Ooh!

None too articulate at this time of night, but wanted to say thanks to those who have left me comments! Much appreciated and cheered me up :-)

Another 10 rounds done on the scarf tonight. I left it alone last night as I couldn't sit comfortably.

Silly neck is slightly easier, but spending the day sitting at computers at work in a HOT office didn't do it any good at all. It seems to respond to movement and gentle exercise e.g. housework, which I did when I got home even though it really was warm here today. They are forecasting 25C for tomorrow! Surely this is not England in late August :-)

Quite a contrast to weather in the US at the moment, terrible to see the damage on the TV news tonight.

Gryff scarf progress - 12 stripes

Scarf progress so far, 12 stripes out of 19 done (just started the 13th). You can see the not-quite-jogless jogs on the colour changes, however they probably look better than if I hadn't attempted to make them jogless!



In other news, my lower back has been grumbling somewhat of late. I suspect it has something to do with the germs we currently have floating around the house. DH has had a persistent cold and it most certainly went through me (again!) last Wednesday. Summer colds are most evil. This morning I woke up with a very stiff neck on the right hand side. It refuses to respond to the neck exercises the physio taught me a few months ago. If it thinks it's going to stop me knitting, it is sadly mistaken :-)

I did a tension swatch yesterday with the Cashmerino, in 1x1 rib. It looks lovely knitted up, and feels wonderful to knit with. I went back to my scarf and the yarn felt very odd in comparison. It's 75/25 acrylic/wool though, so not really in the same league!

Conspiracy

Today is almost exactly one year since my previous PC shuffled off this mortal coil, the victim of our well-intentioned attempts to upgrade the hard drive and install XP Pro.

After I got home from work, I switched the PC on and surfed back to order some extra yarn. I'd just added it to the basket when my monitor screen suddenly faded quite gracefully into many multicoloured vertical lines. After a split second of thinking, arg, a virus, I realised it was probably a hardware fault. The monitor wouldn't switch off and we had to pull the power from the back. Poor PC had to be hard-powered off.

Tried reconnecting the power and switching on again - nothing. Power checked out OK in the other monitor. My monitor - dead as a dodo. It was an LCD/TFT-thingummy 17" screen we'd had for 2 years or so. Obviously we worked it into an early grave!

Ended up down the road at Comet (we have a handy-dandy branch about 5 mins drive away) and got an Acer 17" screen. Looks very stylish with a narrow silver surround, and matches the PC. You just don't expect your monitor to do bizarre things like paint itself in a ton of pretty colours then croak. We could do without the extra expense but in this house, PCs are near the top of the electronic pecking order :-) They say jump, we say how high :-D It's definitely a conspiracy.

More yarn acquisition

Part of my order from Get Knitted arrived the other day. I needed a good yellow for making a Hufflepuff scarf (PoA style) and hopefully a Quidditch sweater in the fullness of time. You would not believe how hard it is to find (a) yellow shades in any yarn, and (b) the *right* shade of yellow.

I was originally looking at Jaeger Baby Merino DK and also Matchmaker which is exactly the same yarn but in different shades. I almost went for their Gold but felt it was probably a little too dark (I think the shade pics on the site there are a bit lighter than the actual yarn).

I ended up at Get Knitted and Debbie Bliss yarns. Originally I'd thought to use DK for the next scarf too, but beggars can't be choosers, and the choice of yellows (and also availability of solid black) lead me to the Cashmerino aran (aka worsted weight to the US). I got Egg Yellow (shade 505) and black (shade 300). The yellow is slightly darker than the shade card photo implies, it's like a pale honeyed gold. This is the most beautiful commercial yarn I have added to my stash so far. It is sooo soft. I'm probably very spoilt now when it comes to choosing yarn for future projects :-)

I'd also like to try out Artesano Alpaca one day. I would have ordered this but for the fact they didn't have a dark enough black - rather more charcoal/dark grey than black.

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran shade 505 (55% merino wool, 33% microfibre, 12% cashmere):



And on an unrelated note, a photo of some of the Noro Kureyon from ebay, shade 157 in rusts, purples, greens and tans:

My lovely wedding baggie

I promised Lynne back at the end of June that I would post photos of the gorgeous baggie she knitted for me for my wedding in July:

The bag:



Closeup of beaded fringe:



Closeup of the cutest little shell beads (we got married in Penzance in Cornwall, so a nautical theme was in order!):



Finally the pretty lining:

Gryffindor scarf progress

Almost finished the second yellow stripe of the Gryffindor PS/CoS scarf. It turns out that the yellow yarn knits up marginally bigger than the red - so I'm adding 2 more rows to each red stripe so red and yellow are the same size. Two different brands of yarn though, bought at my LYS as I was keen to get started ... quite hard to find a decent yellow-gold colour there.

I have my beady eye on some Jaeger merino yarn for a PoA/GoF Hufflepuff scarf (inverted colours, main black with yellow/gold bars). I have now firmly decided it will be in K1P1 rib, seeing as we have it confirmed that this is how the movie scarves are made. Also have plans for a Quidditch sweater in the same colourway, and now my patches have arrived from Patch Palace I have no excuse.

Jogless jogs!

I'd like to say a big thank-you to socknitters.com for their most excellent tutorial on jogless jogs. I've done the first colour change on the HP scarf tonight and followed their instructions, and oh my goodness it actually worked for me. The jog is a LOT less noticeable than it otherwise would be, and since this will be the "side seam" anyway it will be pretty much invisible.

Stash-o-rama

As promised, some stash update pictures.

