2nd repeat

I'm loving the way that the Lang yarn is changing through the different shades and tones on this sock. I've now completed 2 repeats of the pattern and there's 13 rows more before starting the heel.

I still haven't speeded up though, I can only knit on the Rhombus pattern when I'm wide awake, not watching tv and it's broad daylight. Those three conditions don't occur simultaneously very often!

19-26, 25-16 (41), 31-25



Ashton's try

It was an exciting weekend for sports fans and a good opportunity to crack on knitting Seraphina- stocking stitch is perfect autopilot knitting for watching/ listening to sports.

On Friday night we had Wales vs England in the Six Nations Rugby ( the others are Scotland, France, Ireland and Italy). England did well and beat Wales 26-19 at  the Millenium Stadium. D watched the other two games, but I wanted to spend some time on my Rhombus sock and kept out of the way.



Tiote gets equaliser



On Saturday a record number of goals were scored in one day in the Premier League- 41 goals in 8 games (25 for the home teams and 16 for the away team). 
The two big stories of the day were- Newcastle's amazing comeback from 4-0 down after 20 minutes (at home to Arsenal) to draw 4-4, and Wolves being the first team to beat Man Utd this season, which is even more amazing as Wolves were bottom of the table and Man Utd are top.
Arsenal must be kicking themselves at losing their convincing lead (and only getting 1 point instead of 3) as they are lying 2nd in the table and could have narrowed the gap to 2 points. My team got beat 3-2 by Stoke and are now 7th on 37 points. Only 4 points separate the bottom 6 clubs ( Blackpool, Birmingham, West Brom, Wigan, Wolves, West Ham) and it doesn't look good for clubs whose names start with W.



Collins gets 2nd touchdown

 Sunday brought Superbowl XLV, and while we couldn't stay up till 3am to watch the whole thing this year, we did manage to keep awake till 1am . (I foolishly had my car booked in for a service on Mon a.m. and I needed to be awake to get there on time. Bad planning on my part.)
This year the Green Bay Packers won the Vince Lombardi trophy in a closely fought game, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25.

So, lots of exciting sport and quite a few centimetres done on Seraphina. Result!

10,000 boxes = 10,000 smiles

I went to the Operation Christmas Child (OCC) Shoebox Appeal Thank You Evening yesterday. 10,000 boxes were sent from Edinburgh, Midlothian and East Lothian in December 2010 to towns and villages around Minsk in Belarus and we got to see photos of the happy, smiling children getting their presents. 

The fallout from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 is still having profound effects on the health of the children & adults in Belarus and many of the people are living in poverty. There are very few treats for the children when the families are struggling to make ends meet.

As well as the shoeboxes, our OCC branch raises funds to invest in local projects and in 2010 we installed a new cooker in one of the children's centres (some of the children go there to do their homework and enjoy a hot meal too). The youth workers have been teaching the children how to plan and budget and cook a meal- important life skills.
We also support the Babushka care homes and have installed a bath and shower room into one of them, replacing the tin bath that was the only means of washing for the old ladies. We take hot showers for granted in the UK.

There was a fundraising raffle last night and I won this beautiful Matrioshka from Belarus. We also met a lovely young woman from Belarus called Katya who now lives in Edinburgh. She told us how she had felt when she received a shoebox herself 13 years ago, and how she had never forgotten the joy and hope it had given her. There wasn't a dry eye in the room when she told her tale. 

I'm smiling too now that I've got one repeat (28 rows!) of the twisted cable/diamond pattern completed on my Rhombus sock. Goodness me but it's slow work, though it will be well worth it when it's done.

Progress on Rhombus is going to be even slower over the next few weeks now that I've cast on Seraphina. The edging is a bit different to what I've done so far- a mix of purl2tog and yarnovers to create a lacey edge. The damask rose colour is lovely and I'm enjoying the softness of the merino dk.

Once I get onto the stocking stitch back of the sweater this will be ideal TV knitting and I can enjoy a little bit of time on Rhombus when I want to exercise my brain a bit more.

slowly but surely

Cookie A patterns can be quite challenging and I've already learnt two new techniques and I'm only 2" done!

Firstly I've been making stitches while purling- I've been lifting the bar between stitches and then either purling the lifted stitch at the the front or through the back loop (tbl) Now, I've knit tbl but I've never purled tbl, and man that's hard on teeny tiny needles! I've been having to use a skinny crochet hook to create the tiny space to push the needle tbl purlwise. It seems to be working, but it's slower than just knitting tbl!

Secondly I've been cabling a three strand cable, 2 stitches brought forward, 2 stitches to the back then knit tbl the next two sts, purl the two at the back and knit tbl the first pair. This feels quite hard to hold two sep cable needles as well as the 4 dpns. I know that in theory that I could cable without using cable needles, but I'm not going to risk it! It's engrossing so I'm not knitting on this while watching anything complex.

This week's complex must see TV is a Danish crime story called The Killing  ("Forbrydelsen") which is subtitled so I have to keep my eyes on the screen, and has a very interesting plot so I can't predict whodunnit. The series is 20 x 1 hour eps so there's plenty time for many plot twists. I'm so glad that the BBC is showing this, even though I can't make any progress on my Rhombus socks while watching it. I did manage to get a bit done on my Landgirls top though- I can just about manage 2x2 rib while reading subtitles.

I couldn't help myself...

after I bought myself some new boots I had to cast on some new socks too!

This is Rhombus by Cookie A, from Knit.Sock.Love. and I'm using Lang Jawoll Magic, which is a very soft 3ply sock wool (I bought it at I Knit London last summer) in soft shades of blue and green.
I'm using teeny, tiny 2mm needles too- they look like cocktail sticks!


I should be working on a sweater for my Mam, as it's her birthday in Feb, but it looks like it's going to be late.

She chose this pattern Seraphina by Pat Menchini (from Let's Knit iss 36), and I've got some soft Stylecraft merino in Damask. It took me ages to get the wool: the snow in December prevented me from shopping, and then when I got to my LYS in Jan there were only dark shades which wouldn't suit her, so I had to wait till there was another delivery. Then I had a horrible cold and was delayed again. 


Finally I got the wool and realised that I'd broken my rosewood needles in Madeira, so I'm waiting for the postie to bring me new needles.


So while I wait I'll work on these lovely socks, on teeny tiny needles...


..then give Mam flowers on her birthday and show her how far I've got with her sweater!