I swatched with the recommended colour selection but found the red a bit to loud for my taste. I used purple instead (Erica) and since I had ordered the wrong shade of green I substituted some leftover J&S 2 ply Jumper Weight.

According to the pattern I should have cast on 125 stitches for the brim but I suspected this would turn out a bit too wide for my head I started out with only 110 stitches instead. To avoid doing any math to the pattern repeats I the increased 90 stitches up to the regular 200 needed for the full chart (all ravelled here).

Knitting this hat was a real pleasure and I managed to memorize the pattern fairly quickly. I learned something new as well: The pattern calls for a lining on the brim and I found a nifty provisional cast on on  YouTube (and directions on how to unravel it in the end ). I used some pink leftover merino lace-weight for the brim lining and this makes all the difference when its windy outside! My ears stay extra warm.

Since I live on my own I had to ask my colleague to take a picture of me wearing the hat and he really got into it. He even climbed up onto the table in our office – must have been a sight for the people on the other side of the yard

We’ve had over two weeks of freezing temperatures here and so far Tantallon and the Sheep Heid got lots of wear.

I’m still knitting the Tea Leaves Cardigan – I’m on the second sleeve – but it is slow going and I find myself a bit unwilling to work on it…

Now, back to the spinning wheel – I’ve nearly finished clearing off some Polwarth abandoned there last October… I really need to make a dent in my fibre stash!

Ravelry tells me I finished this hat in December 2011 but I haven’t found the time to post and sort the pictures until now.
I’ve become a bit of an addict to Kate Davies’ patterns and when she published her new hat design back in october I couldn’t resist. Also, the internet makes this kind of thing almost too easy and so I bought pattern and wool with only a few clicks. I’ve ordered wool from Jamieson’s & Smith before and I can very much recommend their shop and, above all, their wool. There’s nothing like real Shetland wool for stranded colour work (although some Aade Long, Isager and the Tweed yarns from Rowan work as well). The sheep heid is designed with a colour scheme that makes use of the natural colours Shetland wool comes in and calls for J & S Shetland Supreme Jumper weight yarn. It’s a bit thicker than their regular jumper weight and it feels more ‘sheepy’. It also still smelled like sheep when I pulled it out of its soak – lovely!

I’m a slow knitter when it comes to colour work because I knit with one strand in each hand and throwing the yarn is still a bit awkward for me. While I was knitting this I couldn’t resist snapping pictures of the evolving sheep with my camera phone and sending them to various people.

Since we haven’t had a real winter so far I didn’t have much opportunity to wear my hat but yesterday the temperatures finally dropped a bit. Et voilá: Sheep Heid (albeit a bit blurry) in action!

After I finished this project in December I was almost sad I couldn’t continue knitting those adorable sheep – and I didn’t need a second identical hat. Fortunately, Kate Davies fixed this for me and published the rams and yowes blanket which makes use of those ewes and rams AND the same gorgeous yarn. I have ordered more Shetland Supreme from J & S to top up my leftovers…

I’m on a bit of a sweater binge and I’m planning to knit six sweaters and six pairs of socks in 2012. The first cardigan is well on its way: I cast on for a Tea Leaves Cardigan last week.

I’m using New Lanark DK in ‘Blueberry’ which is a nice dark lavender shade with a rustic look and feel to it.

Because it has been exceptionally dark and rainy all week and had to take my knitting and camera to work and stage a small photo shoot in my office.
Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to calculate my actual size and this sweater turned out too big – AGAIN! So, I sat down on my sofa Wednesday evening and ripped back to the point where I separated the sleeves and omitted the extra stitches the pattern told me to cast on under the arms. Looks better and now I think that this could have been the same issue with the too wide Idlewood. Every other sweater with Raglan construction I’ve knit so far simply closed the gaps under the arms without additional stitches which made for a good fit.
I’m very eager to finish this project by the end of January, both because I want to wear this badly and because I bought yarn and pattern for Kate Davies rams and yowes blanket. I’m a big fan of her designs and I loved knitting her latest hat, the sheep heid (which I haven’t posted about, yet).
Right, time to get back to work! Have a nice weekend!

