Author: bryonyramsden

Ok, am a bit more settled now, and can write about our time away 🙂
We arrived on Saturday evening to a drizzly day, but warm, with palm trees swaying in the breeze at the airport 🙂 and caught the airport bus to 2 mins walk from our hotel, off Rambla de la Catalunya. The original hotel booking had fallen through, and it was bank holiday weekend for the Spaniards, so the only place we could get centrally was a 4* hotel, and we expected a LOT for our extra money. We certainly got it 😀 Hotel Calderon (wait for it, the names get better :D) was fantastic, and we had a wide balcony outside with a view of the Rambla DL Catalunya (a wide road with a central reservation full of cafe seating and big leafy trees), and a gorgeous little room complete with 70% choccy and hotel sponsored Smints 😀 No tea or coffee making facilities though 🙁 For our first evening we just wandered around a little, and went to a tapas place nearby (the lush Cata 1.81 – not cheap, but very very good), and accidentally found Casa Batllo on our way there. I love it when that happens – you don’t plan to see something yet, but you just happen upon it and the impact is so much greater! It was a bit dusky and busy, but it is such a stunning building, with so much to see on the outside alone – if you visit the city, I can’t recommend it enough. After a lazy evening with the tapas being brought out a plate at a time (which is definitely not the way it is served here, so it surprised me), and a gorgeous dessert of ‘crispy bombs’ (a filo pastry bomb with yoghurt and honey in which you pop in your mouth in one go and it just pops as you bite on it. Mmmm), and a long glass of wine, we wandered back to the hotel.
Next morning, and it is absolutely pissing it down. Warm and humid, but you just know you are going to get soaked! We weren’t sure where to start so we went to find breakfast and went the easy route with a nearby Starbucks. While we were working out what to do, DB spotted a guy outside with a tv camera, and a team of sports guys walking past with a few kids running up for autographs. They turned out to be a Spanish football team who were due to play Barcelona that night (thanks for the research Sarah! Can you remember their name? It was something like Ludavante UD). Rather funkily, they were staying at our hotel 😀 We may not have got breakfast, but clearly we were officially in the upper classes… Although apparently they lost as they were at the bottom of the same league, so not that upper class 😉 We figured that once the rain died down a bit we’d go and have a proper look around near where we were staying, so we strolled towards Placa de Catalunya and down past the gothic cathedral, which was covered in scaffolding. A trip down to the port to see the sculptures on the sea front, and an afternoon exhausting ourselves climbing Montjuic (yup, we climbed like the idiots we are instead of taking the funicular) and wandering around the castle on top enjoying the views, and an evening of eating and drinking again and we were happy 😀
Monday we decided to have a Gaudi day as the weather was stunning and scorching, so we went back to Casa Batllo and Casa Amatllo next door (the chocolate house, designed by another modernista architect and stunning stained glasswork inside) and saw Casa Mila, and for a walk round the Sagrada Familia. The queues to get in were massive and full of Spaniards, so we figured we could go back and look after the weekend when it would be quieter, and head up to Parc Guell in the afternoon. Not to be I’m afraid. On the bus on the way up to the park, it was heaving, and this guy who was wandering around the bus and arousing my suspicions leaned on my hand on the post with his rucksack, pushed past me and an elderly man who was trying to get off the bus and shouted at him as he walked off, and my bag was suddenly open 🙁 I’d been so careful too! My handbag is an over the shoulder/cross the body one, with the zip opening from the inside of the body rather than the outside, and I’d been holding it to my front so when he pushed past me, he must have pulled it round and opened it in one move 🙁 Feeling pretty miserable we caught the bus back so I could phone from the hotel and cancel my bank card. Who should we see on the way back but the same guy I’d been worried about! I pointed him out to DB as the guy was getting off the bus, and DB said he saw him passing something to a dumpy round woman and walking in the opposite direction. Sure enough 30 secs later a Spanish woman is banging on the bus in distress, and her purse has gone. We went and phoned Visa International and cancelled my card, pretty sure that they were just taking it for the cash but going on the safe side (and luckily didn’t have that much cash in it – we were only taking enough for each day and leaving the rest in the safe in our room), and went to report it to the police. The first police station we went to on recommendation from the hotel as it dealt with public transport issues, and they said that we would have to wait 3 hours. Then they said that the bus service isn’t something they deal with and we would have to go to one of two other stations. The nearest was off La Rambla, so we headed for that one, only to be told that we should be speaking to the police