Stepping backwards to move forwards

Okay, so the last post was all about how I had swatched this yarn and pattern into a lovely headscarf.
Then I was thinking wouldn't it actually be really nice as the real shawl, and a few other people were saying the same thing, so the cast-off has been undone and it's back on the needles!
My headscarf is now the set up for a large, but light, wrap.
This is the "budding lace" part of the Swallowtail Shawl, as if you didn't know. I will see how I feel when the shawl grows in size; I may or may not do the "lily of the valley lace" part.
I went into John Lewis to do the deed yesterday, and came away with three more balls of it, all in the correct dye lot, which was lucky, as the original ball was bought in the Gem Shop in Castle Douglas.



Something else has happened since my last post - I have got into the rhythm of the Flower Basket Shawl at last.
The penny has finally dropped about how to make those little baskets (sounds like a euphemism for a swear word, and I had been feeling it before I got into my groove) without constant poring over the pattern.
Don't get me wrong, I haven't ditched the pattern entirely, but I am not having to follow every stitch on it as I was initially. No wonder I was not feeling the love!
I have two more 200m balls of this olive Orkney Angora St. Magnus D.K. to go. The picture shows my progress on one ball.


This second picture shows a little bit of stitch detail.

I must be having a bit of an Evelyn Clark fest at the moment!

Sometimes you're just in a lacy mood. x K

Double experiment

Although my mate Midsummer Night's Knitter over at Twelfthknit has discovered the joys of swatching at the mature age of 21, I find it very difficult to discipline myself to do so.

However, wanting to experiment with a new yarn (Rowan Damask, shade 46, Lava) without investing in a whole project's worth, and wanting to try out the stitch pattern for the Swallowtail Shawl (Evelyn A. Clark of Fibertrends, Interweave Knits Fall 2006) has resulted in a lovely new summer headscarf for me. That's why it's a funny shape.

I really enjoyed this "lozenge" pattern (Swallowtail chart) because you can clearly see what you're meant to do next, and it is very instinctive, unlike the Flowerbasket Shawl I am grappling with at the moment. (Please don't regale me with tales about how easy you found FBS- I'll cry.)

If I had tons of this yarn I could be tempted to do the whole full size shawl in it, you know. Very pleasant to knit with and lovely effect.

Reservations-

#1 It is marketed as Rowan's new linen blend, but has only 22% linen in it.

#2 I did give the Lily of the Valley chart a try. (The one with the dreaded NUPPS k1 yo k1 yo k1 in one stitch then next row p5 together. Not that hard with "real" stitches, but very fiddly with raw y/o stitches. When I do the shawl for real I will use a fine cable needle to control the stitches and get some room for manoeuvre.) The main problem I encountered with that is that the yarn is a bit slubby and a bit thick/thin, which was awkward with the nupps.

I enjoyed my experiment, killed two birds with one stone, and learned a lot. x K

Dragging myself into the 21st century

Firstly, thank you for the lovely comments on Angora Froth.

Ok, I've gone and invested in a memory stick. What a handy little gadget!

It's amazing the way the technology we used to associate with James Bond is now part of our everyday lives. For instance, accessing the internet from a mobile phone, all this info at your fingertips, was just a dream only a few decades ago.

Anyway, to the case in point, I have been using my new memory stick/pen drive all the time this past fortnight.

Lots of the following post will be absolutely old-hat to some, but you've got to start somewhere, and I am starting here.

One of the main uses I've been putting it to is to prepare Power Point presentations for the pupils. I don't think technology could ever replace a decent teacher, and I believe that a genuinely good teacher could be successful with a stick in the sand or a chalk and a slate, but it is another resource in your toolbox.

So, I've been sitting of an evening making sooper dooper animated presentations, saving them to the memory stick and then using them the next day with the little darlings.

It is a fair bit of time investment to do that of an evening, and fairly cuts into one's knitting time, but as ever in life you have to pick your battles, so I am doing presentations of things which I teach year-in year-out, such as the tenses of verbs, the rooms of the house, housework chores, places aroud your town, school subjects to name some of my recent attempts. And the good thing about the highly visual ones such as the house, can be used for both French and Spanish with a bit of copy and paste and minimal editing.

The other problem is that it entails a fair bit of setting-up at the other end. It would be easy peasy if the equipment were in place all the time, but for the moment it involves a fair amount of planning and set-up. We have been told by our Senior Management Team though that the "Use it or lose it" rule applies to the data projector etc. so it seems a good time to become familiar with the technology.

Some of my colleagues are scratching their heads wondering how I can be bothered with it. Well, for two reasons really. 1) When you have a presentation prepared on French regular -er verbs in the present tense for example you will be able to use it from now until doomsday. 2) When I am happy I am a better teacher, and I am enjoying my new resource.

