I’m hooked

Here it is, my first crochet project.  And, as luck would have it, the heatwave has abated, so I’ll be trotting along the street in it as soon as I’ve finished here.  I started out with a double crochet pattern from one of the library books but soon managed to throw in some half trebles and add a fringe.  There’ll be no stopping me now.  My daughter pronounced it ‘dull’, and said if I were to make her a scarf she’d require a lot more brightness, in fact my eyes would water as I worked, so searing would be her choice of colours.  And I thought I was being brazen chucking in a bit of cerise I had laying around.

 

In my new spirit of crochet adventure I ordered the Babette Blanket online.  I tried to start it on Sunday with some odd scraps, but the kids had friends over playing and the noise level was not conducive do doing anything except… well, nothing, really, just watching all that energy wear itself out on the water slide.

I’ve been perusing the Ravelry forums and printed out a few sheets of questions and problems, then, in a quiet moment, I will pick up my hook and commenced.  Someone on a blog somewhere wrote that she was in no hurry to finish her blanket, it was a long term project that she saw taking a couple of years, in odd moments.  I like that, so I’m not giving myself a deadline.

So now I have nothing on the go apart from the boy’s socks on Addi’s in stockingette.  Quite refreshing.

My girl is away for a five days with the school next week.  Oh, how I’ll miss that little person with the enormous presence!  She’s also started walking to school with a friend, and I feel so happy and sad all at once watching her trudge up the road to her friend’s house, a huge bag slung over her shoulder (what do they carry in those things?).

Chain Gang

I read an interview in a Sunday paper with Kimberly Stewart (daughter of the more famous Rod).  She informed us that she knits to relax, and is at present making a scarf for a friend, but it’s taking a while.  For a few minutes there I had something in common with La Kimberly, but now…ha!  Finished my friend’s scarf, Kimmy, so you better get a move on if you want to be in my gang again.

 

 

I think my pal will like it, though she won’t be wearing it for a good long while as it’s getting quite warm in these parts.  I also finished the baby hat for Save the Children.  I won’t post a pic, it’s plain ol’ straight knitting. 

The next project?  A scarf of course!  But this time for me.  I got a beginner crochet book from the library (think it’s the same one I’ve had out many times, and flicked through before taking back, sighing ‘One day…’) and raided my so-called stash for some Rowan All Seasons Cotton, which I have from my Rowan International gifts over two years, plus frogged items started at the Parent and Child weekend in Holmfirth last year.  All the colours seem to go together, though they need a bit of bright pink pizzaz to make them pop.  Crochet grows fast - I’m beginning to see the attraction.  The scarf is a quarter done, even though I started on Saturday (before finishing the projects mentioned in the paragraph above.  Hubby: What’s that you’re doing?  Me: I’m learning to crochet!  I’m making a scarf!  Hubby: Don’t you think you should finish the other one first?  You’ve only got a bit to go.  Me: You’re right … Grrrr…).

 

Stash busting = good karma building exercise

Look what I discovered when I went to the recycling centre:

 

I asked what happens to the items and was told that they are donated to schools, colleges, and old people’s homes.    A worthy cause, more younger people inducted and older people either introduced to the art or remembering why they liked it in the first place.  Maybe your recycling centre has something similar?

Still trolling along with my various projects, no finished objects to flash around here yet.

Reading: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Enjoying.  Just finished listening to ‘The Plot Against America’ by Philip Roth.  The man’s a genius.

Heart warming graffiti

I see this most days on my way home.  It was scrawled in wet cement a long time ago and always makes me smile:

 

Socks, socks everywhere, but none for me

Just got back from Brent Cross, where I bought my daughter a pair of socks in Top Shop:

my son some Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn to make him his first pair of hand-knit socks (’I've been asking you since I was born’):

and my hubby a pair of Massimo Dutti socks as a small part of his birthday present (no pic of these - they are a surprise).  On the way out I mentioned that I was the only one in the family without any new socks and was told by my sprogs that socks was one thing I definitely didn’t need more of.

Further on the knitting front, I’ve been making a baby hat for Save the Children - The Paul O’Grady show on Channel 4, which I catch the end of while waiting for The Simpsons,  had a news item (link here if you are interested).  I’m testing magic loop with this project, and am finding it far from the walk in the park promised in Blogland.   Not as easy as DPNs, but could be because I’m on 5mm circulars.

The Japanese Vines scarf is a third of the way along, and I’m still enjoying it, even managing some while TV watching  (thank goodness for dental floss lifelines). 

