You want to put the book in the freezer?

This Hallow'een I'll be mostly ... making cupcakes



I'd originally intended to make gingerbread zombies but I forgot to pick up a biscuit cutter in town this evening. The cupcakes were a bit on the small side for doing spider web icing (there wouldn't have been much cupcake left after I'd cut the tops off to create a flat surface) so I decided to go for scary pumpkin faces. It was easy enough to get a good orange icing (it's not Hallow'een without a few artificial colourings and preservatives) but the scary faces were a bit tricky. I tried dusting with cocoa powder through a stencil and moulding eyes and mouths out of dark brown icing without success and was giving up in despair when the boyfriend saved my reputation as a patissier by suggesting indenting the icing. He then proceeded to look at the ends of all the sharp implements we own before suggesting that one point of my giant scissors would make good eyes and noses and the smaller point would work for scary teeth.



These two look like they're plotting something. It's a good job they're shut away tight in tupperware.

... and reading scary stories

I picked up The Turn of the Screw by Henry James in the library and started reading it on the bus coming home. Not really a great move as I then had to try very hard not to get spooked by the noise of the pheasants rustling about in the gully on my walk down the hill from the bus stop. If you fancy something slightly less hair raising then there's All Souls' by Edith Wharton (very seasonal). I read this in a collection of her short stories called Souls Belated and Other Stories* which also includes Roman Fever which has some good knitting content. I know most people like to stay in with a scary movie on Hallow'een but I much prefer curling up with a book. Plus you can always put it in the freezer if it gets too freaky.

* in fact, flicking through, there are a good few chillers in there including Kerfol, The Eyes and Afterward.

If in doubt just knit socks

Socks are the default setting on my knitting dial. I usually have a pair (or two) on the needles at all times and when I can't decide what project to begin next I usually start a pair of socks whilst I think about it. There are as many reasons for knitting socks as there are fantastic sock patterns out there but the most pressing one just at the moment is that about six of the pairs currently sitting in my sock drawer are darned in one or more places. This brings me neatly to the argument I hear most against knitting socks - that they wear out so much more quickly than any other knitted garment. Why lavish so much care and money on something that's going to end up down at heel? This used to scare me a bit I admit, especially as I'm particularly hard wearing on socks. However, one of the reasons that I love knitting so much and the main reason that it took over from my various other crafty activities such as cross-stitching is that I end up (at least when I'm not knitting tiny woolly hats) with a practical end-product to be worn and to be worn out. I'd much rather have my darned but still toasty socks than any amount of fancy work safely preserved under glass.

I want to knit it all

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Needles: 2.5mm

Now that I'm done with the two pairs of socks that I had on the needles I'm casting around for what to cast on next and wanting to knit everything at once. I want to knit with my handspun, I want to finish the Trellis cardigan, I want to knit something with my hand-dyed rainbow yarn, I want to knit fancy lace socks and a scarf and gloves and a sweater.

But, I've no idea what to knit first!

Good intentions

Today is the first day of a regime of improved diet and exercise! Due to the exingencies of laundry I wore a skirt to work that hadn't been out of the wardobe for a few months and boy did I notice the difference. I've been off the running and swimming for a few weeks first with a sore foot, then a string of colds. Anyway the foot's better and I'm hoping that improved diet will sort out my immune system. Apparently there's this stuff called "fruit" that has vitamin C in it! I've never really been into weighing and measuring myself but I've got a couple of pretty unforgiving (as far as ease goes) items in my wardrobe so I'll be able to chart progress.

At least I don't have to airbrush my feet yet!*



Pattern: Thelonious socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Louet Gems Opal sock yarn (2 skeins)
Needles: 2.5mm

* this harks back to some idle speculation at bluestockings a few months ago as to whether people were ever tempted to airbrush their arches for sock shoots. All I'll admit to is a very little brightness fixing in this shot to improve the accuracy of the colour.

Elementary

Yarn: Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud
Needles: 4mm
Stitch gauge: 28 stitches = 4 inches
Row gauge: 24 rows = 4 inches

A swatch and a little basic maths and we have the germ of a sweater pattern. I had the idea for this at lunchtime, mulled it over during the afternoon and picked up the yarn and needles for swatching from Port Meadow after work. Of course it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data but I'm seeing a v-neck sleeveless cardigan, possibly with a pocket or two. Just the thing for striding around Dartmoor after spectral hounds.

You know you want to see the back.



So neat.

I worked up the swatch at the Jam Factory knitting group this evening and had a very jolly time although it wasn't the ideal project for group knitting as I had to keep breaking off from discussions of gauge and blocking to check that I wasn't mucking up the pattern which is deceptively tricky at first. At least with over 200 stitches to cast on I should get the hang of it after the first row or two!

