A scrap of lace

I'll give you three guesses as to what I'm knitting now. Yep, it's another EZ seamless hybrid. This time I'm switching things round a bit by knitting it in another yarn (Garthenor Organic laceweight Manx Loghtan) and with a lace pattern thrown in. I think it will look nice as a t shirt worn over a vest in a contrasting colour.

Variations on a sweater

Pattern: Seamless Hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting without Tears
Ravelled: here
Needles: 4mm circs + 3.5mm circs for hem facings
Yarn: Rowan purelife British Sheep Breeds DK Undyed Bluefaced Leicester 3 balls each in fawn and ecru

This shot is almost Rowan-esque*. If it weren't for the fact that I'm wearing thick cotton tights and sitting in a centrally heated modern kitchen rather than an ancient farmhouse somewhere in the wilds of Ireland I could be in the photoshoot for The Next Big Thing. Oh, and the fact that my sweater is knit out of an eminently wearable dk weight yarn rather than the super chunky which makes supermodels look as though they could do with cutting back on the calories a bit.

I appear to be on a bit of a seamless hybrid jag** at the moment. This is my third of the year and I've just cast on for the fourth. I shook things up a bit this time around by knitting exactly the same sweater on exactly the same needles at exactly the same gauge but with a different yarn(!) in two colours(!!). The two colours bit means that this is actually an almost seamless rather than an actually seamless sweater. In the instructions for this sweater in Knitting Without Tears EZ explains how knitting in the round means that you can execute a central double decrease every three rows without any hassle, because all your knitting is done on the right side of the garment. Knitting the yoke in two colours means that instead of knitting in the round you have to knit back and forth and so instead of a straightforward central double decrease on the right side every three rounds you have paired left and right decreases either side of a colour change and on both knit and purl sides of the fabric. So it's a little bit fiddly. But so worth it. I've been wearing this sweater all day today and I plan to wear it all day tomorrow, and then maybe all day the next day too. It's so warm and fitted and the knitterly raglan decreases, intarsia colour changes, and saddle shoulders just give me a warm glow inside every time I look in the mirror.

Talking of technicalities, Felix asked how the turned picot hem is created. It's actually pretty straightforward. Directions are given here for knitting in the round 'cos that's how I roll.

When casting on:

Cast on an even number of stitches using a provisional crochet cast-on.
Join for knitting in the round, then using a smaller size needles knit x rounds (the value of x is up to you but for all my sweaters x = 5).
Change to a larger size needle and knit an eyelet round (K2tog, yo, around).
Knit x rounds with larger size needle.
Undo provisional cast on and slip resulting live stitches onto the smaller needle.
Using larger needle and starting at the beginning of the round knit the first stitch from the larger needle and the first stitch from the smaller needle together.
Continue to K2tog around as set until all stitches from the larger and smaller needles have been knit together.

Using a smaller size of needle for the hem facings means that the hem is less likely to splay out or flip up when being worn. If you don't have a smaller needle then you could try knitting a round less on the hem facings.

* I apologise for the fact that my right arm is over-exposed to the point of disappearing into the wall. Let me assure you that my right arm is still fully attached to the rest of my body. In fact I'm using it to type right now.

** Technical knitting term meaning I just can't stop knitting the damn thing.

I can't think of a title for this post

But at least my sleeves are done!



Now I just have to knit a few more inches on the body (I took a break from the body to knit the sleeves whilst I reskeined and soaked the remaining yarn which had been ripped out of my brother's sweater) before I can get started on the raglan decreases and then the really fun bit - the saddle shoulders!

I'm really looking forward to finishing my third sweater of the year so far (can you believe I've knit two and a half sweaters already this year?) and even more to wearing it. I think this is going to be a great casual sweater for the spring.

