May Updates

I can't see the sky today,  I'm partially relieved and sad at the same time.

We  don't get much sun here & we take ages to acclimatise, so usually good weather is met with a lot of whinging about the heat & the sticky sweatiness of it all.  This time, I heard ne'er a whine and it seemed like the whole country accepted without question the unusual temperatures and the blueness of the sky.

We've used up half a bottle of sun cream, had a day trip to a kids play park and spent our days outside and our evenings catching up on eating and homework.

It has been fun, but today we have a break and I finally have time to hoover the floor and the inch of dust that's accumulated there :)

I have decided to make a huge effort with my large backlog of unpublished patterns and I'm currently test knitting a beaded scarf and finishing off on the written pattern.

I also cast on for Susan Crawford's Jan Sweater in Sirdar Luxury 4ply cotton, I am knitting it in the round, rather than in 2 pieces for the back and front as per the pattern.  Once I got past the ribbing, the pattern knits quickly and it's going quite smoothly.

My poor Aibréan Shawl has stalled until I have an afternoon to rip out the edging I was knitting on, I ran out of wool about 10 points from the end, so it's in Coventry until I'm in a more forgiving mood.

My list of knitty to do's is getting a little more manageable, I'm almost down to stash and leftovers except for my little collection of gossamer shawls (Princess, Love Darg, Queen Ring, Wedding Ring Shawls - all by Sharon Miller - these I will tackle on a one per year basis!)

My WIP's are almost decimated, Aibréan is in the naughty corner and I'm working on my Glebe Beaded Scarf and Jan Sweater.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty organised and relaxed.

But now I find I'm feeling an itch to buy some more yarn and knit another shawl.  I thoroughly blame another Raveler Skylark, whose shawl 'Homage to the Shore' made me squeal unladylike with unreserved glee at the computer screen.  She knit a beautiful tonal triangular shawl in blues and sand to represent the waves lapping at the shore, complete with little white crests.  Ah, so pretty...

So now I want something similar, it really spoke to me, I love the sea, and the colours are just my absolute favourites.  

So I'm thinking and plotting...

I'm also taking lots of photo's!

On to a different subject, we spent a day at Tayto Park at the weekend with another family and had a great time.

We managed to see the Amur Leopards being fed!

And the Mountain Lions (sorry about the fuzzy photo, I had the wrong setting on my camera) but they were less interested in the meat.  I have always been interested in Mountain Lions since I was little and I read a series of kids fiction books in our local library.  I remember that there was no author credited to the books but they were written as the animals were the narrators.  There was also another series on Jack Rabbits if I remember correctly.  With no author to go by, I can't locate any information on these books, if they sound familiar to anyone, please let me know!

The kids were less interested in the fabulous animals, all they wanted was the playground.

I can see why parents can get very frustrated with their offspring, especially when they are constantly tugging your arm and begging to go on the swings.

"But we have swings at home for free, we've driven for two hours and paid a fortune for you to experience all these wonderful animals and all you want to do is go to the playground"

Grrrrowlllll....

It was a beautiful warm, sunny day none the less and we all came home warm and tired, so I call that a success!

Happy knitting

Etsy Shop 20% off

The warm weather (ok, one day does not make a Summer) has put me in good humour and I have put up a coupon for 20% off in my Etsy shop for one week only, until 28th May.

Happy shopping

J's Birthday Present

 I think I'm regressing.  I got fed up of looking at myself in the mirror and feeling slightly nauseous at the reflection so I had a thorough scrub in the shower last night, pampered myself with lots of steam and moisturiser, moused my hair and wrangled two french plaits down either side of my skull before gratefully falling into bed at midnight.  Not that it did me any good as I saw every hour on the clock until I finally dozed off at about 5am.  Not such a pretty face in this mornings mirror I can tell you!

Still, the plaits survived (thanks to the mousse I think) and as I donned my faded jeans, check cotton tunic and dr. martens this morning I felt like I had gone back in time (1990's anyone?) 

Do we ever grow up, or do we stick with our teenage selves for the rest of our lives?  Will I always wear jeans, shirt and trusty docs?  As my grandfather always wore a suit?  As my grandmother always wore a button down dress?  I giggle to myself as I think of a 70 something year old still stomping around in leather boots with the recognisable yellow stitching!

I don't know if I'll ever shake off this inner teen, I still get spots (holy moly, now why didn't anyone tell me that 30 somethings still get acne???) my wardrobe is still inadequate and I never feel comfortable in company.  I was never in the cool gang, does this mean I never will be?

