Look! Content!

I know… it’s shocking, considering how much I seemed to abandon my old craft blog. I was always making things – it’s just that I got used to not being able to blog about them, and sort of stopped blogging about anything. But – after a couple of false starts I’m properly back, and the business is well on it’s way to being started, so I thought I’d blog about what I’m knitting at the moment, so that people who come nosying over from typepad will have new things to read (finally!)

So lets talk about camel yarn.

Gorgeous isn’t it?

It’s incredibly soft too.

I bought five 25g balls of this camel yarn while in Florence on our honeymoon, and at one point it was being knitted up a very cute scarf, but to be honest I was using needles that were too thin, and it was turning out no-where near as soft as it was in the ball, and I’m not really one for thin, back and forth scarf-knitting, so it got put back into the stash, and I spend a long time thinking about what it should be.

The thing is, I wanted it to be something special, because a) yarn from Italy, b) yarn from my honeymoon, and c) very very soft camel yarn that I can’t get easily here in the uk.

Cue the Comfort Shawl:

A small, simple shawl that would show off the softness of the camel, and be useful, given how cold our house gets in the winter.

And it’s all going swimmingly – except there is an error on row 43 which means that the shawl has stopped growing in width at the front for the last ball and a half. And having looked at the picture again…

Yeah, the decrease the pattern asks for after the border edges shouldn’t be there. Those front panels should be getting wider, and on mine… not so much.

So I’m frogging in. In fact I’ll go do it now.

…

So this is what I lost:

and this is what I’m left with:

However, I have decided to be the optimist, and point out that I now get to spend even more time knitting with this yarn, so it’s not all bad.

(Over half though… that’ll teach me to just blindly follow the pattern. 🙁 )

Firstly I want to say a huge congratulations to Liz, who finished her first London Marathon last sunday with a time of 04:25:03.

o/

Ok this is not my knitting. But this is what my knitting needs to look like.

It happened like this. I love W’s mum. She’s very lovely, and it’s a pleasure hanging out with her. We have shopping trips to Boden in london, and last time she came back from the US she brought me handpainted sock yarn. what’s not to love?

Anyways she also knits, but either her confidence got knocked, or she’s just realised that basically, i’m her bitch when it comes to wooly things (which i am. really. damn. 😉 )

So last time she came to see us, she brought with her a waistcoat that i’ve seen her in a number of times over the years, and which she loves to bit, and which has started to wear out. (she’s been wearing it for something like forteen years so really, it’s not doing badly.)

Anyways… I CANNOT HELP MYSELF.

So she and W go for a walk and i spend a good hour and a half not watching track cycling on tv with my sister, but obsessively copying down the details of this waistcoat. For I am going to make her a replacement!

And this will be her present for her 70’s birthday in June (which means I can get W to pay for the yarn.)

We will not mention that this is my first fair-isle. And my first steek. However I am using proper shetland wool from Jamieson and Smith, and wriggling my way through Alice Starmore’s Fair Isle knitting book at the library*, so I have no excuse but to suceed.

In other news, I have finished a cardigan that I haven’t even mentioned here. However I mayhavenotproperlysortedoutthegauge (eeep) and really it turned out more of a jacket in length. So I am in the process of shortening it. I’ll post pictures when it’s done.

However Lara: you’ll be glad to know that it has ironed out alot of the problems I was having with the cable-round yoked cardie, so I’m going to get back on that pretty soon.

*I really need to go on about the library. But that will have to wait for another day.

 This River Stole (done on smaller needles, like streetsandyos did here) has been a staple this winter, (along with the jade coloured Ballon Scarf from Scarf Style, which I knitted the winter before). It’s incredibly warm – that’ll be the mohair – and even though I don’t normally wear much yellow or gold, it works really well with the reds, damsons, and turquoises that make up most of my wardrobe.Another firm favourite is my pair of Fetchings that I knitted in November.

 These (along with another pair that Liz knit me for Christmas), have been worn pretty much every single day of winter – either while running erands or when we’re out for our early morning walk. I lengthened the finger part, which keeps more of my fingers warm when it gets really cold. They are knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran – which has held up suprisingly well (given that mixed fibres tend to pill pretty quickly.)I’ve also been wearing the hat my friend Abby* designed. But until she desides if she’s going to get it published or not I can’t photograph it. 🙁

(* – hey Abby – look I’m pimping your upholstery blog!)

Also finished – but not shown till now – are a pair of DK weight socks that used up the left over yarn from Theo’s Jumper.

 They are knit toe up, on 4mm (I think) – and have become my house socks of choice. :)(I have a real soft spot for DK weight socks. They are usually pretty strong, nice and thick, for padding about the house, and knit up in no time. Plus I always have half DK balls around the place just waiting to be made into stripes. I can see myself making more variations on this pair – in fact I’m suprised I haven’t done so already.)

 I also knit these, from an Angora/Merino mix by Touch Yarns which I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London. (I’m currently using up the rest of the skein to try and squeeze out another pair of trainer socks. *fingers crossed.)

 These were knit using the yarn that my mother-in-law brought back from the US for me. The pattern was something I just concocted with the help of a stitch dictionary. Another pair of thicker house socks – much needed given that only the bedroom and stairs of our house are carpeted.So there you go! I did keep myself busy while I was away. (In fact there are more FOs that just need photoing.)

In other news, my secret project took a leap forwards this week, which was very exciting. *beams*