Feeling the scarf love

Ok - so I only finished my last scarf last Wednesday, but I admit to immediately having cast on for another one.

This one is going to be very different. I enhanced my stash significantly last week, and this has been begging me to be cast on ever since. It was only because I had less than half a ball of the swiss cheese scarf that I had enough determination to spend an evening finishing that one off before casting on.

So..... Meet the softest, most strokeable, most deliciously coloured pure cashmere ever:


It's from a favourite yarn dyer of mine, a lovely lady called Eva, who has a shop right on the north end of skye. I have been there before and I love the colours - they are all natural dyes done in a little studio at the back of the shop and so so so tempting. I also left with a jumper's worth of aran wool, a jumper's worth of luxury wool (the alpaca, cashmere and lambswool dk blend), but there will be more about them later because they are going to be lovely interesting jumpers. If you are ever anywhere near there, it is so worth taking a diversion to the shop bedcause it is divine, and Eva is lovely to chat to as well.

I only got 100g of hand spun aran weight cashmere, which I am hoping is going to be enough to make a scarf. I am liking scarf knitting at the moment - I got more compliments for my swiss cheese scarf than almost anything else I have knitted, and today is the first day that I haven't worn it all day. But it is
actually very useful for adding just that little bit of warmth in the office when the door is open to let some fresh air in. So I am going to have a scarf thing going on for a while so that I have a range ready to wear with different outfits!

I fancied something a little bit lacy as well, so got out my Barbera Walker book 1 (I aim to collect all these but got this one for christmas) and flicked through the lace section going "oooooh, aahhhh, that's nice, but I like that one as well....." until I got to the drooping elm leaf pattern, at which point I stopped realising that I had found the one. I cast on enough for 2 repeats, with a little garter stitch on each side, intending to make a swatch. I liked the swatch so much that I have continued knitting it and am now about half way through my 100g of cashmere. Knitting with this is so lovely, the feel of it running round your fingers with each stitch is so nice that you want to stop and savour every stitch. I really don't ever want it to end, yet I am compelled to knit this and nothing else, so it isn't going to last for long.

It is looking like the scarf is going to be a little on the short side at the moment, but I will knit till nearly the end, block it a bit and then see if I need to be ordering another little bit of the yarn. Which isn't going to be such a terrible shame at all.

With added holes

After a long pause, my knitting of the Swiss Cheese Scarf resumed earlier last week, and with the end in sight I have been extra motivated this last couple of days. The dedication to the cause has paid off - the swiss cheese scarf is now off my needles and looking LOVELY!


Yarn - 4 balls of Rowan 4-ply Soft in Military, that I bought in the sale a couple of years ago for very very cheap and have had sitting in a drawer for too long.

Needles - 4mm knitpicks interchangeables (I am in love with these needles)

Modifications - I read the pattern, took the gist of it and then went ahead and knit. I 4 sets of holes in the first row, meaning I cast on 76 stitches.

Dimensions - HUGE after blocking (13" wide by 104" long) It was hard to work out how long this was going to be, but I wanted it to go a couple of times round the neck and used the tried and tested method of knitting until I ran out of wool. I didn't block that hard, but it still stretched until it no longer fit on my biggest rug!


Cast on - 8th December, cast off 12 February 2008

New things - I used the backwards loop cast on for all except the initial cast on (thumb method). I like the elasticity that this gives, but knitting the first row above the cast on stitches is a bit of
pain. Thank heavens for my nice sharp and pointy knitpicks! Cast-off's were just the regular, and inbetween I just did a lot of knitting.

Comments - I love how this looks. It is simple and smart and modern (and surprisingly warm considering how much of it is hole). I am in love with the yarn, and have it on my list of yarns that I would like to knit a jumper or something out of. The pattern is almost totally mindless
knitting. Every 6 rows or so you do have to pay a bit of attention to casting off the right number of stitches, and making sure that all the holes are lining up right, but for 80% of the knitting it is just totally straight forward, mindless, relaxing, perfect for watching films or chatting!


Now I'm off to swan around looking glamourous and lovely in my new scarf (and get some proper photos of it in the light!)

Home again

Well, it's really really really good to be home again!

This weekend I was officially distracted from all plans by a last minute invitation to a ball (my husband looks dead sexy in a DJ) and some friends arriving for the weekend and lots and lots of white fresh powdery snow. We went cross country skiing and it was fantastic. Even the sun shone, and for scotland it wasn't that windy.

But more importantly, I have assembled all that I need to finish off the entrelac bag. It is finally felted. It took some felting, at 30 deg it just went a bit fluffy, at 40 it might have shrunk a little, but by the time I had run it through the machine at 60 a couple of times it was finally properly felted. And my towels have never seen this much washing in one day!

I have been on the internet, and ordered some leather straps, some handbag feet and a magnetic clasp. I have found a folder to massacre, and my very limited fabric stash had a yard of shot silk in a great colour that will be lovely for the lining.

I am going to do a double lining, with some cotton as well, just to give a bit of extra strenth. The folder is going to be the base and possible might make some sort of reinforceing at the top of the bag. I haven't quite figured how I am going to attach the handles, but I'm sure somthing will come to me.

I'm really looking forward to doing this over the next couple of evenings..... now that I am no longer distracted by the snow (it's melted) or diy (do you like my new hardwood flooring in the photo above?)

More weather

Well.....

The weather is not improving. Actually, I lie. There have been a couple of really really nice days, like yesterday. We motored through our site work, and then there was enough time for a wander to the beach near our cottage to have a look at the sunset. And it was a beautiful sunset, the moon was up above the hills (yes, there are hills out here) and there was a wonderful pink reflected glow above them. Out to sea there was a fantastic display of little fluffy clouds illuminated in shades of orange and yellow by the setting sun, and the waves were glinting with colours. I am not saying it was warm - I was wearing plenty of clothes but it was just about tolerable in terms of coldness. Today it is blowing a hoolie again, and there is horizontal drizzle blowing everywhere, and it is freezing and miserable.