I’m really pleased with the fit and it was well worth ripping back almost all the body and the first sleeve.

It’s dry now after a much-needed soak and the collar has a lot more drape. Unfortunately, it’s still too dark to take a picture…
I used New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran in a rusty-red with beautiful blue flecks. It’s a slightly heavier Aran. This may be my new favourite yarn, it’s reasonably priced, comes in beautiful colours and has an awesome stitch definition. It’s also very sturdy – even the strain of ripping back the body didn’t affect the yarn in any way. At first the Donegal Silk Tweed felt a bit scratchy but it softened up nicely after the soak. The heather mixtures already start out a bit softer.
So, great yarn, great colour and a sweater that finally fits. Success!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

This year I’ve had a hard time getting in the mood for Christmas. It feels as if the season started one month too early; all that storm and rain  – though certainly welcome after the very spring-like November – do nothing to put me in the mood.

Despite this a look around blogland makes it clear Christmas isn’t far off. Lots of people have already decorated their spaces and even put up their trees! While I won’t have a tree of my own this year because I will be at my parent’s the whole time I managed to put up a wee bit of decoration.

My motivation to get myself into the Christmas cheer was greatly improved by these two relics of times long gone:

Yep, those are tapes! I bought the black one at a supermarket in my hometown circa 1988. The sleeve is long lost but I know the songs on it by heart. Side A starts with a cheesy version of ‘White Christmas’ and ends with “Silent night”. In between there’s ‘Winter wonderland’, ‘Rudolph’ and other equally corny renditions of so-called Christmas Classics. All with strings! Despite the kitsch I love this tape and I’m really glad it still works!
The second tape holds recordings from two choirs singing Christmas Carols – thankfully without strings. I bought this tape exactly ten years ago on a holiday in Edinburgh so it holds many happy memories of a lovely vacation as well.

A twig of Ilex on my windowsill…

…and Christmas lights in my window.
A few years ago I inherited a lot of old Christmas ornaments from my parents, most of them from the seventies and I’ve put a few of them on display. This is one of my favourites:

So, one more day of work before the weekend and tomorrow I’ll meet up with a friend at a Christmas market a few towns over and the forecast predicts weather fit for mulled wine and hats!

After finishing 28thirty I immediately cast on for another sweater to ‘get back on the horse’ and because the spring-like November had finally given way to more appropriate temperatures.

As usual, I’m late for the bandwagon and decided to knit Idlewood a year after almost everyone seemed to be working on this sweater. Since I’m short I knew the original length suggested in the pattern would look ridiculous on me and draw very unwanted attention to my hips.

As you can see above I took the picture in very bad lighting conditions. This turned out to be a grave mistake. Since I currently come home after dark it took me until this weekend to face the facts: This sweater is too big for me. There are folds of fabric to the left and  right of the Raglan lines both on the front and the back. Although I often tend to try and disguise some of my more voluptuous curves I’ve long since realized that wearing baggy clothes ist not the best way to do so. Especially not in an area (read: my boobs) where I’m actually endowed below average.

So, after a night of bad sleep and a period of even worse mood I let it rip  and frogged my poor (and nearly finished) Idlewood all the way back to the last row of the cowl. It now looks like this again:

I’m a bit embarrassed: This is after all a top-down sweater which should make getting the fit right a walk in the park. Obviously not for me!

The only good news about this is the condition of the yarn. I’m using New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran and it held up beautifully despite the strain the frogging put on it. This should be good news on the pilling issue…

I’m knitting the size 40 now but since my bust measures something between this and the 43 3/4 I’ll definitely put the stitches on a piece of string and try it on before separating body and sleeves. Keeping my fingers crossed..

On a different note I managed some Christmas baking this weekend but didn’t take any pictures. My office-mate is very happy about the results!
Also, I finished my Sheep Heid!!! I’ll show you next weekend.

