Magnus' Homebrew Knitblog

Man does not live on bread alone...

2006-05-22T23:50:00.000+01:00

I realised today with some shock that it's well over a month since I last blogged anything. It's been quite a busy time, with moving to my new flat and then going away to visit my parents last week, but things are now beginning to settle down a bit.

Today I became the proud possessor of a new bread machine - something I've wanted to do for several years but had to put off while I was still sharing a kitchen. At the moment it's working away at my first loaf of bread - I've gone for a plain white loaf this time, but hope to get more creative soon.

I also got a steamer so that I can cook vegetables in a more healthy way. This is just one of those little metal basket contraptions that sits inside an ordinary saucepan, but it's perfectly adequate for my current needs. Tonight I had steamed cabbage, carrots and onion for dinner, together with boiled potatoes (mainly because I couldn't fit them in the steamer too) and a tin of fish. I was particularly pleased with the steamed onion. Very tasty.

Not much to report by way of knitting. I'm nearing the end of my first sock - about an inch to go before I have to start work on the toe. At this rate the first pair should just about be ready to go by the time it gets cold enough to merit woolen socks again. I've just borrowed some knitting patterns from my mum, including several for Aran jumpers/cardigans. I'd like to have a go at knitting one of those soon too.

Tags: bread, cooking

LANs and lines

2006-04-11T17:36:00.000+01:00

I'm slightly confused at the moment (even more so than usual). Here's why...

On Friday we had new windows fitted. Proper, double-glazed ones. All very nice, but unfortunately the workmen seem to have bashed the exterior phone cable while they were at it, leaving us without a working phone line - and hence no home internet connection. I mentioned it to them this morning when they came back to tidy up round the windows, and they promised to have a look at it. On returning home from work a few minutes ago, I discovered that my internet connection is back up and running, but we're still without a working phone. I assume that they tried to fix the broken wiring but didn't do a very good job and somehow only the component of the signal that makes up the broadband connection (I forget whether it's the high or the low frequency bit, or I could be completely wrong about the technology) has been restored. For my immediate purposes it's good, as I tend to make much heavier use of the internet than the phone in any case, while my housemates both use their mobiles quite a bit. However, I guess I may have to call out the BT engineer in any case.

Also on the subject of networks, I had my first LAN party last Saturday. It was hosted at my house, largely because I was the one with the network hub (aka my broadband modem - which still functioned as a router even without the external phone line). There were four of us in total, with 3 desktop PCs and one laptop. The main downside was that we had to use Windows (as that's the only OS the other three run, and I've not managed to get my games working under emulation in Linux) and virtually all my (limited) networking experience is with Linux. After quite a bit of fiddling we managed to get the computers to acknowledge each other's existence. That's when we discovered the other problem.

Initially the idea had been to play a 4-way multiplayer game of Civilization III, given that we're all keen players of Civ (to varying extents - I enjoy it now and then, while my friend Phil is almost fanatically devoted to it). Unfortunately we only had 2 copies of the Conquests CD needed to play a multiplayer LAN game. In the end we set up a game on two computers and used the other two to play a different game - Shogun: Total War. That's also a fine game but had the distinct disadvantage (for me) that I've only ever played it a couple of times, a long time ago, while my opponent was quite an expert at it. Still, I didn't lose nearly so comprehensively in the second battle as in the first. I was still completely massacred, but it showed progress, at least.

It was good fun and I hope to do something similar again, but next time we'll have to make sure that we have enough copies of the same game.

Freecycling

2006-04-04T18:50:00.000+01:00

I think I first heard about freecycling a few months ago on Wulf's blog. It struck me at the time as being a great sounding idea, but I didn't get round to pursuing it any further.

I'm now gearing up to move from my current (shared) house to a flat of my own (well, still rented, but no more housemates with conflicting ideas about stuff like washing up) and have had to start thinking about getting rid of some of the surplus junk I've acquired over the last few years. What better than to freecycle it?

Checking out the Freecycle homepage, I found a reasonably active group in my local area and signed up. That was about 3 days ago. Fairly quickly , I posted my first offer - of an old 1-row melodeon that I'd picked up on eBay in the vain hope that it would be reasonably playable. I had a good crop of responses, with about half a dozen people showing interest. The first person I offered it to changed her mind, as she'd found out that the person she'd had in mind to get it for had just got one of their own. The second person called round this evening to collect it, and he seemed delighted with it. It gave me quite a warm glow.

I've now offered some bits that I salvaged from my old car before I scrapped it, which I've realised I don't actually need, and I have a few other things I'll probably offer soon too. I'm going to try to resist the temptation to get any new things until I've moved to the flat and found out whether I'll actually have any space for more stuff. Unless someone happens to offer a washing machine, as I'll be needing one of those.

Tags: freecycle, recycling

Turned on

2006-04-03T19:21:00.000+01:00

Rejoice with me, for my computer which was dead is now alive again!

(If you missed that episode, you can read all about it here and here.)

The new PSU I ordered arrived today, so I fitted it this evening. A pretty straightforward job, involving no more than taking the cover off the case, unscrewing the old PSU, unplugging the various cables from the motherboard and disk drives, taking the unit out, putting the new one in, plugging in the relevant cables (the new PSU has a couple of extra connectors, but I'm pretty sure I don't need them as the machine worked fine without them before), putting the screws back and refitting the cover. I then plugged the machine in, hit the switch, and ...

