Not sure

I think it really makes me look abnormally long and lanky - almost as if I'd changed the proportions of the photo. Do you think it's the sleeves? Maybe if I shorten them to just before the elbow and then make them flare out? Or should I have shoert sleeves and put an extra couple of rows onto the body? I have no spare yarn - what you see is all I have.

4 times I've started a new project....

....and I've got nothing to show.
I've had these 17 balls of Garnstudio for 3 years or more so I thought it was about time I sat down and knitted them up. I had in mind Sheringham from the Denim Knits Magazine so I cast on for that. I decided that there wasn't enough stitch definition and the pattern was not obvious so out it came.
I decided to go for a more obvious pattern - Tree of Life (again from Denim Knits). Couple of inches in I decided that there was still not enough stitch definition and that I didn't like knitting with such a thread-like yarn. So, I doubled it and went back to Sheringham. The pattern was looking good, I'd done about 2 pattern repeats when I thought I'd better measure the width - yes you've guessed it was going to be too big - about 6 inches too big and we know how much cotton can stretch sideways after a couple of washes.
Doubled Silke Tweed was giving me 18sts by 24 rows the perfect gauge for Tuja (which was doing the blog rounds in 2004) so I cast on for that. I'd done about 12 rows when I realised I'd actually twisted it while joining it so out it came again.
Will I give up? No. This bloody yarn is going to be knit into something whether it wants to or not.

Three Weeks Since My Last Post

Surely, it must be time for another finished project:




Pattern: Boatman from Denim Knits Magazine.
Size: 8-9 years
Yarn DK 100% wool from Yarn Warehouse

Look at the size I knitted - all the patterns in this book have alot of ease in them. The 8-9 year size came in at a 42 inch finished bust size!

I adapted the pattern using the Grand Plan Pullover chart from Interweave knits. I think the sleeves could be a bit slimmer but otherwise it's a good fit.

This is a great pattern book - I'd rate it the second best in my collection. There's so many patterns that I want to knit from it but I wouldn't want to do them all in denim yarn. Patrick is the only one that I want to knit in denim, the othes I'd do in wool but first of all I think I'm going to have to find another template pattern to use for my adaptions - one with slimmer sleeves.

Slouchy Socks

Pattern: Smith from Noro Knits Book (the one with Butterfly)
Yarn: Yarn Warehouse naturally oiled aran plus Rowan Magpie aran for the toes

A bit on the baggy side for my liking around the ankles and foot but I've always intended wearing these socks for lillinging about the house and I can still get my slippers on (added bonus)!!

Mittens On Kittens

This seems to a never-ending hank of yarn. I think I bought 1.1kg of this natural oiled aran weight yarn from the shop at New Lanark about 3 years ago and so far I've knitted an aran jumper, a hat,a pair of legwarmers and now these mittens and I still have enough left to knit a slouchy pair of socks. All this for only £10.

Friday's Favourite Five

This week it's DVDs that I like to rewatch and rewatch and rewatch:

Persuasion starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds
Jane Eyre starring Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke
How to Make an American Quilt starring Winona Ryder
Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle
Anna Karenina starring Helen McCrory

Guess who likes TV Period Dramas especially the ones made by the BBC?

Still in the land of small projects

Another hat for someone who very rarely wears a hat:




Pattern: Lake Park Hat by Marnie MacLean
Yarn: sock yarn by Curious Yarns (whose website has been offline since the beginning of January)

Might just have been me but I got a bit lost among the decreases at the crown but I managed to fudge it and as it's variegated yarn you have to really study it to notice that the pattern goes a bit off kilter. It's on the crown of the head so as I can't see it while I'm wearing it I can forget that there's a mistake there. Out of sight out of mind - works for me.

There's matching gloves so guess what I'm making now.

Friday Favourite Five

Is that another week gone? This week it's going to songs that make me stop what I'm doing, sit down, sigh and then hit the replay button.

