I've been away from blogging land for abit - partially because the Ravelry forums are sucking away my life [in particular the pinny thread] and partially because I'm not having an awful lot of success on the fibre front of late. Finally Pinwheel has been allowed off the naughty step and is currently blocking [looking to be about 5cm to small in the diameter which I think is totally fixable]. I have taken something good out of this debacle however; I have learned that once I have swatched I should go up 0.5mm needle size to get correct gauge for the 'real' knitting. Clearly I tense up a bit on the waste of time that gauge squares always feel like. [Even though I'm planning on making a big project memory style blanket out of all the squares.] A Christmas knitting gift [photographed in extreme close-up so as not to give the game away - the intended recipient is a reader] went a bit awry when I realised at the final hurdle that I had cast on the wrong number of stitches...
The boy and I are on Easter hols this week, and have decided to be active, and get out and about in Scotland since our RSPB membership cards came in this week. Today we went to Stirling in search of nature. We spotted Hamish the Highland coo in a woollen mill next to Callander, surrounded by 3 coach loads of tourists armed with cameras. He just loved the attention... We also stopped at Aberfoyle (great toilets) and popped up to the David Marshall Lodge . A lovely place with virtually tame birds at the seed hangers and tables; chaffinches, coal tits, siskins etc. Really enjoyable, spoiled only by the completely inappropriate noise-fest that is Go-Ape! (exclamation point part of their logo ... 'nuff said). But the best place we visited was Argaty Red Kites - it was unexpected because we only stopped in as it was on the road we happened to be on. We timed it perfectly, arriving just after they'd been fed. There were lots of Red Kites flying and diving about. Click the pics abov...
The first sock done! DK pattern and Schoeller & Stahl Limbo Color Col: 2539 - bought from Web Of Wool at Woolfest [they have just updated their website by the way - it's great] I'm totally in love with this yarn! It's like TV white snow but in glorious technicolour. It pains me to stop halfway through - although I have cast on the second sock and done a few rows just to avoid SSS. As it's DK yarn it goes so much faster - and is lovely, cosy and autumnal. The middle pic is my very first shot at kitchener stitch ... it was doubly-hard as I didn't really understand *what* kitchener stich is. I didn't realise until I saw a finished pic somewhere on the internet that it's a stitch that makes it look like there is no join - just knitting continued around the toe. Mine doesn't look like that ... But it's fantastically comfortable, and sock #2 will be better!
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