Little.Yellow.Different.Better.

Did you miss me?

2011-12-17T16:55:00.003Z

So it's been a while. In my feeble defense, I offer the following:
1. I've been on four continents in the past month. I never want to see the inside of a plane again.
2. I've been to three weddings since I last posted. (Four if you count both wedding banquets for my brother.) None of them local.
3. And the biggest time suck- I started a new job!

I have, however, no excuses, feeble or otherwise, for the lack of knitting. I seem to have lost a bit of knitting and design mojo. I've got three designs in various stages of completion- including two sweaters where the knitting has been finished for ages, and yet I can't make myself sit down and work out the maths for the patterns.

But I vow to improve!

Just in time

2011-08-30T21:25:00.005+01:00

Back from a couple weeks in China for work. I'd show you pictures, but I bought cheapo batteries over there, and I swear each had only, like, two free electrons in them. Also, I had no time for yarn shopping. (Damn you, paid employment!)

But I came back just in time for damson season. So...

...a couple kilos of damsons...

...some sugar...

(The Limey is experimenting and went for a batch of brown sugar- I disagreed with this deviation from tradition.)

...add (lots of) gin, give it a shake...
...then, the hardest part, waaaaiiiiiiting for aaaaaages.

The first year, we made 750ml, and it didn't last past Christmas. The next year, we doubled it, and just finished the last of it this weekend. This year, we doubled it again- predictions as to how long it'll last us?

Damson gin gets better the longer it sits, but we always end up cracking ours open on Thanksgiving, which is a great combination for this culturally mixed household.

Abbey Pullover

2011-07-17T19:07:00.004+01:00

More knitting news!

My pattern, the Abbey Pullover, has been published in the Fall 2011 issue of Knitscene.

(Picture from Knitscene)

Needless to say, I'm totally overjoyed to be able to contribute to Knitscene. I was so happy when I saw the pictures in the preview- the ones I took before I sent the sample off were, uh, not up to standard, let's say.

More info on my website, and from Knitscene.

Hello! Still here!

2011-07-14T21:38:00.009+01:00

Just faded away for a while- this summer has been super busy. But there has been knitting and there is knitting news. The first of which is:

(Picture intentionally crappy to encourage you to buy a copy of the magazine!)

The Oxford Blustockings are in print! Remember I told you I got a lift to Wonderwool Wales from Rosee, deputy editor at The Knitter? Well, she asked if I was in a knitting group and if we'd be interested in being featured on their readery's Gallery pages. As if I'd say no! So a bunch of us sent in some projects and now look! Liz and Jenny each brought a copy of this issue in to the Royal Oak yesterday, and we showed everyone! Most notably the pub staff and a fellow knitter visiting from Austin, TX who just happened to be in the Royal Oak.

More knitting news to come. Watch this space.

Oxfordiana, Pt 2

2011-05-21T22:43:00.010+01:00

Time for another round?

The Couscous Cafe is on the Cowley road a block from the big roundabout. They serve some great mint tea, but really what I love this place for is the pastries. I never pass by (or near!) without stopping by to buy half a dozen, at least. Little packages of loveliness made with honey, rosewater, almond flour, ground walnuts, pistachios. I am always tempted to buy one of everything, but that would be sugar overload. Also, as each one is only a couple of bites at best, The Limey and I are sometimes too selfish to share.

Continuing along the Cowley road:

As they (didn't) say: You can take the girl out of California, but you can't take California out of the girl. I have undeniable hippy tendencies. I cut it with a lot of cynicism, but there's no getting away from it. Indigo sells fairtrade clothing, accessories and little bits and bobs. There is lots I roll my eyes at (incense, magnetic "remedies", etc.) but it's one of the few places in Oxford I can reliably find good-looking ethically-produced clothing, and wearables made from environmentally-conscious cotton and fabrics, etc. Yes, it is slightly pricey, but I do not live at the poverty line, so I can afford some of my convictions. Plus, their sales are really very good.

A little bit of everything

2011-05-01T17:06:00.012+01:00

In this post, I shall write about one event that combines the Oxfordiana series, a little knitting, and a special bit I will call "crazy shit the English do".

Today is May Day, which is celebrated around the world mostly by workers demanding better lives and working conditions, but is celebrated in Oxford pretty differently.

File under Oxfordiana
It starts at dawn, with choirs singing from Magdalen College's tower to greet the day.

Apparently, people used to jump off the bridge into the river below (possibly encouraged by the blood alcohol levels reached from having spent the previous night drinking in order to be up to greet the dawn), but they've stopped that now.

I have to admit I did not actually join the celebrations. I was supposed to be at the Botanic Gardens, across the river from Magdalen College, at dawn, but numbers had to be cut at the last minute, and I wasn't actually going to be useful there. (To be honest, I was pretty happy not to have to get up before dawn and trudge down there. Dawn, people!)

File under "Crazy shit the English do"
But what was going on there?

Oh yes: Morris dancing. I've been living here for three years now, and there are things I never cease to be baffled by. Morris dancing is one of them. (As is separate taps, but we won't rehash that.) In retrospect, I should have seen this coming from miles away. Crazy facial hair? Check. Ponytail? Check. Unholy love of real ale? Check. So I should not have been surprised when The Limey joined Cry Havoc, our local Morris side.

He does not dance for them (yet), but plays the fiddle. I didn't get to see them dance at the Botanic Gardens, but I did go see them later in the day at our local Botley shopping area and in Osney Island, where these pictures are from.

And the knitting?

Gloves with fingers short enough so they don't hinder playing. Knit in Cry Havoc's black and purple colours. Hey, it may be the beginning of summer, but it's feckin' cold at dawn!

The guilt! The guilt!

2011-04-17T13:26:00.006+01:00

If this were a story I was analysing in English class, I would have underlined several parts and written "foreshadowing" in huge letters at the margin.

This morning, The Limey and I finally decided to start tending the completely neglected garden. The first thing we wanted to do is cut down the overgrown shrubs and small trees in the planting beds next to the house.

We went out into the lovely day and I remarked, "Just look at this: warmth and sunshine and birdsong, for the love of kittens. Crazy."

We cut down a skeletal, half-dead shrub. The Limey wise-cracked, "I'm uncomfortable with this wholesale habitat destruction." The birds continued chirping.

Next, we cut down a couple of evergreen topiary-type trees. The Limey put out a hand to move a branch away from a third, and saw this.

I feel absolutely awful. We hadn't actually touched the tree the nest is in, but we have cut down the bushes around it. It's not totally exposed because the nest is on the side of the tree facing a fence. But still. We propped up one of the cut-down trees near it, to provide some cover and hiding place, but obviously didn't want to prop it up directly against the nest tree.

We hustled the cat, and ourselves, inside and have been watching to see if the parents come back to the nest. Oh, I feel terrible. We've agreed next spring we'll put up some birdboxes to make up for this. If the babies aren't there (or worse, are there, but dead!) when we check on them later, I don't know what I will do.

Update: We have seen both parents flying to and from the nest with food. Whew!

And...and...

2011-04-12T22:06:00.002+01:00

I am loving Apartment Therapy's Small Cool competition. I love looking through the entrants' pictures. I love that these living spaces are small and yet people have beautifully and thoughtfully decorated them; sometimes, it seems, putting in more effort than those living in larger houses. Most of all, I love how the people are happy to live in their artfully crafted small spaces. I know lots of people think bigger is better, but these pictures show that some places are definitely greater than their parts.

I went to Wonderwool...

2011-04-12T21:41:00.003+01:00

...and forgot to take a camera.

Suffice it to say: yarn stalls in a hanger-size space. Nearly passed out from the fumes, but amazingly did not buy very much yarn. One skein of cashmere laceweight from Chopped Tomatoes, a dyer I'd never heard of before. But I loved her colours- I'll try to get a picture of the skein I bought. I also got a skein of Jeni's new high-twist Scrumptious to play with- I have an idea for a new pattern collection...if I can get my ass into gear.

I found that the stalls I was really drawn to this time were the textile ones. Woven blankets, woolen trousers, cotton skirts...all gorgeous. Lots of local Welsh representation here and all just beautiful. I was especially taken with the clothes at the Llynfi stall and picked up their card. Turns out they have an open studio weekend at the end of May, when I may be going to the Hay Festival, so will be in the area!

Had lots of fun. The person who offered me a ride from Bristol turned out to be Rosee, deputy editor at The Knitter, so we had lots to talk about- designing, the UK knitting scene, magazines, oh, everything! Which was great, because it turns out, what with getting from Oxford to Bristol, then Bristol to Builth Wells, I spent way more time travelling on Saturday than actually being at Wonderwool.

A new bit of Wales

2011-04-04T23:01:00.003+01:00

Due a confluence of several events, I'm off to Wonderwool on Saturday! The Limey not being home and a very kind offer of a ride from a random stranger on t'interwebs (yay Ravelry! and don't worry, I've totally blog-stalked her to make sure she's not a homocidal maniac) mean I will see a bit of Wales I've never seen before.

(I've only ever gone to Wales for the Hay Literature Festival, which means I've spent quite a few days around the Brecon Beacons, but nowhere else in the country.)

Please, please say hi if you are around and see me- otherwise, I may be too shy and overcome by yarn fumes to remember to be social and speak to people!

Huzzah!

2011-03-24T18:18:00.002Z

Okay, so it took two years and two tries, and I am three weeks shy of my theory test pass certificate expiring. But still!

Anyway, I would have totally passed that first time if it weren't for that stupid little red car at that roundabout. (Only 7 minors! And to fail because of that car!) And it wouldn't have taken me nearly two years to even bother scheduling the practical if it weren't for the crazy instructor I had when I first moved to Oxford.

But it's all behind me now.

Paralyzed

2011-03-13T13:51:00.004Z

When The Limey and I took the next step in pretending to be adults and bought a house, we did what we were told was the right thing, and bought a house with "good bones" in a good neighbourhood. It was the cheapest place on the block and it needed (needs) lots of mostly cosmetic work, with possibly a bit of minor structural-type changes.

Before we moved in, we repainted the living/dining area and kitchen, and repainted and re-floored our bedroom. We had lots of ideas about the rest of the place: grandiose plans of built-in bookshelves; visions of an artful, useful kitchen; replacing the falling-down lean-to with a conservatory; I demanded an orangerie!; etc.

Well, you all know how this pans out. We've done almost nothing since we've moved in. In fact, the two spare rooms are still filled with boxes yet to be unpacked. We were sensible about getting a mortgage we could afford, so we could save up some money to improve upon the house. Since we've done nothing for months, this little pot is big enough to do one thing. We could re-do the kitchen, dramatically change the garden, get a great bathroom, floor and insulate the loft, put in my orangerie, etc.

One thing.

But we don't know what. Even worse, all those ideas we had? Too vague to price up. And we don't really know what's possible, anyway. And, really, the actual problem is that we don't know what we want. We don't know what kind of kitchen (except "bigger", which, without going into details, is currently not feasible), we don't know whether we really want to spend the money on the bathroom, we don't know whether a conservatory could be used as a kitchen extension...

We basically have no idea. So we are paralyzed with choice and options, afraid to do anything for fear of it being the wrong thing. So we haven't done anything.

What I want is someone to come along, stride purposefully about the house, and say, Do these things! and in this order!

Oxfordiana, Pt 1

2011-03-05T16:31:00.007Z

I've lived in Oxford for almost two years now, long enough to have favourite local spots. I figure it'd be nice to do little profiles of the places I hang out, the shops I frequent, a general "where I spend my money and time in Oxford" series. I'll try to keep it to interesting local places, so don't worry, I won't be going on about my weekly Sainsbury's shop!

However, having mentioned my weekly shop, I may as well start with a couple of places at which I spend my grocery budget. These are both in the Covered Market, so are not exactly hidden gems!

Feller's is an organic butcher which has been partially responsible for my starting to eat birds and mammals again. I stopped in college and for more than ten years, pretty much stuck to a veggie diet at home, with fish and seafood thrown in if eating out (too lazy to cook fish at home, basically). They sell what I like to call "happy" meat- conscientiously-raised, local if at all possible. They seem to know their stuff, and I love that, in season, they display carcasses, in fur and feather, outside the shop. Currently they have deer and hares hanging up. I find it helps me to remember that meat comes from an animal that was slaughtered for this- that their lives and deaths are my concern.

On the other end of the scale:

One of the two greengrocers I buy from in the Covered Market. Back when I was unemployed and living closer to town, I was at the greengrocers two or three times a week. Now, of course, Saturdays are the only possible times I can shop there and my visits and spending have correspondingly dropped off. We buy most of the basics from the Co-op across the road now, but I still go to the greengrocers for certain items when they are in season: strawberries, broad beans (favas, for the non-Brits), which I buy by the kilo (I love broad beans- we're going to grow some in the garden, but we'd have to turn the whole garden over to them to satisfy me), English asparagus, which, again, I buy by the kilo during their short season. I also stop off and check out what they have as a matter of course if I'm in the Covered Market for any other reason, and will often pick up something that looks particularly good or interesting. (Our Co-op is great, but I struggle to find anything that isn't the standard potatoes, cabbages, carrots, onions, etc.)

Basque Country

2011-02-26T11:51:00.011Z

Last year, I was complaining that I wasn't taking full advantage of living in Europe to travel. Well, this year I guess I'm making up for it. We went to Lisbon for New Year's, and a couple of weeks ago, we took a long weekend and went to Bilbao and Donostia/San Sebastian for my birthday.

Guys, it was awesome. Two weeks later, The Limey and I keep are still remarking on what a great time we had and how perfect a break it was. We stayed in Bilbao and took a day trip to Donostia/San Sebastian. (Could also have done it the other way around, easily.) It's one of the places I've wanted to visit for ages, but I don't know why. (I once worked with a Basque guy, briefly; maybe that was it?)

I had a vague idea of seeing the Guggenheim, maybe learning a bit of the Basques, and, of course, doing what I most love to do: eat. And boy, did they deliver in this last category.

Pintxos, people, pintxos: a more elaborate, "foodier", pricier kind of tapas. If I could eat like that all the time, I would. All the bar counters, in pretty much all the bars, held plates and plates of little snack-sized finger foods. There were your standard tortillas and little crusty rolls with jamon iberico, but also beautifully cooked pieces of shrimp, mountains of teeny eels on beds of tuna, slices of grilled peppers or aubergine with or without lumps of soft cheese, translucent slices of bacalao with quail's egg, squid swimming in spicy olive oil. All served on or with bread (to make some of it easier to hold? or as a nod towards its tapas roots?), although for some pintxos, the bread seemed superfluous:I had a little bowl of two or three bites of squid ink risotto and one lovely mussel- the slice of baguette stuck into it seemed pretty pointless. Eventually, I stopped eating most of the bread 'cause I figured it was just cutting into my stomach capacity.

In Donostia/San Sebastian, they were a little more fancy about their pintxos than Bilbao and many bars offered a short pintxos calientes menu, so that certain dishes could be cooked to order. In this way, I had the most perfectly cooked scallop ever, some lovely octopus, and a piece of liver that was just...divine. It was seared on the outside and just warm on the inside and was so soft it was basically pate without the bother of having to be processed.

The great thing, for me, is that they serve drinks in smaller measures than over here, so I didn't feel like I was drunk by the time we got to the third or fourth bar.

I'd consider that I've found my gastronomic home, except for the sad lack of noodles. Honestly, The Limey and I just wandered around either eating, or waiting until we could eat. I guess in between we did manage a little bit of sightseeing.

If you get the chance to see this bit of Europe, go! The Limey and I would happily jump on a plane over there right now, but due to everyone and their relatives thinking this is the year to get married, all my holidays for the rest of the year are spoken for. On the plus side, at least some of those weddings will mean we get to travel and see places we haven't yet.

