Wool For Brains

It has been a remarkably poor summer, grey, wet and miserable. The last couple of days have been the exception, blue skies, sunshine, gentle breezes. It has been a reminder of what we have missed this year. On Friday afternoon the dog and I had a pleasant hour at the allotment and after that I went back to spinning. I spun past the time for picking up from school, I spun through what should have been the swimming lesson and then I hung the finished yarn out in the sun to dry. LisaH got right to the point in the comments with the question of how long I was boy free for. I waved him off at the school gate on Friday and he’s coming back sometime this afternoon (Sunday). Since he was born I’ve spent two nights away from him so this weekend I’m doubling that up to four.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures release

This is corriedale, the two plies are from different rovings but they are very similar because I used the same dyes on both. The one on the right in the photo above is slightly darker than the one on the left with more of that fruity red wine shade in it. It’s intended to be sock yarn (no surprises there then) and there’s 392 yards in the two skeins. I must admit that it’s not finished to the colour I was expecting, it’s a dark rose rather than the light pink that I’d seen in the roving. It isn’t the scary electric pink that my monitor is showing me, my camera seems to have the same issues with pink that it has with red.

It is almost exactly the same colour as that in the new Tsock Flock Club sock (shown on the left). This is very definitely rose pink because its the yarn for the Lancastrian sock in the pair. I’m afraid that I don’t have much of a sock to show because this was the point last night when I succumbed to the wine. You will see that the lighting has failed again, that’s because it’s raining this morning. It was nice while it lasted.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures divx

It’s been a funny sort of week, instead of daydreaming about wool and what wheel I’d buy with my imaginary premium bond win I’ve been concentrating on the up and coming school trip. All the clothing he needed was either lost or outgrown so it’s been a week of shopping for wellies and waterproof jackets. He’s all packed up and gone now so whatever he’s gone without he’ll have to do without. I did take a decision on sun hat and suncream, after all it is October next week and they’ll be lucky to see the sun never mind see too much of it.

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland full

The third sock in the Tsock Flock club came this week, more on that when I take it out of its dog proof hiding place and cast on. What I did immediately wind and knit was the second instalment of the Tsuspense project that came with it. Last time we were left with something that looked a bit like a toe but I didn’t think that it was because some of the triangular detail would have gone under the foot. With the magic of short row shaping the triangle of reverse stockinette has now become a diamond gusset and turned into something that looks very like a heel. I did wonder whether the crescent moons I’d knitted were marmalade skies to go with the diamonds but that wouldn’t have explained why the heel was red. I imagine that the next instalment will include some decreasing, maybe in yellow if we’re going for a rainbow. For the moment I’m only knitting the one, when I get to the line “make another the same” then I will. It’s not often I do exactly what I’m told rather than reading ahead and fiddling with things but with this it’s not as if I have any choice.

A Life Less Ordinary release

The dog has been out for a long walk this morning (not that long really but he’s only got little legs so it’s all relative) and had a bath to sluice off the mud. He’s set for a three hour snooze now so I have an appointment with my wheel and some pink fibre. I should be making spiced apple chutney but my analysis is that I will get more done in the day by spinning now because I can make the chutney later while the yarn is drying. “Making the best use of my time” is a more convincing justification than “because I’ve spent all week running around and I want a quiet hour”

What went wrong? I’ve made gloves before but never gloves with two colour fingers. I now know that I can do stranded knitting on four needles on a stupidly small number of stitches but it’s not much fun. I couldn’t get past the fact that when I’d finished this finger there was the prospect of seven more and two thumbs. It just wasn’t going to happen. What sealed it for the glove was when I turned it over and found a mistake on the palm. There may be more than one, once the first one had hit me in the face I stopped looking at it any more. It would have looked better when blocked, the floats would have evened out and it would have been altogether smoother. I could also have dropped a stitch down as far as my oopsie on the palm and laddered it back up in the right colour. There was still no getting past all that finger knitting though.

