More help

I frogged my Evie. A brief pause while we get over the trauma of that..........

But I started it again on the right size needles.

I accomplished this much knitting last night while watching Midsomer Murders, using the frogged wool. Here it is, looking extremely tatty.

My help needed today is - Will this block out and look gorgeous, will it block out at all or will it look like a piece of scrag end forever?

My OH tells me it will block out but he knows as much about knitting as, well, me. I thought would ask people who know.

I don't think I will do anymore until I have some idea.

Help

I have decided that I must finish my Wip's before I start anymore new knits. This may change because I have fallen at the first hurdle.

I started an Evie cardigan by Kim Hargreaves many months ago but got distracted by shiny things. This has been first on my list of things to finish. I have had a stinking cold this week so it has been perfect for knitting because it is mainly stocking stitch with very little thought. Easy you may think. Nothing can go wrong there. Except that I used the wrong size needles. How did that happen. I finished the back and started on the pocket linings. I couldn't understand why they seemed to be knitted in a 3mm when I had knitted the back in 2.75mm. Everything is meant to be knitted in 3mm.

I don't know what to do now. Should I frog it and start again or should I knit the whole thing on smaller needles? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Still here

I have been struggling with my photographs lately (and my blog posts). When I first started taking photos I just used to get the camera, point and shoot. When I started my blog I wanted the photos to look a bit better and decided to take the photos of my knitted items on a white background. This seemed to work, especially if the sun was shining. Since the weather has not been quite as bright, the photos have not been quite as good. With the sun, went my confidence. OH keeps giving me hints and tips on taking photos. Last night he gave me some more help and I was able to photograph the scarf that I had been finding particularly difficult (it moves about you know!).

I will make that one of my hopes this year - 'To improve my photography'. (notice the clever psychology of not calling it a resolution). I have a flickr account but have no idea how to use it. I know you have heard that sort of thing from me before. Hope number two - 'learn to use flickr'.

Anyway, here is the scarf. I made it with the use of notes and guidance from fridica. She had knitted a scarf for a male friend and had decided on a ribbed scarf pattern. It is quite difficult to find a nice scarf pattern for a man so I decided that I too, would knit that same pattern for my youngest son. I have three sons so am always looking for men's patterns either for scarves, jumpers and cardigans.

Here is fridica's blog post about her scarf. Thank you fridica. I will definitely use this pattern again.

My son's had to be a black colour for school but I quite liked this flecky one. It was in a big ball of 400 gms of Stylecraft Aran with Wool. He needed a hat as well. A friend of mine offered to knit him one. I wound off 100 gms for her and she got started on the hat and I did the scarf.

Two days later my friend arrived with not one, not two but three hats out of the yarn I had given her. I had only just cast on. She is a super quick knitter. I am a plodder. As you can see, the scarf got finished eventually and he was all wrapped up for winter.

This last photo of the scarf is of it running around trying not to be photographed.

Come back chuck, come back.

Ravelled here

Birthday Trip

It was my son's birthday on Sunday so we took a trip to the Seaside. He always wants to go to the seaside which, considering his birthday is in November, is sometimes a trial. This year we were very lucky and the weather was beautiful. It was sunny but cold.

We went to Lulworth Cove in Dorset. We had tried to visit there in the summer but it was absolutely packed. We couldn't even get in the car park. On Sunday, however, it was lovely. There were people around walking dogs and a few people, like us, just visiting the beach.

If you look on the hill in this photo there is a little monument type information thing. I walked up that hill to that monument. Unfortunately, I was so shattered by the time I got to the top that I couldn't read what it said!

For Thomas Hardy fans, I think this cliff looks like the one where the sheep dogs rounds up the sheep and guides them off of the top to their death. Cheerful hey.

This is my snazzy artistic shot. I don't quite know how I managed this one but I think I just took the photo into the sun. All of the photos where taken on my phone so I am quite pleased with them. I have to admit that my OH took the top two while I was slogging up the hill. It gave him an excuse to stay down at the bottom.

