Kiri KAL

The project using the Aarlan angora from the Knitting and Stitching show has moved out of the "To be knit" list and onto my needles. I had just about given up on finding a mini sweater or cardigan pattern which would only take five balls of dk weight yarn and when Lara emailed to say that she, Katie and Abby were thinking of starting a Kiri KAL at our knitting group I decided that this was just this thing for me and my angora. Progress has been pretty speedy. There are only five lines of chart to memorize for the bulk of the shawl and it's a very easy lace pattern to "read"--by which I mean that you can easily see what the pattern is doing in the yarn so you are able to know what you should be knitting without referring to the chart. Eunny Jang talks about this somewhere but I can't find the precise link. Anyway, it speeds things up immeasurably unless you go horribly wrong. So far all errors have been spotted either on the same row or on the next pattern row and have been fixable (touch wood).

Shawl after first ball of yarn had been finished

At this point the shawl was measuring 26 inches across the neck edge so I think it will end up as 52 inches across when finished (maybe a little more after blocking). I worked this out by imagining that I could knit a similar sized triangle with each of the other three balls which are earmarked for the body of the shawl (the fifth is reserved for the edging). These four triangles when fitted together would create a larger isosceles triangle with a base edge double the length of that of each of the three smaller triangle. See geometry is useul after all. Anyhow this should make a shawl which is almost the length of my arm span and which should drape down to the waist when on my shoulders.

Leaf detail from the Kiri shawl

Shawl after one and a half balls (neck edge now 34 inches)

Well that went as well as could be expected...

Annoyed by my recent inability to find old posts in the archive when I wanted to link back to them I decided to upgrade to the new Layouts feature on Blogger (hence the shiny new archive). There were a few sticky moments along the way, e.g. when I lost my lovely header and couldn't find my "classic template" in order to put it back. I've also (temporarily I hope) mislaid the Sock Wars and Cast-On buttons. I also had to recreate the new list that I'd just posted about which took longer than expected due to Layouts preferring i rather than em tags for italics (nice of them to mention that). Still, hopefully it will all be worth it and there will be exciting things (such as labels and different colours) to come.

I decided that I needed a new category in the right-hand column for projects which are not yet "On my needles" but are more tangible than "ooh, I'd like to knit that", i.e. I already have the yarn and should start doing something with it (though only after I've cleared out the "On my needles" stuff a bit more). In this category at the moment are the Rowan Anya sweater for which I have knit two fabulously ornate gauge swatches (2nd swatch on 3.75mm needles below). OK, gauging the colourwork is fair enough, but beading? I may have gone a bit OTT. However, it turned out to be useful practice given that I've never beaded anything in anger to date and it revealed that I didn't want to use the method of beading as stated in the pattern.

The second item in the "To be knit" section is the cream angora mini-sweater. I bought the yarn at the Knitting and Stitching show back in October and I'm horribly conscious that unless I get a move on and we have a cold snap, by the time it's done there's no way that it's going to be cold enough to actually wear the thing. I'm still looking for the right pattern though. All the ones I've checked out so far look like they'll take a bit too much yarn or I'd have to significantly alter the gauge (which is far too much like hard work).

I have been busy though. On Thursday I finished my last piece of Christmas knitting the post factum named Very Berry Jaywalkers. They were finished only a day late and they were the only gift I had to give with the needles still in place. My boyfriend's comment on opening it: "You didn't need to leave the needles stuck in..oh no wait, you did." They are however a nice fit and a lovely (though manly) colour.

Over the weekend I finished the first of a new pair of Fetchings in Tapestry. Aliki's comment was "aren't you sick of that pattern yet?". It's amazing what a difference getting to keep the FO makes though. I gave the last five pairs away and I really want a pair for myself, either for typing or reading in bed (the hand holding the book tends to get very cold after the heating goes off).

My new toy!



I had to go out and buy a few extra supplies (thermometer, saucepan etc.) before getting started which prompted some guilt from the boyfriend (who had thought that this would be an inexpensive way to see if I liked candle-making).

Melting the wax and dye



Candles in progress



Melting the wax again



It turns out, I do like candle-making! I have lots of plans for candles with pressed flowers and other bits in them and scented and dipped candles. I just need to lay in a few more supplies--more wax and stearin (which makes the wax shiny and also makes it shrink away from the mould).

I also (it being Epiphany and all) packed away the Christmas decorations until next year. Secret Santa looked a bit non-plussed at being taken out of the bottle and wrapped in tissue.



I took down all the Christmas cards and made gift tags for next year out of the fronts.



