All Fingers and Thumbs

A Bank Holiday weekend in Cornwall was wonderful medicine for the blahs - there was sunshine on a village fete: Though never fear there was plenty of rain, to remind you it was a Bank Holiday weekend in Cornwall. Time was spent on the beach nevertheless, and indoors there was the soft summer scent of Mama grown sweet peas. We returned to find we had left brilliant blue skies and sunshine in Oxford but I don't mind so much as at least the rainy days meant plenty of knitting was done.

There's been a blah-ness in the air of my week, I've been not feeling so sparkly and made little headway on anything so here are some cheering bits of pretty from about the place: Happy weekend be it long or short... aren't they always too short?

Both for England and my fingers :o) Of course if it had gone the distance I might have had a chance of finishing the back but I'll happily take the win today ;o)

The cricket, the ribbing, the weekend. I'm off with the radio to the garden with all my fingers and thumbs crossed that it all continues so well (from my perspective anyway!).

So England and Australia are away on the final match of The Ashes - it's beyond me to predict what might happen, this has been a series full of crazy swings in form and performance by both teams - so I'm crossing my fingers for a classic match to round it off whoever wins. Oh alright then, to be honest I'll take a dull match if England win - but please no draw! My knitting challenge will not be gripping specatator sport, I want to get the back of Arisaig done. With about 80 rows of 2x2 rib to kick things off I might be doing well just to get through that, though the thought of the lovely lace to play with is a good incentive to make me push on through.

..with The Poetry Society How to Knit a Poem Gwyneth Lewis The whole thing starts with a single knot and needles. A word and pen. Tie a loop in nothing. Look at it. Cast on, repeat the procedure till you have a line that you can work with. It’s a pattern made of relation alone, my patience, my rhythm, till empty bights create a fabric that can be worn, if you’re lucky and practised. It’s never too late to pick up dropped stitches, each hole a clue to something that might be bothering you, though I link mine with ribbons and pretend I meant them to happen. I make a net of meaning that I carry round portable, to work on sound in trains and terrible waiting rooms. It’s thought in action. It redeems odd corners of disposable time, making them fashion. It’s the kind of work that keeps you together. The neck’s too tight, but tell me honestly: How do I look? © 2007, the BBC From: How to Knit a Poem Publi...

Well it's taken a new digital scale, paper and pen and I've had to get the calculator out for the Arisaig yarn calculations, not enough fingers and thumbs available! Assuming my maths is correct I have plenty of yarn and now I have relinquished my goose egg goal in favour of always having something on the needles I am excited about this! To help me remember and in case anyone else didn't know how to calculate yardage from the weight of yarn I'll set out what I did. ( I think I read how on the Yarn Harlot blog a long time ago. I had a snippet of text about this saved in the patterns folder on my PC for the day it would come in handy - sometimes I think I'm wasted in my current role of minion of the world - with such forethought and organisation I'm sure there should be a leader space open somewhere? Just so long as it doesn't involve too much maths I'm set.) I measured 10 metres off the cone and then weighed it. In the case of the green yarn this weig...

Clearing my needles or reaching goose egg as I shall now think of it thanks to Mooncalf has been going well. It's been so good to see long term projects like Moonlight and Lady E make it to completion and to shove along some other malingerers. I didn't make it by the end of July but I'm close. The irritating mitte n has been frogged because I'm determined not to buy more yarn; we've been rearranging furniture and I have a cupboard that soon by hook or by crook all my yarn will fit in. Frogging is so much easier from a distance. I find that when those stitches are fresh and I know how long they took it is really hard, later the attachment to the stitches for their own sake is lessened and it's more about the item as a whole and how to best deal with it. In this case with a farewell! So I have just one Angee sock and Arisaig to deal with. Arisaig is the tricky 'been hanging around for a long time' one. Back in May 2007 I'd started in on a plain sl...

Thank goodness that step by step, stripe by stripe I've finally made it to Friday. I've been so tired all week that some evenings one stripe of five rows was a tall order but little by little a good life is accomplished and its really good to have another FO. Pattern: Plain stocking stitch with a 7 stitch 1x1 rib running down the back; I knit from both ends of the ball in alternating five row stripes Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock - S184 Needles: 2.5mm DPNs Started: 10 April 2009 Finished: 7 August 2009 I used the stationary jogless stripes technique from Techknitter to try and minimise the jogs where I changed colours and I hid them in the rib at the back and on the side/sole of the foot. I'm really happy with the first half of both socks but the foot of each has its issues. Exhibit A: The much bemoaned Noro knot issue - why for the love of all that is wonderful about yarn can they not rejoin at the same/similar point in the colourway after a break? I didn't like to do that ...

Lady Eleanor rolls into gay Paris a week late and wonders where the cheers are? Surely the crowds that welcomed those cyclists last Sunday want to give a round or two of applause for her in all her magnificence? Clearly they know nothing about being fashionably late. Isn't she fabulous darlings? Pattern: Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from Scarf Style Yarn: Noro Silk Garden - assorted colourways Needles: 4.5mm circular needle Started: June 2007 Finished: 2 August 2009 Just love everything about this, except that it's too warm to wear it right now!! I've left it unblocked as I love the texture of the entrelac both back and front. I've had dilemmas along the way about how to change colourways etc but I like the two contrasting halves and I think the only thing I would do differently would be to hold over a little of the first colourway to add in to the fringe. Oh and knit it faster, I really did enjoy knitting this - gift knits, flashy new projects, startitis all conspi...