Far have I travelled....

Well, actually, I haven't been anywhere other than to work and back. I don't have any excuses for my silence other than, y'now, I'm really lazy.

I have been knit, knit, knitting. What have I been knitting? Scarves, because it's getting to that time of year. In fact, I went a little scarf crazy.

Here's a scarf in Rowan Tapestry (shade 174). It's a simple broken rib pattern, and the scarf is only 4 inches or so wide. Two balls were enough to make this scarf which should be just long enough to wrap around twice without creating too much bulk, and the ends will tuck into the front of yer jacket. Excellent. Tapestry is a beautiful yarn to work with. It's really soft and lustrous. However, it does not like to be ripped. Not at all! How do I know? Let's just say that even a simple stitch pattern can fox you when you're trying to knit in the dark whilst watching a screen god strut his stuff, and whilst trying to keep up with the plot in a foreign language film.

I've just picked up another couple of skeins of this yarn - one in the red colourway and one in icy blues. I intend to do the same pattern again, but two rows of each colour down the length of the scarf, so that the shading travels along the whole length. I've done the same in the Noro Kureyon scarf below. The colours aren't too good in the door photo, so have a look at the one where I held the scarves at arm's length and tried to make it look like someone else took the photo.



















OK. I obviously didn't plan it well when I took the photos. The Kureyon scarf is the one with the striping effect running through it. I used two different colours, no idea what shades, and knitted in a nice chunky rib to make a skinny scarf. The other scarf is made from Noro Silk Garden. Both balls were the same shade, but no idea what that shade might be. I ordered the second ball from a completely different supplier than the first ball, and almost twelve months later - they were both the same dye lot. Woo hoo! Yarn karma. Of course, if the scarf was for me, and not a gift, it would have been impossible to get the same dye lot. Yarn karma.

Here are two scarves in Artesano Alpaca. The pattern is from Simply Knitting, issue 17, I think. I knit the first one in rust without the beads, then the second in mid grey with beads. This is my first attempt at beaded knitting, and looks much nicer wih the right sized beads. My first attempt had me using size 9 beads. Tiny. I managed to get them onto the yarn, and even knit about 6 inches of scarf before I gave up and tried again. I now have an industrial sized supply of the correct beads, and guess what folks are getting for Christmas this year...


Some eye candy to finish with. I have a friend who emigrated to Turkey a couple of years ago, and recently I've been sending her books in English as they're not so easy to come by in the area where she lives. She's over here in cold, wet Lancashire for a quick visit, and she popped in to work today with a gift for me. Real hand-knit Turkish socks from Turkey! I know, it's sad to get so excited about socks. But: real hand-knit Turkish socks from Turkey!!! They are super soft and very warm. They are far too nice to wear under boots, so I think these will be snuggly socks for those cold wintry nights when you want to curl up on the sofa with a hot chocolate, a good book, and the lap quilt.

Oh - I've also been knitting little girly cardigans for my nieces, but no pictures of those yet.

Okay - I'm off for some of that hot chocolate I mentioned earlier.