Blue & White

Rarely have I swung from love, to hate, to love, to hate, to love with the frequency that I have with my most recent project. But neither have I been so surprised by how well something has blocked!

I'll confess I got a little bored with the edging, though that was mostly because I was anxious to crack on with the middle bit. The next version is likely to be a little more fun because, thanks to the amount of practice runs I did, I was bored of this yarn before I'd even cast on.

And if anyone was wondering a) what the benefits of blocking are; or b) why we were discussing sea slugs in work, I'd ask you to imagine this all bunched up on a circular needle:

For the record, this is now the second time I've been pleasantly surprised by Sirdar Country Style (4 ply this time). Though I tend to refer to almost all acrylic under the catch-all category "Nasty Acrylic", I think this one (with its 30% wool content) might be reclassified as an exception.

Minley

Third time lucky. Following some extensive testing, I was pretty sure I had my new pattern sorted. Cascade 220 has something of a reputation amongst my knitting group (okay, amongst me and my friend) as the why-would-I-try-anything-else yarn. And that's a well deserved reputation.

It comes in a stupefying range of colours that is guaranteed to make the most decisive yarn buyer hesitate. It's 100% wool, so it blocks wonderfully. It's reasonably priced and I've never had problems with knots or quality. If you've not tried Cascade 220, do yourself a favour and give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I'd initially ordered a nice dusky purple for my final (definitely, definitely final) draft of my scarf but it was out of stock. I was pleasantly pleased with the duck-egg blue I got instead and enjoyed giving the skeins a good squish before I got started. 

As I mentioned before, the pattern is quick and in next to no time I had my final, finished scarf. And after quite a lot of fighting and testing, it was finally the right shape, the right size and generally all-over right.

The scarf is modelled here by my colleague Elspeth in front of out lovely office atrium. The photo might have looked a little better had we not suffered a fire in the office (hence the weird plasterboard hoardings onto which we have drawn fish).

So all that was left was a name. With my other patterns, that has come along with the pattern itself and that was more or less the case with this scarf. 

There's a stately home called Minley Manor in Hampshire. It's a quite remarkable building that now serves as the officers' mess attached to Gibraltar Barracks. It's a warren of hallways and contradictory architectural choices but it is stunning. The wikipedia page has a photo that hardly does the beautiful, elegant building justice. The initial house has been added to over time and things don't always add up well but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And I like to think the same is true of my scarf. 

As with Minley-the-house, I started with an idea and then just added things until I was finished. I don't think I could have named it anything else.

Inspiration, Friend and Foe

Who knows where ideas come from? For me, the answer is occasionally yarn.

Quite some time ago (because this is a very belated post) someone brought some spare yarn into work. I know, spare yarn. The concept is strange to me too. I took away a couple of balls of Freedom Spirit in earthy browns. I'd seen it in my local yarn store a few times and the colours interested me. What interested me more was the 100% wool content. Mmmm blocktastic.

I think it was that which made my brain cry out: "LACE!". To which my more rational mind replied: "Worsted?" But my impulsive, ambitious mind continued to cry "LACE" despite my reason's best attempt to point out that I hate lace in variegated colours.

I think it's the fact that the balls were free that gave me the freedom to try things I wouldn't have attempted with yarn I'd purchased. It's not that I always buy expensive yarn, just that it's nice to have something out of the blue that I've not already planned something for. That and the 100% wool.

I've been fascinated by the idea of lace in worsted for some time so I enthusiastically dug out my stitch dictionaries. I was particularly drawn to a German one I bought in Loop last year and quickly found something I liked. The fight to get it into a pattern I loved was long and arduous and, as it turned out, fraught with failure.

I haven't posted pictures of the resultant scarf on Ravelry because, quite frankly, it would be a cruel and humiliating offence to a perfectly good yarn. Needless to say, I learned a lot from that experiment.