Enemy Mine film The Tailor of Panama film Wicked Lake release

In the interests of full disclosure let me say that not only does my glove still have no fingers, it now has no back, palm or thumb gusset. I’m sad about the thumb gusset, it was a thing of beauty and perfect. Just looking at it pleased me greatly. I shall not mourn it because mittens have thumb gussets too and there are lots of mitten patterns in the book. My knitting has not been a waste of time because I have learned that my life is too short for charted fingers.

• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland movie download

There was just a small patch of sunshine for taking the glove photos, sunshine is something we’ve been short of lately and there was no certainty that it would last for long enough to move around to somewhere better placed. The challenge was that the patch of sun was on the floor, where the wool monster hangs out. The bigger picture to the ones of the gloves looks like this, there’s a reason for them being katy cornered, I had one hand holding back the hound and the other for the camera.

I know, shock horror, after the gardening and the delving through wardrobes and old books here is some actual knitting in progress. This is the start of a Rolling Thunder sock from Knitty. I came across the yarn while I was sorting out the bag of yarn for my Etsy shop

A Life Less Ordinary rip

, this is a reject, not good enough to sell. I’m having second thoughts about that now because it’s knitting up beautifully but there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a pretty dye job on a poor base yarn. There were a few knots and a few joins and I didn’t like the feel of it so although it was cheap I didn’t buy any more of that yarn. I wouldn’t sell it to you but I don’t mind making socks for me from it. It was a while ago that I dyed this, I was in my pink and brown phase at the time and that dates it to July 2007. I bought the beads then too with the idea of making a beaded sock but, as usual, I was diverted onto other things. I got there in the end and the beads made it into a sock although not with the yarn or the pattern that I had planned.

I didn’t look at these twice when I saw them on Knitty because I didn’t like the slouchy cuff. The reason I’m knitting them now is because I saw them being knitted somewhere else and went to look at the pattern to see why you need to start a cuff down sock with a provisional cast on. This time around they called to me, the timing is right because I’m thinking about moving from sandals back to socks and shoes. My cuffs will not be as slouchy because the pattern starts off with 70 stitches and reduces to 64 for the foot. I usually knit 68 stitches for me so I started with 70 and reduced to 68. I didn’t do the knit shut hem either, I always knit these too tightly and get an unsightly ridge on the right side so I just cast on loosely and sewed it down. It is actually sewn now, not just tucked in for the photo. This doesn’t mean a leap forward towards acceptance of making up just that the long tail kept getting in the way and it was easiest to sew it up and be done with it. I have a couple of inches to knit before the toe and then I get the fun of threading the beads for the second one. I know that there’s a knot somewhere in the ball and I haven’t found it yet so if it doesn’t appear before I finish the toe I’ll have to rewind the ball and look for it. Knots and beads do not make for relaxing knitting.

I promise that this is the last in the “something” series. I could conceivably have come up with “something blue” but that would mean that I had to finish this off and I’m still at the stage of looking at it thoughtfully. I’ve been there for months and can’t see myself moving on anytime soon. The idea was to use this ruffle yarn to make a short scarf with one frilly end and then have a keyhole at the other end of a plain section so that you just get the frilly cravat effect. This was as far as I got when I decided that as an idea this stank and it really needed two frilly ends and something in between. The problem is that I’m over this now, been there, knit that and I don’t want to knit the second end even though I have the yarn to do it. My excuse is that it was on sale, I’d never knitted with it before and I bought it to see what it was like. I’m looking at this now and thinking of blue brains and I know deep down that this is not going anywhere.

It is far less challenging to think about “something grew”. The carrier bags at the back of the trug are significant because these contain cooking apples, onions, shallots, red onions and beetroot. There were a few carrots too but they were so feeble that I gave them all to the guinea pigs. It’s that time of year again when there’s something that needs eating all the time and the guinea pigs are so good in helping out with that. The bag of apples went with some of last year’s dried chillis to make chilli jelly, we still have half a jam jar of dried chillis left even after making eleven jars of jelly. (Note to self – it’s a big pan but not big enough for 7lb of apples and the jelly bag only holds 3lb. Just because there are two trees of apples doesn’t mean you have to pick them all at once) The next thing in the pan will be some chutney, using my apples and my mother’s tomatoes.

