I am still trying to work out whether it is possible to blog from my phone. I feel that it ought to be, but as yet I have not been successful. But I use the phone far more than the laptop these days and so it would be handy.

That said, Mildred the laptop has been out this evening. I am currently knitting a Cardigan (Sojourner) on which there are decreases at the neck edge happening at a different rate from the increases in the side seams. For me, that spells "spreadsheet". That's particularly the case on this occasion as I am putting in short-row shaping, using the extremely helpful information in Ysolda's latest book "Little Red in the City". There are several patterns in the book that I want to do, but Sojourner was already planned, so it reached the head of the queue first.

Well, this is a bit of a mini-post, especially since I can no longer see what I'm typing as I write; however, it does seem that I can compose posts (albeit without pictures) on the phone. You never know - perhaps this will encourage me to post more regularly.

Lace Tunic

On Wednesday evening, I was speaking to Hubby and discovered that he was due home the next day. This was quite a surprise as I thought he wasn't due home for another week. So, he came home on Thursday but now he has gone again: off for a course in Austin. He's due home again on 4 February and then has a week at home before he goes back to Algeria. It's rubbish and so I am probably going to eat junk and mope for the rest of the day - oh, and knit ;-).

On the knitting front, I have finished the Lace Tunic from Debbie Bliss's Summer. I have come across a couple of tricky points with this. Firstly, having blocked the back, front and first sleeve, I realised that there was no way in which the sleeve was going to fit into the arm hole. The problem was that the bind off on the sleeve was waaay to tight. So, I unpicked the cast off and the last row, and re-worked using a superstretch bind off on needles several size larger. It was a bit of a pain then to set the sleeve but it did fit. Secondly, having pressed the neck band, it was poking up in a strange manner. I have fixed this by threading elastic through the edge. So here it is, modelled by Hermione:

The colour is actually a sort of duck-egg blue - which I couldn't capture, even outside. It has to be said that I wouldn't have been taking Hermione into the garden for a photo shoot if Hubby was still here!

Talking of whom, he has just called from the airport, apparently in order to check that I have got the first load of washing out of the machine (I haven't) and then to tell me that I would need to take the water softener tablet out of its wrapper before I put the second load in. How does he think I cope when he's away?!

Wrapping

Just realised that it's over a week since I posted. Oops! Today has been quite productive, although I didn't exactly get up early.

I went to the garden centre and bought a tree, a holly wreath and some mistletoe. I had to repot the tree (tricky since it was frozen) as it was very wonky. How is it that you can buy a tree with roots attached and it will be far from upright. Surely when the tree is in the ground, it's upright? I have also wrapped all the presents I currently have - this does not mean, however, that I have finished the wrapping! And I have blocked Ulmus and my Socktopod socks (piccies to follow).

The Socktopod socks were fun, although I did end up knitting three socks to make the pair. When I was knitting the first one, I noticed that the M1R wasn't working very well and was loopy. When I knitted the second one, I realised I'd put the M1R (and the M1L) in the wrong place - magically, if you put them in the right place, the loopy bits improve! So I finished the second sock and then knit a third. I think the first one is going to turn into a crocodile puppet.

Guess what though - the ironing still needs doing!

Blowing a gale?

.... Well, it isn't yet, but the forecast is terrible. At the moment it's a bit wet and the trees are moving a little but the sky is less grey than it was. Even so it strikes me as a good day for hibernating. Hubby has gone into London shopping and so I could spend all day in my dressing gown knitting and reading. Unfortunately, I do need to pop into town later so it isn't to be.

Progress this week on the knitting front has been slow. However, last night some work was done and piccies were taken of Samhain. In order to take the piccies, I first put in a new lifeline that was long enough (but more on that later). I then attached all my spare knit picks cables to the one I was using, and then pinned out the centre section on my blocking mats. Because it was dark anyway, I acutally turned the lights off and then took the pictures using the 'Night Portrait' setting on my point and press camera - with some rather surprising results:


Hubby caught me doing this, and while I was standing on a stool in the dark taking photos, he decided to make his own addition to the composition. I saw this as the flash was going off but by then I'd committed to the picture! It is only a toy lizard, not a real one ....

I did also manage to get some proper pictures, and this whole 'lights off' thing worked pretty well as the colours aren't bad - in some lights the yarn really does look this purple. I was also pleased that it is just about possible to see the beads in some of the picutres. Given that the work was nowhere near as stretched as it will be when it is blocked, I am hopefully that in the end the

beads will show up. It would be a shame if they don't since they are adding considerable to the time taken in the knitting. The section I'm on at present has relatively few beads per row, and I managed two rows in 45 minutes last night.

The problem with this (and the second Scadenza sock is that they require constant reliance on the pattern and are quite slow going - I have nothing really quick and easy otn at the present. This is leading to the onset of a case of startitis - we'll see how well I can resist!