Secret knitting? Pah!

I hate having secret knitting, so I've decided to partly "un-secret" it.




Blurry, out of focus, and un-true colour - really worth it!


I'm knitting "Sugar Almond" up in the yarn that I won from Lou. Right yarn, right time and, I hope, right pattern.

I've decided that when I finish this/these that I'll send the pattern to Kerrie (who is too sweet, nice and lovely for words, by the way. More on that later). If it's a no-go at Magknits, I'll put it up here anyway.

I'd love to submit something to knitty, but I'd feel like I was punching above my weight (tough for someone of my size but, ya know!)

Dear Spammers:

Why, oh why, would I open an email entitled "flustered antitrust"? Firstly, no-one I communicate with uses all lower case in their email subject lines (I have good email friends!). Secondly, all the email I request has filters in Thunderbird. Thirdly, if I do read your email and discover that it's for share trading, do you really think that I'll hand over my cash to you?

Comment: must try harder. F.

BERROCO IN NICE FREE PATTERN SHOCKER!

It's called Iris and it's a waistcoat (US = vest?) with a lace and cable pattern along the bottom. It could do with being about 10 cm longer, but other than that, I approve!

Like I need something else to do:

I really like Marnie's cami pattern "Deciduous". I feel like I should buy it for the sole reason that I was one of the people who said "You have to write this up. And can you make one with a high back?"

A story that made me laugh:

Keith Richards (erstwhile guitarist from the rolling Stones) fell out of a tree. That's not what made me laugh. It was the phrase "He suffered mild concussion". HOW CAN YOU TELL? He looks mildly concussed anyway. What was the clue? Did he start making sense? Did he stop slurring his words?

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting;

I is for ...

Icons of England (from Icons.org.uk - this isn't my idea unfortunately!):

Pride And Prejudice (never read it or seen an adaptation)
*The Pub* (Ahh, pubs = grandma for me!)
*Punch and Judy * (hilarious and violent, what more do you need?)
*Queen's Head Stamp* (I used to lick the back of her head. Then they introduced self-adheisive stamps. Spoil Sports!)
The Routemaster Bus
The Spitfire
SS Empire Windrush
*St George's Flag*
Stonehenge
Sutton Hoo Helmet
York Minster

*Places I've been/stuff I've read/stuff I've done.

And I is also for ICE:




Formation (clickable to make bigable)


I took this in Winter (oh, so long ago) and really loved the form. The water had dripped from a leaky connector to the water butt and the ice had frozen to the ivy beneath it.

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Technorati tags: abcalong

Bloglines can't "see" me - EDITED AGAIN

It all appears to be working now - carry on! (But sign up with Feedburner just in case!)

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So if you popped by on the off chance but you normally sub with Bloglines, hi!

I'll be emailing "people" today.

N.b.: I typed bloblines into the title!

EDIT: as a work-around I signed up to FeedBurner. It gives the same service as Atom, but in RSS. This feed is working. Hopefully, this should prove more stable, and will offer more in the way of subscription services. Go here to sign up to the new feed.

EDIT 2: Janine can see me in Bloglines, no red exlamation mark or anything. I can't see me.

Of course, none of this will matter if you're reading this because there either isn't a problem or you don't use bloglines! :shrug:

I've started sneezing like a pregnant Bajoran

This can only mean one thing - spring has sprung!

I hate my row gauge!

It's causing me all sorts of problems at the moment. Tubey is taking forever to knit, and it doesn't feel as if I've progressed at all. The same goes for the socks. I know I've made progress on those because I use markers in my work to show where I started in a session.
However, this gauge of mine is causing me something of a headache when it comes to doing the maths for the Acorn pattern. Row and stitch gauge are both important, and so I want to get this right. Not that I'm complaining about having to do maths. Sometimes, if I'm bored, I do long division or quadratic equations. For fun. I'm too sad for words!

EDIT: I've done pretty much all of the maths on Acorn now, and it's not as bad as I'd thought. Woo hoo!!!

