Planning Our Next Trip

Spring break is coming soon and we're planning a trip to the Greek island of Corfu, and can't wait to hang out on the beach, read and knit.

I watched The Durrells television series last year, and really fell in love with the story. Started reading Gerald Durrell's The Corfu Trilogy on which I believe the series was based. Can't wait to see the island and some of the places mentioned, although I'm sure much as changed.

Already started doing research on knitting shops on the island. I don't picture Greece as a bastion of knitting (although I think I might be wrong on that count). In my limited research, seems that knitting materials and yarns may be found in ladies underwear shops. Some people say that there are some really nice things and at cheaper prices than can be found in the UK. I'm not really going to be in the market for anything, but love to poke around and see what's available. Will keep everyone posted on what I find.

Spring Has Sprung!

A wonderful weekend in London. Love knitting in the sun, and this weather is a welcome change. Loving the sun, the flowers, and the warmth.

If you've never traveled to London, spring is a beautiful time to do it. The weather is never predictable, but when spring is good, it is the best place to be.

Still loving the scarf I'm knitting. Can't say that I'm moving very quickly on it, but the pattern is super easy and looks great. Sort of thinking it might be fun to find a pretty cotton in three bright colors for spring and summer wearing. Will take a look at my stash to see what I already have.

Rowan Subscription Gift

I'm going to finally do it! I'm going to start and finish the knitting of my Rowan subscription gift this year. I have started in the past, but never finished. Last year's is still in the box.

This year's is now on the needles and I'm liking it. Would never have chosen these colors or put them together, but that's what's sort of nice with these patterns... makes me try something new and different.

I'm always shocked on Ravelry how few people knit the Rowan patterns. Not sure if people don't like them or if Ravelry is very US-centric and people aren't Rowan members there. Some of my favorite sweaters have been from the Rowan magazines I get twice a year in the mail through my subscription; Fancy, Moustiers, Hope, and Finna have all been great sweater patterns.

Auction Over... And Out!

Remind me not to knit for the school's auction again. For the hours of time I put in, the items never raise as much as I would like. My knitting class did okay and I heard a group of women are very excited about it. They're all super nice so it should be fun. But the knitting... just not worth it. At least this time I didn't spend a fortune on yarn.

I know it's for "charity," but I do have other charities I can knit for that may make me feel better about helping people than this does.

Lesson learned.

Auction Knitting Complete

Really wanted to get the auction knitting done and off my plate, so spent an entire weekend in my jammies finishing up the project. I know it seems incredible that I couldn't do it in less time, but to be honest, the fingerless gloves were the hold up. BTW, thanks to Liz from the Advancement office who modeled the set for me.

Other than stitching in the ends, the scarf was completed during our February break. Blue Strips

 by Andrea Halasi is a beautiful pattern, but black didn't show off the lacework of the pattern. If I were to knit it again, I'd definitely use something lighter.

Also loved the cable knit hat pattern I chose by Anne-Mari Kokkonen (free pattern on Ravelry). I was working on the same needles as I did for the scarf, so I needed to CO more stitches than the pattern asked for. Started with 100 for the ribbing and then adjusted that number to work with the cabling. Worried the entire time that it wouldn't be big enough, but the cable was very stretchy, which worked well as I was trying to knit a hat to fit all sizes of head. The pompom is just tied on the hat so it could be removed if necessary. Ordered a "fur" (and I use that term very loosely) pompom in orange that I thought might be cute, but it was the more horrendous thing I've ever seen. Tacky, cheap, and not fur-like in any way. Put two plastic googly eyes on it from your crafts drawer and you'd have a Tribble.

The fingerless gloves were really what took me two days to complete. I wanted to use the  pattern I'd used in the past as I really like the look, especially of the palm. Although the pattern on the back of the hand is beautiful, I knew that I really needed to continue with the simple cable pattern from the sides of the scarf and throughout the hat. Problem was, the yarn was smaller, the needles were smaller and the counting was, of course, different. Started with two cables on the back of the hand and made it past the gusset and up quite a ways before I realized it just wasn't working. Frogged and started again, this time with three cables. Much better, but had a little problem with my counting and had to frog down to the ribbing and start over again. The third draft of the pattern worked and although there were a few more hiccups, the glove finally looked okay in the end. Finished the second glove on Sunday, and of course, it went much more smoothly. They look a little rough in the photo, but on the hand, they are quite nice. Now I'm just hoping that someone, anyone, will bid on the set.

There's another Knitting and Stitching Show in London tomorrow. Just got an email that they've discounted the Sunday tickets to half price. May have to look into it, but as we all know, I can't ever go to one of those without coming back with something I don't really need. 

I'm Having the "I Hate the Color Combo" Blues

I'm currently knitting a scarf, hat and fingerless glove set for our school's auction. Love the pattern, but semi-embarrassed to knit this in public as I absolutely hate the school's colors. . . so Halloween. The pattern (Blue Strips by Andrea Halasi) is really beautiful, but I've done away with many of the stripes as I just don't like the orange and black combo. I'm thinking the hat and gloves will be solid black and not include the orange accents that I'd originally planned. The auction organizers talked me into school colors, but it's just not doing it for me.

One Down, Many More to Go

Finished the Sailor's Rib Fingerless Gloves by Gretchen Tracy last night. Have not blocked them, which might improve the look. Can't say I've done my best work, but I think they will do.

Started other pair, but this time using Yarnspiration's Caron Fingerless Glove pattern. I realized once I started that the pattern was for single pointed needles, but I had already cast onto double pointed, so I scrambled to see if anyone had already reworked the pattern. Luckily, I found arbettes'  rewrite for circular needles on Ravelry. Seems to be working quite well.

Again using some older yarn that I got several years ago at the London Knit and Stitch Show. I had enough at one time for a sweater, but there always seemed to be a project to knit using a ball here and a ball there until I now don't have enough left for anything substantial. Probably should just get rid of these through trade to someone who needs a few extra balls. Off to get more done.

Sometimes You've Gotta Improvise

Rushed out of the house on Saturday morning to catch a train to Sheffield for my daughter's swim meet. Thought I had everything packed to knit a scarf for the school's auction. Hadn't really read the pattern properly so didn't even noticed the small cables up the sides. So with no cable needle on my person, but not wanting to waste a solid two hours of knitting, I improvised. Can't say a plastic fork was the best option, but it was the only one I could find. Knitted for probably ten hours on that thing, but nice to get home to a real cable needle.