" “Take off your hat," the King said to the Hatter..."

"..."It isn't mine," said the Hatter.

"Stolen!" the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly made a memorandum of the fact.

"I keep them to sell," the Hatter added as an explanation; "I've none of my own. I'm a hatter.” " *

I am not a hatter, but I feel a bit like one.

Having said I would take a break before knitting any more hats, I then realised I was seeing my very pregnant friend pretty soon and it would be infinitely more convenient to give her both jumpers and both hats at the same time.

So I found myself once again knitting using the Dayton pattern, this time in the smallest size, and once again knitting to a deadline - I started on Monday and needed both finished by Saturday evening.

The first hat went pretty smoothly. Knitted up quickly, finished in three days (plus some finishing and pom pom making). However, partway through my second hat, I opened the pdf pattern on my phone (rather than using the LoveKnitting App) and it opened an entirely different version of the pattern, with different sizes and different directions. No notice of this happening, no choice of using the old or new pattern. I was pretty unhappy, considering I had already started knitting using the old version.

Luckily I had saved the old version elsewhere and, by not closing the app, I could still access the original pattern document. But I wasn't happy. You think it would tell you the designer had updated the pattern. Grr...

Once that hurdle was...well, hurdled, I soon encountered another. I was mid-way through the cabling (was on the third cable repeat out of six) when I realised I had messed up. And messed up in a superbly stupid way. I had begun the cable row and not actually cabled any stitches. I moved two stitches on to the cable needle, put the needle to the back of the work, and then promptly knitted those two stitches rather than the two next ones. About half-way through the row I started cabling properly, but I still didn't realise my mistake until the row afterwards when I suddenly saw only half of my hat was in the correct pattern.

I tried to tink back a row and a half, but found it impossible to untwist the stitches. I then ripped th row out, but then couldn't pick up all the stitches and be confident they were on the same row, that I hadn't missed any, and that they were the right way round.

I will be honest, I cried. I had a bit of a tantrum. This was Friday night, the day before my deadline, and I was ripping all my beautiful cabling out. I managed to pick up my stitches from the garter stitch band, and the rest was fine.

It was pretty hairy for a bit, but I finished in good time on Saturday and my friend was delighted with the knits. PHEW.


*Quote from Lewis Carroll,

“Each day I live in a glass room…”

“…unless I break it with the thrusting of my senses and pass through the splintered walls to the great landscape.”

Recently my parents came Oop North for a visit. Despite officially being Autumn now, miraculously the weather was surprisingly balmy and we had a great day out in Castleton, in Derbyshire.

The parental units are members of both English Heritage and the National Trust and seem to be on a mission to visit every property they can (oh to be retired!). As such, we first went to Peveril Castle:

It’s a very very steep walk up, but well worth it. The castle is a ruined 11th-century castle which wasn’t really ever a ‘proper’ castle. The closest it came to seeing battle was in 1216, when King John gave the castle to William de Ferrers, but the castellan refused despite them both being the King’s supporters. De Ferrers was authorised to ‘use force’ but there’s no evidence that the castle was actually assaulted.

It was rebuilt a bit after King Henry III visited, but he never came back to see the result. It was used for local courts in the 1600s, but essentially just fell into disrepair and ruin. Which is a shame, but it looks very romantic and gothic now.

After the castle we stopped by one of the many pubs for a well-received drink and bite to eat. We only meant to get something small, but portions were HUGE! I still ate practically all of it. Think CB only got one chip.

After lunch we pootled round the shops. Everything is Blue John themed after one of the caverns nearby. Lots of pretty jewellery and trinkets, though we were most impressed by these fantastic encyclopaedic mugs (ever wanted to learn all the bones in the human body while drinking your morning cup of tea?) though £20 for one mug was too much of a stretch. Plus how could you pick only one?

We then wanted to visit a cavern and, it getting on for 4pm by that point, there was only one closest we could get to before closing time. Peak Cavern, also known as:

Surprisingly, despite the name, the cavern was fantastic.

There are large flow stone (beautiful swirling white calcium carbonite deposits) formations in the entrance, and teeny tiny stalactites further inside the cavern, both of which would have taken hundreds and hundreds of years to form.

Cave exploration is still ongoing in the Peak Cavern system, but there’s a good 13 miles of caving that links with Speedwell cavern nearby. It is the longest cave system (so far discovered) in Derbyshire.

The tour started with a rope-making demonstration, which we thought would be rubbish but was really interesting! The entrance of the cavern was used from the 1600s to the late 1800s by rope makers, with the rope being used for the lead mining industry around Castleton.