... was very disappointed when nothing happened. Fortunately, before defenestrating the PC in my frustration, I remembered that the new PSU had an on/off switch on the back of it. On checking, I found that this was indeed in the off position. After switching it, the machine started beautifully.

Tags: computer, power

Socks and scarves

2006-04-01T01:15:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately the temporary power failure on my PC I wrote about yesterday seems not to have been quite so temporary after all. It appears that the power supply unit is dead, so I've ordered a new one. I'm hoping that once that is fitted the machine will work ok, and no other damage was sustained in the power cut (assuming it's not just a coincidence that the PSU failed then). As a fringe benefit, hopefully the new one will be a bit quieter than the old one, which had a particularly noisy fan.

More positively, I've managed to get a bit more knitting progress done recently. I finished my garter ridge scarf several days ago (but didn't get round to blogging it before now, mainly as I was awaiting a photo). I still prefer the ribbed scarf (which I wore on a canal boating trip last weekend, where it proved to be very useful - lovely and warm even in wet weather), but I'm quite pleased with this one too. It has a definite tendency to roll up into a tube, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it's a one-sided design (fortunately it rolls with the ridged pattern on the outside). Here's what it looks like on me:

In addition, my first sock is now coming along quite nicely. After 6" of 2x2 ribbing fo the leg, I've started to work the heel flap. Unlike the test heel I did earlier, where I switched to straight (single pointed) needles for this, I've stuck with my dpns for this one. Half the stitches (i.e. 30 of them) are left sitting on one needle, while I work backwards and forwards in stocking stitch on the remaining ones, with 3 stitches of garter stitch at each end (and starting each row with a single slip stitch and finishing it with a purl). I'm still following Elizabeth Zimmermann's sock pattern from Knitting Without Tears very closely (I can't remember if I already mentioned that). At the moment it looks something like this:

The first time I tried to upload that picture of my sock, I accidentally put up this image instead:

I guess that's something like my sock looked a few months (or years?) back. In actual fact, that's some sheep I photographed on a hillside somewhere near Llangollen during my aforementioned canal trip last weekend.

Tags: canal, knitting, scarf, sheep, socks

Fried chips?

2006-03-30T13:49:00.000+01:00

This morning while I was at work, there was a momentary power cut which caused my desktop PC to reboot. I was working on my laptop at the time and I assume that it must have switched temporarily to battery power when the mains cut off. Unusually the desktop PC, which was running Windows XP, didn't complain too much about not being turned off properly, like it usually does.

However, on reaching home I discovered that my desktop PC here was also affected, despite being turned off at the time. Nothing happened when I hit the "on" switch. I've checked the physical connections and also tried swapping the PC and monitor cables to check that the fuse was ok (the monitor was getting power). The rest of my system seems to be fine - e.g. I'm able to connect my laptop up to my modem (otherwise I wouldn't be posting this just now) but the actual PC is unresponsive. I seem to recall that it did something similar one time a couple of years ago when there was another momentary power cut (I was actually using it at that time). On that occasion the PC seemed dead and, since it was very late at night, I went to bed instead of trying to fix it. When I tried it again in the morning it worked fine. Perhaps there's some kind of slow-resetting fuse inside? Anyway, I'm inclined to leave it for a few hours before I start to worry too much about it.

It's especially annoying as I have the afternoon off work (using up the last of this year's annual leave allowance) and was hoping to spend the time tweaking my new Ubuntu installation. I'll just have to read a book or something instead!

Tags: computer, power, Ubuntu

I need a blogroll

2006-03-21T23:41:00.000Z

I've been blogging for a while now, mostly on this (my original blog) but also on two other blogs, both accessible via links from the sidebar. These are both in different languages and are mostly to give me a chance at writing practice (or an excuse for free composition in the relevant languages). One is in Welsh, a language I've been learning and using for almost seven years now and in which I'm reasonably fluent (the fact that I live in a moderately Welsh-speaking area of Wales helps a lot). The other is in Spanish, which I actually started learning before Welsh (I first had a look at it at least 12 years ago) but have only been studying reasonably seriously for a fairly short while. In fact, that blog started out in Esperanto, but switched to Spanish when I decided to focus my language learning efforts there instead.

I've also recently joined a communal blog on the subject of creating tote bags. This blog, the Tote-along, is for people who like making bags in any style although my interest is essentially in knitted ones. I've so far made one small bag (which I've already blogged about at the Tote-along and on this blog) to hold my knitting accessories (tape measure, crochet hooks, pins etc.), I'm in the process of knitting another, larger bag to use for holding future knitting projects, and I have one or two more ideas for bags I'd like to knit when I've got another one or two of my current projects finished.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my relatively new interest in blogging has also led me to start reading other people's blogs. There's a fairly small number that I check out regularly (mostly using Rojo - a web-based blog reader recommended to me by my brother). I think I should probably set up a blogroll at the side of my blog to list some of them. (Not tonight though, as I want to read a few more chapters of the Silmarillion before bed.)