The bit I was least happy with was a weird knot/cable combination that could not have worked less if I had tried. The next version of the scarf was held up primarily by my attempts to refine a 8×6 section of the pattern just before the lace joined the short row section of the scarf. I must have tried two dozen variations before I returned to my stitch dictionaries and found something that worked. More than that, it perfectly blended the two sections together.

On a spontaneous trip to Cardiff I bought some luscious Rowan Creative Focus Worsted. Soft and lovely as the yarn is, the truly remarkable thing is the gorgeous range of colours it comes in. Being single ply it was a little splitty but nowhere near what I'd expected, it comes highly recommended.

The result was this:

(thanks to my sister for modelling it)

It was very close to right. But the short row section was still on too large a needle and the points curled irritatingly as soon as I wrapped it round anything. I returned briefly to my practicing but, fortunately, both these problems were easily solved. By casting on plenty of extra stitches then decreasing every row rather than the original every-other, the cast on edge gains the extra stretch it need to wrap more flexibly (with some very pointy points).

Now with added pointy

By this point, I didn't really feel like knitting it again but, fortunately, it's extremely quick to knit so I trawled Get Knitted for exactly the right shade of Cascade 220, cursed loudly when it was out of stock, then waited patiently to start draft number three. Which I will save for another post...

Unplanned Scenic Diversion

Okay, so I got a bit lost while walking in the peak district. But at least I had plenty of time to think while I tried to find my way back to the path. It turns out that navigating by a stream is only a good plan provided that there aren't four streams.

I took some yarn on holiday in the hopes of working out a couple of patterns that have been in my head for a while. It all seemed a bit boring though and, on my walk, something else started growing in my mind. There's an interesting border in one of my stitch books. It's a cable with an in-built fringe that has caught my eye a few times though I've never quite had a use for it.

I'm not sure whether it was the lovely, expansive surroundings or the chilly evenings in my tent with no big, drapey wrap for my shoulders but by the end of the holiday I knew what I wanted to make. It would be a crescent-ish shaped wrap/scarf, worked side-to-side with the fringe on the lower border. I deliberated a bit on what would go into the centre but I was fairly certain it would be something very open and not too same-y.

When I came home I started on a few prototypes. I began with my Chiminea lace and played around trying to get something a little more elongated that would flow better over the whole length of the scarf.

The colours are extreme, I know, but these are just prototypes. The large rectangular block shows the progression from the Chiminea pattern (just visible at the lower end) through some messy attempts at cable, through something that's a little promising, into a pattern that I'm actually happy with.

Then I had to work out how the increasing would work, that's up in the top right. This isn't the first attempt, it got ripped back three times before I was happy.

In the bottom left you'll see two versions of the braid/fringe, the left-most one is by the book but the one on the right is a lot stronger. The fringe is made by dropping stitches and cutting the loops but the by-the-book version is far too loose and I wouldn't trust it to hold together for long. The second version has a twisted stitch between the fringe and the pattern which really locks in the fringe.

The yellow triangle was an attempt to bring it all together but the cable is too narrow and the shape is all wrong.

The blue triangle that's still on the needles is attempt six (at least!) and is the product of a long team meeting. I  tried a lot of ways to start things off but I'm really happy with the final result. Happy enough that I've now cast on draft one of the real thing.

There was one section that I couldn't face prototyping: how to get from the end of the blue triangle to the start of the blue.... trapezium? So instead I just went for it. And that seemed like a good plan until I got to row 55 last night and realised that I'd gone very wrong and had forgotten two stitches entirely from my pattern. That'll teach me to be patient with my prototypes.

Improvisation

It's been a while since I tried to work out something completely new in my knitting. Oh, there have been scarves, but I know a lot of different techniques for scarves and its fairly hard to go too far wrong. Hard, but yet somehow I manage it.

Since I finished the latest Twirly Skirt, I've been at a bit of a loss for bus projects. My criteria for bus projects is: short/circular needles; yarn in balls; and rows I can stop at any point. Generally, I've also looked for simple things, either stuff I've made before or basic patterns. For some reason, it had never occurred to me to use bus time for the sort of knitting experimentation that I never seem to get round to at home.

Months ago, I bought several balls of 4 ply with crazy, ambitious but vague plans of working out how to knit a person. It's something I've had in mind for a while but never quite started. Yes, I know there are countless doll/amiguri/person patterns out there but I want one that's mine. Something that's flexible enough to use for any number of different things.

Not a headless zombie. Really.

Turns out, feet are hard. Really hard. It took me three days of bus journeys to be happy with what I had for the feet but, since then, it's gone rather well. The hands have come out a lot better than I'd expected, thanks to my car share partner who suggested mitten hands. They look rubbish in the picture but will be better when finished off. And even better when I make a second copy of this thing and actually get them to the same size!

I'm trying to minimise the sewing up (the worst part of making toys) and it's been worked in one piece so far. I'm particularly happy with the joins on the ankles and wrists because, not only does it remove the need for sewing up, but it also looks like cuffs. I have used a seam up the backs of the legs and undersides of arms but that may change in draft two.

On Sunday I started on the head and I think that's going to take even more attempts than the feet. What shape are heads, anyway? But the fact that it's come this far in a couple of weeks is really reassuring. It's even got pipe cleaners in it so the figure can be posed a bit and the soles of the feet are felt rather than knitted so there's a chance it might be able to stand - something else I'd really hoped to work out.

I guess the true reason why I'm making this pattern up, rather than using an existing one, is simple: Where else am I going to find something that is customisable; 4 ply; small; one-piece; poseable; and has a chance of standing up?

Me? Demanding? Never.

0 - 60

This is not the post I was intending to make this weekend. I had planned to ramble a little about my new bus project (which I'm very much enjoying) or maybe, just maybe, to be feeling triumphal about finishing Winterthorn 3. As it turns out, the poor hat hasn't moved in over a week.

My weekend began with below-zero DIY with my parents. Recommended dress code for below-zero DIY is: Socks, slippers (knitted), walking boots, jeans, long sleeved top, roll-neck jumper, multi-purpose cowl-thing, hoodie, hats × 2, gloves (fingers), gloves (fingerless) and big jacket with built-in fleece. Not exactly attractive but very warm.

After my parents rescued me from bits of my house getting detached by coastal winds, they popped into the local garden centre where they found a new bird feeder and an unexpected wool shop. By this point it was not only snowing but the snow was beginning to settle on the ground but there was no way I was going to miss out on a new source of yarn only three minutes from my house!

There are a lot of things I like about where I live and I can't really complain about a town that has four different shops that sell wool, at least not justifiably. Unfortunately they all cater to a certain type of knitter. Perhaps because Burnham is pretty much a retirement community, Rico CanCan is about as ground-breaking as you're likely to get.

Well, things have changed now! Once I got to the garden centre (through crunchy snow!) I found Manos del Uruguay, Debbie Bliss, Lousia Harding, Rowan, Rico (more than CanCan!) and many other brands that I've long wished I didn't have to drive to Bristol for. The shop is being run from December to March by http://www.andeeknits.co.uk/ and, if there's a suitable space, they may move out of the glorified tent they're in now and move into the larger (and warmer) main building.

I tried to keep in mind my recent splurges on http://www.nimuyarns.co.uk/ and at Get Knitted so I was very restrained and bought a single skein of Manos Wool Clasica in a fabulous riot of rich colours and some interesting super-fine mohair from Italy that I've never come across before.  I'm planning to keep the mohair for my Chiminea pattern and try knitting it with two strands together. If that works then it should also work with Rowan kidsilk haze.

So. The mohair was sorted but what to do with the Manos clasica? I'd dithered a lot about exactly which Manos to buy and I almost fell for some stunning cranberry-coloured laceweight but I've been doing so much 4 ply lately that something in my brain snapped and demanded some substantial big, fat wool.

