Fish

I absolutely love Fishy by RedSamur, here is my own knitted version, in a paper pond.

reading in bed

My favourite place to read is in bed, which I suppose is predictable but there it is. I have a funny soft spot for really excellent books that are quite thin in dimension, ie quick to read and you always want more. These are some that I've been reading lately...



A sequel to 'Love in A Cold Climate' and 'The Pursuit of Love', its all about grown up Fanny in Paris, and even has a few characters from 'The Blessing'. I can never remember how it ends.



A peculiar, amusing story set in flashbacks in 1945 with a dark ending.



A dashing tale of faraway lands, set in the 1950s I think, by my favourite author.

Read them, read them!

yet another scarf...

...for my HH. This took hours rather than days, I definately recommend chunky wool and knitting vertical stripes.

I'm a bit fed up with rowan now though, once my blue scarf is done I'll be banning it from my needles and trying lots of lovely new wools instead. Suggestions very welcome!

Jemima...finished

Knit in navy blue rowan kid classic 'nightly', my first successful sweater! Its tricky to photo a dark wool, so let me describe it to you...



it's wonderfully soft and warm, fits perfectly, boxy - which I wasn't expecting, but light and slightly loose - an easy fit. The button placket is strong and neat, although I've permanently seamed it on both sides, and will add some purely decorative buttons later, as well as a rowan label in the back. It might have taken me an awfully long time, but its an easy pattern for a beginner. I used 5mm needles and aran weight wool to keep the weave drapey.





One shot of the back...



This is what I was looking at...the moon over the back of the Royal Crescent.

rainy day food

Today it rained. And rained. I had an urge to bake some warming food...



Chedder cheese scones, just add soup.



Spiced ginger and currant fairy cakes with ginger butter icing, just add a cup of tea.

the design and the deadline

The brief: (imagine the cool sound of a typewriter click-clacking)... to invent something myself; the perfect scarf in fact.

Inspired by the cables on the dylan rowan country design, and more recently by the images online of VogueKnitting's yellow mittens; I wanted a wide chunky scarf with all manner of cables, bobbles and embossed delights, in a sophisticated deep blue super chunky yarn. I stumbled across Rowan Big Wool in Smoky at my LYS, which I've never tried before and had to buy super large 12mm and 15mm circular needles for. In the end though I decided to use 10mm needles as I've read on ravelry that the wool can pill easily since its so loosely woven. The deep blueness is difficult to photo, because its so very dark. So far I've done about 18 inches.

As it happens it was on the same day my HH surprised me by announcing he had booked Euro star tickets for a weekend in Paris in September (!!!!!), which has somehow imparted an aura of infinite romance and glamour onto this project for me. My plan is to complete this by our departure date so I can wear it around such places as the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur - and maybe get some gratuitous shots to post afterwards.

I won't claim this as an original design, because its just a mix of patterns from my stitch dictionary and blatant copying. Since I don't have any up-to-the-minute knitting chart software, the design is in its 7th re-incarnation on squared paper in felt tip pen, and at the moment I'm just making it up as I go along, the hollow oak turned into a cable with branches shooting off the bobbles, which has now turned into a chunky plait. Its just 32 sts across, so how long can it take?

I wish the photos were a lot clearer, it doesn't look very glamorous at the moment.

I'm making my HH his own 'Paris scarf' as he did plan the trip. I'm following the 'Men's rustic scarf' technique of knitting it vertically in garter stitch, with blue and purple stripes using the same wool.