Marathon girl - Week #8

Day #7 - half-marathon race

Venue: Silverstone GP circuit
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 01:45:12 hours
Average time (per mile): 08:02 minutes

I am beyond chuffed with my time for this race. I knew I'd been getting faster but 01:45:12 was much better than I'd been aiming for. And I'm even more pleased with my place. I noticed by the time I got to the last 3 miles that I wasn't seeing many other girls and I'm sure that it's partly because there were more male than female entrants but it's certainly a boost to the ego to be running alongside and ahead of a bunch of fit(tish) young(ish) blokes. Anyway I was thrilled to be placed 952nd (out of 5750) overall and 102nd among the women.

Next week it's the first of the really long runs - 18 miles!

After(s)

See last post for the "before" pic. It's definitely a cake as it turns out.

Spring flowers

The prolonged cold snap in January and February has made everything a little later this year. Whilst there are plenty of snowdrops and crocuses still around (including a magnificent display in Somerville College which I must try to photograph) there is hardly a daff to be seen yet. Two years ago I was able to rhapsodize over them on March 1st. In fact there's something a bit wrong about St. David's day with without any daffodils.

Still, with some iron on patterns and a bit of embroidery floss I can have my own spring flowers (or rather the friend to whom I'm giving these as a present later today can).



You can tell they're hand-embroidered because I stitched the one with the blue flower (bottom right) on the wrong side!



These are the first things that I've embroidered using the patterns out of the Sublime Stitching pad that Abby gave me for my birthday back in February and they were so much fun to do that I started hunting out all the scraps of plain fabric in the flat.



I can't quite decide if this is meant to be a jelly or a trifle or a cake but it's fabulous whatever it is.

I have a tiny bit of slightly incompetent make do and mending to show you.



One of the button slides that I bought at Handm@de Oxford in November came apart a few weeks ago and the pieces have been sitting on the coffee table waiting to be glued back together ever since. Spot the difference? One of the slides has a slightly larger and more cream-coloured button in the centre (or rather off-centre) now after I superglued the original button to the paper I was using to protect the table. Could have been worse though, I nearly glued it to me (in fact I have a slightly gluey patch on my left thumb as I type which is going to take a few days to wear away I think). I'm much better with a needle and thread than I am with glue.

Sweater WIN

I'm like one of those athletes who does fantastically at the European and World championships but just flops when the Olympics come around. I knocked a sweater out in three weeks before the Knitting Olympics and I've just finished another one in two. I put the final touches to the neckband and grafted the underarms at Bluestockings this evening and then tried it on to general acclaim. I'm so pleased with how this worked out. The fit is great, I really like the 3/4 length sleeves and I love the picot edging at the hems. And it's so warm and cosy - I'm so glad I finished it before the weather got any warmer.



Pattern: Seamless hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting without Tears
Yarn: Sublime Angora Merino (6 balls)
Needles: 3.5mm and 4mm circs
Size: 34"
Ravelled: here

Marathon girl - week #7

Day #7 - cross-country race

Venue: Horspath
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 30:41 mins
Average time (per mile): 07:40 minutes
Position: 52nd (out of 111)



[That's the BMW Mini plant that you can see in the background. Scenic!]

Go me! That's only about 6 and a half minutes after the winner and I felt pretty competitive all the way round, i.e. actually trying to overtake people rather than just slogging on and hoping it would all be over soon. I think I may finally be a real cross-country runner, I even went straight through the muddy bits (and they really were very muddy) rather than picking my way round the edges in order to gain places. As you can see from the photo it was an absolutely gorgeous day though bitterly cold but running up Shotover hill will soon get you warmed up. I did also have a lovely cup of Clipper Organic decaf tea courtesy of the vacuum flask that Felix gave me for my birthday.

Knitting Olympics update

You might have guessed from the complete lack of fanfare that I did not manage to bring home gold in the Knitting Olympics. At midnight on Sunday with 3 and 3/4 hours to go until the end of the closing ceremony I was some back neck shaping and a neckband short of my goal and my numbers for the back neck shaping weren't adding up. I think if the numbers had been right I might have pressed on but it seemed wiser not to turn up for work on Monday morning completely exhausted just in order to meet a fairly arbitrary and self-appointed goal. Especially as I had already missed the rather more concrete deadline of finishing in time to actually give the thing to my brother whilst up in Bolton that weekend.





