Sad week

Well, on Monday I went to a colleagues funeral. It was very sad, but I took great comfort from the ceremony (humanist celebrants really are worth their weight in gold). He was great - fun, kind, gentle, great fishing stories and advice, hilarious aversion to lapsang suchong (and an amazing ability to smell it fro 50 paces). He met an untimely end in the hills while walking with some others from the office.

So this one goes out to you, JB. We'll all miss you.

And on that note, and becuase I haven't done any knitting for a good while, I might take a short break (though I will be back - promise) until I have something interesting to say or some good photos to show!

More holiday photos....... Mingulay

So - after 3 days on Pabbay, Donald returned to the island and transferred us the couple of miles down to Mingulay. The first day there was the only bad weather, it rained for about 5 hours in the afternoon, and I sat in the tent and read my book, had lots of naps and then just in time for cooking it magically brightened up.

So the next morning we woke up to another day of brilliant sunshine, and the campsite looked lovely. We went on a little explore round to the peninsula to the north - where the puffins were reputed to be nesting. It's the one you can see on the other side of the bay from the campsite!

So it was down for a little explore in the ruins of Mingulay village. Quite a few people used to live on Mingulay, but it was abandonded due to the lack of a decent landing place which meant they would often go months without being able to get a boat to or from the island.

And the view back accross the bay - if anything it was the more spectacular than the one on Pabbay. The only thing that was spoiling it a little bit was the remains of a rotting whale that floated in and out of the beach for the week. It didn't smell that much, and was mostly white blubber with the most amazing consistency. If you (very gingerly) poked it with a stick the whole thing would wobble!

This is the main puffin nesting site on the island, but the weather was so hot that they were either rafted up on the sea or staying in their burrows. I was inconsolable.

But on the other side of the island. Instead of the puffins there were really big crashing Atlantic waves to watch from the top of the cliffs.

The next day we took the kayaks out to bother some puffins while they were rafting. They were great!

When they come in to land on the water they sort of flap madly until they are just above where they want to sit, then stall and just drop under the water. Then they re-emerge looking a bit surprised - though why the standard landing procedure should be a shock every time is beyond me!

So here is my favourite puffins on the sea photo - they all conveniently lined up and swam away looking comical.

Puffins taking off are almost as funny as puffins landing. They flap and flap and get their wings wet, then run along the surface of the water with their big orange feet until they get to the top of a wave and then finally manage to break free. I could watch them for hours.

The next day, the wind was right down, and we grabbed the opportunity to paddle over to Berneray. Berneray is the very very southern tip of the chain of islands, and is amazing. There will be a photo edition for this bit of the trip sometime soon, but we were running short of battery at this point and so the pictures of puffins and lighthouses are on a CD on their way to me!

But there was enough juice left for a couple of shots of the way back! The sun came out from behind the morning haze the minute we landed and didn't leave until we went home.

And then it was time to depart. It was a sad and traumatic parting, but we were running very low on food so on balance it was time to go. We had a really funny night camped on a verge in Castlebay, next to the ferry and right next to the refrigerated lorry and came on every half hour to charge the batteries. But the pub meal totally made up for it and the sticky toffee pudding and icecream was divine. The locals know how to have a good time on a saturday, so everyone got the wrong side of tiddly and some of the others were spotted dancing with the local talent when we left for bed!

I can't say I am glad to be back, it was a lovely lovely holiday, in fact one of the best I have ever had. It totally reinforces the fact that holidays don't have to be expensive (less than £200 each including food!) and that staying near to home can bring fantastic rewards. Work sucks, and I want to be out fishing in the sun with my boat and all the puffins. But it's only another couple of weeks until we are next away (the lake district for a week's camping and quite probably dropping in for Woolfest on saturday), but it is going to be very very hard to top this one.

I will also now confess that though I did take my knitting with me, I didn't take it out and I haven't picked it up since I have been back. I'm getting into the swing of DIY, and there is progress on the bookcase at long last.

Holiday Snaps - Pabbay edition

Well, we had a fantastic time! The weather was mostly gorgeous, and the holiday was just great.

This is the boat journey out to Pabbay. We were taken round by the wonderful Donald on his boat the Boy James, the engines were very big and powerful, and it was great fun to go so fast.


And then we were put onto an even smaller boat, and all our stuff was transferred to shore. It seemed like an enormous pile of stuff to lug, but in actual fact the photo makes it seem almost small. Trust me, it was a lot of stuff for 9 people and a dog for a week!


And this is a view of Pabbay Bay from just up the hill to the south. You might be able to just see our tents on the grassy patch just in front of the beach. It was a lovely place to camp - soft grass, sea views from the tent, high enough above the beach to get a little bit of breeze to keep the midges off......... Perfect.

This is a veiw from the very north of the island towards mingulay - it was a lovely walk exploring little crags, sitting in the sun, watching the birds, spotting flowers......