Tags: bags, blog, knitting

Celtic Cheese

2006-03-21T00:19:00.000Z

Recently I've taken to browsing the "reduced to clear" items on the cheese counter in my local supermarket. That way I can get a variety of more interesting (and usually more expensive) cheeses at a lower price. What's more, they are usually nearing the optimum age for eating once they approach the sell-by date (the usual reason for clearance) so I don't have to either hold on to the cheese for days or weeks (nigh-on impossible for me) or eat it before its prime. As an added benefit, it makes cheese shopping more exciting, as I never know what (if anything) I'm going to come home with.

Last week I picked up a block of Cheshire - not particularly exciting, but good for cheese on toast (the Welsh national dish, apparently). Today was even better, as I got not one but two varieties of augmented cheddar. The first was (still is, as even I don't eat cheese that fast) called Harlech and is a Welsh cheddar flavoured with horseradish (described on the label as "hot", but I disagree with that assessment) and parsley. The other one is Scottish, and is called "Highland Honey and Herb cheddar". I'll leave you to figure out what that was flavoured with. :-)

I'm hoping they'll have some green cheese on offer again soon, as I haven't had any for a while.

BTW I haven't done quite so much knitting lately, but my sock and other projects are still coming along slowly. My first scarf is definitely proving its worth in the cold weather. I'll try to get some more pictures posted soon.

Tags: cheese

Haiku

2006-03-20T15:06:00.000Z

While waiting for a website to load this afternoon at work, I wrote a couple of haiku. I decided to blog them straightaway, to avoid losing them when I inevitably misplace the scrap of paper they are on. One is written in Welsh (mainly to see how it would work) and is on my Welsh-language blog (my first post there for nearly two months). The other one, inspired by the chilly weather we've been having lately, runs thus:

Chilly March morning
gives way to an afternoon
that is colder still

It occurs to me that I don't know the conventions for capitalising Haiku. Obviously that wouldn't be a problem in the original Japanese, as they don't distinguish capital letters, but I don't know whether each line in an English haiku is usually capitalised (as in most traditional verse) or not. I've gone for the latter option in this case.

I find haiku a very satisfying form of poetry to write, and also good to read. For my birthday last year, a friend gave me a book entitled something along the lines of 100 Great Books in Haiku. Essentially what it does is take 100 books (ranging from Beowulf to Lady Chatterley's Lover) and summarises each one in a single haiku. Some of the ones for which I've actually read the original (and am therefore in a position to judge) are actually extremely perceptive (and often very funny) summaries.

Tags: haiku, Welsh

Ribbed for my pleasure

2006-03-18T21:39:00.000Z

I've finally finished another knitting project! As I suspected the first one of the current batch to get finished was the Ribbed for her pleasure scarf that I started just over a month ago. On finishing the fourth skein of yarn (bringing it up to 200g), the scarf measured 56" long, which is plenty. The width was about 4.5" wide. I say was because I've now had a go at blocking it (made difficult by the fact that I didn't have anywhere sufficiently large to lay it out flat, so it's currently drying, carefully folded, on my windowsill) and I suspect that the dimensions might change a little after that (I didn't measure carefully).

I was going to include a photo of me wearing the scarf, but the Blogger photo upload thing seems to be playing up at the moment. Instead here's a link to the same photo on Flickr. While you're there, you could have a look at some of my other photos too.

Tags: Flickr, knitting, scarf

Happy Pi Day!

2006-03-14T23:46:00.000Z

I don't know whether it's officially celebrated at all, but I always think of today as pi day. That's pi as in π, the Greek letter, or more specifically the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, rather than pie as in what you eat. Although, it must be said that my main way of celebrating pi day is to eat at least one pie. Today it was steak and kidney, for dinner, and I also had a slice of lemon torte (sort of lemon meringue pie sans meringue) at a friend's house this evening.

Anyway, back to π. It has a numerical value of roughly 22/7 or 3.14159.... I can't actually remember any more decimal places, although to be honest five is plenty for most hand calculations. Even with a powerful computer program you'd probably never need more than twenty for the most accurate of calculations. Still, if people want to spend their time calculating π to billions of decimal places that's fine by me. They will, of course, never be able to calculate it completely since it is an irrational number - or more specifically a transcendental one (it doesn't appear as the root of any algebraic equation, if I remember the definition correctly).

That's enough going back to my mathematical roots (algebraic or otherwise) for now. More knitting to follow soon.

Tags: mathematics, pi

Update: I've just checked out the Technorati tag for pi and discovered that pi day is indeed widely celebrated, if not official. Also, if you're wondering why today is pi day, notice that in the American system of writing dates (which I think in general is far less logical than either the ISO or British systems as there's no clear progression from larger to smaller time units or vice versa as with the others), 14th March is written numerically as 3/14, or 3.14 if you use a dot separator. QED.

How many projects?

2006-03-12T00:45:00.000Z

I'm pondering the optimum number of knitting projects to take on at one time.

At the moment I have 4 on the needles and one more (a wedding present, so I'll need to get a move on as the big day is rapidly approaching) in planning. I've also got several more ideas for projects I'd like to start, but I'm inclined to finish at least one of my current projects first. On the one hand, having several projects means that I can switch between them for a bit of variation (e.g. my tote bag is quite long rows of stocking stitch, so it's very straightforward but not the most exciting thing to knit) to suit my mood or the available time (if I only have time for a quick burst I'll probably do a row or two of my ribbed scarf). On the other hand, having too many projects means that progress is slow at all of them.

I think it's probably good to have at least two contrasting projects at once - and I suspect that I'll usually have at least one sock on the go as well as something non socky. Probably having too many more than 4 or 5 would get too much at once, so I'll probably try to stick between those limits. For the moment, then, I'll aim to get one of my scarves finished before I start on something else. I want to have a go at a Tam o'Shanter soon, but I'll need to finish my tote bag first as it uses the same yarn (a 400g ball of aran weight acrylic/wool, which should be big enough for both projects). I also want to get the bag finished as soon as possible so that I can use it to hold my next project.

By the way, I've decided on the next few books I'm going to read. First up will be John Wyndham's Stowaway to Mars (one of his early novels (c. 1935) and probably originally published under a pseudonym). Then The Silmarillion by Tolkien, followed by Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov and after that The Hobbit. I'll probably then choose something a bit different before tackling The Lord of the Rings (for the third time - I've also read The Hobbit at least twice before, and The Silmarillion once, but they are all good enough books to sustain multiple readings). Of course, I may change my plans entirely, but that's the idea for now.

Tags: books, knitting,

Need to read

2006-03-09T23:27:00.000Z

While tidying my room this afternoon (a rare occurence and not one I particularly enjoy, although it's nice to be able to move around unimpeded for a few days afterwards) it struck me that I've hardly read any books so far this year - at least not in the way of fiction. I've read (or am reading) a number of knitting books and other factual things.

Over the years I've observed that my reading tends to come and go in bursts. Sometimes I'll read avidly for several months and do hardly anything else with my leisure time, while other times I'll go for weeks or months and hardly touch a novel or short story collection. This time my low-reading phase corresponds fairly well with my new found knitting passion. While knitting goes very well with watching films, and even better with listening to music, I find it doesn't blend so well with reading, as I need hands to hold my book open as well as to knit.

At some point soon I want to reread The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings (and probably also The Hobbit while I'm at it), but I think I'm in the mood for some science fiction first. I'll probably start with the fourth book in Asimov's Foundation series (I forget the exact title, although I was looking at it earlier today). I've also got a novel by John Wyndham (one of my favourite authors) that I picked up from the library recently (it was on sale for 25p), and plenty of other books of all kinds waiting to be read.

The question is, do I start my book (whichever one I choose) before I've done a spot of work on one of my knitting projects (whichever one I choose), or leave it till afterwards, by which time it will probably be past bedtime. Life would be so much easier if it wasn't for stuff like sleep and work!

Tags: books, knitting, reading

Techno makes me ratty

2006-03-09T01:18:00.000Z

In case you're wondering about the Tags thing that's mysteriously appeared at the bottom of my last post, it's because I've recently discovered the joys of Technorati. As far as I can make out at the moment, it's essentially a system for live searching of blogs across the web. In particular, it enables you to set keywords for your blog entries so that people can do keyword searches on blogspace.

Along with blogging itself, and other things like wikis (such as the venerable Wikipedia and photosharing via Flickr (and doubtless other similar sites, but that's the one I use - under the name of magnuscanis), this is part of the current generation of web technology, sometimes dubbed Web 2.0, that is replacing the more passive web browsing experiences of the previous generation. The main hallmarks of this stuff seem to be interactivity (allowing people to publicly comment on, if not change, the content of webpages), searchability (largely via tags) and a reliance on XML as the main underpinning technology.

All very interesting stuff.

And, in case you're wondering, my first sock is now about 2.5" long!

Tags blog, Flickr, technology, Technorati, web2.0, Wikipedia,
XML

The sock of 1000 feet begins with a single stitch

2006-03-07T23:09:00.000Z

I've finally started my first sock!

I wrote about it here with details of the yarn, needles and number of stitches, but I don't think I mentioned that the calf part of the sock will be in 2x2 rib all the way down. I'll then turn the heel using Elizabeth Zimmermann's conventional heel and continue to do 2x2 rib down the top while using stocking stitch for the bottom. I'm planning to use the same yarn throughout on this pair. Doubtless I'll try out some different ideas for later socks. I'm already thinking along the lines of one using stocking stitch for most of the body and confining ribbing to the very top, one (possibly the same one) with stripes (probably horizontal ones), one with contrasting colours for toe and heel (and probably the top ribbed band), and perhaps a cabled one. Obviously I mean one pair each time, although it is alarming how many of my pairs of socks seem to end up as single socks.

Anyway, all that's in the future. I'm enjoying sock knitting perhaps the most out of all the knitting I've done so far (it's challenging enough to be interesting without being impossibly difficult, and provides a very practical and useful end product) and I'm sure it will form a large part of my knitting activity, but so far I've only got 1" of the first sock done!

Tags: knitting

Learn by doing

2006-03-06T23:15:00.000Z

For several days now I've been putting off turning the heel of my practice sock because I didn't feel that I understood the instructions in the book (Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Without Tears, which I was beginning to feel was inappropriately named) at all well. That's had the knock-on effect of stopping me from making a start on my real socks too. I'd got as far as finishing the heel flap and then ground to a halt.

Tonight I finally decided to bite the bullet and have a go, and I found that once I got started a fair amount of puzzling over the written instructions, a small amount of lateral thinking and a quick peek in Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook (which, despite being a pretty comprehensive reference work doesn't have much to say explicitly about socks, but does have a useful section on picking up (or knitting up) stitches - just what I needed to make sense of EZ's rather terse instructions).

The actual turning of the heel, which consisted of knitting various short rows (the first time I'd tried that technique), was actually very straightforward once I realised that I was supposed to work back and forwards across the centre of the row, gradually bringing in extra stitches from the edge and decreasing the total number of stitches. It took a bit longer to figure out the next bit, where EZ referred rather cryptically (at least for a knitting newbie like me) to knitting up stitches. From the photo in the book, and a small measure of common sense (about all I could muster), I was able to figure out which direction I was supposed to go in, and intuitively knew (or at least thought) I had to pick up stitches along the edge of the heel flap. It was only when I consulted Stanley for how to do that (since EZ didn't seem to talk about that technique - or perhaps it's just that the index is rather skimpy) that I discovered "knit up" to be more-or-less a synonym for "pick up" and was able to make sense of the instructions at last.

I hit upon one more small problem when I'd worked round to the bottom again. I'd transferred from double pointed needles to single pointed ones while doing the heel flap, and I suddenly found I needed to get my stitches off the wrong end of the needle. It was no great problem, as I could simply slip them across to a dpn and get to work. However, when I do the socks for real it will be easier if I remember to switch back to dpns the row before I start to work up the edge, or even if I just stick to dpns throughout.

Also, while I was using 5mm needles for the test piece (partly to make it bigger and slightly easier to see what was going on, and also so that my 4mm dpns would be free to start the real socks, as I intended to do before finishing the test heel), I'll be using 4mm ones for the real socks and I only have a set of four of those, while I have a set of five 5mm ones. Most of the time that won't be a great problem as I've only been using four anyway, but there was a point when I was starting to work in the round again after the heel that I needed to bring the fifth needle in to play. I'll have to be a bit more careful with my needle management next time.

Because I'm so chuffed about cracking the heel, I've decided to upload two photos of it. One is (or should be) at the top of the post and other one right here:

As well as my sock knitting, I've done another 16 rows of my garter ridge scarf today (including 2 rows before work this morning, as I decided to break away from having to do it in 8 row blocks) and a handful of rows of my tote bag. I may start the new skein going on my ribbed scarf before I go to bed, but I'll probably start my first real sock instead. I reckon to have at least one of my scarves finished by the weekend - it's just a shame that the snow round here has already more-or-less melted!

Backwards and forwards

2006-03-05T23:47:00.000Z

Yesterday morning I had a very frustrating knitting experience. I'd knitted about 7 rows of my tote bag (at 68 stitches per row, that's 476 stitches, or a fair amount of work) and before I noticed that about 4 rows back I'd somehow managed to purl nearly half a row instead of knitting, which broke up my beautiful smooth stocking stitch with a random purl ridge. If it had been a whole row, I'd have been tempted to leave it in and call it a pattern variation, but as it was I decided that it would look too odd in the finished article and would bug me far too much in the long run, so I decided to rip out to the offending section and fix it. The net result was that I had only about 6 rows to show for my morning's work, but at least it's all reasonably neat stocking stitch. At the moment the piece is just over 3" long. It's got to go on for a total of 11" stocking stitch and 1" garter stitch. After that I have to do another identical panel for the back, a gusset (only about 10 stitches/row but going on for nearly 40"), a pair of straps (112 stitches on each, but fortunately only worked for about 7 rows) and a smallish panel in a contrasting colour to make an inside pocket. So it will probably be a while before this one's finished.

On the other hand, my ribbed scarf is coming on nicely. I've just finished my 3rd skein, and I reckon that one more should take it up to a good length for the finished article. I've been doing a lot more work recently on this one than my garter ridge scarf and I think the ribbed one will probably be done first (although the other is only about 3 pattern units away from the end too, so shouldn't take long to finish). There's two main reasons I can think of for this, with a possible third. First of all, although the ribbed scarf combined knits and purls in a single row (it is, after all, 2x2 rib on straight needles), rather than the same stitch for a whole row, each row is the same and therefore it's my preferred scarf to work on when I only have time for a couple of rows. Although I have a row counter to help with the other one, for some reason I prefer to work in whole or half blocks of the 16 row pattern. The second reason is that the yarn I'm using for the ribbed scarf is a lot nicer - both in colour (muted grey/blue with white, rather than sky blue) and texture (it's a wool/cotton/mohair blend instead of acrylic), and gives me more tactile pleasure to work it. Thirdly, I think I prefer the look of this pattern, especially the fact that it's reversible (useful for a scarf), which is another psychological reason for wanting to get on with this one when given a choice of the two.

I'm still putting off working on my heel, which is holding back attempts at making socks. I'm certainly not going to get any finished for this winter but I'm hoping to get some done by next year.

