Sunday afternoon

A beautiful sunny afternoon, a shady garden, a comfortable chair, some good reading material, some knitting and that classic retro treat: a strawberry split. The birds were singing in various trees and bushes and next door's cat was fast asleep at the bottom of the garden.

Above me an awesome sky. Gloriously relaxing.

Destruction

Watching the beautiful William Morris wall paper in my parents' hall, in one of my favourite patterns, Willow Bough, being ripped off, so cracks in the plaster behind can be attended to, is making me feel most sad.
I know that soon Morris' masterpiece will be up there anew. But for now I feel sad.

Cable time

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3.1

Now is my time for cables it seems. To date this year I have mainly been doing fairly plain knitting, vanilla socks, lots of garter and stockingette stitch. Now I have launched into a baby jumper full of cables and I'm just ready for the challenge. Soothing as mindless knitting can be, sometimes knitting that requires real focus and concentration can just hit the spot. It is absorbing and stops me thinking too much.

Then there is the feeling of achievement - knowing that you have followed these instructions and produced some fabulous looking cables. The yarn, Rowan Wool Cotton, is giving the cables beautiful definition, they really do "pop" (as they say), is so soft and has a gorgeous lustre. The pattern in question is Baby Poonam, one of Berocco's free patterns (ravelry link) and incidentally my first ever knit by the designer Norah Gaughan. It's such a sweet miniature aran sweater complete with shoulder buttons, which my friend and fellow knitter Cara introduced me to.

The knit so far has not been without incident, when I saw Cara's version last week I suddenly realised that I had somehow altered the textured stitch, producing more of a mistake or waffle rib rather than the texture originally intended. After much bemused head scratching and reading and re-reading the pattern I realised that I had misplaced the asterisk in the repeat, meaning I had neglected to p2 across the row. However, the pattern I've created is rather nice, I think it would make some rather awesome socks, will have to experiment some more.

I've just realised though that instead of returning to my knitting, I should probably wrap my mother's birthday presents, since it is her birthday tomorrow. Hope she likes the Garter Stitch Loop Through scarf I've made her.

P.S. I've also finally started an Ishbel, in Artesano Alpaca 4ply, more of that anon.

Glorious Glads

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Originally uploaded by foggyknitter

The late evening sun was just catching the gladioli in the dining room tonight, it was such a glorious sight I had to get a picture. Not a bad photo from my mobile either.

Thought for the day

"...I will be flesh and blood;

For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the toothache patiently,

However they have writ the style of gods,

And made a push at chance and sufferance."

Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 1