Spring lace

Lace is a spring thing. Everywhere you look outside there are little bits of lace. Lacy films of fresh green leaves, little lace puffs of blossom, a delicate fretwork of twigs against the sky, and conversely a tracery of shadows cast by the sun on the grass.



And there's lace in my knitting.

Who says you have to stop wearing pure wool when the weather starts getting warmer? You just wear the thin stuff and you wear it with short sleeves.





Pattern: Seamless hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting without Tears
Needles: 4mm and 3.5mm circs
Yarn: Manx Loghtan laceweight from Garthenor Organic Pure Wool
Ravelled: here

I'm really pleased with this. It fits beautifully and looks great over a vest. In fact I'm so pleased I've just started on a second one.

Flipping awesome

Another project, this time started way on the train from Les Houches to Geneva at the end of August, to which I put the finishing touches—a button and a crochet buttonhole apiece—last week.

Felix very kindly took some photos in the glorious Sussex sunshine.



I love the way the sunlight catches those sproingy little Shetland fibres. As you can see I'm wearing the mittens here with the flip-tops buttoned back. Funnily enough I have been wearing them with the tops over my fingers ever since - it has just got so bitterly cold in the mornings and evenings - and they're splendidly practical. I just flip back the tops whenever I need to fumble for my keys or my bus pass and then it's back into the lovely warm mittens as soon as the need for manual dexterity is over.

Pattern: my own (not written up yet)
Needles: 3mm dpns (I think - must make more notes)
Yarn: about 1/2 ball of cream and 2/3 ball fawn fingering weight Shetland from Garthenor Organic Pure Wool. (You should pop by to their site just to see the galloping sheep!)

I'll do my best to knit another pair and make better notes this time.

Holiday knits

Whilst on holiday I finally figured out what to knit with my two balls of fingering weight Shetland from Garthenor Organic Pure Wool and acst on for a pair of striped, flip-top, mittens. Although I was knitting them on the train and in Geneva at the end of our holiday where the temperature was in the high twenties I think that the thought of warm woolly mittens was inspired by our trip to the Mer de Glace near Chamonix where a pair of gloves really would have come in handy. I love the natural look and feel of the organic Shetland yarn. You can really pick out the individual fibres and imagine the raw fleece or even the sheep that it came from, so unlike an anonymous merino.

Best of the weekend*

Best spinning:



Superwash merino/seacell blend from The Thylacine. This is spinning up beautifully smooth and even and I'm already onto the second ply. You can get through a lot of fibre during a Tour stage.

Best plying:



Shetland fibre in Moody from Old Maiden Aunt. I love this so much. I had a bit of a 'mare plying it because I broke the thread a couple of times and then couldn't find the end (argh!) but I managed it somehow (by dint of winding off little bits onto cotton spools) and have ended up with over 400 metres of fingering weight yarn.

Best jamming:



The Co-op had yellow-stickered gooseberries when I went in to buy provisions for lunch on Sunday so I bought a punnet on impulse and made gooseberry and ginger jam in the afternoon. I think I had my best jam making result yet as I actually managed to heat the jam to the setting point for the first time after realising that I had to split it into smaller batches to avoid it boiling over before reaching 104 degrees C. I had some on toast this morning and it was yummy.

Best cake:



I ran all the way to Oxford (just under 8 miles) for this cake and boy was it worth it. I even, despite having to run for the bus on the way back, managed to get it home in pristine condition which almost never happens. I ate it with a cup of Clipper decaf tea whilst watching Sunday's stage of the Tour (which I am enjoying hugely) and spinning the lovely sock fibre.

Best flowers:





Roses in the Blenheim Palace rose garden which is now in full swing.

Best surprise:





Half marks to everyone who guessed it was a baby surprise jacket. It's actually a lady surprise shrug. I didn't have to make any mods to the pattern on this, apart from knitting it on 5mm needles, but I have big plans for a lady surprise sweater in Garthenor organic yarn which will be amazing.

* idea shamelessly homaged/plagiarised from WordsandStitches