Anyway, it's done now barring the blocking and the snipping off of a few woven-in ends. I do love turned hems. They're just such a neat way to finish off any project.

So, one EZ hybrid raglan down, another one still on the needles. For me(!) this time. Knitting for myself, I can hardly believe it. I think this sleeve just needs another inch to hit a nice point somewhere between 3/4 and bracelet length then there's just one more sleeve to go before I can join them both to the already knit body and get started on the yoke.



[note the paired left (lalinc) and right (larinc) (see Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book) increases on the inside of the sleeve - hurrah for tiny knitterly details that only I will ever notice]

Hopefully the shirt yoke should give a neat square neckline to be set off nicely by another turned picot hem, have I mentioned that I like those?

btw if you haven't already seen it do pop over to the Yarn Harlot to see her absolutely magnificent Whistler sweater with which she won gold, rounding off an already splendid games for the Canadians.

De(vi)lish

It's all well and good making March the month of healthy eating but then the boyfriend announced that he had to make cupcakes for his colleague (and my friend) Kathrin's birthday and could I help. Fittingly he picked a recipe (Devil's food cake cupcakes) out of the book of cupcake recipes that Kathrin gave me for my birthday last month.



[making the batter]

The boyfriend was very excited by the 'owl' that appeared when he took the mixer out of the bowl of chocolate icing and insisted that I take a photo. Well, it's as much like an owl as all those images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that Americans keep finding in their poptarts.



[chocolate icing]

The cakes rose a little bit more than we anticipated but there were enough 'good' ones for the boyfriend to take into work this morning.



[Devil's Foodcake cupcakes]



Nom!

Marathon girl - week #7

Day #5 - short run

I don't have a distance or a time for you* but I do have pictures! I've been saying for ages that I wished I could take my camera out with me when I go running in order to show you all the lovely things I see en route. Well finally I have a mobile phone with a decent enough camera and (more importantly) something to carry it in (my lovely new Camel-bak Charm**).

I do like the new phone - it's shiny and has a (slightly tricky to use) touch screen.



Anyway, today was a lovely day so I went for a run by the river. I ran the same route on Monday and it was amazing how much the ground had hardened up in just three days.



[by the boatyard]

It really feels like a holiday from work when you're out in the meadow with the sun shining.



[geese by the beach]

It's tricky to see from this photo but the brownish grey blobs are a flock of Greylag geese flying low across the field, straight at me. I know that geese aren't (that) stupid and that they can fly around obstacles but believe me, I took this photo and then hit the ground. I figure being hit by one of those things at speed wouldn't be much better than being hit by a car!



[Greylag geese]

After the meadow it's across the bridge next to the very picturesque but somewhat overpriced Trout Inn, the boyfriend and I haven't been back since we were charged the best part of £10 for a half of cider, a pint of beer, and a packet of crisps.



[The Trout Inn]

Finally you run back via the canal and it's back to work in time for a shower and a bit of lunch.



[Canal barges]

* the distance is tricky to measure when you're off road without a GPS and the time was severely impacted by keeping stopping to take pictures for your benefit.

** I love this so much. It's absolutely perfect for running and the fact that it sits on my shoulders without bouncing or rubbing means that I can finally carry my phone whilst out running.

The weekend starts here

Yes, I know it's only Tuesday but what with taking tomorrow off work and getting a train after work this evening I really have no idea what day it really is. I'm in London to see my sister and niece and my Mum is here too (and Dad's coming tomorrow). Felix listed the required ingredients for a good weekend in her last post and I should have a few of those. I've got people I love, knitting (the Olympic sweater), not sure about the ales (though I do have a glass of white wine sitting by the laptop at the moment), and if the weather's nice tomorrow we're off to a farm.

Happy weekend everyone - whenever you get around to having it!

