A Blanket for My Goddaughter

o, I haven't actually finished a project. But it's been too long since I featured my goddaughter around here and she's not only grown, she has a baby sister!





I'd started this simple blanket a while ago, and I'm this (holds thumb and forefinger ten centimetres apart) close to completing it. But I couldn't resist draping it over the little one yesterday:

After all, it was her grandmother that gave me the wool!

And here's Big Sister, pretty as ever:

Knitting Paintings

iscovered a new knitting blog the other day, called simply, Knitting Adventures. Look how lovely these free patterns are!



Speaking of the Royal Wedding the other day (which I might be at a local pub at 5.30 am (!) to watch), if you've got photographs of England, send them to Pictures of England. We've got one on there from the time we visited Holmfirth.

I wanted to share an old painting featuring knitting (since I've been focused on Orientalist paintings of late) and when I Googled paintings with knitting just now, I came across this wonderful site - Knitting Links from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

I couldn't find a painting that looks like my character Rosa in Out of the Water (unlike the many paintings I find on The Orientalist Gallery) but this one comes close in tone:

The Knitting Girl by artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1869

Cowls and Scarves and Hats, Oh My!

eally, I`m working on the blanket, I swear!



Can't match my mother's speed, however. In one week (!) she knitted all of these items, plus three others not shown, for various charitable organizations:

Scarves:

Hats and Cowls:

Closeup:

Might just appropriate one of these items for myself...

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding

ook, I finally have photos!

And I've actually gotten further on this blanket since last week, though I still have many many inches to go.

The background to these photos is a family tree showing how Princes William and Harry are descendants, through their mother only, of Charles II. Natural descendants of course, since Charles did not have children with his queen.

As for Prince William... Thanks to the folks at Pond Parleys, I just found out about the book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by author and knitter Fiona Goble.

Who wants to knit a corgi? Or Camilla?

Progress!

rogress with a capital P!
I actually got somewhere today on the easy peasy baby blanket I'm knitting.
Back with photos soon.
Meanwhile, here's a knitting LOL cat:

Not Knitting but Writing

oing, going, gone...




It has happened with my writing before, and looks like it's happening with my knitting recently - I've pretty much dropped it all. Unless an inch per week on the kilt hose counts?

Didn't think so, somehow.

I did start a baby blanket - no pattern whatsoever, straightforward knit every row - but have gotten only a few fingers in, or about three inches worth.

So what have I been up to? Mostly editing, lots of writing-related blogging. I entered a few contests here and there, and one of them was Jen's call for a scene showing a "disgusting/annoying moment that one of your characters experiences at the hands of his/her loved one". In lieu of a photo of knitting updates, then, here's the scene, from Out of the Water (please ignore the square brackets around the bits that haven't been written and the words that haven't been edited yet):

Baha's eyes blinked rapidly in his sleep. Fever dreams. He'd called out in his sleep only the night before, Ottoman words she did not understand, and she'd had to wake him, bathe his head, change the sheets, fan him – anything to try to cool his body. Doctor [X] had promised to obtain ice three days ago; perhaps today would be the day he finally did so.
She'd been washing his forehead again as he lay on the sofa. When Ayten came in bearing soup, she the cloth in the near empty bowl and swapped it for the tray.
"Do you think he might be able to finish it today?" the girl asked, looking up at her with large eyes.
"I'll try," she said, as if it was her fault her husband couldn't eat.
[Ayten leaves and she wakes him, i.e. tickles a sleeping dragon]
He put up a hand, blocking her as she tried to set the tray beside him.
"Do you want to hold it? It's hot," she cautioned.
"I don't want it at all. I'm weary of trying to force down food I can't taste." He turned his face away, into the cushion.
"Well, it'll help ease –"
"No, it won't." He struggled to sit up, tangled in the blankets. "There's nothing you can do, Rosa."
"At least I'm trying," she snapped, not moving to help him. "You never know what might do some good."
"There's nothing." He switched his glare from the blankets to her. "Don't you think if there was, I'd – I'm the one that's dying!"
"I'm the one that has to live without you!" Her hands shook. Hot soup scalded the tops of her feet. "Ow!"
She clattered the bowl onto the floor and stalked across the corridor to their room to change her stockings. There were no other clean ones; she hadn't yet [sent out] the week's laundry. She slammed the trunk lid shut and barged into Arcturus' room.
What a mess! She wasn't about to root through all that linen to try to sort clean from soiled.
Baha's and her room was just as [bad]; they didn't even fold up the bed anymore, as he usually spent most of the day in it. And still he refused to take any sort of treatment!
She dashed away tears with the back of her hand and tidied up the bedclothes.
What's the use? She thought, pounding the pillow into shape. Why should I keep trying if he won't? If he's going to –
She pitched face first into the pile, stifling her sobs in the folds of the sheets, smelling his [cinnamon] scent with every quaking breath.

New Projects and Some UFOs

ome UFOs, indeed. I have more unfinished projects on at the moment than I have time for. A scarf, a blanket, the neverending kilt hose (I knit an inch up the legs yesterday!) and all of a sudden I have - counts on fingers - four babies to knit for! I'll be starting blankets for all of them, since that seems to be the item that's used the most, simplest to knit, easiest on the wallet as I can use up a lot of the wool I already have, and the one I'm most likely to finish.

Meanwhile, it's been snowy all over North America this winter, and my aunt down in Washington, D.C. made her first snowman the other day! That is, it's not the first time Washington has gotten snow, but it's her first winter on this side of the Atlantic. Anyhow, here she is modelling the lovely hat she knitted:

I get all inspired seeing other people's finished projects. Think I'll take my face out of the computer and go start a blanket!

A Christmas Scarf

have been editing my novel every day - updates on my writing blog - but am making more of an effort to make time for knitting.




I've got five days to finish this Christmas scarf, made on request for my sister, who liked the scarf I made two years ago. It's a straight pattern of six knit stitches and six purl stitches, alternated.

Here it was in the car on day one of our trip:

And here it was on the day we drove home:

I've added about an inch more since then. Thanks to Helen for talking up knitting in the car on road trips - it really works!

What's On Your Knitter's Life List?

hanks to the lovely folks at Wool-Tyme Kingston, I heard about this book:

"The Knitter's Life List
To Do, To Know, To Explore, To Make
Gwen Steege
Knit a traditional gansey sweater with indigo yarn. Tour a spinning mill. Discover five ways to cast on for socks. Use steeking to make a tube into a cardigan. The Knitter's Life List is a richly illustrated compilation of more than 1000 experiences and adventures that knitters won't want to miss. You'll find unusual yarns to work with, classic techniques to master, time-honored patterns to try, innovative designers to know about, museums around the world to see, books to read, festivals and retreats to visit, and much more. Check off each item as you complete it, and move on to the next -- you'll find more than enough knitting adventures to fill a lifetime!"

Some knitting related experiences I'd like to have:

Visiting the Isle of Skye

Knitting a Fair Isle pattern

Visiting more sheep and alpaca farms

Learning to spin!

What's on your knitter's life list?

And now a word from from Harry Potter: "I was merely reading the Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "I do love knitting patterns."

Year End Wrapup

anuary - ongoing magic loop socks.

February - finished my first ever complete pair of socks! I also joined the Knitting Olympics, and made a Victorian Shawl, finished early!

March - The Easy Peasy Tee in progress, and an update on the kilt hose. I did quite a bit of organization in two gorgeous yellow boxes, of which Frodo approved.

April - finished the Easy Peasy Tee and gave it away to a colleague. And the kilt hose got feet!

May - put together a gift set for a new baby. I also optimistically said "And now, for the first time in a long time, I only have two projects on the go - the kilt hose and the scallop-edged blanket. After that, I've got two socks and two sweaters I've promised to others. And then we'll see..."

But since when does a knitter ever have "only" a few projects on the go?

June - took the kilt hose on holiday but got only a row or two done due to the heat. Visited an alpaca farm! I came home with a bag of unspinnable fibre; the plan is to sew it into a pillow for Sam, who loves alpaca wool (see the bottom of this page), but I haven't done that yet.

July - discovered a lovely pattern for a summer dress for babies. Made one that turned out to be too small for all three of the babies I was knitting for.

August - made a larger dress for my niece and a medium sized one for my Goddaughter. Well, made is the optimum word. Started, is more accurate.

September - all the writing I was doing put the knitting further behind.

October - completed the large dress, and here's the beautiful girl wearing her dress! I was still working on my second pair of magic loop socks.

November - alternately working on the stripey socks and the kilt hose.

December - finished the socks! Here's my friend Agnieszka's beagle Zippy, wondering if they might fit him:

Every once in a while I find a knitting related image on The Orientalist Gallery. This time, there's one called The Wool Spinner.

And oh yes, I'm still working on the kilt hose. But distracted once again - I've gotten a request for a holiday scarf, and found just the right wool to duplicate the Christmas scarf I made two years ago.

I'm also on my own now that Helen's gone to England - the ninnies have gone international!

We'll see what we plan for and accomplish in the year ahead...