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Christmas is coming

... and I'm getting fat(ter). Above are two little socks that I have made for a Secret Santa present swap at work. I'll make another one and put some little goodies in them. The flat green and red thing behind isn't specifically for Christmas, though I think I might try to finish it by then. It's a college-style scarf for my husband knitted in his old prep school (i.e. school he attended aged 7-13) colours. It was requested a very long time ago and then the hunt for yarn was on. I couldn't find anything suitable (it had to be the right colours, wool, soft, 4-ply) until I went to San Francisco in April 2006 and found this Dale Babyull in Imagiknits. It's lovely soft wool, as it should be for a baby (not that T is a baby, of course). Then Nic showed me how to cast on the bottom so that it is closed and how to do magic loop. Unfortunately I didn't get on very well with that method - I found the knitting stretched out when I pulled out the loop of cable - and I transferred to 2 circulars. I'm not mad about this method either, but the alternatives - a very short cable needle or 4 dpns - would I think be worse. So, I have yards and yards of knitting in the round ahead of me, with just stripes to make it interesting, but the yarn is very nice and it will be good to fulfil this promise at last.

Other news: the second smooshy sock is nearly finished (I'm decreasing on the second toe); the fair isle is still on the back burner; I undid the arch pattern on my triangle shawl because it looked awful; I'm looking around for a nice pattern to knit up my Knitwitches silk laceweight. Any ideas?

Here's an idea of the scale of the little socks:

Shetland jumper weight yarn, 2.25 mm needles, 32 stitches. The stripey one is done like a stashbuster spiral; the other one is just a little 2x2 check pattern.

Another day

Well, I've really blown the NaBloPoMo now. Yesterday I just didn't feel like posting, so I didn't - so there! I was on a training course all day and in the evening I wanted to knit and watch Ugly Betty, so that's what I did.

The triangle shawl is actually growing now, after a couple of days of two steps forwards and three back. I don't know what it will eventually look like, which is quite fun.

This morning a book arrived in the post: Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch. It's out of print and can fetch crazy prices, but I was lucky enough to find a brand new copy on Amazon marketplace for a reasonable price and through a UK seller. I still kick myself for not buying it when it was in print, however.

The patterns have a lot in common with Scandinavian and Baltic patterns, obviously, but there is enough difference to be interesting. The author researched the patterns of the Komi people, who live in Russia but speak a language more closely related to Finnish or Hungarian. I'm going to have fun reading this properly and experimenting with the patterns.

Day 22

The penny dropped on my way to work this morning. I was struggling last night to incorporate new pattern repeats in my triangle shawl. I charted it, counted it, but still ended up increasing too many stitches each row. This morning I realised that I had simply made a mistake on the chart! Dur!

My colleague asked me for this recipe, so I pass it on to anyone else who may be interested.

Jambalaya

Ingredients

Onion
Celery
Green/red pepper
Olive oil
Garlic
Fresh chicken (breast or thigh fillets)
Cajun spice mix
Long grain or basmati rice
Tinned tomatoes
Stock (optional)
Some or all of the following:

Fresh meaty sausages
Chorizo (this will make the jambalaya more spicy)
Cooked ham

Salt and pepper
Fresh chopped parsley

Method

Chop onion, celery and peppers evenly. These three together are called the ‘trinity’. Put some olive oil in a large casserole or pan and cook gently on the stove until softened. Chop the garlic finely (or crush) and add. Turn off heat under pan.

Cook the sausages if you’re using them and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Cut the chicken into 1-inch chunks. Put about 2 teaspoons (or more, to taste) Cajun seasoning and some oil in a bowl or plate. Add the chicken and mix until chicken is well covered. Fry chicken gently in non-stick frying pan (no need to add more oil).

Add sausages and chicken to the vegetables. Add chorizo and/or ham (chopped fairly small).

Add tomatoes and mix well. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes or longer until it seems well amalgamated but not too dry.

Cook the rice using your normal method and add to pan. Mix well, adding a little stock or water if you think it’s too dry (this is a matter of taste). Heat through thoroughly.

Add salt and pepper to taste and finally sprinkle on the parsley (generously).

I think it’s impossible to make a small amount of this dish, but the leftovers are delicious too!

