Remember, a good while ago, that I was writing about a knitting project? The prototype is almost finished, and I'm planning to go and sit down with it in a few minutes and finish it up (which is mostly a bit of tweaking and darning in all the remaining ends).

As so many other things, it has taken longer than I had hoped (and planned) for it to take - other stuff happened inbetween, and the little hat got shunted to the back a few times. But now the end is nigh! Rejoice! And I promise to try really hard to get you a good photo of it tomorrow (it might be a little tricky to take a picture of it...)

Monday! Spring! My nose itches! There are links for you!

First of all, Doug's Blogging Archaeology Carnival has ended, and here is the final post.

Secondly, the Canadian Conservation Institute has Notes and Publications downloadable on their server. The Notes are all free (some of them are a bit older, but should still prove helpful), and the Technical Bulletins are available as a free pdf version once they are 5 years or older.

Thirdly and finally, in case you are looking for something small to knit for an unusual recipient, there's always penguin sweaters.

Seems like the much-needed weekend is over, since my calendar and everything else with a date on tells me it's Monday. Oh well. I shall get to work then, right?

While I finish the last seam on the lady's surcot (getting it into a state where I can mark out hems and neck opening) and cut the middle gores for the tunic (getting this into a similar state, plus some sewing and neatening), you could check out this post about books of remarkable women.

Or you could go over here and read about Eastern Uncrossed knitting and yarn tension.

Me, now, I will go fix myself a coffee... because coffee always helps. Well, almost always, anyways.

The new knitty is out, and while most of the patterns are not what I would utterly want to knit, there's a lure to a blog called Knitting Nuances that sounds really interesting. (In a similar yet different way to TechKnitting, in case you don't know that one yet.) Unluckily for me, I have a purple tunic calling, very loudly, to me from the living room table... which is where I shall speed directly to get some work done.

One day, though, when I have some time again and all the urgent stuff has been dealt with, I will really need to knit a "show-all-the-different-stitches" swatch. You know... increases, decreases, twists, slips, that stuff. I have a pattern swatch with different stitch, hem and seam types for sewing work, and that has been a very helpful explanation and teaching tool, as well as a nice reference. Soon. Soon. (Well. Soon-ish.)

During our last crafty evening, there was some need for craft knowledge input - the kind that you'd expect to find in the Encyclopaedia of Needlework. So we turned to that book, the necessary input was more or less gained, and the book stayed on the table for a while.

And a bit later, the most patient husband of them all picked it up and looked into the section on knitting. He read me the very beginning of it... the section starts out telling you that there is nothing more to be developed or invented in knitting, as it's all been done already and we know everything.

(That's the German version - the English just states that it "would be difficult to invent new stitches or patterns", not impossible. Unless "difficult" in the 1880s meant "impossible" in the same way that "selten" in middle high german epics meant "never", though technically it's only "rarely".)

Seeing that my current creative outlet is the invention of such a thing, this was hilarious. And now, having found that the English text is less sure of the impossibility to invent new stitches, I do wonder in which language Ms de Dillmont originally wrote her book.

Also, if you are a sock knitter, check out the different heels and toes she describes for all your sock-knitting needs. There's forms that I have not seen yet - she does not give the shortrow heel, though, or the sweet tomato heel. (But, as you well know, there's nothing new in knitting. No no.)

For the moment, though, I will not turn to socks (especially not cuff-down ones, I prefer the no-maths toe-up approach) but stay with my hat and shawl...

We've had the nicest weather during the weekend, perfect for sitting in the sun and drinking coffee and knitting. Also perfect, and the right time of the year, for pulling out all the seed packets and getting started on sowing - there shall be tomatoes again this summer, and mini-cucumbers, and chili plants, and also some pumpkins and zucchini.

I've also been hit by a creative bug during the weekend - it all started with the comment of a friend that knitted lace has a tendency to be quite feminine in look. Well. Well... I have worked a bit on the most un-feminine lace I have yet managed to see. It's not quite finished its development, but I'm close, oh so close. (I'm itching to show you pics, but I think I should keep it mum for a little while longer...)

The pattern is begging to be incorporated into a hat pattern that will probably end up slightly weird, due to topological reasons. I hope to have it done and finished in time for LonCon - it would fit in nicely there, and probably delight a few geeky knitters no end.

So hopefully I will be searching for a few adventurous test knitters soon... for now, though, I shall go back to finishing my computer work before the morning runs out.

The many hours of sewing, it seems, make me want to increase my knitting time as well... and there's two just-for-fun projects on needles, currently: The socks that I sort of blogged about a while ago are almost finished (just a few more rounds before bind-off):




Also, I have started knitting my very first lace scarf... because of the yarn I spun, oh, back in 2011. It had a run-in with an indigo dye vat last Textile Forum, resulting in blue yarn. 595 m (or 571 m, the second time I measured) and weighing 64.9 grams. What do you do with that? I can tell you what I did: I scoured Ravelry's pattern database until I found a shawl pattern that I liked and that uses about this amount of yarn.

I got that pattern as a present for my birthday, and yesterday I couldn't resist any longer (I had planned to wait until the socks were finished) and cast on.






It's the Renaissance Shawl (here's its ravelry page). The designer, smart woman, is giving percentages of yarn left throughout the pattern, so you can see whether your gauge is fine for the amount of yarn you have.

Speaking of Ravelry and patterns and socks, by the way, there are a bunch of really cool socks designed by General Hogbuffer. If you like socks that are not just plain vanilla, check out his design page!

Finally... since the sock yarn I spun gave me so much pleasure, I have this:





which, one day in the medium-far off future, will spend some quality time with my spinning wheel.

So as you can see, there's a lot lined up as fun knitting for the evenings and my breaks!