Knitting when tired - don't do it!

As Lynne has bravely posted about the pink top and its refusal to behave in a manner befitting a handknitted item, I should fess up to making a mistake with the scarf I just finished. You know, the simple stripey one with eyelash yarn.

At some point very near the end I managed to do one row too many and the back became the front for a couple of repeats. Oo-oops. My fault for attempting something so technical at night-time when I was already tired :-D See, if I can do this to a simple scarf I had best reserve any more complex knitting for the daylight hours, where I can actually see what I'm doing! I only noticed the mistake in daylight and I refused to unpick anything. As it's eyelash I may well weave in a few pieces which will effectively cover the wrong stuff.

It's ever so comfy though - I finished it while watching Glastonbury on BBC3 so I wrapped the scarf round my neck and watched the rest (this was after 1am and it had cooled down - I'm not quite barking mad (yet) to wear a scarf when it's hot!)

Hopefully picture of finished scarf in the next few days, once I do the weaving in (oh joy).

Sleep well little Oz

I found Oz (one of our two gerbils) at midnight, he had been poorly all day, very still and sleepy and having difficulty moving about. He may have had a stroke or a fit, we simply don't know, he was right as rain yesterday. We were set to take him to the vet in the morning - in many ways I am glad we didn't have to as that would have been worse. As it is we are both in pieces. I am thankful he was in his familiar surroundings, with his brother Xander, until the end. We buried him under the trees in the garden, with the stars shining overhead. Sleep well little lad we will miss you xxxxx

Ruffles

I took the photos at the weekend but this is the first chance I've had to post them.

Firstly the rainbow baggie, I hit upon the perfect edging for the flap - a ruffle. Thanks to Knitty and Knitting on the Edge here it is:



My almost-6-year-old niece liked the baggie so I am knitting one whilst on holiday, it will be different but it will have ruffles!

Stash enhancement: first Adriafil Graphic (from the Woolly Workshop) in shade 87, gorgeous:


Then some limey green Fantazie eyelash yarn from eBay:



We have been having some gorgeous weather after almost a week of cloudy cooler weather. It was in the mid to high 20s at the weekend and has been in the low 20s all week so far, yey! The chinchillas are less impressed with it being warmer, they just flop out and sleep.

Ooh, almost forgot, the scarf is nearing completion, it is just over 50 inches and needs to be around 66. Hoping to finish it before I trog off on holiday!

(On about my fourth edit!) My needles arrived very quickly from Kangaroo, and the River John birch needles are gorgeous. I can foresee more of these being acquired.

Weather update

The BBC weather website currently says we are having mostly rain this week. Boo hiss. However I watched the TV weather and they are forecasting rain but on Friday it will supposedly be 24C :-o If it's raining *and* 24C then we've had some serious continental drift this week! I don't believe it can rain here and be that warm. It was like March today. Here I am, feeding the plants, espcially the exotics like cannas and the banana (who now has 4 banana-children in the tub too), and they get exposed to lashing rain and wind! At least the tree fern seems happier this year, it has 2 new fronds unfurling and 2 or 3 more upcoming. Last year we were convinced it had died, it was so late coming into leaf.

In yarn news, I ordered some Adriafil Graphic (red/fuschia multi) from the Woolly Workshop yesterday. The nice lady who runs it emailed to say she had posted it today. In fact I had quite a nice portion of a Sunday afternoon going through the adverts in Knitting, and found a fair number of good sites. There is a shop in Ulverston, South Lakes, that looks very interesting and may be visited in due course (which may make up for Windermere not having a yarn shop, not one we could find anyway!).

Congrats Midge

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS and well-deserved to Midge Ure for his OBE recognising services to music and charity :-)

Rockstar scarf

Here is progress so far on the Rockstar-esque scarf (as seen on Knitty). It is "-esque" because I'm knitting it on larger needles than the original pattern so it's slightly wider. Yarns are Wendy Shimmer "Bordeaux" and grey chunky acrylic. One day I will get some of the fabled Koigu yarn, they seem to use it quite a bit on Knitty patterns, but it's quite pricey stuff and very few people stock it in the UK.




Note the one place where I forgot to slip the first stitch of the row :-) It's amazing how this makes a much neater edge when knitting every row, quite important if you have a scarf where the edge isn't going to be a seam. I hadn't tried this before but I will always use it now.

I've made a start on weaving the ends in but you can see where I've loosely tucked them behind to take the photo :-)

I tried to go outside to take the photo, as even next to the window the camera insisted on flash, but it's rather windy and cold outside today! Apparently it was 18C in Melbourne today (and this is their winter). In our summer it is 14C here, someone please explain why our weather is so pitiful! It has been lovely all week though, obviously we need to atone for having had a run of decent weather.

This month's Knitting magazine has a review of knitting needles. As my collection is currently sadly lacking in various sizes (anything much larger than 4.5mm - most of them probably from my Gran!) I went along to Kangaroo. They advertised bamboo needles, and also River John birch needles. I've ordered a pair of RJ needles in 12mm size, and various bamboo in smaller sizes. I'm very interested to see how they handle and feel, having heard much talk about how wood-based needles are better if you have arthritis.

Take a look at Knitknack in the US too. They stock what might be termed "very posh" needles, verrrry nice indeed but rather pricey.

Yarnorama

Here's some of my yarn stash - this is most of the individual types although I have more of most of them:





Back row left to right:
- Wendy Velvet Touch pale pink - very soft indeed
- Stylecraft 100% wool DK in deep pink (for the Knitty Wavy Scarf) - from LYS
- Wendy Wild Spice chunky yarn, deep pink - rom LYS
- Jaeger "Grace" yarn in pink, 80/20 viscose/cotton, a soft chenille-type yarn (this was a bargain on eBay - 500g for 7.99 UKP)
- Kilcarra 100% wool Irish aran-style yarn (I have one each of purple and deep red too)

Front row L-R:
- Stylecraft Gypsy in shade "Sunset", another eBay buy (250g in total)
- Adriafil Baroque mohair mix fancy yarn, in green/blue/pink shadings - from LYS (I was so impressed with my LYS, they had Adriafil and Noro and all sorts of other stuff)

In the middle is a skein of Lynne's handspun/hand-dyed yarn! This is going to become a jewellery drawstring bag. The pattern is for the "Gunnister Purse".

Current project is a scarf based on the Knitty Rockstar scarf, using Wendy Shimmer "Baroque" (pinks/purples) and a darkish grey chunky yarn (100% acrylic). I had forgotten it was chunky and not just DK as it has been in the cupboard for some months - but it knits up nicely and quite flexibly all the same. Picture on next post - I am currently weaving in the ends for the part I've completed so far as I can't face doing it all at the end :-)