I did lots of washing-up with my shiny new knitted dishcloth.



Katie gave me this as a thankyou for her Christmas Fetchings. At first I thought "It's too pretty to wash dishes with" but I knew that attitude would only get me into trouble with Katie ("It's a dishcloth, it's what it's for, etc.") Anyway, it's so much nicer than using a grubby sponge, I even started using the dishcloth I knitted myself from Debbie Bliss cotton ages ago (which has since been hanging decoratively from the back of the kitchen door). As soon as I manage to educate the boyfriend about rinsing and squeezing the dishcloths after use and putting them on the radiator I'll be all set.

Refinished object - Candy sweater

A couple of episodes ago Brenda Dayne of Cast-On asked what she should do with sweaters which were too good to throw out or rip back but not quite right to wear. This is my solution.

The first proper sweater which I ever knit (back in the days when Oxford still had a Rowan shop) was the Candy sweater from Rowan 32. I picked out yarn (Kid Classic--the recommended yarn--in two shades of pink, one light, one deep and bright) and needles. I knit a gauge swatch, I was even on gauge (or thereabouts), and I started knitting. And it went pretty well. Even though I didn't really know the best way to cast-on, or increase stitches, or hold my yarn. My stitches were pretty even and I managed to follow the pattern pretty well (i.e. I usually remembered to do the shaping within one or two rows of where I should have). At last I got to the bit where I had to sew up the left shoulder seam before picking up stitches for the collar. This too went pretty well. Finally there was lots of sewing up (a bit wonky in places due to the dodgy increases), and darning in of ends and snipping off of yarn and it was done. And I was very pleased with it and I wore it.

Of course there were a couple of things I wasn't thrilled with. The sleeves could have been longer, and the waist. I hate sweaters that I'm forever tugging down. And the huge collar did need a lot of rearranging and usually got tangled up with my earrings when I tried to take the sweater off. Still, the yarn was lovely and soft, and the colours were great and the stripes were a great size and I still wore it (just with high-waisted skirts).

Until, one Wednesday night about three or four months back I wore it to the Bluestockings meeting after work (there's something about meeting up with lots of other knitters that inspires grandiose plans - of course I can knit a Shetland shawl! etc.). I had been toying with the idea of lengthening the sleeves for a while and in a post-knitting buzz I felt inspired (one or two glasses of white wine may have also helped). When I got home I went at the sweater with a pair of scissors. Actually I first started unpicking with a darning needle but that didn't go very fast. Kid classic is an absolute pain to rip back (at least it is after two years of wash and wear), especially upwards. My plan was to rip out the huge collar, the cuff and bottom ribbing and then knit down an extra stripe or so from the plain stocking stitch then knit some replacement ribbing to finish off. I would have plenty of yarn from the collar and the leftovers from the original project (maybe this is why Rowan are so generous in their yarn estimates). I won't go into details on the ripping back. Suffice to say it was pretty nasty and left me with a bad case of knitter's lung (all those fibres) for a few hours after each session.

Once I had ripped out the original ribbing and got the resulting live stitches on the needles I knit down the two sleeves to the place where my hands actually started. Then I tried it on. It looked OK from a distance but close up the stitches seemed baggy and uneven - could it be the ripped-back yarn, or the difficulty of knitting back and forth over something which started off in the round? It was a while before I realised the obvious answer, my gauge had changed (no really?). At the same time (luckily as it avoided two lots of ripping back) I realised I didn't want ribbing on the cuffs. Instead I knit (on a size smaller needles to match my 2 year old gauge) plain stocking stitch in stripes down to the correct length for the sleeves and body and cast-off. I left the neck hole as it was, it was actually a very nice shape once I had taken out the huge collar, and finally trimmed all the edges with crocheted shell stitch. The result is a sweater I now wear a whole lot more.* I still wish that the sewing up was a little neater but there's no way I'm opening up that can of worms.


* I actually finished this sometime before Christmas, but then Christmas knitting happened.

Christmas sweaters

I have two sweaters to talk about in this post - one finished and one just started!

I have finally completed the Argyle sweater and am pretty pleased with it. There are a couple of things which I would change if I knit it again* but I cannot contemplate alterations right now. I'm just so glad it's done! The fit is nice and stretchy and I love the finish on the 1x1 ribbed neck border. I used the Kitchener stitch bind-off (see here for great instructions with pictures) and it looks great.