Tarted-up Camber

2011-02-06T15:50:00.011Z

A while back, I had a round of meetings requiring lots of flying. And to a knitter such as me (i.e., easily distracted), being on an airplane = uninterrupted knitting time. Still, a very small voice warned that maybe a cardigan in cobweb-weight yarn knit at 8sts/in on 2.5mm needles might not have been the best choice. But that small voice was completely drowned out by the louder, more excited one yelling, And you know what'd be even better?! BEADS!

Tarted-up Camber
Yarn: Cashmere/viscose blend in Champagne from Colourmart, 150g cone, with plenty left over
Needles: 2.5mm Addi turbos
Pattern: Jessamyn Leib's Camber Cardigan

Notes: Well, where do I start? This was my first top-down knit and I knit it pretty much as written except for two major changes and a some minor ones.

The first major change: crazy decision to do this in thread-like yarn instead of the more sensible fingering weight it called for. But I really wanted to use this yarn. I worked backwards with my gauge to figure out what size I should knit that would make the cardi come out to my measurements. This worked fine- the only problem this created was that the neckline isn't wide enough to go around my neck. Not really a problem for me, as I don't ever intend to wear it buttoned all the way up.

I've only put in closures up to about boob height, because I never button cardis all the way up, anyway.

Second: Uhh...I added beads, because what's more fun than wrestling with a bunch of teeny beads on a bumpy flight? Nothing!

I had some bronze-ish beads I wanted to use. To make things easier on myself, they were too small for crochet hooks, and I didn't thread them on first because I had no idea when I started knitting where I'd want to put the beads or how many I'd need. So I did a weird maneuvre with the bead and a needle threader. Fiddly, but effective.

The minor changes were things like hemmed edges rather than rolling, bracelet-length sleeves rather than elbow length, and hook-and-eye closure rather than i-cord buttonholes.

I sewed the hooks and eyes to pieces of beautiful velvet ribbon (bought at Loop) and then very carefully sewed the ribbon to the inside of the fronts- I was really afraid the sewing would pull the fine yarn and you'd be able to see it. Happily, this didn't happen, but the fear of it kept me from finishing it. I'd actually finished the knitting months ago, but only now managed to put in the closures.

The pattern is easy to follow. (Too easy! Jesh made it so you can calculate your numbers for your size and gauge, which made working backwards with my particular gauge to get the numbers required a bit more work.) The design itself is beautifully simple. I've always loved those great vintage heavily sequinned and beaded cardigans but knew I can't really carry them off in my life. I satisfied my need for bling with the beads and the lace yoke provides more interest without going into over-the-top mode.

The result is gorgeous; I love it. However, never again a full garment at this gauge!

Scrumptious Selene

2011-01-09T14:13:00.006Z

Look at this! Two posts in one week!

During the Christmas holidays, I spent a lot of time sitting around at the in-laws' watching TV. Which, of course, meant knitting time. Which was great, because I was behind on knitting a sample for Darn It & Stitch and really just needed one big block of time to finish the thing.

Here's Selene, this time knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious dk in a solid colour:

The original sample was knit in Fyberspates Superwash Merino dk, in a variegated colour, which looked great when worn. However, the variegated-ness photographed badly, and also, my photography skills, being what they were (i.e., nonexistent), did not help matters. I'd actually been meaning to knit another sample because I really think this is a great, versatile pattern that wasn't getting the attention it deserved. So when Jo at Darn It & Stitch started stocking Fyberspates and asked for a display sample, I was happy to finally get the push I needed to do it.

This sample, in a solid colour, looks great. You all know I am a big fan of Scrumptious anyway, but here it really shows off the lace- it's perfect.

I knit the sample in the smallest size and used almost exactly 4 skeins of the dk, and didn't even have to frog the swatch! However, I would definitely advise buying 5 skeins, just in case.

The lace and wide v-neck of the pattern makes the garment pretty stretchy. I'm wearing the pullover with 3 inches / 7.5cm of negative ease and the dress form has 6 inches / 15cm of negative ease! However, I really wouldn't recommend going that extreme- especially as Selene is designed to go over another layer. Pick the size closest to your bust measurement, and round down if you're in between sizes. If you plan to wear anything bulkier than a button-up "proper" shirt under it, then you might round up if in between sizes.

The V is meant to hit just below the bust, and shows up higher on the dress form because of the negative ease.

Selene will be printed up and available to buy at Darn It & Stitch as soon as I figure out which picture to put on it. What do you think? Modelled pic on me, or the dress form pic?

Well into 2011...but happy new year!

2011-01-07T23:58:00.009Z

The Limey and I went to Lisbon with friends for the new year's celebrations. A friend is Portuguese and was nice enough to show us around a bit. I loved the trip, mostly because I got to eat so much seafood I'm surprised I haven't grown scales. When I wasn't stuffing myself with seafood, I was gorging on cakes and coffee. These people are serious about their cakes, although I am midly disturbed by how much egg and sugar they can stuff into a pastry the size of a golfball.

The NYE fireworks were great!

Lisbon put on a great show. Fireworks were set off from the Tagus as well as from the lovely buildings surrounding the square, so we had 360-degrees of fireworks.

We'd been before, with the same friends, and I rediscovered one of the things I loved about the city then- those tiled pavements!

Aren't they just asking to be knit up with some stranded colourwork?

(All photos by The Limey.)

Snow day

2010-12-18T14:59:00.008Z

I got up early (early for me for a weekend, anyway) for a driving lesson, but when I looked outside, it looked like this:

So The Limey and I went out for a quick walk instead to play in the snow, me in my Knotty gloves.

I actually finished knitting these ages ago, when the colour of the yarn (herbstfarben) was much more appropriate to the season. But the weaving in of ends and tightening of picked-up stitches defeated me and I continued to wear my old, thin, pilly M&S gloves until I mercifully lost one.

Knotty Gloves
Yarn: Wollmeise Twin "We're different" in herbstfarben, just over half the skein for the pair, I think.
Needles: 2.0mm bamboo dpns
Pattern: Knotty Gloves, by Julia Mueller

Notes: I did these in a tighter gauge than the pattern called for, therefore killing two birds with one stone: I have small hands and I wanted a warm, hard-wearing fabric. This yarn is nearly perfect for gloves. Tightly-spun and many-plied, it should stand up to wear very well- and gloves, of course, take a lot of abuse.

I don't know why it took so long to knit myself a pair of gloves: store-bought gloves are always ill-fitting, with the fingers almost always longer than mine, so there's often a few millimetres of fabric extending beyond my fingers, making movement even more awkward than a gloved hand normally is.

The Knotty gloves are great- just knit 'til the fingers fit! (Having said that, I did get impatient with one and had to frog and re-knit the fingers to be longer.)

I mostly followed the directions, except for a few points:

1. I made the cuff shorter- personal preference.
2. I used short rows to shape the palm before starting the fingers, because my index finger doesn't start on my hand at the same distance from the thumb that my pinky does, if that makes sense. In the picture below, I've drawn black lines to show the wedge made with short rows.

3. I decreased gradually to taper the fingers, rather than wait 'til the very end.

I've been wearing these gloves for a couple of weeks, in the crazy weather we've been having, and they have kept my hands nicely toasty. Amazing. I'm paranoid that I'm going to lose one, though. ('Cause you always loose a glove, don't you?) However, there is more than enough yarn left over to knit another one, if needed.

2010-12-04T19:07:00.003Z

The Limey was working in London last week, and it seems ages since I'd last been, so I took Friday off and went straight down after work on Thursday.

As is usual, the visit was filled with food and yarn: had Vietnamese food on Thursday night and Lebanese food on Friday. (We brought back some of the Lebanese desserts...I'm going to be so sad when we finish the little pastries filled with dates, walnuts and figs. I find a lot of middle Eastern desserts to be too sickly sweet, but these are just lovely.)

I also took the opportunity to visit Loop's new premises in Islington. I resisted the urge to buy yarn, and was really mostly interested in books. I was hoping they'd have one of Margaret Stove's lace books, but no.

I did buy the Winter issue of Interweave Knits and ye gods, I am absolutely enamoured of the Thandie Funnel Neck pullover by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark.

(Photo from Interweave.)

I love everything about it: the colours, the buttoned-up raglan, the funnel/cowl neck, the brioche stitch, the shape, its amazing wearability...

I really want to knit this, but there are so many hurdles before this can be mine, all mine. 1) I have so much other stuff I have to knit; 2) I've never done brioche stitch before; 3) I have no suitable yarns, so would actually have to buy more yarn.

But the main hurdle is that the notes about stretchiness of brioche stitch, the different yarn weights, the gauge measured "slightly stretched" all come together into a possible nightmare of fit issues. I will cry if I don't get this sweater. And I will cry and throw things if I knit the sweater and still don't get it.

What to do? What to do?

Look what landed on my doorstep

2010-10-29T20:54:00.006+01:00

A long time in coming, this is Debbie Stoller's latest book in her Stitch 'N Bitch series. This one is packed full of instructions and information about how to further your knitting skills. She talks about cables and lace, about how to design different sleeves, about how to knit something that fits. Basically, as the subtitle says, to go beyond the basics. Way beyond the basics.

And one of those 41 original patterns?
Yep, a lace version of my Pintuck Tee.

I got into knitting around the time the first Stitch 'N Bitch book was published and I taught myself a lot from it, with the help of my first SnB group in Seattle. In addition, I consider that a large part of what makes me me today is that I read Sassy and Bust instead of Tiger Beat and Cosmo during my formative years, so you can imagine the schoolgirl squeeing that ensued when I got an e-mail from Debbie saying she liked my Pintuck Tee and asking if I would contribute something based on it.

Nip/Tuck is knit in Rowan Bamboo Soft, like the original (such a great yarn) but in more dramatic black. I'm really excited about being included in this book and the rest of the patterns are great. My eye was especially caught by a pullover knit in the twisted lace made famous by the Pomatomus socks. I've always thought it would be a great pattern for a top and had thought about designing something, but now it's done for me!

Now, I'm off to read the book more thoroughly.

Knitting weather

2010-10-24T13:12:00.006+01:00

The combination of the onset of autumn weather and my acceptance of the fact that we will never unpack all the boxes, or even most of them, has given my knitting a bit of a kick.

Last week I knit a sample of my Tamesis Cowl for Darn It & Stitch, using Fyberspates Scrumptious aran in a wonderfully in-your-face bright magenta. Sadly, I did not take pictures before I handed it to Jo, but hey, you can stop by and see it in person if you're in the area! Also, Jo is starting to stock paper versions of some of my patterns, starting with Tamesis, so definitely check it out.

I also finally finished the knitting of a cardigan from some cashmere/viscose blend thread I bought from Colourmart. I say thread because when it is this thin I refuse to call it yarn. I'm loving this cardigan, but never again will I do a whole sweater on 2mm needles. It's not finished finished because I have no clue what to do about the closure.

I've finished off the front edges in attached i-cord, as directed in the pattern, but didn't want to do the button loops with them. I was going to attach hook-and-eye closures to some pretty ribbon and sew the ribbon onto the sides, but the fabric is so fine that I'm pretty sure any sewing will show on the right side.

The delicacy of the fabric is also why I don't want to sew buttons or anything directly onto the cardi, so I'm kind of stuck. Anybody have any ideas? Please? I definitely want some way of closing the cardigan.

This weekend, I also finally started knitting some gloves. I've been thinking about knitting gloves for myself for ages; store-bought ones are always slightly too big, so I always have a few millimetres of glove extending past the end of my fingers, which is annoying. Also, when we moved, I found one of my Endpaper mitts behind a makeshift wardrobe- and it was all moth-eaten. I nearly cried.

But: every cloud, silver lining, and all that.

This is the first of a pair of Knotty gloves. I think I remember Liz knitting these last winter, and they looked awesome. I'm knitting mine in...Wollmeise! I know, craziness, but dammit, I wanted something hard-wearing, and this sock yarn is almost like cotton, it's so tightly spun and strong. I'm knitting this at quite a clip- this picture is after one and a half days of knitting. Granted, yesterday I did nothing but sit on the sofa and knit, only sparing time every once in a while to push the cat out of the way.

Some work...

2010-10-07T20:57:00.012+01:00

...unrelated to moving house has been done.

Meet Daphne. (Here modeled by Liz and Ellen- aren't they cute? Photographed by The Limey.)

Basically a curved piece of garter-based lace, Daphne is my answer to shawls that just don't sit right and aren't long enough to be worn securely. Plus, I realized that, the way I wear my shawls, all that gorgeous, difficult-to-knit, wondrous-to-look-at lace got all scrunched up and just wasn't shown to their advantage.

Thus, Daphne - meant to be worn like a scarf, with the Victorian cockleshell lace fully on display.

The scarf/shawl is crescent shaped using short rows and is knit from end to end.

I've gone to some pains to make this scarf very adjustible and versatile.

I've written it in a modular way, so you can do more or fewer of some sections, making Daphne skinnier or wider, straighter or more curved, longer or shorter.

The modular technique also means you can knit this in almost any weight of yarn. Using lace weight? Simply do more repeats of certain sections. Using Aran weight? Making it longer but not wider by doing more repeats of the centre section.

I've also thrown in one last option: you can omit the faggoting lace between the plain garter section and the cockleshell border.

In these pictures, Liz wears a purple Daphne knit in Fyberspates' Scrumptious 4-ply, without the faggoting lace. Ellen wears a green Daphne knit in The Thylacine's Zeehan, and includes the faggoting lace.

Jenny from Bluestockings also test-knit the pattern in The Thylacine's Heemskirk, a sock yarn.

Pattern now available on Ravelry or better yet, buy from my website.

Peers above mountain of boxes

2010-09-27T21:34:00.002+01:00

Wow...so the world is continuing to turn and everything? We got the keys to the house five weeks ago...spent three weeks cleaning, re-plastering, sanding, ripping up carpets, painting...moved and have still not unpacked all the boxes, or even most of the boxes.

I haven't been to any knitting at The Royal Oak all these weeks; we haven't done any actual shopping or eaten real food (lots of take-out, ramen and cereal!); haven't done any laundry. In fact, haven't done anything except rush home from work and go to Wickes and Homebase.

I think I can almost see the end, though. If we just pile the boxes in the spare rooms, then the living spaces will seem like we have space!

Uh-oh...

2010-09-15T20:37:00.004+01:00

The Limey and I have hit upon a wondrous, beautiful thing that I think may eventually get us into boatloads of trouble. See, we have discovered that you can get other people to do stuff you don't want to do by paying them!

Now, we'd always had a faint notion that such a thing was possible, but I think it's getting to be less faint and more concrete for us. For instance, the last couple of times we moved, The Limey's work has paid relocation expenses. So we had people come with trucks and do all the lifting and shifting of boxes and furniture and everything. It was great; I thought to myself, Hey, I could really get used to this. It turns out I did get used to it. This move? With no one paying but ourselves? Yeah, totally paying other people to do it, rather than go the "bribe friends with beer" method.

Also, the carpet in the downstairs area of the new house is hideous, and we want to replace it with nice wood floors, but for various reasons can't do it right now. But it needs to be cleaned. It's hideous as well as dirty. So The Limey went to Homebase to ask about renting a Rug Doctor so we could clean the carpet before we move in. Turns out, before they'll rent you one, they need two days' notice. And your passport. WTF? But then The Limey somehow "found" this dude who will -get this- come to our house with his own machine and then just do it for us! All we have to do is cross his palm with silver! It's like magic!

