Flutter Scarf

Flutter Scarf is a very fast and effective pattern designed by Miriam Felton. I love the way the ruffles flow out of the eyelets.


Pattern: MimKnits Flutter Scarf
Yarn: Violet Green's 55%/45% Silk/Cashmere 2ply lace weight in colour Berries (55gm)
Needles: 4mm Brittany Birch
Size:8" x 52"



Lovely pattern and lovely yarn.

Violet Green's Silk/Cashmere is very like Posh Yarns Eva - same composition and yardage but *slightly* easier to acquire!! I love Posh Yarns yarn but I haven't been fast enough to buy any for at least the last six weeks - and not through lack of trying. In fact last Sunday all the yarn seemed to be sold within about 5 minutes. Dee has got an incredibly effective way of selling and Well Done Dee!! But.... I find it so stressful! I'm sure it wacks up my blood pressure. I expect I'll carry on trying to buy it but I don't hold out much hope that I'll get any.

And right now I'm very tempted by this and this....

ETA The second "this" link above worked when I first typed it but since then I bought 3 hanks of it and I must have had all there was because it's not there now! This link is another colour I liked and this is the link to all the Silk/Cash.

Birds

Besides being a model tree the lovely cedar is also the new home of DH's birthday present.

You can see it easily in the sunshine



But against the light it's very camouflaged.



It's not just a bird's nesting box, it has a little camera inside it. Well, we haven't actually put the camera in yet because I'm still checking that it works ok and I didn't want a wireless one so we've got to organise the cable too. I know that no bird will use it this year or even next but they'll get used to its being there so hopefully, eventually, we'll be able to watch them in their nests- I think the blue-tit sized ones will be most likely. It's a colour camera -except for at night when the infra-red will kick in and it can link either to the tv or direct to the pc; I'm told it's easy to make dvds of them in their nest......

Worcester Peregrines

I love the way web cams have made it easy to see bird activity that otherwise would be hidden.

I've particularly enjoyed watching a pair of peregrine falcons with their two chicks in their nest on St Andrew's spire in Worcester. I think there are still two more eggs to hatch. This web cam updates every 10 seconds, so although it's not a movie it's fast enough to be interesting.

Luna Moth Shawl

This is my first Luna Moth but it definitely won't be my last. I loved knitting it and I love it now it's finished. Actually I finished it last weekend but today was the first day that it was fine enough to be outside and still enough. The last few days have been too windy for lace photos.






You can imagine how it feels when you know it was knit with Poshyarns Eva (55% Silk/45%Cashmere). I used two skeins of colour "Glide" on 4mm needles. Knitpicks options I think. It blocked to 74" wide and 50" long.

Rona Lace Shawl and Mondrian's Treehouse Throw

I'm upset just thinking about the shawl so I'll show you the throw first.


It's a Colinette kit, Mondrian's Treehouse in colour scheme Tableau, knitted on 6.5mm Denises using 6 hanks of each of Giotto colours Lichen 76,Caramel 148 and Cherry 122. In fact the Caramel was a bit pinkier than I wanted so I alternated this with some Mushroom from my ample stash.

It was fairly quick to knit but it took ages to get round to sewing in the thousands of ends.

It's destined for a wall in our French house...not sure which one but it'll be a long wait if I wait until it's in situ.



And here modelled by GS5

This is Harry - the current youngest of my six grandchildren. And I'm expecting three more this year!!!


Oh yes, Rona Lace Shawl.

I'm using Violet Green's lace weight Cashmere/Silk again, this time it's colour Emerald and it really does have a jewel-like shine and of course the soft handle from the cashmere.

This is the new beginning.....


Last week I was making excellent progress. On Saturday I told Clarabelle ( who by the way is having a Super Shawl Raffle) that I had done a third of it and over the weekend I made very speedy progress. For some bizarre reason it didn't occur to me to wonder why my yarn seemed to be lasting so long - I expected I would use three skeins to make this shawl so why didn't alarm bells ring when I was still on the first ball and already three quarters finished??

How could I have been so stupid????

In my hurry to get going I managed to omit one of the initial increase rounds so that the whole of my shawl was based on six initial pattern repeats per round and not the twelve needed. So for the rest of the shawl my circumference had half the required number of stitches. So it could never be flat. Only a sort of large pudding basin thingy. Why ever didn't I notice??? 180 stitches instead of 360!!! A bit of a difference....

I was too upset to take a photo and just undid it very quickly. Of course, progress is half the speed of before and I'm itching to get started on The Orkney Pi but I can't start that yet.

Dulcavina

I've been lucky enough to test knit Laura's latest stole pattern - Dulcavina.


Isn't it lovely?


It measured 76" x 24" and took just under three hanks of Malabrigo Laceweight yarn in colour Verde Esperanze ( with about 25gms over) on 3.75mm needles. It's the first time I've used this yarn but it won't be the last. It's such a beautifully soft merino wool I wouldn't have believed anything that wasn't Cashmere could be so soft. I bought mine from Stashyarns in London.


The stole is made of a travelling vine pattern is in the centre with vine lace zig-zag at either end then a deep border all around.



And part of the bottom edge with one of the pretty corners





Has that wet your appetite?

Laminaria

I make no excuse for the large number of photos here.

I. Love. Laminaria.


Elizabeth Freeman's Laminaria from Knitty

It's lovely isn't it!!