It's not a great photo but the argyle pattern shows up nicely in real life. However, this is the last time that I buy yarn for a sweater because it is good value. Don't get me wrong. The yarn, Debbie Bliss merino dk, is lovely and it was very good value (£1.95 a ball, 7 balls for the sweater) and I do like navy (see below). But it's not the most thrilling or easiest colour to knit with (it just about beats black), especially on a reasonably complicated textured pattern. This took a good six months from buying the yarn to stitching the last bit of seam which is an unusually long time, even for fickle (when it comes to projects) me. I started to feel guilty every time a project which wasn't the argyle sweater went from the "On my needles" to the "Finished Objects" list which is not a good state of affairs. This is one good reason for staying away from the John Lewis sale this holiday!

* I would knit it in the specified yarn weight (aran not dk) as it's a little bit see through (I can wear a dark shirt underneath), also the sleeves are still incredibly long although I only knit to 17" not 19" (as specified in the pattern). Anna Bell must just have very long arms.

The sweater which I have just started is Anya from Rowan 40.



It has a Fairisle pattern done in Kid Classic and Kidsilk Haze, mini cables worked into the rib at the cuffs and bottom edge and a funnel neck in moss stitch. This was a Christmas present from my parents.



I picked out the pattern and yarn with Mum at John Lewis in November so it wasn't a complete surprise but it's very lovely nonetheless. I spent most of the afternoon and evening today winding yarn onto cardboard bobbins, then threading beads onto the yarn and then knitting a gauge swatch in the fairisle pattern.



I need to knit another swatch today as I'm not on gauge. However, this gives me a chance to change some of the colours around. I'm knitting in shades of blue rather than grey and the shade of Kidsilk Night which I'm using is darker in relation to the other shades than its grey equivalent. You can only just see the pattern in the widest pattern band in the picture above - what, you can't see any pattern? I thnk I'll switch the blue Kidsilk Night with the cream Kidsilk haze in some portions of the pattern. Alas this entails a lot more bead threading.

There are so many beautiful patterns in Rowan 40 that it would easily pass the four pattern rule even if it hadn't been a present. I very much like Nakita a kidsilk haze embroidered sweater, the Anna Socks (knee length socks in Rowan 4-ply soft), Grantis a crocheted scarf, Lorelei an autumnal fairisle sweater, Cobweb a Kidsilk haze mini-cardigan, and Aelf a cardigan in Kid Classic. I will not be attempting to make the Arwen ballgown, but then neither has anyone else it would seem!

Homespun

On Christmas eve and Christmas day I spun the final two tops which I bought from the Handweavers Studio stall at the Knitting and Stitching show in October. I hadn't tried this for a while and so the pink (which I spun first) is still pretty lumpy and bumpy in places. The cream went much better and is a pretty lacy laceweight I think.



I "set the twist" by winding the spun yarn into skeins, wetting it and then stretching it out with an ingenious contrivance made from two wooden coathangers and some 4 and 8 oz weights. This got rid of most of the tendency to spring back into a telephone cord like tangle and made it pretty knittable. I plied the pink yarn (again using the drop spindle) with some metallic gold thread to strengthen it and add a little sparkle.



I haven't decided yet whether or not to do the same for the cream. It worked quite well but it does make it very scratchy to knit with and (presumably) to wear.

Merry Christmas

The mistake rib sock is finished and under the tree! That leaves only one and a bit socks to knit for just after New Year. I'm knitting a pair of Jaywalkers in the Rowan Cashsoft 4-ply and they're looking very nice so far. I'm getting very excited about Santa Claus coming as I'm pretty sure he's got some knitting goodies on board. According to NORAD (apparently they don't just track missiles) he's just across the channel in France and should touch down in the UK in about 45 minutes. Hopefully Rudolph's very shiny nose will be able to cope with the fog at Heathrow!

Christmas stockings

Only two days to go! However, by dint of knitting "like the wind" for the past day I am one sock down and on to the toe of the next!



A bit blurry but you get the idea. The very cute background paper is from John Lewis (is there anything they don't do?).

Whilst knitting I listened to the entire Librivox recording of Rilla of Ingleside"* written by L. M. Montgomery and read by the extremely talented Karen Savage (she sings and does a British accent when required). The sock is not quite as long as could be desired (there's so much instep to knit in men's socks) but the mistake rib is lovely and chunky and the Kitchener stitch bind-off is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. There is plenty of knitting (as part of the war effort) in Rilla of Ingleside (I seem to notice knitting in books a lot more nowadays, funny that). In chapter 10 Rilla reports that:

"I finished my sixth pair of socks today. With the first three I got Susan to set the heel for me. Then I thought that was a bit of shirking, so I learned to do it myself."

