The decorating has taken a brief rest, only for the living room floor to now look like this:

which is the fallout from the three Lego sets that smallest person was given for his birthday from various people and he is now putting together. Lego Indiana Jones is apparently assisting the Lego Agents to fight some unnamed Bad Person.

In the meantime, I’m progressing nicely with the Beth scarf I’m knitting for my Grandma’s Christmas present. The pattern is only four rows and it’s easy to get into the rhythm of it and knit a few inches of an evening. For a change of pace, I unpicked the provisional cast on and knitted the first border. The scarf is looking really pretty now, and it’s an enjoyable knit.

And the yarn is really lovely. It’s not shedding, spit-splices easily and just goes on and on and on..! The lightness of the angora means that you get a lot of metres for your money. I might actually not finish the second ball right up. My Grandma is 5′1″ tall and I don’t think she needs a scarf that hangs around her knees!

Add together an army of Dalek cookies…

…a plate of caramel crispy cakes made with melted Mars bars…

…and Malteser flavour cake covered with Maltesters, and you have sixteen happy children, sent home to their parents full of sugar.

(All recipes from Feast by Nigella Lawson)

Back in the summer-that-never-was, Erssie asked me if I knew of anyone who could knit a sock sample, and somehow I ended up volunteering myself. Time constraints meant that I could only manage one, but I finished, sent it off, and have been waiting ever since to see it in all its glory.

Photo: Stevie Savage/Raid Zero

The pattern is now available here on The Anitcraft website. It’s a brilliant pattern: the stranding is only on the legs, so it’s not too tricky if you’ve never knitted stranded socks before. I’m planning on knitting a pair next time. Even if I never wear skirts to show them off to the world, secretly I’ll know that I have skeletons dancing around my legs…

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A Clark, first published in Interweave Knits Fall 2006, and now available for free from her website
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% Superwash in “Vergißmeinnicht”, 108g – got to love the generous size of the Wollmeise skeins!
Needles: 4mm Prym circs

I had resisted the lure of the Swallowtail pattern for some time. I’d admired Diane’s for a while, but with plenty of other shawls to knit it wasn’t high on my list. Then Kay and Kai finished theirs in quick succession and I suddenly got a real urge for nupps.

This shawl is made extra special by the yarn I used – the one skein of Wollmeise that I bought before everyone went loopy over it and now you can’t get a skein unless you have ninja website stalking skills. Which I am too lazy to try to attempt. This skein has been sitting in my stash for a year, with the occasional petting, waiting to be used. I realise that I could have probably sold it for a stupid amount of money on eBay, but I can’t help feeling that yarn is meant to be knitted and enjoyed, rather than hoarded just so that I can say I have a skein of rare yarn. Anyway, being made into a shawl means that the yarn will be seen and have a lot longer life than if it was worn on the feet. Sadly, the colours just don’t photograph well. The yarn is a blend of blues and teals, but it looks almost solid in the photos. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say that it is shimmery and jewel-like.

The pattern was the usual Evelyn Clark masterpiece. Beautifully written and clear and not a head scratching moment to be had. And a quick knit, easily completed in four days. Like Kay, I don’t see why a new lace knitter couldn’t knit this shawl. The only really tricky manoeuvre is the p5tog for the nupps, and that’s not hard, just fiddly. I found using a 2mm needle to purl the stitches together worked best for me.

I really like the size of this shawl and think it’s very wearable, though this one is destined to be a Christmas present. Does anyone have any recommendations (other than Icarus, which I already have my eye on) for triangular shawls of a similar size? I could knit smaller versions of patterns such as Forest Canopy or Matilda or Flower Basket, but I like the different pattern elements in Swallowtail. Maybe I need to sit down and see if my designing mojo can help me with this one…

Pattern: Whitney’s 70s Ski Hat by Whitney Van Nes
Yarn: Cygnet Wool Rich Aran (75% British wool, 25% polyamide) in Dark Grey #44 and Black #2066
Needles: US8 Denise Interchangeables

Finally got Mr B to do a modelling session. The pattern is perfect, not least because the end result is a hat that he will wear once the weather gets colder.

I modified the pattern somewhat, as I mentioned in a previous post. The lining was reduced to just a hem and my tension was looser to accommodate a bigger head. The striping was reduced to just a couple of black stripes and the whole effect is a little less festive than the original design, but more suited to someone who is very picky about their headgear.

The yarn I used is brilliant. It’s only a basic wool/nylon blend, but it is incredibly soft and knits up beautifully. The nylon content means it is hardwearing and machine washable too. For the price, it’s a real find. I’m planning maybe a manly jacket in the same grey now… *plots*

No photos today. I have finished projects to share, but as every movement I make is followed by a cloud of dust, I’m not taking a risk and getting my knitting out! This time last year, we were in the middle of redecorating downstairs, and a year later it’s almost as bad all over again. Add to that water dripping through the ceiling on Sunday night due to a broken pipe, meaning that half the floorbaords are up while it gets fixed, means that Gypsy Towers is not the most relaxing place to be at the moment.

Though on the plus-side, we now have lovely smooth walls – and it’s truly amazing how much pleasure a person can get from a perfectly flat wall..! But I’ll be painting for hours on end yet again once the plaster is dry, so knitting just has to wait. Today’s excitement includes shampooing the carpet. I can’t wait…

The hats just keep getting bigger and bigger..!