Early visitors to the cave were taken round by the rope makers using only smelly tallow candles for light. So creepy! After the entrance, you have to bend double for a bit in order to enter the ‘Great Cave’, but originally visitors would have had to enter by climbing into a coffin-like boat and floating through a low archway. We don’t have to do that anymore as Queen Victoria flatly refused to travel like that, so they blasted her out a passageway (she was annoyingly short, old Queen Vic) as we walked through that.

The Great Cave is pretty impressive. Obviously when we were there it was lit with electric lights, but back in t'day they would have lit a firework to show visitors how big it was! The lights were turned out at one point (there was another group after us who were doing a soundscape - which we crashed and it was weird) and to be in the pitch darkness was quite unnerving. I can't imagine what it was like for someone to ride into the darkness in a coffin-boat to explore somewhere associated with the Devil!

The cavern floods and so the ‘Arsehole’ is actually a small hole where the water drains back. Quite a lot of pressure builds up and, unsurprisingly, when that pressure releases it makes the noise that you might associate with the Devil’s Arsehole…

*Quote from Mervyn Peake

“Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your stride…”

“…as if you're only a step away from dancing. They demand a lot of you.” 

Another pat on the back for me – I have finished the hats for my niece and nephew!

I used the pattern Dayton (Ravelry link here) and yarn already in my stash for them both (you might recognise the green Paintbox Aran from the Rainbow Cardigans - pattern here and blog posts here and here).

This completes the winter woollies set for my nephew (which I sort of took on by accident), but which has turned out far nicer than I anticipated and will hopefully fit him.

My sister didn’t think my niece would wear mittens or booties (thank god) so her ‘set’ is literally just the hat! Though I did add a pompom for an extra jazzy touch. Plus I have run out of the green wool and had to add a few rows of grey to finish it!

I’m not a big fan of knitting cables. They are easy to do and they look fantastic, but the cable row and the one immediately after always seem wrong. Too tight, or too gapey. Yes that's a word. Of course they’re not, and when you get a couple more rows along it all evens out, but there’s still that nagging doubt every time you repeat…

I was intending on knitting a couple more of these for the twins, but I don’t know if I have it in me to knit two more of the same pattern. I might have a browse for alternatives - though I suspect I’ll come straight back to this one. It is lovely.


*Quote from Neil Gaiman

“I enjoy acronyms.”

“…Recursive Acronyms Crablike "RACRECIR" Especially Create Infinite Regress” 

In my travels, I have read many a knitting blog, spent many hours trawling knitting forums (well, Ravelry mainly), and have had to re-read knitting patterns far too many times. Through these adventures in knit-land, I have had to learn a new sort of language: the language of Knitting Acronyms.

Some are pretty obvious (FO = Finished Object). Some make no sense but once you learn what it stands for you wonder how you didn’t twig (ISO = In Search Of). And some are brilliantly obscure (SABLE = Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy).

So, for posterity, here is my list (so far) of knitting terms:

BOR = Beginning of Round.

CAL = Crochet Along.

CIP = Crocheting In Public.

Colorway = The name or number of the colour of a yarn.

DPN = Double Pointed Needles.

DS = Destash (to get rid of unwanted yarn.)

EOR = End Of Row.

FO = Finished Object.

Frog = To rip back (“rip it, rip it”) by removing the needles from the project and pulling on the loose end of the yarn. Generally used when the mistake you made is a few rows ago, or when completely unraveling an entire item.

Frog Pond = A storage place for knitted things waiting to be frogged.

Gifted = Giving yarn/FO to others for free.

ISO = In Search Of.

KAL = Knit Along (where a group of people knit the same pattern and discuss it in a thread to give each other pointers, tips and encouragement.)

KIP = Knitting In Public.

Knitworthy = Someone worth knitting for (not just because they are lovely, but because they receive the items with enthusiasm and wear/use them.)

LK = Loom Knitting.

LYS = Local Yarn Store.

LYSO = Local Yarn Store Owner.

MK = Machine Knitting.

Muggle = Non-knitter.

OTH = On The Hooks.

OTN = On The Needles.

PM = Place Marker.

Pooling = When one colour in a variegated yarn groups or ‘pools’ together in one area.

SABLE = Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy (my personal favourite, but not something I aspire to!)

SQ = Sweater Quantity (enough yarn of one type to make a jumper!)

Tink = To undo knitted stitches by reversing the knitting motion, to go back and fix an error on that row. ‘Tink’ is ‘Knit’ backwards – essentially you are un-knitting each stitch.

UFO = UnFinished Object (a WIP that has been abandoned or neglected.)

W&T = Wrap and Turn (a technique to get short rows. Instead of knitting all the way from one side to the other and then knitting back again, you knit partway down the row, turn, and knit back.)

WIP = Work In Progress.