Tonight, sitting at our old place, surrounded by boxes, a dirty kitchen (we haven't been spending very much time here- oh, who am I kidding? The kitchen's always dirty), cobwebs, etc., we start moaning about having to clean this place to get our deposit back. Then we thought, Hey, couldn't we just...pay some to do it? At this point, I put my foot down. No, I said, we cannot. We have to do this ourselves. Dammit, I have principles. (Also, a limited bank balance.)

Ask me later when the boxes and furniture are cleared and I just want the time to set up the new house, though.

Can. Not. Decide.

2010-09-02T22:19:00.003+01:00

I don't know what I want. The Limey doesn't know what he wants. We have a dozen tester colour pots. Our walls are starting to look like very promising Rothko paintings. I am seriously ready to just throw a dart at one of these colour charts and to hell with it.

Am I a grown-up now?

2010-08-27T20:02:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure how it happened, or how we did it, but...The Limey and I bought a house!

It's a mile from the city centre, and is absolutey hideous inside and out (it was the cheapest house on the block for a reason!). But all it needs is a lick of paint and some care.

I can see we'll be spending a lot of this bank holiday weekend at Wickes.

Darn It & Stitch

2010-08-15T14:12:00.004+01:00

Stopped by Darn It & Stitch to chat with Jo yesterday and saw some of my samples on display! That's the Horseshoes Cardi and Draped Lace Shell there- they use the same horseshoes lace pattern and might make a good twin-set, now I've seen them displayed together. Hmmm...may try that since I want new photography for the cardi.

Doesn't the shop itself look great? It's crammed with colourful, pretty, useful objects, but doesn't cross the line into cluttered.

Anyway, it's always nice to see your work get attention. Jo mentioned that many people really like the Pintuck T-Shirt- it's my most popular design and something I like to wear a lot, so I'm glad at least it's being appreciated since I've given it up for display.

The upstairs is apparently open now, but had a workshop on when I stopped by, so haven't seen it yet. Look forward to it!

Must. Step. Away. From. Internet.

2010-08-07T19:07:00.003+01:00

Instead, must:

1. Reformat patterns for printing.
2. Swatch and plan design proposals.
3. Work on Persephone sleeves.
4. Photograph test knit.
5. Plan knitting for VeryGoodFriend's baby.
6. At very least, for the love of fluffy kittens, finish a plain stockinette sleeve.

Meanwhile, calm myself with cute overload by looking at picture of colleague's baby with the Elijah I knit for him. (Lucky thing also got some booties from me a while ago.)

(I love this picture because his hands are held like Mr Burns and his eyes are kinda shifty, so the overall impression is that he's formulating some evil plan.)

Knit Nation

2010-08-01T11:36:00.006+01:00

I spent an hour or so at the Knit Nation marketplace yesterday. (I went because a friend in London was having a barbecue that day, so, you know, since I was gonna be in town anyway...)

It was a small marketplace, but jampacked with lovely stuff. I have no pictures of it because I stupidly forgot the camera. I made a couple of rounds, and talked to Jeni of Fyberspates about printing up patterns.

I also chatted with Robynn of Purlescence, where you can now buy some of my patterns. Robynn sells the loveliest of yarns, with stuff from the ultra-luxurious end and some good value cotton and bamboo in cheerful colours hand-dyed at a South African women's collective.

I also bought some stuff. A huge hank of laceweight from Wollmeise (couldn't pass up the opportunity), which I think I'm going to try to eek a sweater out of:

And, most importantly, bamboo dpns in the correct sizes for the two projects desperately in need of them:

...And then I left and stopped by IKnit for my magazine fix! (My excuse here is that I had to go through Waterloo to get to my friend's barbecue, anyway.)

The longer I knit...

2010-07-26T22:43:00.004+01:00

...the pickier I get.

I'm trying various sleeves on Persephone.

This is my top town seamless set-in version, which is the first time I've tried this method. I love it (I just love picking up stitches). But it may not work here for various other reasons. But the main thing is, I tried to do this with magic loop. HATE it. Tried it, as you see here, with two circulars. HATE it. If possible, it's even fiddler than the single loop. Don't get me wrong- it's certainly effective- you get a small circumference tube, but it makes the knitting no longer enjoyable for me. I can think of few things more soothing and happy-making for me than rounds and rounds of plain stockinette, but using magic loop or two circulars takes all the joy out of it. The fiddliness frustrates me and, as a result maybe?, my tension is awful. Completely all over the place. Ick. I have no dpns of appropriate size, so it's sitting there until I can buy some next weekend at Knit Nation.

Even when I do have dpns in the right size...

...apparently they are not of the correct material. These alumin(i)um dpns are squeaky and unpleasant to hold. Plus, they are heavy compared to this fairy-hair thin yarn, so they pull at the knitting and again, my tension is all over the place. And, they are too long for this particular project and the heaviness pulls them down and the points stick in everywhere. This project, also, is sitting around in a drawer until I can get proper wooden or bamboo dpns this weekend.

It seems like I should be getting better work out of my tools as I knit more, but it seems I am just turning more intolerant over any teeny drawbacks or imperfections.

Do my eyes deceive me?

2010-07-18T19:26:00.003+01:00

Something that's never made sense to me is absence of any shop in Oxford dedicated to yarn, fabrics and fibre crafts. Broad Canvas is good for some other crafty supplies, and Port Meadow has that small yarny bit at the back, but that's it. You have to go all the way down to Abingdon to get fabrics or a good selection of yarn. For such a well-off town, crammed with students and tourists throughout the year, it made no sense.

Well, apparently it made no sense to someone else as well, because ta-da!

A good old haberdashery-type shop! Lots of great fabrics with a vintagey-feel and a gorgeous assortment of buttons. (Also, I swear I've passed that exact storefront before and remarked to The Limey that it would make a great yarn shop.)

Jo, the lovely woman who runs Darn It & Stitch, has just a bit of yarn in at the moment, but she's getting more and more. Right now, it's all dk-ish weight yarns in lovely summery fibres: cottons, corn and the like. I stopped in a couple of weeks ago and we chatted and it turns out she's been asked for patterns by lots of people. As it happens, a lot of my free patterns are summer designs knit in dk-ish weight yarns, so I've lent her some of my samples. If you're in or around Oxford, stop by!

I've also been thinking about getting my patterns printed so that they could be sold at LYSs and shops such as Darn It & Stitch, in addition to on-line. So far, it seems like to get them printed and still be able to make any profit off them, I'd need to do print runs of thousands! So I'm still researching this- anyone with any ideas, I'm dying to hear them.

Where did it go wrong?

2010-07-09T23:09:00.005+01:00

When I moved to Dublin nearly six years ago, the big motivating factor was that I could then easily visit other parts of Europe. I'd go on weekend trips to romantic, no longer far-flung destinations. My holiday weekends would be spent drinking in France, eating in Spain, hiking in Slovenia, sunning in Croatia, boating in Sweden...

As it turns out, I've been out of the country three times this year, all of them to the US! The Limey travels so much for work that on weekends, all we want to do is hang around the house and do ordinary things, like buy groceries.

What happened? How did my plans go pear-shaped?

We're actually having a summer this year!

2010-06-26T22:54:00.002+01:00

It's getting on for 30C this weekend, with no rain in sight. We've been eating outside whenever possible, and since it's light until ten o'clock, this is easy. The past few weekends, The Limey has put the barbecue grill through its paces. Today, it had been warm enough that we couldn't bear to really cook, so dinner was three different salads. Next weekend, though, July 4th barbecue!

Meanwhile, this coming week, I'm in the US for work. Three days, three meetings, three states. In other words, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in airports and on planes. This is bad enough, but the real tragedy is: I have no good plane knitting! I'm looking through my stash and my projects, but nothing appeals. It can't be too complicated; I don't have time to swatch and plan for a new design before I leave; I don't have any other knitting on the go right now. I have one more day to figure it out, though.

Speaking of cultural differences...

2010-06-20T19:32:00.002+01:00

The scene: Bloomingdale's in NYC (which, by the way, is miles ahead of Macy's; don't even bother with Macy's). The Limey and I are headed towards a be-suited employee so The Limey can ask the whereabouts of the bathroom. Another couple get to the employee at the same time.

The exchange between The Limey and other guy:
-After you.
-No, you first.
-No, you.
-No, after you
...

I poke The Limey to go ahead. As he asks, I say to the other guy's companion, "I had to do something. We could have been here forever- he's British." And she points at her dude and goes, "So's he."

BIG IMPORTANT cultural differences

2010-06-19T23:53:00.003+01:00

One difference between the US and the UK which caused a few weeks of utter confusion for me is the attitude to cats and the outdoors.

In the US, many people prefer to keep their cats indoors. When I was a volunteer at the SF SPCA, in fact, we made people sign a form promising to keep their cats indoors only. Cats allowed outdoors have much shorter lives- they get run over by cars; they get into fights with dogs; in certain areas, they are the losers in encounters with coyotes or other wildlife.

In the UK, it is assumed that cats must go outside. When we looked for rental housing, we'd mention the cat, and agents would say, "Oh, but this is a flat" or "There's no garden." Which confused the daylights out of me. I'd be all, "Yes, I know it's a flat..." or "And...this is relevant how?" But of course, they skipped straight from "We have a cat" to "It'll have to go outside".

Whereas Chloe, in her short but peripatetic life, has lived in houses with yards where she was allowed out, to apartments where she was kept in. If outside is available, she goes, but otherwise doesn't really care either way.

These people? Definitely not Britons.

Tons of travel pictures and a huge squee

2010-06-12T23:25:00.007+01:00

Whew! Got back from the DC/NY trip a couple of weekends ago, but it's been full speed ahead since then at work, at knitting, and at the dentist's. (Not so excited about that last one, and I've still got one more visit.)

The trip was great fun. It was good to meet up with H and wander around DC and NY together. It turns out I only went to one yarn shop: Purl Soho. It was lovely but I didn't buy any yarn because I'd outsmarted myself and brought the small suitcase. If you want pictures, The Limey's put up a gajillion of them. (He bought more lenses for the camera the very first day and spent the whole trip playing with them.)

Meanwhile, a knitting squee:

Pattern: Saartje's Booties (Fleeglized version)
Yarn: Some leftover 4-ply, probably Paton's Diploma Gold or some such
Needles: dpns, probably 2.5mm

I've wanted to knit these ever since I saw them, and a co-worker's new baby was just the excuse I needed. They are SO CUTE. And who knew they could actually get cuter when you put them on an actual baby?!

DC and NYC

2010-05-22T00:02:00.003+01:00

I'm off to Washington, DC and New York City next week! I haven't been to either in ages and this time, we've managed to blag a tour of the White House. The last time I was in DC (during the reign of King George W), it was for a protest march and it actually took me a little bit of time to realize that I no longer need to carry any resentment about the current occupant of the White House.

No particular plans for New York, except I definitely want to visit The High Line and the Met. I want to spend most of my time wandering around neighbourhoods, really. I've already done the more touristy things, so this time, wandering, getting coffee, pastries, poking into bookshops is the plan, as far as there is a plan. Also, eating lots of good food.

Obviously, I'm making a list of yarn shops. DC and NYC natives: tips, advice?

Random garden pictures

2010-05-20T20:39:00.005+01:00

Almost there!

Hoping these will hold out until I'm back from holiday.

Every time I grow pansies, I re-discover their gorgeous scent.

Persephone Shell

2010-05-16T18:46:00.003+01:00

Hmm... that name at the top left there looks familiar...

I'm so happy to announce that I have a pattern in this summer's Interweave Knits!

(And it's a great issue- how much do I love the Ambrosia Cardigan? Muchly. I love it muchly.)

More notes on Persephone on my website.

You know, I've been published in print before, but I tell ya, The Journal of Physical Chemistry has nothing on Interweave Knits! I am way more excited about this than any of my science articles!

This is what happens when you marry a physicist

2010-05-09T11:36:00.004+01:00

The Limey figuring out whether we should buy a place/how much we can borrow/how much mortgage is necessary...

...whereas I said, Can't we just talk to the bank?

(He's written the calculations on Igor Pro, if that's the kind of thing that floats your boat.)

Different. Better?

2010-05-03T11:05:00.008+01:00

As you may have noticed, I've changed the look of the blog slightly. This is all part of a revamp and launch of the website The Limey built for me. (It was his Christmas/birthday present to me this year!) Please visit and let me know what you think! There will be more and more content put up over the next few weeks, and you can get to this blog from there, although it will stay here on blogspot as well. If you link to me from your website, please link to the new one. You can always get to the website by clicking on the logo at the left here.

Right, on with the knitting. I actually have an FO!

My very own Arachne Cardigan. I seriously loved the sample I knit for Jeni so much I bought more yarn for my own right away. And it's gorgeous yarn, so it was a joy to work with it again.

This was supposedly my Ravelympics project, but the gauge gods intervened, but it's finally finished!

Thanks to Liz for reminding me that Mason's was, if not on my doorstep, then on a neighbouring doorstep. I went on Saturday and bought a bunch of buttons. I ended up using these thin, slightly un-flat shell buttons.

Now, I won't make the mistake Arachne did, and claim divine-like perfection. For starters, the sleeves are slighly longer than ideal (that's what I get for following my own pattern for "standard" sizing) and the buttonhole band could have been knit tighter. But, dudes, I love this cardigan. It fits perfectly (I'm so glad I frogged and re-knit), it's soft and lightweight and airy yet warm and summery. I wore it over jeans to a birthday party in London yesterday, but I'm already planning on wearing it with dresses to work. I really think this is going to be my workhorse cardigan for the next two seasons- better than the plain black store-bought affairs that I've been wearing forever.

Latest Ravelympics project ever?

2010-04-26T22:03:00.003+01:00

Nearly there!

But I need buttons! In the past, I have had good luck at John Lewis, but am not near one at the moment. What are your go-to sources for buttons? Bonus points if it's in Oxford and I can mosey along and see them in person, but I'm guessing it'll have to get t'internet.

Easter mystery?

2010-04-21T21:39:00.003+01:00

We have a flower box on our front windowsill. It had dead plants in it from last summer for a while, but last month I finally re-planted it with spring flowers. Since it's right there, I check it as I leave in the morning, dead-head the spent flowers, quickly make sure it's not too dry, etc.

Today, I noticed that one part of the planter had soil that seemed to have been stirred up or disturbed. I figure it was birds or maybe the white cat that hangs around- no big deal. One of the young petunias was unearthed, so I dug around to put it back into the dirt. And found something weird and hard just under the top of the soil.

Eh? Scraped around a bit, and uncovered enough to see that it looked like an egg. By this time, I had to rush to catch my train, so I asked The Limey to check it out. It was an egg all right. But what an egg!

I've put it here next to a normal chicken egg. It's huge!

Maybe a goose egg? How'd it get in my planter? Easter egg hunt hijinks? Who'd dig up my petunias to hide it? Is it still good? Can we eat it? Was it fertilized?

We'll never know.

Tamesis Cowl

2010-04-05T19:45:00.009+01:00

Okay, this is the latest and last design for a while, I think...I don't have any in the active pipeline, but hopefully will get my act together and change that.

Do you have one skein of that something special? Here's the project for you:

My first non-garment pattern, this is the Tamesis Cowl. Given the River Thames' old name, this pattern twists and turns and has a little of everything. A bit of lace, a bit of cabling, and twisted stitches everywhere. It's knit in the round and is the perfect quick project.

I've written this pattern for two different weights of yarn: chunky/bulky and light Aran/heavy DK. In truth, however, it is easily customisable to be knit with almost any size yarn to almost any finished size, just by doing more or fewer repeats. The pattern is fully charted, as well as written out line-by-line for those who prefer to work one way or the other.