Now, Mr B loves his socks as I’ve mentioned several times before. But that’s where his love of handknits ends, pretty much. I have offered to make him hats in the past, but he’s wanted them to be black and 4ply (fingering) weight yarn and very, very plain. I did once actually haggle him up to aran weight with cables, though still black, and ended up with a lovely hat which he wore once and then got it mixed up with the rest of the washing so it ended up being felted.

Since I am on a hat knitting kick, I thought I’d ask again. His main problem is that he doesn’t want a beanie shape, which is pretty much 99% of all manly hat patterns. I suggested a few patterns, but all were deemed too much like a beanie. He has a dread of looking like Benny from Crossroads: that man singlehandedly ruined a hat style for an entire generation of British men. You’d think after 20 years that it wouldn’t be a concern, though.

Anyway, in despair, I handed Mr B a sheet of paper and told him to draw the shape he wanted. So he did.

Using these (not very) informative sketches as a guide, I went on Ravelry. After searching through the two pages of patterns tagged with “men” gave no results, I took a deep breath and began to search through every. hat. pattern. Finally, after calling him over half a dozen times to see a potential hat, this one made Mr B do a happy, hat-finding dance around the room and the Quest for the Perfect Hat was over.

I’m not knitting the pattern quite as it’s written. My tension is looser to allow for a bigger head (!), and I’m not faffing about with knitting the lining, but just doing a small fold over hem instead.

See! It’s not black! Mr B agreed not to have a black hat, as long as there was a “bit” of black on the hat. Truth is, he has very dark brown/black hair, so wearing a black hat just makes him look like he’s got a really strange hairstyle. So I opted for charcoal grey (and black for the stripes) Cygnet Wool Rich Aran, which is very much like sock yarn only thicker, in that it’s 75% wool, 25% nylon. Being machine washable and moderately tough, I won’t worry about the finished hat being stuffed in a coat pocket after being used to clean the car windscreen…

…although these hats are a little bigger than the last lot!

Pattern: Basic Hat Pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd
Yarn: Oddments of DK: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino, Sirdar Countrystyle DK and other stuff that I have I no idea about
Needles: 3.25mm and 3.75mm circs

Unsurprisingly, the small people chose the colours for their new winter hats whilst I was knitting the Innocent Hats. They’re pretty much identical to last year’s versions: I used the same number of stitches, same yarn weight, and so on. I even used the same fold over hem as before, because I love the way it looks.

The only fly in the ointment was the stripes. Knitting them in the round means the dreaded “jog” when you change colours. I have tried a lot of different methods, but I’m still not entirely happy with the finished look of the back. Almost makes me wish I’d knit them flat and tried an invisible seam.

I’m hoping that blocking (yes, the knitting on this page is unblocked! Drama!!) will help even out the larger stitches. I will report back!

I am trying to find a way to write this post without breaking my self-imposed rule about no festive knitting til November. But it seems ages since I had some yarn pr0n to share, so bum to that!

I’d been thinking what to make my Grandma for Christmas. She loves the Bertie scarf I made her a couple of Christmases ago, so I thought another snuggly scarf would be perfect. I have a few suitable patterns in my queue, and I was almost going to knit her a Lily of the Valley Estonian Lace Scarf but then Diane published her Beth pattern and like the fickle person I am, it was a case of must! knit! that! scarf! now!

I could have used some stash yarn, of course. But I wanted something soft and slightly fuzzy in a solid, Grandma-suitable colour. As I was sure nothing in my stash would do, I bought this:

Two balls of Angora 50 in sage green from The Little Knitting Company. It’s 50% angora, 30% wool and 20% nylon. The yarn is perfect as it has the softness and slight fuzz from the angora, but is a bit more substantial than pure angora yarns. The colour is nicely muted, too. Not that someone over eighty *can’t* wear shocking pink and luminous green, but I think my grandma is not the sort of person that *would* wear those colours. And the best part? It cost a measly £1.95 per 115m ball. No, the even better part was that the service from TLKC was brilliant. I ordered the yarn yesterday, got a phone call from Ruth in the afternoon to apologise that she had missed the post for it to be sent Recorded and did I want it just sent regular first class, which I said was fine so she refunded the difference!

Now all I have to do is knit it..! Can anyone tell me how to make a 36 hour day?

Well, my version of a spree, anyway. Most excitingly, I bought a new pair of jeans today, and discovered that I have “officially” gone done two clothing sizes since May. I thought I might need a smaller pair as the ones I have I can put on without undoing the button and I can’t bend over suddenly or I flash my undies to the world, so it’s nice to find that I am indeed a size smaller!

In knitting related shopping, I found a new sock project bag in Superdrug of all places.

It comes in white with either pink or purple stars (obviously I got the purple stars!) and cost a completely bargainous £1.99. It’s polyester/cotton with a waterproof lining which sounds like it has to be useful, though I can’t think of an immediate need for it in relation to my knitting… handy if I drop it in a river by mistake, perhaps.

It’s just the right size for any small project, not just socks, such as a shawl (if you use circs). Coordinating the yarn with the bag is probably not a requirement!

Now excuse me while I go off and prance about in my new SMALLER jeans!