Tiger Eyes. Or OWLS OF DOOM?

Urban lace!

Pattern:Tiger Eye Scarf, from Stitchin' Girl

Yarn: Rowan RYC cashsoft DK, 57% wool, 33% microfiber, 10% cashmere, in colour Poppy (197 yds per 50g)

Needles: 4.5mm random circular

Pattern modifications: I only did two edge stitches instead of three, to save yarn (silly, there was no need at all; the scarf turned out 168cm long blocked... or almost as tall as me. Hooray for lace!) Also, I did the grafted version

Time sucked: A week.

Verdict

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should have given you an AFTER picture fresh from the blocking pins, lace in its optimum glory. But I ripped it from its pins the second it was dry and danced out for a night in the boozer through the mists. That's how much I love it. Lovely easy-ish lace, glorious snuggly yarn, fabulous bright colour. O luxe yarns, you tempt me so much. So much!

Mme. Tapestry slips shyly onto the needles

Oh god, GLOVES. So fiddly! Fingers! So scary! And goodness, Madame the Fancy Schmancy Tapestry Yarn. Metal DPNS wouldn't do for her, so I ordered bamboo ones, which she does deign to wear, but she clings and snags on the slightest roughness, whining softly at every fray. She is indeed soft and fluffy, but she is also sticky like mohair: tinking is a horror, and even knitting at the gauge recommended on the yarn label is a tricky business, because she is hardly plied at all, just loosely thrown together and hence incredibly splitty. Awkward bloody stuff. Bring back the nice technologically advanced cashsoft, I say.



Moreover, the colours are monumentally silly. Which is fine for accessories, I don't mind stripey fingers one bit. But seriously, friends: this is what Rowan would like you to knit from this yarn:



Now look, I am a vegetarian queer woman myself, and even so, I cannot possibly imagine ANY man sighing, "O, all I want for this autumn is a quirkily striped jumper in SOY silk, please, a bit fluffy round the edges, and if possible, with a darling fussy placket detail on the shoulder? And maybe some adorable sky-blue buttons? But who would design me such a gentle garment?"

I mean, I would be more than delighted were I to get scads of comments from genderqueer knitting men, all going, "Actually, I LOVE that jumper, and I'm knitting it in the PINK colourway, to boot." I just doubt it, somehow.

Kelly also asked me about the biker jacket, so here she is:



Sleeves set in (weary, frail sigh... that is a story for another day), zip awaiting my lovely lady friend's sewing machine. But my lovely lady friend is deep in the throes of designing my BIRTHDAY presxent right now, so the sewing machine will have to await her flash of inspiration. Speaking of which, by the way, here is an answer to the vexed question, "but what do lesbians actually DO?"



Sit around of a Saturday night gaily knitting, designing, reading the paper, and making a godawful mess of the living room, is the answer.

The Joy of Grafting

I was striding into town last night (to see The Black Dahlia - really, don't bother) in my Miu Miu coat (thrifted) and wraparound dress, and it was misty and moisty, and I really, really wanted my lovely cashsoft scarf. Which is why, of course, I absolutely had to stay up till two in the morning finishing it. Definitely.



I left the grafting till this morning, though. Daylight and concentration capacity always a good idea, no? Normally I love grafting: it's nippy and nifty and neat. Normally. But this is lace...


...ah, feck. But you wouldn't notice a thing, would you, gentle reader? If it were cast around my neck in an elegant fashion, and the flying ends were catching your gaze?

I am the queen of sloppy knitting. I am just NOT unpicking it. NOT.


Here we are then, unblocked. Two balls of cashsoft goes a long way, as I hoped. Hooray!



... in fact, precisely the length of my sofa. Rather handy that, no? Ah, blocking: now that is DEFINITELY fun. Those styling leaf-head pins were snapped up at the Turkish market in Berlin, and I wish I'd bought a second pack, seeing they were only a euro: they're headscarf pins, and therefore are much longer than standard-issue pins, about four centimetres.

And now, for the Rowan Tapestry armwarmers, for my bamboo DPNS have arrived. Only the best for Madame, remember. Ohh, hooray for a crisp nip in the air and an appetite for warm knitted accessories!

Scarves, scarves and more scarves!

It's been a very very worky week, very worky, and alas, needles and yarn and fiddling over yarn overs don't really fit in very well with a worky persona. I haven't been knitting; but I have been stashing, O yes.

- Man at the post office: Have you been clicking on the internet?

- Me (staggering under myriad packages of yarn): Erm...

- Man: Because we'll be seeing a lot more of you this winter if so!

Erm. Yes. I'm not photographing my stash quite yet, as some of it is a bit peculiar, some destined for presents, and in general, I am rather ashamed of my stash, if truth be told. A lot of random eBay purchases, few notions of what to do with them. The shame, the shame.

But! I do have something to be proud of, viz. a FO, if not my shiny flashed face:

Diagonal Rib Scarf

Pattern: Herringbone Diagonal Rib Scarf, by Li at Life's a Stitch

Yarn: Kilcarra of Donegal chunky tweed, 100% wool, colurway 2525, 200g

Needles: 7 mm Addi Turbos; the yarn label says to use 5 1/2s, but you need more drape in a scarf, right?

Pattern modifications: Three repeats of the herringbone rib rather than four, at this gauge.

Time sucked: A week, including ripping and reknitting time. Not too bad, no?

Verdict

This is a lovely pattern, and it knits up really really quickly! It's designed for a DK yarn, but I think it works perfectly with a chunky tweed: just fancy enough to give it structure, but plain enough to let the tweed flecks show through. The perfect scarf for a blustery walk down the South Wall into Dublin Bay, or for throwing over a chunky cardigan when you just can't be bothered wearing a coat.

Wo

O, that Rowan Tapestry. I went to Crown Jewels and found the perfect beads for it. (Crown Jewels used to be on Crown Alley, back in the day, making sense of a rather silly pun, but now it's on Castle Market the allusion is a little... lost). But is the fluffy soy silk mix happy? Is it hell. It is too good for this world, that yarn is: it just slid off my hefty Addi metal DPNs with a shudder, refusing to countenance such brutal equipment. Bamboo DPNs are on order, madame. Whatever makes you happy...

Not More Goddamned Yarn

Yes, yes, I know. I know. The herringbone scarf is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. But as I said, it was a very worky week, and I found myself longing for a smart, light scarf, in an elegant pattern and a monochrome, luxury yarn, that would go with a suit and the Miu Miu coat that I picked up for half nothing in the charity shop. Yesterday, myself and my lovely lady friend and our friend Stellanova went on an intrepid expedition to Springwools, that vasty barn located far, far out in the badlands of Dublin West. We sat on the bus as a torrent buffetted us, and peered out in the rain onto such strange places as Cork Street, Dolphin's Barn, Crumlin and Drimnagh, none of which appeared particularly lovely in the sluicing storm.

Springwools is indeed an Aladdin's cave, but slightly bleak and windowless, with an astonishing selection but a utilitarian air about it. It abounds in yarns both novelty and luxury, and has a fantastic pattern selection, but I found myself yearning, I have to say, for the friendly company of Lisa and Jacqui of This is Knit while I browsed. But I did pick up some bargain basket odd balls (though Stella and my lady friend scored better deals, mumble grumble), and the yarn for the scarf: RYC Cashsoft DK, m'dear, nothing but the fanciest.

You may have noticed a certain... lilac quality in my knitting to date. And nothing wrong with lilac, but it was time for a departure, no? I rather like this pingy chilli (colour 512, Poppy), even if it won't go with anything I have...



The pattern is the fabulous Tiger Eye scarf from StitchinGirl. Though I think it looks a little more like owl eyes, like the creepy owls in the Owl Service by Alan Garner, for those of you who liked your childhood reading gothic. It's a great crisp urban lace, though, I hope, and far, far away from boho flowers and mad-old-lady purple.