Woolgathering

I shouldn’t say it. But I shall. I am getting a bit fed up of this rain. The thing is, living here, one simply cannot afford to let it get to one.

We just have to live with it. And, to be honest, I have lived in overall wetter locations in the past. I should be used to it by now. But it is getting me down now.

Perhaps its just a reflection of my current mood. Or maybe Mr L is getting me down (he’s been complaining - and I mean *complaining* of gastro/intestinal problems for two whole weeks now. He won’t go to see the doctor. And he’s as miserable as sin. A real Grumpy Bastard, in fact.) Well, OK. Mr L *is* getting me down. But that does not alter the fact that it has been raining every day since the 25th September. Except Nov 5th, when we only had drizzle.

I am ready for a few blue skies - and they will come. December is usually a pretty fair month, and December isn’t far away now.

Last night I took leave of my senses and cast on for another hat. Just an experiment with some handspun and I have no idea if it will work. There are other things that I should be concentrating on but this little project is fun - and half done, or thereabouts. The thing is, it’s colourful. It’s blues and greens and like summer skies and waters. Perhaps I cast it on simply to work with these colours. Maybe my Knitting Psyche was at work.

It’s pretty hairy stuff, though.

Only a week to the Christmas Fair - and I have virtually nothing to sell. No cards made. Very little knitting done, compared to what I had planned. No lavender bags manufactured yet. I am cutting things rather too tight for comfort! On the positive side, the ribbon for my sewing has arrived. I still don’t have any lace edging, though.

I have a migraine brewing today. I think I’ll nurse it, in the hope that it goes away. I’m doing spaghetti for lunch but rather think that after a late start, it’s coming out of a packet instead of from between the rollers.

It feels like a hot-chocolate and board games, comfort kind of a weekend coming up. But we still can’t light a fire. Moves are afoot to order some stove pipe, in the hope that we can have  Yule/B’day/Anniversary fires at the very least.

On the plus side, for me at least, our Winter supply  of domestic fuel oil has been ordered at last. YAY! Prices are still moving in the right direction, but we had to give in before reaching the sludge at the bottom of the tank.  And, in the post today, notice of the decrease in our mortgage payments. As I didn’t get that job this week we have had to bite the bullet and ring up to fix our payments at the previous higher level, plus a wee bit more. It’s time for more belt-tightening. My Endowment statement came this week and it’s looking like falling at least one third behind the original projected value - leaving us an uncomfortable distance behind paying off the house at the end of the mortgage term. We’ll do anything we can to stay here - even if it means eating lentils six days a week and *gasp* going on a yarn diet. It’s a good job that we don’t do Christmas. Otherwise I think I’d be a tearful housewife at this point. As it is, it’s easy to feel sanguine - about all except the yarn diet!

So, I can knit my way through my stash, and spin the rovings that I have, and knit those. Then we’re back to neutrals and whatever fleece I can pick up for free or cheap - and I shall have to spin, spin, spin. And there’s nowt wrong wi’ that, is there?  I may even become a competent spinner because of it. Or possibly, a Natural Dyer - though so far research suggests that is an expensive hobby.

I’m sorry - this is a depressing post. I’d lighten it with cheerful photos of blue and green yarn and an Extremely Hairy Hat, bit there’s no light for photography because… it’s bleedin’ pissin’ it down!

Tell you what, it’s an old one but a goodie, here’s some December sky to chew on…

Dec 17, 2006. Kettletoft Bay. Mr L, Suzie and Griff (pre-dates the arrival of Nell)

I said that I would write up our flying visit to Stromness. Then promptly forgot about it as I busied myself with spinning and knitting. So, let’s give it a go now…

Since we moved to the island we have found that it has been impossible to explore the rest of Orkney. We can’t afford to take the ferry from the island very often and tend to do our shopping on the mainland every eight weeks or so. The sheer volume of stuff that needs doing, and the narrow window afforded by the timetable on most days, means that we normally get no time at all outside pf Lidl, let alone Kirkwall. Summer Mondays are good long days, though I tend to disfavour Monday as a shopping day and we have not previously taken advantage of the Monday boat. This week was different, we had to get Nell in to the vet. Shopping was limited somewhat by Somerfield/Tesco being closed - so we had plenty of time on hand. Thus - our very first excursion to Stromness.

We both fell for the place. Hook. Line. And sinker.

