15 December: Wednesday (moved to Sunday) Walk 6

The unceasing rain on Saturday fell as snow further up Weardale, as we found when we set out for a walk.

At this point we were at 2 degrees, West and Centigrade, according to those of us who had high-tech stuff with them.


There was sunshine on the other side of the dale, behind Stanhope.


And of course, a few sheep got into the photos.


It didn't feel very cold, as the air was still. So was the water in the old quarry.


Home in time for tea by the fire, with home-made cake and home-made shortbread.

13 December: Eek - steeks!

This is an entirely knitting-orientated posting, so if you're not interested, look away now.

The next jersey is in the planning stage, and this one is going to be my first one with steeks. Yes, knitting in the round to the shoulders, then cutting the knitting to make armholes, and probably a front placket too.

So, instead of knitting a whole jersey, then experimenting with that, I picked up an idea online, and made a sample.


The sample is worked in the round (trying out a few stitch patterns at the same time) and I closed the top with a 3 needle bind off to replicate a jersey shoulder. Most of the instructions on steeking tell you to machine stitch on each side of the proposed cut, but I really didn't want to do that, as the machine stitching would be a completely different tension and feel from the knitting. I reckoned that if I cut each pair of threads, and then knotted them together, that would prevent any unravelling - logical, but would it be practical?


Yes, it worked fine. There are an awful lot of ends to tidy up, but it's a possible solution. Actually, I have a striped cardigan with an awful lot of ends (2 row stripes in many different colours), and I just cut them and left them as fringes down the insides of the seams , and that's fine, so I could just leave the ends to felt slowly together.

But then I stumbled on a paragraph in "The Best of Interweave Knits, Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years", in a jersey design by Ron Schweitzer. It suggests casting on 10 extra stitches to make the steek, then cutting down between the 5th and 6th stitches, picking up the stitches for the sleeve/neckband from the first and last extra stitches, then finishing the steek by folding back the cut edges, trimming if you want, and sewing them down on the inside with cross stitches. This is very easy, very tidy, and very secure. And as it's all done with the knitting yarn, there is no tension or materials conflict.

I picked up and knitted a few rows of stocking stitch.


And this is the inside - the right hand side was cross-stitched in black, so then I did the left side with white, so that in future I can see how I did it. You will observe that the stitching is not as neat as it might be, but hey! it's only a working sample!


Now I feel confident I can do the steeks. I shall go and cast on.

10 December: ABC Wednesday - U

Underfoot - one of my favourite photo categories. Subjects are close at hand, and often stationary. And the most amazing, beautiful, and interesting things can often be found right under your nose.

This is stitchwort (whose name I borrowed for blog purposes), a wayside and woodland flower which blooms at the same time as bluebells and red campion, sometimes offering the chance of red, white, and blue flowers in one photo -


Walks along the sea-shore provide unexpected shapes and endless patterns in the sand -


And in the forest, rocks beside the path can prove fascinating, decorated with lichens -


While back in the garden, some of the trees simply throw photo opportunities at you -


Hurrah for small treasures!

7 December: Colour!

Snow, ice, freezing wind, pavements like skating rinks, shops crowded with festive shoppers - how much pleasanter to stay at home and dye some yarn.

Using the sample packs of Landscape dyes I bought recently from Wingham Wool Work, I dyed some Shetland plus 3 skeins of BFL, with excellent results.


Most of the skeins are done as "semi-solid", i.e. one colour shading across the skein; the 3 BFL skeins are done with 2 different dyes - they are the creamy beige, the blue-grey, and the 2-tone sweet-pea pink.


And to brighten the day still further, here are pictures of a modular bag (both sides), which I finished a couple of days ago - just the right size for a knitting project in progress.

3 December: ABC Wednesday - T

Today's topic is Trees.

As Joyce Kilmer wrote in 1914,

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

They are essential to me - in the garden, on walks, and as part of a view. They are part of so many of my photos that it's hard to choose just a few. My albums are full of leaves, buds, bark, oaks, maples, hawthorns, beech and birch.

