The man who mistook his wife for a blogger.

Oh no!  I did it again.  I do intend to post more often than monthly, but I've been pretty busy and the days just whizz by without me realising how long it's been.  My husband gives me sporadic updates as to how long it's been since I've written anything, and often tells me that I should post about the boring things as well as the more interesting.  The boring things are, however, really quite boring and I suspect my little readership might desert me altogether if I were to regale the world with tales of daily life.

As medical students, we are mostly to be found sitting around hospital corridors waiting in morbid anticipation of somebody getting really sick and, therefore, something 'exciting' happening.  We anxiously await the opportunity to stick something sharp into somebody under some guise or another.  We spend our days laughing off embarrassing incidents, memorising the names of ridiculously rare conditions we'll probably never see in our lives, getting to know each other far better than we ever thought possible when we first met at the beginning of the year, and trying not to get in anyone's way.  That last one is important.  And there's lots and lots of waiting.  As anyone who has ever been to a hospital will know, if something's due to happen at 10, it might start at around 10.30, it may not happen until 12, and it could even get postponed until next week.  Most of the time there's a pretty good reason for things running late, but nonetheless, there's an awful lot of the waiting around and only a small amount of the exciting, most days.

Life-wise, though, this week has had a bit more of the exciting - the next couple of weeks of my course are allocated to a module that you choose for yourself, and I'm currently spending time at a big, specialist neurological hospital where I am seeing all kinds of things most people won't see in a lifetime.  It's an amazing privilege as well as being really, really fascinating.  I don't yet know what I'll end up doing after I qualify (and I've still got lots of years to decide!) but, at the moment at least, everything about the brain fascinates me.  It's so infinitely complicated and yet perfectly logical.  In Western culture at least, it's viewed as the epicentre of the body, and it's believed to contain and comprise most, if not all, of what defines us as an individual person rather than just another human being.  And there are so many weird and wonderful things - terrible things, life-changing things - that can go wrong with it.  So I'm very happy to have the chance to see the interesting cases and amazing surgery that I am seeing this week.  

What else?  Knitting!!!  There has been some.

First up, I made my husband a pair of socks.  He recently had an operation on his shoulder to repair it after an old rugby injury, so I thought he deserved some new socks.  Fair's fair.

Pattern: Log Cabin Socks, from Handknit Holidays

Yarn: Green Cascade 220 (9407, Celery) 

Needles: 4mm DPNs.  

Modifications:  I cast these on over 64 stitches to make them larger than the recommended size; I just knit the extra stitches as extra bits of ribbing along the sides.

Verdict:  He likes them!  And they do their job.  The cable pattern is pretty and the socks look very warm and squooshy; I might make myself some of these one day... 

Ravelry:   here.

Secondly, I made myself some mittens! I loved Adrian's Fiddlehead Mittens pattern when I first saw it ages ago; I picked out the yarn that I wanted to use and it then took me many months to pluck up the courage to cast on. I don't know why - they were actually fairly straightforward to knit, and even though I had some slight unevenness in my tension, when I blocked them this all evened out pretty well.

Pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens

Yarn: Riihivilla Sunset Selection (I used the small skeins but not the large one, I thought a neutral background would be better...), Rowan Scottish Tweed DK for the background (around 1 ball), lined with Kidsilk Haze (Dewberry, around half a ball). I loved all the yarns that I used - the natural dyes of the coloured yarn work perfectly with the pattern, and the KSH is thin enough to work very well as a lining. I had a couple of false starts where I tried using both DK and fingering weight yarns as lining, and they were just too thick - the lining was getting all scrunched up inside and the mittens didn't fit any more because there was so much excess fabric inside. The KSH is brilliant though - it's thin, beautifully soft and comfortable, and the colour works perfectly too.

Needles: 3.25mm DPNs.

Modifications: None! This pattern was beautifully written and very easy to follow, and the mittens fit me perfectly. I'm very happy with them! The i-cord cast on gives a very pretty edge, and the lining means these mittens are incredibly warm and cosy. Now I want to make a million more pairs of mittens.

Ravelry: here.

I've also been doing a little bit of sewing. After seeing lots of beautiful spiderweb quilt blocks popping up all over my Flickr stream, I decided I would like to try making some blocks with the leftover fabric scraps I've had floating around since forever. Add to this a piece of linen in a perfect neutral which I bought for almost nothing on Ebay some time ago, and this is what you get.

