when I'm counting it means don't speak to me...

So close ... I only had 11 rows to go.

I'm so tired that I have no words - I've been knitting frantically all weekend and am a bit disappointed that I failed this Olympics too.

Ah well, there's always Vancouver

tick tock, tick tock, tick tock!

Don't have time to blog!

Day 8

Day 8; Things are going well - finished the waist decreases, and the increases. I made a mistake below - One of the cable crosses went the wrong way. But as I discovered this about 3 inches later on, I can live with it!


I had a lovely day today - we went through to Edinburgh to see Lilith's Trunk Show at K1 Yarns. SHe had made a seriously large bundle of sumptiously yummy yarn! I spent enough to get a pretty emergency yarn keyring.



Here's Lilith's legs spinning away - she didn't want her photo taken but Ysolda didn't mind. The Edinburgh shop is really nice, and has lots of comfy chairs to sit and knit. There's even tea and cake!


Here's some shots of Old Maiden Aunt Baby Alpaca, Silk and Cashmere blend laceweight - it's so beautiful!



And some Noro Silk Garden Lite, and Orkney Angora for gloves and hats. I know I shouldn't have spent so much, but having to stay faithful to one project made my eyes wander onto yummy yarns!

Day 5

Day 5. I had a wee couple of days off from blogging ... there's really not that much to say. Knat more, got a bit further!

Realised that when I change from knitting in the round to knitting flat for the armhole/neck bit that the stripes will get wider. I have decided to start flat knitting a wee bit earlier so that the wider stripes start below the boobs, instead right over the middle of them. It may even make them look them bigger - which is always a good thing!

Suppose I better get back to it - I'm enjoying it despite the tone of this post. It's been a long and rainy day - it feels there is no sun in the summer anymore.

I found out from Revenue & Customs that the very exciting news about an EU regulation increasing the import duties threshold when buying from outside the EU from a pathetic £18 to a more respectable £105, is in fact going to make no difference at all to us *biggest sigh ever*

Basically (if you're interested) the custom duty level will raise to £105 before you have to pay duty. The VAT rate however, remains as payable on anything with a value over £18.

Therefore, buying anything over £18 will incur a 17.5% charge on not only the goods value, but also the freight and insurance charges, plus the £8 handling fee from Royal Mail.

I know that I shouldn't be buying yarn from abroad because of the carbon footprint, but really - elann and knitpicks can make me a 100% wool jumper for £17 - you'd be hard-pressed to achieve this in the UK for less than £50 (unless you go with scratchy 100% wool, or a wool-blend)

So I'm a bit grumpy, because I was imagining all the Socks that Rock joy that was going to be heading my way... ah well! There's plenty of good stuff here, I know. The grass is always greener elsewhere!

Day 3

Day 3 - getting on quite well. My finger's are a bit achey now - but I work full-time, so I wanted to knit as much as possible during the weekend while I can. It's been a lovely weekend on the sofa with knitting and Sky TV.

Last night after I posted I realised that the Honeycomb cable was 'jogged' over a stitch from the rib, and wasn't flowing nicely from the rib. After knitting the cable row (which takes 45 minutes!) I was halfway through the next row when it became clear.

I knat on for another 20-odd stitches trying to convince myself that it didn't bother me. Then I knat on for a few more stitches while I tried to come to terms with the inevitable.

It took a while but I tinked it back before going to bed so that I could start this morning fresh and going forwards.

Because of the twisted rib it wasn't really possible to frog back the 2 rows easily. The rib also confused me and I managed to put all the stitches back on the needle twisted... So a row that already took 45 minutes now took even longer because I had to straighten all the stitches...

The good news is that I'm getting faster at the cable row now, and can do it in front of the TV instead of having to go and sit in the bedroom.

The pattern is looking lovely, but the decreases are not written in - there's just instructions on how to do them depending on whether the decrease row is a cable one or not.

So that's fine, but then the rows after don't 'work' anymore, and I have to figure out how to do myself. It's quite good for learning the intricacies of the pattern, but not so great for a Ravelympics projects, because I don't have time to arse it up...

Anyway, better get back to it I suppose!

Day 2

Day 2; Got all the twisted rib bit done. 22 rows, plus the 1st row of the cable pattern. That's 4784 stitches!