The bluebell woods in May -


And a most inviting path in September -


August farmland -


These sunlit leaves were my desktop picture for a long time -


And this totally out-of-focus shot is my current desktop picture (it's even more blurry in big) -

1 December: Dancers

The other day, I accidentally saw a bit of the TV show "Strictly Come Dancing" - now I understand the popularity of the current song by the Killers - "Are we human or are we dancers?".

28 November: Well laid plans

Oops - that jersey is going to have to wait.

I've been asked for some knitting for Christmas presents - last posting will be about a week before the 25th - and I need to write the pattern!

So why am I sitting here instead of knitting? Well, one has to eat sometime.

26 November: ABC Wednesday - S

So, it seems suitable to join ABC Wednesday on the letter S. Specially since there's been snow and, as I'm scared of slipping, there's been singularly little walking.

There are several subjects for S - some socks are currently on the needles -


And I've just finished a Danish-style shawl -


In this cold weather, I've been doing quite a lot of spinning - Here are some of the many recent skeins -


The tweedy grey (right front) is a wool/silk mix, the blue-purple is a merino/silk mix, and the grey and black at the back are Shetland. I have 500 gms each of the purple and the grey Shetland, and 810 gms of the tweedy stuff; so far, I've only spun about 300 gms of the kilo of black Shetland.

Some of the Shetland, along with some skeins soon to be dyed in subtle or sensational colours, is destined for a stranded sweater presently in the design stage (i.e. scribbled notes in my sketch-book). It will be steeked and Scandinavian-influenced; it may also be snazzy, splendid, stunning, or even sensational. We shall have to wait and see.

19 November: Wednesday Walk 5

Earlier in the year I demonstrated spinning at an event at Durham Wildlife Trust's Rainton Meadows. Busy all day, I didn't have a chance then to explore the place; so a return visit was well overdue.

This sculpture has some connection with the Great North Forest, and seems to have been designed by William Pym. It is in danger of being totally engulfed by the surrounding willow growth, which is flourishing in the marshy ground.


Beyond the sculpture, at the end of that path is a lake, complete with swan.


Much of the area is still getting established, with newish tree planting. There are several ponds or lakes, but there seems to be no public access to most of them. One bird-watching hide is unfinished, another appears to have been vandalised already - the seats are missing. Signs mark some of the surfaced paths as part of the Coalfield Way.

A large number of geese were circling overhead, honking loudly; one group detached itself and flew off northwards. There was a group of a dozen or so lapwings on one pond - the most I've seen together in one place for a while.

The area round Joe's Pond seems much more established, with older trees and scrub surrounding it and providing shelter. It seems popular with ducks and swans, who leave their feathers all over the place -


And they must be fed by some of the visitors, as a number of them rushed across and started squabbling.


No crumbs today, perhaps next time.

12 November: Wednesday Walk 4

An appointment with the dental hygienist took me into Durham. I used the Park and Ride, but walked back to the car. On the way, I explored some of the vennels, paths, and covered ways in the city. One vennel and one path I had never been along before.


The river was swirling around the piers of Elvet Bridge.


These steps invited exploration; further up I had to clamber over drifts of pizza and lager rubbish.


At Palace Green, the cathedral was dramatic.


A bike had been left in just the right place to enliven this view.

This vennel may be covered and have doors, but the wind still whips through it.

Finally this recently discovered path offered an alternative route up the hill.

9 November: Latest handspun yarn

Here's the skein of yarn spun on Friday. It's so big it took till this morning to dry properly. It's about 16 w.p.i., and weighs 124 gms.

Perhaps the colour's too subtle for my photographic "skills".

7 November: The knitting (and spinning) goes on

The cold snap sent me looking for my hot water bottle. It came with a very thick fleece cover, which actually prevented any of the heat escaping from the hottie and warming my toes.

So I knitted a new one -


A good project - I learned to knit backwards in order to make the short-row bumps.

And at last I succeeded in making a felted hat. Two earlier attempts resulted in items that would fit a grapefruit rather than a human head.

Before felting, it was large and floppy -


And after a 60 degree cotton programme wash in the machine it was thick, fuzzy and warm -


Sadly, after all that, it doesn't suit me.

