What bliss! What rapture!

What am I doing blogging at quarter to ten on a Thursday morning?
Well, as of 1pm yesterday it's the school holidays! Ya dancer as we say in these parts.


Talking of bliss and rapture, I hope those going to Woolfest have a wonderful time. Maybe I'll join you next year.

A special welcome to my international visitors! I've got a Neocounter on free trial which breaks down the country of origin of all who access the page. Have a scroll down the right hand side to see what a cosmopolitan bunch visit KEDkrafty. Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Egypt..... you name it! Thanks for stopping by, as they say.

Still no joy on the digital camera, so we'll have to settle for an archive picture of the yarn I'm using for my shawl. Yes, I know Thomas D, it's sad that I 'happen to have' a photo of this yarn in my Picasa files, just for a rainy day.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Okay, so I haven't got a digital camera at the moment but it doesn't mean the blog has to be a picture-free zone.
Here is a picture from Wrap Style of the Shetland Triangle I've been working on and that you can see in progress below.

See how small it is? I'll have to keep reminding myself of that as I work through the pattern. On paper I have enough yarn to make it slightly bigger than the one shown, but you never can tell. I'm getting to that all-too-familiar, "Will I have enough to make it the way I want it?" feeling.

This picture gives you a better idea about the stitch pattern as my yarn is a bit fuzzy.

30 THINGS ABOUT ME

Okay, here goes, 30 things about me-

1. I love our digital camera.
2. Our digital camera is broken and would cost more to repair than to replace. This makes me very sad.

Actually, that's only 2 things about me. You'll have to make up the other 28. Sigh.

Here is an archive picture of a bee on a bush in Alexandra Park two weeks ago to keep you going.

Social life!

Had a rather sociable couple of weeks which haven't included much blogging.
However, they have included a 21st birthday party, a brilliant concert by Karine Polwart, dinners out, a 50th birthday party and the like.
Also had two parents' nights which are a bit, em, not very well scheduled in my opinion as the pupils won't have much time to take on board what we're saying before the summer holidays. The parents' nights are summative at best I suppose.
Anyway, this means I haven't done much blogging, but I've been working away at my knitting.
Bit of the Eva cardigan, bit of the Rowan exchange doo-dah, and a bit of my second lace shawl by Evelyn Clark. It's Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style this time. I'm enjoying it again, and the pattern is very simple, basically
k3 yo k1 yo k3 sk2po at various intervals. But it's the intervals which count, which is why she is a designer, and I am not!
This is the evidence of one ball's worth. It's about neckerchief size at present so I'm hoping it groooooooooooooowwwws pdq.

The yarn is fuzzy and the colour changes disguise the pattern but hopefully you can see the swirls of the "fir cone" pattern starting to emerge. 

Surface of a strange and distant planet. Or the wrong side of my latest venture into lace shawl knitting. Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark in Lang Yarns Venezia. 

Reunited!

I've been reunited with my lovely Deep bolero!

It's shown here with my green linen skirt, which is one of the few things I feel I can wear to work on a hot summer's day and feel cool without looking as if I'm on holiday. Don't get me wrong, it's easy to look nice in the summer, it's just not easy to get the balance between professional, and cool. Anyway, that's not the point.

The point is my Deep has been returned smelling quite strongly; smells a bit like "Brasso". The woman at Rowan who was dealing with it didn't say anything about them trying to fix the dye, but I've a feeling they did, otherwise they maybe tested it with some chemical or other. Failing that, why would it have acquired a new smell? (Not the smell of the packaging, I checked.)

They are giving me a refund of the cost of the yarn used, which should be with me within the week. I checked over the garment, it hasn't been overstretched or anything. When I sent in the cardie I also printed off a picture of that jug of blue water on photo paper, and the lady said it proved quite conclusive. I take the view they were all set to give me a refund anyway, not having asked for ball bands, dye lots, proof of purchase or anything. I reckon it is not the first time they've had such a complaint about this yarn. I'm glad to have my Deep back anyway, I'm sure I'll get the wear out of it this summer.