Yarn barf = a big lump of yarn that has accidentally become tangled together in a spaghetti-like mess. Heartbreaking.

*Quote from Douglas R. Hofstadter

“And her old Uncle William used to say a lady is known by her shoes...”

“…and her gloves.” 

You know what I’ve decided? I hate knitting baby mittens.

I hate it.

I hate knitting tiny things in the round.

Sure they knit up quickly. Sure they’re adorable. Sure the pay-off of knitting time to object made is great. But they are annoying and fiddly to knit and the process of knitting them is not enjoyable.

This is my way of telling you I’ve finished knitting the mittens for my nephew:

I used The World’s Simplest Mittens pattern (Ravelry link here) and used the same red and grey stash wool I used for the Nicki booties previously (blogged about here) .

It’s a good pattern, don’t get me wrong, but I hated this project.

I’m knitting for a 2 year old so I used the Toddler sizing instructions. Part-way through I realised my mittens were looking huge and, after a quick google, came to the conclusion that toddler sizes meant 0-5. Is a 5 year old a toddler? Really? Hmm.

But then it meant that the thumb gusset (giggle) seemed out of proportion and unnecessarily large, which I didn’t know how to fix!

Well anyway I then had to free-ball my sizing. Hopefully lefty matches righty at least.

God knows if they’ll fit.

If not he can just wear socks on his hands.

Shop bought socks.

I am never knitting baby mittens again.


*Quote from Virginia Woolf

“And there’s its twin…"

“…unnatural little beasts they are.”

Another triumphant post today as yet again I have not one but two finished objects to flaunt:

They are teeny tiny and very cute, which should be perfect for a pair of twins expected later this year. Luckily I do not feel the same as Kreacher and instead think twins are fantastic. Although that might be because I’m not expecting any… Hmm….

These both use the Little Coffee Bean pattern (Ravelry link here) and are knit in Sirdar Snuggly DK in Indigo Mix, Cream, and either Little Gem (green) or Flamenco (red).

The pattern is different from ones I’ve used in the past as it is seamless, kit back and forth all in one piece on circular needles.

It is lovely not having to seam, but you do have to knit the sleeves separately. Unless you want adorable little cap sleeves instead:

I used the magic loop method (rather than DPNs) which I find makes it easier to avoid laddering or loose stitches. However, the knitting gods have worked against me as the stripes don’t quite match up or just hang a bit peculiar…

See the left sleeve on both? Urgh.

If this were a jumper for a grup I would probably frog it and re-knit, but as the twins will undoubtedly outgrow these in a matter of minutes I don’t think it’s worth the effort.

There is also joy on the to-knit list as my sister advised me that my niece doesn’t need mittens or booties, so those can both get scratched off the list – huzzah! Only one pair of mittens, four hats, and a dragon to go before I can get back to Christmas knitting.

Sigh… One day I’ll knit something for myself again!

*Quote from J.K. Rowling

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration…”

“…the rest of us just get up and go to work.” 

Last week I was a little overwhelmed with the ever-growing list of items to be knitting. This week I am happy to show you not one, but two finished objects:

LoveKnitting link here

LoveKnitting link here

Having these two out of the way really lightens the load a bit. I thought they would take me a week more to complete, so I’ve now got that extra time to get on with the jumpers and hats etc. for the twins. I have earned myself extra time. I didn’t think it was possible. I am an incredible human.

The blue cardi (with the uninspiring name "Cardigans in Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK - 1219") is for my friend’s Goddaughter, and owes its existence to a mistake made by another friend. (The friends in question, C and H, are my Luck Dragon loving companions mentioned previously)

H bought a pattern and some wool online to make a cardigan for her niece (I think it was her niece. I’m not entirely sure actually). However, when the wool came it wasn’t the colour it looked like on her computer screen (the perennial problem with buying wool online) and she didn’t think it would work. So, as she is the loveliest, she gifted the wool and pattern to yours truly. I find it very difficult to pass up free yarn.

Instead of knitting the cardigan for my niece, I thought it would be nicer to pass on the love, and gift the finished cardigan to C, for one of her goddaughters. I hope it fits.

It’s made from Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK and it has a lovely silky look and feel. The stitches are nicely defined and it feels nice on your hands when you’re working with it. My only gripe is that it has a slight odour about it, but that’s going away now the cardigan is being aired.

The other cardigan will look familiar to Philly-Fans – it’s another Rainbow Cardigan by Paintbox Yarns which I made previously and blogged about here. I still like the wool and the colours especially, though I’ve noticed it does drop some fibres when you’re working with it so your lap can become a bit fluffy after an evening of knitting!

Now, on to more baby cardigans! Huzzah!


*Quote from Stephen King