Although it's listed on Ravelry as aran I'm certain it must be chunky. It's single ply, rather thick-and-thin, 100% wool and utterly lovely.

There's something about Manos del Uruguay - probably seeing the hand-written name of the woman that dyed this beautiful masterpiece - that demands you do something special with this yarn. You owe it to them to make something worthy of it, something that you're really proud of.

So. Something beautiful. Something I'll actually wear/use. Something a bit different. And something I can make with one skein. I'll be honest, I truly expected this to sit in my spare room for several months until I found something on Ravelry that felt right.

My normal knitting process goes something like:

1. Buy beautiful yarn
2. Come up with a plan
3. Test to see if plan works
4. Knit it

Normally there's an extremely long gap between one and two. Steps two and three get repeated a LOT. But for some reason the Wool Clasica hotwired my brain and I went from one to four, via two and three, in about half an hour.

By the time I got home I was pretty sure it was going to be a little scarf. It's been cold in the office a lot lately and I feel like an idiot wandering round in a full-size scarf. Plus, being nearly chunky, it would knit up quickly. But that means nothing complex so how could I make it interesting? Edgings have been in my brain a lot lately and there's something I want to try that has involved stripping out the tiny mini pom-poms out of some Sirdar Snowdrop but that's another story.

I was thinking about fringes for a while but I only had the one skein and fringes can go a bit rubbish, especially if there's any risk of them felting a little with body heat.

Five minutes after I got home I was struck by an idea but I assumed it wouldn't possibly work in real life so I tested it. And it worked. It worked so very well.

It's a sort of spiral-y cast-off that I figured would go well along the cast-off edge. Though working it on every stitch looked a bit busy so I tested it on alternate stitches and I liked it even more.

All that was left was to trawl my stitch dictionaries for something that was pretty but simple enough for me to work out the repeats along with rapid increases. Plus it had to not use a huge amount of yarn as I only had 126m to work with. I tried a rather boring rib variation then something described as "Knotted Openwork". The effect is very similar to an open, latticey star stitch, something I didn't really notice until I started on the Manos.

Within half an hour I had started on the scarf and, though I had to rip it back once and accidentally stayed up to midnight, it was about 60% done by the time I went to bed. This morning I slept in late but still had it finished by midday.

I'm not sure I've ever gone from buying a random skein, to having something planned, knitting it and getting it all pinned out for blocking within 24 hours. As much as I would've liked to get a little further with my hat, I think this might have been more rewarding. I'm pretty proud of both the result and my half hour of high-velocity inspiration.

A Little More Fascinating

Today's knitting has consisted entirely of Winterthorn 3 but I have been able to get some passable photos and do some felting.

A couple of days ago I got round to casting off prototype 2 of the fascinator. The main aim of prototype (or proof of concept?) 2 was to get the size sorted and - as soon as I'd cast off - it was very clear that it was all it would do. Because it's square. And it's not meant to be square.


This is a fascinator. Really. Trust me.


I once made a scarf where I entirely failed to understand the geometry of what I'd made. I wanted long, pointy triangles yet somehow I was very surprised when I ended up with some very odd, right-angle-y triangles. That really should have taught me to at least think about where my increases would be.

Still, all that matters is that I can check the size. I have a whole other ball to get the shape right. And, once an entirely pointless load of washing was done, it didn't look too bad.

I did try twisting it round into a few different shapes but this was the most promising. Promising yet square.

Unfortunately the little curl is a bit too small to fit the contrasting bit I've already knit but that's because it's actually ridiculously big. I think I'll be trying to make up another load to felt a new contrasting curl for the centre.

Where would I be without T pins?

It's now blocking in a desperate attempt to stretch if from a square into something a little more fascinator-shaped.

