Big Wool Forever 'Green' Tank

I wanted a quick knitting project to do, and this pattern by Sarah Hatton, which she called Forever Green. I obviously didn't use the green Rowan Big Wool, I used the Smoky colour instead (#07). This was a really great quick project to do, since the Big Wool is exactly that: a bulky wool knitted on 9 and 10mm needles. I love not having to do sleeves! This really only took two days to knit, but another two days to finish off the sewing up. I forgot to take a pic before I washed it. I really want to avoid handwashing (like most people I'm sure), so I just shoved it in the washing machine within a pillowcase on the delicates cycle. I think it shrunk a little, and has a slightly felted appearance, but it actually fits a bit better now! I'm really going to have to invest in a proper 'delicates' washing bag. I'm quite happy with it, am wearing it right now in fact. It's nice and cosy in the winter weather, and is great for fitting under winter coats.

Happy Hogmanay!

For those who don't know, Hogmanay is the Scottish term for the New Year's Eve. It's origins are probably back in the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Here in Scotland, a lot of tourists go to the famous Edinburgh Hogmanay, but for the second time during my time here, I went to the (almost) as famous Stonehaven Fireballs Festival. Also pagan in origin, there has been a recent revival in the ceremony, which involves residents of the town of Stonehaven swinging flaming poi. These poi are not the same as you would see in performances by the Maori. These things are massive, hung by chains and swung in a wide arc around the body. The crowd can get very close to the swinging fireballs, such that you can feel the singeing of your eyebrows. We saw one of the police officers in front of us get a small hole burnt in his uniform trousers from the flaming bits of debris!

Christmas Dinner.

I found myself still in Dundee over Christmas. Since Louise went down to her parents, it was quiet up here, but Barry and myself managed a lovely meaty Christmas dinner. A colleague of Barry's gave him a pheasant (to be found everywhere around here, although often as roadkill!). So for starters, Barry slathered the pheasant in butter and smoked streaky bacon (apparently this game can be quite dry, so you add lots of fat!), seasoned, and roasted in the oven. With it we had wholegrain mustard mashed potatoes (gorgeously creamy), and made a red wine gravy with the lovely sticky bits in the roasting tin. Barry also cooked the obligatory brussell sprouts, although I must admit that I didn't partake. Not a traditional xmas veg for me I'm afraid!

While this was happening, I prepared a half leg of lamb for roasting, making holes in the flesh and poking in slices of garlic and sprigs of fresh rosemary. After roasting, we made another gravy with the lamb bits from the tray. I also made roast carrots and red onions (in with the lamb) and goose-fat roasted potatoes... heaven! We were kind of stuffed by then, but after watching the Dr. Who christmas special (Kylie Minogue guest starring), we were ready for pud. I'm afraid it wasn't homemade christmas pudding, but it was very nice all the same (Tesco's Finest) and fresh egg custard to go with. After that, well, we didn't move from the couch, except to get another glass of good Scottish whisky.

WIP 1: Crocheted bolero

Well, I decided I needed a project for the plane trip back to Australia (I can't watch movies for 24 hours!). I thought it was very unlikely I would be able to sneak knitting needles onto the plane, but hopefully I'll be able to get a wooden crochet hook on board. So, I've chosen to do the Short 'N Sweet bolero from Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

What I really wanted was the recommended yarn in the same colour as the red bolero in the book, but I wasn't able to find the yarn, especially in the UK. I had difficulty finding it at all in fact. I was also worried it might not get here in time for me leaving.

However, whilst in Newburgh at Twist Fibre Craft Studio this weekend for our knitting group, I dug through the bargain bin (I love that thing!), I found some lovely Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora for £2 a ball. It's in a pale purple colour, which is not what I had intended, but is ok (Colour 15525). For £10 the lot, it's more than ok!

Initially, I did the tension swatch, which also allowed me to learn the pattern. All seemed good, so I started the medium size. However, by the time I got to the 6th row of the pattern, I realised that it was going to be waaaay, to big (I think I was crocheting a bit looser this time), so I restarted using the small size. All seems to be great now, and it's amazing how quick crocheting is! I've done one pattern repeat for the back, all in a couple of hours. I'm supposed to be saving this for the plane, so I've forced myself to stop now and start my other WIP (see next post!)