Day 21

The morning has flown past. I decided to change lace patterns on my triangle shawl (following Evelyn Clark's excellent scheme). I started with the Rose lace from her book, but didn't quite fancy any of the other three patterns. I found a 10-stitch repeat pattern called Arch lace in my old Mon Tricot stitch dictionary and then had to work out a way of going from Rose to Arch. Clark gives 'transition' charts to help you blend one pattern into another and fortunately, after a lot of scribbling, I managed to make one of these work. In the picture you can see where some solid diamonds are starting.

I should really have been cleaning the house. Oh well, there's always another time!

Day 20

A story for you today. It was among the papers from my parents' house that I had to go through last week. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. My father was a doctor and spent most of his career in the army (Royal Army Medical Corps). I think the rest of the tale is best left in his own words.

As a schoolboy in the early forties I had little enough to boast about, but I was a fairly accomplished poacher, and could run a quarter of a mile quite quickly. All the young gamekeepers were away at the war and the arthritic headkeepers stood no chance of catching me (although their dogs could be bothersome).

Time passed; I qualified, and chose a career in the RAMC rather than joining my father and mother in their semi-rural practice. Nevertheless when spending leave with them I usually helped by doing a few rural visits; they were very keen on visiting, knowing how difficult it was for old people to get to the surgery even from the next village. One morning, father asked me to see my old adversary, headkeeper Joe; recently he had had a bout of vomiting and diarrhoea which had responded to symptomatic treatment, but had now recurred.

On entering Joe’s bedroom I did not like what I saw; he had vomited into the chamber-pot; he was dehydrated, had lost flesh and was an unwholesome sallow colour. This was his third or fourth attack in as many weeks. He complained too of pins and needles in his hands and feet. On hearing this I gave praise to Dr Roche Lynch for his lectures a decade ago, bottled some vomit, and left, promising to return in the afternoon.

Back at the surgery I sought advice (we had the reagents needed for a Marsh’s test). My father’s response was typically instant and forthright. ‘We get in my car and we go back to Joe’s, right now.’ Mrs Joe was a bit surprised to see us so soon, but straight upstairs we went, where father examined Joe and confirmed my findings.

We went down to the kitchen and sat at the table confronting Mrs Joe; she was a flinty woman, a good ten years younger than her husband. Father said, ‘My son and I have discussed Joe’s illness and we’re not at all happy. This isn’t an ordinary illness and we’re sure that something has been getting into his food. We’ve taken samples and I am going to seal them and keep them in the surgery. If he doesn’t start to get better very soon I shall have to send them away to be analysed.’

She acknowledged this briefly, but said no more.

Joe recovered quickly and completely. He worked for another 18 years and eventually died from a metastatic carcinoma. During his long terminal illness his wife nursed him devotedly.

No Marsh’s test was ever done.

Marsh's test is the test for arsenic. What was it Sherlock Holmes said about crime in the countryside?

day 19

The benefits of being at home today - some yarn arrived (Kauni effektgarn):

I already have a skein of greens/yellows and I was thinking of doing a scarf in an all-over pattern using them both, perhaps a Latvian pattern or one from Anna Zilboorg's sock book.

I have finished the Forest Canopy Shawl and here it is in its unblocked state. It won't get blocked very soon because there's no space anywhere to spread it out.

I had to juggle with the edging in order to have enough yarn to cast off. I had to rip back and then leave out the last row before the two-row cast off. I don't think it shows.

Here's a peak preview of the next shawl on the needles:

The pattern is from Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles, which is little book containing four lace patterns plus an edging that you can mix and match to design your own triangular shawls. I tried the ripple stitch but kept getting hopelessly lost. This is the flower pattern - a lot easier. The yarn is some lovely soft lambswool that I bought from Patricia Roberts's shop. The yarn is two-ply and had been skeined up three-stranded. I decided to separate the strands - a decision I regretted before the end, as did the two unwilling helpers I had to enlist as an emergency! But now I'm glad I did that because this is nearly as soft as the cashmere with just a hint more crispness and I think it will block really well.

I'm still having a break from the Blue Bowl fair isle, but I had better return to it before it becomes a ufo!

missing in action

Well, our computer monitor failed, I had to do lots of work, and the sale of my mother's house was finally completed so lots of time had to be spent sorting, emptying and cleaning. All done now, thank goodness! As a result I wasn't able to blog all week and I've totally blown my NaBloPoMo record. Never mind, real life has a habit of intervening in such things!