I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.  I've read too many vomit inducing articles and interviews where the famous skinny minny, nursing her botox, is blathering on about how she feels more comfortable in her skin now that she's in her 30's.  I feel like my skin has abandoned me in stretch mark hell.

Sigh, I digress, all I'm trying to say is that nothing gets easier just because you are older.

Which is why I wanted to make something nice for my friend J for her birthday.  She too dreads certain birthdays but I'm not sure if that's because they are milestones and place her in a certain 'age group' or if she too, like me still feels like a teenager and the two just don't match up.  

   

Either way, to make her smile, I made her a small cowl (Kate Davies Betty Mouat Cowl, in the smaller size in just one colour) in Sirdar Luxury Cotton 4ply, in an acidic Kiwi colour with Cockleshell Handwarmers to match (by Belinda Boaden from The Knitter Magazine, issue 37).   

I made some amendments to the original pattern.  J has teeny ladylike hands so I wasn't going to chance finger length issues and made handwarmers rather than gloves, by decreasing before the top ribbing on both the fingers and thumb.

They fit me and my ginormous hands, but hopefully they will also fit herself!

The pattern on the front is an Oyster stitch, which caused my bamboo dpn's some trouble.  I was afraid of snapping them, so I switched over to my new favourite needles, my chiaogoo red lace circular needles, which made the road to completion much more pleasurable and with considerably less hair pulling.

The back is plain and the front has a gathered stitch sort of like the cockleshell in the BMC which is why I chose it, matching without being too matchy matchy!

Together I think they make a very pretty pair.  

Unfortunately the cotton, which is soft and pretty looking at the beginning, is a demon to work with.  It is quite loosely spun and as cotton is slidey, anyway it is as slippy as an eel to work with.  The threads fray if you breath on them and snagging and pulling a thread is just too easy.  No animals, small children or jewellery around this yarn!  It is also splitty (especially with such sharp needles as the chiaogoos) so you need to pay special attention to every stitch as afterwards the resulting split is like red paint on a white wall.  There is absolutely no way to hide it or fluff it or fudge around the mis-stitch.  Come back wool, all is forgiven! 

But it does look so good when it's all knit up, so it's almost worth it.

Have decided to give my undivided attention to my poor neglected Aibréan Shawl now.  She is almost finished, I'm knuckling down to the edging right now.  

So with that I will bid you all adieu

Happy knitting

xxx

BMC Squared

My Betty Mouat Cowl is complete! 

She likes to fly...

And puddle around on the rocks, pretending to sun herself though it's freezing out :)

Close up of her scrumptiousness...

Et moi!  I really detest photo's of myself, but I had put on make up so I think I pass muster.

I love this pattern so much I have cast on again, this time in 100% cotton (Sirdar Luxury Soft Cotton in 4ply) in a pretty Kiwi colour.  Very fresh and Spring like.

It's in the smaller size this time (I did also try the no-purl method, but the cotton is too slippy to make the join seamless, I was left with large open loops) and it's a birthday gift for a friend.  I have lots of cotton, so I may make either mittens or a small bag to match.

I'm halfway there already, it's literally knitting itself, so I'll have more photo's next post.

Until then, 

happy knitting

xxx

Betty Mouat Cowl Love

I'm feeling a little nervous about the weather lately, all these waterspouts popping up and intense wind, rain and hail attacks!  It seems a little silly, but we are so used to miserable and mild here that the odd shock flash heavy rain fall sticks out.

I also blame my uneasiness on reading the 'Hunger Games' trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  I haven't seen the film yet but I powered through the books in a nanosecond and came away with a new fear of the end of civilisation as we know it and a lot of creepy dreams where I was actually in the games myself.  It really burrowed deep under my skin.  I suppose that means that either a) it was a really well thought out and constructed story, a psychological thriller in the guise of a teenagers book or b) I've finally lost the plot altogether and paranoia is taking over.

Either way, I should light the stove and snuggle under my Rams and Yowes Blanket and read something light and  humorous, or knit something pretty.

Knitting something pretty won!  I bought Kate Davies latest Textiles web mag and fell for her Betty Mouat Cowl (or BMC).  I considered ordering the suggested yarn (Albayarn) but Jamieson & Smith's Jumper Weight is similar and cheaper, so it won out in the end!  I tried to pick out my own colour combination at the beginning but I have so many favourites at this stage (the colour range of the J&S is stunning) that I couldn't narrow my choices down to a suitable 9.  Ha, imagine that, I couldn't just choose nine solitary colours, total fail on my part. 