Baby blanket number two (also the last for a while!)

One of my oldest friends (we grew up together) and his wife have had a baby (Congrats Wayne and Vikki). I knew about this prior to the birth, but I was still rather late with the blanket. Oh, well, it's done now and should have just about reached it's new owner (Alice) in Oz by now.

This blanket is very similar to the previous baby blanket I made, except this time I did everything slightly differently.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino Aran - very bright colours from the bargain bin at Twist Fibre Craft

Pattern: Based on the Sudoku blanket, this time using the full size squares in the pattern (although they ended up being 16cm rather than 20cm), and some of the pattern squares from the Sudoku pattern, but I got bored with them (after all, I had done it all once before!). Instead, I used a book Louise had bought: Knitting Stitches by Mary Webb. I picked a few nice patterns from there that looked like they would fit with size etc. In the end, I did 20 squares (4X5), with two colours and 10 different stitch patterns.

I didn't have much yarn left over and I was a bit worried, but it turned out there was enough of the orange (funnily enough, there wasn't any yellow!) left to do a row of chain stitch around the edge, followed by double crochet. It looks a bit bumpy in the pic because I couldn't be bothered blocking it before crushing it in a post bag!

Scarf knitting: one of many

It's actually been ages since I made this scarf, nearly a year in fact, but finally I've decided to put all my knitting projects on the blog. I made it for Alberto's mum for Christmas ('06).This scarf I made with a yarn I bought in Australia. At the moment I can't remember what on earth it was, but it's fairly similar to Louisa Harding Kimono Angora Pure, maybe a bit heavier. I will try and find out. Anyway, the pattern was one that Louise had done for her mum and she described it too me over skype while I was home. The pattern was 'Ladder Wrap' from Twist Fibre Craft Studio and is a simple drop stitch pattern and done on large (15mm?) needles.

Cast on 30 stitches (for scarf size, not wrap!)
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Cast on 5 sts, bind off the 5 sts (to create a 'bobble'),
knit to end of row
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: YO X3 for each stitch in the row
Row 5: CO 5sts, BO 5sts, knit into 1st loop of each stitch and
let the other 2 drop
Row 6: CO 5sts, BO 5sts, knit to end of row
Row 7: Knit
Repeat Rows 4-7 until scarf/wrap is as long as you want it.
Cast off.
In progress:

I only have one pic of the finished product, with Alberto's mum wearing it on a trip to Yosemite National Park, California.

My first baby blanket (the blanket, not the baby!)

This blanket is one I made for my friend Nikki's first baby. I bought some lovely yarn from the wonderful Twist Fibre Craft. The yarn was Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in, and the pattern was adapted from the Sudoku blanket pattern from the Essential Home supplement in Simply Knitting (April '07 issue). I liked the colours in this range, and ended up with 7 different colours. Because it was supposed to be a baby blanket, and the Sudoku blanket pattern was intended for a double bed and was enormous, I decided to halve the size of the squares. As this was my first big knitting project, unfortunately I didn't immediately realise that the different stitch patterns that make up the nine different squares of the blanket require different numbers of stitches cast on. That, coupled with having to get the pattern repeats right, made it quite difficult to just halve the square size. But, by a bit of trial and error, I managed (sort of). By the time I blocked the squares, they were more or less the same size.

The sharp eyes may have realised that there is a difference in then placing of the squares between the first and the second pics above. This was because I spent ages creating an illusion of randomness, then 'the boys' (Barry, Andy, Abdallah etc.) managed to mix it all up. The girls at Borders knitting group will remember my agonies at trying to make it all 'random' again. With 9 different patterns and 7 colours, it was not easy to not have two colours or two similar patterns together!
There was a bit of a disaster early on when I managed to lose the pattern book when I took my knitting to Crieff Hydro hotel for a work symposium, but luckily, the lovely ladies at our Borders bookshop knitting group also bought the mag and copied the pattern for me.
The blanket was finished off with a row of double crochet and shells (after starting over about five times because it was too ruffly). Latest report is that baby Alex likes it!