First, the new stash storage solution = 3 plastic clip-lid crates from Poundstretcher:



Next a skein (160g) of sari silk yarn from one of the two yarn shops in Penzance:



Some Wendy wool/acrylic jewel coloured yarn from the yarn shop in Falmouth:



Pale pink cotton/acrylic chenille/boucle type yarn from the other YS in Penzance:



100% wool Stylecraft DK, pink for the Knitty wavy scarf, and blue for a secret project:



Last but not least, the red and gold yarns (75% acrylic 25% wool DK) for the Gryffindor scarf (just over 3 inches completed). Both colors look lighter than they actually are:



Also found the answer I was looking for regarding casting-off in the round - just do what I did anyway and "fix" the slight gap. I love Knitting Help, what a great site, and often watching a demo of something will make it "click". I now also understand exactly what "pick" is in Continental style knitting, as opposed to "throw" that I do :-)

Knitty stuff I've learned this year

As my knitting skills, whilst acquired some years ago, are fairly basic (in the past I've made a couple of sweaters, one with an intricate intarsia pattern), I thought I'd post updates on things I've learned. So far this year I've learned:

- circular knitting
- selvedge knitting
- cable cast-on
- i-cords
- making ruffles

One of my favourite knitting books is "Knitting on the Edge". It's lovely just to look through and does make you want to just knit the edgings! There's a sequel being published in October, "Knitting over the Edge", hoorah :-)

Circular knitting practice

Here's what I ended up with from my circular knitting practice. Using the rainbow acrylic, cheap n cheerful, I seamed the top and sewed on two plaits, one on each top corner :-) No pattern, no planning, but it's ever so comfortable! I'm also glad I did this before starting on the Gryffindor PS/CoS scarf.

Apologies for the lurid glowing colour scheme, I tried to get a decent photo of me wearing it and failed miserably, so I took this indoors with camera flash. Honestly, it doesn't glow in the dark ...



I'm curious about casting-off in the round, because I ended up with the cast-off not joined together, and I'm durned if I can find any hints about CO in the round. OK, you can fix it, but if there's something handy-dandy to prevent it I'm all ears.

Flamingo ...

Looked up "flamingo" at Merriam Webster and this is the result:

Main Entry: fla·min·go
Pronunciation: fl&-'mi[ng]-(")gO
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -gos also -goes
Etymology: obsolete Spanish flamengo (now flamenco), literally, Fleming, German (conventionally thought of as ruddy-complexioned)
: any of several large aquatic birds (family Phoenicopteridae) with long legs and neck, webbed feet, a broad lamellate bill resembling that of a duck but abruptly bent downward, and usually rosy-white plumage with scarlet wing coverts and black wing quills.

So, we are allowed to use either spelling - phew :-)

Stash enhancement photos on their way in the next couple of days I hope!

A quick visit to the LYS

Popped in to the LYS after work today, for some yarn for a secret project for a friend. I won't go into any detail in case she happens to read this :-) All I'm saying is, it's a mid to darkish blue DK 100% wool yarn.

Of course, it was sitting at the bottom of the precarious pile of bags of yarn near the door. Last week's expedition for the HP scarf yarn also ended up with the gold yarn being located behind said wobbly pile. I love the way this shop is packed to the gunnels with stuff. Not just yarn but tapestry supplies, patterns, accessories etc. etc. They carry a good range and better than any of the shops we visited while in Cornwall last month.

Also braved the passport photo booth for the second time. Last time it managed to chop off the very top of my hair on the prints, so no good for passports, the pictures have to pass CAA rules and missing bits of head/hair are unacceptable! There is something distinctly odd about the machine, if you sit with your eyes at "eye level", you end up too high. At least I don't look quite so crazed on these new photos :-)

Martin Mere photos

We are members of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and visited our nearest centre, Martin Mere, last weekend. Here are a few photos, apologies that I don't know the names of some of the birds ...

Posing duck:



White geese:



Flamingos:



Crane statue:



And finally, a photo I just call "High Noon" :-)

Re-sorted

Just did a rather long and involved sorting quiz and it came up with:

The sorting hat says that I belong in Hufflepuff!

Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same."

Hufflepuff students are friendly, fair-minded, modest, and hard-working. A well-known member was Cedric Digory, who represented Hogwarts in the most recent Triwizard Tournament.

 

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

Ah the joys of the internet and late night surfing!

And here we have the pictures that Blogger ate!

First the finished Rockstar-esque scarf:



Second the UFO - camisole back in Giotto shade Raphael:



Last but not least the baggie knitted in Lynne's lovely handspun angora-mix:

Umm OK, Blogger ate a posting ...

Looks like Blogger ate my previous post, I'll repost the pictures later on.

Bad Blogger, bad!

Sorted

Good thing I bought red and gold yarn then!

I'm from Gryffindor!

Hogwart's Sorting Hat Quiz

made by The Genki Gang

My first pair of Addi circulars arrived yesterday, so I thought I'd get some practice in before I started the scarf proper. The join on the first few rows is, er, a bit diabolical, but once I realised the mistake it looked fine after that. I love that you just have to do knit stitches and you get stockinette :-)

I also won me the skein winder on ebay - for just over 13 UKP. They sell for over 30 UKP new and this looks new. Hoorah! I am almost ready to wind a new skein of Giotto too.

Got me four of the Colinette pattern books yesterday, including Artyfacts which is hats, scarves, bags and mittens. This is all in preparation for a trip to their HQ in September while we are in Wales :-) I love the Point 5 yarn, knitted on 12mm needles.

Snagged a reasonable bargain on ebay again today - 500g of Noro Kureyon for 37 UKP - it normally sells for about 4.50 UKP for 50g. Shade 157 which is purples, rusts, greens etc. and looks gorgeous.