These, as you can probably tell, are my blocks using pink-y purple-y coloured scraps. I have a lot more of these sorts of colour to use up, and then I have a lot of blues and greens which I'm going to use to make blocks in those colours, so the end result will have both in it. I don't think this is going to be an especially fast project, but I'm looking forward to it. Who knows, maybe one day I'll even finish it..!?

I'm trying to be better about finishing things in general, at the moment - easier said than done! However, I fear that Tim may have been right in his observation last weekend that "Jane's hobby is starting knitting projects". Actively on the needles at the moment, I've got two scarves in various stages of completion, multiple pairs of socks, two cardigans and a jumper. And those are just the things whose locations I know - at least one pair of socks and a scarf have gone MIA whilst still on their needles.

Anyway, I haven't generally gone in for posting pictures of things in progress, but I think I may have to start doing so to spur me on.

Here is the state of my Wisteria thus far.

I like how it's coming out. This is Rowan Scottish Tweed bought in the sale at Liberty's after Christmas. It's a lovely pale oatmeal colour (in fact I think that might even be the name of the shade) which shows off the pattern perfectly. I'm knitting it in the smallest size at a tight gauge - I want this jumper to be warm and durable, and hopefully a tight gauge in 100% wool will give me both of those things. I guess I'd better go and get on with it then!

2009.

Happy New Year!

I really did mean to post before the end of 2008.  But.  It just kind of flew by, and before I knew it was New Year's Eve, and now... now it's 2009.  Anyway, here are some recent bits and bobs.

* We went to Dorset shortly after Christmas.  Just for a day trip, but it was wonderful.  Cold and crisp and clear and so beautiful.    We visited Lulworth Cove, spent some time on the beach (but didn't find any fossils), and then walked the short distance along the coastal path to Durdle Door.

* I wore my new hat. Gretel by Ysolda Teague, in Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed. [Lovely yarn - really warm and woolly and it feels very hard-wearing as well. PLUS, a Ravelry friend of mine messaged me upon seeing my hat to say you can buy the same yarn direct from the mill for much less money - look! Aren't the colours stunning? I'm thinking that one of those yellows might be perfect for a Demi...]

* We also got very cold wandering around the village taking photos of the pretty cottages. There were so many - it took ages!

* We drove around a little bit. Guess which of these places we visited?

Even aside from having the best name in the world, Wool was a really lovely village. This is the house I liked the best. Wouldn't you like to live behind this door?

We drove past Lulworth Castle...

... and stopped off in Wareham in a pub by the river where we drank tea (me), ate (Tim) and read the newspapers whilst defrosting our frozen fingers.

Dorset is really beautiful and it was a perfect day.

* Since getting back, amongst other things, I've been doing some sewing. A while ago I decided I wanted to make some little zipped cubes for keeping my little knits-in-progress in. I spent a very long time thinking about it and only when I had just about got it figured out, some time later, did I discover this brilliant tutorial online. Oh well! It's very good and if you want to make some I would recommend it. I made three of these little guys over the past couple of days. They're all slightly different sizes which was partially because I wanted one of them (the orange one) to be a bit bigger, and partially because I was running out of the lining fabric for the blue one. Anyway. They were very easy to make - this was my first time sewing in a zipper, and my first time using interfacing, and I can't believe I was even the remotest bit concerned about either.

I've been knitting away on things to keep us warm over the past little while, so I'll hope to have some finished objects to share with you soon. In the meantime...Happy New Year to you!

Shades of grey.

I think that I have subconsciously been colour-theming the knitting I've got planned.  I suspect that  perhaps I've been unduly influenced by the colour the sky in London has been recently. 

From top to bottom....Felted tweed for a Porom, Malabrigo laceweight for Hanami, Alpaca-BFL sportweight for my second attempt at a Lace Ribbon... and then there's some sock yarn and some Fearless Fibers laceweight.  I don't know what they'll become just yet.  Maybe these socks and this wrap?  I just love all of the grey, though.  

The grey skies have changed for now though, and today is not the sort of day I complain about.  Today the skies are blue, the air is crisp, and the horizon has just a hint of mist on it.  I like todays.   

In which I become slightly more organised.

A few months ago I was drinking tea at Philippa's and she showed me the beautiful DPN case that Elli had made her as part of a swap.  Obviously I knew I wouldn't be able to make anything quite as neat and perfectly put together as that one, but I rather liked the idea of having something so pretty in which to keep one's needles.   

Until this weekend, mine had been languishing about the place in a variety of places, and every single time I needed to find a set for a new project, I played the game where I turned the house upside-down twice over in hot pursuit of the ever-useful fifth (or indeed downright essential fourth) DPN.  I should imagine most knitters know that game.   I've even given up and bought more needles in the past.  I should qualify this by saying that this isn't *quite* as drastic as it sounds - my LYS is about ten minutes from my front door, which is far less time than it takes me to search my flat, and Gerard & Craig stock my favourite Knitpicks DPNs as well as all manner of yarny treats to make me feel a little better about having to replace my 2.25mms AGAIN. 

Anyway.  All this will be no more, because my DPNs now have a pretty new custom-made home.

I based it on the pattern in Debbie Stoller's Stitch & Bitch, but made mine into a folded case rather than a rolled case, and fastened it with a little clasp-y thing which I bought at MacCulloch & Wallis a few months ago.   

EDIT:  As Jess pointed out, all of the above isn't very clear!  Here's a FANTASTIC (& I won't hear otherwise...) picture which I drew in Macpaint to sort of illustrate how the whole thing folds together.  The numbers are the order in which it folds up.  

Making this DPN case took a lot longer than it looks like it would have done, but not altogether that long.   It wasn't very difficult, and it serves its purpose well.  Hurrah! 

In fact, I was so inspired by having completed this, that I decided to make a home for my circular needles as well.  This took about five times as long as the other one did because I couldn't find a suitable pattern anywhere, so I had to make it up as I went along.

It's more or less the same design as the DPN case, except that it has two rows of needles, so to close it, you fold it in half across the middle, and then fold the top flap down over the whole thing, then wrap it up & close it, just like the other one.  This one seals with a magnetic snapper thing.

The fabrics I used were a variety of remnants from my cupboard.  Some are Amy Butler, some are Free Spirit... I think one is a Joel Dewberry print.  I'm not too sure.  Anyway!  Two finished sewing projects in one day = happy Jane.  

Now all I need to do is to find all the missing needles whose absence is now even more conspicuous......

I'm now feeling quite inspired about all things sewing-related, so I thought I'd post a list of some of the things I've been admiring and plotting and coveting online....

Fabric shops

Superbuzzy - I'm sure most people will know of this one already, but just in case you don't, it's packed with lovely Japanese fabrics.  They also sell pattern books.

Phat Fabric - Japanese prints and more.

Volksfaden - a German fabric shop

A Little Goodness - on Etsy, based in Japan.

Globalweave - these fabrics are so beautiful.  Some of them are stocked at Purl Soho.

Free Spirit Fabric -  I always like seeing the new fabrics they produce; at the moment I like the Erin McMorris fabric.

Sew Mama Sew is another American fabric site with a huuuge range of nice fabrics.  

Patterns & Ideas

Onion sewing patterns - with English translations available here

Stitch magazine - this looks really interesting... now I just have to wait for a UK stockist to get it in :)

Uniform Studio - I love everything about this site and the clothing they make and sell.  

Ditto Wiksten Made... 

Purl Bee - this is a site run by the lovely people at Purl Soho.  There are some really good free tutorials on there.... I want to make one of these even though I can think of no use I would have for it.... these swatch portaits are such a brilliant idea....and these really simple curtains are so peaceful.

True Up - is kind of a blog-slash-information source for all things fabric-related.  I love it!

Hable Construction - I wish I could put this in the shops section, but it looks really difficult to get hold of the actual *fabric* from this company, as opposed to things already made from it... it's lovely though.

Oh, and I nearly forgot Clothkits .  I was definitely a Clothkits kid, but I didn't realise they'd relaunched - completely with a range of stuff for adults - until I read it on Wazz's blog a few months ago.  I love the black & white Rob Ryan one best of all at the moment, but they're all a bit wonderful, no?

Finishing and starting.

I finished my Travellers Stockings! (Finally.)

I started them way back when... I think it was September. With my apologies for the badly lit photos (it's getting dark SO early these days...), here they are.





On account of the not-so-hot photos, you can't really see what a beautiful pattern this is. There's a patterned cuff and then a twisted stitch cable all the way down the side. These socks fit *really* well, too. I knew they would because I already have a pair which my mum made for me a couple of years ago now, maybe even more. They fit me perfectly and have lasted really well. Let's hope these do the same!