Antz full

• Premonition film

• Rogue move

This is the buttercup squash that is taking over more of the allotment than I’d planned on. Not that I’m complaining because it is an excellent weed suppressant and it’s obviously doing well with no fussing from me. The sticks are where the roots of each plant are, I thought it would help with the watering although as it turned out that hasn’t been a problem this summer. It is growing up the apple tree, up the sweet peas, into the sweetcorn, into the cabbage and it has run across the path and into the compost heap twice. There are three plants here, they overran the courgette plants fairly early on and then went on to do whatever they wanted. I grew them from seed and I know that the seed I bought was butternut. I’d had an idea that it wasn’t that at all from the moment that the first fruit set. Not only were the fruit the wrong shape, they were also the wrong colour and patterned differently. What I think I have here (other than an allotment full of leaves) is buttercup squash. There are only two letters different and it’s still a winter squash but it’s not what I was expecting. The courgettes are looking a bit mildewed now and the weather is starting to turn colder so I’m not sure how long it will be before the squash sucumbs to powdery mildew. I have no idea just how many squash I have, the smaller ones aren’t going to reach much of a size now because there isn’t enough of the season left but there are four or five big squash around the edges of the patch. What is in the middle is a complete mystery. It looks like you get one squash for every running two feet, because whenever you turn over a leaf there’s a squash underneath it. The finger is for scale, silly me, I went gardening without a tape measure, tictac, coin or pop can to indicate scale. This isn’t the biggest but it’s sort of an average size.

The dog managed to sneak into an unguarded carrier bag and ran off with his trophy. It had a nice little stalk on the top for chewing and throwing it about and it was just the right size to be batted around with a paw. He didn’t get as far as chewing on the onion which is probably a good thing because he smells enough as it is. He’s going to the groomers in a week or so but he might have to suffer a bath again before then. It’s a mystery to me how such a small dog can smell so large.

When I was knitting a Christmas stocking earlier this year I remember complaining about the mistakes I was making on the heel where I had to follow a two colour chart on the purl side. I was whining because I know now that it is possible to knit whole sweaters and cardigans working only from the public side so I feel able to complain about having to purl in pattern. When I knitted this I had no idea that there was an alternative so I just got down to it and followed the chart. This is knitted in five pieces and seamed so there was plenty of purling but I don’t remember having any problems at all with that. The thing I do recall is the trouble I had with keeping track of the needle changes, the ruffle is made by working on a larger needle and I remember having to rip back repeatedly when I’d lost the plot again.

This is borrowed from my mother’s wardrobe, I knitted it in the late 80’s but she only wears it “for best” so it’s still in good condition despite being twenty years old. It is a bit big on her now but that’s because she’s lost a bit of weight over the years. This is the Flora cardigan from “Creative Knitting” by Kaori O’Connor. The publication date is 1987 and I know that I made this no later than 1990 when I moved house so it brackets the date fairly well. I suspect that I made it in the yarn specified which was Shetland 2 ply jumper weight from TM Hunter Ltd. There is a section on changing each pattern into either a sweater, vest or cardigan, I know that I made the Christmas Cracker Waistcoat both as a sweater and as a waistcoat although I don’t know where the waistcoat is now (I gave the sweater away). I also made the Chow Chow cardigan from this book, I wore this a lot as part of my working wardrobe. It doesn’t fit me now but I don’t really want to part with it. Having said that, I only have the vaguest idea where it is so that may forever remain unphotographed.

