Time check!

OK, so for reasons unspecified I want to finish this Ishbel this week. That's going to take some doing, with no snow days in the offing and a house that desperately needs a spring clean before my Mother comes round on Sunday... Technically the brother is also coming, on Saturday, but he doesn't count. He's messy too. I can even rope him in to clean if I need to. Probably. He kept hoovering at Christmas, but maybe that was a comment on the general cleanliness of my house...
Anyway, Ishbel this evening got three-quarters of chart A knitted. It would have been more, but I was shattered after being left in charge of somebody else's class from hell and had to crawl under a duvet and have a little kip and 2 paracetamol to recuperate. Knitting time diminished, but sanity partly restored. More of the same class tomorrow, unfortunately. I may need vodka next time.
The point is this. I have until Sunday. I am knitting charts A,B,A,B,A,C,D,E. If I knit one whole chart each night (and catch up two rows tomorrow at lunchtime, maybe?) then that just leaves me C, D and E for Saturday. I have a long car journey on Saturday, and the brother will be driving. He hardly ever lets me drive... I try not to take this as a comment on my driving. (To be fair, the one time I drove his car a couple of miles I went up a big kerb, and he was in the back... but I was on holiday and eating an ice cream at the time... I'm sure this has nothing to do with it.) Chart E is only one row. One chart on the way to Dorset, and one on the way back..? Maybe. That still leaves the cast-off row (I remember that taking over an hour). I'll also have to block it.
Mission impossible? Maybe, just maybe...... I've bitten off more than I can knit.

A baby quilt and another ishbel

I knew my Mother was quite taken by my purple Ishbel scarf when she twice swiped it from around my neck to try it on. When I accidentally left it behind at her house on Saturday, however, I knew that matters had become desperate. I arrived home to see an email gloating that Mother was going to wear it to her WI meeting and her sewing group! Desperate times call for desperate measures.....
...another Ishbel. I'm not giving up on getting the purple one back, but I've got a cold neck! The first half of the pattern makes for good car knitting, so this was cast on this morning and is now ready for the lace section. As before, I'm doing small stockinette and large lace (charts A,B,A,B,A,C,D,E). Maybe I can finish it this week!

And two evenings' sewing will give you a beautiful little cot quilt for a new arrival... I'm hoping to meet him on Saturday! I hate washed-out pastels, I don't think they're terribly practical for babies. Babies leak. Luckily new Mum and Dad also like bright colours. I hope they'll love this!

Reinforced sole socks

No FOs today, but these socks have finally come out of the 'abandoned' pile to be finished. These will be my handbag knitting now till they're done, shouldn't take long as I have a sock and a half already.
I'm trying a new trick on these: the eye of partridge slip stitch pattern that is often used on heels to reinforce them. Except I'm using it on the sole, which is where my socks always wear out. I was a bit worried it might feel bumpy underfoot and the slip stitch pattern does draw in more than the plain stockinette in both length and width, so the sock seems to curl downwards when knitting, but on the foot it is very smooth and comfortable, with a thicker, almost cushioned, sole. The tighter fabric at the bottom hugs the arch of the foot almost as if specially designed for this purpose. Very pleased with them so far, although it is a bit slower to knit. I'll have to wait and see if they wear well!

Cold weather makes for warm feet

For anyone outside the UK, I'd just like to mention it's been quite snowy here. That said, to almost anyone outside the UK, and even to those in the north of England or in Scotland, this is a pathetic amount of snow. About 4 inches, topped up over a few days so it stayed nice and white and fluffy on the garden and slippery on the roads. What would amuse anyone from colder climes is just how rubbish the south of England is at dealing with snow. Probably Wales, too, but I haven't been there this last week or so. We have no snowploughs, because we hardly ever get more than a half inch of snow in a single winter. We hae about a week's worth of salt and grit which quickly gets dubbed 'dangerously low stocks' by the media and the AA (Automobile Association, not Alcoholics Anonymous) . Soon after that, roads get closed, people panic-buy anything they can find and refuse to leave their homes. School was closed two days last week, and we've had two days where we were sent home early, too. It's funny, really, and I've just spent the time knitting and making sure the chickens have plenty of food and water that hasn't frozen. The kitty isn't keen on going out, but she does funny little jumps through the cold white stuff when she experiences a call of nature and the rest of the time, just sleeps contentedly wherever is the warmest place in the house.

This evening I finished these booties, made from the magic slipper pattern (adapted to include 6 rows of stockinette cuff). They're for a new arrival belonging to some friends of mine, wh I'm hoping to meet soon. I've sent him one pair in the post already, along with a baby surprise jacket. Winter babies need wool.

Not quite disappeared...

Still here, just gone a bit quiet. Still battling on with everything, and knitting like mad. A few FOs in a minute. First, you need to go here and read about this. If you're not convinced after that second one, I doubt I can say anything to pursuade you, but really, even when I've had the worst year of my life, I can still appreciate how lucky I really am. I live in a big house and I never go hungry and I can put the heating on when it gets cold, and I have an obscene amount of wool, although I haven't bought any for months. (I'm going to have to knit for quite a while to make a dent in this stash!) I can find a few quid. And so can you.

Now, knitting!!

There are a few things on the needles not making much progress, but I'd like to start on a high with some finished socks which I'm going to find it extremely hard to part with... I love the colours of course, as it's a rainbow, but they are for my stepdad's birthday, so they are firmly spoken for. And they're not my size.

Fabulous, though, aren't they? Schoppel Wolle crazy zauberball.

I started an Ishbel shawlette in noro silk garden sock a while back, but never really got along with it... the edging seemed very tight in the non-stretchy noro singles, and I got confused with tyhe charts and had to rip... It went into hibernation. Then a skein of gorgeous variegated purple cashmere and merino sock yarn appeared, courtesy of the socktopus sock club that I joined last year, and it just seemed too glorious for socks. Ishbel mark two was knit up very quickly over Christmas - lots of car knitting and hours of sitting on the sofa digesting too much food! It's a fabulous shawlette that I wear often as a bandana-style scarf, and turns a gappy v-necked jumper into something far cosier. I love it!

Ishbel, full span. The edging was pointier after blocking, but has curled up a bit in wearing. I don't mind, I still love it.

Slightly blurry closeup of lace pattern. Fabulous colour!

More FOs and UFOs to follow. I'll try not to forget the blog again. Promise.