I am very lucky to get to go on all these amazing trips.
Monday, 11 April 2016
Blue Monday
We were in Naples last week for a school trip so I was spoilt for blue choice, particularly when we got the boat around Capri. Water so blue it looks fake.
I am very lucky to get to go on all these amazing trips.
I am very lucky to get to go on all these amazing trips.
Sunday, 10 April 2016
Weekend WIP: Deep North
After finishing the effortless garter stitch of the Cameo scarf, which was absolutely perfect knitting for a return bus journey to Austria, my thoughts immediately turned back to finishing up what I bought at Wonderwool last year, and so the fivemoons Diana was duly wound and a new pullover cast on between naps last Sunday.
This weekend I have joined the second skein and finished the waist decreases. It's working up beautifully: lustrous and soft and with amazing colours. I don't think I will finish it before Wonderwool, but I am feeling quite pleased with myself, as this leaves just one garment's worth of yarn left, plus the random silk I impulse-purchased from Knitwitches and the snuggly soft single skein from Triskelion.
This should mean I have free rein at Wonderwool in a fortnight but I fear that the six garment's worth of yarn I have acquired since last year's Wonderwool and not yet touched might prey on my mind a little. I am planning a sizable donation to the Air Ambulance table though, so that might help to offset new purchases.
This weekend I have joined the second skein and finished the waist decreases. It's working up beautifully: lustrous and soft and with amazing colours. I don't think I will finish it before Wonderwool, but I am feeling quite pleased with myself, as this leaves just one garment's worth of yarn left, plus the random silk I impulse-purchased from Knitwitches and the snuggly soft single skein from Triskelion.
This should mean I have free rein at Wonderwool in a fortnight but I fear that the six garment's worth of yarn I have acquired since last year's Wonderwool and not yet touched might prey on my mind a little. I am planning a sizable donation to the Air Ambulance table though, so that might help to offset new purchases.
Spring FO #2: Cameo
In the spirit of using things up, I dashed out this simple shawl on the ski trip bus. It was Kat from Knatterers' suggestion that I use up this lovely variegated Madelinetosh by pairing it with something and making a striped shawl, a la Zephyr Cove. In the end I plumped for this pattern, mainly because it was cheaper.
Pattern: Cameo by Paulina Popiolek
Yarn: Tosh DK, two and a half skeins or so
Needle: 5mm
Mods: I didn't knit the same number of repeats: I had to be pragmatic as I was limited on yarn; also, this pattern is written for 4-ply yarn. I worked 34 picots in the main colour, which was roughly equivalent to the pattern for my row gauge; 16 stripes in the contrast colour (until I ran out of the MC); 10 eyelet rows on the border, finishing with just 2 rows even, as I was concerned about having enough yarn to bind off.
The finished piece was 65 inches across and 17 inches at the longest part, before blocking. It's currently hanging on the line after a good soaking and I am guessing it will dry considerably longer. The blue skein ran quite a lot in the wash and I think it might have stained the grey a little; I'm actually hoping that is the case because I think that will only improve the way the colours blend.
Bonus feet in that one.
I wasn't sure about the colours together when I started the striping but now it is finished, I am very pleased with it. I was hoping for something that resembled the deepening blue of Lake Tahoe, which is going to be forever associated with this yarn on account of when and where I bought it. I think I have gone some way towards achieving it.
Also, it is very squishy and lovely.
Pattern: Cameo by Paulina Popiolek
Yarn: Tosh DK, two and a half skeins or so
Needle: 5mm
Mods: I didn't knit the same number of repeats: I had to be pragmatic as I was limited on yarn; also, this pattern is written for 4-ply yarn. I worked 34 picots in the main colour, which was roughly equivalent to the pattern for my row gauge; 16 stripes in the contrast colour (until I ran out of the MC); 10 eyelet rows on the border, finishing with just 2 rows even, as I was concerned about having enough yarn to bind off.
The finished piece was 65 inches across and 17 inches at the longest part, before blocking. It's currently hanging on the line after a good soaking and I am guessing it will dry considerably longer. The blue skein ran quite a lot in the wash and I think it might have stained the grey a little; I'm actually hoping that is the case because I think that will only improve the way the colours blend.
Bonus feet in that one.
I wasn't sure about the colours together when I started the striping but now it is finished, I am very pleased with it. I was hoping for something that resembled the deepening blue of Lake Tahoe, which is going to be forever associated with this yarn on account of when and where I bought it. I think I have gone some way towards achieving it.
