Mmmmm sometimes the plan works and sometimes the plan needs changing ...

But it isn't always clear at the beginning that the plan isn't going to work, otherwise there would be no need to frog. Today I have something that is now finished and went to plan, albeit at times a very slow movement towards the end, but finished all the same, and something that was planned but perhaps could be better. Then there is the pen update, because pen and ink is almost as good at fibre and stash.

Way back in June I started to knit another large garter stitch blanket, a pattern I had knit before (2008/9). The impetus for this blanket was the yarn, a factory shop sale of very thick almost unspun 6 strands of pencil roving yarn, at a price I could not resisit. Well I did resist .. but a fellow knit nighter splurged and then offloaded when she had second thoughts about adding too much to her own stash. That was way back in September 2009, by June 2010 I was ready to take on another garter stitch project of this scale. Technically the blanket was complete in December of 2010 ... but I had a 'wheel' of white yarn to add an i-cord boarder to it. This past week I did just that, and like most projects, once I sat down to knit it ... well it was only 3 nights knitting! By the third night I had only a little to do.

For the this blanket I picked up to attach the i-cord binding thru both loops of the slipped stitchs that edge the blanket, and that has made the edge more reversible than the previous blankets edge. Like the previous blanket this one is huge, and warm and thick, perhaps thicker as it has not been stretched and blocked, and was immediately claimed by one of the cubs, even though we are in summer. While I don't enjoy knitting these (quite frankly it is boring), I love the result and the scale ....

The other project that I was looking to finish soon is the 'replacement' blanket, the one I started in Shetland to replace the one I mislaid on the plane. The original plan was to knit the centre in white, a band in mid grey, a band in blue with lace, and then cast off with a lace boarder in dark grey. In theory it sounded good, in practice even Yo-yo the house cat has reservations about the results, as do I.

I like the two laces I have chosen, but not the order of the colours .. so after this post I'm going to frog the darker grey and blue sections .... and knit them again. That will also give me a chance to change slightly how I knit the lace in the first lace band. I will reknit it with mid grey, dark grey, and then the blue as an edge .. .which I hope will look like a smoother and more planned transition of colours.

And on the pen front, the pen trays I was waiting on from GoPens arrived yesterday. I had a lot of fun planning how to cut these into exactly the right sizes and shapes to fit into the Bento box. This is where my not-currently-inked pens are stored, the inked ones live in a vintage vase or a pen case in my bag. I think I may need another one of these staking bento boxes for my mechanical pencil collection, have I mentioned I like vintage mechanical pencils as well?, but there is no hurry.

So excuse me while I go and puddle in the frog pond ....
hope your weekend ends smoothly, ready for the week ahead,

na Stella

Balletomane !

There were so many suggestions for names for the ballet wrap design, I was completely in awe of the intelligent and clever suggestions.
Thank you ---every one who left a comment.
In the end ... Balletomane was the suggestion that I kept coming back to. It is the Italian word used to describe a fan of Ballet, which is perfect for every little dancer.
A huge thanks to l i n g g a n (no spaces) who suggested the name. I've been in touch and let her know (but I forgot to ask what her favorite colour was for the yarn).
I've finished the pattern, and uploaded it to Ravelry, for sale, you can follow the Ravelry link to look at the pattern details. I really tried to make the pattern as good as it could be, and I've loaded in lots of images of the process, for knitters to use as reference points, and lots of little instructions for the things that knitters might not have done before. This is an example of the kinds of photos I've included, this is one of three that show how to bead using a crochet hook. I was so impressed with Bears skills in documenting my knitting in action - he did really well.


I'm back at work, today was the first day, my 'desk' arrives next Monday, if you remember we are moving to a new building and were to be homeless for a month or so while they readied the place for us. First day back and I have had I had two meetings already, have an all day 'training and professional development' day tomorrow, and a Department meeting Friday afternoon ....followed by another follow up meeting Monday morning. And that is not counting the meetings I have to organize with the people teaching on things I coordinate. There is some odd sort of balance in having so many meetings just when I don't have a desk to return to. Students arrive in less than two weeks .. and just on the edge of things there is a hint of rising panic about things being ready. They will be ready .. we have moved something like 5 times in 8 years ... we are 'good' and practiced at this, all will be fine (or so I keep whispering to myself in quiet moments)
I'm not entirely sure about this 'back to work' caper ... it does get in the way of my knitting, I am sure that tonight after reading over info for tomorrow I will be sitting down to knit.

My last day of 'not-being-at-work' was lovely, it included a frilly tea party. I baked and used the linen basket liner to hold shortbread. Yes it was a frilly party ....so daisy shortbread with blue sugar seemed in order.

I also frogged the two projects that were languishing in the work basket. I had long ago stopped fooling myself that I wanted to knit them ... but it took until yesterday to frog them. I sat on the front stoop and frogged, I offered Yo-yo the remnants, but she is a lady and far to civilised to frollic with my left over yarns. Both yarns were fuzzy .. and no matter how carefully I tried I could not undo the cast on.

And I am still in the thows of finishing up, so dug out the huge garter blanket and started edging it with i-cord. So far so good, I worked around about one quarter of it, which made me feel warm and good. At the Monday spinners catchup, there were deliveries of the latest Vintage Purls sock yarn kit .. and it is lovely, more about that in the next post ... so that might just dictate what is next on the needles.

take care .. I'm off to plough thru those readings for tomorrow ... and then knit some just to relax.

Stella