Needles on the Move

Ravelry called.

I’ll see you later…

Nothing is growing in the winter garden. A single, brown creeper clings fitfully to the trellis and the picket fence waits patiently for its rambling vines to be renewed. As pale sunshine reflects on the snow and earth, the leafless shrubs remember warmer days and stretch themselves towards the springtime.

Size

Small[Large] (shown in small size); Finished measurements: 7[8]inches long, not including cuff; 8[8]inches around.

Requirements

Yarn: Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift (100% Shetland wool, 25g/105m): 1[2] balls MC #880 - coffee; 1[1] ball CC #130 - sky (please note, yarn requirements do not allow for a swatch).

Needles: 1 set 2.5mm and 1 set 3.0mm circular or double-pointed needles for your preferred method of knitting in the round, or size needed to obtain correct gauge.

Notions: smooth waste yarn, yarn needle, 2 stitch markers.

Gauge

8sts and 8rounds per inch on larger needles after blocking.

This pattern is sold as an electronic file delivered in PDF format. File size is 831kb, 5 pages. Upon payment, the file will be automatically delivered to your email inbox.

Price: US$4.95

Some of you know that I signed up for an Open University photography course. Mostly so I can take better pictures of Yarn in a Bowl.

So as not to bore uninterested knit-blog readers I will document my thoughts on the course over here: http://yarninabowl.blogspot.com/  :-D

Although not a knit-blog, YiaB will almost certainly feature quite a lot of yarn ;-)

Heheh, I’m still giggling a little.

What did I do? Go read over at Bronte’s blog…

- - - -

Anyone for a sleepover? Neil’s off to Tokyo. Yup, without me. All that Japanese yarn :-(

I’ve finished the mittens, written the pattern, hope to have it up tomorrow!

Who would have thought the experience would be so debilitating. I hate to bore you by harping on the whole flat-hunting thing but it’s my only excuse for being semi-missing for the last few weeks and failing to follow through on minor things like emails, prize draws and blogging (housework got completely ignored too if that makes you feel better).

After an abysmal day on Monday and a £$&*^$&* of an agent on Tuesday morning (see conversation no. 1 below but change £50 to £100) we cracked it and gave up on Bayswater altogether.

Within 24 hours we had closed on a flat in Fulham :-D

A bit further for Neil to ride to work, but not terrible, and fantastic for me - only half an hour tube or a do-able walk if I’m feeling very energetic. We’ll be moving in about 2 weeks.

Here’s a link to the property listing (it won’t work forever but it’ll be up still for a couple of days I expect) http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1&pid=358276&agentid=04632

Yay!!

P.S. There’s a huge lounge room with room for at least two spinning wheels :-D

This is where I’ve been the last few weeks. It is completely annihilating and I’m beginning to count up how many friends I’ve got who have spare rooms.

Here are the three most common real estate agent conversations:

Me: “Hi, I’m calling about the flat at ….”

EA: “I’m sorry, that’s already taken, may I offer you something at £50 above your weekly maximum?”

—

Me: “Hi, I’m calling about the flat at ….”

EA: “I’m sorry, that’s already taken, what did you say your maximum was again?”

—

Me: “Hi, I’m calling about the flat at ….”

EA: “You know, September’s a really bad time to be looking for a flat.”

—

I’m trying to work out the extremely fine balance between wanting something I can bear to live in, and not wanting to be out on the street in three weeks’ time.

Is it so wrong of me to prefer a street like this:

to a building like this:

Eta: I just got a call from an agent and have an appointment at 9am tomorrow. Cross everything for me please!

Lots of people jog. It’s a great way to keep fit, it builds muscle strength and bone density which is said to decrease risks of osteoperosis and general decreptitude later in life. It releases endorphines too and many people swear by jogging as a means of stress-busting.

So what do severely effort-challenged people like me do then? Well, I spin. Most of the time, and if I don’t I get all cranky and grotty like last week. Please, if you see me start to snarl then throw a spindle at me.

Here’s what I spun up for the public on Saturday:

It’s BFL from Lisa Souza (yes, again - what can I say? Her stuff rocks!) in the ‘Emerald City’ colourway. I spun it at my standard automatic 2-ply gauge which was easiest when I was having to look up and talk to people a lot. It’s about a light DK and I’m guessing there’s around 200yds. The bowl was a gift to self from the woodturners across the way. Bought specifically for taking pictures of Yarn in a Bowl.

On Sunday I did a bit of fleece preparation and also finished the 5g of cashmere that was on my little Bosworth. It’s all ready to ply from the NP now but Bossie is nekkid! Any suggestions? I have some more cashmere but it’s plain white (yawn), maybe some pure silk?

I have no idea how much there will be, it took a looooong time to wind it onto the NP and it’s very fine so I’m guessing in the region of 30-40 yds. Enough to do an edging on something.

Oh, and the bone density/fitness thing? Well I’m still working on that…

After a hectic no-blog week of flat-hunting and frustrations I spent the weekend demonstrating spinning at the Royal County of Berkshire Show with friend Jan - who’d also had a severely busy week. We dragged ourselves there yawning and crabby at 6:30 on Saturday morning, we spun practically all day, we were amazed at how perked up we felt on Saturday night and we both realised that if we’d just sat down during that mad week sometime and taken the time at the wheel just to chill out then life would have been peachy. Duh. We’re thinking of sticking up signs in stress-prone zones.

There were no sheep, due to foot and mouth, this made me a little sad. There were horses, and ducks, and pole-climbers though.  Fab sport pole-climbing by the way. I can’t run as fast on the ground as that guy went up the pole! If you don’t know what it is think AFL goal posts but a bit higher, two men, two harnesses for safety, grippy rubber shoes I believe on the professionals.

I learnt about a style of flat Japanese braiding which I’ve forgotten the name of, I saw a real wolf, and I finished spinning the 5g of bright pink cashmere that I bought in Wales.

Today I had intended to come home bright and early but due to the lack of one small essential item (door-key :-() I stayed at Jan’s until evening. I spent a lot of time knitting the mitten in the conservatory but also some time ripping out what I did so it still looks much the same as before.

More pics tomorrow when I have more energy, stuff I bought, progress on the mitten and the drawing of a couple of overdue prizes :-)

Ciao!

See, now isn’t that more interesting :-D

I am about two inches past the afterthought thumb stitches, with about three inches to go before the shaping starts. Somehow colourwork always seems to rocket along.

The yarn, by the way, is Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. The same as in Eunny’s Autumn Rose. I picked it up for a song (not on sale, this yarn is cheap!) at Iknit and will definitely be using more of it. A bit scratchy maybe, but fine for outer wear. If you want to get yourself a head start on the pattern, I expect we’ll need two balls of each colour.

ETA for Lin: The shades are ‘coffee’ #880 and ’sky’ #130. 

Does anyone know how to stop?

Yep, that’s the boring side. I might reveal the top tomorrow ;-)