When I knit my first sock about 18 months ago I remembered that passage and felt very superior as I picked up my heel stitches. No mention is made in the book as to whether or not Rilla uses the Kitchener stitch to graft the toes of her socks but as Lord Kitchener is Susan's idol it seems highly probable!

I also picked up the yarn for the final pair of Xmas socks (which do not have to be complete until the new year), Rowan Cashsoft 4-ply in a lovely berry red. I plan to knit them up in reverse garter rib. It would be great if I could work out how to do this without having to purl every other row though. Maybe if I can knit the sock inside out. I've done it before (although not from the toe up) when I started a sock with the tubular cast on and then couldn't work out how to get it right side out for the leg without reversing the direction of the round.



I suspect this shot will provoke more amusement from my knitting buddies. They couldn't stop laughing when I told them I had taken photos of my hands in the Fetching mittens whilst placing angels on the decorative twigs (see below). But don't they realise how important styling is? It gave me a great idea for a future Christmas tree anyway. Instead of presents under the tree you could just decorate it with balls of yarn then on Christmas day you would just invite people to take a ball. You could even hang those hooked Clover cable needles from the branches instead of candy canes. Of course this would only work with knitters!

*no Cast-On this week as Brenda Dayne is down with the dreaded "podcaster's throat" - I knew there had to be an occupational illness attached to podcasting!

Decorative twigs

No room for a tree in the flat so we have festive decorative twigs instead. There are twinkle lights on clear flex which reflect very prettily in the glass angels and gold baubles. In my parents' house there is a beautiful fir tree, quite short but very fat with plenty of room for presents underneath and with a delicious smell.
Christmas knitting is all but done. The garter rib socks are finished (today on the train) and the two pairs of Fetchings have been knitted and given. I was pretty pleased with the pair in Alpaca Silk which I've sent off to the boyfriend's sister (I hope she doesn't mind getting gloves two years on the bounce). The yarn is more bulky than Cashmerino Aran so I decreased five stitches above the thumb by purling two together along the purl columns so that there are only 40 stitches around the hand rather than 45.



Pattern: Fetching from Knitty Summer 2006
Yarn: Rowan's Tapestry
Alterations: Extra cable twist at the cuff and at the fingers.



Pattern: Fetching from Knitty Summer 2006
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran
Alterations: Extra cable twist at the cuff, decrease to 40 stitches over three rows above the thumb, extra cable twist at the fingers.

Back to craft sanity

There's something about this time of year that makes knitters lose all sense of proportion when it comes to setting sensible schedules and achievable targets. Two pairs of socks and a pair of Fetchings by next Wednesday? Sure, I can manage that! Luckily I came to my senses before going out and buying the yarn and have downsized my goals. Nice as it would have been to knit things for all the people I wanted to, if I was going to do that I should have started in November*, not mid-December. This leaves me with a "to knit" list of:

Two pairs Fetchings in Tapestry - deadline 20/12/06 (these are kind of optional though)
One pair garter rib socks in cashsoft dk (three-quarters done) - deadline 25/12/06
One pair mistake rib socks in alpcaca dk - deadline 26/12/06
One pair garter rib socks in cashsoft dk - deadline 02/01/06

I'd better go and buy some yarn then.

* actually I started much earlier and did in fact knit some Christmas gifts back in late summer/early autumn. But then I took a break...a long break.

Finished Object - Print O' the Wave scarf

Finished on schedule and in time for Monday's post thanks to some mad on-train knitting and last-minute blocking. I used the method recommended by the Yarn Harlot (here) which worked a treat at letting me stretch out the scarf width-ways without having to use a gazillion pins* (which I don't have). Since the yarn was so fine and the gauge so small I used some thick sewing cotton which I had originally bought to hem a pair of jeans (my sewing machine had other ideas and refused to play ball) instead of yarn. In an ideal world (in which I also would not have knit the thing on 2mm needles) I would have added a border to the long edges of the scarf as well as the short. However, the sides are lovely and straight and the little garter stitch triangles (basically entrelac base triangles in garter stitch) on the short edges look really nice. All I had to do now was wait for it to dry and hope that the teal Kidsilk haze was as colour-fast as it seemed and wouldn't leave tramlines of blue blotches on the cream futon.

Print O' the Wave in blocking



Finished Print O' the Wave



* I nearly didn't have any pins. I hunted for them for nearly half an hour before the boyfriend fished them out of the only stash bag I hadn't searched "because they won't be in there".

Mindless Print O' the Wave

Strange as it may seem, the Print O' the Wave scarf--hereafter referred to (in Da Vinci Code trial style) as POTWS--turns out to be ideal train, TV and zombie-style insomniac knitting. This week has been a bit of a social whirl so there have been only snatched moments for knitting. On Monday evening I went out to dinner at a restaurant I have wanted to visit for ages. It's actually situated about halfway along one of our regular running club routes and so Tuesday evening around 7ish usually finds me running past this place (in the cold and dark) looking wistfully at the fairy lit exterior and candle lit interior. The only hiccup in a wonderful evening was that after about four(ish) glasses of very good wine I forgot that I don't drink caffeine and that drinking two cups of coffee on a work night was not a good plan. Having fallen asleep at 1 am I was bolt awake again at 4 and ended up sitting on the sofa for two hours between 4 and 6 knitting on the scarf and listening to England get absolutely tonked by the Aussies! The amazing thing, however, was that when I looked at the knitting I had done in those two sleep-deprived and hang-over incipient hours it was perfect. Not a yarn-over missed, not a wrongly slanting K2tog or ssk to be seen! Whereas at my running club dinner on Tuesday and at the Bluestockings on Wednesday I was very error prone. I can listen or watch and knit on this thing, I just can't talk. Luckily it's nearly done so i can go back to being sociable next week. On Thursday I cast on another jaywalker with the remaining half of the Lana Grossa self-striping. I needed an extremely portable project to take on the train to London as I was attending a black tie dinner (a computing awards presentation at the Grosvenor House Hotel) and my smart black handbag is much smaller than the all-purpose brown satchel which I use every day and somehow I didn't feel that the Knitting Bag of Doom (though it is black and I do love it) would quite suit the occasion. Anyway, the toe and the first few rounds have gone smoothly but I confess that it's a little too boring to knit the same pattern with the same yarn again so I'm on the look out for more stripe-friendly patterns.

Anyway whilst trying to find the link for a pic of the Knitting Bag of Doom I got tagged.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Editor
2. Editorial Assistant
3. Shop Assistant
4. Waitress

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Fellowship of the Ring
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Dirty Dancing
(I am just a big bowl of mush)

Four places I have lived
1. Bolton
2. Oxford
3. I guess I don't move around much
4. Sorry

Four tv shows I love to watch
1. Strictly Come Dancing
2. The West Wing
3. Torchwood
4. Doctor Who (my inner child hides behind the sofa)

Four places I have been on vacation
1. Paris
2. Copenhagen
3. Grasmere
4. Rome

Four websites visited daily
1. bbc.co.uk
2. Yarn Harlot
3. Knitty.com
4. The Panopticon

Four of my favourite foods
1. Bacon hotpot
2. Creme brulee
3. G&D's pistachio ice-cream
4. Rachel's Organic low fat rhubarb yogurt

Four places I would rather be right now
1. Bed (in my bedroom)
2. Bed (in a snug B&B)
3. Bed (in a palatial hotel)
4. Bed (in a country cottage)
(It's one-fifteen in the morning--what do you expect?)

If you're reading this and you've not already taken part - you're IT!

Craft insanity

The project: Print o' the Wave lace scarf
The yarn: Kidsilk haze
The needles: 2mm
The deadline: December 12th (eek)



My (somewhat lame) excuse for breaking the "no new yarn, no new projects" resolution (below) is that it's for a present. My aunt is having a round number birthday on December 12th and I saw this yarn whilst Christmas shopping in John Lewis. I'm not knitting the full Print o' the Wave stole (I'm mad not stupid) but this is still a sizeable challenge for me. So far approximately 8 hours of knitting has produced abuot 12 inches of scarf and I think I need at least 48 (plus edging) to make a decent scarf. These are the smallest needles I have ever knit with (luckily Hobbycraft was all out of the 1.75mm needles recommended by the pattern) and I'm quite impressed that I'm coping. There have been a few nasty moments when I've had to unknit a row or two but progress is mostly smooth.

I have at least managed to complete two of the UFOs that have been hanging about my knitting bag, the Lana Grossa Jaywalkers and the pink Koigu Whitewater lace socks and turned the green cashmerino into one and a half Seaside fingerless gloves, so some progress has been made.

Resolutions

A month or so earlier than is traditional but there's no time like the present.

I will finish everything that is currently on my needles before casting on anything new. That means:

• Finishing the fronts of the Argyle sweater and making it up.
• Ripping back and reknitting the bottom ribbing of my stripy sweater in Kid Classic and doing something with the neck.
• Finishing the jaywalker socks I just started.
• Adding a head to the Debbie Bliss teddy bear I started this weekend.
• Finishing off the UK alpaca crocheted thing and finding a use for it (not big enough for a blanket, not long enough for a scarf, maybe a cushion?)

