Now where is that degree in engineering...?

I think I'll need it; because I have to make this on the right, look something like this - below - with or without the sweater. Well actually I started to assemble my woolly board a.k.a sweater blocker a few weeks ago and found that I was missing 3 wooden knobs - now even an engineer would have difficulty with that.

How does the old adage go..? "For want of a knob the sweater was lost.." hmmm doesn't sound quite right. I know the original is - "for want of a nail the horse was lost" - the glory always seems to go to the bigger more important (maybe male) things. Rarely are the labours of women immortalised, even when we seem to be able to make something from nothing - stretching dollars, time, food, housing, sweaters - you name it - let's hear it for stretch marks!!!

OOPs - back to the knobs. I e-mailed Lacis and they quickly responded, sending me the missing pieces in about a week or so. I then spent several hours on the floor puzzling out the frame - not sure it's exactly right yet - but here it is! - even if it looks a little like something from the Spanish Inquisition!

and here is Gifford - martyred upon woolly board.

Actually I really enjoyed knitting Gifford - I hope he isn't in pain. He is knit in Fiddlesticks Knitting's organic cotton, using a stitch pattern from one of Barbara Walker's books. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted something that looked like the beams of an old pub and I think that this comes pretty close to that. It is a gainsey with extended panels and I did take a very liberal interpretation of extended - so we have extended ribbing at the waist and the arms are all ribbing. Of course my husband doesn't wear it because the ribbing is not conservative enough - but it looks great on a female figure - add a belt and away you go!

I have also cast on for my next sweater from "Knitting in the Old Way" - a gainsey with all over knit & purl stitches. Well I did add a little twist here and there because I had ripped out the beginnings of this sweater many, many times. Either the pattern was fighting me or I was fighting the pattern. Nothing was ever "right"!

Finally though something acceptable emerged from the piles of unravelled yarn. But I did have to add some twisted stitches to the all over knit and purl idea. I promise pictures soon.

I will also have pictures, I hope, of the 3 lace scarves and 2 lace stoles that I have finished in between the 5-6 sweaters that I have knit since Jan\07. Well, it is better than drugs - maybe not cheaper and it's probably not as destructive as other addictions (I'm rationalizing). Plus I am knitting a stash rather than collecting one - however, as a non-knitter once asked me, "What are you going to do with all those sweaters?" - She had to ask didn't she.

Get easier blockers here.

Enjoy Carol

Nuit Blanche Deux

Last night was Toronto's second Nuit Blanche - an all night "Art Happening" that started at 7:00pm and ended at 7:00am. There was some discussion throughtout last year as to whether Toronto would stage another Nuit Blanche after the first which attracted almost half a million people - double what had been predicted - did I mention that it also poured rain last year - WOW - for the love of Art or midnight madness - take your pick!!!

Well we have a very short sighted mayor - taller than our previous mayor but with limitations of a more conservative kind - unless you are talking about renos to his office and then 6 million is OK.

Anyway, knit-picking aside, if .5 million turned out in the rain last year - 2-3 million had to have turned out last night on a balmy Indian summer evening - let me tell you, there was ART, MUSIC and DANCING in the street!!! I take my Art where I can get it and it was free and on the street - sometimes you actually stumbled over it - such as, the projections on the sidewalk of man-hole covers from around the world - Art for people of the street. We, my husband & I, as Elizabeth would say, spent a good deal of time looking at the art installations within OCAD - the Ontario College of Art & Design - where our eldest was accepted, in the Spring, as a mature student.

After, we followed crowds of people carrying white ballons and visited museums, galleries, parks with projection screens for anyone who wanted to do their artistic "thing" and basically, as I had said in my post last year, became the children that Art makes of us - we were again des tableaux blancs. We could re-write the script, re-draw the image - seldom are we given that oppotunity - thank you Toronto for the chance!

Unfortunately, I was not able to get to Zone C where the knitting was! Well I knit so much that to make everyone go to a knitting event on family time was too much. But I have to say the The Knit Cafe had the "Great Pom-Pom Event." You could create a pom-pom and then palm it off to someone else for theirs - no pom - err pun intended. Janet Morton - resident knitting artist (she knit the original house cozy - as in tea cozy and actually covered a house with it ) re-did a building in pink - no knitting here - I think that she has moved onto foam - please do not tell me that this a direction for knitting.

There was also another knitting event - not sure; but rumour has it that it may have been the result of 10-12 women knitting and riding the Queen street car from one terminus to the next and back again - a very long knitting journey or maybe it was something else - sounds like a lot of knitters lost in thought - you wonder how anything ever gets done - or does it?