I'm quite looking forward to decorating it with some of that weird netting and beads to see if I can make it remotely attractive. I'm not certain that any amount of decorating will disguise the fact that it is a) square and b) boring grey. But I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Inspiration on the Park & Ride

This is how I now view the internet:

This post contains two important lessons of the week:
1) I really never stop thinking about knitting
2) Everything looks better in my head

The bus company has clearly been having a rubbish week. The buses have been full and late and generally a bit rubbish. This has been my excuse for - when I finally get on a bus - just switching off and not doing any knitting. Any rumour that this is because my current bus project is the damned frog is entirely unfounded. Maybe partially unfounded. Okay, entirely founded.

Anyway, yesterday I actually got a seat and found myself staring at a rather interesting scarf. It was woven rather than knitted but the way the threads intertwined fascinated me. I've been thinking about something with dropped stitches for a while and all of a sudden I could picture a pseudo-checkered scarf with woven bits.

When I got home I waited only long enough to eat dinner and notice that the first series of Sherlock had arrived from Amazon. Then it was to hell with Winterthorn V3! To hell with my fascinator, my rainbow scarf and my sizergh scarf! It was time to try weaving dropped stitches!

About ten minutes into the first episode of Sherlock, it was obvious that it wasn't really working. By the time Watson was meeting with Mycroft I knew I needed a new plan.

See the woven sections? No? That's cause they're rubbish.

By the time I started the second episode I had an interesting but rather unoriginal-looking pattern that might actually work. Photos will probably follow on the weekend when I can get some decent light.

Am I the only one seeing little wheat sheaves?

So, the reason I was composing scarves on the bus? http://www.nimuyarns.co.uk/ and their flash sale on Friday that enticed me into breathtakingly beautiful yarn at 20% off. I managed to limit myself to two skeins: Torva and Aira (again, pictures to come on the weekend). I've found a pattern for the Torva but the Aira has such a stunning sheen and subtle colours that I want something a bit different to show it off.

Torva

Aira

Although it might not be the intricate woven plan I made on the bus, I think the new drop-stich sample might just work in the Torva. The more I think about it, the more I think that the woven idea might be fantastic in two colours. The only thing letting it down is the fact that the woven sections are so tightly packed that it's hard to distinguish them from the moss-stitch sections. There's something in it, I'm just not sure what.

See the woven sections now?

And the Torva? Well, if I can bring myself to wind that vivid blue skein into a ball, it's going to be my next bus project.

Frogs? What frogs?

Not so fascinating

Today has been a day of knitting. I was absolutely intent on finishing Winterthorn 2 today and I have (thank you 4OD!). It's currently in the airing cupboard, stuffed with a towel. After reading some of the Ravelry comments on the lamented Zauberball I was getting paranoid about the dye running during blocking. There's nothing like delicious vanilla-cream coloured wool to bring out paranoid visions of bleeding dye. The water went a little brown but nothing more than I'd expect and I can already tell how much the drape is going to be improved by blocking. Unless I can distract myself tomorrow I think I'll be checking it hourly to see if it's dry and ready to wear! Then I just need to find a hat model for some photos.

Once the hat was finished I decided to take a shot at my fascinator on the basis that I needed to do some washing and I might as well do felting at the same time. I diligently wrote down all my rows and convinced myself that the rather odd shape might just about work if I stretched it in certain ways.



Could this look less like a fascinator?
Probably not

 Oh how wrong I was. I might get a photo of it tomorrow because the resulting felted.... thing is quite remarkable in its un-fascinator-ness. I soaked it. Twisted it. Turned it. Squished it. Folded it. But there's no way that charcoal-grey squiggle anemone is ever going to be a fascinator.

Well, I've learned some valuable lessons from it and I've got enough wool for another couple of attempts and I guess that's all that matters. On the plus side, the Fez looks amazing felted. If I can get something I'm even halfway happy with then it's going to look great. But judging by the first draft, halfway happy is still a long way off!