Stonemason Socks

Here is the heel view of my Stonemason Socks by Ashley Knowlton. I did these as a test knit. I struggled a little at first because I have never attempted cabling on a sock before and found it quite difficult on DPNs. I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and learned to cable without a needle. This made life a lot easier and I then really enjoyed the pattern.

This is the view from the top of the foot. The pattern is beautifully written (do you say that about a pattern) and easy to understand. I will definitely knit the other as soon as I have got my act together.

As you can tell from the photos, the stock has not been blocked yet. For those of you on Ravelry my project page is here.

I used Araucania Ranco Solid for the sock. It is a lovely light lavender colour which is not really showing up in the photos. I really liked knitting with this yarn although it did have a tendency to split when I was doing the cabling. I would definitely use it again.

Busy week

I have had a super busy week and it has taken me the last four days to get over it. As you know, I did my trip to Fanderson. I then went to visit my daughter in Manchester with my sons. We did some shopping and went on the Manchester Eye. How touristy. As you can see, it was quite high but I managed to stifle my screams. It was quite nice because we got a pod to ourselves.

The giddy heights of Manchester

After our day trip to Manchester we then went to Cardiff to see Dr Who Live. What a great show. The music was great. The monsters lurked around the audience which was great fun. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos once the show had started

Dr Who Live

At the weekend I did my big trip to London with my son. As I think I mentioned before, he won a competition to design an alien space craft for an online game for Sarah Jane's Adventures (a spin off of Dr Who). We travelled up early on Saturday and made our way to the BBC.

Paddington Station

I dropped my son off at the BBC and then, of course, had to entertain myself until 5.30 pm. I headed for Oxford Street. I originally come from Greater London so I get so excited when I go back. It is so vibrant and full of life. I went to John Lewis to buy some yarn (a story about this to follow) and then to Liberty's. I loved Liberty's. I had forgotten how hot it is in the shops there. I had to stop constantly and take on fluids. I got back to the BBC at 4.00 pm and was absolutely exhausted.

BBC White City

On the Sunday, I dropped my son off again but this time the novelty had worn off a little for me. It was pouring with rain and I had forgotten that nowhere opens until 12 noon on a Sunday. After wandering around for a while I telephoned my OH for assistance and some tips of where to go. He pointed me in the direction of the British Museum. I hadn't been there since I was very young and I loved it. I wandered around for about four hours and didn't actually see anything. I went in every room and sat in various places. I had a drink in every cafe there and spent a lot of time people watching. I left there with a couple of books (History of the World in 100 Objects and The Book of The Dead) and a promise to myself to return with the family (whether they want to or not) so that I can share my excitement with others.

Entrance hall at the British Museum

When I collected my son he was so enthused. He had had a brilliant time. He had shared his ideas with like minded people and learned a lot from them. He felt as if he really fitted in. Who could ask for more than that.

I did manage some knitting. I need something to keep me sane. Knitting posts to follow.

FAB - Fanderson convention - TV21

On Saturday I took my eldest son to the Fanderson Convention at Bristol. This is a convention for all fans of Gerry Anderson. For those of you who are still in the dark, he is the creator of Thunderbirds, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Space 1999 and UFO to name a few. The convention took place over the weekend but we only went on the Saturday.

The photos are a bit blurred I am afraid. They were taken on the run. My son is autistic and we do everything at 100 miles an hour. He was so thrilled to be there because there were people that had worked on the original series. We also got to see Gerry Anderson himself, although we weren't allowed to ask for his autograph. They had models of various space ships and puppets but none of the main ones.

This is Sam Loover from Joe 90.

This is Parker from Thunderbirds

This is the cockpit from Thunderbirds. It is the cockpit of Thunderbird 2. But alas no puppets!

This is the Eagle transporter from Space 1999.

They had rooms with screenings of peoples favourite episodes. It certainly was an eye opener for me. The people running the convention were extremely friendly and it was well organised.

On the way back, while we were in Bristol, we had to stop at Get Knitted. It was almost compulsory. Although I couldn't hang around for very long, I had a lovely time. I squeezed loads yarns and looked at various pattern books and needles.

It was a lovely day out. I got to spend quality time with my eldest son, somewhere he really enjoyed going and where we were accepted.