a little bit of daylight ..

and things look so much better, so after the rather negative blog post a few days ago on my not so wonderful FO - today I am a little more positive about my knitting. I worked from home yesterday, so was able to use the available light in the middle of the day to photograph the scarf - and in the weak diffused light of a dreary rainy Thursday the scarf actually looks pretty good!
See?

Thank you to all who suggested a provisional cast on in the middle and work the scarf out to the ends, a much better solution. The graft needed serious blocking to make it behave, its hard to get the tension right when grafting loose knit lace. Starting in the middle should avoid all those problems. I know a F&F could be knit from one end to the other, but it is nice having the ends match ... see?

Not much else to report, I'm off to work, in the 3rd continuous day of heavy rain. Its dark, its dull, its wet and visibility is really limited, not fun driving - still 15 people made it out to knit night last night despite the weather. At home we have discovered a leak, one of the lounge windows, a non-opening one, has a puddle of water on the sill, still one solitary leak is not bad for an old house in a 3 day storm. In the top photos you can just see the edge of the cloth I'm using to mop up the leak (a white towel mid way down the right side of the image).

The whole country has been buffeted by a wild and wet storm. Up north roads are washed out, houses have lost their roofs, some houses on the waterfront have had the foundations washed away and rooms have fallen into the sea, other houses have slipped down hills, storm water drains overflow and many many people were evacuated because flooding. The power has been cut to many areas and, and the internet it intermittent. Here in Dunedin we have had heavy steady rain but have escaped all the rest, although the road to Christchurch was closed to traffic all day yesterday. If you are one those in wetter and stormier places, I do hope it dries up sooner not latter.

Tonight our local knit group - Take back the knit - has our inaugural mid winter secret gift exchange and dinner. So far at least 20+ are expected, in K's house (thanks K!), so that is another bright spot amongst the dearly wetness of the continuing rain. I'm taking Cioccolata densa (Italian Thick Hot Chocolate) inspired by the hot thick hot strong dark dairy free Chocolat at LeCafe in Christchurch on our recent spinning workshop trip. Three of us tasted their hot chocolate, and Wow, we've all returned home to perfect a home made version, there have been multiple cooked 'swatches' over the last week in our kitchens ... I've got little cup sized white bowls to serve it in and long elegant spoons to scrape the last smatterings from the bowls,

Recipe to come soon - I promise ...
as usual - take care, stay dry, and keep warm, hope
Stella