This green one is knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky, and is beautifully soft, with enough body to stand up for itself when worn.

This pattern was test-knitted by the loverly Helen and Tineke and so I have other versions to show you.

Helen knit hers in Fyberspates Scrumptious as well, but in the Aran weight. The resulting cowl is also butter-soft, but you can see the thinner weight gives the cowl a good drape.

For those who prefer their wool woolly, Tineke knit hers in Blacker Designs' 100% wool Aran. It turns out to have nearly the same dimensions as the Aran-weight Scrumptious, but as you can see, has enough body to keep your ears warm, should you wish:

Tamesis costs £2.50 and is available to buy on Ravelry, or with the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of this post.

Details
Green cowl:
circumference: 38 cm / 15 inches
height: 20.5 cm / 8 inches
Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky (45% silk / 55% merino, 122m / 100g), 1 skein
US 8/5.0mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Blue cowl:
circumference: 57cm / 22 inches
height: 23.5cm / 9 inches
yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran (45% silk / 55% merino, 165m / 100g), 1 skein
needles: US 4 /3.5mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Pink cowl:
circumference : 54 cm / 21.5 inches
height: 22 cm / 8.5 inches
yarn: Blacker Designs Aran (100% wool, 55m / 50g), 1 skein
needles: US 6/4.0mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Tension (not super important for a cowl!)
Bulky: 27 sts and 18.5 rnds = 4inches/10cm in twisted cable pattern
Aran: 25 sts and 23 rnds = 4inches/10cm in twisted cable pattern

Better late than never...right?

2010-03-27T12:08:00.006Z

A month after the Olympics finished, I've got my Ravelympics project back to the stage it was at during that final hockey game.

Because some hand-dyed yarns naturally have some colour variation between skeins, I'm alternating skeins as I knit. Since I know the Arachne Cardigan in my size will take three skeins of the Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply, I'm covering all my bases by alternating between all three skeins.

Alternating between three skeins of yarn is fine when I'm kniting back and forth, but it becomes slightly weird when in the round, which is how the sleeves will be knit. To keep things as simple as possible, I'd love to do them on dpns, but I don't have 3.5mm dpns, so I'll have to wrestle with magic looping them. We'll see. I may very well give up at some point and order the dpns.

It looks all wrinkly and scrunched up, but this yarn blocks beautifully. I can't wait!

Circe Vest

2010-03-15T21:43:00.010Z

Meet Circe, the last of my set of designs for Fyberspates. Lots of twisted cables, with a deep twisted rib hem.

Designed to be be worn over a shirt or blouse, this vest is office-friendly and will perk up any outfit. The deep scoop neck is flattering on most bodies, and the wide ribbing and fitted waist ensure that your shape won't be lost. It's designed to be worn with close to zero ease, so knit the size closest to your measurements. The vest is knit in the round up to the underarm and scoop neck, The cables are knit with twisted stitches. There are more bust increases on the front of the vest than the back, to accommodate your shape better.

The bust shaping is all figured out for you, so that the increases are incorporated into the cable pattern without you having to work out what goes where.

Oh, charts as well as written instructions are included. This is a 14-page pattern, but the charts and written instructions take up literally half those pages.

I really love this vest.* I love how simple it looks, how the twisted cables are interesting but not too busy. I love how the ribbing flows smoothly into the cabling. I love how you can wear it with everything. And it comes in eleven sizes!

Details:
Finished measurements
30.25 (33.75, 35.5, 39, 40.75, 44.25, 46, 47.75, 51, 53, 54.5) inches at bust; 77 (85.5, 90, 99, 103.5, 112, 116.5, 121, 130, 134.5, 139) cm at bust

Yarn
Fyberspates Bluefaced Leicester DK (100% wool, 220m per 100g skeins): 3 (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7) skeins

Needles
3.5mm/ US 4, or size needed to get gauge, 24 inch / 60 cm circulars

Tension
27 sts/33 rows = 10cm/4 inches in cable pattern; 0.9 inch / 2.2 cm per horizontal cable repeat; 2.9 inches / 7.3cm per vertical cable repeat

This is available for £4.00, from the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of this post, from Ravelry, and soon from Fyberspates.

*Incidentally, I'm know the word "vest" means different things in British and American English, so if someone has any ideas on how to easily identify this article of clothing so that everyone knows what it is, I'm all ears.

Uh...

2010-03-01T22:29:00.004Z

So I knitknitknit all last night, with the men's hockey gold medal game on.

(Yay Canadians, by the way! I figure it was best if they won, 'cause they wanted it so badly, and 'cause I figure it would make the most people happy. Like, how many Canadians are there? 30-ish million? So 30 million people would be happy if Canada won, whereas, if the US won, only the 58 Americans who care about hockey will be happy. No contest.)

Anyway, so I'm on the couch, knitting wildly, pushing the cat away from my lap, only getting up to re-caffeinate myself. I knew there was no way I was going to get the whole cardigan done, but I figure if I just get the body done, I'd consider it an Olympian enough task.

The good news: I got it done! Even seamed the shoulders! Looks awesome!

The bad news: I want it slightly bigger. Oh, it'll block a bit bigger, and the button bands will add another inch or so. But with all that, it will only really fit well if I wear nothing or a very thin/tight camisole under it. I wanted a cardigan I could wear over t-shirts and dresses in the summer.

As the hockey frenzy went into overtime, there was also a clashing debate on my couch as I argued with myself over whether this was good enough. In the end, I decided the yarn is too delicious to be something I'm not entirely happy with. So, yes, into the frog pond.

I'll probably re-knit it using larger needles. This should work, as my gauge is slightly tight, anyway. (How's that as a kick in the arse from the gauge fairies? I frickin' wrote the pattern, everything's calculated from my gauge, on this exact yarn! And yet, somehow, I'm not getting gauge! Bafflement.)

I've wasted a lot of time

2010-02-26T19:40:00.004Z

It's not looking good...

As noted last time, I didn't really start on my Ravelympics project until three days after the opening ceremonies. But for four days there, I made really good time. By Saturday, I'd finished up to the armholes. Since Arachne is knit all in one piece up to the armholes, it meant I'd finished all of the lower body.

But then I stalled. Hard. For various reasons, I didn't touch it for three days. But I thought, it's okay, I've got an 11-hour flight home, I can get a lot done then. While waiting to board, took the project out, realized I needed to cut the yarn, couldn't do it without scissors, and, of course, had no scissors. It turns out I managed to sleep a lot on the flight, anyway. Which I guess is good.

Got home Tuesday night. Haven't touched the project other than to take it out of my suitcase.

I have absolutely no explanations or reasons for my inability to work on this project and get it done; I've not been occupied with other knitting. But it will definitely get done- I'm too far along now to stop. Plus, I still really want this cardigan. I'm going to get off the computer now and knit. If I manage to get to the sleeves before the closing ceremonies, I'm gonna award myself a platinum medal. (Ha.)

Update: 3-1/2 hours later, I've knit nearly the whole left front shoulder, only to realize I'd been following the chart for the right shoulder. Aaargghhh.

Happy New Year (again)

2010-02-15T18:07:00.008Z

Greetings from foggy San Francisco. Actually, it's just clearing up now, and I can see the tip of the Transamerica building from my father's kitchen window.

I spent my birthday in time-honoured tradition:

(All pictures by The Limey.)

I actually just went in for needles. I had gotten everything ready to cast on for my Arachne during the Olympic opening ceremonies (which, by the way, were inexplicably shown with a 3 hour delay, despite being in the same freakin' time zone): I'd e-mailed myself a copy of the pattern; I'd wound all three skeins of my Scrumptious 4-ply into balls; I borrowed some spare yarn and a crochet needle from The Limey for the provisional cast-on. All set! Except, half an hour before the start, I realized I'd forgotten to bring the correct size needles. Ugh.

The next day, I had a couple of hours in the early morning before my brothers arrived home (we all managed to get back to SF for the new year), so The Limey and I ran out to get the right needles. But, then, since everyone was home, the rest of the weekend was spent with various new year's activities (to be honest, this mostly involved eating ourselves silly, although we did also visit some extended family). So, three days into the Olympics, I've just about managed to finish the bottom hem on the cardigan. My brothers leave tonight, though, so I'll have more knitting time soon.

Things I cannot do

2010-02-07T21:03:00.002Z

1. Knit stranded colourwork with two hands. I try and try, but it's so painfully awkward that I pretty quickly switch to knitting both colours with my left hand.

2. Swim. True story: Perhaps in preparation for the day the peninsula floats off into the Pacific, San Francisco required (requires?) students to pass a swimming test before they can graduate high school. My parents, despite coming from a country that is mostly coastline, did not feel that swimming was a skill their children needed. So, the two summers before I graduated, I spent lots of time at the YMCA pool. My friends tried to teach me; I took proper lessons. Nope, didn't take. Couldn't do the simple crawl- I kept going lower and lower into the water, so that, a few strokes in, when I turned my head to breathe, I wasn't reaching air. I could do the required two lengths of the pool in the backstroke- this was okay, because if I kicked my legs hard enough, I wouldn't sink. The problem was the one minute of treading water. Could. Not. Stay. Afloat. People were all, Relax! Just move your arms and legs slowly. Ha! Needless to say, I flunked my test- they had to fish me out with the long pole thingy. While complaining about the dunking and flunking to one of my teachers, the swimming coach walked in. I told him my problem. He said, if you're going to sink, just let yourself sink. When the water hits your neck, lay your lead back, and move your arms and legs as fast/much as you need to. Basically like I'm doing the backstroke, but going nowhere. Armed with this, I *just* managed to pass the test on the second try.

3. Make ganache. Like two-handed stranded colourwork, I understand the theory, and I understand how it works and how other people do it. But I cannot. Except for the very first time I tried it, I have never been successful with ganache. It always always splits on me. I have wasted kilos and kilos of damned good chocolate trying. I've just wasted another 250g tonight, before giving up and just making frosting instead. Anybody know what I can do with split ganache? (Don't say recover it; this has also been tried. And failed at.)

There's been a lot of knitting, I swear!

2010-02-03T23:22:00.006Z

It's been a while, but I promise you I've been busily knitting away. A couple of new patterns which should- the gods willing- be moving towards completion, rather than away from it (frogging and me, we know each other well).

My train and bus knitting has been the mate for a sock for The Limey that's been sitting, alone in a drawer, since before Christmas.

Next week, we're leaving for San Francisco to celebrate the Lunar New Year (and my birthday!) with my family. I'm promising myself to get the patterns to a state where I don't need to be actively working with them. Then I'll have some time for the Ravelympics project.

The question is: what should it be? I have two choices: 1) start another design that's been dancing in my head or 2) knit myself that Arachne Cardi that I've been promising myself since I handed the sample over.

There's no way I'll be able to finish a new design in the two weeks. I may be able to knit it in two weeks, should everything go well, but since I haven't done any of the groundwork yet, it probably won't happen. Even if I managed to knit it, then there's the real work of writing the pattern up to be done. So, no, I think that's a non-starter. Arachne it is! I actually started balling up the yarn weeks ago, but got distracted with other things.

I'm looking forward to this- I really need a lightweight cardigan.

They tell me...

2010-01-16T15:09:00.002Z

...that setting clear, achievable goals is the key to success. I had such high hopes for the Christmas/New Year's holidays. The office was closed, so I had a good 10 days in which to do a few - just a measly few - things that would clear up a lot of mental space.

1) Do all the paperwork for setting up my pension. About time, too. I filled everything in, and then got to the last part, which is the requirement for a certified copy of my passport. Where the hell does one get a certified copy of anything? The finished paperwork has been sitting on the coffee table for two weeks now.

2) Finish knitting the last design for Fyberspates. I took this everywhere with me- up to the in-laws' for Christmas, to friends' for New Year's, and I knit knit knit, risking being rude to all around me. This has just been blocked a couple of days ago, and now I'm thinking...Hmmm...maybe I should rip back and re-do the neckline?

3) Replace buttons on the two pairs of work-appropriate trousers I have, so that I can, you know, wear them to work. This, I am proud to say, I actually did. It sat until the last day before the return to work, mind you, but I did it.

So, in light of my not even managing to achieve such small goals, I'm going to forego the traditional new year's resolutions. Last year's anti-resolutions (here and here) worked pretty well, actually. Last year's only resolution, however- knitting-related- didn't get off the ground at all. Sigh.

Brrrrrrr!

2010-01-08T22:53:00.007Z

Happy new year! Hope you're wrapping up warm; we are.

(All pictures by The Limey on his shiny new camera.)

Fortunately, or unfortunately, my train and shuttle bus were running with no trouble, so I put in a full week's work.

Sparkly Yet Manly

2009-12-28T18:59:00.007Z

Sparkly Yet Manly Scarf
Yarn: Dream in Color Stardust, in their darkest colour
Needles: 3mm Addi lace turbos
Pattern: plain mistake rib, in a parallelogram shape

Notes: A few years ago, I knit The Limey a fairly plain 3x3 ribbed scarf, in aran-ish weight dead-muppet acrylic yarn. He loved it and wore it everywhere until last winter, when we (ahem, I) left it at a pub. I kept promising to knit him a new one, but he really liked the dead-muppet acrylic, which had been discontinued.

This stalemate continued until I found a skein of Dream in Color Stardust (Ravelry link), in its "Experimentals" range at the iKnit stall at the iKnit weekender in September. I got it in its darkest colour, which is black-ish, but actually has lots of dark purples and blues in it. Most importantly, it was sparkly! There was no way The Limey wasn't going to like it.

(Turns out it's really hard to photograph sparkle.)

The problem? It's sock-weight yarn and I only got one skein. It turns out I was lucky, and just managed to eek out a decent-length scarf. I'm not sure if you can see it in the top picture, but it's not a rectangle- it's shaped like this:

I started with just two stitches, increased one stitch every other row until it was the width I wanted, knit straight until I felt I had just enough yarn to do the end, then decreased every other row back to two stitches. I did this to get as much length as I could out of the yarn, and I think it worked- he can wrap it once around his neck and still have the ends hang down long enough to be comfortable and not unwrap. I think if I'd just done a plain rectangle, it wouldn't have been long enough.

Now he can stop looking pointedly at me while whining about how cold his neck is.

Lookit me go!

2009-12-17T21:11:00.010Z

All right, folks, number three of four designs for Fyberspates. Meet Arachne.

A lightweight, go-with-everything cardigan in a classic shape, with the addition of just enough lace to make it interesting to wear and knit. The lace motif kinda reminded me of spider webs, hence the name.

Worked in one piece up to the armholes, with set-in sleeves knit in the round, the only seaming is sewing the sleeves to the body. The bottom edge of the body and the edges of the sleeves are hemmed to give a clean finished look.

The lace is fully charted and continues on across the back. There's also a single motif at the wrists...wouldn't want you to get bored with all that plain stockinette!

The collar is finished simply with attached i-cord. The button bands are knit as hems, so are double thickness and present a smooth stockinette face.

One of the sad things about knitting these designs is that all the samples go to Jeni. But I love Arachne so much that I was reaching for more Scrumptious 4-ply with one hand as I gave her the sample with the other. I've got some in darker blue/purple that is going to be gorgeous. And it only takes 3 skeins of the stuff for the smaller sizes!