I will use what I have before buying anything new*. That mainly means:

• Finding a use for the Rowan linen tape - I'm thinking bag?, rug?, oven-gloves?, shelf-runner? (other ideas/patterns gratefully accepted).
• Knitting something out of the Colinette Giotto (the stuff I feel so bad about it lives away from the other stash under the bed).
• Finally make a pair of socks that I actually wear from the bright pink Koigu.
• Knit something out of all the odds and ends that are left over from various projects. (Probably a few pairs of Mrs. Beetons and some Innocent hats.)

Then and only then will I move onto exciting things like spinning the two remaining tops and knitting something from the fluffy angora.

In the meantime to assuage my craving for knitting newness here's what a few of the girls were knitting last night at the Bluestockings meeting:

Abby demonstrates her amazing ability to knit with ten balls of yarn and drink wine at the same time!

and here's what she was knitting

Kate shows off her lace cardigan whilst preserving her own anonymity!

Ellen is thrilled with the way her sweater is going.

Despite warnings about their addictive properties Ruth is knitting her first pair of Fetching hand warmers.

Katie is knitting a shawl with what currently looks like blue string but will turn into the most amazingly soft cashmere after washing.

New member Lucia is knitting a sweater for her boyfriend from Rowan Wool Cotton

And this is me—a pair of socks (naturellement).

Kirsty (of whom I didn't get a shot) was continuing to knit the now legendary Wonder Woman sweater and Aimee (whose knitting turned out kind of blurry, or maybe that's just how angora looks when photographed) was casting on a pair of hand-warmers.

*At this point the boyfriend said he'd believe it when he saw it.

This weekend I...

...visited the "Global Market" which arrived in town.

These (extremely toothsome) tartes were my only purchase. Much as I wanted a hand carved wooden clothes rack to hang stuff on, the boyfriend pointed out that £50 for unvarnished wood was possibly a bit steep!

...finished a baby hat and matching socks.

These were such a quick knit that they didn't even make it onto the "On my needles" section. The pattern is from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss and I knit them in some leftover Rowan Calmer (less than a full ball for a pair of socks and the hat) on 4mm needles and 4mm dpns. I hope they will still fit the intended baby, I don't really know how fast babies grow.

...enjoyed the autumn leaves.

This doesn't fully represent how lovely all the trees are looking at the moment. I do like autumn!

Chocolate cheesecake

Having made a cheesecake on Monday that I didn't get to eat (I donated it to a charity quiz) I decided to make another cheesecake on Wednesday evening for the pot-luck lunch I go to on Thursdays. I adapted the recipe for the London Cheesecake from Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess by using 4 whole eggs instead of 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks (works just as well I promise) and by adding 3 heaped tsps of Green & Blacks cocoa powder to the biscuit base and 6 heaped tsps of cocoa to the cheesecake mix instead of the lemon and vanilla. I also melted half a bar of Green & Blacks dark chocolate with the sour cream and sugar (again omitting the vanilla) for the topping. Next time around I would probably add a little more sugar to the cheesecake mix to balance out the bitterness of the cocoa and I would warm the chocolate topping mixture gently just before adding it to the cake to make it easier to pour. Otherwise I would say it was rather a success, judging by the way the slices disappeared.

Slightly blurry but you get the idea!

Busy weekend

I finished the entrelac cushion on Saturday morning. All it had needed was the back fabric to be machine stitched to the knitted front and some sort of opening created. I chose an overlapping flap (like a pillow case) in the end, partly due to not having got my act together enough to go and buy a matching zip-fastener, however it looked very nice and there was even a spare cushion pad of the right size floating around my parent's house. Anyway, it now has pride of place on Grandma's old chair in the living room. I hadn't originally intended to give it away but it just looked so much better there than it ever would on our manky green sofa. Plus I can enjoy it whenever I go up there.

I also (shouts of hurray) finished the sleeves on the Argyle sweater so that is almost (but not quite) finished too. Sadly when I went to sew the right shoulder together ready to do the neck ribbing I decided that I really did have to fix the (somewhat drastic) mistake I had made in the neck edge decreases and set about ripping back. Only to the start of the armhole though and as it is a v-neck I don't think it will take too long to repair. A good thing too because it just keeps on getting colder around here!