Average daily wear over here - thermal undies, trousers, salopettes, jumper, fleece, hi-vis jacket, scarf, hat, 2 pairs of gloves (one thick, one thin - wear one of each and you can just about write and then swap them over when it all gets too much for the writing hand) and 2 pairs of socks. Not that I would say it is sexy, but you do fit in with the locals in a strange way, though for additional camoflage I should have a boiler suit. This is not an attracive look in any way, and I am longing to get dressed up for something and feel pretty and desirable again.

I am slowly getting island fever. I love the scenery, it is so amazingly bleak, but I could not live here. Today, we found a really civilised cafe - in the hebridean jewellry shop, where I have spend most of my site allowance on a really nice green beaded necklace. We had panini and cappucino. It was great. Other than that the main source of amusement is going to co-op. There are two within shouting distance - one at the south end of Benbecula, and one in Daliburgh. The one in Benbecula is better. We go every day for a little outing. Yesterday we went a bit mad and raided the magazine section and learnt lots of useful things from cosmo/look/glamour like how orange is the new colour of the season. It is nice to see that the consumer driven world still exists. Othen than that this second visit to the community centre is the social highlight of the trip so far!

Home on friday though, and I am going to have a shower, do my hair, dress up in a pretty dress and then go to the ballet. Bring it on!

Cold and Wet

Well, predictably the weather in the Uists has been cold and wet. Today we are so cold and it is so wet and windy that we have found a really nice community centre with Internet access, and so at least we are warm.

Later I am going to bake a cake, and do some more knitting. I have a black secret thing with me, that is taking ages, and for stuff inbetween that am plodding through the swiss cheese scarf.

But mostly I have been too cold to do any knitting - it is about all I can manage to make hot drinks and food when we get back from site, and then I have been in bed by about 9.30 most nights. Great - living the high life. Only one more week to go though, and fingers crossed the weather improves from today!

Significant milestones

I seem to mostly have had mindless knitting on the needles recently. But at least one of the projects is now off the needles.

Meet the entrelac bag........

Oooo - closeup!
I have been going round and round in circles making squares for quite a while. 5 balls of kureyon's worth of round and round. I have learnt to knit backwards nearly as fast as forwards, and don't really have to think about it anymore.

Tonight the bag has been introduced to it's nemesis - the washing machine - for a little felting fun. It's in a pillow case and it's doing one cycle at 30 degrees, see how that goes and then maybe send it through again.

I am almost exited about the washing machine being finished. This is not normal so I think I am going to have to have a cup of tea to recover.

My only handmade present

This year I am slightly ashamed to admit that I only managed one handmade present. Not very ashamed, but a little bit. Normally I manage more than that, but the last few weeks have seemed very hectic and I have hardly had the inclination to think of things to make people. That has always been the problem - when I have an idea then it is all easy and I just have to figure out a way to make it, but actually thinking of that perfect hand crafted present is the real challenge.

I did manage one thing though. My housemate from University, who I visited in London not that long ago, is also a knitter. Sadly, neither of us were knitting at the time we lived together (now nearly 8 years ago, which makes me much older than I would want to admit) but since then we have both developed the habit/addiction/hobby....

And this year she is getting knitting related presents - some lovely luxuries from Purlescence and I have fashioned a needle holder for her (having duly noted comments and her discovery of 3 pairs of needles the same size, in different parts of her house, and the total loss of the size she wanted).......


Once I had conceived the idea (it took 3 weeks of deliberation and shopping and frustratingly not finding anything before the memories slotted into place and the perfect solution presented itself) it took me about 2 hours to make. And at least 30 minutes of that 2 hours was spend rummaging in boxes for the material and then searching everywhere for a pair of at least sharpish scissors. The material is an old length of silk that I bought about 4 years ago in a fantastic sari shop in Bradford, and has been waiting for a use ever since. I used some plain cotton calico to give everything some structure, and just got sewing without any particular plan.


The basic method of attack was:

2 pieces of silk and one of calico - a bit taller than my needles and about 1m long. One piece of silk needs to be about 3cm bigger in each direction so that you can make a hem at the end.
1 of silk and 1 of calico a bit shorter than my needles and the same length.

The shorter pieces were sewn together along one of the long edges, turning a nice neat hem over the top of the calico and stitching all the way through. Trim the bottom so that it all lines up nicely.

These were then sandwiched together with the longer calico and 1 piece of silk. I sewed a line along the bottom of the needle holder through all 4 layers, and then up each edge.

Then sewed a series of vertical lines to create the pockets - I did some quite wide (about 1.5 inches) for larger needles up to 15mm, and then made them smaller as I went along. There are about 20 pockets in all. Then all the edges got trimmed so that they were square and neat with no mad cotton ends everywhere.

Then I just pinned the final outside piece of silk to the pockety sandwich, made nice hems round the edge (ironed and then lots of pins) and merrily sewed round the edge.

A nice piece of ribbon sewn onto the outside makes a lovely fastening, and you have one nice and sleek and useful handmade present for a knitting friend.

I actually think every knitter needs a set of coordinating holders - 1 for dpns, 1 for straight needles and one for circulars. Maybe I'll save the rest of the material and make her another one for her birthday!

I am so enjoying being finished with work for 2 weeks with no particular plans. Not only did I get this sorted out this morning, but managed to go into town for lunch with my Other Half, clean up quite a bit in the dining room, cook soup, go shopping for chrismas treats (mmmm stollen) and purchase and decorate the christmas tree. I would be so productive if only I didnt have to work.