Here's the lowdown...
Pattern: Traveller's Stockings from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. No mods.
Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts sock yarn, in Royal Flush, bought at The Loop Craft Cafe in Halifax.
Needles: 2mm Knitpicks metal DPNs
Verdict: I now have warm and happy feet. The socks fit perfectly and were fun to make. Once you get past the cuff it's fairly plain sailing too, so it's a nice combination of something a bit complicated and something fairly quick (well, they're quick as long as you don't, like, abandon them halfway through....ahem).

As soon as I finished these off I wanted to cast on for a new pair of socks... something vaguely seasonal in colour, and in a not-too-tricky pattern so hopefully they won't take too long. I picked out my Sundara sock yarn in Spiced, a beautiful pumpkin orange, and decided to be very unoriginal and knit the 7,291st pair of Monkey socks on Ravelry.



I think that the reason I picked out this yarn from my drawer was perhaps subconsciously because I had just baked some pumpkin scones, after reading the recipe on one of my favourite new blogs.



These are awesome. Perfect for lunchboxes or a quick snack on the go. I messed around with the recipe, as I tend to.... so that I don't forget for next time, here's what I did:
* I mashed up a banana and used that to replace some of the butter called for
* I made up the remainder of the 'butter' with low fat olive oil spread
* I also only used half a cup of sugar, so less than half the amount mentioned in the recipe. They still taste pretty sweet to me, probably because of the banana.
* I used all milk, no half and half.
* I had no cranberries, so used raisins instead.

Yum!

Toasty

I always love peering through the Toast catalogue and wishing it were more compatible with my lifestyle and my bank balance! I liked these in the catalogue but for some reason it didn't occur to me to make my own. Toasty is more of an idea than a pattern, and a very good one at that. It's just a tube, with a thumb added on to one side. You can work it in whichever yarn you choose, at whichever gauge you prefer, and make them longer or shorter to fit your own hands.

When I saw the version on Leslie's blog I was immediately taken with it, and especially loved the tweed version. I had a ball of grey felted tweed which had been floating around my bookshelf for ages, so I cast on some time last week, and I just finished the second mitten off today. The actual knitting time was minimal... I guess you could finish a pair in an evening or two, if you're lucky enough to have a couple to spare!




Pattern: Toasty
Modifications: I cast on 38 stitches and used 15 for the thumb, and these fit me just the way I wanted them to.
Needles: 3.75mm Knitpicks metal DPNs
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed, shade 132. About three-quarters of a skein or so.
Verdict: LOVE. Lovelovelovelovelove. I'm really glad I used a DK weight yarn for these - they are warm without being too stiff and woolly, if you know what I mean? If you haven't already made a pair, you should. I'm contemplating more in a finer weight yarn - perhaps laceweight held double?
Ravelry project page here.



P.S. Do you like my mug? It's my new favourite. Tim gave it to me a month or so ago - he went on a trip with work to somewhere that I really wanted to go, but couldn't really take the time off to go with him, so he brought some things back for me, including this.



I've had various Emma Bridgewater mugs over the years. They're the perfect size, and (more elusively) the perfect shape. I used to be particularly attached to my hearts mugs. I started off with two, which were a gift, and then one broke when we were moving. I was sad, it was replaced, but then some months later, the first one of the original pair broke as well. From then on, I can't really remember the exact sequence of events, but anyway, each of these beloved mugs that I've owned has ended up in more than one piece, and repairs have never been particularly successful or longlasting. So I've ended up with a sad little parade of identical broken mugs. There are missing handles, lengthy cracks, and large fragments chipped off here and there, but I'm keeping them all. They serve as cautionary tales and penpots. I still do really rather like them, but I'm hoping that the black-headed gull mug will not be joining its cousins for some time!

Wish I was there.

It's been a little while. Oops. Actually, it's been a longer while than I'd realised. I'm never going to be one of those bloggers who has time not only to post every day, but to actually have something knitting related to post about every day... but even considering this, it's still been ages. Despite the long interlude, I've got an embarrassingly small amount of knitting to show, so I think I'll aim to pull my (knitted) socks up a little bit, and post when I've finished something. I've just ordered the new Nancy Bush book and apparently it's not going to be here for a couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll have finished enough things to actually cast on for one of the new patterns when it finally arrives....

