the twisted yarn

Knitting, crochet, running, and silliness.

Finished Object!

by 23 Comments

New year is a funny ol’ time, and I realize that folk have wildly different feelings about it.

If you’re one of those ultra-sorted people who takes their life to the existential gym five times a week for a thorough workout, and you’re ticking those life goals off the list faster than the ink will flow from your pen, then I’m sure you’re just fine-and-dandy on New Year’s Eve, and are up at midnight singing Auld Lang Syne with the best of ’em. (Maybe you even know all the words.)

Predictably, I’ve been knitting.

But if life isn’t yet quite in the Nobel-prize-winning position that you’d anticipated, then it’s all too easy to OD on cheap prosecco and get maudlin about how it’s “yet another year and I still haven’t won first prize for my onions in the village produce show,” which can lead to sitting in a dark corner at the party and despairing. I mean really, how does Mr W.M.M. Prendergast Esq. from Rose Cottage keep growing these award-winning monster scallions year after year? How?! They’re freaks of nature! I swear there must be some kind of doping irregularity going on. If I tried chopping one of those onions for dinner, I wouldn’t just get a bit tearful; I’d solve the whole Middle Eastern water shortage.

In fact, I’ve FINISHED the knitting.

But, hey, 1st January is just another day, as is the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th. I sincerely hope that your 2017 will be filled with good things both large and small. And yarn. Lots and lots of squooshy yarn. Happy new year.

So did you stay up past midnight to see in the new year (just to check that it did actually arrive on time – like a really important Amazon delivery)? I headed to London with the Stoic Spouse and the twinnage, to a small party at the house of friends from undergrad days.

Naturally, I knitted on the way.

T’was fun. At five to midnight, we observed our many-years-old tradition and climbed the stairs to the very top of their house. From the attic room balcony, we waited for Big Ben’s midnight chime (via the radio), glasses of champagne ready in our shivering hands. As the new year arrived, we watched fireworks burst all across the London skyline. I know that a lot of people will be glad to see the back of 2016.

New Year's Eve fireworks over London

We attempted to sing Auld Lang Syne, but even though we’ve been doing this on and off for the best part of twenty years, none of us really knows the words, so we just hold hands with our arms crossed and sing, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, la la la la la la laaaaaaaaa. La la la la, la la la la, for the sake of auld lang syne.” I do realize that Google is a thing, and we should probably be doing better by now.

So I hope that your 2017 has started well. What’s happened round here so far is that I’ve finished my heavily modified version of the ‘Glitter Glam’ jumper. It’s come out OK:-

The pattern is from a recent issue of Simply Knitting magazine, and is listed right here on Ravelry. (Speaking of Simply Knitting, my latest column is out in the current issue. Feel free to go pester your newsagent for a copy. Obviously it’s a marvel of wit and erudition, this time about how deeply yarn/knitting have infiltrated the English language.)

Thanks to your wisdom, I kept it simple and worked the whole thing in stockinette as the variegation in the yarn is plenty complex enough. I also converted it to in-the-round, and added a bit of shaping at the waist. Yarn: Adriafil Knitcol in shade 49: ‘Picasso Fancy’. It’s warm, but it’s a teeny tiny bit itchy, so I’m going to rinse it with hair conditioner to smooth those fibres.

Happy knitting/crocheting, folks. 🙂

Comments

  3. So glad you had the new year fireworks and photographed them! I like your jumper by itself and under something. And thereby comes my question. Since we here in the States call a jumper a sweater and that sort of dress you’d put a blouse or a sweater on beneath a jumper, what do you call that sort of dress? Linguistics are almost as interesting as knitting.

    Reply

  5. Here in Minnesota and most of the US we would call your jumper a pullover as differentiated from a cardigan.
    I enjoy very much reading your blog about life in England (and knitting). I’ve visited England a few times, but that covers different territory than everyday life

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  6. It is indeed a pinafore dress. The white apron that Alice wears over her blue dress is also called a pinafore. Confusing eh! I Now speaking as the Secretary of the Gardening Club which runs said annual Produce Show leave our onions alone and enter some items in the handicraft section! P.S That reminds me I have your share of our allotment onions share with you and the broccoli is looking good. X

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  8. Mrs TY that is stunning and bee ut i ful! Happy New Year to you and yours. And now it is 2017 and I no longer have a zero magazine purchase goal for the year I can buy Simply Knitting and be impressed by your erudition and humour. All power to your pen/keyboard! Long may you continue to brighten my day.

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  10. It looks lovely on you dear, that blue “what shall we call it” looks lovely worn over it. A view over London! Wow, did the Royal Fireworks from Handel in the park more then once and that was impressive. You saw the whole skyline! You lucky few.Hope the children didn’t wake 2 hours later after your bedtime XD Mine always did. Have a good and love filled 2017 xxx

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  11. That looks fantastic. A very Happy, hea;thy 2017 to you and yours !!
    BTW: I love your hair. It looks a lot like mine, only I am losing the thickness because of my age (52) 😉 Keep on knitting 😉

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  12. I don’t believe that you actually have THAT PROJECT on the go. When I saw the blogpost heading I thought, “Oh great! Here we are at last” Not!!

    I think you are only pretending, thereby ensuring that you bring people back to read your blog regularly as we wait in nerve-racking anticipation.

    I think that maybe you have some very clever software on your computer which enables you to lie to us. Or else you have magicked the fairies and elves to to do it on your behalf and give you photos to post.

    Shame on you. I for one want to SEE it! However, the jumper is splendid and I love the neckline and the colours.

    Kathy

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  13. Tasty jumper Ms T. Happy New Year and if it’s any consolation, we are still trying to remember when we have to take the Christmas decorations down. I think it’s the 6th?! I almost had a heart attack when I saw the title of this post. I thought that maybe, possibly, you might have finished the incredible mini garden project but then I remembered (just in time to stop myself from dialing “000”) that you had mentioned that you were knitting a glorious jumper first. Hanging out to see the (not so) secret project. You KNOW you will feel 10 years younger when you eventually finish it 😉

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  17. Happy New Year! That’s a very pretty sweater, and I like the combination with the jumper (jumper as in what you wore over it, not as in British word for sweater…).
    And thanks for the hair conditioner tip!

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  19. Your jumper is lovely, but I do like your cardigan very much – and I enjoyed your article in Simply Knitting too! It’s funny where all these sayings come from; there are so many of them in our English language (including more than a few that my mother-in-law made up that relate to nothing whatsoever) and I think we’d be the poorer without them 🙂 xx

    Reply

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