Christmas completions...

I knitted the sample ages ago, but today I finally got round to photographing and uploading another pattern inspired by the Galapagos Islands, the Santiago Cowl.

 

I was hoping to get a lovely sunny day to do the photos... but gave up on this.

It's got a similar construction to the Bartolome cowl (appropriately, as Bartolome is just off the coast of the much larger Santiago island), so anyone who buys the Santiago pattern will also get sent Bartolome free. It's £2 of which 50p goes to the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

I also knitted myself a Christmas present from Natural Dye Studio Schehezerade which is a spectacularly soft baby camel and silk blend - Ashley Knowlton's lovely Butterfly Forest Shawl pattern.

Isn't it nice when your patterns work?

My sister-in-law wants some fingerless gloves for driving for Christmas, so I knit her a pair of my Beaujolais fingerless mitts in Artesano Alpaca DK. It was a while since I wrote the pattern so I was delighted to discover it made sense and didn't seem to have any mistakes...

They're quite cute - I sort of want to keep them, which is always the problem I have with knitting presents!

Just been sent the PDF of my wrap pattern that is going in February's Knit Now magazine, which is all very exciting, and have finished a sample for the March issue, which is just waiting for me to get round to writing up the pattern, and doing all the tedious measuring bits.

On the subject of patterns working, so pleased to see the lovely version someone had made on Ravelry of my Black Beacon Scarf. It looks neater than my sample! The knitter in question is in Malaga - it feels sort of miraculous that someone in Spain is knitting a scarf pattern inspired by  my trips to East Anglia.

Went to my friend Andrew's wedding at the weekend (he's a very funny stand up comedian - you can follow him on Twitter at @theAndrewWatts). It involved a rather curious ceremony, being essentially a double-handed Christian/Jewish affair, with the priest and the rabbi acting in tandem. One minute Hebrew chanting - next minute "Bread of Heaven".

Being me, rather than taking photos of the happy couple, I took lots of the priest's rather magnificent vestments:

Wouldn't it make the most gorgeous colourwork sweater? Maybe by someone like Alice Starmore. Not quite sure my colourwork design skills are quite up there yet.

If this all sounds a bit too serious, I can assure you the grapey theme seen on the vestments was more than supported by the generous wine supply thereafter...

Added some weeks later: this very wedding was the subject of an article in the Sunday Times colour supplement on Jan 30th.

A bit late... but here's the Black Beacon scarf

Finally got a version of my Black Beacon scarf that I am happy with! The half hexagon pattern alternates stocking and reverse stocking stitch (so the scarf is fully reversible) and blocking does wonders for it - makes the hexagon patterns sit much flatter. My male model is in Hong Kong at the moment so it's being modelled by the garden bench:

It's available to download free from Ravelry.

A bit late for Wool Week here in the UK but apparently it's Dutch Wool Week at the moment so that's OK...

It's the wonder, the wonder of wool

I was soaking my Old Bones shawl - pattern by the very talented Ashley Knowlton - at the weekend and musing on what amazing stuff wool is. It's made from Gotland Aran yarn by Well Manor Farm, raised & spun & dyed in Britain, and as I took it out of its Euclan, I was struck by how quickly the thoroughly-marinaded shawl shed its moisture, showing off waterproof/quick-drying properties that creators of synthetic material would kill for. Well done the sheep!!

 

And isn't the colour pretty?

All power to the good people at theCampaign for Wool!!!

Thank eff it's Friday...

It's been a right old week at work... so glad it's Friday and got cheered up by some good news yesterday, had another pattern commissioned by Knit Now! Obviously all very much Hush Hush, but I had an enjoyable time looking for shiny orange yarn for it.

I've also just picked up a new car which is also very exciting, and finally finished a sweater I've been meaning to knit for ages the Fyberspates "Challow" - first Fair Isle sweater I've made. The Fyberspates 4 ply yarn feels so luxurious & it is really light but warm. I have a whole ball of the main colour left so will get the treat of knitting with it again!

Good news / Bad news

Bad news... my car appears to be dead. It began to emit strange steam and make peculiar noises as we set out from Clare for lunch at the George in Cavendish, Suffolk on Saturday. We decided to pass the pub and look for a garage. The garage we found was shut, and the car gave up the ghost in their forecourt. So instead of a nice afternoon having lunch, swatching, etc, we spent the afternoon waiting for various men to come along and shake their heads in despair as the sight of my engine. We then sadly waved the car off as it went back to London & we got a taxi back to Clare, where I cheered myself up with a real fire, sparkling wine & Strictly Come Dancing. Did the entire length of the Central line from Epping to Ealing Broadway today, as this seemed to be by far the cheapest option for getting home from Clare without a car.

On the plus side, whilst on the tube I finished some socks for David from yarn I dyed myself in Turmeric and Paprika - Spicy Socks - and I also managed to take some pics in the field opposite the house in Clare of the now-finished Black Beacon hat.