I was looking for some gift ideas when I found the Adopt A Polar Bear Gift Pack:
The Adopt A Polar Bear is the perfect gift for those who have always wanted a pet polar bear, but are scared of getting mauled to death(..)
What a fantastic feeling to know that you have done a little bit toward making our world a better place and making sure the Polar Bears get there cappucino and Jaffa Cake rations (or whatever it is they spend the money on).
We have a pile of wrapped presents in our living room. David is celebrating his birthday this week and I finished wrapping his presents yesterday whilst he was out looking at naked ladies at his art class. I also made a head start on wrapping the Christmas presents. Now I'm all antsy because we have a pile of wrapped presents in our living room and I really want to open them all. I have never been the most patient person in the world. David's birthday means that I will not be able to go to Gourock on Saturday. Scotland's newest yarn shop, Once A Sheep, is hosting an Ysolda Teague event and I would actually like to meet some of the Edinburgh knitters I only know online. I'm also one of the few knitters who do not own a copy of Ysolda's new book and the event at Once A Sheep would have been a perfect time to buy it. Oh well. Maybe I should just go to Edinburgh soon?
(Speaking of crafty things .. if you fancy some Malabrigo, Madelinetosh or some luscious Debbie Bliss Tweed, head over to Make Do & Mend. Mooncalf is doing a blog giveaway. She is a lovely woman.)
Finally, I have begun yet another lace project. I'm convinced it is because I'm stuck doing the sleeves for David's sweater. I really should focus on the sweater, shouldn't I? After all, it is the boy's birthday later this week..
The Percy Shawl,or as I prefer to call it: The "Mad, Bad and Orange To Know" Shawl (apologies to Lady Caroline Lamb). Colour is most accurate in the first photo.
I tried knitting this earlier this year but Chart B left me a broken woman. This time I was stuck in bed with bad cold/mild flu and could concentrate fully on the complicated Chart B. I will not lie and say it was a breeze, because it was not, but it was not horrifyingly difficult. Once I worked out the logic of Chart B and its Frost Flowers pattern, I could relax a bit more although I kept needing to consult the chart.
After I finished Chart B, my brain went into holiday mode and I messed up the relatively easy Chart C. I ripped back a few rows - something which is no mean feat in fuzzy baby alpaca - and eventually Chart C needed up being my favourite part of the shawl. In fact, I love the edging so much that I am going to knit a huge shawl in stocking stitch with Chart C as the only lace element. The edging is geometric, elegant, understated and just.. perfection.
I used around 400 yrds of light fingering weight yarn. In other words, the Percy Shawl would work with one skein of fine sock wool. It is not an easy or quick knit - I think it is the most complicated shawl I have knitted so far - but it looks really pretty. It should be relatively easy to upsize as well, if you have the yardage.
(Also, a lot of people on Ravelry have skipped Chart B entirely but I think skipping the Frost Flowers would be a shame. They form the focal point)
A quick note on the yarn. I used coned baby alpaca from a Danish yarn company. It was very splitty and I had to weave in the ends very quickly before the yarn fuzzed into nothing. I am not sure how the shawl will stand up to continuous wear, in other words. However, the alpaca is almost angora-like in its softness and I had no issues with how it blocked out (unlike Drops Alpaca which does not like blocking). I would use the yarn again (and will have to as I have 700+ yrds left) but only for projects which will not get a great deal of continuous wear.
More photos available at the Rav project page.
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.- TS Eliot; from "Dry Salvages"; Four Quartets.*
The flood season has begun, in other words. Just south of the Scottish border, a policeman is currently missing as a bridge collapses in the floods. Early this morning I went for a walk along our nearby river, The Kelvin. I have never never seen it this high, although I know one of its bridges was swept away in a flood years back.
On the second photo you can see a bench where I sometimes sit knitting on sunny weekend afternoons. Not much chance of that happening right now! If we get any more rain, I think the pathways around the Kelvin are likely to be closed off. Luckily the river runs in a gorge, so there are no immediate threats to buildings in this area.
As you can imagine it has really been dreich lately so last night I made a warm, delicious soup:
Sweet Potato & Chilli Soup (serves an army of six)
1 red onion, roughly chopped 1 red chilli, de-seeded and roughly chopped 2 large carrots, diced 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped 2 big sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into walnut-sized chunks 2 cups of veg stock (or more, see instructions) ½ tin of coconut milk ½ tsp of cayenne pepper 1 tsp of ground cumin salt to taste (amount really depends upon the type of stock you use) 1 tbsp of olive oil optional extras: handful of shredded cheese and dash of paprika
1. Heat the oil and add onion, garlic, chilli, cayenne pepper and cumin. Cook for about 5 min. at medium heat. Add carrots and cook until onion softened. Add sweet potato chunks. Add as much stock as will cover the veg. Put lid and cook until all veg have softened. This will take about 25-30 minutes.
2. Blend the soup - try to aim for a consistency between super-smooth and chunky. Take care you do not splash any of the hot soup on yourself (she says looking at her left hand). Add coconut milk and stir until well-mixed. Serve in bowls with some good rustic bread on the side. I put some shredded (lacto-free) cheese on top and dressed it with a dash of paprika, but I can be a bit poncy at times.
Substitutions etc: I used coconut milk because I'm lactose intolerant. You could easily use double cream, natural yoghurt or regular milk instead. If using milk/cream, you could also add a tin of chopped tomatoes and use basil and marjoram instead for a slightly more Mediterranean taste. Instead of sweet potato you could use butternut squash or even pumpkin. The sky's the limit.
(*Or, as someone said earlier this week: "water is patient".)
Oh dear, we are going to be inundated with "The Best XYZ of This Decade!" lists, aren't we? One of the first Best Books of the Decade list comes from the Times (thank you, kimfobo) and is an eclectic mix of high- and low-culture, fiction and non-fiction, and Anglophone and translated works. I am not quite sure what the editorial guidelines were - maybe "try to include stuff people have heard of"? Anyway, allow me a moment of indulgence as I track the ones I have read:
Yes, the Percy Shawl is finished. I need to wait for Official Photographer before actual photos are posted (prob Saturday) but here's a little peek.
More previews: the new Interweave Winter Issue preview is up. I am underwhelmed and see nothing I might knit. The winter edition of Twist Collective is slightly better - Kelmscott makes me wish I were a Pre-Raphaelite beauty who would wear beautiful lacy cardigans. Still, I'm wondering if the best patterns are not self-published these days and if Ravelry is changing the way we go about choosing knitting projects?
And because I have finished my shawl, I get to choose a new project. I will cast on a Christmas project today and I won't be able to blog about it (previews available on Ravelry, though, once I get myself sorted). I've also decided to continue to knit down my lace stash by casting on for Echo Flowers (essentially bits of Laminaria and Percy combined - yes, I've fallen in love with Estonian lace) and this may become a birthday present..