banananananananana!

There's movement on the knitting front! I have overcome vast inertia (and a sudden retreat into manic reading instead of knitting) in order to (a) reduce to neat balls of wool the swiss cheese scarf by determined frogging while watching X-Files, and (b) play with banana fibre.

The banana fibre was hauled out as a direct result of Cape Town's current tendency to random load shedding, i.e. the lights go out without warning, usually right in the middle of an X-Files episode. This happened at about 8pm on Monday night, leaving me sitting in the dark kicking myself for not having dragged out the banana fibre and printed out a pattern a lot earlier, since knitting is a perfect activity for low light. I tried to read by candlelight for a bit, but the incipient headache made me give up and go to bed ridiculously early, with a pillow over my head to cut out the INCREDIBLE NOISE from the hospital generators across the road.

In a spirit of preparedness, and mental fist-shaking at the Electrical Powers That Be, I found the wool and pattern yesterday. I ended up going with the nicely simple broken rib Robynn suggested for My First Project, and it really seems to suit this yarn, which is heavy and slubby and uneven, and makes for a gorgeous texturedness. (The plain/purl alteration does, however, still cause me to occasionally bring forth extra ninja stitches from their pocket dimension when I'm not looking). The needles are huge, size 8, and wooden, since apparently my personal and wayward knitting gods have decreed that metal needles are for me an illegitimate rite which cause me to fall into sin, mostly cursing and dropped stitches. It's also a very thin scarf - I only cast on 24 stitches, and the width seems to be perfect. The problem with the Swiss Cheese was not the pattern, which I love, but the wool (half acrylic, can't stand acrylic) and the width, way too wide. I think I'll try for a skinny swiss cheese in the rather nice grey laceweight mohair friends madly acquired for me at a neighbourhood market.

I was, of course, poised in front of X-Files at 7.50pm last night with my knitting in hand and a torch next to the sofa, and, of course, there wasn't a power cut. On the other hand, I've achieved a good 10cm worth of scarf. Also, Mulder is stuck in Tunguska about to be infected horribly with Black Oil.

More importantly, tonight I have dinner with my sister, who's been away for a couple of weeks, and finally score the kid mohair courtesy of my papa. Photos will undoubtedly follow. *gloats*

whee! Stuff!

So, Robynn is the Knitting Divvil, an enabler par excellence. She sent me a lovely knitting starter kit, including needles, a woolly sheep tape measure and the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules. She is not only evangelical in her zeal, she's absurdly generous.



I have made a bizarre discovery. Lantern Moon rosewood needles have been personally blessed by the snarled and sensuous gods of knitting. They are charmed. Having ripped back the swiss cheese scarf for the umpty-millyunth time, I started again on the rosewood 6.5mm beauties. Using them, I make a fraction of the mistakes I usually do, and when I do drop stitches or accidentally loop the wool to double a stitch, I can fix it. Also, they make a quiet, soothing click, and feel light and agile in my hands. As you can see from the photo, the swiss cheese scarf took several giant leaps forward while I watched the last few episodes of Buffy Season 4 last night. It's almost beginning to resemble the swiss cheese scarf. (Although in fairness this might also be because I've completely coincidentally made it in almost the same colour as the pattern. I find this strangely reassuring).

I'm not sure that even birchwood dpns are going to persuade me to knit socks, though.