Not dancing for pancakes

2006-03-02T23:01:00.000Z

Scottish dancing tonight was cancelled due to the snow. Instead, I stayed in and finished off yesterday's carrot and chile soup, accompanied by homemade garlic bread (ok, I cheated with the bread and used a partially baked baguette from the supermarket, but the garlic and herb butter was homemade - at least in so far as mixing the garlic and herbs with the butter). After that I had a go at making Scotch pancakes, aka. drop scones. This was largely inspired by a conversation I had with some friends while making (ordinary) pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (a couple of days back, in case you missed it), when we were talking about the consistency of batter. The main differences between Scotch and non-Scotch pancakes are that the former have a higher flour/liquid ratio (6oz flour to 1/4 pint milk and one egg in the recipe I used (from Philip Harben's Grammar of Cookery) as opposed to 3oz flour for one egg and 5 fl. oz. milk (roughly 1/4 pint, IIRC) for the standard pancake batter from the same book), the flour used is self-raising (or in my case, plain with baking powder added, for lack of SR flour), and there's a small amount of sugar in the batter (1 dessertspoon). That makes for a rather thicker batter that stays put more-or-less where you pour it out, rather than running to cover the base of the pan. I found they went very nicely eaten fresh (and piping hot) with butter, sugar and cinnamon. I think my housemates agreed with me.

I've also taken the opportunity to do a bit more knitting. My tote bag is now well underway, with about an inch and a half of stocking stitch completed for the front panel (which is roughly 15" wide, so not too bad for about an hour of work). I'm also progressing quite well with my ribbed scarf, although I do wish it were ready to wear for the current snowy weather (I also wish we still had a subjunctive mood in English!). Here's a picture of it, so that you can see the general effect of the pattern:

What the picture doesn't show is the length of the scarf, which is currently about 38" (and nearing the end of the third skein). In the background you can just make out my knitting bag - this one is the maths conference one I mentioned yesterday (courtesy of Springer Verlag publishers) and far nicer than the carrier bags my other projects and knitting stuff are currently housed in. You can also see one of my first (and probably still favourite) pair of knitting needles (5mm diameter, 14" long) - not that they are that exciting.

Incidentally, the name of this post was inspired partly by tonight's cooking activities (instead of dancing) and largely by my favourite album title by Steve Lawson - Not Dancing for Chicken. I'm not sure it's necessarily my favourite of his albums but it's easily the coolest title.

Of peppers and pipes

2006-03-02T00:46:00.000Z

I had a go at making soup tonight for the first time since my home economics lessons at school about 17 years ago. I found an interesting looking recipe for carrot and chile soup in Spun Magazine, an "online stitch and bitch lifestyle magazine" I discovered while browsing for knitting websites. I made a few changes, principally omitting the celery and mayonnaise (which I didn't have in stock) and halving the quantity, but otherwise followed the recipe reasonably closely and was very pleased with the result.

I've spent most of the evening at a concert, sitting about 10 feet away from the wonderful Northumbrian smallpipe/fiddle player Kathryn Tickell who was giving the concert along with a Scottish harpist called Corrina Hewat. I've not previously heard of the latter (and she wasn't actually mentioned in the promotional material I saw, although they were definitely performing as a duo rather than as one star with a support musician), but she was great too. Afterwards there was a traditional music session in the bar, which I took my fiddle along to. Sadly neither Kathryn nor Corrina joined us for that, but it was fun nonetheless. The whole evening was really excellent apart from the point where I went to buy a CD, had Kathryn poised to sign it, and then discovered that I'd just used up the last cheque in my book (paying for the ticket which a friend had collected for me) and was onto my paying-in slips at the back. Not a great problem as I've been able to order a copy online anyway (for the same price), but I did feel ever so slightly silly, and of course it means I'll have an unsigned copy (not that I'm too worried about that, really).

Snow for St David

2006-03-02T00:31:00.000Z

Happy St David's Day to you all (actually, that was technically yesterday but since I haven't yet been to bed it feels like today still)!

This morning it snowed, which is quite unusual for this area. It's one of those occasions when I'm even more than usually glad that I can walk to work and don't have to drive - although the hills are a bit treacherous on foot in the snow and ice it's nothing compared to trying to drive on them in the same conditions. I managed to get out into the garden briefly with my camera at lunchtime to take a few photos. Sadly there were no daffodils showing (I don't think they've come up yet) but here's one of a couple of snowdrops, which seems quite appropriate:

Of course, I dressed up appropriately to go out in the snow. That included wearing my walking boots and two pairs of knitted socks (unlike most modern walkers, I've continued to wear the old fashioned doubled socks). Neither pair were knitted by me as, in fact, I still haven't got round to casting on my first real sock (and I'm still procrastinating to avoid turning my test heel), but while I was putting them on I did reflect that a fringe benefit of learning to knit is that I can now tell at a glance when my socks are inside out (both pairs, like virtually all other knitted socks I've seen, have at least some parts in stocking stitch, which is clearly non-reversible).

While on the subject of knitting, I've had a fairly quiet few days in this respect, mainly as I've been too busy with other stuff to do more than a few rows of my ribbed scarf. Tonight, though, I finally got round to casting on the 68 stitches required for the front panel of my new bag project. I've spent the last few days pondering whether to do this or my Tam o'Shanter first, as both will want to use the same yarn (a 400g ball of Wendy wool/acrylic (25%/75%) blend aran weight in dark blue and green). I decided that since I already have plenty of hats but am lacking more glamorous things than carrier bags to hold most of my knitting projects (I did (re)discover a cotton tote bag this morning that I picked up at a maths conference several years ago, and that now holds my ribbed scarf) I'd start with the bag project. That will also give me time to decide whether I want to do the whole hat in one colour or to try a more decorative version.

It's not the length that counts...

2006-02-23T18:02:00.000Z

I've now just finished the second skein on my ribbed scarf. Like the garter ridge scarf, this is chunky yarn, but it's in 50g skeins instead of 100g so I've actually used the same weight of yarn in both scarves. The garter ridge one, as I said yesterday (or in fact, in the wee hours of this morning) is 40" long and 7" wide, while the ribbed one now measures 27" x 5" The yarn is possibly a little thicker and denser (being wool, cotton and mohair instead of acrylic), and also the ribbed pattern stretches to at least 9" without straining, so it's effectively got a surface area of 240ish square inches compared to 280 sq. in. for the other scarf, i.e. there's not quite such a discrepancy as first appears.

With the garter ridge scarf, I intend to take it to more than 5', given that it will almost certainly stretch a fair bit in use. That should give me a reasonable amount of spare yarn which I'll probably use on a hat (I'm considering adapting the hot head design from Stitch 'n Bitch - a ribbed watch cap knitted flat on fairly big needles with chunky yarn - to use cold colours (blues and white) instead of warm ones (reds and yellows). For the ribbed scarf, I'll probably use up 4 skeins and see how it's looking then - it should be over 50" by that point. I may use a fifth skein on it, as I'll still have 6 skeins left to use for other projects (my eBay bid was for 10 skeins but the seller included an extra one in the package as it was another one she found of the same dye lot).

At the same time as the yarn for my scarf, and from the same seller, I got 10 skeins of yarn (no bonus ones this time, alas) to make socks with. It's an acrylic/nylon/wool blend DK yarn (Sirdar Country Style) in a rather interesting purple colour with multicoloured flecks in it. I've knitted up a quick test swatch in 2x2 rib on 4mm needles, to get some idea of gauge for my socks (although I probably should have knitted in the round to be more precise, and it looks pretty good to me. (I must get round to taking some more photos soon.) As soon as I can stir myself to do it, I'll cast 60 stitches onto my 4mm dpns and get cracking on the first sock. My test heel (which is on 5mm needles so that I could keep my 4mm dpns free for the real sock - 5mm ones are my only other size so far, although I've actually been using straight needles for the heel itself) is now ready to start turning - the bit which I've been dreading.

I'm off out tonight to Scottish Country Dancing (my regular Thursday night activity) but if it's not too late when I get back I might have a go at either the heel or the sock. Or I might just continue with one of my scarves. Or my left hand yarn tryout (which is actually European Pic style rather than Continental, according to Maggie Righetti's Knitting in Plain English). Or my coasters. Or the tote bag I mentioned the other day. Or the Tam o'Shanter while I'm in Scottish mood. Or any one of a number of other project ideas - so much to knit, so little time! Or maybe I'll just go to bed and read a good book (possibly even one not related to knitting!).

New balls, please

2006-02-23T00:36:00.000Z

I've been working on my garter ridge scarf this evening while watching a DVD (the interesting, if somewhat gruesome, film The Hollow Man). I've finally reached the end of my first skein of yarn, and the scarf is now at a length of 40". It's just under 7" wide, for a total area so far of 280 square inches. The gauge is 15 stitches to 4" or 3.75 stitches per inch. A single row takes approximately 26" of yarn - not quite as much (compared to overall width) as the ribbed scarf, but not far off. (that was measured on a knit row - I suspect the figure might be a bit different for a purl row - indeed, you'd really need to take the average over several rows to get a useful figure, but it's much easier to measure the amount of yarn when you're nearing the end of a skein). This is using chunky acrylic yarn on 6mm needles. I have just joined in the second, and final, skein and knitted the final row needed to make up a pattern unit (I always prefer to knit 16 rows at a time where possible).

While I'm on the subject of this scarf, I'll just mention that I started out by keeping track of my rows on the back of an envelope and then I got round to getting a row counter, and I'm finding that to be much more convenient. I have it on the end of one needle (the one that was free at the start of a pattern repeat), and I increment the counter by 2 every time that needle becomes free again, resetting it to 01 when I start the pattern block for the next time. That way if the counter is on the right hand needle it has the relevant line number, n, and if it's on the left hand needle it has n-1. Either way, I then know whether to knit or purl, having memorised the simple pattern. To be honest, by this stage I could probably figure out what to do just by looking at the knitting itself, but it's good to have the row counter to confirm it.

For most of the things I've knitted, I've not bothered with counting the rows as I've been more interested in absolute lengths (mostly in inches) if at all, but I'm sure my row counters will come in handy when I knit other things having a multi-row repeating pattern.

On the needles at the moment I have two scarves (garter ridge and ribbed), a test swatch for continental (left-hand yarn) knitting in stocking stitch (it started off in garter stitch and may yet evolve into some form of ribbing or perhaps moss stitch in the next few rows), and a tryout sock heel (based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's instructions from Knitting Without Tears so that I know what I'm doing when I come to make my actual socks (since it will take several hours to knit the 6" or so of 2x2 ribbing before I reach the heel, I don't particularly need to wait to finish my test heel before I start on the real sock, but I haven't yet got round to casting on for it).

