Busy Days!

Exciting day today - had my first student (just the one, but it was quite nice to do a one-to-one lesson as my first) and went and set up some free online adverts which you can visit here and here. Hopefully I'll get some responses and the tuition diary will start to fill up!

A very geeky blanket.

I had a minor triumph the other day - I FINALLY finished the blanket I was knitting for my parents-in-law. I'm actually a bit sad it's finished, I quite enjoyed doing it - although not sad enough to do another straight away. It's a cable sampler blanket knit in strips and stitched together with a border added to stop the edges curling. I learnt a new joining technique with this one, Russian grafting, which gives a strong seam with a zig-zag appearance and doesn't use any extra yarn; I also used provisional cast-ons for the first time ever and discovered just how frustrating a poorly written set of instructions can be...you can rest assured that I will endeavour to make my own patterns crystal clear!

It's knitted in Sirdar Tweedie Chunky, which is a lovely alpaca/wool/acrylic blend, now sadly discontinued. It comes in these bold colours, as well as natural shades of which I also have enough to do something lovely - but that will be for me! When I showed the blanket to friends I was told that it was 'quite mediaeval' by one, it was very 'Harry Potter' by another (the four house colours are all there) but my favourite comment was, "You do know you've got all the federation uniform colours there, don't you?", which as a not-so-closet Trekkie pleased me greatly!

The cables come from my various books and are all my favourites. Although the blanket I have in mind for the natural shades will bring together all my favourite leaf and tree themed cables. But I WILL NOT START IT until I have typed up some of my patterns...

The original hat

Currently on the needles is one of my owl hats. This is another pattern I need to write up, but this one is a priority as it's one of the patterns I'd like to offer as a kit. It started life as a gift for my mother-in-law, but with a few modifications and tweaks it's become a popular seller at her local bird of prey sanctuary. Last year I knitted sixteen - sixteen - of them in four different shades and two different sizes for the shop, I was knitting them in my sleep by the time I'd finished! Fortunately, with one thing and another, it's been a while since I knitted one so I no longer grimace at the prospect. I'm working one up in each size so I can work out how much yarn I need in the kits; I shall calculate this by the scientific (...) method of weighing the ball of yarn, knitting the hat, then weighing it again so I know how many grams I've used.
The design works best in natural or tweedy shades and the eyes, although crystal on the original, look great when made with golden sequins and beads. So if you love owls, keep your eyes open - this one will be on the site soon!