Finished Object 2008 - #33

I've been a busy little monkey the last few weeks. I dedicated my life solely to finishing my Cascading Leaves shawl and spent half an hour yesterday pinning it out in my blocking room.


















Felix decided that helping was exhausting. I hope this bodes well for my desire for blocking wires...


















But let us start this story about eight days earlier.


















As I worked on my shawl, my room-mate/work-mate Kay would comment on how much she loved my knitting as she watched. She liked the design, she loved the colour, she thought it was just great.


















Now, I was knitting this shawl purely for the sake of the knitting. I had been planning to knit my Victorian Lace Blouse, but I could't find the yarn I needed for it (some has magically turned up, so that's January/February ready for the book group). I'd planned this shwal for my next book group project, so I just started it early.



















In other words - I had a shawl, and Kay needed one (well, I say she did, anyway).
























Then Kay announced she was leaving to start a new job down in London, so it became a race against the clock to finish the shawl. I blocked it yesterday and handed it over last night.























Kay was stunned (this photo was taken pre-stunned, and isn't one of my best. Kay's a very smiley lady) and very very happy.



















I'm reasonably chuffed myself. Now, to finish my Nosferatu shawl for my "Dracula" book reading...

Rant. A huge massive rant.

I give up.

I received an email from the suppliers of the DMC Baroque cotton that I wanted for my Victorian Lace Blouse. Apparently I'd been undercharged postage because I was ordering from the UK. Fair enough. Understandable.

Oh, wait. You want to charge me US$48.65 for my order, which had to be over US$50 to be placed internationally in the first place?

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Go to hell you skeezy evil bastages. I'll die before I submit to that kind of robbery.

In the meantime, the alternatives suck also. No matter where I look here in the UK it's going to cost me a minimum of US$42 to get anything even close to what I need.

It's crochet cotton for feck's sake! How can it be this expensive?!? It's $5 a ball in Australia!

*sigh* Now I really do wish I was home.

GIMME!!!!!

I'm not known for my patience - yes, I know I'm a knitter, but still - so waiting for an order from the US is frustrating. Especially as the tracking number is never "available" to check.

I am this close to losing it, I swear...

Finished Objects 2008 - #31 and #32

I managed to lose my camera for a week. Considering it's brand new, I was more than slightly annoyed. Eventually, using my mad skillz of deduction I realised it was in the bag with my Amelia Shawl. Typical.

In the intervening period I knitted a lot. Last Thursday I went off on a teensy shopping trip to St Andrews, which is a charming university town, therefore filled with Australian and American students. Want fun? Catch a bus with an American student two days after the US election, especially if they voted for the losing side.

I'd read on Ravelry that there was a knitting store on South Road, but for some reason I didn't twig that Di Gilpin was the same Di Gilpin whose ads I read in Vogue Knitting. The store was a treasure trove of yarn and it took a lot of self restraint to leave with only four balls. Well, not really when you consider I went in for two balls. But I could have bought a lot of Kidsilk Haze and I didn't. Just this Noro.





















Yes, I bought Noro. I've spent so long proclaiming that the colours were all murky and then I saw this. The sods. Still not quite sure what to make with it.

The main yarn bought was a ball of Rowan British Breed Suffolk Steel Grey and a ball of Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran for a project for Felix. The project? Dwarven Battle Bonnet.























It was requested and I delivered. Everyone else seems to think it's pretty awesome, and it does make me laugh, but it feels like a waste of knitting skills.
























However, knitting to make Felix happy is always satisfying, so that's how I'm thinking about this one.

Knitting that makes me happy as well as Felix can be summed up in two words: Cobblestone Jumper.
























If you make only one jumper this year (or ever) make this one. It's just darn awesome, as shown by the pose.























I finished it the night before we left, and Felix wore it to the airport and as we arrived in Edinburgh, but I've only just blocked it (lazy, I know).
























When I cast off the neckline, I got Felix to try it on. He wandered off to where a mirror was in the bathroom and from down the hall he yelled "I love it!" Cheers babe - that's why I knit for you.

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My plan was to start my Victorian Lace Blouse for the Long Lacy Anti-Summer, but finding crochet cotton in Scotland is impossible. I gave up and ordered the DMC Baroque from the US. Hopefully, it should be here tomorrow, which means a weekend of knitting lace (my new favourite kind!). In the meantime, I cast on another project: Cascading Leaves Shawl.























I had planned to knit this for my January/February Knitting 19th Century Novels project ("The Blithedale Romance" by Nathaniel Hawthorn), but I need something lacy to knit now. I'm worried about having two lace projects on the go, but considering this is about 3 hours work, I think I'll be fine.

Fun with graves

I had planned to take some pictures of my finished Snowdrop Shawl at Glamis Castle, but we didn't make it last weekend after all. Instead I give you pictures of somewhere equally historic - the Howff.


















The Howff is a graveyard, situated in Dundee on the site of the gardens of The Greyfriars monastary founded by Devorgilla Balliol in the 13th century.

Devorgilla was also the founder of Balliol College at Oxford, and the mother of King John I of Scotland.

The Howff is just fun - the tombstones are all old, some crumbling, most illegible.
























This one belonged to one John Sim, and I did apologise for borrowing it briefly.




















Not sure who this one belonged to. But I think I may have stood on the owner's head.

Next up? Well, I'm reading "Dracula" for my 19th Century Novels group, and Bells is having a Long, Lacy Summer, so to satisfy both, there can be only the Victorian Lace Blouse by Michelle Rose Orne. I obviously have a lot of time on my hands these days.























I suspect this may have belonged to a pirate...