And admiring the very very very big cliffs. They come up on you very surprisingly and are absoloutly stunning.

This lovely little fellow came to sit on the rocks just below our campsite for the for a couple of evenings. He was amazingly unfazed by us all going along to admire his cuteness, and white fluffieness, and taking lots of photos.

There was lots of kayaking, it was lovely having them down there on the beach so that you could just jump in whenever you felt like it. It is so much easier when you don't have to put them onto the car and then unload them.

And here is an attempt at artiness on the beach (though it needs a bit of photoshop to make it straight)

And some more big cliffs, this time on the west of the island with some pretty thrift in the foreground.

One more installment coming from Mingulay, which will mostly feature puffins!

Not long to go now

This week, instead of knitting, I have been packing and shopping. I am now really exited because on friday we are going here:



View Larger Map

Yes, this is called extreme civilisation avoidance. Those islands are Pabbay and Mingulay, and are at the southern end of the outer hebrides. There are no people there, no phone reception, no internet, no email, just us (we are going with 7 other friends).

To get there we have found a nice man with a boat from Barra, who is going to drop us off and move us between the islands midweek, but that is the only contact we are going to have with the outside world. We are taking climbing kit, kayaks, tents, knitting (well that might only be me), cameras, fishing rods and swimming stuff.

I hope the lovely weather we have had for the last 5 weeks holds!

Now, any hints on what the per person per day chocolate ration should be? How many meals of pasta and pesto can we eat before we get so bored we'd rather go hungry? How many projects do I need to take (we have to carry everything on and off ferries and boats so weight really is an issue)?

Now for some knitting

Well - I have been debating starting the sleeves of my holiday cardigan, but somehow not got round to it. I finally sorted out the collar at the back, and am quite pleased with it! So here is the current status quo......

And for my easy relaxing knitting, I have done quite a few miles of tangled yoke. I am nearly finished with increasing to the bust, and then there is a little bit of knitting straight before I start the sleeves.

I love the texture of this yarn, mmmmmm, soft and strokeable and longer than I expected. I only just started the second skein out of 8, so I think I'll have quite a bit left over.

Brain Frazzle

Things that are making my brain frazzled at the moment include work, work, too much sun and too much work! It’s such a shame that I have to have a job – I’d get so much done otherwise.

All of this has left me feeling just a little bit vacant in my spare time. So I came up with the perfect knitting solution – mindless! I have cast on for Tangled Yoke cardigan, by Eunny Jang from an old edition of Inverweave Knits. I have pretty much matched the gauge with my Knitwitches Alpaca/merino mix (this is a lovely dk yarn – 60% black alpaca and 40% dark brown merino) and 3.25mm needles. The row gauge is a couple of rows off, but this can easily be compensated for below the sleeves and by leaving a row out here and there in the yoke. The only modifications I intend to make is the addition of some short row shaping for the bust, (that isn’t going to need any calculation) and the omission of the bobbles on the ends of the cables.

I have lusted after this pattern for a while, admired the cabled yoke, and thought that there is no way I could stand all that rib. Normally I like my knitting to be intellectually stimulating – which usually ends up with me designing something clever with cables or colour work or knitting lacy shawls. This contrasts with all my preferences for clothes, which heavily feature plain stockinette in fine yarns. Nine times out of ten the knitting challenge side of me wins, but at the moment 5 odd inches of garter rib followed by lots of stockinette truly is all that I can manage to think about. The knitting is monotonous but also extremely rhythmic and relaxing as well as surprisingly fast. I have high hopes of wearing this cardigan quite a lot when it is finished.

Swallowtail is finished

Ok - I finished this a wee while ago, and have been wearing it to much acclaim - but behold my finished Swallowtail Shawl.



Statistics:

Pattern - Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits.
Yarn - 116g of Poshyarn Lucia in Hibiscus (I had 6g remaining)
Needles - 4mm knitpicks options
Finished size - 29" by 59" blocked
Modifications - I did an extra 3 repeats of the budding lace (because I could) and the adjusted the numbers for the lily of the valley lace and the border. I just left out some k2togs to increase the number of stitches accordingly.


As you can see - I have replaced the nupps in the pattern with beads - size 6 yellow and pink silver lined beads. The beads were placed using the inside of a bag tie as wire (all I could find in the house) but it worked! It took a while though, but others in the knitalong were cursing the nupps so it's horses for courses.


I like the pointy edge - I added some beads here as well just to make it matchy matchy. Now it has been worn a couple of times it is a little more subtle but I still like it.


Blocking has transformed this scarf - the lucia has a wonderful natural drape and softness that is just sublime. The beads are a cold contrast, but feel fantastic. The size is just perfect for wearing as a scarf at work when the door is open and it is a bit chilly. Mmmmmm - swallowtail love!