socherryknits

Even though Pinwheel is still in the naughty corner, it has at least meant that I've been forced to look elsewhere for knitty gratification. I'm aware that with approximately 15 projects on the needles at the moment, I cannot possibly justify casting on something new. Even if I did, the WIPs would be crying away in the [usually ignored] guilt corner of my brain and ruin said newly cast on project. So I've knuckled down and got on with it - the blocking project photographed is a Noro Silk Garden scarf - folded in half to block, as there is nowhere big enough to stretch it out full. It's two colourways striped every two rows. It was knit lengthways because at the time I thought this would be more gratifying as there would be less rows ... that each row took an eon to finish was something that dawned on me later. This scarf is to replace a threadworn big grey scarf my granny bought me a few years back - I always wear it at work to keep me toasty and it has two big pockets...

Ever since the Pinwheel fiasco of late [still in the naughty corner] all my WIPs are taking on a 'blah' feeling. When this is combined with Christmas knitting which cannot be mentioned there was little left to blog about really. My iPod cosy knitted a couple of years ago [with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton] has finally worn from overuse. Sure I could have frogged it and re-knit - but I felt it was time for a new design. And more importantly, time to get an FO out there just to make myself feel the knitty love once more. Ta-da! A lovely snug cosy made from the remnants of the technicolour sock : Schoeller + Stahl Limbo Colour DK sock yarn in colourway 2539 Rainbow. It's so autumnal and the iPod cosy looks much better made from a finer yarn and smaller [3mm] needles.

So it didn't turn out exactly how I planned, but I think this yarn was fated to have another colourway name; Glasgow City Nights. It reminds me of autumn, fireworks, dark evenings and orange city lights against red sandstone tenements. Speaking of fireworks; thank you to the 3 moronic twats who felt it would be just hilarious to light a rocket directly outside our house at 3.30 am. I was unable to get asleep again for quite some time, so busy was my brain furiously penning letters to MSPs. We found the rocket this morning next to the car - I was all for submitting it to Toryglen polis for fingerprinting ... With thanks to the boy for putting up with me and driving me around Glasgow during the 20 minutes of perfect 'evening sky' for some good blog pics.

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...

Thought I'd get into the spirit of autumn and walk around Kelvingrove park taking pretty tree shots ... I was trying to re-find the things I love about Glasgow as it all seems a bit 'meh' after Japan. Various shots were ruined by the rubbish lying everywhere *sigh* so I went off to find the resident Heron at the pond ... instead I found a family of rats. ... and a fibre-stealing squirrel. I was on way to Knit n Stitch as well, so I was stacked with yarn. In the spirit of the changing season I decided to sort out my craft room. Above is the clean bit. Then I ran out of shelf space and a trip to IKEA was needed ... and so below is what remains to be sorted. Despite appearances there is an order to the chaos. And I got to the sleeve section of the Pinwheel Sweater - yay! Until ... It's too [expletive] small!! I could cry. I really could. I mean I gauged the arse of this I swear! I bought 3 sets of sodding Addi circular needles ... IN THREE LENGTHS. I washed every single sw...

Well we're back in rainy Glasgow, and I think I'm sufficiently recovered from jetlag enough to be able to operate a PC, string a sentence together and complete my Japan blogging. Just in case you thought we'd spent our entire time playing in yarn shops, arcades and eating - a bit of culture was also had. These pics are from the Meiji shrine and surrounding Yoyogi Park. The top pic is a big pond full of koi karp, terrapins and massive dragonflies. We had our lunch there - it was very peaceful and relaxing. The above picture was the dwarfing entrance to the shrine. We walked around the gardens and had lunch but we never visited the shrine itself. [It was a Saturday so fairly busy and really humid hot, so we were looking for a bit of peace from the crowds.] This was me walking in the park - I used my umbrella to shade myself from the sun, but on this occasion it was up despite being in the shade ... due to the massive spiders that lurked. This was just at the entrance to the ...

I made it to Yuzawaya in Kichijoji - wow! I mean wow! It was AMAZING! Unfortunately I had to be fairly restrained as I've reached my suitcase limits and am probably going to have to pay excess... There was a group of women knitting too. The yarn went on for about 15 aisles -loads of different brands and types. I bought some love variegated 'Scottish Heather' all purples and greens, and some variegated autumn colours from the same brand. I also got some organic cotton in quiet subtle shades. A few sets of needles in Japanese sizes so I have in-betweenies for those gauge crisis', and also some cherry ribbon and handle parts. I could have stayed in there all day, and spent millions... The boy didn't seem to realise just how big it was - even though we left at breakfast and I had planned dinner in Kichijoji. We also made it to the infamous Kiddyland in Harajuku - another wow! Probably 6 floors I think. I think I'm all Kawaii'd out now :) ... and I finally manage...