While the monstrosity was felting, I started sewing up Lilly the Frog for the Marine Cove community garden knitting. I've been knitting the various bits on the bus this week and I've got enough limbs, eyes and other boy parts to make up at least two. The pattern is not exactly professional standard but it gets the job done, which is all that matters and it's been exactly the quick and simple project that I've needed for dopey January mornings.

I've put off the sewing up and stuffing phase because it's not quite so bus-suitable and now I have to ask: how the hell do people knit toys for fun?! These things take longer to sew together than they did to knit in the first place! If I wanted to be doing this much sewing I'd be doing my quilting! I guess I hadn't noticed just how much stuff I do in the round now. Sewing up mini stockings for the Christmas sale seemed frustratingly time consuming and they only have two pieces. The frogs have eleven!

I know it's for a good cause and - hey, I volunteered, I've no right to complain - but I'm starting to fantasise about the seamless, mindless twirly skirt I should probably be cracking on with. Any project with a 99:1 knitting:sewing ratio is a win in my books.

Slow progress

Knitting the first Winterthorn over Christmas seemed pretty quick. When you're doing nothing except watching animated family films and eating chocolate oranges I guess time flies. Now that I'm back at work and managing just a row or two per day, the second Winterthorn suddenly feels like very slow going. I must be over half way though as I've reached the section that's pale blue on the chart.

What's surprising me most is that I'm still really enjoying knitting this. The fact that it's not a repeating pattern means that it doesn't get boring, even if I can't get a lot done. Plus the beautiful colour shifts are looking fantastic.

The Zauberball hasn't got any thicker though, if anything it's actually getting thinner. As much as I love the squishy sublime, I couldn't have chosen a worse companion for the orange, they're about as different as two yarns allegedly of the same weight could possibly be.

Nonetheless, I just can't wait to wear this. Fun as my crazy sparkly hat is, I know I'm going to love this hat. Plus I'm pretty certain that the size is going to to be spot on - slouchy but snug.

Fascinating

Near work there's a sort of popup gallery. From what I can gather, it seems to be an empty shop that is let to artists right in the centre of Bristol. Aside from being a fantastic and inspiring idea in itself, the current exhibitors seem to have several fascinators in the window. I didn't look closely but they're eyecatching splashes of colour formed on quilted silky fabric.

I did a little hand felting before Christmas and it was enough to remind me of two things: 1) I love the effect of felted knitting, 2) I suck at felting. I've never managed to make things the right size when they're machine felted and I've never really been happy with the results of stuff I've tried. The other thing that's been on my mind lately is that I need to get better at colours, that was one of the motivations behind my Winterthorn projects.

As I looked at the shape of the fascinators in the shop window I knew I HAD to try to make a felted fascinator. Preferably in some exotic colour combination that I'd never normally look at. Once the idea was in my head, I couldn't get rid of it.

I'm trying to avoid going and buying yarn every time I get an idea for something I want to make. I'm sure that bad habit is responsible for at least 30% of my epic stash. In the back of my mind I'd been thinking Cascade 220 because you just can't beat those colours and I know it felts well. However, it's post-Christmas and that means sales. And I needed petrol and that means Cribbs Causeway. Sales + Cribbs Causeway + felting = John Lewis.

There wasn't a huge amount but I did buy three balls of Debbie Bliss Fez. The fact that it's merino and camel is just an irresistible combination. Unfortunately I've caved on the crazy colour combinations (at least for now) because the two I liked best were a charcoal grey/black and a light grey. Oh well, crazy colours can come later, the shape is the important thing for now.

So, despite really wanting to get my Winterthorn 2 finished, and very much hoping to get the Sizergh scarf moved on, I've started messing around with some shapes to felt. Of course, once I have something, I'm going to have to find several loads of washing to do at 40. And one of those combs for sticking a fascinator into hair.

Next hat, same as the first, a little bit smaller and a little bit.... less stripey?

