Autumnal colours and "ancient" inspiration

On Saturday we all went for a lovely family walk with our friends Sally, Peter and Billy to Thornley Woods near Newcastle.  It's a lovely place to walk and we have often had fun expeditions with our friends. I'm sure if I was patient I could trawl through old posts to find you previous trips - but I'm not patient enough :o)

The river photo is actually of a fisherman who caught at least 10 fish while we were watching but let every single one go again.

The colours weren't as deeply autumnal as I was expecting but it was still beautiful and I got some nice photos - including lots of the children but I don't think they'd let me post them anymore :o(  If they agree I'll update later.

My fair isle obsession is still in full swing - I'm just so delighted that I now have the confidence to attempt to do this type of knitting.  I don't get perfect results but I have all the fun of the patterns to play with.

The plain grey hat that I had knitted for Mr Locket wasn't deep enough (because I'd mis-measured, although initially I thought it was the pattern's fault - I should have known better!) so I decided to try again so that it would have a deeper fold over for the brim -  only this time I was going to include colour work.

The first attempt:  I didn't like the colour combination - so I ripped it back

The second attempt: Again the colour combination was wrong........

The third attempt:  I put the colourwork band in too early so the brim would cover it up completely


Finally I knitted a hat that was roughly the right size, had a colour combination I was happy with and had a deep enough brim.  There are still problems - like the colourwork is now too far up the crown and the brim could have been a bit deeper but on the whole I'm pleased with it and feel confident that I can develop further hats for the children - especially after all that ripping out.  Happily Mr Locket really likes it and was very kind and modelled it for me - now he just has to wait until his birthday next month to be given it - unless he has any cold days on site planned in the meantime when I'm sure I'll relent.

The whole time I've been knitting Mr L's brown, grey and cream mittens and this hat to match I have had a hat in my memory from when I was a child.  I remember loving the pattern on the hat despite it's not very childlike colours but I always found it a bit scratchy to wear.  I was fairly sure Mum and Dad still had it in a drawer some where so when we went to see them yesterday I had a quick hunt and there it was...

..... a real McCoy Shetland hat from Tullock of Shetland that I'm sure I have had since I was about 6!

The ages spent with Dot in the wool shop a couple of weeks ago trying to decide on the colours for Mr Locket's mitts would have been much easier if I had remembered this hat earlier instead of part way through the knitting!

Did I mention I love fair isle?

Thank you for all the comments on my last post - sorry I haven't replied yet. I'm not sure if I told you before, but the archaeological firm that Mr Locket worked for closed down in July so he set up his own consultancy firm with two colleagues.  He is now based at home and working hard - which means I very rarely get on the main computer where I can reply to emails!  Not that I'm complaining in any way - I think he is a complete star and as soon as I can I will reply to your messages :o)

P.S. Squeee! I've just ordered some more Shetland wool from Jamieson and Smith in Lerwick!

Too many projects

This obsession has gone too far!  

I have so many active projects on the needles that I don't know where to turn

I'm knitting socks for Mr Locket's 50th birthday next month

Mittens for Mr Locket's 50th birthday next month

A hat for Mr Locket's 50th birthday next month

  - well that's one thing finished at least

Secret mittens for a Christmas present

and a lacy Baktus that I forgot to photograph

Not to mention all the other dormant, very dormant and very, very dormant projects on the needles.

So the obvious thing to do today was to knit a little bit of three of the projects, sew in the ends on others and then cast on something entirely new!

Well I had to. It was entirely essential that I test out my new Jamieson and Smith Shetland wool to see if it really was better for fair isle knitting - it was - but it's not soft and schmooshy like my angora - it just looks ten times better.

This is my secret project before blocking

and this is it afterwards

Still bumpy and uneven but a bit better - and they are lovely and soft so I think I can live with it.  I've decided to try knitting the second one with different needles.

  

 

The first was on some slippy metal knit-pros but for the second I'm trying some blackthorn dpns that Julie kindly sent me last year

I spent half an hour sewing in ends and tried to take an arty photo of the cut offs - but photos aren't my strong point so it doesn't look arty at all but you know where I'm coming from

Then I photographed the insides of my mittens - because they look nice too

but I don't understand the current fashion for fair isle cardigans and jumpers where the wrong side is worn on the outside and the lovely fair isle pattern is hidden inside!  Bonkers if you ask me!

Tuesday: ETA just cast on another 2 projects!
The inside out cardigan was in Peacocks here

Obsession

You know you are obsessed...........