Reasons to love Stromness:

• It’s photogenic
• It’s quiet
• It has knitting wool
• It has art

On the photogenic front - I indulged my taste for blue plaques (and by no means shot them all)

The town stretches out along the waterfront, with old houses clinging to the hillside. A girl could spend all day with a good camera, taking shots of doors and windows (and probably will, one day). There are many, many alleyways and staircases and surprise views. At one point, I thought I was in Whitby…

We ambled along, and finally settled on a bench by the town cannon - and waited to watch the ferry leave. It’s a much larger ship than I had imagined, far larger than the Gill’s Bay ferry that we have used for the Pentland crossing. Close by to our sitting place was a real piece of history…

As we worked our way back we explored a few shops and the Pier Arts Centre. Each was a cursory stop, more to inform future visits than to enjoy this time.

We found good knitting yarns in two shops - The Quernstone and another shop that I cannot recall the name of, but it was once a coffee shop and soda fountain and still had the old mosaic Art Deco signage and marble floors - gorgeous! I found Colinette and Noro yarns, and Opal sock yarn, plus local handspun and dyed yarns from Tait and Style (ooooh, look what I just found! courses pdf) and others, including our own Sanday product of Orkney Angora.

We found this, which I already mentioned:

where Mr L bought me some carded and dyed fleece and we met the lovely and energetic Debbie Jones, and spotted but did not speak with Emma Ainsley, whose web site and leather goods I had discovered some months ago. (I have two of these free advertising postcards - comment below if you would like one and I’ll scribble a note and send it off to you. If you are prepared to wait, I might be able to get a Stromness postmark on it for you too.)

In the Pier Arts Centre we just scooched round to see the lie of the land and I promised myself a full return visit. We did cast a quick eye around the Gunnie Moberg exhibition and felt some sense of déjà vu in looking at the Barbara Hepworth works… but all that is for a day with more time.

I picked up a not-postcard flyer in the arts centre - for Joanne B Kaar’s current project “Mary-Ann’s Cottage.” I am already familiar with Joanne’s work - and I love this image.

It is just conceivable that I might be persuaded to part with it and stick a stamp on it, but it would take a really well expressed request to wrest this from my sticky mitts. Feel free to try!

We purchased sandwiches, and a tin to make pork pies in, and collected some cash, then had to dash off for a quick picnic lunch and some supermarket torture.

We really fell in love with Stromness and if we ever feel the need to return to some degree of “civilisation” and have to live in a town - well, we could happily live there. We will return for an outing, with the express intent of enjoying Stromness and the Arts Centre. Next time, I’ll take the DSLR with me. Watch out for windows and doors a-plenty.

Poor baby!

It has been a long hard day.

Not much knitting got done

We went to Stromness, where I took around 40 pictures, but this is all you are getting for now, and Mr L bought me this… “carded Orkney Wool” from The Sorting Room (a sort of artists co-op) - I liked the streaks of colour, they made me think of a sunset sky. I know what I am going to do with this. I think.

That’s all. I’m bushed. And I have hurt my back. Time for beer, bath, and a hot bed - or something.

Oh, and memories of the weekend’s Chocolate Pavlova…

Over and out.

I have decided to frog the Pomatomus sock - purely because I am unhappy with my workmanship. I will cast on again and knit more carefully next time.

With two froggings in quick succession I now need a “big hit” - a fast and easy completion. I thought I would knit the Hug yarn up immediately and I have cast on for a pair of Teosinte socks. Perhaps, in retrospect, not the ideal “big hit” project.

These are toe-up socks - because I continue to work at getting this method of construction comfortably under my belt. Once I feel competent at it I can safely leave it alone and return to my cuff-down preferences. I simply refuse to be defeated or to let the challenge slip away from me. So. Teosinte calls for the short row toe method that so defeated me in the Firestarters. I thought that maybe knitting it in a fatter yarn would help me to see what I was doing. Maybe. Maybe not. At any rate, I do now have a complete toe! It looks like the proverbial dog’s breakfast -  and is clearly not correct, since I seem to have acquired some excess stitch count (how?)

Frog?

Nah. I’ll fiddle the stitch count and carry on. Nobody will see the toes but me.

Yes. I know. But I said that I needed a fast knit and a big hit, so just let’s drop any pretence of being Ms Perfect Knitter here, shall we? I am sure that the second sock will be better. If I get that far because…

… when I calculated the yarn weight conversion on this yarn, I seem to have forgotten that is not the whole equation. In fact, I seem to have forgotten that  100 gms is somewhat short of 4ozs and, converted or not, is really rather… short of requirement.

