Fits of fickleness

Gosh! It would seem time has flown by recently; its passing has been concealed by a flurry of activity - festive preparations, visits from friends and to the Christmas market, concerted efforts to work on my thesis (still not quite there yet) and even (shock! horror!) some knitting.

In actual fact there has been really quite a lot of knitting, but there is little to show for it and this is because I have been so very fickle when it comes to project loyalty/decisiveness recently. I was working away on Muir quite happily and in a very dedicated way - but perhaps I overdid it a bit and worked too much on only the one project because I had to put it aside for a break when I was just over 50% done (and that was a good while ago now). Elfine's socks are still on the needles too but I didn't really feel like going back to them at the moment. But I needed to knit. What to do?

First of all I allowed myself to be tempted by some pretty yarn - Cascade 220 Hand-dyed which I bought from Get Knitted:



I decided I wanted to make a nice warm scarf and either a hat or mittens and, having made my first forays into making and using a makeshift nostepinne, started playing around with patterns, unsure what look I was really going for. Eventually I settled on My So Called Scarf and even found a pattern suggestion for a coordinating hat on Ravelry and so I began my scarf:



And the above picture demonstrates precisely how much I have knit so far, for I have stalled on this project too. I have gone for all out monogamy with a different project instead and I seem to be getting results. I cast on for the Rayne Wrap Cardigan designed by cosmicpluto on 4th December and am already past the placement for the first armhole. At this rate I could be finished by the end of the week! Here is a picture which is now very much rendered obsolete by how far I have come in the interim:



The photo does show the colours of my yarn fairly well (considering it was taken in artificial light). I liked the idea of this cardi when I first saw it on cosmicpluto's blog but I knew I certainly wouldn't be able to make it using Noro (for financial reasons!). As it is such a simple pattern though I think it needs a yarn with some interest in terms of colour and after some searching I came up with an affordable option which I think looks good - the yarn is James C Brett Marble in a DK weight (meaning I did have to recalculate the pattern for my different gauge, but given that the cardigan is essentially a rectangle this wasn't too tricky). I managed to pick up 10 balls of this yarn from Dianne's Knitting Yarns for £14.50 (postage on top) which is what made this design an affordable and feasible possibility for me. Fair enough the yarn is 100% acrylic but it feels quite pleasantly soft and I'm sure I will have quite a bit left over which could possibly result in some more scarf/hat/mitten-knitting.

Anyhow, that's about the size of things round here at the moment. Stay tuned - there should be an FO very soon!

No knitting of note...

... but instead there is most certainly cake, see:

Yum, yummy, yum. I know I first read about this Chocolate Guinness Cake in connection with Nigella Lawson's 'Feast' book, but it wasn't in the book itself and beyond that I don't remember where it was I read it... What I did know was that I had to make this cake! A Google search turns up several free recipes for Chocolate Guinness Cake or Chocolate Stout Cake and I chose one of them - can't remember exactly which but they are all pretty similar.

So the cake was easy to make, the hardest part (physically at least) was whisking together the topping which is cream cheese, double cream and icing sugar - I think mine was still a little bit runny but I am a weakling ;) The cake was served as a dessert when friends came round for dinner on Tuesday and it was unanimously agreed to be very tasty - especially the topping, it's good because it's a chocolate cake which isn't at all sweet really, even the icing has a pleasant tang from the cheese - thumbs up all round.

So culinary adventures (oh well, and a bit of work) have been keeping me from knitting all that much - there have been two further repeats of the Muir chart produced, but there just doesn't seem much point in another photo when it's just more of what you've seen previously!

The other thing worth getting excited at is this:

The Frankfurt Christmas Market is back in Birmingham - the opening day was yesterday so we went along for some Prager Schinken, Bratwurst, Gluehwein and Weissbier - yum! Once the German Market rolls into town I consider it acceptable to start feeling festive and Christmassy - it's hard not to when you are faced with such seasonal cheer whenever you go into the city centre. It's definitely (one of) the best thing(s) about living in Birmingham. I am looking forward to many more visits before December 23rd!

I May Be Knitting A Mountain Range

See:

This intriguing structure is, of course, actually Muir in its current state. I'm hovering around half-way there - 6 repeats of the chart completed (I think) and into the seventh. It's going a lot quicker than I thought it would, this here project - I figured I'd still be knitting this at Christmas, now I'm not so sure at all that that will be the case (whether I'll have blocked it by then is another matter altogether but that's by the by).

The long and the short of it is I am enjoying this kind of lace knitting and am even thinking of casting on for a similar project after this one. Alas, I find that my pattern options are somewhat limited by my own fussiness. I'm not really a girly girl, but maybe it is intrinsic to lace that so many of the patterns are very girly (flowers and leaves and twiddles and things) and hence not really to my taste - I'd far rather knit something geometric. Muir has been an exception because the leaves are very stylised and the pattern is nice and repetitive, but it has taken a long time for a suitable pattern to come up (Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl is a good one but I also favour rectangular designs so that one is still on the back burner).

Thanks to Ravelry though I have found my next wrap pattern! It's this Lattice Lace Wrap pattern and I'd really like to have a go at this one very soon - it might even be more perfect than Muir as this one is completely geometric! I think I can safely say that without Ravelry I'd never have found the pattern so yay for Ravelry :o) (Incidentally I still had to click through many a page of girly, twirly patterns before I found this one, but perseverance paid off.)

My my, this has turned into rather a waffly post. To recap in a somewhat more succinct style the three main points are: I'm doing good on my current main WIP, I'm growing to like Ravelry a lot and I've found the next project that I'm itching to try. That is all!

(Oh, except to say enjoy the festivities to anyone who is participating in Bonfire Night events over the weekend. I've already been to my local fireworks display for this year - very nice it was too - perhaps I'll even post a few of the many photos I took if any of them turn out to be OK...)

Back home again

In fact I've been back home again for a week, slowly reacclimatising to the chill here after sunny Spain - sigh!

It was a lovely (as you can hopefully see from the pix) and much needed holiday.

Things here Nicola-wise are still much the same - no new job as yet, thesis still not done, the usual - I am still feeling relaxed enough post-hols though to just let everything wash over me, ahh! Things aren't 100% the same though - I have enjoyed a slight change in status...

I am now officially a Raveler ;) Yup that's right my invite arrived while I was away (and got eaten by the spam filter) and I am all set up. My profile isn't exactly thrilling at present as I haven't had time to add things but I have put on the details of the two WIPs I am working on most at the moment plus my most recent FO. If you want to find me I go by 'nicolamk'.

The second of my two WIPs is a new one. I mentioned before I think that I was thinking of working a variation of the Muir shawl from Knitty... In the end I figured that variations only mean extra work so I just cast on for the pattern as it stands. In fact I've cast on for it three times now - so the sum total of my holiday knitting has now been ripped out twice :) I've cast on again since being at home and, looky looky, we have progress:



OK it doesn't look like much in the above state but straigtened out I am quite pleased with how it is coming together so far:



This still isn't even one repeat of the chart (I haven't made it that far yet in any of my attempts) but this is the furthest I've got with no mistakes and I am inordinately proud :) I think perhaps it is time for me to figure out how to use a lifeline though...

Anyway, there we go, it is even sort of good to be back from holiday - I've enjoyed a few evenings curled up on the sofa knitting since we got back and I'm sure there will be many more this autumn - let's hope this means there will soon be more progress on Muir to share.