Well, I bought two new lenses and already the 18-400mm has proved its worth - so much lighter to take hiking. However, I am now lusting over a 100mm macro lens. My 35mm lens (discontinued) is fine but you do have to get pretty close to things to get a decent shot. I've yet to figure out what to do with the 50mm. Perhaps that's the curse of photography - never got the right lens, always something to lust after!
It's probably down to my terrible note-keeping, but I finally decided to restart work on the half-fisherman's rib cardigan (supposedly an easy Passap Model Book pattern - ha!) only to discover the tension I'd written down was really struggling. Stitches were hopping off all over the place. First attempt at a sleeve had so many missed tucks it looked like the moths had been at it - even a homeless person wouldn't want it! A restart at a lower tension went better BUT the left hand end stitch refused to form on the tucking back bed - I don't know that there's an easy fix for that! I do wish the Passap E6000 manual went into more detail as to how these things are achieved! The manual has very little information on this! I wrote on the pattern I'd used ss6/6 but on Ravelry I've written down ss5/5 which, apart from that left needle, worked much better. In disgust I'm afraid I frogged the lot, apart from the pocket, which I cannot figure out how it was knit (I *think* it was started circular - it refused to reveal its secrets and I didn't feel like looking them up by that point). Reader, I cast on a hand knit shawl in disgust. It does make me think the Passap is more suited to straight pieces and yardage, but I will have a rummage through my Passap books and see if I can find a better method for knitting sleeves in a tucked rib. I'm sure it's going to come up again! Increasing shouldn't be so hard!
I recently offered to host Susan Guagliumi's free patterns, as she has recently taken her website down amid rising expenses. I can confirm that the garment patterns are now available online as PDFs with her kind permission. I didn't give her a specific page, but until the next round of updates they'll be the ones marked *NEW* in most cases.
In other news, I finally finished the Pauline cardigan, with yarn to spare. I've yet to wear it of course, it is too hot to be wearing acrylic!
Mother Nature finally leaned on the "Summer" button here, we have had almost constant sunshine for the last few weeks, with the odd thunderstorm. Alas the ground is so dry it's almost as if the water is bouncing. I have been pretty lazy this year garden-wise and just pulled some weeds so far. We do seem to have a few bald spots that need occupying to keep the weeds in check if nothing else.
The socks made with yarn I bought in Ghent. They were finished a few weeks ago, I think I put them away before I got around to taking their picture.
Current mood: 
annoyed
No comments:
Post a Comment