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.

Back from the Dead

That's not me - that's the computer. The screen went black, the brainbox went bang and I went barmy. Talk about the rural backwater - I feel as if I've been cut off from civilisation for ever. The blog is bereft; Ravelry is buzzing away; knitters the world over are knitting and chatting and generally having a good time and I am sitting in a Victorian agricultural worker's cottage in the back end of nowhere tearing out my hair.

My address book has gone down a black hole (though there may be hope of getting it back, when I can work out how to do it), so if you want me to get in touch with you, you will have to get in touch with me first. Does that make sense? It sounds slightly Irish to me (don't start writing in - I love the Irish, I'm married to one, after all).

So that's where I've been. More later.

Bag of Bags

Here's the "Bag of Bags" in all its recycled glory:



The Pattern (such as it is)

You will need:
"Yarn"
5mm needles, dpns or circulars. (I use circulars for just about everything these days - you can use straights to start with but for the body of the bag you will need dpns or circs)

First make your "yarn". I used Ruth's instructions here, but there are other methods - Google is your friend.

Using 5mm needles cast on 40 stitches and work 22 rows in garter stitch. (Knit every row). This rectangle forms the bottom of the bag.

Using 5mm dpns or circs pick up and knit 11 stitches down the first short side of your rectangle. Pick up and knit 40 sts from the cast on edge. Pick up and knit 11 stitches down the second short side of your rectangle. 102 sts. Place marker to indicate the beginning of the round.

Work in the round, in stocking stitch (knit every round) until the body of the bag measures 12 inches (30 cm) - or more, or less. It's your bag. You decide.

To shape the handles:

(Knit 14, Cast off 12, Knit 14, Cast off 11) twice.

You will have four groups of 14 stitches. Leave three of these groups on stitch holders and work back and forth on the remaining 14 stitches.

Join yarn and work 1 row knit and 1 row purl.

Decrease row: *K1, SSK, K to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1
Work three rows st st (i.e. P 1 row, K 1 row, P 1 row)
Repeat from * until 4 stitches remain.

Work 8 rows st st on these 4 sts. Do not cast off.

Repeat this shaping on the next group of 14 stitches, then graft the remaining stitches together to form the handle. You could use a three needle bind off if you prefer but grafting is neater (and it's only four stitches - you can do it!)

Repeat the whole performance on the other two groups of stitches to make the other handle.

In hindsight (perfect 20/20 vision), I might work 5 rows between the decreases on the handles and stop with 6 or 8 stitches remaining. This would make a fatter (technical term) handle, which might be better.

Use bag at supermarket/farm shop/farmers' market and feel smug - you have made something out of nothing and all it cost you was a small investment of your time.

Send me a picture if you make one - I'd love to see them.

The back field is basking in sunshine and has been mowed:



It really is the rural backwater.