The Difficult News
This is hard to say out loud, let alone write, so I'm just going to put it down in print. Our six-year-old daughter, the Baby Bohemian, must undergo 18 months of chemotherapy starting this week. We are scheduled to go into hospital on Monday evening so that she can have a portocath fitted ready to start medication later this week. The pain in my heart is indescribable.
******************************
The Knitting News
I find great solace in my knitting - in, around, under, off. Soft, quiet, productive, I think it has been the saviour of my sanity lately. I've been working on Polly's Kiri on and off for a while now and it has been the perfect project this week. I'm rather saddened to cast off as I've enjoyed the clear, precise pattern-writing immensely and the hemp yarn has been a pleasure to knit.
Unblocked Kiri in the winter sunshine
I washed it carefully in lukewarm water and rinsed it several times. A surprising amount of colour came away in the water but the shawl has maintained its colour, nonetheless. It's currently pinned to the wall in my sitting room. (The outdoor photograph is a pretty accurate rendition of the colour) I'm resisting the urge to take it down before tomorrow morning - I'm just not sure how hemp behaves yet.
Onwards and upwards.
Unfortunately the bad weather has taken its toll on our phone line and we are off-line at home for a couple of weeks which is why I am posting today from my local internet cafe - a new experience for me. I'm on a time limit, so I'd better be quick!
Firstly, thanks for all the kind comments about Penryn - seems I knitted that one just in time for the cold weather. In keeping with cold weather knitting, I knitted up the first of my Ally Pally purchases, the fleece fringed scarf from Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop. Lovely, lovely yarn to work with, smooth and lustrous. It suggests in the pattern that you'll get a scarf approximately 2 metres long which I certainly did plus about 30-40cm extra - all good for extra warmth!
Lovely and snuggly - I'm a late convert to the practicality of scarves
We had a lovely family day out in Saturday in St Ives. We visited the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden which is just fabulous. Wonderful sculptures placed in the garden of her former home. Sadly, the artist died in a fire in this house in the mid 70's (smoking in bed allegedly) but the house has been refurbished to provide an excellent gallery for some smaller works whilst the garden holds some larger works all displayed amidst glorious planting. The Baby Bohemian was given permission to touch all of the indoors sculptures (everyone's free to touch the outdoor sculptures). It was simply wonderful to watch her touch a fairly abstract piece and say "It's a lady sitting down, isn't it Mummy?" Barbara Hepworth would have been thrilled.
That's one of my little Bohemians in the middle there, intrigued by the fishes...
Here's a shot of the garden - my children christened the piece in the foreground "the giant tic-tac". I say art is accessible at all levels - everyone can enjoy it in their own way.
That's her garden retreat in the background, with a bed and a table - perfect for knitting in!
That's all I've got time for now - I'm going to check in for email as often as I can - speak to you all soon!
Pattern: Penryn from Jaeger Natural Fleece & Fur Collection
Yarn: 6 skeins of Jaeger Natural Fleece (521 - Cameo)
Needles: 9mm
There's a certain thrill in being able to knit up a sweater and wear it in under two weeks. The Jaeger Natural Fleece yarn was very pleasant to work with, a little slubby in places but not as loosely spun as some other 'big' wools. I used some embroidery floss to sew up those big chunky seams and it worked well. I managed good even seams, the size of the stitch making it very easy to mattress stitch.
I love the split hem at the front, makes a real feature of the chunky cable. I think I prefer this design to the one in the latest Vogue knits which is also by Louisa Harding. That one has a hem and cuffs of kidsilk haze but uses the same centre cable. I think it's been knitted up by holding a strand of kidsilk haze together with Big Wool. Pretty colours though.
It was difficult to get a decent photograph which shows the cable well. The weather here is pretty terrible so far this week and turning the clocks back makes such a dark difference to the days, doesn't it? Gosh, I miss the summer...