So I took Kate's lead and ordered 9 similar shades to the ones she had knit the original BMC in.  I chose them from the computer screen rather that the shade card (there are some new colours out) and when they arrived I was very surprised and pleased that they looked well all sitting neatly in a line beside each other.

As far  as I can the Albayarn is slightly finer than the jumperweight so if I were to make this again I would go up a needle size for a looser gauge.  

I will admit to having a nervous moment when I started knitting as until all 9 colours are knit for the first half, without swatching (will I ever learn?), you have no idea how it's going to look all knit together in garter stitch heaven.

Thankfully, the colours are quite at home with each other.  A little brighter on the eyes than Kate's muted shades but very me!  

My graft at the end was an adventure.  As with the cast on (that I managed 4 times for two pieces, now that was 2,184 stitches of fun) my graft was done and redone a few times before I was happy to continue.  As ever, I had a momentary lapse in brain waves and knit front and back twice in every repeat instead of knit through back loop so my stitch count was erm, wrong!

So with all those boo boo's and perpetually checking for twists in my join and adding stitches where there should be none, I still managed to finish it in 10 days exactly.  Landing neatly on the 10th of May with also happily coincides with the day I met my husband 15 years ago (in a clothes shop, where he was artistically draped over the counter chatting up the shop assistant!  Said shop assistant turned out to be his cousin and also my friend.  He dropped me home and we've been inseparable ever since :)

The lovely BMC is blocking now so more photo's when she's dry.

Happy knitting 

xxx

Erne Handbag

We are having the strangest weather lately.  It's Spring, obviously enough, cast ne'er a clout and all that, but we are really experiencing everything the sky has to throw at us.  From bright sunshine and a brisk breeze to black clouds and hail the size of mini muffins.  Back to drizzle and greyness, then sleet and white skies to piercing blue skies and sun.  I'm confused. 

On Saturday I met with a friend and we took a walk around a lake close to where I live that I had never been to before with the kids.  It was breezy and cool but boy, was the sun shining.  

So I managed to fill my memory card with photos of pretty looking scenery.  Who'd have thought Leitrim was so rare?

I think I missed the bulk of the bluebell infestation, no blue carpets here, more of a scattering.

Ever decreasing circles.

Lot's of mini shores with cosy spots for fishermen to sit or in our case children to fling rocks and pebbles into the crystal clear water.

Reminds me of a book cover, can't think which one though :)

Leading lines...

I adore trees, I spent most of the walk gazing skywards through the budding branches.

I keep thinking a face is going to stare back at me if I stare at this too long, the colours are fabulous!

Beautiful colours and textures, perfect inspiration for knitting.

And the best for me I kept till last, my favourite colours, fabulous textures, like sunburned skin peeling or filo pastry all crispy and delicate.

My Erne Handbag is finished!  I had a vague idea when I was knitting it, how I wanted it to be, but sometimes the best thing with designs (as with writing too) is to let them take their own path and see what happens, you never know you might end up with a masterpiece!

I was nervous about the lining.  Mostly because I'm lazy and a perfectionist all rolled into the one smiling package!  You may wonder how this is possible, but I have high standards but not always the patience or staying power to make them happen:)

Still, I knew I wanted pockets, I knew I wanted it to be fairly firm (the bag is tall and quite floppy) and I knew I wanted it to be made in a light coloured hard wearing natural material.  

I chose calico cotton and made 2 rectangles of equal sizes.  Firstly I sewed the pockets together (I sewed a tube out of two rectangles - so that no seams are on show - and sewed them to the interfaced rectangle leaving a 3 inch space at the bottom for the bag base.  I sewed the side seams and made a second bag liner from the second rectangle.  I flattened the base by sewing a line at right angles to the side seams on both liners.  The two rectangles at the top were sewn into place with the handles in situ.  Then all there was to do was to slip stitch the actual fair isle bag into place.  Whoohoo!

You can see both here, the funny shaping at the top of the woollen bag is for folding over, through the handle and is slip stitched into place at the seam on the other side nice and neatly.

Here she is, purty?

The light is playing hide and seek through the new leaves.

It's my favourite spot across the lane, I've been sneaking out hoping that no one sees me taking photo's like a nervous ninny.

On the stones, sunbathing (it was mighty chilly though!)

Close up.

Internal shot (I even added one of my own labels!  Posh eh?)

I even have wool left over!  I have another idea germinating, I might have some photo's next post, something felted perhaps.

Happy knitting

xxx