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Twisty

I had to have a couple of go's at joining up the neck at the front, but now it's going well.

Meanwhile I've been indulging in another kind of twisting stitches: twined knitting or Tvåändsstickning (Swedish) or tvebandsstrikking (Norwegian). I think both those terms mean 'two-end knitting'. That's what you do: take the two ends of the ball of wool and knit with each end alternately, twisting between each stitch. You can also use two different colours, as I am doing. It sounds really laborious, but actually when you're shown how to do it right (as I was, at the IKnit weekender by the lovely Dutch Knitters) it's not so bad - hardly any slower than any other two-colour knitting. Your wool does get twisted up, though and you have to spend time untwisting (again, there's a technique for that). It would be less twisty with the real z-plied wool, but I'm using some lovely Gotland that I bought from Blacker at the weekend. I could spin my own z-ply, I suppose!

 

Katie

Katie has lived with us for ten years. I suppose she hasn't really featured much in the blog and I think it's because she usually runs away when I switch on the camera. The photo in my last post shows, however, that once she's on that cushion nothing is going to shift her!

Katie came to us from next-door-but-one as a kitten and she's been a most friendly and playful cat ever since. She's not blessed with the strongest of stomachs (cat owners know what I mean) but she does have some endearing habits. When Thomas picks her up she puts one paw on his chin (she doesn't do it with me). When I go to the loo downstairs she plays a sort of pat-a-cake underneath the door - she sticks her paw through the gap and waits for me to touch it; I have to get there before she moves away. This is all done with velvet paws.

Now I know you're interested you won't be able to escape the cat lurve.

My new colleague

She keeps me company and tells me all about the little birds outside.   She supports all my decisions and doesn't give me silly jobs to do. I don't have to make her cups of coffee and I can have the room at a temperature that suits me. What a brilliant colleague! The trouble is, I can't always read her mind. Don't you think she's trying to send brain waves in my direction? What does it all mean?

What a lovely day

I've just been up to the allotment and have picked this:

plus some potatoes. Here we have courgettes (rather large), patty pan squash, borlotti beans (semi-dried), french beans, tomatoes, lettuce and blackberries. The lettuce is quite interesting. I bought the seeds last year in Vilnius market (Lithuania). I have to say, however, that the lettuces are a little disappointing - not nearly as crisp as I'd hoped.

I have started work on my first job at home, a book on higher education management, which actually isn't as dull as it sounds. I had most of August off and was able to think about which way I'd like to go. When I was still in my job I was rather bored and was getting far more satisfaction out of knitting, spinning and dyeing than I was out of work and so I thought I might change direction completely and try to find work of some kind in that field. It was when I thought I would sell some hand-dyed wool on Etsy that I realised that I'm actually not cut out for it. The whole business of marketing oneself and one's wares is such hard work and, frankly, not my cup of tea at all. I think I'll stick to working at what I know best - editing, mainly academic books but with a willingness to tackle other types of text as they come my way.

Today is the sort of day when it's great to be freelance. I can take advantage of the sun and put in a few hours' work absolutely to suit myself.

Progress on the aran is going well, by the way. I'm nearly back to where I was before I ripped back. I'm definitely getting quicker and, I think, just a little more even.

'You don't know where it's been!'

I have mixed feelings about buying withdrawn library books. They're often a bit sticky when you pick them up. Who might have handled them? What else might they have handled? Yuck. So I try not to think about it when I'm buying up very out of print detective novels (thrillers!). After a while they become my books only, and I don't mind their pedigree. In fact it can be fascinating in its own right.

A favourite author of mine is Anthony Gilbert (who she?). I have quite a few of the Mr Crook novels - all bought second-hand.

Death takes a Wife is a very typical AG title (as often as possible, insert 'death' or 'kill'). The fascinating thing about this book is its provenance, however. This book has had some adventures!

 

Out for the Kill had a quieter life, maybe. The Branch Librarian sounds very strict...

 

Footsteps behind Me only came from Wolverhampton, but the Spring Vale Branch Library sounds a nice place.

 

I got to here with the aran:

  and then had to go back to here:

  because I'd forgotten to include the side panel stitches!

aran set-up

I made quite good progress with the aran over the weekend. I don't do too much at one sitting because the cables are quite tough. I like arans knitted quite tightly and it does mean a bit of a tussle with some of the more convoluted crossovers.

The back from the neck down:

Centre panel:

Side panel:

It wasn't until I looked at the photo that I noticed I'd twiddled the travelling stitch zigzags the wrong way. Fortunately I only needed to go one row back to make it right.