at the first station. The policeman phoned up the Placa station with a weary look on his face and after speaking to them, pulled a face at the translator with him, and then explained that as we had been incorrectly referred they would take our report, but they may not have the same photos of known criminals who would work the bus line. Luckily we didn’t have to wait very long, but our poor policewoman had to call in another translater and rush out mid-report to deal with some dodgy geezers out in the hall. When she brought up the database, our description of someone athletic in their mid 40s-50s brought up a pile of 90 year old wrinkled geezers 😀 At least we were laughing at that point. We had no luck finding the thief, and we had wasted a gorgeous afternoon traipsing between places, so we went back to the hotel and felt a bit miserable, then went for a thai meal which was gorgeous, but had the worst service at the restaurant from a cocky skinny little guy (so if you ever visit Thai Studio in Barcelona, be prepared).
Tuesday was our last day together before DB had to start work, so we went back up Montjuic via Paral-lel in the drizzle to see the Miro museum and MNAC. MNAC is a gorgeous old building surrounded by botanical gardens, but with these stark silver escalators leading up the steps to it! Very good service for those with mobility problems on that side of the hill, but very very surreal. There are some pics on the Flickr site which are worth a looksie. Sadly when we got to the top, it was closed for Labour Day. Miro was open, but as everyone else had come for both museums and found the first closed, and didn’t fancy walking around in the rain, the queue was MASSIVE. And I mean massive. We were nearly at the funicular again before the queue ended. We had to change hotels that day too, as the conference gave a huge discount to speakers and was another 4* place, so we headed back to do the move (within walking distance again, opposite the gothic cathedral) to Hotel Colon. Please note that it is supposed to be pronounced a bit like Cologne… 😀 Another gorgeous hotel, but rather old fashioned and floral. Once we had settled, we needed to get ready for a conference related meal at 4 Gats, the place where the modernistas used to hang out. If you get the chance, go there! It isn’t cheap but it is a grand theatrical experience eating there. The food is fantastic, the music from the pianist and violinist is lovely, and the waiters perform comedy while serving you 😀 There is this tiny little balcony where couples eat above the main floor, and there are lots of accidents on the rickety old wooden stairs leading up there, with many a mopping up as the waiters rush around. If you choose a fish dish, you sometimes get to see the whole cooked fish filleted on the central stand by the waiters. The maitre’d was a guy who deserved a tv show of his own – he did fish too, and danced to the music and cracked jokes as he took orders and served people, and implied at the beginning of the meal that we had no table for our party of 20 or so (so don’t be surprised ;D). It was a wonderful night, and the perfect antidote to the last day and a half of mishaps.
Wednesday, we went for a walk near the zoo and the harbour, then DB had to go to the conference opening, so I went out to the Sagrada Familia and went inside seeing as there was no queue whatsoever 😀 I can’t recommend this place enough. It has about 30 years of building left, but what is there is incredible. I went up the towers on the far side of the building (rather than the crucifixion facade side), not without a little fear, but it was a lovely sunny day again, so I figured it wouldn’t be bad up there. We went up in a lift 6 at a time (hence long queues for about 90 mins at the front facade! If there are queues there, try the rear one as it only took about 20-25 mins for me to get up to the lift. The lift climbs at the rear towers for 55m, then you climb up a few stairs to reach just over 60m up the towers. That is only halfway up them. There was a breeze, and no fencing – just a stone wall, admittedly thick, but I was scared of dropping the camera over it if a gust of wind came up! The view is incredible, but not for the feint hearted. I’m not bad with heights looking down, but if I look up, I get nauseous, even if I’m just on a step ladder a couple of steps up, so I had problems taking pictures of the towers above me, and could only look through the camera, not at the actual towers for very long. The towers are stunning, with so much detail and colour and the cranes where the builders work from are so high above the top of them, it makes you feel very ill indeed! The crane operators have to climb a ladder up the centre of the crane scaffold (you can see it on the photo) – I know it is their job and they are used to it, but blimey I wouldn’t want to do it myself… There are photos of that too if you can stomach it! Climbing down I thought would be easy, but the design of the stair way is like a snail shell below you, and there are only little railings on the outside, so again I thought I’d lose the camera! It really is worth it though if you are feeling brave! And please don’t be fooled by what appears to be a locked grill at the bottom of the stairs 😀 I thought for a moment I had