I have been knitting and in fact I have an FO, but no photo because it has been so dull today. I started a Forest Canopy Shawl last Saturday and finished it on Friday evening. It was a great knit, and in fact I enjoyed it so much I immediately cast on for another triangle shawl, but not the same one - more details soon.

I haven't even read any blogs all week, so now I'm going to go and catch up with everyone's progress.

Day 11

The CCFs (Combined Cadet Forces) of my sons' school and another school led the Remembrance Sunday service at the college chapel this morning. The cadets were lined up well before the service began. As things go under way (and even before) no fewer than 14 - FOURTEEN! - of the other school's cadets fainted or nearly fainted. We were standing on a rise in front of a bench and by the time the service ended there was a sort of creche of wounded cadets behind us. Surely they should be able to stand for an hour or so? Are teenagers (and girls - most of the fainters were girls) more likely to faint than adults? I know soldiers do faint on parade but usually only after several hours in the sun. It was a comic strand in an otherwise solemn occasion.

I have had to be strict with myself to keep on with Blue Bowl. I know what's happening - there's some uncertainty in my mind about how long to make the body of the thing and also what sort of armholes to make because I've decided to make a cardigan rather than a waistcoat. When I feel uncertain about projects I tend to shelve them. Still, I have made some progress today.

This has been a distraction, too.

At the stitch 'n bitch day yesterday I cast on a Forest Canopy Shawl in some luscious Jade Sapphire cashmere. I bought the yarn in Chicago in the spring and it hasn't been far from my thoughts since then. It is such a pleasure to knit and the pattern is easy and fun to do. I know lots of people who have made this shawl and some of them even go on to make several.

Day 10

A great day out today at the Stitch 'n Bitch day organised by I Knit London. There were lots of stalls selling interesting and luxurious yarns. I really think the UK is bursting with interesting small producers now - no need to look so longingly across the Atlantic any more! I bought some lovely Blue-faced Leicester sock yarn from Oxford Kitchen Yarns, hand dyed with natural dyes. This is a new business. Also new to me was a firm raising beautiful cashmere goats in Devon. Their yarn was lovely but I didn't buy any this time.

I missed photogaphing the men's catwalk show (modelling garments from Debby Stoller's new book, Son of Stitch 'n Bitch), but it was quite a sight to behold. The garments looked very good on the (rather) motley collection of men and I was tempted to buy the book but didn't quite get round to it in the end. I hope some other bloggers will have caught the line-up on camera.

It was wonderful to have chats with lots of knitters I knew already and to meet new ones. A knitting group from the Netherlands was there and they had brought examples of their stunning knitting. I was particularly taken with some mittens (what a surprise!) - see at the top of the post. They are done in two-end knitting and one of the Dutch knitters kindly showed me how it is done. Apart from being a bit tangly, I think it is straightforward. Her advice is that there is no need to use the special yarn as long as the yarn you use is not too tightly twisted.

There was 40s music from 78s played on wind-up gramophones, a comic duo act Girl and Dean, workshops and book signings. But above all there was masses of knitting - being worn, being displayed, or in progress - and there were many, many knitters.

Day 9 and a variety of yarns

Bliss - a day at home. I'm having a quiet morning, then lunch with a friend and then I'm going to nip to I Knit London to buy a ticket for the Stitch n Bitch day tomorrow.

Here is progress on Blue Bowl. At some point I must try to find the pattern so that I can put in the armholes. Otherwise I'll just keep knitting a tube until the wool runs out, it's so enjoyable.

Here is some baby yarn (Jaeger Faerie spun) I found in my mother's house the other day. It's 175g of 2-ply in a lovely pale pink and I really don't think cashmere could be softer - for once the twee name is fitting and descriptive!

A friend went to Corsica at half term and brought me back this handspun wool:

It's a bit rustic but has a lovely woolly quality to it. There is a website.

The other week Stash had a yarn tasting for Knitwitches yarns and I bought two skeins of luscious lace-weight silk (Chocolate Rose and Evergreen, on the left) and some sock yarn (75% Blue-faced Leicester, 25% nylon). Can't wait to start on the sock yarn. The silk needs me to do some research and planning because I've never knitted with silk.