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Nine hours

Since Friday I have done nine hours of digging on the allotment. The downpour yesterday made such a difference to the soil; after the wind had dried it off we went up there and did a marathon session digging and planting. It really looks like an allotment now. I'll take some pictures soon.

Some knitting has been getting done, in a slow but sure sort of way. When I got back from Chicago I couldn't focus on Kerry Blue (literally, first from cross-eyed tiredness and jetllag and then from a stinking cold), but I have done a little more recently. I am definitely over halfway there!

From centre to corner along the 'rib' measures 13" unstretched. I think my shawl will be smaller than the one in the book because I have used quite thin needles.

I have finished the back and both sleeves of my 'Perfect Sweater'

and I don't mind at all that this is making slow progress, because it is making progress. I'm not experiencing those feelings of misgiving that herald the abandonment of a ufo.

I seem to be doing socks more than anything else at the moment. First I finished the pink variegated trekking socks using yarn that Dawn sent me:

Plain, cuff down with an eclectic heel and flat toe. I think I started them in March, and as I knitted the last stitch at Liberty's on 26 April, that's pretty good progress for me. On 26 April I cast on for another pair of Trekking socks, using yarn that had been in my stash for a couple of years. I must say that I'm a bit disappointed at the way the colours are turning out, but for some reason I'm knitting them up really quickly.

These are also cuff-down, but I did a standard heel flap with a garter stitch border, which I like a lot.

Finally, a pair of socks which I started months and months ago - In December 2006. I'm knitting Nancy Bush's pattern 'Conwy' with Cherry Tree Hill yarn in the Water colourway. I had to adapt the pattern a bit to allow for my wide ankle and foot. For some reason I got fed up with the stitch pattern and cast them aside, but now I'm really enjoying the knitting (by the way the foot isn't as huge as this picutre makes out!). I think this Cherry Tree Hill yarn is fantastic. It feels lovely, makes a firm fabric and the colours are so well blended.

More Kerry Blue

It has been a very busy week, with extra hours at work and end-of-term-itis at home. Both boys (and man) break up at midday today. Then G goes off on cadet camp for the weekend. I'll be surprised if he's still standing at the end because he has been burning the candle at both ends to finish AS coursework.

So, there hasn't been much progress on Kerry Blue. Do you remember that I wanted to know when I am halfway? I got as far as realising I am halfway when the area of the completed knitting is half the area of the finished shawl. I couldn't get any further until Dawn helped me out. (You know how it is when you think you're doing one sort of sum, e.g. adding, and a mathematician says, 'what you're really doing is subtracting' – or dividing or something else not obvious to you.) So, what follows is thanks to Dawn, but I might have messed it up.

Area of finished shawl = x²

Area of centre square = y²

y² = x²

       2

I need to go from area to measurement, which means finding the square root of 0.5 – it’s 0.707 (don’t ask me how that can be bigger, but it is).

√ 0.5 = 0.707

So the sides of y (the centre square) should measure 0.707 when x (whole shawl) is 1.

Although I don't know the final measurements I do know that eventual stitch count. On the final row the stitch count of one side is 696 (horrors – multiply that by 4 for the whole round!).

So, 694 x 0.707 = 492

The row on which 492 is the stitch count of one side is Round 119!

I’m on round 101 …

Rocking along

I'm enjoying knitting the Kerry Blue shawl, in a ladylike Jane Austen-y kind of way. I'm committed to it, but it's not thrilling. I have set my family (at least one of whom is quite good at maths) the problem of calculating what row I'll be on when I've knitting half the area of the square. It's now looking like a bag:

The pattern I'm doing at the moment is Van Dyke and rib, which I think would make an attractive cardigan:

All very calm and tasteful - something had to give! Last night I cast on (toe up! because I want to use as much of the yarn as possible) some socks using one of my recent Socks that Rock purchases: the lemongrass colourway in mediumweight.

I'm using 2.5 mm needles and have cast on 56 stitches. The wool does feel lovely and they're knitting up very fast.

I have also made good progress on the Trekking socks. Dawn gave me this vibrant pink variegated yarn as part of a prize for guessing what time she was born.  The rather peculiar object on the right is my foot. It shows the colour better.

Nearly there

I cast off the last stitch on Sunday night and sewed down the hems (during Battlestar Galactica). Yesterday I went on a button-hunting expedition and found some nice ones at the Button Queen in Marylebone Lane. They are made of shell and lacquered, so they have some natural variation in colour and texture, which suits this project. I haven't sewn them on yet because I forgot to buy some thread! Anyway, here's where we are now:
 

Still some ends to darn in, I see! Here's a close up of the buttons:

Now, what next? Perhaps a complete change of pace and idea? Well, I've already started something - a shawl for my mother, who is due to return home after three months in hospital and rehabilitation quite soon.

Katie doesn't approve

but I'm enjoying it a lot. I've just transferred it from dpn's to a circular needle that is a bit long, so when I am knitting I pull out a sort of magic loop. I hope it'll soon fit round without that because it's a bit of a pain. The yarn is 20% silk and 80% lambswool, a partial cone that I bought last summer at Get Knitted. It's very soft, with some tweedy texture. The pattern is Kerry Blue from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman.