In which the knitting gods make their views known

So, despite casting on and knitting the first couple of inches of Doris in a crazed funk (mmm, more more, my precious), I soon realised that something was not quite right. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to swatching - mostly because when I do bother I tend to find that my tension is exactly that required, and then I feel I've wasted valuable knitting time and should just have started all along. Humph. Anyway. So, looking at the supposedly smallest size Doris I was blithely knitting, I realised that it seemed to be - you know - a bit on the big side. Even without blocking or being particularly flat, the back that I was knitting was measuring more like the largest size than the smallest. Oops.

I frogged and selected another pattern. This time I'm going for Grace. Another cardigan, but with no moss stitch (below on the right). And - you guessed it - I swatched. I swatched in two different yarns and wouldn't you know I got gauge with both. Ha. Seems my tension with stocking stitch is very different to my tension with moss stitch. Who knew? I still want to knit Doris though - although next time I promise I'll swatch first.

Giving Up

January has been a bit of a disaster knitting wise. The purple Christmas socks are still on the needles, stalled somewhere before the heel flap of the second sock, and the Ava that I cast on. Ha. It is no more. It has been cast aside. Frogged. Done away with and sent very firmly to Coventry.

It's a lovely pattern (probably). But we didn't get on. I kept mixing up the wrong and right sides so the button holes appeared on the shoulder, rather than the centre front/flap. And it was all taking longer than I anticipated (because I had to keep correcting my mistakes), so I ended up improvising an infinity scarf for that 6 year old whose birthday was looming in front of me. And then. Last night. When I got to the bottom of the first front I cast off and discovered the fatal flaw. The front and back did not match up. By about 2 inches. Rather more of a mismatch than can be dealt with by finishing tricks. I've got no idea why that is/was, and I didn't bother to try and find out. I frogged it instead, and have put the yarn back into my stash (grrr).

I still love the socks off the Winter Kids book though, so this morning I cast on for a Doris. There's a small girl we know that will be 3 at the end of the month and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this time the knitting gods will approve.

February seems to be a good time for a spring clean, so I'm giving myself one, and am looking forward to a gluten free month. I'll (probably) keep away from sugar and chocolate too, although my resolve may weaken on that one on account of the two bars of delicious chocolate sitting in the fridge!

To a haggis...

Today is Burn's night, and we're having haggis for supper, as one should when one lives in Scotland. It's noteworthy because it'll be the first time I've had haggis on Burn's night, after only recently discovering that I like it! Who knew it was so tasty? We (probably) won't be doing the more elaborate bits of Burn's night ritual, e.g. piping it into the dining room or stabbing it with a skean dhu, but we might just manage a verse or two of the address...

To a Haggis, by Robert Burns

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy of a grace

As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,

Your hudies like a distant hill,

Your pin wad help to mend a mill

In time o' need,

While thro' your pores the dews distil

Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An' cut ye up wi' ready slight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like onie ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reeking, rich!

Then horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:

Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve

Are bent like drums;

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

'Bethankit!' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,

Or olio that wad staw a sow,

Or fricassee wad mak her spew

Wi perfect scunner,

Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view

On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,

As fecl;ess as a wither'd rash,

His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,

His nieve a nit;

Tho' bluidy flood or field to dash,

O how unfit.

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,

The trembling earth resounds his tread,

Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

He'll make it whistle;

An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned

Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill o' fare,

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware,

That jaups in luggies;

But if ye wish her gratfu' prayer,

Gie her a Haggis!

New Year New Knitting New Babies

Happy New Year!

It's been a whirlwind start to the year. I'm teaching again so there is lots of thinking and reading and preparing and photocopying and tinkering with the university VLE going on. And, there has been plague in this house. I am the only one not to have succumbed and the only one not to have antibiotics. DH is still laid low and although ordered to rest by the GP, as a self-employed person, he is inevitably tucked up with his laptop... So time to knit and blog has been small.

Anyway, there is new knitting and new babies to report. First, some old friends welcomed their second child, a girl named Zoe, last week. She was born at home, like her big brother, and on her mama's birthday! A day later - near neighbours Lorraine and Trevor welcomed a little girl called Sophia Rose. Welcome to the world little ones. We wish you much love, light and peace as you grow. And, to your dear parents we wish much sleep.

On the knitting front, I swapped one of my Christmas presents (a sock book) for something I was a bit more excited about: Rowan Winter Kids.

It's stuffed full of gorgeous projects and the bean has already requested one of the sweaters... not sure I'll manage it in time for his birthday (next week!) but I have already cast on for one project - Ava - a girl's cardigan knit in one piece in a chunky yarn.

I am using something from my stash rather than the colourscape yarn specified. It's a shame not to have such lovely colours to work with, but stash busting is *still* the challenge in 2011! I'm hoping to gift Ava to a friend's daughter, but it will depend how it looks in my tweedy yarn...

Oh yes, and one last thing, I  had some scrumptious sock yarn from my mother for christmas. It's Jenny Cook's again, and so tempting that I wound the skein on Christmas day and started knitting straight away. The first sock is done, and the second on the needles...

Concentrating (#2)

A few weeks ago I attended a conference. One of the plenary speakers was Danny Dorling, a geographer from Sheffield University. He was talking about his new book 'Injustice: why social inequality persists' and argued clearly and powerfully about the relationship between inequalities in income and inequalities in health. His main thrust is this - if there was less discrepancy between the rich and poor in our (UK) society, then that would bring with it many, many benefits including a reduction in the health inequalities that currently exist.

I've been thinking a lot about Dorling's arguments over the last few weeks. In the context of a coalition (by which I mean Tory) government, there is much to be gloomy about, but Dorling himself was positive, because - he said - we can change it if we want to. So, I've been thinking about how I can change it. I could of course lobby my MP, complain and harrass government ministers and that would have some effect. But, I've been thinking about this in relation to the things I do with my money and whether my spending helps to concentrate wealth into the hands of the richest. Shopping at supermarkets and on the high street generally means that our cash works its way through the hands of the not-very-well-paid staff to the corporate boards, shareholders and investors that control these global brands and businesses. There are some exceptions, e.g. John Lewis and the Co-operative group - which have no anonymous shareholders but which pay dividends to its members (customers in the case of the co-op and staff in the case of John Lewis). Of course, spending money in locally-owned businesses, craft markets, farmers markets, independent shops, Etsy, Folksy and so on does the opposite. It helps to put money directly into the pockets of individuals and their families. There are no fat cat investors or venture capitalists taking their share of the profits. The New Economics Foundation did some work on this a few years back, showing that every pound spent on a local veg box did much, much more for the local economy than every pound spent in a local supermarket - and that supermarkets employed fewer people for every thousands pounds of turnover than corner shops.

So, the bottom line is this: the more money I spend in my local economy, the more I support my local community - safeguarding jobs and helping to maintain a healthy (literally) place to live and work. While I was thinking about this, I came across an old newspaper article about going off-grid. This didnt mean living in a self-sustaining house with no connection to the National Grid, but refusing to shop in mainstream supermarkets and instead, spending all your food budget in farmers markets, independent butchers, fruiterers, fishmongers, bakers, wine merchants and so on. I saw the article in Earthy, a local and independent supermarket and cafe stocking local, organic and fair trade produce. It seemed to be fitting somehow.

Leading up to Christmas seemed to be a good time to think about this. Although we haven't gone completely off-grid with our food spending, I think most of our gift shopping has been with independent/local businesses and high-street companies without shareholders. It's a start, and I mean to go on. 

Enjoy the snow if you have it; keep safe and warm and have a very, very merry Christmas.

Concentrating...

As the time left before Christmas is getting short (only 10 days left - how did that happen? eek!) I'm trying to concentrate on things/gifts which I really have a chance of finishing quickly. The recent snow kept us indoors rather more than is usual, so I grabbed small gobbets of time here and there to get a few things finished off.

There have been some more socks. Two pairs of crazy socks, from the Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball yarn I had for Christmas last year. The two balls I received has made 4 pairs of socks in all - three for me and one for a friend (seems like a fair balance!) The last pair are eked out of the remaining yarn using another ball of yarn from the stash. No idea what this solid green yarn is (Rowan maybe), but the colour fitted in perfectly with the crazy yarn, and I used the grumperina approach to striping. I was prepared for the crazy yarn to run out before I got to the toe, but the amount was perfect to stripe to the end, and gave me just enough to kitchener the toes closed.

There was a baby beanie (tutorial here) knitted in honour of a new baby, born to some friends we met at antenatal classes almost 4 years ago. Their first son was born the day after the bean - both early by about a week - and they get on famously whenever we see them. Anyway, congratulations to you Gilly and Jason and welcome to the world little Callum!

I also spent a pleasant 20 minutes or so refeshing one of the jelly bean's dribble bibs (tutorial here) which had got a bit - you know - grubby. I cut another piece of fabric for the top side, and stitched into place with some embroidery floss. Cute huh?

A pile of flannels (wash cloths) is growing too, ready for the wrapping elves to do their work. I have quite an extensive stash of cotton yarn in various colours, so this is being put to good use. I'm knitting some small for children, and then bigger ones for grown ups. Three small flannels (one white, one pink, and one bright blue) went  - along with some organic baby bubbles - to help a small friend celebrate her first birthday last weekend. Happy Birthday Megan. Hope you are feeling better soon. I dont mind knitting with cotton, but it does help that I can finish one of these in a few hours...

My elaborate plans for a mound of quilted/stitched gifts are definitely rather optimistic. I have made some quilted coasters (based on last-minute patchwork gifts book), using some of the fabric patches from the crazy patchwork duvet cover my grandmother made me when I was a teenager. I thought these would be a nice gift for my mum, to remind her of her mother. But, they are taking me a lot, lot longer than I imagined, and arent quite as square or perfect as I hoped!

Snow on snow on snow...

After what seemed to be a very brief autumn, winter arrived with a vengeance. It is now almost 2 weeks since the first snows fell - and although the temperatures are now just above freezing again, there is still a thick layer of snow covering the city. Edinburgh is a dry city, close to the sea and snow of this magnitude is really unheard of. We have at least 18 inches of accumulated snow in our garden, and I cannot remember such deep snow since I was a child. [It makes you feel really old when you start to reminisce about hard winters 30 years ago when you were a 'girl'!]

Anyway, although I love, love, love snow - the realities of getting to work, covering/arranging childcare when buses are not running, and being stuck at home with two small children are beginning to take the edge off my delight at the snowy vistas outside my windows each morning. It hasnt been a good week overall: DH slithered into the back of a lorry on Monday morning and dented the car quite a lot (although noone hurt, the car was driveable and he didnt get stuck for hours and hours on the gridlocked motorways of the central belt); on Tuesday I managed to kill my mobile phone by washing it in the washing machine and yesterday our boiler froze up. We've been there before with the boiler, so knew immediately what to do to restore the situation and our friendly plumber is coming this evening to check things over. I hope that's the end of the bad stuff for this week, and things get better from here!

On the plus side all this time at home has been good for some things. I have managed to finish a few little projects, details coming soon...