A bit of snow

Do you ever have those weeks when you feel like you’re getting nowhere fast?  It must have been because it was the first full week back at school, but I had a long list of jobs that I wanted to do and now that we’ve reached the weekend, I still have a long list of pretty much the same jobs.  How does that work?!

One of this week’s jobs was to finish The Skirt.  It’s been hanging around for so long now that it qualifies for capital letters when I’m talking about it, and that’s not always a good thing!  The pattern told me that I would need a zip and recommended steeking (cutting the knitting) but as I’ve been using acrylic yarn I thought that would be a mistake.  Instead, I knitted it flat for the length of the zip and then joined into the round; I’ve had to do a bit of stitch-pulling to get the stitches tighter at the edge but it looks OK.  My zip-insertion skills aren’t the best and lots of Dark Muttering was involved – and having tried it on I’ve discovered that I could get it on and off without needing a zip at all!  Aargh!  I’m also a bit concerned about the length.  The fact that I got the pattern from a 1960s magazine should have given me a clue, but I’m wondering now that whilst the length of it may be fantastic on my 18 year old daughter, it may not be quite so fantastic on someone who last saw 18 thirty years ago …

It’s easy enough to fix as I can just add rounds to the bottom if I still think it’s too short once I’ve finally decided what to do about the zip and whether to take it out or not, but it was frustrating that what I thought would be an hour or so’s job is still sitting waiting to be finished.  Ah well, maybe next week!

Another one of this week’s jobs was make a start on the videos to go with the sock tutorial that I’m writing.  After lots of procrastination, I finally made a start … and another start … and another start …  There was more Dark Muttering and more than a few out-takes and this is something else that has gone back onto next week’s list of jobs.  I am clearly not going to be one of those people who “just do a quick video tutorial” as there was certainly nothing quick about this!

Towards the end of the week, though, something happened that I’ve been waiting for all winter … it snowed!  At last!  I thought we weren’t going to see any snow this winter, and although the amount that we had in Winwick was a bit dismal, I was heading off to Skipton on Friday and I knew that there’d be some there.  Hooray!

The drive to Skipton takes me from Cheshire through Lancashire into Yorkshire and the scenery is beautiful at any time of year, but the sun glinting off the snow on the hills was just fabulous.  I had to remind myself to keep my eyes on the road and not on the snow, but I did stop a couple of times to take pictures …

and there was still snow on the ground by the time I got to Skipton.  Who knows if we’ll get more snow this year (people other parts of the country have had very heavy snowfall and would probably be glad to pass any more of the white stuff over to my part of the world!), but at least I’ve seen some now so that’s me happy J.

I’ve never been able to make it to the Creative Coopers‘ Friday morning session before because of the length of time it takes me to get to Skipton; I was a bit late but nobody minded and it was lovely to meet a new group of people.  Knit n natter group members are such a sociable bunch!

I took my Moorland Blanket up to show Lucy, even though I’d only done a couple of rows; I wasn’t sure that I was happy with the tension and wanted her opinion.  What was happening was the rows were ridging and this was apparently down to the size of my hook; even though my tension had seemed OK on the tension square using my 4mm hook, it wasn’t working out quite right on the actual blanket.  It’s very useful (and I very much appreciated) being able to ask the Blanket Guru herself how to fix the problem!

As you’d expect, Lucy had a few spare crochet hooks in different sizes so I was able to try them out and see if a bigger hook was better; a size 4.5mm let the fabric lie flatter and so that’s what I’ve decided to use.  It meant ripping out what I’d already done but better to do that now rather than when I’m half way up the blanket.  Yes, it puts the blanket firmly back on the list, but it’s going to be on the list for some time anyway so I’m not upset about it at all.

 

I’ve got a new crochet hook on order now.  I was going to order one like Lucy’s as it was very comfortable to use, but then I thought it would just see if there was a unicorn one in the right size … my new hook should arrive next week!

I hope you’ve had a more productive week than I seem to have had – and here’s hoping that next week is a very productive one for us all!

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12 Responses

  1. faith76 says:

    Hope your skirt works out, it looks snazzy. Glorious photo's.

  2. selina says:

    glad to see that i'm not the only one who has trouble keeping plans (vary rarely make any now) blanket guru Lucy is a wonder isn't she? always such gorgeous blankets, good luck with yours, your skirt looks lovely too
    snow, it looks like a fantasy wonderland to me, i've never seen or felt it yet, when my daughter was over there she just said it was cold lol.
    i've put my name down for our sock challenge in the DTE forum, though when i can get started, not sure, have some dishcloths to finish for my sister.
    thanx for sharing

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Gosh, I couldn't imagine not having seen snow, but then there are so many other things in the world that I've never seen and probably couldn't imagine unless they were in front of me! We don't get to see that much snow either (sadly for me!) – just rain mostly, which isn't nearly as exciting! xx

  3. Amy at love made my home says:

    Hope the skirt goes well, and that you can get the length right for you. I think it is an amazing thing to be doing!! Glad you got your blanket sorted too. I don't think that any tutorial is ever a quick thing, especially a video, I don't think that people appreciate that enough. My sock is still coming along, and I know that I really appreciate all of your tutorials on them so far and will appreciate a video if you are able to do one too. Thank you for these!

    • Winwick Mum says:

      I'm glad it's not just me who's finding the whole video tutorial process a rather long one! I'm looking forward to seeing your sock, I know you're going to be so pleased with it when it's done! xx

  4. StampinCronelia says:

    I loved my morning at the Knit 'n Natter, all of the ladies were so friendly. 🙂

    Corine
    x

    • Winwick Mum says:

      It's great, isn't it? Such a sociable thing to do; you might not get much knitting done, but you do come away feeling wonderful! xx

  5. AnnieOBTextiles says:

    The skirt is looking great and I can't wait to see it finished. The snow across the hills looks beautiful but I can't say I'm terribly upset that I missed it by being out of the country! Lucy's moorland blanket is so tempting but I'm trying to resist until other projects are finished first. A unicorn crochet hook……ooh exciting.

    • Winwick Mum says:

      Yes, I probably should have finished off a few projects before launching into the blanket, but I'm not very good at doing that! Luckily, there's no deadline on this one for me so even if I finish it next Christmas it will be fine 🙂 xx

  6. Heidijo says:

    We drove from East Anglia to Penzance last Fri the tops of Dartmouth and Bodmin Moor looked just like your photos it was very pretty. My knitting was slow I finished a pair of socks down there, started new ones which was fine until I got to picking up stiches for the gusset now I don't find this hard but a little quiet is needed so it still in bag awaiting tonight. Second pair of mini circulars needed!!😀

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