The Hood

The hood on this jacket seems to be endlessly long, I have been checking the Debbie Bliss errata page to see whether there could be a mistake.
But no, the hood is 48cm long. I try to resist the urge to measure every few rows.
Having just one project on the go is obviously not enough.
This yarn has been screaming at me since I got it home from Ally Pally.
It is going to be Debbie Bliss's Side Tie Coat in Astrakhan.
I started the sleeve/ tension swatch. It is all done in reversed Stocking Stitch. I have not spend that much time knitting this, but it has given me a nice break from Rosy.
Perry is feeling sorry for himself, he has not been allowed to go outside. I had to take him to the vet. He swallowed a piece of a self adhesive label and a bit of cello tape. Even though he is not a kitten anymore he still likes to chew on papery things. He then got it stuck in his throat.
The vet gave him an anti inflammatory injection and some special soft food.
Perry doesn't like the food and his is not happy with being stuck inside.
Luckily he has now recovered and is back to his usual jolly self. He has been allowed back out.

Wearing new clothes

Oakworth had its first outing yesterday. To the coffeeshop, to knit and chat with my friend.
We are having very cold weather, for London. Amazing how warm 4ply yarn is.
I now should have a look in this catalogue to find some nice thin roll necks to go under Oakworth.
I did not spend all day at the coffeeshop, I did some sewing.
Since I had not sewn clothes for a few years now I had a few problems doing this suit. One sleeve got sewn in inside out! I also did not cut the trousers well enough. After cutting there was not much I could do to correct it, I had to insert some extra material.
I wore it to the party and the suit looked OK, that is all that counts.

About Happy Socks and other things

Noor is very happy with her new Happy Socks.
She usually wears hand knit socks to bed, she still shuffles around a lot at night and her feet get cold.
But she has been wearing these socks as soon as she came home from school. They fit her perfectly. She has actually complained that some of the other hand knit socks are to baggy on her foot. For these I went down a couple of shoe sizes but I knitted the foot as long as it needed to be. The joy of hand knitted perfect fitting socks.
Yeepee yeah! Oakworth is done!
There is not much else I can say.
Knitting with colour was a challange. I will certainly do it again but then it will be a sweater and I will knit in the round and I may even do some steeking. Knitting the sleeves up to the armholes in the round was a lot easier than knitting from side to side. Having to use a new strand of green for every row of green specks was hard. All those ends had to be weaved in. I had times when I just wanted to abandon this project. Hopefully I can get the husband or daughter to take some nice photos of me in it.
Today I have other things than knitting to do.
After I got married I started going to sewing classes. In the beginning I went because I wanted to make my own clothes like dresses and skirts but also Indian suits like this one .
Usually I try to buy these suits for me but I have problems with my size. Almost all the suits are to short on me or they are long enough and very baggy.
My mother-in-law is going to Pakistan soon and she is having suits made for me.
So on Sunday we went to Southall and hit the material shops.
I have decided to make one of the suits myself. Hopefully the cloth is pure cotton. They never have proper lables in those shops. Very annoying for a fiber purist like me.
A whole load of pink cloth.
I cut the material yesterday, I used another of my almost fitting suits and cut around it.
There is plain pink for the Shalwar (trousers) and patterned pink for the Khameez (shirt) and a long strip of pink for the Duputta (shawl).
Happy sewing to myself.
Tomorrow is another family gathering. Hopefully with me wearing a new suit!

Pure Wool

Lately here in London we have been having frosty mornings. I Love the way the sunlight twinkles on the frosty grass.
The leaves on the table have made a nice icy pattern. I finally managed to attach the sleeves to the main body of Oakworth. Making sure the patterns runs through.
All that is left to do is: the buttonhole border and the neck border.
Last week has been very busy with other things and not much daylight knitting time.

Rosy has been a steady companion. I have been taking her out and about with me. The left front has reached the neck decreases.
I always feel that is a major milestone. Since I learned the three needle cast-off on a Debbie Bliss course I have always done the shoulders this way.
But it means the back is not really finished until the front has been attached to it.
Perry is not so sure what to make of the cold weather, he has been sitting on top of the computer cabinet and looks down on me as I read blogs.











If he gets bored with that he has been having long, long naps.
He looks cuddly, he likes being stroked and picked up.