Anyway, I always spend a good deal of time thinking about how to dress for Art and this year I wore a lace scarf that I had knit. Maybe 2 of the 3 million that came out for Nuit Blanche wore scarves. I am estimating that 1 million were men - a few of them wore scarves but I would say that ALL but 10% of the women who came out for the event wore a decorative scarf - this was a warm evening - the scarf lives - as an Art form, even.

Knit on...and thank you Esther...this one's for you.

Carol

Hi! I'm back

I know it's been 3 months since my last post, but I've been bitten by this terrible lace knitting bug and literally have not stopped knitting lace since mid June. Well I did stop to fill orders for Infiknit and of course, June and July were very busy months. Then I was on holidays in August for two weeks - more New York city and our annual trip to Hilton Head SC. All strung together with lace insertions. Yes I am still knitting Gifford - nearly done - just one sleeve to go - unless someone can find me a one-armed bandit and then I would be finished!!

It all started with that awful book - Victorian Lace. I might not have given lace knitting a second thought, if I hadn't seen Cambridge again through "lace coloured" glasses and I had to go there - in my mind! Also there were these odd sized balls of lace weight yarn which I couldn't really use for orders and didn't want to discard so I thought - "What harm would a little swatching do"....... lots. Now I do nothing but SNIT - knit with such concentration that I am no longer pleasant company in the evening because I am always counting stitches or rows!

I suppose there are worse things - perhaps I'll give it a rest - just after this next scarf...I'll think about it.

Anyway - here are some pictures.

Top right is a scarf and shawl both started at the outside edges and joined with a three needle bind off in the centre. On the left is a scarf with a centre provisional cast-on and worked down to the end. I am well over half done here and may do the shawl version and at left is Gifford which was really fun to knit because I just made a few mistakes which were easily corrected.

I'll be assembling my woolly board soon to block Gifford- it looks like you need an engineering degree for that, though, so I have been putting it off.

I promise to post more often - just need a little more focus & discipline and a little less lace. Carol

Our Lady of the Peonies...

...Or maybe it's Aberlady of the Peonies. I have finished Aberlady my 4th sweater from Knitting in the old way and I must admit I really enjoyed knitting it. I even managed to find an attractive model to wear it for the picture. She complained a little - it was about 28 degress celsius at the time. Alas cooler weather will be here before we know it.

I think if I were to redo the sweater I would make these changes:

1. Use a flower motif that was not an eyelet pattern. I like the texture in the leaf pattern and think that it should be carried out in the flower pattern as well. I might have done this, if I hadn't been so obsessed with wanting to use the Garland stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's second treasury - somewhere, anywhere -why not here!!

2. If I decided to keep the eyelet pattern I would add a few more rows above & below the flower to set it further apart from the garter stitch.

I did angst over the leaf pattern at the neck. I find that little pieces of a pattern that appear at the neck edge often look as though they are lost because the rest of the pattern has been taken out by the neck opening. Some pieces I kept and some I didn't.

What I do really like about the sweater is the way the sleeve pattern matches the pattern at the bottom of the sweater. Getting there.

I have even cast on and knit a bit on my fifth sweater - a gansey with extended panels. Well I extended the ribbing and began the pattern just above the waist, so it will be quite extended by the time it reaches the shoulders. I'm not sure that I have interpreted "extended" correctly - but well, let's see what happens.

I am using Fiddlesticks Knitting Ecoknit in coffee. This is an organic cotton DK weight yarn - a good choice, I think, for warm weather and I am calling it "Gifford".

Gifford is another delightful town in East Lothian with a pub that has an even more delightful name. It's called Goblin Ha' (hall) and yes, it is said to be haunted.

Over the years, Goblin Ha' has lost some of its old pub look in favour of a more refined interior; but I'm sure that at one time it had beamed ceilings and lots of wood detailing - hence the design in the sweater. I know that the garden eating area has been turned into a restaurant with a vaulted ceiling, skylights and a first class menu. The food was generally good in the old garden lathe, at little more rustic but very charming - actually old and new has been merged very nicely at Goblin Ha'- now where is that ghost?

I'll be in touch - just a few more ganseys before I can start a fair isle. Carol

The road to Aberlady

About 20 minutes further up the estuary from Dunbar on the Firth of Forth is the lovely seaside village of Aberlady. It is more sand, beach and golf course than the gritty working harbour of Dunbar and so it calls for a gentler design in a sea going sweater.