I'm liking the twisted rib. It's the first time I've knit rib like this and it gives a nice effect, although is quite hard going knitting through the back loop for so long.

I love the way that the colourway is going better for this than it did for the test square, and the colour changes are driving me to keep knitting.

That's it for today, since Tiscali is charging me £14.99 a month for an broadband connection that is so slow I'm nearly in tears. Every sentence takes about 1 minutes to process. I also discovered that typing whole paragraph and knitting whilst waiting for it to catch up only angers Tiscali and it steals my words and replaces them with a flashing cursor.

Grr! Off back to knitting. Until tomorrow!

It has begun

It has begun! I got to see the amazing drummers counting down the start of the opening ceremony and a nano-second of the fireworks, and then I had to go back to work as my lunch was over.

So I didn't get to cast on until a couple of hours later in my teabreak.

The atmosphere in the Ravelry Ravelympics group is electric! There's an Opening Ceremony Stadium Parade where all the knitters are parading around a virtual stadium waving their sticks and yarn in the air. There's stats so you can see your event and how many projects are in, and how many are complete.

I'm in Vest Vault, and there are 222 of us knitting vests.

There's even a souvenir booth!


Here's my progress so far. I had a brief panic as I realised that I hadn't thought about the maths involved in converting the flat pattern into the round; would the repeats still work with seam stitches omitted? Would the rib work with less stitches?

I also hadn't thought about how exactly a chart with RS and WS works when there is no longer a WS ...

I thought about all of this in the hour before the opening ceremony. Fortunately Ravelry came to my rescue!

To convert a flat cable chart to the round is easier than I thought. The RS will have any cable crossing 'stuff' and the RS is just worked as is.

The WS usually has chart symbols like 'P on WS, K on RS' - so you just pretend that your WS is a RS, and follow the RS stitches instead. i.e. Knit where it says purl and vice versa.

I'm planning on posting each night at around 9pm with my progress over the next 17 days. Let the games begin!

Twilley's Freedom Spirit VestTop

Taa-daa! Finally a break in the rain to take some pics of the finished Twilley's Freedom Spirit Vest Top.

I modified the pattern to knit in the round, which was quite a mathematical feat for me. To remember where it says 'dec 1 stitch either end every x rows, x number or times (76 stitches)' that it should be 74 stitches, because I had to omit 2 stitches for the seams ...


(I breathed in ALOT for the shot above ...)


I think the decreases worked really well.


I had a slight problem with the neck decreases because I decided that 'dec 1 st at neck edge every 4 rows' meant every right side row only. Why I decided this I have no idea, but it meant the decreases were spread over 8 rows instead of 4.

I just overlapped the fabric at the shoulders before seaming, and no-one can tell but me...

So that's me. Ravelympics are tomorrow!

Luna Moth - not finished. Pinwheel sweater - not finished. Ah well!

the clock is ticking ...

Some maths ...

The Beijing Olympics is 6 days, 4 hours and 16 minutes away.

There are 34 rows to go on the Luna Moth Shawl.

Purl rows take an average of 16 minutes.

Lace pattern rows take an average of 20 minutes.

There are 17 purl rows, and 17 lace pattern rows to go (plus a cast off row)

That's 9 hours 42 minutes of knitting to go.

Which doesn't seem much in comparison with the time I have until the start of the Olympics, but I will be spending a good proportion of time working full-time, sleeping, commuting etc. ... I think it's probably best if I find time by avoiding housework.


A little more maths; the workings of the Honeycomb vest. I'm just desperate to cast on a fresh project at the moment! It's a real struggle not to.


Our resident garden fox seems less concerned with time and how to fit it all in ...


This was him last night, taking a brief interest in what the weird humans behind the glass were doing, before settling down for a rest in the sun.


Photos by the boy.

The Sun is out!

Lookee - the sun has come out in Glasgow at last!! Wewent to the fruit shop to buy a yummy watermelon this afternoon, and I'm currently sitting covered in watermelon juice, squinting at the laptop screen.


The cat seems to have found his hotspot...


The Honeycomb tension square is complete. I'm not all that confident about this one - I am going to modify it to knit in the round again. It has to be knit with 4 inches of negative ease, which makes me a little anxious that this is going to be teeny - but I am on a diet, so if it is hopefully it will fit eventually.

