'The hell was I thinking?

I knew there was something wrong about half way down the cuff but I carried on knitting. Somehow this sock made me knit it. It's ugly and it's evil.

I'm scared.

Hills, most of them cloudy

Last Friday it was our wedding anniversary. It has been 6 years since we ran away to Las Vegas and to celebrate this event (as we are saving the return trip to Vegas for our 10 year anniversary) we went to our favourite place in Blighty for a few days.

We rented a tiny apartment in Ambleside, just outside of town up a tiny lane with stone cottages which is described in the tourist brochure as 'the delightful Peggy Hill' - this was renamed, after returning on foot from a 10 mile+ round of the Fairfield Horseshoe, 'the scabby Peggy Hill'. I didn't get a picture as just as I got my camera out a delivery van pulled up at the foot of the hill with hazards flashing and spoilt it. Here is some snow instead.

Top of Fairfield - it were a bit parky!

From Nab Scar, looking down to Ambleside

Next day, as a break from walking, we took the ferry down Windermere to Bowness to visit Blackwell, which is a beautiful house in the Arts & Crafts style - it made a real change from the usual stately homes we see in England and I bought a copy of the best book in the world ever! It is surprising how little you can fit into a short winter day if you don't go places by car, it was dusk as we were on the return ferry - very romantic!

Bowness

Windermere, heading back to Ambleside

On the last day of our break we walked up Helm Crag, over Gibson Knott to Calf Crag and back down Easedale Gill. This would have been a lovely walk if it hadn't been peeing it down all day and blowing a gale. Still, it is days like this that make you appreciate the days when you get clear blue skies... like the following day when we were coming home. T'uh!

Far Easedale Gill

Sheepses in the sun

I decided against taking the shawl away with me and decided to make a start on a pair of socks in a colourful Lana Grossa yarn that I bought in a sale on a whim recently. I am too ashamed to show it to you. I am making the most hideous socks in the world :(

Devan

Pattern: Devan by Holli Yeoh, from Knitty
Yarn: Stripes are Schoppel Admiral, colourway 1744 (2 x100g balls, 60g left over)
Contrast colour is Opal Uni, colourway 1412 (1x100g ball, 30g left over)
Needles: 3mm straights & 2,5mm/60cm circs
Size: 2-3 years
Mods: Not much, made the detail on back slightly bigger to use each stripe colour and made larger button holes to suit the flower buttons; these were from Ally Pally - I've lost the card with the details of the stall holder, will update if I find it or a miracle occurs and I remember the name.


I really enjoyed making this, it is a very nice, simple pattern to follow and the stripes in the yarn striped well - although I have to admit that towards the tops of the fronts and the arms, where there was more shaping, I did help things along a bit to make the stripes neater. I wasn't going to 'fess up to this, but feel that it's only fair to in case someone decides to use this yarn and expects it to work up perfectly. I still didn't manage to get the fronts exactly the same, but I like that it has the differences that make it unique.

So, one 2nd birthday present for Lily-Rose finished and with over a week to spare before the big day. Anyone would think I was organised!

Jumper jigsaw

The pieces are knitted and the time comes to put it all together. It seems to have taken much longer to get this far than knitting a toddler jumper should have but I am blaming the little stitches for this, as I'm sure that I've not been slacking off - much. Ravelry may have something to answer for though as it is definitely 'getting sidetracked' central.
I quite like sewing up. There is something satisfying about seeing the bits come together as a garment and I don't really understand why so many people put it off; who wants a bundle of knitting hiding away at the bottom of their workbox making them feel guilty when they could have a FO to gaze at lovingly. Yes it can take a while but I think it's always worth doing carefully, as it would be rubbish to have a beautifully knitted something spoiled because your seam was wonky or you left a knot showing through. And you just know that someone somewhere is going to take a sneaky peek at the inside.

Joining the shoulder seams on Devan is to be done with the three needle bind off - which is something new to me. Despite the fancy lace and cabled knitting that I have produced, as it seems to me that there is always a new technique to learn and I am still very much still on the learning curve, after all, it was only about 4 or 5 years ago that I seriously decided to try to become an 'expert' knitter.

It strikes me as funny though when I compare this feeling of relative novice-ness at knitting to my 'years of experience' at crochet. My mum taught crochet classes at the primary school before I started there and she used to take me with her and I would go along with her. I remember vividly laughing at one boy's efforts (very mean and insensitive of me, I know!) and informing him that he was doing it too tightly. But despite getting on for thirty years experience at crochet, I actually only know how to do a couple of stitches. Which just goes to show that it doesn't matter how long you've been doing something if you don't push your boundaries. So if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go and look up three needle bind offs.

Finally finished flipping felted footwear

So eventually I have got round to finishing the felting of the clogs that I started aaaages ago. I really like the look of these clogs and I am glad that they are done, they are warm and very comfy and my house is cold. Well, not cold, but we've turned the thermostat down and are wearing jumpers. I would have preferred the slippers to be slightly shorter at the toe, but I'm done with felting them now. The felting didn't turn out quite as well as I would have liked, which is probably why they were banished to the back of the work box for so long. Felting in the washing machine may be quicker, but it left some unevenness that I don't like but didn't seem to be able to change by hand afterwards. Meh. It may be a while before I felt anything again. Aside from that, these were great fun to make, a very interesting pattern. My Denises were a great help, as at one point you end up with loads of stitches on holders and three 9mm needles on the go.

Pattern: Felted Clogs from Fiber Trends
Yarn: Lambs Pride Worsted in Seafoam and Turkish Olive
Needles: Denises

Slightly uneven felting, but still cute

My apologies for the lily-white ankles.

I'd like to add here a bit of a plug for Gill at the Woolly Workshop for amazing service. I ordered my Interweave subscription yesterday and lo and behold! this morning a magazine (containing a rather nice felted bag, I notice) arrived on my doorstep. Thanks, miss.

Teeny Tiny Stitches

The project that I was grumbling about is finished. In the end it wasn't so bad, once I had given up trying to make sense of someone's ramblings and did my own thing. No pics yet, as it is a present.

I have also been knitting away on Devan. Although 110 stitches a row in stocking stitch is not thing fastest growing knitting in the world. I am now about half way up the back in the plain yarn and even though I am not using a particularly jacquard-y self striping yarn, I still want to do the version with the patch motif. A bit of cutting and weaving in should do the trick.


And since I keep mentioning Mr C but he never gets his picture tooked (as he's not very good at sitting still and posing) I thought I would put one in now. Here he is in action, catching his dinner. We got him the food ball to try and encourage him to get a bit of exercise and although it took him a while to get the hang of it, he uses it now for every meal. It really is one of the funniest things to watch!