dolly dimple knits

I'm back !

Hi ! I'm back from holiday - did you miss me ?? Did you even notice I'd gone ?? ;0))

We're just back from a relaxing 2 weeks in the wilds of Argyll (week 1) and not quite so wild Ayrshire (week 2).

Week 1, we rented a gorgeous holiday cottage in Cairnbaan right on the banks of the Crinan Canal and whiled away a fair bit of time watching the sailing fraternity inch their way through the lock.

It really was magical. The cottage was soooooo comfortable, the location beautiful and best of all - no phone or computer ! You couldn't even get a mobile signal in the house (tho' you could if you stood outside ...on the road .... in the traffic) and I just loved it. It made me realise how much at the beck and call we are of others and how lovely it is not to be constantly available. The days were longer somehow and you can guess how I used my time - well, some of it ..... we were only 400yards from the pub after all !

The canal itself is beautiful and had me humming a favourite song from years ago all week - The Lock-Keeper which has been recorded by various folk artists but my favourite version is by Marilyn Middleton-Pollock who recorded it on her first album in 1988 "Nobody Knows You". We saw her sing live at the folk club in Glasgow when this album was first out and she's a totsy, teeny little American lady but with a HUGE voice.

Week 2 we stayed in Largs, where Alan's family have a holiday flat. It's a bit of a faded seaside town these days, which really boomed between the wars and into the fifties and sixties - but like lots of these places around the Uk coastline lost out to cheap international travel, with guaranteed sunshine !

It makes a good base for getting to some other places though so we did get out and about a bit - at least on the days when the children weren't engaged in eating their weight in ice cream at Nardini's, a largely unchanged and famous cafe from Largs' heyday.

One of the days, we took a trip over to the island of Cumbrae which is only 10/15 minutes by ferry from Largs and that was really worth it. We've been there loads of times before but for some reason had never taken the road which takes you up to the highest point on the island. So this time we did and what a view - it's about 420ft above sea level and from there you can see over Bute (a nearby island) and up the coast as far as the paps of Jura - yet another island. We have a lot of islands off the west coast of Scotland !

Anyway, enough of the tourist chit chat and onto the knitting. First the retail opportunities I have to report were sadly limited. I did spot a Wool & Needlework shop in Oban but was too overwhelmed by the sea of acrylic (I'm such a snob !) to get as far as purchasing anything in it - oh, apart from a tape measure and a pair of 5mm bamboos which I'd forgotten to bring with me, so not very exciting.

I did find my way to Ottakar's Bookshop though and bought this

I know it's been around for a while so you may already have this but if you haven't - go buy it now. It has some really unusual bags in it - several of which may be finding their way onto my Christmas (wash my mouth out) knitting schedule.

I also managed to get a fair amount of knitting done - or at least fair for my snail's pace ! These are the holiday projects I worked on

Spot the completed sock ? This I have to tell you was sock 2 and I'm now working on sock 3 .... not I hasten to add because the recipient is some kind of strange 3 legged mutant lady but because I completely arsed it up with sock 1 ! I managed to finish it a couple of days into my holiday, grafted the toe and then looked at it, carefully.

Now, I have little feet and I knew that Benedetta who I'm knitting for has slightly bigger feet but somehow I suspected NOT as big as this sock looked. In my efforts to check this out I got Al to try it on (he has bigger feet still !) and it fitted him .... comfortably ... one almost might say loosely. AAGH !

I knitted this from the Ann Budd multi-size/guage book of knitting patterns and somehow when I was working on this, my eye had jumped in the pattern and I had ended up knitting 2 sizes up from where I intended to - DOH !

So cross was I, that it was frogged that very evening and cast on again ..... and then I sat up until 2am just to make a start on it in the right size this time. So sock 2 is really only sock 1 but it is finished and (I hope) is the right size !

In between feverish bouts of sock knitting I started on the Gatsby scarf (from the first Jaeger accessories book) using Jaeger Odessa - kindly sent to me ages ago by Jill R, one the Rowanettes- and a bigger than average Booga bag for Val, my sister. And then before I knew it, that was it - the end of our holiday and back to work tomorrow, bah :0(

I'll try to maintain the knitting momentum so that Ben gets her socks before the autumn but I fear I could be one of the last exchangers at my average output rate !

OOPS ! - I did it again ...

bought more yarn that is - but it's in a good cause, it's only a wee drop of yarn and it wasn't my fault (honest !) - I was led astray by Kay.

She posted about this the other day - the Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora design "Poppy" - and I have a small neice who will look perfect in a Hot Pink Poppy come her birthday in November.

Plus as our branch of John Lewis only has a limited line of Debbie Bliss stuff I hadn't come across Cotton Angora before - it is gorgeous.

So gorgeous that I may have to acquire enough to knit this for me. In Teal I think. ( Hey look Ma ... she didn't say pink !)

I've had a horrible cold this week so knitting progress has been a little hit or miss. I have finished all the pieces of Val's cardigan (HURRAH - it only took me 18 months !) and I'm working on the front finish but I'm in a bit of a quandary.

See have a look ....

it's neither quite as wide or as vibrantly pink as this photo looks but hey, it was the cheapest digital camera they had in the shop.

Anyway, I wasn't sure about taking the frill up the front so I did a little bit of "test" frill and I'm thinking, mmmmm ?? 70's disco bouncer ?? Come Dancing contestant circa 1973 ??? These frills definitely ain't elfinesque.

I like it on the sleeves but just can't make up my mind about the front. Or is it maybe the moss stitch border at the bottom ??

You can't see it in the picture but there's a purple moss stitch edging round the bottom of the body and it could be that just tipping it over the edge. Perhaps a bit of judicious frogging will sort it out for me. Or not.

I'll probably finish one side of the frill anyway as I'm already halfway through it. This is what 637 stitches of Jaeger Aqua looks like

.

HOW much do I love my big sister ?! That little project took me an hour just to cast on and about the same to knit the first row ! And she'll never know ...

None of my family (except Al of course) or non-knitting friends actually know about this blog. Not sure why. Probably fear of public humiliation or something deeply freudian ..... either that or the absolute certainty of far too close to the mark comments being left which give away entirely too much information.

You are an enigma wrapped in a mystery, you blog
for yourself. You have your own reasons for
doing what you do. We are still glad your here!


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I probably won't be around much over the weekend as I'm about to disappear into the abyss that forms whenever we get any new technology. Our new pc arrived today so I will be a computer widow as Alan locks himself away with his Preciousss, stroking and chirruping at it as he coaxes it to do exactly what this one does already. I'm sure there is a valid justification for why we need a new pc but all I can think is wow, that sure is a lot of yarn money .....