Projects I'm hoping to start soon include my socks, a tote bag (based on a pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch) to keep my knitting in (rather than the plastic carrier bags I currently use) and a tam o'shanter hat (from Zimmermann). I've got a few other ideas too, but those are the main ones I want to get done. I've decided not to start on another scarf until I've got at least one of the current ones finished. I'm also considering knitting a set of coasters (or if I'm feeling ambitious, maybe even table mats) for a wedding present for some friends, using a similar idea to the last wok holder I knitted up - I've just realised I didn't blog that one, but it was a simple stocking stitch rectangle using two strands of (DK acrylic) yarn simultaneously (red and blue, in that case) on 5mm needles, making for a nice thickish fabric - but probably incorporating a garter stitch or moss stitch border (more likely the latter) for decorative effect and to stop them curling too much.

Continental knitting and all that jazz

2006-02-22T21:05:00.000Z

I didn't get much knitting done yesterday as I had a gig. I was playing bass at a jazz café at church. It's the first time I've played jazz properly for about 7 years and I enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately the drummer who was supposed to be joining us didn't turn up (he may have been delayed in Ireland, where he'd been at a wedding) so we played as a quartet consisting of trumpet, trombone, keyboards and bass. One of my highlights was the slow version of the Flintstones theme tune we did (my idea). Another was our rendition of Amazing Grace. I got to take a few solo slots, including one extended unaccompanied one when the rest of the band stopped to eat some toasties! I hope it will be a lot less than 7 more years before my next opportunity to play jazz.

Today I decided to have a go at the Continental style of knitting, i.e. holding the yarn in my left hand (I've previously been doing it English style, with yarn in the right hand). So far it feels a bit awkward, particularly for purling, but I think when I get used to it it will probably be a fair sight quicker, so I'll persevere. I'm intending to keep going with English style for the current projects I have on the go, as the change of yarn tension would probably be too obvious if I switched in mid-flow, but I'll probably have a go at my next project (a knitting bag) with the Continental style. I'll wait till I've had a bit more practice at the latter before deciding which is going to be my main style. I gather that it's useful to be able to do both when you're doing stuff like Fairisle knitting with 2 separate yarns at once, so it won't be a waste of effort, whichever one I opt for.

A cubit and a half

2006-02-19T23:32:00.000Z

I've no idea how long my scarf currently is in cubits.

In fact, I'm not particularly sure what it is in centimetres either. But it's about 36" (so I suppose it must be 90cm, as a 12" ruler is the same as a 30cm one - isn't arithmetic wonderful!). BTW it's the garter ridge scarf I'm talking about - the ribbed one is about half the length, at 18" - not bad considering I started it considerably later. I suppose I prefer patterns where you don't have to count rows, as you can just get on with knitting and watch the stitches to see whether to knit or purl next.

I've been thinking lately about units, particularly for length measurements. I recently came across a website (whose URL I sadly can't remember) devoted to a campaign to scrap all non-metric units in the UK. In principle, I think that's a very logical, sensible idea as it makes a lot of sense to stick with one system and, as measurement systems go, the metric system has a lot going for it. For example, it's much easier to remember that there's 1000g in 1kg and 1000mm in 1m (or 1000m in 1km) than that there's 16oz in 1lb, 14lb in 1 stone, 12" in 1' and I can't remember how many feet in a mile (which goes to prove my point, I suppose). Feel free to disagree with me on that score, but I will think you strange.

However, when it comes to actually visualising measurements I find I can often think better in imperial. For instance, I've already mentioned that I remember the length of my scarves in inches (if at all) and convert to centimetres if necessary. Interestingly, though, I'm quite happy with using the metric measurements for knitting needle diameters (which are relatively small and more easily expressed in millimetres than fractions of an inch), although I tend to think of the needle lengths in inches (e.g. 8" rather than 20cm for my dpns).

Part of the trouble is that people who grew up with the imperial system tend to find it more convenient for use and they in turn teach the next generation, who also get familiar with it. I suppose we'd probably need to make a conscious decision to stop using imperial measurements if we were to be successful in converting completely to metric (the obvious alternative of ditching metric and sticking with imperial only wouldn't bear contemplating, IMHO). I'm sure I could discipline myself to measure my knitting in centimetres, and even to think of distances (and speeds) in the car in kilometres (per hour) rather than miles (I managed that feat ok when driving across Europe a couple of years ago, but quickly reverted to miles on returning to British roads), but I'd certainly miss having a pint of beer (although if the alternative were to quaff it by the litre, I might be pursuaded.)

The scarf must go on

2006-02-17T22:23:00.000Z

I've just reached the end of the first ball of yarn in my ribbed for her pleasure scarf (the blue/white wool/cotton/mohair one). It's a fairly chunky yarn and they are only 50g skeins. I managed to get just over 13" out of the first one, and the scarf is about 5" wide, so the total surface area covered is roughly 65 square inches - or slightly more than one square inch per gram. That's on 6mm needles in 2x2 rib stitch. As the yarn was drawing to the end, I was able to measure it with my tape measure. There were 57" remaining, and when I'd knitted the next row it was down to 28", so a 5" row of 2x2 rib in this yarn evidently takes a staggering 29" of yarn! The most annoying thing is that the remaining length of yarn was just too short to do another row. Still, I have 10 more skeins of the stuff and at just over 1' per skein I should need slightly less than 5 to complete the scarf. I might then do a matching hat with some of the rest - perhaps there'll even be enough for gloves too (although I suspect this yarn is probably a bit on the thick side for gloves).