November madness
I seem to be the Max Mosley of knitting (possibly a British-only joke, so here’s the relevant news story) and so I’ve signed myself up for the Woolly Wormhead Mystery Beret KAL and the November Mystery Sock-along. Both are hosted over at Ravelry and you have to be a member to get the patterns (the waiting list is about 3 days now, I think).
I had no suitable yarn in my stash for the hat; a complete shock to the system as I thought I would have. The wonderful Knitting Kitties saw my pathetic plea over on Plurk and I bought some lovely wool/angora (or was it wool/alpaca?) un-dyed worsted from her.
As you can see, I haven’t quite managed to wind all of the skein into a ball. I can’t find the essential bits of the swift my dad made me so I had to stretch the skein between my feet. In addition, my ball winder maxes out at about 60g so I had to improvise with a loo roll tube!
The first clue for the hat is just the brim so it shouldn’t take me too long to get that finished.
The second “along” is due to start on the 1st of November and the only thing I know is it’s been designed by Debi and it’s a slip stitch mosaic pattern.
I chose my three colours and make a little swatch to see how they’d work together
Black and white (below) shows tonal value – the greater the number of shades of grey, the better.
I think I like it! The purple is Opal Uni, the orange/yellow is some Kool-Aid dyed Knit Picks Bare sock yarn and the blue is Regia Stretch.
I’ve finished something as well (if you can count something which took about 3 hours to make as deserving it’s own fanfare)
It’s a little toe cap for my mum’s frozen tozen. She has Reynaud’s (?sp) Disease and in the Winter (and the Autumn and Spring, come to think about it) her hands and feet get very cold because there is little blood flow. She’ll wear this over a cotton sock and under a woollen sock or two.
The yarn is Sock it Too Me Puzzle (as seen in my mum’s birthday socks from earlier this year) and the whole thing used about 6 g of yarn. Not bad, huh?
And finally …
I’m making progress (albeit slow) on the Anniversary Shawl border. I have a scant 5/12ths of the border remaining to apply. It’s wonderful to finally see the shawl coming off the needles stitch by stitch. I’m really looking forward to blocking this thing and actually using it!
Oh, forgot to mention, I’m part of a test on WordPress regarding replying to comments. The way it’s supposed to work is I reply via the email notification and my reply shows up on the blog. I’ve done that twice, and neither have appeared. I’ve emailed support but if you ask a question I’ll do my best to reply using the email address you supply and not just hit the “Reply” button.
FO: Gedifra Stripe scarf and wrist warmers
Hurrah! I have made a weather-appropriate item of knitwear at the right time of year!
I love the colours in the scarf. I’m not a big fan of grey and green, but I think they are more than outweighed by the orange and brown.
The yarn was a sale-item impulse buy but I really think it was worth it.
Saturday Sky: Friday Edition
I don’t normally participate in Saturday Sky (good job it’s still Friday here then!), but the way the late afternoon sun hit the browning leaves of the silver birch trees in the gardens, with the clouds behind them, really struck me.
Abandoning a simmering pan of runner beans I took these photos
1. IMG_2167, 2. IMG_2166, 3. IMG_2165, 4. IMG_2164, 5. IMG_2163, 6. IMG_2162
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
I hope you have a good weekend.
Knit one, purl one, repeat ad infinitum
Why won’t this scarf end?
Oh, yeah; I’m knitting it and I’m ultra-frugal so I’m going to use every. last. centimetre of this yarn.
For comparison, here’s where I left you in suspense, at the half way point:
And here’s where I am now:
I may need to clean the mirror
I may also need to find a better way of photographing this for the FO post!
I’m seriously tempted to cast this off now (I may have done so by the time you’re reading this) and use the remaining yarn to make some fingerless mitts. The scarf is now 5′ 6″ long (as you can see from the handy scale in the photo) and it seems plenty long enough.
Shawl/Stole:
It’s a bit monotonous with the Anniversary Shawl as well. I’m now past the halfway mark on the edging, so every repeat is another repeat closer to the finish!
It’s a bit frustrating that I can’t quite photograph it in a full circle yet, but I’m getting there.
Serendipity/Mystery Stole 4 is plodding along nicely as well. Clue 4 has been completed and, in a master stroke of genius, I decided to knit Clue 5 next.
Towards the end of Clue 4 it suddenly occurred to me that I have to knit all these clues again. Duh. How I managed to trick my tutors and examiners into giving me a degree, I’ll never know!
Some thoughts from the last post:
I have a really intelligent bunch of people reading my blog you know! There were some very interesting and good points raised, and some I hadn’t really thought of.
Growing up in something of a lapsed-Christian/secularist society I’m used to not being offended by public showings of religion (hijab, silver bangles, crosses on necklaces, turbans) and my parents brought me up to be respectful of other peoples points of view.
However, I can see why people were upset about the inclusion of the verse in the pattern, and Debi had a great point in questioning why it was there in the first place.
I welcome new ideas being presnted to me and I also relish my views and beliefs being challenged, so feel free to continue the discussion in the comments if you want! Apart from Mrs Dr Who, because you are now banned for mentioning cheese toasties and making me hungry! 
No fish please, we’re Atheists
Looks pretty, doesn’t it?
I like it. I thought there was a little of the Paisley design in the early stages and then came some more geometric patterns so I wasn’t sure what the “theme” was. It turns out it’s “Serendipity”; a collection of patterns the designer liked and used together.
No controversy there, you’d think. Until, in the last clue, the designer posted a bible verse (John 3:16, to be precise) and all hell broke loose (pardon the pun) because people were accusing her of including Christian imagery in the stole.
See any?
No, me either.
I think people are just waiting to be offended at the moment. A different, less confrontational, verse could have been chosen or no verse at all but, to be honest, I’m not personally offended. I’m getting a free pattern and a beautiful stole out of this. Sigh. It’s scary out there kids!
This rant was brought to you by the letters I, B and S.
In other knitting news:
I’m cruising nicely along the edging to the Anniversary shawl
The black paper clips are the quarter markers
Progress as of today.
This think is going to be huge. Help me!
I’ve also dug out this yarn:
which is going to become a Veste Evereste (Ravelry Link and Interweave shop link) from the Fall 2005 issue of Interweave Knits for my mum. I was originally planning this for her birthday in March but I knew I had no chance so I relegated it to Christmas.
I’m a tad concerned that I haven’t got enough yarn. I bought 5 balls of the cream for the main part and 1 of the “red” to use as trim. This should be enough to make the 34″ finished size, but I’m not sure this will have enough ease in it for my mum’s tastes. I’m either going to try and get another ball or two of the cream or knit the whole thing on a slightly larger needle than I would ordinarily.
Another thought was to use a temporary cast on, knit the top as designed (in the 34″ size) and if I have any of the red or cream left, knit it a bit longer.
Ideas? Opinions?
Gadgets:
Look what WordPress has given me! (Make sure you allow Polldaddy.com if you have a script-blocker)
Go on, vote!
