This may end up being a very quick knit, given that I started it yesterday and I’m half way through already. The yarn is Baby Alpaca and Silk from Mobair (who unfortunately don’t have a website. 🙁 that I bought at a craft show at Blenheim Palace a month or so ago. (Liz blogged about it here.)

Anyways I bought about 200g and always planned to make a scarf (for myself) but the lace patterns I tried didn’t really work with the yarn, which I realised after a while, really just wanted to be left alone to do it’s own thing, and show off in a simple way. So inspired by how my Ruana was coming along, a given that actually I get really bored when I knit scarves back and forth width-wise I decided to cast on a WHOLE MASS of stitches and knit it length ways.

So here is the recipe:

Long tail cast on (of sorts, in that actually I used the same method as with the ruana, in that I used one end of one ball, and one end of the other so that I never ran out of yarn when I was casting on. Yes you have another end to darn in, but I don’t care about that), about 380 stitches on 4mm needles (my new addi turbo lace needle. *hearts*).

Knit back and forth until either I run out of yarn or the scarf is wide enough. (Any left overs will get added to the Ruana stash, and I’m good with that.)

Cast off using the sewn cast off for Knitting Without Rules, so that it looks and acts the same as the cast on.

Done.

I don’t know why I’m enjoying such mindless knitting at the moment. Certainly it makes watching the Tour de France easier (oh Vino – you utter star!) Mind you when my sister gets back from the US next week with the books that I ordered, I’m planning to use them to start on the shawl for my other grandma, and really – in the meantime – when I finish this scarf, I should spend some more time on the waistcoat for W’s mum – (can you tell I’ve started to avoid it? Horrible intarsia pretending to be fairisle! Even just the darning in I’ve created so far – only 6″ into the project – is bringing me out in a cold sweat!)

Today we are expected to get two months of rain, in one day. *I* am also expected to travel to london for dinner with in-laws and other family members, and then come home again. Meh. We shall see.

However there are chips baking in the oven, and it’s not cold, and there is work and knitting, and more work to be done, and then Tour de France footage to watch, and sisters to talk to via googletalk so I am feeling very content.

Shall we look at some knitting? I think we shall.

The Ruana is coming along, slowly but surely.  It’s wonderful, almost-mindless knitting (the only decision is what colour to knit next, and for how long), so it’s great for when I’m watching Tour coverage, or films or whatever. Plus I’m putting all these random balls and half balls to use.  I still think I’m only going to wear it around the house, but I’m fine with that. We have a number of blankets that get used like that, but we can always do with more – especially in the depths of winter, and I can’t see that changing any time soon.

I actually finished these blue-green socks, but the weather is so dreadful that you really can’t get a sense of the colour from the photo I took this morning. So last weeks photo will have to do, till the weather changes again for the better.

I’m wearing them now, and they’re stretchy, and very comfortable (even though it’s really a bit too warm for socks right now.)

Lastly I finished my pegbag. And gave it teeth. Actually I don’t have very much to say about it. I knit it in the round, and it’s a slipknit stitch, so it was pretty easy, and quick. I used a small trouser hanger that I bought from the local drycleaners as the hanger part, so that the whole thing wouldn’t be too huge, and then grafted the top stitches together with the hanger in place, so that it all magically comes together at the top, all neatly. So actually I’m pretty pleased with that.

And it got used yesterday. So – yeah it’s a success. But I don’t really like using thick cotton very much…

(oooh! lightening! THUNDER!!)  Maybe I should unplug my laptop while I go have lunch?

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Hopefully next week I shall have more news about my business – it’s moving along now. 🙂

Scale Socks by Me

My Ravelry Post: here
Stitche Pattern: from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns (sports weight – purple dot 1 skein
Needles: 3mm, and then 3.75mm for ankle upwards
Note: I am a toe-up sock person. In fact 99% of the time I’m a toe-up-both-socks-at-the-same-time person. Being sports weight these knitted up in no time.

Of course they’re completely unsuitable for July – yes it’s raining here in the UK but it’s also MUGGY, and so they’ve gone into the drawer, ready for when it starts getting chilly again.

Conclusion: I like them. I love the yarn – and the stitch held together well. (I’d like to knit another, finer pair, with a purl row between each vertical row of scales, which I think would look great.)

Currently I’m trying to knit up a number of dk/sports weight skeins into socks. This is not the season for it, but I’m loathed to buy more yarn until I do.

Plus there are knitting rules that I feel happy to stick to:

1. There is always a pair of socks on the go
2. There is always some lace and/or a shawl on the go (this will be the case of the forseeable future given the that Frost Flower Shawl is still only about 1/4 completed, and probably needs some more work putting into it).

And proving said rules, I already have another pair of socks on the go (and another fo to show, but I’ll leave that till next week), and I’m waiting for the shawl book my sister is bringing back, before I start my nannan’s shawl, since I’m still not 100% sure what pattern I’m going to use.