I just realised that although I did publish my completed ski sweater photo in my Ravelry projects, I forgot to post it here. I got a skinny model to pose in it - not wanting to publish a pic of my overlarge body here.
The shawl is only half done and I need to get more mohair to complete it. Once again artfully posed against the mountain backdrop - haha!
We have managed a getaway to the Drakensberg for a week. Its our favourite place. Nothing like the clean mountain air, the solitude, the majestic views to nourish ones soul. I really feel we needed it. The last few weeks have been rather trying, but I can't remember why now - it all seems so distant. I think the troubles were related to a house breaking, car hassles requiring enormous amounts of money to get sorted out, power outages and an inexplicable electrical problem which causes the lights to trip in our nearly new house. All this together with the news that my dear husband needs a new hip, the constant noise and bad driving in the small town we live in which is rapidly becoming a city, has stressed us out.
But enough of that - we are here for a few days, away from the hustle and bustle and more determined than ever that we will change our lifestyle in the next couple of years. We want to live in the country again. We don't need shops and malls and movies and the small amount of culture that we do get we can easily cram into a short visit to the city once a year or so.
I have also managed to do a bit of knitting - I have finished two hats which are part of the knitted gifts for family in the UK collection which will accompany me there later this year. Now, in the peace, and looking at the view you see above I am fiddling about with the small amount of stash which I brought along on the trip, wondering what to do next. I must say, I did not plan this well enough - the yarn does not match the odd assortment of needles which I threw into the knitting basket, but never mind, I will get creative. Here are the hats which have been artfully posed against the mountain backdrop.
I meant to post these pics yesterday. I will go out now and look at the soothing garden and forget I have to spend time on the phone ranting at the bank about their hopeless ineptitude.
Bailey is our adopted granddog who lives with us because her mother lives in a flat. She is one of those Jack Russels with a lust for life that keeps us amused and her busy all day long. We have losts of rock and stone in the garden, and she thinks her job is to keep the garden free of lizards and all manner of creeping things. On Sunday she got into big trouble with the her grandfather - she decided to excavate this hole along the path in search of garden enemy no 1.
I was in trouble too - for not stopping her!
Most of this time has been consumed by my EZ EPS sweater. I signed up for two Ravelry groups - "Sweater a month" and "EZ EPS" and this sweater is the result.It should have been finished by the end of January, but I did finish it on Sunday (only 3 days late).
This was a good learning experience. Not so much for the techniques such as fair isle and knitting in the round, but in planning ahead. I bought some wool on impulse in Brits at the beginning of the month with no idea of how much I would need, nor how many contrast colours to use. By the time I had worked a few rounds of the body, I realised that I was hopelessly short of the main colour. No problem, I went back to the shop hoping to get some more. No one in SA buys wool in January, so they could not possibly be sold out. But they were. Or the knitting mice had hidden the colour I wanted. What now? Frog the whole project and start again. Make a sweater for a 10 yr old? I don't know a ten yr old!.
After a good hunt amongst the shelves, I found a lovely lighter shade of the same colour and decided that it would have to do. This meant re-knitting the sleeve and body hems. Originally they were meant to be hemmed, which means turning back part of the knitting and using double the wool. I decided to compromise and do moss stitch edges instead of ribbing. Anyway, the sweater is done, finished and klaar! Its a compromise and I'll have to do a really nice one sometime. I consider this a practice round.
At first I didn't like the damn thing at all, but a gentle wash and stretch has turned it into a soft, cuddly sweater which is starting to grow on me.
We are a week into January and I have not posted to the blog yet, nor started any major knitting project, nor caught up with myself at work, and the house is a mess. All in all, not a very encouraging start to the year.
But today all that will change. My post Christmas blues have lifted, I have a new project to put on the needles and I am raring to go.
This morning I opted to go with my husband to Brits, the nearest local town and a very dreary place indeed. But it has one great plus. There is an Elna shop in the Pick'n' Pay shopping centre which sells wool - yes real wool and lots of it in greater variety than is normally seen in South Africa. So I started a stash! Up till now I have not actually had a stash - just a few odd balls of yarn that don't really count. Now I have some merino for the apple mac cover which will be felted. I have a lovely teal for my own EPS ski sweater and some mohair for a shawl. Fortunately my husband was driving, so I even did a swatch for the ski sweater on the way home. I'll haul out "Knitting without tears" tonight and work out what I need to cast on to get started. I must get to that shop more often - its less than a half hour away.
The pic is of the water lilies in one of the ponds which are in the estate we live in. They are indigenous to SA, like all the plants in this estate.
Back to work now - lets get the working day over so that the fun can begin.
