All Fingers and Thumbs

To Cornwall for a couple of days and then me Mammy and I are off to see the delights of Cardiff for the Bank Holiday weekend. A 5 day weekend now why don't they come round more often? Can't beat a sock as a travel project and if I don't pack anything else I should have a shiny new pair of socks to present to the other half for his birthday on Monday. Thank you all for your lovely words about my little peg dolls - any suggestions for other literary country girls I should base the next one on? I have three more blank faces to illuminate.

'Oh, Diana' said Anne at last, clasping her hands and speaking almost in a whisper, 'do you think - oh, do you think you can like me a little - enought to be my bosom friend?' Diana laughed. Diana always laughed before she spoke. 'Why, I guess so,' she said frankly. I'm awfully glad you've come to live at Green Gables. It will be jolly to have somebody to play with.' Pattern: Country Girl Clothespin Doll Kit from Posie: Rosy Little Things Started: 20 April 2008 Finished: 26 April 2008 Inspiration and Quotes: Anne of Green Gables - L.M.Montgomery

Project Spectrum has made me think much more about how people have their colours. Colours that you seem to see more than others, not because they are brighter or stronger to the world but because they are to you. Inside and out I am surrounded by the greens, browns and metallics yet they make much less impact to my view of the world. For the first couple of months of Project Spectrum photos jumped out at me while this time I've looked much harder for them - the greens, browns and metallics are there in far more plentiful variations than the reds, oranges and pinks but I rarely see them. These makes me realise one of the reasons I feel winter is so colourless; although we are rarely whited out with snow it is mainly brown and green colours that abound outside. I wonder whether how we see colours is simply a matter of the numbers of types of cone cells in our retinas or something we learn? However we get there, I love the thought that the same image of a room or view must look subt

I got there in the end and my PIF parcels are now safely with the recipients so I can share details here. (Well actually I'm only two thirds of the way there but the other third is in hand - if not actually knit yet, but hey, let me revel in the glory of nearly being there! Number three is a surprise as I only got two sign ups so I think I get way more leeway on that one.) I so loved the Pay it Forward idea and thought for sure I could make the six month deadline, I knew Christmas wouldn't help matters but I'm glad to see that later versions gave a one year deadline - I made that :o) and some new friends into the bargain. A lovely project. My first sign up was the lovely Von for whom I made some purty socks as the little needles trouble her hands and I would like everyone in the world to have some hand knit socks. I loved the FO and I'm glad to say that she did too so I think we can call them a success. Pattern: Fools Rush Socks Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug - Florentina

..then you can always buy one from Etsy :o) Look at my lovely cube made by the very talented Schrodinger - whose Honeybees in yellow I am busy copying. I figured three pairs of socks on the go meant I needed three project bags. Maybe the bad behaviour of the LMKs has all been down to the fact I've been keeping them trapped in a plastic Ziploc bag, give them some time in this adorable number and I'm sure they'll come round. The book from the last post is by Margaret Mason and I won it in a blog draw from What Katie Did - it's fun but I'm glad she's wrong about the lunch thing. I'll never be short of blog fodder now :o)

which is a shame as it's much more interesting than any of my knitting at the moment!

...or how a wonderful blogger showed me the error of my bumpy ways. I've been procrastinating over finishing up the first of my Honeybee socks and getting on to the second. I'm all past the troublesome toe and heel areas and I should have been breezing along especially as they are very purty. Truth be told though, I didn't want to get to the next toe and feel the slight nag of dissatisfaction I had with the toe and heel on these and on the dreaded LMKs . There's nothing badly wrong, no gaping holes from the wrapped stitches or severed limbs or anything like that, they're just a bit bumpier than I would like where I was picking up the wraps. I was knitting or purling them together with the wrapped stitch as that was what I thought the instructions meant and you get quite a ridge on the purl side. Then I found this tutorial and now I feel like buzzing along with them again. The first ones are not bad enough for a do over but I hope I'll feel better about the se

...projects, if not in the air here in Oxford this morning. Two new projects are underway because the yarns were irresistible. Lovely, fresh green Shibui sock growing in the most appropriately named pattern . I'm glad some of you shared my curiosity to see how the Giotto knit up. I thought I would try a swatch and then I concluded that starting a small scarf was just swatching really so off I went. I'm pleased to say it's turning out just how I hoped. Seeing QoftF's lovely version of a similar pattern recently brought this to the forefront of my mind; I felt a drop stitch pattern would be ideal for showing off the ribbons properly. This is for a July gift so I may just get a present done ahead of schedule for once! As the outside was a little white today, PS earthy tones from the inside - our new living room curtains. That snail was just hanging out like that, I promise Bells :o) I checked to see if he hung around for the snow but he'd slid off somewhere else.

At the end of a week of work my holiday feels like forever ago. It seems like a good time to remember my favourite souvenir from Cornwall. Could it be this delicate Giotto for a summery scarf gift? Rose Garden is the shade - I love the Colinette names nearly as much as the colourways - very evocative. Perhaps it is some of my Dad's hens eggs? Their corn diet gives their eggs rich yellow yolks which make for wonderful baking. Lovely as these things are, my favourite souvenir is captured in a small way in this picture - not just another of my projects underway - this is not my knitting - it is my Mama's knitting :o) I had a feeling that the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the latest Knitty would really appeal to my Mum and wanted to buy the yarn for it while she was on hand for the itch test as she seems to be quite sensitive to certain wools and mohair. I bought it and before I knew it Mum wanted the pattern printed off for her to have a go at. I really hope this awakens her interest in