Monthly Archives: September 2006

…if it wasn’t for that meddling monkey!

The thing is I would have posted my sock progress yesterday, but I just… forgot. I’ve started the Ganomy Hat for Zimmermania, you see, and it’s just so much fun to knit! A sneaky peak:

I’m using Adriafil New Zealand Multicolour yarn, in Shaded Army Green. I expect to have it finished today, because it’s whizzing along.

So sock progress!

It really stings, cutting my leg off like that to take photos. There must be a better way of doing it.

The second sock will be spiralling in the other direction, as it is generally agreed that this is not cheesy. Now hopefully that wretched simian spy will leave me in peace!

Despite not being red like a superhero’s cape, I don’t think it’s too bad:

Pattern: Lace Leaf Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark for Fibertrends
Yarn: 100% cashmere 4ply in Kingfisher from ColourmartUK

Close up of the leaves:

I love this pattern. Just like the Flower Basket Shawl and Kiri, it’s constructed from the neck downwards and is easy to memorise but looks stunning. I particularly like the way the edging forms on this shawl. I think that was the one thing that disappointed me about Kiri, becuase the edging didn’t look quite so well designed compared to the main part of the shawl.

But now I’m definitely ready to try a different shawl shape! Perhaps I’ll try another circular shawl. Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Pi Shawl ties in nicely with the knitalong, too.

Being only a poor gypsy woman, I’d never knitted with cashmere before so I’ll definitely be buying some more of this yarn. It’s supplied oiled for machine knitting, but once it was washed, it fluffed up to become incredibly soft. I have over 80g left, too, so could probably knit another shawl of a similar size!

* * * *

The spiral socks are coming along nicely. Photos tomorrow! So the knitting fug has definitely passed and I’m on a roll and feeling very inspired! And just in time for some major stash enrichment next month at Ally Pally!

I love blocking lace. It’s probably the nearest I get to actual magic (apart from cursing skeins of yarn, naturally!). It starts off as a damp heap of nothingness and then with tweaking and pinning and more tweaking and more pinning, it ends up as something quite wonderful. Tomorrow there will be full photos of the splendidness. For now, you’ll have to be satisfied with a sneaky peek:

So yes, I haven’t blogged properly for a fortnight. I was knitting the shawl exclusively and it was taking a long time. Partly because it is a big shawl – I probably have enough yarn left over for one more pattern repeat, but it was taking about half an hour to do one row by the end, and I had had enough! – but mostly because I’ve been in something of a knitting fug. I even had days where I didn’t pick up any knitting at all! However, I did a lot of planning for future projects, as is evidenced by the number of patterns I’ve acquired over the past week:

The top one may look rather dull and uninteresting but that pattern, readers, is a symbol of achievement. It is a sweater pattern that Mr B declares that he likes. And furthermore, he will wear it if I knit it. It’s a simple, top down raglan in-the-round by Knitting Pure and Simple. Knit in chunky weight – another landmark for someone who previously went round fingering knitwear in the shops and saying he’d love something in “that thickness”. “That thickness” being somewhere between 2 and 4ply. Machine knitted, of course. Much as I am fond of him, I would rather have my fingernails prised off with hot teaspoons than knit a 52″ sweater in 4ply yarn. But this sweater, though it is plain and boring, will at least be appreciated.

Of course, the new issue of Knitty came out last week as well, and there are a gazillion patterns I want to knit from that. My favourite by far is Ivy. After the Arisaig saga ended so unsatisfactorily, I’m still yearning for a wrap cardi and though I’ve got my new pattern as seen above (4ply, so could use the frogged Arisaig yarn) and Lucky from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation (ditto), this one is calling to me. I might even buy the yarn used in the pattern.

Anyhow, I’ve got my spiral socks to finish first, so I really shouldn’t be plotting anything new. So of course, I’ve signed up for a Knitalong. Zimmermania is a knitalong “dedicated to exploring the “unventings” of Elizabeth Zimmermann, innovator, engineer, wisewoman, teacher, godmother of the craft…” I haven’t decided what I’m going to knit yet, but I’ve got two or three projects on my shortlist and all will be revealed in due course!

(Sorry Wormwood, by the way. Skippycat is definitely 100% male, no matter how pretty he is!)

Hello everyone. This ball winder looks a bit dusty, you know. I don’t think it’s been used for a while. My human slave has asked me to tell you that she is busy knitting something and will be back shortly with lots of lovely photos of stuff. As long as she’s not knitting anything for me, I’m happy.