Finished objects—Butterfly Wings Socks & Dulaan hat

There's really nothing like wearing hand-knit socks all day to make you feel good. Although I have knit many many pairs of socks I only have about 4 or 5 pairs that I can actually wear with shoes as regular socks. The rest are bedsocks, or sofa socks, beautiful chunky things in dk or aran which compensate for the lousy heating in our flat. Anyway, hopefully I should have three more pairs of "regular" socks very soon. I'm about to cast-on a pair of entrelac socks (if I can get my head round the concept) with the Lana Grossa from Ally Pally. I figure this should make two pairs since I can get a pair of socks from a single (50g) skein of Lorna's Laces. I also still have the abortive pink koigu from which I must make something, anything!

Also finished last week was the ribbed hat I knit at our knitting group's mini Dulaan knit-in. I'm also knitting a pair of mittens in the same wool--Debbie Bliss Merino dk--which is very soft and hopefully warm.

Get it finished Friday

Inspired by Christine Selleck of the Pointy Sticks podcast I had my very own version of "get it finished Friday" on the train up north this weekend. I took with me the 5 or so inches of Argyle sleeve which had been hanging around at the bottom of a plastic bag for several weeks and turned it into an almost complete sleeve by Saturday lunchtime, at which point I ran out of yarn, a failure of forward planning and packing on my part. In fact the overall knitting shortage - I brought a jumper sleeve and the toe of the second butterfly sock (which is now knit up to the ankle) - had got quite worrying by Sunday morning leading me to schedule a sneaky trip into town with Mum on the way to the train station. Our local department store has either just started to stock yarn and knitting supplies or they've started to display it more prominently. Apparently they have Rowan although I don't yet know which yarns they have, the extent of the detail that Mum could supply was "big balls and smaller ones".

Butterflies
This sock is knit using the Butterfly Wings stitch pattern from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches 2 which I found in Oxfam for £2.49. You can't really see the butterfly wings very well in this yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Vera which I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching show), on the other hand you also can't see the two mistakes on the instep of the first foot which I made before I realised that I should follow the pattern in my knitting, rather than in the book.

Abingdon Marathon 2006

I have a warm glow (and extremely sore legs) after completing my first marathon on Sunday. The race took place in and around Abingdon, a very pretty town on the Thames with an excellent wool shop (Mason's). The weather was mostly fine, despite the horrendous forecast the night before and I made a pretty good time around the course finishing in 4:04:51 (yay!) which was much better than I had anticipated. I'm now very much on track for London in the spring and really looking forward to it.

Me crossing the finish line

Post-race drink

Knitting and Stitching Show 2006—Part 2

Even after several drafts I still couldn't quite create a single homogenous post combining what I bought and the K&S Show with what I did and saw there. So, two posts. I arrived at Ally Pally (very excited) at about 11.30ish on Friday morning and spent about a half-hour scoping out the lay of the land—important things such as the locations of Get Knitted and Loop and (less excitingly but no less vital) where the loos were. I then got the call to say that Katie and Lara (friends don't let friends loose on a yarn show on their own!) had arrived and we set about traversing the main hall in a very orderly search and rescue style grid pattern. Favourite stands included: UK Alpaca where I spent about 5 minutes thrusting alpaca fibre at Katie and Lara and saying "Have you felt this!" (Lara later succumbed to the fibre); Laughing Hens, whose gorgeous Rooster (the yarn not the bird) covered sofa we collapsed onto at several points; 21st Century Yarns where I fingered the tiny silk skeins for embroidery and got dangerously enthused about the possibilities for miniture knitting and Foreign Strand which had Monkey Sticks and the gorgeous Namasté vintage knitting bag (as seen here) and buffalo yarn—a seriously tempting proposition until I noticed the £40 (per skein) price label. Plus it only comes in brown! It was a really lovely day out. I saw loads of beautiful and interesting things and tried spinning for the first time (more on this later). And now, some photos...

Lara and Katie on the Laughing Hens sofa

Lara and Katie meet Sarah Dallas

I did also have a shot without a random person in the foreground but Lara was looking rather serious in it.

Rooster yarn and cushions at Laughing Hens

I also wish I'd taken pictures of Lara and myself being taught to use a drop spindle and the fabulous knitted bunting at Laughing Hens and just more yarn generally. Still there's always next year!

Knitting and Stitching Show 2006—Alexandra Palace

I bought

Five balls of Aarlan 70% angora
This is just so soft and pretty I had to have it. I had been wanting to knit something in angora since watching The Black Dahlia and coveting the lovely angora sweaters in Monsoon. Sadly they only had five balls left in the cream but I think that will be enough for a mini-cardi along the lines of Elspeth.

Buttons and beads
Whenever I see bead and button stalls all my magpie instincts come to the fore. They're just pretty and shiny and I especially like the fishy bead. I think the black buttons will go on a pair of felted slippers which I plan to make from an old pink sweater and the black and pink beads can go on the fingerless gloves from last month's Magknits.

