dolly dimple knits

Turning Japanese

Lately I've been all about Japan. I know, weird. Personally I blame Elaine (check out her entry for 1st March. Jealous ? Me ? 7 floors of yarn ???) or maybe it's Yvette's fault (see her entry for 18th March. Or maybe, it's just because I've become obsessed with Noro. Again.

I know. People have different views about Noro - the straw, the occasional strange colour change that just makes you go yeuch - but when your knitting group's resident Yarn Pimp brings the Noro shade charts to a meeting, what's a girl to do ?

Well she could do something like this

One ball of Noro Kureyon, one pattern, one evening to knit and one evening to sew up, and you're there.

This of course is just another little distraction from the main things I'm working on right now ;0)

Secret Pal 10 has kicked off and like a good girl I've already done my questionnaire and now our hostess, Shelby, has asked us to post about current favourite projects.

The easy answer to what's your favourite project is naturally, whichever one I'm working on now (or maybe, whichever one I've just finished !) but really, there's no easy answer.

Venezia has to be my favourite currently for design and colour - but I haven't touched her for a week as I've been too busy and too tired.

Lily's hoodie is my current favourite for challenging my own design skills.

But then, the ones I'm dreaming about are the next ones in line so maybe they're my favourites ? I mean who could resist Claudia in the beautiful Rosa pale pink , or a gorgeous scoop necked cardigan in Noro (see ? I'm obsessed !) Silk Garden shade 251 or then again, there's the lovely Turbulence pullover by Norah Gaughan in an intense red wool/silk mix .......... I guess you'll just have to see which one starts to appears on this blog next to see which is really my future favourite :0)

In fact, just for laughs, let's have a little guessing game. Leave a comment guessing which of the 3 future projects I'm dreaming about will be the one I start next and I'll enter all of you who get it right into a draw for some yarny goodness direct from my stash !

Arsing About - or "How I lack focus" ... according to Ms Strang

"Heather's results would improve significantly if she were more focused. There is no lack of ability but she lacks concentration." (Ms Strang, 4th year maths, 1982)

Yeah baby ! - She also lacked any interest WHATSOEVER in 'O Grade Maths seeing as how it could NEVER have any application to anything that she would ever need to know in PAST LIVES, THIS LIFE or any FUTURE LIFE. It's not like it bears any relation to any goddamn-it-all-to-hell-why-won't-this-work KNITTING DESIGNS she might ever dream up ? is it ? IS IT ?

I give you the front of Lily's Hoodie

The 4th front. Not due to any strange deformity on Lily's part that means her hoodies need 4 fronts. No. Due entirely to my inability to concentrate for longer than a nano-second when doing the maths to shape the hood (kind of an essential part of a hoodie I find). Oh. And my inability to divide 86 by 2.

A plain stocking stitch hoodie is kicking my arse. And I haven't even started the sleeves.

I've also not been focusing much on the lovely Venezia. So to distract you from that I'm going to give you a peek at her undies (If you got here by googling that particular phrase. Welcome. Enjoy. )

I love fairisle. Even inside out it looks good. It also looks like interference on the TV screen. But good. Oh and when you arse it up you can just drop the stitch to the row below and pick up a stranded bar of the right colour ! As I spent about half an hour doing this morning. OOPS.

That funny ridge at the right side pf the picture is the side seam stitch which is purl when all the rest is knit. It makes the shaping really easy to see and is giving it a lovely defined waist which I LOVE. Fairisle designs are often a bit square and blocky but not this.

For the get on with Venezia cheerleading squad I promise I have been working on her. Nearly finished the increasing and then I start steeking the armholes ! Yikes.

But because Venezia takes so much concentration and I'm frankly pig sick of Lily's hoodie at the moment, I had to start a little simple TV watching project.

It's a really simple 3 rows knit, 3 rows purl scarf knitted lengthwise with a ruffle at each end eventually. I saw it on someone's blog ages ago but now I can't remember where so if it was yours THANKS !

I'm using one strand of this and one of this. And getting a gorgeous ultraviolet effect. I may have to keep this one myself :0)

Oh and just in case you were worried I didn't have enough to focus on. Last night, inspired by Kay, I started

Argosy in Art Fibers Golden Chai Tussah Silk.

Lack focus ? I have a bloomin' wide angled lens going on here !

Sponsored by Bernard Matthews

Nearly 20 years ago when my darling and I first met and he was trying to, erm, impress me, he blithely told me how much he loved ballet. I was a bit of a balletophile when I was young. I studied it for around 10 years - taking it as far as I could short of training to teach it (I knew when I got my first bra I wasn't going to be the right shape to dance professionally - other than round poles or on tables maybe ;0) !)

Anyway, almost 2 decades later we were here last night (except we saw them in Glasgow but the link's down).

Having survived the running commentary along the lines of the Foster's ad - "Strewth mate, there's a bloke down there with no strides on..." I finally lost it to the classic utterance as Odette lay dead in the arms of Prince Seigfried and the entire corps de ballet of swans fluttered to their graceful deaths "So what's this then ? Production sponsored by Bernard Matthews ? ...." Exit stage left, choking on tears of laughter.

Never, I repeat NEVER, go to watch classical ballet with my husband. Unless of course he fancies you and is trying to impress.

There has been knitting this week. Just a little but knitting nonetheless.

I'm not going to waste your time showing you my Venezia progress as it amounts to about 10 rows so you'd be hard pushed to actually spot the progress. Instead I'm going to distract you with tales of stashing advetures.

My friend India has this theory that she's going to build her stash now whilst she's still young and working as a sort of woolly pension for her old age - when she's not working and can't afford to buy anything other than acrylic. As if. Actually, I think she'd have to be dead for that to happen ....

So this is India's fault

And this

Sadly, tho' I have to take full responsibility for everything else that fell into my sticky mitts this morning when I found my way to Stitching Time, Nan's shop in Hamilton. Well worth a visit folks - just for the patter alone if nothing else ! But let's just say I found plenty else to keep me interested too ..... ;0) (Photos next time when I find the g"£$%^n camera wherever the bloomin' thing is !)

Trouble is, now I've got too many choices. Do I use the Noro to carry on with my lazy-ass version of the mitred square blanket ?

or keep creeping along on the Venezia ...... or start something new altogether with some of my gorgeous new purchases ? Decisions, decisions ! Sigh.