to climb the 273 stairs again to go a different route (you cross between different towers as you descend), but the latch was just stiff and heavily sprung 😀 After that, I went back to Casa Batllo to go inside. Gorgeous. I loved it there. The audio guide is really really cheesy and kisses the backside of Gaudi a lot, but you can easily see something new everytime you visit, and the guide points out things I would have missed on my own so it is worth taking with you (and it is included in the price, unlike the Sagrada Familia one, also worth getting). In the evening DB had arranged a meal at, frankly, the best Italian place outside of Italy I’ve ever been to – Montello. Cheap and cheerful, so don’t expect anything pretty, but it makes the best pizza 😀 Don’t get starters – you won’t need any, and the main course will arrive before you finish them…
Thursday was my only full day to myself, so I went back to the Miro and MNAC. MNAC is amazing, and worth every penny of the entrance fee. Keep your ticket in your pocket tho – you need to show it regularly as you go into each branch. I saw Goya and Picasso and Dali, and a pile of wonderful gothic religious art, and some stunning photography. Some kind of do was going on in the main hall, so some parts of the building were closed (does anyone know what might have been held there? It was the 3rd of May, and there were tv cameras and lighting there for a huge meal with a podium, and huge letters C and H stood around). Miro was a bit mad, naturally, but was also full of school children on visits, so it made it a bit harder to enjoy peacefully. It was mainly really good though 🙂 When I got back, it was about 2.30 so I figured I’d have some lunch, a nap and then visit the Dali exhibit nearby. Next thing I know, I’m still dozy and DB is knocking on the door 🙂 We had another conference meal to attend at the Brasserie Flo (another lovely place), and then to bed.
Friday, our last full day, so I went to the Dali exhibit (lots of Dali prints and art and sculptures, but nowhere near as good as visiting the foundation would have been I think), then wandered around the markets at Santa Maria. Then we took some friends to Montello again and went back to the hotel for the strongest brandy ever 😀 Saturday morning was spent around the market again, and at Xocolateria La Xicra for the world’s best hot chocolate. I’m not kidding you. We had to eat it with a spoon it was so thick, it was impossible to drink it. And dark. There is a pic on Flickr of the empty mug after ‘drinking’ it. You could tip it up and nothing would drip out 🙂 We bought some cheese, chocolate and tea from the market, and then headed for the hotel to check out. First bad thing about going home – the suitcase had been damaged by the bellboy with the stand being broken off, and as it is a hard case, it left holes to the inner lining and shell. The bus to the airport was fab again. The airport was fine, if a little eerie and quiet where our gate was, but we got some good duty free (lipbalm in the prettiest little old fashioned tins, a litre of Peach Absolute, and 75cl of Limoncello to replace our sad final consumption a few weeks ago of the Italian stuff) and I had the most expensive take away sushi ever. We arrived at Leeds Bradford early, picked up the luggage and went to catch the bus to the train station. BUT, it had left 5 mins before we got to the stop, and there was only one an hour. I asked a taxi driver how much it would cost – £16!!! No ta. I bought a cup of tea, and we got ready for a looooong wait. While we were sat there, two asian men walking from the airport were stopped by two policemen, who proceeded to go through a full frisking and check their bags and shoes over the course of about 15 mins. They were sent off free (please note that the asian population in Leeds and Bradford is very high, so it is hardly unusual to see a couple of lads with darker skin there). On the bus the driver pulled into a bus stop to answer his mobile phone. 1hr 45 mins after landing we reach the train station with 3 mins to run to the stopping train, or we could wait 40mins for the fast one and get something to eat. We went the latter route, and sat with chips on the walkway over the lines, only to be stared at by the world’s biggest man with an idiot smirk on his face, and listen to idiot drunkards and deal with trying to get past ignorant locals on a night out with our bags and cases. We get on the train, only the selfish gits push the people getting off out the way as they get on, and try to push me out the way as I climb on with a heavy case and bag on my back. But, we get back home safe and sound, taking as long to get from the airport at Leeds to our door as we did to get from the hotel to Leeds. Plus two parcels I was expecting when I got home hadn’t arrived, with no sign of them in the garden or any cards for collection at the post office. I think our postie may be on his holiday too… Not the best arrival home, but I am glad to be back in our bed, with our couch, and the garden in full bloom, with the Great Tits still nesting 🙂
Photos are here so go look, comment, and don’t feel too jealous after all the fun and games we had 😉 If you’ve made it this far through the post, well done! In spite of everything, I’d go back tomorrow!