We should ignore (please!) the fact that I seem to have converted the yarn weight wrong anyway and it is not actually spot on for my pattern, but a little heavy. The gauge seems OK, though - maybe 1 or 1.5 rows out on the (4″) row gauge, but it’s spot on the stitch count.

I emailed Natalie to see if she has a spare 50gms. There’s 100 gms available in the shop but, for the sake of 40 yards, I am reluctant to cough up £10.75 that I don’t actually have. If I do have to buy the 100 gms then I suspect that I shall have to re-knit this toe and aim for perfection… on a £21.50 pair of socks. You can’t fudge toes at that price, can you? :-}

What I want to know is - why would anyone in their right senses want to fashion one of these toes anyway? It’s so lumpy and stiff, not to mention really awkward to knit. I much prefer the Judy’s Magic Cast On toe.

One step forward for me was to replace the crochet provisional cast on that I tried with the Firestarters - this time around I used the Open Cast On tutorial at Knitty.

The saving grace of these socks will be the yarn - lovely lofty Merino, in a colour so subtle and refined. The colour is called Crusty Bread. Teosinte sports an “ears of corn” pattern - what a perfect combination. This project has been named Bread and Beauty - from a quotation from John Muir, the Scots born naturalist and driving force behind the creation of the USA’s National Parks.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

Hopefully these crusties will be beauties too - I had to resist the temptation to call these Beth’s Baguettes, with reference to the size and shape of my feet.

I fell totally under the spell of the Lochan as I wound it. It was difficult to restrain myself from beginning the Rivendells immediately. What gorgeous stuff, so soft, so lustrous. And the colour? I was simply reminded what a genius Natalie is. It isn’t simply that her colour choices coincide with my taste - no, often they do not, but I can still appreciate the subtlety of the colour. Really, as I wound this skein I was in complete awe of Natalie’s colour sense - this is a stunning skein. 

It’s a good product too - never any tangled skeins and never, ever, any white patches. This is not true of skeins that I have bought elsewhere.

Go buy something - you won’t regret it. I am not affiliated and there’s no commission coming this way Just another happy customer.

Yes, it’s a fun machine - right from the start.

Very photogenic.

I am sure to have fun with it at some point. Right now - just a couple of snapshots

And some yarn

Yarn one is for these, yarn two for these, and yarn three is not yet decided but maybe these or, more likely, these

I am going to wind yarns 1 and 2 right now.

On my wheel, the Deep Fried Vegis batt.

I hope I am going to like this. Maybe it will look better once plyed…

I should use this lens more often.

Watching me while I work - Suzie. She’s looking old these days.

This is the best photo I have ever managed of Suzie - she’s really difficult to photograph, with that dark face. Needs more skill than I possess. This is nice, though.

I totally wasted yesterday - and not in a good way. Not the day that I had planned for myself at all. No yarn in the post, either.

Most of the morning was spent in trying to capture starlings, which is why I happen to have the telephoto lens on my tripod today. I was massively unsuccessful. Here’s the best of a bad lot.

I shot this from the kitchen, through the open window. I had the camera trained on the wall where the birds habitually perch to check for safety before entering the nest. I sat nearby on a chair at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and the remote control.

I shall be trying again soon.

Later in the morning I went out onto the garden to see if I could capture the birds going in or out of the wall. What a farce! I have around 60 shots of assorted degrees of blurriness/birdlessness. This one is my favourite. It would have been a stunning shot, had it been pin-point sharp.

I got into a pickle with the Pomatomus sock as well.

I just ended up feeling grumpy and out of sorts after a day of pointless idleness and too much TV. I got to testing the iPlayer and Ch4 On Demand services on the new faster broadband. I watched several eps of Sugar Rush and last night we watched a totally silly film. The evening was rescued by a little gem of a programme that I found on the iPlayer - The Transatlantic Sessions. Just good music and nice images and nothing to spoil it. John Martyn, Eddie Reader, Aly Bain… and more. Lovely. I shall watch this week’s edition too, when it appears on the iPlayer. It seems to be old broadcast, material. I need to find the whole lot on DVD, I think.

I’m not doing much better today either. Pointless idleness seems to be all the rage this week.

I may have lost a pair of socks, but I have gained two sets of DPNs and am raring to go.

Yes, the Purple Needle Eaters have attained FO status and here they are:

Eight Ply Purple Needle Eaters

Ravelry Project Details

Cast on: 1st May 2008

Cast off: 9th May 2008

Pattern: Ambrosia Socks by Ann Budd - free pattern from Knitting Daily

Yarn: Mirasol Hacho, DK hand-dyed Merino, Colour 302, Peacock Ripple - 3 skeins (150gms) - a gift received. I broke into the third skein for three pattern repeats in each leg.