Also, it is very squishy and lovely.
Saturday, 9 April 2016
Spring FO #1: Bettie's Pullover
I have neglected to blog about my knitting of late. Here's my first garment FO of the year (with a vintage filter because it's quite a vintage-style pattern). I finished it a few days before we went on the ski trip, so I am not that behind with the blogging. Phew.
Pattern: Bettie's Pullover by Maria Leigh
Yarn: Indiecita Alpaca DK, shade red 2060, pretty much every scrap of 10 balls. All the way from Peru. Delightfully soft and lovely to knit with.
Needles: 3mm, 3.25mm, 3.75mm - the waist shaping is created by going down in needle size and then back up again. Very clever.
Mods: I made the body longer than specified, by an unspecified amount (I just knitted it until it seemed long enough). Partially as a result of this, and partially as a result of being short on yarn even at cast on, I made the sleeves elbow length instead of full length; the pattern required the sleeves to be knitted first and joined for the yoke, so I did a provisional cast on and knitted the sleeves down from this once the yoke and necktie had been completed. I had one ball of yarn for each sleeve; I think if I had had a third ball I might have got full length out of them, so that worked out well.
I also sewed the necktie on upside down. Dur. I should unpick it but the seaming on one side is really quite good because I used a book to help me, so I don't want to. Nobody will know but me.
The pattern was very clever, creating short row bubbles at the top and bottom to account for the bias pull of the feather and fan. Unfortunately my short rows at the top are quite sloppy; I might need to oversew them at some point but I wonder if it's only noticeable because I am looking at it.
I should sew a button onto the necktie but I quite like the brooch and, anyway, I can't choose.
When I eventually get that cameo brooch my friend Parpy Jo has been making me for a few years, I think that will be the perfect match for it.
Pattern: Bettie's Pullover by Maria Leigh
Yarn: Indiecita Alpaca DK, shade red 2060, pretty much every scrap of 10 balls. All the way from Peru. Delightfully soft and lovely to knit with.
Needles: 3mm, 3.25mm, 3.75mm - the waist shaping is created by going down in needle size and then back up again. Very clever.
Mods: I made the body longer than specified, by an unspecified amount (I just knitted it until it seemed long enough). Partially as a result of this, and partially as a result of being short on yarn even at cast on, I made the sleeves elbow length instead of full length; the pattern required the sleeves to be knitted first and joined for the yoke, so I did a provisional cast on and knitted the sleeves down from this once the yoke and necktie had been completed. I had one ball of yarn for each sleeve; I think if I had had a third ball I might have got full length out of them, so that worked out well.
I also sewed the necktie on upside down. Dur. I should unpick it but the seaming on one side is really quite good because I used a book to help me, so I don't want to. Nobody will know but me.
The pattern was very clever, creating short row bubbles at the top and bottom to account for the bias pull of the feather and fan. Unfortunately my short rows at the top are quite sloppy; I might need to oversew them at some point but I wonder if it's only noticeable because I am looking at it.
I should sew a button onto the necktie but I quite like the brooch and, anyway, I can't choose.
When I eventually get that cameo brooch my friend Parpy Jo has been making me for a few years, I think that will be the perfect match for it.
Saturday, 5 March 2016
New news
It's an exciting week! This week I've landed not one, but two new jobs. Two. They're like buses! Sort of.
Firstly, I got promoted at the exam board. I had to attend an interview with them before half term: my first non-teaching interview since 2001. There were some great moments in that interview. Like, at the end, when one of the interviewers told me she used to work at my school. And like when they asked me about the course I took with the board last year:
Interviewer: So, just a few admin questions....did you participate in the xyz program?
Me: Yes
I: And how far did you get with it?
Me: I finished it
All 4 interviewers: *slowly look up at me with incredulity*
I1: Wow
I2: You're the first person we've come across
I3: You'll have to tell us how you managed it
I like moments like that. They feed my hungry behemoth of an ego.
Secondly, I got another teaching job. It's the same as I am doing now but at a school in Bristol. It feels really weird, because I've worked at my school for 13 years and I don't know how I am going to cope with not seeing those people every day. Thirteen years is a long time. BUT I can get the bus every day (more knitting time) and I loved the school, which reminded me of the one I went to, and everybody seemed really friendly. It's very near to some good teaching friends I have in the city too. So exciting. I'll get a discount at yoga for being a city employee.