Yup, I’m back from Barcelona, after a week of very very mixed experiences. Highlights include visiting the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo and Mountjuic. Low points include the Spanish Labour Day meaning everything we went to being closed or with 6 mile long queues (slight exaggeration), the weather being a bit mixed up (but luckily always warm), and my purse being stolen on a bus (a very long story, but we knew exactly who had stolen it, and saw his team do it again on the bus back to the hotel to report it…).
It is good to be home, but I shall miss the city, and waiting at Leeds train station and seeing all the scummers on their night out, plus it taking longer to get from Leeds Bradford airport to our home than it did to get from the hotel in Barcelona to Leeds Bradford kind of put a downer on being back in the UK… Compare and contrast – airport shuttle buses every 30mins, with several buses run at once to accomodate the travellers in Spain, to one bus an hour scheduled shortly after our flight arrival, giving us no time to collect baggage before we caught it, and with no room on it to place luggage.
Anyway, just to let you all know that I am alive, and back home, and bought postcards but never sent them thanks to the purse theft incident 🙁 I’ll post all about it and link to the photos (DB has been very good keeping up to date with them :D) once we are settled in, have the washing on, and I’ve read my 1000000000001 emails… 😀

Three things really quickly:
1) There is a blogger in need of some help! Amber Moggie is having a sale of her stash as she is moving and downsizing and doesn’t have the space for it. She decided after buying sock yarn that is wasn’t for her, BUT, oooh what sock yarn! STR and Posh Yarn people! Go to her blog and see if you can help her out – she has a ton of bargains. I’d be almost giddy if I didn’t feel bad for someone having to clear out such gorgeous yarn…
2) Thank you for all your comments on the eco stuff. I don’t have time to reply to them all right now as there are too many things to organise before we go away, but you’ve said some really interesting stuff 😀 We’ll certainly be going through them all and working out what we can do after the trip. I would also like to slip in that we use Ecover products quite a lot too 🙂 Although the stain remover they do isn’t fab :/
3) I’m extra giddy kipper today as by a complete fluke I managed to get one of the Anya Hindmarch Sainsburys shopping bags on my way to work this morning 😀 The ones that say ‘I’m not a plastic bag’. Woot! I paid a fiver and they are selling online for anything up to £150 or £200-250 on buy it now. Goodness knows who would be desperate enough to pay that much, but you know 😀 And I got Bucks Fizz too! Shame they decided to get a wedge of plastic carrier bags out to put them in (most people refused them)… Maybe I’ll tell you more about that story when I have more time, but let me put it this way – we have two stores in town, and at the larger one people were queuing from 5.30am to get one. I hopped off the bus I normally get to work and found myself at a supershort queue at the smaller store 😀 Woot woot!