Antz dvdrip Some of the floats show a bit but to be honest I can look at it with my super critical eye and say it’s not at all bad. If I were making it now I’d fret over the colours running and worry about the length of the floats but back then I just followed the pattern and got knitting (and purling, don’t forget the purling)

I was right about the gloves, I ran out of steam as soon as I hit the first finger. In my defence I did lose an evening’s knitting when I couldn’t make sense of the pattern, the next evening I realised that my issue was with the pinky finger being next to the thumb gusset on the chart. I had to look at both my hands from both sides but then I was certain that the header on the chart was wrong. My excuse for not knitting the next evening is that charted knitting and Dr Who dvds do not go together well, it was one or the other and David Tennant won. Maybe tonight the pinky finger will emerge (but only if the yarn I wound yesterday doesn’t go with the beads that I have)

The yarn dried nicely in the sun and I remembered to bring it in before it rained so I do now have something new to show. Admittedly it isn’t quite what I was expecting because the plan was to have grey as the main colour but that glove was ripped for lack of contrast. This is the start of a glove from “Selbuvotter, Biography of a Knitting Tradition”. When I got the book I wanted to knit everything in it and then ran to a halt in trying to choose what to knit first. I gave the book to a young visitor and told her to pick a pair of gloves for me to knit and she chose Annemor #1. I’m not convinced that they will fit her because she has tiny hands but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. My reasoned approach was to knit it on a size smaller needle and hope for the best. Yes, I do know better but I couldn’t be bothered to do it right. They’ll fit someone when they are done.

The NeverEnding Story rip

The teal yarn is Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8, it was used once on Ravelry for one of the projects from the book but the knitter had an upsetting experience when the colours ran on the first wash. I am confident that it isn’t going to run, certainly not in the water we have around here because I dyed it.  I bought this yarn as a potential candidate for Ophelia, I bought a cone of the 3/8 and one of the 2/8 in the hope that one of them would knit to tension and then I went off and bought something else entirely different for the sweater. The cone of 3/8 has been much reduced as a result of the knitting of Agatha but the 2/8 has remained untouched. If I go off on a mitten jag then I have the resources to knit my way through stacks of mittens before I hit cardboard. The white is a cone of BFL sock yarn from Mr BFL himself, if I ever get to the end of this then I will have to buy another because it has been so useful to have a kilo of undyed sock yarn around the house. It’s come in for so many things that I don’t think that I could live without it.

I did have a test dye while this yarn was still in the running for the sweater, just to see what the colours came out like. I like overdyeing grey, you can use the dyes straight from the pot without them being too bright. You can see that the teal in this ball is about the same as that in the current yarn, all the different shades were dyes at about 4%. This is “Sage” from the Landscape range, added until it looked a little on the dark side to allow for it lightening as it dried. Scientific, eh?

There was another reason for this choice of project, it’s a few weeks now until I go back to the doctor again (I’ve been once, I am a Good Girl and can have a treat) and risk being told to rest my dodgy hand or even quit knitting so I’ve decided that I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and I plan to spend every possible moment between now and then with needles in hand. With this project I’m knitting with a strand of yarn in each hand so my right hand has to do some work. If the left hand packs in I have a fallback except that my right hand is unbelievably slow and can’t purl. I imagine it will get better if it has to, it’s only been knitting for a year or so compared to the left one that has more than thirty years experience. I’m having great fun although I suspect that when I get to the fingers I will wish that this was a mitten.

I don’t usually whip photos from books but today is an exception. For some reason I can’t find any similar patterns on Ravelry to refer to.

There are times when my memory works frighteningly well. I may not always remember what it was that I wrote on the shopping list that I left at home but I can remember that I own a thirty year old knitting pattern and know what book it is in. Last month a group of us were looking at some of the photos in Stitchy McYarnpants’ book “The Museum of Kitschy Stitches” and one of us (mentioning no names but I remember who you were) was particularly taken with a red deerstalker hat. What a shame that there was no pattern. I knew I had a pattern, not just for a knitted deerstalker but a tartan knitted deerstalker. They thought that I was joking but I remember the 1970’s, not only was I there but I was knitting at the time. This was the period when a granny square waistcoat was trendy so the tartan hat was probably not so way out. Probably. I have the pattern for the waistcoat but to be honest if you’re that interested I think you can work it out from the picture.

