Some days you're the pidgeon...

... and some days the statue. I thought I'd take a look at a top I'd knitted from a self-striping yarn - I had knitted the back, but it had come out too small because I had not swatched. For some reason I could not find the knitted back anywhere - it later turned up, under some papers, behind the machine - in the meantime I rewound the remaining balled yarn in preparation. Anyway, I have a skein of yarn that was a present, hand-dyed. Our heating is off during the day, and working from home has started to become quite chilly for both of us - I thought I'd knit said yarn into some simple fingerless gloves for my partner the Cog. But do you think I could find the ribber SRP60N connector arm anywhere? I was twenty minutes into turning my knitting room upside down before I remembered the box of machine knitting parts I'd taken to the KCG yarn amnesty, back in the garage. Ye gods! Luckily, nobody had taken a fancy to the ribber arm, because there it was, grinning at me! In my defence, I've a spare connector arm, possibly from an SRP20N, in that box of parts - almost indistinguishable other than a label on the P lever - so perhaps that is why I didn't think! Anyway, ribber now restored to working order, I proceeded to knit one fingerless glove, at great duress - I was bracing myself against the machine table, cursing the machine knitting gods. The machine is fine, though it gained a clean and oiling - the yarn is not, it's clearly a 5ply masquerading as a 4ply. Reader, I knitted a glove you could tile a roof with. There won't be a second one. It's frustrating to waste what little free time I have knitting something that will definitely have to be rewound. So - having recently met a few newbie machine knitters - take heart - frustration happens to the best of us, even those of us who should know better!

Anyway, I completed the tunisian in the round sheepy square - picture to follow - and today I knitted another simple scarf on the Passap. I realised that I haven't shared that pattern here - I confess I hadn't even written it down correctly in my own notes until today. 1600 rows in DBJ, it's much more fun if you have a motor - otherwise, I'd recommend knitting it over a few days because it's quite a workout! 

A friend recently gave me a few duplicate copies of her Passap model books. I think I had most of them at one point, but exchanged them for PDF scans - they are very inspiring, though they are quite brief, it's a leap of faith to knit anything from them (you can download them here). Anyway, I've been gradually adding some of the simpler stitch patterns to my copy of  Designaknit. I may well share them on dropbox or something. We shall see. Some of the colour seperated ones are eye-boggling to attempt to enter without a magnifying glass! Anyroad, two of the model books are the beginner ones, and there's a fisherman's rib cardigan with pockets I'd like to have a go at. I even think I have a yarn in mind... 

Current mood: inspired