I didn’t expect to be posting so soon again, particularly with the trip looming, but Lolly has been making me think after her post on going green. Being in the UK limits my energy supplier choices quite a bit – sadly I don’t think we have any electricity suppliers who work on wind or water supplies only. We do use those low energy bulbs and we’ll be getting a stove installed to cut our gas consumption, feeding it mainly with newspapers from work, so we will be smoke free while we burn. We don’t drive, which will help our footprint in one way, but as we live in the sticks, it makes it harder to transport items for recycling, and our council, while providing green wheelie bins for some residents, can’t supply our row of houses with one because of the way they are built (there is nowhere hygienic to store them, and the bins would have to be brought down a steep set of steps). They gave us a composter for free though, which doesn’t seem to be breaking down very well, so we ended up throwing things away more often than putting them in for compost. Plus there are a lot of fields here, and fields = rats and foxes, and a lot of cats, which makes it difficult to leave food around when they could probably lift the door on the composter and nab things they shouldn’t. Any tips on making composting work while deterring animals without harm? I’m growing potatoes this year, which I’m really excited about! I’ve heard that planting Marigolds (I think) can help reduce certain pests like greenfly or similar to help protect your plants, and I try to use green garden products at home. Luckily, some plastic stuff we buy is degradable (like sarnie and bin bags), and we use recycled kitchen and toilet roll. We gift to charity shops wherever possible, and use local suppliers for some foods like eggs, but again, transport restrictions mean we can’t always buy local veg 🙁 The farm shop is only 20 mins away, and yet we don’t shop unless we have some help from a car owner as it gets too heavy to carry back across the hills 🙁
My yarn consumption is hardly wonderful with overseas purchases too (although does that mean I should order big when I do order ;D), and travelling by plane to Barcelona on Saturday is naughty, even if it is ultimately for DB’s work.
Nobody ever said improving your footprint was easy, and DB and I are making baby steps towards it, which can only be a good thing. All we need is the gumption to decide to change something and my library school skills to find the help online to do it. And to stop being so lazy about carrying things from the shop ;D Thinking these things through in public really makes you think about whether ‘can’t’ actually means ‘won’t’ and how much power you have over yourself to change things. I’ll certainly think twice now about where I get my frivolous purchases from, and how I shop for food stuff…

Nope, just managed to scrounge the memory card and cable 🙂
Whiskers and Paw Prints socks by the Keyboard Biologist, made in Fleece Artist Sea Wool Rose Garden.

And the heel detail:

They are frankly, gorgeous. This is not down to me or my skills but the pattern design and the fantastic yarn. I love Sea Wool. It is a little splitty, and I have no idea how well it will wash, but it knits up beautifully and quickly and it is silky smooth yet the spin has texture to it. I don’t have enough yarn left to make socks for myself but I think there will be enough to make some fingerless gloves from the Marnie McLean site… For info, the leg was kept short (only three pattern repeats, and it reaches just past the ankle), and the foot is about UK size 5. That equates to a 5″ leg from cuff to the bottom of the heel, and 9.5″ from heel to toe with a short row heel (making it a bit harder to estimate the size). It is a tight knit too, which means it has to fit the foot perfectly with no room for stretch in it. It took up about 74g of the yarn, which comes in 120g hanks, so you could make a long leg, or a gents’ sock out of it, but there isn’t much room there for making a large size with a long leg I’m afraid. Although Roo managed it with 9″ of yarn to spare! oh, and please note that the colours are a little deeper then they show up in the photos – the light is bleaching my pics and I’m not clever enough to fix it 🙁
Ooo, and this is my 2 hours of work this aft – about 4-5″ of leg of Monkey before I start the heel, or the cuff and 4 repeats of the pattern. I’ve already used up 15g or so of yarn, so I figured to be safe I’d start the heel here and then I should have enough for the foot.

Who knows, I might have a finished sock long before I set off for Spain 🙂 We go next Saturday so if I don’t post before then I’ll send you a postcard ;D

Goodness me! No pics though yet – DB has the camera cable and the memory card somewhere in his study and he’s working today in preparation for Barcelona so I can’t take any pics or upload any till he gets in the bath. BUT, I’ve spent all of a couple of hours on Monkey today, and have already reached the heel! Hoorah! Never have I knit a sock that moved so quickly 😀
Oh, and proof that librarians are ace lives here:
Librarian by Haunted Love
Have the sound on.
Pics imminent I promise!

