Killing in progress

Progress on the ‘Killing’ sweater was slower than expected yesterday due to the last minute confirmation that the book group would be meeting at my house (we’d held off making a decision until we were sure that it wouldn’t snow). Whoever hosts gets to choose the next book so I had some speedy research to do.

Our book group choice for April

Luckily I’d got the chance to catch “A Good Read” on radio 4 earlier in the week when one of the featured books was “The Shipping Forecast” by Annie Proulx. Listening to the discussion reminded me how much I’d enjoyed the book  ( it’s now several years since I read it) so this is the one that we will talk about in two months time – next month it’s Room by Emma Donoghue.

Anyway, enough of my excuses – I’ve finished the body of the sweater and have started on the first sleeve.

I’ve decided to keep the sleeves plain as in the pattern shown in issue 46 of Knit magazine, rather than have the snowflake motif round the cuff as in the original pattern:

 The sleeve is growing quite quickly and I’m pleased with how the shaping looks. However, I think that second sleeve syndrome is going to hit harder than second sock! Still, at least I’ve got the challenge of the yoke to look forward to…….

 

Tempted by the sunshine

I was driving back from posting orders this afternoon (it’s a six mile round trip as the post office in the village is only open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) – and I was struck by the beauty of the countryside in the last afternoon sunshine. So, as soon as I’d parked I went out again (walking this time) to make the most of the fresh air.

IStill some snow left

I enjoy walking and love the ‘head space’ it gives me – time to reflect and plan. Today’s walk was also the opportunity to test out a new version of the Hugger Hat; this time knitted in Rico Creative Poems:

It’s shown here on a dummy because, although I can take a photo of my feet for socks, I haven’t yet worked out how to take a photo of myself wearing a hat. Anyway, it passed the test and kept me lovely and cosy. The wool is really soft and I love how it has created its own stripes.

I’m feeling virtuous after the walk and can now continue with the ‘Killing’ sweater – here’s a photo of progress so far:

 I’m quite pleased with how quickly it is growing and hope to get to the armholes tonight. Further progress reports tomorrow.

Making a Killing

Hi Folks, sorry that I’ve not blogged for a while – I just don’t know where the time goes. I do know that there never seems to be enough time to knit – but still, I’m grateful that I can manage to do some knitting almost every day.

I’m particularly excited about my latest project – I’ve finally managed to get my hands on the wool to knit a jumper like the one worn by Sarah Lund in the Danish detective programme “The Killing”.

The pattern, originally designed by Hjertegarn, has been translated from Danish by Katy at Art Yarn. The yarn is Peruvian wool from Denmark (I know that confused me too initially) so all-in-all it’s a multi-national project.

The jumper is knitted in the round and the pattern suggests you use 80cm circular needles. I must confess that I found these a little long so I am using 60cm now and will save the 80cm for the yoke. That feels like a long way off as, so far, I’ve only completed the rib:

The ribbing is done!

I’m up against a fairly tight deadline as I want this finished in time for the Creative Craft Show at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern from the 1st-3rd March. If you don’t want to wait until then to make your own killing you can also get the kit online at www.knitncaboodle.co.uk

Le perfect weekend

Every month the ‘How to Spend It’ magazine in the Financial Times has a feature called ‘The Perfect Weekend’. For me, last weekend would be a strong contender. I was fortunate enough to be in Nice, the sun was shining and it was relatively warm.

Strolling around the streets of the Old Town was simply delightful. It doesn’t matter how many times I go there, I always find something new – either a restaurant I’ve not noticed before or a street that seems unfamiliar – like this one, for instance.

I also never get tired of browsing around the daily markets – fruit and flowers in the Cours Saleya and a fish market at Place Francois. My favourite shop, though, has to be La Droguerie which stocks a fabulous selection of yarns, buttons, accessories and knitting patterns.

I spent hours here looking through the latest patterns, trying to increase  my knowledge of French knitting terms and taking inspiration from the many designs on display.

As usual in France, the food was a treat. Wafer-thin pizza at La Foccacia on Saturday evening and a splendid Sunday lunch of fish soup, grilled prawns and apple tart at L’Eclat du Cours. Best of all, it was warm enough to eat outside in the sunshine and that was sufficient to wipe away any trace of post-Christmas blues.

Back to a virtual world

Well, it’s now back to a virtual world after four exciting days at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate (well, five if you count the set-up day). It was such fun to meet so many lovely people – and to put faces to our online customers who dropped by to say hello.

Setting up the stand is always a bit of a challenge – how do you fit so much gorgeous yarn into such a small space? This photo shows the stand after about an hour and a half’s preparation - just at the stage when we started to panic that we’d never fit it all in….

But we persevered and this next photo shows one side nearly completed….

 And this is the table on the other side with the Shawl from One Ball samples displayed above…

And finally, the back wall – featuring the Zauberball Shawl which attracted more interest than almost anything else – and which was so simple to knit that it felt like cheating….

I’ve started so I’ll finish

Oh, to be a completer-finisher! The pleasure I get from casting on with a new ball of yarn far outwieghs the satisfaction of actually finishing something. Countless times I’ve started knitting the latest yarn purchased as soon as I’ve got in the door – before I’ve even taken off my coat or put the kettle on!

The trouble is that this excitement is short-lived and before long I’m looking for my next ‘fix’. Once I’m a few centimetres into my knitting I’m already planning the next project and don’t always have the self-discipline to finish one before moving on to the next. I can always find ways to justify this in my own mind - I tell myself that whatever I’m working on needs a lot of concentration so I’d best start something easier if I’m going to be knitting on a car journey or at the folk night – but deep down I know these are just excuses!!

At the moment I’ve got five projects on the needles – two shawls, a scarf and two different pairs of socks but, already I’m being sorely tempted by the yarns I bought last week at Fibre Flurry. I bought a skein of deep-coloured Twinkle from Easy Knits, a beautiful pink sock yarn from the Knitting Goddess and some deliciously soft boucle from the Old Piggery. All of these are destined to be made into Christmas presents so I do need to get on with them – in fact, I’m surprised that the skeins are still intact one week later. But they’re calling and I know that resistance is futile - I just don’t know where to start. Maybe I should start all three today – what would you do?

Knitting without the natter

There are lots of ‘Knit and Natter’ groups around the country but you could have heard a pin drop during the first forty minutes of the latest Knit ‘n’Caboodle workshop. The half-day workshop helps knitters to get started on our ‘Shawl from One Ball’ kit.

This triangular shawl only uses three basic stitches: yarn over, knit, knit 2 together.

The yarn overs are used to increase four stitches on every alternate row: one at each end of the row and two in the middle. This becomes easier once you get going but, to begin with, requires some concentration and counting - and that is when the natter ceased. Even the suggestion to have some background music was rejected as being too distracting!!

We soon got into the swing of things and everyone found their own way of keeping track of the pattern – some found it helped to note down each increase row as they did it whilst Chris had the brilliant idea of marking the tip of one needle with nail polish so that she knew whether or not she was on an increase row. Once underway the chat resumed and, as usual we covered a whole range of topics from ‘Strictly’ to the state of the economy and put the world to rights.

From a slow start the shawl grows surprisingly quickly and by the end of the afternoon everyone was choosing another colour to knit a second shawl. I suspect a lot of women will be getting shawls this Christmas!