Tuesday, January 09, 2007






A much better day.

Here is a picture, as promised, of the youthful, mustachio’d Alexander wearing a sweater knit in the “Sand Lodge” pattern from McGregor. I seem to have been unusually, and rather successfully, restrained in my colour choices.









And here is the current state of the Calcutta Cup sweater. I did all the arithmetic yesterday, and have launched myself onto the patterned part of the sleeve. You will notice that I am doing what I said I wouldn’t do, and knitting it with two circulars. The DP’s were extremely awkward – I used to be able to do it. Maybe the trouble was that the only set I could find in the right size were inconveniently long.

I had to rip out the first half-dozen rounds because of a miscalculation in the setting of the pattern, and took the opportunity to start off again with circulars. It’s going pretty well. The two needles are radically different from each other, one wooden, one metal, and I figure that everything will be all right if I keep firmly in mind that I must always be knitting with two ends the same, two wooden or two metal. Eventually the whole sleeve will fit on one small-circumference circular. One Christmas, long, long ago I knit hats for everybody on my list and as a result I have a first-rate collection of small-circumference circulars in a wide range of sizes.

Comments

Crafty Granny, welcome abroad. I had never given much thought to the question of Grandmothers as Bloggers. Mary Morrison is a favourite, a fellow Texan of yours – but she rarely writes these days. I believe The Curmudgeon is one, too. She was a child bride. But I have always valued cyberspace precisely for the way one floats in it free of the constraints of age or sex.

Yarn shops: I don’t get around to many in London, due to the pressure of art. When I can, I visit the departments in John Lewis on Oxford Street, and Liberty, on Regent Street. They’re very close to each other. I’d like to drop in on I Knit near Vauxhall, but wonder if I’ll ever achieve it.

Edinburgh’s best is probably HK handknit. What I’m really looking forward to, is getting acquainted with k1 yarns in Glasgow. The next time we go over there, my husband will have to look at art by himself.

Apart from those, I shop on-line.

Lorna, you seem to have spent a whole day in Glasgow without going to K1! What restraint! Thank you for the tip about putting Oasis in my calcium pill containers. I had forgotton how much I used to love Oasis.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:52 PM

    Hi Jean,
    Your post this morning was an "Epiphany" of sorts for me. I have tried to use two circulars for knitting in the round, but have always become frustrated. I kept picking up the wrong needle which would cause me to fling the whole project across the room! I tried using two different sizes (perhaps even more frustrating). It simply never occurred to me to use different materials -- Duh!
    Thanks for the great tip!

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  2. Anonymous3:45 PM

    I just can't seem to get the two circular needles thing going--I think I'm much too used to dps and since I don't have a problem using them, I guess it doesn't matter. But the Calcutta Cup is looking great!

    Yes, I am a grandmother, twice over. Liz is 14, Ian is almost 10. Mind you, I was married at 18, and Liz's mother got an early start as well. So at almost 57, I've been doing the Grammy game much longer than my peers.

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  3. Anonymous7:02 PM

    That is an absolutely beautiful sweater Alexander is wearing; I like the restrained color choices. You don't see that much in current fair isle patterns and I like the subtlety.

    Great photo too!

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  4. Anonymous7:05 PM

    I don't know the Scottish equivalent of a Dollar Store such as we have over here in the US, but that's where I find oodles of the tiny rubber bands. You can pick up a package of 500 that are in a rainbow of colors over in the little girl hair section. So my knitting benefits from my granddaughter's current hairstyling. (Another child bride here, by the way.)
    Good luck with the 2 needles for the sleeves. I absolutely end up using foul language and throwing my knitting when attempting that method.

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  5. Anonymous7:40 PM

    Jean, I spent a week in Philadelphia straightening out my mother-in-law's computer. I haven't had an email since she was left with it on her own, so I fear it might have been all in vain. My admiration for you is even greater than it was.

    Swapna is coming to visit next month, by the time she leaves we'll have replaced nicotene with yarn.

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  6. You can smoke yarn?

    I love that sweater and I love old pictures even more. For some reason they just make me feel happy. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of wallpaper that is, but it's all good. Kind of makes Alexander look like a chameleon trying to blend in :)

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  7. Another "granny blogger" here--10 grandkidlets, ranging in age from 7 mos. to 19! I'm loving reading your adventures with the two circs, since using dpns has become much more difficult for me lately. I'm getting ready to take the plunge, instead of just knitting things flat and seaming them. I'm also hoping to plan a trip to Scotland in the next year or two so I'm taking notes of the yarn shops!

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