November knitting

I’ve run out of excuses for neglecting my blog – it’s nearly been a month since my last post! We’re now smack in the middle of one of my favourite months (It’s a bit hard to decide between October, November and December) and we’ve had some fabulous autumnal weather:

Since I’ve caught a very nasty cold I’ve been stuck to my bed and my sofa since last Saturday and today is the first time I felt well enough for a short walk. I’m still using up a mountain of tissues but at least I no longer have to sleep most of the day. When I wasn’t sleeping I knitted. Well, reading was out and so I listened to audiobooks, watched crap daytime telly and knitted. As a result, I’ve cast on and finished two hats, one sleeve and finally made progress on a long forgotten sock.

pattern: Hurricane Hat by Andrea Goutier
yarn: Southern Cross Fibre Club ‘sugar & spice’
used about 80 meters

pattern: Marina by Wooly Wormhead
yarn: Southern Cross Fibre Club ‘medieval’

Since my handspun usually turns out a bit uneven and I almost never plan ahead I had to fiddle a bit with the numbers.
Marina is knit sideways and it turned out my stitch gauge was a bit off (what a surprise!) so this turned out super slouchy. It’s soft and warm (the yarn is a BFL/Silk mix) but I have to fold the brim over to avoid looking like a gnome.

With the Hurricane Hat I miscalculated how much yarn I would need and, as I was overly cautious, ended up with a very much not slouchy hat and leftover yarn. I haven’t blocked this one and I hope it will grow a bit after a good wash but this will be the perfect hat for windy bicycle tours as it’s almost windproof.

Then there’s another project I finished before I got ill:

pattern: Wellenreiter
 yarn: Rowan Colourscape Chunky + Frankenwolle Merino

I saw this in my LYS and instantly fell in love! Fortunately, the pattern was available at the store and when I came home I immediately cast on. It’s constructed with short rows without wraps and the coloured sections a knitted in garter stitch to create a relief-like effect. I can comfortably wrap this around my neck and shoulders twice and it’s very warm and cosy. Unfortunately, we’ve had higher temperatures again so I had no opportunity to wear this yet. Looking forward to the cold! The only action shot I managed to take is very dark but you get the general idea:

Since I have such a backlog of things to show and tell you I decided to split it into several posts (which I will write now and publish later – thank WordPress for the schedule function!). So, stay tuned for spinning, bike tours and Wovember!

Still here

I’ve been back from London and the Wildcraft Spin-In for almost four weeks but with my dissertation deadline looming I had to dive back into it right away. Now I’ve finished the first chapter and I’m feeling a bit better – maybe this will turn out ok in the end and my PhD will be done by next summer. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

I’ve decided against a full post about my London adventure and the Spin-In but you can have a look here and see what I’ve been up to.

I want to get back into blogging more regularly which for me seems to be a question of not trying to write the perfect post but just get on with it.

So, I thought I’d show you what has made struggling with that first proper chapter of my dissertation bearable!

Fibre & Yarn from London and the Spin-In

I had lots of fun doing the dyeing workshop at the Spin-In and since I’ve been good with my yarn purchases in London I allowed myself to splurge a bit on Wildcraft fibre and spindles.  The Spin-In provided lots of time to get used to my new spindle and I finished spinning the first part of a lovely Falkland fibre.

This is another spindle I couldn’t resist!

As for yarn, I only bought some Brooklyn Tweed Loft from Loop London and some lovely soft Tweed yarn from Studio Donegal at Nest while I waited to be picked up for the journey to Dorset.

New tea cup

Back home a parcel from England was waiting for me and I have been enjoying my tea from this lovely new cup from Cecily Vessey:

I love the small Big Ben on the inside! Check out her designs at etsy!

Autumn

In the last weeks the weather has got colder and I finally had the opportunity to wear my Curious Cardigan!

Also, squash season started at my local farmer’s market, so I made some soup last week.

The new semester starts next Monday and I’m already dreading it a bit. It will be harder to meet the deadlines in my plan while teaching and preparing the classes. I’m going to enjoy the peace and quiet this week while I can!

Achievement and autumn

It’s here, finally! After a ridiculously warm September it started raining today and the temperature has just dropped to a moderate 16 ° C! As much as I love this season (even the rain!) this also means bad times for picture-taking. The lighting in my flat is already low when I get home from work so I will have to resort to take my photos at the office or on the weekend from now on.
Since the new semester is about to start my week’s been very busy, but in a good way. It seems I work better under pressure whether it’s a deadline or the need to juggle lots of obligations at the same time so instead of freeing up my evenings to recompense for days filled with work on a dissertation I can’t keep myself motivated to work on I now aim to fill my week up with lots of things – taking a class in ‘Writing English for academic purposes’ on Thursdays, Cello lessons on Wednesdays, going to our local knitting meet-up on Tuesdays and I need to fit in some sports for my back.
First evidence this worked can be seen in the progress I made on my dissertation research – I’m working on the outline of the first chapter, found some more words for my list and I’m spending tomorrow at the library with my two pals,the Comprehensive Dictionary of Old English and the OED online.

Also achieved this week:

• Spinning and plying of 4 oz Spunky Eclectic Falkland (drying at the moment, pics later)
• Finished knitting the body of my Celery Cardigan (pics see above)
• nearly finished writing up the London centric post

This week’s losers:

• Dirty dishes
• laundry
• The lamp above my table and the lamp at the sofa (The lightbulb of the first burned through and since I haven’t had time to go shopping they have to share one lightbulb 🙂 )

My master-plan may need a wee bit of tweaking…
Coming up next: London!

Happy autumn!