Hello all 🙂
Just a brief posting at the mo. I need breakfast and to empty the washer so that I can get going on the Whisker socks and try and finish them this weekend. Sadly I have nothing new to show at the mo because 1) I forgot to take pics of some baby socks before I gave them away and 2) I’ve been getting ready for our trip to Barcelona next week. Oh and also 3) I’ve been reading too much on Facebook 😀
I’m inspired today though to write a little about some blogs though. I really need to update my blog list. I kept it short originally to keep things tidy, but I feel the need to add a new page and stick a list of the ones I subscribe to on Bloglines. All 75 of them. That’s probably pretty small actually, but it is enough for me to feel daunted by listing and commenting on them. Maybe I’ll do a regular update on the new ones. If anyone wants to nosy, I think Bloglines lets you have a look at the lists of ones people read, which a really funky feature. If you already have an account, you can see who I read because all mine are public, but I’m not quite sure how you get to me! I have lots of fun looking at who else subscribes to blogs too and hunting them out to see what they write (if at all) or what else they read.
I got linked to by someone who I think is a new blogger, but may have journeyed from another blog. It is always interesting and very very useful seeing who links to you, and in this case in particular, this person is worth pointing out (you better live up to this Mrs ;D). Tara D at Northwest Knitter already has a superb little collection of pattern and yarn links, articles, and a freebie pattern already too! I like her style – someone who has an eye on the world and spreads the word 🙂 And she’s inspired me to follow in her footsteps and regularly point out funky people/pretty pretty things etc. I’m a lazy blogger, and forget that doing this isn’t just about helping each other out with yarn and pattern reviews, but sharing the love and excitement of shopping around for cool stuff. And I loooooove shopping.
Hopefully there will be shots of socks blocking this weekend. And more on what I’m actually doing too. Maybe.

I hope Abigail forgives me for this one, but I’ve been so excited about watching her, Sockapalooza (I signed up – well Duuuh ;D), and as I mentioned before my Sockret Pal Brooke has had personal issues so we haven’t even finished our swap yet, that essentially I never pointed out that I’d been spoiling her! Or I don’t remember doing it anyway. Abigail lives at 1870 Pearl and she is a major sock knitting machine 🙂 Go see her and wave and be happy for the love of socks.
There are lots of piccies again this weekend. I finished the RPMs for Andrea on Monday night, and so took some really really bad pics early in the morning before I set off to work and gifted them to her. I mean really bad pics. This is the best…

Then this week I worked on a gift for someone who will get it tonight at her party 🙂 A felted brooch (made with help from Cherry for the knitting – thank goodness! It wouldn’t be finished without her. She helped massively with the design process too, talking through my ideas with me and helping to make everything clear, plus adding a lot to overcoming some issues), made from bits and pieces of leftover yarn in my stash, including Rowan Kid Classic for the leaves from my Kim Hargreaves hat, some Kidsilk Spray that hasn’t been used yet, but is intended for more gloves and scraps of KSH in other colours from other gloves, and some of the Ironstone (?) chunky yarn from Minneapolis.


Here are a couple of close ups:


I’m remarkably pleased about how this came out. The stitching and beading was just kind of ad-hoc this morning while I was playing. I kept thinking ‘I’ll try this, and if it looks crap I’ll pull it out’, but it always looked right 🙂 More will probably be on the cards… It was a fab way of using up small amounts of yarn.
Finally, I finished sock 1 of the Whiskers and Paw socks. I did take some pics of the heel and toe detail, but sadly they look much better after blocking/on the foot, so there isn’t much point in showing those yet, but here, just to remind you, is a shot of the finished sock. I still love Sea Wool. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Sea Wool.

