The tale of Rowan Polar

Bought for a hoodie for myself… it was going to add too much bulk to my slimmed down self though. also not 100% sure about the colour for me.

an unfinished hoodie

unfinished hoodie from front

bought extra wool and it was then a finished sweater for simon, but was a bit skimpy and bulky again!

it was then made into something of a mystery parcel for Tom.

A brown paper wrapped box

YES, another hemlock ring blanket

and a candle flame shawl for my grandmother’s 80th birthday present. It now sits on the back of her chair

Clothkits + parcels

my sister and i sat in a tree wearing clothkits jackets and hats

I thought I’d share a photo of my sister and I wearing clothkits Jackets and Hats as kids. Ysolda’s post about the company and other’s mentioning these cute jackets that had lil pockets for toy stuffed animals, made me think of some scanned pics I have on the PC. Without a sewing machine or the ability to cut straight, I am still tempted by the clothkits kits… the kids stuff is just adorable.

absence makes the heart grow fonder?

well, I was going to update with a picture of a candle flame shawl blocking that I’ve knitted out of the same wool that I used for my friends hemlock ring blanket (the stuff that started as a hoodie) but alas my camera batteries need charging.

My lace was on hold whilst on holiday (only got 1 sock knitted in 10 days away!) in pretty funky location though!

and since I’ve been back, I’ve been busy on the candle flame shawl, ready for next saturday to give to my grandmother. It’s amazing how good this wool looks for blankets.

I’d also forgotten how satisfying blocking is. Once I’ve got the space organised seeing a blob become a shapely piece of beauty is impressive. Tom, I will block your blanket on Friday (so that it can take up as much space as it wants, as we’re away until the Sunday!)

home baked bread

Sunday Simon and I escaped the noise and heat and headed for Dalby Forest. Me armed with my knitting, he armed with his mountain bike. After whiling away a mere hour or so knitting by a lake in dappled shade, we headed off to find a quiet picnic spot and this is where we spent a few hours whiling away the time:

Something else I’ve been meaning to write about for a while is Lidls sour dough bread mix. The bags are basically just flour with the sourdough mix already in it. Monday’s I dump the whole bag in a big bowl, add several handfuls of seeds/nuts and add 700ml of warm water. Stir it with a big wooden spoon until all the flour is encorporated. Cover it with a damp teatowel and leave to rise for the rest of the day.  When risen/I have the time, I empty the risen dough mix onto a well floured surface and kneed with more flour until it’s not longer sticky. Divide into two roughly 450g loaves and let rise in the tins before baking at 200 C (fan assisted) for 50 minutes. It’s like being back in Germany. Very very yummy easy bread. Yesterday it was ready in time for supper! Strawberries in balsamic vinegar vinaigrette are lovely anyway, add a mini gem lettuce and avo and some feta… We could’ve eaten it twice over.

moving on/loving it

The golf club covers I knitted for my dad went down a treat. I just need to grab the photos off him to share with you!

I finished one project of doom and now love it! It’s my second hemlock ring blanket in the yarn that was a hoodie for me and a sweater for simon first. The yarn is perfect for the end project. I need to block it, photograph it and post it off to Tom-I told him it’d be ready for summer. OOPS! The weather is gorgeous, but the need for an Alpaca blanket is not high.

I finished a pair of Opal Hundertwasser socks. They weren’t appealing on the needles, but on my feet and in my shoes, I love them.

I’ve also started my first proper lace project. As in lace pattern, in lace weight wool.

Found myself saying I’m loving it AGAIN, so I think my literary skills are failing me. Hopefully some pics next post

absence

Well life has been pretty busy and has left less time and inclination for knitting and even less for blogging about it! (I’ve been having refresher driving lessons and sorting out university for next year amongst other things). Have managed to infect two muggles to knitting! One in a pub (ravelry knit night-York every second Tuesday, check out ravelry or shout here) and one at uni =)

I’ve made my dad’s birthday present and started some new socks; 2 blankets remain on a “go-slow”. I don’t like “go-slow” projects and think that maybe I need to implement a strategy to get them done! ha, the language use seems a bit incongruous to knitting!

What kicked my backside into wriitng here tonight was a quick request to check where a hole in the ceiling was (Simon is putting an aerial cable into our bedroom). He’d shoved a knitting needle through said hole so he could find it in the loft!!!!!!!!!!

surprising find

I went to see Cats (the musical) in Leeds on Saturday afternoon. I am very pleased that we got a show guide, as lo’ and behold knitting gets a mention.

“PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
…
Leotard Painters Penny Hadrill,
Nicola Killeen
Knitting                 Trevor Collins
…”

It really made me smile and the knitting was funky too. Mind you, the show as a whole was just amazing. Bodily perfection in lycra, vocal gymnastics… It couldn’t have been better =)

I’d finished a pair of socks in time to wear them-got to keep warm. The socks, still not photographed  had been finished, ends sewn in and everything a few days earlier, but after wearing them I decided that they were too short. The downside of a sewn cast off is pulling it out, but that done, the ribbing ripped back to the pattern and having lengthened them, I’m as happy as I’ll ever be with them. One of my first posts here was about colour and I mentioned my love of colour, but that I wasn’t sure about multicoloured yarn. I fell foul of the magpie syndrome. This sock wool looked pretty in a skein-gorgeous in fact, but I bought it on the internet and there were no knitted up versions available to see how the colour placement worked out. For socks which are red, with shots of bright blue and lime green, they’re decidingly boring and lack the pizazz I was hoping for now they are knitted up. I really do think socks is one place you can get away with mad colours, but it’s the placement of those colours that can make or break it?!

some hoodie pics

pretty perfect Saturday

spent this morning just pottering. wound wool (read: took a skein of wool, ended up in knots, needed sy’s assistance to wind it into a ball ready to knit up into socks) and finished with a rare fry up. Alas, HP bakedbeans are still proving elusive. Finished off the potato scone I made Thursday.

Thanks to tv pause, I watched the rugby after a “nap” (oh how that makes me think of my sister!!) and swatched (non knitters: knitted a test square). JOY Scotland won

Then this evening was spent eating bread rolls which Sy baked while I was asleep and listening to our three newly purchased CDs, whilst knitting the socks.

Jack Johnson; I cannot say enough good about this guy. Erik Mongrain; I’m not sure if it would inspire you to play guitar or put you off forever as he is such a genius! It’s a shame I wasn’t up to seeing him live here the other week. Laura Marling; speaking of seeing live, we went to see her, but she had a poorly throat, so her entourage of Marcus Mumford, Noah and the Whale and King Charles entertained us for the evening. I’d be interested to know more about Laura, as her lyrics and voice belie her age (only just 18)

a round up

My zip is finally sewn into my (blocked) hoodie. It even got a little outing yesterday evening, but as yet no pics-that’ll be the plan for the weekend I think. Did I say that I intend to use our national trust membership as photo locations? Back to the hoodie. Am wearing it now. It’s gorgeous! Warm, snug fitting, goes with anything. A firm favourite wardrobe staple me thinks!

Few reasons for the delay in finishing the hoodie:

• taking a few strands of my wool was too thick for the zip (recyled from an old favourite) so I had to wait and buy some tapestry yarn.
• I’ve borrowed a knitpicks cable length from someone on ravelry, so have been busy knitting the hemlock ring blanket, so I can return it to her asap. Finished first blanket in 12 day and have permission to do another before returning it =)

The showcase for it was a mini ravelry meet up yesterday evening in a pub in York. Only 3 of us turned up, but we still managed to scare anyone from sitting on any table in our vicinity-why is it that knitting has that effect?