Was it worth it?

Please tell me that.....










..... this..........














......looks better than this?










Because that extra 4 repeats of twisted stitch rib took most of last night to knit (20 mins) and graft on (2000000 hours). Only one more to go, and then I really am going to call this cardigan finished.

Off on holiday for the weekend! Yey! It's a surprise for Dr Sweetpea, who sort of half believes me when I say that we are going camping in caithness (flat peat bog country) for the weekend.

Racing for the finish line

Well, trust me to like the most expensive buttons in the shop..... (and decide to use 12 of them)

But I did really like them.......


The shoulder shaping worked really well though........


But the sleeves are a little bit too short so I think I am going to knit 4 repeats extra and graft it on to the bottom. At least most it fits.

On a wool shopping front, a great big pile of black merino dk arrived and is going to form the basis of the man jumper. But I don't think I am going to start that for a little while - this weekend is his birthday and we are off for the weekend (no details, it's a surprise). As it is his birthday I am going to try very very very hard not to knit anything and just spend some time chilling together.

Anyway - the yarn snob commented yesterday that she has never knitted with lace yarn. How can she bear to have all that lovely squishy merino goodness in divine colours and not be tempted to knit it? I really really encourage anyone who is too scared to have a go - a lot of patterns are only made of yarn overs and k2tog/ssk - with plain pearl on every other row. All you need is to make a swatch, read the chart carefully, count your stitches lots and always use addi lace turbo's! Be brave, it's worth it.

Pretty Yarn makes Pretty Harebells

Well - what a fantastically productive knitting weekend. The weather today was (as forecast) totally pish, and so I haven't even left the house! I really should do some tai chi practice: I am feeling the effects of mostly sitting and lying around. Maybe tomorrow morning if the rain has stopped.

It has been quite social though- a work colleague came round for the afternoon and we baked cakes in honour of his birthday. The nutella cake from Nigella's domestic goddess (how can any combination of nutella, nuts, chocolate, butter and eggs go wrong) and a carrot cake. He really enjoyed it and so did I. It was lovely to bake with a novice who was enjoying himself and was fascinated by all the funny things about baking that I take for granted. He was transfixed by adding eggs to oil and sugar - the mixture emulsifies and thickens quite drastically. And making ganache was fun too. After the cake making bit we drank plenty of tea while they cooked and cooled, and I didn't even have to do the washing up. I did remember to make little cupcakes of each so that we could have a sneaky try of them both though. We get to eat the big ones at work tomorrow.

And plenty of phone calls. I wonder if I normally get so many calls but we are just always out?

There was plenty of knitting action though.....

The harebell lace experiment has got about 1.5 repeats done. Somewhere the inner mathematician has let me down - I calculated that I would have enough stitches for 5 rows of harebells, but somehow when it came to starting the pattern there were exactly the right number for 4. Ho hum, it was obviously meant to be!

The pattern is working out really nicely. I discovered that the printer doesnt work, so I have had to be looking at the screen while knitting, but I will take advantage of work facilities to fix that tomorrow. I am really glad that the harebells fit together so well though, this is the first time I have attempted to totally change a pattern so I wasn't that sure of it working out.

I am knitting on addi turbo lace needles - 3.75mm. This gives a lovely stitch definition to the stockinette sections, but still nice yo's. The needles totally rock, all the others I swatched with were ditched after a couple of rows, so I was glad that this size worked. I only have these and a 4mm pair in the collection, but that might change sometime soon.

And Meagaidh is also doing well. I have slogged through acres of plain knitting, ripped and reknitted the armhole shapings, done (and redone) some short row shaping at the top and picked up what feels like 1000 stitches for the button band. I am reckoning on completion tomorrow if I can find some appropriate buttons. I am quite taken by the idea of nice wooden ones, but have no idea if I will be able to get them in town. The craft shopping potential in Inverness is slightly limited (one craft shop that sells some random mostly acrylic wool, crappy needles and a few novelty buttons and one haberdashery that is fine for sewing supplies, but the wool is cheap and mostly not what I want to knit with) but I want to wear this in 2 weeks so I will have to put up with what I can find.

One small step forward.....

It seems like life is conspiring against me getting very much done. Last night was spent looking after Dr Sweetpea - after his work jolly, he went for a 4 hour run in the wind and rain, got mildly hyperthermic, got down really late and generally broke himself. Silly boy. So he needed tending to, feeding and general attention.

A few more lines of meagaidh.......


I have managed to knit both sleeves and join them to the body. I am rather fascinated by the twist stitch rib.......


I have been stripping my table too. The top has been stripped and the leather polished. I dont know whether I am going to leave the table looking distressed ish or sand it down to make it nice shiny wood. I quite like it looking battered, but Dr Sweetpea disagrees!


The decision can be left for a while though because I still have the legs to strip.

Busy weekend.... and an even busier week

Well........

The guests arrived and we had fun and now they are gone. We have had 2 lots of friends to stay so there was too much drinking, too much food, plenty of fun in the sun (sorry to those of you who are living in slightly damper areas), days scrambling, a day sea kayaking, beaches, pubs and tea shops. All in all a perfect weekend.

There was time for knitting though, and the cardigan is progressing apace. I am nearly at the armholes now, only another 10 rows or so to go. This weekend I am going to the hen do, so I have 6 hours on the train to progress this.


But I have a distraction. A really really really big and important and urgent distraction. Here is a picture........


Yes - that's tartan. That's 3.7m of Strome double width Graham of Montrose Modern tartan. And yes, I am making a kilt for the husband. The above photo is the really scary cut the tartan to length tear - there is no hem on the bottom of a kilt so this bit is quite important. So, I have torn 2 lengths that are 58cm long.


Here I have assembled the tools of attack - pins, tacking thread, notebook, calculator, tape measure and a print out of the instructions that I found on the internet. I am not doing this entirely blind, the secretary at work used to be a kilt maker and she is giving lots and lots of advice, and has shown me a half finished kilt so that I know what it looks like.



And here I have made a bit of exploratory progress. I have cut the front apron and pinned some pleats. If the pleats were straight then everything would be nice and simple, but because the desired waist is 77cm and the desired hip measurement is 90cm, you have to taper each and every one of them. These are also a little bit to wide. I am doing 2cm pleats (each one taking one repeat of the tartan - so about 20cm) and the pattern has to match up. Nightmare.

Off to bake brownies and make some supper.

New Cardigan Plan

Introducing the nascent Meagaidh.......

So.... This is my plan for a cardigan to wear to the aforementioned wedding, with last summers dress of desire and a new pair of shoes.

The plan is cabled ribbing to under the bust, then stocking stitch with dramatic increases to give a sort of gathered effect rather than normal bust shaping (I am well endowed enough to always need to add bust shaping), gathered in a bit just below the neckline. All closely fitting, with maybe an inch or so of ease. I think I am going to cast on in one peice and then try to knit it all seamlessly, picking up stitches for the button band at the and making mitred corners...

I am going to call it Meagaidh (pronounced sort of like Meggie) after this photo - taken on the one of the first properly snowy scottish days this winter, from the top of a lovely hill called Craig Meagaidh. I just love it when everything up here turns white for the winter.

I have swatched and tonight I will measure. I'll also try and snatch some more photos of the Myrtle Leaf while the sun is shining - yes, sorry to all of you having flash floods in the south, but for the first time since forever it is sunny here in the north. And I am going to have to go outside to the park and enjoy it, and should be able to get a good bit of practice done for the silent flute form (tai chi) I am learning at the moment.

Anyway, time to get out and enjoy the good weather!