A Complaint

Can you believe it someone has complained about my writing? This nameless person (my younger sister) objects to the term "fall colors as used in this post.

She feels that as I now live north of the border I should be using correct English. So in the interests of family unity, sisterly love, etc. here is the correct English.

"fall colours"

What? More Knitting

I haven't blogged about this item because I never even took a photo of it.

My aim is not to add to stash and, hopefully to use what I have. So when I finished the baby blanket, I immediately cast on with the left over yarn to make a small tablecloth.

The pattern is the Feather and Fan Shawl by Eugen Beugler from A Gathering of Lace.

I knitted until I ran out of yarn and it was just big enough to fit a small table I have.

When I was on a picture taking frenzy this week because my camera was cooperating I realised that I had never taken a photo. So here it is.

Photos of My Dishcloths

So I told you how my secret swap sent me yarn and patterns to make 2 dishcloths; well, I was finally able to take photos. The dishcloths have a Halloween theme.

First Candy Corn.



and


Pretty cool but really hard to photograph.


And here is the witch.


This actually looks better in the photograph than in the flesh as the photograph shows the witch clearly but you really have to look at the cloth to distinguish it.

It's a Mystery

Way back in 2006 I joined a Yahoo group based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawl. Her concept was simple, every time you double your stitches, you double the number of rows you knit before you double your stitches again.

For example: you cast on 4 stitches, knit one round, double stitches to 8, knit 2 rounds, double stitches to 16, knit 4 rounds and so on. (Or etcetera, etcetera, etcetera to quote Yul Brynner.)

The group has an awesome designer, who designs the mysteries. She thinks of a theme and each time the stitches are doubled she produces a set of patterns to fit the theme from which you choose one. I made a small round tablecloth the first time and then the shawl for my mother-in-law.

The mystery this time is different as she has created an oval. There is a centre rectangle with a semi-circle at each end. The stitches in the semi-circle are increased like a Pi but the rectangle part stays constant. So it feels like the knitting is proceeding faster. The one thing I hate about circular knitting is that it is so quick to start and then gets slower and slower so that when you have in excess of 600 stitches it can take all night to knit one round in lace.

A Surprise

I joined a Trick or Treat Secret Swap through one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to. This was what we were told to send to our partner. I thought it sounded fun.

1. A book with a Halloween theme (this doesn't have to be specifically
about Halloween - any scary theme will do. Witches, ghosts, monsters,
vampires, villains - you get the picture!
2. A skein of yarn, enough for a one skein project, in fall colors.
3. A pattern for something to make with the yarn. (this could be
tricky!)
4. A trick and a treat!

Today I received the parcel from my secret pal, who lives in Kansas; so I guess I can't make fun of Kansas any more.

First here is a photo of the stamps.



I have never seen this many stamps on a parcel.

I was eager to see what goodies my pal had sent but first the parcel had to be inspected by the parcel police.



And then I got to my goodies.



You can't see everything in the photo but there were 2 scary books, some Halloween decorations, a bag of candy canes, 4 balls of Peaches and Cream cotton yarn and 2 patterns.

The patterns were for dishcloths and I have made both of them but the camera is playing up so I can't take photos.

And, finally, don't you just love the gift that keeps on giving?

First Snow

No photos, just to record that it started snowing last night. Wet snow that stayed on the grass but not on the roads. Winter is on its way.