• Crossroads rip

The Shawshank Redemption psp If we are playing top trumps then I win. Knitted in the round, with a separate hat band and the vertical lines sewn in later (just in case you were wondering). If that wasn’t enough work in itself, it’s part of an outfit. You could have the matching tartan jacket and either a shirt or trousers. Of course the trousers and skirt are plain not tartan because that would just be too many stripes to be seen in. Form an orderly queue and you too could borrow the book. (click on the photos for a larger picture)

There will be someone who is wondering – no, I didn’t knit it. Not then, not now. The reason for not knitting the hat then was that it was on four needles and that was a learning experience that was more than thirty years in my future. The reason for not knitting it now is that it’s an awful lot of work for something that I can’t see anyone ever wearing. I don’t dislike the jacket that much, the thing that counts against it the most is the colour. The gold and green were popular at the time but wouldn’t be the easiest colours to wear. In a more muted palette it would look different again. Probably.

Train the movie

Next time’s post will be my own work, “something new” if the yarn is dry and I get the tension right, failing that “something borrowed” comes next. Yes, I’m on a bit of a roll here. I have a theme and I’m working it, rather like the pattern designer did with that tartan.

I was knitting the second sock of the pair during the Iknit day and I had three people ask me what yarn it was. How embarrassing. I had to say that I wasn’t sure because the label fell off before I got the yarn home. I suppose that was better than my usual story which is that I carefully saved the label and then couldn’t find it again later. These are certainly something with cotton and elastane, it came in a 100g ball and it is probably Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Cotton Stretch. These are the standard mother sock, 64 stitches and a no gusset short row heel. The idea was that she can have a pair of cotton socks for those hot summer days although in reality she’d be better with a pair of boot socks to wear with wellies. If you know me well enough you can ask me the other reason why these socks were a source of embarrassment during the day but seeing as I’m getting all tense just thinking about it the blog doesn’t get to know. They are not a perfect pair, I was off slightly on placing the heel of the second one. That was when I was sitting on the station at Doncaster trying to calculate the latest time I could leave and still be in London for 1.30. I was obviously not up to counting rows at the same time. The remaining yarn weighs 48g so there is a second pair to come when I feel like looking for another coordinating leftover.

This is not knitted, this is the first rug made with the peg loom that the wonder husband made for me. It’s made from the poor quality alpaca that I got as part of the three full fleeces last summer. The dog thinks that the string edges are fantastic and he likes to sit on it to chew things. It was a good job then that we made it small enough to go in the washing machine. It is still shedding but as this is not my floor that is not a major concern for me. On reflection, looking at the time it took to wash, card and spin the fibre for this I don’t think the product was worth the effort. Having said that I’d happily make another because my mother likes it and it is for her. I think my dissatisfaction is because it’s just plain white which is exactly what mum wanted but doesn’t fill me with joy when I look at it.

• On the Doll move

Shopgirl psp

download Alfie Wolvesbayne movies I have to sort the remaining two bags of alpaca, it’s become urgent because something has slashed its way into one of the bags leaving it not in the slightest bit airtight and open to moths (looking at the size of the hole it would be open to a lot of other things too such as eagles, goats and small dogs). Just because Pebble was dancing about in a pile of alpaca that had happened to fall out onto the floor the other day (that would be when I saw him sitting on the bag trying to get in it) and just because he’s menaced 500g of bfl this week doesn’t mean he did this. He’s so sweet and cute and.. well it was him wasn’t it? Fluffy or not he still has claws and teeth just like every other dog in the world. He is turning into a bit of a wool monster (he’s no snob, cashmere and acrylic have had the same attention) and I caught him in the act this morning with the sock on the floor and the yarn in his mouth. It is hard to look innocent and appealing in those circumstances but he nearly pulled it off. So much for my knitting being safe at the back of the settee, he can reach further than I thought.