• when you are still sitting in bed knitting 20 minutes before you are due at work
• when you persuade your lovely husband to give you a lift to work -  half a mile away - partly because you are late (because of the knitting in bed) but mostly so you can knit on the way there - for all of 3 minutes (because you know that it will all add up if you count the journey home at lunchtime and again at the end of the day)
• when you plan to go to your favourite wool shop to buy duplicate needles as you HAVE to cast on yet another project NOW - and you fully intend to knit at least 4 things at once (not counting the dozens currently  hibernating in various places around the house)
• when you refuse to do the weekly supermarket shop even though there is no food left in the house because that would be an hour and a half of knitting time wasted
• when you find yourself knitting while standing in the queue for food at IKEA and really don't care if anyone thinks you are odd
• when you make an improvised mitten blocker out of cardboard and cling film (inspired by this friend) because you are desperate to see if your stitches will improve
• when your new sock wool arrives in the post at work and you ask your boss if you can just leave it on your desk so you can look at it while you type

I'm really enjoying knitting at the moment - can you tell?

Some things I discovered today

• That being stung on the leg by a wasp while still in bed is not a good way to start the day - no photo

 

• That Dot's plum crumble may not be on my diet - but it's very delicious and I'm going to end up eating it anyway

• That photos of white ghost biscuits on white plates don't really stand out - but they taste really good

• That when your eldest daughter starts to study the International Baccalaureate at sixth form college your parcels from Amazon become heavier and slightly less interesting - but you are rather proud of her for being such a clever clogs

• That the plan to write a post about the official races I have run this year just didn't come together - but the medals look good

• That you can't photograph 4 un-ironed participant t-shirts for the above races and make them look good - but I still ran a half marathon!!

• That I'm not allergic to my new alpaca yarn (phew) - but that my secret knitting with it doesn't look very good - uneven stitches galore - do you think it will block out?

• That if you improve your tension on your second fair isle wrist warmer and stop pulling the strands so tight it is going to end up quite a bit larger than the first one - but hopefully only you will notice

• That it isn't very easy to take a good photo of said wrist warmers - but look, my rings fit again now that I've lost over 5 stone so I don't care ;o)

Today (and a bit of yesterday too)

Daisy rejected the flowers I had picked for Dot to welcome her home from her Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition yesterday.

She then scoured the garden for alternatives.  Largely unsuccesfully.  This Japanese Anemone was the only flower she could find.  So you can imagine her disgust when a petal fell off when she was arranging them.

Her solution?  

To glue it back on of course!

And she did.  And it worked!

I wonder if it will still be hanging on there when all the others have dropped?

This is just the kind of mad Locket moment that I want the blog to record - because I know I'll forget otherwise and that would be a shame.

Today I made my first ever attempt at chutney.  I absolutely LOVE chutney and over the summer Mr Locket, Dot and I made a point of buying new chutney and local cheeses on our (many) camping trips (more on them in another post) - so we ended up with about 7 jars in the fridge!  I don't care that it's not really part of my Weight Watcher's diet - it's just too good to resist.  So I don't know why it has taken me so long to make my own.

It's Old Dowerhouse Chutney from Delia's big black cookery book and it used up all the plums I carried back on the train last week after a lovely day with mum and dad and my BIG sister. (I had so much garden produce in my bag that I felt like the Town Mouse returning from the country)

The apples came from the tree in my garden - and were picked by Dot, who unfortunately got her crochet jumper rather tangled up in the tree, so she took it off and threw it to one side where unfortunately it landed in a big yellow bucket of slimy weeds and rainwater!

The only problem with the chutney is that I went off to watch a film and left it bubbling - and burnt it.

Hopefully the rather bitter caramelised taste will become something we learn to appreciate over time.

My knitting is going a little better.

I have finished another of Julie's Seasonal Dresses so now I need to knit the fox to wear it, and I have got a bit further with my Alfredo mittens although I'm finding the thumb insert really tricky to work out.  I've tried looking at the other examples knitted but no one else seems to have had a problem so maybe it's just me.

And finally, here is another gratuitous photo of all my new alpaca yarn - just because it looks so lovely!

Better late than never...

I seem to have given up on blogging which is a shame.  And a real life(!) conversation today with the lovely Jo of French Knots reminded me why writing a blog is such a good idea - because it is the best record of daily life and makes for fascinating reading when you look back over the years and are reminded of all the little things you had forgotten. 

I had thought it was pointless blogging now that people aren't really reading or commenting so much - but I had missed the point entirely.  I should be blogging for myself and gratefully receiving the lovely comments, if they come, as a bonus.

