The Wool Palace

The god of small things

It's been all about accessories at The Wool Palace lately.  I think it's the cold weather and a certain preoccupation that means I haven't really felt like sitting down and working on anything large.  Instead I am on some sort of mission to ensure that all the family extremities are covered.

First, I made mittens for Josie with left over sock yarn and All Seasons Cotton.

I used the Canadian Mitten pattern from Sally Melville's The Purl Experience.  It makes a nice thick mitten that can withstand quite a bit of moisture.  A very quick knit - even with me knitting two right hands first.

Then I made some fingerless gloves/wrist warmer things for me to wear when I'm cycling to work.  Once again done with leftovers - Koigu this time - and some black All Seasons Cotton.

Super quick to knit.  I think I got these done in a couple of hours.  Knitted in the round so there were only a few ends to sew in.

Once the cold weather hit I remembered that I'd lost my hat at the end of last winter and hadn't bothered to knit another one.  I needed something quick, so tried out this pattern from Loop-D-Loop.

It's the Corrugated Rib hat.  I used one skein of brown wool from Handpainted Yarn (I've linked to the website but I got mine from them on Ebay).  It was a quick knit as it's done on 6.5mm needles but I had to rip it out a couple of time as Teva Durham's idea of what would fit a 'small/medium' lady's head was nowhere near what my head needed.  She suggests casting on 60 stitches - I ended up doing 72.  I like the finished product.  It uses alternating bands of garter and reverse stocking stitch interspersed with stocking stitch to produce an interesting texture.  It's a good hat to just grab and pull on in the morning and it covers my ears - always a bonus.

I am now attempting to finish up a few bits and bobs so I can concentrate on some Christmas knitting.  I am determined to finish these socks by Wednesday at the latest.

Since taking the photo I have turned the heel and am halfway through the gusset decreases so I think I'm on track.  I love this colourway so these socks are going to be for me - an early Christmas present maybe?

Let's pretend it's Monday

The weekend weather was wonderful.  Cold but gloriously sunny.  Maybe it was autumn's last gasp - snow is forecast for this coming weekend.  We wrapped up warm and went to the common.

On the way there we saw an unexpected sight.

It's an awful photo I know - blame the borrowed camera.  If you zoom in on the centre, you'll see a man on a horse.  One of those lovely big horses with the long hair round their hooves - the kind that used to pull carts ladden with barrels of beer.  Not what you normally see in Clapham.

The pond was frozen.  Poor birds.  Lucky we'd brought them some bread.

Even though it was the afternoon there was still some frost on the ground.

They don't call it the season of mists (and mellow fruitfulness) for nothing.

Ow

Sprained my ankle on the way back from knitting class today.

Is it bad that I'm looking forward to all the knitting time I get while staying home from work tomorrow?

The camera will take 3 weeks to fix, Olympus inform me.  I may be able to borrow another one for a couple of days but will have to rely heavily on my wit and intellect to entertain you in the next 3 weeks.

Oh dear.

Odd ball

I wanted to share some pictures of my knitting triumphs with you but my camera has died.  It was fine yesterday so I have no idea what is going on.  I do remember seeing Josie fiddling with it earlier this evening so maybe I'll blame her.

Anyway, remember my sock yarn scraps?  One of the suggestions for using them up was mittens.  I was quite taken with this idea, especially as it would tie in with the Warm Hands knitalong that I have joined.  Then Josie lost one of last year's mittens at the Bonfire Night party so something had to be done.

I dug out some All Seasons Cotton - one of my favourite yarns to use in combination with something else.  I tend to buy odd balls of it in sales and so on so I have quite a selection of colours.  Josie requested blue mittens this year, so I got some light blue All Seasons Cotton and some Regia Mini-Ringel in blues and cast on.

Mitten number one was cast on at about 1.30pm and done by 7.30pm (I did go to the bank, the post office, the health food shop, pick the children up from school, make a chicken pie, shout at them to stop shouting, supervise music practise, baths and homework and watch the news during that time as well).  It was tried on and declared a success so Mitten Two was cast on straight afterwards while I watched some programme about a man leaving his wife for another woman who then developed a brain tumour - can't wait for part two tomorrow.