This is also a village from my husband's childhood. When the family didn't go to Dunbar, they went to Aberlady for holidays. In fact my sister-in-law once bought the main floor of a house in Aberlady when she thought that she had grown tired of Edinburgh. Fortunately, we had a chance to visit the house before she sold it - she really could not live outside of Edinburgh - liken to San Francisco as "everybody's favourite city."

Well, I LOVED the house!!! It had a garden that went down to the sea!!! The garden had been neglected for many years and yes, it would take many years to tame it - but when you walked to the bottom of your garden you had the sea. The house, as I remember, was covered in Clamatis and the sourrounding houses were also covered in flowering vines, shrubs, and blossoms of every description. Aberlady might well be consider the garden of the Forth.

I really should have chosen Fiddlesticks Knitting DK in Lady Slipper for the gansey with horizontal panels - however, we had more of the Teal yarn in stock and so we use what there is more of - lest we run out and cannot fill orders because we have indulged ourselves - we are never really free!!


I tried to capture the flowers and the vines in the horizontal motifs, I know that no fisherman worth his codspiece would be caught dead (literally) in this gansey - but what of the fisherwives? - surely they deserve a moment of respite from cables and herringbones.

Anyway, so far I have only had to rip back the front, because I had made the neckline too wide. I have since then finished the neck and picked up to knit the sleeves down to the cuff. I do see a problem ahead. I have to create the eyelet flower upside down. Hmmmmm - let me think about this. More photos later

Dunbar....Done!

Finally, I have finished the 3rd in a series of sweaters from "Knitting in the Old Way" by Pricilla Gibson-Roberts. I have discussed my various detours in other posts and will summarize my knitting journey by saying that this sweater may be constructed in a number of different ways.

1. The way I set out originally with a ribbed beginning. A K10. P 1 interval and the traditional patterned motif at the top.

2. Or begin with a K1. P1 rib; insert a panel of the top pattern after the rib, as I had to do, to make the sweater longer and finish as described in #1. Pictured here.

3. OR begin with a rib; insert a panel & do a K8. P3. interval and finish with the full pattern on top.

4. Omit the rib. Begin with a panel of the top pattern. Do a K8, P3 interval and finish with the full pattern on top

Nothing is ever very simple and once you start you realize there there are many choices that can be made. I am not sure which one I would pick for another go at the sweater but I think I am leaning toward #4 - but then my husband would never wear it - alas the stumbling blocks to great art!

Along the way though, I found a story of why the ganseys were constructed in their classic fashion. A true gansey is completely reversible - back to front that is and not inside out - hence the slit for the neck. When a gansey began to wear at the "front" or on an elbow - let's say, one simply turned it around to wear out the back - which would now be the front and the elbow would be on the other arm - still with me?

More knitted genius - the very plain knitted panel between ribbing and chest design - was there because it could be easily ripped out & re-knit, when the sweater began to wear. ...And the upper patterned areas were strategically placed to add warmth to protect the chest.

Oh did I mention that they were knit on 2.5mm double pointed steel needles in a yarn with a firm twist to repel water. - Go for it.!!!! Actually I used Fiddlesticks Knitting DK - silk & wool - so much more refined!!

But if you really want to experience history go here:

http://www.manorhouse.clara.net/knitwear/history.htm

A closer look at the manorhouse gansey says I could have just made the ribbing in Dunbar longer - eeek another choice. Also the bonnie wee Scot that I got to model Dunbar is a year or two older that the model manorhouse managed to snag. Don't tell me that art is all in the mounting and display, rather than the piece itself!

Ahhh - all he needs is a tall ship and a star to steer her by!

Enjoy

Carol

The detours on the road to Dunbar....

- sounds catchy maybe there's a song with that title.

1. When I had decided to knit Dunbar for my husband I remembered that he liked very traditional sweaters that were not too long with ribbed bands at the waist and neck. This should not be too difficult; should it?....I measured the "model" did a swatch and cast on.

2. With some twists and turns I finished the sweater to the shoulders and tried it on said model - alas - too short. Some how over the 20 something years of our marriage he has managed to stretch out of shape every sweater he has ever owned and as a result he has decided that the "long stretched look" is what he really likes.

3. OK I can cut off the ribbed band at the bottom and knit down an inch or two. Well this would have been much easier, if I had not decided that I had to break the boredom of the plain knitting with a purl stitch every 11 stitches. So now I had to insert a panel of the pattern to lengthen the sweater. Fine, but it was not really what I had set out to do.

4. Finally the sleeves. I have only myself to blame here. I did not realize how long 5 repeats of the pattern would work at the top of the sleeve. It really is too long compared to the body of the sweater. Plus the sleeves should have the pattern band at the cuff to match the main pattern band.

So we back up - rip out the sleeves to eliminate the last two pattern repeats and add a repeat before the cuff. It does give me a chance to improve the sleeve decreases which became a little untidy where the ribbing for the cuff starts.

In the meantime, I have begun my 4th gansey - one with horizontal panels - Pictures soon.

I am also hoping for fewer detours on the road to Aberlady

Enjoy Carol

Raising the bar on Dunbar

Well... maybe just lengthening it. Let me explain. My third sweater from Knitting in the Old Way is a gansey which I am calling Dunbar - after a fishing village on the south east tip of the Firth of Forth where my husband used to vacation with his parents when he was young.

We've been there many times - for me it's a little like a Land's End because you are so close to the open sea and the wild whims of the North Atlantic.

Well the eponymous sweater also had\has some turbulence - not finished yet. I measured - allowed for ease and cast on 90%, increased to 100% after the ribbing and began an 11 st. repeat - K 10. P1 x 20 for 220 sts. Of course half way up the main part of the sweater, I realized that an 11 st repeat was really dumb. There was no middle st in the panel of 10 knit sts so how was I going to work an interesting pattern in the second part of the sweater. More thought required here.

I finally decided to expand the P1 to P3 after the first "bar" of reverse stockinette and work a little square of purl sts in the middle of the 8 x 10 squares between the bars of reverse stockinette - seems to have worked so far. The neck had to be re-knit a number of times to have it merge with the main pattern - but most of the slog work has been done - except that it doesn't FIT!! Even though I measured it against other sweaters followed instructions and concentrated 90% of the time.

So now I will have to cut off the bottom band, pick up stitches and knit down a few inches; stretch it like mad in the blocking and cut off his beer rations - well maybe the first two will work - we do need a balance in our lives!

I won't mention several major rip backs for really silly mistakes (and I still have the sleeves to do). Actually I am not complaining - this is just a knitting journey and there are lots of positives. I am knitting with Fiddlesticks Knitting DK Zephyr - a wonderful 50% silk & 50% merino yarn in a fabulous Marine Blue so the more I have to knit the more I have this wonderful yarn slipping through my fingers. And I do get more time to remember "things" like the marinated Halibut we bought at the fishmongers in Dunbar - delicious, the strolls around the harbour, the walks to the ruined castle, the scent of the sea, the fishing boats....

This sweater will probably be an example of a gansey with verticle panels - I had started out with the idea that it would be one of the earlier samples that Pricilla Gibson-Roberts mentions - ganseys with all over knit and purl stitches but that didn't happen. So that means another sweater!

Enjoy Carol

The Irish Danish

....or at least the green natroje. I finished my second sweater from Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts on St. Patrick's Day so I am going to call it Irish Diamonds. Sorry I didn't post it right away. I spent most of the day reading articles about all the changes in Ireland and sadly realizing that one can never go back.

I have to tell you, though, that I love the sweater! At 24 sts to 4" three strands of lace weight Zephyr makes a very light garment - a throw on and go type of top. I opened up the diamond pattern, picked up 2 sts for 3 for very slim sleeves and adjusted the large centre "diamond" to accomdate the small repeats better and achieved a lower neckline!

I did do a massive rip back, though. On the first go round, after I had joined the shoulders and finished the neck band, I realized that I had neither lowered the neckline, nor corrected the graph as I had hoped to....I know some of you are saying, "How could she get so far and not realize..." Trust me I might have gone even further.

So..... I ripped the front back to the under arm - expanded a diamond several rows below with my trusty crochet hook and re-knit the front. All this took a day or two, so I was down to the wire for finishing. Well we were going skiing and I would have time in the evening - not really - the kids wanted the lights off to watch a few movies and since I can't knit in the dark I watched The Queen and Little Miss Sunshine with twitching fingers.

But I haven't missed a beat since I finished Irish Diamonds. I have cast on for my third sweater!!! It isn't really the third sweater in the book. It's an exploration of the evolution of the natroje. Pricilla Gibson-Roberts notes that the classic gansey grew out of the Danish blouse and she does a chapter on ganseys. There are ganseys with all over knit & purl patterns - ganseys with horizontal patterns, verticle patterns and the very ornate Hebridean gansey - I could be here for years!!! The welt at the bottom gradually gave way to a ribbed waist and the square neckline to various neckline treatments.