Consolation prizes

The summer vegetables may have been a big flat failure - the green tomatoes didn't even grow large enough to make chutney - but there are one or two reasons for cheer out on the baloney.



This hyacinth pot which sprang into life a couple of weeks ago has now come inside to cheer up the kitchen and on Sunday I took advantage of the lovely weather to plant out the garlic that I bought at the CLA Game Fair back in July.



I really hope they come up OK as we get through a lot of garlic in this household.

Here's something that should be ready a bit sooner than the garlic.



I'm up (or down if you will) to the heel on the second Thelonious sock. Progress has been a bit slower than expected on this due to a) having to rip back nearly everything I knit at Bluestockings last Wednesday as I only knit the non-pattern rounds once rather than three times and b) spending a lot of time crocheting on a secret project. I'm really enjoying the pattern now that I'm well into it. It's an interesting pattern but straightforward enough to knit without reference to the chart whilst walking or listening to the classic Radio 4 adaptations of Sherlock Holmes with Clive Merrison and Michael Williams on the bus. Despite my recent Wimsey infatuation, Sherlock really is my first love when it comes to detective fiction and I have to say that the boyfriend is relieved that I've started I've given up droppin' my g's in casual conversation.

Feels like summer

I really wish I had a proper zoom lens on my camera. We saw this chap just 15 yards away enjoying the sunshine on our walk around Christ Church meadow this afternoon.

This is what he looks like uncropped.



I've not been in Christ Church meadow for some time. A lot of the dead climbing plants have been cleared away from the trees which means that you can really appreciate the wonderful patterns in the bark.



Despite the fantastic weather there were clear signs that autumn really is here.



There's no sight quite like that of a novice fresher crew taking to the water for the first time. Alas, a still photo doesn't really convey the sheer lack of coordination. Still it looked like they were having fun.

A Quantum of Solace

In these uncertain times there really is nothing like using one stick to wrap a piece of yarn around another stick 8000 odd times to take your mind off things.

I'm not sure yet whether I'll be off to Ally Pally at the weekend (pros: I might be able to meet my niece and sister in Muswell Hill beforehand; cons: do I really need more yarn and/or fibre - although it would always do for loft insulation) but I'm still really enjoying this pattern (Thelonious by Cookie A.) and yarn (Louet Gems Opal) that I picked up at last year's show.

Banana Republic Hat Knockoff - free to good home

This was going to be a post about how the weather has changed so quickly from bright and sunny to cold and wet and how I saw this hat and thought it would be a fabulous quick knit to knock up in an evening so I would have a warm hat to wear when looking after my baby niece at the weekend.

The hat did knit up very quickly (about 2 hours knitting time I think) and looked great, even though I had to knit it on straights and seam it as I didn't have a pair of circs in the correct size. I thought it seemed a bit snug when I tried it on after finishing it and my suspicions were confirmed the next morning when, after wearing it for an hour, I took it off to brush my hair and discovered a neat pattern of garter bumps imprinted on my forehead.

I'm not ripping out as I have plenty of the yarn (I bought enough to make a poncho back in 2005 when a cream poncho in bulky wool seemed the height of sophistication) and frankly - although it's holding up very well - it's been through enough of that already!

So if the circumference of your head is 21" or less leave a comment in the notes or PM me on Ravelry and the hat is yours!*



Pattern: Banana Republic Hat Knockoff
Ravelled: here
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool in Spun Sugar
Needles: 5mm/6.5mm

It really is very warm.

* Distance no object.

Quick catch up

I've not really felt in the mood for blogging this week, or rather I've not felt in the mood for sitting in our rather chilly study when I could be reading in bed or knitting in the much warmer sitting room. There's been a real nip in the weather since the weekend giving me an added incentive to knit more socks to make up for all the darned pairs.

FO - Marathon Monkeys



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Artful Ewe sock yarn (1 skein)
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Ravelled: here

WIP - Purple Monkeys



I make no apologies for knitting yet another pair of Monkeys (aka The Most Popular Socks in the World). I need socks quick and I can knock out two and a half pattern repeats on my bus ride to and from work each day. Even if I only knit on the bus I'd have a pair in two weeks.

As I'm nearly down to the heel on the second sock of this pair I started casting around for sock yarn for my next pair and came up with another pair of Cookie A. socks. OK, it's more like 0.9 of a single sock rather than a pair.



No, I'm not going to rip it back to make Monkeys (that would be silly) but as soon as I've finished it I'll be using the leftover yarn (extremely lush Louet Gems Opal) for my next pair. I'll have at least one skein spare due to my thinking I needed three skeins rather than two for these when I was at Ally Pally last year - I blame the yarn fumes.

FO - Liquorice with a twist

Pattern: Liquorice by Megan Marshall (soon available to buy - details are here)
Size: small
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply (2 balls)
Needles: 3.25mm needles, 3.25mm crochet hook
Modifications: I accidentally knit a garter stitch version but I don't think it detracts from the basic look of the pattern and I really like it. I also knit an extra repeat of chart 2 for slightly longer sleeves.

I was so pleased to be able to test-knit this for Megan. I liked the pattern as soon as I saw it on Ravelry and as you don't need much yarn it's a great way to use up any odd balls of 4 ply left over from a larger project. In fact I think it would work fabulously with lace-weight too if you wanted to make something really dressy. I'm not quite sure how many shrugs a girl really needs but I know this would be perfect with at least 4 more yarns in my stash.

And it was all orange

The trouble with knitting monogamy (and one of the reasons why I rarely practise it myself) is that repeated WIP pictures of the same item - just getting a bit bigger each time - are rather, well, boring.

So if you'll take it as read that I'm still progressing nicely on the Liquorice shrug instead we'll have a picture of my dinner tonight - 10 minutes carrot soup.



Serves 1

3 carrots
1/2 chicken stock cube
fresh basil leaves
1 dessert spoon 1/2 fat creme fraiche
black pepper

1. Peel and slice the carrots, add the 1/2 stock cube crumbled up and around 250ml boiling water. Boil for 9 minutes (or until carrots are tender). Fish carrots out of the stock with a slotted spoon and puree in a food processor.
2. Add the water and slosh around carefully until combined (remember, boiling water is hot!). Pour into a bowl and add the creme fraiche, torn basil leaves and black pepper.
3. Eat and feel smug about getting three of your five-a-day.
4. Try to forget about the creme fraiche.

Liquorice twist

I'm nearly done with chart 1 on the second half of the Liquorice shrug. I'm absolutely racing along, largely I suspect due to a slight misunderstanding re the pattern which means that I'm knitting it mainly in garter rather than stocking stitch. In fact I'm knitting almost the complete reverse of what Megan intended. Still it looks great, especially in the miracle yarn that is Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply. The difference in texture between the second half on the needles and the first half which I blocked last night is amazing. The first is so stiff that a spoon would stand up in it, the second just flows.



Given how much shrug I'm getting for my yardage this might be the perfect project for the leftover Helen's Lace from my POTW and Peacock shawl. I mighr even try to knit it the right way round this time!

Season of mists and tiny little hats

Now that climate change has put the kibosh on the many of the traditional signs of autumn it's fortunate that there are some non-natural markers to let us know that it's time to break out the chunky yarn like the appearance of Fall Knitty, the return of Strictly Come Dancing and Innocent's Big Knit 2008. Between the credit crunch and rising fuel prices there's never been a better time to support Age Concern's Fight the Freeze campaign. Plus knitting tiny hats is super fun and helps me combat my knitting related ADD. Seriously they take half an hour each - gratification doesn't come much more instant than that



See.

I'm up to 21 so far and would like to beat my previous best total of 78 but me being me I've got other fish to knit.



Obviously a shot (taken with flash) of blue knitting blocking on a blue towel was never going come out well so you'll just have to take my word for it that this is the test knit of Megan's Liquorice shrug coming along just beautifully. The yarn is Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply (my last two balls) in a gorgeous shade of teal. I think this is going to look great with all my brown and blue stuff. If only it were shrug weather!

Just need closure

Or rather just needs closures. I started off on this little dress for Laurie yesterday evening and got so enthused that I couldn't wait to obtain a zip before finishing off the inside edges of the back bodice. Of course if I'd thought it through I would have added an extra half-inch to the inside edge of each back piece for buttons and button-holes. As it is I think that maybe hooks and eyes or those little bobbly buttons with button loops would do the trick.



Pattern: Based on
this pattern with a few modifications.
Size: 12-18 months (I hope)
Fabric: Needlecord from John Lewis
Lining: Amy Butler cotton



I'm very pleased with the lined bodice and the waistband which encloses the top of the gathered skirt. The one thing that I'm not so happy with is that in all the excitement of the Federer/Murray final I hemmed the wrong end of the skirt (which is just a cylinder of fabric gathered at one end) so that the nap of the fabric goes the wrong way. Still I don't suppose she'll notice it. Fingers crossed that big sister likes it too as it's a v. easy pattern and such fun to make up.

Moving swiftly on*

Here are just some of the sights from the iKnit day on Saturday. I didn't quite make it into the monster queue to meet the Harlot in person (she'll come back again, right? she seemed to quite like London after all) but I so enjoyed her talk. The audience were in stitches (argh) throughout.

Ellen and I knit two stitches apiece (all we could manage before exhaustion set in) on the world's biggest piece of knitting, we met lots of nice people and did a little celeb spotting and bought pretty things and I had tea and cake (which is usually enough to make my day on its own) and squeed at the world's fluffiest bunnee (we wants it).