Needles: bamboo DPNs in 3.25mm and 3.5mm

Construction: toe-up, using Judy’s Magic Cast On, Yarnover short-row heels, sewn bind-off cuff.

Size knitted: 9″ foot circ, 10¼” foot length. 11 pattern repeats in the leg.

Rating: Eight Happy Toes

I sewed the socks up, then took them out for some quick snaps. When I came back in I said, quite doubtfully, “You can try them on if you like, but I don’t think they’ll fit” - for Mr Plumbum had expressed some interest in these socks.

He tried them on.

They fit pretty good. (He’s a UK size 10)

I had scarcely uttered “So, do you want them?” before he very quickly said “Yes, please!” I mean, he positively snaffled them!

These are nice socks, I am not surprised that he snaffled them  - the merino is soft and cushy and warm. The colour looks surprisingly not-feminine on his feet, too. I don’t know if I would knit them again, but they were reasonable fun to do. I liked not having to pick up the gusset and shape it, but I didn’t like the yarnover heel. The toe cast on wasn’t too bad in the end, and I think that I have the hang of it now. I might use that again, if needed but I think my preferred construction will be top down. The sewn bind off cuff was good and I enjoyed doing that.

I learned several new things over the course of this pair and am feeling quite satisfied. One surprise was how much I enjoyed rocketing through a pair of DK socks. I am not a fan of chunky socks and didn’t expect to find myself leaning towards DK but I do think I shall be doing further DK pairs - especially for ‘is nibs.

Lost, one pair of socks. I shall have to knit some more.

I made a Best Offer on some Trekking Hand Art on eBay… I doubt I shall get it, but you never can tell.

As promised, the dogs have been repaid for yesterday’s patience and we have all been out in the bay. This is how Orkney was looking this morning

Nell had much fun.

She ran and she ran and she ran.

Her recall is much improved and we successfully stopped her from chasing birds. The garlic sausage rewards helped a lot, I think. The other two think it’s great that they get treats when Nell is good. “Sausage for old rope”, says Griff.

I even managed to get all three dogs in one frame at one point!

Suzie, as usual, spent her time ripping pieces of kelp apart and running around like a thing demented - protecting “her stick” from all comers.

Me?

I just took photographs and admired the sun on the water and the colours and shapes of the the seaweed.

I think some of these shots will be recycled in the coming weeks and months as part of my PS3 activities.

And what has this, you ask, to do with fibre? Well, nothing at all - I just wanted to share my little piece of Heaven with an appreciative audience. Normal service will be resumed shortly - but not until I have made a nice stir fry dinner for my beloved, who is currently cleaning the conservatory out so that we can enjoy some Spring sunshine away from the still-biting wind.

Oh, and I am busy dyeing curtains - to a less offensive colour than pink.

I dusted off my DSLR today, it has been many months since it saw the light of day. I even got out the tripod. I’m trying to practise yarn shots. It’s not going well. Lights, I need lights and reflectors…

Anyway - here’s the rovings that arrived yesterday

This is Inferno, merino roving from Copperpot at Etsy. Lovely deep reds and browns and ochre-ish shades.

And this is Torch Island, same source. Brightened with magenta colours.

Big rovings, over 4 ounces each.

I had been v excited as I was expecting to find a nice free felting tool inside this parcel. But it seems to have gone missing. Now I shall have to get one asap because I had so many felty ideas in my head and I want to carry them out.

FO of Custard, the Dragon Scale mitts.

Still needing the ends sewn in and a good wash and light blocking.

And this is Kenaz, a WIP.

I noticed my Flickr stream when I was updating my projects at Ravelry. I love what Project Spectrum has done to my stream - all the reds and oranges and pinks look really lovely.

Only… I can’t get my colours right. Recently I have been finding that the web optimiser in PS steals my colours. They look fine in the PS editor, and carp when they are saved for the web. That didn’t used to happen. I have no idea what is going wrong.

Anyway - that’s one tick on this week’s list for completion. Now I need to go earn a second tick.

See, I did wash my skeins!

Not only did I wash my skeins today but I also got my knitting out and did 3 pattern repeats on my scarf this afternoon, being interrupted by an unexpected visitor I got no further. NO spinning done! NO cake made! AND I missed a £50 Ashford Traditional on eBay as I couldn’t get into the office to my PC to bid on it.