Details:
Finished chest/bust size: 31 (34, 37, 40, 43, 46, 49, 52, 55) inches at bust
78.5 (86.5, 94, 101.5, 109, 117, 124.5, 132, 139.5) cm at bust
Requirements:
Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply (55% merino wool / 45% silk, 365m per 100g skeins):
3 (3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5) skeins
Needles: 3.5mm / US4 straight needles, or size needed to get gauge; 3.0mm / US2 straight needles;
3.5mm / US4 dpns for attached i-cord and sleeves (or magic loop them)
Notions: stitch markers, stitch holders or waste yarn
Tension: 24.5 sts & 40 rows per 4 inches / 10cm in stockinette stitch
Cost: £4.00

Available to buy from Ravelry, from the Fyberspates site soon, and with the Buy Now button at the bottom of this post.

This stuff is wasted on kindergarteners

2009-12-13T19:01:00.005Z

Paper, scissors, glue...

LOTS of glitter...

...and our little tree gets some personalized ornaments.

(Snowflakes are made with proper six-fold symmetry rather than the eight we did in school.)

Even the cat felt like participating.

Selene Pullover

2009-12-08T19:32:00.009Z

I'm happy to release the second of four designs I've done for Fyberspates. This is Selene.

An easy-to-knit, easy-to-wear lace v-neck raglan. Wide ribbing, simple lace, easy shaping- I've tried to make it fun to knit as well as fun to wear.

The body and sleeves are knit in the round and then joined for the yoke, so there's no seaming. The ribbed neckline is picked up and knit after the body is done. Subtle waist shaping is achieved by changing needle sizes.

Because the v-neck gives lots of room at the bust and the lace is stretchy, knit the size closest to your bust measurement.

It's modelled here by my lovely friend Joana. We had lots of fun at the "photo shoot".

Details:

Finished measurements: 30 (33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, 54, 57) inches at bust; 76 (84, 91.5, 99, 106.5, 114.5, 122, 129.5, 137, 145) cm at bust

Yarn: Fyberspates Superwash Merino dk (100% merino wool, 220m per 100g skeins): 5 (5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9) skeins

Gauge: 1.5 inches / 3.8 cm per horizontal lace repeat; 1.4 inches / 3.6 cm per vertical lace repeat

Needles: 4.5mm / US7, or size needed to get gauge, 24 inch / 60 cm circulars; 3.5mm / US4 24-inch / 60 cm circulars; 4.5mm / US7 dpns for sleeves (or magic loop them)

Notions: stitch markers, stitch holders or waste yarn

Price: £4.00

You can buy it from Ravelry, or with the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of this post. It will also be available from the Fyberspates shop site soon.

Mongkok Cardigan (again!)

2009-12-06T18:43:00.005Z

With the imminent disappearance of The Inside Loop, I have to re-jig my Mongkok Cardigan pattern and republish it. I figure it's as good a time as any to think about the layout of my patterns and get them into better shape. With that in mind, I've re-done Mongkok with what I hope is a more professional look and feel. Over the next few weeks, I'll gradually re-do all my patterns in this new format. If you have an opinion about what you consider good pattern layout or have a pet hate about them, I'd love to hear it!

Mongkok is now available as a free download on Ravelry, and also here, for those not on Rav.

Dude, what the heck is happening?

2009-12-03T19:25:00.004Z

I just found out that Stash Yarns, in Putney, is closing this month. I only managed to stop in a few times, but it was a lovely shop, and the people were always helpful. I'm sad that the choice of yarn shops in London is narrowing.

This follows closely on the heels of news that The Inside Loop will be shutting down its website in January. It hadn't been putting out new issues for a while now, but the disappearance of the website is an impossible to ignore sign of the loss. I'll have to get my Mongkok Cardigan pattern into shape and make it available elsewhere.

Right before I heard about The Inside Loop's shutdown (Kate and Diane e-mailed the designers to give us time to get our patterns off the site), I learned that Knotions has stopped producing new issues as well, although Jody is keeping the website up for now.

People, what is going on?! Has the knitting world contracted? Are there now too many resources for knitters? I know the three closures I talked about are unrelated (right?!) and they were closed down for all sorts of reasons which make sense for those involved. I have no doubt that they were the right decisions and I can only be grateful that I had a chance to work with Jody, Kate and Diane, and that I was able to shop at Stash at all.

Still, I'm a little sad.

It's not all work all the time

2009-11-05T22:10:00.006Z

Last Saturday, I went to the Fyberspates open house. Since we're in the same neck of the woods now, there was no excuse not to.

The Limey was very nice and drove me there. We brought along Mikal, a newcomer to the knitting group I've been going to.

I also brought along my latest design. I busted my ass to finish it in time, and was weaving in the ends in the car. To be honest, bits of it were still a bit damp from the blocking! By wearing it to the open house, I killed two birds with one stone: I showed it off, and I helped it dry quicker! I've just taken it off here to hand over to Jeni- I'm not just walking around in a camisole at the end of October.

It was well-received, and I actually managed to send out the first draft of the pattern to the tech editor tonight. That was quick work indeed.

It's knit from the Scrumptious 4-ply and I like it so much that I bought more yarn to knit one for myself.

The Scrumptious 4-ply is great to work with and the resulting fabric is gorgeously soft and feels great against the skin.

I'd show pictures of Jeni's actual workshop and stuff, but The Limey, who was in charge of the camera, was being force-fed (ha!) cakes, tea, and bubbly, and as a consequence, did not bother himself with the camera too much.

My list of knitting is getting kind of long at this point, so I'll either have more pictures and updates, or I'll be swamped and won't be around much.

It's about time!

2009-10-24T20:13:00.003+01:00

Champagne? Excitement? What's that all about?

Well, after months of mooching off The Limey, knitting and reading trashy romance novels, I have finally re-entered the world of working for a living.

Remember when I said it was good that we aimed for a lifestyle supportable on one salary, 'cause that meant I had time to look for my next job? Well, thank the gods, because it certainly took time.

But, it's all worked out. I'm back in lab, and the project's interesting. It's a much more commercially oriented company than my last, and it's the kind of position where, if I do my job well, I can actually go into a store, pick up and buy the products of my work.

But here's the best part. The company is based just south of Oxford. Like my last job, they're in a vast commercial and industrial estate in the middle of nowhere, roughly the same distance from the nearest train station as the last place. But, unlike my last job, they have a shuttle bus going between the estate and the train station! Amazing! Astounding! I can hardly believe it. I swear it's the best part of this whole thing. We live a five minute walk from Oxford station, and the train ride's only 15 minutes. I started work last week, and I can take the 8:21 train from Oxford, and be at my desk less than half an hour later. After that nightmare Southampton commute, this is almost unbelievable for me.

This is all great, and both The Limey and I are really happy. But, you know, we got used to having one of us at home during the day. I was at home to accept packages, I could get all manner of errands done, I was around during business hours, so could get to the bank, the rental agents, etc., as needed. Best of all, I could buy fresh food every couple of days, depending on what we felt like eating and what was available and looked good. I hate having to go back to doing one big shop at the weekends, and I suspect we'll be doing more supermarket shopping now, too, because there just won't be time to go 'round all the local shops and suppliers.

On the plus side, now there's extra money for getting a veg box delivery and hiring a cleaner!

Aren't they pretty?

2009-10-11T00:17:00.004+01:00

All those pretty candy colours...the unmistakable crimped edges...but before your mouth really starts to water, you may wonder what they actually are.

Is that...? Yes, cut up chicken meat, ground up chicken carcasses, flavoured with a little taurine and some other vitamins and minerals. Raw.

I've mentioned before that I've gone quite a way along the Crazy Cat Lady road, and feed the cat a raw, species-appropriate diet. (Lots of information on it here.) I've been feeding her this diet for 2-1/2 years now, and she's doing really well on it. No bladder crystals, shiny coat, good overall health, and looks nowhere near her 12-1/2 years of age.

Since this stuff is raw chicken, I freeze the food and defrost as needed. But I don't like the defrosted stuff to sit around for any longer than absolutely necessary, so I freeze in single-meal portions. Each batch I make is close to 40 portions of 1/4 cup each, so tupperware was expensive and would take up too much freezer space. I used small freezer bags, but couldn't get over how wasteful it was. So I'd been looking for a better solution.

I hit the jackpot when I discovered the existence of silicone cupcake liners. Who knew? But they're perfect. They fit just enough for one meal, they're easy to clean. I put the filled liners in a layer, cover with plastic wrap, and then put more layers on until I'm done. Genius.

And I get a total kick from the juxtaposition of the cute, pretty cupcake holders holding such gross stuff.

Behold! Sleeves!

2009-09-26T16:46:00.013+01:00

It took some wrangling with numbers and some frogging (if only I'd taken my own advice that lifelines are not just for lace), but I have finished both sleeves for Louhi.

It would have been easier if I hadn't done that last little pretzel-y arch, but it's such a great detail. There are no schematics, and no pictures of the whole sleeve, so I'm not sure, but from working through the numbers, the pattern doesn't seem to result in a normal sleeve cap shape. I haven't taken any pattern rows out, so the height of my sleeve cap is the same as the pattern's, but the width is much smaller. This means I'll have to calculate my armscye shaping, of course, but that should be okay. I just hope the wide, short sleeve cap will seam into the armscye okay and won't look too weird.

Now, the bigger problem. When I first got this yarn, it was in with a bunch of other yarns- most memorably bags and bags of muppet pelt mohair- and I swear I counted 20 skeins and a few pieces of an almost-finished Aran jumper, done in the same yarn. Now, however, I can only find 14 skeins of the yarn, and no sign of the jumper. I can only guess that everything else was lost in the move from Surrey. Since this yarn was from the '80s, I'm pretty sure I can't get any more.

Okay, I used 4-1/2 skeins for both sleeves, so the 9-1/2 skeins left would normally be perfectly adequate for a sweater body. But I wanted a hip-length cardigan. So, to get as much length as I can, I'm going to knit the body of this sweater from the top down. This may require a radical re-interpretation of the pattern, in addition to the re-calculation of all the numbers I'd already signed up for, but there are a few advantages to doing it this way.

First, I'm essentially knitting the armscye first, so I'll be able to see if it fits the strange sleeve caps, and, if not, adjust it accordingly, without having the whole rest of the cardigan body to contend with. Second, the back of Louhi is taken up by a gigantic cable motif which, if knitted from the bottom up, requires prior knowledge of length and precise row gauge and then some charting magic. If I do it top down, I can stop the motif when I want, and just continue the rest of the length in normal seed stitch. Otherwise, I may merrily knit up to the back and realize that I have half a cable motif left, but no more back length, or that I'm done with the cable, but there's still inches and inches of back still to do, which would look weird at the top. Third, hmmm, I had a third advantage, but now I've forgotten it. Damn.

Anyway, yes, so now I'm working the left cardigan front from the shoulder down. It's interesting...

Mods galore

2009-09-16T12:31:00.005+01:00

So remember I wanted to knit a long cabled cardigan? Well, I eventually decided on Louhi. There are a few challenging things about this decision: 1) as the designer says, the pattern isn't so much a pattern as a set of guidelines; 2) it was written for a 48"/ 122cm chest size; 3) it's ankle length, and I want mid-thigh length.

As I said, these are challenges, and not insurmountable, but I'll be making major major modifications.

Luckily, I got gauge with my seed stitch swatch. Oh, right, I'm doing this with the "normal" seed stitch (purl the knits and knit the purls) rather than the double seed stitch (?) used in the pattern.

First up, the sleeve. The cabled hem band is knit, then stitches for the sleeve are picked up along one edge. To make the sleeve skinnier, I made the hem band shorter, and took the pattern's advice about where to start and stop knitting the cables to make them symmetric when I seam it into a circle.

I also picked up fewer stitches for the sleeve itself. This was fine as long as I had enough stitches to accommodate the large cable running up the sleeve. I also ignored all the instructions about increasing for the sleeve and pretty much winged it until it looked like it would fit right- wrapping the sleeve-in-progress around my arm gives me a pretty good idea of fit.

So far, so good.

The next tricky bit will be the sleeve cap shaping, which I will have to recalculate. This is trickier than it would normally be, because the sleeve cap for Louhi has a special cabled arch, and the pattern has carefully placed decreases to shape that arch. I'll have the same number of rows for the cap, but fewer stitches, so I'll have to figure out how to decrease fewer stitches in the same number of rows, yet still keep the arch shape. Stay tuned!

My downfall

2009-09-15T13:23:00.004+01:00

I generally try to eat well, and these days, because I'm not working and can get out to the shops frequently, I buy lots of fresh food. The covered market may be a bit touristy and some of it pricey, but I've found I can manage pretty well on our one-income budget there. I buy veggies from the greengrocer (they are very good about having local produce and it's easy to see at a glance what's in season- and when stuff is in season, it's cheap; I was buying kilos of broad beans for less than £1/kilo); meat from the butcher (there's actually an organic butcher in the market! And again, easy to see what's available and in season); seafood from the fishmonger; bread from the baker; I try to stay away from the cheese stall (spendy), but The Limey loves it.

Having said all that, there is one packaged food I will not give up. I know it's terrible and barely counts as edible food, it's bad for me, it's basically petroleum by-products and chemical flavouring, but...instant noodles. I have a big salt tooth...well, let's face it, it's an MSG addiction, really...and instant noodles are satisfying in a way almost nothing else is: starchy, salty, soupy goodness. I have tried lots of brands from that one aisle in the Asian market- you know the one, lined with random brightly-coloured rectangular packets with lettering in scripts you can't even begin to read. The best- the absolute best- instant noodle on the market is the Korean Shin Ramyun "Hot & Spicy". I used to buy it by the 20-packet box. If you don't like spicy, then I can't help you. (Pic taken from Amazon.)
I add whatever I have in the fridge to the ramen. Asian greens such as bak choi or gai lan are obvious choices, but green beans, mange tout- anything with a bit of bite or crunch. If I have tofu, especially cubes of the fried stuff, I'll toss that in. If I'm really hungry, I'll stir in an egg as well. If I happen to have frozen potstickers (a kind of dumpling) I'll add a few of those. The Limey prefers his potstickers cooked properly- steamed and browned in a skillet- but that would involve using another pan, which is so not the point of packaged noodles.

All this takes five minutes, and then I can get back to the couch with my Agatha Christie or trashy romance. (Those may be more elements to my downfall.) Oh yeah.

IKnit day

2009-09-13T14:51:00.007+01:00

On Friday I went down to London to take in some of IKnit's weekender. I went last year, and this year they've expanded to a full two-day show. I hadn't booked any of their workshops or talks, although they certainly produced an all-star line-up. Mostly I wanted to mooch around and see if anyone I knew was there.

Though there was a good crowd, I was kind of surprised at how calm and easily-navigated the main exhibition floor was. I think because it was a Friday rather than a weekend. Also maybe lots of people were at the workshops?

I delivered some patterns to Jeni at the Fyberspates stall. She was displaying a bunch of knitted samples. And look what was there!

My Hera Jacket! She said there'd been lots of interest in it, and by mid-afternoon, she'd sold all but one copy of the pattern. I greeted this news with pleased surprise, but she said this meant she'd have none to sell the rest of the weekender. I hope she found a copy machine. Still, this news made me very happy.

Surprisingly, I didn't buy much. IKnit had a blocking wire set which I thought hard about, but decided to leave for another day. The House of Hemp had a beautiful display and some of their hand-dyed hanks were gorgeous. They were madly busy every time I went by. Eventually, I elbowed my way through and, after much dithering, bought four skeins of their 4-ply in a pretty blue, with a sleeveless shell in mind.

They'd organized the yarns into baskets based on broad colour families, and I needed help getting four skeins of the same colour. The lady was really nice and pulled out skein after skein, comparing colours and running under a skylight to see better. We eventually felt these four were as close as we were going to get. I'll probably use two skeins for the front of the shell and two for the back, doing a couple rows from each skein to blend the colours. If I like working with the yarn, I get the feeling I might be heading to their website to buy some of the hand-dyed; they had a hank which reminded me of glorious peacocks...

I also bought a skein of some faaaabulous yarn from the IKnit stall, which will be a present for The Limey. You, and he, will have to wait until I finish it to see.

I stopped by say hi to Diane, then ended up spending most of the day sitting around knitting and talking with her and some fairly random strangers.

Eventually, hunger and the fear of spending more money drove me out of the show. I stopped by an Oxfam bookshop on the way to the tube station and- surprise!- found a few really good knitting books. I got one of Kim Hargreaves older books, and one from Kaffe Fassett as well.

I ate, and then hung around until it was time for my train back. One thing I don't like about training it from Oxford is that the cheaper day tickets mean pre-booking specific trains; how do I know beforehand when I'll be ready to head home? But it turns out I needn't have worried.

I was well-entertained at Paddington station by the Great Western Railway Paddington Band. Who knew?

Aeolian

2009-09-10T20:51:00.010+01:00

I started and finished Aeolian while on holiday. Then it sat in a drawer here for ten days while I tried to figure out where to block it. It turns out, the bed worked great.

Yarn: Malabrigo lace, baby! In "Buscando azul", bought during a long ago field trip to Get Knitted; shoulderette used about 40g of the 50g skein.
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Turbos
Pattern: the lovely Aeolian, from Knitty Spring '09, by Elizabeth Freeman; shoulderette version

Notes: This was a total breeze to knit. I even got the hang of the nupps after only the first couple. I knit this exactly as written for the small shoulderette version, except without beads. I had a dickens of a time blocking it though. I didn't know what the heck "The shawl will block to slightly more than a triangle" meant. "More than a triangle"? Wha? I looked at a bunch of pictures of blocking Aeolians on Ravelry and got the jist, though. Apparently, "more than a triangle" is this:

I wasn't really happy with my blocking. I felt that the nupped "flowers" of the edging could have been stretched more, but there wasn't room, if you know what I mean. The body of the shawl wanted to be "slightly more than a triangle" but the edging wanted to be way more than triangle. If I could have blocked in 3-D, the edging would have given a ruffled effect.

Speaking of the nupps...I say I got the hang of them, but maybe not. See this close-up here?

Those red arrows point to nupps. Can you see them? Of course not. But can you see them here?

Yes you can. On the reverse side. Those bastard nupps, which weren't exactly easy to make, popped out on the wrong side. I thought blocking would help. But no. Traitors.

But overall, it's a gorgeous shawl, and the Malabrigo lace makes it basically weightless. It's featherlight. I kind of wished I'd used beads, which would have anchored it in case I encounter a slight breeze. I do note the yarn is a single and spun very loosely- it feels like it'll felt if you look at it weird.

The finished size is roughly 42in/107cm from tip to tip, and 20in/51cm from centre to point. Because I had a fifth of the yarn left over, I could probably have added a few repeats- the pattern is great because it tells you how to work varying sizes.

It's a beautiful, delicate shawl, but I'll probably be wearing it like this, where you can see the laciness so well.

I think I'll wear it to the iknit show tomorrow. Say hi if you see me!

Hera Jacket pattern up for sale

2009-09-02T17:46:00.005+01:00

The Hera Jacket is up for sale on both the Fyberspates website and Ravelry.

(Click on pictures to biggerize.)

This jacket is all about texture and shape, both kept simple and wearable. The nubbly, woven-like fabric is made with the easy-to-work rosette stitch. The swingy shape can be worn open, or closed with a belt knitted in the same yarn, or with a store-bought belt.

The body is worked in one piece, and the sleeves worked in the round, so the only seaming is at the armholes. For a professional, finished look, all edges are hemmed with fold-over, knit-as-you-go hems.

Hera is a great cover-up for when the days start getting chilly. The wool/silk blend of the Scrumptious yarn is warm and soft and really pops in the textured pattern.

The fronts of the jacket overlap, so one size will fit a wide range of bodies. This is also meant to go over other clothing, so choose a size with a couple of inches of ease.

Finished measurements: 36.5 (40.75, 44.75, 48.75, 52.75, 57.25, 61.25) inches at bust, including 3-inch overlap on jacket fronts; 18 (18, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20) inches long from hem to underarm;
92.5 (103.5, 114, 124, 134, 145, 155.5) cm at bust, including 8 cm overlap on jacket fronts; 46 (46, 48, 48, 51, 51, 51) cm long from hem to underarm

Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky (45% silk/55% merino wool, 122m per 100g skeins): 13 (14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21) skeins

Gauge: 20 sts / 22 rows = 4 inches / 10 cm in rosette st pattern

Needles: 4.5mm/US 7, or size needed to get gauge, 40 inch / 100 cm circulars; 3.5 mm/US 4 40 inch / 100 cm circulars.

Notions: removable stitch markers, stitch holders or waste yarn.

The pattern is an 8-page PDF with clear schematics and finished measurements for 7 sizes.

The pattern is available for £4 and you can buy from the Fyberspates site, from Ravelry, and by clicking the "Buy Now" button on the blog here.

Travel broadens more than the mind

2009-09-01T14:44:00.012+01:00

As I've mentioned before, when I travel nowadays, whatever little planning I do is centred around food and yarn. I've found that it's a great way to travel. If I'm looking for specific yarn shops and restaurants, this involves my navigating around new places with a goal in mind, rather than mindlesslessing wandering around the easy-to-find touristy areas. Often, these places are out of the most touristed bits, so I am forced to interact more with locals and to use whatever little language skills I may have picked up from a guidebook.

This latest trip home may not have required navigating around strange cities and foreign language skills, but I still got in a lot of food and knitting. Here are some highlights.

Ramen, tempura and tonkatsu at Suzu Noodle House in Japantown in SF. That is some good stuff. My veggie tempura had a piece of aubergine that was done damned near perfectly (which is good, 'cause it's so easy to make aubergine gross).

Imperial rolls at Turtle Tower in the Tenderloin in SF. Not the best neighbourhood, no (though I grew up there), but great Vietnamese food- just down the street from here is the place that makes the best bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) in the city. The dishes we had here came with lots and lots of greens, which is what I loved most about eating on my trip to Vietnam. I'd ordered the cha ca, and it was the nearest to what I'd had in Hanoi than any version I've had since.

Oysters at Hog Island in the ferry building market in SF. I love oysters, but the picture here is The Limey trying a Kumamoto. This is amazing because before he met me, the only fish The Limey had ever eaten was battered and deep-fried beyond recognition. Although he's tried lots of fish since and even liked some of it, oysters weren't something he was ever even vaguely interested in. But here he is! His verdict? "I could see how some people could get used to it."

Uh....we didn't actually eat or buy anything at this deli in the ferry building market, but you gotta give it points for truth in advertising.

And the best thing I ate in SF: crab in ginger and scallions, cooked at home. This is one of my favourite dishes in the world and I've never had it better than the way my father cooks it. He makes this for me whenever I go home. The last two times, he has tried to teach The Limey how to do it. I think he's nearly got it down now, although my father's method of killing the crab is a bit too ruthless for us- we'll have to find a a wussier way of doing it.

Did you say yarn?

Some Lana Gross sock yarn from Bluebird Yarn and Fiber in Sausalito- these were picked out by The Limey for his next socks. A skein of Online Linie12 from Knit and Pearl in Santa Barbara for me to play with; I've been kinda interested in linen yarns for a while.

Jared Flood's book of patterns for Classic Elite Yarns, again from Knit and Pearl in SB. There are some lovely patterns in here and the Classic Elite stuff is hard to get in the UK, so I jumped at the chance to grab it. A Japanese stitch dictionary from the Kunokuniya bookstore in Japantown in SF. I was tempted by a few of the pattern books as well, but figured I wouldn't actually knit anything out of them. This stitch dictionary, though, has a bunch of stitch patterns I've not seen anywhere else, so I couldn't resist. The bookstore had a large knitting section, which I had to go through book by book because I can't read Japanese and therefore couldn't tell what was in the books by the spine!

And, oh yes, I finished knitting my Aeolian. It's still unblocked, but it was a great knit.

I don't know about this sunny and hot business...

2009-08-24T23:54:00.005+01:00

Sure, SoCal has the beach and ocean...

And it's got the palm trees and hot hot hot weather...

But all that means for me is a mild sunburn and the need to mainline iced coffee all day.

No, what I'm really excited about is...

Mexican food!

Mmmm...fresh tortillas...tamales...many and varied salsas...

Also, some pretty good seafood. It turns out The Limey has never had clam chowder (until last night, anyway)! How does someone reach his fourth decade without ever having clam chowder?!

But I'm over all this hot weather business, and am really glad that we're off to San Francisco tomorrow. Whew. With any luck, I'll need to actually wear a cardigan at some point in the next few days.

In sunny Santa Barbara

2009-08-21T19:49:00.007+01:00

Got my Addi Turbos through two airports with no problems. At Heathrow, the needles were empty, so I figured at most I'd be out the cost of a pair of Addis, but at my layover in Vancouver, they had 8 hours of lace work on them, so I was quite nervous. Security didn't bat an eye, but I did have a fellow passenger say she had wanted to bring knitting but didn't think she could get needles through.

It turns out, for me, about eight hours is what it takes to get to the edging charts of the Aeolian shawl (I'm doing the smaller shoulderette version, without beads). I've just finished the second set of nupps, and you know what? Those bastards don't show up very well for me- they want to appear on the wrong side.

It's nice to see The Limey, and I had a present for him.

Oh That's Punny!
Yarn: Trekking XXL for the main body of the sock, and I think some Paton's Diploma Gold 4-ply for the words
Needles: my usual 2.0mm dpns for the main sock, with the stranded colourwork done on 3.0mm
Pattern: the body of the sock is basically Kate Blackburn's Hareton Socks, with, uh, a modification at the top of the leg

Notes: A visual pun of one of The Limey's favourite cursewords. I don't even know if other people except he and a buddy from grad school use it. It was suggested during the camping trip in March, and it was easy enough to do, so I did it.

The argyle-y pattern of the socks is great; it's all elegant texture. It would be perfect for a pair of fancy dress socks. If you don't put swear words on the cuff, of course. I did some non-obvious modifications of Kate's pattern as well- I did it toe up, with my usual short row heel.

Good plane knitting?

2009-08-19T12:17:00.004+01:00

In a valiant, and somewhat successful, attempt at avoiding the huge to-do list, I finished The Limey's socks yesterday. I was saving them for the plane ride. So now I have no plane knitting! Oh noes!

I'm racking my brains here...I like sock knitting because my wooden dpns are less likely to be confiscated by the overly zealous security people, but I have no more sock yarn for The Limey and I don't want to knit socks for me...I want to start a good lace project, but I don't want to risk my Addi lace turbos with the aforementioned security and I have no wooden circulars of appropriate size...it would be a good time to do colourwork, but I don't have a project picked out, and there's no time to get more yarn, so whatever it is has to be do-able with what I have...

I'm going to add "rummage through stash" and "do humongous Ravelry pattern search" to my to-do list.

Make me do chores!

2009-08-18T12:55:00.002+01:00

I'm leaving for California in a few days. The Limey's already there, working. I'm going to fly out to Santa Barbara and hang around for a few days while he finishes up work, and then he's going to take a few days off, and we're going up to San Francisco to see my family.

(Despite living just a few hours away, I have spent very little time in southern California; in fact, I think I've only been south of Santa Cruz twice. I'm kinda looking forward to mooching around SB. Mexican food, here I come.)

But, before I leave, I have to get all sorts of crap done. I have to clean the house, set up everything for the person who's going to come in to feed the cat, pack, arrange for a neighbour to keep an eye out, do some laundry...aaargh, a thousand little things. And right now I can't even be arsed to make myself lunch.

Must. Get. Ass. Off. Couch.

What to knit next?

2009-08-16T19:35:00.008+01:00

Last year, The Limey's mother gave me a bunch of the yarn she had left over from the '80s when she used to knit. A lot of it wasn't to my taste, but she had a bag of cream-coloured Wendy Sarto (80% wool / 20% nylon). I instantly wanted to make a long cabled cardigan from it. This was put on hold until a few days ago.

I browsed patterns and asked on Ravelry (there are lots of cabled cardigan patterns out there, people) and really liked these patterns:

Louhi:

I'd seen this before, and think it's gorgeous. Look at those cabled bands going all around the front, hem and hood! However, the pattern's more of a guideline, and in one size, so I'll have to do a lot of number crunching to make it fit me and make it shorter.

Nell:

One of Kim Hargreaves beautifully classic designs. I have to be careful not to let the photography/styling/model influence me, though. I may want to live in a Rowan photo shoot, but that doesn't mean I want the knitwear. Also, for this, I'd have to get the Hargreaves book, since the pattern isn't sold individually. (A kind soul on Ravelry has already offered to lend me her copy, though- the wonders of the interwebs!)

Fireside (Ravelry link):

Isn't it lovely? All that cabley goodness, and it's got front bands that cable right up to and around the collar, like Louhi. Also like Louhi, I'd have to do a bit of number crunching, in this case, to lengthen the cardi.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, I've decided to read through the Louhi pattern and see how easy/hard it will be to re-size. I think it's got a certain something, and it's definitely different...

Not bad, if I do say so myself

2009-08-12T23:29:00.003+01:00

In the last few days, I've managed to get quite a few things done, and put other stuff in order. I'm surprised, because I feel like I've just been surfing the internet and reading teen sci-fi/fantasy books (I'm rediscovering Diana Wynne Jones, at the moment).

1. I got Milkweed done in record time.

2. I sent out the first draft of that Fyberspates pattern. I also scheduled a photoshoot with a friend this weekend to get some pictures for me before I send the FO off to Jen.

3. I downloaded Scribus and played with it to see if I might want to start making my patterns look a bit more professional. It's a very basic desk top publishing program (can't afford InDesign!) but it looks like it will do what I need to lay out patterns and such.

4. I did up the charts for another design, swatched it, realized it didn't work, messed around some more with the charts before deciding that the stitch pattern probably won't do what I need it to do, picked another one, messed around with it a bit and charted that up. I "just" have to swatch it up now.

5. I've decided that I will definitely take a break and do a personal knitting project before I start work in earnest on the next design. I will work on either that dress I've been talking about, or a long cabled, belted jacket, maybe with a hood? Any ideas on patterns for that, by the way?

6. I've also decided that The Limey's socks will be finished up on the plane over to California. It'll be a cool surprise for him, and -let's be honest- by then he'll probably have run out of the clean socks he took with him.

Go me! (Now with new and improved pictures!)

2009-08-07T15:06:00.006+01:00

(Got the good camera back from the repair people. I know it's a poor worker who blames her tools, but I really did not get on with the back-up camera. Since I'm not such a hot photographer, I do need all the help I can get from the equipment.)

In a marathon knitting session, I got Milkweed done in less than two days. I really needed a quick satisfying knit, and this hit the spot.

Milkweed Shawlette
Yarn: Jenny Cook Hand-dyed sock yarn; 80% alpaca/20% silk, bought in Hay-on-Wye
Needles: 3.5mm Addis
Pattern: Laura Chau's Milkweed

Notes: Took just over 100g of this yarn- I'm guessing I used around 300m. I was really afraid I was going to have to frog a bit of the Anti-Funk, but luckily had no problems finishing up with the leftovers from that first skein. Finished size about 1 meter wide and 40cm from centre to middle point. I kind of wish I'd managed it to be a little wider, actually, so it would hang lower when worn.

I love this yarn in garter stitch, and it works with this pattern beautifully.