Crying Freeman the movie

I never thought the day would come when I was looking forward to the prospect of standing for two hours in a space the size of a tabloid newspaper. On Saturday morning trains to London on the east coast main line were either canceled or very delayed because of flooding and it came down to the 10.36 or bust. The people from the other two delayed trains had the same idea and it was sardine city in the carriage ends. Having had half an hour at leisure on the station considering the possibility of not being able to get to London at all (that would be when I was furiously knitting the start of the heel trying not to worry) then the alternative of standing and looking out of the window for two hours was very welcome. Needless to say there was no knitting on the way down.

I shall confess my deep and irrational unease at using the Underground. I could say that it is due to feeling the weight of the buildings over my head or having the throngs of people invading my space but really I know that this stems from watching a particular series of Dr Who in my formative years. I know that the Cybermen aren’t really about to come marching out of the tunnels but I can’t get over the disquiet I feel in being down there. My unease wasn’t great enough to start researching the bus though nor to consider the alternative of a three mile walk.

I found the Royal Horticultural Halls easily enough, you follow the signs and then when you get close enough you follow the people in shawls who are holding yellow maps in their hands. It beats reading the map for yourself any day of the week. Despite me not getting out much I managed to bump into someone I know before I’d even got through the door. I had one of those moments when you know who they are but you can’t remember their real name. I knew for a fact that Mrs Cryinglion (no blog) had another name, the one that her parents gave her, but for the life of me I couldn’t recall it. There was time for a quick walk around the stalls before joining the queue outside for the Yarn Harlot’s presentation. I managed to get a seat near the front and looked around to admire the knitwear and saw Carie just a few rows back, looking cool and collected in Ether. Full marks there for the choice of appropriate (that would be “cool”) knitwear.

She was very funny and made me think about a few things, maybe I won’t gracefully back away from knitting just yet. There has been research that has showed that repetitive motions such as knitting can encourage a mental state that can improve mental focus and memory and help prevent trauma in stressful situations, such as when you’re waiting for a train that may never come. I think I need all the assistance I can get with focus and memory because if I’m this bad with knitting what would I be without it? You have noticed by now the lack of photos?

I managed to bump into Rhona Cryinglion (see, I get there in the end) again in the tea queue and I was more than happy to encourage her to buy a kit from Maggie Jackson seeing as the sample looked so good on her. I’d love to put a photo here but I don’t have one (that would be those focus and memory issues again) and can’t find a link. It was one of those things that looked like a lump of wool until you put it on and then it was transformed. On me it would still have looked like a lump of wool only dangling but on Rhona it is going to be stunning. The queue for the booksigning didn’t seem to have gone down at all despite our foray around the stalls so I bit the bullet and joined it anyway. It would appear that I can knit while standing which goes to show that you don’t know what you can do until you try. Joanna offered to take my photo and it was only then that I remembered that before leaving the house I’d checked I had the camera card, charged the battery and put the camera in my bag. There’s no hope for me is there? I had spent the whole day bemoaning the lack of a camera that was in my bag all the time. I’d like to thank Larissa (Clarissa?) for taking this photo, I scurried away with my signed book in the hope of catching the train an hour later than the one with my reserved seat on so didn’t thank her personally (for the record I missed that train too). I felt really bad about that afterwards because she took not one but four cracking photos. I’m so glad now that I didn’t mug her for the 1.5kg of fibre that she won in the raffle.

What did I buy? Not a deal, just 500g of BFL fibre and 1200 yards of undyed laceweight. There’s no photo of either, the dog got at the fibre yesterday morning using advanced problem solving skills (he pulled the tablecloth to get at what was on the dining table) and the laceweight has gone away for Christmas. You can use your imagination as to what a pound of fibre looks like after a puppy has rolled in it and chewed it because you won’t be far wrong. He was very happy, me less so.

Aloha, Scooby-Doo movie

It was a long day, the husband managed the menagerie for 14 hours without any mishap so there’s a pair of socks in it for him although not the pink ones because that would be silly. There was half an hour where I thought I wouldn’t get to London at all, half an hour where I thought I was going to be stranded in London because of a problem on the line and half an hour where I thought I might be stranded in Doncaster because of leaving London late. I had my emergency knitting so I got through it.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s dvd