So, I've tempted you all into becoming lace fiends then? An enabler for knitaholics! I swatched for my next lace project, Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style, but the yarn and pattern were competing. Good job I swatched. Now, to hunt through the stash for something more suitable. Could take some time and a fair bit of swatching to find something which is not only in harmony with the pattern but I would be dying to wear when I was finished. No point in going to all that trouble if I don't love it.

My main knitting this week has been for the Rowan International exchange, but I can't show you that until the reveal in July, so I'll have to settle for showing you one ball's worth of progress on Eva from the Jaeger Roma Collection.
http://www.englishyarns.co.uk/jaeger_jb40.html

Off now to join some friends for Worldwide Knit in Public Day. x K

Thank-you very much.

Thank-you very much for all the lovely compliments on the shawl - I needn't have worried about waiting for a glam occasion to wear it, I've just been making a point of wearing it, glam or no glam. I can tell you it's good to cover your flabby, sorry chilly arms and shoulders if you wear a summer top.

Here is the link to where I bought the shawl pattern . You may have to scroll down. It's shown onsite in a green self-colour (small) and reddy-orange varigated yarn (large).
While checking out this link for you, I noticed that Sue has got the lovely Flower Basket shawl available- I think I may get the credit card out after dinner!
In other knitting I am about 1/3 way through the knitting of my Rowan International exchange pressie. There's a lot of finishing to be done when the knitting's all finished, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Thanks again for all the lovely comments- other knitters' opinions mean more because you have an appreciation of these things, but I must say that this design has actually provoked quite a lot of feedback from folk who wouldn't normally notice hand-knitted gear. x K

Look what I made!

How do you like my Lace Leaf Shawl? This pattern is so well-written it's addictive. All credit to Evelyn A. Clark at Fibertrends- I completed this in ten days start to finish(ball to blog), including yarn availability crisis. Maybe that's nothing to you, but for me who sweats over lace, has far too many projects on the go and takes donkey's years to finish even beloved projects, that is not long at all.

I can't wait to cast on another of her patterns, I have learnt so much about construction while doing this pattern too. Think it will be Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style, just because I've got it- I'll be surfing the net for Evelyn Clark's other patterns.

This current Lace Leaf Shawl has instructions for all different yarn weights. I did mine in Rowan Kid Classic, shade "Royal" #835. Don't worry India , I won't be offended if you don't touch it, I know Kid Classic doesn't agree with you! 70% Lambswool, 26% Kid Mohair, 4% Nylon. I bought the pattern from getknitted and the wool from English Yarns, both in sidebar.

You can just keep knitting and knitting until it's the size you want because you are starting at the back neck and radiating from there, but mine is between small and large on the pattern notes. Medium, if you like! 106cm neck to point, 200cm wing-span.

If you ever knit this pattern or something similar- don't underestimate how much yarn you will need for the edging and the cast off. The 15-row edging plus slightly different cast off took nearly a full ball (140m on full ball) which caused much panic and raking round the stash. In my mind I had four balls of this but I had forgotten I had used some of it for making my Flora, which you can see in my archives around October 2/3 last year. I managed to find the remainder of that fourth ball thankfully, and made it with just a couple of metres to spare.

I used Jaeger beads for the edging and hooked them on as per instructions. I quite like that method because you don't need to string the beads, and you know how your yarn can get a bit worn with the friction from the beads. Great for on-the-hoof embellishments too.

All in all a really good fun knit, with surprisingly little swearing and heartache. Pardon my indulgence with all the detail shots, but you could say I'm quite fond of this one. All I need now is somewhere glam to wear it..... K x

The hedge shot. Good for seeing pattern, colour not entirely true. 

Woman with shawl. A study. 

The hedge shot -good for colour, not so hot on detail. 

Looking like a native American from the back. 

Point on the scalloped edging. 

Edging lace and beads. You add beads with a crochet hook on the final row before cast off. New technique for me.