Everyone loves knitting

Just popping in between the Doctor Who scarf and Harry Potter to share a quotation with you:

'.... I was merely reading the Muggle magazines,' said Dumbledore. 'I do love knitting patterns.'

See? We always knew that knitting is magic.

If proof be needed....

....that I really have been knitting while I haven't been blogging!

All photos courtesy of Richard. I hope the Doctor Who scarf will be up here soon - I hit halfway today :)




First, the hooded baby poncho, modelled by Pooh. I left the whole front seam open, and used four adorable buttons in the shape of prams.

This is made from a tape yarn called Summer Fun, which I got from Get Knitted (NAYY). It's a kind of paper, something like a J-cloth, and very easy to work with. This took about a ball and a half, and is about paperback-sized.








These are two-needle bobbled socks from a book called Textured Knits. Being me, I decided to do them in vibrant stripes, so I did three rows of bobbles - one in each colour.









Another pair of Opal self-striping yarn socks, for me. These are fab!













And finally, my new labels. Aren't they great??
£9.50 for 36, from Minilabels (NAYY....).

Beamish Boy

So, Richard is home from university for the summer! This is extremely good news for me, as he spends a fair bit of time here, thus ensuring I get intelligent conversation, terrible jokes and an unlimited supply of digital photography by someone who really knows how to take digital photos (ie, not me).

(I hasten to add that I get this all year from his father, too - but as he works three jobs, we don't spend as much time together as Richard and I do.)

I can't remember when I started calling him the Beamish Boy. As I expect you realise, the phrase is from 'Jabberwocky', and thus is meant to be gibberish - but it suits him. He has a wonderful attitude to life.

He also, bless him, is fascinated by the mechanics of knitting. Although he has no desire to knit himself, he loves to watch me knit, and to work out how stitches and patterns are formed. He also receives knitted items with great delight, which makes him the perfect recipient.

A few days ago, I was sketching out a new design, which has rather unusually-shaped pattern pieces, and I couldn't work out in my head quite how to draw them in 2D. He wandered off with paper and sticky tape, and returned with a miniature model of the thing, which I then cut apart to see the shape of the constituent parts. How brilliant is that?

So, in other words, I am boasting. I am also explaining why he is the only person for whom I would knit a 10-foot long Doctor Who scarf in double-knit merino in a heatwave.....

What a way to start the day

I had a really good night's sleep on Monday night. So, as is usually the case, I was more than usually groggy and bewildered when I staggered out of bed on Tuesday morning and shuffled off to the loo.

And then I trod on something.

Something soft, yet crunchy.

It was a dead mouse.

And I had trodden on it.

With.

Bare.

Feet.

Sometimes I hate having cats..........

Highlight of the week

Floyd on Live8. No question.

Didn't all the 'oldies' look and sound fab? I swear you could see Paul McCartney getting younger with every song he played....

I'm still pretty much wiped out by the heat and my hay fever (like I need another set of symptoms!), but I've finished my latest pair of socks and I'm now slowly progressing on Richard's Doctor Who scarf. I'm making the full Season 12 scarf, in King Cole Superwash Anti-Tickle Merino. Lovely stuff, and great colours - plus it's in stripes, so that spurs me on to get each section finished before I stop.

Richard is now home for the summer, so I hope to have some photos soon.

Sorry this is so short - I hope to write more next time!