"Everbody Hurts " REM
"Perfect Day" Lou Reed
"Bus to St Cloud" Trisha Yearwood
"Unloved" Jann Arden
"Deep Inside" Glengarry Bhoys

What's yours?

Two For The Price of One

Yep, not one but two finished items. I have finished the Besotted Scarf from Hello Yarn:

I still had enough yarn left over to knit up Swell from Knitty:

and I still have enough of the blue and gray to knit another earflap hat but with the colours reversed.

FRIDAY'S FAVOURITE FIVE

I'm not very good at sticking to new year's resolutions - I find I stick better to them if I set them later on in the month or in February. Two of those resolutions are to do with the blog. The first is to post more than I did in 2006. As I only made 17 posts in 2006 this should be a cinch. The second resolution was to put more of my personality into the blog - the problem with that is that I'm quite a private person and even though I love reading about other people's daily life on their blogs I just can't write about mine in an interesting way so i always just stick to the knitting.

So, the only way I can think of putting some more of my personality into the blog is that every Friday I'll list five things that I like (let's see how long this last)!

FRIDAY'S FAVOURITE FIVE: FLAVOURS

1. Cinnamon - love it in sweet breads, cakes, pastry, porridge, tea, with bananas in a sandwich and in sweets ( though I can only find cinnamon balls I love those Hot Tamale jelly sweets you get in the States)
2. Vanilla - best flavour for ice cream, yoghurt, custard, coffee. I buy "So Good Soya Mik" because it's got a taste reminiscent of vanilla. Crabtree & Evelyn also sell a good body lotion that smells of vanilla.
3. Tomato - best tinned soup is cream of tomato. If I make a casserole from scratch I always shove in a can of chopped tomatoes and tomato based past sauces are the only way to go.
4. Lemon - definitely a taste I've acquired as I got older. It used to be strawberry but i find that too sickly now so when it comes to sweets I'll usually pick lemon flavoured ones - love lemon cheescake, lemon meringue pie, lemon & lime marmalade, lemon curd, lemon boiled sweets and lemon chicken is my favourite chinese dish.
5. Pepper - actually this was a toss up between pepper and garlic - I seem to put them in everything but pepper wins out as I like the cracked black pepper crisps from M&S.

There you go that's five things you didn't know about me - what's your favourite five flavours?

Scarves are so tedious to knit. i'm not even half-way through it and i'm bored already. I'll keep on knitting it until it's about 60 inches in length and then weigh how much yarn I've still got left. If it's enough for a pair of legwarmers or for a hat then I'll cast off. If there's not eneough left then I'll just keep knitting on the scarf until the yarn it all knitted up.

I've decided that the first quarter of the year is going to be spent on knitting up the odd balls of leftovers. I expect the two baskets I keep my scarves in will soon be overflowing but I've also decided thet the 2 long skinney scarves are not getting worn and it there is not enough matching yarn in the leftovers to widen them without disrupting their striped sequences then they are getting ripped out and recycled into my log cabin blanket (which I haven't started yet but is in the planning stages).

2007 is turning into the year of the makeover. Out goes the curly hair, in comes straight hair and make-up. One photo is hairdresser/beautician version and the other photo is of my efforts. I don't know what's more difficult - using the straighteners or putting on foundation evenly !! I think I'm getting there with the hair at least it doesn't look like scarecrow hair anymore when I do it.

Never mind the makeover I'm wearing my own knits in those photos.

I'm still working away on using up leftovers. I'm knitting the besotted scarf which everyone and their granny seems to have knitted

Rather Fetching don't you think?

I have been knitting away trying to use up leftovers. I originally had 1kg of the blue aran and Lara only used up 550g so I thought if I use my leftover grey aran for the cuffs and neck I can get a sweater out of this. Using the Grand Plan Sweater Pland from an old Interweave I completed front, back, one sleeve and then realised I wasn't going to have enough to finish the second sleeve so out it all came. Going to have to use up the yarn on little projects - done the mitts now it's the turn of the scarf.