Things on pins

Well, this month’s seen a lot of knitting, and a fair bit of photographing, but um, not a lot of blogging (and absolutely no spinning, wah)… mostly because the first thing I was knitting/taking photos of was a bokaclava, and the photos are destined to be used for a long overdue rehaul of the pattern/pdf. There’s a lot of this kind of thing -

I’m hoping they’ll clarify some of the more complex areas of the pattern. The redo will likely have to wait until the New Year though, as I’ve a few other things going on.

Firstly, there’s a whole bunch of molecules happening. It’s basically a reknit of the three from this post back in March. (I’ll save the whys and wherefores for another time, and just say that I’m thrilled to be doing it.)

I’ve knit parts for two of the three, and then of course there’s the seaming, but hopefully I should be finished by the end of the week. At which point, I’ve a pair of fingerless gloves (not mittens – they’re gonna have half-fingers) to get on with, for a friend, and then a pair of boot socks for my dad, which I’m halfway through the first of already – they got put on hold when I found out I needed to do the molecules.

I’d hoped to get a couple of other knits done as gifts for folk, but we’ll see how close to Christmas it is by the time I get through this lot – I might end up having to go shopping after all…

…of course, on top of all this there’s the usual Christmas stuff. We’ve got the tree up already, as this’ll be the first year in a long time that we’ll be spending the entirety of the holiday at home. I have to admit a fondness for sharing house space with something coniferous at this time of year. They smell so good.

And there’s the stuff to get in that I can’t knit. Books, CDs, games, big chunks of meat and cheese and chocolate, bottles full of drink, that kind of stuff.

As it goes, aside from all the aforementioned knits, right now I have one other WIP (well, one that gets worked on regularly) – it’s the lacy thing pattern I’ve been working on sporadically since October, currently having a run through with smaller needles and cobweb weight (Fyberspates Fairy Wool). It’s… time-consuming… so it’s likely not to get picked up now until the Day itself, or after.

(And not long after that, of course, it’ll all be over, and it’ll be January, and I’ll have to do my taxes.. eep.)

Deerwarmers!

(I’ve resolved to stop apologising for my puns.)

These are a quick knit, and yet again – no seaming!

One pattern, containing instructions for two sizes of antlers – 80yds of yarn for the small, 130yds for the standard, and two sizes of headband – 90yds for the small, 100yds for the standard.

The larger sized antlers will also ‘plug in’ to the Baalaclava pattern, as a replacement for the horns – the smaller could easily be added to a woolly hat pattern.

The headband can be worn either under the chin, or behind the neck, depending on preference. The small headband will fit from toddler to pre-teen (and if used as a headband tied behind the neck, even a smaller adult head). The large headband fits pre-teen and up.

It’s another 4mm needle, aran weight yarn pattern – you can use pipe cleaners to make the antlers poseable if you’re so inclined, and there’s the option to stuff the headband (or you could use it as a cover for a readymade alice band and omit the I-cord/button fastening).

Techniques used in the pattern include knitting in the round, picking up and knitting stitches, I-cord, and grafting.

The pattern is a PDF download, via my ravelry shop – you don’t need to be a member of ravelry.com to buy it – and payment is via Paypal, for which you will need a Paypal account.

Price £2.50 GBP – Paypal will make the conversion from other currencies automatically.

November garden update

We managed Hallowe’en after all. Costumes were found – this photo is pre-guising, so you can’t see the bag full of sweeties they ended up with -

and apples were bobbed -

And after the flower fairy and the witch were tucked up safely in bed, myself and the other half settled down with whisky and The Ghoul – the 70s Cushing one, not the Karloff one from the 30s – and had ourselves a startling evening’s entertainment. We missed the opportunity to recreate the first night I watched this film, when it appeared on the BBC as part of a double bill with Night of the Demon… ah well.

Bonfire Night came and went, we had a few fireworks but I was too busy running about in the dark, slipping over on wet leaves, trying to wrestle back control of the torch from a two year old and being part of a firework-lighting tag-team to take any photos.

Yesterday we were up the garden, during a brief respite from the bucketloads of rain we’ve had up here in the last couple of weeks.

I’ve managed to get another couple of spits dug below where the potatoes came out, there’s only about 18″ left to dig at the bottom of this bed now (it’s under the rubber mat – that’s what I use to keep myself a bit of workable, dryish ground to dig in this horribly soggy weather).

The view from the other end –

That’s the garlic and japanese overwintering onions. The garlic is bigger than the onions, which just seems wrong, but heyho.

The other side of the path. The brassicas are still displaying a dramatic lean caused by the overhanging trees that are now GONE! Well, mostly.

The patch of bare soil in the foreground (in front of the puny leeks) is going to be one of two or three small tattie patches next year (I’m going to plant them either end of this bed, I think.) It needs a good weeding and a load of muck before that happens though.

See that Tuscan Kale at the left there, the strappy dark green leaved thing? The one that looks very healthy? I snapped the top of it off whilst trying to pick a leaf from it yesterday. God knows how, the stem was really thick. There was swearing.

The parnsips, few though they are, will have had their first frosting now – I think it might be time to sample one or two of them soon.

A close up of the other end -

The red kale’s looking a bit leggy, I think.

The other thing I did yesterday was net the purple sprouting broccoli -

There’s only three of these, but I’m very pleased with them, and now I hopefully won’t have the trauma of turning up and finding they’ve had their growing tips eaten to pieces by hungry pigeons.

They’ll be a welcome crop in early spring – I’ve nothing much of anything else happening that’ll be around then. I’m planning on some early sowings of salads, lambs lettuce and the like, possibly some oriental greens, but need to get a cloche sorted for that, really. Or a tunnel – I have the plastic already, just need to decide on where to site it and get hold of some drainage pipes and scaffold poles (apparently). The shed would be a good candidate for conversion, but that’s a major operation, and I expect it would mean losing the stove’n'chimney set up that’s in there, that I’d hoped to one day get going.

It’s about that time of year again – plans need to be made, seeds need to be reconciled. It’ll be time to chit the potatoes before I know what’s hit me.

I’ve got some knitting on the go at the mo, some more weirdo stuff to wear on your head should be appearing shortly, and I do have a lace thing bubbling away nicely, though that’s still some way off being a finished object. Watch this space.

The Dark Half approaches!

We’re just starting our preparations for this evening – hope everyone’s looking forward to a fun Halloween/Samhain/Día de los Muertos weekend.

Obviously in an ideal world we’d be all ready to go at this point, but no. I’ve spent the last fortnight getting my car ready for an MOT retest, after it failed the emissions test first time out. Thankfully it made it through on its second attempt, but it’s meant that I’ve thought of little else for the last fourteen days.

And those of you that have spawned some freaky halloween knitwear in the form of peculiarclavas, I salute and thank you! Please forgive my apparent lack of concern for those with seaming and end-weaving allergies…

So – time to get off the computer and Do Spooky Stuff. (There may be pics to follow.)

Three Ply III: The Search for Squoosh.

I think we’re getting there.

This is around 10-14wpi – it’s fairly thick and thin, but my main concern with this fibre was not putting way too much twist in and I seem to have managed that, at least.

There’s 161yds, around 70g (I may pop it in my pocket and weigh it on the Post Office scales this afternoon).

I’m pleased with it – it’s an almost-DK, I think? A good part of it is certainly DK weight, some is sport weight – there’s likely areas that are fingering weight, too. Onwards and upwards!

(I’m a little meh about the colour, but never mind.)

I’ve swatched the last 3ply I did, which is certainly overplied -

That’s a 3mm needle, so I’m not sure if the fabric is dense enough.

It’s really stretchy. I expect it’ll make a hardwearing pair of socks, I just need to work out whether I want to drop a needle size.