The gauge is 28 stitches per 4 inches. Before blocking I had 32 stitches with a 3.5mm needle, so figured I would probably need to go down to 3mm. I blocked it anyway, cos you never know, right?

It shrunk down to 30 stitches when damp, and 28-28.5 stitches when dry blocked! Huh? It also became narrower than before, resulting in more rows per inch.

Of course this, coupled with my apparently longer torso, made for some fun maths... Adding an inch before decreases, and figuring out exactly how many rows "knit until piece measures x inches' will be based on blocked rows per inch.

The pattern is now full of my additions and scribblings. I'm hoping I haven't gone wrong somewhere - the pattern is for a 12.75 inch tank top, from bottom to the armhole. I've gone for 16 inches instead.


We were also down in England last week, eerie misty shots taken here from the balcony of the boy's family holiday spot; Slaley Hall. All the more creepier due us going to see The Mist at the cinema last week!



We took a (long!) walk around Geltsdale, an RSPB reserve. Didn't see much, except a few Kestrels hovering around. And also had to walk through a herd of cows with babies. That was quite scary - the mum was snorting a bit as we walked past her and her calf.

Then we passed 3 calves on their own, and realised that the mum was on the other side of the road and that we were between her and her babies.

I don't know much about cows, but they're pretty big, and as a general rule, getting between mums and babies is never a good plan. We walked through smartly, with our heads down. Eye contact a good idea, or a reason for a cow charge? Who knows... (I've just read this *gulp*)



There was little in the way of fibery goodness in the area though, but I managed to convince the boy to stop off at Stitching Time in Hamilton for some knittery treats. Some beautiful Louisa Harding and Araucania ... mmm... I've wanted the Louisa Harding since Lynette did a lovely project in it.

Stitching Time was a treasure trove of yarny joy, and Nan and David are lovely. I really enjoyed my trip and would recommend it to all. They also have cheap Addis.

I also got a magnetic board to keep my place in lace charts (I got the last one, sorry! Although not that sorry - ha!) Lilith was talking about these awhile back and I meant to get one, but forgot. She's right - it's such a Godsend! No more stupid Post-its losing their stick after one removal and curling at the edges. And it's a flat surface to rest the chart on the couch-arm too. Genius!



I may have done a wee bit of online shopping before I left too, so that I would have a pressie from the postie too. Some Noro Kureyon sock yarn in the same colourway as I've made a hat in (although the hat was in aran-weight Kureyon) I can't wait to knit with this, and am thinking a lovely wrap would go well with the hat. There's a serious amount of yardage (I wrote yarndage the first time ... ) on this ball too - enough to make a shawl.


The best saved until last; some old maiden aunt 2ply silk/cashmere blend in espresso colour - it is yarn that literally melts in your hand. So utterly sumptiously deliciously soft! And with a 32% discount too.

Olympic Training begins with swatching for Honeycomb. I am in LOVE with this yarn and in LOVE with this pattern. The autumnal shades and the cabling pattern were made for each other!

I also learned to cable without a cable needle, so I can motor through this quickly - 17 days are not many when I also have to juggle a full-time job, and an occasional glance at the housework.

It's a great technique, but I think it would only work for me with cabling that requires only 1 stitch being crossed over another. Otherwise I think it would just be too footery.


And yes, I am still trying to complete Luna Moth (don't mention Pinwheel sweater OK?) - I'm on repeat 6 now. The pattern was written for a DK to aran weight yarn, and I'm using 4 ply so I'm wondering how many repeats I'll need to do, to have a decent-sized shawl.

Obviously it's going to be more, but how many more? I think I'll have to put it on waste yarn to get a decent idea. And then how much does seasilk increase in size after blocking? There are too many factors to consider and time is running out!


And another project, because I don't have anything portable at the moment (apart from a sock in progress which is boring me senseless) - this is the most beautiful ethereal pattern. I found it on Ravelry and just HAD to cast on right away!

We went to Mull of Galloway today - the southermost part of Scotland. Saw four puffins!! I couldn't believe it! I never imagined I would actually see them in real life. Unfortunately they were perfect in our binocs, but too far away to photograph. You can see in the pic above - it's a long way down to the sea they were floating on.