I’ve decided to never knit a sweater with superwash wool.ever.again. Here’s why…

You remember the sweater I mentioned in my last post? 28thirty in olive-green with stunning purple buttons? Yes, well, there’s a reason this FO didn’t make it into its very own post until now.

I used Drops Karisma Superwash in a lovely olive green. The yarn felt nice and smooth and had a slight sheen to it. In my mind, superwash until now equaled a yarn not prone to pilling and felting. Well, I was right about the not felting bit which meant I had to weave in a gazillion of ends – no spit splicing when attaching a new ball of yarn.
Despite this, everything looked fine before the soak. I found some lovely purple buttons, attached them and gave the sweater a bath.

It soaked, I pinned it and left it to dry. I unpinned it and tried it on and… (insert a horrified gasp here) realised it had grown. Not so much that I can’t wear it for fear of looking like I clad myself in a tent but still to big.

Now, I did knit a swatch and even washed it. I got gauge and the fabric looked and felt sturdy and tight. After the soak it has a lot more (unwanted) drape which means the collar won’t stay up.
See for yourself…

It is wearable but I fear this won’t be one of the knitted items that last for life; I can already see the first fuzz and pilling. Oh well, I’ll stay away from superwash wool and the two other projects close to completion both use nice and sturdy non-superwash wool!
So, it’s back to work now for a few more hours. I’ll be back with a WIP roundup and hopefully some Christmas baking to show!

You know, sometimes I think it would be nice to be an ape (Maybe in that wood above…). Nothing to do but eat, play, sleep and interact with my social circle of fellow apes (Zoologists, please don’t hit me). Nothing to do with seminars, students and dissertations at all. Wouldn’t it be nice?

Last week was, well, stressful. I finally have a deadline for my PhD which gives me under two years to finish my research, write AND defend the damn thing. That doesn’t sound too bad and it’s kind of nice to know everything will be over by September 2013 but I will be teaching an average of three classes every semester as well. So, last week was the first taste of what life will be like for the next two years and I’ve never been more grateful for my weekend!

It’s not all bad and feeling like I accomplished something every day is really great.

Also, there were some things waiting for me at home after a long day in the office that cheered me up:

A surprisingly fast parcel from Virtual Yarns – I basically ordered two colour palettes for Fair Isles hats (couldn’t resist). Beautiful yarn!

Wovember tweed batches made by Felicity – I have two more in a nice green tweed which I am wearing now.

In knitting news I’ve finished my 28thirty cardigan for some time now and last week I sewed on the buttons. Pardon the gloomy picture! I gave it a good soak yesterday and now it’s drying on my living room carpet. It’s still way too warm to wear it anyway…

After that I decided I could use a new pullover and there was a fortunate meeting of a beautiful yarn and a gorgeous pattern. I.e., I cast on for Idlewood using New Lanark Donegal Silk Tween Aran in ‘Rust’.  I’m separating body and sleeves soon and so far I really like knitting this. Straightforward stockinette stitch and raglan technique makes for nice mindless knitting. I’ll probably make this shorter than the pattern suggests because I just don’t have the hips for a tunic… Keeping my fingers crossed we will get an actual winter so I can wear it!

*Now, what about the talking ape? Simply put, I needed a title. I’m crap with blog titles and ‘The talking ape’  is the title of a book that’s sitting on my desk right next to my display. 

If you’re only here for the occasional knitting related post you might want to skip this post .

What to do? My solution is to try my hand at doing this the 80s, retro kind of way – I’m un-digitizing my data organisation (and yes, I know un-digitize is not an actual English word )!

I still have a file but it’s made of cardboard and the accumulating data can actually be seen accumulating even though it has a slightly chaotic whiff to it.

Eventually, I will have to put all data in digital form but since I can’t just attach an Excel-file to my dissertation I can convert my paper files later, after I’ve decided on a format.

For now I’ll  enjoy my old-fashioned files… and I better get back to them now!
I’ll be back with the big FO parade – as soon as I’ve finished weaving in the ends, attaching all buttons and giving everything a good soak!