Snow fun if it melts too quickly

Here’s my lovely Japanese Vines scarf.  It’s a great knit, interesting without being ‘Don’t speak to me, turn that TV down, take the phone off the hook, I need quiet to concentrate’ demanding.  I had a few tinking back and cussing teething problems, but this baby is worth it.

 

 

I finished the Bird in Hand mittens, thinking how I could have timed it better if they’d have been started earlier in the winter.  But by amazing good fortune there was a freak snowfall yesterday morning and the whole family rugged up and went for a walk.  I stopped on the way out and took this picture in the garden:

Then when we got back I rubbed snow all over them and bent my DIY sock blockers into mitten blockers and hung them up to dry:

 

 

The snow had all gone by the afternoon, so I felt pretty smug about being able to block them in what I feel must be a traditional Scandinavian way.

A cosy neck and cosy fingers queue up behind cosy toes

 

I received a lovely package from Modern Knitting in the week.  3 skeins of Lorna’s Laces in Turquoise to make the Japanese Vines scarf, which I bought on Another Knitting Blog.  There are two options - long and thin or shorter and wide.  I’m going for long and wide.  Radical!  I also bought some Addi Turbo needles, 80 cm size 2.5mm for which I plan another attempt at magic loop.  They look as if they’ll be better than the circulars I attempted it with before (naming no names).  The Addi’s smooth joins and super-flexible cables mean I can’t wait to get going.

 

But at the moment I’m loving my Bird in Hand mittens. 

They seem to grow quickly, and impress the hell out of anyone who sees them on my needles.  And so pretty!  In spite of being the same colours and similar thickness as the project I just finished, I’m quite addicted to them.

 

The project I just finished:

As soon as the ends were sewn in I put them on to admire them, planning then to wash and block them (they are a tad on the tight side).  But no, they are still making my feet cosy so I think foot blocking is the way to go with these babies.

Some Monkeys and a Beatle

So the Mills - McCartney divorce hearing finally rolled to an end.  What I liked about this, indeed about any well-publicised court case with the extremely wealthy’s dirty washing being aired in public, is how smug it makes us ordinary folk feel.  It’s not exactly sour grapes, it’s more relief.  We haven’t got to make security arrangements for our four year old.  We don’t fret that the ex will change the locks on one of the many marital homes.  We have no worries re some ghastly ‘nail technician’ spilling her guts about us to the Sunday rags.   Heck, we don’t even have the added pressure of the loose cannon we married in a fit of lust appearing on daytime television and ranting and crying.  All we have to worry about is if we’ve got enough money for our bus fare, and if not, if there’ll be any spare change down the back of the sofa.

It’s a bit like I feel when I walk down Bond Street and see hideous gee-gaws in the jewellery shop windows, or ornate antiques and paintings in those little side street emporia.  I can’t afford them and I don’t want them.  Liberating.  And I have to admit here that I can’t help having a sneaking admiration for the ex Mrs McCartney.  Not because she caught a Beatle and took him to the cleaners, because I don’t really think she deserves the dosh, but because she’s a bit nutty and knows no embarrassment.  She gets caught out in lies but just ploughs on.  I can’t imagine her waking up in the morning and thinking ‘Oh no! Why did I say that?’  I envy her that, if not her millions.  Well, maybe a few of the millions…..

And here are the monkeys I promised in the title.

Healthy Breakfast

Here’s a sample of what I’ve been eating for breakfast this week:

 

Pavlova - and bread and butter pudding, which I didn’t get a picture of.  I had a party, you see, and the desserts, which all the ladies present raved about, didn’t get a lot of spoon-action from the men in our group.  So there was rather a lot of my favourite sugar and fat combos in my fridge.  Oh well, waste not….waist not. 

And here’s an arty shot of the BT Tower, reminiscent of the cover of Ian McEwan’s ‘Saturday’.  I took this on the way home from a Jacqueline Wilson talk at Jewish Book Week.  My daughter got her copy of this book signed and was so nervous and in awe that she walked away from the table sans book, and had to be called back.

Busy socks

So this is what I’ve been up to.  The Up-Down Spiral socks from Favorite Socks. 

The pattern is easy to memorise, and it knits up quick owing to being in DK.  In the book there’s a lovely multi-coloured yarn where I’ve put cream, but like a lot of the yarn in the book it’s been discontinued, and I couldn’t find a suitable replacement of multiple colours that went with the red.  My daughter suggested this combo, and though it’s a bit barber’s pole-ish, I like it.  The afterthought heel is a nifty thing, easy and fun, plus I prefer it aesthetically than a heel-flap.  Though I do like the look of short row heels, I’ve yet to suss out the knack getting them to look neat and professional.

And here’s a ‘look how mainstream knitting is becoming’ shot: