EATOMOLOGY

For many people, eating insects is a normal everyday occurrence, and in fact some insects are considered a delicacy. But here, the nearest one will get to insect 'delicacies' is this site, Edible.com - whose products I spied in Fenwick's delicatessen last week. That's D's christmas present sorted then. What got me thinking about eating insects was watching Charley Boorman on Beeb 2 in his latest 'By Any Means' series, whilst eating my dinner in a very working class 'tea-on-knee-in-front-of-TV' fashion. My come-uppance for such sloth was to catch sight of Charley putting a deep-fried cockroach in his mouth, just as I forked a piece of pasta into mine.....eeeeurccchhhh! I PROMISE to use the table in future!

D told me a story once, about when he was in Sri Lanka and someone was eating these big crickets. His friend dared him to eat one too. This is D we're talking about, and I shall need to write an entire post about him sometime to really do him - and this story justice - so of course he immediately put this cricket in his mouth and started chewing. When I saw the Edible display - of insects and other assorted products - D was the first person I thought of! I do miss him....

Josh goes back to College tomorrow after his 'Reading Week' and I am going to the horticulture project after my week off sick. I've got so much to do when I get back home after that tomorrow - post some yarn I've sold on eBay, hoover up downstairs, phone the local Council for a bulky rubbish collection, and do the household budget for this month in such a way that we have enough to put into the savings account at the end of November, and still eat and keep warm! It is definitely Autumn now, all of a sudden. It's cold, dark and at the moment pretty grey and damp. In short, typical Northern England weather. I can't seem to remember having a proper Summer this year. It was looking pretty promising in April, really warm, and May was hot, so I thought this was a sign of things to come and we would have a long hot Summer. But then it got humid for a couple of weeks in early June (I think) then that was the end of that. I only hope we have an easy Winter this time round. I don't mind bit of cold, so long as the sky is blue, but if we have cold and damp and sleet and all the really crap things about Winter - again - I doubt I can cope! Snow is all very well and good when you are 6 years old, and then it's lovely to look at when you're older, but apart from that it is nothing but an irritation. And what really annoys and frustrates me is the way every year Britain acts as though we have never before encountered the stuff. SNOW! Oh My God! Stop all the buses and trains and Metros! Close down the schools! And put the gas and electricity prices up!

The only consolation, in a month which is typically pretty miserable and dank, comes on the 17th when the Leonids Meteor Shower comes round again for its annual display of shooting stars. Apparently we are in for a real treat this year, with NASA predicting 'upwards of 500 meteors per hour'! (Which means around 8 or 9 per minute - one every few seconds) More about that on the night. Hopefully.

Well, I am now onto the second Express Lane/Hacho sock (that's the completed one at the top of this post - although you can't really see the colours because it was taken in artificial light and it seems to be difficult to photograph those purpleypinks without natural light) and last night I did another dozen or so rows of the Kernel scarf. I've noticed I accidentally missed out the garter stitch section between the two charts....oh well, it will look different from how it's supposed to. I might adapt the chart for the edging a bit and knit it straight after the chart at the other end when I get to it, because if I knit that end without a garter stitch section too there will be nowhere to graft a separately knitted edging section to.

LAZY WEEKEND

Another lazy weekend!

Anyway.... I was raking through my stash of lesser yarns, which I bought before I could knit very well and therefore had not discovered the more gorgeous yarns. Mostly Rowan and Debbie Bliss bought for the colour (purples and occasional pinks) I really must have a de-stash, now that I have discovered Juno Fibre Arts, Spindlefrog and Amy'sRainbow on Etsy, which are all UK-based sellers of yummy hand dyed yarns, and they cost more or less what you would pay for the same weight in, say, Mirasol or Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. I am very much into the ides of supporting small businesses and also it does mean you have beautiful yarns which are pretty much unique, colour-wise. I do love making socks, and scarves are something I want to get into knitting too - particularly lace patterns. So the Rowan -most of it - and virtually all of the Debbie Bliss (apart from the pink Soho, because I'm going to knit a scarf for Saartje) are destined for EBay.

I found some Rowanspun in a lovely pinky purple lavender shade, 10 skeins of it. I'm using it for a Baktus - actually, a lacy Baktus - which will be great for when I'm at the Garden (although I won't need it in the polytunnels!) But the rest of the knitting month will be taken up with some more socks (Mirasol Hacho in DoubleFuschia), finishing off Kernel, and - when the skein of Elvincraft 2-ply I bought arrives - starting a version of (Jane Araujo's)Nightsongs, which Lisa (Red Lisa) has written instructions for on her blog; and she has also been kind enough to give me some much-needed help and encouragement! Aren't the folk from the Knitting Community fantastic?! Really, if I was just plodding along on my own, sans internet, there is no way I would have made such amazingly quick progress with my knitting learning.

So...I've knitted the first 15cm of the Baktus and I'm happy with the result so far:



I've had a fairly good weekend - Mik came over for a couple of days and we went to see Lance at the Duke of Wellington, which he has just bought. Lance is a cellarman of over 20 years experience, particularly with real ales and beers, so he will make the Duke a really popular place to drink decent beers! I opted for a really nice scrumpy, 6 percent...."So it begins" said Lance when I told him what I wanted. And only bout five sips later I understood what he meant!! I don't really drink alcohol because of the effect it has on my overzealous immune system, so my tolerance for booze is way down. What this means is I get drunk very easily, and earned the title "Shandy-Drinkin' Mackem" on Friday!


As for Kernel.....oh buggering blast! I was doing so well; onto the 3rd pattern repeat of the main section's chart, and it was going along really well, and so easily too. Enough variation between rows to keep me interested and still simple enough to knit without difficulty. But on one particular row I suddenly noticed that one of the SK2P's was not in the right place. You know,you get that little sort-of-diagonal 'bar' across, underneath those stitches, and up till then these has all been lined up directly above each other, mainly at the apex of several SSks and K2togs. I had only knitted a little way across that row so unknitted that row and re-started it. Same thing again....GRRRRRR! I unknitted again and counted the stitches....there were still 49, so that wasn't the problem. I tried again, going v-e-r-y slowly and it happened again! I unknitted and tried one last time. This time I got almost to the end of the row and noticed the penultimate repeat's SK2P was 'out'...not only that but I had somehow gained several stitches which couldn't be accounted for....WHAAAAT? No explanation other than a Kitting Gremlin. Normally, if I have made a glaring mistake I can see where and how and correct it,but I counted along from the beginning of the row and all my stitches appeared to be the right ones.....so I frogged the whole lot, yes, right back to nothing and started again from scratch! Because,you see, I never did learn how to do that thing where you simply stick your needle in the stitches several rows back and only undo the mistake rows (and with lace it would be impossible anyway). So, I have started again and am now back to where I was when I took the photo in my last blog post! Oh well....

I've 'balled' two skeins of Mirasol Hacho - Double Fuschia - ready to start some socks when I get back from work tomorrow. I think I'm going to make some Starflower from Jeannie Fanihi's blog, because they are a bit more challenging than my normal choices but still accomplishable (is there such a word?) They have small cables which I can do sans cable needle, and they make a fab star pattern. crucially, the pattern works if you knit the socks top/cuff-down rather than toe-up. I really hate toe-up the method as the cast on method seems unnecessarily fiddly, and I can't always find toe-up patterns with charts that work if they are 'upside down'. Knitting top-down, then grafting the toe stitches,ismuch easier and hassle-free and I will stick to that for now at least.

SIGH.....So much yarn, so many patterns, so little time to knit....

I made a gorgeous tarte tatin/appelgebaak this afternoon; I mean it was just amazing! Somehow the butter and sugar had appeared to make the puff pastry into something which was almost cake! We ate it with Ben and Jerry's Phish Food and Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice creams. I might make a really big one for the Co-op Christmas Party.

Well, it's now way after midnight and I did intend to have an early night. I'm supposed to start about 9 or 10 tomorrow and I do want to get in on time.

KNITTING YARNS (OBVIOUS PUN!!)

So...it's the end of another week, and what a week it has been! Plenty of knitting and other things going on.....not least of which is the slow growth of the wonderful Cherie Amour which I have now knitted around 30 rows of. (I'm using Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica) Up until now it has been a kind of back-burner project, with only a round or so each day. But now is the time to pick it up a bit so it will be done for my December trip to Leiden. Sigh...do you ever feel like you have so many things you want to knit at the same time....?


Our Co-op is in mid-allocations mode, with people to visit and shortlist, following an amusing and enlightening meeting. I feel eternally grateful to various fellow co-opers who have been really supportive and this means I find myself now at this point more involved with the running of the Co-op and really getting into my role as Deputy Chair. Thanks, Annie, Jerry and Hev! We still really miss the wonderful Joe, who was very much a stablising and levelling influence.

I went to see the volunteer co-ordinator at the Tyneside Cyrenians about doing some voluntary work with them. They are always looking for volunteers as they have so many projects for homeless and vulnerably housed clients, as well as people who may need support to remain living independently, such as people with learning disabilities, the mentally ill etc. One project I'd love to be a volunteer with is their organic growing which happens at a garden of one of their buildings. They also work with people classed as 'chronically excluded',i.e.people whose lifestyles or problems - drugs and alcohol etc - have in the past prevented them accessing services which could help. I feel like this type of work is what I should be doing; don't ask me why, although part of it is obviously my caring and empathetic nature and my understanding of the way everything is linked to everything else. I start with an induction day this following Monday.

I went to see an advisor who works with people who've been out of work due to disability, or incapacity because of illness. She was extremely helpful and supportive and told me about various schemes and grants available to enable me to get back into work.

NOW the knitting biz....
I received my prize/gift wool from Bonnie over in Massachusetts! Thank you so much, Bonnie!! It is quite simply divine and it is the perfect colour for the Kernel scarf. It's a lovely gold, toffee, honey yellow - yes, a bit like corn kernels, so I can totally understand where the inspiration came from there! I shall be starting Kernel at the weekend.

Anyway, this is the wool, a skein of Handmaiden 'Mini Maiden', which is a Canadian dream yarn. As I call any fabulous handspun/handpainted or unusual or rare yarns.
The photos do not do it justice, by the way. The one in the link (my actual skein before it was shipped here) is a lot better.


I've cast on for another pair of Monkey socks after buying some bargain Araucania Ranco on eBay. Not usually my choice for socks, as I prefer Mirasol (Chirapa or Hacho)
Natalie loved the last pair I made and asked for some in purples and blues, and as the only purple and blue sock wool I had was Wentworth of Yorkshire's Space Dyed and quite itchy I decided this would be a good time to try the Ranco. Here are the results so far:
(Top to bottom: Cuff and beginning of chart pattern; leg and part of foot; close-up of pattern.)


These socks look really odd and lumpy until you put them on, which is when the pattern really shows. This pattern is really great for showing off variegated yarns with many shades - the Ranco doesn't seem to be so bad for colour pooling but I have only used it this once so can't really make a true comparison yet.

I've also cast on for the first of a pair of fingerless mitts - the pattern is Nalu. I'm using my sole ball of Cashsoft and crossing my fingers! This pattern fits my requirements perfectly, i.e. no fingers to knit, but there is a thumb; there's a chart to follow with enough variation to prevent boredom; there are basic cables which give me the chance to use my new no-cable-needle cabling skill (actually less hassle than using yet another dpn while already using 3 or 4!)

I received some Patons Inca, which I got REALLY cheap on the 'Bay specially to make the cats a lovely bed. I wanted a chunky yarn with wool content; I also wanted a compromise between cheap and quality, by which I mean I didn't want to spend loads for something which will, let's face it, be destroyed within 6 months, but at the same time I didn't want to buy some cheap rubbish just because they are cats. I saw the Patons Inca - 4 balls - and decided that was perfect.