PC & Otter Ferry

31st December

I like this time of the year, it whizzes round so quickly! I've been pottering about at home with the boys, knitting, stewing in bed (with the lurgy), watching the birds. I'm also trying to write a nutrition and digestion assignment up which has proven to be deceptively mind-bogging, who knew the liver had so many functions? Well, I certainly didn't. It's all quite incredible really.

I was given a few books for Christmas including Alan Garner's wonderful memoir of childhood - this comes highly recommended by me. I love Garner's writing so much, he's a true wordsmith, you know how some people are extra specially talented at writing? Works for me in any case, I'm very much enjoying the book. Another book I received was Kate Davies's super curated collection of hat patterns, Milarrochy Heids (along with Handywoman, finally). I'm not much of a hat knitter but couldn't resist, there are some absolute gems in the collection! I cast on Otter Ferry first, it's just my sort of hat, a little unusual and with simple details. It reminds me of a long pixie hat I had when I was an art student, I love it.

Another thing I've been doing recently is re-watching the series about Fred Dibnah (the Fred Dibnah Story), a bittersweet sort of a series about his life and work, which sadly involved demolishing a lot of old chimneys as factories closed and were either renovated into, as Fred calls them, 'yuppie flats', or simply demolished.

Peerie Clews is still in progress! I'm aiming for an end of January finish as that's when the KAL ends over in the Susan Crawford group on Ravelry.

It's ended up being a bit of a slog this one has, not sure why, I think especially as it's been in progress for such a long time. I like to finish things and move on and every time I've picked this one up I've decided I need to make something else right now, and so I put it to one side again...

Lotta Dress

I can't believe I didn't write a blog post about this dress. Busy summer sitting in the garden that is!

Lotta is a pattern from Laine magazine, a lovely fancy mag along the lines of Pompom, you know, a more upmarket sort of publication. I've been pretty low on funds the last year and bought my copy and then re-sold it on ebay once I'd finished with it. Had to do the same with the Vintage Shetland Project! Anyway, I spotted this dress when I was browsing Ravelry's Hot Right Now section and HAD to get a copy of the magazine immediately... Ysolda had it in stock and it arrived the very next day. The yarn was inspired by a cardi I knit in 2016, a Kate Davies pattern from her book Inspired by Islay (pictured below). The cardi was knit using a plain wool yarn held double with a subtly speckled Hedgehog Fibres merino laceweight, an effect I really liked!

I didn't take any photos of my dress when it was a WIP, didn't take many when it was a FO either! It was an easy one to make, I think I knit mine up in a few weeks. Once you're on to the skirt it's good mindless knitting.

I know the moment I try on a finished project if I love it or not and this one wasn't quite right, I'm not entirely sure why but it just wasn't. I don't always write on my Ravelry pages how many of my projects I frog, I just checked and I frogged or gave away 6/17 projects in 2017 and 7/21 projects in 2018. People can be a little funny about me frogging stuff, especially if they perceive what I've made (from my photos) to be a perfect fit, nothing wrong with it. I've had so many messages about my frogging, negative ones I mean, that I no longer tell the whole truth on my project pages. The thing is, I don't want to be hanging on to things I've knit just because, I'd rather unravel them and put the yarn to use elsewhere :-)