Since this sweater is for my husband and since he only wears sweaters that start with a band of ribbing and end with a crew neck - that's what it will have to be!!! I do get to do some subtle knit and purl patterns in the body of the sweater to ease the boredom and I did spend a long time looking at my original copy of Alice Starmore's Fisherman Knits. I was given this as a gift many years ago & did not have to buy it on ebay for a king's ransom. The sweaters in the book are very "yummy" - if I even get close with mine, I'll be thrilled!!!
Pictures next post.

Irish Diamonds....maybe?

Well I have started the second sweater from Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. I decided on using 3 strands of Fiddlesticks Knitting lace weight Zephyr which gave me a gauge of 24 sts over 4". Just a bit finer than DK; but I wanted a lighter sweater. I also decided on the colour Basil over Royal - a really tough decision - only because I have green eyes. Not that I have anything in my current wardrobe that will go with this particular shade of green - but that has never stopped me before!

For those knitting along:
1. I used Priscilla's template for sweater measurements. I measured my chest allowed 2 -4" for ease - actually 2" because I wanted a slimmer fit than the cropped version - and called that 100%. All other measurements will be a percentage of this 100%. Technically then I should have cast on sts that were 90% of the total 100% for the bottom band, but I wanted a tunic style and I know I need the extra width at the hips, so I just cast on the number of sts that would give me the total chest measurement - still with me?

2. The diamond pattern is multiples of 12 plus 7. This may be centered on both the front and the back so it is not really necessary to have your cast on sts be an exact "fit" with the graph.

3. The bottom border is seed stitch in 2 sections joined together after about 2" have been worked to create a welt on either side as follows: purl together the last two stitches on either side from both the front and back sections, as you would do with a 3 needle bind off - except don't bind them off. Also remember to lap the front over the back on both sides before purling them together. These two purled stitches form the basis of the false seam that travels up the side of the garment and down the sleeve.

4. Knit 5 rows - remembering to purl the 2 false seam sts and then begin the diamond pattern.

If I finish the sweater by St. Patrick's Day, I'll call it Irish Diamonds

Gussets with gusto...

I have finished the first of many projects, I hope, from Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. As I said, this knitting journey is to be a learning experience so let me tell you what I have learned.

1. Tah-dah- Gussets!! I never thought that I would be so excited by something that went under the arm; but I had never made a gusset before - not only is it easy to knit, it is also comfortable to wear.

2. Weeee - welt-hems. Quite easy at the beginning except that care must be taken when putting front and back onto one circular needle. I managed to lose some stitches off the end of one needle and therefore spoiled the join on one side.

Also lap the front of the sweater over the back on both sides when joining the welts - oops I found that out after blocking. Knitting the sleeve from the top down and then trying to create a matching welt hem at the wrist was not as easy. I did work out an acceptable method. Let me know, if you are doing this. I can at least tell you what I did.

3. Slim sleeves - I didn't really get them, because I should have started my sleeve decreases about 6 rows earlier. I am still in awe of the difference 2 stitches less can make to the look of an entire sleeve. The grand scheme of things is made up of so many minutiae -"sweat the small stuff". Also I should have picked up 2 stitches for 3 rather than 4 stitches for 5 along the armhole opening. This would have given me fewer stitches to start the sleeve with as well.

4. More swatches - I probably should have done more of them or taken time for more complete graphs because I am not that impressed with the way the large diamond in the centre front blends with the rest of the design. I think that I should have started the larger centre diamond earlier then I wouldn't have had those 2 little mouths waiting to take a bite out of the intruder.


5. High neck - although I like high necklines, I think that the charm of this garment is in a slightly lower neckline which will not happen even if you start the large diamond earlier. It needs a whole new approach.

6. Busy brocade - More swatching might also have shown me that although I liked knitting the changing diamond pattern, aesthetically a simpler more open diamond pattern would have been more elegant.

7. Squared off at the neck - a sneak peek at the directions of the natrojer by Beth Brown-Rientzel in interweave knits Winter 2004 showed that the mitered corners were made by decreasing 2 sets of stitches beside each other at the 4 corners. However, it is important when doing seed stitch to make sure that the knit decrease is in a certain position beside the purl decrease so that the mitered slants compliment each other at the corners. The knit stitch makes the dominant ridge. I won't tell you how many times I re-knit the neck border!

