Getting Dizzy

I've done something I never thought I'd manage. Well two things actually.

One, I'm reading a chart; Two, I'm knitting in the round on DPNs; Three, I'm starting a new project.

Well three then. I was being a good girl yesterday, casting on the front of a vest after taking a break and then… 'Clare you have a package'. Two balls of Noro Kureyon in 124 (red, blue, pink, purple), 4 and 4.5 mm DPNs, and four balls of Rowan Polar in 645 (purple). All from the lovely people at Celticove.

I was itching to try the DPNs but unwilling to drag my yarn out for Mrs Beeton. I cast on for the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers instead.

The DPN business is a lot easier then it looks or seems or sounds like. Once you've got your first round going you're pretty sorted. It's all rather anti-climatic. I thought it would be harder, thought I'd have a nice warm glow at the end of it.

Oh well. Whole new knitting doors have been opened to me. Circular ones.

Stroke the goat

As part of a two part gift I've been knitting the Airy Scarf from Last-Minuet Knitted Gifts in short spurts over the weekend. It's done! Ish.

I realised half way through that I'd made my own bastardised eyelet pattern (K2tog, yo, k for some reason) but I couldn't be arsed starting over.

It's a bit scruffier then I intended but apart from that I'm quite pleased with it.

It was knit blissfully without a nod to tension on 6mm needles, cast on an off in 8mm. The shade of the Kidsilk Haze is the nightmarish 606. I have ideas about using the rest for an embroidery project or several.

The best part is I have a ball of black waiting for a second Airy Scarf. One for me. Hopefully.

Bleeding fingers are so totally goth

When I was first learning how to knit, buying my first needles and my first yarn I stumbled on Yorkshire Tweed. It was love at first sight. It was the reason I moved to Huddersfield. All right, not really, but I loved it, I did.

But off I went with my blood red acrylic and learnt how to knit.

Back in Heywood there was no Rowan. Two busses separated me from its glory. So off I went knitting patters from Stitch and Bitch in Sirdar. When I got back to Ramsbottom I knew I had to knit something from A Yorkshire Fable.

So what? Something small because that's all I could afford. A hat. Mist. Stripes, not fairisle, cost again, but with that mini stripe on the bottom from the fairisle version. No bobble!

It was three balls of 4 ply and two pairs of passed on needles. Not overly exciting. I knit it from around Easter last year, through exams, and cast off on an awful summer holiday. I finished it yesterday. It remains unblocked and slightly short.

So then I promised myself. Never. Ever. Something. On. Small. Needles. Again.

But promises are made to be broken and Kim Hargreaves was born to enable this. Meet Shimmer. In Black.

To add insult to injury they were so lovely to order from that I will have to buy something else. Damn. So Temptation or Forest Fruits?

The hat will be stuck in it's box until I manage to finish an Airy Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. It's not for me. This is why it's pink. A better picture will come with the morning. Probably.

There is a vague idea behind this. A very vague one. Mainly I need to stop driving my friends crazy talking about knitting, receive compliments (or flames, hay I'm just desperate for attention), and do the entire mocking myself thing.

So I have a blog. A blog with a mission. Here I will post about the joys and the sorrows of knitting mainly in black (like how you can never make out the intarsia ).