That's a wrap.

I pottered off to my LYS yesterday, not to buy anything (oh, no! not me!) but just to ask Nicky to save me a copy of the January issue of "Simply Knitting" (out Dec 8th, I believe) if, and only if, the article about blogs that I "helped" with is in it. I don't normally purchase said magazine - I find the patterns a bit too, well, simple really. The ads in the back are the best bit but as the same ones tend to appear time after time, I find it is sufficient to buy the thing about every three or four months.

The best laid plans of mice and men...I managed to stop myself buying yarn but succumbed to a book. This book here:



All the usual suspects: Jo Sharp, Debbie Newton, Lily Chin, Teva Durham, Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all are included. There are several things I want to have a go at in here and I have already cast on for Norah Gaughan's "Twisty Turns":



Of course, there is no question of using the recommended yarn. (Classic Elite "Lush" 50% angora, 50% wool), so I started with two strands of the wool/mohair mix from Phildar, that has been in my stash for years and still not decided what it wants to be. It definitely didn't want to be this used double on 5mm needles, so I started again with one strand on 4mm needles. The recommended needle size for this yarn is 3.5mm and the loose woman here would have to use smaller but I decided to go bigger to get a nice drape. I took a picture of it but it's so dark and unpleasant looking that I'm going to keep it to myself.

I'm not sure what gauge I'm getting - it's a 4x4 rib, so you can just about get whatever stitch gauge you want. The row gauge is not so important - basically you knit a long trapezium (which you folks across that pond call a trapezoid) and then sew (!) it together in a fancy way to make the wrap work. I like the drape of the fabric and that's all that matters to me. The only difficulty with the sewing up is that the designer tells us to count the rows and place a marker here there and everywhere. Two things: couldn't you tell us to place the marker as we are going along? (which is what this knitter is going to do) and couldn't you give the distances between markers? (as this knitter is going to have to work out.) I never was all that keen on Maths (nor much good at it) but I feel that if they had set puzzles about where to place the stitch markers rather than all those baths filling with water and men digging holes, I might have made a bit more effort.

I haven't done much more on the Garden Shawl - my KB has been unable to start for various reasons which we won't go into here, and she doesn't want me to get too far ahead. I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself but I have promised to try.

A while ago I posted about the odd things I have knitted, among them a Hasselblad camera. Tari said she'd like to see it. Well, I don't have it any more because it was made for a present. However, I had a root through my pattern stash and I found the pattern! Published in "Amateur Photographer" in 1979 (before some of you were born, I bet) this is the picture that accompanied it:



and that is pretty much what mine looked like.

A knitter has asked that I post about Pandora form Rowan #38 if I should decided to make it. I can't see that coming off any time soon but I did have a little play to help her out and here are some pictures of the results.



You can't really get the idea from this but it's a slip stitch pattern using two colours and a two row pattern alternated with two rows garter stitch and then the two row slip stitch pattern again, off set by one stitch. I just used some odd double knitting merino that was clouting round the house and 3.5mm needles. Here's a closer view:



The pattern calls for 4-ply and 5mm needles, so it should obviously be fairly "holey". I might give it another go with bigger needles. However, you can see the large "V" shapes - these are the slipped stitches. It's quite attractive, I think.

So much to do, so little time.

More hats.

The Garden Shawl is slightly bigger than it was. It is just about big enough to stretch round the Addi Turbo, without pulling out the cable, which is just as well because I am still not keen on the "Magic Loop" technique.



I have a few more rows of the lace leaf chart to do and then I will be moving on to "Dew drops" where every round is patterned and we have the joy of double yarn overs to look forward to.

Lace knitting does grow exceedingly slowly - it's not a brilliant spectator sport (watching paint dry is more entertaining), so in order that my readers do not die of boredom while waiting for another leaf to appear, I bring you:

Old knitted hats!



This is the back of #1 son's head wearing "Vinter lue" from Knitty. Made in Icelandic Lopi (purchased from Scotland - the only place in the UK I could find at that time) on big, fat needles it was made in no time. I find it slightly itchy on the head but this does not seem to bother him.