That interview did my behemoth of an ego good, too. During the interview, the head waved his hand at my application form and said, "I'd just like to unpick you a little, if I may. This is incredibly impressive - you've done this, you do that, you're an x, a y and a z, you advise here, you write that...just, how?" Later, he asked why I was still a middle leader when I could walk a senior post with my experience. See? How could I fail to like somebody that spoke to me like that?
Unusually for a teaching post, I left right after the interview on Wednesday and they didn't ring until Thursday - a delay with references. Mr Z and I were discussing risotto for dinner. I pointed out that we didn't have any wine; he suggested I have a glass of prosecco so he could use some of the open bottle instead. "I don't want to jinx it," I said, "but I could put a picture of it on Facebook and everybody would wet themselves." Then the phone rang. Really spooky.
The past couple of months have been more stressful than I've really cared to notice, but which is probably spelled out by my absence from here. Fretting about the exam board job has gone hand-in-hand with a growing realisation that my time at the school I love needs to come to an end. Consequently, I feel about 10 stone lighter now this is all decided. Terrified, yes, but lifted, all the same. Onto the next chapter.
Firstly, I got promoted at the exam board. I had to attend an interview with them before half term: my first non-teaching interview since 2001. There were some great moments in that interview. Like, at the end, when one of the interviewers told me she used to work at my school. And like when they asked me about the course I took with the board last year:
Interviewer: So, just a few admin questions....did you participate in the xyz program?
Me: Yes
I: And how far did you get with it?
Me: I finished it
All 4 interviewers: *slowly look up at me with incredulity*
I1: Wow
I2: You're the first person we've come across
I3: You'll have to tell us how you managed it
I like moments like that. They feed my hungry behemoth of an ego.
Secondly, I got another teaching job. It's the same as I am doing now but at a school in Bristol. It feels really weird, because I've worked at my school for 13 years and I don't know how I am going to cope with not seeing those people every day. Thirteen years is a long time. BUT I can get the bus every day (more knitting time) and I loved the school, which reminded me of the one I went to, and everybody seemed really friendly. It's very near to some good teaching friends I have in the city too. So exciting. I'll get a discount at yoga for being a city employee.
That interview did my behemoth of an ego good, too. During the interview, the head waved his hand at my application form and said, "I'd just like to unpick you a little, if I may. This is incredibly impressive - you've done this, you do that, you're an x, a y and a z, you advise here, you write that...just, how?" Later, he asked why I was still a middle leader when I could walk a senior post with my experience. See? How could I fail to like somebody that spoke to me like that?
Unusually for a teaching post, I left right after the interview on Wednesday and they didn't ring until Thursday - a delay with references. Mr Z and I were discussing risotto for dinner. I pointed out that we didn't have any wine; he suggested I have a glass of prosecco so he could use some of the open bottle instead. "I don't want to jinx it," I said, "but I could put a picture of it on Facebook and everybody would wet themselves." Then the phone rang. Really spooky.
The past couple of months have been more stressful than I've really cared to notice, but which is probably spelled out by my absence from here. Fretting about the exam board job has gone hand-in-hand with a growing realisation that my time at the school I love needs to come to an end. Consequently, I feel about 10 stone lighter now this is all decided. Terrified, yes, but lifted, all the same. Onto the next chapter.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Throwback Thursday
It got me looking at some pictures though.
First, 2009 in KL, outside the Petronas Towers.
Then, 2010, on the beach we went to for the weekend at the end of the trip. This place was idyllic. The outward bound teacher from our host school took us on a surprise trek through the jungle - a risk assessment nightmare, muddy and uneven; all the students were in unsuitable footwear, including me. It was 20 minutes of slip-sliding panic. But then we ended up here. The only people nearby were at the end of the beach rock climbing on the cliff. Just, bliss.
I have a feeling I've shared this before. It's a really happy memory.
Tutt and I have just booked our summer holiday to Vietnam. I'm looking forward to going back to Asia.
Monday, 29 February 2016
Blue Monday
A little something from Death Valley last summer. Oh, I'm in it too of course.
It was so hot that day. I felt like I was getting crisped just stepping out of the car. Pretty much everybody there was European: Americans weren't silly enough to attempt it in August.
Sky was really blue, though.
Is it nearly time for another summer holiday? I've got two booked so far...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)