I love a project that can be done in an evening.  There's something very satisfying about knowing you got it all done from the first cast on to the last bit of sewing up in just one day.  Now I just need to find a way of breaking the news to Josie that she has two lovely mittens, but they are both for her right hand.

Ho hum.

Party time

Light the candles, get out the balloons.  It's my blog birthday!  It was actually 2 days ago if you want to quibble, but I'd rather have the party on a Friday really.

So come on in, you're all invited.  I'm just nipping out for some mini sausage rolls and salted peanuts - maybe not peanuts as the blog's only 1 year old, a little young for nuts I think.

I thought we could play some games.  Pass the parcel maybe?  Then all the adults can get slightly squiffy on some Cava while the blog and its friends tread food into the carpet.

Let' s party!

Could try harder

My knitting is all over the place at the moment, a bit like my head.

I started a sock.

After I took the photo I ripped it all out as it is much too narrow.  I have known this for most of this week but haven't been able to bring myself to rip it as I love the yarn so much.  Cherry Tree Hill in the Serengeti colourway from Get Knitted.  It has been retired back to the sock stash until inspiration strikes.

Inspiration should definitely strike soon as I now have this book which I am in love with. 

Dawn brought her copy along to a Peter Jones coffee morning a while back and it immediately went onto my 'to buy' list.  Such a good idea, patterns are grouped by type - rib, lace, slip stitch etc and by the number of stitches in a pattern repeat.  The idea being you work out your gauge, how many stitches you need for the size you want, then pick a pattern that fits that number of stitches.  Each pattern is written for using 4 or 5 dpns and also for 2 circulars - a nice touch I thought.  There are toe up and top down patterns, all sorts of different heels and there are suggested variations at the end of each section; the blurb claims there are nearly 1000 variations, allowing you to knit 'heaps of socks'.

I love it and can't stop reading it.  Only problem is I am overwhelmed by choice and keep flitting from one to another.  Focus, Mary, focus.

I did have other stuff to say about other projects but you know what?  It's not that interesting really.  Basically I haven't finished things I should have finished and have started things I shouldn't have started.  And I will probably continue like this for some time to come.

Thank you for all your kind words.  I haven't replied to all of you, but it means a lot to read the lovely things you write.  The last few weeks have been awful.  Things are still not great but we are slowly starting to feel a bit more positive and hope that we can work this out.  There isn't really much more to say about it right now.

Weekend in pictures

Bonfire Night seems to make for blurry photos.

Poised and ready to go - sparklers to hand.

Yes,  I did knit the mittens.  Good job they were last year's ones as one got lost during the bonfire night party.

Photo courtesy of Josie.  Very difficult to capture fireworks.

A big thanks to Lambeth Council for banning sparklers in their parks.  A special thanks to them for providing men with megaphones and leaflets to enforce the ban.  A special thanks to those men for not saying anything until people had lit the sparklers and given them to their children.

Luckily we went to the council display on Friday and spent the actual Bonfire Night at a local church party which was much nicer.  The council would be shocked to know that sparklers were for sale there.  Even more shocking, children of all ages had sparklers and suffered no ill effects.  The mulled wine, sausages and pumpkin soup were very nice too.

Socktoberfest

The Stashbuster Spirals were finished in time for the end of Socktoberfest - nothing like a self-imposed deadline to spur oneself along.

The heel on the second one turned out much better than on the first, where a little remedial stitching is in order.  Toe-up will still not be my first choice for socks, but I think I will do some more and experiment with different cast-ons and heels.

Where toe-up does serve its purpose is in seeing how much yarn you have left, of course.  I ended up with slightly less of the green Lana Grossa on the second sock so had to do a few rounds with just Lorna's Laces and Regia, but no real harm done there.

I may be a bit erratic with my posting over the next few weeks.  Life, in the form of my husband, has decided to throw up some complicated and upsetting things to deal with.  I'm not ready to go into great detail on this now but most of my energy is taken up with processing and coming to terms with what looks like being a major change in my life.  I may be a bit slow to respond to emails and comments, but I will get there eventually.