Rethink ont' BF's Christmas Jumper

The original plan was to knit the BF "Avast" (www.knitty.com". However, I'm not sure he will be too keen on the yarn ("New Lanark - DK"). While I do tease him about his princess and the pea qualities, I don't want to make him something that he won't be overly keen on.

I do suspect it will be a 'grower' though, i.e. he would hate the idea if I suggested but once he sees it, he will like it... and it's a cardi so won't be touching his skin.

Meanwhile, he loved the "Sublime - Retro Jumper" I knitted for him last Christmas in "Jaeger Extra Fine Merino", and said I could knit him another one in different colours.



Since Jaeger have discontinued their yarn production, balls of this lovely stuff can be found with some searching. I went back to Cucumber Patch (www.cucumberpatch.c.uk) and picked up a batch of "Biscuit" for the bargain price of £2.25 per ball - previously knocking around for between £4.50 - £5 per ball. It's also a fantastic substitution for the "Sublime Extra Fine Merino", producing a beautiful drape in the finished material.

While I love knitting for the BF and he loves what I make for him, he still has a tendency to hang jumpers on the floor.

Pay £5 per ball to make him a jumper? Bugger that for a game of soldiers.

"Davy Jones" by Middle Earth Yarns

I finished the "Captain Jacks" and while I had thought that the pattern of the colourway was too dense for the stitch pattern, I'm really happy with the finished results. The yarn is beautifully soft and lovely on the feet.



Having enjoyed knitting this so much, I dug out the other skein I bought from Cazza - "Davy Jones".



It also meant I was able to play with my swift.



And, I'm knitting another pattern from the 'Vogue Ultimate Sock Book' - 'Big Bamboo'. I think the shades are really appropriate for bamboo.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Sid (no idea what his/her real name is, but Sid'll do) has been trying to get onto this window ledge for months. Tonight he managed it. "I can haz rools the street."

Then he got stuck, and didn't look quite so smug.

He fell off (in a controlled sort of slide down the tiles) and strolled off: "Nobody saw anything. Everything is cool".

My Socks

Finally, I get my act together and take a photograph of my socks in progress.



I'm really pleased with these. The yarn is lovely and soft and the stitch definition is fab. One 'concern' is that I think the colourway variation is too dense for this pattern but that's my fault not the yarn's. :-)

Next pair, I think will be Cazza's "Davy Jones" in 'Big Bamboo'. I think.

Jollies Update II

Thought I'd present some alternative holiday shots - you can find better shots of the major tourist sites on any holiday website, or in nice books, or if you go and have a look yourself. So, instead...

The seagull sitting next to me on top of the Castel Saint-Angelo in Rome. The Castle was originally constructed as Emperor Hadrian's Mausoleum - him who built the wall, you know.



The crush of people, herding themselves through the Vatican Museum, ignoring the tapestries, the frescoes, the paintings, as they dash as quickly as they can to the Sistine Chapel... where they will talk endlessly and noisily, ringing their pals to say: "Guess where I am. My gawd, I'm in the Sistine. It's like so impressive." Before saying to the people with them: "Quick! Get a picture of me in the Sistine". "Quick get a picture of me next to this statue, and this statue and that statue."



The dumb pigeons in St Peter's Square. I threw them an icecream cone. They just looked at it. I stamped on it, and look how they reacted. Brains of Italy? Methinks, not.



A statue of St Francis in the Church of St Maria in Trastevere. There are hundreds of little letters at his feet and his arms. It looked amazing.



And, finally... Get a load of this piece of chocolate cake. We had lunch in the roof garden of the Uffizi in Florence. Delicious, and the gallery wasn't bad either.

Some Knitting Stuff

I finished these socks for the BF at the weekend. (I was planning to knit whilst on holiday... but just couldn't be bothered). The yarn is "Fortissima Colori" and I bought it at Ally Pally last October. It was intended for me, but the BF started whinging for new socks and I 'went off' the colourway... so he got his sixth pair of knitted socks.



For myself, I'm on with these...



Erm, well - it would have been except it would appear that I forgot to take a photograph, so what you have instead is a photo of my timber paint spattered arms. I spent the day painting the garden fence and I ended up looking like I had had a henna fight.

Anyway, what I've been working on is a pair of socks for myself (photo to follow). The yarn is the lovely stuff that Cazza makes (MiddleEarth Knitter Yarns). This is another one from the stash and was a birthday treat to myself a couple of years ago. The colourway is "Captain Jack" (from her 'Pirates of the Caribbean' phase) and the yarn is beautifully soft.

The pattern is cartridge rib from "Vogue Knitting's - Ultimate Sock Book". I was planning to do a more complex pattern, that would be more sea-related (something that reminded me of seaweed perhaps) but I wasn't feeling brilliant so went with something more straightforward.

Jollies Update

I'm back in Blighty. "Hail," as one of the Romans said in 'Carry on, Ceasar'. "Hail," responded Sid James. "Rain, sleet and snow". The day before yesterday, I was swanning around in a frock and sandals. Today I'm in a jumper.

We've had a great trip, though quite an eventful one.

The first problem is that we were travelling through Terminal 5... Of course, before we even reached Italy, there was the matter of the lad at the back of the plane, who was being deported. Remember, Marge Simpson's "Fear of Flying" ("Let me off, let me off!")? It was a little like that. He was screaming and shrieking: "I'm not going, I'm not going, I'm not going."



We made it to Rome, but the cases didn't. However, being a pessimist, I had packed a couple of changes of clothes for us in an overnight bag.

The next issue was that the Italian banks had 'lost their connection' with my bank = no money. (Though we had Euros with us).

The luggage was delivered to our hotel that night and was waiting in our room for us when we returned from an evening walk around Rome. (How relieved were we?) I'll pop a couple of photos on when I get my act together.

We had six days in Rome, followed by two days in Florence. The weather was beautiful (with only one day of rain). We've seen the sights - Colosseum, Vatican, St Peters, more churches than I can remember, the Capitoline, Palatine and Castello St Angelo; we queued for three hours to go into the Uffizi, we've been to the Duomo, and we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa from the plane. However, most importantly, we've drank red wine, cappucinos, eaten pizza, pasta, traditional Tuscan cooking and even more importantly... cake and lots and lots of icecream.


Further events have sadly included the eartquake at L'Aquila. The tremors from this hit Rome. Obviously, we weren't hurt though the hotel did quite some shaking and there were people screaming. I was just impressed that I was awake for it. We didn't realise how serious it was elsewhere until we started getting calls from home.

In Florence, there was a fire alarm, just after we woke up. We scrambled out on to the road outside... only to discover that someone had burnt their toast and everyone else was upstairs, eating breakfast.