New Year, New Routine, New FO!

Hope you're all enjoying 2006 so far; I am! I have a new routine, new plans, etc - we just need to see how long they last. ;-) Here's a taster: Yesterday I treated myself to a foot spa (I've had the machine for several years and hardly used it!) and did my first 90 minute karate lesson last night.

School time:
My youngest DD started full-time school this week (i.e. all day rather than mornings only) so we had to get her kitted out in her uniform. She's so proud of it, and seems to have grown up a little more overnight.

Can you tell from this pic that she loves going to school atm?! Long may it last.

Of course this has implications for me too. It means that I get Thursdays and Fridays to myself from 9am to 3pm - wahay! This is the first time ever, that I've had such a decent length of free time to do whatever I please.

I have all sorts of things on the cards, as well as being able to get the ironing, etc out of the way before the evening (who on earth feels like doing it then?). This week I spent a total of 5.5 ours shopping - which is a good amount of exercise as I walked home with the heavy shopping too (see the Intermission below).

I could even find out my Pilates DVD and actually spend time doing some of it instead of just staring at the cover. And of course there's a load more knitting time. :-)

First FO of 2006:
It's the mini clapotis, although I did modify the pattern slightly to make it a little bigger. Here it is pre-blocked.

I used just under 100g of Phildar Brasil yarn on 5mm bamboo needles. The yarn is a viscose/cotton/acrylic/polyester/nylon mix with 103m to 50g, with the recommended needles being 3.5 - 4.5mm, so it's around DK weight.

I repeated section 2 (increases) twice to get to 47 stitches, and then worked section 3 (straight) 11 times, before working section 4 (decreases) twice to mirror the increases.
I like it - it fits snugly around my shoulders when stretched out, so I can pin it around me at work.

Of course we have to have a close-up, to highlight the lovely sparkles in this yummy yarn.

I still have just over 100g left, so another scrummy scarf will be on the needles at some point I think!

Knitting Intermission:
I felt compelled to photograph these veg; namely carrots and parsnips, with a sweet potato hiding in the top corner. They are not just any veg, they are real veg, i.e. they have dirt on, and I bought them from our local farmers market. This is one of my main aims for this year - to buy as much as possible of our food from local (and if possible organic) sources. They're fresher so they taste far better, and we're keeping our local businesses, well, in business! What other reasons does anyone need?
End of Intermission.

Martha in Cork:
I wanted to point out the Cork element as this is not the Martha that Tracy is knitting. Rowan have very confusingly named 2 of their current projects the same, although they are quite different (but I love both of them!).

Anyway, this Martha (of the Cork Collection) now has the back and front complete. Please note the delicately waving cables along the raglan shaping. I had to sweat over the front right edge cable as I twisted it the wrong way, and 10 rows later decided I couldn't live with it.

So I grabbed a crochet hook and bit the bullet. I dropped the 4 cable stitches down 10 rows, and very slowly and painstakingly picked them up again, twisting them the right way in the process. I think I was 1 row out somewhere, but I can't tell, so I'm pleased with the result.

BTW, the shaping on the right front raglan is done using K2togtbl with the left front shaping done using a standard K2tog. Does anyone know why the tbl version shows up as a series of diagonal lines whereas the standard version just diappears into the knitting? I'd rather not see those lines on one side, but I'll be darned if I can get rid of them. Is it just me, or does that happen to everyone?

Finally here's the left sleeve.

Actually, it's finished now, and I'm part-way up the right sleeve, but they look pretty much the same. They have to be marked "left" and "right" as the shaping at the top of the arm is different for each side; very weird but let's hope it all works out.

Watch this space!