The pattern is clear and easy to follow- I used the charts.

Now, onto pattern writing. While the shawl was blocking, I had a small breakthrough in charting out a pattern idea, so now I'm making myself write up this last pattern before I start swatching on the next.

Camera-less

2009-08-03T12:16:00.002+01:00

I finally got around to sending the camera away to be fixed and what happens? I finish knitting that last Fyberspates design.

It took forever. And I'm not sure why, exactly. It's not a difficult knit, and I'd memorized the lace pattern at the very beginning. I'd been holding off doing any other knitting until it was done, so now there's a short list of what-to-do-next:

1. Write up the pattern for the design

2. swatch up another design I've got in my head

3. figure out what I should do about a few swatches/proposals that I have laying around

4. Start Milkweed!

5. Finish the last three inches of The Limey's latest socks (these socks have been languishing since April).

Milkweed it is!

2009-07-22T15:05:00.003+01:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I think because of the yardage requirements, it will be Milkweed for the Jenny Cook hand-dyed. But, in going through my stash, I found some beautifully soft bamboo blend sock yarn given to me by a visiting friend, and it is absolutely perfect for Aestlight. Yay for shopping from stash!

But first I have to finish this last design for Fyberspates. It just needs a couple of days of monogamous knitting and it'll be done. Then I can go to work on Milkweed while writing up and editing the pattern.

Decisions, decisions

2009-07-17T15:57:00.004+01:00

Thanks for the comments about the driving instructor. I'm glad to know that I wasn't overreacting or being too "special snowflake" about the whole taking the wheel thing. I will probably call the driving school and ask for another instructor. I don't blame the school itself- after all, my last instructor worked for them and was awesome. The Limey thinks I should complain about the latest person and demand my money back, but I don't think I'll go that far.

So, then, next thing I'd like some of your opinions on. I still have some loverly hand-dyed alpaca/silk sock yarn from Jenny Cook left from the two skeins I bought in Hay. I want to make one of these new-fangled shawlettes with it. I made the Anti-Funk with one partial skein and, because I love the gartery goodness of this yarn, I've narrowed it down to two garter-based designs.

Milkweed, by Laura Chau:

or Aestlight, by Gudrun Johnston:

To be perfectly honest with myself, I probably don't have enough yardage for Aestlight, even the smaller size. But I do so love that little bit of lace!

Whaddy'all think?

Different teaching style or batshit crazy?

2009-07-15T11:04:00.003+01:00

During the April/May/June visitors/moving madness, I had stopped my driving lessons. I'd done a good 18 hours and was at the point where we were just doing practice tests on the known testing routes so my instructor could give me pointers on what I had to improve on (mainly checking the damned mirrors in an overly cautious and -most importantly- obviously noticeable way). I'd passed my theory test with flying colours. Basically, I was getting pretty good and just needed to polish up a few things.

As stuff has settled down, I decided to schedule my last two pre-paid hours here in Oxford, with another instructor, obviously.

Now, I admit my first instructor, Paul, was great, and maybe I'm spoiled. But this Oxford person's teaching just did not gel with me at all. You all will have to tell me if this is normal driving instructor behaviour.

She kept taking the steering wheel! She'd grab it from her side and start moving the car I'm supposedly driving. Paul never did this.

She used her passenger-side brake and clutch all the time. It got so that when I went to use any of the pedals, I wasn't sure what I'd find. In the 18 hours of lessons I had with Paul, I remember him using his controls exactly twice.

She seemed skittish and overly cautious. She wanted me to go really, really slowly and then to slow down even more if a car even looked like it was going to come near us, even if it had its own nice, wide lane. I realize this is a judgement call, but we barely got into third gear the whole two hours. I did more than that in the first lesson I had with Paul.

So: normal driving instructor behaviour, and I was just spoiled before? Or is she crazy?

(I hasten to add that we got along fine, and she was a perfectly nice person. Plus, she was professional, gave me a few good pointers, and said she'd been a driving instructor for seven years. So she can't be totally off, right?)

Either way, I can't imagine taking any more lessons from her. Luckily, I've finished my pre-paid hours with this driving school. Should I call them and ask for lessons with another instructor? Or should I take the really cowardly way out and use another driving school?

Munich

2009-07-06T12:22:00.008+01:00

I will spare you the pictures of the central square and the crazily awesome architecture. Instead, I will list a few observations.

These people are serious about their beer.

You couldn't spit without hitting a brauhaus or biergarten. And we had gorgeous weather, so brauhaus (-es? -er?) and entire cafes and restaurants conducted their business outdoors. I quite liked the weisse beers I tried- I found them sweet and aromatic. Although I cannot drink them by the litre. Alcoholic drinks should not be measured in litres! Petrol and water come in litres, not beer!

These people are serious about their meat.

Bavaria does not seem to be a place that recognizes the fact that people might sometimes feel they've had enough pork and beef. However, I definitely didn't starve. Here, at Der Pschorr (at one corner of the Viktualienmarkt), I had some pike perch, on a bed of some beautifully done risotto.

But it was definitely hard going sometimes. The Limey was in Munich for a conference, and I attended the conference dinners and barbecues. This is the only time I've ever been at gatherings such as this where no effort whatsoever was made to accommodate vegetarians. I'm not vegetarian (see fish, above), and luckily I'm not picky. At the fancy conference dinner, I ate soup, salad and veggies and gave The Limey my portion of meat (so he was happy), and at the barbecue, I ate crisps and bread.

One of the great things for me about travelling when I don't know the local language is ordering random stuff off the menu to see what you get. Like I said, I'm not picky, although not eating most meat does limit this pleasure somewhat. However, ordering from the dessert menu is always safe.

These people are serious about their dirndls.

When I first saw these in a shop window, I thought, Haha, good tourist trap. But then I noticed them everywhere: in department stores that seem to to cater largely to the locals; in shops outside of the more central touristy areas. So it can't all be souvenir tat. That purple one with the peacock feathers costs EUR2200! But, except for waitresses at the brauhauser, I didn't see anyone actually wearing one. A friend of mine said that you do see more of the traditional costumes around Oktoberfest time. I did see gentlemen "of a certain age" wearing the old-skool lapel-less jackets with the small collars. I think those look really good, actually. We should have bought one for The Limey.

In all, I had a really good few days wandering around the city. The public transport was easy to use, I could get by with a half-dozen words of German, people were helpful. I do like Berlin better, but that could be because I had my own personal tour guide and translator with me there.

And now for the knitty portion of the trip review.
Non-knitters, you can stop reading now.

I know what's on everyone's minds: Wollmeise.

Okay, well. Okay. Now, I've never bought or even seen any Wollmeise yarn in person. I like touching and feeling new yarns, so I hardly ever buy stuff off t'internets. But I'd heard good things about the yarn, so I figured I'd make some sort of effort to see it. What a rollercoaster ride- it went something like this:

:) Going to Germany! Wollmeise is German! I'll be able to get some at the yarn shops!

:( Wollmeise doesn't sell in shops, even in her native land.

:) But she sells in markets! I can navigate the Deutsche Bahn website to get to a market!

:( No markets are scheduled for the few days I'm in Germany.

:) But what's this?! She has an actual physical, bricks-and-mortar shop! And it's only 30 minutes by train from Munich! And it opened for business last month!

:( But it's not scheduled to open any of the days I'm in Munich!

So I'm afraid there is no Wollmeise experience to report. I did wander around the city to find some yarn shops. Unfortunately, two of them were closed when I found them, but I did get into Lanaiolo.

They had a good selection of GGH yarns, a little bit of Rowan (KSH, natch) and Debbie Bliss. Some other cashmere, mohair, alpaca blends and such. Basically, though, it was way too hot to even think of those fibres. I was on the hunt for summer fibres for a dress. I eventually bought some GGH Safari, a linen/nylon blend- but maybe not enough for a whole dress? (Stop me if you've heard that before...) I think I'll be able to do something with a constrasting colour, though.

A spot of travel

2009-06-25T21:35:00.002+01:00

The Limey has to be in Munich for work next week, and since we've only seen each other for a total of two days in the last month, I'm gonna tag along. The only place in Germany I've ever been is Berlin, which I loved, so I'm excited about wandering around Munich. We'll be there for five days. I think I may have to hang around with The Limey and his work people in the evenings, but I will have the days to myself.

Anybody been to Munich? Or live there? What should I see? I will get a guidebook, but it's always nice to hear people's experiences. Oooh, and restaurant recommendations, please. All I do nowadays when I travel is look for yarn shops and restaurants!

I wouldn't need to be paid to knit if I were paid to frog

2009-06-21T14:17:00.004+01:00

I'm working on another design for Fyberspates. It's actually a version of a sweater that I had been knitting for myself. But one that other people could also knit without, you know, reading my mind.

This picture was taken during its second frogging session. Both times, I'd knit around 10 inches. The first time, I realized the lace pattern wasn't matching up exactly symmetrically across the side "seams". If this were just for me, I probably would have just carried on, but it's the sample, so I figured it should actually, you know, look good. So, frogged back to the ribbing.

The second time, I realized that, if I were to write up the way I was going about this sweater, it was going to result in a pattern involving numerous instances of the phrase "at the same time," as well as some pretty heinous simultaneous lace shaping instructions. (I love figuring out lace shaping, myself, but I realize it's not some other people's idea of a party.) So, frogged back to the ribbing.

Finally, I figured out a way to do this without future knitters tearing their hair out, and I'm merrily knitting along, la la la, past the waist shaping...when it dawns on me that I've been knitting this as if it were for me, i.e., to my measurements. The width isn't a problem, because luckily I'd figured out that bit of the sizing already. The length, however...since I'm short, I've pretty much memorized where I like my clothing to hit on my hip, my length measurements, etc., and I was just unconsciously knitting this to my preferences, rather than a standard sample size.

Third time's the charm, right?

I want to knit a dress

2009-06-17T12:38:00.004+01:00

I know, I've already knit a dress, but now I want a summer one. Yes, by the time I finish, it won't be summer anymore, but since I've got a couple of projects that have to be done before I even start on anything else, I'm hoping to just sneak it in to next summer.

I've been mulling over a summer dress in my head for a while now, and I have some things figured out:

it will be knee-length or just above

it will be knit in linen or some other summer-appropriate, non-stretchy yarn (boo to cotton, silk or bamboo)

it will have short or no sleeves

it will be mostly stockinette

the skirt will be fuller than A-line

The only problem? I have no idea how the top half of this dress is going to look. I want it to be flattering on me, obviously (no waist, little Buddha belly). It will need some sort of waist and boob treatment so I don't just look like a stuffed sausage.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of shape/detailing would look good. The problem is I haven't been around the shops in ages, so am drawing a blank on the different styles. Any suggestions? Any suggestions on yarn that won't cost a fortune? I need to buy a whole dress' worth!

My God...I think I have a tan!

2009-06-15T11:36:00.004+01:00

Continuing visitor season, my good friend K was here for a few days last week. (I love visitors.) I hadn't seen her in ages, so it was good to catch up. It was also good because she was up for a lot of walking around, and since I was only starting to familiarize myself with Oxford, we explored together.

We did spend some time wandering around the town, but the best was when we, unintentionally, took the Thames Canal path all the way to Wolvercote, at which point we figured there was no reason not to stop at The Trout Inn. Mmmm....Pimm's by the water in the sunshine. Then we came all the way back down to Oxford via the Thames Path. I think I'll be making that journey many more times.

We did a bunch of stuff that you're "supposed" to do. We peeked at some of the colleges, looked at all the great buildings, went to The Turf. But, honestly, the best afternoon we had was when we ducked into a random pub to get out of a sudden rain and found that it was populated only by the Kiwi bartender and two of his regulars, a Welshman and an Englishmen. (I feel like I should start a joke here: Two Americans walk into a pub...) They started by disapproving our beer choices, tried to convince us that cricket and rugby were the only proper sports, talked about where they/we had travelled, recommended a restaurant, and then pushed drink at us, including a Jagermeister/Red Bull concoction...which was weird. Anyway, by the time we left, my cheeks were aching from laughing, and then the bartender refused to take payment for our drinks.

It's really nice when you get a good afternoon like that in, especially with visitors.

Hera Jacket

2009-06-08T10:02:00.006+01:00

We don't have our own internet yet, using the neighbour's, which is patchy, so I'll do all my blogging at once while I've got any signal.

I delivered the Scrumptious design project to Jeni on UK Ravelry Day. The pattern's being tech edited, and so will be available soon. Meanwhile, it was in the fashion show at Ravelry Day, and I can show you pictures. Unfortunately, not on the lovely model for the show- I had no time for pictures then!

Here it is:

Hera, a cozy wrappy jacket knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky, in a fantastic woven-like pattern. It was great working with the scrumptious yarn, and it works perfectly for the stitch pattern- it really makes the texture stand out. And the wool/silk mix gives a heavy, cozy jacket that just feels really good when you put it on. It almost makes me long for chillier weather. Almost.

Folded collar, hemmed edges, great little detailing that highlights the two characteristics I was going for: texture and shape.

Too bad the sample's gone back to Jeni! It was so cozy to wrap myself up in during the evenings, especially since the weather has turned the last few days.

You wouldn't believe how many pictures it took to get a few that looked good- there are more and I'll show them when the pattern's available. But it's really hard to take pictures of yourself! I didn't want to do it outside, 'cause I feel like an eejit posing. Getting a good background with good light indoors meant moving furniture around. I think this pretty much sums it up:

I'm really happy with how this jacket turned out. I'm always slightly surprised when stuff happens the way you plan it- but I got the shape, feel and everything about this jacket right.

UK Ravelry Day report

2009-06-08T09:33:00.003+01:00

I had so much fun at UK Ravelry Day. Oh, it was brilliant. I met and talked to so many people. This is special for me because in situations like that, I usually find I have nothing to say, even to people with whom I supposedly have something in common, so I clamp up and sort of just spend my time mooching around the stalls, get bored, and find that I still have hours to kill before my train/plane/bus/whatever. Not this time! So in this 'Report from Ravelry Day' post, I shall simply tell you about the interactions I had with all those lovely people.

First, the lady from the Knitting and Crochet Guild who offered an expenses-paid cab ride for random Ravelry Day attendees at the train station: Thanks!

Then I got to meet Jeni of Fyberspates. She is lovely and tall and was wearing cool boots.

She got to see the Scrumptious design in person and loved it, which was a great relief to me. She let me pick out yarn for the third and last design of this batch of ideas I'd sent her. Best of all, we had a good chat about further collaboration and ways to get the designs into shops as well as selling on the innernetz.

And then I spent the whole morning helping Angie set up the fashion show. Let me tell you: I have never had so much fun whilst in the midst of so much chaos. Oh man. Angie and I, along with Pat, Pam and Tom (I believe that's his name) ran around like headless chickens for a while, before Tom sat Angie down with pen and paper and got things started on the road to organization. Oh, it was glorious fun. With five minutes to spare before the show began, we managed to put together a master list of garments and models in the order of presentation. I was convinced we would send people out in the wrong order or there would be huge gaps in the show while we got people changed, but in the end, I believe it went off pretty credibly. I was backstage frantically throwing clothes at people and moving them physically into correct order, so didn't get to see any of it! But I had an unbeatable time.

I got cake and spent some of the early afternoon working the door and checking tickets with a volunteer in a Ravelry t-shirt whose name I totally did not get. We had a grand time. When the number of people died down, Jo, the day's organizer, threw a Meg Swansen ticket at me and told me in no uncertain terms to enjoy myself at the talk.

I ran into Liz while getting more cake after the talk, and spent a relaxing half hour chatting with her. We'd only met a few days before, when I went to my first knitting meeting of the Oxford Bluestockings group. Always nice to get a chance to pick a local's brains when you're a new resident.

