A Whale Of A Time

I'm having a whale of a time!

Yes, that grey blob WAS a whale, so very close to shore - maybe no more than 200 metres. But the weather was so awful, as it has been every day, that photos just don't come out well in the grey light, in the rain and wind.

We waited to see the whale breach, but it didn't. So I consoled myself by taking lots of pictures of waves. What a surprise!

And in the cool evenings, I do get a bit of knitting done. In fact, I think I'll have to knit like crazy to make myself a jumper really quickly, it's been so cold. Global warming? Bring it on!

On Holiday

Yes, I'm away on holiday.
It has now rained every day for six days. Bah humbug.
We still go out anyway.

Yes, I took knitting.
Yes, I have done some. Not much, but some.

Catch up posts will be done some time soon ...

Two Stripe Scarf 11

It’s another scarf!

I was enjoying the interplay of the stripey colours with the first one, so I was itching to start another. With this one, I wanted to play with peacock colours or ocean colours. I used a blue-to-black shade and a green-to-black. Moda Vera Crave is the yarn.

The green knitted up differently that what I expected. In the transitional areas from black to green, it looks almost yellow, which isn’t the effect I was after.

Oh well.

Two Stripe Scarf 1

It’s a scarf!

I got all inspired by this beautiful, no, magnificent, two-stripe scarf by Jared.

But I didn’t have Noro, nor does the budget extend to getting some.

I wanted a nice blokey look, maybe a little less colourful than the Noro. So I tried it with a couple of balls of yarn that shade light to dark; one shades from tawny brown to black, (it’s Moda Vera Crave) the other shades from light grey to dark grey (must track down the ball-band for this one). I would have preferred a black-to-grey shade, but I didn’t find one.

I’ve only ripped it once, just a short way in after starting, because I didn’t like the width. With the method of cast-on that I use, it quite often takes a few rows before the actual width becomes evident.

I like a narrow scarf, so there’s less bulk around the neck. So I restarted with fewer stitches.

It’s now 29 stitches wide over 13 cm (5 inches). Don’t quite know why there’s an odd number of stitches, but it doesn’t bother me.

So far so good.

Except, I’m really not all that happy with the light-grey to dark-grey. It doesn't have enough contrast between the light at its lightest point and the dark at its darkest point. Do I try to find a substitute? If I find a substitute, do I rip back what I’ve done, or just work the new colour in?

Decisions, decisions.

Byzantium Moebius Scarf

I had some Katia wool (Nordic Print) left over from the “Byzantium” hat , so I decided to make a scarf. Now, a normal scarf with a couple of wraps around the neck would have been very bulky in this yarn, so I decided to try a Möbius scarf.

Yeah, I know – probably a bit ambitious for such a newbie knitter. It’s not uncommon for my ambition and enthusiasm to greatly exceed my abilities and knowledge. But that’s how I learn stuff – jump in feet-first and hold my breath till I know which way is up!

It’s interesting what such a tricky cast-on and first few rows does to my mental state. I approached it in a kind of Zen frame of mind. Just do one stitch, see how it goes. I can do one stitch. Okay, I did one stitch. Now do another, I can do just one more. And so I did. And another. And another. It did get easier.

I used the simplest of cast-ons, it’s the one I usually use. Mainly because I haven’t learnt any others. Yet.

I don’t know what the cast-on is called. In macramé terms, it’s just a half-hitch.

It’s one needle in the right hand, and a loop of yarn across thumb and index finger on the left.

It’s very quick, no fuss. As the stitches aren’t really formed until the next row is knitted, it is also neither too tight nor too loose.

Its major disadvantage is with working the first row. The yarn between the made stitch on the right and the waiting loops on left needle grows and grows. I get round this a couple of ways – use that extra yarn to make extra loops on the left and drop the same number of loops at the end, or simply work with it until the end, where it just becomes a tail, long enough for sewing up. I always cast on with an extra loop at the end anyway, and that gets dropped off too. This can be a problem with knitting in the round, as there is no “end” from which to drop off those extras.

I didn’t use any specific pattern for the Möbius – just the instructions from here

I also didn’t want a shoulder-width shawl kind of scarf. I wanted a neck-hugger. I knew how many stitches I had cast on for Byzantium, and what circumference that many stitches made, so I just worked it out from there – how wide I needed it to fit over my head, but not have it sit too far away from my neck.

The stitch pattern I used was the “One Row Scarf” from the Yarn Harlot . I didn’t quite get the first couple of rows right – it was quite hard work getting those at all! I knew the pattern wouldn’t quite line up because of the off-set from knitting into the bottom loops of the cast-on.

Oh well. It is what it is, and I still quite like it. I can get my head through it, and it fits snugly. What more could I want?

The Naked Teapot

In a moment of blood rushing to my head, I bought this yarn:

I think it's Moda Vera Spell, but as I tend to forget to put a sample of yarn around the ball-band, and I have a lot of orphan ball-bands, I could be wrong.

Now, when I buy yarn, I usually have a project in mind, even if I don't have a specific pattern. I didn't have anything specific in mind for this.

I was just intrigued by the discussion with two fellow shoppers, Cindy and Toni, who said the pooling of the colours makes it look a little like embroidered flowers.

Some time later, I was making myself a cuppa, when the lightbulb went on! Aha! My naked teapot could use a teacosy, and maybe I'd get my second cuppa without having to microwave it hot (doesn't taste quite the same).

So I measured the circumference around the top and the bottom, measured everything else that needed measuring, did a quick swatch, did the maths, especially how many stitches to decrease, and then did the knitting!
The colour pooling does look a little like flowers, or perhaps a flock of butterflies in a meadow.




Finding the right coloured buttons is what took the longest. Of course, I didn't have two that matched. I don't mind - I quite like the quirkyness of mismatched buttons.

And now my teapot is roasty-toasty cosy, and my tea is hot!

(wanders off to have another cuppa ...)

Footnote to Beanie Bonanza

We all know it's just wonderful to have home-made unique knitted garments.

Here's a perfect example.

Mr M was travelling home on the tram, when he looked across and saw JJ in another tram, heading into town.

How was he able to spot JJ in a tram full of people? JJ was wearing his new beanie, of course!