Knitting Olympics - day #10

We're talking to Liz now who's aiming for a gold medal in the two week sweater reknitting event.

So Liz, this is your first attempt at knitting a whole sweater in two weeks, nervous?

Well, I've been training hard. Last month I knit a much larger size sweater in just under three weeks.

There are just over 6 days to go, are you confident about completing on time?

I've finished the body up to the armholes and I'm 7.5 inches into the first sleeve. From here the target's looking very achievable.

And you're working with yarn that's been ripped out once, are you worried about any difference in gauge between that and the yarn that hasn't been ripped?

Well now I am! Still I'm pretty strong at blocking and I'm sure it's nothing that a good soak won't even out. Now I really have to get on I'm afraid.

Just one more question ...

Oh for goodness sake, can't you see I'm on a schedule here?

We just wanted to know ... OK, we're going ... you can put the needle down. Well that was Liz, obviously very focussed on her sweater. Later we'll be going over to the sock knitting arena to see if the GB team can break that Olympic record but right now it's off to the slopes for the freestyle crochet.

Marathon girl - Week #5

Day #7 - long run

Distance: 15.74 miles
Time: 02:11:15 hours
Average time (per mile): 08:20 minutes

This week's run was a lot less complicated than last week's and considerably more scenic. 5.5 miles out along the A44, 4.5 miles around Blenheim Great Park, and 5.5 miles back again. I wasn't completely sure of the mile points, as mapmyrun.com has a nasty habit of adjusting the figures when you save your run, and suspected that we might have been heading out a bit on the fast side but both Kate and I were staggered when we looked at the end time. At this rate there should be no problem with achieving my aim of a sub 4 hour time. Luckily my next long run isn't for two or three weeks as my legs felt like they were about to drop off at the hips by the end of the run.

Once I'd recovered (thanks to a bath and copious quantities of tea, toast, and Nutella) I headed back out to Blenheim to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. I managed over an hour of sitting and knitting and listening to the footy on the Olympic sweater on the Water Terrace before retreating inside for more tea and to get some feeling back into my fingers. The body is now done (hurrah) and I'm several rounds into the cuff of the first sleeve. That Olympic gold medal is still a possibility.

Rip back and think of GB

I finally sucked it up and ripped out the original, over-sized EZ hybrid sweater whilst watching the women's curling (GB vs. Russia) this evening. I'm down to the last ball of new yarn for the reknit and I knew there was a chance I'd have to reskein, soak, and hang the ripped out yarn and I didn't want to run out of yarn before it was dry.



Thanks to the ball winder and the fact that it was a seamless sweater the whole process was fairly painless. Physically painless, that is. I'm sure I'll bear the emotional scars for years to come. No, I'm kidding. There was an initial wrench as I picked out the darned-in end of the neck band but really I'm so far along on the new sweater that I don't mind too much.



I was right about having to reskein and soak this stuff though. Check out the sproinginess. It would be like trying to knit with phone cable.



I'll post an update on my Knitting Olympics project tomorrow.

But is it good enough ...

In celebration of the return of Masterchef and under an injunction from the boyfriend to eat up the green beans in the fridge I made this salad for dinner tonight. I even improved it a bit with some prosciutto leftover from the weekend.



I am so excited about the return of Masterchef. I love the cookery but it's mainly the characters. Not only the amateur chefs and their insane food combinations but John and Greg too. I love how they have yelled conversations like they're talking from opposite sides of the room, rather than six inches apart and I'll be taking a drink whenever they come out with any of their catchphrases "I could eat three of those" (Greg), "Let's cook!" (John), and the perennial favourite "but is it good enough for the quarter-final of Masterchef?"

A flat failure

I don't know what happened because I'm usually pretty good at pancakes but last night's batch were more or less a disaster. This one was the only presentable one of the bunch and even it started to fall apart when I flipped it. I obviously should have followed Petit Filoux's example and had a run through at the weekend. It might have been that I combined my melted butter with the flour before mixing it into the batter (in an attempt to stop it solidifying as usually happens) or just that I'm out of practice as I usually make the equally delicious, but less technically demanding American style pancakes. I can't even have another try this evening as the boyfriend wouldn't approve - something about today being the first day of Lent and all.

