Hooray for DPNs!

I can't stand magic loop. Or trying to work in the round on two circular needles. No, for me it's DPNs all the way. Now so far, I've managed on the Kauni Cardi with a 150cm bamboo circular needle, switching down to a 100cm needle round the neck, as there were a lot less stitches, and that was ok. Not my favourite thing, shifting all the stitches around on the needle, but I managed without wanting to scream. A round and a half on the sleeve and I was screaming already. So I dug out the right size DPNs, and hey presto! I'm happily sleeving.

Now, there's quite a few stitches on each needle, so this project really isn't portable any more. But then, it's now such a size and weight that it's definitely not handbag knitting any more. I think it's probably not car knitting any more either, though. That could slow it up a bit.

Do you see the pretty new stitch marker? I made quite a few yesterday. I was just looking at all of my pretty beads and thinking it was a shame they just sit in a box. I have many, many beads. I have a 35 litre really useful box full of beads. I can barely lift it. If beads were still currency, I'd be a millionaire. It's my magpie instinct: it's pretty coloured and shiny, I've got to have it.

Apart from the two balls I've just started the first sleeve with, this is what I've got left. I think I'll have plenty. I may still unravel the neck and button bands and reknit them with smaller needles: they're a bit linp, and the neck band doesn't lie flat. I think since I'm doing it in garter stitch, rather than rib, I may have to do some decreasing to get it right. Uh oh - maths!

Kauni progress - yay!

That is a grafted shoulder seam. Can you spot the row of kitchener stitch? If you can, don't tell me! I'm proud of it! Grafting something this large was a LOT harder than grafting 16 stitches on a sock toe. still, I survived! And it's now joined at the shoulder. The next step was steek cutting. *GULP*

I can now see why just the one drink would help steady the nerves. This took a lot of work, a lot of knitting time. Cutting it in half was... interesting. Still, I am beginning to see the virtues of steeks and knitting jumpers in the round. I'm not totally convinced yet, we'll see.

But cutting it did allow me to get this far! As of this evening, it has a neck band and button bands! With buttonholes! (No closeup as I'm not that impressed with them - but they are my first try!)

I had some help today.
Just so you know, picking up stitches is considerably harder with a cat sitting on your work. She seems to really love this knit, every time I put it down, there she is!

...and when I gently prise her off it, she finds somewhere else to go that makes me feel guilty!

(this is perhaps not the best shot of a patchwork bag I'm actually quite proud of! But it's clearly acceptable as a bed.)

Shhhhhh! Don't jinx it, but...

... I've finished the body of the kauni cardi! I've been feeling a bit under the weather today, so I've not been to the gym or dug the garden or tidied the house, I've just been knitting and watching DVDs. Lazy, but relaxing and very productive. I've even grafted the shoulders, for which I had to cut the neck steeks. I know it's traditional to need a stiff drink to prepare oneself, but I psyched myself up and did it sober. When drinking and knitting combine, the f*ck-up fairy often comes to visit. I'm doing too well on this cardi so far to allow that!
Pictures tomorrow.

I really don't deserve him...

I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. Do you know why?

It's not because it's our three-year wedding anniversary today, and he still loves me despite all my faults. It's not because he wrote me a lovely message in a card with sunflowers on. It's not because he bought me the biggest ever bunch of flowers and had it delivered today while he was out at the doctor's.

Huge, or what? I opened the door and a bunch of sunflowers handed me a clipboard to sign. There was no person visible. Those sunflowers are 3 feet tall!

It's not because he always gets me sunflowers because he knows they are my favourite flower (I had them in my wedding bouquet, despite my mother's protests). It's not for any of those reasons, though I do love him for each and every one of them.

No, it's because of something really amazing. Really, really amazing.

Yesterday, I asked him to teach me to use the strimmer. He taught me how to fill it with fuel, set it up, and prime it. then I started it, it spun along the ground, and hit his leg. I did this to his leg.

Now, he and I both know I didn't mean to, but you could hardly expect a man to not be cross with you for doing this. It must have HURT. But he wasn't cross. He didn't yell. He told me not to worry and spent ten minutes calming me down and persuading me to 'get back on the horse' and use the strimmer again. He came back outside and taught me how to use it properly. Then he went to the florist and ordered the world's biggest bunch of flowers, and had them delivered to me today while he was at the doctor's having a tetanus shot.

You see? I'm right! I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.

I love him to bits and I hope he'll always love me as much as he evidently does now!

You can't beat mother nature...

We had a letter yesterday from the council to say that all of the allotments had been visited and assessed, and given a level, from 'green' - brilliant, wonderful, fabulous, to 'red' - this is pathetic, we're going to take it off you if you don't sort it out. Ours scored 'orange' - you've done some work, now pull your finger out and get it looking neater!

I went to look at it. To be honest, I think they have a point...
Oh dear. We haven't been and done any work on it in months, and it seems that we're rather better at growing grass, nettles and thistles than vegetables. Oops. I think we'd better have a go at sorting it out. Just to rub salt into the wound, this is what the allotment right next to ours looks like:
Call me crazy, but I see here a picture of a man with a LOT of time on his hands.
I should point out that when we got our allotment, it did not look like this perfect one. It looked a lot worse than it is now, three-quarters covered in brambles, and four people above us on the waiting list had already refused it as too much hard work. That said, I was hoping it wouldn't revert to it's natural state quite so quickly! You can't tell now, but we have had that thing back to bare turned-over earth twice in the last year. Damn couch grass - you just can't get rid of it! One tiny little piece of root left in the ground and it comes back like wildfire.

Heigh ho - better go and get my wellies on!

Counter-intuitive maths for pessimists

In my Kauni cardigan, there are 381 stitches per row.

I have knitted 10 rows.

I have, really. Here is some very crudely-diagrammed proof:

I hope that's now clear, irrefutable fact. I knitted 10 rows.

381 x 10 = 3,810 stitches.

Want to check my working? It is, promise! I even checked it with a calculator in case there was something wrong with my brain (apart from the usual, that is).

I have knitted three thousand, eight hundred and ten stitches.

So.... WHY doesn't it look any bigger?

Somebody still likes it though. :-)

Intuitive maths for optimists

Isn't it funny how easily you can fool yourself when you want to? Especially when using pseudo-maths. I like pseudo-maths. You can use it to justify anything, from 'It's half the fat, so I can eat twice as much' to 'All that wool I just bought was in the sale at 50% off, so I really SAVED money by buying it...'

Not that this is a problem. I know somewhere on a deep level that it's not really true, so I'm probably ok.... However, i am quite convinced about today's equation.

Eight hours tidying the house and garden = one trip to the gym.

What do we think? Totally gaga? Wishful thinking? I have been working hard and building up a sweat for at least half of that time... will that work off as many calories as my usual 45 mins slogging away on the cross-trainer, treadmill, etc.? And more importantly, does it mean that I can justify having a chinese takeaway for dinner?

On a knitting theme, the Kauni is progressing a little more slowly, what with all this unprecedented tidying.

Two blocks of colour above where the sleeve steek begins! It's still growing!

Can I just say, this thing is now HUGE. It's really heavy hanging on the needles now, I have to rest it in my lap or on a table!