Out-and-about today with the twinnage and the stoic spouse. No, this isn't a knitting post, but I'm 80% of the way through my latest project and will "ta-dah" it in a few days' time. So, we went to part of the Ridgeway. I've often walked small sections of this ancient 85-mile trail before. It's a long, raised chalk ridge, trudged for at least the last 5000 years by herdsmen, traders, soldiers, and other travellers. Its height helped navigation and security, and raised it a little over the Continue Reading
Archives for December 2013
Knitted Chicken
OK, it's not a chicken, it's a cockerel. My friend dropped heavy hints that she wanted a knitted model of Tuesday, her lovely pet chicken:- Here she is, visiting our house. And here's the replica. OK she's had a gender change and lost her beautiful markings, but having spent days (and days) on this, I'm a bit chickened out. Continue Reading
Knitted Christmas decoration
I had to share this with you. Look! Look at the cables! Look at the stockinette! It's about eight inches wide, and I found it in an unprepossessing-looking card shop in a town near here. T'was far too expensive for what it is, and one tumble on to our hard floors will undoubtedly shatter it, but I couldn't resist. Continue Reading
Knitting: it’s everywhere, this Christmas
A while ago, I blogged about knitted motifs being trendy at the moment, especially fairisle designs. To a fairisle addict like me, this both gladdens my heart (the world is coming round to my way of thinking at last - I wonder what took it so long?!) and worries me ('tis written in the rules that Whatsoever Is Trendy Today Will Be Deeply, Shamefully, Untrendy Tomorrow, and I say that as someone who proudly wore fluorescent orange fluffy socks for all six weeks that they were cool in the 1980s Continue Reading
Knitted Reindeer Head
Well, operation Christmas is in full swing. The tree is up:- I've begun Christmas shopping. I've started replying to emails asking "What do you want for Christmas?" The stoic spouse has experimented with a different form of roast potatoes for each of the past seven nights, ahead of his culinary efforts on the big day. And the reindeer head I knitted a few months ago has been brought downstairs and adorned with baubles:- Other than writing my cards, tidying the entire house, Continue Reading
The Ugly Duckling And The Beautiful Swan
I'm going to be controversial here, again. First, I want you to imagine something. We'll call this Scenario A:- Imagine, you were in the LYS, and you saw the most stunningly beautiful skein of wool. 'Twas gorgeous, wasn't it? Pure cashmere, homespun, dyed with love and care. All those rich autumnal colours blended in just the right proportions. Curled tightly in its skein, red tumbled into sage green, and when you squished it, you glimpsed a flicker of orange amongst its browns. Admit it, you Continue Reading
Christmas decorations
Oh all right, I admit it, but only grudgingly. Christmas is almost upon us. 'Tis the season of curmudgeonly old grumps like me cheering up. I need to stop knitting housey stuff and apply my mind to gifts, and guests, and grub. Actually, the grub's covered because the stoic spouse is already engaged in his annual mission to source the best turkey in Western Europe. But I do need to think about the rest of it. We have a tree! I've put it up in the slobbing-around-room next to the kitchen, Continue Reading
Fern cushion for bench finished
I know, I've mentioned this a few times, but it is - at last - done! Completely done! I've sewn the two sides together around a custom-cut foam cushion, then sewn some white cord all the way around the join to make it neater. So... we have the green side (a couple of greenish shades of Rowan Fine Tweed roughly alternating):- And we have the red/brown side, also comprising a few shades of Rowan Fine Tweed thrown together. This side is supposed to coordinate with the curtains, but I Continue Reading
46 000 tiny stitches finished! Yay!
46 000 tiny little stranded stitches on 3mm needles finished! Wheeeeeeee! Ten balls of 4-ply yarn (Rowan Fine Nordic Tweed, ordered from Deramores). This is the second side of the cushion I'm making for our Victorian box settle:- I love the bracken design - it'll make me think of the wilds as we set off on our walks. Not that there's any bracken round here. So I knitted the triumphant last row. And I sewed my steek stitches to reinforce them before cutting:- Before I blocked Continue Reading
An Iron Age hill fort and a break from knitting
Sometimes, I put the knitting needles down. Just for a while, so that I can stretch my fingers. Today, the stoic spouse, the twinnage and I actually went out together. At the same time. To the same place. There's an impressive-looking Iron Age hill fort near here that I pass on my way to work. I'd love to get a photo of it with the early morning sun draped across its terraces, but I'm generally late and in a rush. So today, we all went off to climb it. The weather was not kind to Continue Reading