Turning corners

As usual I cast on some lace - this is Lyra by Herbert Neibling.

In some lovely yarn from the Yarn Yard.


I started her on the 15th








So far there is nine days of knitting, I'm on round 130 out of 180.

And I'm now bored of her....

But I have got as far as the corners :-)

(hence the title of the post..)











I've worked out that it will take me at least 25 hours to finish her ...

It has been cold here and my lack of jumpers overtook me last night and I cast on an aran for myself. Hopefully once I'm warm my lace love will return...


The boy is a bit better, still horribly thin, but we are working on that slowly... He is just about to say hello and take over the keyboard, think I need to type fast and go and find some food...

So another corner turned :-)






And this is a bag I made today for a friend whose husband managed to felt a shawl I made for her...

I hope he gets the hint :-)

The photos are bad - the light had gone by the time I'd finished and the rain had started (again)












And the other side :-)

My machine does lots of patterns, I had fun deciding on the one to use...

And Rae, this has not dented the fabric stash, but I do have a cunning plan !!

Yesterday

I spent a lot of time reading this...


There are 4 shawls and 4 scarves that I'd like to make...

Better get clicking before I go on the cruise with Nancy :-)

And this was the one that I cast on, for a present. The nupps are getting easier - must remember to be loose with my yarn overs otherwise the language isn't good !!

And I might *have* to cast on something else later - Hazel's pattern is out for this

Beads, blur & bad

This is how far I've got with my beaded knitting - it is Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights (Rav link)

I'm getting used to using a crochet hook for adding the beads, and it is very slow compared with knitting lace without the beads !!











I did try and take pictures of the lace pattern - this is the best of them..










And this shows how much I love my next door neighbour - these are leg warmers for her grand daughter.

They are pink.

They are in acrylic.

Enough said.



( I have dyed up some camel today for reward when I've finished them...)

How I do charts

I was asked for 'lace help' yesterday.

After a few emails back and forth I thought others might be interested on my lace ways.

I have tried to take photos but they didn't work so you will have to imagine ...

The main aid to charts (be they lace, colour work or cables) is a magnetic board. I will come as no surprise that I have a collection of them, A4, (from an on line needlework shop) and A3 from ebay, and a floor stand from Woolly Workshop.

The next thing I use is a folded piece of white paper. I move this up the chart row by row. If the chart legend is complicated I write the key on the folded paper.

Moving the paper up the chart means that you can see what the previous rows looked like and see if things are not matching up.... So if you were on row 9 the paper will be over row 10 or 11 with only the rows before visible.

Another useful aid is a row clicker, so if the cat jumps on the board and moves the guiding paper all is not lost !

I hope this all makes sense and helps...

Gabrielle - I'm seeing your Mum later, I'll ask her about the smash ;-) Do you need an emergency supply sending or can you get it over there ?

And tomorrow there will be a photo of a new four legged to the area...

I'm still knitting, honest

When I was up North bank holiday weekend, I took some socks with me. I managed to finish one of these in 24 hours (not that I had a lot of sitting around waiting !!)

Noro sock yarn is a lot nicer than I thought, but where is the pink ?








Next : whilst away I also finished this Danish Wrap shawl.
Made in Jitterbug, it went on for ages, and after getting it wet at Chester Zoo it grew...

It now ties round me twice !!
This is folded in half then half again...







And ties round a chair...

I think it is destined to adorn someone else who is a lot taller than me :-(















And the main thing I have been knitting recently

Murder by lace round three

It took about 30 hours of knitting

Made of two charts, work chart 1, then chart 2, and chart 1 again. I worked the second chart 1 in reverse, not sure if that was the right thing to do or not...

I will be wearing it at the I Knit day on Saturday. I'm going to be a free agent so wandering round, do come and say hello..
(Rosie and Daffy are making a final show appearance on the KCG stand, I've just found out that Rosie is on the fliers for the show !!)

I hate the smell of paint

Thought I would update you on the movement of the mattress !

Well both rooms are decorated, the furniture has been moved from front to back but there is still an issue of an unwanted bed (the mattress is on it's side leaning against the stash wardrobe)

The house smells of gloss paint - why does it take nearly a whole day to dry ?
There are still piles everywhere - I blame the Olympics...

I was going to try and finish my Heree be Dragones shawl for I Knit, and was going well until I must have lost concentration and errored on his neck, not too bad but I have to 'fudge' every row to make it look ok-ish... so as time was against me I decided to start something else.. I really need a new shawl to wear for I knit... so 'murder by lace round three' (Rav link) went on the needles yesterday afternoon, five hours later I'm on row 80 ( out of 198) so there is hope of getting this one done...

I've signed up for a lace swap on Rav sign ups close on 1 st Sept...

I'm off to Liverpool for the weekend, I hope the children that are also staying behave or I might be back sooner than expected !

Sorry for another post with no photos, not connected camera to new laptop to see if it will work (I know you are meant to keep driver cd's safe but...) . Printer was clever and found it's own drivers...

Thanks for the suggestion on how to move stuff over from one machine to another, I was in technical support in a past life....