8. Increased increases - I re-worked my increases several times until I found one that wouldn't give me holes at the hem or bunching in the gusset (sounds like the symptom of an awful disease). Also I almost wore out my crochet hook correcting mindless errors in the seed stitch diamonds. I just got lost in thought and didn't think - does that make sense?

I know I said knit along with me if you like and then I raced ahead; made a lot of mistakes - so you won't have to and now I am going to re-knit the blouse - actually the longer version - with the corrections. The longer version can really be the second sweater in the book, so we are heading in the right direction. Now, what yarn should I use? What colour?

Think knitted ladderways to sweater heaven - in search of a truly divine design - could be a long journey - enjoy! Carol

Thumbs up for knitted mitts

As promised a post on personalized knitting - the first of many, I hope! In fact I got the idea for the post from my very good friend Brenda, whom I have known for over 25 years and have known as a knitter for 15 years - I know this sounds strange but for the first 10 years of having Brenda around for dinner or meeting her at parties, I had never known that we shared the same passion. Knitting must still be a "closet thing" unless you are with kindred souls.

The truth came out one night after dinner at her house when I noticed a Barbara Walker book on her book shelf - "Do you knit!!!" I asked - "Yes, have for years," was her answer - Eureka! a friend re-born!

Well Brenda came over one winter's night for dinner and brought her Paradoxical Mittens, knit from Lucy Neatby's pattern. She had, however, made these "Brenda's mitts", by knitting a small portion of the design on the right thumb in the contrasting cast on colour - so that you could always tell your right mitt from your left.

The pattern itself is fabulous - inspired by the basket weaving designs of West African artists - Lucy Neatby has travelled the world and incorporated many ideas from her travels into her knitting patterns. However, Brenda's idea for the thumb is ingenius!

Above are Brenda's mitts below are some other patterns from Lucy inspired by West African motifs. Left is Raffia Vest and right is a wallhanging simply entitled Ashanti. Enjoy Carol

January survival kit

Well it's January 28 and I'm into survival mode - I need to get through the next 6-8 weeks of winter. I know, I complained about the warm weather in January and now I'm going to complain about the cold -20C. But I have survived this month so far because of:

- One dark Benfica - a glorious crimsom Amaryllis that is somewhere between the shades of Garnet and Cinnabar in the lace weight Zephyr (god of the south wind) yarn we distribute.



- Three mini bags of pretzels given to me by a kind stewardess on my flight from Denver to Toronto after I had asked - "I can by food on the flight, right - wrong." It was 11:00am mountain time. I'd left my hotel in San Diego at 4:30am pacific time and was hoping to pick up something before I got to Toronto at 4:30pm eastern standard time - a cup of tea and 3 bags of pretzels would have to do.



- One mini bag of M & Ms given to my by another kind person in the booth across from me at TNNA, when I looked as though I were either going to fall asleep or fall over. It was generally a slow show, although I was very pleased with the activity in our booth!

- Two fabulous sweaters designed and knit by Dorothy Siemens - Fiddlesticks Knitting which I wore instead of a coat to the TNNA show in San Diego because I couldn't fit all the samples in my bag. Well it was 9C when I left and it would be warmer in San Diego, right - well sort of - it was 10C....But it was -9C when I returned. Even 2 fabulous sweaters in DK Zephyr (god of a stronger south wind) couldn't cut that airport cold. (Pictures and patterns soon)

- One almost finished white natroje in said DK Zephyr. More on the progress of this sweater very soon. Below is a detail of the brocade diamond pattern being admired by a very sensitive Amaryllis. Enjoy Carol

Lucy's Lamborgini

I was just about ready to pack away the Christmas paraphernalia when I came across two brilliant cards that I was sent this year. The first one was from Lucy Neatby. Lucy used a photo from her sister's collection, (Her sister is a professional photographer in England - see link) , cleverly added some text and had sendacard.com create the cards for her! The balloon reads: "must be a lamborgini."
http://www.rookphoto.co.uk/working_the_land.htm

I loved it. In fact I loved it so much that I obviously told too many people too many times about it - their eyes began to roll. I guess they weren't knitters.

I got the second amazing card from Fleece Artist, with the tiniest sheep pin attached to it. I am not about to pin it to any part of my body; but, I love the creature in the picture.

I also got an Elvis post card - well his birthday is January the 8th - today! Happy Birthday Elvis! I couldn't find that particular card for this post so I had to find another picture of Elvis. Here is one of him in a cabled sweater.

Many thank yous to all who sent cards. I will send some next year. I promise!






My Danish blouse is progessing. Pictures next post.


Merry Christmas to all Ukranian readers!!

Carol