Here is 'im indoors, having just come in from out of doors, wearing one of the Egyptian Hats from Anna Zilboorg's "45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit".



This was made in King Cole DK 100% anti-tickle merino from Texere Yarns. It comes in loads of colours and is machine washable and lovely to knit with. I have made many hats from this stuff. As you know, there can never be too many hats.

Last hat (for now, there are more, many, many more):



The Fisherman's hat from Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitter's Almanac". I love this pattern - it is beautifully designed, shaped to fit the head perfectly, and with delightful shaping at the back to keep the neck warm but not get tangled up in the coat collar. #1 son, however, says the air blows in under the ear flaps. This could be because he is travelling at the speed of sound on his skateboard - I have never found this to be a problem as I proceed at a much more sedate pace.

Domestic Accident #271

I never realised that knitting was a dangerous occupation until today.

I've been doing a bit on the Garden Shawl - yes, it's slightly bigger - use your imagination. I then decided I needed to knit a little something for Pat-at-work, who's just had a baby. Well, he didn't do it all on his own, but he helped.

First port of call? All the pattern books/magazines left over from my two. No go there - all very nice but too much. I just need a little something. Next port of call? Knitting Pattern Central. If you can't find it here, you don't really need one. Socks? Hat? I liked these socks (not bootees, which never stay on, proper socks) but, strange as it may seem, I don't have any suitable yarn. Then I decided to go to my knitting books and found the delightful "Baby Socks" from "Socks, socks, socks". Plucked up the pink variegated Jaeger Baby Merino and rattled this off:



Skinny little steel dpns (bought in the charity shop, aka "The Boutique") and very sharp and pointy.

How big is a baby's foot, anyway? Further investigation reveals all about sizes. Let's hope it fits. Even if it doesn't, it's very cute. It's a proper sock with a gusset:



Toe grafting (only 6 stitches so no wine needed):



and everything. I think it would be a great introduction to sock knitting - all the juicy bits but small enough to cope with.

Remember I'm knitting this on skinny, sharp, pointy steel dpns? I don't know what happened. I don't know if I had a seizure, a fit, a momentary aberration, or what, but this was the result:



Ouch!

The Start

As soon as the yarn arrived I abandoned the "swatch" and decided to "Just start, Kate!" (as my stitching teacher was always saying whilst I procrastinated and dithered and read a bit more about it.)

Emily Ocker's circular start has never come out so well:



Much better than the beginning of Rosy Fingered Dawn - skinnier yarn, of course, so maybe that explains it. The other possibility is that I am becoming more adept.

I decided on 2.5mm needles in the end, since I thought the 2.25mms were just a tad too small. For some unknown reason I don't seem to have any 2.5 dpns - I have no idea how that comes about since I am absolutely sure that I have every size of dpn known to the knitting world. I had to fall back on the two circular method, admirably explained there, with pictures, too.

Here's a not terribly good picture of the beginning, note the red crochet cotton markers:



It was all a bit of a fiddle at this stage - the red markers for the different sections, the pink marker for end of round, the two circular needles flapping about all over the place. One of the needles was the new Addi Turbo, the other some random needle. It made me realise just how good Addis are - smooth join, non-kinking cable, just the right amount of "pointyness" (technical term) - an absolute joy to knit with.

I wanted to get the thing big enough to use just the Addi, but it seemed to be taking quite a long time. I decided to take the almost unprecedented step of using the "Magic Loop" method. I have done it before but didn't really take to it. However, the need to rid myself of the non-Addi needle overcame my reluctance.

So here I am pulling out the loop of cable at the half-way point:



The stitches are not normally stretched so much because I am usually squeezing the loop together but what with holding the camera, holding the knitting down, and the fact that the spare hand which normally pops up out of the top of my head is unaccountably broken today...

So you pull the loop out and then I usually cross the cable to stop stretching of the stitches:



and that's it. We are ready to roll:



Many thanks to all who put a pin in the map, if you haven't done that yet give it a go. I know you are there, you readers in Turkey and Egypt and Israel; in Mexico, Costa Rica and Kuwait; in Guam (where?), South Africa and Argentina; in Germany, Cyprus and Uruguay. Need I go on? Stick your pin in, say hello!