More than football, more than anything else

I found a great card for the boyfriend in John Lewis.



And it's true! I even videoed the live cup game between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham to watch "as live" later on so that we could go for a nice walk and cup of tea at Blenheim this afternoon instead. I'm so happy that the palace is open again after the winter break. I'm looking forward to many more cuppas on the Water Terrace as the weather gets warmer.

The boyfriend and I don't make a huge big deal of V day (at least we try not to get sucked into the rampant commercialism of it all) but we had a nice dinner from M&S and some lovely champagne which was a pressie from my parents and we're going to watch Cyrano de Bergerac later which is both extremely funny and heart-breakingly sad. Anyway, I have a few Valentines links for y'all.

I just this minute came across the Missed Connections blog via Cast-On (thank you Brenda). This is so sweet and beautifully drawn.

I have loved xkcd (even if I don't get all, ok any, of the maths jokes) since I first came across it on Language Log (thank you linguistics geeks) and especially these four* Valentine's cartoons.

Finally go to Fat Orange Cat Studio if you want to know what cats do for Valentine's day.

Happy Valentine's day to all of you!!

[ETA: btw this is post number 500! Thanks for reading, I've really enjoyed blogging to all of you.]

[Also ETA: I just found another link for you. Apparently the boyfriend was looking for ukelele songs (no, really).]

* originally this read "two" but then I kept finding more of them!

Now we are thirty - #2

I don't think anyone ever had such lovely crafty friends. Clockwise from the top left are:

500 cupcakes & muffins from Kathrin - I think she's just hoping that the boyfriend will start bringing the cupcakes that we can't eat into work!
Machine stitched owl from Ellen.
Handmade beaded fuschia earrings from Jenny.
Crocheted brooch on a handknit heart cushion from Mikal.
Pink glass dotty earrings from Helen.
Handmade cards drawn by Kathrin's girls - I feel they have a future in the quirky greetings card market.



After our lengthy conversations about packed lunches on the way back from Woolfest in the summer Felix decided that I needed the ultimate picnic bag. If you read Felix's blog you might have noticed that she tends to play down her sewing skills with typical modesty but this is a beautiful piece of work. The outer fabric is an Amy Butler fabric in a lovely fresh green and the lining is some leaf patterned oil cloth. I'm incredibly impressed with the neatness of the stitching as I've heard that oil cloth can be really tricky to sew. The bag has two handy pockets on the outside and was packed with handy picnic stuff including a one-person vacuum flask (which will be filled only with hot water), two mini tupperware containers, a napkin, a biscuit box, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and a freezer pack in its own little bag. I was absolutely stunned when I opened this and saw all the lovely things that Felix had filled it with.

Thank you so much to all my lovely friends who celebrated my birthday with me on Monday!

Now we are thirty - #1

Guess who had a "round number" birthday last Monday! I'm going to do this a little bit in reverse as although I received some lovely gifts from my family the weekend before my birthday, and some fabulous pressies from my amazing crafty friends on my birthday I think that they should wait until I have some decent light for photography (although if you want a sneak peek check out the fabulous bag that Felix made for me here).

Instead I thought I'd share a present that I received yesterday from the boyfriend's lovely sister, Clare. Clare was very apologetic that she hadn't had time to wrap it but I have no problem whatsoever in receiving a gift wrapped in a John Lewis bag (so long as the contents actually come from that emporium of joy).



Squee!

This is such a cute book and it's not one that I would normally buy for myself (it's been some time since I bought a pattern book that didn't contain baby patterns to knit for my niece) so it's lovely to receive it as a gift.

Check out some of the crazy critters you can knit.



I love all the raccoon-fox guys and I know Felix has a soft spot for the Ginge Marmalade cat.