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.