Doodles in air…

I’ve been holding out on you.  Well, sort of.  A little bit, perhaps.

When I was planning to weave my latests scarf (warp shown here; I really must do a post about the finished scarf sometime…) I orignally intended to use Bunnylace as the weft.  So soft!  So fluffy!  So warm!!

So I dyed some this soft latte colour – only it looked dreadful with the warp.  It was too light, and had too much of a greying effect on the whole thing.  So I pulled it out, and found a different weft.  Since then, I’ve been doodling with the failed weft yarn – after all, it’s already wound into a ball.  So easy to pick up a pair of needles and play…

I think I’m finally getting something I like from my doodles.  The overriding theme so far has been ‘feathers’; the colour of the yarn reminds me of the collared doves who are currently raising two chicks in the nest they have built behind our satellite dish…

I’m maybe a quarter of the way through the design I have roughly sketched out in my head – and already the shawl is too big to pin out on the needles for a proper view.  This is where things start to make me nervous.  What if it won’t block out properly when I’m done?  What if the motifs don’t flow into each other as they should?!

Well…  How wrong could it go?  At any rate, this yarn is lovely to knit with; soft as feathers and light as air.

Wolfram unveiled

The weather was not too cooperative over the weekend, but J and I did manage to get a few photographs taken.  I had quite the line-up of knits needing their camera time, but in the end only Wolfram got a chance to shine.

Given that the weather was windy and quite chilly – when it wasn’t actually raining, too! – this was the ideal accessory choice.  Two layers of wool and silk, wound around your neck and chest, turn out to be remarkably cozy.  In fact, I’ve worn it pretty much every day since I finished seaming it up – inside the house as well as out.

We tried taking some shots of the cowl worn ‘long’, like a circular scarf, but it looked odd and (if I’m being honest) felt a bit pointless.  All that lovely warm fabric just hanging loose in a loop down to my waist, and completely missing the upper part of my chest?! I know I’ve seen cowls worn like this, but I don’t think it’s for me.  See?

But when I was looping it back up again, J suddenly had a Genium Moment and told me to, “Stop!  Leave it where it is!”.

What, like this??  If you say so!

OK!  It turns out that the cowl is exactly the right length to go once round my neck and once round my head, and it stays put, even on my very slippery hair.  I honestly never envisaged wearing it like this, but I definitely would do so.  It’s not as warm as a full hat or hood – after all, the back of your head isn’t covered – but it’s a lot toastier than no hat at all.  My photographer is great…  ♥

(I might have to find a new hair stylist, though…)

Sock in progress

I mentioned that I’ve been working on a new sock, in Footsie-HT:

It ran into a problem: I got as far as the ankle, and discovered it was just too tight for me to pull on over my heel.  Bugger!

So, I restarted, and am now down to the ankle again.  Sneak peek?  OK!

I’m really enjoying the textural nature of this stitch pattern, so I’m planning to use a heel-flap construction, and continue the pattern down onto it.

In other news, I’m heading off to Cottenham tomorrow morning to trade at the Cottenham Village College Summer School – the same venue as Textiles In Focus.  The car is already packed – well, kinda – and it should be a great day out.  A fantastic way to kick off the weekend!

Escape Velocity

I have totally lost my Monogamous Knitter status.  Recently, some of the design ideas that constantly orbit my brain have been making their way onto the needles.  And it turns out that you can’t just have one on the go; when one hits a roadblock, you need to be working on another whilst your brain figures a way around the first.

all scrunched up

Recently, one of the orbiting designs has achieved escape velocity. For the first time in ages, I am knitting like a fiend, itching to see how this turns out.  And you’ll have to wait, too!  With any luck, it will be finished in time for me to show it off at Knit Nation, in the middle of July.  Yeah – sure it will!  I might have another one done by then!

I *can* tell you that the yarn is ‘Magrat’, the first installation of the Shameless Twist ‘Twisted Disc’ yarn club. I’ve joined fibre clubs in the past, but it’s taken a Discworld-themed club (sanctioned by Sir Terry himself), to make me sign up for a yarn one.  I’m thinking it was worth the wait; this stuff is lovely, and I’m having a blast knitting with it!