As I was sitting, knitting and waiting for one of the workshops to let out, Pam or Pat (I'm sorry! I got them mixed up in the fashion show madness, and now will forever be confused) stopped by and, again, I spent a great half hour chatting with her. She goes to a bunch of the knitterly gatherings in the UK, and says that Tom happily accompanies her to them as well. I look forward to running into them again.

Finally, to cap off a great day, I met up with the Irish contingent and -what else?- went to the pub. It was great to see Isobel and Sinead again, and to meet Averil and some of the representatives from Cork.

It turned out a bunch of other Ravelry Day people, including the organizers and some guests, congregated at the same pub. We took over a whole half of the first floor, I think. God only knows what the rest of the pub thought. We thanked Jo, although she refused to make a speech. It was a brilliant evening, and, thanks to two very weak mojitos (was there even booze in those?), I even managed to find my way to the train station sans taxi.

And then! At the train station, I met Rene, another Californian scientist Raveler. She'd only just moved to the UK a couple of months ago. We were on the same train for most of the way and spent the journey discussing expat things, science, and the way British people use whingeing about the weather as a social lubricant.

Great day.

Minor miracles

2009-06-02T17:13:00.006+01:00

One of the things I love about knitting is how a few little finishing tasks turn some random, tattered-looking pieces of fabric into a beautiful, finished, professional-looking garment. Weave in ends, polish up the edges and -voila!- a piece of actual clothing! That you can wear!

It's done.

This is the sample for a pattern I've designed for Fyberspates' Scrumptious yarn. I took my time finishing this because it was clear that I wouldn't have enough time to knit a sample for another pattern, anyway. I was a bit nervous about how the whole thing would look (a problem when you pitch designs based solely on a sketch and swatch) but as soon as I knit the collar and attached the sleeves...it all came together and it actually looks like what I'd intended it to look like.

I wanted to get some modeled pictures before delivering it to Jen at UK Ravelry day, but my photographer is out of town, and I don't know anyone in Oxford to model for me yet.

That's deviously convenient timing, that is...

2009-05-31T13:13:00.002+01:00

We've been here for a week, surrounded by boxes, and The Limey has just left for a three-week training stint in the US. So who gets the pleasure of unpacking and moving shit around? That's right: me. The cat is useless- won't even move from her spot in the sun to make it easier for me to get at the boxes.

And I have no idea where my phone charger is. Oh, it's in one of these boxes, for sure, but which one?

contented sigh

2009-05-28T19:38:00.003+01:00

We've managed to move ourselves, the cat, and our stuff to Oxford, and have been here for almost a week. Other than the fact that we've been unpacking, yet still find ourselves surrounded by boxes (kinda like at the other end, where we kept packing and packing, yet the flat still looked the same), I'm pretty much loving it so far.

I'm sure I'll be sharing with you all the stuff I like about living here, in due course. But, for now, one pleasant bonus to having even a bit of outdoor space:

Stuff dries so much faster!

Even more progress?

2009-05-23T09:17:00.001+01:00

Three guys.
One truck.
Two empty rooms.
One very suspicious cat.

More progress?

2009-05-22T17:13:00.004+01:00

Another small detail sorted.

I bought my train tickets to go to UK Ravelry Day. The boxes and dust must be getting to me, because it didn't occur to me that I would - duh - need a return ticket. So I bought the Oxford-Coventry ticket, congratulating myself on catching the advance fare of only 12 quid. As soon as I hit 'enter' after all my credit card details, I thought, hang on... something's missing...

Luckily, for some strange reason, two separate singles are slightly cheaper than a return, so it all worked out.

I hope this spaciness goes away soon- I don't want to forget to bring my Fyberspates design sample with me!

I will buy the actual ticket for the festival itself in a bit. I'm trying to figure out if I want to take the 'Design your own lace project' workshop. £25 is not too dear, but I wonder if it's going to be more about how to put together different lace motifs, or how to invent your own?

Are you guys going to Rav day? Please say hi!

Three things

2009-05-19T12:51:00.002+01:00

Progress?

1. Pattern for sample to be knit: Done and sent to Jen. Can't wait to see it!

2. Scrumptious sample knitting: Going well. Hope I have enough yarn. I've already asked for more. If I've underestimated again, it'll be embarrassing. Scrumptious pattern: most of maths done.

3. Moving: why is it that I've packed boxes and boxes, and we've moved three carloads up to Oxford, and yet the flat still looks exactly the same? In fact, if possible, it looks like there's more stuff than before!

Knit knit knit

2009-05-15T13:19:00.006+01:00

A while ago, I wrote to Jen at Fyberspates and sent her a few design ideas for her yarns, 'cause I love them. She was totally on board with the ideas, and sent me yarn to swatch. Everything went well, and I was sent yarn to start on the first project. Whee! So exciting. I got even more excited when I got back from Scotland to an e-mail saying she wanted at least one of the designs to go on the catwalk show at UK Ravelry Day.

This is great (you'll have to imagine to yourselves the little dance I did), but that means I must get them done before the 6th of June! I knit as much as I could while I had my houseguests, but now they're gone, so I can really focus.

This is the first project. I just can't get the colour right on camera. It's Scrumptious Chunky in "Biscuit", which actally is a dark-toned mossy grey-green. Never has a yarn been so aptly named- it really is scrumptious to work with. And with a name like "biscuit"! Mmmm... I think I need some tea...

I swatched and swatched to get a stitch pattern that matched what I had in my head (my problem is scale- I feel like I never know exactly what will happen once a pattern goes from a six inch swatch to a whole garment; however, this one translated perfectly). It's going quickly, and it will definitely be done in time for UK Ravelry Day, but I'd also like enough time to write the pattern and get it tech-edited. That last bit may be asking a bit much?

As well, there is a second project which I'd love to be able to put on the catwalk show. There is almost no way I'd get it knitted up in time, in addition to the Scrumptious one. Jen has suggested sending it out to get a sample knitted, but that means I have to write up the pattern. I've got most of the maths and charting done, actually, so this is a possibility. However, if I get the pattern out today, the knitter would only have three weeks to knit up a sample. Do-able, as it's not a big project, especially if done in one of the smaller sizes.

Okay, this is all possible, but it means I have to FOCUS. No procrastination on Ravelry and other random internet shite. If you guys see me on Ravelry, send me a strongly-worded note!

Another solution to the two-body problem?

2009-05-14T21:38:00.004+01:00

Today we sent over the deposit for the little house in Oxford. Saturday, we will go up to hand over the rental agreement and get the keys.

It's a great teeny Victorian terrace, built for workers on the railroad and their families, and is right next to a river. Actually, it's on an island, so is surrounded by rivers. The estate agent assured us it *didn't* flood a few years ago; we'll see. It's probably smaller than our current flat, but there are two big plusses: 1. It's got a gas cooker!!!1!!1!! and 2. It has a small garden with the teensiest plot of plantable soil. Oh, and obviously, it's not Woking!

Actually, I kinda wish maybe it had flooded, because then they'd have had to replace the gross, totally hideous, decades-old carpet they have in there. I shudder at even the thought of walking over it barefoot, let alone sitting on it or laying on it. The floor under it is wooden- I'm really hoping the landlord will let us tear out the carpets; I'm going to ask on Saturday.

As I think about all this re-locating business and after a conversation with one of The Limey's co-workers tonight, I'm reminded of something I keep hearing about over here. I've met and heard of upteen people who solve the two-body problem by keeping two residences. One half of a couple would live in a bedsit or small flat at his/her place of work, and the other partner would live in their "real" home, with the kids/pets. At the weekends, the partner living "away" would come "home".

For The Limey's colleague, the commute between homes is a 2-3 hour affair, and she works four-day weeks, going home on Thursday night and coming back to work on Monday morning. When I first started working in Southampton, I chatted to a university worker at a bus stop who kept a flat in Southampton, but went home to London, to his wife and daughter, every Friday. They had decided not to move the family to Southampton because his daughter was enrolled in a very good school in London. It took him 3 hours, a train, tube and bus to get "home".

These arrangements are apparently not out of the ordinary. City workers do this a lot, supposedly: going "home" to the leafy suburbs or countryside only at the weekends. This seems very strange to me. One of the biggest stresses when I commuted was that I felt that I just was never home, that I had to cram all my actual living into the weekends: it was work work work cram cram cram. If I didn't even have the few hours in the evening with The Limey and the cat, I don't know how much *more* stressed I may have been. Without your pets and family, what is the point, then? Plus, you know I'd try to knit at one place or another, and wouldn't have the correct needles size or whatever. I would just never feel like I was at home, then.

Also, having to catch a train was one of best ways to keep myself from just spending all my time at work. Coming from academia, it was easy for me to stay in lab far into the evening and think nothing of it. But because I, and everyone else, knew that I had that train ride home, it was easier for me to justify leaving at 6 sharp.

A while back, The Limey and I had discussed such an arrangement, but we pretty quickly decided it wouldn't work for us. Just as well, the Home Office take a dim view of such unconventional arrangements, I think. As I'm here as a spouse, it's just as well to prevent any uncertainty on their part.

::catches breath::

2009-05-05T13:05:00.002+01:00

Whew! The last couple of weeks have been crazy, and it looks set to continue. Two Saturdays ago, The Limey and I took a lightening quick trip up to Oxford to look at potential places to live. Using the method of driving around looking for "To let" signs, we found a lovely teeny terraced house, with a teeny yard, in an awesome neighbourhood. We're sending in the application paperwork today.

Then the day after that, two college friends of mine flew in. We hung around London for a couple of days, then I trained it up to Edinburgh with them (Why, yes, I did stop into k1 yarns!). Rented a car, drove around Glen Coe and the Trossachs, drank a few foofy cocktails, had a great time. I took the train back down to London on Sunday, while they went on to Wales. They day after that (yesterday!), my sister and her friends arrived for a visit. They will be here for a few days, and the day they leave, my friends get back from Wales. We'll hang around London, with maybe a day trip to Brighton, and as soon as they leave, it's time to pack up and move.

Somewhere in there, I have to fit in the knitting of a couple of adult-sized garments and, oh, yeah, writing a couple of patterns as well.

Swatch, swatch, swatch

2009-04-24T09:55:00.004+01:00

When I first started knitting, I just wanted to get going, like, RIGHT NOW!!! So would just cast on and knit. When I finally admitted that swatching was sometimes necessary, I grudgingly made these teeny, miserly little swatches and didn't bother to wash or block them, or sometimes even bind off and take them off the needles before measuring. This may explain why my first half-dozen sweaters ended up in the frog pond.

I've gotten to the point now where I really like swatching. And I don't swatch just for gauge. I swatch to see how I like working with a certain yarn. I swatch up different stitch patterns just to see how it'll work in such-and-such a colour, or such-and-such a fibre. I swatch because a lace catches my eye when I flip through my stitch dictionaries. I swatch because I see a picture or scene and think, Hmm, I wonder if that could be captured in a knitted way? Basically, I swatch now just to play, and I consider this a welcome milestone in my development as a knitter and designer.

I swatched a lot this last week, because Jen of Fyberspates sent me some gorgeous gorgeous yarns to play and design with.

The red is her superwash British merino dk, which I really enjoyed working with. Knits up beeyoootifully. The big middle swatch is her Scrumptious chunky, a wool/silk blend. I couldn't adequately capture the colour (a springy-mossy green) and sheen of this yarn, or the great nubbly-woven texture of the stitch here. Take my word for it, it's just lovely. The Limey, who is not normally a fan of green, was bewitched by this yarn. He grabbed it as soon as I opened the package and I had to pull it away from him to knit with it.

I've got grand plans for these yarns, so watch this space!

In which I am psychic

2009-04-08T19:16:00.003+01:00

(Or, how we finally escaped Woking!)

Remember last month, when I had a little whine about how I'd like my life to at least vaguely resemble an adult's? Remember that bit about what if our jobs changed or The Limey got offered something better?

Dudes, I am psychic!

The Limey has indeed been offered another position. (We will not mention the unfairness of him just being given jobs out of the blue when I've been busting my ass trying to find one.) When I got laid off from my job in Southampton, the plan was to find a job closer to his so that we could move into London and live somewhere less soul-sucking. I guess the FSM had other plans.

The Limey does quite like his current job, so it took a couple of weeks for him to weigh up the offer and counter-offers. One of the major minuses was that the new job is in notLondon. One of the pluses was that it isn't in Woking. In the end, what decided it was that the people at the new place took him out and got him drunk. (Yeah, that totally works- it's how I scored him!)

So, in six weeks or so, we'll be moving to Oxford.

We're quite happy about it. Oxford is its own city- it's not a suburb. And we really liked it when we visited last year. I distinctly remember walking through the Covered Market and thinking, "Why doesn't Woking have something like this? If we lived here, I could do my grocery shopping here." So I guess now I can! Also, there're tons of science jobs up there- lots of science parks and, of course, the university, so I can continue my job search on fairly fertile ground.

I've already asked Mooncalf about living in Oxford (I suspect she's being paid by the council, or at least their tourist board!) and she's given me quite a lot of advice. I can't wait to move up there. I've made The Limey promise we can rent a place with a garden.

Whoa! Knitting content!

2009-04-04T12:12:00.005+01:00

Everything in the household has gone crazy in the last few weeks. Changes are afoot, and I'll be able to tell you more when everything's decided. (No, it isn't me getting a job.)

Surprisingly, this has not meant that I'm doing more knitting. I'm kind of stalled on it. I've got a few swatches to do up and proposals to send off, but I'm not managing it at the moment. This means that, in the last month, really all I've done is a few bits and pieces that don't really add up to anything substantial. Still, it's something.

Remember the never-ending sleeve?

This is its sister! Yes, I finally managed to finish the first one, and am now halfway through the second. I have a weird love/hate relationship with this project. I hate the thought of sitting down with the charts and following the lace pattern. But once I've started, I keep saying to myself, Just one more row, just one more row...

At one point, to have something to knit in the car, I did start some socks for The Limey.

These are Kate's Hareton socks (Rav link), but done toe-up. I also have a surprise treatment for the cuff when I get to it.

Okay, now we're off to Kew to enjoy the day. Driving through Devon and Cornwall last weekend, I was happy to see that alot of the roadsides were planted with daffodils. Vast drifts of them. I'm excited to see what Kew looks like!

We survived

2009-03-30T19:50:00.009+01:00

Yes, there were scenes such as this:

But there were also scenes such as this:
...from a car park in Bigbury-on-sea. I thought it looked familiar. Why yes, I'd seen it before, in "Evil Under the Sun" from TV's Agatha Christie's Poirot!

Other scenes:

Grimspound, a Bronze Age settlement in Dartmoor, where we stayed in a camping barn that not only came with its own dog...

...but also its own sheep!

If only it hadn't been so cold! The whole point of a camping barn is that you don't have to put up a tent, but I'm afraid a tent would have been warmer.

We also got to climb around the rocks on Lizard Point and do a bit of tidepooling:

Have any of you read Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series? Most of it is set in Cornwall, and the kids spend a lot of their time in and out of caves. I now know why!

There's lots of caves along the beach, and I knew exactly how they felt, going into little holes on the beach and expecting to discover something exciting just in that bit that I can't quite see...

It was actually a really good weekend. Yes, it rained in bits, particularly when we had to set up or take down the tents, and we did get hailed on at one point, but there were a few spectacular hours when the sun came out and we got to see glorious landscapes. Plus, in Padstow, we ate, like, a whole, sea's worth of seafood.

We never did manage a cream tea, but that just means it's saved for next time!