Argyle Scarf:

Compare and contrast with the last photo.



Thrilling isn't it!

This is the chart I made for it (I used Open Office, but other spreadsheet packages are available):



Tubey:

I know I'm making progress.

Evidence?


25th of April


12th of April


Stuff:

Found via the Crochet Me newsletter - crocheted hyperbolic space models.
Tom Cruise is still freaking me out (no links - if you don't know why, just google and freak your own good self out!)
David Blaine to live underwater for a week (just a week? Can't you make a tad longer? Like 30 years?)

And why, you may ask, hasn't there been as much knitting progress as there should be?

My index card file:



The ones as the back are blank, but the rest of them (all 50) are scientific papers that I have to read, analyse, and place into a coherent format. Yeah - good luck with that!

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Sorry about the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 reference. Actually, I'm not really.
I AM GEEK AND I AM PROUD! ;)

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting; maths; math

Thud ...

thud ... thud ...!

That's the sound of my head hitting my desk. My lovely test knitter (Hi Anne!) has knitted up Acorn AND IT DOESN'T FIT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT! I sent the original to Kerrie (Magknits) because she had the perfect model and that didn't fit either. I am seriously tempted to tell Kerrie to forget it and I'll stick to accessories from now on.

If all knitters were like Grumperina and liked a challenge, I'd go ahead and leave it as-is. However, because of the nature of the item, it's supposed to be an easy brain-turned-off pattern.

The pattern is going to require some serious re-working. Arrrggggggg - I'm an idiot!

I really am turning into a whinging pom!

EDIT: After a fairly good night's sleep and some "gardening" (putting compost on a rose and filling a pond with rain water) I feel much better. I'm going back to the drawing board with my calculator and I WILL BEAT THIS THING. MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Argyle Scarf:

In happier news, I'm going great guns on the scarf:


Front


Back with the bird's nest of ends



I don't think it will bear close scrutiny, but not bad for a first attempt at intarsia.

SLLS:



The lace socks may be too small. Following on from Lucy Neatby's advice on choosing needle size (smaller, smaller, smaller) I'm using my 2 mm bamboos. However, this means I get a gauge of around 10.5 sts per inch. Even with adding the extra 6 sts, these may not fit me. Having said that, I haven't blocked them and I did try them on at the end of the day when my feet were swollen. And the wind was blowing in the wrong direction. And the Earth is in the wrong part of it's orbit. And ...

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting;

Getting Shirty

Well, it's a blouse, but y'know ...


Front


Side


Back - the hem is straight. I'm the one that's wonky!

This is, without a doubt, one of the best fitting garments I have ever worn. Thanks to Burda, the ladies at my haberdashery and Sandra Betzina.

Pattern number: 3018
Company: Burda
Fabric: white cotton broidery anglais
Sizes used (not ready-to-wear equivalent): 20 (waist, back and upper chest), 22 (hips and bust) and 24 (upper arm).

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Technorati tags: fabric; sewing;

H is for ...

Holly (Ilex aquifolium)




Hedera (Ivy)


Possibly more suitable for Christmas time, but I just love the colours on these evergreens.

Click on the pictures to be taken to a larger view (re-direct to Flickr, and just "backspace" it to come back here)

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting; ABCAlong

New Season, new look

Well? What do you think?

I think there might be a few bugs to iron out, but I like it.

If anything looks skewiff, leave a comment or email me with your Operating System, Display settings and Browser.

See ya next week.

Breaking News: Vote for me!

I listen to the MoshKnit podcast and I entered Brooklynne's "Design a Logo" contest. Judging by the fact that mine made it to the voting stage I'd guess that she only had the six entries.

Now I won't tell you which one is mine (six), but hop over (six) and vote for which one you like the best (six).

Direct Poll URL.

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting;

Unsolicited knitting help

Not offered to me, but by me!

