Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Not a Lot of Knitting Going On

There hasn't been a lot of knitting going on for the last few days, so if it's knitting news you're looking for, then you'd best move along. Nothing to see here.

The Juno cardigan finally has its buttons, though. I really wanted some kind of celtic buttons but I couldn't find what I wanted on the web and it has suddenly got cold here so I bought some plain brass buttons from a little wool shop in Cheltenham when I was there on Monday and they will do just fine. I've had a little difficulty getting the collar to sit right. For some reason the pattern / design calls for it to stick out 2 inches past the edge of the button band. If I'd thought about this properly when I was knitting it I'd have knitted it shorter so it was flush with the button band so it would be less flappy. Anyway the buttonhole on the collar didn't seem to be in the right place when I tried to place the button, but the problem has been solved with the addition of a celtic brooch in the middle which complements it nicely.

I got the books on spinning which I bought from eBay and have been reading them. The first one to arrive was The Craft of Hand Spinning by Eileen Chadwick. This seems to be a good basic guide, not too complicated. Next in the post was Hand Woolcombing and Spinning by Peter Teal. I'm glad the other one came first. This one is very in-depth and complicated and involves much maths, formulae, calculations etc. I shall be going off after this post to have a play with my wheel in an attempt to work out the wheel to bobbin ration and the twist per inch. (If that's wrong and I have offended spinners everywhere I'm sorry - I'm new at all this). Wish me luck!

My other excuse for not knitting much is that I have been entirely seduced by the new James Lee Burke - Pegasus Descending. It is so beautifully written, I just want to keep reading it forever.

Apologies for the lack of pictures today - I took photos of the cardigan and the spinning books, honest, but Blogger just won't play. I'll post them as soon as Blogger gets over its hissy fit.

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