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...

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.

Off the needles/hook

Slightly late in the day

My reading list total for 2011 is 66. Not bad, but this figure doesn't include several false starts with books I couldn't finish and there were several of those. I'm less tolerant that I used to be - if I'm not enjoying a book after the first 50 or so pages, then out (or back to the library) it goes. 

The list's on Pinterest here. My stand-out book of last year was an audio book read by the author and it's this one:

Yellow & orange

Tonight's sunset.

Blues

This morning's sky colourway.

Knitted gifts

Now that January has got into its stride, here's a look at gifts I made for Christmas.

Fingerless mittens for Liz in hand dyed high twist merino; my own design using a stitch pattern from a Japanese stitch dictionary.

Elise shawls for Kris and her mum in hand dyed BFL sock.

Long crochet scarf with fringe for Julie; my own design in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

On the what's-on-the-needles-now front, not much. Huldran is progressing slowly (lovely, lovely Wollmeise) and there are a couple of pairs of plain vanilla socks on the go. I think I'd better go cast something else on! 

Looking rather bare...

...now the Christmas decs and lights have been taken down and packed away for another year. The cards have gone to the recycling bin and the table's almost clear.

I've made no resolutions as such but have a few ideas that may, or may not, materialise as something tangible during the year. The blank-sheet-of-paper thing is rather nice!

Happy New Year

Victorian greetings card from this scrap book.

Pause

The days between Christmas and New Year feel slightly odd to me - like someone's pressed a pause button. Way back when, New Year's Day was only a Bank Holiday in Scotland and life south of the border got back to normal straight after Boxing Day. I can't say that I like this time of year either.

Right, that's the grumble out of the way. Not a lot happening at Wibbo Towers apart from generally mindless knitting and a little excitement after finding a terrific crochet block pattern which looks perfect for using up my bits and pieces of yarn. It's this one

and it's free to download here. I really should finish a couple of things first then it's out with the hooks...

Christmas greetings

Victorian Christmas card published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, London.

Germy

Sniffle, sniffle. There's a cold doing the rounds and I'm sniffing, sneezing and grumbling. So what's new at Wibbo Towers?

Reading: A Portrait Of Leni Riefenstahl - charity shop; £1.

Listening to: Marie Antoinette - library; free with subscription card.

Knitting: I've laid down my needles until I feel more like concentrating. In the meantime, I'm crocheting a hat with earflaps which requires very little effort compared to lace and cables.

Liking: Not a lot.

Looking at: Vintage Photographs.

Simple but useful

Printed grid on the back of wrapping paper - perfect for us nit-picky types ;o)

Nearly done

I'm nearly done with a batch of blocking; mainly gift knitting/crochet that needs to go in the mail but this is for me. It's the Amberwell Shawl (Rav link) knitted in Hand Maiden Sea Silk, colourway Ebony, that's been sitting in a heap since I cast it off in July. The colour doesn't look very exciting in the photo but it's lovely and subtle in real life.

It's now blocking *drumroll* and should be dry by tomorrow. More photos to follow.

Gratuitous cat photo

Two things

1 Why do I always leave finishing/blocking till the last minute? 

2 How did I manage to take a v-shaped chunk out of my finger with a very small, very blunt pair of scissors? At least I managed not to bleed on anything yarny...

Damn weather

It's really windy here (Met Office has overnight severe weather warnings of heavy rain and gales for the south coast). One of the downsides of living in a block of flats when it's windy is hearing garden furniture shuffling up and down on other people's balconies. Bring your furniture inside for the winter, people!