There was a recent discussion on the Ample Knitters list about a pattern on the Garn Studio website. The flurry of emails was in response to an American contributor assuming that the measurements given were in inches. Being British I feel as if I'm in something of a unique position; I am fairly fluent in both metric and imperial.

For knitting, large distances and cooking I'm imperial. For small measurements, science-stuff, sewing and vast distances (space and the like) I'm metric. With this in mind, I will present a quick "How To" between inches and centimeters.

This is a very rough 'n' ready guide and should be used as such!

Length:
1" = 2.5 cm
4" = 10 cm
6" = 15 cm
12" = 30 cm
44" = 120 cm

There are 10 millimetres (mm) in 1 centimetre (cm) and 100 centimetres in 1 metre.

Weight:
g = gram
kg = kilogram (1000 grams)

2 oz = 50g (v. approx. - it's more like 55g)
4 oz = 100g (again more like 110g but it's close enough!)
18 oz = 500 g
35 oz = 1000g = 1kg


Let me know if you found this helpful at all, or if you'd like me to do more maths-stuff!

Argyle Scarf:




Lookin' good!


Eeep!

Tubey:


Thrilling - no?

Other stuff:

Progess on the above items isn't a great as you'd imagine becuase I'm currently working on three design items: 1 on the needles, 1 ready to go, and 1 on paper only (but the yarn is ready). I'm not ready to show anything yet, but once I learn their fate, I'll let you know! I've learnt the hard way that I'm best designing and making something, then writting up the pattern and then submitting it.

Why yes, Cindy, we do wear knotted handkerchiefs! In fact, under the bowler hats we have to wear by law, we all have one of these. David Beckam has a hand-printed silk one!


(Tongue firmly in cheek - and we won the Ashes! Yes, I know that you guys have won it for the past twenty years, but that's not stopped us crowing about 1966, so even when you win it back next year, it won't matter!)

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting; cricket

Excuse me, Madam, your inexperience is showing

I think I've taken on too much with this Acorn pattern. I found a massive error in one of the sizes, causing me to get my calculator out and twist my hair into knots. My test knitter (hi!) has also said that there are "quirks" in the pattern - she's keeping notes. Now, in life, quirks are good - it makes you ... quirky! In a knitting pattern? Not so much.

As my mum said when I was whinging to her: "You don't know you can't run until you fall flat on your face".

Argyle Scarf:

For my Dad's birthday in May, we decided together that he'd love me to make this argyle scarf from the latest Knit.1 magazine from Vogue Knitting:





This is the yarn my dad chose:



My attempt at a light tent using a cotton duvet cover

It's 4 different colours of King Cole Magnum Chunky (black, kinda burgandy, beige and cream).

The chart that came with the pattern was toooo small. So that I'd have a chance of seeing it without my glasses, I charted it myself in my spreadsheet programme by colouring the cell backgrounds.

Tubey:

I've made a start on this knitty pattern. There's nothing photo-worthy yet; it's just a large rectangle of knitted brown yarn.

I was planning on doing "something" with the pattern to make it work for me, but I'm now doubting myself a bit. I'll finish the sleeves bit of it, and then make a decision. Don't fall off the edge of your chair now!

General Geekiness:

I posted the finished shrug on the Ample Knitter's list and look what happened:


Click to see the spike!

Ei Carumba!

More Geek:

My old image server is now defunct, so some of the pictures from older post may no longer be available. I still have them all (somewhere on a CD) so I'll transfer them over to Flickr when I've got a spare few hours.

A reader response:

Hi Cindy (2Paw) - blogger didn't give up an email address, so I'm doing this the "old fashioned" way! The Christmas episode of Doctor Who was excellent. The new Doctor is yummy (and Scottish - although he has a fake accent)! I can only speak for myself and my kin, but yes, we do wear socks and sandals (although only in the home). I hate my feet being encased in shoes and as soon as the temperature gets near double figures, the sandals come out!

Until the next time I have something to whinge blog about, ta-ra.

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Technorati tags: yarn; knitting;