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Sunday, November 12, 2006

Blogging in the wild...



I only just discovered how to use the Title field. So those of you reading through Bloglines will be a lot happier than usual when reading my mangled posts!

In abid to beat the escaping light, I took my knitting into the garden to proudly show off my progress. First of all though, let's get on to some goodies:



More knitting books! Ok, it may seem that I buy a lot of knitting literature. But it is not as financially damaging as you might think. I belong to several online opinion poll whatsits, such as Valued Opinions, many of which choose to reward me in Amazon vouchers. Which I see as free knitting books! On to what I bought.

First, Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac. This is a bedside rather than knitting shelf book - I find her writing very inventive and soothing and her patterns timeless. The reason I chose this is one is a pair of gorgeous mittens I spotted over at Zimmermaniacs that I haven't been able to get out of my head. Once Christmas knits are out of the way, they'll be mine.

And Handknit Holidays. The cover of this book is the only thing that had stopped me buying it earlier. That furry 80s monstrocity was a poor choice of cover image for a friendly, accessible and surprisingly vast collection of delicious quick knits. I am not a distance knitter - give me a quick fix any day.


(click 'em for a closer look)

The book arrived at a choice time - I had dismantled the commemorative Dumb Donald hat
and was despairing at what to make from its entrails. I decided that the stray yarn would make a rather lovely version of the Elf Cap from Handknit Holidays. And I was right...



Sorry about the shoddy pictures - I was fighting failing light.

Pattern: Elf Cap by Michelle Hayman from Handknit Holidays

Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky, around 3/4 of a skein

Needles: US 10 1/2 16" circular, courtesy of my Denises. I did the crown decreases using two circular needles, thanks to some expert tuition from Lucy at SnB that I was overhearing :)

Time taken: Literally an evening in front of the TV

Modifications: I made the ear flaps longer and the crown decreases gentler to avoid the 100% elf effect. I also made extra long i-cord ties because they look cute. It's still waiting for pom poms, but they're Danny's job.

Another gift 95% out of the way.



The Jaywalkers continue to grow. I gave one of them a heel while I watched The Constant Gardener in bed this morning. I'll be disappointed to finish them in a small way. They look great and they're going to a good home so it's not all bad. The striping has all met up nicely and they are very close to being twins, which is always a nice gamble with self-striping yarn.

More?




I have been curious for a while to see how the Rowanspun Aran that I dyed would knit up. This little snippet is an earflap from the rather natty Hear No Evil hat from fall's Knitscene.

And as an insight to my crafting life...

The yarn will provide the stripes and I had forgotten how smooth and forgiving and quick the yarn was to work with - I have forced myself to put this down and work on everything else.


This was my sofa on Monday night. Note the selection of knitting books, needle gauge, purple project I keep forgetting to blog about,stray fabric that Danny had been wearing as a pirate's bandanna, Xbox controller, interchangeables in disarray...



Here's a yummier shot of the baked pasta that we devoured instead of worrying about a little bit of mess.



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Kelly [ 4:36 PM ]
3 comments

3 Comments:

Jaywalkers are looking great! I love the colours. I agree with you about reading EZ books, I was trying to explain it to somone the other day and I kept describing it as 'knitting philosophy'! Ha!

By Blogger BrownPants, at 10:55 PM, November 12, 2006  

Great book choices! You've got some cute socks in the works, as well. Lovely!

By Blogger knittingphilistine, at 3:23 AM, November 13, 2006  

Thanks so much for visiting me! Oh after looking at all your goodies, I sure wish I could knit!
~cheers~
Angie

By Blogger (Angie) Norththreads:, at 3:21 AM, November 14, 2006  

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