Jacket in search of a name

Everybody loves a little poll. I also don't want to make such a decision on my own.
So lets get voting:

A new name for Cabled Jacket with Hood?
	No Name (Keep calling her Cabled Jacket with Hood)
	Rosy (after the yarn colour)
	The Lynam (in honour of my friend)
	Celtic Knot (the pattern sometimes feels like all knots)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Not much knitting has been going on. Unless you count knitting six rows and then going back 10 rows, Knitting.
I thought I 'knew' the pattern by now and did not read the instructions properly. My own fault.
Then I spent the rest of the eveing measuring the armholes after every two rows - the shoulder shaping is near I can feel it. I should know by now that two rows does not equal 2cm.
Hopefully tonight I will have the breakthrough: finish the back and start on the left front.
Pictures then tomorrow! Promise!

PS: A big thank you for all the wonderful comments.
Thank you Sue for the tip about Klein's. I will go and see them, I saw they are very near to Liberty's. What more can a girl ask for.

About Fairies and UFO's

Unfinished Objects not Unidentified Flying Objects.
Noor asked me the other day: How many projects do you have on the go Mummy?
I showed her my three projects.
She then pointed out that I had just started the Cabled Jacket with Hood (this really needs to be renamed) while I had not yet finished the Oakworth cardigan.
So she said it is OK then if I start another finger knitting project!
As I mother there was not much I could say, no speech about you should finish what you started before moving on.
Noor has been busy with the finger knitting and she has also been busy with her Fairy kit that she got from my Rowan Exchanger Carol in California.
They look very cute, don't they?

Bargain Shopping

My husband is the born bargain shopper. He has been trying to buy himself a wintercoat the last two years. But unless it is something he wants, likes, fits well and best of all is on sale he won't get it. Sale not only means a reduction of say 20%. Sale for him means at least 30% and it becomes worth buying when it is 50% off or more.
Today took as to Freeport Village in Essex. We go there about 2-3 times a year.
We go into a shop and head for the sale on sale items. Usually we leave the shop empty handed or laden with goods.
Today husband finally found the coat/jacket that he wanted. A Barbour jacket for half price. He is now a very happy man. It took a long time to find the right size for him. The jackets there are either small or very big, not much to be had in a medium. Me to I like to shop for bargains, especially if they involve yarn. The other day when I blogged about the sock yarn from Get Knitted I checked my link and then went and had a look at their special offers.
Two days later and I am the happy owner of ten balls of GGH Savanna. I looked for bargains and had a look at the latest Rebecca Magazine to see which of the projects I really liked and to see if they matched with yarn on sale.
Voila project 5 was one of the projects on my mental list of: I will try and knit that some day.
Well some day may be in the near future.
On the way there gave me enough time to get to the end of the first sock.
Noor will have to try them on and I can finish the last two rows and cast on the second sock. I rather not get a case of the second sock syndrome.
Sometimes I am funny, I will stop with knitting if I need to get another ball of yarn or get the book/pattern out to check on the next step. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to get going.
Oakworth has reached such a stage. I have finished the button border. Now the rows need to be counted and the buttons need to be evenly positioned. I have been blaming the weather, it is to dark in the house to count dark stitches.
Also I have been busy with the yet unnamed jacket.
I really like the way this is getting along.
But I am already dreading the zip. First where am I going to get a zip from. Does anybody now a very good and well stocked shop in central London?
Second my Mum has always sewn in the zips into my projects, she is coming for Christmas, do I wait until then?

Lets start something new

These are all the pieces for Oakworth. The sleeves have finally been done. Some of the sewing has been completed, like one side seam. Well it is a start. Since I knitted the main sleeve part in the round there are not to many ends to darn in. Not to many meaning there are still a whole load on the end top fair isle bit.
I usually do all my sewing during the day. I prefer to do it with natural light and when I am not to tired. But that has not stopped me from casting on something new.











The hooded cabled jacket for my friend. I have to think for a nice name to give this project. I have almost finished the first ball of yarn. After all that 4ply this is a lovely knit. Jaeger Matchmaker is a wonderful yarn to work with. It is soft.











The happy socks are coming along nicely. Noor had her photoshoot and I did a bit of knitting. Almost an entire heel. As usuall I am having worries wheter I have enough yarn for this project. Noor is getting taller and her feet are getting bigger. They will reach a size when 50gr of sockyarn are not enough anymore. The question is when.
Once the photo of Noor gets published I will of course post it on my blog. Not that the caption will be very nice. Hey I can always edit it and put something else there.
Noor has been busy with her after school activites.

She has one the weekly trophy at tennis. She won it for improving her service game and for doing well. Next week another child will win this trophy and keep it for a week.

