Chilly in Durham - Not Enough Handknits to Keep Me Warm!

Yesterday I visited the stunning cathedral, castle and university town of Durham. This view is from the bank of the Wear looking up to the fortified Normal castle and pre-Norman cathedral.

But readers, it was a very cold day indeed, and despite wearing FOUR knitted items I was very chilly indeed and we had to make frequent stops for hot drinks/food - not really a hardship!

In the photo I am wearing Juliet over a lighter weight jumper, with a very ancient, but very warm, scarf knitted in Rowan Biggy Print, and a plain black beret knitted to a Jo Sharp pattern in some left over wool/acrylic blend yarn. It's plainness kind of bothers me, but also makes it very wearable, although the acrylic blend means it is not actually my warmest hat. I am also wearing hand knit socks inside my winter boots, knitted in Regia sock wool.

The exposed brick work behind me is actually part of the old city wall, which is now inside one of Durham's best cafes - Flat White.

It's been a great week of rediscovery of my handknits, and I have a clearer idea of which ones might be headed for the frog pond! I am wearing the Montague Bulky Lace Vest again today, which shows it is one of the more versatile and one of the warmest as well. We are heading north for a mini-break to Scotland tomorrow (bizarrely warmer than here at the moment) and I am planning to take the Perfect Periwinkle, which layers up and down well. Stay tuned.

Today's Knit

Continuing to combat the cold here in Yorkshire, today I am wearing another knit from the fantastic New England Knits book - Melissa LaBarre's Montague Bulky Lace Vest:

This was another knit completed while I was in DC, and I'm wearing it today with a thermal vest and fine gauge merino rib sweater underneath. The yarn is reclaimed sweater yarn, probably wool or possibly a blend of wool/acrylic, and was either a heavy aran or light chunky - I knitted up the sizes to get my sizing, but did overcompensate slightly and it is a little big around the sleeve openings.

Planning a day at home today as the weather is most unconducive to getting out and about (freezing rain, shortly to be followed by snow) - we might walk to the local cinema for the afternoon showing of War Horse.

New Jersey in North Yorkshire

As planned, today we sent off on a little morning trip to the North Yorkshire Dales village of Bedale, where there is (according to my local knitting circle) a rather nice yarn store - and indeed there was.

New Jersey Yarns is well stocked with the Yorkshire usuals (Rowan, Debbie Bliss), with a little bit of Louisa Harding and Artesano, plus a nice range of German sock yarn - I will rarely knit socks with anything else as being someone who uses public transport and likes walking anyway, I wear out socks super-fast. I was particularly pleased to see some Jarol yarn, locally spun and of British breeds, so bought a skein of that in natural cream (for that hat I'm still hankering after perhaps), and some new Louisa Harding chenille, and happily took my spoils away for some sample knitting.

Keeping me warm in arctic Yorkshire today was the Back-to-School U-Necked Vest, from Steph Japel's Fitted Knits, worn over a lightweight wool polo neck jumper, and the Undulating Rib socks, from Interweave's Favourite Socks book, worn inside heavy winter boots.

The Best-Laid Plans...

Well, I was due to be touring around Ireland right now, but owing to a certain weather event in the UKon Saturday, I am not!

Pretty as it was, snow is very, very disruptive in the UK, and when our flight was cancelled after an 8 hour delay, we gave up, applied for a refund, went to get the car, found it buried under a snowdrift, and walked to the nearby Travelodge, bagging their last room (although I felt desperately sorry for the guy who walked in directly after us). So we are holidaying at home instead, and have rescheduled Ireland for late summer, when the weather is likely to be kinder, both here and there. There are some advantages to this - I can work on all 3 items on my needles, for example, and we are doing regular day trips out so I have a few yarn shops in mind for visits.

Taking advantage of the cold, snowy weather and of not being at work (where the heating inside is set to tropical temperatures - whereas at home our own elderly boiler frequently fails us, as it has done today) I am happily wearing a different handknit a day. Yesterday I wore my as-yet unblogged and un-ravelried version of Cecily Glowik McDonald's Hampton Cardigan, which I knitted while in DC out of 100% natural, undyed alpaca yarn, bought from a local crafts shop at Posades Airport in northern Argentina many years ago. I'd always wondered quite what to do with it, until I saw this cardigan. I altered the construction somewhat, knitting it top-down from my own calculations and then breaking into the vine lace pattern once I'd completed the bodice. I also had to do the sleeves short, due to yarn amount (see previous post!).