Lana Grossa and Lorna's Laces sock yarn from Get Knitted
I saw this quite early on in the day but managed to restrain myself until about 5pm. The Lorna's Laces is going to be a pair of entrelac socks (if I can work out the heel) and I think the Lana Grossa will just be a plainish garter rib, possibly the same stitch pattern as the International Sock of Doom.

A drop spindle and some tops from the Hand Weavers Studio
Lara and I finally found someone who would show us how to use a drop spindle at the Hand Weaver's Studio. They also had huge basketfuls of these gorgeous little tops at 50p a shot so I was able to get a spinning starter's kit for just £5. I've already spun the bright pink, the orange and the burgundy and I feel I'm slowly improving. Hopefully by the time I've got through the white and the rose I might be good enough to be let loose on the good stuff! Hipknits has some gorgeous silk/merino in the most beautiful hand-dyed colours.

Elspeth cardi

This has been finished for weeks but I only presented it to Mum for her birthday on Tuesday so I've been keeping it under wraps (my mum knows where my blog is!). As a birthday treat we visited London and had tea at Liberty (where I was very restrained in front of the Jaeger Matchmaker 4-ply) and mooched round Covent Garden and finally wound up at the Royal Opera House where we drank champagne at the Perrier Jouet champagne bar (ooh swish!) and saw Darcey Bussell in the first of three one act ballets. A jolly nice time was had by all!

The cardi is knit with 3 and a bit balls of Rowan Calmer on size 5mm needles. It was a relatively quick and simple knit, although I occasionally tripped up on lining up the pattern repeats with the decreases. It's a really sweet little cardi and I'm very tempted to make one for myself in a different yarn. Maybe they'll have angora at the show tomoz!
I'm extremely excited about going to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally tomorrow. The show guide arrived on Monday and I spent a half hour leafing through it and going "ooh!". I'm very eager to check out HipKnits and Cherry Tree Hill yarns and am toying with the idea of buying a spindle.

I have a few small things on the go at the moment. I finally gave up on the Pomatomus socks. I loved the pattern and the colour. I just wasn't keen on them as socks. Anyway, I'm using the yarn to knit the Whitewater wristwarmers pattern from the October issue of Magknits as socks and it's working out really nicely. I also have a third pair of Fetching gloves on the dpns (I don't know why I've been misnomering them as "Fresh" for the last few weeks—really no idea!) this time in cream. Finally I've nearly finished a square of entrelac in the Rowan tapestry. I'm going to add a triangular border and then back it with some fabric to create a cushion. I seem to have completely stalled on the Argyle sweater. It's completely cold enough for woolly jumpers now but it still has no sleeves! I really need to force myself to do something about that but I keep getting distracted by prettier yarns (damn navy blue!).

Why thankyou, it is pretty isn't it

"It" being the new blog header*. The photo is the first peek at the loveliness that comes from combining Rowan Tapestry in Pot Pourri (whatever happened to great Rowan shade names like Raw and Storm and Bear?) and entrelac, something which I'd wanted to try since seeing this. I now have about a 12 inch square of knitting and I've decided to make a cushion. It's just not quite wide enough to make a really satisfying wrap but making it any wider would require much more yarn (about 5 balls?) and I'd have to rip out what I have. There was enough heart wrenching the first time I did that, after realising that 100 cast-on stitches would be far too many. Anyhow, I just need to complete the last row of rectangles and then the final triangle row and then decide on a backing fabric and how it's all going to come together. It's been a pretty speedy knit. I cast-on on Saturday after practicing the method with a bit of baby cashmerino (which I also used for my provisional cast-on) and knit about 1 and a half rows of rectangles before working out (as aforementioned) how much yarn it would take at that width. I ripped back all the rectangles and half the base triangles and then started knitting again from there. The great thing about entrelac is that you have all these little self-contained squares of knitted fabric so if you screw up it's really easy to go back to a certain point without the danger of losing all your stitches. I knit the bulk of the square in a marathon train journey from Bolton to Oxford via Crewe, Tamworth and Birmingham New Street (in that order!). The relief when I finally got on a train which was going to Oxford! Huge thanks to Brenda Dayne of Cast-on and Carrie Anne Dennison of BritKnitCast for keeping me in a zen-like state of calm for the 5¾ hour journey.

* I nearly forgot to say "thankyou" to my boyfriend who picked out the coordinating colours for the background and lettering. When we get our own place he is definitely going to be in charge of the paint charts.