Ok, time to get ready to party ;D

As promised, here is some eye candy in the shape of Fleece Artist Sea Wool 🙂
I bought two hanks from Ebay, the first as yet unknit in Moss:

Mmmmmmmm. So shiny and silky and mmmmmm.
Here is a work in progress. Not much progress sadly, as I’ve been worrying about Andrea’s socks (which it is officially agreed will not be finished tonight like I’d have liked, but should be done soon). Once they are done, I’ll be on these like a rocket 😉

And here is a better shot of the sock itself.

This yarn is just lovely to knit with. As yet I’ve not had any probs with splitting, but I can see where it might cause issues in complicated lace work etc. Mmmmmmmmm. I would normally not go for this kind of colourway but knitting it, it is just mmmmmm. Mmmmmm is a word that will definitely be associated with Sea Wool a LOT.
Hope that satisfies you temporarily Ruth ;D And it fits in beautifully with this month’s PS2.0 colours…

The stripey cardi has been scrapped 🙁 Here are some things I’ve learnt in the process of making it.
1) I can officially construct a garment that has stripes that line up when you sew it up, and make it look almost seamless.
2) Next time I design something with multiple colours in it, I will work a quick knock up to check the maths and sizing because:
3) If I don’t, my sleeves will end up looking like puff sleeves from the 80s – too baggy, puffed at the top trying to squeeze the colours in to match (even though I made the sleeves smaller than planned) and it would have worked out puffy anyway because the cap for some reason was too big for the shaping in the shoulder, too long on the arm.
4) This is partly due to the Handy Book not including row gauge in the factor, and me using the guidelines for matching gauge when you hit part of a stitch (i.e. 3.5 sts) without considering the potential risks.
5) I won’t bother weaving in millions of ends until I know that the fit is correct – I just did them while I was seaming so that I wouldn’t have to fuss. Also I realise that it isn’t really plausible to frog an item that is knit in stripes of 10 rows.
The good news is that because the yarn was such a chunky one, it took next to no time to knit, so I haven’t really lost too much time working on it, only sewing it. I’ve also not really wasted time, as it was a lesson. One that I probably won’t make again. My mate Sue, although she doesn’t realise it yet, will be getting the leftover balls with her birthday gift as she’s good at using up chunky yarn.
I don’t think the cardi can be saved unless anyone can suggest a way of fixing the puffs with a sewing machine to flatten them out. I know excess can safely be trimmed off after a trip under a machine needle, but I have no idea whether it is safe to blitz the sleeves in that way, especially with such a thick fabric. In spite of this, I still have an idea I want to action while it is in my head – a wide neck tunic with 3/4 set in sleeves with a puff at the cuff knitted in a lighter yarn (probably dk but it would look better in 4ply. I’m currently thinking of Garnstudio Silke Tweed). When I do this one, I’ll make the numbers up myself for the body and try and find another way of working out the sleeve caps.
So what now? I’ll be taking pics of the socks on the go before the end of the bank holiday weekend (I am almost at the heel of the 2nd RPM, so that should be done imminently, and yes, Ruth, there will be pics of the Sea Wool ;D Thanks for the gauge info!), and trying to decide from that long list what I can work on now. I’m not really sure what I want to work on. Chrissie is desperately in need of some work seeing as I have barely made it past the border of one side and it was for the last bit of PS2.0, but I also can’t decide whether to go for a simple st st garment or something a bit more challenging to try and capture my imagination a bit. If I go for something more challenging, that means I might neglect the socks on the go seeing as the Sea Wool ones aren’t totally straight forward and require lots of concentration for various sections. It would be nice to do something PS2.0 related, but that might not happen, especially as I have 2 Kim Hargreaves kits screaming at me to swatch up for them… 😉
Anyway, I’ll post pretty pics tomorrow once I’ve had a big therapeutic non-failure knitting session and maybe finished a sock/pondered my knitting future/hacked away at my cardi with big scissors for want of being able to do anything else with it. Time to catch up with some other blogs, but before I go, what do people think about someone of my figure in the Fitted Knits puff sleeved cardi? Could it work? But if it is top down, I can find out fairly quickly by trying the unfinished thing on I suppose. Just don’t know how Phildar Phil’Douce will frog. Perhaps a swatch is in order before lunch 😉