly Fly - beautiful photographs. I don't make garment very often but when I do it's probably going to be something that I saw on this blog.

The Whole Ball of Yarn(s) - knitting, cooking and reading. All the things I love best.

Up Knit Creek - because it's the best title for a knitting blog, ever. And because Annie recognised me at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year by the shawl I was wearing and we had a good old chat and shared our purchases.

Aside from racking my brain to choose the above, I 've also been knitting.

The Estonian Potpourri stole moves on apace. Block A is finished and appears here like an old rag:



It's constructed like a log cabin quilt block and uses different lace patterns for each strip. There are three blocks, each having a central square and eight lace strips, a total of twenty-seven patterns.

As I reported in my last post, the nupps were giving me grief. I really didn't like the ones in the central square of block A. I missed them out completely in block A, pattern 8.

When it came to the centre square of block B, I knew I would have to include the nupps and I knew I had to find a better way of doing them. I consulted here and there in cyberspace but finally resorted to my old stand-by: Montse Stanley's The Handknitter's Handbook (if it's not in this book, it's not worth knowing.)

She calls them "tufts" or "popcorns", which caused a fair amount of confusion when I was looking up "nupps". When I finally found them, I discovered that she has four different variations. I tried them all. In the end, I settled on what she calls a "Thimble Tuft".

I'll try to do some pictures when I a) grow a spare hand, or b) #1 daughter/photographer gets home from school, whichever is the sooner.

I think they look much better:




This is the centre square of block B.

Close-up of the nupps:



Nuppy (tt), or what?

Back on the Straight and Narrow

Many thanks for your commiserations over the disaster with the computer. I think we may now be almost back to what passes for normal here in the rural backwater. The computer is happy to communicate with the camera but is giving the printer the cold shoulder. Let's hope I can work it out before I throw the printer straight through the monitor.

I have a confession to make. In all the flurry over the sudden death, I hardly lifted a knitting needle. What is worse I actually toyed with going over to the dark side. (No, not the Crochet!) I did a little bit of cross stitch and I must say I found it most relaxing. It's something I started a few years ago and worked on sporadically but then I laid it aside. For some reason I took it up again.

It's a picture of a peacock in a pear tree. Here's the part I've finished:



Here's a close-up of the corner block:



There's even a partridge (not in the pear tree, though):



However, it wasn't long before the call of the knitting needle became impossible to ignore.

I looked at the Estonian Pot Pourri pattern and, though it's a beautiful pattern, I wasn't happy with it. The reason for this was that I'd started it on the wrong needles. 2.5mm needles, while skinny (tt) enough for me, were too skinny for the yarn. The yarn is some unknown fuchsia stuff, bought during last year's SkipNorth. I bit the bullet. I ripped it out. Everything. The whole lot. Gone.

I started again. I took a 4mm needle and produced the central square:



The nupps, while not particularly difficult to execute, don't please me. I ripped a few back before I found the ever reliable Fleegle's instructions. They are a model of clarity.

I still don't like the nupps and the reason is, I think, that they are too unstructured for me. I like neatness. I like symmetry. I like precision. Nupps, by their very nature, can't be any of the above. It's a matter of how much slack the individual knitter leaves for each nupp and it's almost impossible to leave exactly the same amount of slack each time (at least it is for me, maybe it's a case of "practise makes perfect".) Anyway, the nupps are done, though I'm sure there will be more, sneaking up on me when I least expect it.

I did a few more patterns. Here they are, unblocked of course, so looking like an old rag:





The rain has been lashing down and the river has been rising. Thankfully, it is nowhere near the house, though the newly planted cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower almost got washed away. "Water in well" read the instructions. I think we can safely say that those instructions have been carried out to the letter.

Here's the back field last Saturday at 10.45am.



The flash went off.

Nothing to do but sit and knit.