It's grey and cloudy here today - real London weather. It looks like it might start drizzling at any moment. Last week we had a lovely snap of properly cold weather - it was crisp and clear and utterly freezing and I enjoyed it very much. Now we're back to the usual wishy-washy non-weather that England gets so much of. So I'm remembering the time we spent somewhere rather warmer and brighter this summer.

We had around about three weeks in Portugal in the second half of our summer travels. We spent some time in Lisbon, and some time in Ericeira - a small fishing village just up the coast from Lisbon, which is known for having good surfing. That's why we went.

In Ericeira, we had rented a tiny little one-storey house, right by the beach. It was perfect - we had a lovely terrace overlooking the sea, where we spent most of our evenings. We went to the market, we cooked fresh fish, we drove around the local villages and countryside a little, and wet to the beach a lot. We both did lots of reading, Tim went surfing and I knit.

We spent a lot of time admiring the view from the terrace.





We watched the local men who came down very day to watch the ocean and talk.



Ericeira itself is a picturesque white-washed Portugese village. The streets are tiled in white, and the combination of the glinting tiles, clean white buildings and often-cloudless blue sky was quite something. There were flowers all over the place and many of the street signs were blue and white painted tiles. It was such a relaxing place to be.



Most days we had wonderful weather, but there were a couple of very windy days. We did brave the beach for a bit, and it was lovely and empty, but the direction of the wind was not so good for surfing. Or reading, or knitting, for that matter. It was still really beautiful though.





All in all, it was a wonderful spot.




Lisbon was one of those cities that's a bit overwhelming at first. First up, it was incredibly hot. I mean, really, really hot. We were there in August, so it wasn't surprising really. But seriously - it was so hot! Neither of us fare particularly well in very hot weather, but luckily we had enough days there that we could explore it at a leisurely pace, with plenty of rest stops and lazy afternoons drinking coffee and reading. Lisbon has an interesting history, too. It's built on seven hills, and most of the city was destroyed in the enormous earthquake in 1755, so the vast majority of Lisbon dates from just after this period. This obviously means that most of the city was all built at the same time rather than evolving slowly as cities which date back this far historically tend to do. The newer parts of the city are beautiful - the Baixa is the central district, and it's laid out in a perfect grid structure, which makes it much easier to navigate than many European cities! It's very grand and impressive. But the Alfama district, which survived the 1755 earthquake, was the best bit of Lisbon - it's a residential area filled with steep, narrow passageways with washing lines crossing the street and people scurrying around; it really feels like you're stepping back in time when you go there.





There are viewpoints (miradoures) at the tops of the hills, which provide beautiful views of the city. I really thought that the light in Lisbon was amazing.





We walked almost everywhere, but for those who aren't so keen on hills, there are these very sweet little old trams, with leather seats and straps to hold onto, and rickety-looking wooden window-frames. A single fare will get you from the bottom of the hill to the top!



We really loved Lisbon - it was such an atmospheric and beautiful place to explore. The Portuguese were so friendly, and the food was really good. We stayed right in the centre of Lisbon. Every morning I would watch this guy in the house opposite water his plants.



And there was a cafe-bar right next door.



There were so many pretty things to see as you walk around Lisbon - the city centre all seemed so well tended, and loved. It felt like a place where people lived. It's not a major business centre at all, which I think probably makes a huge difference.





One day we took the tram out to Belem which is another bit that survived the earthquake, a little further out of town. The reason you go to Belem is ostensibly to see the monastery and tower and so on (pictures are in the mosaic just below...), but really, it's to sample a Pastel de Belem (Belem cake). These are always described as tiny little egg custard tarts. Now, I'm not usually a big fan of custard tarts. Pastry's not really my thing. But this pastry was like nothing I've ever had before - it was so crisp and sweet and buttery, and it went perfectly with the rich vanilla filling. I think comparing these little morsels to egg custard tarts is distinctly misleading - I very nearly didn't even have one! How sad that would have been.





I miss Portugal! I'd like to go back there some day. Probably not to the same places - we don't tend to do that, really, just because there's so much to see in the world. But I loved so much about the country, the way of life, and the people, and I'd love to return, perhaps to the north of the country, and also to the Azores.

For now though, I'm making do with grey London. Which isn't such a bad place to be, really.

P.S. I'm going to join with almost everyone I know and express massive happiness and not a small amount of relief about the headlines this morning.