One thing that the photos can't show is the sheer noise all these birds make - there were every type of gull, kittiwakes, puffins, guillemots, cormorants, and so on. We also saw a lone roe deer hopping about.



As we walked behind the lighthouse to get down to the foghorn viewpoint, we noticed that the walls were covered in the black dots...


... of about a million snails...


They were ....


... everywhere!!

Does anyone else's cat ...

... do this whenever the heating is on? If I didn't put a towel there, he'd just be up on the radiator without it, frying his little self.


Well, it's nearly that time; the Beijing Olympics begins at 08.08.08pm (2pm GMT) on the 8th day of the 8th month, 2008. (8 is a lucky number in China

So I must cast on when the flame is lit, and have the object ready for blocking by the end of the final ceremony.

The boy bought me the Olympic mascots for Valentine's Day - in order they are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini. Beijing huan ying ni means "Welcome to Beijing"!

I've joined the Ravelympics group on Ravelry- they've got loads of great events to join. There's Sock Put, Amigurumi Toss, Mitten Medley, Scarf Stroke, Hat Dash ... I've joined the Vest Vault and plan to make Honeycomb from Knitty.com, using some lovely DK yarn I bought in Tokyo. I've been dying to cast it on since I got it.

So, 17 days to knit a vest top. I think it's doable - I finished the Twilley's Freedom Spirit tank top quite quickly. (I just have to wait 'til my head is no longer full of snot before I agree to publishing pictures of myself on the interweb!)

What of the projects I was to finish in time to begin the Knitting Olympics?

Well ... I have two left to complete; Luna Moth Shawl, and Pinwheel sweater.

Frogged were: Crochet Wrap, Twilleys armwarmers, Branching Out (both of them) and Jaywalkers.

Completed were: The Force Scarf, Summertime Tunic and Glasgow socks.

Do I think I'm going to pass this task? Probably not ... but I'll give it a shot!



Edited to add; Thank you for all the lovely comments in my last post! There were a couple of questions;
The Fyberspates yarn is destined for a pair of gloves, and possibly a hat too.
And Mary's question - yes I was wearing my new Central Park Hoodie at Woolfest - you should have said hi! I know what you mean though, I saw lots of Ravellers and was too shy to say anything to them!

Woolfest joy in the Lake District

I'm back!! And ready to flash ma new stash!


Above: Krafty Koala merino/bamboo sock yarn in a luscious Chocolate Cherry Ice colourway.


This fabby Yarn Yardage Requirements card by Ann Budd - I found it a little late, after having spent the morning walking around with handwritten notes in a wee pad.

I also printed off my Ravelry queue using the neat little print icon next to the queue. It's frigging genius and I love Ravelry! It prints of a wee thumbnail pic, the meterage requirements, and the yarn weight required.

There are 4-5 queued projects per page - I asked the boy to guess how many pages were printing in the yarn room as I rushed about packing for Woolfest...

His guess? 3 pages.

Reality? 29 pages.


4 skeins of Manos Silk Blend which is so yummy I could eat it! And below, 2 skeins of Fyberspates merino/tencel sock yarn - with a 10% discount for being on Ravelry. I love the colourway.



Above; some Trekking XXL in a colourway I've been after for ages (I realise the photo's upside-down, but I couldn't be bothered, OK? I've a new project waiting for me to finish blogging and get back to it)

And finally, below 700g of DK 100% wool for a bargain £20!



We were in the Lake District - so really an opportunity not to be missed, bird-watching wise ... The clouds however, felt differently. Dropping down to car height they ensured nothing could be seen, and damp, raininess was everywhere.

These shots are of Haweswater - it took an age to get to it. More if you include the many times we passed the turnoff and had to go up and down the motorway a few times (but shh, don't mention it to the boy - he gets awffy cross when he gets lost - especially when "we're wasting precious petrol!". Oh, and also English signage is apparently "crap!" We're now saving for a tom-tom...)

So we finally get there, and step out into the drizzle to find that the hide (1 mile away) shut 5 minutes ago ...


We also went to an Osprey viewpoint just next to Keswick, where we were staying. Turned up 5 minutes too late to view the nest there too... The shot above is the boy watching the chaffinches and wee birds instead.


And an arty shot of the trees on the trudge back down.