I always come back from these days with a huge creative urge which usually translates into a bad case of startitis. Imagine my surprise therefore when I got home, dragged my POTW out of the ziplock where it's been mouldering (thankfully not literally) for the past year and set about finishing it. I hadn't knit a stitch on it since last September when I made it about 50 rows (out of 1000) into the border and hit the knitting wall. I still couldn't face that border but I've learnt a few tricks since then including this handy crochet chain bind-off for lace projects. Just crochet three edging stitches together then chain about 8 and repeat until all stitches are bound off.

I'd run out of the super strength cotton I usually use for blocking lace but discovered that bamboo skewers make pretty good blocking wires at a pinch.



Actually this may be the world's biggest piece of knitting - it's as tall as I am.



And of course it's not really the weather for lightweight merino silk stoles, still at least I've reclaimed my Lantern Moon needles which have been unavailable for 18 months.



Pattern: Print o' the Wave by Eunny Jang
Needles: 3.75mm circulars
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace (I still have loads left)

* my attempts at a more descriptive post were all just unutterably wordy so if you actually want to hear me go on and on about the day I'll be happy to oblige on Wednesday in the pub.

I knit with the Yarn Harlot

and I have the button badge to prove it!



I'll blog all about this tomorrow - I'm too busy sending positive thoughts to Flushing Meadow right now.

Magic Hour at the Oxford Botanical Gardens

On Thursday I headed along to The Magic Hour, OCM's event at the Oxford Botanical Gardens.

Before making my tour of the exhibits which were dotted about the gardens I checked in with Felix in her feedback shed.



I was really glad that she was warm and dry inside a greenhouse given how lousy the weather had been.



It's almost a shame that her map was completely obscured by visitors' comments labels by the end of the evening.

After seeing Felix I met up with Katie, W and their friend Pat and we went off to look round the exhibits.





Quite apart from the installations it was great just wandering round the beautiful gardens in the gathering dusk.



This black walnet might have walked straight out of one of the nastier dells in the Old Forest.





Looking down my photos from the evening it's really interesting to see how the colour has faded out of the photos as the evening went on until the ones just above are nearly black and white.

FO - "Anyone for tennis?" handspun

Handspun from the curly fleece of the Slazenger, a shy creature that can be found lurking in the leafy suburbs of SW1.



This was plied, whacked and dried by Wednesday morning but only given to Felix (as a rather belated birthday pressie) on Thursday evening. I've got to say that the presentation (in a recycled cardboard takeaway carton) was Aliki's genius idea.

The fibre is wool hand-dyed by Mobair (aka Victoria Smedley). I saw it at the Festival of Quilts and immediately thought of Felix. Happy Birthday (three months ago).

And sew on and sew forth

On Tuesday last week I made the trip to Reading to visit Felix's knitting group at the Global Cafe - such a nice venue, even if there wasn't knitting going on I'd make the trip just for the chocolate cake. Anyway, due to the excellent train service between Oxford and Reading I got there rather on the early side and thought I'd just pop into John Lewis. Quarter of an hour later I popped out again having bought 2 metres of wine coloured needlecord, matching thread and a zip.

As I was away at the weekend I didn't actually make a start on the skirt until Monday evening when I came home from work armed with a strong sense of purpose and two and a half hours of the BBC adaptation of Gaudy Night starring Harriet Walter on DVD. I cut out the skirt during the first episode of that and did most of the sewing up during one of our favourite episodes of Morse. It's all about the Oxford based murder mysteries round here.



I think this gives the best impression of the colour.



I'm rather proud of the zip too.

Pattern: Barcelona skirts by Amy Butler (A-line skirt)
Fabric: Needle cord from John Lewis £8/metre (2 metres though I needed much less)
Size: medium 10-12 (adjusted to be smaller by 1/2")
Notions: matching thread and 7" zip

I didn't think that the cord really needed a lining so I just used the skirt pattern as a template to cut strips of fabric 3" deep to line the waistband on the inside.

It's really comfortable and a great fit. I'm very tempted to make a detour via John Lewis in London on Saturday to see if they have any of the same fabric in the rusty orange that I saw in Reading. In the meantime there might just be enough of the red left for a pinafore for Laurie.

Talking of outfits for my niece I've nearly finished a tank top for her in Baby cashmerino although it's going to be a very close squeak yardage wise.



I've finished the main body and just need to do the ribbing round the armholes but there's very little yarn remaining.

What with this and the 4 balls of Rowan All Seasons cotton I inherited at tonight's Bluestockings meeting there's a bit of a pink-for-girls thing developing - although I really have been trying to avoid this. However, they're both very nice pinks and I've found a perfect pattern to knit with the cotton. I've always wanted to try a proper aran style cardi.