Does this memory stick have any impact whatsoever on my knitting life? Kind of. I am now essentially sitting in the middle of field, and with the aid of laptop and memory stick I am able to show you my Leaf Lace Shawl being modelled in front of the iconic image of Gai Paris. Yes, we have found the camera!

Angora Froth

Here's a close up of the Louisa Harding Kimono Angora scarf I knitted to the Rowan "Froth" pattern.
I posted a pic of this a few days ago but it was a very bland picture of it blocking and it kind of got buried in the excitement of my birthday and the debacle of the knitting group hiccup.
This is a much more true reflection of the colours.
It's dead yummy and fuzzy and certainly proved a hit at last Sunday's knitting get together.
Yes, people, this is my one and only finished object of 2007 so far!

Angora Froth

Updating Finished Objects

Hiya, have been quiet on here this week, due to amongst other things, lack of camera.

I have been plugging away though at updating the finished object side of my sister blog

http://kedkraftyfinishedobjects.blogspot.com

Feel free to check it out, and I am confident, again, that I be posting on here in the near future. x K

Feeling optimistic

I am feeling optimistic that our knitting group can forge ahead, reinvigorated and ready to enjoy one another's company as well as our knitting.

To demonstrate this I will leave you with a picture of two polar bears snugging.

The photographer was Lisa Vogt. x K

*There's no point in dwelling on the past but our knitting group has been through a tough week or so. A line has been drawn under these events and the remaining members are energized and looking forward to a period of calm, democracy, fun and knitting.

Birthday Flowers

Here are some of the highlights of my birthday bouquet (36, eek!) arranged in my "Flower Magic" set I got at the Hobbycrafts show at the SECC a couple of years ago. Didn't do much for the birthday this year as it was also Ash Wednesday, but did feast my eyes on my lovely roses and stem carnations. :-)

Recycling

Can you believe it is the 23rd of February and I am finally presenting you my first finished object of 2007?
I think my first one in 2006 was ten minutes after the bells or something.

Anyway, this is another version of the Frothy scarf I knitted in December. If you remember this pattern was part of a renewal gift from Rowan International a while back.

The yarn is Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora, like the Froth scarf I made and sent to Louisiana for Christmas. So I've recycled the pattern and revisited the yarn I used before. The only different is this time I have edged it in a a self colour which has been added to the range. Angora Pure shade#6

I bought these lovely yarns at Stitching Time, Hamilton.
BTW have you checked out Nan's blog yet? Nagged2k
(Nagged to knit) on the sidebar.

Nice and long at around 2m!! I enjoyed knitting this but of it was inevitably tedious doing the ruffle, but I made it and I'm pleased with it.

French for Dummies lesson #450

Okay, so we can't find the camera. It's not lost it's just "misplaced" in our home, but you all know what the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame cathedral look like anyway, don't you?
If you can't wait there's always Google Images in the meantime.


You don't really want to know about the beautiful sites we visited anyway, do you? You want to know if I BOUGHT STUFF, don't you? Well, yes I did buy stuff.


But firstly, I learned stuff too.
I learned that mache with a circumflex is lambs lettuce and the word for sea bass.
When my credit card wasn't cooperating in the chip and pin machine I learned to tell the assistant Il faut la passer a la piste with a grave on the a. (You'll have to swipe it.)
I was delighted to learn that France no longer has any unemployed people, hourah!!! ;-)
Only demandeurs d'emploi (job seekers)

And I learned that Alpaca is alpaga.

I bought four lovely skeins of it in le Bonmarche on the rue du Bac and rue de Babylone corner.
Plassard 100% Alpaga des Andes
4ply weight? Size 3mm needles anyway.
180m per 50g ball.
I feel some lace coming on!

I did also buy some other very unusual yarn which I haven't seen at home but it's earmarked for a gift, so I can't say too much yet.

You may also notice the scarf lengths in two colours of crushed velvet in the top picture. They were bought in the Droguerie concession within the same store. Must get the sewing machine out and rustle up a posh scarf for myself. I can see a beaded edging of some sort in my mind's eye.

In the Droguerie section I also bought a corsage making kit. It was so lovely to buy from helpful, knowledgeable staff.

Off to resume the search for the camera. I may be gone some time! x K

Something is wrong with this picture...

Either I had too many cocktails (quite feasible) or my photography skills need brushed up.

Only have mobile phone pix at the mo'.

Hope to give you better ones soon, along with an update.

Suffice it to say -sights were visited, croissants were eaten, wine was drunk, stairs were climbed, rivers were sailed, Valentine kisses were exchanged, yarn was bought - was a great trip.

Now we have a decent camera we DID take some pictures of the sights, hope to get a chance to show you some in the next few days.

