I could have thought that out better

The other week Raph came to the pub and asked if I would make him "a snood" for next winter. After a bit of conversation, I realised he meant a cowl. I've had this conversation before - I consider a snood as a hair covering for medieval women. Anyway, he struggles to keep scarves on, because he has a large neck, so he wanted a cowl. I refrained from telling him that if a scarf was long enough it would stay on fine.It's his birthday in a couple of weeks, so I figured why wait?
I came home looked at some patterns and decided to make Martina Behm's Wolking, using the sample Milarrochy Tweed from the Kate Davies Club

I added 20 stitches to the pattern to accommodate his size, and started knitting. I thought I would use half of each colour until I hit the middle, and then knit the same sequence out. What i should have done at this point was to weigh how much a row takes. I didn't. Part way through I realised that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to knit each colour twice for all the colours. So, that was the decision that I was trying to make last time we met. It doesn't really matter, this is meant to be a fun, crazy stripy thing. The pattern calls for it to be 50 cm (it's currently....) but it rally doesn't matter. I'll get it as long as I can, and if some of the stripes are a little uneven - I'm giving this to a man who has a flat cap that looks like a turtle, and wears it. I'm pretty sure that uneven stripes will not detract from this for him.

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Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year! In reading I've just finished The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat. The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

What I made, by Sharon

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