So over the next few days or weeks I am going to try to catch up a bit with what we have been doing in Locketland - and I'm going to be trying to read and comment on more of my friends' blogs too.

So this is going to be out of order but I'm starting with today...................when I travelled down to Yarndale with friends from my knitting group.

It was busy and crowded but lovely too with loads of great stalls (when you could get near them!) and I got to meet Jo too which was lovely.

Since knitting Julie's Little Cotton Rabbits and foxes and the seasonal dresses (see above) I have discovered colourwork which is something that had previously terrified me.  Now, I'm still not very good at it but it is my exciting new "skill" - almost as if I had learned to knit for the very first time.  So naturally I am obsessed, and naturally I spent rather a lot of money buying all these shades of Drops Alpaca 4ply so I can "fair isle" to my heart's content!

I have so many plans - all for little to middling projects and now I just need to hone my skills as my tension isn't great. 

This is the first of a pair of wristwarmers - it's a bit lumpy and dense but I'm pleased with it as a first attempt at multiple colours - and it's really warm.

Today I cast on these mittens (on the bus home from Skipton so it was slow progress) in the blue/grey and brown yarns at the top right of the photo above.  I'm onto my second glass of wine now so I'm not sure how fast the progress will be this evening but I'm looking forward to sitting in front of the fire with my knitting for the rest of the evening :)

Catching up

 

 

Once again it has been a long time since I last posted but lots has been happening in Locketland.  We have had two birthdays and two birthday camping adventures in the wilds of my mum and dad's beautiful garden! We are SUCH intrepid adventurers.  This was glamping at its most luxurious :o)  We are currently planning a more adventurous expedition to camp in a real campsite soon....

Fred is modelling his new birthday slippers and is obviously very pleased with them - although 20 days later they are looking rather worse for wear.  I don't know what that boy does to his slippers but they NEVER last! Or maybe it's his new dart board he is pleased about?!

There has been lots more running as I am trying to increase the distance I can run each week.  Mr Locket and I have been having lovely Sunday runs along the coastal footpath and I managed to get up to 8 miles a couple of weeks ago. 

The last few weekends have had camping trips or official runs like the Bupa Great North 10k that I did on Sunday (in 1.07.47 which is nearly 3 minutes faster than the Sunderland 10k in April) I have also been going to three running clubs each week although this week I felt rather tired and stayed at home instead! Maybe I've done a bit too much running...............

 ......which leads into my more recent activity - KNITTING!  Yes! I have finally picked up my knitting again!  All that running had really got in the way of being creative.  I have found, as I've got to know myself better and better, that I really am a very "passionate" person - by which I mean that I get great enthusiastic passions for certain things and pursue these new hobbies obsessively and everything else gets left behind.  So when I'm in a knitting passion all I want to do or read about is knitting, likewise with gardening (although that hasn't happened this year), and I've found it particularly the case with running.  Instead of carrying my sock knitting and craft magazines around with me my bag is usually full of running books and magazines and my training journal for The Great North Run.

What I need to learn to do is be more balanced about my hobbies (and the housework, if I'm honest) but I can't see my personality changing any time soon!

I joined a sock KAL a month or so ago and knitted one sock using this pattern but then got bored with it and gave up on the second sock during my knitting drought.  But I have picked it up again and I am now knitting the second one in this pattern. Completely different but the yarn is the same and I don't expect anyone will be inspecting my feet that closely!

I bought Julie's Little Cotton Rabbit patterns as soon as they became available (even though it was during the knitting drought) and then I started reading the Ravelry group posts about them and when her new Seasonal Dresses became available Dot and I hurried to cast on.  I have pleased myself no end by printing Julie's patterns and feeding them into poly-pocket document holders so I have two new "books"!  I can't get over how beautifully written and presented the patterns are.

Yesterday we snuck up to Newcastle on our own (Dot has finished her GCSE's and is on an 11 week "Summer of Freedom" holiday now!) and went to The Knit Studio in Blackfriars.

We received a warm welcome and a lovely cup of tea and spent a happy hour or so choosing yarn for our bunnies and their clothes and knitting with the other shop visitors for a while.

 

Anne Makepeace, the owner, was so helpful, searching Ravelry for worsted weight patterns when I was choosing wool for socks for Grandpa Biscuit and advising me on my tentative first steps with fair isle knitting.

 

And today poor Fred is off school poorly, Daisy has gone to Flamingoland with school and Dot is volunteering at the Infant School so now this post has been written and the house has been tidied (a little bit), I'm going to sit and knit for the rest of the afternoon with my poorly boy.