Me: Look, I finished the hat
Sister: Wow, it looks great!
Me: Well, it's quite a bit bigger than I'd planned. I'm going to do another one on smaller needles.
Sister: No! It's perfect! Look, it fits me really well!
Me: Um... well you can have it if you want. On the condition that I can take lots of photos of you wearing it.

She was right, it really does suit her:

And that's why I have lots of photos of my sister wearing her new hat, which she loves! Quote: "It keeps my head warm and it doesn't give me hat hair". So I think that's a win!

Even so, I've started version two on 3.25mm needles as I want a hat for myself that is slouchy but not quite so big. If that doesn't work then I'll just do another blue one for myself with less rib and hope it sticks on my head as well as it does on my sister's.

The wool for the new hat came from Get Knitted last Friday where I spent far too much money on some amazingly soft Sublime 4ply (on sale!), some lovely stripey Zauberball and lots of sets of DPNs that I needed. Yes, needed.

I fell for the Zauberball because of the fantastic colour but I'll admit that I'm already having some doubts. For a start, how is this possibly 4ply? I was avoiding using some Jawoll Magic because it's 3ply and I'm sure that the Zauberball is no bigger. Plus I've become paranoid after reading the comments on Ravelry about splitting, knots and sudden colour changes. Nonetheless I've started the hat and, if anything, I'm a little surprised that the colour changes are so gradual. It's what I was looking for and I think it'll be fine for the main body of the hat but the border is looking pretty boring in all one colour. I think I'd probably try striping the border section from the inside and outside of a ball if I was going to do another in self-striping.

It's looking great so far and I'm forcing myself to go more slowly and take more care over my stranding and it's paying off. But the best thing so far is the lovely soft, squishy feel to the Sublime 4ply. I want to go back and buy the lot while it's on sale!

The other thing I bought at Get Knitted was some impossibly white alpaca silk from Blue Sky Alpacas. That's earmarked for my Sizergh scarf if, if and when this hat is done. I feel a lot happier now I've bought something suitably soft, my hand-spun just wasn't working out right unfortunately.

Now, if only one of those two projects was remotely suitable for bus-knitting...

A lesson in trusting my instincts

 

3.25 mm



3.5mm.
I have no excuse for the stripes

Well, the hat is finished. It was supposed to be a slouchy hat but a whole new word needs to be invented for just how big this hat is. Oh well. My initial test piece was 3.25mm and I should have known to stick with that. It's not that it doesn't fit, more that it looks a bit of a joke because I can fit my whole head inside and pull it right down to my chin!




New lesson:
My tension is incredibly
different on circular needles.



The hat is currently drying/blocking so hopefully I can get some photos tomorrow and start the process of convincing myself that it's not as bad as all that. In the mean time I've started another draft of the hat on 3.25mm needles. It's also a good excuse to try it out with a self-striping sock yarn, I'm sure I must have something suitable in the Big Box of Yarn, otherwise I'll be talking myself into a trip to Get Knitted on Saturday.

 

I've also started something that I've had in mind for a while, using Nimu Yarn's Sizergh yarn. Either this is going to be a super-effective scarf or I'm going to hate myself for wasting such stunning yarn. The skein I have is a breathtakingly beautiful midnight blue with tiny splashes of colours. It's shimmery and soft and fabulous. The pattern needs something contrasting but it's hard to imagine anything worthy of being used with the Sizergh. The best I could do is spin some lovely soft Blue Faced Leicester. I'm out of practice so it's rather inconsistent (no, it's textured - as my teacher would say) but hopefully it should be a good contrast. Not sure how much I'm going to love this though, it's going to have ends to sew in and already I know that it looked far better in my head!

Get dressed you merry gentlemen!

I love days when I have absolutely no plans so I've been very much looking forward to today. About the only thing I needed to achieve today was, ideally, making mince pies to distribute in place of Christmas cards. Well, I procrastinated for a while but eventually ended up listening to the Cabin Pressure Christmas special while making these:
 

Excessive pies mark the official start of Christmas



I heard the Christmas episode of Cabin Pressure last year. I remembered that it was funny but I'd forgotten just how funny. There are a lot of things I find amusing but Cabin Pressure makes me laugh out loud. Frequently and at significant volume.

I was particularly happy to hear at the end of the episode that they'll be broadcasting the first series from next week because I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't warm to it at first and I've only heard some of the more recent episodes. I don't really have any excuse except that I didn't give it the time it deserved at first because I thought that it might be too much situation and not enough comedy. Once again: idiot.

The Christmas special was the perfect example of properly funny jokes balanced by the interesting relationships between the characters. I think it's this that makes Cabin Pressure so great: the characters are more than just a method of getting jokes across, they feel like people you might very well know from your office. Or possibly eccentric members of your extended family. I was going to say "except maybe Arthur" but then I remembered a colleague, a nice girl but she had more in common with Arthur than any real person should.

Though I'm not really in a position to comment, today I was entirely empathising with Arthur and his overwhelming love of Christmas. As someone who has constructed decorations for her office out of garden canes, tacking thread and paper snowflakes made from old application forms, I think that an umbrella decorated with milk pots sounded pretty amazing.

Considering some of the more bleak Christmas radio (I'm looking at you, The Holly and the Ivy) it was fantastic to have something so decidedly pro-festive-spirit to listen to while making endless mince pies. Thank you John Finnemore, you genius, and thank you 4Extra for broadcasting it this week.


sucky stripes



Anyway, about the only other thing I've managed to achieve today is a test knit panel for my hat. Charting it actually proved to be easier than I thought but what's really giving me trouble now is colours. The default blue for 4ply is a boring powder blue and it's cramping my stripes. I suck at colour at the best of times and this is not the best of times. Plus the panel has turned out waaaay to small so I'll be knitting another, with bigger needles. And possibly more adventurous stripes now that I have caved in and bought another ball of wool. Unfortunately, it's a oddly bright turquoise that I'd never normally touch but I can't shake the idea that I can somehow make it work.

Also, I'm beginning to wonder if the calm, plant-y design in my head might not actually be a bit sinister and thorny now it's approaching reality.

I think I may like it better that way.



I dream in hats

Well, okay, I don't dream in hats. That would be unusual and probably unpleasant. But I woke up yesterday with a fully formed hat in my head, right down to the colour combinations. Normally when I get attacked by pattern ideas I just draw a clumsy sketch in notebook and plan to come back later but I made the critical mistake of going to the shops yesterday. So now I have the wool (five balls) and a really clear picture in my head of what I'm planning but no actual idea of how to make the hat.

The main problem is: it's 4-ply. I got bored/annoyed enough at a double knit hat but 4-ply? I'm going to go crazy. Also, I've recently decided that hats don't really suit me, or at least the sort that are head-shaped don't. So I'm aiming for a slouchy, 4-ply, tam-ish-but-not-too-flat, colourwork hat. Urgh I'm going to regret this so very much.

But there's something about this challenge that I think will keep me nicely occupied over Christmas. The main challenge is that I've never made a hat in anything like this spec before so charting it is going to be an absolute bugger. In an ideal world I'd make one all in white, draw all over it with marker pens and see what comes out of it. Short of that I've no idea how to work it through properly because it's going to have a non-repeating pattern. Which is going to make it a bugger to fit into a PDF too.

The reason I know this is going to be worth doing is that I know I'm going to hate knitting it but I still can't stop planning it. Although I woke up with it in mind, it's actually the culmination of several ideas I've been considering for a while, I just hope it's going to look as good in real life as it does in my mind's eye. What I'm aiming for is something calm and plant/glass panel-ish. Sort of like what sleeping beauty's conservatory might have looked like after a ten years or so. Wow, that's going to make for a lame name.

Now, time to get some 2.5mm circulars