Bits and bobs...

The muse has been somewhat lacking lately in the machine knitting department, not least because of the continued humid weather - plus a good chunk of time is needed to work on the machine, and large chunks of time don't always seem to come my way. However, this past week I've made another charity tee and a cardigan based on "Goldilocks", a Heidi Cleary pattern from MKM August 2012:


More James C Brett yarn to use up...


Those cables were rather tricky, as they always fell on different rows from the decreases...

Plus an egg cosy I test machine-knitted aaages ago and never got around to photographing (sorry Hilary):



But lately I've been fascinated by all things crochet - delving through back issues of Interweave Crochet, and lamenting the dearth of information on the more technical aspects of crochet - foundation crochet, cable crochet etc - all the interesting tips and tricks that are often missing from the crochet books on the market.

I've been doodling with a snowflake pattern - pretty, but too holey for the bag I'm trying to make:


This pattern is from Betty Barnden's Crochet stitch bible

But I eventually settled on this flower pattern, taken from a shawl pattern in Interweave Crochet:



I also made my first foray into crochet cables:



No thanks to this book, which is alas full of typos, which have thoughtfully been removed by the publishers from the internet:

I struggled for three hours with cable number 3 - before I realised that row 3 not only does NOT divide into 24 very well, but is not even set up correctly - thus confusing the rest of the pattern. Haven't tried the other cables yet, but general opinion on Rav is that it's chock full of errors - a shame, considering there are precious few books on this subject. The sample above was my own concoction, after doing some reading online about the principles of the technique.

Also, the socks continue. The Cog wore his today, as it was a dreary grey August bank holiday. Some traditions I'd gladly end.