In this picture I am wearing it with a light thermal long sleeved t-shirt and absolutely baked in temps that peaked just above freezing! I wore this last winter in the mid and north Atlantic late winter and it was fantastic - I remember being caught out in a snow storm in rural New Jersey wearing this outfit with only an unlined waterproof as a jacket, and being totally fine. Not for nothing do they say alpaca is the warmest fibre on earth! I have not worked out how I want to fasten it yet, so am wearing it here with a pretty brooch keeping it closed. The fantastic tiled  wall behind me is at the Tiled Hall Cafe in Leeds, where we stopped for lunch on our way to retrieve the car:

This is the historic reading room in Leeds Library/Art Gallery and is definately worth a visit if you are in town.

Today I am wearing the Garter Stitch Tunic - a favourite in cold weather - and will try to get a snap of that for tomorrow's blog, and as we are having a rest day at home today (very productive - I have made marmalade and planted polyanthus in pots by the front door), I plan to do a little from all 3 projects - the Afghan, a current sample, and the husband's sweater.

Squares, samples, and sweaters

If I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately, it is because all I have been knitting is endless amounts of samples (for City and Guilds), squares (for the Afghan), and in between endless rows of stocking stitch on the husband's sweater. Don't get me wrong, there is acutally quite a lot of variation - and interest - in knitting all these different things, but I want a new project.

I've thought about a hat. There is a good one in Issue 3 of Knit Now (Carol Feller's Bundoran Beret). I've thought about an infinity scarf. I'm planning a light grey travelling sweater of my own design. BUT - I need to finish the samples, the squares and the sweater first. Well, maybe not the squares - that is a long term project, but funnily enough the one I have packed in my travelling bag (whilst wishing I had thought up the travelling sweater with enough time to knit it before travelling!) to do en-route from place to place in Northern Ireland, where we will be spending next week.

Packing light to travel in the wildly swinging temperatures and weather of the UK is no easy feat. We are doing some of this trip on public transport, so I need to be able to easily carry my bag (a kind of smart backpack that looks like a soft travel bag when the handles are zipped away), and so have settled on one basic day outfit and one evening. Central to this was a warm, stylish throwover cardigan or sweater type thing. I would have thought I'd have lots of things like that, but turns out I don't. Lots of my handknits are too heavy, and many are short sleeved (note to self - must over buy rather than under buy yarn!). None of my shop bought sweaters are quite right. Then I saw almost the exact thing I wanted on a very stylish woman at choir practice this week, worn with straight leg jeans. It had turned into a sketch, and in Northern Ireland I might just find the exact lightweight, tweedy dove grey wool I am after....(although perhaps I should use the dark brown Jacob I recently bought). Decisions, decisions - I shall just have to see if any perfect yarn presents itself.

Square No 19 Complete - and a New Purchase!

As I promised myself, I sat down for a few hours yesterday afternoon and completed the Great American Afghan Square N.o. 19, which I posted about on Saturday. Here is a picture of the completed square:

This takes me to 9 completed squares, and as they are a generous size (12" square), I could put this amount together for a small lap blanket:

I have enough yarn to do 4 more squares, possibly 5 or 6 if I do some multi-coloured ones as well. 6 more square would be ideal, so I think I will soldier on, even though it may mean waiting a bit longer. This afghan was intended as a housewarming for our new house, which we have been living in since August!

I also purchased some yarn yesterday - in the morning we went to suss out a nearby car boot sale, as we need to sell some stuff from our downsizing, and while there I found a woman selling a load of yarn. Mostly 1980s stuff, there were some nice colours but most of it was a little acrylic-y for me - until I saw this lovely 100% Jacob wool in a natural, undyed, dark brown:

And I managed to buy 16 balls for £15. Very happy with that purchase. A sweater's amount, so I will think on what kind of sweater to do with it.

Difficult

After knitting the husband's jumper, and occasionally (very bad!) working on a rather dull City and Guilds sample, I picked up the lately neglected Great American Afghan today, as I am halfway through Square 19, which calls for a two colour entrelac with cables pattern. Here is a picture of my progress so far:

Now what is tricky about this pattern (my first every go at entrelac) is remembering to do the knit or purl 2s at the end of every right side block, in order to join the blocks together. Quite often, I will get most of the way through a block (sometimes having cabled through it) and realised - I haven't joined it! Aaargh! So frustrating, and such a silly repeat mistake. Doesn't matter how long I have been knitting, I keep making them!

Readers, my goal is to finish this square, this weekend. Hold me to it...