I used two skeins of Violet Green's beautifully soft 2ply laceweight 55% Silk/ 45% Cashmere on 3.75 Brittany needles and Hiyahiya as the number of stitches increased. It drapes fantastically.

The final blocked measurements are 34" centre back length and 68" wide
Although it was a very straightforward pattern I actually had quite a lot of problems knitting the five stitches made on a previous row from k3tog, yo several times into one stitch. I think it was a vision thing trying to sort out the order of these stitches and I know I got it wrong from time to time.

But those minor problems faded into insignificance when I saw the finally blocked shawl.




And a few close-ups for you-





And (eta) just one more





Here are some pictures of the lace patterns used.

I was worried that this little star pattern at the beginning of the shawl was going to be too dense but it's blocked out just fine and in fact thecloser texture seems to help it stay in position.

Are any of you listening to "World on the Move" on Radio 4? It's about animal migration but most fascinating for me is their tracking of a female osprey's journey last year from her nest in Scotland to the part of Africa where she spent the winter and then a month ago, starting on 12th March, her journey back to her summer home.

There's a diary here showing her daily progress and her latest position - just north of Heathrow. She's got about 750km to go until she reaches her nest and her mate who is perched on a nearby tree waiting for her. There's a picture of that too. I can't believe how interesting I'm finding this!!




This is my latest top- down sweater - it took just 3 skeins of lace weight Cashmere, colour "Far from the Madding Crowd" from Violet Green on 3.75mm circular needles to make a useful lightweight Summer top.

Again, I'll post the pattern notes when it's easier to type.


I've been feeling quietly confident that the *kinesitherapy session I had in France made an improvement to my back; it's still not better but there's no doubt the "treatment" had some effect.

In the few hours immediately after, I felt desperately tired and could only move at a snail's pace. Gradually that feeling wore off and I began to feel more normal and that night I slept better than I had done for years - not waking until about 9am. Unheard of as my normal wake-up time is between 5am and 6am

It was a weird sort of treatment. Bruno said there was an enormous block causing the muscles around my lower vertebrae to stop working properly and causing lots of inflammation. Now he didn't touch my back once during the whole thirty minutes. He never "manipulated", just touched very gently always with two hands - one on a foot, the other on tummy or waist. Or one on my tummy and the other on my head. He didn't press - it was all very very gentle. At the end he said the blockage was cleared and that a chain reaction had started so that the body would gradually heal itself.

Mumbo-jumbo??

I don't know. There's no doubt in my mind that something happened, I don't know what, or if it will stop my back pain. If I'm still suffering when we go back at the end of May I'm inclined to give it one more try. We'll see.


* I think I mistranslated this last time as kinesiology. But he didn't speak English.

Hiya Hiya

I am still here.....and actually on holiday in France with the so slow dial-up making it impossible to do anything but the minimum. I shall catch up with you all when we are home because even opening a blog is a five minute wait and leaving comments impossible.

It was touch and go whether we came because I had that lurgy that the rest of the UK bloggers seem to have had - really bad fluey chesty thing and each time I coughed, which was often,I worried that I would be "unsettling" my eye again but my consultant reassured me before we set off so I was able to relax about it (a bit).

We'd planned to come to France for Easter but I was feeling far too ill to travel and only just made it here in time for my sister's birthday - her 60th. My daughter Kate made a beautiful sunflower cake -




and it tasted as good as it looked too. It was a very moist, rich chocolate cake almost more pudding than cake and a lovely way to finish a super celebration meal cooked by my niece. She's just recently started keeping chickens and quails and so quail's eggs featured very nicely in the meal.

The Regia bamboo raglan has been finished for a little while but I've only just been able to take a modelled shot-

It's colour Ethno and 3.25mm needles. The only difference between this and the first one I did is that I shaped the neck so that the front is lower than the back and so the whole neckline fits much better. I will write out the stitch count and roughly what I did when I'm back with my proper pc next week.

Number 3 is in the pipeline - in fact almost finished. It's a v-neck in lace weight pure cashmere - more details next week.


Have you seen Hiya Hiya circular needles? When I saw them mentioned on Franney's blog here I knew I'd have to try them. I've only found one UK stockist - Knit'n'Caboodle and they have a fantastic range including those hard to find 2.25mm and 2.75mm in seven different lengths too.

They are stainless steel and less shiny than Addi turbos which is a good thing for me because I find I get dazzle if the light isn't just so. The needles are the same length as the Addis and the join is as smooth. I think I probably prefer the cable of the Addis but not enough to prevent the HiyaHiyas being a clear favourite.



I hardly dare mention my bad back amongst all my other health issues but this reached the point where I needed some sort of outside help. I've had a bad back of sorts (haven't we all??) since I had to lug 14month old twins upstairs together more than 30 years ago but whatever I've got now is different and I think caused by some awkward action to get into bed over a mound of pillows designed to keep my eye in one position. And I've had it for over two months now.
I don't get constant pain but when I do certain twisting movements I get such debilitating breathtaking pain making moving impossible until the spasm has passed and then I'm left feeling weak and sweating.....

I'm going to see a bio-kinesiologist today. Hmm. No, I'm not sure what one is but he was recommended by my French neighbour and his bad back and his wife's have been much improved by Bruno. If it doesn't help I shall see the gp when I get home......

......speaking of which there should be some lovely Malabrigo laceweight waiting for me to do another stole test knit but more details later.....