The Right Time To Begin

You may, or may not, have noticed that this week is Shetland Wool Week, which is being marked in Shetland by a variety of events.  Entirely co-incidentally this is also the week that I have made a start on the Fair Isle sweater my dad has wanted for ages.  He is one of the most knit-worthy people I know, not only wearing the things I make him but also showing them off to all and sundry and taking care of them.  His love of being knitted for is life-long and he has not quite got over his mother switching from knitting for him to knitting for his nieces and nephew when he was in his late teens.  Although he later made up for this by getting his grandmother-in-law to knit for him, a mutually beneficial relationship as she loved having someone to knit for.



After a day spent studying the Jamieson's of Shetland spindrift colourcard, a thing of beauty in itself, until I was in a whirl of colour, I eventually picked out my colours, with some trepidation in case they did not work out.  Mercifully they do seem to work, bright and colourful without being too "in your face" or garish.  I wanted colours that had some tradition behind them, but that avoided the beige background of many Fair Isle sweaters.


Swatch

I have put together motifs from an old picture featured in Michael Pearson's book Traditional Knitting, which he had helpfully charted, together with a variety of peeries, some from the original sweater, some from Alice Starmore's invaluable Fair Isle Knitting.  Michael Pearson's Traditional Knitting was a library find and the book that first got me interested in the knitting of the past.  For the charts themselves, rather than spending hours hunched over graph paper, I found some excellent software online called KnitBird, which is charting software for both colour work and textured or lace knitting and allows you to flip and repeat motifs among other handy features.  The finished charts look professional and polished too; I'm pleased with it, well worth the money.

So now all I have to do is knit it.  I began yesterday and am something just over an inch through the ribbing.  Here goes... I may be some time.

The Ravelry project page is here and has details of which colours I am using.

Seasonal bewilderment

This unseasonably warm weather has caused the garden to be a profusion of flowers and unseasonable new growth, so that alongside more usual sights there are also fresh nasturtiums coming up, summer flowers still flowering and even supposedly spring flowers putting out fresh flowers.


Next door's apples ripening in profusions


Holly berries ripening, we shall be unlikely to have any left by Christmas for the Christmas pudding given the birds' appetites.


The roses by the pond, although they have flowered in mid-winter before, they have a natural enthusiasm.


Summer flowers and foliage


A hoverfly on a poppy


More poppies in waiting


And lastly some enthusiastic primroses

Crash

Right now I am in the middle of an ME and fibromyalgia crash, caused by trying to do too much and not saying no enough and things just happening that I have had to deal with and not enough sleep over a number of weeks.  It seems a cruel irony that a fatigue causing illness should come with the inability to sleep.

I am trying not to feel sorry for myself, or blame myself too much, although I know that this is what happens if I overdo things; neither am I asking for your pity.  But there might not be much interesting blogging going on for a bit while I regroup and keep practising resting.  I am trying to teach myself to see resting as constructive, not simply wasting time or achieving nothing, this effort is in its early days so far.

For now I shall go back to bed, in between short times knitting, I think having something restful to do is so important with any kind of chronic illness.  It provides something else to think about outside oneself and helps pass the time.  Certainly I have become good at finding low-energy things to do, perhaps one day I shall have to write about it here, when I have rested that is!


A gratuitous picture of some roses because they're beautiful.

On the needles

As it has been a while since this blog, supposedly about knitting, has had much on it about knitting, I thought i would do an update post on what I have on the needles.



A couple of days ago I finally finished this pair of socks, which, embarrassingly, I started in February.  The delay was owing to how long it took me to get the hang of the pattern and also various interruptions, but now they are finished I am very pleased with them.  The pattern is Elm by Cookie.a and the yarn is from one of my current favourite indie-dyers, Countess Ablaze.  Although I do increasingly enjoy a plain "vanilla" sock, particularly in stripy yarn, I do sometimes enjoy a more challenging sock, particularly by Cookie.a whose designs are so clever, I often marvel at how she does it.



Inspired by autumn's imminent arrival, I have mostly been working on Lady Marple cardigan by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne in Artesano Alpaca Aran, which is a gorgeous mix of alpaca and wool making a lovely warm, not too heavy fabric with a slight halo.  The yarn is slightly tweedy in its depth of colour - the shade I am using is called twilight and is a mid turquoise with hints of red. The pattern has a nice balance between mindless relaxation and a bit of lace to keep it interesting; it is an adult version of a pattern written for a child - Miss Marple.  As it is on 5mm needles it is making fair progress and I am currently a few centimetres from dividing at the armholes to work the back and two fronts separately, and so I am fairly confident of finishing it before the cold weather (touch wood).




Apologies for the quality of the photograph, it can be quite challenging photographing a work in progress, this was taken over a week ago too so I have progressed a fair bit from there.

In between times I have been finishing off some baby knits and really need to get more done - there seem to be a lot being born at present.

August Sunflowers

We finally have a sunflower flowering, planting the seeds directly in the ground was not wildly successful, these are the only two that have come up.  Next year I think I shall plant them in pots and then put them out when they're bigger.

I love sunflowers, they are so cheerful, like concentrated sunshine.  Hopefully the birds will enjoy the seeds too.

Our tomatoes are also ripening thick and fast and I have harvested some every day the past few days.  There's something deeply satisfying about eating something that has grown outside your own back door and that you have watched grow.

God of Contradictions

Something I wrote a week or two ago and have just polished up, mostly by getting the verses into order.  I suppose it is a Psalm?  Nothing on David's level though.

God of Contradictions

The God who made the earth the skies and sea
And allows us to trash them

The God who made man and woman in His own image
And allowed us to sin and break His heart

The God of beauty and perfection
Who allows ugliness and imperfection to reign

The God of justice, friend of the poor,
Who allows injustice and poverty to flourish

The God who is the prince of peace
And yet allows wars and rumours of wars

The God who sent His son
to save us in human form
And allowed us to beat and kill Him

The God who heals,
who makes the lame walk and the blind to see
And allows children to get sick and die

The God who is holy and perfect
And allows sinners to join Him at His table

The God of all joy
Who allows unimaginable sorrow

The God who collects our tears in a jar
And allows us to go on and on filling the jar

The God who hears our prayers
And so often allows silence to answer them

The God who rose again
And allows us to share in His hope

The God of contradictions
whom we so little understand
One day will you allow us to see as you see?
Will you seem so contradictory then?

The God who will soon return
And allows soon to feel like forever

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13.12

The Big Knit - 4ply Innocent Smoothie Hats

Another free pattern, there have not been any for a while, so here we go.



4ply Innocent Smoothie Hat

The Big Knit, run by Innocent Smoothies to raise money for Age UK, is now in its 10th year.  For each hat knitted the charity receives 25p.

Perfect for using up all those sock yarn left overs that are too small to use for anything bigger. I thought the self striping sock yarns would look particularly effective.  They are strangely addictive to knit.

Materials:
small amounts of 4 ply yarn
3mm needles (or size required for gauge)

28stitches and 36 rows to 4 inches – the fastest way to check gauge is probably to cast on a hat and measure it after a few rows

Cast on 36 stitches and knit two rows.  Then knit 18 rows of stockingette stitch commencing with a knit row.

Decreases: Following row knit two together across the row.
Then purl two together across the final row

Cut yarn, thread through stitches on needle and pull tight, sew seam and add pompom or any embellishment you wish.



Perfect as a blank canvas for different stitch variations or colourwork.

For more information about the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit, including where to send the hats, please see: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit