Wibbo's Words

Craftaganza on Jubilee Bank Holiday

I'm at Craftaganza with Brighton Craft Guerrilla on both days with my lovely hand dyed yarn, stitchmarkers, embroidered and beaded jewellery.

 

Resistance is futile

The image says it all really! It's not the fact that I look like my mum that bothers me - that's genetic and I can't do anything about it. What I don't like are those little phrases of hers that pop unbidden into my head, particularly when trying on clothes. "That makes you look all wool and a yard wide" is not encouraging....

Knitting and food

I think I've finally managed to get Wingspan out of my system after knitting another in Silk Garden in blues/greens/purples. The Silk Garden was out of stash and I started knitting this pattern with it; after my usual bout of Knitter's Denial (I knew I couldn't live with the way the eyelets were placed as the shawl got bigger), I frogged it. Hence another Wingspan...

After fiddling around with the Silk Moon Crescent Shawlette pattern and rewriting the last three eyelet rows, I had another go.

The yarn's another Noro one, Aya, which is a cotton/silk/wool mix that feels lovely and soft. I'll post pattern mods when I've blocked it and added it to my Ravelry projects.

OK, that's the knitting out of the way; on to food. I bought a pressure cooker a couple of weeks ago and I'm surprised how different it is from the scary Prestige Hi-Dome I used in the Seventies. This one's as whisper-quiet and efficient as you'd expect from a piece of kit made in Switzerland.

So far I've made stock and cooked batches of beans and chick peas for the freezer. I'm surprised how good pressure-cooked chick peas taste compared to tinned ones.

Finally, a loaf of wholemeal bread straight out of the oven. I haven't baked bread for, oh, about 20 years and I'd forgotten how easy it is. This loaf's a slightly weird shape along the sides because I baked it in a silicon loaf tin which stretched; next time I'll either make rolls or get hold of a metal tin. Hope the bread tastes as good as it smells!

April's favourite pattern

It's Wingspan, a free pattern on Ravelry, and it uses just one ball of sock yarn. I knitted this one in the Lory colourway of Jawoll Magic Degrade for a friend's birthday and I've nearly finished another for myself in the Mallard colourway of the same yarn. There's enough going on with the short row shaping to hold your interest in spite of all those rows of garter stitch...

Zodiac blackwork chart - Taurus

Taurus Zodiac Blackwork at Tom Pudding Designs.

Indecision

I want to knit a Color Affection (Ravelry link) so, as you do, I had a hunt through my stash but couldn't find three skeins of yarn that were the same weight and went well together. Out with the dyepot at that point; the centre skein is handpainted and the other two are kettle dyed. The base yarn is BFL Superwash Sock.

The colours do look good together in real life and I was all set to wind the skeins and cast on. Then it occured to me that three shades of grey would look even nicer and I dyed more skeins of the same base yarn.

Now I can't decide which combination I like best. Such is one of life's little trials...

 

Flossie, channeling Rhett Butler, thinks that frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Zodiac Blackwork Charts - Pisces & Aries

Pisces Zodiac Blackwork at Tom Pudding Designs.

Aries Zodiac Blackwork at Tom Pudding Designs.

Off the needles/hook