Today I began to spin some fibre I bought at the Woolfest back in the summer (sorry, "summer"). It was labelled 'Carded Batt, wool/silk, 800 gms', and was such an interesting colour that I seized it at once. Mostly grey, there were flashes of blue, green and red in it.

This morning I took the batt out of its bag and spread it out. There seemed to be a mountain of fibre. The colour streaks went lengthways, and if I divided it lengthways, the different colours might be separated into different skeins, and I thought it better to divide it so that they would be more evenly distributed among the eventual skeins of yarn.

I started to spin the first bundle. Full of nepps, the silk rather unevenly distibuted, and not at all like the usual smooth roving or tops that I usually spin. But it was easy enough to feed into a twist, and the little lumps and bumps and colour changes make it look very tweedy. This evening I have 2 bobbins full, ready to ply. In fact, I need to see how it turns out, so I'll go and ply it.

Perhaps a picture tomorrow.

5 November: Wednesday Walk 3

There are many tracks and paths in Hamsterley Forest, some more frequently walked than others. It's always fascinating to venture down one that's been seen before, but not followed.

This one led to a lovely spot by a stream junction, with a bench -


which gives this view of the stream, with photogenic overhanging beech -


Beech trees are spectacular just now (as indeed they always are); this wonderful one was near the main track at the top of a bank -


Further on, the view opened out to the moorland beyond the forest, and there was even a touch of blue in the sky -


It was quiet, even on the major tracks. A handful of runners and rather more mountain bikers, but very few other walkers. Just as well, or they'd have heard an animated discussion on whether there was anything after Number One - The Larch.

30 October: First frost

The garden was white with frost as I looked out over the breakfast washing up.

But alive with birds. Several coal tits were busy on the feeders, 2 or 3 blackbirds were getting aggressive round the frozen birdbaths, the usual dunnock (actually 2 of them this morning) in the border and on the path under the feeders, a couple of collared doves patrolling the paths, TWO robins (local robins are very shy, and normally on their own), a stray sparrow visiting the feeder, and most charming of all, a small flock of goldfinches!

They were first on the ground under the birch tree, then in the tree itself, all pecking busily at the bare twigs (what are they finding? the tits do the same), and one tried the apple tree, but soon returned to the birch. One came to the feeder, but didn't stay there.

So many little creatures, all simply going about their business - wonderful!

And still on the topic of the cold weather, I realised the other day that DH's normal hat is an old black acrylic watch cap he bought years ago from the Scout and Guide Shop. He has a nice thick Shetland hat (hand spun, dyed, and knitted) in a blue and grey fractal design, but says it is too warm for ordinary use.

A challenge - no self-respecting spinner/knitter can have their spouse favouring something not hand-spun and hand-knitted, so a replacement has been made.

The old hat is a double cap - an old design, popular in Scandinavia, where one layer folds inside the other to give a double thickness.

This is a simple but effective design, and not wishing to make it too warm, I decided to use fine yarn. And there is plenty of black Wensleydale (dark brown in reality), which will make a nice sober cap. But what about the other half, should that be terribly sober too? How about some colour? There are several balls of variegated BFL in different colours - how about combining them in one-row stripes like the recent odd socks?

So, here it is -


The more sober side -



And the more colourful side -


And of course either side can have the bottom edge turned up to provide a contrasting brim. "To suit your mood", as they used to say.

29 October: Wednesday Walk 2

Happy Birthday DGS 1!

This week's walk was another favourite, on the Northumberland coast, from Craster to Low Newton, pub lunch, and back. It was a beautiful clear sunny day, though those woolly hats were needed again.

The sea sparkled correctly, the waves had nice white tops, and the sand was wide and emptier the further we walked from the pub.


In places various types of seaweed had been cast up by the tide; this colourful tangle of weed lay on an interesting sand pattern -

Dunstanburgh Castle was a popular place for many people to visit on a sunny autumn afternoon. There were lots of people enjoying the fresh sea air, and many photographs taken -

We returned to tea and our first slice of Christmas cake this season.