Safely home at least. Thanks for the good wishes, K x

Romance is not dead

See you in a few days' time!

Happy knitting x K

Dragged through the mire

I know I told you I wasn't looking forward to doing yards of rib on this little number, but I'm sure you'll agree that's no reason to start dragging it through the mud at the municipal dump!

I know this isn't the clearest picture ever, but if you get the idea that there's this knitting and it's caked in dirt then you're pretty much up to speed.

This is what happens when you unwittingly let your yarn and knitting get tangled around your legs as you step out of the car to help unload packing materials into a skip. The man was shouting at me "Haw hen" ("Excuse me, my dear") "yer trailin yer knittin".

Not pretty and is delaying the sewing up operation even further. (I have to join the raglans before I do the famous rib.)

I blame our new car. Well, it can't have been my fault, can it?

Vast plains of rib

Colours are for fun, not links.


I have completed the back of this jacket in Twilley's Freedom Spirit yarn.
I have whizzed through left front.
I have successfully reversed the shapings for right front.
I have survived two and a half long weeks of not just Sleeve Island, but its more remote and more desolate counterpart Raglan Sleeve Island.
And now I have to face the biggest challenge yet- the acres of tundra known as the Vast Plains of Rib. And I do mean vast. Pick up and knit 650 odd stitches and do short row shaping on 3mm. Sounds like a great laugh.
Don't hold your breath waiting for this one to be finished!

Snowdrops

These lovely snowdrops were waiting for us on our back "lawn" this morning. They are so pretty and fragile looking I thought I'd better whip out the camera straight away.

Ok, now why not go over and pay a visit to my friend Mhairi's new blog Flavaknits .
She's got a new camera, some knitting needles and a crochet hook, and she ain't afraid to use them!

As I type this she's probably at the Glasgow Knitting Meetup, which I am missing as I am out in the countryside looking at snowdrops and pregnant sheep etc. x K

Call the SSPCA

Call the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)

Or perhaps the SSPCA if you are north of the border.

I don't do pets as you know, but I feel sorry for this noble beast being dressed up like a dolly in a pram.
I would to see me try to dress up Wesley the Weimaraner who works at M and D's in such kit.

There are many things about Rowan I do like, but I think this Knitted Dog Coats or words to that effect is a step too far. Poor creatures.
I nearly piddled my breeks when I read Yarn in my Pocket's warning that a jumper made from Big Wool even makes a whippet look fat. Thanks very much for the links. x K

Photo essay part one

What happens when you pick up your Sunflower Yarn Swift from the postal depot and play with your Noro Hana 100% Silk which you bought from Get Knitted .
Too keen to get started to hunt for ball winder so just balled by hand.
Feast your eyes!

Photo essay part two

300th anniversary of the Act of Union

In 1707 the Act of Union was signed.

Here's a song based on a 1700s text brought to my attention by Dick Gaughan on the subject.

Independence AND harmony with our neighbours? Now there's an idea........

What's the spring-breathing jasmine and rose ?
What's the summer with all its gay train?
Or the splendour of autumn to those
Who've bartered their freedom for gain?

Let the love of our land's sacred rights
To the love of our people succeed.
Let friendship and honour unite
And flourish on both sides the Tweed.

No sweetness the senses can cheer
Which corruption and bribery bind.
No brightness that gloom can e'er clear
For honour's the sum of the mind.

Let virtue distinguish the brave,
Place riches in lowest degree.
Think them poorest who can be a slave,
Them richest who dare to be free.

Hope Dick sings this when we go to see him at Celtic Connections this year.

Kaleidoscope

Hiya,
I've been mucking about with our digital camera.
During the Christmas holidays I discovered all these different special effects that I didn't know it was capable of.
I'll show you some of my favourites over the next couple of weeks.
This one is "Kaleidoscope" and I've given you the before and after pix to compare.
You can adjust your centre point (within certain perameters) to get the effect you're looking for.
I think it looks cool.
You can do it with faces too, but I'll have to get permission before showing you some of them.



You may have noticed from my banner above that I am "Knitting from my Stash" Gulp.
Most of my New Year Resolutions are to do with the home, but I thought I'd come clean about my New Year "Aspiration" (see, I'm watering it down already) to knit from my stash for a while.
I always seem to skim relatively recent purchases off the top of the stash, and seldom dig deep into the realms of history, so I'm going to try to do that more. I have a couple of different exceptions (my niece is expecting again, yay!) and exclusions (I can buy top-ups for projects which need additional supplies) and jokers (trips to Paris, new season's products from the manufacturers) but I am endeavouring, in fact, aspiring, in fact, resolving to knit from my stash for the foreseeable future.
Wish me luck!