After school activities

Noor does an after school activity every day now. Plenty of time for me to knit. But I need to have something that is for knitting-on-the-go.
Oakworth has reached a stage where it is not made for taking away. I actually only have to knit about another 15rows on the second sleeve. Then there is going to be a whole load of ends that need to be darned in and the button borders have to be knit on.
I had ordered the yellow and orange yarn from Get Knitted. It is Fyberspates sock yarn in a lovely colour called 'Fruitsalad'.
I got the yarn some time in September when I needed some knitting needles. Instead of just ordering the neeldes I also got 50gr of sock yarn with the intention of knitting socks for Noor.
Then I saw these happy socks on Tracy's blog. I think those socks look great and I also wanted to knit something slightly diffrent.
Yesterday I cast on while I sat on the tube with Noor. She had to go for a casting. Afterwards we zoomed back and she went to Kumon. She is there for about 25min. 25min of knitting time for me!
Today was swimming = another 30min of knitting for me.
Tomorrow I have to take for a modelling job, the casting yesterday was succsesfull. Plenty more knitting time for me.
Hopefully she will finish the job by lunch time and I can take her back to school. After school it is time for tennis.

A Knitting Fairytale

A long time ago a girl went to town, she visited a wonderful department store called 'Liberty'.

There was a sale on. The clever girl knew this and she visited the yarn corner. After looking through a whole load of beautiful yarn she purchased twenty balls of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino Aran in a shade called 'Rosy'.
The girl went home and added the yarn to her stash.
She left it there for nearly an eternity, but she did not forget about it.
In between she showed her stash to her non-knitting friend.
The friend was quite taken by the softness and pinkishness of this wonderful yarn.
Said friend has a birthday soon. What better present could a knitter give to a wonderful friend?
A new jumper or cardigan made in wonderful soft and pink yarn.
The knitter wanted to involve her friend in the whole process and let the friend decide what she wanted to have.

Out came a whole load of magazines. The friend took them home, read them all, thought about what kind of garments she likes to wear.

Two made it to the final. The friend wants a cardigan, she knows that the knitter can alter a pattern and turn a jumper into a cardigan.

The knitter remembered that she had only just ordered this magazine. When it arrived through the letterbox she rushed over and showed her friend.
The friend was very impressed with the front cover.
Out came the measuring tape and a similar garment was measured and compared to the pattern some notes were made.

Afterwards a swatch was knitted.
The friend really likes this project and she will see it grow and hopefully give encouragement when the knitter gets stuck.
But first there is a project called Oakworth.
Oakworth wants to be finished soon , she wants to see the world or at least some parts of London.
Last night she reached another little milestone: the second sleeve has made it to the armhole!
Yeah, the end is getting nearer.

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak

Today is one of the most important days for my in-laws. The month of fasting has come to an end and it is time for celebration.
Everybody has put on nice clothes, mostly new. Ladies are wearing wonderful jewellery and there is a lot of wonderful food.
We have had a busy week so far.
On Sunday Noor did her first ever fast, no food or drink from sunrise until sunset. Then when she opened her fast we had all the in-laws round to join her. We had 18 adults and about 10 kids.
Monday was Halloween and my birthday. I had lunch with a friend and a nice dinner with husband and daughter. ( I managed to go to the gym in between all this eating).
But I also managed to knit a few rows.

I can see the end. Knitting towards the end seems to go faster. Maybe I should just give myself a deadline.
Noor wants me to knit her a new school cardigan and a ballet cardigan.
I have also been looking for the perfect hand knit for my friend. It is going to be a gift for her but I thought it would be nice if she was involved in it from the start.
I have enough projects to keep me going. I really want to finish Oakworth now, the weather has turned cooler, it would be wonderful to wear her now.

Knitting for a Baby

This has been a joy to knit. I have always wanted to knit this. My neighbor is going to gift this to her friend. I hope she and her baby boy will treasure this little sweater.
Here is a close up of the star buttons.

I found the buttons in John Lewis when I shopped for the other baby jacket buttons.
All this knitting for babies has reminded me about the struggle I had of finding nice and soft clothes for Noor, we lived in the USA when she was tiny and I found it hard to get pure cotton clothes for her.
Now one of our friends has had her own baby and she has started her own e-business selling mostly organic clothes. Go over an see her site here.
I wish I had Debbie Bliss yarn when Noor was smaller. Aren't we knitters lucky to have her?